What’s up? Want to get this started?
Yeah, sorry about the other night, I was pretty fucking hammered man.
Ha, all good. You still living in Jersey?
I’m in Brooklyn, South Williamsburg. I’ve been out here like almost two years now.
When did you turn pro?
Damn, 20 years ago for Alien Workshop. When I was 15 they turned me pro.
When did you start skating?
When I was probably like 9. My friend Dominick just had a board one day, he could ollie and shit and I was pretty blown away. So I just started borrowing his board and trying to ollie over 2×4’s on their side in the tennis court. And then I eventually got my own good board, a Bill Danforth, that was my first board.
fs tail
Turning pro at 15, is there any one who helped you figure out what you had to do being a pro skater?
I mean they turned me pro and they sent me straight to Europe. That was my first pro contest, in Europe. And I got sent out there with Rob Dyrdek and he kinda helped me out a lot. Then in the Philly days Ricky Oyola and shit.
I heard you lived at 19th and Spring Garden for a while?
Yeah probably for like 3 years. I lived with Jerry Fisher and Matt Reason.
Did you ride for a company called Badakole, out of Jerz, back in the day?
Actually everybody else rode for them. I wasn’t on, but Quim would get flowed product and stuff. Quim Cardona, Mike Cardona, Matt Field, all these dudes got flowed from them. I think Quim and them knew the dude through my friend Reshawn actually.
bs noseblunt
How much time out of the year do you normally spend traveling?
Usually a lot, like at least 6 months out of the year. But I mean It’s been slow in the past year and half or so. Haven’t really been too many places.
Last trip you went on?
Detroit. We went on a trip in the summer to Detroit with Dave Caddo, Jerry Mraz, and Greg Huff. It’s real fucking gnarly. It’s lawless, you can do what you want pretty much.
Anywhere you want to travel to but never been yet?
South Africa, definitely, I was just talking about that today actually.
What’s gnarlier, Columbia or Newark?
I mean they both got their gnarly tendencies but Columbia is probably gnarlier.
Seen any fucked up shit out there?
In Columbia? Nah I mean it was pretty mellow for the most part. But it could get gnarly pretty easy. We were checking out this spot one night at like 4am at this train station. And I guess the train station had just gotten bombed a couple weeks earlier. This cop just appeared out of nowhere and had his gun drawn on us and I started speaking English to him, my friend was like “Shut up! Don’t speak English!” He ended up searching us and then just letting us go, but they thought we were up to no good so they fucked with us.
roll in
Tell me a little about Domestics?
Domestics is Jersey born and bred, just the local company. It’s me and Joe Dorsi, he’s my partner, and we make t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, everything. Straight outta Jersey. Come check it.
It seems like you skate drunk a lot, you ever film a trick and not remember it in the morning?
Uh, I try not to let that shit happen. You don’t even want to do that. But it has happened before. Hell yeah man, the NJ scum edit.
You’ve had the same sponsors forever. What do you think about all these changes happening, with teams and companies?
Yeah I know it’s kind of a crazy time. I mean I’m just staying put. I’m not trying to go anywhere.
5-0 fakie
Ever been caught skating a pool?
Actually a couple times. One time with Quim we got arrested and shit. It sucked. It was in Totowa, New Jersey. We like snuck in the back and then these dudes found out we were going to skate there so they came in the front cause it was like a community pool, somebody called the cops. But Joe Tookmanian, his dad actually got us out. I guess his uncle was a cop in that town or something.
Ever been caught by the owners?
Yeah actually, in Long Island. They were just like what the fuck are you doing here, get out, what the fuck. We just had to play dumb, say sorry and then just dipped.
Who / what made you want to skate switch?
I guess Salman Agah was my major switch influence. He was just doing it. He was like the first one to start doing switch ollies and all that shit. Just skating switch in general. And Guy Mariano for sure.
Favorite skater from Jerz?
Probably Quim. Or Mike Daher is actually from Jersey too.
tailblock
How long have you known Quim?
Since I was like probably 11 or 12 years old. Him and Mike, we would always go to these contests, they were like the other little kids that were really good. We used to compete against each other a lot and shit, it was pretty funny.
Most Heineken you’ve drank on a session?
Aw man I couldn’t even tell you. A pretty lot.
Most Odouls you ever drank at once?
I’ve drank like a twelver of those before, just to be drinking.
I’m sure you skated contests coming up, what was the biggest?
Those ones in Europe were pretty big. The World Cup of Skateboarding in Germany. That was like way early 90’s. England and Munster Germany. Those were pretty fucking huge. The Germany one was in this big ass arena, like a hockey arena or something.
What was one of the most fun video parts to film?
Inhabitants was pretty fun. But I mean the Subzero video was by far the most fun. because everything was new, you know what I mean. That was like the first video part I ever put out besides the Tracker video and shit like that.
Got any projects coming up?
Well we’re definitely going to work on a Domestics video.
