Words by Andrew

Photos by Colin Sussingham

Who did you go to Puerto Rico with?

Me, Johnny, Paul Tucci, Conor, fuckin Kevin Maillet, Kevin Graver, Tyler, Kholton, Max Hull, Colin Sussingham, John Choi, I think that’s it. Fuck, if I forgot someone that’d be so bad.

Damn that’s so many people.

It’s gnarly to go with, I think it was 11 people, but it worked out. We thought it’d be hard to skate around and go to spots and everything but it wasn’t bad. Just like pushed everywhere.

What made you guys want to go down there?

Just seeing all the clips of people skating out there recently definitely motivated it, also looking at photos of the cities and shit and random spots we saw on the internet. Just watching footage from all the kids down there, it just seemed sick. Also, it’s an American colony, easy to go to, don’t have to transfer money, cheap, they speak English. It’s a really good place to go, everyone should check it out actually.

Did you guys do anything to prepare? You said you were looking at videos and shit. Did you try to find new spots?

Yea but not like on some Kevin shit. You can’t Google map there, they don’t have the street view thing. As soon as we got there we’d see spots, you know drop a pin on yr phone or just hear about a spot, or a lot of them we just skated around and found. It was actually really easy. There’s spots everywhere. It feels like a little packed city. At least where we were.

So where were you exactly?

We stayed in Ocean Park, which is in San Juan. It’s like the biggest city there but we had a car for a couple days, so we got to go to the cliff jumping spots, and random spots out in the cut.

You went cliff jumping?

Yea went to some waterfalls and shit. It was insane. Fuckin sick, it was like some shit you’d see in like a painting or something. It was crazy. Gnar jungle shit.

Do they have any crazy animals out there?

Johnny ran over an iguana, ha. I don’t know we saw some weird shit. Weird bugs. Yerp.

First impressions, or something that surprised you?

Where to get food, for sure. In the beginning the places we were eating at weren’t like local spots, they were real touristy or Americanized where shit was expensive. But later in the trip we linked up with some of the local guys and they showed us the barbeque places to eat at and shit, and where to get mofungo. Where to get the good shit, you know what I mean. So after people showed us, food was awesome, but in the beginning food was kinda shitty.

What’s mofongo?

It’s like mashed potatoes made with plantains and they’ll put some spices in it and some beans and some meat and shit. It’s so good.

What did the local people think of you guys, like fuckin 11 skaters from New York, skating around. Were they tripping on you guys?

Not at all. Everyone was super friendly, super nice, always helped out. The language barrier really didn’t even matter that much because a lot of those people speak English. Its easy to just go up to someone, like if you see a random skater be like, “yo, where’s…” We heard about this bowl on the ocean, in this abandoned neighborhood and shit, and this random kid we met named Derrick took us there, which was pretty tight.

You guys do anything touristy?

I mean when you go to the beach and shit its like all tourist and shit, and locals too, but if you’re in Old San Juan, that’s like the most busy spot where its like Americans everywhere. There’s Puerto Ricans down there, but not like locals and shit. It’s just like people who work down there and then live somewhere else. But yea what was the question?

Did you do anything touristy?

Oh I don’t know. The beach was the most touristy thing, We skated a ton. and after we met people from there, it was like only local vibes. The hooked it up. So sick.

You guys skate everyday?

Yea for sure. Sometimes skated like only in the night, Maybe waited till it got cooler, cause you’d like be at the beach in the day and shit. It was hot as fuck, I mean coming down from the winter time too, you definitely felt the heat and shit.

Did you go to a lot of bars or parties?

We hung out at their like gas station thing that you just drink outside of. You can drink on the streets there pretty much. It’s illegal to drink on the streets there, but all of us always had beers out and cops would roll on by, no problem. That was always sick. We went to bars a couple nights. It was easier to just go to the local shit, that one gas station I was talking about, its called “To go.” It’s so sick. All the homies always hang out there too. It’s like a hangout spot.

Did anyone get lost?

At pretty much all times we were lost, you know what I mean. We didn’t really have a plan, so it was basically like go and get lost and find spots. So yea, we were lost a lot.

Could you see yourself living there?

For sure. Definitely dude. Place is so sick. It’s real easy to skate there. I didn’t realize how good skating was there, and how many spots there were. And how friendly the kids were and shit. It’d be so sick to live there.

You just went back there right? You just got back from the 2nd trip?

Dude, so good. Skated a ton, got to do way more local shit, went to some good cliff jumping, went to the rainforest, it was fuckin rad.

Why’d you go back?

You motherfucker, haha. I stayed with a girl, Nicole, and just souled and skated. Yerp haha.

Shout out to Javi, Alfonso, Ocean Park, Medalla, To go, kaya, wsk, eko, pos, alekush, tres palmas, mofungo, crys, Karena, Erica, la perla, punta las marias, and Rafael. Yerrrrrrr.