Me interviewed?

So I guess it's my turn. My friend Ari sent me a little interview of his own today along with his answers to my interview questions. I had already started filling out my own interview questions and I was going to wait to post them up until I had fine tuned them perfectly. I still will, but this is my unofficial interview I guess. (even though the questions are way better) So here you go. An interview with me done by Ari Shiffrin just for kicks.

How old are you and when did you start skateboarding?

I’m 25 and I started skateboarding when I was 9 and have never taken a break.

How long did it take you to learn ollies? Kickflips?

Don’t remember, I know that I started trying to learn that stuff right off the bat though. My friend Wes and I used to ollie off his driveway into the grass because it was sorta ramped up. My first kickflip was on carpet and my sister was watching tv and couldn’t have cared less but I was flipping out.

Top measurable achievements (examples: most stairs kickflipped, biggest rail, tallest piv fakie, techest manual, etc):

Kickflipped and nollie 8, nollie backside 180’d 8. Boardslide 9, front boarded and feebled 8, tallest piv fakie is tempe park extension, techist manuel is fakie shuv switch manual, ollied 4 different 10s, stuck one 11 and one 12, front feebled 6, tre bomb 6, switch ollie six,

Scariest trick you’ve ever done and why:

scariest? I don’t know. I don’t really do stuff that I’m scared of. Feebling 8 was scary because my board kept getting stuck in the rail, dropping in on vert is terrifying, oh yeah I just remember, Back D on tempe extension was the scariest thing ever, but I had Lee Bender and Michael Tubbs both hyping me up to try it, at the time I didn’t realize how memorable that was going to be.

Hardest trick you’ve ever done and why:

piv fakie in Lisle, Illinois. It was so hard to do and I don’t got the footy to back it up

Worst slam and why:

I tried to nosegrind a long flat ledge fell and landed on my hip bone. I thought it was broken so I went to the hospital. They said it was fine and gave me stuff to put on my road rash. Quacks


http://chumpchangeme.blogspot.com/2009/09/worst-blog-post-of-my-career.html

Who or what influenced your skateboarding the most?

My brother at first, then probably Ben Smith, Jamie Thomas, and now skateboarding is just all there is.

First skatevideo you really watched a lot and your favorite part in it (plz describe the vid for those who might not be familiar):

Welcome to Hell the Toy Machine video. I’d seen videos before that but that was the first video that I anticipated. Jamie Thomas’ part in that video was my bible and that video definitely shaped the way that I wanted to skate. I used to watch it standing up so my legs wouldn’t get stiff and I could go right outside after the video was over and I wouldn’t have to warm up. Now I like Ed Templeton’s part in that video the most because Ed Templeton is raw as fuck, but back then I just wanted to see rails get grinded.

How many video parts have you had? Name them (plz include yr):

I don’t know the years on any of them, so I’ll just take big guesses. Ride the Lighting(1996-7), This one that Chris Poquette made that I can’t remember the name of(2000). Rough Crowd(2002), Down to the Wire(2003), Manatee Promo(2005), Potpourri(jk), upcoming Woodward west part(2010)

Good Bart Jones story that not a lot of people would know:

when I was little he told me that he saw a ghost crossing his neighbor’s lawn and he was all serious and had me going and then when I asked what the ghost was doing he said "he was dancing. He was doing the stringy rubberband"
Another time, he was trying to switch frontside flip this gap and while he was rolling up to it he was acting like a chicken… and then he stuck it and broke his board and then puked on his board right after. He had to take off the trucks with puke all over the grip tape.

Name some tricks you can’t do but feel capable of and hope to learn someday:

I honestly think that I have done all the tricks that I’ll ever be able to do. Sucks.

Name some of your favorite underrated skateboarders, whether they are famous or friends:

Ben Smith, Randy Ploesser, Pat O Brien, Michael Kryger, Zared Basset, I guess if you've heard of them they aren't underrated though. I don't know. Everyone's good. I'm my own favorite underrated skateboarder. Just kidding, lately I've been really psyched on older dudes who don't skate like old barneys. Like 36 year old dudes who noseblunt shit and 45 year old dudes who try kickflips and nosemanuals.

Tell me a certain story about a weekend surrounding a Toy Machine demo:

It wasn't a weekend, but what you're talking about is my peak. On Monday I backsmithed back 180’d and back tail shoved clocktower ledge in Chicago, and front feebled a rail. Then on Tuesday I kissed a girl for the first time. And on Wednesday was the Toy Machine Demo. That week was a bullseye

Tell me a certain story about pwning P.E. class:

It's not that good of a story, but I always tell it when people bring up gym class. I, like most skateboarders, didn't like gym class and did whatever I could to avoid it or if possible, have nothing at all to do with what was going on in class. So during our softball unit that semester I used to avoid going up to bat at all costs by letting everyone cut in front of me so I'd never get a chance to go. But that didn't stop me from talking shit to whoever was at bat..... So one day the teacher called me out and made me step up to the plate. I was done for. All that shit talking was about to come back at me with a vengeance. So I reluctantly stepped up to bat, about to make a huge ass hole out of myself. The teacher pitched the ball to me(he probably tossed it to me all easy because he thought I'd miss it) and what do you know..... straight dinger out of the park! Well not really out of the park because there was no fence, but I hit the ball about twice as far as I'd seen anyone else hit it and about 10 times as far as I would have thought that I would hit it. Everyone was shocked and also yelling at me to run, but I just stood at home plate laughing. I ended up running to first base and then hiring a pinch runner for the rest of the play. Everyone was bummed on me because I could have run all the bases and gotten a home run. I think everytime after that I struck out, but I killed it that one time. It was perfect. Gym class sucked.