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Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the Bob Left Sets podcast. My

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Speaker 1: guest this week is skateboarder Extraordinary, one of the most

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Speaker 1: famous and successful athletes in the world, Tony Hawk. Hello, Hello,

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Speaker 1: thanks for having me. Good to have your Tony. I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna jump right in. Okay, did you first jump on

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Speaker 1: a skateboard? I was about nine years old, was when

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Speaker 1: the skating craze of the seventies was was in its peak, basically,

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Speaker 1: and my older brother was a surfer and he started

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Speaker 1: skating as a natural progression. Um he was skating and

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Speaker 1: I just picked up his old board and I said,

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Speaker 1: how do I do this thing? And he said, you know,

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Speaker 1: just stand on and go and I I got on

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Speaker 1: it and I rode to the end of the driveway

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Speaker 1: and slammed into the fence because I couldn't figure how

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Speaker 1: to turn. Well, it's funny, I have almost an identical

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Speaker 1: story because skateboarding was a big thing in the sixties.

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Speaker 1: Even Jan and Dean had a song called Sidewalk Surfing,

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Speaker 1: which was a remake of Surf City and with we

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Speaker 1: had the metal wheels. You had the metal wheels and

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Speaker 1: you had the clay wheels. And I was in Mammoth Mountain,

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Speaker 1: this type, the same type. I was there for the

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Speaker 1: month of May, and you know Mammoth the main lodge,

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Speaker 1: the gigantic parking lot. Okay, so the guy gives me

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Speaker 1: a board with the new wheels, and I go, and

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Speaker 1: then suddenly I realized, for those people don't know, it's

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Speaker 1: slowly downhill and it's an eight thousand, almost nine thousand feet.

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Speaker 1: It was a holy crap, I'm gonna have to walk back.

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Speaker 1: And I hadn't been on a skateboard in about nine

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Speaker 1: or ten years. And I stepped off the board. Wow,

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Speaker 1: because you know, I was smart after us, you have

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Speaker 1: to run off the board. So you just you did.

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Speaker 1: We call that a Mr Wilson. I believe I had.

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Speaker 1: The only good thing is I'd come from skiing and

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Speaker 1: I had, you know, multiple layers of clothing on ripped

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Speaker 1: right through my turtleneck, my ski pants, my long underwear

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Speaker 1: got road rash. Wow. That was my reintroduction of the seventies. Okay,

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Speaker 1: So you're you have an older brother. How many kids

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Speaker 1: in your family? For we have two older sisters as

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Speaker 1: well and young and you're the youngest by a lot.

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Speaker 1: My my older brothers thirteen years older than me. Your

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Speaker 1: older brothers thirteen years and how much older your sisters

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Speaker 1: eighteen and you'll have the same parents. Yes, so I was.

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Speaker 1: I was very much a surprise and accident. My mom

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Speaker 1: was forty three at the time. So you essentially grew

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Speaker 1: up as almost as an only child with your parents. Wow.

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Speaker 1: So where you know a lot of times when you're

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Speaker 1: the baby of the family, your parents are lenient. They

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Speaker 1: let you do whatever you want. Uh. That definitely that

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Speaker 1: was the case. I think also my they had been

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Speaker 1: through a lot of a lot of scenarios with my

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Speaker 1: a lot of challenging situations with my siblings as well,

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Speaker 1: just because it was the seventies. You know, they were

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Speaker 1: experimenting and my my sister got into music, my brother

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Speaker 1: got into surfing, and they fully supported them in those endeavors,

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Speaker 1: but you know, it just jumped them out on their

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Speaker 1: comfort zone very much. So once I came along, it

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Speaker 1: was like, what just keep him happy, whatever he's doing,

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Speaker 1: let him do it. And what did your father do

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Speaker 1: for a living? Uh? He well, he was a Navy

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Speaker 1: pilot World War two really and then uh and then

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Speaker 1: he sold Um. He kind of got into it through

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Speaker 1: my sister. He started selling musical instruments UM wholesale in

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Speaker 1: San Diego just as a hobby because their band needed

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Speaker 1: gear UM. And then he got into it and he

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Speaker 1: made connections and he did that till you retired. Really,

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Speaker 1: so part of the whole NAM world, etcetera. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: used to go to NAM when I was when I

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Speaker 1: was like eight nine years old. For those people don't know,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's the Music Merchant Show. It's one of

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Speaker 1: the biggest shows in the ammah Anaheim. Happens in January.

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Speaker 1: It's a private show, but really, if you know, anybody

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Speaker 1: can get in, right. But I just went because like

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Speaker 1: I didn't, you know, my mom be out of town

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Speaker 1: and so my dad would have to take me and

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Speaker 1: I just his booth or go. You're just plowing my

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Speaker 1: mind because you know, this is my girlfriend's world. My

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Speaker 1: girlfriend runs a foundation called the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation,

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Speaker 1: which they give instruments to underprivileged schools. So why don't

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Speaker 1: you start talking. I know all these people through her

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Speaker 1: that I wouldn't know otherwise. Is I got a NAM

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Speaker 1: with her? So I didn't realize your father's soul music.

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Speaker 1: Well it was, I mean it was a pretty it

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Speaker 1: was relatively small business in San Diego. But but it

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Speaker 1: was cool. I that's how I started. I started playing

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Speaker 1: violent actually at that time. Really okay, but just stay

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Speaker 1: with your father. So he's a navy pilot. When they

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Speaker 1: have the right stuff, the movie, the book, whatever, does

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Speaker 1: he start telling stories about that stuff? He Uh, that's

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Speaker 1: a good question. I don't think he didn't feel I

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Speaker 1: don't want to say proud, but you know, his valor

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Speaker 1: wasn't that he really wanted to brag about it. I

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Speaker 1: think he he didn't like a lot of stuff he

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Speaker 1: had to do in World War Two, especially, so he

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Speaker 1: was pretty mom about all of it. You know. It's

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Speaker 1: also he was definitely through, you know, running bombing missions,

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Speaker 1: you know, with with propeller planes off of aircraft carriers,

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Speaker 1: like it was the real deal. Wow, that really is

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Speaker 1: the real deal. But my father was not in the military.

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Speaker 1: He was the sole support for his mother. But it

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Speaker 1: was you know, my father would so internalize. It wasn't

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Speaker 1: until he was like in his fifties, remember writing this,

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Speaker 1: Have you ever been asked for highlands? He used to

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Speaker 1: have this cheerlift that took a half an hour. And

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Speaker 1: my father also started telling stories about his youth. I'd

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Speaker 1: never heard. I never got into that. I think I

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Speaker 1: think a lot of it was he was he was ashamed.

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Speaker 1: He didn't you know, he didn't like there there was

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Speaker 1: I remember a time someone was talking about some area,

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Speaker 1: some remote area and near Okinawa, Japan or something, and

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Speaker 1: and they said, have you ever been there in that area?

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Speaker 1: And my dad said, bombed it? You know, like but

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Speaker 1: like it was kind of a joke, but you could

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Speaker 1: tell there was a very it was very weighted, right. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so you're nine years old and you pick up your

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Speaker 1: brother's skateboard, you skate, and you crash into the fence

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Speaker 1: at the end of the road, and then you think

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Speaker 1: there was no epiphany. Um, I thought, you know, I

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Speaker 1: thought it was fun. A lot of my friends had

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Speaker 1: started doing it around that time, so I joined them.

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Speaker 1: It was more like it was a social thing, and

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Speaker 1: we would go skate around the different driveways. You know,

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Speaker 1: we had these alleyways, um, and we would go skate

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Speaker 1: around them. And then every once while someone would build

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Speaker 1: a little a little wooden ramp, and so their their

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Speaker 1: place was the place for a couple of weeks, you know,

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Speaker 1: their right their driveway with their little ramp, and then uh,

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Speaker 1: eventually I got invited to go to the local skate

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Speaker 1: park which was in San Diego, UM called Oasis. And

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Speaker 1: how far is that from your house? Uh? Like twenty minutes.

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Speaker 1: It was right by the the stadium where the Chargers played,

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Speaker 1: actually where the Padres played, UM, and so I went there.

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Speaker 1: And when I went there, that's when I had my

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Speaker 1: wow moment. I saw I literally saw people flying around.

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Speaker 1: I saw these guys. Okay, so was it more seeing

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Speaker 1: what was going on? He was seeing what was going

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Speaker 1: on in the terrain, because suddenly it was like, we're

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Speaker 1: not just skating on the sidewalk. These are you know,

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Speaker 1: empty swimming pools that have this potential to throw you

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Speaker 1: in the air. And I saw that, I saw these

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Speaker 1: guys flying around. I was like, I want to do that.

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Speaker 1: I want to do that at any cost. That was

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Speaker 1: that was my moment for sure. And I mean, that's

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Speaker 1: really enough. But any other thoughts, like you know, I

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Speaker 1: might get hurt, or this might be fun or thrilling, thrilling,

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Speaker 1: I mean that that was the motivation for sure. And

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Speaker 1: like I said, it was they were flying. I wanted

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Speaker 1: to fly, and and everything that I had done leading

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Speaker 1: up to that I had played a lot of sports.

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Speaker 1: I was always frustrated that I wasn't bigger, and you

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Speaker 1: know I was, you know, I was. I was a

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Speaker 1: run I was like I was a little scrawny dude,

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Speaker 1: you know. And I used to get mistaken from way

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Speaker 1: younger than I was all the time back then, And

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Speaker 1: so I would play sports, and you know I was.

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Speaker 1: I was a good basketball player, especially from my size,

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Speaker 1: but everyone else was taller and they just had an advantage.

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Speaker 1: And like I was a decent baseball player, but it was,

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Speaker 1: you know, there was just more. I didn't have the

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Speaker 1: strength of the weight, and skateboarding unknowingly leveled that playing

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Speaker 1: field for me because I figured out this way to

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Speaker 1: propel my what my limited weight into the air and

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Speaker 1: that generally wasn't the way people could do it. And

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Speaker 1: I was pretty fearless. I didn't I didn't mind getting

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Speaker 1: hurt for the sake of learning. That was never my issue.

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Speaker 1: And a lot of my friends would get hurt and

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Speaker 1: they were over it. They're done. Okay, So how old

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Speaker 1: are you? Literally, when you go to the skatepark ten

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Speaker 1: years old, you're ten years old. It's twenty minutes away.

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Speaker 1: How do you get there, I would get a ride

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Speaker 1: with friends. Um, sometimes my dad would take me and

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Speaker 1: my brother was in college at the time. We had

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Speaker 1: one day a week that he would dry. He was

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Speaker 1: in um, Northern San Diego he or no, was he? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Northern San Diego. He would drive down and take me

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Speaker 1: to skate park once a week and we would go

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Speaker 1: skate together. Okay, So, so when you're ten years old,

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Speaker 1: how many times a week are going to the skate park?

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Speaker 1: Probably too okay? And did they charge you to go

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Speaker 1: to the skate park? They did? Yeah, it was. It

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Speaker 1: was nominal, but it wasn't easy. Like my we were

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Speaker 1: middle class ish, um, so it was you know, it was.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't that I was getting a free ride, Definitely,

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Speaker 1: there was. I had a paper route and I had

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Speaker 1: to earn it. I had I remember earning money for

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Speaker 1: to buy stickers. The buy stickers. Wow, what stickers did

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Speaker 1: you buy? Going trucks? Okay, so you're going twice a

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Speaker 1: week to the skate park when you're not, are you

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Speaker 1: skating in the neighborhood? Yes? Yeah, so you're pretty much

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Speaker 1: skating every day. Yeah. I mean street skating as a

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Speaker 1: as an actual thing was not considered so it was

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Speaker 1: just more transportation at the time. Sometimes we'd find say

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Speaker 1: a curb in front of the dentist office that was

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Speaker 1: that was red and you could grind it and um

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Speaker 1: or a little banks like there there was a little

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Speaker 1: curb right in front of my middle school that you

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Speaker 1: could slide and we used to slide it in the

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Speaker 1: morning until we started breaking the sprinklers. And then because

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Speaker 1: this was also the era, you know, they started to

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Speaker 1: be a backlash against the noise and the grinding, etcetera.

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Speaker 1: It was a little bit before that. I mean, the

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Speaker 1: skating still was largely contained at the skate parks because

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Speaker 1: there was an abundance of skateparks then. But as that

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Speaker 1: started drying up, mostly because of liability and the interest

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Speaker 1: of skating was waning. Um, that's when it started becoming

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Speaker 1: this this thing that was like, wait a second, there's

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Speaker 1: no more facilities for us to go to. We're taken

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Speaker 1: to the streets. And that's when the stigma changed to

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Speaker 1: where these guys are a nuisance, they're breaking property, there outlaws,

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Speaker 1: like we're just looking for a place to do it. Okay,

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Speaker 1: going to a parallel thing. Whenever you do any research

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Speaker 1: on you it goes on about schooling and being tested

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Speaker 1: and having an I I high i Q. So what

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Speaker 1: was your educational experience, Like, Um, I was always putting

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Speaker 1: advanced classes and uh yeah, I mean I did have

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Speaker 1: this high i Q testing and whatnot, and that follows

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Speaker 1: me to this day, right, But I was I really

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Speaker 1: did enjoy this daredevil thing. And you know, I was

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Speaker 1: the little kid that would go off the high dive

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Speaker 1: and stuff like that. So so even before you were

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Speaker 1: a skateboarder. Yeah, yeah, yeah, um, and I wasn't. I

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Speaker 1: wasn't Like I said, I wasn't really afraid to get

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Speaker 1: hurt in the process. So I was so focused on that.

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Speaker 1: But but at the same time I was I was

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Speaker 1: keeping up with my schoolwork. I guess the thing that

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Speaker 1: sort of redirected my education was that I got successful

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Speaker 1: in high school. I started making really good money in

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Speaker 1: high school, especially around my junior year, to the point

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Speaker 1: where I was looking around on everyone's trying to figure

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Speaker 1: out what they're gonna be for living. I have a living,

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Speaker 1: you know, And especially my senior year, I was literally

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Speaker 1: making more money than my teachers. I bought a house

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Speaker 1: while I was still a senior in high school and

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Speaker 1: so it was kind of like there were all these

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Speaker 1: signs that just said you have you know, you're you're

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Speaker 1: already doing something. You have a career, and my parents

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Speaker 1: were worried that it was short lived, which they were

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Speaker 1: absolutely right to um, and so they they encouraged me

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Speaker 1: to maybe take some college courses, you know, on the side,

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Speaker 1: or at a community college. That I went to a college,

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Speaker 1: and I looked at the kind of curriculum that I

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Speaker 1: would have and I said, Mom, if I do this,

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Speaker 1: I won't be able to go to these events, like

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Speaker 1: these competitions on the weekend, which is what's fueling my career.

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Speaker 1: Because back in those days, the only thing people cared

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Speaker 1: about was your titian record, and if you weren't able

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Speaker 1: to go to those, forget it. You're not making living

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Speaker 1: as a skater. You're not getting magazine coverage and not

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Speaker 1: giving you professional skateboard models. Okay, let's go back. So

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Speaker 1: you're starting ten, your tens, that's the middle seventies. And

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Speaker 1: then you say, because of liability of the skateboards, parks

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Speaker 1: died out. Yes, okay, I'd say like around eighty three ish. Okay,

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Speaker 1: to what degree is their infrastructure that point in terms

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Speaker 1: of skate shop, skate magazines, etcetera. Well at all. There

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Speaker 1: was sort of a reorganization then, so everything everything collapsed

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Speaker 1: from the inside out. For the most part. On that

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Speaker 1: skate brands were just going up, you know, they were

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Speaker 1: all going on a business. My my sponsors. So my

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Speaker 1: my first sponsor was Dogtown Skateboards. I would go there

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Speaker 1: would manufacturer was in San Diego. At one point they

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Speaker 1: just said, oh, if you need skateboards, just go to

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Speaker 1: the wood pressing and go get your own. Like, these

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Speaker 1: are skateboards that are no have no graphics on them,

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Speaker 1: having a label on them, but they're Dogtown skateboards. So

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Speaker 1: I was getting those and putting Dogtown stickers on them.

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Speaker 1: And then sometime around that I stopped hearing from them.

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Speaker 1: And then I got a call from Stacy Pelta, who

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Speaker 1: was widely regarded as the one of the most legendary

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Speaker 1: pro skaters but also um a curator one of the

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Speaker 1: best teams, and he called me and said, uh, hey,

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Speaker 1: I heard Dogtown went out of business. I felt I

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Speaker 1: wouldn't have known. This is the same dog Town in

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Speaker 1: Santa Monica that they made the movie about it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So I was on the very tail end of that

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Speaker 1: as a young gramin amateur. So but but that's that's

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Speaker 1: just an example of one of the business like that.

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Speaker 1: Literally the company involved with there was there was one

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Speaker 1: skateboard magazine, skateboarder, skateboarder magazine that transformed into they called

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Speaker 1: Action Now and then it covered like motocross and snowboarding,

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Speaker 1: and it was kind of ahead of its time because

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Speaker 1: they're those were all fringe sports. They weren't even labeled

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Speaker 1: extreme yet, and so they called it Action Now and

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Speaker 1: that was the only skate magazine. Then Action Now went

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Speaker 1: on the business. Then there was no skate magazine were

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Speaker 1: and we're putting this about a D three eight two

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Speaker 1: eighty three, and then Thrasher started. Okay, a couple how

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Speaker 1: old your fourteen? And then what can you tell us

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Speaker 1: about Thrasher starting? Because you know all these people, uh

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Speaker 1: it was it's Thrasher started. It was it was a

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Speaker 1: newspaper print skate magazine. Um, and we're just excited to

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Speaker 1: have a skate magazine, you know. And the content was

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Speaker 1: it was the usual fair It was like it was

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Speaker 1: competitions and a little bit of street stuff, but it

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Speaker 1: was it was very geared towards a skate distributor started it,

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Speaker 1: so it was geared towards their brands that they distributed.

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Speaker 1: Still it is kind of but it's more North calcentric. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And then another scape, the sort of antithesicist skate magazine

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Speaker 1: started called trans World Skateboarding, and their goal was to

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Speaker 1: promote like healthy skateboarding, and then it became this weird

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Speaker 1: like good and bad thing and um, but that's where

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Speaker 1: it all started. And Thrasher obviously still exists, right, and

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Speaker 1: trans World got into snowboarding and other things Transford, I mean,

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Speaker 1: it was transform media. Okay, so it dies in the

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Speaker 1: early eighties. Your fourteen, when do you go to your

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Speaker 1: first competition? Well, my first competition was when I was

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Speaker 1: about ten years old, and because as just at out oasis,

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Speaker 1: I just went, like one one weekend they're having a competition.

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Speaker 1: So I signed up and you know, filled all the

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Speaker 1: paperwork and then they called my name when I did

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Speaker 1: my little run, and then I went and asked what

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Speaker 1: the results were. And this woman, I'll never forget, she

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Speaker 1: was going through the results and she had a sheet

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Speaker 1: of paperwork and I said, can you tell me you

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Speaker 1: know what place I got? What's your name? Honey? So

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Speaker 1: she look at the paper. She she like folds over

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Speaker 1: one paper, she folds over the next paper. Finally she

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Speaker 1: gets to the last column and I'm second to last

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Speaker 1: out of like a hundred and how great is that?

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Speaker 1: So your second second I'll never get the look she

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Speaker 1: gave me. She's like, Oh, I'm sorry, honey. You got

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Speaker 1: four through whatever it was, so your second to lass

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Speaker 1: and what goes through your brain? Uh? I didn't really know.

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Speaker 1: I think what because went went through my brain at

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Speaker 1: the time. You know, I wasn't trying to make career.

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Speaker 1: No one was making I was yeah and whatever it was.

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Speaker 1: But it was more like, oh, I gotta figure out

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Speaker 1: how to do better tricks, or I gotta figure out

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Speaker 1: a better approach, because my approach was that I thought

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Speaker 1: I was supposed to submit the tricks that I can do,

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Speaker 1: to tell them ahead of time, and then do that thing.

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Speaker 1: And I there was no room for being spontaneous. There

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Speaker 1: was no creativity really, and I was like, I gotta

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Speaker 1: figure out better tricks. It will get me noticed. And

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Speaker 1: that was pretty much the catalyst for sort of creating

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Speaker 1: my own style. Okay, how do you learn those tricks?

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Speaker 1: I just started tinkering with different ways to like spin

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Speaker 1: my board and and do tricks that were not of

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Speaker 1: It was more out of um necessity, because I wasn't

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Speaker 1: big enough to do these really these really gnarly tricks

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Speaker 1: at the top of the bowl and things like that

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Speaker 1: that the guys we're doing. I mean, I figured out

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Speaker 1: how to do little aerials and things, but but I

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Speaker 1: knew how to maneuver my board and and and switch

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Speaker 1: my body around and do these relate what they called

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Speaker 1: at the time avant garde tricks that didn't get much

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Speaker 1: traction but set me apart. Okay, so you literally on

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Speaker 1: your own trip. No one else is doing the same thing.

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Speaker 1: No one but for those of us who's certainly been

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Speaker 1: to the skate park and watched it takes an incredible

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Speaker 1: amount of repetition and failure to master these tricks. It does,

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Speaker 1: but it was it was less so then because the

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Speaker 1: tricks that you were learning back then, you were learning

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Speaker 1: them for the sake of competition. So you're learning them

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Speaker 1: to get consistent with them. Nowadays, you can do a trick,

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Speaker 1: you make one out of a thousand, get it on video.

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Speaker 1: You know it's hero. But it was not like that

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Speaker 1: back then. We didn't have videos. We only had competition

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Speaker 1: to prove ourselves. So you had to learn stuff and

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Speaker 1: get it dialed and put it in your competition run.

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Speaker 1: That's how you're gonna get noticed with And how long

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Speaker 1: was a competition run? Seconds? Seconds? And when you it's

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Speaker 1: it's whether we're heroes hit San Diego? Mean you're number

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Speaker 1: ninety four? Was there a big cahun in the skate

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Speaker 1: park in San Diego? Uh? Yeah, Dave Andreks he was

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Speaker 1: the local hero. That's why I wanted going stickers. He

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Speaker 1: read for going. Okay, So I mean, are you up

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Speaker 1: in your bedroom at night plotting this or is this

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Speaker 1: just one thing you're doing? It was just one thing

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Speaker 1: I was doing. It wasn't until I guess, by default,

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Speaker 1: the way that skating started to get really I don't

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Speaker 1: want to say exclusive, but it started getting very narrow,

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Speaker 1: you know. And there wasn't a lot of competition. There

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Speaker 1: wasn't a lot of interest. I was still skating a

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Speaker 1: lot and and learning tricks. And the skate park had

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Speaker 1: a tryouts for their skate park team, um and that

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Speaker 1: team was going to go represent that park at different

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Speaker 1: parks for this competition called ASPO Associated Skate Park Owners

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Speaker 1: and so I went to the tryouts and I don't

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Speaker 1: think I was the best skater at the tryouts for

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Speaker 1: my age group, but I made everything and they picked

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Speaker 1: me for the team. I made all my tricks, and

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Speaker 1: the other guys that I thought were better than me,

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Speaker 1: they were trying really hard things, but they weren't consistent,

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Speaker 1: and so they picked me, and suddenly I was on.

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Speaker 1: I was representing Oasis as a skate park team member.

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Speaker 1: So you originally went to Oasis with your friends. Did

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Speaker 1: they stick with it or they fall off? Okay, they quit?

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Speaker 1: So were you friendly with all these people in Oasis?

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Speaker 1: I found my community there for sure, absolutely. And the the

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Speaker 1: locals were, like I said, skating was kind of drying up.

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Speaker 1: So there were only a handful of locals and that

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Speaker 1: became my That was my crew, and they were all

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Speaker 1: from different walks of live, different age groups. You know,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't like they were they were my peers in

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Speaker 1: the sense of same age or the same area. Which

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Speaker 1: was super cool because I got to know, you know,

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Speaker 1: I I learned about punk music back then. I I

397
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Speaker 1: was hanging out with dudes that a mohawks and and

398
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Speaker 1: you know, people that were coming from really difficult backgrounds

399
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Speaker 1: that found skating as a salvation and and and I

400
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Speaker 1: just learned so much through that. Your parents have any

401
00:20:04,359 --> 00:20:06,640
Speaker 1: idea of what was going on there? My parents became

402
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Speaker 1: their surrogate parents. Yeah, because they really liked the They

403
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Speaker 1: like the creativity and the they liked what it had

404
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Speaker 1: given me, and they were helping to They wanted to

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Speaker 1: help the other kids as well, the ones that we're

406
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Speaker 1: having trouble, and so we would have like if there

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Speaker 1: was a competition in San Diego at Oasis, there would

408
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Speaker 1: be ten dudes sleeping at our house from all. Yeah,

409
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Speaker 1: and that's the kind of parents your parents are in

410
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Speaker 1: terms of your house. You have an open door policysel

411
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Speaker 1: uh to an extent. Yeah. So now you're on the

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Speaker 1: Oasis team. Yeah, and how often are you competing? Um?

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Speaker 1: The series is was usually during the summer for a

414
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Speaker 1: couple of months, you know, every other weekend or so. Uh.

415
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Speaker 1: And then we would just be gaining points for our

416
00:20:49,680 --> 00:20:51,840
Speaker 1: for our team or whatnot. And then eventually, you know,

417
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Speaker 1: the guys who were really succeeding would end up getting

418
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Speaker 1: real sponsors and they would move up a class of

419
00:20:58,359 --> 00:21:04,560
Speaker 1: of Um. So where do you fit in all this? Uh?

420
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Speaker 1: I got sponsored by Dogtown right around that same time.

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00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:12,199
Speaker 1: Eventually got sponsored by Powell my first year on Powell,

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Speaker 1: or made my second year on on pal Perelta, which

423
00:21:15,359 --> 00:21:20,760
Speaker 1: was Stacy Pearlti's company. That's when I won the amateur circuit. Like, oh,

424
00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:25,000
Speaker 1: let's go way back before that, so it's not that far.

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Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, okay, so you're not. You're number ninety four.

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Speaker 1: Then you come up with your own track tricks. Then

427
00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:35,000
Speaker 1: you're on the team. When you first start going to competitions,

428
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:38,240
Speaker 1: how do you do? I was usually in like the

429
00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:41,680
Speaker 1: top three, okay, And you're attributing that to the fact

430
00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:44,560
Speaker 1: you made up your own tricks, okay. And I put

431
00:21:44,560 --> 00:21:46,920
Speaker 1: the I put the effort into getting used to different terrain.

432
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:49,120
Speaker 1: A lot of the skaters back then we're only good

433
00:21:49,119 --> 00:21:53,080
Speaker 1: in their home park. And you did that how well.

434
00:21:53,119 --> 00:21:55,760
Speaker 1: I would try to get to the other parks as

435
00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:57,520
Speaker 1: much as I could, and my dad would make these

436
00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:00,000
Speaker 1: day trips where he would load a bunch of people

437
00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:04,879
Speaker 1: in his camper, in his UH pickup truck camper, and

438
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:06,719
Speaker 1: we would go like we would we would drive from

439
00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:09,920
Speaker 1: San Diego to Recida really for the day, and everyone

440
00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:11,960
Speaker 1: get to practice at the Resida Park for the day

441
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:16,080
Speaker 1: and then we would come home or like a friend

442
00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:19,440
Speaker 1: of a friend. I mean I remember I remember getting

443
00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:22,320
Speaker 1: in the back of a pickup truck in San Diego, um,

444
00:22:22,359 --> 00:22:24,800
Speaker 1: putting a tarp over me and my friend, and then

445
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:28,920
Speaker 1: he drove us to Upland to go practice. And that's

446
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:32,679
Speaker 1: that's what we had to do. It happened, Yeah, and

447
00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:35,439
Speaker 1: and I don't look back on that thing like that

448
00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:37,399
Speaker 1: was the struggle that was. It was more like that

449
00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:41,040
Speaker 1: was an adventure. It was super dangerous. Of course. I

450
00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:43,359
Speaker 1: remember going to boys Scout camp before they changed all

451
00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:44,679
Speaker 1: the rules and we could ride to the back of

452
00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:49,480
Speaker 1: the pickup trap. They can't you do that anymore. But

453
00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:53,439
Speaker 1: as I say, go you when how many competitions before

454
00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:58,320
Speaker 1: your top three? I would say within the first second

455
00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:02,639
Speaker 1: year of competition in my division. But pop three is

456
00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:06,800
Speaker 1: pop three? Yeah, what's going through your brain? Then? Uh,

457
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:10,879
Speaker 1: it's so weird, you know, it's it's I wasn't aspiring

458
00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:13,240
Speaker 1: to do it for a living. I wasn't aspiring to

459
00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:15,359
Speaker 1: be number one or anything, because well, I wanted I

460
00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:18,960
Speaker 1: wanted to do well. But skating was such the small

461
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:23,119
Speaker 1: industry that you didn't dream of fame or fortune because

462
00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:26,960
Speaker 1: no one had it. It didn't exist. So I guess

463
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:29,520
Speaker 1: that's that's the strange. Well that's the lucky thing for me.

464
00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:31,159
Speaker 1: And I was young enough that I didn't have to

465
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:34,840
Speaker 1: worry about that so much. Um. But as I did

466
00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:38,480
Speaker 1: start to do better, then suddenly it was like, oh wait,

467
00:23:38,520 --> 00:23:40,919
Speaker 1: this is you know these other I'm on the radar

468
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:45,480
Speaker 1: of of these bigger sponsors, and then eventually picked a

469
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:48,240
Speaker 1: couple of them up and then it was like, well,

470
00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:52,440
Speaker 1: these guys believe in me. I better really performed for them. Okay,

471
00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:57,320
Speaker 1: but at what moment do you internalize and say, wait

472
00:23:57,359 --> 00:24:00,159
Speaker 1: a second, not only am I good, I'm better than

473
00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:04,480
Speaker 1: most of the people. Uh. I think that was around

474
00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:07,159
Speaker 1: the time that that I got sponsored by Powell because

475
00:24:07,160 --> 00:24:12,320
Speaker 1: POAL was considered the elite team, and I went through

476
00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:15,879
Speaker 1: a lot of um issues just with self confidence and

477
00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:17,520
Speaker 1: self esteem. I was made fun of a lot, and

478
00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:19,639
Speaker 1: I was a scrawny little dude with a strange style

479
00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:23,080
Speaker 1: doing what they called circus tricks. Like I I didn't

480
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:25,879
Speaker 1: feel great about myself, but I liked what I was doing.

481
00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:29,919
Speaker 1: I like skating. When Power sponsored me, it gave me

482
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:32,479
Speaker 1: this validation that it was like they believe in what

483
00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:36,439
Speaker 1: you're doing, Like, keep keep at it, keep going that direction. Okay,

484
00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:38,680
Speaker 1: and you must have been like over the moon when

485
00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:41,960
Speaker 1: they decided to uh sponsor you. Yeah. Well I was

486
00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:45,960
Speaker 1: that and completely intimidated because suddenly I'm on the team.

487
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:48,120
Speaker 1: I mean I was on the team with Steve Caballero,

488
00:24:48,200 --> 00:24:50,200
Speaker 1: who I saw in a magazine when I was little

489
00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:53,359
Speaker 1: and gave me. He gave me the inspiration to go

490
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:55,600
Speaker 1: learn how to scape pools. You know, when I saw

491
00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:57,919
Speaker 1: him flying out of a pool, I was like, I

492
00:24:58,000 --> 00:24:59,679
Speaker 1: want to do that that. It looks like he's my

493
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:03,600
Speaker 1: side is wow. Okay, so now you're you're on the

494
00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:07,879
Speaker 1: Oasis team. How long before that burns out? Well, Oasis closed,

495
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:11,240
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. Yeah, not not much long after that,

496
00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:15,280
Speaker 1: and it closed because of liability. Yeah yeah, and obviously

497
00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:19,440
Speaker 1: UM attendance as well. Okay, So it looks even though

498
00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:22,920
Speaker 1: you're doing better and better, that the sword is dying. Yeah.

499
00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:27,280
Speaker 1: Luckily I was naive enough to not understand how what

500
00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:30,800
Speaker 1: that meant as an industry and as a future. UM.

501
00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:32,840
Speaker 1: I just knew that there were a fewer parks. That's

502
00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:35,000
Speaker 1: the only effect that had on me. Okay, So the

503
00:25:35,040 --> 00:25:37,879
Speaker 1: Oasis team is over. Where do you end up competing?

504
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:40,640
Speaker 1: Who do you end up competing for? For for power

505
00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:44,679
Speaker 1: perl to brigade Um. I got, you know, I got

506
00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:47,080
Speaker 1: a couple of re sponsors. I got a truck sponsors,

507
00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:50,639
Speaker 1: Tracker Trucks. And then eventually I started doing well in competition.

508
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:54,240
Speaker 1: I reached the top of the amateur circuit um and

509
00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:57,240
Speaker 1: a lot of my peers started going pro. And what

510
00:25:57,320 --> 00:26:00,520
Speaker 1: that men at the time, to go pro meant that

511
00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:03,040
Speaker 1: when you fill in an entry form for a competition,

512
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:05,600
Speaker 1: you tick the pro box instead of the amateur box.

513
00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:08,400
Speaker 1: I'm not kidding. That was it? Okay, but how old

514
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:12,760
Speaker 1: were you then? You're fourteen, they're going pro? You're on

515
00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:15,720
Speaker 1: so well, it was more like I was. I was

516
00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:17,480
Speaker 1: the top of the amateur circuit. Some of my peers

517
00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:20,000
Speaker 1: have gone pro. If I stayed an amateur, then I

518
00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:24,320
Speaker 1: was I was a worse because I'm just um, you know,

519
00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:28,040
Speaker 1: I'm taking it easy, I'm staking. But what did it

520
00:26:28,119 --> 00:26:31,399
Speaker 1: mean to go pro? Then? Well, you took the box.

521
00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:34,840
Speaker 1: If you were lucky and your sponsored believed in you,

522
00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:36,639
Speaker 1: they would give you a scapard with your name on it.

523
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:42,719
Speaker 1: But there was no victory schedule. Not no, okay, champagne. Okay,

524
00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:46,320
Speaker 1: so now you're where you're skating for Powell. Walk me

525
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:49,800
Speaker 1: through the next chapter. Uh so I'm skating for Powell.

526
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:53,439
Speaker 1: Eventually they did give me a pro model. Um. I

527
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,879
Speaker 1: got a couple of royalty checks. I got one for

528
00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:59,639
Speaker 1: four dollars one month. The next month, I got one

529
00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:02,640
Speaker 1: for eighty. I have sense, and you're like a sophomore

530
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:07,080
Speaker 1: junior in high school. I was a Yeah, I was

531
00:27:07,119 --> 00:27:10,320
Speaker 1: a sophomore probably at that point. So at that point

532
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:13,480
Speaker 1: you're not seeing the dream. This is just something you're doing. Yeah,

533
00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:17,120
Speaker 1: I didn't. I was stoked, of course, with my name

534
00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:20,359
Speaker 1: on it. What could be better? And and you know

535
00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:23,120
Speaker 1: the fact that I still got to skate for not

536
00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:26,280
Speaker 1: for a living, but as as my main hobby. Um.

537
00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:28,560
Speaker 1: I at some point I got to start traveling. I'ment

538
00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:30,920
Speaker 1: to Japan when I was fourteen for a TV show.

539
00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:34,560
Speaker 1: UM I went went went a little bit slower. This

540
00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:36,879
Speaker 1: is before the days of email. What the phone rings

541
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:41,720
Speaker 1: or you're with the other guys with peralta. Um. I

542
00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:45,399
Speaker 1: guess they had seen something of me on either video

543
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:47,359
Speaker 1: or you know, because then I was I was moving

544
00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:50,920
Speaker 1: through the ranks of the Pro series very quickly. From

545
00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:52,959
Speaker 1: the first year that I turned pro, I was at

546
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:57,080
Speaker 1: the top pretty much, and I pretty much again. Would

547
00:27:57,160 --> 00:27:59,280
Speaker 1: you think that's because you had your own unique tricks,

548
00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:00,920
Speaker 1: because once you do them, other people can take you.

549
00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:06,560
Speaker 1: It's also because I grew into my style. I got

550
00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:09,880
Speaker 1: it more refined, I got bigger, I got stronger, and

551
00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:13,000
Speaker 1: suddenly I had that power that I wanted, you know

552
00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:14,879
Speaker 1: that I thought that I wanted to emulate from the

553
00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:17,040
Speaker 1: older guys when I saw them at first. Suddenly I

554
00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:20,280
Speaker 1: was that size and the size of the the bulls

555
00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:22,360
Speaker 1: and things where wasn't as intimidating and something. I could

556
00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:26,639
Speaker 1: do these really difficult tricks at new heights and it

557
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:29,400
Speaker 1: was like this perfect storm of of my puberty and

558
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:32,760
Speaker 1: my skill set all coming together. Okay, but I'm interested

559
00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:36,959
Speaker 1: in the internal element because anybody has competed at an

560
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:39,959
Speaker 1: elite level knows the people at the top. It's kind

561
00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:42,040
Speaker 1: of funny. You can skate with him every day, but

562
00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:45,840
Speaker 1: like I used to worry, you know, ski professionally, and

563
00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:47,720
Speaker 1: there were guys used to the world champion. This is

564
00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:50,520
Speaker 1: freestyle skiing in the seventies. He would be better in competition,

565
00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:54,160
Speaker 1: you know, he didn't choke. He went up to another

566
00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 1: level okay, and there was an internalization where he felt

567
00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:01,440
Speaker 1: comfortable with his abilities. I'm interested in how you felt

568
00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:04,320
Speaker 1: yourself independent, you to say when I have this nailed,

569
00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:08,600
Speaker 1: I'm better than everybody, or you're insecure, or what is it? Um?

570
00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:15,680
Speaker 1: I I would obsess on competitions to the point where

571
00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:19,280
Speaker 1: I to the point where my routines became boring to me.

572
00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:23,480
Speaker 1: And I knew that I had that most of these,

573
00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:25,600
Speaker 1: you know, I had. I had all the components to

574
00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:29,160
Speaker 1: the run I wanted, and when it came time to compete,

575
00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:31,800
Speaker 1: I could put them all together and feel confident with it.

576
00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:33,920
Speaker 1: So I definitely had that where I did up it

577
00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:37,800
Speaker 1: when the time came time to compete. But I think

578
00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:43,440
Speaker 1: that it was in that moment that that like a

579
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:45,200
Speaker 1: lot of the guys, you know, we are coming into

580
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:47,200
Speaker 1: our teen years, a lot of distractions. People are starting

581
00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:49,960
Speaker 1: to party and stuff like that. I never I wanted

582
00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:52,240
Speaker 1: to do that because I didn't want to. I don't

583
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:54,360
Speaker 1: want my skills to fade at all, and and I

584
00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:57,120
Speaker 1: didn't want my success to fade. And I felt because

585
00:29:57,120 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 1: I had been you know, we we've come so far

586
00:29:59,840 --> 00:30:02,120
Speaker 1: in society and whatnot. But you know, I was buoyed

587
00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:04,400
Speaker 1: for the most part when I was a kid, before

588
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:06,520
Speaker 1: I started skating, and even when I did start skating

589
00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:09,600
Speaker 1: by the older generation and all. I just always was

590
00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:11,600
Speaker 1: trying to prove myself. You know that that gave me

591
00:30:11,680 --> 00:30:14,480
Speaker 1: this fire to to keep. And you're in high school

592
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:16,680
Speaker 1: and you're getting successful. Give you any status in the

593
00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:19,320
Speaker 1: high school, that's okay. The irony of that is is

594
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:22,240
Speaker 1: I would go to these competitions, you know, I'd say

595
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:23,920
Speaker 1: I had to go to Florida for this big event,

596
00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:26,600
Speaker 1: to be thousand people there cheering and they think I

597
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:28,840
Speaker 1: was great and whatnot. To come back to to high school,

598
00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:32,600
Speaker 1: I was a ghost like and I would sometimes hide

599
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:36,760
Speaker 1: my skateboard because people thought there was a stigma was skating.

600
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:39,320
Speaker 1: It was like you still skate like it was like

601
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:42,160
Speaker 1: you used to bringing a yo yo to school, right right? Okay,

602
00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:44,200
Speaker 1: go back to your fourteen and you go to Japan.

603
00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:47,800
Speaker 1: How that comes together? Uh so? They I I don't

604
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:50,640
Speaker 1: really know the details of it. I know that they

605
00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:53,480
Speaker 1: called my sponsor and said, hey, we we would like

606
00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:56,240
Speaker 1: to bring him. It's it's sort of I forgot what

607
00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:58,479
Speaker 1: it was called, something about talent you know the talented

608
00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:03,440
Speaker 1: Kids show kind of like that's incredib all kids back then. Um,

609
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:06,600
Speaker 1: you know. One of the other acts was this this

610
00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:10,200
Speaker 1: group of sisters all sort of um middle school age

611
00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:13,360
Speaker 1: that had a band um and they were all from America.

612
00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:15,760
Speaker 1: It was just you. Wasn't the whole team. It was

613
00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:19,960
Speaker 1: just me. And then they had to assign uh, sort

614
00:31:19,960 --> 00:31:23,320
Speaker 1: of an escort to me, a translator. After did you

615
00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:25,040
Speaker 1: get on the plane alone and you go with your mother? What?

616
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:27,840
Speaker 1: I got on the plane with my with my handler.

617
00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:30,480
Speaker 1: Then they assigned to me. Really, so somebody you didn't

618
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:32,680
Speaker 1: know and your parents went in from Japan, flew to

619
00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:35,320
Speaker 1: l A, met me in l A, flew me to Japan.

620
00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:39,000
Speaker 1: What'd your parents say? They thought it was awesome? Okay,

621
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 1: so you go to Japan, I gotta ask they fly

622
00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:42,480
Speaker 1: in the back of the plane to the front of

623
00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:45,600
Speaker 1: the plane. Oh no, there was no first class. So

624
00:31:46,640 --> 00:31:50,120
Speaker 1: as as successful and as as full of ourselves so

625
00:31:50,160 --> 00:31:52,280
Speaker 1: to speak, as we were back then, we were not

626
00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:55,640
Speaker 1: living large ever ever. So you got to Japan. How

627
00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:59,120
Speaker 1: long were you in Japan? Four? About four days? Five days? Okay?

628
00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:00,760
Speaker 1: So is it like being a rock star you could

629
00:32:00,800 --> 00:32:02,880
Speaker 1: be anywhere or did you actually see what was going

630
00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:07,560
Speaker 1: on in Japan? Um? What do you mean? Okay? You know, uh,

631
00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:10,560
Speaker 1: this guy and Neil was sequestered. You know Neil Preston,

632
00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:12,440
Speaker 1: he was a photographer for led Zepp. When he says,

633
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:15,600
Speaker 1: I've been all over the world, I've seen nothing. Oh

634
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:18,160
Speaker 1: uh no, they got they showed me around. You know.

635
00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:21,960
Speaker 1: My my um my handler was very good at just

636
00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:23,840
Speaker 1: because she knew I was super excited, and I was.

637
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:27,200
Speaker 1: I was just bewildered with everything. And so she took

638
00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:29,720
Speaker 1: me to some of the tourist spots and you know,

639
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:32,560
Speaker 1: they filmed me. I forgot to bring a new pair

640
00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:34,560
Speaker 1: of shoes. They filmed me going to buy shoes, and

641
00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:38,360
Speaker 1: and it was I mean, it was life changing for

642
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:39,840
Speaker 1: me because it was the first time I had traveled

643
00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:42,160
Speaker 1: abroad and and I was alone, I was in Japan.

644
00:32:42,240 --> 00:32:45,040
Speaker 1: It was all it was exciting, right, Okay, So at

645
00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:47,960
Speaker 1: that time forgetting the trip to Japan to what degree,

646
00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:52,880
Speaker 1: how frequent were competitions? Uh, they started to get more

647
00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:56,320
Speaker 1: and more frequent around that time. So I would say

648
00:32:56,360 --> 00:33:00,320
Speaker 1: every three or four weeks, And how often would you

649
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:01,800
Speaker 1: have to get on a plane or somewhere to go

650
00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:05,440
Speaker 1: st to a competition. Um, but the same there there

651
00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:08,160
Speaker 1: were some sometimes we were doing exhibitions in between those.

652
00:33:08,280 --> 00:33:09,600
Speaker 1: You know, every once in a while we get called

653
00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:13,280
Speaker 1: some big skate shop would want to put up, you know,

654
00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:15,640
Speaker 1: a skate thing, and we would go do that and

655
00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:18,240
Speaker 1: then uh, and then they started putting together tours. So

656
00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:19,920
Speaker 1: we would actually go out on the road for five

657
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:23,160
Speaker 1: weeks in a van, five of us with a bunch

658
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:26,840
Speaker 1: of ramps shoved into the back, like we would travel

659
00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:28,600
Speaker 1: with our own little skate park and put it up

660
00:33:28,600 --> 00:33:31,160
Speaker 1: in a parking lot. At what point does it turn

661
00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:35,640
Speaker 1: into money? Um? Around the time for me, around the

662
00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:38,160
Speaker 1: time I was sixteen. Okay, what change that turns it

663
00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:42,120
Speaker 1: into money? Uh? The hype the skating started to get popular.

664
00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:44,000
Speaker 1: I mean you started to see it on TV. Like

665
00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:47,640
Speaker 1: in the eighties. Back to the Future was a big deal. Yeah,

666
00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:50,000
Speaker 1: a lot of people in that generation started skating because

667
00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:53,760
Speaker 1: back to the Future that's amazing. Put those together. So

668
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:57,160
Speaker 1: you're not getting paid how by winning competition, by sponsorships,

669
00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:02,640
Speaker 1: mostly by royalties skateboard royalties. Um, the boards. What's the

670
00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:08,160
Speaker 1: traditional deal back then? Uh? I think that roughly you

671
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:17,520
Speaker 1: got about a dollar per skateboard they sold. Uh, we started.

672
00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:21,399
Speaker 1: I mean, what do we know? You know, we were yeah,

673
00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:24,000
Speaker 1: and and there was no like, there's no template for this.

674
00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:27,600
Speaker 1: We didn't know how we're supposed to handle this or what,

675
00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:29,880
Speaker 1: you know, what the best way to save money is

676
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:32,879
Speaker 1: and whatnot. And suddenly we are making ten grand a month.

677
00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:36,279
Speaker 1: And then it turned into like sometimes twenty okay, of

678
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:39,520
Speaker 1: the ten grand a month, most of that was board royalties,

679
00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:42,359
Speaker 1: all of it. That's a lot of boards. That's ten

680
00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:48,200
Speaker 1: tho boards. Yeah, it And and then we're like we're invincible.

681
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:51,040
Speaker 1: We're buying you know, we're buying cars and we're flying

682
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:54,400
Speaker 1: our friends of Hawaii and and you know, not realizing

683
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:55,759
Speaker 1: that we got a half of that we got to

684
00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,920
Speaker 1: say for taxes, of course. Um, and I was I

685
00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:01,319
Speaker 1: was really thankful that. You know, the reason I bought

686
00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:03,399
Speaker 1: a house is because my dad encouraged me. He saw

687
00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:05,120
Speaker 1: this money and it was substantial, and he's like, you

688
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:07,160
Speaker 1: gotta put something away, you really got to say, for

689
00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:09,080
Speaker 1: the future. And it's like, what are you talking about,

690
00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:10,920
Speaker 1: because like I used to my house, like, yeah, my

691
00:35:10,960 --> 00:35:17,799
Speaker 1: own house. So hi, everyone Bob left sets here. I'm

692
00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:20,200
Speaker 1: humbled by the initiable response of the podcast, and I've

693
00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:22,840
Speaker 1: been able to line up some excellent guests in future episodes.

694
00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:25,640
Speaker 1: I can't wait to share those. I think you're in

695
00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:29,160
Speaker 1: for a treat, so be sure to subscribe, leave reviews,

696
00:35:29,239 --> 00:35:32,000
Speaker 1: tell your friend it's gonna be a big year. And

697
00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:36,520
Speaker 1: now more with Tony Harn. Okay, so now you're in

698
00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:38,560
Speaker 1: high school, you're doing all this stuff and you're making

699
00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:43,799
Speaker 1: more money than the teachers, etcetera. Say I found my calling. Okay,

700
00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:48,200
Speaker 1: for those of us you know who think about your ubiquity,

701
00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:51,640
Speaker 1: it really kind of coincided with the X Games. Would

702
00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:54,719
Speaker 1: you say the same thing? Um? Yeah, I mean there's

703
00:35:54,719 --> 00:35:58,839
Speaker 1: a lot of skipping, a sort of no, don't skip it.

704
00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:00,839
Speaker 1: Don't skip it. That's what. Want to know how we

705
00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:04,719
Speaker 1: get to there? Okay, So that that hype of the

706
00:36:04,760 --> 00:36:08,080
Speaker 1: eighties was was relatively short lived. I would say that

707
00:36:08,080 --> 00:36:14,960
Speaker 1: the gravy days were eight six to where we were

708
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:17,960
Speaker 1: making a lot of money. You know, we're being recognized,

709
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:22,040
Speaker 1: We're being asked to perform, to go on TV, to

710
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:25,839
Speaker 1: do videos and whatnot. Um. I spread myself extra thin

711
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:28,319
Speaker 1: with mortgages. I bought another place with a lot of

712
00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:31,400
Speaker 1: properties so I could build my own ramps and around

713
00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:37,360
Speaker 1: ninety everything started falling. And I mean like skating again.

714
00:36:37,600 --> 00:36:39,680
Speaker 1: The skate parks that were being built at the time,

715
00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:42,280
Speaker 1: they weren't concrete anymore, they were generally made of wood.

716
00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:45,880
Speaker 1: They all lost their liability. Skating was considered a fad.

717
00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:49,960
Speaker 1: People started to quit. Uh my income drop by half

718
00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:53,399
Speaker 1: every month without every kidding, not kidding. Yet how load

719
00:36:53,400 --> 00:36:57,920
Speaker 1: did it ultimately go? You know, relatively non existent? I

720
00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:04,279
Speaker 1: mean in ninety one, Um, I found myself with two mortgages. Uh,

721
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:07,239
Speaker 1: money just not coming in at all, and I was

722
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:10,280
Speaker 1: scrambling to do whatever I could, and luckily my name

723
00:37:10,360 --> 00:37:13,280
Speaker 1: was it was still sort of out there in the ether,

724
00:37:13,560 --> 00:37:17,839
Speaker 1: can you know, with skateboarding. So, for instance, they would

725
00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:21,279
Speaker 1: do they're gonna do a commercial. Let me see what

726
00:37:21,360 --> 00:37:23,720
Speaker 1: was the commercial. There was a coat commercial for Japan

727
00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:26,640
Speaker 1: and they said, oh, we need we need stunt skaters

728
00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:30,360
Speaker 1: and we need a skate coordinator and they called me up. Okay,

729
00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:33,319
Speaker 1: you had no handler, anybody which went directly to you. Yeah,

730
00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:38,640
Speaker 1: and I'm just getting scale, but absolutely, But I'm about

731
00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:40,640
Speaker 1: a segue to a different thing, which I find fascinating.

732
00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:43,800
Speaker 1: You buy your own house, but you also got married

733
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:47,080
Speaker 1: and had a kid. Yeah, well that's so that comes

734
00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:49,719
Speaker 1: right at the tail end of all this dropping. So

735
00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:52,480
Speaker 1: I happened at the tail end. I didn't know, as

736
00:37:52,520 --> 00:37:55,120
Speaker 1: this is all sort of dropping, like when it's getting dire,

737
00:37:55,320 --> 00:37:59,520
Speaker 1: that's when we have a child on the way, and

738
00:37:59,560 --> 00:38:02,719
Speaker 1: it's like this is this is it? Like I don't

739
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:07,040
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm not sure how to part lay

740
00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:09,959
Speaker 1: this career into something else. I don't want to get

741
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,200
Speaker 1: a nine to five job necessarily, but I will if

742
00:38:12,200 --> 00:38:16,000
Speaker 1: I have to. And so I took my I mean

743
00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:18,160
Speaker 1: this is literally like all at the same exact time.

744
00:38:18,200 --> 00:38:21,160
Speaker 1: I took my equity in my house that I was

745
00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:25,120
Speaker 1: in then um and used it to start a skate company,

746
00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:29,560
Speaker 1: which seems like it seems like deeper, but for me

747
00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:33,320
Speaker 1: it was my In my eyes, skating it was cyclical.

748
00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:35,640
Speaker 1: It had come and gone twice already in my like

749
00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:39,480
Speaker 1: while I was doing it, Um, it's bound to come

750
00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:41,760
Speaker 1: around again. I feel like there's so I always knew

751
00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:44,120
Speaker 1: there was something more to skating than the general public

752
00:38:44,200 --> 00:38:46,040
Speaker 1: was seeing. You know, they were just seeing like the

753
00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:48,200
Speaker 1: crazy graphics and the hard news and the punk music,

754
00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:50,920
Speaker 1: and it was like there's something else here. There's you know,

755
00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:54,279
Speaker 1: there's a there's something that provides two kids that they

756
00:38:54,320 --> 00:38:56,440
Speaker 1: can't find anywhere else, the ones that don't fit in,

757
00:38:56,600 --> 00:38:59,360
Speaker 1: the ones that you know, don't like team sports or

758
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:02,440
Speaker 1: whatever it is. There's an artistic element as well. And

759
00:39:03,040 --> 00:39:05,400
Speaker 1: I wanted to be in the skate industry, and I

760
00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:07,520
Speaker 1: thought my career as a skater was over. I really did.

761
00:39:07,520 --> 00:39:09,839
Speaker 1: I was like, I've I run my chorus as a pro.

762
00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:12,440
Speaker 1: You know, I was on number one for ten years

763
00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:15,960
Speaker 1: in competition, and I want to form my own company

764
00:39:15,960 --> 00:39:17,600
Speaker 1: and do my have my own direction and get my

765
00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:20,960
Speaker 1: own skater. So I did, Okay, you totally did it

766
00:39:21,040 --> 00:39:23,640
Speaker 1: on experience. Did you have a friend and mentor any

767
00:39:23,680 --> 00:39:26,480
Speaker 1: of that stuff. I had another I had a friend

768
00:39:26,520 --> 00:39:29,239
Speaker 1: that was a former pro skater. Well, coincidentally the guy

769
00:39:29,239 --> 00:39:31,759
Speaker 1: who did the skating and Back to the Future um

770
00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:34,040
Speaker 1: Para wheelander who was but he had a business degree,

771
00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:36,480
Speaker 1: and he said, hey, I heard you're thinking about making

772
00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:39,120
Speaker 1: a move. I would like to pool our funds together

773
00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:43,359
Speaker 1: and do something because I have the business Yeah, exp well,

774
00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:47,839
Speaker 1: expertise that more knowledge, you do it? Yes exactly, and uh,

775
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:49,600
Speaker 1: and I said, yeah, let's do it. So we formed

776
00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:54,280
Speaker 1: a distribution company with a skate brand inside of it. Birdhouse. Um,

777
00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:57,080
Speaker 1: and off we went. And you know, at at one

778
00:39:57,080 --> 00:40:01,120
Speaker 1: point there were three of us that worked for the company. Uh.

779
00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:05,680
Speaker 1: I was doing graphics, ads, videos, team management and being

780
00:40:05,719 --> 00:40:09,399
Speaker 1: a pro skater at the same time. Um. It took

781
00:40:10,040 --> 00:40:12,880
Speaker 1: all my time. You know, it was super Obviously it

782
00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:17,440
Speaker 1: was a big strain on a marriage and can a toddler. Um.

783
00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:19,960
Speaker 1: But you know that was the dream for me. That

784
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:22,400
Speaker 1: was the dream was to have a company. And what

785
00:40:22,440 --> 00:40:25,200
Speaker 1: are the other two guys do? Uh? Well they did.

786
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:28,399
Speaker 1: They did most of the paperwork, phone call calling shops. Say,

787
00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:33,000
Speaker 1: so you start. Was it successful from the start? No? Um, no,

788
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:37,239
Speaker 1: I mean nothing was. We made a splash, like we

789
00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:39,440
Speaker 1: we were on the radar. I think what I what

790
00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:43,239
Speaker 1: I knew back then and in hindsight especially, is that

791
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:46,279
Speaker 1: it didn't take a lot of capital for us to

792
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:50,600
Speaker 1: be known because skating was so small, so for us

793
00:40:50,600 --> 00:40:53,000
Speaker 1: to get like say the back page of trans World

794
00:40:53,040 --> 00:40:56,920
Speaker 1: or Thrashing. They were begging for advertisers. So we positioned

795
00:40:56,920 --> 00:40:59,520
Speaker 1: ourselves pretty well at the time when didn't cost a lot,

796
00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:02,080
Speaker 1: and we were we were making really good videos. I

797
00:41:02,120 --> 00:41:03,560
Speaker 1: had an eye for talent, I had one of the

798
00:41:03,560 --> 00:41:07,000
Speaker 1: best teams. So our videos were you know, they were

799
00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:10,759
Speaker 1: they were sought after. UM. So we were Let's just

800
00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:13,400
Speaker 1: say that we were staying above water, okay, and you

801
00:41:13,480 --> 00:41:18,160
Speaker 1: make big mistakes, uh not at the time. UM. I

802
00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:20,720
Speaker 1: think the mistake that we made was that we thought

803
00:41:20,800 --> 00:41:24,560
Speaker 1: that it was gonna turn around quicker. So somewhere around

804
00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:29,799
Speaker 1: the third year of business, pair and I had had

805
00:41:29,840 --> 00:41:32,960
Speaker 1: a pretty heavy discussion about how do we disband this?

806
00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:38,480
Speaker 1: You know this, because we can't we barely stay afloat um.

807
00:41:38,760 --> 00:41:42,080
Speaker 1: And that's right when the X game started. Okay, so

808
00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:47,640
Speaker 1: you did you break up? Are the partnership? We both

809
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:50,160
Speaker 1: we both took pay cuts, were just said we gotta okay,

810
00:41:50,239 --> 00:41:51,800
Speaker 1: let me ask you this. How do you decide to

811
00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:58,479
Speaker 1: get married at age two? I? UM, I had been

812
00:41:58,560 --> 00:42:02,040
Speaker 1: with the same uh girlfriend for a while. We lived together,

813
00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:05,200
Speaker 1: and there was a little bit of outside pressure where

814
00:42:05,200 --> 00:42:06,920
Speaker 1: it was like you guys lived together, you know, it

815
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:09,080
Speaker 1: was that era. It was just like what how do you?

816
00:42:09,120 --> 00:42:11,399
Speaker 1: How does that work? And so we got We got

817
00:42:11,440 --> 00:42:13,840
Speaker 1: married because we thought that was the natural progression. We

818
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:18,040
Speaker 1: were both way too young and working at the time.

819
00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:20,400
Speaker 1: She was working full time, yeah, as a manicurist, and

820
00:42:20,440 --> 00:42:22,480
Speaker 1: she was the breadwinner at the time when we got married,

821
00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:26,080
Speaker 1: and then how did you decide to have a kid? Uh?

822
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:28,920
Speaker 1: I don't think it was a conscious decision. But so

823
00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:30,560
Speaker 1: you're like, twenty three year old old with a kid.

824
00:42:30,600 --> 00:42:34,120
Speaker 1: What did I don't even have kids? What is that? Um?

825
00:42:34,200 --> 00:42:38,359
Speaker 1: You know, it's weird. It was I've I have many

826
00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:40,759
Speaker 1: children now, so I know, you know, I have a

827
00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:43,360
Speaker 1: better road map of what to do. But at the time,

828
00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:46,560
Speaker 1: it was really fun because I grew up with a

829
00:42:46,680 --> 00:42:48,960
Speaker 1: dad that was so much older he couldn't really participate

830
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:51,080
Speaker 1: in this stuff. With me, I was right there in

831
00:42:51,120 --> 00:42:53,839
Speaker 1: the mix. You know, I was super fun. I was.

832
00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:56,680
Speaker 1: I was and I was you know, I was just

833
00:42:56,719 --> 00:42:59,719
Speaker 1: sponsible enough. But but I was pulled in so many

834
00:42:59,760 --> 00:43:03,000
Speaker 1: direct trying to make a living that it did get tricky,

835
00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:05,000
Speaker 1: you know. And there were a lot of attractions for sure,

836
00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:09,560
Speaker 1: and ultimately pulled us apart um just based on our schedules.

837
00:43:09,719 --> 00:43:11,920
Speaker 1: But you know, it was just different scenes and and

838
00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:14,160
Speaker 1: there were a lot of strains back then. It was

839
00:43:14,200 --> 00:43:16,600
Speaker 1: it was really it was really tough, um. And and

840
00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:18,600
Speaker 1: it's it's hard now because you know, my that's my

841
00:43:18,680 --> 00:43:21,160
Speaker 1: oldest son, Riley, he's now a pro skater. A lot

842
00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:23,040
Speaker 1: of people think he just had a free ride, he

843
00:43:23,080 --> 00:43:25,880
Speaker 1: had silver spoon. Like. No. At one point he was

844
00:43:25,920 --> 00:43:29,160
Speaker 1: living with his mom and a trailer on her boyfriend's

845
00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:31,760
Speaker 1: dad's property. You know what. Like it was not easy

846
00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:35,200
Speaker 1: at all, and I was out trying to to to

847
00:43:35,880 --> 00:43:39,880
Speaker 1: make a living for us. How hypothetically, if you couldn't

848
00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:44,160
Speaker 1: make ends meet, could your parents help you out? Yeah,

849
00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:47,200
Speaker 1: to an extent. But my expenses were pretty big at

850
00:43:47,239 --> 00:43:49,239
Speaker 1: the time. I really I sold. I sold my house

851
00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:52,879
Speaker 1: for what I owed on it, um and moved into

852
00:43:52,960 --> 00:43:56,040
Speaker 1: a duplex, the original one that I had bought, and

853
00:43:56,520 --> 00:43:59,960
Speaker 1: you know, just cut back and I literally ate top

854
00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:03,279
Speaker 1: brahmin and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a couple

855
00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:05,319
Speaker 1: of years. Wow. I mean, I don't know how we'll

856
00:44:05,320 --> 00:44:09,360
Speaker 1: publicized that is, but okay, so am I leaving anything

857
00:44:09,360 --> 00:44:11,320
Speaker 1: out if I go to the X Games next or no?

858
00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:15,040
Speaker 1: I mean that's around that same time. Okay, So that's so.

859
00:44:13,520 --> 00:44:17,880
Speaker 1: That's so the X game started. Is this something in

860
00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:21,879
Speaker 1: your world? Do you see the potential of that in

861
00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:24,520
Speaker 1: a lot of ways? Yes, Um, there was a lot

862
00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:30,279
Speaker 1: of pushback because it was the strange experimental event that

863
00:44:30,360 --> 00:44:33,040
Speaker 1: was including all these disciplines and all these sports that

864
00:44:33,080 --> 00:44:35,799
Speaker 1: we had nothing to do with, and then suddenly they're like,

865
00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:39,360
Speaker 1: it's extreme, Like what does that mean? Like, well, you know,

866
00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:43,359
Speaker 1: rock climbing and skysurfing and bungee jumping. And I was like,

867
00:44:43,680 --> 00:44:47,200
Speaker 1: I don't do anything, Like we don't do any of

868
00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:50,040
Speaker 1: those things. I don't identify with any of those people

869
00:44:50,120 --> 00:44:54,600
Speaker 1: like doing that. And but but I saw the opportunity

870
00:44:54,680 --> 00:44:58,040
Speaker 1: to be to to have to have modern skateboarding televised

871
00:44:58,040 --> 00:45:01,560
Speaker 1: properly basically I don't properly, but to have it shown

872
00:45:01,600 --> 00:45:03,719
Speaker 1: for what it really is, you know, not just for

873
00:45:03,800 --> 00:45:06,480
Speaker 1: the graphics and the hair dues and and the eccentricities,

874
00:45:06,560 --> 00:45:11,360
Speaker 1: but really for the for the physical feats of of

875
00:45:11,480 --> 00:45:13,879
Speaker 1: some of these talented skaters. And so I felt like,

876
00:45:14,280 --> 00:45:16,880
Speaker 1: if we just stay the course and we're skating and

877
00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:19,799
Speaker 1: we're not falling into you know, all the goofiness of

878
00:45:19,840 --> 00:45:21,960
Speaker 1: what this can be or the side show that this

879
00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:24,759
Speaker 1: is in a lot of ways, I feel like what

880
00:45:24,800 --> 00:45:27,200
Speaker 1: we do will shine through. And I made that no

881
00:45:27,320 --> 00:45:28,759
Speaker 1: until a lot of my peers too, you know, I

882
00:45:28,800 --> 00:45:30,719
Speaker 1: was like, Hey, we have this opportunity, Like I know

883
00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:32,799
Speaker 1: people want to ban this and whatnot if we banned this,

884
00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:36,640
Speaker 1: then these random other skaters that maybe aren't even as

885
00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:39,439
Speaker 1: accomplished or as good are gonna be the names everyone knows.

886
00:45:40,280 --> 00:45:42,200
Speaker 1: Like I literally did say that to a few people

887
00:45:42,520 --> 00:45:49,520
Speaker 1: who were considering boycotting the event. So you go, at

888
00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:53,759
Speaker 1: this point, you're still competing while you're still running your Birdhouse. Yes,

889
00:45:53,880 --> 00:45:57,520
Speaker 1: well okay, so so around that time, um, we're getting

890
00:45:57,640 --> 00:46:01,160
Speaker 1: deep here. But around that time, I was still doing

891
00:46:01,440 --> 00:46:04,560
Speaker 1: all the ads, you know, all the marketing for Birdhouse.

892
00:46:04,600 --> 00:46:07,320
Speaker 1: I had tried to sort of step back from being

893
00:46:07,480 --> 00:46:10,440
Speaker 1: in the spotlight just so that I could run the business.

894
00:46:11,080 --> 00:46:14,000
Speaker 1: And one of my one of my best skaters on

895
00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:17,480
Speaker 1: the team and my partner pair in the company, they

896
00:46:17,520 --> 00:46:20,560
Speaker 1: sat me down. They said, you're way better for us

897
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:24,280
Speaker 1: front and center than you are sitting behind a computer.

898
00:46:24,960 --> 00:46:27,439
Speaker 1: Like you're way more effective. You're still skating super good.

899
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:31,880
Speaker 1: We want to bring back the Tony Hawk skateboard. You know,

900
00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:34,520
Speaker 1: we feel like this is this is the time, and

901
00:46:34,520 --> 00:46:37,359
Speaker 1: and there's these events and your name is still out there,

902
00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:39,759
Speaker 1: like this is what we should be doing. And I

903
00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:42,640
Speaker 1: was kind of reluctant because I just felt like, I mean,

904
00:46:42,680 --> 00:46:46,359
Speaker 1: at that time, what it was like twenty you know,

905
00:46:46,560 --> 00:46:53,640
Speaker 1: twenties six or something. UM, And I was like, I'm old,

906
00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:57,960
Speaker 1: I'm over the hill, like I was. I felt good

907
00:46:57,960 --> 00:46:59,759
Speaker 1: about my skating, but I was just like, you know,

908
00:46:59,800 --> 00:47:03,319
Speaker 1: I've feel like at that time, no one was in

909
00:47:03,360 --> 00:47:06,279
Speaker 1: their late twenties professionally skating. No one was in their

910
00:47:06,280 --> 00:47:09,000
Speaker 1: thirties professionally skating. There's you know that wasn't that was

911
00:47:09,040 --> 00:47:12,279
Speaker 1: nunheard of. Um. But I listened to him, and I,

912
00:47:12,360 --> 00:47:14,760
Speaker 1: you know, I really focused on my skating again and

913
00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:18,799
Speaker 1: and got better than I was and became you know,

914
00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:21,720
Speaker 1: this name that people knew from the X Games. Okay,

915
00:47:21,719 --> 00:47:23,560
Speaker 1: but a little bit slower. Okay, So you had to

916
00:47:23,600 --> 00:47:26,319
Speaker 1: hone your chops for the X Games. Um, I just had.

917
00:47:26,480 --> 00:47:28,920
Speaker 1: I had to get back into competition mode because by

918
00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:31,719
Speaker 1: then I was just more shoot skating for myself and

919
00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:35,680
Speaker 1: for video for for video coverage, which is a different

920
00:47:35,680 --> 00:47:39,080
Speaker 1: type of scanning. It's a little more risky, um, more sporadic.

921
00:47:39,719 --> 00:47:41,960
Speaker 1: You know. Competition skating is like you gotta work on

922
00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:44,560
Speaker 1: these routines, and you gotta work on these combinations, and

923
00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:48,480
Speaker 1: you gotta make them consistently, and you gotta score good. Okay,

924
00:47:48,560 --> 00:47:50,560
Speaker 1: So you go to the X Games. The first X

925
00:47:50,600 --> 00:47:53,719
Speaker 1: Games and you go and as I say, you're coming

926
00:47:53,719 --> 00:47:54,960
Speaker 1: from a thing where you see the up and down

927
00:47:55,040 --> 00:47:57,239
Speaker 1: skate paring. You don't go with great anticipation. This is

928
00:47:57,280 --> 00:48:01,160
Speaker 1: just another thing you're doing, right. Um. Yeah, but I

929
00:48:01,280 --> 00:48:06,000
Speaker 1: knew there was a lot of potential and that it's

930
00:48:06,000 --> 00:48:08,000
Speaker 1: the biggest thing we had ever seen. So what was

931
00:48:08,040 --> 00:48:10,359
Speaker 1: it like on your end of it? You go, it's

932
00:48:10,400 --> 00:48:14,319
Speaker 1: on TV for you know days, did you feel it? Um?

933
00:48:14,360 --> 00:48:18,760
Speaker 1: Afterwards when we left there, I started getting noticed again.

934
00:48:19,520 --> 00:48:21,480
Speaker 1: It was like, hey, Tony Hawk, saw you on that

935
00:48:21,520 --> 00:48:25,239
Speaker 1: Extreme Games Like that was awesome? You know whatever? The

936
00:48:25,320 --> 00:48:27,680
Speaker 1: Mick twist and it was like, what you know what

937
00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:31,439
Speaker 1: twist is? Like? Um, a little bit of that, but

938
00:48:31,440 --> 00:48:35,640
Speaker 1: but a noticeable shift. Okay, And did that now start

939
00:48:35,680 --> 00:48:37,439
Speaker 1: to grow? You have to wait for the next year's

940
00:48:37,560 --> 00:48:41,399
Speaker 1: X Games. I would say it was the third year

941
00:48:41,440 --> 00:48:43,840
Speaker 1: of X Games when we relate and they got rid

942
00:48:43,880 --> 00:48:46,200
Speaker 1: of a lot of the BS sports to be yeah,

943
00:48:46,239 --> 00:48:49,520
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, the bungee jumping for the rock climbing

944
00:48:49,560 --> 00:48:52,160
Speaker 1: was on its way out right, and then skateboarding actually

945
00:48:52,160 --> 00:48:54,600
Speaker 1: took a new higher level. Yeah, and they started adding

946
00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:57,000
Speaker 1: modocross and it was like, okay, this is what I'm

947
00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:01,160
Speaker 1: more familiar with UM. But by then, you know, I

948
00:49:01,520 --> 00:49:03,800
Speaker 1: was doing really well. I was still kind of dominating

949
00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:06,319
Speaker 1: the competitions, and that was the name they knew. And

950
00:49:06,520 --> 00:49:09,759
Speaker 1: I had survived one wave of skateboarding, so I was

951
00:49:09,800 --> 00:49:11,839
Speaker 1: on the second wave, and so people knew my name

952
00:49:11,880 --> 00:49:19,000
Speaker 1: from prior generations. And suddenly we felt it. In sales,

953
00:49:19,719 --> 00:49:23,840
Speaker 1: Birdhouse was profitable, like it was a real thing, um,

954
00:49:23,880 --> 00:49:26,600
Speaker 1: And I was being asked to do a lot more things.

955
00:49:26,640 --> 00:49:29,799
Speaker 1: I was getting sponsors that were non endemic, you know,

956
00:49:29,920 --> 00:49:36,680
Speaker 1: like random okay, a club, med you know, hot wheels, um.

957
00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:38,359
Speaker 1: And and it suddenly it was like, wait, hey, this

958
00:49:38,400 --> 00:49:40,920
Speaker 1: is a business now at this point in time, do

959
00:49:40,960 --> 00:49:42,239
Speaker 1: you have a team, you have a lawyer, you have

960
00:49:42,239 --> 00:49:45,960
Speaker 1: a manager of any of that stuff? I am no,

961
00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:50,600
Speaker 1: not really. I UM. My sister had come from the

962
00:49:50,680 --> 00:49:52,520
Speaker 1: music industry. She actually used to sing back up for

963
00:49:52,600 --> 00:49:56,040
Speaker 1: Michael Bolton yeah and for the Righteous Brothers, and she

964
00:49:56,239 --> 00:49:58,400
Speaker 1: got pregnant with twins and she was a little older,

965
00:49:58,440 --> 00:50:01,160
Speaker 1: so she decided to pull back for that and then

966
00:50:01,200 --> 00:50:04,799
Speaker 1: as my as as my career started to rise, she said, hey,

967
00:50:04,840 --> 00:50:06,279
Speaker 1: I think I can help you with the stuff because

968
00:50:06,280 --> 00:50:09,000
Speaker 1: it is very much like entertainment these times. Um, so

969
00:50:09,080 --> 00:50:12,640
Speaker 1: she became my my business partner and manager and helped

970
00:50:12,680 --> 00:50:18,120
Speaker 1: me navigate these you know, strange territories of endorsements. Why

971
00:50:18,120 --> 00:50:23,319
Speaker 1: don't you start dealing with those companies. There's real money involved. Yeah, yeah,

972
00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:26,600
Speaker 1: and they don't want you to know that. Yeah. Um.

973
00:50:26,680 --> 00:50:28,760
Speaker 1: And then not long after that, I got a real agent.

974
00:50:29,120 --> 00:50:31,239
Speaker 1: I mean she she was still my business partner, but

975
00:50:31,320 --> 00:50:33,719
Speaker 1: I got a real agent because suddenly there were things

976
00:50:33,719 --> 00:50:35,600
Speaker 1: that I just didn't really understand at all. I mean

977
00:50:35,640 --> 00:50:38,000
Speaker 1: I was getting like these these endorsement deals and they

978
00:50:38,040 --> 00:50:40,120
Speaker 1: required me to travel and they want all his time

979
00:50:40,160 --> 00:50:44,560
Speaker 1: for me, and um, it was it was a little overwhelming.

980
00:50:44,640 --> 00:50:46,759
Speaker 1: And then suddenly someone stepped in and said, oh, if

981
00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:49,719
Speaker 1: you know, you need a real manager. And suddenly my

982
00:50:49,719 --> 00:50:54,440
Speaker 1: my income jumped tremendously because because they know the landscape exactly,

983
00:50:54,560 --> 00:50:57,759
Speaker 1: they they negotiate for a living. Okay, So now you're

984
00:50:57,760 --> 00:51:01,920
Speaker 1: in this heyday and everybody knows about skating. Once you

985
00:51:01,920 --> 00:51:04,080
Speaker 1: get to the mid to late nineties and you're the

986
00:51:04,080 --> 00:51:08,320
Speaker 1: face of it all, so is it all groovy or

987
00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:13,120
Speaker 1: whether you know deep inside you when they're still questions, um,

988
00:51:13,400 --> 00:51:16,920
Speaker 1: was it all groovy? It seemed like it was all groovy. Um,

989
00:51:17,120 --> 00:51:19,680
Speaker 1: for sure, I was, you know, I was falling into

990
00:51:19,840 --> 00:51:24,920
Speaker 1: distractions and I probably I probably could have given a

991
00:51:25,000 --> 00:51:27,719
Speaker 1: lot of more of my time to my kids, you know,

992
00:51:27,840 --> 00:51:31,160
Speaker 1: but I was. I was suddenly thrust into this, this

993
00:51:32,080 --> 00:51:34,360
Speaker 1: level of success that I didn't know it was possible

994
00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:37,359
Speaker 1: in my field, and one that was like, wait, this

995
00:51:37,440 --> 00:51:40,000
Speaker 1: is reserved for you know, actual movie stars and things,

996
00:51:40,040 --> 00:51:41,719
Speaker 1: and is not what I'm supposed to do. And I'm

997
00:51:41,719 --> 00:51:43,520
Speaker 1: just got all the brick carpet events and stuff. So

998
00:51:43,520 --> 00:51:46,480
Speaker 1: I kind of fell into that for a little while. Um,

999
00:51:46,719 --> 00:51:50,400
Speaker 1: you know that I regret now, but I had to

1000
00:51:50,480 --> 00:51:53,760
Speaker 1: learn from those problems everything to know whether it's good. Yeah,

1001
00:51:53,800 --> 00:51:55,120
Speaker 1: but you know what I mean. At some point I

1002
00:51:55,160 --> 00:51:57,680
Speaker 1: was like, wait, why don't have to wear a suit here? What?

1003
00:51:57,840 --> 00:51:59,920
Speaker 1: I'm not friends with these people, you know what I mean?

1004
00:52:00,040 --> 00:52:02,520
Speaker 1: Like no, no, no, slow down a little bit. So

1005
00:52:02,600 --> 00:52:04,719
Speaker 1: how much of this did you actually do? Showing up

1006
00:52:04,760 --> 00:52:07,399
Speaker 1: as being Tony Hawk the skater? Well, I just got

1007
00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:09,719
Speaker 1: I keept getting requested, you know, like and that was

1008
00:52:09,760 --> 00:52:11,520
Speaker 1: the day of awards shows, so it was like the

1009
00:52:11,560 --> 00:52:14,080
Speaker 1: Blockbuster Awards and the Video Game Awards, and it was

1010
00:52:14,120 --> 00:52:15,560
Speaker 1: like they want you to present, and I was like,

1011
00:52:15,880 --> 00:52:17,960
Speaker 1: I'm you know, at one point I had a wardrobe

1012
00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:20,160
Speaker 1: stylist and it was just like this is a little

1013
00:52:20,200 --> 00:52:22,880
Speaker 1: bit of a little out of hand, but um, but

1014
00:52:22,920 --> 00:52:26,000
Speaker 1: it was fun for sure, and and and all along.

1015
00:52:26,040 --> 00:52:30,160
Speaker 1: I knew that it was amazing for skateboarding to you know,

1016
00:52:30,200 --> 00:52:32,840
Speaker 1: even though some of these opportunities were for me only,

1017
00:52:33,400 --> 00:52:35,520
Speaker 1: I was the one that was raising the profile of

1018
00:52:35,520 --> 00:52:39,040
Speaker 1: skating through doing that. Like I got endorsement with McDonald's

1019
00:52:39,640 --> 00:52:42,120
Speaker 1: and I knew that I was going to use McDonald's

1020
00:52:42,120 --> 00:52:46,080
Speaker 1: marketing money to promote skateboarding. Okay, but you're the face.

1021
00:52:46,719 --> 00:52:49,080
Speaker 1: There's a lot of solid grapes people out there, you know. Sure,

1022
00:52:49,600 --> 00:52:51,319
Speaker 1: but you know, being at the top is as they say,

1023
00:52:51,320 --> 00:52:53,520
Speaker 1: it's lonely at the top. So what was it like

1024
00:52:53,600 --> 00:52:55,640
Speaker 1: being the number one guy? I mean, you're a friendly

1025
00:52:55,680 --> 00:52:57,720
Speaker 1: guy and it's a community. There was a lot of pressure.

1026
00:52:58,000 --> 00:52:59,400
Speaker 1: It was a lot of pressure, and there was you know,

1027
00:52:59,440 --> 00:53:01,360
Speaker 1: there was a lot there was a lot of pushback,

1028
00:53:01,440 --> 00:53:03,360
Speaker 1: like a lot of haters. But I guess I I

1029
00:53:03,840 --> 00:53:06,880
Speaker 1: endured the haters for so long as a kid that

1030
00:53:07,000 --> 00:53:08,600
Speaker 1: once I got to this level of success, I was

1031
00:53:08,600 --> 00:53:11,359
Speaker 1: just like, yeah, right, like, go ahead and say all

1032
00:53:11,400 --> 00:53:12,480
Speaker 1: you want, you know, and it was just like, oh,

1033
00:53:12,520 --> 00:53:14,520
Speaker 1: you're a sellout. I was like, am I Because if

1034
00:53:14,600 --> 00:53:17,320
Speaker 1: McDonald's had offered me a sponsorship when I was fourteen,

1035
00:53:18,160 --> 00:53:19,759
Speaker 1: damn right, I would have taken it like I was

1036
00:53:19,800 --> 00:53:22,719
Speaker 1: eating there back then. So I don't know what the

1037
00:53:22,800 --> 00:53:24,600
Speaker 1: selling out. I feel like, you know at some point

1038
00:53:25,000 --> 00:53:27,160
Speaker 1: and it would seem cliche, but people are only calling

1039
00:53:27,160 --> 00:53:29,279
Speaker 1: you a sellout when your stuff finally sells. Then what

1040
00:53:29,400 --> 00:53:31,440
Speaker 1: they say in the music business, as they say, you know,

1041
00:53:31,440 --> 00:53:33,480
Speaker 1: I've been waiting so long. I'm dying to sell out.

1042
00:53:33,520 --> 00:53:35,640
Speaker 1: You know, anybody's got the money. But you know, it's

1043
00:53:35,680 --> 00:53:38,400
Speaker 1: interesting that you make your point. I want to finally sells.

1044
00:53:38,640 --> 00:53:40,239
Speaker 1: That's what people are paying. It was like, you guys

1045
00:53:40,239 --> 00:53:42,239
Speaker 1: have had a skateboard with my name on it since

1046
00:53:42,239 --> 00:53:45,279
Speaker 1: I was fourteen. You did not care. Back then, no

1047
00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:48,200
Speaker 1: one cared. And now now suddenly I'm gonna sell out. No,

1048
00:53:48,360 --> 00:53:51,600
Speaker 1: my boards are selling, you know, and and people are

1049
00:53:51,640 --> 00:53:55,480
Speaker 1: finally asking me to to do promotions and things like that.

1050
00:53:55,480 --> 00:53:57,160
Speaker 1: It's what you know, this is a dream come true.

1051
00:53:57,239 --> 00:53:59,919
Speaker 1: But I was the one to first breakthrough that sort

1052
00:54:00,040 --> 00:54:03,200
Speaker 1: of boundary that it would be okay to do sponsorships

1053
00:54:03,200 --> 00:54:08,799
Speaker 1: and endorsements outside of the skate world, right, And I

1054
00:54:08,840 --> 00:54:11,279
Speaker 1: guess that, okay, go back to your point where you

1055
00:54:11,320 --> 00:54:13,000
Speaker 1: wake up one day and say these are not my people,

1056
00:54:13,040 --> 00:54:15,279
Speaker 1: I don't want to wear a suit, etcetera. Um, I

1057
00:54:15,320 --> 00:54:18,080
Speaker 1: think that was that was more I learned it maybe

1058
00:54:18,120 --> 00:54:19,759
Speaker 1: a little too late, but that was more in the

1059
00:54:19,800 --> 00:54:23,200
Speaker 1: early two thousand's when my video game was really hitting,

1060
00:54:23,239 --> 00:54:26,480
Speaker 1: and you know, suddenly my name was synonymous not skateboarding

1061
00:54:26,520 --> 00:54:29,479
Speaker 1: but video games as well. And it was like red

1062
00:54:29,520 --> 00:54:32,800
Speaker 1: carpets and parties and and bottle service and all that stuff.

1063
00:54:32,800 --> 00:54:34,640
Speaker 1: And at some point I was like I was just

1064
00:54:34,680 --> 00:54:38,680
Speaker 1: too distracted, um and I and I was getting away

1065
00:54:38,719 --> 00:54:41,279
Speaker 1: from the core of skating that I really loved and

1066
00:54:41,360 --> 00:54:46,000
Speaker 1: falling into this weird sort of celebrity existence. Um And

1067
00:54:46,040 --> 00:54:47,879
Speaker 1: I think it was, you know, around that time where

1068
00:54:47,920 --> 00:54:51,719
Speaker 1: I decided, like I need to really scale this back

1069
00:54:51,760 --> 00:54:53,799
Speaker 1: and get back to what I love doing because I'm

1070
00:54:53,840 --> 00:54:55,759
Speaker 1: not loving doing this, and and get back to my

1071
00:54:55,840 --> 00:54:58,560
Speaker 1: children because I was really kind of off and running.

1072
00:54:58,560 --> 00:55:03,319
Speaker 1: And Uh, I would say it was more like, you know,

1073
00:55:03,360 --> 00:55:06,239
Speaker 1: in the mid to late two thousand's that I that

1074
00:55:06,320 --> 00:55:10,160
Speaker 1: I've felt like I made a positive change in what

1075
00:55:10,200 --> 00:55:11,680
Speaker 1: I was doing, And what does it take to make

1076
00:55:11,680 --> 00:55:17,799
Speaker 1: you put on a suit? Now? Um, a wedding okay,

1077
00:55:17,880 --> 00:55:21,160
Speaker 1: but shy of that anyway you go, you're going as yourself. Yeah,

1078
00:55:21,680 --> 00:55:23,759
Speaker 1: at this point, at this point, like, if they're not

1079
00:55:23,760 --> 00:55:25,080
Speaker 1: gonna let me in with what I'm wearing, I don't

1080
00:55:25,080 --> 00:55:28,319
Speaker 1: want to be around them anyway. If I can't wear

1081
00:55:28,360 --> 00:55:30,759
Speaker 1: my sneakers, forget about it. How does the video game

1082
00:55:30,800 --> 00:55:35,080
Speaker 1: thing happen? Uh? So that was around the late nineties.

1083
00:55:36,120 --> 00:55:39,360
Speaker 1: Basically I was always into video games. I mean I

1084
00:55:39,360 --> 00:55:42,160
Speaker 1: played Missile Command, pac Man as a kid. I bought

1085
00:55:42,160 --> 00:55:44,279
Speaker 1: the first you know I had in television, I had

1086
00:55:44,320 --> 00:55:47,040
Speaker 1: super anties, and I was a video game kid. I

1087
00:55:47,040 --> 00:55:52,800
Speaker 1: was an arcade kid. So, uh this this PC programmer

1088
00:55:52,800 --> 00:55:54,400
Speaker 1: approached me and said, hey, I'm thinking about doing a

1089
00:55:54,920 --> 00:55:58,319
Speaker 1: video game skateboarding on the PC. And he had this

1090
00:55:58,400 --> 00:56:01,399
Speaker 1: really crude little engine in motion. It was pretty sad,

1091
00:56:01,400 --> 00:56:03,320
Speaker 1: I mean this thing he had created, but it was something.

1092
00:56:03,960 --> 00:56:05,200
Speaker 1: And he's like, do you want to go pitch you

1093
00:56:05,280 --> 00:56:07,640
Speaker 1: with me? And if we can get the right partner

1094
00:56:07,640 --> 00:56:08,960
Speaker 1: and we can get funding for this and make it

1095
00:56:09,040 --> 00:56:11,040
Speaker 1: something real? Said yeah, sure, So I went, I went

1096
00:56:11,080 --> 00:56:13,280
Speaker 1: to pitch meetings with him. I went, we went to Nintendo,

1097
00:56:13,400 --> 00:56:17,759
Speaker 1: we went to different software publishers, and we just came

1098
00:56:17,840 --> 00:56:21,960
Speaker 1: up against like, you know, barely a wall. Like it was,

1099
00:56:22,200 --> 00:56:25,680
Speaker 1: I mean not barely any interest. It was like we

1100
00:56:25,760 --> 00:56:29,480
Speaker 1: are I would spend the whole meeting defending skateboarding. Well like,

1101
00:56:29,600 --> 00:56:31,759
Speaker 1: why would skiboard is unpopular? I wouldn't want to play

1102
00:56:31,800 --> 00:56:34,000
Speaker 1: video games? Why I think skebord could lend itself to

1103
00:56:34,040 --> 00:56:37,080
Speaker 1: a video game and whatever. That. Finally, after the our

1104
00:56:37,160 --> 00:56:41,000
Speaker 1: last meeting with Midway, who were probably the I usually

1105
00:56:41,080 --> 00:56:44,360
Speaker 1: say this story and never mentioned them, but at this

1106
00:56:44,360 --> 00:56:46,279
Speaker 1: point I don't really care anymore because it's such a

1107
00:56:46,320 --> 00:56:48,960
Speaker 1: long time ago. They were so discouraging and kind of

1108
00:56:48,960 --> 00:56:52,080
Speaker 1: insulting that that he gave up after that meeting, like

1109
00:56:52,160 --> 00:56:53,799
Speaker 1: literally walked out, signs like you know what, I don't

1110
00:56:53,840 --> 00:56:56,520
Speaker 1: really have time to do this anymore, but you know,

1111
00:56:56,680 --> 00:56:59,960
Speaker 1: I wish you luck, and that had planned to see

1112
00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:02,520
Speaker 1: eat in the video game world. That said Tony Hawk

1113
00:57:02,719 --> 00:57:05,719
Speaker 1: is interested in video games. And not long after that,

1114
00:57:05,840 --> 00:57:08,840
Speaker 1: Activision called me. A few other companies call me, actually,

1115
00:57:08,880 --> 00:57:11,360
Speaker 1: but Activision called me and said, hey, we heard you

1116
00:57:11,400 --> 00:57:13,120
Speaker 1: want to do a video game. We're working on a

1117
00:57:13,120 --> 00:57:15,399
Speaker 1: scaate video game. We'd like to have you come look

1118
00:57:15,440 --> 00:57:17,440
Speaker 1: at it. Well, it's very interesting because you know you're

1119
00:57:17,440 --> 00:57:20,360
Speaker 1: talking about this. I find if people reach out to me,

1120
00:57:20,400 --> 00:57:22,320
Speaker 1: it can work. If I'm selling it never worked. You

1121
00:57:22,360 --> 00:57:24,640
Speaker 1: have to explain who you are. It's just never the

1122
00:57:24,720 --> 00:57:27,040
Speaker 1: right thing. So anyway, you go to Activision. So I

1123
00:57:27,080 --> 00:57:30,400
Speaker 1: go to Activision and I sit in this boardroom with

1124
00:57:30,440 --> 00:57:35,000
Speaker 1: all these heads, you know, administrative dudes. I've definitely not

1125
00:57:35,080 --> 00:57:37,600
Speaker 1: dressed apart, but I think that's what they expected on me.

1126
00:57:38,240 --> 00:57:40,840
Speaker 1: And uh, they hand me a joystick and they're like, well,

1127
00:57:40,880 --> 00:57:42,800
Speaker 1: this is what we're working on, and this is the engine.

1128
00:57:42,880 --> 00:57:46,160
Speaker 1: And and this engine was built for a game called

1129
00:57:46,160 --> 00:57:50,480
Speaker 1: Apocalypse with Bruce Willis, based on not a movie, but

1130
00:57:50,480 --> 00:57:52,120
Speaker 1: but you know it's supposed to be this sort of

1131
00:57:53,400 --> 00:57:56,960
Speaker 1: dystopian waste land. He's got a gun and whatnot. So literally,

1132
00:57:57,080 --> 00:57:58,960
Speaker 1: the first time I played my own game, I was

1133
00:57:58,960 --> 00:58:03,320
Speaker 1: Bruce Willis with a gone on my back, skating around

1134
00:58:03,320 --> 00:58:06,520
Speaker 1: this desert doing kick flips and stuff. Um, and I

1135
00:58:06,640 --> 00:58:12,760
Speaker 1: knew immediately that this was it, really instinctively, the way

1136
00:58:12,800 --> 00:58:15,880
Speaker 1: the controls were laid out, Like I started playing it,

1137
00:58:15,920 --> 00:58:19,120
Speaker 1: immediately started doing tricks and I figured out what they were,

1138
00:58:19,200 --> 00:58:21,440
Speaker 1: you know, the sort of mechanism and they're going for.

1139
00:58:22,160 --> 00:58:24,120
Speaker 1: And I was like, this is this is it with

1140
00:58:24,200 --> 00:58:29,120
Speaker 1: my influence, this will be the skating game. Like it's funny. Now,

1141
00:58:29,160 --> 00:58:30,920
Speaker 1: I thought you're gonna say the opposite, They're gonna say

1142
00:58:30,920 --> 00:58:33,520
Speaker 1: this is terrible. No, it was. I mean it really

1143
00:58:33,600 --> 00:58:35,480
Speaker 1: was that. It was. There are a few moments in

1144
00:58:35,520 --> 00:58:37,000
Speaker 1: my life that I feel like it was an epiphany,

1145
00:58:37,040 --> 00:58:38,840
Speaker 1: but there, for sure it was like and it wasn't

1146
00:58:38,840 --> 00:58:40,520
Speaker 1: an epiphany, like this is gonna be the biggest thing

1147
00:58:40,520 --> 00:58:45,840
Speaker 1: ever game my in my head, I was like, skaters

1148
00:58:45,840 --> 00:58:48,560
Speaker 1: are gonna love this, and skating wasn't even that big.

1149
00:58:48,640 --> 00:58:50,960
Speaker 1: So I was like, maybe this will inspire skaters to

1150
00:58:51,000 --> 00:58:54,920
Speaker 1: buy a PlayStation. Okay, and there at that point it

1151
00:58:54,960 --> 00:58:56,920
Speaker 1: was the Bruce Willis game. How much input did you

1152
00:58:56,960 --> 00:59:00,959
Speaker 1: have into the final game? Oh? Was there every step

1153
00:59:00,960 --> 00:59:03,960
Speaker 1: of the way. Yeah. For for the better part of

1154
00:59:04,320 --> 00:59:08,200
Speaker 1: probably two and a half years. Um, they I would

1155
00:59:08,200 --> 00:59:10,000
Speaker 1: be up there, I'd be it never soft up in

1156
00:59:10,000 --> 00:59:13,880
Speaker 1: Woodland Hills. Uh. They would send me burns of the

1157
00:59:13,880 --> 00:59:16,840
Speaker 1: new bills on on c D. They would send me

1158
00:59:16,920 --> 00:59:19,280
Speaker 1: CDs like every week, and I would play it and

1159
00:59:19,280 --> 00:59:23,040
Speaker 1: give feedback. And uh, I, I mean I was. I

1160
00:59:23,080 --> 00:59:26,520
Speaker 1: wanted to represent skateboarding, so it really is your game, absolutely.

1161
00:59:26,560 --> 00:59:29,560
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I can't take credit completely for

1162
00:59:29,800 --> 00:59:33,000
Speaker 1: the whole soundtrack for um, you know, some of the

1163
00:59:33,080 --> 00:59:35,800
Speaker 1: mechanics and things like that, but but for sure, I

1164
00:59:36,080 --> 00:59:38,880
Speaker 1: it didn't pass without my approval. And do you have

1165
00:59:39,080 --> 00:59:42,080
Speaker 1: any idea how lucrative it was gonna be? No? Never,

1166
00:59:42,400 --> 00:59:47,320
Speaker 1: I mean I knew, well, I knew that there was

1167
00:59:47,360 --> 00:59:53,320
Speaker 1: something happening because right before its release, Activision call and

1168
00:59:53,320 --> 00:59:54,760
Speaker 1: they said, hey, we all want to see if you

1169
00:59:54,760 --> 00:59:56,840
Speaker 1: want to get an advance on royalties or a buy

1170
00:59:56,840 --> 01:00:00,000
Speaker 1: out on royalties. So what does that mean? They said, well,

1171
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:04,160
Speaker 1: we'll give you half a million dollars for advanced royalties

1172
01:00:04,240 --> 01:00:09,640
Speaker 1: for royalties forever, like that's my buyout. And I never

1173
01:00:09,640 --> 01:00:12,440
Speaker 1: heard anyone say half a million dollars to me, you know,

1174
01:00:12,520 --> 01:00:16,240
Speaker 1: and and um, and I was. I considered it, but

1175
01:00:16,280 --> 01:00:19,200
Speaker 1: I had just bought a new house, you know, I

1176
01:00:19,240 --> 01:00:22,040
Speaker 1: felt comfortable in my finances beyond that I wasn't making

1177
01:00:22,040 --> 01:00:24,560
Speaker 1: money from them yet, and I just said, you know what,

1178
01:00:24,600 --> 01:00:27,840
Speaker 1: I'd rather just see what happens. I mean, for sure,

1179
01:00:27,880 --> 01:00:30,880
Speaker 1: that was the absolute best business desision I ever made

1180
01:00:30,920 --> 01:00:33,040
Speaker 1: in my life. But I didn't realize it at the time.

1181
01:00:33,080 --> 01:00:36,160
Speaker 1: I didn't even think it was that significant. Um. And

1182
01:00:36,200 --> 01:00:41,240
Speaker 1: then I knew that something was happening when they, you know,

1183
01:00:41,360 --> 01:00:43,120
Speaker 1: right as the first game was released, they called me

1184
01:00:43,120 --> 01:00:44,960
Speaker 1: and said, we got you need to come up and

1185
01:00:44,960 --> 01:00:46,960
Speaker 1: start talking about like what we're gonna do next? What

1186
01:00:47,000 --> 01:00:50,640
Speaker 1: do you mean next? Well, for pro Skater two, this

1187
01:00:50,720 --> 01:00:52,560
Speaker 1: thing just came out like, well, we need a year

1188
01:00:52,640 --> 01:00:54,200
Speaker 1: to develop the next one, Like, oh, I guess we're

1189
01:00:54,200 --> 01:00:57,960
Speaker 1: doing a new one. And then the sort of the

1190
01:00:58,000 --> 01:01:01,360
Speaker 1: next level of that was when number four came out.

1191
01:01:02,080 --> 01:01:04,080
Speaker 1: The the other three were still in the top ten

1192
01:01:04,120 --> 01:01:07,640
Speaker 1: of sales, and that was the turning away. That's when

1193
01:01:07,680 --> 01:01:13,160
Speaker 1: things got into like crazy money that I never imagined. Wow,

1194
01:01:14,400 --> 01:01:16,320
Speaker 1: I mean I almost can't say anything. What about the

1195
01:01:16,360 --> 01:01:19,040
Speaker 1: when you have the tour of the huck Jam thing? Um?

1196
01:01:19,120 --> 01:01:22,920
Speaker 1: So that was supposed to be my uh, that was

1197
01:01:22,920 --> 01:01:25,920
Speaker 1: supposed to be my transition from competing. I wanted to

1198
01:01:26,000 --> 01:01:28,280
Speaker 1: not compete anymore because I didn't I didn't like the

1199
01:01:28,320 --> 01:01:30,440
Speaker 1: schedule and the pressure and I at that point I've

1200
01:01:30,440 --> 01:01:33,600
Speaker 1: done it twenty years of my life, and so I

1201
01:01:33,680 --> 01:01:38,160
Speaker 1: started the huck gam as a response to always being

1202
01:01:38,280 --> 01:01:41,000
Speaker 1: the side show to bigger events. So if they ever

1203
01:01:41,040 --> 01:01:44,200
Speaker 1: saw skating at an event, like at the Warp tour

1204
01:01:44,360 --> 01:01:46,000
Speaker 1: or at a football game, it was like oft in

1205
01:01:46,000 --> 01:01:48,680
Speaker 1: the parking lot or at the you know, it was

1206
01:01:48,720 --> 01:01:51,160
Speaker 1: on the halftime show. And I was like, I feel

1207
01:01:51,160 --> 01:01:53,440
Speaker 1: like we've come so far with our sports that we

1208
01:01:53,520 --> 01:01:57,720
Speaker 1: could be the headlining act and yeah, we'll have music,

1209
01:01:57,760 --> 01:01:59,919
Speaker 1: but they're gonna play in the middle of our show.

1210
01:02:00,800 --> 01:02:03,360
Speaker 1: And I got um. I partnered up with Jim Giarre

1211
01:02:03,440 --> 01:02:06,840
Speaker 1: now would approach me Um, who was a music manager

1212
01:02:06,880 --> 01:02:09,320
Speaker 1: who had approached me around that time about working together

1213
01:02:09,400 --> 01:02:12,360
Speaker 1: on anything, and that was my what I presented to him.

1214
01:02:12,400 --> 01:02:13,600
Speaker 1: I said, I want to do this tour. He's like,

1215
01:02:13,960 --> 01:02:15,880
Speaker 1: it's great, I know all the people that do tourist

1216
01:02:16,040 --> 01:02:18,680
Speaker 1: Like okay, He's like, we'll get Offspring to play. I

1217
01:02:18,760 --> 01:02:20,760
Speaker 1: was like, Offspring said, yeah, I can get Offspring and

1218
01:02:20,760 --> 01:02:22,640
Speaker 1: I can get Social Distortion. I was like really, and

1219
01:02:22,640 --> 01:02:23,920
Speaker 1: he's like, I think I can get Diva. I'm like,

1220
01:02:24,280 --> 01:02:28,000
Speaker 1: you gotta be kidding, right, they just say Devo. He's like, yeah,

1221
01:02:28,000 --> 01:02:29,200
Speaker 1: I think they might want to play a show. And

1222
01:02:29,240 --> 01:02:32,640
Speaker 1: I was like, that that's my Speccoli van Halen moment.

1223
01:02:33,440 --> 01:02:36,680
Speaker 1: If Devo played at my show, that that is the

1224
01:02:36,800 --> 01:02:39,760
Speaker 1: end all to my existence. And it happened. And so

1225
01:02:40,000 --> 01:02:45,240
Speaker 1: what did we learn? Ah? I learned that the concert

1226
01:02:46,280 --> 01:02:52,360
Speaker 1: industry is um a wild ride, um and way bigger

1227
01:02:52,360 --> 01:02:57,040
Speaker 1: than I imagined. I learned that selling tickets is very

1228
01:02:57,160 --> 01:03:03,520
Speaker 1: challenging to any event. Um. I learned that. Uh that,

1229
01:03:04,200 --> 01:03:06,720
Speaker 1: well it's totally different now, but back then that the

1230
01:03:06,880 --> 01:03:12,360
Speaker 1: getting an underwriting sponsor was everything. Um. Luckily ours was

1231
01:03:12,440 --> 01:03:17,120
Speaker 1: usually activision, you know, by default. Um. And uh, I

1232
01:03:17,240 --> 01:03:21,360
Speaker 1: learned how to I learned how to curate a show.

1233
01:03:22,480 --> 01:03:25,360
Speaker 1: I mean, I want to say curate like produce a show,

1234
01:03:26,200 --> 01:03:28,200
Speaker 1: to make it something that is fun to watch from

1235
01:03:28,240 --> 01:03:31,920
Speaker 1: start to finish. But you stopped doing it. We stopped

1236
01:03:31,920 --> 01:03:35,600
Speaker 1: doing it just because sponsorship dollars, you know, in the

1237
01:03:35,640 --> 01:03:39,520
Speaker 1: mid two thousand's got very difficult. We couldn't get someone

1238
01:03:39,520 --> 01:03:41,680
Speaker 1: to write a million dollar check to underwrite a whole

1239
01:03:41,720 --> 01:03:44,440
Speaker 1: tour that would take place in arenas because very few

1240
01:03:44,440 --> 01:03:47,520
Speaker 1: people were comeing to arenas. Um. It just you know,

1241
01:03:47,520 --> 01:03:50,720
Speaker 1: it just got to the the business model of it

1242
01:03:50,760 --> 01:03:53,000
Speaker 1: was too tricky with the with how big it was getting,

1243
01:03:53,680 --> 01:03:56,880
Speaker 1: so we scaled it back. We did it in sheds

1244
01:03:57,880 --> 01:04:00,480
Speaker 1: uh with sort of half of our gear, and we

1245
01:04:00,520 --> 01:04:02,560
Speaker 1: made it work, but it wasn't the huck Jam that

1246
01:04:02,560 --> 01:04:06,040
Speaker 1: I was really proud of. And then six Flags saw

1247
01:04:06,120 --> 01:04:07,680
Speaker 1: one of our shows and said, we want you to

1248
01:04:07,720 --> 01:04:09,920
Speaker 1: do that in six Flags next year. So we actually

1249
01:04:09,920 --> 01:04:12,680
Speaker 1: did a six Flags huck Jam tour with sort of

1250
01:04:12,720 --> 01:04:16,080
Speaker 1: the the scaled down version of it, which was still fun,

1251
01:04:16,200 --> 01:04:19,840
Speaker 1: but it was weird, you know, like doing shows in

1252
01:04:19,880 --> 01:04:24,800
Speaker 1: an amusement park. But some people came just for the show. Okay,

1253
01:04:24,920 --> 01:04:29,440
Speaker 1: this point in time, your house you have all what

1254
01:04:29,480 --> 01:04:31,920
Speaker 1: do you have in terms of skate facilities at your house?

1255
01:04:32,200 --> 01:04:34,360
Speaker 1: So I have a I have a concrete park in

1256
01:04:34,360 --> 01:04:37,280
Speaker 1: my backyard about four thousand square feet. That's that's sort

1257
01:04:37,320 --> 01:04:39,800
Speaker 1: of like a traditional skate park you would see, you

1258
01:04:39,840 --> 01:04:42,840
Speaker 1: know around the street. UM. And then I have my

1259
01:04:43,000 --> 01:04:47,000
Speaker 1: huck Jam halfpipe ramp in an office nearby. And how

1260
01:04:47,080 --> 01:04:48,959
Speaker 1: often do you go on and go out on either

1261
01:04:49,040 --> 01:04:52,960
Speaker 1: of them? I skate my ramp at least three times

1262
01:04:52,960 --> 01:04:54,560
Speaker 1: a week, three or four times a week. So I

1263
01:04:54,600 --> 01:04:58,040
Speaker 1: still do I still actively do exhibitions, UM and I

1264
01:04:58,080 --> 01:05:00,600
Speaker 1: want to. You know, I still love skating obviously, but

1265
01:05:00,640 --> 01:05:03,160
Speaker 1: I but I started to stay in practice. If if

1266
01:05:03,200 --> 01:05:05,640
Speaker 1: I'm home and probably skating out with the kids maybe

1267
01:05:06,320 --> 01:05:08,800
Speaker 1: once every other day out in the backyard. But they

1268
01:05:08,840 --> 01:05:11,760
Speaker 1: all got their own crews. Like, you know, even though

1269
01:05:11,760 --> 01:05:14,400
Speaker 1: I'm a professional skateboarding well known, they're not. Really they

1270
01:05:14,400 --> 01:05:17,040
Speaker 1: don't want to go skate with me in and do

1271
01:05:17,120 --> 01:05:19,680
Speaker 1: they all want to skate. It's so I mean, it's

1272
01:05:19,680 --> 01:05:22,680
Speaker 1: not strange, it's awesome, but it's a totally different time.

1273
01:05:22,760 --> 01:05:25,640
Speaker 1: They all skate, they all love skating, and it's not

1274
01:05:25,640 --> 01:05:28,040
Speaker 1: because of me. I mean, it's accessible to them because

1275
01:05:28,040 --> 01:05:30,000
Speaker 1: of me. But you know, when I was a kid,

1276
01:05:30,120 --> 01:05:33,160
Speaker 1: skating was rare. It was you know, it was the

1277
01:05:33,280 --> 01:05:35,760
Speaker 1: really outcast that we're doing it. And now all their

1278
01:05:35,760 --> 01:05:38,080
Speaker 1: bro skate. So why would you assess in terms of

1279
01:05:38,120 --> 01:05:40,840
Speaker 1: the up and downs? Where would you put skateboarding now?

1280
01:05:43,400 --> 01:05:48,360
Speaker 1: I would say that it had a meteoric rise um

1281
01:05:48,440 --> 01:05:54,280
Speaker 1: in the early two thousand's, uh that continued gradually but

1282
01:05:54,360 --> 01:05:57,640
Speaker 1: tapered off a bit into the late two thousands, and

1283
01:05:57,720 --> 01:06:02,040
Speaker 1: it's sort of plateaued but still wrong now in the US,

1284
01:06:02,400 --> 01:06:05,640
Speaker 1: um elsewhere it's growing and now skateboarding is gonna be

1285
01:06:05,680 --> 01:06:09,640
Speaker 1: the Olympics in that's gonna raise this global awareness. You know,

1286
01:06:09,760 --> 01:06:13,880
Speaker 1: suddenly there's gonna be Olympic teams from Ethiopia for Cambodia.

1287
01:06:14,000 --> 01:06:17,000
Speaker 1: Like that's true, it's gonna happen. And that's what excites

1288
01:06:17,040 --> 01:06:20,520
Speaker 1: me now is this sort of global interests of skateboarding

1289
01:06:20,520 --> 01:06:23,680
Speaker 1: where these kids from the most unlikely places are gonna

1290
01:06:23,720 --> 01:06:27,320
Speaker 1: feel that passion. So what's a typical day like for

1291
01:06:27,360 --> 01:06:31,960
Speaker 1: you now? Uh? Well, I try to uh, I try

1292
01:06:32,000 --> 01:06:34,440
Speaker 1: to limit my travel as best I can, or to

1293
01:06:34,520 --> 01:06:37,600
Speaker 1: include my family when I do. I've I've really you know,

1294
01:06:37,640 --> 01:06:40,439
Speaker 1: made a very conscious effort to be more present for

1295
01:06:40,480 --> 01:06:44,040
Speaker 1: them in recent years. And so a typical day is

1296
01:06:44,040 --> 01:06:48,440
Speaker 1: waking up, getting the kids off to school, taking uh.

1297
01:06:48,680 --> 01:06:52,840
Speaker 1: In any given day, there's usually two to four teenagers, um,

1298
01:06:52,920 --> 01:06:55,640
Speaker 1: and then we have four teenage boys. My oldest son

1299
01:06:55,720 --> 01:06:59,000
Speaker 1: lives on his own, and then my daughter is uh,

1300
01:06:59,080 --> 01:07:03,800
Speaker 1: she's nine, she's with us most weekends. So it's kids,

1301
01:07:04,120 --> 01:07:07,240
Speaker 1: our houses. Kids. It's just it's super fun. I love it.

1302
01:07:07,240 --> 01:07:10,320
Speaker 1: It's always lively, you know. Um. But but that's what

1303
01:07:10,360 --> 01:07:12,360
Speaker 1: it is. I'm you know, I'm taking I'm usually I

1304
01:07:12,440 --> 01:07:14,880
Speaker 1: used to call myself just kids chauffeur because it's just like,

1305
01:07:14,920 --> 01:07:16,840
Speaker 1: all right, wait now that a lot of them are driving,

1306
01:07:16,880 --> 01:07:21,760
Speaker 1: which is the best the best, um, And so I

1307
01:07:21,800 --> 01:07:23,480
Speaker 1: take one of the school I usually will go to

1308
01:07:23,520 --> 01:07:25,520
Speaker 1: my office not long after that and try to do

1309
01:07:25,600 --> 01:07:30,240
Speaker 1: whatever business I need, emails, interviews, you know, just dealing

1310
01:07:30,240 --> 01:07:32,680
Speaker 1: with licensing stuff, for scheduling stuff. And then I try

1311
01:07:32,680 --> 01:07:35,920
Speaker 1: to skate my ramp before school gets out so that

1312
01:07:35,960 --> 01:07:37,800
Speaker 1: I can pick up my kids from school and I

1313
01:07:37,840 --> 01:07:41,280
Speaker 1: can beat what I call the X Games Finals crowd,

1314
01:07:41,320 --> 01:07:44,040
Speaker 1: which is basically all the best skaters around my area

1315
01:07:44,120 --> 01:07:47,160
Speaker 1: love skating my ramp because it's the It's original Hucksham ramp.

1316
01:07:47,200 --> 01:07:49,320
Speaker 1: It really is the best built ramp in the world.

1317
01:07:49,920 --> 01:07:52,640
Speaker 1: Cost me a million bucks a better be but um,

1318
01:07:52,680 --> 01:07:55,920
Speaker 1: but they all come to skate and their sessions are

1319
01:07:55,960 --> 01:07:59,040
Speaker 1: so heated, and you know they're they all have that fire,

1320
01:07:59,080 --> 01:08:02,840
Speaker 1: they're all competing. I don't like, that's not my scene anymore.

1321
01:08:03,440 --> 01:08:05,240
Speaker 1: I don't want to fight for a turn on my ramp.

1322
01:08:07,200 --> 01:08:09,920
Speaker 1: So I have that we called the old Man session,

1323
01:08:10,000 --> 01:08:13,160
Speaker 1: usually around around eleven or twelve, and then you and

1324
01:08:13,280 --> 01:08:16,760
Speaker 1: other any other buddies go out, yeah, like a couple

1325
01:08:16,800 --> 01:08:20,440
Speaker 1: of friends that are you know, my of my generation

1326
01:08:20,880 --> 01:08:23,160
Speaker 1: will be skating and they're they're all still skating really good.

1327
01:08:23,160 --> 01:08:24,880
Speaker 1: It's just that's our scene because we're gonna get kids

1328
01:08:24,920 --> 01:08:27,719
Speaker 1: from school, right and so your kids, you know, Riley's

1329
01:08:27,720 --> 01:08:30,120
Speaker 1: a professional skater. The other kids are driving, they're going

1330
01:08:30,160 --> 01:08:32,200
Speaker 1: to be out of high school. What do you want

1331
01:08:32,240 --> 01:08:34,439
Speaker 1: them to be? What do they want to be? Um? Well,

1332
01:08:34,560 --> 01:08:36,599
Speaker 1: one of them is already h he's at the Berkeley

1333
01:08:36,600 --> 01:08:39,200
Speaker 1: College of Music as of this year. My son Spencer,

1334
01:08:39,400 --> 01:08:42,280
Speaker 1: and he's he's loving it. He does his own E

1335
01:08:42,360 --> 01:08:46,000
Speaker 1: d M type of stuff. They all play music. Uh.

1336
01:08:46,320 --> 01:08:52,280
Speaker 1: My other son, um, he is he's a hip hop

1337
01:08:52,840 --> 01:08:56,639
Speaker 1: I mean he's a hip hop encyclopedia. Um. He wants

1338
01:08:56,680 --> 01:09:01,640
Speaker 1: to study doing something not making him up, but producing

1339
01:09:01,720 --> 01:09:05,360
Speaker 1: like a line or management or something within that realm,

1340
01:09:05,400 --> 01:09:07,800
Speaker 1: because he really does have an ear for it and

1341
01:09:07,800 --> 01:09:11,479
Speaker 1: and uh he has an eye for the creativity of it. Um.

1342
01:09:11,600 --> 01:09:15,599
Speaker 1: One kid is really into computers, like designed his own

1343
01:09:15,640 --> 01:09:17,320
Speaker 1: VR type of stuff, and so he's kind of go

1344
01:09:17,360 --> 01:09:22,080
Speaker 1: in that direction. The other one is, Wow, what is

1345
01:09:22,080 --> 01:09:27,120
Speaker 1: he he? He uh, surfs, he skates, he plays piano.

1346
01:09:27,160 --> 01:09:29,200
Speaker 1: He's like a maestro piano. They're all they all are

1347
01:09:29,280 --> 01:09:33,120
Speaker 1: very creative, but you know, kind of within the same worlds. Okay,

1348
01:09:33,840 --> 01:09:36,360
Speaker 1: skate and punk go together. How do you feel about

1349
01:09:36,400 --> 01:09:39,160
Speaker 1: hip hop? I love it. I love that it's like

1350
01:09:39,280 --> 01:09:41,040
Speaker 1: urban and it came from the streets, and you know,

1351
01:09:41,120 --> 01:09:43,799
Speaker 1: it was very infused in skating in the in the nineties.

1352
01:09:44,280 --> 01:09:46,200
Speaker 1: Skating and hip hop we're we're kind of hand in

1353
01:09:46,240 --> 01:09:49,559
Speaker 1: hand because they came from the same milk um and

1354
01:09:50,040 --> 01:09:52,639
Speaker 1: a lot of skater you know, a lot of rappers

1355
01:09:52,640 --> 01:09:58,759
Speaker 1: are skate. That's like, that's their activity. Thanks for listening

1356
01:09:58,800 --> 01:10:01,360
Speaker 1: to the Bob left That's podcast. If you want to

1357
01:10:01,400 --> 01:10:04,439
Speaker 1: see Tony with me at tuned in studios, check out

1358
01:10:04,479 --> 01:10:07,840
Speaker 1: the tune in Instagram account at tune in for some

1359
01:10:07,960 --> 01:10:10,839
Speaker 1: picks and videos from behind the scenes. If you simply

1360
01:10:10,920 --> 01:10:12,960
Speaker 1: can't get enough, I want to know more of my

1361
01:10:13,040 --> 01:10:16,160
Speaker 1: thoughts on the future of the music industry, technology and

1362
01:10:16,200 --> 01:10:19,439
Speaker 1: current events. You'll want to subscribe to my newsletter. Find

1363
01:10:19,479 --> 01:10:22,080
Speaker 1: and subscribe at left sets dot com. Now I'm not

1364
01:10:22,160 --> 01:10:27,320
Speaker 1: shameless promotion. Let's dive back into the interview. So at

1365
01:10:27,320 --> 01:10:30,320
Speaker 1: this point in time, what personally do you still want

1366
01:10:30,320 --> 01:10:35,800
Speaker 1: to achieve? Um, you know what, I don't. I never

1367
01:10:36,240 --> 01:10:39,160
Speaker 1: I've never made any lofty goals like that, like I

1368
01:10:39,200 --> 01:10:42,519
Speaker 1: gotta do this. Um, I'm just enjoying the ride now.

1369
01:10:42,600 --> 01:10:45,000
Speaker 1: I really like, I love I love that I still

1370
01:10:45,000 --> 01:10:47,640
Speaker 1: get to skate, like I literally do skate for a

1371
01:10:47,640 --> 01:10:51,120
Speaker 1: living in some ways still, Um, and I'm very proud

1372
01:10:51,160 --> 01:10:53,680
Speaker 1: of that. I'm gonna be fifty this year and I'm

1373
01:10:53,720 --> 01:10:56,479
Speaker 1: a pro skater and I still feel somewhat relevant, so

1374
01:10:56,560 --> 01:10:58,960
Speaker 1: that that's unbelievable to me, you know what I mean.

1375
01:10:59,000 --> 01:11:02,439
Speaker 1: And and just sort of enjoying the opportunities to come

1376
01:11:02,479 --> 01:11:04,840
Speaker 1: with that a lot of unexpected A lot of them

1377
01:11:05,040 --> 01:11:08,080
Speaker 1: are ones I never imagined, but um, but I really

1378
01:11:08,160 --> 01:11:13,640
Speaker 1: enjoy them and and embracing them and and being up

1379
01:11:13,680 --> 01:11:15,439
Speaker 1: for the challenge. Like I do a lot of public

1380
01:11:15,439 --> 01:11:18,080
Speaker 1: speaking now, and that's not something I ever like. I wasn't.

1381
01:11:18,080 --> 01:11:20,439
Speaker 1: I didn't think skateboard was the springboard to public speaking.

1382
01:11:21,120 --> 01:11:23,879
Speaker 1: But what kind of gigs do you do? Corporate events

1383
01:11:24,479 --> 01:11:27,479
Speaker 1: or like text summits and stuff, And you know, usually

1384
01:11:27,520 --> 01:11:29,559
Speaker 1: there you know, we had like a little conversation about

1385
01:11:29,600 --> 01:11:32,840
Speaker 1: that once, But usually they're looking for inspiration. Do you

1386
01:11:32,880 --> 01:11:38,559
Speaker 1: give them inspiration? What speech? It's usually follow your passion

1387
01:11:38,800 --> 01:11:41,160
Speaker 1: for the most part, but a lot of times I'll

1388
01:11:41,160 --> 01:11:43,240
Speaker 1: tailor it like I've I've done it for long enough

1389
01:11:43,280 --> 01:11:45,240
Speaker 1: that I can kind of guide it a certain direction

1390
01:11:45,240 --> 01:11:48,080
Speaker 1: if they need me to. So, you know, one was

1391
01:11:48,120 --> 01:11:53,520
Speaker 1: more geared towards social media. One was more um adapt

1392
01:11:53,760 --> 01:11:58,280
Speaker 1: to the market place and um, I try to focus

1393
01:11:58,320 --> 01:12:00,960
Speaker 1: on those elements, but the easiest ones. And when I

1394
01:12:01,000 --> 01:12:04,280
Speaker 1: can just answer questions. Right when you go to a gig,

1395
01:12:04,960 --> 01:12:06,920
Speaker 1: do the group he's come up after no matter where

1396
01:12:06,920 --> 01:12:09,760
Speaker 1: you are, the year old skaters saying blah blah blah

1397
01:12:09,760 --> 01:12:12,040
Speaker 1: blah blah, they want to talk stuff. Yeah, and and

1398
01:12:12,080 --> 01:12:15,280
Speaker 1: it's well, the fun thing about that is when you

1399
01:12:15,320 --> 01:12:17,439
Speaker 1: were a skater in the eighties, it was a very

1400
01:12:18,120 --> 01:12:21,160
Speaker 1: you thought it was a very exclusive club, and it

1401
01:12:21,280 --> 01:12:22,800
Speaker 1: was in a lot of ways because it just wasn't

1402
01:12:22,840 --> 01:12:25,840
Speaker 1: that popular. But once you're in, you like, you loved it,

1403
01:12:25,880 --> 01:12:28,559
Speaker 1: and you you hold on to every magazine and video.

1404
01:12:28,880 --> 01:12:34,120
Speaker 1: And now that generation of news are mostly dads, and

1405
01:12:34,160 --> 01:12:35,479
Speaker 1: so they come up to me and they're like, I

1406
01:12:35,560 --> 01:12:39,040
Speaker 1: love my kids skates, and I tell them about Christian story,

1407
01:12:39,200 --> 01:12:41,800
Speaker 1: you guys, and for good and you know the fact

1408
01:12:41,880 --> 01:12:44,559
Speaker 1: that they have this in and they're still excited about it.

1409
01:12:44,560 --> 01:12:48,120
Speaker 1: It's it's really fun. Like I, I can't, I can't

1410
01:12:48,160 --> 01:12:52,760
Speaker 1: believe that that we've come this far and that it's

1411
01:12:52,800 --> 01:12:56,600
Speaker 1: still it's still that relevant, but also that that it

1412
01:12:56,680 --> 01:12:59,640
Speaker 1: inspired so many people back then. Okay, going back to

1413
01:12:59,680 --> 01:13:01,920
Speaker 1: your own think, I mean, listening to your story, you

1414
01:13:02,080 --> 01:13:04,439
Speaker 1: definitely went you know, this is like the people of

1415
01:13:04,479 --> 01:13:06,920
Speaker 1: the d M world. It goes up and it crashes.

1416
01:13:07,000 --> 01:13:09,559
Speaker 1: It goes up and it crashes, but you're victimized by

1417
01:13:09,600 --> 01:13:13,879
Speaker 1: that with no fallback position. So are you basically saying

1418
01:13:14,320 --> 01:13:17,760
Speaker 1: that it was luck that skateboarding came back, or you're

1419
01:13:17,800 --> 01:13:21,040
Speaker 1: so passionate, or you're a unique individual that would succeed

1420
01:13:21,080 --> 01:13:25,719
Speaker 1: in anything. How do you put that together? I think

1421
01:13:25,800 --> 01:13:30,519
Speaker 1: that I had the well, I had the advantage of

1422
01:13:30,640 --> 01:13:35,200
Speaker 1: not ever in the beginning, the goal was not fame

1423
01:13:35,280 --> 01:13:37,760
Speaker 1: or fortune. That was never the driving factor of what

1424
01:13:37,800 --> 01:13:40,280
Speaker 1: I was doing because it didn't exist and there wasn't

1425
01:13:40,360 --> 01:13:42,559
Speaker 1: just wasn't the the idea. The idea for me, it

1426
01:13:42,600 --> 01:13:45,400
Speaker 1: was just to keep getting better at skateboarding. So through

1427
01:13:45,840 --> 01:13:49,040
Speaker 1: the more difficult times and the more challenging times, that

1428
01:13:49,120 --> 01:13:51,960
Speaker 1: was still my motivation and I wanted to keep skating

1429
01:13:52,240 --> 01:13:55,519
Speaker 1: however I could. So I was doing odd jobs and

1430
01:13:55,520 --> 01:13:57,400
Speaker 1: and this and that, just so that I would have

1431
01:13:57,439 --> 01:14:01,800
Speaker 1: some time to skate ad jobs, not skateboarding games on skateboarding. Yeah,

1432
01:14:01,840 --> 01:14:03,720
Speaker 1: I had some video editing equipment, so I used to

1433
01:14:03,760 --> 01:14:07,240
Speaker 1: like edit videos for really this is when in like

1434
01:14:07,240 --> 01:14:12,160
Speaker 1: your early twenties. I uh, it was the only time

1435
01:14:12,200 --> 01:14:14,240
Speaker 1: I actually got borrowed money from my parents was to

1436
01:14:14,280 --> 01:14:19,240
Speaker 1: buy this this three quarter deck editing system that was

1437
01:14:19,320 --> 01:14:21,840
Speaker 1: run through my computer through a video toaster, which was

1438
01:14:21,880 --> 01:14:24,879
Speaker 1: one of the first home Yeah, I had an Amiga,

1439
01:14:24,960 --> 01:14:27,720
Speaker 1: and so I had the advantage of doing graphics with

1440
01:14:27,760 --> 01:14:30,160
Speaker 1: this video ating system. And so I mean I did.

1441
01:14:30,280 --> 01:14:32,720
Speaker 1: I did a couple of like I don't want to

1442
01:14:32,760 --> 01:14:36,840
Speaker 1: say big time stuff, but you know, legitimate jobs. Well,

1443
01:14:36,840 --> 01:14:39,599
Speaker 1: what percentage your income was based on video? Very little?

1444
01:14:40,280 --> 01:14:42,400
Speaker 1: And did not pay my parents back the food that way,

1445
01:14:42,640 --> 01:14:45,000
Speaker 1: but it was paying the bills at the time. No,

1446
01:14:45,080 --> 01:14:47,640
Speaker 1: it's just you know, being in the ski world. You know,

1447
01:14:47,680 --> 01:14:49,880
Speaker 1: you wake up one day, it's very hard to make it.

1448
01:14:49,920 --> 01:14:53,240
Speaker 1: Skiing is not like we say the people from California surfers.

1449
01:14:53,280 --> 01:14:54,800
Speaker 1: They could live on the beach. You have a board,

1450
01:14:54,840 --> 01:14:57,640
Speaker 1: that's it. Where if you're living, uh snow country. You

1451
01:14:57,720 --> 01:14:59,479
Speaker 1: gotta have a roof over your head, gotta have a pass,

1452
01:14:59,560 --> 01:15:02,519
Speaker 1: gotta have a women And eventually some people turn to

1453
01:15:02,840 --> 01:15:06,960
Speaker 1: dealing drugs. Other people quit, other people got to work

1454
01:15:07,000 --> 01:15:09,960
Speaker 1: for the industry. Other people get straight jobs. It's it's

1455
01:15:09,960 --> 01:15:12,639
Speaker 1: hard to survive. It's not as simple as saying, oh,

1456
01:15:12,680 --> 01:15:15,120
Speaker 1: I have a dream and it worked for you, okay,

1457
01:15:15,160 --> 01:15:17,120
Speaker 1: and I think that has something to do very special

1458
01:15:17,160 --> 01:15:20,960
Speaker 1: to you. But I I'm weary. Well, I knew when

1459
01:15:20,960 --> 01:15:23,439
Speaker 1: I knew when to sort of pull back on the

1460
01:15:23,479 --> 01:15:27,240
Speaker 1: focus of my own, say, career in skating, in order

1461
01:15:27,280 --> 01:15:31,240
Speaker 1: to nurture, say, my company that I started. So what's

1462
01:15:31,240 --> 01:15:33,760
Speaker 1: the status of the company today. Uh, well, we've ben

1463
01:15:33,760 --> 01:15:38,320
Speaker 1: gon twenty five years, Birdhouse and that same three guys. No.

1464
01:15:38,520 --> 01:15:41,040
Speaker 1: I ended up UM buying my partner out about ten

1465
01:15:41,120 --> 01:15:45,200
Speaker 1: years ago, so it's just my inst but we do

1466
01:15:45,320 --> 01:15:48,120
Speaker 1: have we have four employees. For the most part, we

1467
01:15:48,120 --> 01:15:50,599
Speaker 1: have a team of about ten skaters who you saw

1468
01:15:50,680 --> 01:15:55,280
Speaker 1: when we video premiered our video UM And when I

1469
01:15:55,320 --> 01:15:58,120
Speaker 1: took it over from my partner, it had kind of

1470
01:15:58,160 --> 01:16:01,080
Speaker 1: lost its focus because he was distracted with doing a

1471
01:16:01,120 --> 01:16:03,439
Speaker 1: lot of other brands, and I said, I want to

1472
01:16:03,520 --> 01:16:06,120
Speaker 1: put Birdhouse back on the map, and that's pretty much

1473
01:16:06,160 --> 01:16:09,679
Speaker 1: what I've been doing for the last i'd say eight

1474
01:16:09,760 --> 01:16:13,320
Speaker 1: years with Birdhouse UM culminating in this video we just

1475
01:16:13,400 --> 01:16:17,120
Speaker 1: made and finally getting us back on track to sell skateboards.

1476
01:16:17,640 --> 01:16:19,640
Speaker 1: And so at this point in time, the last at

1477
01:16:19,680 --> 01:16:21,240
Speaker 1: this point in time, the last kenter ten years, is

1478
01:16:21,280 --> 01:16:25,160
Speaker 1: Birdhouse a profitable business? Uh? It is, but only because

1479
01:16:25,240 --> 01:16:32,240
Speaker 1: I will do UM sort of exterior licensing and sometimes

1480
01:16:32,240 --> 01:16:34,320
Speaker 1: not even a the Birdhouse brand, but just of my

1481
01:16:34,439 --> 01:16:39,160
Speaker 1: name to keep the ship afloat. So for instance, I

1482
01:16:39,200 --> 01:16:42,840
Speaker 1: have this uh Tony Hawks Skatepark series of skateboards that

1483
01:16:42,880 --> 01:16:47,080
Speaker 1: are more UM entry level skateboards that we sell at

1484
01:16:47,479 --> 01:16:52,400
Speaker 1: box stores. Those royalties go to Birdhouse in order to

1485
01:16:52,479 --> 01:16:54,759
Speaker 1: keep it going and pay the salaries of my skaters.

1486
01:16:55,240 --> 01:16:57,040
Speaker 1: So at this point in time, because they don't want

1487
01:16:57,040 --> 01:16:59,479
Speaker 1: Birdhouse at that level, but I don't mind my name

1488
01:16:59,479 --> 01:17:03,680
Speaker 1: being at the right exactly. So your main business enterprises

1489
01:17:03,720 --> 01:17:10,320
Speaker 1: today are Birdhouse. Uh. Birdhouses is still tricky, but it's surviving. UM,

1490
01:17:10,360 --> 01:17:13,639
Speaker 1: it's licensing, it's licensing our clothing line, Tony Hart clothing,

1491
01:17:14,160 --> 01:17:18,479
Speaker 1: UM endorsements. I have an endorsement with many USA. UM.

1492
01:17:18,560 --> 01:17:23,800
Speaker 1: And honestly, like, with the success of social media, that's

1493
01:17:23,840 --> 01:17:26,840
Speaker 1: become a source of income, which I never imagine at

1494
01:17:27,960 --> 01:17:32,840
Speaker 1: UH doing doing sponsored posts or campaigns things like that.

1495
01:17:33,160 --> 01:17:35,680
Speaker 1: You know, I was, I was there very early on

1496
01:17:35,680 --> 01:17:39,920
Speaker 1: on Twitter. Um and Uh. In fact, you wrote about

1497
01:17:40,439 --> 01:17:41,880
Speaker 1: one of my things I done on Twitter I miss

1498
01:17:41,920 --> 01:17:45,000
Speaker 1: like ten years ago, uh, which is how I learned

1499
01:17:45,000 --> 01:17:48,120
Speaker 1: about you. And and I just was trying to make

1500
01:17:48,120 --> 01:17:49,720
Speaker 1: it fun. You know, I knew that it was it was,

1501
01:17:49,760 --> 01:17:51,320
Speaker 1: it was far reaching, but I was just trying to

1502
01:17:51,360 --> 01:17:53,200
Speaker 1: make it fun for the people because I didn't want

1503
01:17:53,240 --> 01:17:56,200
Speaker 1: them to just think like, oh, hey, I'm hungry, Look

1504
01:17:56,240 --> 01:17:59,479
Speaker 1: I got coffee, Like what who cares? Is it's just

1505
01:17:59,520 --> 01:18:02,760
Speaker 1: your intern voice and now. And I was just trying

1506
01:18:02,760 --> 01:18:04,080
Speaker 1: to think of like what would I want to read

1507
01:18:04,120 --> 01:18:06,120
Speaker 1: from someone or what would I want to participate in?

1508
01:18:06,200 --> 01:18:09,479
Speaker 1: And so through that I had success. I got a

1509
01:18:09,520 --> 01:18:13,160
Speaker 1: lot of followers on Twitter obviously, and then through Instagram

1510
01:18:13,160 --> 01:18:16,040
Speaker 1: and through Facebook, and suddenly, before I knew it, I

1511
01:18:16,080 --> 01:18:18,800
Speaker 1: had this sort of business opportunity. And it's not really

1512
01:18:18,800 --> 01:18:22,120
Speaker 1: why I do it. It never has been, but it's

1513
01:18:22,120 --> 01:18:25,120
Speaker 1: suddenly it's like, wait, you'll pay me to what really

1514
01:18:25,439 --> 01:18:27,519
Speaker 1: and I don't really have to change my voice. That's

1515
01:18:27,560 --> 01:18:30,120
Speaker 1: the only stipulation I have. Like, look, if you want

1516
01:18:30,120 --> 01:18:31,080
Speaker 1: me to do this, I have to do in my

1517
01:18:31,080 --> 01:18:35,720
Speaker 1: own terms. I'm not just gonna put your marketing you know,

1518
01:18:35,840 --> 01:18:38,320
Speaker 1: you're talking point out there like I'm gonna make it

1519
01:18:38,360 --> 01:18:40,680
Speaker 1: my own voice. So although no one calls anymore, is

1520
01:18:40,680 --> 01:18:44,360
Speaker 1: the phone still ringing? The opportunities? Could the opportunities continue

1521
01:18:44,360 --> 01:18:46,120
Speaker 1: to come in at the same level they do? Yeah?

1522
01:18:46,200 --> 01:18:47,720
Speaker 1: And and like I said, when I when I do

1523
01:18:47,800 --> 01:18:49,680
Speaker 1: get an opportunity, I embrace it and I try to

1524
01:18:49,720 --> 01:18:54,160
Speaker 1: make it something fun and it usually ends up playing

1525
01:18:54,160 --> 01:18:57,639
Speaker 1: into something else. And who's fielding all those Uh? Well,

1526
01:18:57,680 --> 01:19:00,360
Speaker 1: I do have people at my office, so I do

1527
01:19:00,439 --> 01:19:03,479
Speaker 1: have um my sister is still my business partner, but

1528
01:19:03,640 --> 01:19:05,479
Speaker 1: I have a you know a few people in my

1529
01:19:05,520 --> 01:19:08,759
Speaker 1: office where they answer the phone and they do my schedule.

1530
01:19:08,840 --> 01:19:11,560
Speaker 1: And okay, but your story listening to it now for

1531
01:19:11,600 --> 01:19:15,880
Speaker 1: the past hour, you always say yes, is that true? No? No?

1532
01:19:16,040 --> 01:19:18,880
Speaker 1: In fact, once I got that level of success, especially

1533
01:19:18,920 --> 01:19:21,200
Speaker 1: with the video game, that was the finally the time

1534
01:19:21,200 --> 01:19:24,080
Speaker 1: where I was allowed to say no because I was

1535
01:19:24,960 --> 01:19:27,559
Speaker 1: I was coming. I wasn't struggling to make ends meet.

1536
01:19:27,600 --> 01:19:30,320
Speaker 1: I didn't have to do every single thing. And even now,

1537
01:19:30,920 --> 01:19:34,040
Speaker 1: I mean for sure, nowadays I'm saying no, way more,

1538
01:19:34,160 --> 01:19:36,320
Speaker 1: just so that I have my own time, so that I,

1539
01:19:36,400 --> 01:19:38,160
Speaker 1: you know, have control of my life and I'm with

1540
01:19:38,200 --> 01:19:41,439
Speaker 1: my kids. Um. But it but it's a difficult. It's

1541
01:19:41,439 --> 01:19:43,920
Speaker 1: a difficult transition to make, you know too. Where it

1542
01:19:44,000 --> 01:19:47,320
Speaker 1: suddenly it's like, wait, what you want to do this? No,

1543
01:19:47,920 --> 01:19:50,400
Speaker 1: I don't what. It's not gonna you know, that's not

1544
01:19:50,439 --> 01:19:52,760
Speaker 1: gonna change what I'm doing or the reach that I have,

1545
01:19:53,439 --> 01:19:55,240
Speaker 1: and it's just gonna take up more of my time,

1546
01:19:55,920 --> 01:19:57,680
Speaker 1: like getting there and doing what you've been up and

1547
01:19:57,760 --> 01:20:01,240
Speaker 1: down financially this Wait, do you have any fear that

1548
01:20:01,280 --> 01:20:02,960
Speaker 1: you're going to run out of money? Or you feel Okay,

1549
01:20:02,960 --> 01:20:09,160
Speaker 1: I'm set and it will continue to be opportunities. I

1550
01:20:09,160 --> 01:20:11,639
Speaker 1: I'm not set in the sense that if I stopped everything,

1551
01:20:11,720 --> 01:20:15,200
Speaker 1: I could just live off my savings necessarily. Um, because

1552
01:20:15,240 --> 01:20:17,280
Speaker 1: I still want to provide for my kids into their

1553
01:20:17,320 --> 01:20:19,880
Speaker 1: adult lives, you know, or at least have them not.

1554
01:20:20,720 --> 01:20:22,160
Speaker 1: I don't want them to want for anything. I don't

1555
01:20:22,160 --> 01:20:24,200
Speaker 1: want them to struggle with you know. I want them

1556
01:20:24,200 --> 01:20:26,360
Speaker 1: to be productive and to take pride in their work,

1557
01:20:26,360 --> 01:20:28,320
Speaker 1: but I don't want them to feel like they're going

1558
01:20:28,360 --> 01:20:33,639
Speaker 1: to start UM. So yes and no, I mean yes,

1559
01:20:33,720 --> 01:20:36,960
Speaker 1: I would We could live modestly throughout our days and

1560
01:20:37,040 --> 01:20:39,439
Speaker 1: be fine. UM. But but I do feel like there

1561
01:20:39,439 --> 01:20:41,760
Speaker 1: are other there are other things that are that are

1562
01:20:41,800 --> 01:20:46,240
Speaker 1: still would be fun to accomplish. UM. I would love

1563
01:20:46,280 --> 01:20:49,920
Speaker 1: to UH. Our clothing line has has lingered in the

1564
01:20:50,040 --> 01:20:52,599
Speaker 1: US for a long time. It was exclusive to calls

1565
01:20:52,720 --> 01:20:56,200
Speaker 1: for almost ten years, and I would love to see

1566
01:20:56,240 --> 01:20:58,880
Speaker 1: the international potential of that. Because our clothing line was

1567
01:20:58,920 --> 01:21:03,040
Speaker 1: started by my siblings and I because we all had

1568
01:21:03,080 --> 01:21:04,960
Speaker 1: kids and we couldn't find cool clothes for our kids.

1569
01:21:05,040 --> 01:21:07,439
Speaker 1: That was that was it. That was the basic concept,

1570
01:21:07,920 --> 01:21:11,360
Speaker 1: and we started making cool clothes for toddlers, and then

1571
01:21:11,400 --> 01:21:13,960
Speaker 1: it started getting into young men's and then we had something.

1572
01:21:13,960 --> 01:21:17,000
Speaker 1: We had a legit clothing line, and Quicksilver bought the

1573
01:21:17,040 --> 01:21:21,599
Speaker 1: I P then UH Cherokee bought it, and that that

1574
01:21:21,680 --> 01:21:23,760
Speaker 1: now gives us the opportunity to take an on a

1575
01:21:23,760 --> 01:21:27,439
Speaker 1: more global scale. Just going back, one final thing, if

1576
01:21:27,439 --> 01:21:30,560
Speaker 1: you look at your success, which has been over decades

1577
01:21:31,040 --> 01:21:36,639
Speaker 1: and multifarious, what do you think the key element is? UM?

1578
01:21:37,760 --> 01:21:43,840
Speaker 1: I think the key element for me was um for sure, perseverance,

1579
01:21:44,520 --> 01:21:52,840
Speaker 1: but also um not being detracted or or um discouraged

1580
01:21:52,880 --> 01:21:56,559
Speaker 1: by the naysays, not listening to them. And like I said,

1581
01:21:56,600 --> 01:21:58,400
Speaker 1: I had plenty of that early on. I mean, it's

1582
01:21:58,400 --> 01:22:00,639
Speaker 1: set me up so well for so many different things

1583
01:22:00,640 --> 01:22:02,680
Speaker 1: in life. But I had so many naysayers early on

1584
01:22:03,600 --> 01:22:05,960
Speaker 1: in my skating career and and sort of found my

1585
01:22:06,040 --> 01:22:09,479
Speaker 1: voice and you know, became successful with it that once

1586
01:22:09,520 --> 01:22:12,400
Speaker 1: I started getting sponsors, the big sponsors, and people were like, oh,

1587
01:22:12,400 --> 01:22:16,000
Speaker 1: you're selling them whatever, you know this, I'm happy with

1588
01:22:16,040 --> 01:22:18,920
Speaker 1: what I'm doing. I'm proud of what I'm endorsing. And

1589
01:22:18,960 --> 01:22:23,200
Speaker 1: then came social media with hate like you've never known,

1590
01:22:24,120 --> 01:22:27,200
Speaker 1: and I was ready, you know what I mean, I

1591
01:22:27,200 --> 01:22:30,160
Speaker 1: had been through these different waves of it. My shell

1592
01:22:30,360 --> 01:22:34,840
Speaker 1: was tight. Okay, so somebody says something negative rolls right off,

1593
01:22:34,920 --> 01:22:37,920
Speaker 1: you know, absolutely, Yeah, I mean, you know, sometimes it

1594
01:22:38,240 --> 01:22:41,280
Speaker 1: stings a bit, but um, I'm sure you have haters

1595
01:22:41,280 --> 01:22:44,800
Speaker 1: like I have who hate multiple times a day every day. Sure, yeah,

1596
01:22:44,960 --> 01:22:46,760
Speaker 1: but then it's just like but then if you go

1597
01:22:46,840 --> 01:22:48,760
Speaker 1: to their feed, that's all they're doing is just yelling

1598
01:22:48,800 --> 01:22:52,920
Speaker 1: at people, and it's just like, well, I'm not. I'm

1599
01:22:52,960 --> 01:22:56,519
Speaker 1: not exclusive in your hate, so I don't take it

1600
01:22:56,560 --> 01:22:59,720
Speaker 1: as as harshly. It's only when they talk about my

1601
01:22:59,720 --> 01:23:02,760
Speaker 1: my kids when I will not get involved. I just

1602
01:23:02,800 --> 01:23:05,720
Speaker 1: deleted because they don't need that. They don't they're not

1603
01:23:06,320 --> 01:23:09,400
Speaker 1: they're not participating in this. They're not certain lines that

1604
01:23:09,439 --> 01:23:13,439
Speaker 1: are very similar. One thing. I'm definitely not as a naysayer. Certainly,

1605
01:23:13,439 --> 01:23:17,120
Speaker 1: there's so many people with a profile who are essentially nonverbal.

1606
01:23:17,720 --> 01:23:21,120
Speaker 1: Musicians are most famous for that. But you can certainly

1607
01:23:21,120 --> 01:23:24,000
Speaker 1: tell a story. It's been very edifying and interesting. I'm

1608
01:23:24,040 --> 01:23:26,280
Speaker 1: sure my audience will love it. Tony, thanks so much

1609
01:23:26,280 --> 01:23:28,479
Speaker 1: for coming. Yeah, thanks for having me, and thanks for

1610
01:23:28,520 --> 01:23:31,240
Speaker 1: writing about the Birdhouse video. That was Okay, it was great.

1611
01:23:31,280 --> 01:23:33,000
Speaker 1: It was great. Kind I mean, that's one of the

1612
01:23:33,120 --> 01:23:36,280
Speaker 1: things that's a big cultural change. You know, we live

1613
01:23:36,320 --> 01:23:40,639
Speaker 1: in this society right now where the self anointed media

1614
01:23:40,720 --> 01:23:44,160
Speaker 1: elite is frequently out of touch with what's going on.

1615
01:23:44,560 --> 01:23:48,200
Speaker 1: And one of the interesting things I saw, primarily in

1616
01:23:48,920 --> 01:23:53,280
Speaker 1: as we would say, you know, X games or sports

1617
01:23:53,320 --> 01:23:56,280
Speaker 1: of that ilk was the community spirit. When I grew

1618
01:23:56,360 --> 01:24:00,680
Speaker 1: up as a baby boomer, people wanted to win, and

1619
01:24:00,720 --> 01:24:03,120
Speaker 1: there were the winners and the losers where if you watch,

1620
01:24:03,200 --> 01:24:06,679
Speaker 1: you know, a skate competition whatever, they'll rally all around.

1621
01:24:06,760 --> 01:24:08,280
Speaker 1: You know, the winner will be with a loser, will

1622
01:24:08,160 --> 01:24:10,160
Speaker 1: all be a sense of community. And I learned that

1623
01:24:10,240 --> 01:24:14,240
Speaker 1: from skating, and then it evolved even amongst a millennial generation.

1624
01:24:14,520 --> 01:24:16,120
Speaker 1: I mean in my when I grew up and I

1625
01:24:16,160 --> 01:24:18,120
Speaker 1: was going to school, people would raise her hand, want

1626
01:24:18,120 --> 01:24:19,479
Speaker 1: to stand up a lot of people. I don't want

1627
01:24:19,479 --> 01:24:20,680
Speaker 1: to stand out. I want to be a member of

1628
01:24:20,680 --> 01:24:23,120
Speaker 1: the group, et ceter up. So there's been a huge

1629
01:24:23,360 --> 01:24:26,760
Speaker 1: cultural impact. And it's also interesting because people your aged

1630
01:24:26,800 --> 01:24:29,920
Speaker 1: ten years younger than myself. Uh, you know, I go,

1631
01:24:30,040 --> 01:24:32,400
Speaker 1: I goes, you know, I hang with these people and

1632
01:24:32,520 --> 01:24:35,120
Speaker 1: skating is such a big part of their culture. People

1633
01:24:35,120 --> 01:24:38,360
Speaker 1: don't realize this. Like this guy, Ian Rodgers presently works

1634
01:24:38,720 --> 01:24:40,720
Speaker 1: for an l M v H l V you know,

1635
01:24:40,800 --> 01:24:44,840
Speaker 1: Louis Vattone LVMH used to work for Apple and Beats whatever.

1636
01:24:45,120 --> 01:24:50,599
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, big skater Okay, And I know this guy okay,

1637
01:24:50,760 --> 01:24:53,920
Speaker 1: my friend Mark Writer who works with Metallica, big skater.

1638
01:24:54,040 --> 01:24:56,720
Speaker 1: And we go with Joel Gomez who got started. It's

1639
01:24:56,760 --> 01:25:00,920
Speaker 1: amazing what a culture and how it intertwine. Now another

1640
01:25:00,920 --> 01:25:03,240
Speaker 1: thing you're doing. Although I said we were ending here

1641
01:25:03,439 --> 01:25:07,320
Speaker 1: is you're also your foundation is building skatepark. So tell

1642
01:25:07,400 --> 01:25:09,719
Speaker 1: us just a little bit more about that. Uh So,

1643
01:25:09,960 --> 01:25:14,200
Speaker 1: we started the foundation UM about fifteen years ago and

1644
01:25:14,240 --> 01:25:17,320
Speaker 1: the goal was just to help people get through the

1645
01:25:17,320 --> 01:25:20,720
Speaker 1: process of getting a skatepark. It wasn't our it wasn't

1646
01:25:20,720 --> 01:25:22,760
Speaker 1: our intent to just pick a city and say the

1647
01:25:22,760 --> 01:25:26,400
Speaker 1: city needs apart. It was more it was more um,

1648
01:25:26,439 --> 01:25:28,680
Speaker 1: looking at communities that are trying to get something going

1649
01:25:28,720 --> 01:25:32,439
Speaker 1: for themselves and giving them the resources necessary for it.

1650
01:25:32,560 --> 01:25:37,280
Speaker 1: So giving them funding but more is importantly the guide

1651
01:25:37,320 --> 01:25:40,479
Speaker 1: to getting through the red tape to city council meetings

1652
01:25:40,520 --> 01:25:43,639
Speaker 1: and petitioning and all that stuff. UM. And we've learned

1653
01:25:43,640 --> 01:25:46,360
Speaker 1: a lot through the through the process, we've gotten you know,

1654
01:25:46,479 --> 01:25:49,800
Speaker 1: the supportive of larger philanthropy in a lot of ways.

1655
01:25:49,840 --> 01:25:52,840
Speaker 1: And so we've helped to develop almost six skateparks now.

1656
01:25:53,680 --> 01:25:56,160
Speaker 1: So what is the biggest challenge building the skatepark other

1657
01:25:56,240 --> 01:26:00,439
Speaker 1: than them really usually the approval process, getting getting either

1658
01:26:00,680 --> 01:26:04,240
Speaker 1: the city behind it or the location. UM, the funding

1659
01:26:05,000 --> 01:26:08,800
Speaker 1: can be a problem. And usually with our with with

1660
01:26:08,920 --> 01:26:12,840
Speaker 1: our grant and our endorsement, that will get them a

1661
01:26:12,880 --> 01:26:15,599
Speaker 1: lot more in matching funds and and maybe even there'll

1662
01:26:15,640 --> 01:26:19,040
Speaker 1: be the tipping point for them getting it approved completely. Um,

1663
01:26:19,120 --> 01:26:21,040
Speaker 1: it's definitely the work I'm most proud of and and

1664
01:26:21,120 --> 01:26:23,920
Speaker 1: I you know, I enjoyed and selfishly, I just get

1665
01:26:23,960 --> 01:26:27,559
Speaker 1: more places to skate. And then what's the liability issue today? Well,

1666
01:26:27,600 --> 01:26:31,839
Speaker 1: the skateboarding was added to the hazardous activities lists about

1667
01:26:32,760 --> 01:26:35,320
Speaker 1: fifteen years ago. Well maybe a little less, but that

1668
01:26:35,439 --> 01:26:37,439
Speaker 1: was right around the time we started doing it, and

1669
01:26:37,520 --> 01:26:40,759
Speaker 1: that allowed people to build skate parks in public areas

1670
01:26:40,840 --> 01:26:44,280
Speaker 1: and not have them monitored because skating is at your

1671
01:26:44,280 --> 01:26:46,799
Speaker 1: own risk. Like it actually fell under the same stipulation

1672
01:26:46,840 --> 01:26:51,760
Speaker 1: as skiing. So ski you get hurt, can't blame anyone. Nowadays,

1673
01:26:51,880 --> 01:26:55,200
Speaker 1: skate you get hurt, you know, and that's working out,

1674
01:26:55,760 --> 01:26:59,080
Speaker 1: it is. Yeah, it it gets weird because if they

1675
01:26:59,080 --> 01:27:04,000
Speaker 1: do a skate park and they want to enforce pads, um,

1676
01:27:04,040 --> 01:27:07,439
Speaker 1: which you know I encourage, specially for beginners, if they

1677
01:27:07,640 --> 01:27:10,120
Speaker 1: if they want to enforce pads and someone is skating

1678
01:27:10,120 --> 01:27:12,320
Speaker 1: without pads and they get hurt, then they are liable

1679
01:27:12,320 --> 01:27:15,559
Speaker 1: because they weren't enforcing it enough. And it gets really

1680
01:27:15,880 --> 01:27:20,400
Speaker 1: it's just you knowable somebody such a nightmare. Okay, well

1681
01:27:20,400 --> 01:27:28,559
Speaker 1: we're not gonna get hurt here in the studio. Thanks again, Tony. Hey,

1682
01:27:28,600 --> 01:27:30,360
Speaker 1: this is Bob left Sex. I want to thank you

1683
01:27:30,400 --> 01:27:33,040
Speaker 1: for your time. Much like the Left Sets Letter, I

1684
01:27:33,040 --> 01:27:35,439
Speaker 1: want to hear from you. You can email me at

1685
01:27:35,479 --> 01:27:37,920
Speaker 1: Bob at left sets dot com and let me know

1686
01:27:37,960 --> 01:27:41,000
Speaker 1: what you think. I appreciate your comments. Be sure to

1687
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Speaker 1: subscribe on tune in, Apple Podcasts or your podcast player

1688
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Speaker 1: of choice if there are apps were not available, and

1689
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Speaker 1: let me know we'll get them there. Remember, distribution is king.

1690
01:27:51,520 --> 01:27:53,439
Speaker 1: And if you're not a subscribe to the Left Sets Letter,

1691
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Speaker 1: visit left sets dot com and subscribe for regular newsletter

1692
01:27:56,720 --> 01:27:59,200
Speaker 1: updates on a wide range of topics, including those not

1693
01:27:59,360 --> 01:28:07,439
Speaker 1: covered here. Me reas don't know me exactly why must

1694
01:28:07,600 --> 01:28:11,479
Speaker 1: be its out of the season fling