ROOKIES
BOBBY PULEO
If Bobby Puleo was a kind of cereal, he
would be Rice Krispies because he is all
about Snap, Krackle & Pop.
What have you been doing lately?
Reading a lot, skating, surfing a little bit here and
there, and doing yoga.
New
Did you move to San Francisco because of skating?
Yeah. Actually, the way I moved out here was we
had a terrible winter in
Jersey last year, and I didn't
have a job. I finished my last
college,
at
and I
semester
wasn't going to go back
because I was over it, and I got
this crazy job working at this
natural
I beauty care products
place, and I worked 9 to 5,
hardly skated, for like 2-3.
months, just trying to save
money. At the time I was skat-
ing for Stereo. Then one day
we had this snow storm while I
was at work, and my boss
asked me to go and pick up
some beauty cream from this
place, and I got into an acci-
dent on the highway, and my
car got totalled, and that was
the only thing I owned, so to
speak, so I didn't have my car
anymore, and thus I wasn't.
able to get to work, so that
kind of took care of my job.
Then I was just hanging out, so
that opened the door for me to
leave New Jersey and come
out here. Deluxe bought me
one-way ticket out here, then I
got kicked off Stereo. I got on
Mad Circle, went back to New
Jersey, moved to New York for
the summer, then came out
here. I stayed at Justin Girard's
house for months, I'm so
onths
grateful to him for that, and
then just basically through
connections, I found my room-
mates, and have been living
here since November.
Do you think it's worth it to
come all the way out here
just to skate and leave
your family and friends?
It's just progression, moving
forward. If that's what it takes,
that's what it takes.
Aren't you going to move back to New Jersey?
Well, as of right now, me and my friend are going to
drive out, then I'm going to go to Puerto Rico and
skate for a little while, then I'm going to drive back
here and see what happens.
Give us a quick list of all the jobs you've had up
until this point.
Newspaper route, that was the first one. My mom
was always like, "You have to have a job," so I got a
newspaper route, had about three of those. Those
were hard. I was thirteen. I had this crazy route for
this paper called the Dateline Journal, and it was
something like 250 houses that I had to deliver to. It
was a newspaper that was twice a week. It just got
tossed on the front lawn, and sometimes people don't
even pick that newspaper up. Then during junior
high, I worked at this deli and I was a stock boy. I
worked at a telemarketing place, Pizza Hut, the
Meadowlands racetrack as a parking attendant, that
beauty care place, and a skateshop. They all sucked.
But everybody needs a job. It's something to do,
'cause people would go crazy.
Who are some of the skaters you grew up
skating with?
The earliest people I started skating with were
these kids Jude, Chris and Dan. This was the begin-
ning of 6th grade. Dan lived in Florida, and he used to
come up every summer. I'm still friends with him.
time, and people smoking crack, and I was pretty
young, but we would just skate. And we had a group
of friends that lived over there, this kid Tutu and this
kid Delepso, and they were the craziest kids I've ever
met. Tutu was wild. And this kid James was so amaz-
ing. He was like Tommy Guerrero style and just skat-
ed super fast, did crazy Japan airs. And then from
that spot, we started meeting kids from other towns.
This kid Carlos would come down and did the sickest
ollie Japans. And Brian Blake,
he used to skate for Shut, he
was the best kid I'd ever seen
skate. He was doing the crazy
shit back then in the H-Street
days or whatever. And he lived
in Ridgewood and would
come down with some of his
friends. Then we just started
going to other skate spots.
And during this time, I met
some of my friends that I skate
with still in New Jersey like
Andrew and German, who
were young, they're three
years younger than me, but
they were little crazy kids back
then. Then I started skating for
this company called Public,
which at first was just me, and
this kid Kai made the boards,
and then maybe one other
dude, and I met those guys
through Ryan Gee, who I used
to skate with a long time ago,
and all these dudes up in
Wayne; Kai was from Wayne.
He started making these
boards, I got on, and then they
stopped making boards, and
this other dude took it over, so
I was off then. When that
other dude took it over, it was
like Mark Vaslik, Carlos, Mike
and Quim, Pat Guidotti and
one of Brian Blake's friends
from Ridgewood, and I ended
up meeting Charlie Butterly
through Brian Blake, and he
was doing this board company
called Nimbus, and that was
and
the shit. It was me, Ryan
Hickey, Peter Bici, this kid
Pablo, Rich Arbitelle, Dan
Zimmer, Johnny Shillereff, Jeff
Pang, Qulon Douglas, Jamal
all these dudes from
Simmons,
New York, and that's when I started meeting people
from New York. I never used to go into the city when
I was young. The first time I went was with this kid
George who took me there. I used to have really
bad back when I was young, 'cause I used to play
ice and street hockey all the time, so from crouching
over I used to get gnarly pains in my lower back, and
one day me and George were skating this drainage
ditch by my house, and I ended up hurting my back,
THE EYES OF A TIGER PHOTO: OGDEN
Then I started skating with Jude, and through him I
met all these other kids that lived on the other side of
town that went to a different junior high than me.
Then there was this kid Mark Vaslik, who's the first
good kid I
d I ever saw, and we had a little rivalry for a
pretty long time, but everything was cool. The next
town over is Passaic, and we started going there and
skating these banks. There were other kids in Clifton
that were really good like Victor and Chris, and this
one dude that used to skate Natas boards all the
time, he had long hair and could ollie really high,
and there was this other dude Tom, who was a
big kid, and we all used to skate at this place
called Weaslebrook Park. Then I started skating
at this crazy schoolyard that was in a really bad
neighborhood, and everybody used to trip out on
skaters, but they were cool. It was just basketball
courts, a lot of people playing basketball, and there
was this elementary school where I saw crazy fights.
I saw this kid get pile-drived on cement there one
a
kicked my ass if she knew I went to the city that
young. Then me and my friends just started going
into the city to skate. I still skated a lot in New Jersey,
but we would go in at night.
When did you get on Zoo York?
,
I skated for Nimbus for a pretty long time, then
Charlie wasn't going to do the boards anymore and
moved to Hoboken, like four or five years ago, then
Shut went under, and
then they started Zoo
York back up. I was
still friends with Peter
and Ryan from the
Nimbus days, and
they started getting
hooked up with Zoo,
then I just got on
through them. Then I
met Hamilton and all
them dudes. We
would skate together,
but we were like the
Jersey kids. We would
just come in, me and
my friends, and we
would just hook up at
the banks or whatever
and skate from there.
Did the guys
from New York
ever complain
about Jersey
kids
coming in?
Nah, 'cause we'd
just skate togeth-
er, it was fun. Then I
met Eli, and through
him I met Rodney.
Then from Zoo I got
hooked
in
ked up with
Venture, and we
used to get Vans or
used
whatever. Then I
got on Metropolitan,
which was starting
up at that time. I had
met Chris Pastras a
long time ago at this
skatepark
Sayreville, but he
didn't remember me,
then I finally met
him again at Zoo
one day and ended
up getting on
Metropolitan. Then I
hooked up with him
and Jason Lee in
Philadelphia at this
contest, and they
started putting
Stereo boards in my
Metropolitan boxes,
'cause I quit Zoo,
'cause it wasn't real-
ly working out.
Things were super
slow back then for
Zoo. It's super hard to start. company on the East
Coast, so I was getting a bit frustrated.
Are you glad to see that Zoo York is doing
are concerned. People are on Zoo's nuts, like big-time
people. And the same with Supreme, too. People just
have no idea, then they see people doing their own
thing, and they start getting psyched on it.
Have you ever seen any famous people walking
around New York?
Yeah, I seen Cindy Lauper one time at a cafe.
She was cool.
walking. And I've seen Kim Gordon, I met her from
my friend Ari, and they were talking outside of
Supreme. Her and her husband lived across the street
from Supreme. And I seen Guru, and I seen
Downtown Julie Brown, but I harassed her.
Did she look good?
Nah, not really. She's the crazy, make-up person.
Is there anybody you know now in skating that
VARIAL HEELFLIP ON POTRERO HILL PHOTO: OGDEN
Did you meet her?
Yeah, I talked to her. I was just screaming like, "Yo,
what's up?" And I saw Jackie Mason, this crazy
you thought you'd
never know?
Yeah, Mike Carroll.
I met Jeff Grosso,
that was sick.
Where did you
meet him at?
At Jake's ramp. It
was crazy. It was so
funny. He was like a
cartoon character
to me, he was so
animated, it was
rad. The first time I
met Julien was
pretty crazy.
When you were lit-
tle, did you wish
you could come out
to California and
get sponsored?
I used to look at it
in magazines, and it
was like it didn't
even exist. Like it.
only existed in print
and was a fake place
to me. I never
thought about com-
ing out here. I would
watch old videos, and
and
it was like those.
places just weren't
real to me. The only
thing that existed was
my world, where
skated. I never used
to think about get-
ting sponsored.
Does it feel good
that you and your
friends have now
finally come into
your own?
Yeah. It's just weird
how all that stuff
happens. It's not real-
ly fate, but it's almost
planned out, like a lit-
tle movie. Everybody
has this little role,
just like a movie.
script; and everything
works out
It seems like in big
cities, skaters in
groups get hooked
up, then they all
get hooked up.
Yeah, I noticed, too,
with kids from New Jersey, we all kind of have the
same attitudes and way of doing things. And it's weird
connections, if you connect with one person from
"OH, SHIT, YOU'RE JACKIE MASON!"
and that day he's like, "Let's go to the city," and we
went to the banks, and I couldn't even skate 'cause
my back hurt so much. Then, when we were driving
home, he almost got into an accident on Route 3. We
sideswiped the barrier, it was crazy. But my mom
never found out about that little trip. She would've
good now?
Yeah, totally, 'cause that's some shit right there,
starting it up in New York where skateboarding is
nothing compared to everything else like fashion and
industry and hip-hop, it's rad. Zoo in New York is
some underground shit, as far as non-skateboarders
Jewish comic, who has the craziest voice the way he
tells jokes. But it was just me and him walking, we
were by the top of Central Park, and he was walking
towards me, and the guy was totally talking to him-
self, and I was like, "Oh, shit, you're Jackie Mason!"
And it was like he didn't even see me, he just kept
one group, it's hard
not to connect with
everyone else.
What do you think
you'll do after
skating, or do you not think about it?
I think about it a lot, ju 'cause my mom is always
pounding college into me. But I'm pretty interested
in learning. I want to go to school. But I also want to
travel nomadic style, so I figured I might as well get
that done before I settle down with school. But if I
57