JOE PINO
Words and Photos by Michael Burnett
ike those brave brothers on the hillside at Kitty Hawk, Joe
Pino is one of the rare breed who has done battle with the
bind of gravity and won. Replacing wobbly wings with
seven plys of hard rock maple, Joe cruises the airspace
1815
above the many spots of San Diego and beyond,
always looking for a new runway or a steady updraft.
I've noticed, Joe, that you're not an average
pro skater as far as your outside interests.
How's that?
Well, while most pro skaters might listen
to hip-hop and chill in their room
when not skating, you do some
other stuff.
Yeah. I've always been interest-
ed in flying. And the closest thing
I can do to flying, since I'm on a
budget, is fly model airplanes.
What are most of the
other people who fly
model airplanes like?
They're pretty much
retired older dudes. They
probably have bad eyes and
can't fly full-sized planes
anymore, so they have to fly
model planes to get their
flying fix.
Have you made some
friends over at the field?
Oh yeah. It's me and like 25
old men.
Do they know you by name?
Yeah. I've gotten some phone numbers.
from those guys too; like any time I've got.
some questions about my airplane I can call
those guys and they'll give me some advice.
They're cool. The generation gap is funny
sometimes. I had finally gotten to the point
where I could fly one of the planes that I
bought, and I told one of the guys I was
stoked because I could take off and land on
my own. Before I left the guy asked me if I
was going to come out the next day and get
some stoke.
Do they ever try to talk to you about
their personal lives?
It's mostly just about airplanes. I get a lot
of advice not to get married, but that's just
because they're grumpy old men.
What other kinds of flying things have
you done?
In high school my parents got really nerv-
ous because I was messing up and not real-
ly too into school, and right around this
time my dad had started his own business
where he was dealing a lot with this guy in
England who had this microlight aircraft.
He took me up in it and let me work the
controls for a while, and he told my dad if I
ever wanted to I could go to England for
the summer and help him out in the field.
So I went there for a few weeks and helped
around the place, mostly mowing the grass
"I've jumped out
and helping him build planes and stuff, and in
exchange he taught me how to fly. By the time I left
I got to the point where I could solo in these little
planes. They're smaller than Cessnas. I got about fifteen
hours of flight time. Then I had to come back and go to
school. That was my junior year.
What else?
My dad was in the military and had skydived before, and he
always told me he would take me skydiving on my eighteenth
birthday. So on my birthday my dad and one of my other
friends and I went to this skydive place and took an all-day
class and I ended up jumping out of an airplane with my
dad for the first time, which was a really cool thing. My
dad broke his back when he was in Vietnam in a heli-
copter crash, and he wasn't ever supposed to do
anything like that but he did it anyway. He
felt he had to do it with me. And I was-
n't supposed to tell my mom that he
jumped but I spilled the beans and
he got in trouble with my mom
and then I got in trouble with
him and he would never skydive
with me after that. I've jumped
out of an airplane thirteen times.
What's it like?
It's the closest you can get to fly-
ing. You're in total control of how you
move in the air. You can manipulate and
maneuver however you want. You can do
tricks and stuff. The last part of the training
you dive out with an instructor and try and
mimic the moves they do to show them that you
can return yourself to the fall position, which is
chest first. There are a bunch of levels you have to go
through. By the end I was blowing all my money on
jumping because it's kind of an expensive hobby. It's
definitely the gnarliest thing I've ever done. The first
time you jump is like the worst roller coaster feeling in
the world; you jump and pretty much freak out, but then
your training kicks in and the next thing you know you're
on the ground. The ground is so far away that it's not
even like you're falling, until you get to about 4000 feet
and you start to sense that the ground is coming at you.
Will you become a pilot some day?
Definitely. I don't really want to become an
airline pilot. That seems kind of boring. I'd
want to fly where I can go up and dick around
and try stunts. It seems like the only exciting
part of an airline pilot job is taking off and
landing and then the rest of the time
you're just sitting there for eight hours.
I don't really enjoy sitting that long.
That page: Joe stopped to noseblunt slide the ledge in
front of the SF library before delving into some research
on defying the laws of physics.
This page: Cap'n Joe walks the plank to make amends
for this 5-0 and other acts of high treason. Aaarrr!
of an airplane
thirteen times."
Does your interest in flying relate to your skating?
There's definitely a connection. I like to go fast. Like
when you're bombing a hill and click an ollie you end up
covering so much distance. I just like that feeling of flying
through the air.
The kids will want to know how you can ollie so high.
I'm from DC and I skated Pulaski, Freedom Plaza, a lot,
almost every day from eighth grade until I moved to
California a couple of years ago. And skating Pulaski,
there aren't really any bumps and some of the ledges
are kind of high, so you had to learn how to ollie to
skate there. Also, there were always trash cans or
something set up to ollie over, so I just took it
from there. I wasn't too into trying one trick all
day long and then by the end of the day you
land it and go home. I was more into just
cruising around and skating the whole
park, just ollies and 5-0 grinds and
tailslides. I'm pretty tall, so
maybe that helps for ollies too.
But I could ollie this high a
few years ago before I was
full grown, so it probably
doesn't matter. I don't
know. I guess everyone's
got something they're
good at. It's just what you
practice.
Another thing that prob-
ably sets you apart from
a lot of pro skaters is
your musical preference.
Yeah, maybe. I've just always
liked hardcore and metal. That's
another thing from growing up in