I feel like more recently there's that crossover between skating and fashion. How relevant do you think that kind of crossover is and how do you feel about it?
Personally, I don't really like it. I think that sometimes when stuff like that happens, when high fashion comes into skateboarding, I think that if they don't hire the right people or they're not the right people behind it, it comes off pretty cheesy. That's why I was just trying to make something funny and cheesy.
But do it for yourself in your own way. Because I feel like maybe you don't get a lot of your own voice and your own sayings in these kinds of things. So it's nice that you were able to do this and make it your own.
That was the fun part of it. It's hard to talk about this thing myself, but I think a lot of skateboarders expected me sometimes to maybe go down the fashion road and do more stuff like that. There was that time period in my life where that could have been a road, but I never wanted to do it. And I think that was maybe the reason for this ad and making a joke of it, where it's like I am a skateboarder at the core of it.
What has been the reaction from your skate friends when they saw the video?
I mean, everyone thinks it's pretty funny. There's subtle things that we did for sure, where I was more scared of what skateboarders would have to say about it. And then there were just little things that we did inside. There's hidden jokes in the ad that only a skateboarder would know the reference of.
Cool. Do you have an example?
Yeah. There's this guy, Anthony Van Engelen, who rides for Vans, and he is dragging this big bench, and the bench is very nostalgic in skateboarding. It has this crazy backstory where he made it a long time ago, skated it in his video parts, and then the bench ended up disappearing for years. And then somebody ended up finding it.
It's one of those skate things that if, you know, you know. Do you think there is a standout highlight of your career, Vans aside, that maybe you don't really get to talk about often?
I'm not really sure. I mean, I used to skate contests and stuff, but I never really liked them. I've had highlights over there on that kind of contest world side of winning events. I guess it's maybe to reach the age that I am now and still kind of almost feel like the height of my career has just started. I feel like I've been kind in the limelight of skating since I've been 13 years old. Now I'm almost 30 and kind of now just reaching my peak is kind of what I may be most proud of.
That's cool.
Yeah. It was that classic thing of “peaked in high school.”
But you didn't!
I feel like I'm peaking way later than I thought I would be. If I was to go back in time, I really wouldn't perceive this right now. If somebody was telling me, "Oh yeah, when you're almost 30, you'll get a shoe." I feel like that's really cool.
What is something that you would tell your 13-year-old self now knowing what you do now?
Probably I would say work a little harder. I'm so good at putting stuff off and not caring, but also maybe at the same time that got me to where I am today where it's like the lack of care maybe comes through a little more authentic than being jockey about it.
Cool. I like that, makes sense! And last question is, is there anything exciting happening down the pipeline that you want to talk about?
So I have a video coming out in a month, but it's been like two years of my life pretty much dedicated just to the shoe campaign and everything else leading up to it has been a big part of my life. So once that video comes out, then I can finally feel like I can chill again for a little bit.