Chops and Cubby go out for Icees.
Introduction by Jeremy Klein
The first time I heard about Todd C, I was at Beryl School and some kids were talking about this guy doing all kinds of tricks on ramps that no one had ever done before. But then I didn’t hear about him for a few years after that until one day when I met him while taking product at World Industries.
Somehow, we instantly became friends. Our love of horror movies and candy was enough, but then there was skating, too.
I would be at his house everyday and he had a vert ramp there but it wasn't being skated. We would just go street skating. He'd talk about a trick that he wanted to do on vert, try it on a curb, and then instantly know how to do it on a 12-foot ramp the next day. It was incredible and really rad for me personally to see street-type tricks taken to vert like that...
Somehow, we instantly became friends. Our love of horror movies and candy was enough, but then there was skating, too.
I would be at his house everyday and he had a vert ramp there but it wasn't being skated. We would just go street skating. He'd talk about a trick that he wanted to do on vert, try it on a curb, and then instantly know how to do it on a 12-foot ramp the next day. It was incredible and really rad for me personally to see street-type tricks taken to vert like that...
Not to mention, he was one of the few vert dudes to wear pants.
Todd is one the best skaters of all-time.
Jeremy Klein's Unseen Todd C Street Footage. So sick.
How’d you end up riding for Liberty?
Liberty definitely had some amazing ads back in the day, though. Any personal favorites?
(laughs) Nah, I doubt it. But who knows! I’ve heard so many things… but that would be pretty fucking hilarious! If that kinda thing could ever be hilarious.
Too funny. So talk a bit about the Liberty Horror video. What all went into the making of that one? Was that Liberty’s big move to really go for it?
You weren’t one of those vert guys considering a street transfer for the sake of career?
It probably would’ve made a difference. I was fine not being on Liberty anymore but I wasn’t okay being on a team that I wasn’t comfortable on and still not making money.
So Todd, this is almost
cliché now but you really are seen as one of the first vert riders to have an
obvious street influence in your tricks. Let’s face it, bigspin back 5-0s to
fakie are a totally different animal compared to the almighty McTwist. Was this
street direction a conscious decision on your part or was that just kinda how
it worked out?
I think that approach was more of just how things naturally
worked out for me back then. I was hanging out with mostly street skaters
anyway. There weren’t very many people who were still riding vert at that
point. Basically by the time I turned pro, in order to actually go skating with
anybody, I had to go street skating.
The thing was that I didn’t enjoy street skating as much.
And by skating street with people like Jeremy Klein, it also made it clear that
I wasn’t very good at it.
I think I had more of a creative bone to pick. I was trying
to bring something new to vert skating and I was using things that were
accessible to me. I was seeing all of these new tricks going down on street and
nobody had even thought to try them on vert yet.
So I started messing around with a few and once I actually
pulled something off, I knew I should probably keep going in this direction. It
was cool trying different things and making stuff up. Combining different
tricks. It was all so much fun.
It actually got to a point where I was probably starting to
take it too far. I remember coming up with this thing I called “the
Congellarial”, which was an Indy Fastplant to Nosepick. It was a total joke
trick that I used to do on curbs but I found myself doing them on vert… which
was probably the dumbest thing ever. Once I actually did one, I felt so stupid.
I mean I knew that nobody else had ever done it before but there was probably a
reason for that. The whole thing was a total embarrassment and I definitely
didn’t want word getting out about that one... but looking back on it, it really
was just an example of that fun sense of creativity.
I realize street
skating was still in its infancy back then but it was still so much more
accessible than the lumber-intensive route of backyard ramps, right?
Ramps were just more fun. There’s something about
transitions that I liked. Not even pool skating, it was wood transitions, specifically.
I can’t even explain it but I’m sure tons of other people know what I’m talking
about. There was no fear at all for me with Masonite and 2x4s. If I was going
to try something on a handrail, that was a totally different experience. The
fear was there. I knew something bad was going to happen. But I was comfortable
and fearless on wooden transitions.
I skated street when I was younger but it was totally
different compared to what it became. Back then, my friends and I would just
roll down a hill on our asses and try to push each other over. We called it
“Bash ‘em” and the guy who made it to the bottom without getting toppled over
was declared the winner. That’s what street skating was to me.
When it started to evolve in those early Word Industries
days, I thought it was so amazing but I already felt like I was too far behind.
I’d be out there watching Jeremy or Mark Gonzales do these awesome things but I
thought it was too late for me to learn. Even though I was only 16-years-old.
There was just something in me that felt so awkward whenever I would really try
to skate street. It didn’t speak to me the way vert did.
Was there ever a
particular instance where you learned a trick on a 10-foot halfpipe that you
couldn’t do on a curb?
I’d usually try them on my mini-ramp first but yes, a few
things did go down like that.
It’s hard for me to remember trick names now but one trick
that I definitely took that approach with were those “toothpick grinds”…
Fakie nosegrinds.
Yeah, I learned those on my mini-ramp and then on vert after
not being able to initially do them on curbs.
I actually remember trying to do fakie 360 shove-its into
those things on curbs and overshooting into fakie nose manuals… for
about 5 seconds, I thought that it would be a good idea to try those on vert with
the fakie nose manual part on the deck of the ramp! (laughs)
That was just a dumb idea. It’s probably not impossible, but
at the time, I sure thought it was. But that turned into me trying to grind the
coping instead of manualing and I even pulled off a couple of those. That’s
definitely from a street idea.
We talk about all
these groundbreaking early tech tricks you were trying but your Liberty counterpart was a
true old school great. Was Mike Smith a big influence on your skating growing
up?
The thing with Mike Smith was that he was local. He lived in
Hermosa and I lived in Torrance.
I’d always see him in magazines and all of a sudden, he’s coming over to my
ramp and we’re skating together. He played music, too, so he was right up my
alley. So yeah, he was a big influence in that regard.
Correct me if I’m
wrong but weren’t you on Powell for a little bit prior to Liberty?
They were doing a “B-Team” kind of deal and I was trying to
get on that for a bit. Chris Borst was trying to get me on there. It was one of
those things where he kept promising to get me on but whenever I’d go stay with
him in Bakersfield, he’d be with his girl and I’d feel super awkward and
stupid. He’d be in there with a lady and I’m hanging around, trying to get on a
skate team.
There actually was a session that I went to with some of the
Powell dudes. I was gonna skate and hopefully get sponsored that day… until a
young Danny Way
showed up.
(laughs) Of all the
people!
Yeah, he dropped in and immediately everyone there was like,
“This kid is amazing!”
Here’s this wonderchild who’s like the second coming of Hawk
and they’re not even looking in my general direction. I might as well not even
been up there. Half of me couldn’t even believe all the shit this kid was doing
while the other half was like, “Fuck you! Why are you doing this to me!?! Holy shit!”
It all worked out for the best, though. I grew to love Liberty way more than I ever did Powell, even though Liberty wasn’t anywhere
near as successful. I always felt like Liberty
was where I belonged.
How’d you end up riding for Liberty?
Liberty
was presented to me by Mike Smith shortly after that session as, “Hey, if
you’re not gonna be riding for this Powell thing, ride for me!”
That’s just how Mike works.
“Hey, you ride for me now. Okay? Cool. Here’s a board.”
It never felt official or anything. I was honestly never
sure if I was really even sponsored half of the time. Even when I turned pro
for him and had a board out, I still didn’t feel like I was really pro. It
really wasn’t until I started getting into contests that it felt legit. I still
don’t know how he got around to signing the entry forms for me but he did.
But sponsorship just worked naturally for me with Mike. I
was never going to be Danny Way
so I’m going to do this thing with my friend. In retrospect, I probably didn’t
appreciate it as much as I should’ve until it was almost over.
What was the
structure and inner workings like at Liberty?
Was it just you and Mike?
(laughs) The structure of Liberty was that there was no structure
whatsoever. It was a hair-brained idea at first and the next think we knew, it
was really happening.
It was just me and him but we had distribution through World
so that got us some promotion and a bit of the spotlight. My board was selling
pretty well there for a while but then it got to the point where people stopped
buying vert pros’ boards almost completely.
Was Rocco’s involvement just distribution? Did you have much interaction with him?
Was Rocco’s involvement just distribution? Did you have much interaction with him?
Rocco actually hated Liberty.
It was this crazy situation. Mike and Steve had been friends for a long time
but Rocco didn’t respect Mike whatsoever. That was obvious. I remember not
being able to figure out why Mike would go talk to this dude everyday just to
get abused like he did.
It eventually led to one day where Rocco tried to talk to me
that same way and I flipped out on him. I’m not even sure what I said to him… I
probably just told him to fuck off. But I didn’t care. I wasn’t friends with
him the way Mike was and I wasn’t going to take that. I could sense he walked
on eggshells around me after that day, being overly nice.
But yeah, Liberty was the red-headed stepchild of World
Industries. Every time we would go in there, Mike would tell him about this
idea… which most were admittedly pretty crazy, but Rocco would just laugh at
him. He had this weird fucking laugh, too.
“You’ve got to be kidding me! Hey everybody, come in and
listen to this stupid thing Mike wants to do! You gotta hear this!”
It was so embarrassing and terrible. All he had to do was be
cool. We were selling boards and he was making money off of us. But Mike
thought Rocco was our golden ticket or something so he put up with it. He’d
already been putting up with it for years anyway.
It’s not that I didn’t respect Rocco, especially in
retrospect with all he was able to do with that company. There was just some
inner stuff there that was hard to swallow.
Liberty definitely had some amazing ads back in the day, though. Any personal favorites?
I always liked the one where we were fighting on top of that
hill. Not really because of it being a stand-out but because it was an actual
real-life situation. Mike and I would always get into these weird wrestling matches
over ideas for the company. Not totally hurtful but we’d definitely get
physical about shit. But those photos aren’t staged. That is actually us
fighting and rolling down a hill.
How did Liberty end
up with a section in Rubbish Heap?
Was that just a couple days with Spike?
That was about two hours with Spike. At least my part was. Mike
shot his footage separately at another ramp and I filmed on my ramp so it’s basically two parts put together.
I don’t know how Liberty got in that video. It had to be
Mike’s idea and he must’ve begged to get in there. I thought it’d be cool but I
honestly didn’t think the video would be a big as it got. It was definitely
good exposure, even if they spelled my name wrong. That was probably on
purpose.
I know you were close
with Jeremy Klein around this time. Any good stories come to mind from hanging
out with that dude? Crank calls, perhaps?
Jeremy and I definitely did our share of crank phone calls
back then. Our lives basically revolved around skateboarding, buying candy, and
crank phone calls.
We crank called Gator once but I don’t even know if we
should talk about that one cause it’s pretty sketchy…
Come on!
Okay, fuck it.
This is back when we used to go down to San Diego a lot and
stay with friends. There was this one weekend where we went over to Tony Hawk’s
house to skate his ramp and it happened to be during this weird point where
Gator was going to possibly ride for Liberty.
Wow.
Yeah, it was weird. Actually, there was a point where Mike
was trying to get both Gator and Josh Swindell to ride for Liberty. They both
fell through, obviously.
Talent
scouting!
Yeah, so this is back from before we found out that Gator
wasn’t going to be riding for us. We didn’t know really what was going on with
him at this point, but we ended up seeing him at Tony’s ramp. We weren’t the
best of friends but I knew him well enough to go up and talk to him.
“Hey, are you going to ride for Liberty?”
“No, I skate for Jesus now.”
“Is that like a new company or something?”
(laughs) I guess it didn’t fully register what he said or
maybe I thought he was joking but I honestly didn’t really know what he was
talking about. He definitely took what I said as an insult, though. He started
putting me down for the music I listen to… even though he used to listen to
punk rock as well.
“You better ride for Jesus, too! You’re heading down a bad
path!”
He’s obviously offended and at this point, I just want to
get away from the guy.
“Okay, Gator. Let’s just skate, man.”
So it turns out to be the most super awkward session you can
ever imagine. But all I can think about the whole time is that I totally know
who our next victim will be when we go crank calling later on that night.
A few hours later, we go to crank call Gator but we end up
getting his machine. I remember his outgoing message saying all this stuff
about, “I can’t come to the phone right now. Praise the Lord, blah, blah blah…”
Whatever. The thing beeps and Jeremy and I, almost in unison,
put on these evil-type voices:
“Hey Gator, this is Satan. I know what you’ve done!”
Keep in mind that we are saying this completely out of
nowhere. We dumbfucks had no idea what was going on with him at the time… we
had no idea he was about to go turn himself in for murder.
Oh my god.
No clue! I mean, why was he even skating!? He had just
killed someone!
My memory is a little vague but I really think he turned
himself in the next day. Jeremy thinks it was a little longer but regardless,
it was so crazy. When I heard the news, I freaked the fuck out. Here we had
left that message, totally not knowing about what was going on!
I’m even on this little expose that Hard Copy did about the
whole thing! It has this voiceover like, “He was the world’s most rad skater
with his entire life ahead of him…” while its showing all this classic Gator
stuff.
“And then one day…” and there’s a shot of me bailing!
I couldn’t believe it! How could I be connected this close? It
freaked Jeremy and I out. We didn’t crank call anybody for a few days after
that. We just hid and played video games.
Do you think your message is what made him turn himself in?
Do you think your message is what made him turn himself in?
(laughs) Nah, I doubt it. But who knows! I’ve heard so many things… but that would be pretty fucking hilarious! If that kinda thing could ever be hilarious.
Absolutely insane. So
moving on, how did the Icee Bear become your graphic alter-ego? Were you just in
need of a rip-off graphic and that one fit?
It probably started out like that but I did used to always
drink those. The place down the street had an Icee machine and I always loved
that graphic on the cup.
I think it had something to do with a deadline.
Everything would always sneak up on me. Mike’s like that where he’ll just come
up and say, “Hey man, you’re pro now.”
“Oh, okay… Really? Shit!”
“Yeah, you gotta do a model. Get your graphics going. Let’s
go!”
This would always be followed by Mike saying on the very
next day, “Dude, it’s deadline. Where are your graphics?”
He’d never tell me about things until the very last minute
and I’d always have to think of something real quick. I remember I originally
wanted to use the sleepwalking bear that was on all those Travelodge
commercials but that somehow ended up turning into the Icee Bear.
Such a classic board.
Yeah, I liked how it came out. Mark McKee always did great
stuff. He always exaggerated everything you gave him with these really thick
lines to where those rip-off things almost became like their own thing. They
were so great. I mean, that first model was just a complete rip-off of the cup
but by the time that second mug shot one came out, I remember thinking, “Hey,
we’re not being total plagiarists! We’re only 90% plagiarists this time!”
The third one was Icee as the Rocco devil, right? How’d he take that with your guys’ relationship?
That was me being spiteful after our little blow-up or
whatever. I heard he got pissed off about that graphic. He never said anything
to me, though.
I remember my biggest concern was that I didn’t want him to
take it as a form of flattery. I mean, he described himself as the devil so
this was actually playing into his whole deal. But it worked, I liked it and he
got pissed off.
How were you treated
by the old vert guard as a new school pro for a Rocco affiliate? I imagine you
got plenty of vibing, right? Anybody stand out as a real asshole?
Actually not at all and I totally expected that. Maybe being
down with Mike Smith helped me through all of that. I always looked up to dudes
like Jeff Grosso, Ben Schroeder and Jason Jessee and I ended up getting along
with them really well.
I think it might’ve been my third or fourth pro contest and
I hadn’t really met any of those guys yet but I remember them calling me out to
the parking lot. I go out there and they’re all blasting my first FYP demo
cassette out of their car. I was so stoked on that.
But yeah, I really felt like those dudes had my back. I
was at this skate camp one time with Ben Schroeder really early on when I
slammed on a trick and actually knocked myself out on the flatbottom. Blood was
coming out of my nose and I just laid there unconscious.
While I was out, I remember having this dream where Tony
Magnusson is skating around my body. I’m lying there in the middle of the flatbottom
and he’s skating around me in a circle, doing grinds.
When I come to, I’d been carried off to my room and everyone’s
now having this big meeting about how they all want to fuck up Tony Mag.
Supposedly, when I was passed out, he was up on the platform complaining about
me being hurt.
“Why doesn’t this kid move!?! My muscles are getting sore!”
As it turns out, he really was skating around me while I was
knocked out. I guess he didn’t want his muscles getting cold.
Dick move.
Even now, I still think about what an asshole move that was.
What if he bailed and shot his board into my head? I’m lying there completely unconscious.
But yeah, this was early on, way before I might’ve deserved
any sort of respect from those dudes but they had my back anyway. To this day,
I still love those guys.
Always wondered as
your career progressed, what kept you on Liberty? I have to imagine you got
plenty of offers to go elsewhere, right?
Yeah, I got some offers but I guess I stayed with Liberty
out of loyalty. I liked Mike personally and I loved
the company. I loved what it meant. Plus, I was always holding out because I
thought things were gonna get better; both with Liberty and vert skating. I
thought there was about to be this big vert explosion again... a lot of crazy
dreams, I guess.
Do any of those offers
stand out from back then?
Yeah, there were a few. Vision was interested at one point. Think
wanted me to ride for them, too. Powell actually started talking to me
again as well but I wasn’t interested in that anymore. Kinda stupid but it was basically
out of pride since they wouldn’t give me the time of day back when I was right
in front of them.
No Birdhouse?
I think by the time Birdhouse started, I was kinda over it.
Jeremy would talk to me about it from time to time but I felt like we were
better where we were at. Jeremy and I even talked about doing our own company
at one point.
That would’ve been
amazing.
Yeah, we talked about it but it never really got that far…
basically just a pipe dream from some guys on a sugar high. It didn’t have a
name or anything… mostly just, “That would be cool!”
But I don’t like playing the “what if” game. Starting a
company back then just wasn’t feasible for us.
The stuff of legend: Didn’t you piss your pants in a pro contest run once?
The stuff of legend: Didn’t you piss your pants in a pro contest run once?
Yes, I did. (laughs)
That was actually the same contest I mentioned before where
those dudes were out front blasting the music. Those guys were so cool to do
that and then I go out on the ramp and do that crap… they probably thought
twice about playing my tape after that.
The thing about that day was, that contest was on my very
last day of high school. I was just super stoked on everything! I remember
thinking to myself throughout the whole day, “At 3 o’clock, my life starts!”
After school, I talk my friend into riding up to Visalia
with me for the contest and we end up getting into this crazy car crash where
we do a 540 on the freeway, rolling backwards full-speed into a ditch. It was
so crazy but somehow, not only were we okay but the car was also perfectly
fine! Not even a flat tire! So now we’re extra stoked! Not only is this the
first day of my life, I also didn’t die in a wreck when I probably should’ve!
The car’s okay… I’m gonna piss my pants in my run now!
(laughs)
Too funny. So talk a bit about the Liberty Horror video. What all went into the making of that one? Was that Liberty’s big move to really go for it?
Liberty Horror was
pretty much my own project. I had help from Spike and Jeremy but it was pretty
much me. Basically, I love horror movies and I love skate videos so Horror was my attempt to combine them.
One thing about that video was that I had to literally sneak
into World to use their editing equipment and hope Rocco didn’t walk into the
room. It was a big deal if he caught me in there.
“Hey, you can’t be editing that movie here!”
I didn’t care, though. Let him catch me! I’m trying to promote our company to make him money! But people were really worried about him finding me in there.
I didn’t care, though. Let him catch me! I’m trying to promote our company to make him money! But people were really worried about him finding me in there.
“You don’t understand. He’s gonna get mad. He doesn’t want
Liberty stuff in here!”
There was some strange thing going on between Rocco and Mike
at the time. All of a sudden, Rocco didn’t want any Liberty stuff at World. It
was weird.
But Mike really wanted to do a video. By then, Liberty was
already pretty late in the game of putting out videos but we had to have a
video to keep the company going.
“Okay then, well, instead of hiring someone and shelling out
money for them to make it, why don’t I just make it?”
Anytime you could save Mike Smith money, he’d do it. So I
basically took over the video early on. Horror
was all my ideas. Mike never seemed that into it anyway. There were actually
times I felt like he didn’t even want me to do it.
The mandatory thing for Liberty
Horror was that it had to have more
street skating in it than vert skating. Mike was obsessed with Liberty having
street skaters at that point. I remember going to Mike’s house so he could
check out footage and all he’d say is, “That’s not street skating. That’s you
skating a ramp. Get some street skating in there.”
“Well… how about this guy getting killed? That’s cool,
right?”
“Yeah, that’s awesome!”
“Yeah, that’s awesome!”
(laughs) Did you do
all the special effects yourself? The severed head looked amazing!
Yeah, that was the craziest thing ever. That was when I knew
Mike was onboard for the video. Once he saw that scene, he was actually
excited.
I forget where we got that head from, we must’ve had some
kind of connection. But I remember walking into this room and it was full of
different body parts lying around for movies. Severed hands, severed feet… all
this stuff. We look around and in the corner, there’s this head. Mike just
starts screaming, “Oh my God! This is you!”
I don’t know how it happened but there was this severed head
that looked exactly like me… if I got my head cut off. And I still think that
particular scene is actually scary. We proved a point with that one.
What’s the story on
Fred Brown?
I forget what the title was but Mike had this Hawaiian book
with this character in it by the name of Fred Brown. I remember him bringing it
up to me one day and he was so excited.
“Look! We have an
entire book full of graphics right here!”
“Well, we can’t do a ton of boards like this… maybe one.”
I’m telling you, it was such a struggle for us to get a
street skater to help the sinking Liberty vert dinosaur company. We felt like
we needed a street skater so bad but it just wasn’t working out. Fred Brown was
Mike’s amazing idea to solve all those problems.
“This is Fred Brown from the Philippines! He’ll be our new
street pro! Nobody will know who he is but we’ll say he’s really good! You can
ask Jeremy to film a part with a wig on! He can be this amazing street skater
but he’s a total mystery!”
I didn’t see it at the time but Fred Brown was one of Mike’s
best ideas. It really is genius. And not only was Mike excited about now having
a street pro, he was also stoked on not having to pay him.
“No $2 a board! He’s not real!”
That video part was kinda crazy because Jeremy didn’t really
go full-throttle in it. He was just doing normal shit. Mike was expecting his
full Jeremy Klein shit but in a wig. It didn’t work out that way.
Still one of my favorites. But speaking of full-throttle, how did that Union video part go down? Were you just taking the piss out of street skating?
Still one of my favorites. But speaking of full-throttle, how did that Union video part go down? Were you just taking the piss out of street skating?
Is that the one where I’m trying the noseslide-tailslide?
Yeah.
That was just how it was edited. The way it worked out with
those Santa Cruz wheel videos, they always wanted you to do street. They knew I
did both… even though I usually just went for comedy with street stuff.
Basically, I couldn’t pull that trick. I was really trying
and I’d done it before but I just couldn’t get it that day and was being goofy.
The thing was, I knew street was more popular by that time but I didn’t care. I
honestly tried a few times to talk them out of having any street footage of me
in there at all but they really wanted it.
I remember filming with this guy who I’d just met that day
and telling him from the start, “This is going to be easy for you because I’m
not going to do much. It’s not going to be impressive.”
I reiterated this over the course of the day but he’d always
reply like, “No, this is working out great. Just keep skating!”
“How is this working out great? I can’t pull anything!”
Next thing I know, the video comes out and I’m just like,
“Oh, so that’s what he meant by ‘working out great.’”
Honestly, I was starting to get a little bitter about the
popularity of street skating over vert by this point, too.
You weren’t one of those vert guys considering a street transfer for the sake of career?
I never thought for one minute that anybody might take me seriously
skating street. And honestly, if it would’ve came down to that, I told myself
that I was going to quit because to me, it was the equivalent of selling out. I
know that’s stupid but that’s the way I felt about it. I saw a bunch of skaters
trying it all of a sudden and I thought they were sell-outs.
“What are you doing? Just wait it out. Still have fun!”
I love skating vert and that’s why I was sponsored and had a
pro model. I’m okay at it. I’m not good with street at all. It’s fun that’s not
who I am.
So what happened with
you and Liberty? How did you end up on Milk?
It really comes back to trying to find a street skater for
Liberty. Vert skaters’ boards just weren’t selling and without a street skater,
Liberty wasn’t going to succeed.
Mike ended up finding this kid out in East LA, I honestly
can’t remember his name, but at the time, I sorta felt like he dumped me for
this kid. I remember they’d gone somewhere on a skate trip together, maybe to a
contest or something, but they didn’t say anything to me about it. Shortly
after that, Mike just stopped returning my phone calls. It was never really
talked about but all of a sudden, I felt like I was out. It was so confusing.
It hurt though because I was loyal to him that entire time
and now he’s doing something else and not calling me back. Betrayal is a strong
word but that’s how I felt. I could see how this was going so I quit and went
to Milk, something I hated doing but I felt there was still some life left in
me.
Mike and I still talk to this day but it got a little weird
back then.
Milk was weird. It didn’t feel right and I always felt
totally out of place. At first, it was going to be alright because both Ron
Chatman and Hosoi were going to be on the team. That sounded pretty good. It
was Chatty who actually got me on there. But for whatever reason, the company
didn’t end up getting started for a while and the next thing I know, Hosoi is
no longer involved and Ron had gone to another company. I was fucking pissed.
The owner was super cool but when my board finally came out, it just felt
wrong.
The whole scenario turned me off from skateboarding. I hated
going on trips with those guys and I just didn’t like being around it anymore.
At the same time, my parents lost their house, which also meant that my ramp
had to be torn down. The writing was on the wall.
I went on this European trip where I was supposed to do 12
demos and 3 contests; I didn’t do any of them. The guy I was with had sold all
of my pro boards that I was supposed to be selling for tour support and was
refusing to give me any of the money... that was it. I just bailed.
“I’m done. Don’t worry about paying me. I don’t really have
to do this.”
Everyone was trying to hustle so much back then,
especially vert skaters. It was like rats fighting over a piece of cheese. It
was sad. Not being professional anymore wasn’t a sad thing for me at all. It
would’ve been sadder had I kept on trying to do it. I can still skate and
that’s all I care about. I had more fun skating before all this other stuff
started anyway.
Do you think if you had a different sponsor at the time, you would’ve had the proper support to stay with skateboarding?
Do you think if you had a different sponsor at the time, you would’ve had the proper support to stay with skateboarding?
It probably would’ve made a difference. I was fine not being on Liberty anymore but I wasn’t okay being on a team that I wasn’t comfortable on and still not making money.
It’s hard to answer because at the same time, it could’ve
made it worse. I used to see these guys that I really respected at contests and
they always seemed to be whining about money but they were making way more than
I ever was. They just sounded like a bunch of spoiled brats. Here they’re
complaining about making over 100 grand a year and they’re skateboarding for a
living. I felt embarrassed about the whole thing: embarrassed for them for
complaining like that and embarrassed for myself for making so little in
comparison. It was all so strange.
The whole situation seemed like a sign telling me to go
on with my life.
Have to wonder, did
any of your experience on the business side of things with Liberty inform your
future role with Recess Records?
Oh yeah, for sure. I definitely put out records the same way
Mike put out boards. I know exactly how much effort is involved to get a
release out just like how he knew what it took to put a board out.
Everything is hands-on. I remember going with Mike over to
the artist’s house and taking art over to the printer before hitting up
Screaming Squeegees for boards. He did everything. And there was never a
release date, it was whenever the manufacturer was done with the stuff.
That is a big reason why I never sweated being paid by Mike
as I saw that I was learning how to do business… even though he is definitely a
weird guy to learn business economics from, there were lessons there to learn.
He didn’t want certain people to touch Liberty and I’m the same way with
Recess. It’s like you only want certain people handling your baby, even if it’s
slower or you look like a big flake.
Well put. So wrapping
this up, does it trip you out on how many people still bring up your skating
after all these years?
Definitely. I honestly didn’t think anybody really
appreciated it that much as it was happening, let alone all this time later. I
think there’s been a type of renaissance with a lot of people but for me, I
can’t really explain it. I always figured you had to have some type of clout to
get that status. But it’s cool. I like hearing people talk about doing certain
tricks back then. That’s always good to hear.
…But no one has ever done a Congellariel still to this day!
(laughs) We’re gonna
have to run a Trick Tip for it in this.
I’d break my back trying to do that stupid thing.
Big thanks to Jeremy Klein for the intro and footy
...and to Todd for taking the time.
Well this was an unexpected treat. Rode Todd's Liberty board back around '90/'91. Like Chad Vogt, he was one of those few guys who were so far ahead, you couldn't even mimic what he was doing half the time. Thanks for posting this!
ReplyDeleteCris
Amen, 1up and thank you.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Chops!
ReplyDeleteTHE FRED BROWN BOOK IS CALLED 'PIDGIN TO DA MAX' AND DEPICTS RECENT FILIPINO TRANSPLANTS LIVING IN HAWAII AND THEIR CULTURAL COLLOQUIALISMS...
ReplyDeleteI THINK FRED BROWN COMES FROM 'FOB' OR 'FRESH OFF THE BOAT'.
(IT SAYS THAT ON THE BOARD AND THE BOOK ILLUSTRATION).
BUT THEN I HEARD THAT FRED BROWN WAS THE GUY THAT MIKE SMITH BOUGHT HIS BOAT FROM....
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE SOMEWHERE OFF THE COAST OF HERMOSA...
Brilliant as always. loved that.
ReplyDeleteMan, this was awesome! Todd and FYP stayed at my house once in MS where someone there had booked them for a show. Needless to say, the show did not happen but my parents were cool with them staying in our living room. I couldn't believe I had a PRO SKATER in my living room so I made him watch my dumb videos of me and my friends skating and they made fun of it the whole time. Ok by me, I knew we sucked but I had total respect for Todd growing up watching him in Rubbish Heap and Horror and still enjoy his video parts to this day. Great interview, thank you!
ReplyDeleteGreat interview. TC was underrated for sure. Does he still skate?
ReplyDeleteOne of the best chrome balls yet. Thanks dude. Now get back to posting on Facebook.
ReplyDeletethis was a good read. todd was one of the guys i really looked up to, he was that good kind of weird, and liked punk music and didn't seem to wear the costume. some of these guys seemed more like 30 that 16yrs old, a lot to do with their confidence i think. skated b.k.'s vert ramp once with him, he looked like he felt out of place, which makes sense i guess cause i think greg carroll took him there.On a personal note the vogt comparison above, i think is odd, no disrespect to "cris", but Todd has a very powerful style and refined bag of tricks and not really circus style. But now i sound like a complete fucking nerd... Great interview good job, thanks.
ReplyDeleteNice! Didn't know about the connection with Jeremy Klein.
ReplyDeleteSurprised This is a very readable article.
ReplyDeleteหวยเด็ดแม่จำเนียร