Right: Phantom
menace switch
lips, dog!
> Below:
Ryde 'em cowboy.
for the time we're in right now in skateboarding. I don't
know where it's going to be in ten years. I don't know
where I'll be.
So you're riding for Innes again?
Yes, I am. I'm really excited about it. I'm going to
try to help Matt any way that I can. I want to see it
grow and prosper.
Have you ever had any major injuries? You never
seem to get hurt.
I get lots of heel bruises. I've had a few knee injuries
that have lasted about a month, but I haven't had surgery
or anything yet. That could be right around the corner
though. I broke my leg twice, once in eighth grade and
once in ninth. The second time I broke it because I start-
ed skating too early. But that leg healed really well and
ended up being stronger than my other leg. I've had sev-
eral concussions, probably two a year. That's never good.
You haven't done any of that X-Games since the
first one, right?
Yeah, I did the first one. I got a concussion, and there
were no medics or anything. There was just a camera in
my face, going, "What's it like, bro?" They just wanted
to focus on me slamming, and then they did a three-
minute feature on me, and they did a question-and-
answer style thing. They overdubbed talking, and they
had my answers to their overdubbed talking that they
hadn't even talked to me about. They made it seem like
I was totally dissing my parents, just to make a good
dramatic story about how rough I had it. They said I
had broken bones weekly and all this stuff. I told the guy
who made the piece for ESPN how sour was and how
sad my family was about it. The guy broke down crying
right in front of me, and said he hated his job and he
wished he could quit. Then I felt like it was more trou-
ble than it was worth. I haven't been back.
Do you want to talk about Tim's funeral?
Yeah. It was a really heavy thing. Tim was great; not
that I even knew him that well, but when I saw him or
talked to him it was always good. Going to his funer-
al put a lot of things in perspective for me that I
haven't ever seen in my life. I've always been looking
for those things, but I'd never known how to see or
feel them. At his funeral I realized how much one per-
son is loved by his family and his friends; those are
things I always took for granted. I was there listening
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to all the people speak about him, and it really hit
home. It made me appreciate my existence on this
planet more than I ever have in my life. I searched
my whole life, from middle school on, for a reason.
for existence. I didn't know why I was here; I
thought I was just here to do what I wanted to do.
But that's so selfish; why would I be put on this
earth just to do my thing? I always felt there was
more to it but I could never figure it out. It all
became clear to me at his funeral. The Lord.
allowed me to be here and blessed me with the
talent I have. It opened my eyes to things I never
could see before. It was a moment of clarity. I
realized that I'd been very selfish to think that
everything I'd achieved I'd done on my own. My
family and so many other elements were support-
ing me and contributed to any success I'd ever
had. I was trying to take all the credit. I had no
control over the matter; it was all right there for
me to see and feel. I can't really describe the way
I felt. It was like the final piece of my puzzle, and
I know that everyone has to work throughout their
lives to make themselves better people and to live
better lives. But there was this missing element
that I could never find that I finally found, and
that was accepting Jesus Christ as my savior.
When you think about what you can do to top
yourself for the next major video, what kinds of
things go through your head?
I'm trying to do stuff now that I haven't tapped into
yet that other pros are doing. I want to make a better
video part by making it more well-rounded, having
more switch tricks and a little more variety.
Skateboarding's so weird. You go to a different spot
and you might be doing the same trick but it's a com-
pletely different environment and different circum-
stances. The rail could be steeper, longer, higher;
there are so many things that come into play that
make it exciting to do the same trick you've done
somewhere else at a new spot.
How much bigger of a steep rail do you think
you can hit up?
The biggest I've done is 20 or 22. I think I could
do bigger than that. The whole deal gets to be the
fear game, what's going through your mind as you
push up to it. You could do a 30-stair if
you had the confidence and a fifteen-
stair on the premises to warm up on.
The whole problem is if you're pushing
up to it and you haven't skated a rail
that day or in the last five minutes,
you'll be second-guessing yourself.
There was one in this interview that
was brutal for me. I've been trying to
do it for the last four years, just pushing
up to it, and it's too intimidating.
Do you have a favorite handrail trick?
The best-feeling trick is a backside
lipslide. But the first trick I'd try on a
big rail would be a lipslide. If the rail
was too steep for a lipslide, I'd try a
grind. The best feeling I've ever expe-
rienced on a skateboard is riding away
from the backside lipslide in the new
Zero video.
What's the highest drop you think
someone could take, realistically?
I don't think anyone's taken the
highest drop you could take. Maybe
two, two and a half stories, which is
twenty-five feet. But you'd have to
have a leather suit and a downhill
landing. You'd have to just be tough as
nails to take it, but it's possible.
How far do you want to take it?
I don't know. Leap of Faith is the
highest thing I've ever jumped off
height-wise. Maybe I'll try that again..
I can't see taking it much further than
that for me. Sometimes you take a
jump off of something and you think,
this is too high. I'm just falling and
falling. I've watched the footage of me
trying the Leap of Faith over and over
again, and I think if my board hadn't
broken I would've just collapsed. I
was going too slow. If you go faster it
disperses your energy outward.
Someone could ride away from the
Leap of Faith.
Would you be upset if someone else
did it?
It's not my gap.
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