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What’d you do for go skateboarding day?
We had the adult Go Skateboarding Day with Shut and Oakley. Oakley built twenty four replicas of the Lockwood picnic tables and sent them out to all the cities, so they gave us one. So we skated like the day before and yesterday, just a best trick thing open at the shop. Before that just pushing around in Brooklyn from bar to bar, park to park, went over the bridge just slappied around, then ended up over at a big party. This is the second year that we did the adult go skate day, so we kinda go the opposite way from the crowd of five thousand kids. It gets retarded so we get to skate a little bit more, kind of just enjoy ourselves a lot more. But yeah, Shut’s always trying to put something together and make it happen.
Where you from?
I’m originally from Ukraine, I moved to New York in 2001, like two weeks before 9/11 and I’ve been out here since.
How long did you live in the Ukraine?
I was eleven, so I guess about half my life over there.
When and where did you start skating?
I started skating in Brooklyn, about a year after I moved to New York. I was at my friends house and he had some old Dragon Ball Z board or something and we were just dicking around in his front yard. We did it all day and I was like, “Dude this is sick, lemme borrow this board.” And he was like yeah whatever. So I took his board and I was just messing around with that and a few months later my mom got me a real board, and I’ve been skating ever since.
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Since you moved to America, have you lived in NY the whole time?
I mean I travel around a bunch, but I’ve always lived here, this is home base. Like in the winters I’d go to Phoenix cause I’ve got a bunch of friends out there, hang out with them, go down to Florida. Last year my buddy and I rode our bicycles from NY to SF through the south. That was like an eight month trek just getting away from NY, but I always come back, I can’t imagine living anywhere else.
You do a lot of bike rides, how’d you get into that?
Honestly that just started off as a joke one day after work. We were chilling at a friends house and I think we saw that video of the dudes skating from Boston to NY (Backstreet Atlas) and we were like, “Dude let’s skate across the country, we got this!” And then we were like realizing the logistics of that, and that it wasn’t really possible, so we were like maybe we could bike it. So at the time our buddy was working at Chrome, and put together this scavenger bike race around the city, and he entered us in the contest. We ended up winning first place in that, and we won two bikes so we chose them to be the bikes we’d take across country. We got so amped up, but we had absolutely no support cause we had
done nothing like that before, so we just talked all this shit and ended up not doing it so we were like, “We’ve got to do something.” So we first rode up to the Philly for bum rush the spot, after like three parties all night in the city we went and grabbed our bikes and rode the eighteen hours to Philly and skated the contest. Then two weeks later after we got back, Michael from Shut was like, “Oh, do you want to go to Tampa Am?” and we were like, “Sure we’ll bike down there.” So we rode our bikes down
there and made a little video with that and then after that we got a little more traction and sponsorships so we were able to go across the country.
Damn, that’s sick. How long was it to Tampa?
NY to Florida on a single speed was like, three weeks or so.
How’d you get hooked up with Shut?
I guess I went to High School not far from the flagship store, so I was always just skating around the LES and my really close friend growing up with, Pat Hoblin, was riding for them at the time. I started hanging around the shop more and showing them some footage, and they started flowing me boards and I stuck with em. We’re like family now, been with em for almost four or five years now and I can’t imagine riding for anyone else now for sure.
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You got any trips planned?
Uh we’re driving up to Vermont for Friendly Gathering next weekend, it’s like some music festival and this year is their first year incorporating skateboarding in it. So we’re driving up there, they built a mini ramp for us to skate. So we’ll probably have a cool time over there. And then next Tuesday I’m flying out to Ukraine for my grandpa’s birthday, I haven’t been out there in like five years so I’m a bit overdue. Then my girl’s gonna meet me out there and we’re gonna try to fly to Croatia then Barcelona, cruise out there and then back to here.
Damn, sounds like a sick trip.
Yeah and then at the end of the year we’re trying to put together another trip across country but maybe on motorcycles this time. I don’t think my knees can handle any more biking like that. We did it once so that was enough.
You ride motorcycles?
Not yet, I don’t even have a drivers license. In NY I never really had to get it, but figured now is the time.
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So do you have a day job?
Haha, honestly just a bunch of random odd jobs from catering, to bartending, to doing production assistant. Personal assistant for Shady Perez, this photographer, just doing random stuff, last week he had me go to Madison Square Garden to document one of the boxing matches and all I had to do was give him the winners. So that was cool, I’d never seen boxing live or been to MSG so that was rad just to be right on the ring. I was a stunt double on this TV show last week. New York man, you gotta do a million things.
Sounds like you’ve been a lot of places, is there anywhere you haven’t been in the country that you’re trying to go to?
I’ve actually never been to like the middle of the country. Oklahoma, SLC, and Portland too, I’ve never been there. We stopped in SF and never made it further up. Oregon, Washington, and parts of Canada too, I’ve never been there.
What do you think is different about NY skateboarding?
The fact that everything is so close together, I mean you can just get on your board and go and find something. I feel like everywhere else it’s like the older you get, the more of a chore it becomes to go skate. Cause you have to get in the car, pick people up, go to the spot, get kicked out, get back to the car. As opposed to here you get kicked out of one spot, you just go twenty feet there’s another spot. It’s just a lot easier to link up with people and there’s just a whole lot of interaction here, it’s a lot
more condensed. I think it’s awesome.
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Have you ever almost quit skating since you started?
Almost, but not really, when I was 18 I had finished two years of college and was kind of bummed on myself so I was about to join the Air Force cause I wanted to get my pilots license. Like I was like oh this will pay for my school and I’ll get paid to do it, and I was almost ready to do it and sign my paperwork, but then I got introduced to that kid Alex Rotondo through Matt, who I do Gnarmads with. They went to high school together and Alex had the idea for Tre truck and he was like, “Dude I want to get you involved.” So I ended up not doing the Air Force and just continued skating.
Anything you want to say to anybody reading this?
To anybody reading this, thank you for the support. Skate Jawn is sick as fuck! And just don’t be afraid to go out there and do your thing, fuck everybody else, just do you, do what makes you happy and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
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