Let's get some of the basics out of the
way. You're from Liverpool, England?
Yeah.
How old are you?
20.
Can you name your sponsors?
Birdhouse Projects, Adio shoes, Indy trucks,
TSA clothing, and Furnace skate shop.
Do you live in Huntington Beach now?
Well, right now I've been here for a while.
Who are your roommates?
Andrew Reynolds, and Jeff Lenoce
stays here.
What's the madness, for the kids who
don't know?
The madness is when you skate and you
don't want to make yourself jump down some
big rail or big gap, so you do certain things like
step over this crack at the top of the stairs, or
do a trick on the flat, or something that just
clears your mind.
to
It's a routine to get yourself to do a trick?
Yeah. You're at the top of the stairs
or something and you're like, "Okay,
there's this rail. I like skateboarding;
it's fun and I have a lot of love for it.
But I'm sponsored; I need
progress and get stuff done as
well." Then you realize if you
I want to do it, you want to make
yourself do it. So you have to
break down everything, and
be like, okay, I'm gonna try
and jump off this rail. I
just do it to get all the other things out of
the way.
Do you ever get overwhelmed by the
madness?
I get to a spot and I want to try some-
thing, and I get all focused and concen-
trated, then people start running around
and screaming. I go crazy. I'm like, chill
the fuck out. I want to do something.
Then after that stage it's on. I don't think
Jamie Thomas has it.
He just charges?
Yeah. He just charges.
What about Heath? Does he have it?
I think so.
How soon after you got kicked off Flip
did you get on Birdhouse?
It must have been a month and a half or
something. Jeremy Klein just called me up
and said they wanted to hook me up, and I
was like, cool.
What kind of music did your parents lis-
ten to when you were growing up?
They used to listen to Patsy Cline, and Helen
Shapiro, and my dad listened to that Dean'
Martin dude. Funny stuff.
Do you cuss in front of your parents?
Like, "Fuck you mom," that kind of stuff?
No. I might have said it a few times, but I
won't ever say it again.
What was the first skateboard that
you bought?
It was a Monty Nolder. I had it for like two
weeks, then I went to America to stay with
my sister in New Jersey and I bought
Powell Pat Brennan.
That means you've been skating since
Since June second of '92.
How soon after did you get sponsored?
Just before I was sixteen.
Did you guys go on any good family va
tions when you were young?
Yeah. We went to this place in England cal
Wales. We'd just go to the beach and eat lo
of chocolate.
What is it with you and chocolate?
I like it.
Do you have a binging problem w
chocolate?
Yep.
How much do you eat at one sitting?
Sometimes I'll eat like six candy bars and
just be high all night.
Are you the skinniest one at your hous
Yeah.
What are your favorite things to co
for yourself?
I cook beans and toast. Over here, pe
don't eat it the way they do in England,
just go and buy certain beans and make it
they do in England. It's a treat here 'cause
one eats it that way.
Was it hard to film your Birdhouse
video part?
It wasn't hard, it was just that I'd never
filmed a part before. It was a total clin-
ic, because I wasn't as headstrong as
I feel I am now.
Opposite:
Sumner knows slides.
Sequence:
Feeble grind to fakie,
all net at The Bricks.
DIOS
3754
Before I skated I was just some kid like everyone
else who would go around being a dickhead
in the city causing trouble and smashing windows"
How was it dealing with
all the movie cameras and
massive movie crew and
all that?
It was gay as fuck, but they
wanted to do it that way so I had
to. I don't know if it being 16mm
made the video that much better
or not; if it were digital there
would have been a lot more
footage that was better, but the
quality of the video wouldn't
have been as good.
What's your favorite incident
with the White Rasta?
Jay Strickland? All of it; every
time we go somewhere.
He's your team manager,
right? What's he like?
He's awesome. He's looks
like a James Kelch and John
Travolta mix. He just flows
along with everything-he's
one of the best friends I've
ever had. I feel that close to
him, but he's a good team
manager too. He can paint
awesome as well. We go on
trips and he gets tortured; he
has to deal with so much
stress. He should be making a
million dollars right now.
How do they decide who gets
to be on the team? Do you get
to vote?
Birdhouse? No, I'm just an ama-
teur; I don't mean shit.
You have two sisters, right?
Elaine and Susan.
What is Heath's rule about
having older sisters and
being over 25?
He just told me one time that if
you have older sisters, then
you're gay and you won't know
until you're 25.
How many more years do
you have till you find out if
you're gay?
Jay just turned 26, and he's
okay. Steve Berra too..
Tell me a little about the
Liverpool life.
In other cities, you can drive
across the city part really quickly,
but in Liverpool there are a lot of
buildings really close together.
Is it like Orange County?
No, it's completely different. I
live about five minutes from the
city; I come out of my house,
walk a block down the street,
take a bus into the city, and there
are just shops and people every-
where. The city's small, so all the
spots are really close; you go
skate some stairs, go skate a
ledge, go skate some banks, go
skate everything. Growing up.
there was the best; all different
styles are there, so if you want
you can get a mix of everything.
Weren't you saying that some
of the skaters in Liverpool
are like the harder, more SF-
style skaters?
A lot of them want to be city
skaters. When I was growing up,
a lot of people were doing the
older stuff, a lot of kids were just
doing flip tricks, and some peo-
ple would only do ramp skating.
There are still kids who wear
Tommy Hilfiger, and guys who
wear cut-off Dickies and all the
punk chains, and kids who just
don't know what's going on.
Who were some of the bigger
influences on you growing up?
Just people in Liverpool actual-
ly, all my friends; before I skated
I was just some kid like everyone
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