Above: "If he's so good, how come
he can't even ride his board the
right way?" Switch backside 180°
flip down the seven at EMB.
and when I used to live with them they weren't very
supportive of my skateboarding. When I lived with
my dad, he was like, "OK, if you plan on skate-
boarding, you're gonna have to do a varsity or jun-
ior varsity sport." That was swimming. So I had to
spend all my time swimming, and whenever I was-
I
n't doing
that and homework, I could skate. And
then both and my mother were like, "I don't
know about this skateboarding thing." They really
à me to go to college, which is understand-
wanted me
able. They saw I was having fun, but they felt I
should fit
I fit into the
the norm and go straight into college
right after 1 high school.
Did your parents not wanting you to skate as
much make you pursue skateboarding harder?
Their resistance didn't make me persist. I
understand that they had a different agenda
than I did. Plus when you're younger, you
think your parents are always wrong; so
you're just like, whatever they say I'm not.
gonna go for that. You're not trying any hard-
er to go against it, you're just not doing what
they want you to do. So continuing skate-
boarding went along with not doing my
homework when they said to do it. It was just
another thing to not listen to them about.
When I got older I understood that being a
rent is kind of hard.
parent is
Where were you born?
I was born in T'aichung, Taiwan. My dad was in
the Air Force and he went overseas, and I guess he
met my mom somewhere and they got together.
You know how it goes, man meets woman. Then I
was born, and when I was ten days old we moved
to the States.
And you've moved around quite a bit?
Yeah, I'm an Air Force brat. It's good, because
I've gotten to see a lot of the world. Traveling is
definitely an expensive thing, and if you're growing
up and you don't have to pay for it you're psyched.
The only bad thing is that I was so used to travel-
ing around that I just took it for granted, never
took pictures or anything. I was just like, "Oh, yeah,
I'm in Europe. Cool." I overlooked the fact that I
may never go back there again.
How long do you think a pro career in skate-
boarding is?
Below: "Hello?! That's the nose, not the tail,
brainiac. Geez, get a clue." Nollie 360° flip.
If I stay healthy I think I could make it a
decent, lasting professional career, but I
don't think I'm
going to be able
to rig a prosper-
"was
ous career like Tony Hawk's or Rodney Mullen's.
There are people who have been out there for
such a long time and they're still ripping. Plus the
way skateboarding is progressing now, it's going
to tear people's bodies up a lot faster than it used
to, I believe. So you have to take all those factors
into consideration, thinking how long pros are
going to last nowadays.
Do you stretch, or eat healthy foods, or exer-
cise, to prepare for skateboarding at all?
I stretch out my ankles little every once in a
while, because
cause last summer I suffered from ankle
injuries to both ankles, but I don't really do any
extensive stretching before I go skating. I would-
n't say I eat healthy. I eat junk food constantly,
like Cokes and cand
candy bars. The only thing I do
really is take glucosamine sulfate just to help out
my joints. That's probably the only thing that's
somewhat healthy.
How do you feel about contests? Would
you want to enter them if they were
more street-oriented?
Yeah. I've only been to a few, and it's exciting
going and meeting a bunch of people. I'd like to go
to them, but I don't expect myself to place in the
top 20 or anything. It would be nice to, but I'm just
so used to traveling around
took it for granted"
that I just took it for
being reasonable. I'd like to attend more contests.
If you hadn't moved out to California, do you
think you'd be pro right now? What do you
think would be going on in your life?
I'd probably still be in Florida, finishing up col-
lege. It's true, you move out to California and it can
help a
you out a lot in regards to skateboarding and
going somewhere with it. The majority of the
industry is out here, so it helpe
helps. It makes it easier
to shoot photos. The people who are supposedly
important get to see you more easily than say, if
you were in Florida. There are so many towns
that the
industry heads don't venture
everywhere
out to. The only way you can get seen is with a
sponsor-me tape, and I'm sure the people in the
industry get so many sponsor-me tapes from peo-
ple it gets out of control. Being out here helps.
Name a person
a person who's not pro or sponsored
whose skating you enjoy.
Sam Mihai, or his friend Jared. Those guys rip.
I've only skated with them a few times, but
every time I see them I get excited. They're hav-
ing lots of fun. Or my friend Alex Castaneda. I
guess he's flow from Deluxe but it doesn't seem
like he's fully sponsored or whatever. And that
guy is amazing. He's just having fun. It's nice to
see people having fun. A lot of people who get
sponsored overlook that.
Did you couch-surf a lot when you moved, or
did you have a plan to move to SF and get
settled and get a job?
a job?
I had a whole game plan. The first time I
ever moved out here was with my friends JW
and Al Mosley. I saved up a bunch of money,
and the three of us got a studio in the
Tenderloin. Within a week I had a job. I think
I was the only one working. But I had it all
planned out. Get out here, just live, have a
job, take care of rent and my responsibilities.
esp
But I got kind of burnt out because the other
two didn't really get a job, so I was getting
kind of jealous. They just hung out, and I had
to work the whole time. So things didn't go
through and I had to move back to Florida.
Each time I've come I've had a plan. I haven't
couch-toured too much.
What videos
or
maga-
zines were
the most
influential
in skate-
boarding for
you when you lived in Florida?
I lived in Florida for two and a half years, and
I'd already been skating for three years. I just
hung out with my friends, and there weren't any
videos that were coming out that I was like, oh
my God. But when I lived in Egypt, that's when I
saw Video Days, and I saw the H-Street videos.
Those were super influential times. When I
moved to Florida it was pressure flip time. It was
fun, but it wasn't that influential. Right now seems
pretty influential to me.
Where do you see skateboarding going in the
next few years, street-wise?
It seems like it's just getting bigger and big-
ger and more technical, with more refined.
styles. I kind of like where it's going. But
there are
are people out there who aren't into
skating big but they just make skateboarding.
look really good. Like skating a ledge. It's
amazing. It can go in two different directions.
Either way you look at it, tricks are getting
landed better.
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