chrome ball interview #164: randy colvin

"Oh, sure... He's a real nice guy."

As I don’t think you’ve ever done an in-depth interview before, I guess we should start back at the beginning… when did you start skating and what inspired you to first pick up a board? 

Well, the neighborhood I grew up in was kinda crazy. It was just a bunch of stoners, really. But there was one guy who lived nearby that skated. A friend of my older brother, Artie. He had a bunch of skateboards. Three or four aluminum “banzai” boards, I think they were called. And the guy was actually pretty good at skating. Like, he could do handstands and shit… which I’m only 8 years old, so I’m blown away. I think we all were. A fucking handstand!? We couldn’t believe it.

But that dude ended up taking us to the Wedge, man. My very first time! I remember riding down the Wedge on one of those banzai boards and it was actually scary, that’s how long ago it was. It was like I was dropping in or something. It was killer. And that’s how it got started. 

One thing in all this, my neighborhood just happened to be behind Big Surf. You know that spot, right? And behind that was this little river bottom with a canal going right beside our house. Well, the city ended up filling all of that with concrete, so we suddenly had this little ditch spot going. Perfect for skating and BMX. So yeah, we all got boards after that. We called it “Mini Del Mar”, which is kinda funny to think about.

I did get into breakdancing for a little bit, though… I joined up with this crew called “The Renegades”. It was rad. But luckily, my friend Mike kept skating and he ended up coming over to my house one day, like “Dude, you gotta check out this new kid who just moved into neighborhood. He skates and he’s really good! He can ollie!”

“What the fuck do you mean? What’s an ‘ollie’?”

We go up to the local 7-11 where everybody hangs out and this dude, Lawrence, is skating around the parking lot. Doing ollies and fucking handplants on curbs. “Holy shit! This is cool!” 

Suddenly, I felt like that little kid again, even though it was only maybe two years later. But it was on after that. 

This was in Phoenix, right? 

Yeah, I’m from Tempe. 

Young Randy at Patty's Perfect Ramp

Sounds like you had a good variety of terrain to skate, even though you were mostly known for skating street early on. 

Yeah, it was all street skating and ditches at first. Then we found out that the 7-11 guy had a little crew who would skate Arizona State all the time, so we started heading over there. One of his friends had a vert ramp, which eventually led to us messing around on that, too. It’s crazy how things work out, you know?  

 

You also have to remember that Arizona is the land of pools, so it was only a matter of time before we start getting into all that. Once we met those guys at ASU, they ended up showing us a pool that was just down the street called “The Daily Pool”. Because they were all older than us, they knew way more stuff than we did. They started showing us the ropes. 

Who were your favorite skaters back then? 

Mark Gonzales. Still. He’s the best. 

Another big influence was Sam Esmore. I don’t know if you know who that is, but he’s one of the sickest skateboarders I’ve ever seen. Just an Arizona guy. I don’t know if he was ever sponsored but he was on the cover of Thrasher once, I know that. That dude was insane. Sam and his buddy Nick would let me come over and skate their ramp sometimes. They were punker dudes, so they’d always have a bottle of something. Always drinking while out skating the ramp. I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, I want to be like them! They’re cool!”

…which probably get me into trouble later on. 

early coverage - frontside 180

I feel like you were part of that Phoenix crew that all came up in the late 80s, like Chris Livingston, Colby Carter and G&S Mikey Taylor…

Oh, for sure! And Timmy Gavin! I remember when Tim used to show up at my parents’ house. His mom would drop him off and he’d knock on my door. My parents would always be like, “Randy, the little Chinese kid is here!” (laughs)

“Okay! I’ll be right out!” 

Yeah, I was always out skating with those guys. Colby and Livie…

Were you ever asked to ride for H-Street?

Not really. I was already on World by then, so I think they knew that I wasn’t gonna be leaving there anytime soon. Of course, if Tony Magnusson was around, he’d always ask me if I wanted a board or something. Working it like that, you know?

“Nah, I’m good.”  

No Hell Concave for Randy? 

No way! Those boards were crazy! I remember standing on one of those things and the tail was almost oververt! Like you were kicking an ollie backwards or something. Nah, I’m good on that! (laughs)

photo: sherman

Who was your first board sponsor anyway? Because I seem to remember you riding for Vision early on.

Yeah, that was super early on. Before that, Kevin Staab used to give me boards because he lived in Arizona. He gave me mini Staab boards, but Vision was my first board sponsor. 

The way that worked out… There was a guy who used to put on contests around here almost every weekend. Little did we know that he was basically using us to pay for his rent and cable with the entry fees. He was living the dream! But it was cool because it got us all together. That’s how I was able to meet so many people. It was fun, man. Skate in a contest and maybe win a trophy? Who cares? It was called “WSA”, which stood for “We’ll Skate Anything.” Super funny. 

I skated 12 & Under back then and always did well, so I started doing this thing where I would skate in the Sponsored Am division, too. Fuck it. I wasn’t even sponsored at the time… Shop sponsors, I guess, but not really. It didn’t really matter, it was just a local thing anyway. But I ended up doing really well in those, too. To where I basically won the state championship or whatever. Cool. 

So I keep skating these contests and eventually go to one in Tucson where there’s all these big-time sponsored guys. Like holy shit! Dudes like Danny Way and Baird Bergenthal. I think Frankie Hill might’ve been there, too. This was when my little “Sponsored Am” thing kinda became a problem because those guys all came out from California and actually have big sponsors. I don’t… but I’ve already signed up to skate Sponsored Am. And these guys are all really good! Once again, I basically say to myself, “Fuck it” and decide to skate the contest anyway. Let’s see what I can get. 

I end up winning the contest, man! And suddenly, I have Jim Muir coming up to me, asking who I ride for?  

“Nobody.”

“Alright, cool. I’m gonna send you some stuff. Let me know what you think.”

“Hell yeah!”

The same thing happens with Everett Rosecrans from Vision… Now Dave Hackett wants to give me some stuff. Some guy from Blockhead, too. All these guys want to give me boards! And I’m young, too. So, of course, I go home and call every single one of these guys for a box. I may be just a kid, but I already know how this shit works. I want to get shit from everybody! Dude, I had so many boards that I didn’t even know what to do with them all! I even gave a few away to my little girlfriends at the time. I didn’t care.

So what made you go with Vision over all of those other potential suitors?

Mark. I wanted to be on the same team as Mark Gonzales. If that meant I could possibly go skating with the Gonz, I’m in! Who wouldn’t want that? 

That’s when I started talking to Rocco, too. He had been Vision Team Manager for a while but something must’ve happened so he was just the Sims Team Manager after that. But yeah, he was in that mix as well.

 

So did you make the jump from Vision to SMA through your connection with Steve? 

No, that was mostly through Jason Lee and Ron Chatman. We got to be pretty good friends early on. I actually met them through one of those weekend contests, too. I feel like they were riding for Action Sports at time… that guy Rob Maggi? I remember them telling me about how he used to roll up in a mini-truck sometimes to pick them up after school and they’d be all embarrassed. Those guys were always super funny. 

But a few months after I had got on Vision, I was skating a contest in Cerritos, California with Jason and he goes, “Hey Randy, you should ride for this company “SMA” with me.”

“Dude, you want me to leave Vision for some company that Rocco is running? What do they even have? Like one board and a t-shirt?”

It might sound funny but those Vision boxes were insane. You’re getting boards. You’re getting pants and sweatshirts. Shoes. They had everything, man. 

Berets. 

(laughs) Right? Plus, I was selling most of that stuff out my locker in junior high. I was making some pretty good money off all that. Because Vision was huge back then! They made everything you could ever need. I could barely fit it all into my locker… God knows there weren’t any books in there. But it was hard for me to imagine ever leaving all that for this little Steve Rocco company.  

So, initially, I’m like, “Jason, I don’t know, dude…”

But somehow, Jason was able to talk me into it. Because I make bad decisions. Sure, I’ll try something stupid and fuck myself over. No problem. 

(laughs) Was Vision doing much for you at the time? 

It’s kinda hard to tell at that age, because I was just stoked to be getting packages. But looking back on it… no, they weren’t really doing that much for me at all. It’s not like they were flying me out to contests or giving per diem. Brad Dorfman was too busy buying cars to worry about little old me. Just keep sending me those boxes, man. 

But how close were you and Rocco before all this?

I met him at the local shop once. And I think I talked to him a couple of times with Sims, too. So no, we weren’t that close, either. Maybe they just saw that I was a pretty good skater for the time? Sometimes that’s all it took back then. I’m sure Jason vouched for me as well. 

I just went for it, man. Fuck it. But it honestly turned out to be the best thing I could’ve ever done. Because things definitely weren’t gonna work out for me the same way at Vision. And SMA was super fun, man. We were having a great time back then.  

This had to be super early days, right? 

Oh yeah, because it was SMA still. Rocco Division. As far as I know, it was me, Jason and Chris Branaugh as the only amateurs. And Steve had Jesse Martinez and Hartsel as pros, I think? Yeah, because their first couple boards still said SMA in the graphics. They weren’t even World yet. 

And how were the boxes? 

Dude, you could hear your one board bouncing around inside that big empty box. You know what I mean? Like, you know how sometimes you’ll pick up a package to see how heavy it is, hoping there’s a ton of shit inside? I remember doing that with my first couple SMA boxes and thinking to myself, “Shit.”

The boxes would almost go flying out of my arms, man! They were so light!

But Steve was always down to take us to contests and pay for shit. We were always doing stuff together as a team. I definitely didn’t have that at Vision. And once Ron and Jeremy got on the team, it was so much fun. Because I don’t think people really know that it was Steve driving us all around back then. They were constantly coming out to Arizona for contests. 

He was like a big kid. I know there are people out there who don’t like him but I loved the dude. He would let me do whatever I wanted. Most of the time, he was right there with me, egging me on. He didn’t care. Hell, after World started taking off, there were times when he’d give me a couple hundred bucks just to make sure that I could go and do crazy shit. Hell yeah, I love this dude. 

I remember going out to the very first office he ever had, it was basically a storage unit with a roll-up door, man. Super tiny. Definitely not your typical office space at all. But to see that same company get so big, so fast? It was insane. 

photo: shapiro

What’s a good Rocco story from the road back then? 

Oh, man… I better not. I’ll probably get in trouble. (laughs)

Nah, he never did anything shitty to us. I just don’t know if I have a favorite story, you know? He was just another one of the dudes back then. He never really felt like the “owner” or whatever. Just a fun dude who was really into what he was doing. He was into the team and trying to build his company into something successful. Doing whatever he could to get us wherever we wanted to go. 

The only story that really stands out with Steve was when we were at the NSA Qualifiers in Linda Vista. It was me, Ron and Jeremy all staying in a room together. And usually whenever I went to contests with those guys, I’d always end up hanging out with the vert dudes because they were the ones who typically drank beer and smoked weed. Because I didn’t play Nintendo. It was just never my thing, although Ron and Jeremy were super into that shit. But this was the one contest where I actually decided to stick around and hang out with those dudes. I remember Jeremy crank-calling Brian Lotti all weekend, long distance. And I guess somebody was also calling some sex lines that weekend, too, because the front desk ended up calling Steve about it. There was already $500 bucks worth of phone charges on the bill. Of course, those guys blamed it on me, even though I really didn’t do it. It was their word against mine so I was kinda screwed, you know? But Steve was super pissed, man. He actually ended up kicking me out of the room! And the contest hadn’t even started yet! Where am I gonna stay? 

…This rest of this is actually off-topic now but I think ends up being a pretty good story. You’re just gonna have to trust me, man. (laughs)

I knew that Livie (Chris Livingston) was in town for the contest and staying with Ben Schroeder, so I hit them up and we basically make the decision to start drinking. Yeah, I’m supposed to skate the contest tomorrow and it’s sort of a big deal, but fuck it. We didn’t worry about that shit back then. We were young enough to where we could always bounce back real quick. 

 

Ben and Chris come and pick me up in this funny car that Ben had . It had a driver’s seat but no passenger seat, so Livie and I are in the back but we’re also kinda riding shotgun, too. Because Ben’s a big guy, you’re definitely not sitting behind that dude. 

We get to Ben’s hotel room and Ben steps out to get something… and for some reason, Livie and I just start trashing the place. I don’t even know why. But the fucking guy comes up, like, “Hey! What are you guys doing!?! I’m gonna call the cops!”

Even Ben’s like, “Why did you guys do that?”

“We don’t know!”

…Now that I think about it, this might’ve been what got Ben kicked off Dogtown. Sorry about that, Ben. 

So, we fucking grab our stuff and hop it in the car. It’s raining. Ben takes off around the parking lot, hauling ass, and we slide right into a diesel trailer. 

“Oh shit!”

We take off and head down to the beach. We end up calling Randy Jansen, because he’s the Gullwing Team Manager and Ben’s on Gullwing. Maybe he’ll let us crash at his place?

“No! Don’t come over here! Whatever you do, you’re not staying here!”

So we just keep drinking, man. All night. I don’t know where the fuck I am, I’m just along for the ride. And the partying. I’m young. Who cares? 

Suddenly, it’s five in the morning and we’re trying to surf on these longboards we found somewhere. I don’t know what we’re doing… and we have to skate a contest in a couple of hours. At least, I do. I honestly don’t know what these guys are doing or if they’re even in the contest. Regardless, they end up passing out and I’m stuck at the beach. I haven’t gone to sleep yet. I’m still buzzed. How am I going to make it to this contest? I think that I might even be in the first heat! Steve’s already super pissed at me, if don’t show up at all, that’s gonna be bad. I gotta skate today.

So, I grab my board and start skating out by the road. Maybe somebody will give me a ride and I’ll make it somehow? I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I gotta do something. 

Out of nowhere, this dude rolls up in a car and stops. 

“Hey, come here!”

“What’s up, man?”

“You want to smoke a fatty?”

Honestly, this is probably the last thing I should be doing. I still have a buzz from the night before and I haven’t slept yet. But then I take a closer look… and it’s fucking Jay Adams!

What!?! (laughs)

Yeah! I’ve never met this dude in my life but there he is. So, of course, I’m gonna smoke this shit with him! I may never get this opportunity again!

“Hell yeah!”

“Get in, dude!”

So I get in the car and we’re smoking. He asks me what all I’m up to today. 

“Well, I’m kinda fucked right now. I’m supposed to be at this contest and I’m super late.”

He just looks at me and goes, “Hey bro, don’t worry about it. You’re not late because I’m one of the judges.” (laughs)

“No way!”

“Yeah, dude. We’re rolling there right now!”

Oh my god, dude. So yeah, just like that, I’m at the contest and I somehow end up qualifying in second place behind Ed Templeton. Hell yeah. Jay was cheering me on from the judges’ table during my run. It was crazy, man. 

(laughs) So good, man. But on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from Jay, how was World after Rodney Mullen got into the mix? 

Oh, Rodney and I were great friends. He would always take us on tour. He’s super cool, man. 

…Yeah, don’t get me wrong, I’m a pretty mellow dude. I can get crazy. I’ve gotten crazy. But I like to keep things mellow, for the most part. 

But I feel like Rodney’s always stressed out. 

Like I’m gonna worry the shit out of this guy? Yeah, Rodney’s not jumping in the car with Jay Adams to smoke a fatty on the way to a contest. He might hop in the backseat but that’s about as far as it’s going. But Rodney and I always got along really well. As someone who I’ve always looked up to, I’m gonna be on my best behavior. I’m still myself, but Rodney would just think we were being funny little youngsters or something, you know? Because he’s been doing tours for how long? He knows the deal. I’m sure that whatever we did, he’d already seen it a thousand times before. 

How’d your Rubbish Heap part come together? Was that just one day of filming? 

Yeah, I believe so. Because I’m wearing the same clothes in all of it. 

Vision cut-offs and that purple shirt.

Yeah, Spike and I filmed all of that in one day. It really wasn’t that big of a deal, though. That was just my normal skating back then. Most of that stuff was tricks I did every day, skating around ASU and the Wedge. 

I don’t know if this is true but I’ve heard that Jeremy helped edit my part. Because there was a bunch of stuff I did that wasn’t in there. And some of the lines I had were chopped up. Like at the Wedge, I have that grind up the thing, the 360 flip and that 180 ollie? That was all one line. I don’t know why he broke that up… Maybe because I pushed mongo back then? He might’ve been helping me out. (laughs)

That was the rumor, actually.

(laughs) Really!?? Maybe he really was helping me out! Thanks guys! 

…Little did he know, it was all switch. Just kidding. 

(laughs) Didn’t anybody ever call you out on pushing mongo? 

No, they never did! I don’t know how I got away with that! I would’ve been clowning the hell out of someone. 

Actually, no… Jason would make fun of me for pushing mongo. Of course. 

It is a great part, though. All super modern tricks for the time. Did you like how it came out?

I thought it was good. I just never really paid much attention to stuff like that back then. I was just into the skating. I wasn’t thinking about how big this video could be or how it might help me out in the long run. Because I remember seeing everyone else’s part and it looked like they all had much longer to film their parts. Like, they’re all wearing different clothes and stuff. But I didn’t care. I thought it was cool. I did what I did. That’s how I skated. 

What about that big ollie ender? How’d that one go down?

That’s at the Ahwatukee ditches. There’s a little hill you bomb down into the ditch and it has a little channel for the water, you roll in on that part. But I’d done that before. I remember jamming down that thing one day, just fucking around, and I had so much speed that I ollied out of the top into the dirt. That’s when I got the idea, like, “Woah, wait a minute! I might be able to do this whole thing.”

It really wasn’t that hard to do. Because the day we were filming, a few of my friends took off their clothes as I was rolling in and were all standing there naked in the background as I did it. All cheering and shit. It was super funny but Spike made me do it over again. He was like, “We can’t have that in the video, man!” 

“Why not!?! Who cares?”

But no, I had to do it again. 

(laughs) That’s hilarious. 

Right!?! Who cares, Spike! 

Spike was cool but I feel like he used to get upset with me a lot back then. Because I was always drinking beer. Like when we were filming for Two World Industries Men, I was staying at Spike and Megan’s house. I remember him filming me on the floor one day, not doing anything. He’s like, “Dude, we gotta go skate!”

“If you buy me beer later…”

I feel like it must’ve been a little frustrating for him, because he was there to work. I’m just fucking around, being young. 

…Now that I think about it, there were a couple things left out of my Rubbish Heap part. Because I remember Spike filming me at my parents’ house, too. He’s like, “Let’s film a little intro.”

We go and sit out front of the house. He goes, “What do you like to do, Randy?”

“I like to skate all day and drink all night!”

I guess this was before people really talked about that kinda stuff in skating. And I was also super young at the time, too. It might’ve looked a little crazy. They didn’t end up putting that in but I thought it was funny.

"look at that!"

There’s a rumor that you ollied the Wedge gap back in the day. Is that true? 

Yes, I got pulled in by a guy on a YZ80. I only did it once and I never filmed it or anything. I probably should’ve but that’s just how it was. I didn’t really think about that kinda stuff back then. 

Boardcheck?

No, I made it all the way over. 

That was always an Arizona legend. I guess Milton Martinez kickflipped it recently. 

I saw that! He kinda decked it a little, but give me a break! I feel like that makes it even harder. That’s insane. 

What was it like to see SMA become World Industries and just explode in popularity? 

I’ll be honest, I don’t know if I really thought about it much back then. I don’t know why, because looking back, it’s pretty crazy. It should’ve dawned on me at some point, like, “Holy shit, Steve. You’re running a huge factory now!”

All of a sudden, he’s got all this money and no longer running shit out of a storage space. I guess I just didn’t really care about that side of it. I was still super young and so into skating. I never really paid any attention to that business aspect of things. 

photo: kosick

Did you have any thoughts on the Powell beef? 

Oh, I loved that shit. That stuff was funny, for sure. Because honestly, it was never a big deal to us, but the Powell guys would get so mad over every little thing. Those dudes would just wreck themselves because they were always so angry. We didn’t even care. That’s just Steve being funny, you know? Running around World, showing us the latest thing he thought of to make things even worse for those dudes. Laughing his ass off. 

“Alright, Steve. I’m gonna go skate.”

This was after I started staying out in California a lot. Every day, I used to show up at World and change my clothes in the warehouse, switching out my old Ghetto Wear for new Ghetto Wear and just leaving the dirty stuff on the ground. Who cares. 

That was your routine? 

Yeah, I think Mike Smith was kinda doing the same thing. Because there was a lunch truck that used to come by, too. Smith and I would always hang out while waiting on the lunch wagon together because it was free. Rocco paid for it.  

photo: yelland

How’d you come to start living in California? 

Well, Mark had finally come over to Rocco and started Blind, right? And at the time, Mark and Jason were living together. 

I had just started the 9^th grade. And like we’ve been talking about, I was already sponsored. Yeah, I was still going to school, but I really wasn’t doing shit. I don’t think I finished one assignment for the entire month I attended 9^th grade. I was just going because I had to. My parents made me go to school, but really, I was ditching whenever I could. After a while, that shit caught up to me and the school called my parents in for a conference.  

My mom comes in and the school’s like, “What do you want to do with Randy? We’re about to expel him.” 

I remember her looking at me and asking, “What do you want to do, Randy?”

“Mom, just take me out of school. It’s not working. I’m sorry, but I’m not going to do anything here.”

Honestly, I was just being a little shit, you know? But she actually did it! She took me out of school! I couldn’t even believe it. Like, what the hell? What kind of parent are you? (laughs)

randy & jason in mark's car

I mean, she did ask. 

(laughs) Right? But still, it really shouldn’t have worked out that way!

I end up calling Megan that day. Because I’m done with school now, I want to live in California with you guys and skate. So World gets me a flight and I remember landing in LA, thinking that it’ll be Megan or Spike picking me up at the airport. Maybe Steve. But as I’m walking up the ramp, it’s fucking Mark and Jason standing there! No way, dude! This is the best! No more school and I’m being greeted in California by the Gonz and Jason Lee!?! What!?!

Mark’s like, “Hey, man. What’s going on?” in that crazy voice of his. “Do you want to go skate Wilshire?”

“Hell yeah, I want to go skate Wilshire… whatever that means!” 

I don’t even know what Wilshire is, but if these guys are going, I am, too! Skating with these guys? Fuck yeah! 

So we go skate Wilshire for a while and then we end up at Mark’s house afterwards in Huntington Beach. Turns out that I’m gonna be staying with these dudes! It’s like a dream, man! And that’s what I did for four months! 

It was kinda weird, though… because Jason and I would always be out skating together while Mark did his own thing. But then Mark would randomly wake us up at, like, three in the morning. 

“Hey, do you want to go skate?”

“Fuck yeah!”

It was this thing where anytime that guy wanted to go skating, you wanted to go, too. Because you knew that you were gonna see something happen that you’ve never seen before. Anything. 

Example? 

Noseblunt slides. He just started doing them one night. I’d never seen anything like that before. I didn’t even know what was going on at the time. And I’m pretty sure that I saw him do the first ever darkslide, too. R.I.P. to our man O, he was there to shoot the photo. One day, Mark’s just like, “Come up here with me. We’re meeting O.”

“Okay.”

The dude starts skating his board upside down, man. He does the first darkslide I’d ever seen on a brick planter. It didn’t even make sense. We’re just like, “What the fuck was that!?!”

photo: kosick

But was it hard to be living with your hero like that? Especially at that age? 

No, it was great. We were all just super into skating. I felt super comfortable, man… although I’d still probably ask him for an autograph today. Nah, I was stoked. 

I do remember him clowning Jason a lot back then. I don’t know if this is funny or not but it was funny to me. We were eating at a burger place once and Mark started making fun of Jason’s zits. I don’t know what all led up to it, but Mark ended up grabbing this greasy burger patty and rubbing it all over his face. He goes , “Look, Jason! I’m still not gonna get zits like you!” (laughs)

Not only that, he was wearing a long sleeve spandex turtleneck with a fucking cowboy hat on at the time… Like, what is he doing!?! His shirt looked like nylon pantyhose or something. It was crazy!

I feel like every morning, Mark would come out of his room and we’d just be sitting there, like, what is this guy going to do today? So funny. 

But because I was living with Mark and Jason, I basically ended up skating for Blind. Because it just made sense, you know? I’m living with these guys, I don’t want to skate for World anymore. I want to be on Blind. And for a while there, that’s how it was. I was on the team. But then, all of a sudden, I had to go back on World. I don’t know what happened, but Mark and Rocco had a talk and Steve ended up shutting it down. That’s when Steve decided to turn me pro. Again, I don’t know exactly what all happened there, because I was just skating, you know? Like I said, I never really cared about the business end of things. Maybe I should’ve.

I was bummed, though, because Blind was really where I wanted to be… but I was still able to skate with everyone, I guess. Whatever. I’ll do whatever you guys want me to do. 

You basically tried the World-to-Blind transfer thing like Jason did? 

Yeah, but this was a little later, after Blind was already going. I just kinda did it. One day, I’m just sitting there with those guys and I go, “I’m on Blind now. I want to be with you guys.” And Mark goes, “Yeah, dude. You’re on the team.” 

But like I said, something happened and I had to go back. Maybe World needed more pro boards to sell? Who knows. 

So how did Two World Industries Men come about? 

Yeah, that was after the whole Blind thing at Mark’s house. I guess that was supposed to be our big “going pro” parts for World? I don’t know. I just remember them suddenly being like, “Hey, you gotta film for this thing that you and Dune are doing.”

“Okay, let’s go.”

I didn’t film for very long on that one, either. What was that? Two days, maybe? Just a quick little thing that I shot with Spike over a weekend, probably. Pretty much the same thing as the other one, just my normal skating at the time.  

Three minutes of footage in a weekend isn’t bad. 

And I’m pretty sure you can see me push in that one, too! (laughs) 

We just hit a few spots and got what we got. Bugging people in the parking lot with the camera. That was fun. 

Which part do you like better: Rubbish Heap or Two World Industries Men? 

I don’t know if I like either of them. (laughs)

I’m kidding. They’re fine, but I can’t really say that I have a favorite. 

Did you like filming and shooting photos back then?

It was alright. Like I said, I was just skating. I never really thought about that kinda stuff. I didn’t mind doing it whenever anybody brought it up, like, “Okay, go ahead and turn it on” or whatever. But I never did it on my own. People would always have to bring it up to me. 

I did like shooting photos with people. I thought that was fun. And while I never really had much footage, I was able to start enjoying filming a little later on. Like messing around with P Stone or Hammeke was always super fun.

It’s not that I didn’t like filming, it just wasn’t important to me. I know that it’s a big deal for a lot of people. They get all prepared to go out and film stuff. I understand what they’re trying to do and I think it’s pretty cool. Everyone has footage now that they can show their kids whenever they get old. Like, “This is your grandpa skating... Here he is kickflipping some shit.” (laughs)

There’s definitely some shit that I wish I filmed back then. 

photo: yelland

Talk about your legendary run of World graphics. Did you actually have input on those or did you largely end up with the craziest ones because you were in Arizona? 

I think they always gave me the craziest ones because I didn’t really care, you know? But my friend Shawn Dutton (RIP) actually came up with the Goodwill Graphic. He painted it on his board and I thought it looked really cool, so I told the guys at World about it. Give me that. 

I think I bought Shawn a six-pack of beer afterwards. 

Yeah, I interviewed Marc McKee a few months ago and he said that Goodwill logo was the only graphic you ever asked for.

No, I asked for the naked lady, too. My first board, that was my idea. 

How that went down… I don’t know if you saw Megan’s article in Thrasher, but it’s true. They all called me up from World one day to say that they’re turning me pro. I guess it was supposed to be this big announcement because they were all excited for me. This was back in the days of call waiting. 

“Hey Randy! We’re gonna turn you pro for World! Congratulations!”

“Oh, okay. Can I call you guys back? There’s this girl I really like on the other line.” (laughs)

Don’t get me wrong, I was super happy to be going pro. I couldn’t believe it. They just happened to call me at a bad time, you know? 

So I fly out to California and go into World to talk about everything. Rodney and I end up going to a liquor store for something and there’s all these seedy porn magazines in there. Shelves and shelves of them with all these dudes looking at them. Rodney just happens to ask me, “What do you want for a graphic?”

I grab one of the magazines and open it up to the centerfold. 

“I’ll take this.” 

Rodney couldn’t even believe it but that’s what I wanted. Just like that. 

Amazing. 

Yeah, I thought it was cool. But I was never really that concerned with whatever graphics I had on my boards. They’d always ask me and I’d be like, “I don’t care. Run it!”

After a while, I think they just stopped asking me. I started getting boxes with my name on graphics that I’d never seen before. Whatever. Is there a check in there? 

Wasn’t Colvinetics originally supposed to be for Jason?

Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard. I guess he didn’t like it. But how would that even work, though? Jasonetics? That’s kinda weird. 

Yeah, it’s not quite the same. What about that black velvet board? 

Oh, that one just showed up one day and I couldn’t even believe it. But that was all McKee, man. I was stoked. A velvet fucking board? So killer.

How did it skate, though? I always heard the velvet stuck. 

It slid some, I just rarely rode my own boards. I think I rode one of those once… that and I’d ride my Goodwill board here and there. But honestly, I usually only rode Mark’s boards. Because they’re magical. 

Do you have a favorite graphic of yours?

I loved the Goodwill graphic, for sure. The Velvet graphic, too. That was unbelievable. And I really liked a lot of my Black Label graphics. The Zig Zag guy on the couch, remember that one? And all the beer can ones. All those were really cool. 

With these boards just showing up, were there any that you didn’t like? 

The Captain Crunch one, where the dude is going down with the ship? That was actually kind of a message to me. Because they called me not too long before that, like, “Dude, you better start coming up with something. Either get us footage or some photos...”

And then that board came. I remember looking at it like, “What’s this shit!?!”

What about the New Kids on the Block one? 

That was gonna be a good one because they were originally supposed to have swastikas on their heads. Making fun of them, you know? I don’t know what happened but it kinda loses the joke without all that. Like what’s going on here? Why does Randy have New Kids On The Block on his board? 

But I have to imagine your board sales being pretty lucrative. Do you remember what your biggest royalty check was back then?

They were typically around four to five grand back then... And I’m only sixteen years old, so that’s good for me. I don’t know what’s going on. 

Did your outlook on the business side of things change at all after going pro? That’s a lot of money for back then!

No, I never really took the whole “pro” thing that seriously. Definitely not as serious as some of the other dudes. I was just happy to be skating and getting stuff. Getting money. It was fun, but even when I wasn’t getting money anymore, I always kept skating. I never really let it phase me. It doesn’t really matter to me if I get paid for it or not. If I do, that’s just a bonus. Thank you, but that’s not why I’m doing it. I just love skateboarding. 

But looking back, do you wish that you would’ve gone about this “career” stuff differently? 

Yes and no. Someone’s gotta be this guy, I guess that’s me. (laughs)

Sometimes, I do. Of course. Because you see these guys now and they all seem to be living pretty good, I guess… but I’m comfortable. I’m good. The whole pro thing was pretty short-lived for me but it was fun. 

How often were you skating vs partying back then? Or was it all just kinda mashed together?

Oh, I was skating a lot back then, but I know what you mean. I really liked to skate and party. I liked it both. And after a while, I got to be pretty good at skating while drinking. 

Could you see a change in Rocco as World took over the industry? I know a lot of the older riders didn’t like when Plan B came along. What were your thoughts? 

I was kinda on my way out by then, to be honest. I did go on tour with the Plan B guys once. Mikey and Sheff… because I was good friends with Sheffey. It was fun. We went down to Florida. But I was pretty much out after that. I eventually started riding for Black Label, so I never really got to see those dudes too much. 

Was that the Florida tour when Jovontae punched Berra? 

Yeah, I forget what all led up to that. All of a sudden, Jovontae just punched Berra in the face and he left. He didn’t even tell anyone, just… bye. (laughs)

Since you brought him up, do you have a favorite Sheffey story? 

Well, I was living in Mission Beach for a while and Sean was in Poway, but he would stay at my place all the time. He wasn’t going home very much at that point. I think he was getting in trouble with his wife. But a best story? It was pretty much a daily thing with him back then, man. 

I do remember us fucking around on the boardwalk a lot. Because there were all kinds of people passing by, right? And you have Sean out there being Sean. One time, we rode a bicycle from one end of the boardwalk in Pacific Beach all the way to the rollercoaster. I was up on the handlebars while he peddled. And everyone we passed, Sean would slap their ass as hard as he could and scream out “Whewwwww!” super loud. He did this the whole way, dude. For miles. And it didn’t matter who it was, he was slapping their ass. It would scare the shit out of people, but what could they do? That shit was super funny, man. I love Sean. 

The best. So what happened with you and Love Child? No part, just random footage of you in a blue wig? 

(laughs) I think Timmy gave World that footage. Colby must’ve had it, because he had a camera and would always be filming shit back then. It wasn’t anything special. Just our everyday fucking around. 

I didn’t care, though. I doubt I even knew they were working on a video. I mean, I was skating at the time… but I was just off, doing my own thing. 

That was the one with all the new guys, right? With Daewon and all them? 

Yeah, how was your relationship with that next generation of dudes? 

I hated those kids! They were all trying to take us old guys out! Just kidding. (laughs)

No, they were cool, man. It was fine. That’s just the way it works, you know? I mean, we did the same thing to Hartsel and Jesse. We’re all family at the end of the day. We’re all skateboarders. I saw the type of stuff they were doing and I knew that my time was almost up. I can’t do a fakie 360 flip nose manual and then kickflip out. I’m outta here. 

Did you try to get into all that pressure flip tech stuff back then?

I did learn pressure flips on that tour with the Plan B guys. Cool, I can flip it another way! But I don’t know, it just seemed kinda fake somehow, like it wasn’t a real trick. I played around with them for a little bit but I didn’t really like them. I want to go fast, man. I like to pop my shove-its into my feet. I don’t want to late shove-it. Don’t get me wrong, all those guys did that stuff really well. I just like it when a trick slaps my foot, not some sloppy thing.  

You mentioned earlier about getting pressure from World to produce, when did that start happening? And how would you usually respond? 

They sent me a check one time for $1,500 or something… which was a lot less than I usually got. And there was a little note attached to it, too. I can’t remember exactly what it said, but something like, “Dude, you better start doing something.”

I thought it was pretty funny, actually. Whatever. I didn’t really care. 

So what did end up happening between you and World? 

I think that it just kinda ran its course, you know? For me and for them. 

I saw something recently where Lucero said that I only went to Black Label because I got kicked off World, but that’s not true. I didn’t get kicked off World, I left. I quit World because I wanted to ride for Black Label. 

Why?

I just loved the Black Label team at the time. I wanted to skate with those guys. Cardiel was on there, who’s a friend of mine. It just seemed like a better fit, you know? So I called up Lucero and asked to ride for him. He was down but wanted to make sure that Steve was okay with it, which turned out being fine. They had all those new kids on the team, he didn’t give a shit. 

…Actually, Rodney did end up calling me. He was straight-up about everything, like, “Hey man, what do you want to do?” I seem to remember him asking if I wanted a job at World, which was really cool of him. I just didn’t think that I could do it. I mean, I only went to 9^th grade for a month and I didn’t even go. I don’t know how to do anything… and I didn’t even know what I wanted to do. I was still in that party mode and wanting to skate. I wasn’t ready. 

In doing my research for this, I found interviews with Rodney, Dune and Brian Lotti where they each called you “the most naturally gifted skateboarder they’d ever seen”. Comparing you to Mark, actually. How do you react to that? 

Wow, that’s crazy! I don’t even know what to say, but that’s great to hear. That would make anyone feel good and that makes me feel great. 

I just never saw skateboarding as a career. I guess I didn’t really have much guidance with that kinda thing. I was just a young kid in this crazy situation. Maybe if I would’ve asked, those guys could’ve told me what I needed to do in order to be more successful at it. But I just wanted to skate, you know? 

Seems like you started skating more transition around this time, why was that?

I just think as you get older, transition starts to become more fun. I don’t know why that is. Less pushing, maybe? You get tired having to push up to something over and over again… and then you gotta do the trick, too? I’m exhausted, man. I pushed all the way up here!

I’m just trying to roll in, man. Get going the easy way. Plus, there’s a million pools to choose from out here in Arizona. It’s perfect. 

…And transition hurts a lot less when you slam, too. (laughs)

What happened with Black Label? 

I really don’t know what happened with Black Label. Once again, I guess it just ran its course. I honestly don’t remember. 

Well, I’ll be honest, I don’t remember you riding for 151. What was that like? 

I did! Because those guys were always coming out here to Arizona. Guys like Neil Heddings and Pigpen. Peter Hewitt. That was a good crew, man. Those guys were fun. We’d all hang out every time they came into town. We just kinda clicked, you know? 

I remember hanging out with those dudes at a hotel one night. Suddenly, they’re all like, “Hey Randy, we’re gonna give you a board!”

They’re all cheering and shit. I honestly thought it was a bunch of bull but I didn’t want to tell them that, so I had to think of something real quick.

“You know what!?! I’m gonna give my board to Chris Swanson because he’s ripping!” 

They all just kinda stopped and stood there, looking at me. Like, “What the fuck?!” Totally confused. (laughs)

I don’t know if they ever gave Chris a board but they never did mine.

photo: hammeke

(laughs) What’s your connection with Antihero? Because I know you were in that Shotgun video with the team and you have two 18-inspired tattoos. 

Oh yeah, I have Antihero across my knuckles and I have the eagle on my chest. 

Julien and I have just been friends forever, man. My family used to go to Venice Beach for vacations when I was growing up because my aunt lived there and that’s how I met him. Then I started seeing him at demos with Natas, whenever Santa Monica Airlines would come to Arizona. He used to stay with me at Mark’s house and we’d all go skating together. We’ve been good friends for years. And Deluxe and Antihero have always been good to me. That’s actually how I’ve been getting boards for a long time. 

The rumor was that they asked you to ride for them at one point. 

…They haven’t asked me yet! (laughs)

No, I just like to say that I ride for Antihero because that’s who I back. I only ride Antihero boards and it’s basically been that way since they came out. I do like to think of myself as on the team, but that’s only in my head. They’ve never asked me. 

photo: yelland

So I don’t know how much you want to get into this, but I know you had some drug dependency issues and legal problems a few years ago…

Yeah, I don’t want to get too much into it, but I tore my ACL a long time ago. And all the stories you might’ve heard about people getting on Percocets… going to the hospital to get fixed and then getting hooked on pills? It’s true. And after a while, the prescription runs out and you’ve got this monkey on your back. Next thing you know, somebody’s like, “Hey, why don’t you get some heroin? It’s cheaper.”

It's a common story. 

Super common. And that’s what happened to me. I got hooked on heroin and I just couldn’t get off the stuff. It was bad. Because I have kids, man. I have a family. But nothing could stop me. This might sound crazy but the only way for me to get off heroin was to get locked up. I didn’t have money for rehab, that’s like thousands of dollars. And there’s no guarantee it’ll work, either. You can just walk out. 

What ended up happening was that I did an armed robbery… Well, I did a robbery with a toy gun in the waist of my pants. A plastic gun that I took the orange tip off of. I went into a SuperPumper and the lady was stocking the cigarettes. She goes, “Can you wait a minute?”

“Yeah.”

I’m trying to hurry, obviously, but I’m not trying to hurt anyone. Finally, she’s gets behind the registers and I’m like, “Hey lady, I need all the money. I’m not here to scare you or anything. I just need the money.”

I made sure not to raise my voice or anything, because I didn’t want to freak her out. 

She goes, “Really?”

I lift up my shirt to show the plastic gun and go, “Yeah, real quick.”

“Okay.”

I didn’t even have anything over my face, so it was obvious that it was me. So I got myself locked up. And I didn’t know that just by showing the plastic gun, it made it an armed robbery charge. I was just so dumb, man. 

The thing is, once I got caught, the cops were taking a statement from the lady and she goes, “He couldn’t have been any nicer. I hope it works out for him.”

Wow. 

Yeah, because I didn’t want to hurt this lady. I didn’t want to scare her. I wasn’t all Pulp Fiction or anything, like “Get the fuck on the ground!” I didn’t want to freak her out, man. That’s crazy. 

So yeah, I got caught up and it fixed me. I went in for four years and I’m good now.

photo: hammeke

I hate that you had to go through all that but I’m happy to see you doing so well. 

Thanks, man. I mean, it’s kinda dumb... 

You were sick. 

 

Right. There was nothing stopping me. I had to be put behind a damn fence with razorwire, but it worked. It feels good to be able to wake up every day and not be a slave to all that anymore.  

That’s awesome, Randy. And now you’ve got all the reissues going at Prime. How has that been for you? 

Oh man, it’s cool. Because not only do I get to see the crazy reactions that these boards still get, I also get to own them again. I can have my boards again after losing them years ago. I love that. 

It’s been great. Scott and the rest of the crew at Prime have all been nothing but cool to me. And we have a few more things in the works, too.

What about those tribute boards that Erik Ellington did a few years ago? How’d those come about?

Oh yeah! Because first, he did the Censorship board with the naked lady, but she was all dead or whatever. I didn’t have anything to do with that one. But I remember seeing it and being kinda confused, like “What is this?” Because Erik and I are friends. He’s from Arizona, too. I wish he would’ve told me about it and we could’ve maybe done something together, you know? 

So I hit him up about it, actually. Like, “Hey, why don’t we do the Goodwill graphic together for a board?” And it worked out. He was into the idea and it came out super cool. It was on Deathwish, which was their newest company at time. 

How much are you skating these days? I know you go out with your sons a lot. 

Yeah, I have two boys: Shayden and Ryder. 18 and 24. I try to skate with them a lot, whenever I can. Because it’s cool that we can all go skate together, you know? I love that. It’s just gotten harder as I get older. I’m 49 now… I went skating the other day and hurt my back. That was last weekend and I still hurt. I fell back on a backside tailslide. 

So not much lately, to be honest with you. I’ve been working a lot and my lady and I also recently started fostering dogs. Just too much other stuff going on. I need to get back out there.

Are you still pushing mongo? 

No, those days are over. The power push is over, man. 

I want to say that it was sometime in the early 2000s. My friend filmed me skating around a new park in Prescott and there’s some mongo pushing in there. I remember seeing it and thinking to myself, “Man, that does look pretty bad.” (laughs)

I started pushing normal after that. 

Because not only that, there were all these new parks popping up at that time, too. Dropping in on a nine-foot wall and then trying to push mongo is really hard, man. There’s a good chance that you might trip yourself… and then you’re gonna look even goofier. 

photo: dawes

(laughs) After all the ups and downs, how do you look back on your pro career? 

I don’t really look back on it too much, to be honest. It was fun at the time and I’m happy to have been involved with it all. The whole World thing seems to be more and more appreciated as the years go by, which is cool. 

I have to say that you’re one of the least bitter dudes I’ve talked to in all of these.

Really? It was so much fun, how could you be bitter? It is what it is. It’s just skateboarding, guys. 

You’re not even bummed on Rocco, which is also a pretty common thing for former riders.

But I don’t know why they would be? Rocco was great. He never did me wrong. And he was so much fun. Sure, he was a business guy, but whatever. He loved skateboarding, obviously. I mean, look at what all he did? And he helped out so many people along the way. He definitely put me on the map. 

Any advice to the kids out there trying to make a go of it? 

Stay in school. It’s kinda cliché but it’s true. School is super important, especially nowadays with all the contracts and everything. You need to know what’s going on with all that. 

…And say no to drugs. 

As we wrap this up, what do you see as your proudest accomplishment in skateboarding? And your biggest regret? 

That’s a hard one, man. Because you know how I say that I don’t care all the time? That’s not really true. As a kid, I dreamed of being a pro skater, man. That was all I ever really wanted, and it actually happened, you know? That’s pretty cool. To have my name on a board? That’s probably my proudest accomplishment. 

…And what you said earlier about what Rodney and those guys said about me? That feels good. 

But as far as regrets go, I don’t think I have any. Life’s pretty good, you know? Skateboarding will always be the same for me. I’ll always love it, money or not. Sure, some things could’ve gone a different way but that shit doesn’t phase me. I’m fine. I’m living good. 

Big thanks to Randy for doing this.