KENNY ANDERSON
W
HAT WAS YOUR FIRST PHOTO
in Thrasher?
It was recent. It was a lipslide on a double
kink handrail.
Living in Las Vegas, are you down with
Team Cheez?
How do you know that? Did someone tell
you to ask that? Hell yeah, I'm down with
them. They used to build all these crazy mini-
ramps. There was Cheez One, Cheez Two, and
Cheez Three.
they had this little spine but with a gap, and if
your board went in, there was dog shit and all
kinds of awful stuff in there. If your board
went in, you had to do something terrible,
but I forget exactly what it was.
Did you ever have to pay the fiddler?
Hell no. Everyone who knows these guys are
going to love these questions.
There was a lot more nudity going on with
those kids, huh?
Yeah. You just came to expect it. They were
rode all the boards from the coolest companies.
Actually, I rode hand-me-downs from my
brother. But from the slashers to the street.
skaters, I got to be around everyone.
Is your broken arm your worst injury?
It's my first cast. I broke my jaw a few years
back, skating in the rain.
Did you have to have it wired shut?
No, I almost did, but since it was such a clean
break, they told me just to try not to move it
too much.
guess it might be easier being a Kenny
Anderson. Except I get jokes about the bas-
ketball player.
When traveling abroad, do you sample the
local cuisine or go to McDonald's?
The local cuisine. There was one time in
Indonesia, though, where I would have
taken a number two from McDonald's, eas-
ily. They brought out a whole duck-it was
a regular duck except it had no feathers and
it looked sunburned. It had the head on and
everything. A guy came in and chopped off
pretty tempting, but I'd probably choose
the pool.
Who's your favorite Osiris team rider? Is
Rodney Torres still on?
Yeah, Rodney Torres.
Have you indulged in anything since you
started making money?
I got married. I flew my family out to
Hawaii for the wedding, so I kind of gave
them a vacation. I save my money to use on
something good. I knew I was getting mar-1
ried, so it was nice to be able to bring them all
out there.
Who are your favorites?
It always changes, but Jason Lee, Rick
Howard, Brian Lotti, Mark Gonzales, and
Chris Miller.
What will you be doing when Thrasher
turns 30?
I'll be skating. I'll be there, man. I don't
know if I'll be doing it Steve Cab style, but I'll
be out there. You'll see me-the local nerd
doing Smith grinds.
-Michael Burnett
"IF YOU WIN A CONTEST, ALL YOU HAVE IS THE MONEY.
PD GET MORE STOKED ON HAVING A GOOD VIDEO PART"
Switch kickflip backside tailslide to fakie.
Were there any special rules at the ramps?
Let's get this straight: these weren't really
your average backyard ramps. First off, they
called us the street dogs. I'd show up with my
friends, and I guess I had respect because of
my older brother, but they'd be like, "OK
Street Dogs, you gotta drop in on this!" They
made everyone do it, but they exaggerated it
on the street skaters. On one of the ramps,
you'd drop in and have about six inches to set
your wheels down before you got to this
hump. After awhile it was easy, but you'd have
to do it to get to skate. You couldn't pump
around first or anything. Everyone would
slam. That was the first ramp. On the third
ramp, they built a sketchy vert wall extension.
There was no deck or anything, and you had
to climb up this sketchy vert wall to drop in,
and the only platform you had was your tail.
It was right on the edge of the ramp. But that
rule you only had to do the second time
because it was so gnarly. On the second one,
kind of known for those things. Those guys are
cool-half of them are still around. The ironic
thing is that it started as a snowboard thing
and they were all straight edge, but they did
such gnarly things it didn't even matter if they
drank or not.
Did your friends have a crew?
Not really. We were just the street dogs. They
didn't really pick on me because they were
friends with my brother. We would go to the
vert ramp and pump on the flat and do 360°
flips to fakie up the wall and stuff. Sometimes
guys would get pissed, like, "Get off the ramp
you street dog!" This one guy used to throw his
board at my friend. I actually used to try and
skate vert-little rock 'n' rolls or whatever. But,
yeah, we'd definitely get hated on.
Did it build character?
I guess it makes you open minded. If we saw
other things it was no big deal because we'd
seen the worst a person can do. They were the
gnarliest dudes, on Alva and Brand X, and we
Would you swap a $20,000 contest victory for
your latest video part?
No, I wouldn't. I'd rather have my video
part. If you win a contest, all you have is the
money. I'd get more stoked on having a good
video part.
Who has the best style in skateboarding?
Jason Lee. I don't know if he's still in skating,
but he had the best style.
Did you ever get a pro's autograph?
Yeah. Steve Rocco, Chris Miller, and
Joe Johnson.
Did you ever tell Chris you got his autograph?
Yeah, I still have the board. And Joe Johnson
works at Planet Earth, too. I met him at the
Swatch Impact Tour. It was the one where
Kevin Staab fell off the back of the vert ramp.
We had backstage passes and got to meet Joe
Johnson. I was so stoked.
Are a lot of foreign dudes kept out of super-
stardom because of their fucked-up names?
Yeah. I never really thought about it, but I
the head, and the custom is that
when they cut off the head, whoever
the beak points to gets to eat it. So it
points to the guy next to me and he's
all stoked and starts chewing on the
head-his top and bottom teeth are
scraping the beak. I probably lost
about 10 pounds on that trip.
Is there any skate lingo you have a
problem with? Do you say 'rad'?
Yeah.
Dope?
I started to, recently.
Phat?
I don't think I'll ever say that. I don't
know. Once you hear something
enough, it seems like you start to say it
whether you like it or not.
Would you rather skate a perfect
curb or a perfect pool?
A double-sided curb would be
planet earth