Introduction by Andy Stone
The way I remember it…
Back in DC in the 90s, John was on the heels of Pep when it came to switchstance ability. He had a seemingly bottomless bag of tricks and always managed to slide and grind four feet longer than anyone else on those ledges. Super tech with one of the best hard flips ever, and he could do them every which way: switch, nollie, fakie. All butters.
I would have loved for Capital Skateboards to have stuck around long enough to help him join the professional ranks, but I’m so glad he was never held back and other companies were able to recognize what a true talent he was. Kind of a quiet skate spot assassin, always humble, I had the pleasure of watching this kid wizard become a young man ripper and was lucky enough to call him teammate and friend, even if only for a few years.
=O =O =O
CBI: How old were you when you first started going down to Pulaski?
John: I want to say I was 13 or 14 years old when I skated at Pulaski for the first time, but even then, I could only get down there every once in a blue moon. I was still just a kid and didn’t have many friends with cars. They would take us down there sometimes, but if not, I had to take a bus to the subway. It really wasn’t until I was a sophomore in high school that I started going down there on a consistent basis. But yeah, Pulaski was the local spot everyone knew.
Makes sense, because it’d gotten some shine with Chris Hall by then, but it wasn’t quite a marquee spot yet.
Exactly.
What influence did coming up at Pulaski have not only on your skating, but also on you as a kid at such an impressionable age?
Oh, it completely influenced my skating. Not only the tricks I did, but the way I did them. It basically changed everything for me. The way I dressed, the music I listened to, the food I ate...
(laughs)
Everybody down there was just so good. And as a little kid, I thought they were the coolest dudes in the world. I looked up to those guys and wanted to be just like them. Doing whatever they were doing.
I love that they influenced what you ate, like, “Andy Stone is eating Cheetos, so I’m gonna be eating Cheetos, too!”
(laughs) I probably would’ve! I definitely started eating worse down there! Junk food and all that… and that’s not even getting into some of the bad things I got into. Smoking cigarettes and drinking, but it’s all good.
What are some your earliest memories down there? What got you so sparked that it took over your whole deal like that?
Just the timing of it. Because by that point, all I did was skate. It’s all I thought about. Just reading magazines and watching videos constantly.
Pulaski was the first place I saw real pro skaters, at a spot that I saw in those videos and magazines. I saw amazing tricks go down there every time I went. That alone was enough to make me go as much as I could.
 |
| photo: thompson |
Who stood out to you?
Andy Stone, Pep Martinez, Darrell Vaughn, Brian Tucci… I remember seeing Sheffey there a couple times. I saw Scott Johnston a few times, too. I’d see Chris Hall all the time. He was one of my favorites. Even the guys who weren’t pro, just rippers. Jim Gordy. Carlos Kenner, for sure. He was actually one of my favorites, too.
It was always so good down there. Pulaski was just the place to be.
Not exactly the most welcoming spot, any static from the locals during those early visits?
I think all big spots were like that back then. It wasn’t just Pulaski. Love Park, Embarcadero and the Brooklyn Banks were the same way, too. But no, I didn’t get any static at Pulaski early on. I don’t really know why, either. Maybe because I was so young? I also think it had to do with Jim Gordy looking out for me. He used to live down the street from me and we’d actually skated together a few times at our local shopping center. I knew him before going to Pulaski, which probably helped. I feel like he might’ve given me a pass.
He was one of the enforcers down there, right?
Big time. (laughs)
It was definitely good to have him on my side. He helped me out a lot back then.
I’ve heard Pulaski locals talk specifically about “learning to skate the session”. What were the golden rules?
Just common sense. There’s a flow of traffic, like any other spot. Most people would start from the back of the park and skate flat toward the stairs, hit the stairs, and then maybe hit the ledge. That, or don’t get in the way of people who are only skating the ledges.
I feel like it’s opened up over the years, but back then, we all skated the same stuff… even though there’s so many other things to skate down there. You see clips on all kinds of different obstacles there now, but back in the day, we only skated the main ledge, the three stairs, and flatground up top. That was it, and I don’t know why that was. (laughs).
I will say that coming up at Pulaski forever changed the way I skated, because everything was so perfect there. Perfect flatground, perfect ledges, perfect curb. And that’s what I learned to skate on from a young age, shaping me for the future. It became what I would always gravitate toward afterwards: flatground and ledges. I would’ve liked to have been more diverse, but that’s just how it was.
You have to remember there were a lot less skateparks back then. You’d have to drive for hours to skate a park, paying money to get in that we didn’t necessarily have… not that we knew how to skate tranny anyway. (laughs)
It was fun to hit up a park whenever we could actually make it happen, but that was only a few times per year.
Yeah, I don’t think people realize that a significant portion of our generation didn’t really know how to skate transition in the ’90s.
(laughs) Because it wasn’t around! Skating transition wasn’t even really an option. Kids are lucky now with all these parks. They have places to go and learn that stuff. But on the flipside of that, I think skating street was a lot easier back then. You wouldn’t get kicked out as much back then as you do now.
This was before skatestoppers, too.
So yeah, it was kind of a give-and-take. We didn’t have many parks to go to, but we had way more actual spots to skate.
We just couldn’t do a proper axle stall…
But we could hang out at Pulaski all day. (laughs)
(laughs) What’s the craziest story you have from down there?
Hmmm... that’s a hard one, because it never really got all that “crazy” when I was down there. I mean, there were definitely boards being taken from weekend skaters. I saw that a lot. But again, I feel like that was common at all the big spots back then.
I remember people getting taxed. That was a thing, too. If you weren’t a local, you basically had to pay whatever you could just to skate. I don’t want to name any names of who used to do that, but it was a thing. Taxing out-of-town skaters, for sure. Not that you had to give them all your money, but you had to give something. Enough to buy a little food.
Didn’t you once get a ticket and your board confiscated for skating at Pulaski… and then you got pulled over in your car by the same cop on the same day? Two tickets?
(laughs) Yeah, that’s true. Wow, I barely remember that myself!
I must’ve been 18, because that’s when I got my license and was able to pick up a little used car. I could drive myself down to Pulaski after that, so I was there a lot more.
But yeah, this cop jumped out and gave us all tickets for skating. Took my board. And this same cop must’ve been following me around, because I got into my car to leave and he busts me for not using my turn signal! The same guy! That was bad.
…I had so many parking tickets back then, too. Because there was never anywhere to park, people would just park next to Pulaski and try to keep an eye out for the parking police. Just move your car real fast whenever you saw them, you know? But it didn’t always work.
Wasn’t People your first sponsor? How’d that happen?
Yeah, they were my first board sponsor. That was around ’94 or so. Darrell Vaughn hooked it up. He was somebody I really looked up to, as far as skating went. I always thought he had the sickest style because he didn’t really mess around with basic tricks. He always got more creative and did his own thing. Brian Tucci was another guy like that, too, so it made sense that they were both on the same team. Just getting creative and going to different spots. Doing different tricks than what we’d typically see at Pulaski.
I thought riding for People was the coolest thing ever back then. I was super honored to have been part of it.
Were you actively trying to get sponsored?
Nah, I was too young. I didn’t feel like I was good enough for all that. I mean, I thought I was pretty decent, but compared to the other guys at Pulaski? I wasn’t that good. So no, I really wasn’t looking for any type of sponsorship back then.
You weren’t filming sponsor-me tapes or anything back then?
I guess I technically did when I was a little kid. I filmed some stuff with my friend, just messing around. He ended up making a tape for me and then he sent it out to a few people, but I never consciously made one on my own. But once I started skating at Pulaski, I didn’t even think about making a sponsor-me tape.
Who did he send your tape to?
I want to say that he sent it to 777.
777 was sick! They had a great team, too.
Yeah, just a cool, smaller company back then. They were on the East Coast, too.
That tape wasn’t anything serious, though. Just some 14-year-old kid skating around his neighborhood. Curb tricks and flatground in oversized clothes. Nobody’s gonna sponsor a little shrimp like that from Virginia. (laughs)
How did Capital come about?
Just by skating at Pulaski. Maybe a year or so after I’d gotten on People, Andy and Pepe got an offer to start their own company, which was Capital. Andy asked me to ride for them and I was like, “Hell yeah!” Because Andy Stone and Pepe were the two pros, along with Chris Hall from the Element days, who were pretty much the best dudes at Pulaski.
Andy had always kinda looked out for me. He’d always give me a little bit of guidance on things… and he’d buy me food, too, because I didn’t really have much money. He’d give me money sometimes. He kinda took care of me, so when he started a company, I definitely wanted to be part of it.
…Darrell had always looked after me, too. I definitely felt bad for leaving People.
But People wasn’t around for very long, though.
Nah, I feel like I was on there from the very earliest stages of the company to almost the end. Maybe a year and a half or so? It wasn’t around much longer after I left, so going to Capital probably was the smart move.
For sure. What kind of guidance would Andy give you?
Andy helped me in so many ways. He approached me about Capital and got me on Venture and Shorty’s Hardware. He’d buy me food and put money in my pocket. He’d take me along skating and filming. Teaching me how to do tricks… do it like this, don’t do it like that.
Looking back, he really led by example. Just a really hard worker and a leader.
I don’t know, he just always felt like someone who took care of me a little bit. I feel like when you were younger back then, at a spot like that, people would look out for you. I don’t know about now, but back then, for sure. Because I was one of the youngest skaters at Pulaski, those guys definitely took care of me.
How would you describe your relationship with Pepe back then?
Our relationship was a little different, because he was still in SF when I started skating Pulaski more. It wasn’t until he came back that we really became homies, but he was one of the people I looked up to the most. It’s funny because when I first met him, I was kinda scared to talk to him. I hadn’t really seen him much and remember thinking to myself, “Oh shit, that’s Pepe Martinez.” (laughs)
He was so good at skating, man. He was definitely intimidating at first, but once you got to know him, he was always super cool. Super funny. Just a good dude, for sure.
 |
| photo: jimmy pelletier |
The first time I saw you skate was actually in your shared part with Pep in the True Mathematics video. How’d that come about?
Oh yeah, that was Chris Hall’s company. He always had some little project going on. True Mathematics was this little clothing brand he’d started. They actually made some really cool stuff, like track pants and t-shirts, and that was his video for the brand.
I honestly don’t know how I ended up sharing a part with Pep. Maybe we just didn’t have enough footage for individual parts so they put us together? I don’t really know, but I wasn’t complaining. Shit, I’m honored to have a part with him!
Filming was just so different back then. It’s not like how it is now where you get an idea for a trick, call up the filmer and a photographer to coordinate everything, and then go meet up at the spot to get it. Back then, we would just go skating and Chris would film you skate. It was so much more organic, which is why it’s hard to compare videos from back then to now, because it’s not like people were going on “missions” or whatever. It wasn’t that serious. Like I said, it was basically us skating around like any other day and Chris pointing the camera at us. That was about the extent of it.
What was the story of those Pepe clips in the boots?
I just don’t think he was skating very much at the time. He would still come down to Pulaski and hang out almost every day, he just wouldn’t really skate. And that’s what he wore. He never brought skate shoes with him, but he’d still borrow people’s boards and do tricks. Like, I really doubt any of the tricks he had in that part were actually on his board. He probably just asked to borrow somebody’s board real quick to get a clip, just for fun... With his Tims on. (laughs)
It's funny because we’re not talking about one day where he filmed some clips in boots. There’s clearly multiple boot days in that part.
(laughs) Oh yeah, totally. That was pretty common for him. He always had either Tims or Nikes on, like Air Maxes or whatever. He’d skate in those sometimes, too.
What was it like riding for Capital?
Oh, it was huge for me. Being from D.C., while the company wasn’t technically in D.C., it was all D.C. skaters. It was like a dream come true.
Was there ever talk of a video?
Not that I remember. We never actually set out to film a video, which looking back, is kinda odd. We’d just have to go out and get photos every once in a while. We never got pushed to film or anything.
Well, they definitely gave you a solid push with several great ads. Do you have a personal favorite from back then?
I would have to say either my front board ad or the switch backtail at Pulaski.
I think that switch backtail might’ve been my very first Capital ad, and I remember it being in the good part of a magazine… like the first page or the last page. That was pretty huge for me. That photo was shot by this dude, Julius Reeves. I didn’t even know he was going to submit it for an ad… But speaking of borrowing boards, I’m not even skating a Capital board in that photo, either. I had broken my board earlier that day, so I had to borrow somebody else’s board. I think it was a Real board. If you look at the photo, you can tell they had to photoshop it all black because it wasn’t a Capital board. I’m not even wearing a Capital shirt in there, either. I think I’m wearing a Polo shirt because I didn’t know we were shooting an ad. He just gave it to them and they used it.
You just opened up the mag one day and saw it?
I remember somebody telling me that I was in the new Slap, or whatever magazine it was. The photographer never told me and Capital didn’t even tell me. I heard about it from one of my friends.
Things were different back then. (laughs)
Were you aware of the behind-the-scenes trouble at Capital? That the owner had this crazy alleged gambling problem?
Yeah, that’s what I heard, but I didn’t really know him. I only met him one time, right when I got on. I had to go out to Intensity to meet him. That was the skateshop everything was based out of in Maryland. But that was really about it.
I would always ask Andy what was going on and he didn’t seem to really know the details, either. Because there was that little bit of distance between the shop in Maryland and us in D.C., we really weren’t around on the daily. I imagine people at Intensity would probably know better than us. I still don’t really know exactly what happened.
But did you know it was having trouble? Or was it just suddenly gone?
For me, it felt kinda sudden. Because I was just a young amateur at the time. I wasn’t getting paid or anything, just getting boards. It’s not like they stopped paying me because I wasn’t getting paid anyway. They always sent me boards, so I couldn’t really tell that there were problems internally. I only started hearing things during the last couple months, right before it went under.
How’d you find out it was done?
I think Andy told me when it was finally done, which was a pretty big blow because it affected a lot of D.C. skaters. Not only on Capital, either. You had Nicotine and Silverstar as well. This guy had his own little East Coast empire going for a second, and then it was gone.
Did you just immediately start looking for another sponsor?
I just kept doing my thing. Skating and hanging out at Pulaski. Solid State was a skateshop in Anapolis back then and I was riding for them, too. They’d give me boards whenever I needed them. I just did what I could for a while.
How’d Aesthetics enter the picture? Was that through Kevin Taylor?
KT definitely helped out with that. Jim Gordy, too. Because Jim is actually from Lafayette, Lousiana, which is where Sal Barbier is from as well. They’re friends from way back. I guess Jim just kept talking about me to Sal until he was finally like, “Okay, send me a tape and let me see what’s up with this kid.”
I know Sal asked Kevin about me, too, who backed me.
You had to send Sal a tape?
Yeah, I sent him one.
Did you send it anywhere else? Or just Sal?
Nah, just Sal.
I can’t even remember what was on it anymore. I think Sal still has it, actually. I remember a few years ago, he posted a little bit of it on his Instagram story, completely out of the blue. I was like, “Holy shit!” (laughs)
I’d love to see that again.
That Aesthetics crew was definitely personality-plus. It must’ve been constant jokes with Sal, Clyde and Welsh on the road, right?
Oh, for sure. Clyde was definitely wylin’ out everywhere we went. Always starting something and getting into trouble. He was always just the funniest, coolest dude.
I probably skated with Welsh the most because I’d moved to SF by then and actually lived with him for a long time. Skating together, living together. We were pretty much together all the time back then.
How was Rob as a roommate?
When you’re with somebody that much, you’re gonna get on each other’s nerves sometimes and start bickering. And there would be some of that, of course, but the positives far outweighed any of that.
He definitely changed my whole outlook on filming. Because like I said before, back in D.C., we just skated and filmed whatever we were doing. But living with Welsh, I got to see how serious he took it. He was on a totally different level with filming than I’d ever seen before, which then impacted how I filmed. Because I would always see him writing down tricks in his book and checking things off whenever he filmed them. That or practicing tricks in order to film them. Calling up photographers and filmers to schedule stuff on a certain day, at a certain spot, for certain tricks. Just total preparation, and I’d never seen that before. We never did that in D.C., so when I started living with Rob and would see him doing all that, I started to adopt that mentality as well. It helped me out a lot.
Time to grow up.
Yeah, because people don’t move to SF for nothing. They move there because they want to skate and get better. They’re trying to do something with it.
Why the move out to SF? Why not just stay in D.C.?
I moved out of D.C. for skating, but the reason I chose SF was because my sister happened to be moving there at the time. She was about to drive cross-country and live in SF, so I just went with her. I stayed there for a month or so, came back to D.C. for the summer, and then officially moved back in the fall.
How was Pier 7 compared to Pulaski?
This was 2000, and while the scene at Pulaski was still there, you weren’t allowed to skate there anymore. You couldn’t just hang out there all day like you could before. There was a lot of park police coming through, which meant you had to constantly be traveling around from spot to spot. It just wasn’t as chill. It wasn’t like it was in the ‘90s, and that forced a lot of people to stop skating down there.
The Pier was still a major spot at that time. And you could still hang out there all day, for the most part. There was a lot more happening at the Pier than there was a Pulaski during that time period.
How’d that Aesthetics ollie ad at the Brazilian Embassy come about?
That was a spot on the way to where Andy Honen lived. We’d always drive by there on the way to his house. Every once in a while, we’d stop and dick around on it for a little bit. It was pretty fun because it just shot you into the air.
I’d just gotten on Aesthetics and they were needing a photo for an ad, my first ad. I couldn’t really think of anything else, and I’d always wanted to shoot a photo there anyway, so Mehring and I went and got it.
Were you nervous at all with it being “just an ollie” in such a tech-oriented era?
Yeah, it was a pretty tech era, but I wasn’t really worried about it. I saw the photo and thought it came out well. I think he used some kinda filter or something to give it that color in the background… I can’t remember what it was. I was just trying to ollie. (laughs)
(laughs)
…And not get kicked out. Because you didn’t get to skate that spot for very long. You got maybe five tries, at the most.
Did you like skating in front of the camera?
If I learned a new trick, I definitely wanted to film it. But as far as not skating, I didn’t really want to be on camera. Lifestyle shit… or interviews like this, which is why I put it off for so long. (laughs)
Skating, I’m okay with it, but I’d rather not be in the spotlight for anything else.
(laughs) For the readers out there, I’ve been bugging John to do this interview since the Obama administration. So, how was filming for Ryde or Die?
It was about a year or so. I started filming in SF and then came back to D.C. for some stuff and got injured. I tore my left Meniscus while testing the waters on a double-set and was out for five or six months. This was during filming, so I didn’t really get to film that much for Ryde or Die, which I was super bummed about.
There was supposed to be a Ryde or Die Part 2, and I was really looking forward to that one… almost as a do-over. That’s when I was really planning on filming and doing the best I could after the injury.
That’s wild because I love your Ryde or Die part. And I imagine you had a lot of stuff in D.C. that you wanted to finally get on film.
Well, I definitely wanted my part to be both D.C. and SF stuff, for sure. I just didn’t realize the true nature of the situation back then. That these companies are paying me to go to D.C. or wherever to film and get things done… but I just kinda saw them as free trips. I’ll maybe film some stuff and just hang out with my friends. I didn’t take it as seriously as I probably should’ve.
I didn’t really feel any type of pressure until my early 20s and that Static 2 part, because that’s when I realized that I was either gonna have to turn pro or that I would probably have to quit.
 |
| Switch hardflip, photo: josh stewart |
Were you incorporating Welsh’s list strategy here? Or was that more for Static 2?
That was more Static. I never physically wrote tricks down in a book like he did, but I always had a list going on mentally, for sure.
Sounds like you had a rough go for Ryde or Die with the injury, did you like how that part ended up coming out?
No, I don’t like it. Not at all.
You’re nuts! Why not?
To me, it’s just not a good representation of who I was at that time. It should’ve been better. I appreciate that you like it, but I don’t. I never got to put in the effort that I wanted to because I got hurt, but I also could’ve tried harder before I got hurt.
Did you choose the R. Kelly song?
I did, unfortunately… but I do like that song so I’m gonna stick with it. I like the beat.
I honestly didn’t know it was R. Kelly until yesterday.
Yeah, I like the beat but it’s not like I want to be skating to R. Kelly singing, so we just went with the instrumental. I kinda like instrumentals more for skating, in general. I just think they work better.
What about that switch backheel backtail ender at Pier 7? So good.
I didn’t plan for that to be my ender. That’s when I’d first started skating again after my injury. I knew I had to start getting some things because the deadline was coming up soon. I just started trying that for some reason… and somehow got lucky and miracle-y made one. (laughs)
Because once I was able to start skating again after my injury, there was only a couple months left to film. And even after all that, my knee was still hurting. I still couldn’t really skate for long periods of time, even if I would’ve had more time to film.
 |
| switch inward heel |
How did fakie hardflips become such a go-to for you?
I don’t know! That’s another weird thing, because it was never a trick I set out to learn. I just learned them one day and they worked. Same thing with switch hardflips. I never set out to be good at switch hardflips, they were just easy for me to do back then, so I ran with it.
You’re throwing those down everything!
(laughs) It’s just weird because I never set out to be a good switch hardflip guy. When I was younger, Andy Stone’s tricks were always my favorite. Just really good kickflips, backside kickflips and 360 kickflips. Those are my favorite tricks. And I could do them, just not as good as him. He had a really good backside flip, in particular, and that’s probably my all-time favorite trick. I just thought they looked so cool and mine were never that great.
So yeah, those were my favorite tricks, but the tricks I did were just the ones I was good at. What you’re good at and what you like can be different things, you know?
But this was definitely the switch hardflip era. Fakie hardflip was always the lesser seen version, but you had that huge one in D.C. for your Aesthetics intro and also that one down the double-set in SF for Static 2, which was insane.
Oh, the Static 2 one was rough. I had to go to that spot twice with Pete Thompson in order to get it. He took me out there the first time, just to check it out. I remember ollieing it, and again, because I was really good at fakie hardflips back then, I started trying that. I got pretty close but couldn’t get it. And I was fine that that, because I could barely walk the next day. My legs were so sore from jumping down that thing so many times. I was just gonna move on to other stuff, but Pete kept asking me to go back, so we finally did and I got it. That was another miracle.
 |
| photo: thompson |
Who would you say had the biggest influence on your style?
I’d have to say Andy and Pep… Even though I could never do the things that Pep was doing either, I would definitely try. (laughs)
He’s the one that made me want to learn switch backtails. He was just so good at skating switch, in general.
Were you much of a battler?
Oh yeah, definitely.
I’m honestly surprised by that, because we never really saw any clips of you looking half-dead, covered in sweat from some hours-long struggle.
Nah, it never really got to that point, like I was never screaming or punching my board. Focusing my board. I was a little more calm than that.
What about that switch hardflip over the SF Library gap?
Honestly, that was more of a last minute type of thing because I needed an ad. That one wasn’t even really planned out. It was more, “Oh shit, I need something.”
That was heavy for the time! Was that a battle?
No, that wasn’t a battle at all. Not to sound arrogant, but back then, that was easy for me.
Must’ve been nice! So, did you go straight from Ryde into Static 2? How’d that work?
Not Static 2 so much. At the time, I went right into filming for Ryde or Die 2. For Static 2, I was only going to share a part with Andy Honen. Unfortunately, Ryde or Die 2 never happened because Aesthetics went away, so I ended up giving almost everything I had to Josh Stewart for Static 2. Some of it got used for Gold Wheels, too. That’s basically how that all went down.
I was already familiar with Static because I’d seen Josh Stewart in D.C. filming for the first Static. I think that’s where I first met him, and then he started coming out to SF to film, too. I’d always see him around. I think he’d asked Andy Honen if he wanted a part in Static 2 but Andy didn’t want a full part, so they asked me if I was down to film some stuff and share a part with Andy. And I was down, because I really liked the first Static.
Okay, because I was gonna ask about all the cameos in there.
Yeah, it was originally supposed to be a shared part with Andy because I didn’t want to commit to a full part, either. At the time, I really wanted to focus on my Ryde or Die 2 part.
Where is Andy these days? He was a ripper, too.
He’s in Las Vegas now. He’s got a wife and three kids out there, doing his thing. He’s super into pool. He enters tournaments and travels around for that now. He’s doing good.
So how did Static 2 work? With so much of your Aesthetics footage now going toward this project, did you even have to film with Josh much?
I’d say that most of my SF footage in there was originally for Ryde or Die 2, and anything on the road was with Josh for Static 2. Because we would usually go on trips for Static 2.
I know you have a lot of Barcelona footage in there.
That was another trip I got hurt on. I rolled my ankle at Universitat… that spot with the two long ledges? Yeah, I rolled my ankle pretty early on that trip, which sucked because I couldn’t skate and those guys were out skating every day. I didn’t even know what to do with myself. Because hanging out at spots sucks when you can’t skate, so I just started walking around by myself. Maybe go eat at a café or watch a movie if I could find one in English. I was basically on my own.
Were you on that legendary Egypt trip with Kenny?
No, I just remember going all over the U.S. with Josh and then we went to Barcelona. That was still a lot of traveling. I want to say that road trip around the U.S. was a good three weeks on the road. We drove from Miami all the way to New Mexico. That was an awesome trip.
A lot of personalities in that Static 2 crew as well with guys like Ricky and Puleo…
Ricky was on my Barcelona trip but he was staying at a different hotel. And I was injured anyway, so I didn’t really see him all that much. Just at dinners every once in a while. He’s a nice guy. But that road trip I just mentioned was with Puleo… and that dude fucking ripped, man. I couldn’t even believe it. He was one of the best skaters I’ve ever skated with.
Static 2 was a good time for Bobby.
Yeah, he was amazing. Anytime we went to a park, he would kill it. Shredding on tranny as well as the street stuff. Everything there. He did so much gnarly stuff on that trip, Josh didn’t even have to film it all because I guess he didn’t need to. He had so much amazing footage of Puleo already. Because I can remember a few things Bobby did that Josh actually did film… they didn’t even make it into the video. And they were amazing clips! Nothing ever took him that long, either. He always seemed to get most things super quick.
…Yeah, that guy was a professional.
(laughs) Was Jeru your choice?
No, I didn’t have any input on the music, but I do like that song. I was happy with it.
Your Static 2 part as well as WE3 have a lot of manual combos, whereas your Ryde or Die part has literally none. Is that because you got hurt for that one? New inspiration? What’s going on there?
I didn’t really do mannys in D.C. I don’t really know why, I just hardly ever did them back then. But after moving to SF and skating Pier 7 for a while, I started getting into them more.
But you’re doing the craziest manual combinations in those parts! You’d just started doing them!?!
(laughs) Yeah, but everybody at the Pier was good at manuals. I just wanted to get good at them, too. I actually think skating flatground at Pulaski so much as a kid helped with the combining of all that into my manuals. I feel like that gave me a pretty solid foundation to work with.
 |
| photo: thompson |
I can see that being some of Welsh’s influence as well.
Oh yeah, he was doing some pretty crazy manny tricks at the time, for sure.
I just think all of this stuff comes from being at the Pier so much, because there really wasn’t much else to do there. You either did manual stuff or you skated the ledges. That’s really about all there was to skate there.
Speaking of Welsh’s influence, I notice you wearing some pretty plus-size sweatpants in your Static 2 part.
(laughs) Yeah, that might’ve been some of his influence there, too. That’s pretty funny.
What manual combination do you remember taking the longest?
I think the three flip-nose manual-nollie flip out to me the longest. It was actually in a Gold video later on. That one took me three days to film. I remember the first day, I was trying it for hours and hours. The second day might’ve been a couple hours, but when I finally got it on the third day, it was relatively quick. After all that, I want to say I got it in less than 30 minutes.
But in Static 2, you did that 360 flip-nose manual-nollie 360 flip as your ender…
Yeah, it was actually easier to nollie tre flip out somehow. I guess I just had those tre flip ones better, if that makes any sense. (laughs)
The one that still blows me away is your switch inward heel over the Pier 7 block. What was your process there? I imagine you doing the switch back heel first?
I think so, yeah. I don’t remember there being any kind of battle with that one. Not that it was easy, but I think I got it that day. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember much from doing that. I know we shot a sequence of it because I have the magazine, so it couldn’t have been too crazy… Definitely not like that fakie hardflip. That was the biggest battle I had for that part.
Insane. So Static 2 drops, your shared part is the opener and blows doors. Why not go pro? It must’ve come up at the time.
Static 2 actually came out at a weird time when Aesthetics was done but we weren’t on Zoo York yet. This was still pre-Zoo, when we were kinda just floating around. Because I did want to turn pro. I actually filmed that part with the intention to turn pro.
Like I mentioned earlier, I had come to a bit of a realization around this time in my early 20s. It came from Keith Hufnagel, actually. He goes, “Hey bro, you’re turning 22. You’re getting to that age. You’re either gonna have to give it all you can and turn pro or you might have to go do something else.”
Keith looked out for me a lot in those days. He told me straight up that I’d either had to act now or move on… basically saying that I needed to figure out what I was going to do with my life.
I talked to Sal about it and he outlined a bunch of things I needed to do, like getting a Check Out in a magazine. Getting editorial coverage that weren’t just ads, because there’s a difference. Ads don’t really count. You want photos that the magazines want to run on their own, not just something that the company has to pay for. And I had to film a part that was worthy of turning me pro.
So, that’s what I was trying to do with Static. Taking their advice and doing my best. Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out with Aesthetics no longer being in operation.
Do you ever feel like you might’ve been too humble or modest with your career?
I think one problem I had early on is that I never thought I could be a pro skater. I just didn’t see it as a possibility, so I never really worked towards it. I needed to be told that if you’re getting free stuff, it’s because the company is eventually wanting to make money off you. They eventually want to turn you pro and sell boards with your name on it. You’re not just getting stuff because they think you’re cool. They’re investing in you, which I never really saw it like that. And once I finally did realize that, I tried to get my shit together, but I was already in my twenties by then.
I didn’t realize I needed to advance to that next level. I was happy with just getting boards and whatever small paycheck I got at the time. I guess I was too happy with where I was at.
Were you working jobs at that point, too?
Yeah, I was working at Huf and at this pizza place called “Za”. A lot of skaters worked there, so it was very flexible with whenever you needed to go on a trip. Plus, my shift started at 5, so I could skate all day before going to work. It worked out well for me back then.
 |
| photo: gaberman |
How’d you find out that Aesthetics was no longer? And how did you all end up on Zoo?
It must’ve been through Welsh, because Sal didn’t talk to me very much about what was happening. I don’t think he even knew what was really going on back then, either.
I don’t know if this is 100% accurate, but I heard Sal was having issues with an investor at Aesthetics. I guess this had been going on for a while… like, for years, when Sal got approached by Zoo York to work for them for a lot of money. He’d been thinking about it for a while, but he wanted to be loyal to us, too, so he basically made them take all of us to ride for Zoo York before he would work there. And it worked. That’s what happened.
I gotta say that Sal was always straight up and honest with us from the very start. I remember him saying, “We’re going to Zoo York. We’re gonna be making more money than we made before, but this is probably only going to be temporary.”
He told us that right off the bat, so we knew what we were getting into. He knew this arrangement probably wasn’t going to last forever… which, the whole move to Zoo York was a huge bummer for me because I loved Aesthetics. Riding for Aesthetics motivated me to skate and really push myself, while Zoo didn’t really do that for me. Yeah, it’s cool to be making more money, but riding for Zoo never felt good. I felt like we were only there because Sal had basically got bought out.
Zoo was kinda weird by that point, too, with Ashton Kutcher and Pharrell ads.
Yeah, it definitely felt more corporate. It wasn’t the same, but I just had to roll with it. My contract was for two years or so, and I just rode that out until the end. That’s pretty much what we all did. Not that it was all bad, I was still with my old Aesthetics teammates and now riding with Kenny Hughes, Donny Barley and Zered Bassett. Those guys all fucking ripped. Going on trips with them was always fun… not to mention Harold Hunter. That dude was amazing to travel with. So yeah, there were some good times, too.
I liked riding for Zoo, it just wasn’t the same as Aesthetics.
What’s your best Harold Hunter story?
Oh, millions! He was the funniest person ever. And traveling with him was the best because you can sometimes get grouchy on the road, but Harold would always make you laugh. Always.
I remember being in Italy with him one time at this really nice restaurant. Nobody spoke English. And it was a seafood restaurant, so they had this big aquarium with lobsters in it. Harold starts asking the waiter, “Yo! If I order a lobster, can I go pick out which one I want?”
“Of course, sir! Pick any one you want.”
“Alright, cool.”
She finishes taking our order and goes back to the kitcken. Harold gets up and walks over to the aquarium, reaches in and just pulls out a lobster! With his bare hands! He just grabbed one! Everybody in the restaurant starts laughing. He walks back to our table, all nonchalant, and puts this lobster on his plate. Still alive! It starts crawling around on the table! It was hilarious. He goes, “What? She said I could pick! This is the one I want!”
That was just a normal thing for him. Non-stop, all-day for him. That’s just how he was.
 |
| thanks SkateMediaNerd |
How did you end up moving to Western Edition?
Western Edition was just the obvious choice. I was skating with those guys every day: Nikhil Thayer, Brad Johnson, Pat Washington, Jason Wussler. Those were the guys I was skating with all the time in SF, and I was going to FTC pretty much every day because that was the skate shop. It just made sense. Those were my homies, you know? We were family.
I can’t remember if it was Nikhil or Kent from FTC who asked me to ride for them. I thought about it for a second and was like, “Fuck yeah!”
Nikhil was amazing. Was there an expressed commitment from them in finally turning you pro?
It wasn’t a stipulation for me riding for them, but they did want to turn me pro. I was hyped on that. And it happened very quickly after I got on.
Did you have any other offers?
Joey Pepper had gone to Expedition by then, and he asked if I wanted to ride for them. I was super grateful for that, but I’d already made the move to Western Expedition. Let me just stick with these guys.
I always loved Western Edition, but I imagine it being very different from riding for huge Zoo York back then.
Oh yeah, I went from this huge corporate thing to a small family company, which was a nice change of pace for me. I knew the owner. I knew the artist. I knew all the skaters. I feel like I knew everything about it, which was a good thing. We obviously didn’t have the budget Zoo York had, but it felt more like a family.
You’re really good at choosing super cool brands with not much money.
(laughs) Yeah, unfortunately all the best brands are like that. Capital, Aesthetics and Western were all really cool companies… same with People! The name was kinda questionable, but the actual product and team were good. The graphics were cool, too. But yeah, I feel like I’ve always ridden for cool companies, they could just never really build on that and expand.
 |
| photo: thompson |
But why move to NYC after turning pro for a SF-based brand?
That wasn’t planned at all. It actually started out as a kind of vacation. I came to New York to stay with my friend, Kyle Demmers, after he moved here a year or two before. He called me up one day, like, “Yo, you should come to New York. It’s the best place for skating. You’ll have so much fun.”
“I’m down. Let me save some money first.”
“You don’t even need to. I can get you a couple days of work at DQM.”
That was Chris Keefe and Dave Ortiz’s sneaker store back then. So yeah, I ended up coming out and working there for a few days a week while I stayed on Kyle’s couch. And I really loved it. Next thing I know, I’d already been here for a month. I had to make the decision to either stay in New York or go back to SF.
It just worked out that Todd Jordan moved out of his place in Brooklyn, so I took over his room there. I got someone to sublet my room in SF and just ended up staying here. It was never planned out. I never technically “moved” here, I just stayed. That was 19 years ago. (laughs)
 |
| photo: pelletier |
How did your WE3 part come together?
I was just having fun at that point. Not necessarily killing myself, just kinda riding off the momentum from trying to put out a banger video part with Aesthetics 2/Static 2. I was still in that mode.
Yeah, that was a good part for me.
Is that your personal favorite part?
Nah, I’d probably have to say my little part in the Gold Wheels video… in the bonus footage at the end? It’s a few of the same clips that were in Static 2, but I'm happy with the tricks in that one. I like the manny stuff in there. And I feel like that was a good one for me because it’s short. I never really wanted to have a long part.
Why not?
Because I never felt like I could put together a full banger part like that. A short, really good part was always gonna be better for me.
 |
| a few years later to tail |
You don’t give yourself enough credit, man. Like that that kickflip backside 5-0 at Flushing in WE3 was no joke!
I was still on Zoo York for that one. That’s a funny one because we were at Flushing for a lookbook shoot and I just happened to do it in-between stuff for the catalog. It just kinda happened, because we weren’t even really shooting photos of tricks that day. It was mostly clothing and lifestyle stuff. Like, they didn’t even shoot that trick when I did it. I’d just started trying it for some reason and got one, so then R.B. and I had to go back and film it.
That’s wild that you just did it on a whim.
I wish we could’ve filmed the first one, but yeah, I like the one that’s in there, too. It’s good but I don’t think it’s the hardest trick. Once you get into the 5-0, you just gotta stand on it. The hard part is kickflipping into it with enough speed to get past the grate.
Speaking of, I love that 540 flip over the grate.
That was the same day we went back out to film the kickflip 5-0. That’s actually a trick Chris Hall used to do back in the day. I always loved Chris’s style, so I remember learning those when I was younger, I’d just never filmed it. Doing one over the grate seemed like a cool place to finally get one down.
Oh yeah, all that swivel stuff Chris used to do! I never would’ve put that together.
Yep, that’s where I got it from. He would do front shuv-its and pivot 180 at the end to come back around. 180 fakie manuals and pivot around 180 again on flatground. Stuff like that. That clip was definitely inspired by watching him do that sorta thing when I was younger.
 |
| photo: thompson |
Was that part mostly unused Zoo stuff? Because there’s a lot of Euro footage in there and I can’t imagine Western Edition having a travel budget like that.
(laughs) Yeah, that video came out right after I got on Western Edition, which was perfect for me because I’d already filmed so much with Zoo York. I basically had that part ready to go.
What about the switch tre line down that little double-set in France? I forget the name of the spot.
(laughs) I don’t know what it’s called, either.
But yeah, with the switch frontside pop shut-it at the beginning? I remember that line. I was stoked on that, but I also remember one of those where I kept going after the switch tre flip. I was kinda bummed that they didn’t show that in the video.
I read in an interview where your only advice for new jacks was “Don’t wait too long like I did.” What did you mean by that?
I was just speaking from being 22 years old and still not having figured out what I was doing yet. I remember feeling so much pressure at the time because it was getting pretty late in the game for me. I think if I would’ve had a better idea about what you should be doing as an amateur, that it’s more than just skating, I would’ve taken it more seriously. I just didn’t have the right mindset until I moved out to San Francisco. That’s when I began to notice how other people were going about doing all this stuff, and that’s what it takes. That’s how you have to do it.
 |
| photo: thompson |
How do you look back on your career now? Was there a time when you felt at all bitter about how things turned out? Not that you weren’t successful, but your skating should’ve led to more opportunities.
Nah, I’m not bitter at all. Kyle was my friend who I skated with in SF, and he got me my job that I have now at Supreme. For me, it’s the best job ever. I get to be around skateboarding, go on cool trips and work with awesome people. It’s a great job, and that came directly from my time in skateboarding. I wouldn’t have gotten that without skateboarding.
My big thing now is riding motorcycles. The feeling I used to get from skating, I get that same feeling from riding bikes. That feeling of learning a new trick, I get that from riding dirtbikes in the mountains or a sport bike on the track. I get that same kind of rush, and I think that’s why I’m content. I’m happy with how everything went the way it did. Yeah, I could’ve done things differently, but I’m happy. Everything worked out in the end.
What do you do for Supreme?
I manage the inventory and stock at the Brooklyn store. I help out with merchandising, too. Whenever there’s a new store opening, I basically help with warehouse stuff and merchandising the store… the layout and how it looks. I love my job.
I imagine you helping Welsh out with the San Francisco store, right?
(laughs) Yeah, he came and trained with me in Brooklyn before the SF store opened. It was awesome. We’re both used to working now, because he’d already had a job with Lakai for a long time. It was cool just hanging out with him in Brooklyn. He ate pizza every single day. He literally went to Joe’s Pizza every day to eat, like, “I can’t get this in SF! I gotta get as much of this as I can while I’m here!” (laughs)
It was so funny, but Rob’s a smart guy and he works hard. I knew he was gonna be successful.
Do you still skate at all?
Nah, my knee is done, man. My injury from filming the Ryde or Die video came back and I have really bad knee pain. I mean, I can still walk and everything, but going down stairs hurts. Straightening out my leg hurts.
I still love skating and still consider myself a skater. I’ll still push around, but as far as learning new tricks or going to the park, I just can’t.
I feel you on that one. So as we wrap this up, what would you say has been the proudest moment of your skate career? And your biggest regret?
Oh, I know my proudest moment exactly. My mom told me this a while ago when I went back home to visit her in Virginia. She used to work at the cafeteria where I went to high school, and somehow, some of the kids found out that she was my mom. She told me that they used to ask her questions about me every day. Because my mom was never into me skateboarding, she was always kinda against it actually. But I feel like after that started happening at school, those kids kinda validated it to her. Like, she would give them stickers and stuff. It made her proud. And I guess she was kinda popular for being my mom, which was pretty crazy to hear from her.
That might be the best answer I’ve ever gotten to this question.
My biggest regret would be just not getting my shit together until Static 2. I should’ve started in the Capital days, I just didn’t know. I wish I would’ve taken it more seriously when I was younger. I just didn’t have any real aspirations of turning pro back then. I just wanted to skate.
Big thanks to John, Andy, Jimmy Pelletier, Ray Ito and SkateMediaNerd for the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment