What you cooking?

I’m making some pasta with tomatoes I grew in the backyard with salmon, some peppers, and onions fried up. I like cooking.

What did you do this weekend?

I worked all weekend, I’m working at a juice bar near Rittenhouse Square it’s coming along pretty nicely. Siked to be working, make some extra cash. But I did get a pretty good session in Sunday night, I went down to the skatepark after work.

Did you catch the pig roast thing the Back Street Atlas dudes were doing?

Yeah I caught those dudes at the last second. It was awesome. I got off work and rolled down there and those dudes were partying, they had two kegs, they had the pig roast, it was pretty epic. It was really cool to catch them on their mission. The homie Lex who was running the pig roast hooked me up with the spine of the pig. I was there with my dog and I was just asking him for a to go bowl so he could have some good eating, and he was like “how about this piece,” and held up the spine.

What’s going on at FDR right now?

Big bowl project. The pentagram. It’s awesome. It’s gonna be huge, a big bowl. It’s got nine and a half and one and a half. 9.5′ transition with 1.5′ of vert. In the deep end it’s got a 45 degree hip and a 90 degree hip into the shallow end. And there’s gonna be a capsule in it, a little kidney on the left side of it. It’s gonna be cool.

How far along is it?

We’re probably at the half way point. The homie Scotty came through with his pump. He was building a skatepark up in the Bronx and was on his way down to Mississippi to do another park, so he stopped down at FDR with his pump and compressor and we sprayed about half of the deep end, and finished it in one night. It was amazing. That was my first shotcrete experience. It was cool to see that go down.

Do you remember the first time you skated FDR?

Hmm I guess I was like 11 years old. There was like a ledge and two pyramids, and the CIA bowl was there and the Indian pillar was there and the titties. They didn’t have the half way drop, they went all the way down to the ground at one point.

What about Shortys? First time?

Shortys is awesome, that place is coming along pretty amazingly. I’d say probably three or four years ago. It was cool, it was like three things. They had the pyramid thing with the slate ledge on the top of it, I think that was the first piece to go in. Then the little tire pump bump thing, just the tire with a little bit of concrete around it. And then they had the cinderblock wall ride. It’s really cool seeing that place go up. It’s been probably every weekend for four years that place has had something being poured. It’s amazing I just got a text from Andrew, he said they’re getting a concrete truck tomorrow so it sounds like they’re going big. I wish I could make it up there for it.

How’d you meet Weezy? End up there?

Wayne? Oh he’s the best. He’s cool. I met him at Skate Park of Tampa, from there we skated one night probably till like four in the morning in the smaller section. They got like the hubba ledges, and the wallrides, and the bank to curbs and everything, a nice bowl. And we’re skating that till like 4. He was trying to get this board slide down the hubba for like an hour or so, going at it, again and again and again, I threw a dollar down on the hubba and he did it like five tries later. All his homies started throwing money in too.

Didn’t you go to his house?

Yeah so the next day we rented a car and drove down to Miami and went and skated the streets with Danny Fuenzalida, and he’s friends with him too. We got the go ahead to go skate at Wayne’s spot cause he has all these ramps on his rooftop. We skated there for a while and then that tail drop incident happened.

You know anything about this 5Boro video?

Yeah in the making. I’m siked to be a part of it. It’s been a prety hard couple years with injuries and shit, but I’m happy with what I got. Should be coming out I think in November. November 12th is the premiere at Sunshine theater in New York. I’m hyped cause it’s going to highlight all the younger dudes who had little mini parts in the video prior, and dude, the shit they’ve been doing in New York us just fucked up. Rob Gonyon crushing it. Doogie, Sylvester Eduardo, killing it. Jordan, coming through and crushing it. Karim killing it.

How’d you get on 5Boro?

I don’t know I kinda like grew up into it almost. 5Boro’s been the raddest company out since I was a little kid, you know. I was going to all the contests in New York as a young buck seeing all the 5Boro heads annihilate everything in their path. They had such a presence, It was cool to see coming up. Then one time they started skating this contest in West Chester at Borderline skatepark. Seamus Deegan was the team manager at the time and he was there with Westgate and Anthony Shetler, who were on 5Boro at the time. We went and got Wendys after the contest and talked about it, and it was cool. I got the invite in.

Favorite thing about Philly?

FDR. Having the oasis in South Philly, the get away. The skatepark is the best fucking skatepark in the whole world, but besides that it’s like 300 acres of an awesome park with lakes and wildlife and things to do. Big fields, it’s a cool place. I love it. That’s the best thing about Philly to me.

When was the last time you were out of the country?

I love traveling, it’s the best seeing new people, new places, new cultures. I just went to South America. I did Peru and Ecuador, Central America at the equator, it was pretty sick, that was in early Spring.

Who’d you do that with?

a couple 5Boro people. I guess it was a Redbull trip, they pretty much sponsored the whole thing. Sam McGuire, the photographer homie, lined it up. He killed it. It was awesome; we went to Galapagos Island.

You ever play an instrument or do art?

I’ve been playing harmonica a little bit. Danny Falla got me this cool Supreme harmonica it’s pretty badass. I’ve been playing that every now and again. And art? I actually went to art school. You did too, didn’t you? Didn’t we go to school together? Somebody tied into Skate Jawn went to Tyler.

Yeah a lot of my friends went to Temple.

Yeah I remember I was just about to graduate that year and I remember seeing some skate stuff in like one of the rooms I was critiquing. I was like no way, that’s awesome. I think it was like the beginning of the Skate Jawn thing. It’s pretty sick to see it’s still popping. It’s rad.

If you could take pills to make yourself smarter would you?

Hell no, pills are terrible. Pills are fucked up and it’s a shame what our whole system is all about and it’s pills. We’re in a pretty bad state as humans I feel like, and it’s partially cause of all these pills people take all the time. But no, I’d rather just read a book or look it up. I think smartness comes in experience and just y doing. I’ve always been a doer.