but she stood behind me for what I believed
in, so she signed me out and I quit. I told my
dad I was going to go to night school, and I
kept that dream going for about two months
for him. It was so much fun. I skated all day
long. I'd been going to school for eleven
years straight and all of a sudden summer
was year-round. My friends were going to
school all day and I was skating. I started
taking trips like crazy; I went to south
Florida with my
friends who were
older and already out
of school. Eventually
weeks I was in SF. It was rough for me, sitting
looking at the Gonz gap all day long. But my
ankle was completely black, so I just had to
wait. Once my ankle got better, I ollied the
Gonz every day for like 90 days in a row-or
110 days or something. And people just made
fun of me, saying why didn't I do a trick over
it. One time I 180'ed it. That was about as
tricky as I got. After a while I realized I was
somewhat different from everyone else.
I could get myself together. Those guys can
definitely dish out some hateful vibes, but I
guess it goes with the territory. After a couple
years it started fading. It's crazy that it takes
that long. I wasn't trying to win anybody
over, and after a while I gave up talking to
them and hanging out. I nodded my head
when I saw them and went about my busi-
ness. I just wanted to skate.
When did you feel like you were really
Tollied the Gomz every day for like
my dad said if I was going to live in his
house I had to either go to school or
work; that was after about two months
of me dodging him. I ate at Burger
King every day, and I said, well, it's
either a job or school, so I thought I'd
get a job at Burger King. I knew every-
one who worked there anyway. I got a
job there and started saving up for a
car so I could make it to California.
How did that job go?
I worked double shifts to save up for
a car. Eventually after about six
months I had enough. I quit Burger
King and moved to Atlanta for the
summer and lived with my friend
Devin and his mom. I started hanging
out with Sean Young a lot. We'd skat-
ed together when we were kids in
Alabama but he moved away to New
England, then he came back to
Atlanta. We both wanted to go to
California so we got jobs telemarket-
ing to save up for the voyage. Sean's
friend Hurley from New Hampshire
also wanted to go, so when it was
time he came down to Atlanta and wel
left. We only had a couple hundred
bucks each, so it was a pretty sketchy
plan. We stopped in Texas for some
NSA contest.
Did you ever spend the night
at EMB?
Yeah, a couple of times. Our voyage
from Texas continued to California. I
knew Tony Guerrero and some of the
other guys we met at the Texas contest,
so we drove up to San Francisco. We'd
always talked about how funny it would
be to just move to Embarcadero, and
when people would ask us where we'd
moved, we'd just say Embarcadero. That was
the skate mecca at the time. We drove to SF,
straight to Embarcadero, and that was it. We
still had that beater of a car. Every night we'd
just break out our sleeping bags and sleep
there, at the Embarcadero. That went on for
almost three months.
How soon after you got out of the car
did you ollie the Gonz gap?
Actually, I sprained my ankle in Irvine on
the way up, so I couldn't skate the first two
90 days in a
3730
ONLY
TOWED AWAY
Gorilla pimpin'.
Describe the SF vibe.
FOR
RENT
NO VACANCY
293-0131
It was rough for me for a long time. I felt
like I should just go home, and I know that's
what they wanted me to feel like. But I tried
not to care. I was there to skate and have fun.
I wanted to outlive the vibe. They had all
these names for dudes that were outsiders. I
don't even know why I stuck around-it
seems like I should've gone someplace
where skateboarding wasn't so focused on
and there weren't so many good people
around. I should've been somewhere else so
W coming into
towards that?
your
own? Or do you still
think you're working
Well, you always think you're working
towards that, but yeah, there was a time.
It started coming during the first Toy
Machine video. I started feeling like I
could actually do tricks and things I
wanted to do and I started skating rails a
little more.
Was it a conscious effort to make a
mark for yourself in skateboarding,
or did it just evolve?
I just did things that felt good to me,
like ollies and more rails. Just pushing
myself with the basics as far as I could. I
don't remember the exact day it hap-
pened, but I just realized that I shouldn't
fight what I grew up doing or what I was
good at. I decided to do that the best and
work on the other stuff on the side, on
my own time, and maybe someday I'd be
good enough at those to take photos of
them or film them or whatever.
What's something you're good at
besides skating?
Well, things I like to do are probably
things I'm best at. I like to film a lot and
make videos. I've filmed a few videos
and edited a few, and I really like run-
ning a company. It's very satisfying to
me right now. And I help with any com-
panies I'm involved with. I want to be
somewhat in control of how I'm por-
trayed, or how a company that's sup-
porting me looks.
What is the strongest part of
your personality?
I guess ambition, because that's the
only thing that keeps me going. I wonder
sometimes what my drive is, and what's
my goal. Even if there's not a clear goal,
I'm still just as hungry as I was when I
was a kid. It's not going away, and I don't
think it's going to. Sometimes I suffer
burnout just like anyone would, but it's
only for a small period of time. Then
again I'm just there, hungry, again. I say
hungry meaning hungry to get something
done, or hungry for satisfaction, or hun-
gry for the feeling of triumph.
• The sight of Jamie's Smith grind should silence any doubting Thomases.
64 THRASHER
65
Daniel Harold Sturt 1992