Not too many people have style these days. Everything
is shined down or polished at the mall; this world is lacking
balls. I'm talking about the real shit, dirty spit in your face
stuff heroes are made of. Everything these days is supposed
to be perfect, they have washed the dirt from the cracks and
taken a shit in our music. Teen marketers are looking for the
newest cleanest thing while the fat cats sit around and call
the shots from behind an executive desk from the 23rd floor
of an office overlooking the Avenue of the Americas. They have
come for our heroes and we don't have many left.
I was reading a book on the Rolling Stones the other day and
there was something a judge said to Keith Richards in 1972 before
Keith was sentenced. "Mr. Richards, I find it hard to believe
that a man in your financial situation only owns one pair of
pants." Apparently Keith had not changed his pants throughout
the drawn out court process. The judge, having nothing better
to do, noticed with scorn that Keith's pants were just getting
worse by the day. Keith, totally unconcerned with the court's
opinion, didn't give a fuck. I was so proud of Keith for never
changing his pants; a warm bell rang in my soul, for I never
change my pants. I will pack for a three-month trip the same
way I pack for a five-day trip. One pair of pants... it is all
you need...Heroes never change their pants so why should I?
When I first encountered Tony Trujillo (Slam City Jam 2001)
he had just gotten back from Australia, and from the photo evidence
I have seen, he had not changed his pants for a few continents.
I tagged along with his crew to a few skateparks and witnessed
Tony melting everything in his path. As I watched Tony skate
over that weekend I realized how natural he is on a board. Everything
he does looks effortless, no matter what trick it is. He skated
both of his final runs with an orange ski mask on, and he never
changed his pants. Tony has what it takes: style, skill, and
balls. If he is not one of your heroes then make him one.
-Peter Connelly
You grew up around here right, started skating when you were
pretty young?
I grew up in Sebastopol. I started skating when I was six or
seven. That was only 12 years ago, but still before skating hit
the mainstream. Were there a lot of kids skating?
No. I lived out in the country and we had 10 acres of fields
and nothing but horses and bullshit like that…lambs and
sheep. How did you end up skating then?
My neighbor was friends with my sister and she was 12 then.
He skated and they always hung out, so I skated with him. Then
one year I got a board for Christmas and that’s how I got
started. My dad and I built ramps and my neighbor had mini-ramps…all
kinds of good shit. We had a barn with jump ramps set up in
it. That’s really how I got started skating. Were you always into skating transition right off the bat?
It was the only thing I could skate around my house cause there
was blacktop but no curbs or anything. So when you were like six or seven was skating just coming
natural to you?
Yeah, it was just like kids having fun and shit. How old were you when you knew that you wanted to pursue
skating, or at least realized you had a talent?
I never tried to pursue it, I just skated. How old were you when you first started doing contests? Like
12 or 13 and those were C.A.S.L. contests. They came to Santa
Rosa and Sacramento and maybe Petaluma. Were you standing out in those pretty quick?
I won one in Santa Rosa. I don’t really remember the rest.
I placed in a lot. I didn’t enter too many ‘cause
they didn’t come around too often so that was that. Then
after a little while I realized it was a scam. You had to pay
like 45 bucks to just register then you had to pay like every
time after that. All you won was a trophy, not even skate stuff.
So I just quit that shit. How old were you when Anti-Hero first sponsored you?
Fourteen. Did you send them a sponsor me video or what?
There was this contest in Sacramento and I heard about a Scarecrow
party there one night. So I got my mom to drive me and Jesse
[Palmer] and then I had a tape of just me and skating. Bob Burnquist
was there and I saw him skating and I gave him my tape. I was
like, “Hey check this out” and he was like, “Cool
man.” Then I started to skate the ramp and he was stoked.
Then he showed Julian Stranger and Cardiel the tape. Then I
got to Deluxe and Mic-E (Reyes) started sending me boxes. I
got my first package when I was 14. How old were you when you turned pro for them?
Sixteen, I think. Did everyone pretty much respect you, being so young and
being on the team and all?
Yeah, but I didn’t really skate with those guys when I
was like 14 though. I went on my first tour when I was 14, summer
time. That was up to Montreal and Quebec and Toronto…some
other place I forgot. How was that?
It was great. I went with Ethan Fowler. I didn’t really
go with any Anti-Hero guys. Well, I went with Andy Roy, but
he went home early and I was by myself. It was just Stereo guys
and Real guys. Were you pretty amped when you realized you got to travel
all over the world because of skateboarding?
Yeah, no kids my age were doing that so I couldn’t talk
to them about it. I would just tell them how they didn’t
realize how good it is to just go out and travel everywhere
because of skateboarding. Now there’s lots of young kids who are turning pro,
but back then there weren’t that many. I mean they were
there, but…?
Not like today; all they want to do is get sponsored. They don’t
skate for fun anymore. They just go out and film shit. That’s
it, it’s not really skating. When you guys are on tour is that pretty much what you guys
are doing? Filming?
Well, like if you’re in town for one night or a day or
something and you see a spot you wanna skate then you’re
gonna skate it ‘cause you’re not going to be able
to hit it the next day. So you just try to do whatever you can…get
it on film. Then you just go to the next town and there’s
something, you just keep going and you get so much footage and
you don’t even realize it. That’s how all our videos
come together pretty much. Friends going out and traveling and
filming each other. What was the best tour you’ve been on?
Australia, when we went with Big Brother and Dave Carnie. That
would have to be the best one. All the Anti-Hero’s were
there and Dave Carnie was a fuckin’ goof ball and it was
just the best. Australia’s a good place to travel to. Did you get hooked up with Vans and Independent and Spitfire
through Deluxe also?
Yeah, cause everyone on Anti-Hero rides for Independent and
Vans. I dunno that’s just the way to go. They just have
the best shit anyway. Vans…Vans Oldskools, and Independent
trucks are the best trucks made. I know other people who ride
for other truck companies who ride Independents. There was some talk about you getting a pro-model shoe. What
happened with that?
I have to go down there and talk to this engineer guy or something
and he’s gonna help me design some old-school, type of
shoe like Geoff Rowley kinda, but just a little beefier and
like…just try to make it weird colors, but plain. How ‘bout Spitfire. You had wheel a while back right?
Yeah my wheel featured a female naked on an upside down cross
crucified with fire in the background and all that good stuff…and
muff. So you’re pretty much a blasphemous dirtball skateboarder
who likes girls?
And rock-and-roll, and skating. Anything else? Booze,
smokin’ in the boy’s room. Chicks, chicks and more
chicks. How much input do you have on your decks?
A lot. I live like an hour from the city [SF] so if I need to
go pick shapes I just go there and pick from hundreds of boards.
They’ll usually call and ask what shape I want. And I’ll
tell them I want the old Cardiel shape or something. When there’s
like a series of boards like the Bumper Sticker series. I get
to pick my bumper sticker thing, “Tell your girlfriend
I said thanks.”
Anti-Hero has a pretty dedicated group of skaters out there.
They stay pretty far away from this entire mainstream, ESPN,
urban, rap influence junk that’s all pretty new to skating.
What do you think about all that?
I think all the other shit’s a joke, man. It’s just…411,
all the commercials on it; they’re all trying to be all
teched out. All those “fresh” teams. I mean they skate
and that’s rad, but they blow it out. They should just
have the skating and that’s all. They have too much image.
Let’s just skate. Who do you think is best representing skating these days?
Brian Anderson, Ed Templeton, Cardiel, and Bob Burnquist.
You just had a tour overseas that got canceled. What happened
there?
Bin Laden’s a jerk and it’s not really safe to travel
overseas ‘cause we could get stuck over there.
… or blown up
Yeah, it’s sketchy to fly right now; I don’t want
to do it at all. I just want to drive anywhere we can in America.
It would be fun to go to Austria though. There is a brand new
park over there that they just built, it would be fun. You just got back from a tour right?
Yeah. I took the bus to the city and me and Tim Upson and Jason
Phares and Dennis Busenitz and Max Schaaf went to the Vans Triple
Crown in Oceanside and just skated in the contest. I didn’t
do too great, but got to play Merciful Fate for my song in my
contest run. I qualified for my runs on Saturday; skated on
Saturday and did shitty. I didn’t get Top Ten or anything
like that and so Saturday night I just got wasted and partied.
On Sunday there was best trick, I tried to frontside flip these
stairs for like half an hour, and it didn’t work. I broke
my board, so I didn’t have any money from that either.
Then we went on this trip where Erik J. met up with us and Julian
Stranger and Cardiel and then this new kid Ian Something. So where else did y’all head off to?
We went off to Santa Barbara and went through Phoenix and skated
there for a couple nights and stayed in the ghetto. I couldn’t
skate too well ‘cause I was broken from the stairs at the
contest and I couldn’t walk around without looking like
I had something stuck up my ass. The other guys went off and
skated some cool spots, but everything was pretty far from where
we were staying. Just like long van rides and get out and skate.
But it was great to get to go do it. Gilbert skatepark, Mesa
skatepark and Chandler. All in Phoenix. Then we went to New
Mexico, but not for too long. What’s the best park you’ve skated in the U.S.?
Aumsville, Oregon because its got lots of cool bowls. Its all
bowls pretty much and a mini ramp. It’s all cement. There’s
no street shit or garbage like that. Its just real tight bowl
corners built solid cause Red built it. No flaws in the parks
in Oregon. Those skaters know what they’re doing; they’re
not just city workers slappin’ on the cement and leaving
it over night. You live close to the Santa Rosa park. Do you skate there
a lot?
Yeah, me and Jesse and Mike (roommates) skate over there sometimes,
but it’s not choice; it’s the only thing in Santa
Rosa to go have fun and skate with all your friends. So what are you and your sponsors planning for this year?
I’m doing a shoe with Vans. 1984 just put out a video and
so did Anti-Hero. Yeah, both of those videos are pretty good. The Anti-Hero
Video is short though. It’s real different compared to
what else is out there. Why?
It’s better that way. The way we figure, it is just skating.
I guess it just seems real short ‘cause every other video
they have some skating and then they’ll have some chillin’
or something, having dinner or some bullshit. We’re just
all about skating so we’re just gonna put skating in our
videos…skating and rock-and-roll. Which happens to be your favorite thing.
Yeah I’m into the rock-and-roll thing. Me and my roommates,
Mike Carli, Jesse Palmer and Charlie Watts, we share a brain
and we all want to rock-and-roll. We play in my bedroom all
day and try to make songs. We suck right now; we just need a
couple of months. Well it seems like you’re definitely getting stuff done.
I’m stoked to hear that. Is there anything else?
Yeah, hi to the Young Gunz, and Mom and Dad, and anyone who
likes rock-and-roll, and you Jessie. Rad, thanks.
Everything
is shined down or polished at the mall; this world is lacking
balls. I'm talking about the real shit, dirty spit in your face
stuff heroes are made of. Everything these days is supposed
to be perfect, they have washed the dirt from the cracks and
taken a shit in our music. Teen marketers are looking for the
newest cleanest thing while the fat cats sit around and call
the shots from behind an executive desk from the 23rd floor
of an office overlooking the Avenue of the Americas. They have
come for our heroes and we don't have many left.
Like
12 or 13 and those were C.A.S.L. contests. They came to Santa
Rosa and Sacramento and maybe Petaluma.
Booze,
smokin’ in the boy’s room. Chicks, chicks and more
chicks.