Interview by Devin Colon
Photos by Ricky Aponte
One thing I always noticed about Josh was his trick selection. The spots in Western Mass often require some outside the box thinking, and Josh will always walk away with something clever. The Western Mass skate scene has been getting older, which means those adult responsibilities kick in and skating starts to fall to the wayside. To push through all that and still be progressing takes a certain type of person. Josh has been on a different type of tear recently, and I think it’s time he starts getting the recognition he deserves.
How in the world do you pronounce your last name?
In Polish the “Dzia” is pronounced “Jah” so it’s Jah-deck.
I think I knew you for a few years before I learned that. So what projects do you got going right now?
I’m finishing up my part for Frame, the new Theory Skateshop video, and trying to get the last couple photos for this interview.
Rumor has it you have four songs worth of footy for this part. How has the filming been going?
Yeah, this is definitely the most footage I’ve had for a part. I try to get a clip every Sunday with Peter (Freeman) and if I’m motivated during the week, I’ll go film with Greg (Sanocki) after work. I love filming with those two so that makes the process even easier.
I know you’ve been a postal worker for a while now. How has that been? How many spots have you discovered?!
I really like my job. The learning curve was tough. I definitely had some late nights delivering mail in the dark with a headlamp on, but once you get it down it’s easy. I’ve found a few spots, but my last job was dry cleaning delivery all over Western Mass and I used to find so many spots.
(Noah) Wait, so how old are you, and how long have you been doing this? It’s in a really rural town right?
I’m 28 and I’ve been delivering mail for two years. It’s pretty rural in parts, with long sketchy driveways into the woods. I’ve got a couple of those streets on my route but thankfully I have a section of what can be considered downtown.
(N) What’s it like working for the government?
Strange when I think about it. I took an oath to defend the constitution at 7:30 in the morning the first day I trained and it was weird. I do like the importance of my job at times, like collecting the mail-in ballots was cool. Then other days you’re delivering junk mail and it feels less important. I have a retirement plan, health insurance, and all that stuff so I’m very thankful for that.
(N) Tell me about your beef with the trash haulers?
My whole job is driving up to mailboxes and it’s policy if you can’t get to the box to bring the mail back. For months they were blocking a whole street and I was so pissed. I think they caught on because lately it’s not as bad. The beef has been squashed.
What’s up with the spot log notebook you got for Christmas?
My girlfriend Em somehow found that at Barnes and Noble. Seriously the best Christmas present ever. It has a checklist for what kind of spot it is, rate the spot, run up, roll away, bust factor, trick ideas and a little section to sketch the spot. I have hundreds of screenshots on my phone of spots I found on google earth so now I just gotta fill that book.
Who or what crew has influenced your skating the most?
That’s a tough one. So many people have influenced my skating over the years. I’ve always been a big fan of Brad Cromer. No matter what he does, he makes it look good. Recently I’ve been inspired a lot by Tom Karangelov and Jordan Taylor and their spot and trick selection.
How did you start doing the front board ollie out to the other side? I remember it escalated into you doing it at Lynch park down the handrail one day and everyone lost it!
Logan Devlin was the first person I saw do that trick. There was a video of him on instagram doing it backside. I think Jel showed me the video at HSP one day and was telling me to try it. I ended up figuring them out backside and then frontside a little while after that. It only works on certain kinds of rails. It needs to have enough rail on the side so you have the leverage to basically power ollie over the rail. Lynch has a rail like that so I went for it that day and it worked out. I was so hyped. Dan Dziuban introduced me to Jim Thiebaud immediately after that and I couldn’t even process what was happening. That was a really good day.
Who is helping you out with boards right now? How’d the connections come about?
Justin Maruco is flowing me Polar boards right now. If I‘m remembering correctly I think I told Dziuban I really liked their boards and he reached out to Justin for me and made that happen. Been a fan of Polar for a long time so I’m definitely hyped.
I can’t wait to see your part dropping soon dude. Any closing shoutouts or thank yous?
I wanna say thank you to Ricky for shooting the photos, Dan and Frank at Theory, Justin at Polar, Jimmy at Cons, Peter and Greg for filming and putting up with me, Noah at Skate Jawn for asking me to do the interview, Emily Fish, Goat Mob, HSP crew, the Sunday crew and anyone else I forgot to mention.
