Arto fires the shot heard 'round the world in the battle between Finland and
England by one-upping Sumner at the UCI rail. Switch flip frontside boardslide.
to tell you to stop at some point
if you're a kid and all of a sud-
den you have everything you've
ever wanted.
Was there a point where you
just looked at yourself and
thought, "I have everything I
ever wanted?"
That happened kind of slowly,
but yeah.
Do you ever get nervous about it?
What do you think? Hells and
fucks yes!
Were you nervous around
Geoff at first?
Yes. I was at Ed's and he came
over and I thought he was going to
beat me up. Ed said, "Yeah, Geoff
is coming over," and I thought,
"Oh no, I don't want to go."
Were you vibing him, Geoff?
GR: No.
It was because he had asked me
to ride for Flip, and I said yes and
then rode for Platinum.
Why'd you choose Platinum?
Don't ask.
Was it because Moses Itkonen
is Fianish?
That had quite a lot to do with it.
Maybe because I was traveling
with those guys in Europe. I was
with Danny, Rick, Colin, and
Moses, and they were really nice
and took care of me, so I thought I
had everything I needed.
So it never really hit you that
you were a pro all of a sudden?
GR: It hits him every day. He's
always complaining about it.
Is that what motivates you,
thinking that you suck?
I think all the sequences
thrown away in the bin can
answer that question..
Do you like rock and roll or
that rap stuff?
A little more rock and roll.
Do you have to be threatened
into skating well?
Yeah, like when Geoff's yelling at
me, "Do it, you fucking fairy! Put
your gnarly boots on!" It helps if
you already have something in
mind. If you know you want to try
a certain thing, it can help for
someone to yell at you.
Finland is very cold; how
does the bad weather affect
skating there?
It sucked. But what was even
worse was when I was a newspa-
per boy and it was 32 below and
I had to take a shit under a tree.
It just froze up straight away and
my balls sucked up and didn't
come out for a month. They just
went "Schooop!" and hid in.
there for a month 'cause it was
so bloody cold. I had to wipe
my ass with one of the papers
so someone didn't get their
paper that time. I think I used
two or three of them. I wouldn't
recommend that.
Is there anything else you
want to include?
No, because no one cares any-
way, not even Geoff.
Who are your five greats?
Jamie Thomas was pretty big
when Welcome to Hell came out.
Tom Penny's rad. Geoff, pretty
much, 'cause he did the fucking
Vans ledge. Marc Johnson, Turtle
Boy, Koston, and McCrank. That's
some other level shit. Oh God, and
Brian Anderson. And Howard.
There are so many great people.
You can't just stop.
What's your favorite skate-
board trick of all time?
Nosepick or backside disaster.
Neither of them requires an
ollie. I like that.
Old school flair, baby.