So you’re from Orlando but have been living in Pittsburg. How’s that going so far? Have you been able to check out a lot of spots in PA?
Yes, I have and be able to find a lot of spots in Pennsylvania. It is a very underground scene there. There are a couple of skaters that are insane and they have found the most epic spots but it’s crusty and at the same time it’s very, very amazing, with lots of hills. Reminds me of like the east coast and San Francisco.
Outside of skating, we hear you are a big music fan. Are you still working with Drowning Clowns?
Yes, we are we’ve been working in the studio on a record, our second record now. We have been doing some shifts in the band and just perpetuating forward. Things have been rocking!
So, we gotta ask. If you could see any band live, which would it be?
If I can see any band live it might be Pink Floyd, they did just tour this crazy, “The Wall” Record and they did like an up-to-date play with puppetry and projectors, it was insane, but I didn’t get to see it, my uncle got to see it actually, so that would be my pick of the moment.
You just dropped your DC shoe. How’s your shoe release tour going?
This tour has been insane. It’s been through Japan and to Australia so we’re on two different continents, two different time zones even two different seasonal shifts. It was like 40 degrees up north and now it’s like 100 degrees. The tour has been epic though we’ve been getting a lot of footage and skating lots of cool spots and going to some new locations which are nice and the boys have been ripping!
What stops do you have left?
Well, Wesley and I are flying straight to Tampa Pro from Brisbane, Australia and after that Element is going to Albuquerque, New Mexico which will be an interesting and exciting period, I’m super juiced.
I heard Anvil is your favorite skate shoe. What makes a good skate shoe?
Well, something that is padded enough to withstand impact but at the same time, you can feel your board. So when making our new shoe we tried to get the best of both worlds with the new IMPACT-I technology as well it being a vulcanized shoe, so then its low brow, low impact, high impact and everything you need out of a skate shoe. The Anvil was good but I really like where we’ve taken DC’s technology and put it into this shoe, I’m excited about that.
Was the process pretty (hands-on) when creating your shoe?
Yes, we all sat in a room for a couple of sessions and we drew it out on a piece of paper. So it was all of us, it wasn’t like sending it off to some company to create a version of what we wanted; it was the homies in the room. It was a cool thing because we got an awesome skate shoe out of it.
What influenced the look of your shoe?
PF Flyers especially influenced the look of the shoe. That was one shoe I thought was timeless and I wanted to see a skate version of it but the most important thing was trying to get it to fit into every single era, like the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and even today. Trying to have good technology as well as make it look timeless and I’m pretty stoked on what we got.
You are starting the year off with a shoe release it’s pretty killer. What else do you have planned for the year?
I’m planning on releasing a VX part through Thrasher as well as me and my friend Chris Blake went on a cross country road trip and I’ve been working on an edit that he and I filmed like for skaters by skaters type of thing. I’m excited to see that be pushed in the next couple of months. Also, Element is making a full-length video at the moment. So we have these other three projects in the works. I also have some funny footage of my friends doing funny things so it would be cool to make a little edit on the iPhone and release that.
Do you have an inspirational quote?
“Young hearts stay free tonight.” – Rod Stewart ( KH )
