Interview by Sean Bendon. Photos by Sam McKenna.

Where did you move from and when did you move to NYC?

I’m from the Inland Empire, which is like 30-40 minutes east of LA, it’s kind of like the suburbs. But I moved to NYC in 2015 to go to college.

Why’d you come to school out here?

I was fucking up in high school but I’m Chumash Native American so I get free college tuition. They blessed me. But I was like, damn what do I want to do? I just wanted to skate, and New York is where you should skate. So I was like, I’ll just do good one year in high school so I can go to college and I ended up getting a degree.

You’ve been getting hooked up with Blue Couch boards lately right? How’d that happen?

My homie Jasper Stieve moved out here and we were vibing and then he got on Blue Couch for a bit and was like “Yo Dane what’s good? This is my homie Noah.” So Jasper hooked it up and I was on that for a while, but I just recently left. There were no hard feelings or anything, I just don’t feel like being on anything right now. I just want to skate without being tied down. But I love all those dudes, Dane, Mecca, Sam, Zac, all of them.

You’re taking a step away from board sponsors?

Yeah, I just don’t want to have to worry about filming all the time. It’s a war when you want to skate but someone has a camera so you’re like “fuck now I gotta try hard but I really don’t wanna slam.” Like, let’s just kick it.

Let’s talk about your Sportsmanshit part. What’s the story behind that last trick?

Which one was it?

The gap back 50-50 roll down primo-esque one.

Oh! All these heads make fun of me for the spots I find cause they’re fucking stupid, and that spot was one of them. I told them I found this bump to ledge and they were like “This isn’t a fucking bump to ledge, this is just hard.” But I finally got my homie Brandon Stepanow to go with me. Every time my back truck would kinda slide out cause I was going so fast. It happened a gang of times and I kept slamming. But that one, I don’t know what happened. I literally just held on for dear life.

How was filming for that part?

That was all Brandon. I had some really old clips in it from when I first moved to New York. There’s actually a clip of me skating in front of my dorm. We were filming it for so long and it finally came to fruition.

Who’s the person wearing a mask pre-Covid in your Sportsmanshit part?

That’s me. That’s actually the line I filmed in front of my dorm.

Why were you wearing a mask?

It was fucking cold. It kept my nose warm. It’s easy to wear a mask in the winter.

What was your life like prior to Covid-19 and the quarantine?

I was working as a tutor. It was a drastic change when schools went online. It was a war. No schools were ready for that and it was really shocking. I actually taught right next to Fat Kid skatepark. It’s a super low-income school and I work with this program called Practice Makes Perfect that goes into schools to help out. They’re the homies.

What have been you doing all your free time since the pandemic started?

Running up unemployment. Never been so hyped to be unemployed in my life. I was making way more off it which is sad and I had all the free time in the world. At first when everyone was super serious and stayed inside, it was just a lot of acid and shrooms. We were so bored. I had just gotten a record player and a projector. It was fire.

Skaters these days seem a lot more health conscious. Do you subscribe to that side of skating?

I mean yeah, for now. I want to take care of my body so I can keep skating. It’s sick to get fucked up, but it’s also sick to be healthy. Honestly Salba’s been my inspiration. The way he stretches. Shoutout Salba.

You just got back at like 5:00 AM from a road trip. How was it?

I left the night of the blizzard to drive out to California with my sister to see my mom for the holidays. It took us six and a half hours to get to Baltimore. It was armageddon on the freeway. Our car was drifting and shit. I saw like 40 cars crashed in the snow, but we made it to Cali and back.

Your sister lives out here too?

All my siblings do. I got three other ones. I’m the youngest. One of my sisters lives down the street. She used to live with the dude who started Burning Man.

Do any of your siblings skate?

My brother did. He’s my roommate.

Got any plans for 2021?

Still trying to learn how to kickflip. 2020 was supposed to be my year for that but all this shit happened. If you have a good kickflip when you’re young you have a future.

Last words?

I love all my homies. I love my family. Fuck cops. Steal from corporations. Life is beautiful.