Interview by Jonathan Becker.

What’s good bro? What have you been up to?

Chilling man. Honestly just been working on illustrations and the coloring book. Kind of really all I’ve been doing since I still got my hurt ankle.

Can you tell if it’s getting any stronger?

Yeah, I do PT almost every day. Every day it feels stronger, slowly but surely. I was traveling a little bit and it probably wasn’t helping to be drinking and doing stupid shit you know.

What have you been up to today?

Today I had a cousin come over and play some chess. Played a couple games and he actually left as we tied so it’s one to one. Besides that, just working on illustrations. Working on this one piece of this person dreaming.

Where in Virginia are you from?

I’m from northern Virginia, born in Alexandria and kind of grew up through my teenage years in Sterling. Between that I just traveled to Guatemala. I am half Guatemalan.

So you traveled to Guatemala because you got family over there too?

Yeah, half my family is Guatemalan and we used to go all the time. I used to be there for months at a time.

Would you skate over there too?

Actually I started skating when I was like 13 or something and then I think I didn’t go to Guatemala for a while until I was like 17. I think it was something like that because I didn’t have my passport. Then I went to Guatemala but there is not really much there to be honest. The skate parks I remember honestly all really kind of suck. There is so much potential but something about every one of them was just really bad. There was this one in Xela, which I’m pretty sure is an active volcano, but there is this skatepark and it’s in this hole. There are like three or four levels leading down to where these horrible bowls are at, these crazy transitions with like 10 foot vert walls and stuff like that. It’s crazy, you gotta look up that park. The skatepark is so bad it’s not even funny but it was pretty memorable. You can’t really skate much there unless you’re in the city.

You said you were traveling a bunch and went on a road trip, tell me about going cross country?

So at the end of 2020 I was living in New York and I started to write this coloring book and I found it really hard to concentrate and to find the words so I decided that I was just going to travel the country in my car. Basically I had some bread off of some crypto investments and I built a bed in my Honda CRV and just started traveling the country. I made a big huge circle, it took me like eight months. I went to Atlanta, then LA, then up to Seattle, and then crossed back over to Pittsburgh. It was quite a journey honestly. You don’t realize how beautiful the world is until you’re by yourself and you can just hear all the noises it gives you. Whether it’s from the desert or the forest or a mountain or whatever it is. It is so interesting and beautiful, no matter how many times you see these beautiful things, there is never a lack of another more or equally beautifully thing. Traveling was one of the most beautiful things ever. It’s such a gift being able to move from one place to another not knowing.

Tell me about filming with John Evans for Cinco?

I love those dudes so much, they are so hungry and so professional it is insane. The first time I remember we went to a spot and lit it up, it’s such a surreal feeling. It just makes you want to push yourself and your boundaries. I for sure tried shit I didn’t expect I would want to do, or could do, but only because I grew up knowing about Jevans all my life. So being able to to have an opportunity to be a part of this project was so sick. Even though I wasn’t able to be there for a lot of it, just being in the van with the boys I made some of my best friends in the world from just filming.

I know you like mushrooms. Is there ever a time where it’s too many? Or is there never too many mushrooms?

I think there definitely is for sure. Every strain is different, just like weed. Once you find yourself a nice strain you can kind of know how much to eat to get to certain points. It depends on what you want I guess, I definitely think a micro dose every day is good. I want to thank mushrooms for helping me to graduate college to be honest. I think if it wasn’t for mushrooms I wouldn’t be on point.

What did you go to college for?

I graduated with an electrical engineering degree with a specialization in micro electronics. It’s weird to say it.

Plan on using it any time soon or just doing it what you want for now?

I’m still banking off this crypto stuff and I started making a little money off NFT’s. I’ve just been using my time to work on the coloring book. Maybe in the future if I’m not able to… See that’s the thing though. Having a plan B is just not having full confidence in what I really ant to do. Realistically, it would be nice to be able to continue to be an illustrator and tell stories and not be an electrical engineer because I don’t really want to work for anyone. I like being able to create and work for myself.

Where do you want to go outside of the USA?

When it gets warmer it would be sick to go to Paris. If we were going right now, I’d be down to go to Lima, Peru. It’s pretty sick and a good place to skate. That whole city is a skatepark.

Since you couldn’t skate, what did you end up doing during the Stingwater trip?

I mostly pulled up to hang out with everyone and thought I would be able to skate a little bit but didn’t. I already had my ticket and Daniel said I could stay with him so I just was filming most of the time. It was nice though, I like filming. That’s like all I really did, I felt like a cheerleader. When you are watching everyone skate and you aren’t, it makes you really appreciate their skating a lot more. Not being in the field like that and on the sidelines watching makes you really appreciate the homies more. Sting video should be coming out in like June or something. Jevans is gonna have another video too. Talking about a year or something to film it. I just love skating with Pendry and Jevans. They put me in this really cool mindset.

What’s next for you in general?

Right now, I’ve been illustrating the coloring book. It has like three stories in it. I’ve just been illustrating the pages for everyone to color in. I’m like halfway through it now. The words are already done. Since I hurt my ankle I have been in Virginia and it has forced me to constantly be working on something because the time I don’t spend skating I spend working on art. I just want to really finish the coloring book. I’m really excited for it and think people will be stoked on it. Also collaborate with different artists, film more and “groe.”