Interview by Jawn Doe.

Where are you from and where are we right now?

Vancouver, Canada is where I was born, but I grew up in the Seattle area and right now we’re in Bushwick I think? We just moved to Bedstuy six months ago.

You lived at the Dope Planet house?

I only lived there for two months between houses. That warehouse started after I had Milo so it wasn’t a real good place to have a newborn baby. But we lived like a mile away from it in an apartment. I lived there for a little bit between spots too. It’s kinda just been our clubhouse.

Who started it/built the ramp?

Our friend Max Hohlbein, he pretty much did 99% of it himself. He’s a beast. He found the spot, built the ramp, built all the other ramps that are there. Everyone else helped but he’s like the mastermind there.

Milo: Know what? You should check out my Switch, it has Supermario 64…

We’re talking about the warehouse, what do you have to say about the warehouse?

Milo: That’s one of my favorite spots in Seattle. I lived there. Andrew Reynolds actually saw me. I was sleeping on the bed.

Reynolds came through to skate it this one summer when we were staying there. Our room was on the top of the ramp, right by the coping when you open the door. I opened the door and he looked in the room and there’s like a two year old kid sleeping in there. He was tripping.

How many people live there?

There’s like eight rooms in the warehouse, and they have the house next door, it’s like a four bedroom house. So it’s like 10-15 people in the complex, or whatever.

Milo: Our friends Josh and Pat used to live at the warehouse but they moved with us and now they’re our roommates.

How long have you known Nolan?

I met Nolan through my friend Josh in like 2007 so however long that is.

Was Welcome already a thing?

Welcome started right after I met Nolan. He got me my first sponsor, House of Kasai, who he skated for before Welcome. You know that vert skater Lester Kasai? That was who Nolan used to skate for, and then the dude that worked for that company was friends with Nolan and they started Welcome together basically. That was right after I met Nolan. We all lived in a house together right around that time.

What’s up with the edits you made for Welcome?

Well Welcome was pretty much in the beginning just me, Nolan, Josh, and Max. We all lived together so we would just make YouTube videos. Had a VX and just made crappy videos. There’s a lot. All of us had our own YouTubes pre-Instagram and we would just make videos all the time so there’s hundreds of them.

What did you get into first, taking photos or videos?

I got a camera when I was sixteen I think and took some photos but filming was way more fun. So probably video first and then photos came back.

You got more into photos recently?

Yeah the summer before Milo was born around seven years ago is when I borrowed a real fisheye from my friend. He had an actual 15mm Canon lens like the nice one everyone shoots skate photos with. I just put it on some shitty film camera and the photos were just hella good cause it’s a nice lens. I just got hyped on it. Then we all learned how to develop film together at the warehouse and made a little darkroom in the closet there. Me and my friend Pat and Ryan got hella into it.

What’s the best thing about Seattle?

Skate parks and nature basically. Like you can do a day trip in any direction and it’s gonna be a cool place to swim and like five different skateparks that are all hella good. That’s mostly what I like about it.

What brought you back to NY?

Just family stuff with Milo and his mom basically. Also just a new adventure, something fun.

You have a lot of stuff on YouTube. Do you have a favorite channel? You watch the Gonz on there?

Yeah the Gonz videos you can’t even watch half of them. Nolan’s YouTube channel, he doesn’t make them anymore I don’t think, but his is like that too. Some of them are super sick and some of them you can’t even watch them. So maybe Nolan’s channel. I like watching my old videos too cause now it’s been long enough I don’t even remember what’s in half of them.

Do you have an edit you remember really having fun making?

I guess those Dope Planet videos there was kinda effort involved, but most of those videos were just film for one day and then make a video that night. Go home, import the footage, just pick a song that was the same length as the edit. Nolan taught me that trick. Finish editing the video basically and it’s 3 and a half minutes or something go in your iTunes and find a song that’s 3:30 and that’s it. There wasn’t a bunch of production for the most part.

Have you driven cross country?

Just this last summer on my way out to New York. Me and Milo spent like three weeks driving. But I’ve done the West Coast hella times, up and down the West Coast that’s the one we’d always do.

Do you have a favorite place to take photos or any memorable ones?

I can tell you half of my photos are the fisheye on pool coping or something and that always seems to work pretty good. Most of them it’s not as much where it is, it’s just the photo. We shot photos in that big boat hull that’s in Seattle with Simon. They use it to make big ass yachts or something. That’s a crazy spot that exists. We skated some other crummy ones before that but that one’s like an actual big vert ramp basically.

Do you like shaped boards?

I can skate anything but pretty much I went through that whole shape phase and realized that like an 8.5 DLX board is the best kinda skateboard pretty much. That’s what I’m on or 8.75 sometimes.

How do you decide between film and digital?

I’ll pretty much only shoot film. It’s what I want to do and more fun. If the rare occasion where someone hits me up to shoot for an ad or something, I guess I’ll shoot it with the digital camera. Maybe if it’ll take a while but normally I don’t really shoot stuff like that either. It’s all pretty spontaneous. Like using the flashes and stuff is cool but I never want to carry that stuff around, so I never use em.

How long did you work at Dominos?

I actually worked at Dominos for like three years. That was right when I had Milo and didn’t have a job or any kind of prospects or you know, experience. I had just been skating. Had not had a job in forever so I was like, guess I’ll fuckin work at Dominos. It was so sick dude. I couldn’t believe it. Anyone knows those delivery jobs are so easy but I’d make tons of money just in downtown Seattle. Everything was all close together, all the deliveries were hella close, everyone tipped real good, and then I would always just take pizzas down to the spot, West Lake where we’d always skate. So work nights and then go skate West Lake after and hook everyone up with pizza.

You’ve only been living in New York for a few months, how do you like it so far?

It’s been super sick dude, it doesn’t even rain. It has been cold but I’ve already been skating with all those bowl house guys. It’s been fun and shout out to all those guys. It’s been fun, just trying to skate. I work a bunch and have Milo so it’s a lot of doing the same stuff in a different place but, I am looking forward to next summer and skating and exploring this whole northeastern part of the country.

How old is Milo?

He is six.

It’s rad he’s into skating and you get to skate with him. How has having a kid changed your life?

Obviously it’s all about him now pretty much. I’m super stoked that he tolerates skating and enjoys it for the most part. It definitely makes it so there’s less free time for me, or we’ll just go to the playground instead of skating. It’s awesome. It is super fun, it’s just different.

Would you be bummed if he quit skating?

I would be bummed, but I wouldn’t be that bummed. It just makes it so I can skate more so that’s nice, but really he could do whatever he wants. For some reason he’s into baseball, I don’t know where he got that from. But whatever he wants to do as long as it’s outside, because he is also into video games which is the only thing I don’t like. He is just trying to be inside all day playing video games. As long as he wants to go outside it’s all good.

If you could go anywhere, where would you go?

That is a hard one, maybe go to Europe or something because I have never been over there. Realistically, what I am looking forward to being able to do is go to Montreal and Toronto because I have never been up there. Also skate all the cool crumby skateparks that are around in Vermont and Connecticut. That is probably coming soon.

What is some advice for someone moving to NY?

I can’t give advice about moving to New York.

Why not? You just did it.

I don’t know anything, it just worked out good for me but maybe I got lucky or something.

What is some advice for anyone trying to get into filming or photos?

As far as the film stuff goes, it is not expensive if you just do it at home so if you’re into doing that, it is fun. It’s not that hard to do and it just costs way less so I guess don’t be scared to try that. All my friends are hella good at skating and I think that helps if you want to take skate photos, but that isn’t much advice.

Or just use what you have around you, like if all your friends are musicians…

True, also you don’t have to have a nice camera, but you can.