THING
Left: Quick ups to a meaty Smith
on a late-nite SDSU sesh.
Right: Malls are a great place to
shop, enjoy ice cream, see who's
dating who, be seen, and to Fling
inward heelflips into monster
banks and wrestle security guards.
THEY HAD TO PULL PIECES
OF TOOTH OUT OF MY LIPM
Who's your favorite hip-
hop artist?
What's that?
You know, like rapping.
Like wrapping up sandwiches?
What happened to your teeth?
I jumped down some stairs to
my face.
Was it that ledge you're lips-
liding in the Black Label ad?
Yes. I was there with only.
one guy, and he was shooting
photos, so I had my video.
camera set up on a tripod. I
did it, and then I wanted to
do it again from a close-up
angle, so he took my camera.
I screwed up and jumped to
my face and put my teeth into
my upper lip. They had to
pull pieces of tooth out of my
lip. They gave me a whole
new tooth.
What's your favorite light beer?
I don't drink beer.
You mostly stick to the hard stuff?
I don't drink any kind of alcohol.
Why not, hippie?
I'm not a hippie. I like to shower. And I can't be a hippie because I
don't smoke weed either.
Have you ever?
I've never been drunk and I've never been high.
Were you the only guy on tour who didn't drink?
Yep.
Were you the designated driver?
No, Mike Vallely was.
Didn't you grind a big rail recently?
Yes.
It was that one Josh Kasper ollied, right? How big is
that thing?
Twenty stairs. Sometimes I think I broke my heel on it, but I guess.
I'm okay. I got on and I was a little higher than mid-way, and I leaned
to the inside a little and jumped straight to the bottom. I came down
on my heels really hard.
Some people feel uncomfortable doing a trick on the same
thing someone else did. But you knew Jamie Thomas had
already done that; why didn't you
feel weird about it?
Because all that stuff is gay. It's a whole
other side of skateboarding that I hate
and I don't know why people waste their
time on it. Since I've been in San Diego,
for a year and a half, I've realized there
are so many skaters in the industry wor-
rying about who's done what on what
obstacle. It's just a bunch of baloney.
That's not what skating is about.
Where are you from?
Cleveland, Ohio.
How did you get hooked up
with sponsors?
I bought a video camera and made
sponsor-me videos and sent them to a
million companies.
Who did you send them to?
Everyone. A lot of little companies, like
Invisible, The Firm, ATM, Arsenal, New
School. I would call the company and ask
if they were looking for any amateurs,