Latest / INSPIRE STORY / #026_ Turn Your Passion Into Purpose!

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#026_ Turn Your Passion Into Purpose! · INSPIRE STORY

• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you, I have this serious XUM show
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: and we've been doing it for fourteen years now, and
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: it's funny because it's a radio show. But now when
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: I get guests on, they all think it's a podcast, right,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: like in the last year, that that shift isn't happening.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: That's definitely a seismic shift. It would have been the
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: other way around.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Next podcast out there, it's on the radio.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: It should you should bump into a podcast.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: It feels like that's more prestigious now say it's a podcast.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Yes, even doing that for a long time, how often
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: do you do that once?
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Well, it used to be once a week. Now it's
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: about once every two weeks.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Right, it's cool. Do you enjoy that?
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: That's fun. I've managed to get a really good guest list,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: So that's been helpful.
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: Super cool. Just one of eight billion things that you're
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: up to.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but that one has really been fun because I
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: get to, you know, meet people that I've always looked
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: up to or it's been interested in.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: And yeah, case in point right here. That's the greatest
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: gift of this thing is I get to convince people
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: like you to come and talk to me. So I
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: really appreciate it.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Sure, I think the first thing I want to kind
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: of dig into with you is just being fifty. You know,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: I'm fifty one. We're about the same age. I'm an athlete,
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: very different kind of athlete, But I'm really interested in
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: kind of how you think about what it means to
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: be fifty, and how that affects or doesn't affect, like
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: what you do in your sport, how you think about
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: your sport, kind of your daily routines, what you can
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: and can't do, and the boundaries that you either place
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: or don't place on yourself.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Well, I never put ultimatums out there in terms of
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: if I reached this age, I can't do this anymore.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: So I feel like I was. I knew this was coming,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: and I knew it was a big milestone, and I
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: was trying to ignore it. But as it came and
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: people started to put so much attention.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: On it, pretty.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Much other Yeah, it was it was other people that
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: convince me like, you really are old. I mean in
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: terms for what I do, and I'm proud of that,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: you know. And for sure I am shifting my style
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: and I do you know, I don't participate in so
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: many things I don't do so many risky maneuvers or
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: terrains that I used to do. But I'm still found
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: a way to do what I do and enjoy it
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: and be progressive at it. So I feel like I've
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: sort of been not forced to but but have chosen
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: to change my style up so that I can continue
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: to do it at this age, right, And it definitely
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: is what keeps me fit. I don't have a workout routine,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't. I don't do yoga and stuff
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: as I know I probably should and I probably will eventually,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: but you'll get forced into it this point. Yeah, yeah,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: another thing I'm forced into. Yeah, but by other people.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: But I but it really it's just been more about
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: figuring out how to do this into this age or
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: into this decade.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Well, what's amazing is, you know, when I don't know
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: what your experience is, but when I was a kid,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: when I was fourteen, fifteen years old, the idea that
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: somebody would be athletic in their fifties was insane.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Like, well, with skateboarding, when I was a kid, you
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: couldn't skate into your twenties, Like it just wasn't an
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: option because there was no career to be had for it,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: and it was considered this kid activity. So if you
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: were skating past you know, high school, it was like
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: what's wrong with you? Right, like in metel syndrome, Like
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: what you've got to grow up, Peter Pan.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: But even even beyond skating in any sports, that anybody
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: would even be doing anything remotely athletic into their fifties
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: would would have been a radical concept up.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: In right, And yeah, to be a rare specimen of
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: some guy that like ran a marathon, that's amazing, he
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: ran a marathon. But but that I guess just with
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: our knowledge of of health and of of of life
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: and what works, I feel like that that's what's changed
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: everything in terms of the general society and the general
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: acceptance of being fit and you know, and and being
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: being active at this age is what keeps you healthy of.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Course, right, Yeah, there's definitely all these advances in nutrition
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: and training techniques and you know, the technology of whatever
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: sport you find yourself in. But I just feel like
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: there's a there's a there's a we're in a culture
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: that allows us to explore this later in life that
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: wasn't exactly that permissive back then. And so you're seeing
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: older athletes pushing the boundaries and doing amazing things, and
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: there are various disciplines like across the board, and I
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: think that's super cool.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm glad to be part of it. I feel
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: like I'm somewhat of a litmus test for how far
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: you can take it. There's plenty of people that are
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: skating into their fifties and whatnot, but I feel like
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: I'm the one that's still out there sort of in public,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: doing it and trying to prove that you can still
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: be relevant.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: You're the canary in the coal mine.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: I think that's the distinguishing factor, like being relevant at
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: the highest level in your sport versus just remaining active.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: My latest obsession is this woman who is my oldest
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: podcast fan. She's ninety six, and she went plant based
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: a year ago and now she's on Instagram. She's got
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: like thirteen thousand followers on Instagram, and she posts like
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: her daily workout routines and like what she's eating and
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: stuff like that, and she has this following and it's
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: like she's doing working out with bands and all this
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: kind of stuff with a trainer, and I just find that.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: To be so inspiring.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Ninety six.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she's coming up on one hundred, right.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's far cry from my mom is. My
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: mom is ninety four, but she has dementia, so she's yeah,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: she's not on Instagram. I'll tell you that.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Well that that kind of brings up another issue in
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: sort of wrapping my head around you know, how I
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: wanted to approach this today and what I wanted to.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: Talk to you about. I reached out to our mutual friend,
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: Steve O O. And I was like, because I don't know.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Anything about skateboarding, and I was like, Steve, like, Tony's
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: coming on, what should we talk about? And he told
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: me that he had a super fascinating conversation with you
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: about CTE or you know, TBI, like the sort of
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: impact of persistent concussions on brain health and the like.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: And he told he told me that that you took
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: some test at some point that allowed you to figure
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: out whether you were more prone to you know, sort
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: of be susceptible to injuries.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Like, yeah, well it was by suggestion of my wife.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I was trying to be proactive because obviously this this
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: problem is pervasive and it's not just about ball sports,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: any sport where you can suffer concussions. And so I
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: had a pretty intense blood test, uh, and what I
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: learned is that I don't have the gene that makes
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: you more susceptible to Alzheimer's And because of that, and
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: then I and then I went sort of down this
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: rabbit hole of information and I found an expert who
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: actually wrote a thesis in San Diego and she's she's
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: a neurologist, and she said that if you don't have
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: that gene that allows your brain to heal from concussions,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: if you do have that gene, generally you won't heal
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: from concussions. And that is the key to CTE is
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: the idea, you're getting multiple concussions, you have this gene
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: that doesn't allow your brain to heal. And I know
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: I sound like some I want to be expert here,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: but this is exactly how she explained it to me.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: And she said, because I have I don't have this gene,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: I am able to heal my brain from concussions and
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: not us not to say that it wouldn't have some
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: effect on me later on, because I've definitely had concussions
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: within a short time period. One after the other, which is,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: you know, the recipe for disaster. But it definitely made
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: me more aware and definitely more proactive and trying to
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: stay safer and realizing mild concussions are can be just
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: as traumatic in a lot of ways, especially if they're repetitive. Yeah,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: and so then after that, I actually went and had
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: a cognitive test that I will continue to take every
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: six months to a year to make sure I'm not deteriorating. So,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: and I guess the irony there is if you do
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: take those tests and you are deteriorating, there's not a
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: lot you can do about it.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, that's right.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: I mean Alzheimer's is I mean you're experiencing at first,
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: haand devastating. And I've had specialists on this show who
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: are doctors in that field, and they're having some pretty
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: remarkable results through diet and lifestyle, but in terms of
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: like a medical protocol to reverse it or prevent it,
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: they're really baffled still.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, And I know all that going into it,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: and it's not going to change what I do. It
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: just it just changes my approach a little bit. And
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: it's not even that it makes me more cautious It
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: just makes me more aware and hyper sensitive to any
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: sort of head injury, even if it's the slightest.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if you had tested for that gene and you
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: found out that you had it.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: That with a question, I think I would. I think
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: it would. I think it would at least give me
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: pause and also make me research better protection. But at
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: this point, I ride for a helmet company that I
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: firmly believe in, and I feel like it's the safest
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: I can be on my skateboard with this helmet on
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Triple AD.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: When did the helmets come in?
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Well, it's they haven't really come in. It's hard to
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: explain when I was. When I was young, I skated
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: in skate parks like designated you know, in the late seventies,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: pads were mandatory. You couldn't enter the park without full
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: full paths, but sometimes with risk guards. So for from
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: my experience, that's just what hew it was. You had
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: to wear pads, and so pads were just the norm.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: It wasn't until the sort of shift of street skating
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: in the skateboarding culture that pads became not cool or
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: considered useless because skids are just skating down the street
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: going downstairs and whatnot like that, and then now there's
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: a sort of blend because if you're skating the bigger stuff,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: the bigger ramps, the bigger parks, your paths are going
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: to save your life. Your helmet is for sure, and
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: knee pads for the most part, because that's the only
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: way to get out of being way up in the
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: air safely. But there's another mindset that is like, well,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: we just do this on our own terms and we
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: don't wear pads, and there's a I don't want to
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: say that there's a battle between those those camps of thinking,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: but it's going to come to a head when skateboarding
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: the enders of the Olympics, right, and there's a little
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: sort of mix of both styles of skating, and I
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: think some people will be wearing pads and some won't,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: and I don't know how that's going to play out.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a cultural thing, right, I mean, you're talking
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: about a sport that is super unique and distinct from
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: any other sport other than perhaps surfing, where it's this
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: strange mashup of true sport physical activity, but also lifestyle
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: culture and really art absolutely and with that comes this ethos,
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: right that sort of emanates from punk rock and being
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: counterculture and you know, against the man, and.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Like, yeah, and that's exactly. And so you know, for me,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: I'm torn in that sense because I do believe in
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: the diy sense of skating and the counterculture that it
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: is and it always was. But at the same time,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: I want people to live, you know, I want them
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: to I want them to survive another day, and I
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: don't want to encourage kids to do something that truly
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: could destroy their lives.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, I saw that you tweeted out a couple
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: of times.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: This fundraiser I think is actually happening today in Minnesota
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: for Dave Marra's.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Kids, Dave Marreon, Kevin Robinson, and Kevin Robinson.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: So, so I never knew Dave personally, but when he
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: got into triathlon in a big way, like we became
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Internet buddies, and he did the race across America with
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: some friends of mine, so we were sort of acquainted
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: in that way, and and it was just such a
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: shock and a tragedy when he passed in the way
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: that he did. I mean, is there do we know
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: if concussions or head injuries had any sort of impact.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: I don't have any definitive information on that. I heard
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: that he might have shown signs of CTE, but I
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: don't want it to spread rumors. But I really don't
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: have the direct knowledge of it, but it seems in
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: terms of what we know about it now and the
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: kind of injuries Dave endured, it's very possible. Yes, right, Yeah,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: I'm same with Kevin Robinson. I mean, Kevin Robinson, he
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: had some of the heaviest concussions I've ever seen in person.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: You know, the kind of stuff that he did where
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: you fall, He's he was out right and affected for
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: long periods of time, and so that could have been
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: played into that as well.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: Well, on the subject of the Olympics, I mean, this
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: is this is huge, This is pretty exciting twenty twenty
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: skateboarding making it's a debut. Were you involved behind the
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: scenes and making this happen, I would assume this is decades.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I was. I was definitely an advocate
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: for it. I wasn't I wasn't championing. I wasn't like,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: you know, holding holding any any sort of big pushes.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: But but I do want it to if it's going
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: to happen, I wanted to see it happen with integrity,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: and I feel like I at least have a voice
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: and and some influence on that. So I joined up
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: with the ISF International Skateboard Federation, which has now become
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: World skate and they are the ones who are sort
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: of ushering it in and showing the IOC how to
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: delicately handle the world of skateboarding and counterculture in a
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: way that is presentable.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: It doesn't mean it's going to change how we do it,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's going to change the format of competition,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: but definitely a way to make the the sort of
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: non skating public understand what it is.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: Right, Well, they've been able to do it with snowboarding,
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: but you have.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: But but but snowboarding went through you know, if you
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: don't remember it when when snowbody was in Nagao, it
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: was tree did like the it was treated like the
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: dark chorus of of the of the games, because people
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: like were like, look at these kids, you know, they're punks.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: And the one guy tested positive for weed because you
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: have to contact high or something. And but but also
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: but that was that was the whole vibe, right, you know,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: that's what people came away from and it was like
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: they because of how the mainstream media was treating it,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: and they didn't realize that that's what the kids are watching.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: The kids don't want to watch ice skating anymore, you know,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: or or any more speed skating. Like I appreciate all
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: those sports, but how many swimming events do we need?
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: Well, when you say making sure that it's introduced with integrity, well.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: What I'm saying is what I was saying is that
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: is that snowboarding went through this this growing pain because
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: that that happened, and then four years later NBC figured
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: it out that well.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: You need a champion, you need somebody that everybody it
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: was a champion.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: I think is they just realized that the youth was
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: into these kind of sports. For sure, Sean White was
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: a big part of that. But what I'm saying is
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: four years later they realized that that the only way
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: they're going to get a youthful audience is by highlighting
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: this youthful sport, and which they did. Obviously Sean was
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: the breakaway star from that, but I feel like they
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: wised up and I think that skateboarding won't have to
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: go through that phase because skipournding is already more popular
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: than most Olympic sports in summer games, right, so I
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: feel optimistic about that, and there's a lot of pushback
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: from the skate community. You know, we don't need this
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: is all corporate and this is mainstream and sanitize and whatnot.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: But the you know, this is not the first time
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: skateboarding has been a competitive sport, of course not. I
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: started competing as ten years old.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: Well, it's kind of the crowning achievement or culmination of
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: your legacy, which is in my mind at least, like
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: ushering in this thing that you love into mainstream acceptance
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: and embrace.
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: I mean, there's nothing more like having it in.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: The Olympics is kind of like the ultimate in suddenly
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: it being like ubiquitous.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: That's true, but I have I am a little torn
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: because I feel that way in one in one sense,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: but in the other sense, I feel like we don't
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: need the Olympics validation to know that we're legitimate, to
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: know that we are The skateboarding is popular. It just is,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: and so there's a part of me that thinks that
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: they need us more than we need them. That's probably true,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: But at the same time. The silver lining is that
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: skateboarding will reach a new audience in terms of other countries,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: other cultures where it's never been seen or even tested.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll be interesting to see the sort of down
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: wave impact of that on kids like the kids you
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: just met, you know before here, Like does seeing it
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: in the Olympics inspire more kids to want to get
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: into it or does that cut across what makes it
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: appealing to them, which is that it's not part of
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: that world and it's their own thing.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: I think that's twofold. I think for one, it'll it'll
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: encourage some kids to get into it have never seen
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: him before. And the other part of that is that
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: it will encourage kids to get into it because they
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: want to be a champion, and that was never the
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: motivation in my generation. That's becoming more of the mindset,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: not not across the board, but in a lot of ways.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: There are kids that they get in skinning because they
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: know you can be rich and famous as a skater,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: but also now you can be an Olympian and and
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: sometimes that is the directive, but that that's just how
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: that's just with any sport.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Well, going back to like the beginning of your career.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, being rich and famous obviously was never part
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: of the mindset it was.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: It never happened. It wasn't an option.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, but at the same time you were,
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: you were kind of on the younger end of that
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Bones brigade kind of generation of people. And my impression
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: is that you came in with a little bit of
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: a different mindset, a competitive mindset, and you know, you
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: didn't necessarily come from this.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: You know, you weren't going.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: To grow dreadlocks and be a super punk rocker like
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: you were. Approaching it from a more methodical kind of
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: champion mindset.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: It wasn't even to be champion. It was just it
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: was just more to prove myself, to be validated. The
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: only way you could be recognized when I when I
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: was started skating was to compete. You were only ever
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: rated on your competition rankings. No one was shooting video
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: parts right, doing big stunts for video, you know, or
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: even you wouldn't get coverage in the magazine unless you
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: compete it. So that was the only way that I
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: could get any sort of recognition, and that was so
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: my drive was to get better at competition, to get
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: more well rounded as a skater and to do that.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: And it was sort of only after ten years of
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: competition I realized there might be other avenues and other
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: ways to be a pro gator other than just competing.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: Was it really ten years in because weren't you weren't
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: you beginning to try these tricks and do things that
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: were kind of different from the traditional competition framework.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was. I think it was. So I started
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: competing in nineteen seventy nine nineteen eighty and around nineteen
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: eighty nine is when the era of skate videos came
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: into play, and I think that was when the shift
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: started happening, and when I realized that I was able
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: to document these these really difficult moves that I wouldn't
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: be doing in competition because they're you know, they take
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: too many tries to actually make one. But I felt
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: like there was this new outlet and this new mindset
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: in terms of how people are being progressive, and so
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: that was that was what I chose to focus on
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: for the most part. But I did still compete because
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: you had to keep your you had to keep that
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: foot in the door, right because that still was the
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: way to be raided.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: But at the time, the emphasis was on the competition side,
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: and you were like, there was a new wave of
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: people doing what you were doing, but it was still
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: kind of an outlier thing that wasn't exactly like you know, hey,
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: what are you doing over there?
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: Like you're not supposed to do that? Come back over here.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it really wasn't until the popularity sort
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: of fell out of favor in the early nineties is
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: when there was a big shakeup in terms of skate
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: style and skate culture, because then all the skate parks
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: closed for the most part, and the only people who
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: skated were doing it in places where they weren't allowed
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: to do it, which meant street skating, And suddenly people
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: started to realize that the urban landscape could be a
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: skate park.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: Right, Is that when pool skating came in?
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: That's no, I'm saying that's when pool skating came out,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: so like in the early nineties is when all the
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: parks were closing up. Right. Pool skating started in the
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: late seventies, and then skate parks in the eighties opened
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: to emulate backyard pools. So all the skate parks that
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: were the ones that I'm speaking of that were closing
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: were ones that actually had pools in them but were
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: made for skateboard right, I see. So then when those
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: sort of dried up in the late eighties and early nineties,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: kids took to the streets and sort of created their
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: own way to use the city scape as a skate park,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: which meant stairs, handrails, benches, all that kind of stuff.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: And then they were marked as absolute outcasts and rebels
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: because they were doing it in public spaces and really
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: annoying the pedestrians.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so there was no the competition framework went away.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: The competitions were still there, but they.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: Why did it all dry up in ninety one or
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: whatever it was?
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: It was because it was a few different reasons. Because
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: skating was cyclical. It was always like it had come
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: into favor in the late seventies, fell out of favor
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: in the early eighties, came back into favor in the
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: late eighties, and then fell out again. So that was
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: sort of it was something we were in denial of,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: but it was happening. It kept happening. And also in
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: the late eighties, liability was impossible liability insurance for skate parks.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: All the skate parks were private and they couldn't afford
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: the insurance, and the way that the liability laws were
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: for public spaces did not favor a sport like skateboarding,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: so public skate part couldn't exist. And in nineteen I'm
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: going to have the year wrong here, but I want
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: to say it was somewhere around nineteen ninety eighty seven,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: six or seven the liability laws changed in the US
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: where skateboarding was added to the hazardous activities list and
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: if you participate in skateboarding, you assume your own liability
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: in the same way that you would rock climbing, your skiing.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: And that's when everything changed, and people were allowed to
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: have a public space, a public skate park, without being
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: monitored and kids were at their own risk.
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: That's so interesting. I had no idea that it was
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: really a change in the law, that.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: That was it. Yeah, and there was a law group
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: that was fighting.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sure, right yeah. Wow.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: So all right, So just working our way through your
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: career up to this point, I mean, you go pro
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: at fourteen, you start making all this money, you buy
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: a house when you're still in high school, like you're
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: doing great, Like this whole career is opening up in
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: front of you, you're the new rising star in the sport.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: Then ninety one, it kind of all goes away, right
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: and you're faced with this choice go get a real.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: Job or like kind of you know, join mainstream society.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: And I take it a lot of pro skaters at
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: that time that's what they did.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: There was no other choice.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: And you make this decision to like double down, you
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: take a second mortgage out in your house, and you
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: go all in at a time time when nobody, everybody
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: thought skateboarding was gone for good. So walk me through,
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: like how and why you make that decision, because that's
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: really the pivotal moment that, yeah, created everything.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Well, I saw obviously I saw skapring's popularity waning, but
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: also the company I was with was sort of considered
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: the dinosaur company because all these little companies started coming
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: in and making a splash and doing things very rebellious
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: and you know, and as as unique of a culture
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: as skateboarding is, our our pal Peralta was considered like
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: the big corporate entity. It was like it was like
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: the Nike, even though skapering was a small industry. And
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: so I decided I wanted to do my own company
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: because I wanted to sort of have my own esthetics
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: and have my own direction, but stay in the industry.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: And and I thought that I was twenty four at
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: the time. I thought that my career as a skater
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: was ending because I was still a vert skater. Vert
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: skating was done, was done, and it was all about
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: street And I figured if I could get a good
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: group of street skaters together, you know, ones that that
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: I recognize and make my own team, I could at
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: least get by, right, That was the goal. The goal
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: was was to get by just because I loved skating
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: so much. I wanted to be in the industry. I
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: wanted to have control of a brand, and that was it.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: And we were on a skeleton crew. We were I
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: was doing all the marketing, all the ads, the team stuff,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: the tours, you know, I was doing, but not the skateboarding.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: I was skating too.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: That's I guess.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: That's the funny thing is I was always skating, but
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: only because I just enjoyed it. I wasn't skating to
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: be a team rider, so to speak. I was just
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: skating because I couldn't starve. Yeah, but I guess that
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: the the main the tipping point for us in terms
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: of of scape of Birdhouse and us being successful was
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: sometime around then and around nineteen ninety four, a couple
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: of years in the other guys on the team said,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: you're you're much more effective as a team writer and
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: being out there skating than you are as a guy
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: working on doing ads, right, Yeah, editing videos.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's that's sort of held true throughout your career. Like,
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: and do you feel that that is still wise advice
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: for you at fifty that you still need to be
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: on the board and out front and as much the
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: ambassador as you are the you know, sort of leading
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: force behind Tony Hawk, Inc.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I have a great I have a really
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: good group of people that I trust. I trust their
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: aesthetics and their values, and so I have a team
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: in place that I know the quality will always be there.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: And yeah, sure, I want to walk the walk, you know,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: I want I want to be I want to be relevant.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: I want to still be skating. But at the same time,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: I have evolved enough that that I understand marketing and
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: I understand videos much more than I did when we
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: were starting. And and you know, it was kind of
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: crushing to hear the team go, you know, your AD's
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: kind of so.
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: Well back then, I mean what was but we didn't, like.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: We we couldn't afford to hire someone to do that.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: So I was the one who had to learn, Like
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: I'd learn quirk Express and photoshop and and do all
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: those things because we couldn't afford to have anyone do it.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: But at the time also it was this was a
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: brand new world. There was no like, here's how you
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: do it to launch your skate rand. I mean, yeah,
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: there was no there was paltad. So this is when
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: videos coming in and it becomes all about, you know,
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: creating like an aesthetic and a culture as much.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: As there was not. There was no template at all,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: and we were relying on and it wasn't like our
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: our products were reinventing the wheel. We were getting our
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: stuff made where else. But it had to be cool,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: so we had it. We we we we got a
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: very iconic aesthetic going through one of our team writers
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: that was an artist, and I collected what I thought
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: was the best team at the time, and that's what
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: carried us through.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: Right And back then, I mean, who did you have
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: mentors with Stacy Peralta.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Stacey Pelta was definitely one of my biggest inspirations. In fact,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: you know, he was the one who because I had
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: to come to him to tell him that I quit
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: his team, And as much as he was upset by it,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: he said, look, I can't. I can't tell you not
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: to do this. This is what I did because he
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: was a Gens team writer and he left Gens to
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: start Powel per Alta. And he's like, I can't. There's
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: no way I could discourage you from from going and
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: chasing this dream because that's exactly what I.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: Did, right and did he was he helpful to you
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: with early business advice, like you're business at twenty.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Four, as much as he could be, but but you
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: know you're competing against He couldn't encourage me to compete
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: against me, exactly.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: Right, right, So was there a moment where you felt like, Okay,
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: it's tipping and it's starting to work.
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, these are lean times.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: You know, you've talked a lot about like the five
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: dollars a day taco bell, you know, lifestyle that you
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: were on the mortgage on the house. I'm sure everyone
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: was telling you, you know, you're crazy, what are you doing?
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Well, and especially just you know, I just have
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: my first child, right and.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: Throw irresponsible in there. Yeah.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Maybe, but but again I was for the most part,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: I was the main caretaker of him. So when I
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: would go travel and stuff, you would just come with
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: me by default. But definitely we we had to scale
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: back on so many expenses, and at Birdhouse, my partner
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: and I Para Wielander, we kept taking pay cuts and
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: we kept you know, doing the same with the writers,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: and it was it was becoming very The outlook was bleak,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: but we we hung in there to make it work.
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: Right. I think a lot of people, you know, sort
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: of want to know, well, how did you know?
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: Why did you make this choice? And why didn't you
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: just do what everyone else was doing? But like from
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: what I gather from you, it wasn't really a choice
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: like this is you were going to do this, This
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: skating was your life.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: You were all in from the get go.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there were, I would say somewhere after the first
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: three years of of us being in business. Pres Yeah,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: like nineteen ninety five ish is when we had heavy
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: discussions about closing Shot right because we just weren't the
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: profits were not justifying the expenses, and the expenses were
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: very slim. Yeah, and I started doing I had some
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: video editing equipment, and so I started editing videos for
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: other skate companies and even other entities because I at
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: least knew how to put stuff together and I could
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: do it cheaply. But it was I would say around
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: ninety six ninety seven is when things started really turning
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: around right and to the point where it got bigger
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: than we had anticipated. And and we were thankful because
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: we were about to shut it down.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Right And you were perfectly positioned because you'd been doing
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: it for so long you'd established credibility in this space
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: that when the law changed.
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: And then when did the X game?
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: X Games were ninety five. It was probably the second
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: year of X Games is when my well also just
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: my name recognition was out there because I had had
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: that through the eighties. And then it was a new
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: generation and mostly parents that were seeing this and their
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: kids were excited because they'd never seen skateboarding on TV.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: And then their kids were like, oh, who's this guy
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Tony Hawk? And then their parents were like, oh, I
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: know Tony Hawk from you know, the eighties and yeah,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: And so I had luckily I sort of survived to
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: generations of skating like that, and that helped quite a bit.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: And because of that, people were interested in Birdhouse. And
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: then fast forward to nineteen ninety nine is when our
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: video video game got really east and I had included
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: obviously all of our brands in it because I was
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: trying to get the exposure for it. But I had
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: no you know, we had no idea that we were
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: going to create a whole new genre of video games
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: through doing that. No.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's the confluence of all of these things,
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: some of which you had control over and many of
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: which you didn't, that all came together and almost this
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: divine timing to conspire to you know, create what has transpired.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: But during those you know, lean times, did you hold
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: on to this vision that it would become this big
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: thing or was that as a surprise.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: It was a surprise to me. I was just trying
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: to I was just trying to make a living, you know,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: I was not trying to get exponentially rich ever. It
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: was just more I wanted to keep skating. I wanted
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: to enjoy what I was doing, and if I could
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: provide for a family by doing so, that was good.
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: Enough, right, right?
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: And I still feel like right, everything else, like all
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: the all the money and family, it's all gravy and
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: it's all obviously fun. But at the bottom line is
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: I want to make sure that my kids are provided
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: for and that I'm there for them.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: But the driving force beneath it is just your love
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: for this, right, Like it's not it was never about.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Oh sure, yeah, I mean yeah, Like all the stuff
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: that I've been doing, especially at the skating wise these days,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: I'm not doing it because I'm hoping that I'm you know,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: hanging onto that thread of fame. I'm doing it because
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: I really love it and I'm happy that people are
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: interested in it. But I'm just doing it because I
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: would be doing it anyway.
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Like all the stuff I'm doing, especially for skating and
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: appearances that I get paid ridiculous amounts of money for,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: I would do for free.
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: Well, it's such a blessing and a rare thing for
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: somebody to know very young, not only what they're good at,
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: but what they love and to carry.
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: That through their whole life.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: But for a lot of people, you know, people who
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: are lucky enough to find something that they love when
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: they're young, the sort of you know, attrition of life
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: wears that down and they end up becoming something else
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: be able to hold on to. That I think is
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: is you know, maybe that's your your greatest talent of
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: of all of this.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: Maybe yeah, I think it might just be stubbornness.
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, because I think people seem to ask you
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: a lot, like, you know, how do you become this
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: successful business person?
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: And you know all that, and.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: It's like, my path is not one that I can
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: really say that one can emulate it, and you know,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: it's the one million that you get to do it
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: on this level absolutely right, and and something that was
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: never considered legitimate. But but but there are lessons there
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: in terms of perseverance and following your passion and quality
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: control that I feel like I can convey it to
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: other people.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: And fundamentally, a very healthy relationship with failure, which is
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: inevitable if you're going to become a skater from from
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: the get go, You're you're meeting failure on a daily
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: basis in a very.
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: Physical and painful way.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: And if you can't develop a relationship, a healthy relationship
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: with what it means to fall on your face, not
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: only are you not going to make it as a skater,
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: you're unlikely to you know, persevere in whatever else it
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: is that you're pursuing in your life.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, and that that carries through even some business
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: decisions where I'm not really afraid to take risks, is right?
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: You know, I know that's what it takes to succeed. Yeah.
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: I think I heard you say somewhere.
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: That there's a defining moment in every skater's life, and
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: and that's what they do in the wake of their first,
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: you know, really gnarly crash.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: I think so a lot of people try skating and
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: the first time they get hurt, that's the moment where
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: they say, I'm not doing it ever again. And the
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: ones that that persevere because they learn from that mistake
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: or because they're just driven, that's the moment where you
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: know that you could make it right.
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: And so did you have that? Did you have like
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: a super intense guy?
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: I did. Yeah. When the first time I got really hurt,
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: I got a concussion because my homet was terrible and
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: I knocked my front teeth out and I woke up.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: I woke up in the ambulance. Basically is when I
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: really became loosened, and I knew exactly what I had done,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: how I fell, what I did wrong, And my first
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: thought was, oh, I you know, I got to learn
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: to figure that out and do it better. It wasn't
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: like I can't believe I did that. I'm gonna die,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm never skating what I'm It was very
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: much like, oh, I can't wait to get back out
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: there and learn that trick because now I know how
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: to do it right right.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: What do you think are the other big things that
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: skating taught you that serve you well.
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: In your business and personal life.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: I think just that that you don't always have to
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: follow the tried and true path, that it's not all
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: about doing it by the book, so to speak, and
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: it's about finding your own way and making making it
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: your own, and also using, not using, but taking cues
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: from other successes and expanding on them in terms of
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: like quite literally tricks, like you take a trick and
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: you're like, well, maybe this could be done a little
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: bit differently, or with an extra spin, or with a
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: different flare. And the collective evolution of skating, I think
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: is something that could be taken to all kinds of
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: different parts of life or businesses even so.
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: What would be an example of that.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: I think that just in terms of like scientific progress,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: if more groups were sharing their successes and there was
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: more collective energy whatever to medicines, to health. But everyone
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: is so isolated in what they're doing and so focused
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: on their own successes that it's almost like everyone's working against.
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: Each other, right, like in a zero sum game exact.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And skateboarding has never been like that because it's
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: just an open architecture.
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And has it remained true to that to this
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: it has. Yeah.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: I guess in terms of competition, maybe some people try
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: to keep it a little close to the heart where
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: if they're learning something new or they got a new thing,
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: they're not going to unveil it until the big competition
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: and stakes are high. Now, So that's understandable.
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: So let's go back to ninety nine.
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: Ninety nine is when you do you do this nine hundred, right,
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: and you're forty three at the time.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: Thirty one?
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: Oh, you're thirty one the first time. That's right.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: Okay, you did it again at forty three and then
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: forty forty eight, forty eight.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've done it since the first time. Dozens of times,
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: so it wasn't like every year was a certain milestone.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: But on like a stage or whatever where there's a
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: lot of people there.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that too. But when I was forty eight, I
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: hadn't tried it in about five years, so that was
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: I felt like that was a little more monumental. Right,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: but yeah, it's still hard.
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: How many people have done it now?
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: Since you that's a good question, I want to say
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: about ten or eleven, I don't really so still only
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: a few people, right, Yeah, But at the same time,
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: it's just not it's not the focus of skaters in
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: terms of some kid growing up skating the park or
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: skating the street. They don't care about nine hundred, you know.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: They care about a kickflip, front side hurricane like that.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: That's what they're that's what they're opus, is right, But
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: for ramp skating, it's definitely a milestone. But even so,
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: a couple of kids have done ten eighties. Now wow,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: you know, because the ramps have gotten bigger and you
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: learn to spin at an earlier age, and so that's
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: the next progression.
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, got it.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: But when this happens for the first time in ninety nine,
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: I mean that's another kind of milestone, not just in
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: your life, but in the kind of cannon of skating
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: right when this happens, because the mainstream culture took notice
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: of it yea way that was kind of unprecedented.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. It's changed a lot of things in
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: my life and in terms of recognition and opportunities. It
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: was strange to me though, because it was a trick
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: that I had been trying for ten years on and off,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: and I had learned seven twenties fourteen years prior to
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: that on a backyard ramp outside of Stockholm, Sweden, with
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: three people watching me, and you know, a couple of
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: collapse and that was it. It just wasn't a in
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: the skate world. It was a milestone, but it wasn't
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: this monumental achievement. I mean, it was something I was
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: proud of, for sure, and then to have so much
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: attention on this next one to eighty spin fourteen years
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: later was really strange to me because it was like,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: why didn't Why do you care now? What has changed
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: so drastically And obviously there are plenty of obvious answers
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: to that, but it was really strange to me where
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: it was suddenly I was getting stopped in airports by
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: people who had nothing new a skating like nine hundred bro. Yeah.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well the YouTube video version of it has like
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: twelve million views on it, I think or something.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's still I'm hugely proud of it.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: But like I said, it was, it was. It was
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: a strange shift for me. And and you know, the
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: perfect storm timing of that was that we had been
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: working on a video game for two years up to
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: that point, and it was about to be released, and
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: so that was this extra bonus of all that.
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean you couldn't have you know, with all
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: your marketing expertise, you could not have.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: I certainly couldn't have planned that's yeah.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: And that video game had been in development for like
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: two years right leading up to that, and then when
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: it was released, it was it was like a quantum
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: leap forward in terms of.
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: What video games could do.
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: And it's just the timing was amazing and it just exploded, right.
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: And yeah, change your life.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: It changed my life absolutely and changed my opportunities. And
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: when I did that, you know, ninety nine was already
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: I was considering that to be my last year of competition,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: just because I had been competing for twenty years at
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: that point, and to have that happen, it was like, well,
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: that that's the obvious out. I end on a high note.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to compete anymore. And then when the
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: video game got released, suddenly I had all these opportunities
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: to do things outside of competition that I had, some
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: that I had dreamed of, some that I had never
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: even expected.
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: But you have you must have some. I mean, I
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: think it's.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: Part and parcel of your internal motor, your drive. Like
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of people would have retired and
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: then just banked licensing checks for you know, and just
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: kick back, you know, but you saw greater opportunity and
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: you decided to like, you know, expand you know, exponentially
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: based on those opportunities.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well I it just was more out of out
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: of fun. Yeah, I just thought, oh, this would be
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: really cool that I can now I can take McDonald's
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: marketing dollars and show people what skateboarding is, or I
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: can help to build more public skate parks through through
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: a charity, and people think, you know, people understand that
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: that's a legitimate need in society. I can do a
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: tour where we're not the side show to the rock show,
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: we're actually front and center skateboarding being Max motocross, you know,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: things like that was the catalyst for all that was
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: definitely the video game, Right.
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: But then you start like inking, you know a zillion
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: endorsement deals, right.
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: And is that where the sort of sellout things?
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: Oh I was already I was already considered to sell
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: out long before that. Yeah, as soon as soon as
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: I got a Bagel Bytes contract in nineteen seven, I
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: think that was that was the moment where people were like,
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: all right, this is you know, he's he's not on
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: he's not just having skateboard sponsors. He's he's doing stuff
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: that's big, corporate evil entities, very unpunk rock. Yeah. But
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: but I guess the funny thing is I never was
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: trying to keep skateboarding this isolated, pure movement. I was
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: always trying to share what what good it did for
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: me with more people, and when never really had that opportunity.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: If if when I was fourteen turning pro, I got
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: offered a contract from Bagel Bites or from McDonald's, I
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: would have ate it up. I wasn't trying to you
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. I wasn't trying to keep it
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: this this core coveted sport, but.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: It seems like it was that. It's that thing like
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: where you know, a little indie band is cool and
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: it has its followers, and then they do their next
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: album and it breaks huge and then suddenly everybody turns
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: on you know.
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's always how nature of things.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: But I guess the funny thing is is that sure
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: I was the I was the guinea pig for that
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: sort of those types of endorsements. But now it's totally
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: normal to be sponsored by Toyota and be a skateboarder
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: that doesn't it doesn't even register on anyone.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: Well, the the relationship with the haters goes back very early, right,
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: because from the get go you had a very different style.
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: And yeah, well I do some speaking engagements. And this
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: is one of the points that I make is that
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: I was so set up for haters at an early
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: age that I sort of built this shell where when
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: I was a kid, I was so little that I
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: couldn't propel myself up and do aerials and stuff the
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: way that the pros were doing it because I didn't
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: have the weight. I didn't have the bulk, and so
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: I learned how to allie into the air and then
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: grab my board, and the older generation said that was cheating,
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: because if you all into your air, then you can
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: grab it anyway. And I was like, exactly, that's exactly
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: what I'm trying to do, right, And so I got
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: a lot of flak for that, And so it was
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: very weird because I was in this small community already
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: considered an outcast because I skated, and then I was
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: an outcast in that outcast community. I was like chun
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: and because of my style, and so that just set
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: me up to sort of prove myself further. And so
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: when then when the era came of being considered a sellout,
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: I was already well suited for hearing that sort of negativity.
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a pariah within a community.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: Of Yeah, And so it was like, oh, used to
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: sell out? I was like, please, you guys used to
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: hate my style, you know what I mean. Now my
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: style is popular and now I'm getting paid, you know,
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: big money because of it, and now you don't like
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: me because of that, Like, oh please? And then so
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: that set me up for the second generation of haters,
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: which only set me up for the third generation, which
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: is social media. And so when people are so crushed
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: by the amount of negative comments on social media, it
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: just passes me by. I was like, these people used
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: to say this to my face.
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: Do you even look at it?
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: I look at it, sure, But you know they're hiding
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: them behind anonymous names, and if you look at what
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: they're putting out there, they're just talking shit to everyone. Yeah,
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: so it's like you're not even special.
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: But it's basific are that you are on the receiving
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: end of that kind of stuff because you're I mean,
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: you're like widely beloved in your sport.
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: You're one of the most popular, you.
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: Know, sports figures, you know, in our current generation.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: But people always find something, you know what I mean.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: I can't say that that's that's the majority of the
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: comments I get, but it's always there, right, you know,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: or people just want to they just want to be
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: cynical about what you're doing. And so, like I said,
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: it's not that that's that's the crux of what I
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: what I get, but I'm I'm well prepared to handle
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: it because of what I went through as a kid.
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: How do you stay grounded?
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: You seem like you have a healthy, you know, sense
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: of humility about everything that goes on in your life,
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: Like how do you maintain that kids?
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: You know, like taking care of kids? And five kids
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: between my wife and I we have six six well,
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: I mean my oldest is twenty five, so it's not
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: really a kid, but but just you know, the idea
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: that we we got to drive them to whatever good
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: like go take them surfing or go to your friend's house.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: And and the kind of stuff we have to deal
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: with is just usual parental like ridiculous requests. Do your dishes,
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So that stuff definitely keeps
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: you grounded, because kids just they don't they don't care
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: if you're famous, do you have anything that's a nuisance
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: to them?
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: What do they think about, like who you are and
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: what you do, and how has your experience kind of
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: informed your parenting style.
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: Well, they they like it in the sense that it
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: affords us certain opportunities that most people don't get. Most
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: of them. All the all the boys skate, so they
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: enjoy that they get to go to these these skate parks,
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: these you know, fantastical places, and they get to skate
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: and sometimes they get to do it alone, like they'll
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: they'll get a skate art to themselves or whatever, like
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: if we go to Zurich. And so they enjoy that
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: aspect of it. I think that the only thing they
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: don't enjoy is that it requires so much of my time.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: So I have to travel constantly and do this. I
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: don't have to, but to maintain this lifestyle you have to,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: you know, I've got to figure out a healthy balance
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: of work and home. And but they do, Uh, they
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: like it. They understand it for sure.
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: As you're your oldest is he pro skater's pro skater? Yeah?
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: He is?
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: Wow?
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: And so how does that work in terms of like
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: father son and you know, communication around that when.
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: Well, he in your shadow.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: He's got a whole different style of skating. And he's
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: got other interests too. He's kind of a renaissance man.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: He he, He's in a band that does pretty well.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: He now he's a part time model, so he's got
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: other things going on. He wants to start a coffee shop.
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: But I think it's just more I led by example,
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: you know, to show him that yes, this is fun,
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: Yes it's amazing. You can get paid for it, but
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: you have to work at it and and sometimes you
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: got to jump through the hoops in terms of doing
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: interviews and being presentable. I mean, you know it's not
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: like you have to force it, but for sure, don't
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: be a dick to kids.
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: Do you worry about like that internal motor that you
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: have that allowed you to kind of you know, weather
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: the hard times and and you know part of that
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: is formative, right, there's a lot of I think, so
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: you know, life experience that comes out of that.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: And Riley, well, my oldest Riley, he lived through the
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: lean times with me, so he understands that he has
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: a better appreciation for the you know, the cushiness of
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: how we get to live now. But at the same time,
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: they're all I want them to be self sufficient. I
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: want them to be self motivated. They can't just rely
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: on my success or my finances for their their own future.
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And now like currently, like how do you sort
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: of think about or partition you know, your involvement in
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: in business you have in your hands in a million
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: different things versus your identity as an athlete, Like how
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: does that how does that even break down like on
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: a day to day basis.
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: Uh, Well, if you're it, I just try to. I
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: try to prioritize firstly family, but I try to make
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: sure that there's a there's a very high quality control
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: going on with any of my products or my companies
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: that I'm involved with, and trying to skate as much
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: as I can, trying to be interesting, like on social
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: media things like that and share fun things and aren't
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: just about me.
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: I love this stuff that you share, like when people
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: recognize you or they're not sure that they recognize.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's all real, you know. I've actually had a
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: few people that that that it was them that I'm
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: speaking of, and they'll comment like I just was nervous.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: I didn't know. I'm sorry, Like no, it gives me,
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: it gives me another story. I think people are actually
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: kind of getting sick of that at this point. But
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: but but every time it happens, almost you know, every
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: fifth time it happens, it's some unique interaction. But I
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: think it's funny to share.
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so what is that when you say, like, you know,
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: I try to skate as much as possible, Well, like
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: you do you have like a training product?
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: Do you do? I mean, is it just skating or
• 53:03
  Speaker 3: do you do other stuff?
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: I have well, I have my own ramp. It's it's
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: the ramp that I built for our tour for a
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: boomohat Shamma. Yeah, it's in San Diego and so I
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: literally was skating yesterday. That's where my office is, and so, uh,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: summertime is a little different, but generally my regular day
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: would consist of getting kids off of school, then going
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: there and and either having meetings or taking phone calls,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: applying to emails and things like that, maybe doing phone
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: interviews or whatnot, and then trying to skate before kids
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: get out of school. And then if after that, then
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: I'm kind of at their disposal whatever.
• 53:41
  Speaker 3: They want they want to do, and then the travel
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: is just.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: And then when I travel, it's it's very much I'm
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: trying to fit everything in all once, and so traveling
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: is kind of NonStop. I guess the best example is
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: like I'm going to Buenos Aires in a couple of months.
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: I'm traveling quite a bit before then. But this is
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: a perfect example in that there's an event the day
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: before then I'm flying to Buenos Area's I'll be there
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: for sixteen hours doing this event, doing speaking thing, doing
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: a skate thing, and then flying right back into a
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: fundraiser the day I get back right But because I
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: got it, all of those things were important to do.
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: How do you figure out what to say yes to
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: and what to say no to?
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: Whatever I feel like we'll have the will resonate best
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: and have the most impact or that I feel strongly about.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: But definitely I've learned to say no. I think the
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: probably the best advantage of having all the success is
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: that it gives you the power to say no to things.
• 54:43
  Speaker 3: But all the stuff that you get offered is cool.
• 54:45
  Speaker 3: You probably want to do all that.
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: There's so much cool stuff. Yeah, it is very strange
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: to be like, sorry, I'll hang.
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: Out with this icon that you revered your whole life.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: Pretty much. Yeah, Like I got a thing today like,
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: oh I really can't make the movie premiere, but I
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: appreciate the end. This is literally like that. That was
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: an email I got today, like I would love to
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: do it, but next week is hectic and we got
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: the kids and can't just break out for the night.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: Where do you think that the drive comes from. Is
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: it just an internal drive to be the best that
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: you can be, be the most expressive. Does it come
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: from a sense of competing against others, Like, what's the
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: genesis of the whole thing?
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: I think for it's always been progression and wanting to
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: challenge myself. I never felt I never wanted to rest
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: on my accolades. I didn't really. I was never about
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: like half the number one because once I feel like,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: if those are your goals of your mindset is like
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: I want to be number one, or I want to
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: be rich, I want to be famous. If you get
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: a taste of any of that, you lose your motivation.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: Not that I had this sort of perspective when I
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: was a kid, but my goal was just to get better.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: My goal was just to get better at skating and
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: do better tricks. And so even if I won a contest,
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: I was out there the next day of skating trying
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: new stuff. And that's never waned. I mean that's still
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: how it is.
• 56:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: So that that, like devotion to incremental daily progression, spills
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: over into business life exactly.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and what and I look for those challenges or
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: I look for voids in the market where like, oh
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: this this could be a fun thing to get into
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: or to try to create a movement here.
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's not the sexy stuff.
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: Everyone wants to see you on the ramp or you know,
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: there's pictures and videos and all that kind of stuff,
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: But it's the daily kind of like pressure applied to
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: that thing that you love or whatever it is you're
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: trying to move forward.
• 56:38
  Speaker 3: But I know that alone.
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: But I know that success will come later, or that
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: that appreciation will come later, even if it's not just
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: a skating thing.
• 56:47
  Speaker 3: Have you had what's the biggest failure that you've had.
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: When we first started having success as a skate brand,
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: we also had a distribution arm and we were carrying
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: their skate brands, and then we started carrying like doing
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: sort of different clothing. Hookups is a brand that we
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: created under that umbrella, and then we took in a
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: designer and started doing high end denhim around two thousand
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: and four, right when that was a thing where people
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: started paying a lot of money for jeans. But we
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: had this guy that was sort of right at the
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: right place, right time in terms of being really cool designs,
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: but we didn't know we didn't know apparel, we didn't
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: especially Denham, and all of a sudden it was eating
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: all the profits from the building, I mean everything, So
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: all the problems everything. Yeah, and it got and my
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: partner wanted to keep it going. I wanted to keep
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: getting bigger loans, and at some point it was like,
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: we have to let this go. We're way in, way
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: over ahead. And we basically sold the brand for what
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: we owed the banks.
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: So what Yeah, well, I mean that seems like a
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: business that's outside of your you.
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: Know, it was, and I think we just we were
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: We thought we were invincible. You know, we were higher
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: on owns, high on our own success, and like we
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: can make anything work.
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: Right, And so what do you take from that?
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: That like helped you liter that I can't get into
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: something just because I think it'll be successful. I have
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: to really be passionate and believe in it and understand
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: all the aspects of it. I think what I what
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: carried me through all the success was embracing all the
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: minutia and learning all the other stuff about a business
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: that maybe I didn't care about as a kid. And
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: a lot of times, you know, the non sexy stuff
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: of purchase orders and you know, in paying taxes and
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: all that stuff is just things I didn't want to
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: care about. But as I learned them, as I embraced them.
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: That helped me, That helped me to be successful. Right.
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: Well, in skating, the minutia is everything, right, being highly
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: attuned to the minutia and figuring out the tiniest shifts
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: in your body weight or whatever it is to make
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: it work. And it's a very personal individual endeavor. And
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: then you scale that up into business and suddenly, like
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: I would assume, well, espally, you have a skater, you
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: have to be a control freak about yourself, right in
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: a lot of ways.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, But also but I think what what contributed my
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: success was that I was I was willing to go
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: outside my comfort zone. And so like I learned techniques
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: in skating that I wasn't really interested in, but I
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: knew it would help me be more well rounded in
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: terms of competition or exhibitions, in terms of skating different terrain,
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: other skate parks, stuff like that. And with that mindset,
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: that helped me in business because I was willing to
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: get outside my comfort zone and learn all these other
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: aspects of manufacturing.
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: We're in a culture right now where suddenly it's super
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: cool to be an entrepreneur, a small business owner, a
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: startup founder. Everybody wants to be a startup founder. Yeah,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: so they're like when they start up, they they're not
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: looking at the daily incremental progression.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 3: They're looking at the destination. Right.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: So, when you sort of canvas young people or anybody
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: for that matter, out there taking a stab at business, like,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: what do you identify as the common mistakes that like
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: you see immediately.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: Uh, losing control of the brand or the direction in
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: pursuit of fast fast cash. I think that a lot
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: of people they see an maybe an injection of money,
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: and they think.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's it, that's what they're celebrating.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: But then they don't realize they're giving away their company.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: And and no matter how much they promise that it's
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: going to be the same thing, it is never the
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: same thing, And it's it's going to be a whole
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: new set of employees in a whole new direction. And
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: you have to maintain that control and sometimes that that
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: requires buckling down and denying the money or the quick money.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: When you look back on on your career, whether it's
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: skating or business, like, what are the fondest memories that
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: that stick out for you? Like, what do you remember
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: most like when you're like, oh, man, remember that time
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: how awesome.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: That was funny. I remember the leaner times because they
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: were so free and like the early days of Birdhouse
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: was we're on tour. It was five of us in
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: our delivery van driving across the country, skating parking lots
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: for one hundred people maybe you know people, and at
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: a skate shop that would just put up some wooden
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: ramps there in their parking lot for us to skate.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: And we'd all share the same hotel room. And even
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: though that all seems like a struggle, it was. It
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: was super fun because it was we just didn't care.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: We had nothing to lose, Yeah, and and that that
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: was very liberating.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: I find that to be common amongst a lot of
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: different successful people. When you they don't they don't remember that.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 2: It's not the I p O Or standing up code.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: They were plenty, but like the fondest, like the ones
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: that really like, you know, hit your in the heart.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 3: It is those early days.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: When life was simple and there was nothing to lose
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: and it was just about your dreams.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah. But I can never downplay being on the Simpsons. Yeah,
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: that was my coolt thing by far.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's when you have just crossed over in
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: the biggest way it was.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: It was it was such a Yeah, it was definitely
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: a huge validation. And and the fact that you know,
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: if you're on the Simpsons as yourself, there's a cool
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: factor that's undeniable.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: Well, now you have your skateboard in the Smithsonian, and
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: like you skateboarded in the White House or in the
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: whole Second Office building or something.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: No. I did skate through the White House. Actually I
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: got invited there during a Father's Day celebration when Obama
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: was in office and I was waiting the nearby the
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: Eisenhower Building is ran next door. I was waiting there
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: and I skated through the hall and got a photo,
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: and I thought that was super cool. And then I
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: realized that once I got over the White House, I
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: could just do the same thing really quick before they
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: told me no, and I did.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 3: Did they tell you no? Though?
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: They didn't, but I knew not to push.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 3: It was Obama there, did he see it?
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: He didn't see me do it, but I saw him
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: right after that.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 3: You did.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: But the funny thing is he actually one of the
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: few things he said to me was, Hey, I'm really sorry.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: We not many rams for you to skate.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that would be cool if there was a ramp
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: out behind that. He should have just gotten one there
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: just for you for that day.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: You know, I think they wanted to They wanted plausible
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: deniability that they didn't allow me to do that.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: What do you think of this new sort of motorized
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: skateboard trend?
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It's you know, it's okay, it's transportation, sure.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but I don't really it's different.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're not. You're gonna do any kicklips on him now?
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 2: So yeah, they're cool though, I'm sure you've ridden them.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fact, we're working on a possible line
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: of that kind of thing that is more in tune
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: with real skateboards but does have motors, it's not just longboards.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, that's cool. So what is uh, what's exciting
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 3: you now? Like? What are you into now that that's new?
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 2: You know in this this you know, continuation of pushing
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 2: the envelope.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: Well, our hot clothing brand has a lot of potential.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: We've been expanding that globally and a lot in South America,
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: and I feel like there's there's a lot more we
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: can do with that because the whole basis of hot clothing,
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: is is cool clothes, cool skate culture clothes for kids
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: and other than that's probably the one thing I'm really
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: excited about working on in the future is I have
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: a project with Mark Mothers Blaw where we're going to
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: do Broadway Broadway show. Yeah. In fact, that that's that's
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: coming closer to reality than it ever has been. And
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: that's super exciting to me because I feel like we
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: could do something really unique in a Broadway setting, right
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: with his music and my skating choreography. Right.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: So for people that are listening who don't know, Mark
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: Mothers bought legendary musician, member of Divo and now just
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: an incredible composer for film and television.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but basically any of your favorite movies you probably deal.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 3: With music, incredible musician. Yeah, he's that's exciting. So what
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 3: is the like, what's the storyline?
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: We bought the rights to a Nick Hornby book called Slam,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: which is about a skater, a teenage skater that gets
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: a girl pregnant. It's about a team pregnancy, it's about
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: it's about them, not not just about him, but about
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: her as well. And we bought the rights to that
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: and we want to make it the sort of Broadway
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: production of this kid who has who is at a
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: crossroads of you know, responsibility, and he still wants to skate.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: And I think I think it's a really good story
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: and theme for for kids today.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 3: Very cool.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the whole world of theater and Broadway has its
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: own rules.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 3: It's very that's like any other business.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I feel like there. I feel like it's
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: with the success of Book Mormon and the success of Hamilton,
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: we're seeing that you can do it way different and
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: be revered. Yeah, and I'm hoping that we can at
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: least get you know, get some attention on that.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: So how far how far down the line are you?
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: We're getting there. Yeah, we're in the middle of getting funding.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: But but Mark's riding and we're designing sets and things
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: like that.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 2: And are you going to be involved in are you
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 2: going to do commentary on the Olympics.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: Or are you I have definitely planted that seed. We'll see.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: Cool. I used to do all the X games commentary,
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: so I'm you know, I'm used to it. Beyond that,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: I'm working on a mobile game, like a phone skating game,
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: of course, you are, well, it's been a while I haven't.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: I haven't done a game in a few years.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 3: So how would this be?
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: Well, I guess we're Yeah, we're in a new world
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: of what's possible, and you're doing it with mobile and
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 2: everything like that.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's gonna it's not it's not with Activision,
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: it's not thps, but definitely they are hints of it.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 3: Huh, what do you think?
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: We'll wrap this up in a minute, but what do
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: you what do you think, uh, gets misunderstood about you
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: or or that you wish people kind of understood better
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: about who you are and what's important to you.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's a good question. I think that I think
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: people have been focused on my success maybe too much,
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: where they think that that all I really ever cared
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: about was being rich or famous, and that was that
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: was never my motivation because it just didn't exist. And
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: even to this day, like it's it's still incidental to
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: what I do and how much I love skating. But
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: I feel like, at least on some level, I've proven
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: that over the over recent years, just with putting out
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: video parts at my age and things like that and
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: doing stuff that you know, there was no end game
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: financial for any of that. Yeah, but I don't, you know,
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: I think I come as I am, you know what
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: I mean. I'm not trying to present some other persona
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: and what you see is what you get.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean as somebody who who has you know,
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 2: followed your passion, you know, who had a passion and
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 2: has committed to following it for as far back as
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 2: you can remember. It's very trite and kind of pithy
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 2: to tell people like.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 3: You should follow your passion.
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: Most people are really so disconnected from themselves that they're
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 2: not even really sure what that passion is. And some
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: people say to you, like, you know, how do you
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 2: find that? Or like if I'm stuck in a cubicle
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 2: and a job that I hate, you know, how can
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 2: I get a little bit How can I get some
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 2: of that to rub off on me? Or like what
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 2: should I do to try to cultivate a little bit
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 2: of that, you know, sense of purposefulness and direction.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: I think it's more just really focusing on something you
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: love and making time for it, you know, don't quit altogether.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: Like if if you want to, if you want to
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: take that chance, go for it, I would definitely I would.
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: I would support that as well. But I feel like
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: you've got to carve it. You just got a priority
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: tize your time and you got to carve out some
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: time to do something you really love. It sounds simple,
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: you know, and but I know it's hard.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 2: Well, and I think people over complicate it as well,
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 2: or they feel like they're afraid to fail, or they
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 2: feel like whatever it is they're passionate about is silly,
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: you know, because maybe it's comic books, or maybe it's
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 2: something that as a kid, you know. And that's the
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 2: thing is like giving people permission and telling them it's okay.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm living proof that you can love. You have
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: living proof you could do something that was considered not
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: cool and.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 3: Make it work and cultivate that inner kid.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, good talking to you, man, Oh you too, think you.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 2: I appreciate you having on You're easy to find on
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 2: the internet, at Tony Hawk.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: Everywhere everywhere at Tony Hawk.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: Anything else coming up you want to make people aware of.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: That's a good question. I don't think so. I'm you know,
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: pretty pretty excited about uh all the stuff coming up.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: My plate is full for the most part, but in
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: a good way, and with kids, like my daughter is here,
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: actually she's man in the camera her uh we are
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: Our trade off was that she gets to go to
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: a restaurants she really wanted to try up here.
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 2: Well get awesome, man, Well I appreciate you making the
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 2: adventure up here.
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you all right peace
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: Aye