JOHN CARDIEL
H
OW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN
skating, John?
About 16 or 17 years.
Why do you skate?
Because it's fun.
Do you still think it's as fun as when you
first started?
Definitely.
More so or not? How?
It's fun because you're trying to do some-
thing you can't, and then you do it and feel
good about it.
You know this is Thrasher's 20th
Anniversary; do you think Thrasher
still matters?
What do you mean? Of course.
Well, people and magazines come and
go-things are popular and then
they're not.
It's a skateboarding magazine, and it sup-
ports skateboarding. I'm into anything that
supports skateboarding.
But these days it seems like it's all big-
bucks commercial, and it's not really
skateboarding. It's very different from
when we started as kids.
Like I said, anything that supports skate-
boarding and is down for skateboarding,
I'm into.
In anything? In all disciplines, like pools
or whatever?
Oh, anything. I don't get stoked on people
raping the sport, but I get stoked on people
who are into skateboarding, who support it.
And that's what Thrasher is, so of course
I'm into it.
What was the first one you ever saw?
It might have been the Hackett cover, but
I'm not sure. But the first magazines I ever
saw were Skateboarder and some other side-
walk magazines.
April 1993
November 1998
Gettin' some corner air.