How did you get stated working with concrete?
Originally I was working for my uncle right out of high school I got a full time job with him just being a laborer. I was working on a crew that of concrete masons and I was basically like the laborer cleaning tools and shit. Just basically doing the grunt work, that was my first experience with it.

How did that turn into doing skateparks?
It’s one of those things where I had done it for a while and I fuckin seriously hated doing concrete work it’s miserable work but then at some point being a skate rat I was going to FDR a lot and I started realizing all the shit I was doing was fully applicable to skating and building. It had some kinda resonance with the shit that I was into. So that was kinda what sparked me. I was like ok, I can use this to my advantage.

What was the first project as far as making something to skate?
The mini ramp at my house was the first thing. We had a really bad flood at my house, we were homeless for a little bit, there ended up being a bunch of government money passed… This was like before Katrina and shit but we got my house raised with this government funding and I had like a 20ft ceiling basement. I was immediately like oh my god I’m building a mini ramp. That first building experience was one of those things where we’d have jam packed sessions all the time. That’s really what made me take an interested in it. You could see how hyped people would get especially people that never had access to a backyard ramp.

How did the Pops project come about?
This rec center lady just walked right into Exit one day and was like, How do we get a skatepark built? We just pretty much promised her the moon and the stars like, if you get us permission we’ll do it all. You don’t have to worry about a thing. But as we got into it, it turned into a lot more of a headache then we were making it out to be. But it came down to just one progressive person taking a step and going the one place in her community she thought she could get an answer, and that’s really how it snowballed.. We just got lucky with the funding I mean the 2 non profits, Kensington Development Corporation and Franklins Paine they were kinda like keeping the bully off our back, the city was asking questions they were like it’s ok everything is under control. But then when the city engineers finally came down on site they pretty much threw a shit fit, they were like about to shut us down. It was in the winter time so we weren’t pouring any concrete, the job site was kinda stagnant, we were just doing a little bit of steel work. But right at that point when we were gonna get a stop work order from the city we got the Tony Hawk grant, 10 grand from Tony Hawk is really good leverage. NKDC got that grant and went back to the city like tony hawk just gave us 10 thousand dollars to finish this project can you just stay off our back. I think they could realize that it was worth just turning an eye to it even though they knew as far as everything we were doing was just completely illegal as far a city construction.

Tell me about 5th pocket?
So basically after we got involved in doing Pops, we had these follow up meetings with parks and rec, and some of them funding non profits, and they seemed to be like, Hey this was really good, they were actually siked about it. Theres some things they weren’t siked on. It really came down to liability and insurance so they basically put it on the table like, start a company, get some insurance, and we’ll give it another shot. Try to like duplicate the process in some way. So I was like fuck it I had some money I’d saved and was ready to do something. Just completely on a total high from Pops, we didn’t even really have any idea what were doing until it was done and then that whole wash of positive shit was happening. I was like fuck it we got nothing to lose, start a company I wasn’t ever about like aw man, I got this business plan or some shit, it was like the city of Philadelphia was giving us this sliver of opportunity and I was like, “when am I gonna get a chance to do this again?”

What do you do to stay alive day to day?
Whatever I can. I’ve worked a lot of side jobs, bar tending definitely has helped. Triumph brewing company big shout out. They’ve like sustained my life for a really long time, and truthfully without that job I wouldn’t have had the opportunities I’ve had cause i would have been working some 9 to 5 shit but bar tending has been good to me.

What projects are currently keeping you up at night?
The cellar keeps me up at night cause its like ours, it’s a collective. It feels more personal, like we own it. But there’s a project that’s getting off the ground right now in Delaware and we’re building it at this church and the fundraising has gone really well, but there’s a lot of stuff going on with insurance and donated services that makes it kinda hectic, and honestly anything I know we’re going to build keeps me up. Basically just can’t stop thinking about how it could be better or the design could be better or how it could be the best it could be.

Do you sketch shit out / use the computer?
I only use computer design I’m a horrible hand drawn artist. Google sketch up it’s a free download, it’s what I got started on with Pops and as I’ve been learning the program, the program has only gotten better to the point where now like real architects use it it’s not just like a hobbyist thing like you can make blueprints with it, super complicated shapes, I mean i still got a lot to learn.

And you just taught yourself?
Kinda, my brother took some CAD classes and he knew the basics and once you know the basics its up to you to create the shapes, you know if you know they basics it all works you gotta just start doodling but the real weird shit is when you make the connecting between drawling it, imaging how its gonna ride, building it and then riding it and then being able to make those mental notes of all those things that were kinda like you thought they were gonna be or way far away from it and try to figure out and decipher what was right or wrong.

Who are some people usually out there with you making shit happen?
It’s almost like every projects tunes in on a different group of volunteers, just because a lot of the stuff we do isn’t under contract and its just to keep hype going and stay busy, but as far as when I need to line us a crew definitely TZ, Jason, Sloan’s fuckin made it out to some stuff where we drove off into no mans land. It’s a mixed batch.

Who are some of the godfathers of the trowel?
There’s like a billion, well theres not that many but I’d say just the originals that started the whole movement, so it’d be like Mark Hubbard? Mark Scott? The dude who owns Dreamland, dude who owns GrindLine and then like Tim Pain, from team pain, but theres like a million people carrying the torch now cause the knowledge is out it’s not just like a sacred few who know it there a lot of people out there who know the basics. TZ is a godfather if you ask me he’s the shit.

What’s the most difficult part of the process, red tape, framing, pouring, finishing?
Red tape is probably the most frustrating and difficult to get through but when it comes to like the installation, its hard to say, like working with the concrete material is like hard work but like framing and layout is way more mental like you gotta have your math right on a lot of that stuff when your doing the concrete it’s like all of your numbers are installed already and you just have to make the concrete match that but yea I’d say like layout, draining water, heights and elevations just the math can be tricky, so framing and forms I’d say are probably the most tedious.

What’s the biggest job you’ve ever done?
Sq footage wise probably Ambler. That’s the biggest sq footage we’ve done and it really isn’t that much it was like 7,000 sq feet. It’s funny that project was so budgeted, and I think it’s that big cause there’s a decent amount of flat in it, and we didn’t get the flat contract, that was some other goon, union guy.

Have you gotten any jobs that were too big?
Yea like I was saying they send out RFPs like once your listed as a vendor in this industry you get sent RFPs from all over the place. Like I got sent RFPs from rec centers all around the Midwest looking for like 10,000 sq foot parks, and as far as me as a company there’s no way I could really handle that. I wouldn’t even really be able to put together a proposal for something like that just cause I lack the administrative end of it you know? And I don’t have a bank that’s willing to bond me for like, say it’s a quarter million dollar job, they’re not gonna be like “this guy is good for it” cause truth is I’m not. I don’t have any money, I don’t have any equipment, I don’t have any trucks, we’re pretty budget you know what I mean.

What would you say are some of the biggest or most common mistakes people make with parks, or that happen?
That’s a good question. I guess it all depends on what you like, but I’d just say being unoriginal. Anything unoriginal or anything duplicated a bunch of times. I’m still like learning all the time. I don’t really know a ton in the grand scheme of things. I feel like I have a lot to learn but I look at parks and its like some of the stuff has not just been done but has been done so many times, I kinda think it doesn’t have to be the best park in the world it just has to be different. It doesn’t have to be some gnarly or the biggest ever or this or that it’s more just about it’s never been done before, something new.

What are you into outside of crete and skating?
I’m starting to really get into math in a weird way, just like ancient math, sounds kinda spacey and nerdy but yea definitely some quantum physics type stuff get me hyped I got this book that I’m reading right now and its like wheeew definitely like takes you on a trip and it’s funny cause skating kinda got me into it when we built the wooden bowl. the wooden stuff is crazy math and that got me just thinking in numbers, you know concrete is malleable you can mush it into a shape and be like yea that will skate you can visualize and see and change its shape. Where with wood it’s like you have to know exactly the equation to get the piece to the puzzle and that just sparked me to learn more math. And playing guitar. I play some guitar. I live in the sticks a little bit so I like to go fishing, shit like that; basic stuff. Traveling for sure, damn I wish I had some more money I’d be traveling all the time.

Any DIY projects you’d like to peep?
Pretty much every single one that Pontus and those dudes made, especially the really weird little bowls that they make, they make these weird little bowls, I don’t know its like street skating bowl everything is kinda weird and kinked or tight like really hard to navigate. That’s the shit that I like to skate There’s some dudes in Germany that built some really bizarre stuff, that park in Hanover I think they helped with that stuff that went on in India the HolyStoked Collective those dudes, I think the German dudes went down and helped with that and maybe some other dudes but there’s some European dudes that are doing some pretty rad shit but all the America DIY too. I just got to skate that spot in Seattle, Marginal Way, insane such a rad park, so much flow It’s like skate park quality installation not like some ratty foundation spot it was insane super professional as far as the shapes and the finish it was just totally sick but basically anything out there. any DIY spot I’d like to skate.

Favorite thing to build or include in a park?
Bank to curb. bank to ledge, yea I dig those, I have a lot of fun on those, but anything 3D. You know a lot of the stuff, like not to call em out or anything, but a lot of like California Skatepark stuff is like long linear stuff, flat, straight, not much of it is 3 dimensional. They’re like simple shapes You start to break into that third dimension and it just really opens up how you can skate it. I dig things that are changing the whole way not just one shape extruded like 60 feet just like a block, or like a long bank. which is cool like while I say that look at 7th street it’s just a long quarter pipe but I was just building what those dudes wanted to build down at Kinetic simple and straight forward, and it fit the space. but like yea I like shit that’s like crazy weird shapes that are like rolling and elevation change and shit like that.

Learning from your mistakes is the essence of this game. What is your biggest mistake that has lead to the biggest discovery?
There’s so many to chose from. I can’t really think of one specific, but definitely like nail it down in the design first, I feel like there’s a lot of trouble shooting that can be done before anything happens on site, cause once you’re on site everyone has an opinion that and just never be too sure of, not of yourself but always realize something can go wrong. be prepared for things to go wrong, not that you should plan on it, but be prepared for it cause shit can happen really quick. Concrete doesn’t wait you know, that shits going, like your on a clock, if something goes wrong you just gotta figure it out.

It must be fulfilling to watch homies skate shit you’ve built, can you think of any specific tricks or anything that’s gone down? Anything you’ve been hyped on?
Going to Pops is probably the most hype thing just cause a lot of those kids didn’t really know anything about a skateboard until the park opened so seeing how their skating is reflected by the park, that’s like all they knew of skating. Like you could say any name of any pro and they were clueless. They had no idea to the whole world of skating so seeing how they skate now is super sick, but yea I’d say people skating Pops gets me more hyped than anything. Watching Mitch skate Pops, Bill Sands, Dan Hetrich, and then the Ambler locals, whenever I go up there and watch those dudes skate it’s really sick. That dude Tore (Bevivino) is on a tear, and he owns that park, and it’s like custom made for him. probably the most rewarding stuff is seeing people like grow with in the park. I’d like to think some of the stuff we design is like easy for kids to progress on stuff that like gives them those little tiers to like work towards. It’s not all like, you gotta get gnarly right away. I’ve always been siked on how the kids learn especially at Pops.

To make a long story short what are some of the differences between working with wood and crete?
Wood is way more methodical, more calculated. You have to know every number cause with all those numbers you have to like formulate an equation to cut every little piece its crazy in depth. concrete is more like get your forms close, you know what the radiuses are so you just kinda mock it up then its way more a kinda visualizing it type of thing. With wood if your not crunching out numbers and long lists of equations you are not getting the right cut and the thing is not going to skate right, especially when your doing a round wall. its like two totally different animals wood is like slow and methodical concrete is like you do a beast ass hard days work and then you have this huge wall of concrete poured.

Shout out to those keeping it real.
Anyone who’s just really putting in work to what they want to see happen. People investing their time in things that they care about and just anyone taking a chance on it. Everybody who’s helped with any of our projects obviously, that goes without saying. Without all their help we wound’t be where we’re at. All the Skate Jawn homies.