Who was the first pro you Did you ever take nuts and bolts
saw skate in person?
Rodney Mullen.
What was that like?
It was pretty amazing because
he landed everything first try.
Was it at a demo?
Yeah, he did a demo at
Macy's for Swatch Watch in a
parking garage in front of so
many people.
How old were you?
I was ten, almost 11.
Did you talk to him?
No.
Have you ever stolen a
board?
No.
away from a shop? Like steal?
No.
Were your parents supportive of
your skating?
Yeah.
Cool. Shouts out to Mom.
Love you, Mom.
How'd you hook up with Stereo, yo?
Deluxe did a demo in San Antonio, Texas
like a year ago. I skated in front of all the
guys who were there, like Chris Pastras,
Mic-E Reyes, Gabe Morford, Johnny
Fonseca, Tarobinha, Julien Stranger, Andy
Roy, and Bob Burnquist. Mic came up to
me later on that day and gave me the
Golden Ticket and said call me in 3 weeks.
So you met the guys, or what?
Yeah, I met everyone. Mic gave me a
card. We hung out.
San Francisco?
Yeah.
Where'd you stay?
Mic got me to stay at Theo Hand's
house; thanks for letting me stay there.
The Adrenalin house, thanks to those
guys: Justin, Hanzy, Jaya. Pretty much
wherever I could.
Was that the first time you'd ever
gone down super big hills and stuff?
Yeah.
Did you slam the first time?
No, 'cause I never really went down
them. I only went down like halfway.
and power slid kinda. I got used to it
after a while.
Did you hit all the spots? Did you
ollie the Gonz?
Yeah, I did. That was one of the first
things I had to do.
So there was a demo, and you were And then what'd you do at Hubba?
just skating there?
Yeah. What I did was I met the team; I
introduced myself. I let them do their
part of the demo, and then when I saw
they were getting tired, I just started try-
ing to skate harder to show them I was
capable of being one of their new guys.
You came in for the beatdown, huh?
Broke it off?
Yeah, I tried to turn up the juice to try
and get noticed. I'm not being conceited,
I'm just telling you.
Did you get i in the van with them?
No. Mic-E gave me a Deluxe card,
said call him in 3 weeks, so I called
him in 3 weeks. Then they said come
out, so my mom bought me a
plane ticket. I came out 3
weeks later.
Nothing.
You didn't hit Hubba Hideout?
That place scares me.
So after you visited you went back
home for a while? How did things
change for you from there?
Well, people were noticing that I was
sponsored, and I ended up getting the
cover of Thrasher.
What's that like?
Really at first I still did the same thing.
Hung out with all my friends. And then I
tung
started traveling more, went on tour; then
when I got back from tour it just seemed in
a sense that things changed. It just-my
paths just crossed over to thinking about
skating and what to do with skating, and I
just kind of did that.
You made a conscious decision
focus?
Were you nervous to fly to
out here?
No.
Had I you already traveled
all over, or was this your
first trip?
I had traveled when I was
like 7 or younger; I had been to
Puerto Rico. But this was like
my actual trip by myself, on
my own.
Yeah. I decided to focus on skating.
What's a typical day for you right
now? You live in San Francisco?
Yeah, I live with Chris Pastras. I wake
up pretty early. Listen to music, clean.
up a little, take a shower. Usually call
my friends and go skate or call Gaber
and go shoot photos or film. Skate all
day and come home at night. Hang out
with my friends Andy and Travis and
That was your first time in Jeremy. When Ryan's in town I like to
hang out with Ryan too. Pretty much just can. And you gotta live up to the responsibility to
skate and hang out.
take photos and do this or that to represent you
What makes you want to keep progressing in and your company. If you're not gonna do any of
your skating?
that and just chill or whatever, I don't really think
that's going about being pro the right way. There
are pros out there that are true pros, and then
there are pros who are just living off skating.
Do you think skateboarding owes you, or do
you own
owe skateboarding?
That's a hard one. I see the progression
there, but I can't pinpoint my desire. I see no
point in repeating tricks that have been done,
because the best way is just to be original and
express yourself your own way.
You just now entered your first professional
contest a couple weeks ago. What was that
like, being in a contest with, you know, Eric
Koston and Cardiel and Salman, and then
they call your name? What was going
through
your head?
That's pretty funny. Being on Deluxe, I had trav-
eled already and skated with all these people kind
of, so I wasn't too nervous. My legs got Jello-y, but
I wasn't nervous. The way I looked at it was, I was
just skating with individuals who have certain tal-
ent, you know what I mean? I have certain talent,
so I felt like I wasn't really competing against
them; I was just trying to do my own thing. One
time, though, I walked into Tampa and I saw all
these people skating-that's when I stepped out of
my body and I realized, man, I'm here skating with
all these people that I've looked up to and I
tripped out and just went back to my hotel for like
3 hours. Then I went back for Best Trick and I did-
I don't think skateboarding owes me any-
thing. But I can't really say I owe anything to
skateboarding either. When I skate I just try
and capture the moment and not think of it as
a job where I have to go and shoot or I have to
go and film. If people like you, they like you; if
they don't, they don't.
If you weren't skating now, how do you
think your life would be different?
Wow. Well, before Stereo or Deluxe saw me, I
wasn't going to school, I didn't have a job; I
couldn't keep a job for more than a month. It was
pretty hard. At one point I felt like, fuck, man,
what am I gonna do for the rest of my life? It
totally just opened a different doorway. It's like, I
can either go right and go downhill or go left and
just totally go uphill. It changed everything. Now
I can do what I wanna do now, for the future. Like
maybe I wanna start a company, travel, whatever.
Experience
ce things
Would skating be as much fun as it is if you
never slammed?
Slamming is part of the game, and you can learn
from slamming. Like, well, I know not to do this or
I'll slam; or when you're on tour everyone's amped
so slamming makes it fun. But personally, I don't
like slamming. I like to land everything, constant-
y riding on 4 wheels.
Do you have just that one trick that's killing
you? One you wanna learn, or one that you
wish you could do but it's not working for
you? Like for me, it's backside lipslides. It
takes me 20 times, and I'll get one, but I'm
just like, God damn, man. Do you have a
trick like that, or do they just
come to you?
I can't think of one right off the top of my head.
Usually if I just focus on one trick hard enough I
can get it. Like the kickflip one-foot nose wheelies,
I woke up one day and I was like, I'm going to go
to the Pier and just train. I hear stories about guys
training, and I was like, "I'm going to go there and
not touch anything except that manual spot." And
I sat there for four hours trying to get that trick.
What's the gnarliest thing you ever saw
someone do on a board?
That would have to o go to Wade Speyer. He did a
nosepick Taj Mahal, like on the ceiling thing.
Pretty fucking gnarly. Cardiel has done some
insane shit, of course. Definitely Bob has done
n't feel any nervousness or anything. I was just Whose skating do you admire and get some gnarly shit.
from?
What's in store for the future for you? The
like, whatever, let's have fun-let's skate. That's inspiration, Gonzales, for one. He's always hav- near future, and then where do you want to
how I felt.
It seems like it would be kinda gnarly at first.
Yeah. The thing is, when you live in San
Francisco there are so many pros around that you
just learn to take them as regular people. They're
just skaters; like me, you, anyone else who skates.
There's really no pressure.
People look at turning pro as this big mile-
stone. How has your outlook on things
changed since you've turned pro, or has it?
Do you just continue to do things your own
way or do you feel extra pressures?
It's just skateboarding, but I guess when you turn
pro there's more of a demand for you and your
name. And I can see how you can get busier with
traveling and the pressures of people wanting to
film you and wanting to see you. I noticed that, but
since I just turned pro I'm just taking it day by day.
What makes a professional skateboarder in
your mind?
I'd say Mark
ing fun, and I just like the way he thinks about life
and skating. I admire lots of pros' skating, they're
all so good. One pro that I'd like to learn from is
Eric Koston. He's always so calm, and I'd like to
learn how to stay that calm and focused. I like
watching Quim and Field; I love their styles.
A lot of times I see photos of you going real
big; do you ever have to psych yourself up or
do you just do it?
Usually if you have to psych yourself up to do
something big, that's not good. You're going for
a dare if you have psych yourself up. Usually
if you're confident, like, "oh, I got kickflips
down, I could kickflip and catch this down these
stairs," then you can do it. You're confident, and
you just do it. I usually won't try something if I
gotta psych myself up. I mean, I'll do it if I have
to, like it we're on tour or something and it's on
the line, but I usually just feel confident enough
You would have to at least skate as much as you just to do it on my own.
be in five years?
My only focus right now is just skateboarding.
That's all I know. That's all I really fucking know. I
know what I want. I'm here, and I want to be here.
Not where Bob is exactly, but amongst those fig-
ures. Like that.
Do you want to give a few thank you's for
your friends?
I'd like to thank Mic-E Reyes, Jake Phelps,
and Luke Ogden for making this interview.
possible. My loving parents and my brother
Jozul. JB for the painting. Bryan De La Garza
for filming me every time I go to San Antonio.
Also Chris P, James at Globe, Ruben Orkin,
Gabe Morford. I'd like to say "Hi" to Sergio
and Martin, Rochelle in Wisconsin, and all my
friends in Texas. All right, that's it.
One more question. How come you look so
much taller on video?
Because I'm skinny and I have a big head.
The precision of the Nikon F-5 really
helps explain how truly gnarly this
kickflip snatcher is. Snag a kingpin
on the edge of the bank and the
interview is over.