Video by Elias Parise

Photos by Elias Parise & Lorenzo Martinez

Interview with Johnny Mateu by Elias Parise

What was the inspiration for your own backyard ramp, Johnny?
I guess there’s a little answer and then there’s a big answer. The little answer is going to other dude’s backyard spots when I was younger. I feel like those experiences splintered off like little shards and went in my brain and just festered and turned me into a zombie. So that’s the micro answer, but I feel like the macro answer is that I need to do this, because without this, and without skateboarding, I wouldn’t be the boy trapped in this man’s body that I am today. If I didn’t wander into FDR and start learning how to mix concrete, read a tape measure, and cut wood, I literally would not be here today. I build houses for a living. So the least that I could do is give back in this way. We need to keep planting the seed and keep the ball rolling because the entire foundation of the culture of skateboarding was built on shit like this.

What was the reasoning behind the rad, loafy, poured in place coping? And the pool coping on some of the pockets? What little details make this the Tick Farm?
Well, the poured in place coping, we did that at Tom Henry’s house outside of Austin, Texas, and it was great. He made his own coping trowel out of fiberglass. We loved the crunch of concrete coping, so that’s why we went with that flavor. The pool blocks, the Shortys/Hole Bowl guys hooked up. Andrew McLaughlin and John Cruz, those guys made molds out of pool coping blocks and they were kind enough to lend me those molds. So for a month or two at least, every night I was pouring a new block, popping it, setting it in water, letting it cure. So all the pool coping that’s on the deep end I made here with the molds from the Shortys boys.

Would you say there were certain venues, skate parks, or DIY projects that influenced you to do this?
Of course FDR, that’s where I learned to build. Carlos Baiza, the main man of FDR, he took me under his wing as a little minion back in the early 2000’s. Another gem that Carlos created in Philly was Alter Street. Alter Street I thought was the raddest spot and a lot of the flavor of the Tick Farm comes from there. The bank wall is most definitely a love letter to Lockhart, Texas, but also the bank to wallride at Alter Street. That was one of my favorite things. And then of course the transitions and the top radiuses here are all very similar to ones that Carlos often uses, especially from Alter Street. I spent a lot of time in Texas and was lucky to have been a part of a really rad crew at a really rad time. There’s a guy named Tom Henry who’s got an incredible backyard. Doug King and his place is just epic. There’s a place called the Cat Palace outside of San Antonio. Ben and Toby Johnson’s house, the Dirty Boy headquarters, all these places. To be down there and to have had a hand in all of that radical action really influenced me and taught me a lot about new building techniques. That’s where I really saw this cantilever system put into action.

Why is it called the Tick Farm?
Ticks. In the summertime, don’t go in the woods or else you’re going to come out with a lot of ticks. There was a spot in Texas called the Mosquito Farm that I always thought was a cute name. I actually never skated there, but liked that. So when we started building this spot, it needed a name. There’s a million ticks, and I was like, the Tick Farm.

Future plans for the bowl, for the house?
So first there’s a couple spots that need coping. I want to get some coping on the escalator and the two hips need coping still. It’d be cool to build a deck around the deep end. I’d like to do that. But as far as something substantial like the next pour? I think we need some more vert. I think we need another deep end pocket. The deep end that we have now goes right to vert and it’s super fun and it’s great, but I want something with at least six inches to a foot of vert so we can crack some proper airs in that thing.

Who’s helped you make this, because this obviously isn’t a Kevin Costner, Field of Dreams, one man operation out there.
A thousand percent. When I first got down here a few people put bugs in my ear like, “Yo, let’s build a spot. Let’s find a spot where we can build something.” And I was like, I got the spot and it’s definitely not going to get bulldozed, it’s in my backyard. We can build here, baby. So we had a little crew. It was me, Anthony, Dan, and April. April I knew from Philly, Dan’s from here. So that was our little posse and we got that going. We put up some forms, we all threw in a few hundred bucks and we ordered a concrete truck. When word got out that something like that was cooking, other people started coming in and we got that mini ramp going. When we poured the mini ramp, we had a ton of help from the Newark crew, John, Andrew, Mike, Ronnie, all the boys, and also the 5th Pocket crew. I was in touch with Sloan a lot during the beginning process of it and Jesse came through to help on pour day. Ryan Cardone, who’s my man, known that kid since he was a little grom. Once we had the mini ramp, we were skating and we were stoked, but the word was out there, this isn’t the end. My homie, Scott Hughes, who is a legendary concrete warrior from way back in the day, five star general of skating and building, he owns his own concrete pump and shotcrete business. He hit me up and he goes, “Dude, I’m going to be in your neck of the woods shooting a park. If you form something up, I’ll come shoot it for you.” So the deep end was on and we knew we had to get ready for him.

Any special shoutouts you’d like to give?
Major shout out to Todd Watkins, shred Dog, another Triple OG who really came through super strong for us, especially on the deep end pour. Definitely the Newark crew, those guys, they came through. I put out the call and those boys come down the parkway, show up and work. Especially John Cruz. It’s ironic because he literally was draining a pool and got annihilated by ticks. He was in the hospital getting treated for Lyme disease and he still showed up the next morning. He was here before anyone else just to rub concrete all day long. Scott Hughes, Brandon, our whole crew, the Tick Farm crew, everybody who bought one of those leather pool coping eagles. We raised a lot of money and paid for a lot of concrete with that. Shout out to everybody who’s ever built a spot, had it knocked down and then went right back to building another one. They can’t stop us, baby.

Any advice for somebody that wants to build something similar to what you’ve done?
My advice to anybody that wants to do this is that you can do anything that you want. You contain all the power and all the resources that you need. You are everything. You are the most powerful force in the entire universe, and no one can stop you. They can try and they will fail. You are unstoppable and you can make your dreams come true. Believe in yourself and others will believe in you.

Anything else you want to add?
Like I said in the beginning, I think it’s important for things like this to exist. I think it’s really important for people to keep it illegal. Skateboarding is a crime and it’s important that it is. It’s important that it’s dangerous. It’s important that it freaks normal people out. It’s important to go against the grain, to swim upstream, to not let anyone tell you what it is. It’s important for us to keep our culture in our hands. It’s important for us to perpetuate that anti-establishment, fringe, radical, non-conformist attitude that skateboarding came from.