Interview by Tracy Gee. Photos by Keith Debottis.
bs 5050
Ok basic questions, where you from? Who you ride for?
I’m from Mount Laurel, NJ. Currently living in Philly and I get stuff from Enjoi Skateboards, Lakai shoes, Bones bearings, and OJ Wheels.
How did you end up on Enjoi? There’s not a lot of people skating for Dwindle companies over here?
Well when I was younger this skate shop named Curbside opened up in Medford, NJ. I was smart enough to know that skate shops are supposed to help you get hooked up. I ended up going in there and asking them if thy could help me send out my footage. Ended up riding for the shop and they sent my footage over to the Dwindle dudes and shortly after that I got my first box from James Craig and been rocking with them ever since.
How did we end up filming together? I remember when you first came to the city you were kind of an annoying little kid?
I was! But I mean, I was skating Love all the time and filming with Andrew Meyer a bunch. Meyer eventually came out with M1 which was the first thing I was involved in and I remember you filmed a couple clips for my part. Once I was done with that I feel like I gravitated towards you because it was super convenient. I was going to Temple, so I would get done with classes and the entire RAV squad would be at Cecil. I really enjoyed skating with them, and I think you enjoyed my craziness.
fs shuv p- Brian Weglicki
That was a pretty interesting time, do you have any good memories filming for RAV?
That was some of the best times on my skateboard. I can’t recall any specific memories, but I do think it was funny that I would write down a trick list and keep it in my wallet. You would ask me ‘where we going today’ and I would pull out three pages of tricks I wanted to do. Honestly, the best memories I have of RAV was definitely the end because of all the hype that was around it, and putting a lot of work into something people were stoked on was an amazing feeling. It gave me a lot of motivation to keep going.
That’s what’s up, so what motivates you to try some of the tricks that are a little gnarlier?
I feel like you just have to be mentally prepared for that. I feel like there are two types of skaters, one that will just go for it or someone like me that has to think it all out. I have to do my rituals like kiss my hand three times, three times, or knock wood three times, three times.I guess what helps me is doing a routine every time I try a trick because if I do it right it makes me have the feeling to just go for it. Also if you think that obstacle was at a skatepark, you wouldn’t think twice, you would just go for it. Just because it’s a little bit rougher shouldn’t change your mind about going for it, you just have to have that confidence.
We’ve been filming for a little bit, but we be getting into arguments about what to and what not to post on Instagram. What are your Instagram beliefs on what to post?
Don’t post tricks you just learned, even though that’s hard for me because I get excited. All the gnarly stuff you think you can film don’t post that. It’s hard because nowadays you got to do both. You get mad because you’re like ‘oh we could’ve filmed that’ but try to get better with it.
Why you post that gnarly shit the other day then?
I hit you up! You said you’re only coming out if someone is jumping down the 16.
ollie
It’s cool, I forgive you. So we finished RAV, you had some stuff come out after that, what are you working on now?
Right now I’m getting some stuff in this OJ project, trying to finish up this little part for Lakai and I’m pretty sure my friend Jace and I are starting to work on an Enjoi project. That’s up in the air but honestly I’m just filming and trying to put my footage in the right places and taking the opportunities that are in front of me. Oh and your short video that is coming out. Super stoked on that!
VX or HD?
VX for sure! It looks way sicker and everyone around here films VX very well. VX in the streets is just raw East Coast and looks way better in my opinion. HD is for movies, but that’s what the companies like. What do you prefer?
You got to put some respect on Mulhern’s name, best HD filmer in the game, but I prefer VX. (kid jumps off roof at Muni) Yeoo! My bad, Florida kids out here jumping off roofs and whatnot. But even though that was insane to watch, what was one of the more gnarlier tricks you had to go through?
Nothing like what we just saw, that was incredible! He just broke three boards and my trucks haha. I don’t like jumping off big things like that. I had a bad experience when I was younger, broke my elbow real bad. Nine years later now I got all these rituals when I get scared. It’s definitely entertaining though. I’ll leave the scary stuff up to someone else.
I’m glad you skate downtown more, who are your favorite people to skate downtown with?
My roommates when we aren’t getting annoyed with each other, which is Kris, Mike, Graeme, and Destin, but I love coming down to Muni and seeing the bandwagon and the people I’ve been skating downtown with since I first started coming down.
bs 5-0
Do you consider yourself tech or more of a rail gap skater?
I feel like I’m an in between because I want to be a rail gap skater but sometimes some of the shit is just way too gnarly for me so I would consider myself more in the middle. I don’t know, I can’t get gnarly like those kids on Instagram or whatever, they be doing flip in, flip out. That shit is difficult. Then again social media makes you feel lower than what you really are. Can’t compare yourself.
It was cool to interview you. Any last words, shoutouts? Any words of wisdom?
Did you know how I was going to answer these questions?
Kind of, but didn’t expect you to talk so much.
Well, I’ll try to keep it short if we ever do this again.
bs overcrook
