JASON DILL
W
HAT WAS THE FIRST THRASHER
you
saw?
The first Thrasher I saw had Steve Alba on the
cover riding down the street grabbing with both
hands on his front rails and leaning down with a
leopard print bandanna on. It said something like
"Summer Blowout Explosion." I remember I cut
it out and tacked it to a posterboard in my room.
What year do you think that was?
I started when I was eight. I'm 23
now. Do the math.
Did you already skate when you saw
the magazine?
I was eight years old but by the time
I saw it I had already been skating.
Really, the thing that really turned me
on to skating was hearing about Mark
Gonzales. Back then everyone would
talk about him so much. I remember.
hearing about Gonz like he was this
guy who didn't even exist or some-
thing; people would make stories up
about him. I was really just geared up
about Gonz when I started skating,
and everything else was secondary.
What kinds of things would you hear
about him?
Well I was born in Fountain Valley, lived in Costa
Mesa, and then moved back to Huntington Beach.
So by the time I was eight I'd see Ed Templeton
skate down the street, but I didn't know who the
fuck he was. There were guys like Eric Estrada who
were so good back then. I'd talk to them about
skating, and I would buy used boards off them.
They would talk about this guy, and they'd name
tricks after him, like a 'Chavo Grind' or a 'Chavo
Slide'; that was like a second name for him.
Everyone would just talk about Gonz-or at least
the five kids I looked up to who were four years
older than me. Then they started talking about
going to this place called Pay and Play across the
street from Huntington High School where they.
set up ramps till 10 and the cops would line up
and make sure we all got home because of curfew.
I remember hearing about Jason Lee going to Pay
and Play and kickflipping over garbage cans off
launch ramps. That was back when Skip Pronier
and all those guys weren't even sponsored or any-
thing; they were just dudes.
TRASHED
PIPES
November 2000
What was your first photo in Thrasher?
My first photo in Thrasher was a backside.
grab down a gap. It was so old that Ballard was
assisting Sleeper. That's all I have to say.
Assisting Sleeper?
Sleeper-that's way before your time. I was real
little. It was so long ago, they were like, "You're
going to shoot this photo with this guy Sleeper
and do a backside grab down a gap." They
requested tricks back then. I've seen Sleeper once
since then; I never got a clear answer on what
happened to that guy. It's a backside grab and it's
almost a whole spread, and on the other side of
the page Cardiel is doing a backside grab to fakie
on a mini-ramp. I should be able to remember
the cover, but that was a long fuckin' time ago.
Getting in Thrasher was a big deal. That gap was
crazy; I tried to do it once and I landed right on
Sleeper's head. He was so good; he was the first
person I ever saw shoot with Polaroids. He had
the Polaroid right when I made it, and it amazed
me; it was futuristic. I was like, "Holy shit, that's
me doing it right there!" The second Polaroid he
shot was me about to land on his head. If I could
I have kept that it would have been one of my
prized possessions.
What were some early videos that inspired you?
I try to explain this to people from the East
Coast or people from a cold climate all the time.
Growing up in California, by the time I was five,
I could ride down a driveway and kickturn. I
remember going to a toy store and my mom
buying me a marble-colored plastic banana
board when I was like six. You're always around
it. When you grow up there, you go to school,
you hang around a very white-oriented group of
people, and then you skate or surf. That's your
deal; or you play football for the team.
So skating there was pretty popular?
Totally; I remember seeing dudes doing rail
slides on doublesided curbs, and not knowing
what they were doing or what to call this thing
that was really cool at the time. One of the first
videos I got was called like Skateboard Superstars
and you could tell it was all poached footage of
Christian Hosoi, Jeff Hedges, and Bill Danforth.
The second video I got was How to Street Skate
with Natas and maybe Hosoi. They showed you
how to do wallrides and ollie to tail on a curb. The
first video I set out to find was Sick Boys. That was
the one with Julien Stranger.
So you were more influenced by
things going on around you
rather than media.
I was born right down the street
from where 411 is today. You're
just born and bred into it.
Skateboarding was just like that.
It blows me away; these kids today
are just so goddamn good. The
kids on Workshop right now.
don't remember the H-Street
video. I don't think some of these
sponsored kids even realize why
on some trucks there are four
holes in the front. I remember
seeing Ocean Howell drill the
holes himself.
How did you get involved with Alien?
Alien Workshop was created in 1989, when
Chris Carter still worked for G&S, and I
always loved G&S videos. Neil Blender was
just amazing; his video parts were so cool and
there was always so much character, especially
videos like Footage. And I liked Willy Santos. So
when I rode for a company called Blockhead,
G&S was the shit. G&S was the equivalent to Girl
back then; it was so amazing. And they branched
off and created Alien Workshop. I remember
seeing the first logo and falling in love with it. I
took a bus to the skate shop to get Memory
Screen; it was a yellow cassette and the cover was
really cool. I was so blown away; it is still to this
day one of my favorite skate videos of all time. I
remember asking Dyrdek if I could ride for Alien
Workshop and getting denied. I've been tight
with him for a long time, and I met Chris Carter
when I was 11. I always liked them. Then I got
screwed by a couple of companies and learned
the system-I mean, I've been sponsored since I
was 10. It just seemed right. Every day I'm able to
talk to them and find out what's going on and go
over things. I really enjoy it.
Was the new video inspired by Memory Screen?
Yeah, I wanted it to look like if you threw my
section in the middle of Memory Screen it would
work. And for the few people who have asked me
about the conversation I had at the beginning of
my part, it's all real. Chris Carter used to call me
in the middle of the week wondering what I was
doing. I would spout off some nonsense, so he
started recording my conversations a year ago.
That's all real, kids; it's me in the middle of some
sort of fit in the daytime about why I'm not skat-
ing and not doing my job. There aren't many
people who can say they rode for House of
Kasai. Just me, Matt Dove, and Adrian Demain
can say that, and that makes me a veteran.
A veteran?
Do you want to know who the veterans are?
The people of our era who are still doing a lot of
shit, who go way back, and you can find their
names in old contest lists from when I was little.
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Kids these days are so different. I got spon-
sored by Lester Kasai when I was 12 years old.
He hooked me up and it was great, but then
it starts gassing your head up. You think, "Oh
these guys are into me and they're the cool
shit right now. They'll make a video with me
in it," and all that stuff. I went through that
same thing when I was 14, 15, on until I was
16, and I got to a stable sponsor. Now it
seems like there's no integrity left. They're 191
years old and they've ridden for four major
companies. Where do you think you're going
when I was young I rode for Black Label and
got gassed up by someone else. I'm bummed
to this day that I actually quit riding for John
Lucero. It was really a hard move, and I was.
stupid for making it. It just blows me away.
that someone can be so into something and
be a part of a company that happens to be
like a family, like Alien Workshop or Habitat,
and be able to just turn around and throw it
out the window because someone else offered
them just a position, not even more money
or anything sometimes, to ride for them. To
go about it that way is just bullshit. And
Ollie eruption in NYC.
IF AMERICAN PROS ARE SO FUCKING LAZY, THEN
TAKE YOUR FOREIGN COMPANY AND GO HOME"
Like Dyrdek: Dyrdek is a deep veteran. He is
such a veteran it's ridiculous. And we're all
young. Markovich is a vet too, and Mike Crum is
a big-time veteran. He is a Vietnam veteran. You
can see it in people's skating. These new kids
now not that I don't like them, but you can
just tell. You can tell when they started skating.
I'll see these kids skating ledges and I'll be like,
"Goddamn they're good at skating ledges." But
you take them to a bump over a bar and they can
barely ollie it.
to go beyond that? Everytime someone's
about to release a video, do you just go for it?
It's ridiculous. Kids will be skating five years
and thinking about going pro and asking to
go pro because other companies are asking
them to, and amateurs are having apartments.
paid for and getting money on top of it. The
whole stealing game is always going to hap-
pen, but it's up to the kid himself to realize.
that someone looked out for you and took
care of you. I made mistakes like that too;
another thing, to foreign companies or rid-
ers: if American pros are so fucking lazy, then
take your foreign company and go home.
You said you had some people you wanted
to thank.
I want to thank Shelby, Chris Carter, Mike Hill,
and kids like Brian Wenning, Anthony
Pappalardo, and Danny Garcia who know that
when you're young and successful you don't.
have to be a prick about it.
-Patrick O'Dell