Andrew Bumgarner Interview

April 1, 2012

What’s up?

Jerkin my dick mane, playing with my ferret and watching Lost.

What’s yr ferret’s name?

Penelope.

I heard those things smell terrible.

They do.

Age/sex/location?

Me or my ferret? 21/M/Charlotte.

Spliff or blunt?

Solo spliffs and buddy blunts.

What do you do besides skate?

I’ve been painting for as long as I can remember. I work at Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff in Charlotte and I’ve been doing a lot of screen printing at my apartment lately. I have an apartment with my lovely girlfriend (bonus points) and our dog and ferret. And beer, lots of beer.

What’s your secret?

I’m still trying to figure that out. I think I forgot it or something.

Who are some of yr favorite skaters from around yr way?

This dude Gilbert used to kill it. Dude was in and out of his parents house, he was an original Cave Boy. Sickest style ever… I think there may still be a few old montages with him in it, but for the most part he’s a myth. He was a heroin addict for a couple years and fell into a hole and was stealing shit. It was pretty pathetic. Last I heard he moved to DC area and straightened himself out. Nowadays it’s mostly just all the homies. I love seeing other people skate, doesn’t matter who. Everyone has they’re own opinions on skateboarding

If you could live and skate in any decade which would you chose?

Late ’80s early ’90s in NYC, when NYC was at its grimiest. But not because of skateboarding.

Then why?

Culture I guess I usually think art oriented and I make skateboarding fit. It’s like some baggage or something except totally welcomed not like cher girl’s kid or something.

Who are some of your favorite artists?

Ray Johnson, David Matheson, Damien Hirst, Chalkboard… There’s this kid named Aaron in Charlotte, everyone around sheep calls him “Crash” just because of the way he skates. Dude is an amazing artist. I love conceptual art too and shit but I could never do anything like that. I’m not interesting enough.

Your time will come.

We can only hope.

Have you ever been robbed?

No, I think I’m too big to get robbed, plus the beard makes dudes feel like they got a small dick or something, so they get scurred and run.

What’s the maddest your parents have ever been at you?

I don’t really know… My sister is a dancer and has made quite the career out of Broadway musicals… When I was little my parents made me take dance lessons (mainly because male dancers go to college for free) and when I was like 12 I finally pitched a fit big enough to make my parents withdraw me from dance classes. I told them I’d rather skate and they were suuuuuper bummed on it. They always told me I needed a back up… But that’s why I like painting shit. They never really bought me skateboard shit after that, I mostly shredded hand me downs from my class mates

What’d you think of high school?

I went to two different high schools. The first one was pretty tight, it was in Charlotte and I still skate with some of the homies that I went to school with. The second one was after my parents moved to the burbs and I had to go to school with rich kids.

Ever been in a fight?

WELL a few years back I used to skate with a bunch of homies downtown every night. I’d get off work at like 10:30 (from Panera) and get a beer on the way downtown, drink in a random parking lot, and then go skate with the homies. They started rebuilding a bunch of buildings downtown… I don’t know why but they tore down skyscrapers and rebuilt them and hired security guards… One day we were skating (beerless) and we rolled up to this spot and started skating. Some dude was pissed as shit and ran out at my friend Cory, he kind of dodged him and the dude turns and looks at me. I started laughing because dude looked like a strawberry with a shitty toupee. He walked at me and picked my board up and threw it into traffic. As soon as he came back to where I was, I open hand smacked the shit out of him, Then yelled some threats and spit in his face and left. After that I fought like four more security guards, after beers though. The NASCAR hall of fame got built and they had security before they had a front door. We gave up and took off and the security guard chased us and shoved me… Randomly I was chillin in the mall grab stance and smacked him with the swiftness. I knocked his tooth out and
got really scared when I saw him bleeding so I punched him and ran away. Ever since then I haven’t had too much of a conflict

If you could date any pro skater who’d it be?

Eby Ghafarian. He’s pro right?