ducts
I
T
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Interviewer. When I'm on tour, of
course, I'm skating ramps and
skateparks, but I push my skating
in all different directions. On the
East Coast, if you're not skating
a park in the winter, you're basi-
cally not skating, because it's
freezing outside.
Why is there a
a negative stigma
against pro skaters who are
really good at ramps?
It's like in high school
how pretty girls, even if
they're smart, pretend
they're dumb because
happen to you?
I was hoping it wouldn't. You
know, you put everything you have
into something and you want it to
work out well.
How should the kids getting
wrecked by girls handle it?
Well, I drank a whole lot. I guess
that's just a good time to concentrate
on your skating.
Ever been self-destructive?
got Skater Island and people are
coming back out of the woodwork.
There are other parks in the area as
well, so the scene has just been get-
ting stronger and stronger.
Everyone's trying to progress and
have a good time.
Why don't you live in California
anymore?
Skating in California is great, if you
like horses. No, skating out there is
definitely
where you
I want to be
"You're Never satisfied
it's the cool thing to do.
Maybe people don't want to be
known as a mini-ramp champ
because they think
people won't like
them as much.
But 99 percent of
Eastern Exposure 3 or Welcome
to Hell, let's talk about how
you got started.
I just tried to stay on top of most of
the events that were going down in
my area of New England. About that
time I was driving a Chevette-don't
tell anybody. That thing sucked. I'd
drive around to all the demos and
contests and I'd
I'd see people around.
You know, you end up staying at peo-
ple's houses and then you meet their
friends. I hooked up with the right
people and got little hook-ups on the
and you always think you're sucking,
so the pressure is always on."
the best skaters can skate
ramps well too.
Yeah.
Why is it that girls can cause
so much joy and torture at the
same time?
That's what they're put on this
earth for. No, not really.
Have you ever had your life
wrecked
by a girl?
Yeah.
What was that like?
It's defeat.
Did you ever think it could
Like trying to cut my own arm off?
No. But there were times when I was
feeling confused about skating and
confused about skating on top of
dealing with a girl, shit like that. It
feels good to be self-destructive
metimes. Maybe so.
What do you like about your
scene here?
It's cool. It's a bunch of skaters who
have been around for a while, and
we've got a lot of new guys too. It
was a scene that kind of died when a
lot of parks closed, but now we've
to come up, but I just had enough of
it. Here, there are about five or six
cities in a two-hour radius, and there
isn't an overabundance of skaters.
It's not uncommon to go to a city and
have it to yourself. It's not like in San
Francisco where you bomb a hill and
head downtown and see fourteen pro
skaters. At the same time, it's kind of
rad to
be our
e out in California and skate
with the raddest people. That can be
incredible too.
For people who think you just
appeared with the videos
East Coast. I got wheels from this
guy, a deck a month from this guy.
Then, after I graduated from high
school, I went to college for two
years, and during those two years I
realized how much I loved skating. I
could hardly concentrate on school. I
attention to the readings
couldn't pay attention to
a
I had to do. So I got an associate's
degree after that and
and just
bailed out
to San Diego. I sold my
I my car,
took
Greyhound, and gave it a shot.
What happened when
moved to San Diego?
you
I just started hanging out with peo-
ple, trying to get around and find out
where the spots were. Then.
met
Oscar Jordan. He rode for this com-
pany called Entity and he asked me
if I wanted to ride for it, and I said,
"Sure." I got a couple boards a
month from that. Then I was work-
ing the next summer at Woodward
and I met Greg Carroll and got
hooked up with Think.
What were those summers at
Woodward like?
I was trying to skate as much as I
could and save up money to travel.
Sometimes I'd be
be up there for ten
weeks, earning like 140 or 150 bucks
a week, trying to deal with thirty kids
a cabin,
being
ing their dad.
in a
Which
guys did you babysit?
Jeff Simmons, Jesse Fritsch,
Chad Knight, Dave Coyne. Chad
Knight was the best camper ever.
He came in and was doing 540's
on the vert ramp.
What happened after you got
on Think?
I was in a drought as far as money.
I was dumpster-diving for food. I
tried to see if I could hook up with
some money, but there was no way
that Think could pay me. I had to do
something. I
I was thinking I'd just
quit, move back home, and get my
old job at the pharmacy back. Then I
got one last chance, and that was I
could quit Think and ride for Toy
Machine. Satva Leung, who was my
roommate at the time,
brought up that
opportunity for me
and hooked it up. was crazy. I had
to decide, and I just went for it. I
ended up getting paid a little bit of
money month after that, so it gave
me a chance to get some more.
Ramen noodles,
When did things come to a head
for you as far as coverage?
A couple people came into the pic-
ture and put some trust in me and I
backed it up. I had met Dan Wolfe on
the
the East
Coast couple of times.
had seen him with Bam, Maldonado,
and Jimmy Chung skating, and I'd try
to hook up with them whenever I'd
see them. Then Dan decided he
wanted to make his own video, and
he asked
he asked if I'd like to film some stuff
me a
went well, so gave me
was stoked. So we traveled
part fun
traveled
around, had fun and filmed the part
for Eastern Exposure 3. The same kind
of thing happened when I hooked up
with Jamie Thomas. He had
He had gotten
on Toy Machine about six months
before I did and was working hard on
his video part, so I just joined up with
him. We were both motivated. So the
fact that I got a video part out
through Dan and then followed it up
with Welcome to Hell got a lot of me
out there at one time.
Was it like night and day as
far as public response?
Tippy-toe control on a switch 180°
over a Providence, RI street gap.
The thing is, you don't know. I was
just trying to get as much photo and
video done as I could. You're never
satisfied and you always think you're
sucking, so the pressure is always on.
It really hit that summer. I'd gone on
a summer tour the year before and
nobody really talked to or cared
about me. Some people would be
like, "Oh m
"Oh, you're pretty rad," but not
one paid much attention. Then the
summer after the video came out,
people started coming around and
asking me for an autograph. Things
were a little different.
Do you feel like things hap-
pened for you later than they
did for others?
Yes. But it wasn't like I was sticking
it out or anything. I wasn't ready to
stop and I was still having fun. It's not
like you quit skating because you
don't have a pro model. I never real-
ly thought I'd ever be pro. I got to a
point where it looked like it was com-
ing around and I was like, "Whoa,
this could really happen." Look at
basketball players. Some have their
strongest years when they're 30. And
with skateboarding, if you play it
right, you could have your strongest
years later, just because you've got
so much experience. Little kids don't
have fear. They don't know what it's
like to be hurt, so they I have an
advantage at that. But at the same
time, they've got no experience and
no roots. Tony Hawk will still be rip-
ping in four years. He's getting better.
You seem to skate with a lot of
regular people.
Yeah. Especially on the East Coast,
you have people for whom sponsor-
ship isn't even an issue. I'm in it a lit-
tle deeper than they are, but we all
skate and have fun together. I hope
that everyone who skates is skating
because it's fun.
Do you ever stress out about
learning tricks?
I go through a different stage in
skateboarding every week or so.
Sometimes I just want to put a big
board together and bomb down the
hills in Providence, and then some
weeks I'll put together a small board
and skate flatground all week and
have fun with that.
Why has Groton, Connecticut
produced so many heavy hitters?
It's the fact that we had rad older
guys we skated with. We had a little.
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