contest, at home everybody was
telling me, "You're from Florida and this
is a Florida contest? You better win." So
much pressure. It made me feel like I
had to try to do really well.
Are you entering this time?
No. I look at it like this: anybody who
enters, if they go into it seriously, they
want to win. Why else would you enter,
other than you really deep down want-
ed to do as well as you possibly could,
which is first place? People are like,
"Ah, contests suck," but they take their
runs and they want to do well. I don't
want to enter this time because I don't
want it to look like I'm some tough guy
trying to win three times. It just feels
funny. I want to go and skate, and try
to get some tricks for the video, but
nothing more than that.
What are the five best tricks
ever invented?
Ollies, 540's, kickflips, nollies, and skat-
ing switch.
What percentage of your
thoughts are devoted to politics
and world issues?
None. I seriously don't care about
that stuff. That's so far away from any-
thing that I'm doing that it doesn't
even matter. If you didn't watch TV
and didn't know it was happening, you
would never even know it existed. But
it's on the news all day, so people
wonder what's going on. You see the
president on TV and you think, "Who
cares about this guy?" But then you
want to know. You have to be curious,
but I try not to bother with it.
What do you think about all these
fools trying to hate on Birdhouse?
I don't know are they?
What about those Nerdhouse shirts?
Who did that, ATM? That's so bad.
They're not in the position to dis
Birdhouse. Birdhouse has a lot of good
skaters, and that's why it eventually got
to where it is. If ATM were in the posi-
tion that Birdhouse is, they wouldn't
make fun of anybody. But they need
something to get people's attention,
the wrong way.
Do you ever hear criticisms that bum
you out?
No one's ever really said anything to
me, but I hear people saying the
Birdhouse video isn't real skating, that
we're just putting up some sort of show.
Do they think the tricks are imagi-
nary or something?
Not like that, just that they think it's
not fun anymore once it gets to that
level of entertainment.
Is it fun to do these life or death
type tricks?
I don't think anything I've ever done
has been life or death, because I wouldn't do
anything that stupid. Death is trying to grind the
side of a freeway and getting real far on one
side. I don't think anyone's done anything on a
board yet that's actually death-defying. Roof
gaps and stuff-if you go fast enough, you're
gonna make it to the other side, regardless.
Your feet may be off the board and you're
hurt, but you're gonna get over there.
What was the hardest thing for you to do for
the Birdhouse video?
Kickflip grabs out of that green bowl in
Tampa. That was seriously hard. It took so many
Above: The frontside
flip is a beautiful thing
when it is well executed,
and Andrew has one of
the best in the business.
Below: Kickflip fakie
nosegrind at the SoCal
Pier 7.
attempts. Some of the stuff people come up to
me and say was the best, I'm like, "That wasn't
even that much of a problem for me." The stuff
people don't really notice is what was really hard.
What about the frontside flip over Silvergate?
Steve Berra bet me $100 to do it in three tries.
That made me want to do it more. I mean, I
wanted to do it regardless, so I was ready to
jump down a few times to see what it was like,
and I did it. So he gave me my money. Bets push
me more than anything. When people offer me
money, at that moment, $50 for the next
moment, I get serious and amped.
What's the most money you've won on a trick?
Probably that one. $100 second try. I was happy.
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