Pauly On The Pod
Pauly On The Pod
Streetlight Kids: Ron Allen
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
One board can change a kid’s entire direction and Ron Allen is proof. We’re posted up at the legendary Kona Skatepark in Jacksonville, Florida with a guest whose name sits deep in skateboarding history: Ron Allen, widely credited as the first professional African American street skateboarder. From getting his first setup in 1973 to navigating the 80s and 90s street era, Ron brings the kind of memory and honesty you only get from someone who lived every version of the culture.
We get into the real stuff: how it felt to skate when skateboarding wasn’t accepted, how race shaped the way people read him, and why the line between ignorance and racism still has consequences. Ron tells a story about rejecting a board graphic that included a noose, then later seeing it circulate anyway, and it turns into a bigger conversation about consent, respect, and protecting your name in the skate industry. We also talk money, exploitation, and what riders did and didn’t get paid for during the VHS boom.
Then we zoom out to what keeps people rolling: skateboarding and mental health, the “escape” that comes from full focus, the community that pulls you back during dark times, and the way music and skating mirror each other in work ethic and performance pressure. We even debate the Olympics and wrap with our “Is It A Sport” game where Ron makes the case that skateboarding isn’t a sport or a game, it’s a lifestyle. If you dig skateboarding history, street skating culture, and honest talk about the business and the joy, hit play, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.
Welcome Back And Guest Preview
SPEAKER_03Hey everybody, it's your boy Paulie. Fucking Italian people. And I got the one and only Dr. Jones.
SPEAKER_06You call him Dr. Jones.
SPEAKER_03What is good, my dude? What's up, Holly? What's going on? Oh, not too much, man. Want to thank everybody for uh tuning in. If you don't mind, uh take this time to go ahead and do as Joey Diaz says and like, comment, subscribe. That's right. So uh we haven't put out an episode since uh before the holidays and everything. So I just want to say I hope everybody had a wonderful uh holiday and spent it with their loved ones and for all the kids out there. I hope they got everything that they uh that they that they wanted. And uh happy new year to everybody. It's 2023. We're kicking it off with a heavy hitter for episode 46. We got the one and only Ron fucking Allen.
SPEAKER_02Man, the myth, the legend, and side note. I hope you didn't get anything you wanted. You goddamn lazy ass kids to go get a job and buy yourself.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, man, we had uh the one and only Ron Allen. Um he uh rode for H Street back in the day, Gallwing Trucks, I mean, uh Vision, a whole bunch of companies. Um was actually born here uh in Mayport and then made it out to Yeah, and made it out to the uh the Oakland area because his parents were were in the Navy and that's where he uh grew up, got into skateboarding, and that's basically where he's lived most of his life over there in uh out there in California. But he made it back this way thanks to our good homie, John uh Norris of Adderolf Skateboarding. Um they did a little uh talking to some of the kids at the schools to do a little motivation and inspiration. Um Ron had a hip hop show at Kona, which if you go to the YouTube channel, you can check out kind of a highlight video of the uh skateboarding that went down and uh some clips from the performances by uh Ron Allen as well as local artists, the homies Voodoo and Billy Winfield. Hell yeah, man, appreciate that. But uh yeah, without further ado, um you know for those that don't know, Ron is uh credited with being the the first professional uh African American street skateboarder. And uh yeah, they I mean that's it's just huge for us to be able to have the opportunity to sit down and talk to talk with him. We talked with him from uh everything from him getting his first skateboard um to you know skating through the eighties and then through the nineties and then the two thousands. And I mean it was awesome. He fit right in, dude. If he lived here, he he would he would probably be the third chair, third or fourth chair for sure.
SPEAKER_02For sure, for sure. Man, one of the rarest, raddest guys we've ever had, to be honest with you, man.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, rad human being through and through, couldn't be more stoked. But uh without further further ado, episode 46. Ron Allen. Let's fucking get it.
Why Ron Allen Is In Florida
SPEAKER_03Hey everybody, it's your boy Pauly. Polly wanna crack me? Nope.
SPEAKER_08Polly wants your mom to see me last every day.
SPEAKER_03And you know I got the one and only Dr. Jones with me.
SPEAKER_05You call him Dr. Jones! Say it.
SPEAKER_03Stoked to be here at the legendary Kona skate park in Jacksonville, Florida. Got my boy John from Adderolf skateboarding and legendary, the one and only Ron Allen. Oh from the Oakland Bay area. What is good am I doing? Oh, that that intro music was bomb.
SPEAKER_04Who made that be?
SPEAKER_03I appreciate it. I did that.
SPEAKER_06That was bomb.
SPEAKER_04I was about to start freestyling right there.
SPEAKER_03That's actually a sample from the Beatles Eleanor Rigby. Oh, yeah. Eleanor Rigby. Yep, yeah. Picks up the dun dun dun dun dun dun dun oh. You already know. So, Ron, it's a pleasure to have you on, man. Um, what brings you out to the East Coast, particularly uh Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida.
SPEAKER_04Duvall County, my man John hit me up about, I guess it was like about a month ago, and said, you know, come on out. We're gonna do this thing at uh this SOS Academy. And we're you know, we're gonna talk to some junior high kids and you know, and come out and do a show. And I mean, who doesn't want to come out and do a show? I I talking to the kids was like a show too. And you got a little nervous having to speak to the kids. So don't let me do a show.
SPEAKER_02Why not, Doc? I have no god either.
SPEAKER_03We're afraid to let him off the leash.
SPEAKER_05Oh keep them close to the cage, is that what they say?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, man, that's really cool. I saw the clips that uh the Upland posted of you guys going out there talking to the kids, just kind of spread the motivation and the inspiration. So big ups to that, dude. Planting seeds, man. Plant them seeds. As KRS one said, right? Each one teach one. Yeah, so we can reach one. You know what I mean? I love it. Yeah, yeah. So we can reach one. That's right.
SPEAKER_02So uh I wrote that line for him.
First Board And Early Skate Years
SPEAKER_03Let's start off with the uh the skateboarding questions. Uh, how old were you when you started skateboarding?
SPEAKER_04Uh turned pro at 25, got my first board at 11. What was your first board? My first board was a super surfer with like no-name trucks and some, I think they had Cadillac wheels. Right. So it was like it was under the Christmas tree trying to be not looking like a skateboard, but I knew it was. And if you asked me what else I got that Christmas, I could not tell you. Doesn't matter. I just got a skateboard. And my mom says, she goes, You got a skateboard at 11? That's the last time I saw you. So how so how old are you now? So what what about what era was this for everybody that doesn't know? Okay, so that was 1973. My man, from the beginning. Were you there at fucking?
SPEAKER_02That's why they call him OG Ron Allen.
SPEAKER_05Went uh junior high with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02It was a message from the Lord. Swear to God.
SPEAKER_04No, it's yeah, like back then, you know, it was we I actually there was a junior high at my junior high, there was a skateboard contest, and I didn't have one. And I had organized it and did all the you know judging and stuff for it, and in the end didn't have a skateboard to be in it. Damn. So I went home and told my parents, and me and some friends used to borrow a board. We had a little Grin Tech. And so five of us would grab it and go to the wall and put a piece of plywood that we painted black and it said Sims. We painted Sims on it because that was a Sims ramp, you know, for us. And we'd go up and you'd put the board down and you run up, you'd go do a kick turn, and you'd come back, jump off, and someone else would go. And then on Friday, you'd rochhambeau to see who got the board for the weekend. Yeah. So I lost the board like so many Fridays. I'd come home, no board, like I don't know what I'm gonna do this weekend. My parents like, what's old mad? What are you sad about? I didn't get the board. What are you talking about? Well, we share that board and one got it, and four of us didn't. And so my parents are like, we'll get you a board. Threw the short straw. And it was constant short straw draw.
SPEAKER_02Dude, I've played that game, it sounds actually, dude, and it hurts.
SPEAKER_04And then I got lucky. I got lucky. My friend Pete, he used to sneak in the wood shop next to his house, and he would cut boards like Logan Ersky's and wedge the tail, put a like a wood vise on it, throw it deep in the back, and then bounce out. And we wait until they got off, then go back in and get our board. Like hell yeah. We had a style back then, but then Logan Erskine came and you could get like a book. You young cats understand? Um we man, you'd do whatever you could to get a board. I was sponsored by a toy shop. Toy called Toy Store or something like that. They gave us boards. Wow. I used to ride Veriflex, they used to give me the Eddie Elgato with the little bebels in the middle.
SPEAKER_03Back when skateboarding was considered just a toy, right?
SPEAKER_02Oh, you know, I rode for World Industries before it was World Industries. There it is.
SPEAKER_04It's like it's there was so much not about it being organized. It was just skateboarding. Free for all. It was. It was like, here's this thing, we're not really sure what can be accomplished with it, figure it out. And and a guy named Pat Peaks, he literally he walked to my house with a skateboard and he said, This is a skateboard. And I was like, whoo. I think at that time I was about 10, and I was like, What do you do on it? Because you ride up and down the bowls and everything. And I remember like we my neighborhood had like the sidewalk went down, it had a little tranny to it to the side, and you could go up, go down, go up, go down and carve my whole little cul-de-sac. So when I saw Pat doing it, I was like, I want to do that so bad. I got to do that. So once I got my board at 11, I would be outside until I had to come in. You knew you had to come in when the lights came on.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, street light kids.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, streetlight kids. I remember those. Yeah, I was a streetlight kid. I didn't surf until I got till like my college years.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay, okay. Didn't know if you were already writing boards or like you already had the I was BMXing. I mean I was like a sports kid, you know. Yeah, just doing anything that was available.
SPEAKER_02I'm glad I didn't put that one on the list.
SPEAKER_03That's hey, that's honestly that's kind of how I was growing up. Like I I'm originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I didn't get into skateboarding until we moved down here when I was like in eighth grade. And uh I I grew up playing fruit boiler hockey, basketball, baseball. Yeah, I even when I first moved down here, inline was a hot thing. This is the late 90s. So my first times coming here was line skating. But then that brought me skateboarding. Right.
SPEAKER_04I mean, it's like roller skating. We used to go to the roller skate rinks, never even think about taking it out of the roller skating rink, you know, just being there going back and forth in circles, and trying to holler at girls. Yeah, and then and then one of my homies jumped something in the roller skate thing when I was in seventh grade. And it was like, What'd you do? Because uh that girl fell or something, I jumped over, and then it was like, oh god, we gotta try that. Hell yeah. And that was like you can do that. That was the beginning of this like extreme like try stuff, you know. Like it was weird, like how we think outside the box. Yeah, we started jumping on our roller skates, like jump from one point and try to land on your roller skates and keep rolling. None of us could. We'd always just shock.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. One man has rolled roller skates too now. Don't always hating on the fruit booter. I started off roller skate, rollerblading two, dog. Yeah, no, he's talking about. Who hurt you as a child? Nobody. I started off on rollerblades and transitioned over to a big thing.
SPEAKER_02What in the kingdom of God are you talking about?
SPEAKER_03When we first pulled up, they had like the X games, the winter X games on, it was like skiing, and I just wasn't like I was like, yo, I guess skiing is just kind of like rollerblading on the snow, huh? And he was like, preach, it's all good.
SPEAKER_04Well, they were they were so anti-snowboarding that it's like that's why snowboarding blew up. Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, the more that you try to, you know, like you know, I say this. I always say this about scooters. I know it didn't. I always say this about scooters.
SPEAKER_04I say, you don't gotta put them down, you don't gotta diss
Being A Black Skater Then
SPEAKER_04them. As a matter of fact, we should ask them, hey, what'd you learn today? What'd you get? Because because the minute, like, there's a thing called conviction. Right. I got it deep. Because I skated and I got called, you know, the F fagot. I got called by the black people. I wanted to be white. Preach. So I got conviction from that. I was like, oh yeah? Well, check this out. This is who I am. I'm gonna stay this way just to piss you off.
SPEAKER_06Like, oh yeah, check this out. I'm still doing it. I'm thinking about the fuck you. Yes. Hey, watch out how many fuck you can you get?
SPEAKER_04You know, and I I remember like that was a fuel in the early 80s, 70s, was like skateboarding was not accepted at all. Like it wasn't, you were as a black kid doing it. You had to hide your skateboarding. Oh, the black kids were actually like, You're trying to be a white boy, huh? And you're like, is this a white boy thing? I did not know. I know.
SPEAKER_03That's actually something that I wanted to ask you about, you know, being because I mean you are credited with being one of the first, if not the first, professional street skaters. Black African-American just found that out skater. Yeah, is that crazy or what? That is crazy.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and I mean you were just doing it for the love of it. Never would they have thought that I'd have been the first to turn pro at anything. That's that's wild.
SPEAKER_02I mean, obviously Stevie Williams, before that, Leon Allen.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you paved the way. Well, and and the crazy thing is that you know, a lot of kids play Tony Hawk pro skater. Yeah. So a lot of kids will they think Kareem Campbell, who's an amazing human being, and I'm I love him to death. And and he he himself, you know, he wouldn't let that go through. He would tell you that, no, no, Ron. You know, that's just how Kareem is. But the way things have worked over these years, it's like to a lot of kids, he's the first. Right. And I, you know, I would not want to take anything away from him, he's my homie. But when I found out, it was like, whoa, like I didn't even, it's I still trip on it. Because I I don't, I think in this world, you you how could you don't you never try for something, you never know what you'll get. If you just go do it, things happen.
SPEAKER_03Right, and and and to some people this might be silly, but you know, like because it's skateboarding and they might not be in our circle or our community understand our our our lifestyle, if you will. Right. But like, let me sum this up for some people. This is like Jackie Robinson. Like when you are the first in something, especially with our with our turbulent history and racial tension in this country, like we can't manage what you mean for so many people in skateboarding. So I just want to give props to that and kind of put that in terms that people that might not realize the gravity of what of what you've been able to accomplish.
SPEAKER_00This whole weekend I've been trying to explain to him how how monumental this is that he's here talking to these kids doing these shows. The the the first hip hop show ever at Kona was done here this week with Ron Isher and as a headliner. Yeah. This wasn't something that was hard to do. It was organic. It all went with the flow. Yep. Like I told you I was gonna be here at three. I didn't know if I was gonna be here at three, but I got here at three on the dot. I didn't even try it.
SPEAKER_02No, you it's not three at the dot. Okay, about three, five. It was pretty close.
SPEAKER_00I was in the parking lot at three. There you go. But what I'm saying is that like how he's every this whole trip that we've been on has just been organic as can be. Like, nothing's forced. It's all been what needs to be done. And I don't even think my man even told y'all this. Yes, he's from Oakland, but he was born in Mayport, Jacksonville, Florida. Really? I was born here in Jacksonville, like my family.
SPEAKER_05This is a full circle.
SPEAKER_00My dog was born in Mayport Naval Station. Wow, that's what's up.
SPEAKER_03So am I assuming that you might have ended out up there because of Navy?
SPEAKER_04Yes, Squid Kid. Squid Kid. Dad in the Navy, 25 years, and you know, we we like we were here in Florida, and like they on board.
SPEAKER_03Next thing you know, we're headed to California. Well, hey, let's be real. I mean, of all the states to live, I mean, you went from Florida to California, not really bad choices. No, no, no. Pretty rad sales.
SPEAKER_04Came from New York, went, I understand why you came down. Sometimes Destiny writes itself. And I and I gotta tell you guys, uh much enough respect because it's when you were saying that in my eyes, like teared up. I like, I go, whoa, like I, you know, you you just can't do anything and think that something's gonna come of it. You just have to do it because you fucking love it. Yeah, be true to you. Yeah, and like all this has taught me is just to stay stay true to me. You know, like I was watching the Tony Hawk documentary, and and Stacey was saying how like, you know, Tony really, you know, he doesn't know how to not go for it. And I was like, I kind of got that too. Hell yeah, you do. Like, clearly. Like it's like, I ain't there, we are not done until we decide. Right. And they're and and we've been back in the 90s when corporates and not corporates and companies would decide for people, they'd come to me like, they kick me off. I'm like, yeah, okay. And they'd be like, Well, what am I gonna do? You know, you're gonna keep skating. Yeah, that's what you're gonna do. And uh there you'll find somebody else to be on, and you'll just keep doing it. It's like skateboarding doesn't end until you say it's over. So I'm until the wheels fall off. And that's a truism. I remember seeing it and and and thinking until the wheels fall off, and then you go, Really? Because you the falls and it's there's good times, bad times, times that you wish you were good times, and times that you wish were bad times. In the end, the friends, the tricks, loves, the homies. That's the there's okay, some friends of mine, we went to this, we were in I was in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and we went to a full pipe that was on the side of the river. And I remember they said, Bring your board, you're gonna take a boat to a full pipe. I was like, Whoa. I was like, I don't get my board wet and my shoes, I don't get my shoes wet in the boat. There's the only snakes I got. And then we pulled up to this full pipe and we're running to it. And me and my friend Gene, and Gene has this little eight-year-old son, and this other kid, and we're running to it. And then there's a security guard running at the same time. Oh, yeah. And Gene goes, Oh, security guard, and this kid goes, What's that? And I was like, You're about to find out.
SPEAKER_02So hey, this shit ain't the guy free.
SPEAKER_04You guys can't get here, man. And I'm like, oh, and then Gene goes, he's the first African American to be pro. And the guy's like, I gotta see you do this, man. Go ahead, get in there. I had one run. Okay, so I got in there and did everything I could do, and then came out, and I remember, and the film went, dude, I I I didn't film. Damn. Fuck! I didn't I didn't think, you know, when the security guard came, I shot my phone off
Social Media Versus Skate Memories
SPEAKER_04and I didn't think.
SPEAKER_02And I was like, I do I do believe you get your ass kicked because you're like, I know I go, hey dude, remember memories?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, remember memories. We when we were growing up skating, we didn't have social media. Everything you saw in skating, you had to remember it, and then go tell your friend you went home and called on the phone, yo, such and such did a look and leaned a tail like six feet up, bro. And then it was like someone else called somebody else, and everything was always done with like your you were there experiencing somebody doing it, and then you told somebody. So that's why a lot of older skaters have a such tough time with social media because it tells the tale prior to it being told, in a sense. Like it used to be on rumor and in your window.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, or yeah, you'd hear about it, and then you'd have to wait for the video part or for the magazine to come out just to get that sequence shot or that cover shot. Like when you were Mike McGill was doing 540s, you were like, bullshit.
SPEAKER_04What is that? Yeah, twist. Yeah, like and then make twist. What is that? And then when you saw it, you went, oh shit. That's gnarly. Right. Yeah. And then skating came and street skating has always been rumored in your window. Such and such jumped down this many stairs, and we were there, you know. That's what makes it dope. That's what, like, I think that's what makes what made skating dope back then.
SPEAKER_03For sure, for sure. There was definitely that that whole kind of rebel, you know, like uh pirate radio, if you will, the way that it all kind of you know was connected and how you found out what they were doing on the West Coast, here on the East Coast, and vice versa. Right, right.
SPEAKER_04It was like it was the communication that we had through what we did as opposed to it being, you know, this social media thing. And that's no disrespect on social media. I think it I personally do know I like social media for one main reason. I could be having a bad day and then pop up social media and someone's posted something of me saying something dope.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and then you're like, damn, right? I'm like, I was having a bad day, and now I'm stoked, you know.
SPEAKER_04So I don't know if people use social media the right way. Maybe they should just use it for how stoked it makes you when you see a clip of yourself on it, you know?
SPEAKER_03For sure. They need to, I and I tell my wife this actually uh in the wake of the Jags lost last night. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Shut the fuck up, Paul.
SPEAKER_03That last click. That was a click. So he's very still emotionally hurt. Um in the wake of the Jags Lost, she was all like, Oh, why is everything on my social media people talking shit about the Jags? I was like, Well, stop commenting on that because the algorithm is seeing that you're engaging the negative. So it's like, let me keep putting the negative in front of you. You stop doing that and engage the positive, all you're gonna see is funny, cool stuff in your feed. Exactly. That's all that's negative stuff, they're not gonna feed it to you because you don't engage it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, because negative, we've in skateboarding, we grew up with negative. And if you were a skateboarder picking up a board in the 80s and 90s, you grew up negative. Yeah. That's you had people telling you not to do it. You had people saying that, you know, you find another job. How are you gonna take this into the future? Where are you gonna do when you're gonna do 30 years old? How are you gonna date girls doing it? You know, all these different things. Right. We were pariahs. Right. But we liked it. I didn't I never like found it to be bad. You need to get a job, kid. Yeah, and then I'm trying to skateboard your whole life. Yeah. And I'm like, well, maybe you can. Maybe you can. Maybe I'll. My man's gonna make that for us. I'm like, you know, be the first skater to retire. Right.
SPEAKER_06Literally, like, he's 65. Just make him stop.
SPEAKER_00I've gotta tell you though, dog, you don't skate like you're 60 at all. You're you still got knees of a 16-year-old. You're you're jumping good, you're you're you're you got good control stuff. Oh, for sure. I've seen the clips. I'm 30 with a with a bad knee, and I can feel it every time I make I make myself look stupid when I try to jump.
SPEAKER_02Go holler or something. I can't.
SPEAKER_04You know, I it's a it's a uh to me, it's a I'd say, I I got this weird thing inside me, man. Like it's it's uh it's like a I don't even know what it is. It's like you s you just you start trying to trick and you want to fucking.
SPEAKER_03No, no, quit. Honestly, bro, like I've had some dark times in my life, you know, like rid I think we all have ridden the wave of life, ups and downs, but I can tell you, some of you know, and I've had hard times both in my ups and downs.
Skateboarding As Mental Health
SPEAKER_03And and the darkest times of my life has been when I've distanced myself from skateboarding. Oh yes. Oh, yes, community support that's a good thing. It's the community, it's and then it's also the ability that when I am having a bad day and I just need just like I can just go by myself. Yep. I always think it doesn't matter if I'm skating the rail, the the ramp, or if I'm just cruising fast as fuck down the street, bombing the snake run outside there. Right. It's just that escape where you gotta have that focus because everything's happening at millisecond speed decisions. And if you focus On anything else, all the troubles in your life, you're about to eat asphalt. Exactly. You know, so it's like you block all of that out and you get that temporary relief of just like I can disconnect from all of the troubles of my days and my in my personal life right now.
SPEAKER_04And skateboarding is yeah, skateboarding has been that of an existence for a lot, for a long time.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04You know what I mean? That's like you have a bad day, you go skate, it's not a bad day anymore. Exactly. You know, and and and I believe that that has to do with endorphins and the fact that you're exercising and breathing and bringing in, you know, air into your lungs, and that reality changes a little bit sometimes because when you're sitting at home complacent, maybe not moving around, that bug can get in you, you know. Oh, for sure. Or when you get injured, I know that when I get injured, I definitely have to keep myself positive, you know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Because it's sometimes you can get in those negative, you know, areas.
SPEAKER_03And the older I get, honestly, uh I was just a real outdoorsy kid, you know, like you were kind of describing, real active, but I always like liked being in the wild outdoors. So honestly, the older I get when I am kind of nursing injuries, bro, that's when I'll take the kayak out. Or if I'm walking comfortably, if I haven't like rolled an ankle or hurt a knee, I go for a walk out in the woods. You know, because you do get the endorphins going, but it's just a connection to the to the world. You know what I'm saying? We gotta keep that connection. Yeah, that I feel like not a lot of I feel like we kind of lose it in our teens and twenties. And then once you kind of hit 30 plus and maybe have some kids and stuff, life starts hitting a little different, if you will.
SPEAKER_04Well, and I I you know, I don't have any kids, not married. Lucky. I am yeah, um, but I I think that's another part of it. Like I just have been some I used to say I was married to skateboarding and music was my mistress. Nice. And now I feel like I'm married to skateboarding. I am in a polygamous relationship with skateboarding and music.
SPEAKER_03And I think the woke term is polyamorous, Ron. Yes, okay.
SPEAKER_04Um polyamorous with skateboarding and um and music. I I love it. I love doing both. And you know, I I I just finished my second album, and I just am I just think that like it's so it's so much like skating sometimes. Like to go up on stage, it's like feeling like a contest run. To finish a song feels like you finished a line. Right. Like to get to the third song in your set is like getting to the third trick in your trick runs, and you're like, if you get it, you're good. If you're not, you have calm. Yeah, you're going for that 10-wall pole. Yeah, like a full pole. It's like it's so it's but yet in some ways to connecting with the crowd, and like the other night. I was about to say, talent the energy that the boys gave. Whoa man, like Voodoo and Billy Winfield getting up on stage, two different artists, skaters with different styles, but the way they were, they brought it as skaters. And then I get up as a third person, it was almost like three different skaters with three different styles giving you skating, but giving you music. That's it was it was amazing.
SPEAKER_03It was it was yeah, the vibe up here was really cool. I actually just finished editing like all the clips that I got from some of the skating going on out there, and then the performances, um, I'll be dropping that on the YouTube tonight. So this this episode will be airing this week, probably on Tuesday, um, which will be what will be Tuesday. Tuesday, 24th.
SPEAKER_02I do stand-up comedy and everything, but like I can't skateboard anymore because I gotta get my hip replaced, which that's happening on uh February 15th. I don't know if I've said that before. Yep, February 15th.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, congrats, congrats to everybody that helped out and getting that those uh GoFundMe up so we could get that for Doc. I appreciate everybody's help on that.
SPEAKER_02But it's like I I do stand-up comedy and it's like like you said, like when I like when a joke fucking works, or like when it doesn't work, it just feels like you know, trying it and like, all right, I'm trying to fucking hard flip this, I'm trying to hard flip this. Yes, it's not happening. But then when you finally land it and you get that pop and that joke fucking like that joke hits, it's that same feeling of euphoria.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it's like we're all euphoria junkies. What do you guys tell me about the show? He was like, Man, it was so amazing. Like, like voodoo came out and landed every single trick. Yeah, and then Billy came out right behind, and he landed every single trick. So, what was I gonna do? I was gonna land every single trick.
SPEAKER_06It was like they put me on, like I was in it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it was dope, man. And that's that's you know, I think that's what skating has always taught me is that there's just so many facets of it, you know. Yeah, and like there's this just it's a great to be a part of it.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah. And I just yeah, big shout outs to Martin and the Ramos family for everything that they have done here for skateboarding. But transforming this room, when I first started coming here, this was the Pro Shop. Yes, and then the Pro Shop switched over there. And then it used to be a whole game. Yeah, and and then this was just like the waiting area, and I remember this being like a closet and there was a loft here. And Martin, you know, a few years back being like, I think that if we just knock down that wall and I think we could put a little stage in here. It was the best thing. And he was just talking about it for years, and I'm like, fine, then finally we ended up doing it, and there was a little stage like the first rendition, but now it's uh you can see it's official like a ref with a whistle up there.
SPEAKER_02Oh my god, and it's like this I did stand-up comedy here, and it did not look like this. It was a much smaller stage. Yeah, like I'm doing stand-up comedy, and there's like this hardcore band coming up and like setting their shit up. And so it's like, all right, we're right here, he's walking by right here with a fucking drum kitten. I'm like, hey man, what do you do for a living?
SPEAKER_03The logistics of that were not uh uh executed uh perfectly.
SPEAKER_02Like with other people on the stage with me. I'm like, all right, well.
SPEAKER_04Hey, I just did SkaterCon and they weren't prepared for to have a DJ. So they were like, your DJ's gonna be at the sound booth and you're gonna be up on stage. I said what? And I was like, and I made a joke. I said, I bet you wouldn't do that to your thing. The bass player, you gotta stand here at the sound booth, and the rest of the band's gonna be on stage. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, and so we had hand signals and stuff to try to figure out next song, next song, dude, next song, you know.
SPEAKER_05Like, that's it. You know, skip this one.
SPEAKER_00He said uh when we got back to the hotel, we got to go. Gotta run around first, gotta run around first. We were reviewing all the videos. I was like, uh, dude, I think there was a good show. He was like, bro, the sound quality was amazing. Like I've never been in such good.
SPEAKER_04Oh my god. Sound quality was so good, it made me mess up on songs because I would listen. I'd be like, damn, that beat sounds so good in here, man. But wait, you gotta go.
SPEAKER_07Like, you just missed the pork count. Oh, wait, okay, it's coming. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Hell yeah, hell yeah. So uh let
Music Life From Punk To Hip Hop
SPEAKER_03me ask you this. When did you get into music?
SPEAKER_02Wow, that's wow, that's a really good question. The year was 1873. Back in the days when they created jazz. No, um I, you know, I do you know what a trumpet is?
SPEAKER_04Like, I played punk rock music with a band when I was in Bicilia when I was about 15. They were called Aryan Races. Oh god, oh wow. It's three white guys and me. Good God, Ron.
SPEAKER_06He did it in California, so I got this.
SPEAKER_02I got this. He did it for the love, alright.
SPEAKER_05They did it, it did it last. It was just a couple of days. And then we we kind of were like, We did our we were.
SPEAKER_06Oh my god.
SPEAKER_05Like you were a misguided skateboarder punk. So let me let me ask you, did you play venues with this band? No, never.
SPEAKER_02You know that they see you and they're like, I would pay a thousand dollars to watch that show. Uh dude, right now, oh my god.
SPEAKER_04Literally, I went to a practice and fell asleep. And that's I got kicked out of the band. Like, so I'm like, Of course.
SPEAKER_00He's not in it. I think I'm in it at all.
SPEAKER_03They didn't think I was into it. Maybe the joke is the fact that the band was airing race and you got kicked out for falling asleep actually being played. Like, man, I will play some music, but y'all bored the fuck out of me. This is stranger than fiction, Rob.
SPEAKER_05Things happen, man.
SPEAKER_04Like that was like a try-up music, you know. Then later, I got like about the time I got to, I transferred from UC Santa Barbara to Davis. I went to Davis. I went to college.
SPEAKER_02That'll make you better than me.
SPEAKER_04No, no, college. You know what I learned about college? School of Hard Knocks. Yeah, dude, I graduated from the School of Hard Knocks, University of Adversity. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03University of Adversity. Love it.
SPEAKER_04So I get to Dase, I get to Davis, and a friend of mine's like, dude, we should start a ska band. And I was like, Yeah, okay. I like Rankin' Roger and English beat. Yeah. I go, we need a name, dude. And he goes, Well, how'd you get to school? And I was like, Well, you know, I'm black. I got there through affirmative action. And he's like, dude, that's the name of our band. Affirmative. Affirmative action. And that was our name. We were the ska band from Davis called affirmative action. And it was like, I'm boys, like, yeah, white guys, black guy, had a female drummer for a little bit. That's how we all got in school. Except for one guy, he got in school, his parents could afford it. The rest of us were under on some straight freedom shit. And like we started playing ska, and we we got like good. Like we had like, we started opening for bands, we opened for bad manners, we opened for like fishbone and all this. But during that period, I didn't, I was just playing. We were just having a good time. Didn't think of music further or anything. We opened one time for Fishbone, and they were like, Man, you guys are tight. We're like, thanks, man. They're like, go with us. Like, what do you mean? They go, jump in the bus, man. Come on. Hell yeah. And then the dudes in the band were like, I got eight o'clock class in the morning, man. Shut up, boy. And I'm like, I'm like, blood, I'm going. We got to go. And they sat us down, and Fishbone explained to us. They go, You ever heard of the nut? And we're like, no. They said, the nut, y'all are like, you guys come with us, you get in the nut.
SPEAKER_02I think there's a better way to explain it too.
SPEAKER_04Well, that was what they were talking about. But we were like, oh, we don't understand. They're like, yeah, bro, you, you know, sorry, but they moved on, and we got our two shows with Fishbone. But during that period of time, and this was in Davis, California, I was in Davis and um had this popular ska band and was like going to college trying. And I used to wear hot tuna shorts because that was a sponsor from Australia that would send me some crazy shorts and we're a little converse. And somehow there's a little controversy that someone had stolen a bunch of musical equipment out of a place that we all practiced at. So I go to a skateboard contest, come home, and there's a flyer that says, There's a guy pushing on a skateboard, and he's handing a key to another guy, and it says, I'm in a band, everybody likes me, they'll never think that I did this. And then this caption said, Now I can I stole that equipment, now I can get the crack that I need. And so all these people in this music thing thought that I stole all this equipment and took it and headed down to Santa Barbara or whatever and sold it or whatever. And like at the end of the day, I was in I was in Davis, sort of like, no, no, I wouldn't, I wouldn't do that. I I'm I like the music. And and then the funny thing was is some of the band that I was in, some of their equipment got stolen, and we had bands, we were gonna open for Fishbone and some other bands. And so that would have been like me taking from my own band, which no way. Doesn't make sense. So in the end, my my dad had to get me an attorney, and the attorney explained to me what's going on. He's like, you know, this is this is like they're making flyers, that's like slandering, libel, and they don't have a case. And we they we finally found out that uh, you know, they found the guy who did it, and he saw me sitting at the bus stop going to Santa Barbara for a contest. So he saw me leaving town, so I was out of town so he could use that against me. But I never did anything. But that was one of the times when I lived in Davis, a little town, and they had gone to the place I worked and said something, and they, you know, I had a really tough time. And musically, for me personally, that's I was like, I stopped doing music right then. I did like I wouldn't do music anymore. I was like afraid that people would think that I was like some horrible human that did hill bad things. And I I I was at the time I I was like kind of like I was skateboarding, and I never I went down to Santa Barbara, and it was I found out later from Eric Dresson that that was the first street contest that I went down to enter. So I go down to at least David's like, well, I'm going down to Santa Barbara entering this contest. Is that like one of the parking lot ones? And it was on a street next to the beach shop. And then like where then like Nodis Kapas was there and Jesse Martinez was there, and I remember just being like, those guys were like the guys I knew or the rippers, you know.
Contests, Sponsorships, And “Man Am”
SPEAKER_04And I remember Jesse used to do frontside bonus flips kind of thingy, and it was sick, and Nodis, and like remember in that contest, it was in my little hometown, which is Isla Vista, next to Santa Barbara. And so I had this little thing I would do in a contest when they'd say 15 seconds, all my friends would come out on the course and lay down next to each other, and I'd ollie them. Hell yeah. And so, and I saw my like I was going against Nodis and those guys, so I got five guys out and ollie them, and Jesse Martinez came to me and he goes, You're going down, dude. We're about to bust out the new stuff on you, bro. We're about to show you some of the new stuff, bro.
SPEAKER_07I'm getting seven.
SPEAKER_04We're like, we're like, everyone's like, damn, that dude was mad at you. And I go, What's the new stuff? And they he's they go, Jesse Martinez, he starts his run, he goes, Everybody, get away from the wall. And everyone moves away from the wall. He allys up the curb, puts his hand on the ground, shoves the board up against the wall, pushes off the wall, spins it on his hand, grabs it, and goes into an invert and goes to the ground. Never seen it before in my life. Everybody went, What was that? And just to make sure he got it, he went back and did it again. And then like at that point, it was like, and then I think he he did a wall ride. Like he did that, did that, and then did a wall ride and came back in. And then he he's like, Told you, you're going down. I got a lot of things. Yeah, dude, it's like it was so like, oh, dude. And then and then Nodis grabbed his board, ran, like backside here, and like put his board on the wall and wrote down the wall. And everyone was like, Did he just and then he did it again? And then that town's walls were fucked. That town's wall had so many people wanted to learn how to wall write after seeing that. I went from first to third, okay, because basically they busted the new shit. They brought out the new shit, obviously. But so I'm sitting at a phone booth, you know, the Davis thing is happening, I'm going through some shit, and I call up Steve Stedham, a sponsor, right? For Statham Designs. I'm like, yo, Stenham, man, I just got third in the contest, man. You know, Jackie Martinez. There's more phone. You know, dude, I want an airwalk bag and some blind jeans. And he goes, You can sell all that, and you can get a bus ticket back to Davis. And I was like, dude. I was like, I like, I felt like I did good, but now I don't feel like I did good at all. And I like hung up the phone, and Everett Rosecrans from Vision is at the same phone booth. And he's like, What's the matter? My nickname used to be Fly. He's like, What's the matter, Fly? I said, Uh, I gotta sell all my stuff to get a bus ride home. He's like, Call him back and quit. You can ride for Vision. I was like, hmm. So I called him back, Sil Steve, thanks for everything you did. I'm gonna go someplace else. Then I got in the bay and went down to LA and got a box and flew home. And it was like, wow. Like life changed. I was on vision now, you know. I was on Mark Gonzalez's company. Yeah, you know. Yeah, dude. So that that in itself, like life changed in so many ways, but even through all the turmoil, life was changing. You know, like life constantly kept changing. Even when I was on vision, I thought, I'm gonna get a pro board on vision. And then it was like, no, I'm not. Like I thought, I, okay, the reason why I didn't get a pro board on vision is it is 94.55. Because I got second with 94.55, Kelly Rosecrans got first with 94.60. So that five did he got to turn pro and I had to stay am another whole year. Wow. And I was like 23, 24. So I used I made up a term called man am. Man. I was a man am. I was a man, I was an am. I was getting packages, I wasn't turning pro, I was a man am.
SPEAKER_06They were like, why do you want to?
SPEAKER_04I don't want to be a man am too long. Like they were, what's the matter with that? I'm like, because you're a man am. People like me, like you're a man and you're still getting boards for free. Can't you go buy them?
SPEAKER_02I came from an autograph.
SPEAKER_04Like, I got like you're a man am, which means that you're old enough to get it yourself, but you'll still take product from somebody because it's cool. But I said they should have man contest. 21 and over. You know, alcohol. Yeah, you know, stripper bar.
SPEAKER_06Gotta include the stripper in somehow.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_06But actually, if you go on YouTube, there is one, ask a friend of mine.
SPEAKER_04I was at a shop in Livermore, and I said, You should have a man named contest. And he's like, A man am contest. I said, Yeah, like all the guys over 21 can't be 18, you gotta be over 21. You have, you know, some strippers on the pole and the ramp, you have to include them in your run, take a shot before you go. Yeah. He goes, keep talking. I love this. And I was like, maybe a bomb hit? And he's like, oh, whoa, okay. And it turned out to be like this man contest, special handshake to get in. You know, it was brad. And then in the end, it was like, everyone was like, wait, Tadashi, you gotta put that camera away, bro. Nobody kicks. What happens in Man M stays in Man. Exactly. That was some of that, and that that happened once and it was on YouTube for a little bit. It was really hilarious. That's awesome. Shout out to, I think the shop was called 621 in Livermore at that time.
SPEAKER_03Hell yeah, that sounds like an epic event for sure.
SPEAKER_02I was definitely a man M.
SPEAKER_06But there and that's no disrespect. I've been a man M my whole life. Hey, right there with you.
SPEAKER_02I wrote for a company called Moonshine.
SPEAKER_06No way.
SPEAKER_02Dude, that was Man Man and the fuck of that shit.
SPEAKER_04That's dope. That is dope. Yep. Florida skateboarding right there. That's that's see, that's the thing. It's like the the skateboarding is a lot like America, small businesses. You know, a lot like America. We you you you see what they do with you, and like I remember H Street, you know, we did really well. Yeah. And I was like, wow, we sold a lot of boards. And they're like, yeah, and you made a dollar a board. I'm like, wow, that's sick. And I remember telling my dad, like, yo, you know, I did really good this year, you know, you know, about 750,000 on board sales. And my dad's like, damn. It sounds like you have 750,000 people to go shake their hands. I went, damn dad. That's true. Damn. Damn. Navy dad? Yeah, damn navy dad, like, damn. Why are you putting that evil on me? No, because he was he said skateboarding. He goes, Man, skateboarding kind of reminds me of the Harlem Globetrotters. I said, What? He goes, You travel around the world, you introduce their sport to people, they get a chance to see it, they see your skills in it. It's like the Harlem Globetrotters. And that you have to understand, my dad, his name sits in Madison Square Garden as a like 1951 All-City Guard. Like so All-City Guard from New York City. Used to play uh in Bed Sky and like early Rucker Park. I said Rucker Park? Yeah. Early Rucker Park had a name in Rucker Park. Hell yeah. And used to get shoes boom Converse. Wow. And so when I got on Converse, it wasn't like when I got on Converse, it was my dad said, Call Barry Spears. He'll see if he can get you some shoes. I said, Who's Barry Spears? He goes, Oh, he was the guy who gave me shoes. I said, Dad, you were sponsored by Converse? He goes, Oh, we ain't sponsoring. I don't know about no sponsor.
SPEAKER_06They gave me shoes. I was like, you know, dad, just take dad, just take the wind out of things.
SPEAKER_04You know, like dad just be like, sponsored.
SPEAKER_03I don't know about that. They just gave me shoes.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, like I ran to my dad's like, Dad, they're calling me a legend. My dad's all a legend is at the bottom of a map, it tells people where to go.
SPEAKER_03Oh lord.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, dude, take the hair out the room, bro.
SPEAKER_04I was like, dad, you gotta understand this. He's like, if they telling you that, they must feel sorry for you.
SPEAKER_06I said, no, dad is like real, real.
SPEAKER_04He's like, well, okay, all right, because you know sometimes when you get older, they don't want to tell you.
SPEAKER_03They don't want to tell you that old. They tell you you're a legend. Yes.
SPEAKER_02Well, you're gonna turn 26 to your legend now.
SPEAKER_00We've had quite the legendary weekend. Well, everything has been about the oldest. Like when we went down to uh uh St. Augustine, BC was teaching us all the history. Yeah, yeah. St. Augustine. Did he teach out an early grab too? Oh, BC, man. BC 53 was yesterday. BC had an all-over treaty.
SPEAKER_04Yes. BC 53 was amazing to hang out with BC, go skate, get history lessons. I went to the legend, the St. Augustine Negro Museum. Hell yeah, for sure. The best thing I've ever seen. And like to me, it's like someone like BC, I you know, I met him through Tampa and he said it. He goes, We all go to Tampa as a Mecca. Yeah. He goes as if you're not in that top 10, you're going to Tampa because you know your friends are there and you're gonna see them. Yeah, it's like going to Mecca, like the guys that go and rub the rock. We want to go and rub the camp or whatever. But it's like that stuff, I hope that stuff never changes because I love that to go to Tampa and see your friends, and we hang out on the other side. We call it Amsterdam. We kind of kick it off the course and in our little place. The Hooker Motel. Not the Hooker Motel. We're like off the we're on site, but we're just over here where the colt beer's cold and you can watch the run from outside and stuff. And like last year I had a really good time, but this year it's like gonna be the I'm not, I didn't, I'm not going back. And it's like weird to like have a different trail in the year. Like it always starts with Tampa and then it goes from there. And this year it's like it started with J Bill. Yeah. It's already on another level right now. Hell yeah. You know what I mean? It really is. It's like, it's like, you know, you do this, you do the Tampa thing so much at a certain point when it's when it's like you're done, you're just so happy that you had such a good time.
SPEAKER_00You could do it last year.
SPEAKER_04But you want to have more, you want to do more. And um Trust me, I know. From the musical standpoint of it, I love playing there. I love you know, but last night or two nights ago here, probably most best, like the best show I've ever done in my life. Hell yeah. Like like my friends tell me, like, I get better every time I get on. Like I really practice. Like, because I don't want to be like a skateboarder that thinks because I'm a pro skateboarder that I should get props for doing something. I put in work. Right. Like the the work is the work is writing rhymes, you know, making beats, you know, knowing what you're saying when you're up there. And not, it's not really about fame. I think nowadays what we've taken hip-hop and and music and made it into so much, like it's a art.
SPEAKER_03Look at me influences what it's all become, this whole thing where it's like, yeah, I'm not.
SPEAKER_04And I try to get up on stage and I try to, I first of all, I'm a skateboard hiphopper. That's I straight up call it that. I say it all the time. I I listen to skateboard hip hop. I I make hip-hop that I talk about skateboarding. You know, I say we fall down and get back up. I I speak about it, and I just did a song about the industry, which I was like, ooh, I don't know if I could put that out. But it's like the idea is that I speak the truth in what I rhyme. And it's it's you're supposed to.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02Who's your favorite rapper that influences you the most to like create music? Faro Maunch from Organized Confusion.
SPEAKER_04Oh, all right. Organized Confusion. I listened to the first the first organized confusion album came out, and I heard Farrell Mach, he had a ramp in his studio when he was like recording. His album. Really? I heard he skates. I don't know if it's true or not, but I was in Sacramento at an FTC and they said Fernel Mach came through and bought some boards because he was at a studio and he skates. So I was really like one of my favorite rappers. Skates. Like he's he's amazing. You know, he I could do his rhymes. That's all dope he is.
SPEAKER_02I know every little boosie song ever. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? Yeah, he does have a boosy tattoo. Boosie tattoo.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Wow. Let me see that again.
SPEAKER_05We don't recognize real fam. He's popping his collar. He is. He's collar popping. Yes. You didn't know he was that level of dirtbag? This is my dog right here. I think if you're on a different level now. There's levels of dirtbag right now, bro.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, dude. Don't let me show you the rest of the tattoos. I'm going downhill from here. Another day. Another podcast.
SPEAKER_03Hey, so let me get the escape questions I typically ask everybody out of the way for you, Ron. So are you regular or goofy? Goofy. Goofy, okay. If you had to choose front side or backside. Front side. Yeah. Switch or faky? Switch. Really? Yes. Hell yes. I like that because typically from the older era, and even I'm more like a faky guy, and even though you know I'm I'm middle-aged, but it's like I was surprised. I like that. Fuck yeah. Um kick flipper, heel flip. No, you just took me for a loop. I honestly thought I was about to be like doc told you, faky. It just has to do with that.
SPEAKER_02I bet him $10. I bet him $10. You were going switch. I bet him $10. You gotta give up.
SPEAKER_03My age, my age theory has changed. Yeah. Um kick flipper, heel flip, kick flip. All right. And uh street, park, or both. And park you could do vert, you know, park, vert, tranny, basically. Street, tranny, or both? Both. Both. You have to go both. Oh yeah. And then uh rails or ledges.
SPEAKER_04Rails. Ledges. I'm red ledges hurt my knees. Right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you could dent a shin real easy on the side. I've actually fractured my right kneecap on a concrete ledge where I like clipped and like got tripped up over my feet, and my knee just went right to the ledge, and it was like swollen like a grapefruit. Oh, I got a story for you. I got a story for you.
SPEAKER_04I got my dip on crack right through my patella. Oh, I got a story for you. Tail slides. Tail slides. Learning tail slides in Santa Barbara. Front side, backside. Front side, tail slides in Santa Barbara at the high rate of speed, lock. Back foot on tail just goes forward to the ledge with my knee. Oh no. I somehow sit on the board, get home. My roommate, at the time, my roommate Kurt had just got out of a kneecast. So I stuck my knee in it. Sat around the place drinking beers. Just gotta wait and like waiting, going, come on, man, come on, man. So like 10 years later, okay, 10 years later, I go to the hospital. I'm like, go under my parents' insurance or something, and they're like, You're not under that anymore. Like, I'm like, oh, I can't be here? And they're like, and the doctor's like, I gotta show you something. I gotta show you something. I said, okay, come on, man, show me what's up. She goes, You can't treat him. He's like, I'm not treating him, I'm just gonna show him something. So he takes me back to the x-ray machine. And he goes, This is an x-ray shot of your knee. I said, Yeah. He goes, see that line right there? Look at that line. Perfect. He goes, Who did the surgery? I said, What do you mean? He goes, when I s when a when a kneecap comes into me and it's broken like that, I'll like I'll take it and I'll shave it right down the middle and I'll make sure those two pieces just meet. Like perfect. And then, you know, who did the surgery? I said, uh, no surgery, bro. He's like, actually, like I put my knee down, and that's the the that's actually the ledge that broke my knee, man. And he goes, So what did you do? I said, Well, I went home. I'm here, I drank some beers, and I put myself my knee in like my friend's cast, and I put it in for about three or four weeks, and then I went to the beach and surfed and tried to surf, but I swam a lot in the ocean, and one time it kind of popped and it felt better, and you know, I was like kind of weird, you know, whatever. And then he's like, So it it's he goes, You you it healed yourself. You healed yourself. I said, Well, he goes, you know, your body's made of water. I said, Yeah. He goes, This floated back to where it's supposed to be, and the bones floated back to where they're supposed to be. Come on, you didn't go get a surgery? I said, No, I I I hit my knee and I did that. And he's like, That's wild. He's like, you're like, he goes, what you're feeling is the arthritis from the knee break. You're like, that's why you're here, because you go, wow, my knee hurts. And he goes, it's just because your knee's at high pressure, and then you break it, low pressure, and then you're in you're in San Francisco Bay Area, and the storms come across the ocean, low pressure, and as soon as they get closer to you, you feel that low pressure in anything, any bone that's low pressure.
SPEAKER_07So there's a there's this big rainstorm coming, and I'm like, dude, my knee. Like, oh god, dude, let me tell you.
SPEAKER_03And he's like, that's that's what's going on. Like it's called getting old, son. Yes. Anybody got a pack of it? He's like, remember when your grandma said she could feel the rain coming?
SPEAKER_05She could. She could.
SPEAKER_03She was spitting facts.
SPEAKER_05She was factoid.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, actually, I I got a a somewhat of a similar story. When I broke my leg, I had a spiral tib fib fracture. So, like, initially the break, when I looked down, my on my left from my shin down, my toes were face behind me. So when I get to the hospital, they spin my foot back around, but my tibia and fibula weren't lined up, and there was so much swelling that they were like, go home, we're gonna let the swelling go down. They put me in a soft cast, like, keep it elevated, take these pain pills, we're gonna do surgery in three days because my skin was about to pop, it was so swollen. So the next day, because I was in a cast all the way up, you know, to my leg, I couldn't use one bathroom in my house because the way that it was like oriented, so I had to go to this one, my mom's room, and I was like crutching in there. And as soon as I go to crutch and like do my fly, I put my left crutch on a fucking throw rug, and it slips right out, and so I go all load right onto my broken leg. Excruciatingly, like I'm like, so I go back to the hospital. At this point, they'd scared me previously from how bad it was broken. They're like, son, 20 years ago, they might have just been cutting your leg off. Oh, you know what I mean? He was like, he was like, so you're gonna have to have it. So I'm in my mind, I'm like, I'm they're gonna lose, I'm gonna lose my leg. Oh my god. So I get there and the doctor's like, we're not gonna do surgery. You literally, the spiral of the fracture kind of made it at an angle. So when I put they were like side by side, when I put the force down, it popped them right in place. He showed me the x-ray, it was like, you set your bones for us. He's like, so we're not gonna do surgery, we're just gonna, we're gonna be monitored, monitor them as they heal on their own. They're like, but you basically did what they did back in the 1800s with no wooden stick in your mouth. Yeah, good job.
SPEAKER_04Like the body, the the body is an amazing thing. Oh, yeah. It can heal itself, but we've been so pressured into thinking that modern medicine, we I've seen myself heal myself and not go to a doctor, no disrespect to any doctors out there, but just because maybe it wasn't at like a twisted ankle that you think is broken, but it's it might be cracked. Right. And so you put your own cast on it. Don't go out and the doctor told me one time, you know why we cast stuff? I said, why? He goes, because you guys, if you didn't have a 14-pound arm, you'd still be going.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And I was like, oh, that's true. Like, because when I was like a kid, I got in trouble. I got grounded for a month. After I broke my ankle and my parents, they shot a photo, and I did a fake yolly. Like I was at my friend's ramp and I was watching them skate, and I couldn't sit there for all this time watching them skate. So I just took the board out and started doing fakies with my cast and stuff. And then I I kind of my cast, I could see, like, I kind of use it. So I like tried a fake yolly, and my friend shot a photo, and my parents saw it, and I was grounded for a month.
SPEAKER_06Like, you know, we pay good money, and you up in there trying tricks you with the cast on. I would have made a great shot. Hell yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's it's art. You wouldn't understand, mom and dad. If that's your real names.
SPEAKER_05If that's your real name. That's your real names.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so uh, you got any cool stories from your H Street days?
H Street Stories And The “Green Gap”
SPEAKER_02Oh. Oh, hold on. I got one for this one. Okay. All right, and hocus pocus. Your favorite trick that you did, and your favorite trick that somebody else did.
SPEAKER_04Oh, wow, that first H Street video. Yep, first one. I would say in the first H Street video, my favorite trick was probably ollieing over the little the little garage gap. Because there's a funny story about that. Like, I call it the green gap. It's the green gap. It's like I when I rolled up on it, I went, whoa, this is it's it's like supposed to be green. I guess they're fake lawn. You know, they colored it green to fake lawn. But I looked at it like, whoa, that's sick. I gotta jump that, man. So when I got it in the vid, it was like sick. But there's here's the funny story. My friend Tadashi calls me up one day and he says, Hey, you want to go shoot some photos? I was like, Yeah, dude, I gotta get this ad done. He's like, you know, you want to go to the Ron Allen gap? And I was like, dude, I Ron, where's that, dude? And he goes, you know that gap on Claremont. I was like, I don't call it that, dude. He goes, You don't call it the Ron Allen gap? No, bro. I call it the green gap. Because that's what it is. He goes, people call it the Ron Allen gap. No, Tadashi, you fucking with me. No, it's it's it's the green gap, right? So we go there, and I'm just I'm trying to all eat late shove it over it. And Tadashi uses his counter on his camera and says, Do you want to know how many times you've tried and bailed? And I said, sure. He goes, 121 times. God damn it. And I'm like, Tadashi, man, it's time to retire, dude. It's time. I'm dude, come on, man. I've been trying this all day. And then you gotta understand, this is a five, this is a five street intersection. And one street is called Claremont, where people drive, leave the freeway, and drive 60 miles an hour up here. Boom. Then you've got Claremont coming, you got Kobe coming this way, Claremont here, and then another street going this way. So you have five different intersections. That thing is on the left side of the intersection. I've skated her for years. So you you stand and you look at the cars coming at you, and they're looking at you, why the fuck is this nigga standing in the street? And you're looking at them, and you're looking, you're looking down the car lights to see if anybody is turning right. And if you don't see any left lights, and then you look on the right and you see all the bing, bing, bing, bing, everyone's taking a right, you can go. If you see a left, you gotta wait. So I remember seeing it going. Well, after 120 tries, I was just like, oh man. So we're go over by it, and we're standing in this handicap part right where you roll up to go to the thing. And I say, Oh, whoa, Bondo. And Tadashi's like, yeah, they bondoed it. And I'm like, oh, dude. No. He goes, What? I go, You got a screwdriver? He's like, What? So I get a screwdriver and I take out all the Bondo. And he's like, What are you doing, dude? And I go, This spot is seven pushes in the street, hit the six lines from the handicap, that's the speed to jump over it. And he goes, What? And I go, I've been skating this so long that you know it's seven pushes, hit the six lines handicapped, that's the speed to go over the gap. And he's like, third try, land a late shoving. As I roll back, he's like, Whose gap is it now? Ron Allen gap, baby.
SPEAKER_06That's what it is, male kid.
SPEAKER_04And it was when I scraped it away, is when I realized it was I needed that. So that's so that's the story of that. As far as best tricks, 8th Street video, first one. Golly, man. I would just say anything Danny did. Yeah. Like pretty much anything, like Danny Way, that first that Danny Way was fucking brutal. Let's just be honest, he was on fire. He he's I we'll never have another Danny Way in this skateboarding. There's a lot of guys like that. Danny's one of them, Tony's one of them. They're just guys that like you couldn't stop that kid. You couldn't, and like if you got in the way of that kid, you probably got embarrassed. Because that kid, when he was a kid, he was just so gnarly. Dude. Yeah, and even ride dirt bikes and shit. Yeah, everything you put his hands on, he was good at. And yet he was also just like he tried hard. And I think that he it made a big deal in all of us.
SPEAKER_02You know, yeah. Dude, that ramp he used to have at his old house and shit. Like that ramp. The mini ramp.
SPEAKER_04You see the stuff he did on the mini ramp? Over the spine, over the channel, all this stuff. It was like he just threw down tricks because he wanted people to know.
SPEAKER_03Old footage of him and Wade Speyer skating a mini ramp or a spine. It's like some of the best skateboarding you'll ever see.
SPEAKER_04It's like going to a like a painting and just sitting there watching it, you know. It's like beautiful. Poetry in motion. Oh serious. And and like I just have such an appreciation for that. Like, there's so many guys that are so rad that like you forget, like, you kind of forget that they were that rad, you know, like you kind of move on, you know. But that's what I think is awesome. Skateboarding does have that kind of mentality that we kind of don't we try not to forget the guys in the past, you know.
SPEAKER_03For sure, yeah, yeah. And and I I think nowadays too. Um, I think with skateboarding, the way you're kind of talking about, you know, older is like, oh, this is your dad saying legends, like, oh no, they're trying to tell you your old son. It's like, no, I think skateboarding is is at a point right now where we're trying to make sure that uh our our forefathers, if you will, are getting their flowers. We have a home. Yes.
SPEAKER_04Well, you know, it's really funny that you say that.
SPEAKER_03Because now it's blown up so big, and there's people making millions of dollars a year. These are professional athletes now, these aren't just these dirty punk thug hip-hop kids in the streets or you know, draining pools. You know what I mean? This is big business now in certain areas. Yes. So it's like we got to make sure that people like yourself who have been barrier breakers and and road pavers, if you will, for this generation to reap those benefits, not just the the benefits of skateboarding itself, but you know the the financial ones if you make it to that level.
SPEAKER_04Well, and that's the thing that I think that people I'm there they're working on a documentary of me right now for TV.
Racism, Exploitation, And Saying No
SPEAKER_04I got named Pat McGee and Mike Jarvis. And uh Pat McGee actually just did a did a documentary on Waffel Warnock, who won the election in Georgia. Yeah. And so it's actually I will we might find out tomorrow that it might be nominated for an Oscar. So without respect to the my the director of my piece, is he's just an amazing human in himself.
SPEAKER_03Definitely have to check those out.
SPEAKER_04But it's it's really in what I've learned from the documentary and and filming it is you know, we have truths, we all have our own truths in skateboarding. And for me, one of the toughest truths was to like how do I deal with racism? How did I deal with it? How did I make how did I deal with skateboarding in in a world that was sort of the way it was? Right. And like you if early in the uh early in the interview, I really started feeling guilty. Because um in the world of black people, if you see something about it and you don't do something about it, then you're literally complicit in the same crime. You know, it's like you know, you you you have to be aware of how you're treated. And I'll give you an example, and you you tell me, okay? I'll give you the I'll tell you the story, and you tell me if it's is it racist? You tell them. Is it ignorance? Is it so it's the year is 1988. 88, 19. Santa Clara, eight streets at Santa Clara skate, uh the skate camp there. Santa Clara, big we had footage and everything. So they say, hey Ron, you gotta come up, man. You gotta see this board we made for you. It's kind of dope. I was like, oh shit, a new board, hell yeah. It's in Santa Clara, so jump in the car, bring my girl, go up. He shows the board to me. Boom. And it's he goes, the gadoys made it for you. They fucking love you, man. I was like, okay. So they show me the board. You said the gadoys? Yeah. Okay, all right.
SPEAKER_02So I don't even see that sounds racist to be honest.
SPEAKER_04But they were like they back in the day, they were a little bit on that racist side. Yeah, they were on they were hanging with like the guys that were doing that shit. They're hanging out with the Aryan race, uh Yeah, okay. So you're hanging out with your old band. Hanging out with my old band. Exactly. And so they give me this graphic and they show it to me, and and I'm like, you know, like and my the lady I'm with that, and she goes, Hey, go outside, I'm gonna ask you something, I'm gonna talk to you. Oh, okay. Go outside and she goes, You can't put that board out. That board has a noose. And I said, Yeah, it makes me feel uncomfortable. She's like, Yeah, you can't put that board out. So what was the graphic? So the board was it had a doll, a doll, like a toy doll with a nail in its head, and it had a teddy bear on a noose, okay, and then had me down on the board laughing, like ha ha ha ha, right? Oh and I said, Mike, I appreciate it if you if you don't make that board, bro, because like you know, the noose, I'm black, nooses doesn't work.
SPEAKER_03It's a sensitive thing with my community.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and and and plus the lady that took me outside, she said, if you make that board, I'll break up with you. That's just misrepresentation. She's white. Hey, could I take that board? She was a white lady on fire for me. She was just like not feeling it. Okay. Now I didn't know how to make boards at that time. I was rather ignorant of board making, okay? Because if I was knowledgeable about board making, he told me that the board was a sample. Okay? So he showed me the board. I said, Wow, it's one sample. If you don't make it, it's a sample, no biggie. Well, it had eight colors. Then I learned how to make boards. And I realized that an eight-color board. There's not one sample. Yeah, when they set up that eight-color board in the in the shop, it's for cutting or it's for screening five thousand. It's for screening. Yeah, at least something, right? So I guess what they did is they sent the board to Europe because I didn't want it.
SPEAKER_02So then is your name still on it in Europe?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And so when I get to Europe, kids are bringing that to me to sign. And I'm like, No way. I'm thinking, is this a bootleg? Is this like someone's bootlegging my stuff? Or and they're like, no, we we sent your stuff there. So now I had to ask T Mag, yo, did I get paid for that? Because I said no. And you guys put it out anyway. And the question is, is that ignorance or is that racist? Because ignorance makes you put it out. But the fact that I'm black, it's like, God, guys, guys.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00See what I'm saying? Like, for sure, for sure. And so the industry was trying to get what they were looking for without permission.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, that's definitely a a high level of ignorance for sure.
SPEAKER_04Right, and you're don't know those guys personally. Well, and you're in a position at this time that skateboard boards are selling. Your boards are doing well. But when you make so now later, the Gadois and I become friends, okay? Because it's crazy. The Gadois realized something. They weren't they were racist, but unfortunately, they were from South America. They were Chilean. Their last name was Gadoy. And I went out with a lady who was Chilean and her last name was Gadoy. And I said, You know, your last name's Gadoy, their last name's Gadoy. And she goes, They're Chilean. I go, I don't think they know that, but it's okay. Okay, so at the end of the day, we became friends. We became good. Like we're good now. We and them are always good. I love the Gadois, no disrespect to them. But they were like, you know, their kind of mentality was like, you know, we just, we just, you know, we just made our board for you, dude. We weren't even thinking about it like that. And so I don't think the Gadois were at at fault with it. What I mean is is when Mike showed me that board, I think when I I think as a professional, you should be able to say no, and no means no. No means.
SPEAKER_03Because that you as a professional are not just, you know, you're representing your brand. Yes. So if you you know you have a partnership with a company where your brand and theirs can be like there has to be that understanding and mutual respect for sure.
SPEAKER_02I I think it's ignorance and racism at the same time, but unknowingly, like they didn't really understand.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's also coming from a time where Well, you know, and this is where I'm complicit, and this is what I'm saying about as as as I don't like to make excuses or try to make light of anything. I just try to put myself in other people's shoes at times. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, empathy. Yes, it's yes, empathy for sure. Our world would be better if there was more in it, you know, other people. And that's and that's what I'm saying. Because the white man, and that's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_04For me, it is when you love something and you love doing it, and you just want to do it because you love doing it and you're making money doing it, you you don't want to rock the boat. Right. But if you rock the boat, then you have to deal with rocking the boat. And I was a boat rocker. Like I was like, that sucks. No, don't do that. Like, please don't do that. And like when I got with 8th Street, I noticed that some of those guys were just like that. Like skaters are kind of like, nah, dude, don't do that, you know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So I I'm a little I could be complicit in the crime of that because I should have stayed on it. Like I thought when I said no, it was good. If I'd have gone back a week later and said, hey, you know, I said no, is that still good? But you know, you say no and you go on to the next thing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and they're like, oh, well, he didn't bring it up again, and you know what I mean. So it must not be that big of a deal. Exactly.
SPEAKER_04And so then in the end, that's why I say sometimes as as black people, we have to be very careful that we're not complicit in something like we allowed it to happen. And so for me, I I've had those questions in my head to be strong enough to say, no, I wouldn't allow it to happen if it was in my situation, I knew it was going to be made. But in the end, that's the start, that's kind of the tough part about what the 8th Street days were. There was a lot of great times and a lot of, but that company should have never ended, and it did, in a sense. And a lot of it was the exploitations of the writers. Yeah. Like, you know, if you just saw like the guys were making money off of us, and they just they they were making lots of money. Like we never got paid for any of the videos. So if you think about Hocus Poca Shakamina and Soldier Story, all those videos were VHS copies being sold at about $45 a pop. Nobody made anything but them. Yeah, that's crazy. You know, and at the end, you know, you give us you would give everybody at least a nickel. A nickel. A nickel on an $80,000 an 80,000 amount video would change your life. You know what I mean? So you see it for that reality too, that you see that you gotta really be smart with these guys because if you're not, they're they're getting over on you every chance they can. And then and it's honest. Like they're not saying that, oh, we're getting over on you. They got a smile on their face. Everything's all good. Oh, yeah, what's up, bro? Yeah, bro. We got you. And then you're and then what you're doing. And then nobody know nobody knows this. 8th Street ends. It's over. They owe money to people. I'm like, this sucks. I'm like, you guys owe me like 8,000 bucks, dude. What's good? They go, yo, we're gonna make it good, Ron. I said, how you gonna make it good? They go, we're gonna send you some t shirts. I was like, $8,000 in t shirts? But I'm a smart nigga. I'm a smart nigga. I said, no graphics. Just send me blank shirts. Just send me blanks. I don't need you, you gonna send me $8,000 in shirts. I don't want one, I want $8,000 worth of blank shirts.
SPEAKER_03They're like, You printed all the motherfuckers, didn't you? So they came and I'll never forget that the UPS.
SPEAKER_05Dude, who was my homie.
SPEAKER_04You know, everybody's every skater, the UPS dude is your boy, you know? He shows up and he's got this look on his face, ice grill. He goes, You better fucking help me.
SPEAKER_06And I was like, What? And he had a trailer on the back of the UPS truck. And I'd never seen that.
SPEAKER_04For all these t-shirts. He goes, All that trailer is you. And I lived in a studio apartment. So we start bringing boxes up. We get the first line, get the second line, get the third line.
SPEAKER_05Now we're making trails to get to the bathroom, trail to get to the kitchen. Yeah, that's about it. You can stand next to it. He looked like he was living in an episode of 100%.
SPEAKER_07It looked like I lived in a maze. I look like I lived in a maze, right?
SPEAKER_04And so I'm like, man, I gotta figure out these shirts. I gotta figure out oh, yo, Jim, Tommy, Fausto. I got $8,000 worth of shirts. I need a board order. And that's how fun got started. Sick. That's how fun got started. That's how fun skateboards happened. And I have some amateurs, Keenan, Keenan Milton. And is that is how the company did with Ternaski? No, that's when after we after we left life. Okay. Life. Yeah, exactly. Life became fun. Life became fun. Life became fun.
SPEAKER_00There you go.
SPEAKER_04God damn, that's the moral of the story. Life became fun. And all my companies, you should know that all my companies, because of De LaSole, all my companies were acronyms. So life was living in a full-time era, because that came from De La Sole. Yeah, yeah. Fun was follow under no one. Hell yeah. Because when you're following under no one, you're having fun. Hell yeah. You know what I mean? Then became energy. Enough nonsense, every rider get yours. And the reason why I do that is because people would try to sue me for having the same name. You know, like I had a company, a wheel company called Fast. Because no one made fast wheels. Everyone makes you know different wheels. I was like, how come nobody makes a fast wheel? So I called it free agent skateboard transportation. Fast wheels.
SPEAKER_03Hell yeah.
SPEAKER_04So someone tried to who has a fast company tried to sue me. And I was like, it's not the same. Your fast is fast. My fast is free agent skateboard transportation. Oh. So you don't get you don't get it's like ESPN.
SPEAKER_03It's not pretty damn nice. What is that? Entertainment sports network? Eastern sports uh Entertainment Sports Network?
SPEAKER_04Entertainment maybe is it? Entertainment sports network or something like that?
SPEAKER_03I think I remember learning it was Eastern because their headquarters are in Bristol, Connecticut. And I remember I was like, well, as a kid telling my dad to be like, but they played on the West Coast, right? And he's like, yeah, yeah, it's just it's ESPN. Don't worry about it. ESPN. ESPN. But I might be wrong. I don't know. But go ahead, Doc. What you got?
SPEAKER_02Oh, hey, Ron. So uh I got a few more other questions for you. Okay. Front side late shove or a backside late shove.
SPEAKER_04I wish I had backside late shoves as the way I had frontside late shoves. Fair enough. That's respectful. You got one in Amy the other day. I wish I had backside late the way I had front sides. If I had backside, I'd be doing they're hard. But I there's a trick where you have to like Ollie and point your nose down and throw it, and then you get it every time.
SPEAKER_02I'll teach you.
SPEAKER_04Killer.
SPEAKER_02I don't know.
SPEAKER_04I need a coach.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, don't worry, man. I'm pre-charged to be honest. Okay. Pro bono. I'm doing this for the kids. You just gotta help me get out there.
SPEAKER_06It's for the children.
SPEAKER_00Right. Trick, look at the first one. That was a good one, too. I'm telling you. That was a good one. Favorite one-footer trick.
SPEAKER_04Ollie, Ollie North, the Ollie East, and the Ollie. Like now I can go Ollie and kick it to the other way. Or like back 180 Ollie 80. Yeah, Ollie North. I still like Ollie Norse. Yeah. I love that. I saw a little thing on Instagram the other day. They had the whole thing on Ollie Norse. That was dope. Everyone was chiming in. Hell yeah.
SPEAKER_02I used to do a crail grab and then let go and then do like a one.
SPEAKER_03Oh, damn, Slim. Yeah, yeah. You actually have an old clip of that at the old UNF hip. Yes, I think.
SPEAKER_02Over the hip? Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'll show you the footage when we take a break. And then um, are you more a fan of pressure flips or late flips?
SPEAKER_04Ooh, I like late flips. But pressure flips are sick.
SPEAKER_02I don't discriminate. I know. You grew up in the era where like those tricks were really coming up.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, remember pressure flips making your tail like angled?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. Super scrapies. So let me ask you this. I mean, I just in my I mean, I remember getting in skateboarding late 90s and early 2000s. There were no sh you were not riding a shaped deck unless you were an old man. Uh you know, like it was it was very street kind of oriented. Now it's pretty accepting, and I mean, especially you see all of these pros, I mean, you see some that you they could have been skating in the 80s, you know. I mean, then they're new cats, young guys. Yeah. I think it's really rad how all the tricks of the ages have kind of come together. What are your thoughts on like you've lived through every era? I mean, back in the 80s, were there like some faux pas tricks that you didn't do, and then in the 90s and you couldn't do those tricks, you know what I mean? Did it feel like anything like that? Well, there was always like I felt as a pro, you needed to know every trick.
SPEAKER_04Like you needed to do it, like that's I think from being around Jim Thhibo and like being around Jim, we had to learn everything. And he would come back from seat gating with Ronnie because he was on Powell, so we'd have stuff to show you. So you were just like, what did Ronnie do? Like, I remember he I remember he showed me that he called it the Ollie Flump. Okay, so he Ollie catch it with his front foot, flip it back. So he'd do a kickflip, catch his front foot, flip it back. He used to call it the Ollie flip. With his back, like with back heel. So you kickflip it, catch it your front foot, flip it back. He got the trick from Rodney, but he would call it an Ollie Flump. And I remember going, that's Rodney's trick. You're the only one that can do it, Jim. Like, it's so hard, you know. But he saw Rodney do it. And so I remember because he was on Powell, it was rad to like, to like, to like, I love skating with Jim. Like to this day, we always like talk about where we were, like, you know, we were just these dirty skaters just trying to make it, you know. Like, Jim used to come over my house every day after coffee to take a shit.
SPEAKER_03This morning. The morning, Deuce. Yeah. And right when that coffee hits you, you're like, oh, we gotta go. Yeah, and then we go skate.
SPEAKER_00What time it is, Ron.
SPEAKER_04It was so funny, man. Like, but that was just like he was like really good. Like him and Tommy were like motivating, really motivating, you know. Like, I like that about how it was, you know. A lot during the years, we just motivated everyone to want to learn. You know, like I want I felt like if you were saying you were pro, you should have at least 75% of all the tricks that are out, especially in street.
SPEAKER_02You know, I I love doing tricks that nobody else has done. Like that's not a story of my life. Yeah, because like because like I don't know, man, like my brain just works different. And so like I'll like look at something and I'm like, oh dude, I can do a gnali and then take my front foot and like foot plant it. Yes, that's it. Like just foot plant and just keep fucking rolling. And then like doing that shit, it's like I've never even seen anybody do that before.
SPEAKER_04Like, and that's that's most of the tricks that we do. Like, it's like you you you're not like that's what I think is rad about the 80s and 90s. Was that look like well I I say this about the 90s. The VX controlled skateboarding, okay? And the reason why the VX controlled skateboarding, because if you got a trick and you called your VX filmer, he would say, You sure you got it? And you're like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you know, I can't waste the tape. You know what I mean? Like, so and then you got the tape and you got 30 minutes to make it.
SPEAKER_06Ding, time's up.
SPEAKER_04You know what I mean? Like, and if you you never you couldn't record over him because it could glitch. Remember that? You know that. Oh, yeah. Record over. So we in the in that period, you kind of like the clock was on. Like you, you, you nowadays with digital, you could learn a trick while filming. I don't like to do that, but you know, you can do that. Oh, yeah. But back then, if you learned a trick while filming, your fellow would be mad at you because you went through four tapes. Dude, my dad's gonna totally ground me. You went through tapes. You know, you like you always had to keep, you know, you had to get your trick down. So you'd go do it, call the filmer, and then when you're doing it, you're actually doing it the second time because you're making sure he got because he's gotta get it. Oh yeah. I remember BX, I thought the BX did a lot to make like you got better from that, but it was a bit.
SPEAKER_02Less time. My homie Jeff, you used to always say he's like, You gotta do it two times in a row, otherwise it don't count.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, because it I on the footage, I can if you give me two, I can I can work with it. You know, like it was always the eight thing with A tree. Give me two so I can work with it.
SPEAKER_02Do it one time and then they start filming and go for it again. And my whole stuff. That's usually the best time to do it.
SPEAKER_04I always tell Ferrari says, Look, man, I'm old. I peep game on that. I'm gonna sit down and try once real hard. Real hard. We got like one. I'm gonna go real hard on this first one. And if it happens, it happens. But don't be thinking there are gonna be a hundred tries here. You know, those days, I make a joke, I have a hundred falls left. I have a hundred slams left at the fall bank. It's like a it's like a like a like a reserve. Right? I feel you. Then every time you hit the ground, blah, blah, you got 99. Yeah. Got 99 falls, and the trick ain't won.
SPEAKER_01You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_04Oh, hell yes. He wasn't. But it's but it's like, it's like you, those eras like 80s was more lackadaisical, do it if you want, film a part in a day. 90s got mad serious. So did the shoe game. Yeah. In 90s, the shoes came and the shoe game got hype, you know, and then when 2000 came, people got like a little bit more let kind of lay back a little bit. And then about 2010, man, it just it's it's got lit and it hasn't been put out since. Yep,
Olympics Debate And Real Risk
SPEAKER_04yep.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, especially with the expansion into the Olympics. What are your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER_04Well, you know, Olympics are an amateur. It's funny how okay, so we view the Olympics. They're supposed to be an amateur. See, we viewed the Olympics different now because back in the day after the Russians beat the Americans in basketball, we no longer sent college players, we sent the pros over, and we we made a statement due to the fact that, you know, we we're America, we don't want to lose. All right. So, you know, when I look at the Olympics, I'm like, you know, skateboarding isn't about that. Like it's losing, like a lot of skateboarders lose. I I'm I I've been like proud to lose.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Like I I got last place one time with Alyssa Steamer at Tampa and they gave us a last place trophy cut in two. Nice. And it was just like those types of things, like like skateboarding does things that other sports don't. Yeah. That's why it's not a sport. Because like that, it gives a trophy. Like Trampa, we give you a trophy for just showing up. We give you a trophy because you got last together with her. We put our trophy together, one to twin powers reactivate, last place. You know what I'm saying? So it's it's it's weird because the Olympics is an amateur thing. So when you see all the pros in it and they're all doing well, you're like, that's it's to me, it's like another pro contest. Yeah. So that's what I look at the Olympics as. And I know those guys get really they get really American fed. They get stupid, like, you know, like, I'm down for America, this is dope. But the way we got our we kind of got our asses handed to us this last time, we kind of kinda we have to really start to think like, is it like I think it's important and it's great, but contest, if we remember, let's cont I always say this contest or one day. Yeah, and then the next day.
SPEAKER_03Skateboarding's your whole life. Exactly. If you want it to be. It's the choice you gotta make. Yes.
SPEAKER_04And and so no disrespect to the Olympics. But I um part of me thinks they needed us more than we needed them. Exactly. Okay, and and um, no, like I said, no disrespect, but I mean, their body was having problems because politically they've had they've said some things and done some things, and if you look at what how these Olympics were and everything, so skateboarding man, we you look at the trends on social media, it's skateboarding and surfing and the snowboarding.
SPEAKER_03That's what on TikTok and Instagram and all these that people are just like engaging them, they'd be like, whoa. I mean, obviously, along with basketball and everything. Right, right, right. But I'm sorry, curling and track and field, it's not getting that stimulation. So you're 100% right. They needed us and the surfers and the snowboarders a lot more than we needed them.
SPEAKER_04Because what we brought was we brought that excitement, that fear, because skateboarding has excitement and fear. You're worried that the person's gonna die, but you want to see him make it. Then when he does, you're the exultant.
SPEAKER_03Half the fun is the inherent risk of participating in just you know in general.
SPEAKER_02Yes, every time you step out on a skateboard, you're like, you gotta have that realization, like this could be the last time.
SPEAKER_04Oh my god. We there was a guy, roommate of ours. He uh, you know, like my ma my friend Max, lead singer of the boneless once. Nice, had a roommate. We were at his house always kicking it. Roommate didn't come home. Whenever, you know, he's up. I met a chick, whatever. Mom comes like that Monday, says he got off bar on his board, it was wet, slipped, boom, hit his head.
SPEAKER_03Gone traumatic brain injury.
SPEAKER_04It's like fucking crazy gone. Like, like, and we were like, over, and like she's there to get his stuff and take and and it's like, whoa, dude, that's when, like, that's when you like you go, whoa, like I, you know, I fall so much and I don't even think about that. And then yet I I don't want to think about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And so I so I I train for that. So I train to get out of, like, for instance, if you see me fall on the rail, on the big rail that I tried and fall, there's two things that I did to save myself, which if I didn't train for, I would be dead. The first thing was that I was gonna nut. Once the board locked, I was going to nut. My right knee kneed the rail as hard as it could, which then made me flip over. If I don't knee that rail as hard as I can and I don't flip over, I'm nutting, rolling on my face, and then rolling back on the rail. So at the end, my knee hitting that rail, although it left a good little bruise on the old knee, it saved my whole program and they gave me that roll to get out. And so, and then part of the role to get out is when I went, I was having teeth work being done, and I got to the attent test.
SPEAKER_05Oh, you got teeth? Quit bragging.
SPEAKER_04He said, he said, you loosened all your teeth when you fell. Wow.
SPEAKER_06And I was like, I ain't got that many, bro. That's dope.
SPEAKER_04But I and I should say, I tried that railing. I tried that railing because at 59 years of age, I was at the skate park, and a lot of older guys were telling younger kids that they should try it. And I I was sitting there listening, and I kind of it kind of made me like not mad, but like I'm like, as older people, we're not here to like tell kids to go for it. We're here to show kids to go for it. Like it's not about telling them to go for it because you can talk that shit all day. It's leading the way. It's like if I'm gonna tell, if I say, hey, I'm gonna kick uh you want to kick flip this five stair and let me show you. Yeah. Because if I'm just come over here, kid, let me show, let me tell you how to do it. Nah, nah, like that's not how that works. I don't have the skills like that. You my skills are in showing you, not in telling you. Right. So these guys are telling these kids something, and I went to that, I said, you know what? I'm gonna jump on this railing, man. I'm gonna do this. This is for all everybody over fucking 40, man. Like, like, I'm gonna go for this because I'm gonna go for this for everyone who doesn't fucking go for it. That's I don't know why. I don't, the universe must have been talking to me that day or something, but I went there with the mentality that I'm it wasn't gonna show up the kids, it wasn't gonna try to be dope, but I was like, That one was for you, we go for it. Like, we go for it. I'm gonna go for it.
SPEAKER_03Skateboarding.
SPEAKER_04And when I fell and got up and was all, you know, it was like, oh man, you fell like so perfect, and I was like, yeah, it's dope, and I was fucked up. I remember I was jacked, and I went home, and my friend come off my friend come all from Boogin, Atlanta, he says, You were glazed. He's like, There's falls, you were glazed like a ham. Like a ham at Christmas. You were glazed. Brown sugar and all that. Because they were having the break free one day, having the break free at the skate shop, the one-year reunion. And me and Hungry and Sloth the filming, we kind of snuck on over there, and and then I came back and they told everybody what I had tried and showed footage, and everyone's like, You're fucking gnarly. And Tommy Guerrero says to me, I never understood what the fuck you think, man. I just said I just never understood. Like he goes, I don't understand you. I I I love you though. I love that you tried it. And like I go, I got hurt, Tommy. I go, someone gave me a cold tall beer, and I opened up my pants and put the tall beer where my thigh was hurting. Hell yeah.
SPEAKER_06And they're like, Yeah, they're like, you don't want to drink it? I go, I need the cool right now more than I need to drink.
SPEAKER_00Tell him about the wax story about how much wax you had to put on it. Oh my god. That I'll gotta go back and do it.
SPEAKER_02You know, cocoa butter is the same thing.
SPEAKER_04We would, we would we bricked it, sprayed it. Bradstabba gave me a big old piece of marijuana lead wax for it.
SPEAKER_03Hell yeah. Buttered that thing up.
SPEAKER_06Props to Bradstaba. Thanks for the wax.
SPEAKER_04Got it all juiced up. So I will we'll probably go for it again. You know, like I'm uh it there's a potential for some really good things to come in.
SPEAKER_02It's a rail.
SPEAKER_04It's uh it's a double set. So it's a double set, it's a four-flat four, or yeah, four flat four. And I'm what I'm getting. What I'm doing is I'm coming from the top. There's a brick, like a brick seat, and I'm coming from the brick seat, all in onto it, and then taking the rail through the kinks and then off.
SPEAKER_02So you're 50-50 in it?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, 50-50. Oh, yeah. Okay. And it's it's it's been it's like one of those things. Now though, I kind of know how to do it, which is crazy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, after you get broke off, you're like, it almost like I unlocked that thing in your mind. You're like, I figured it out now.
SPEAKER_04It's like I gotta be that switch is turned on. I gotta be dainty. I gotta be gentle. Yeah, like I was too, I was like, So Bruce Lee, Bruce Lee, be like Watt. I was I jumped on that. I like jumped on it, and it's like, no, no, we're not. It's a it's aluminum. You gotta just be that's that's how I skate.
SPEAKER_03I always jokingly say I'm like when you watch me skate, you can tell I'm trying hard. Because I'm like pumping through with all my speed, and when I Ollie and I landed, it's like I'll put it down. Like disaster the ramp, it's like boom, boom, boom. And if you're standing on the deck, you feel it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I might be skinny, but you know. I might be skinny.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I got a lot of physical gravity weight.
SPEAKER_03But hey, we've been talking for uh for over an hour now.
Game Time: Is It A Sport
SPEAKER_03Let's uh we're gonna play a quick little game. I'll run a little intro. Doc's gonna ask you a couple questions. The game is is it a sport? And so uh there's a there's a criteria that we'll go over, and uh you get to answer if you think it's a sport. Let's go.
SPEAKER_08Is it a sport? A sport or is it a game? Is it a game? Can you pull a muscle with a muscle? Can you break a sweat with a sweat? Can you break a bone?
SPEAKER_03So that's the criteria. Can you break a sweat? Can you break a bone? Yeah, but can you pull a muscle? But in the end, it's your opinion. And what you think? Is it a sport? So everybody's favorite game show host, Dr. Jones, take it away.
SPEAKER_02Well, hi here. How's everybody doing today? All right, well, I am your favorite game show host. Uh, my name is the doctor, uh, Chris with a K. If anybody don't worry about that, never mind. Anyway, so we have Ron Allen here, and we're gonna play Is It a Sport? All right, we'll start with the first one, the breaststroke.
SPEAKER_04The breaststroke. Like swimming? It's a sport, yeah. I mean, you jump in, gotta make that frog kick. That's his own sport. Breaststroke? Breaststroke.
SPEAKER_03I guess you can say swimming. Swimming would be the better. Swimming. Swimming.
SPEAKER_02Well, well, I didn't ask the backstroke, dude, just the breast.
SPEAKER_03Well, Ron Allen's telling you the breaststroke is a sport. It's a sport, breaststroke. Breaststroke. Okay, okay, okay, okay. What you got? What you got, doc?
SPEAKER_02Sex.
SPEAKER_04Can we have sex for the sport of it? Can we have sex for the sport? Hey. Can we have sex for the sport of it? Can we? Sisters bring your game to my court.
SPEAKER_05Yo.
SPEAKER_00Can you pull the muscle? I'm sure of it. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03You're definitely breaking a sweat if you're doing it right.
SPEAKER_06That's right. Hey, hey.
SPEAKER_03But I think the only bone you might break would be the uh, hey, hey, hey.
SPEAKER_06Hey, Jimmy. Hey, hey.
SPEAKER_03He was killing it.
SPEAKER_05He was.
SPEAKER_03So what do you say, Ron?
SPEAKER_05Sex? Is it a sport or a game? To some niggas, it's a game. I mean it's a sport.
SPEAKER_04To me. You know what? It is a sport. I'm 60. So the reason why it's a sport, man, you gotta train for it. Like you gotta train when you're over 50 to have sex for more than an hour because afterwards, you're just dust. You heard that. You heard that.
SPEAKER_06You heard dust. You know, like when you're when you're 30 years old, you get sex all day, dude. When you're 60, you're like, hold on, let's take a second. Take a break. I get a game. Water, water, water! Okay, we're gonna- Okay, then you go back in. Electro light up. Yes, hold on a second. I gotta breathe. Okay. Yeah, so it it's put me in the game, coach. Put me in. Put me in, coach.
SPEAKER_02I need off this bench. I don't like watching. Yeah, it's weird. I feel like a boyer. Okay.
SPEAKER_03All right, Doc, what you got next? Demolition Derby. That's a game. That's a game. Mm-hmm. All right. You heard it here first. Just a bunch of white trash people wrecking their old cars. Wrecking your grandma's being like, Can I borrow the Volkswagen?
SPEAKER_05Waste a lot of gas.
SPEAKER_03And probably good car parts that could be used for repairs. There it is.
SPEAKER_05Alright, skiing. Definite sport.
SPEAKER_03Alright, Doc, what you got? Golf.
SPEAKER_02Sport. That's a game, dude. If my grandmother and my mother are good enough shoot to play it. Oh, that's a true game.
SPEAKER_04But that's true.
SPEAKER_03That's true. It is a big game. But it is a game. But you do break a sweat. And you could pull a muscle, but could you break a bone? No. Unless you get run over by drunk on a golf car. Okay, yeah, it's a game. I think we're redacting that one. Golf is a game. It's a game.
SPEAKER_02And last but not least, everybody's favorite one, skateboarding. Sports or a game.
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna come off the board jack for 900.
SPEAKER_02Lifestyle. Yes. Yes, sir. We have a winner. It has been decided skateboarding is neither a sport game, but it is a lifestyle. That's right. If you heard it here first, and you know what? Life can choose us.
SPEAKER_04Lifestyle. No, it's it's a lifestyle, you know. It's like you like that's what I think is great about still like I I did it for like being proof. I still get love for it now.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, like the lifestyle that I learned from skateboarding is still with me now. Like, as far as some of the tricks are right. Like that the mentality that That I got from skateboarding, that lifestyle of like, I can do this. I can do whatever I put in my head to. I can if I decide to be back, yeah. Like if I if I like I just got this crazy job in the tech world, and I remember I was just like, I I I can do this. It's just like skating. I can just if I just stay with it, I can do it. Yeah. And so I the things I've learned from skateboarding have helped me in my life. So I guess that would to me be a lifestyle.
SPEAKER_03I completely agree. And I think uh, you know, like that's the main thing. I mean, there's people that skate and then there are skateboarders. Right. Yes. And the skateboarders are lifers. Yes. And it's a lifestyle.
SPEAKER_04And I and I think that nowadays, the reason why like I love I love the kids who are hardcore, but I also love the kids who like it, but will be hardcore after they go through some life stuff. Because you you have to go through some life stuff to go find that board. You know, you go through some life issues and you go, you know what, I'm gonna go skate, man. I I think I'm gonna get back with the boys and skate, you know. I'm gonna get back with my homegirls, you know. They still skate, I'm gonna go skate with them. And I think that's something that, you know, I will Fred Astaire at 75 years of age broke his wrist skateboarding around his Hollywood Hills home. 75. Hell yeah. And so I always think about that, and I go, Oh, I'm gonna beat that guy. Only 75 skating around my Hollywood Hill. No, but that's like he liked it because he said skateboarding was like dance to him and had blowing motion. It's a weird, yeah. But he was a dancer and he he liked to move.
SPEAKER_02You know what's weird, man? I poetry in motion. Totally. Uh I I've heard the name Fred Astaire, had no idea what the fuck he did.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he was like a dancer, yeah. Tap dancer and all that. Yeah, yeah. Actor dancer. And and then some of the. Go home and tell Nana you learned about it.
SPEAKER_04And then the rad thing about don't yell about Nana, bro. The rad thing about Fred Estare is that he he kind of incorporated his dance into his movies, which is like so him and this lady used to do these routines that would like take them years, like hours to make, and then they'd have to do it with the cameras on and do it right, because if you mess up, you gotta start over. So, like you were.
SPEAKER_03Back then they were filming it.
SPEAKER_04It was you didn't waste that film. Yeah, once again, it felt like the Bobby, they were 90s to us, you know. Don't waste the tape.
SPEAKER_03You know, so but he was an amazing human. Well, Ron, I gotta tell you, man, this has been an honor and a pleasure to have you sit
Where To Find Ron And Final Story
SPEAKER_03down with us. Oh we're gonna go ahead and wrap this up. If you want, go ahead and tell everybody where they can find you on social media. You know, if you have any info on when your the documentary about you is gonna be coming out, we definitely want to be making sure that we check that out.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I can be reached at Ron Allen Skate on Insta, Aiden Skateboards on uh Gmail. Aiden Skateboards at Gmail. And uh yeah, I'm I'm there's also uh MC Intelligence website if you want to check on some of the music stuff. And I you know, I'm just really stoked to still be able to be here and and I appreciate what you guys did, man. I you know, I I've learned that I have a story, but I didn't come into this game with anything like that. I came into this game ready to rip. You know what I mean? That's that's you know, and I'll I I'll end this with some of the funny like I'll end I gotta tell you guys a funny story, okay? And this is a not a funny story, but this is shows you my history and it makes me laugh. We'll decide that. Okay, when I was a kid, my dad used to love the California Angels. Right so he would I I did Rod Carew. I love the way he batted. Love the way Rod Carew held his bat, okay? And so he would go to the Angels game and he would drop me off at Concrete Wave Skate Park. And so I'd be at the skate park, and my dad would be at the Angels game, and when the Angels would end, they shut off the two lights, you know, in the baseball park, and you could see, so I knew my dad was coming. You see the Angels in the Outfield? Angels in the Outfield. I know Adrian Adrian, my friend, Adrian Adrian Brody's in that movie. Okay, so that was my homie. Um so I would always, you know, my dad would drop me off, okay, then my dad picked me up. Never thought anything of it. Go to the Powell public domain video premiere. Stacy Peralta walks up to me, it's Ron Allen. Hey Stacy, Stacy Peralta. He's like, Ron Allen, Stacy Peralta. He's like, I was your babysitter. I was like, what? Wow. He goes, your dad used to go to the Angels game and say, here's 20 bucks, keep an eye on little blackhead.
SPEAKER_07What?
SPEAKER_04And he goes, Damn, your dad used to give me 20 bucks. Keep an eye on because I at that time I was the only little blackhead. Yeah. So Stacy would, like, I'd be like walking out. He goes, where are you going? Nowhere. Hey, little guy, get back over here. Go back in there, work on your front sides. He went so fast. And so my dad would say, Well, what did he do? I said he told me to go back and work on my front sides. He just sat in a on a in a sat in a lawn chair and read like skateboarder mag. Like he was just sitting there, like reading. And like, like it was funny because years later, all of a sudden it's like, you were my baby's just you gotta pay, you didn't do much, but it was red, like that's super cool. That's my that showed you how deep in it I was without even knowing. Yeah, I mean, like I was just stoked that my dad was letting me skate.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_07And thought he was giving me all this independent, you know, I'd buy myself out there. Not at all. And it's like, no, you got someone watching you.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, you wanted to go to the Angels game.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and I was like, I sit there, like, I remember the wood flex team came through, Tom Anoia, um, Shogo Kubo. Oh, hell yeah. Such a little kid, I was just like, what?
SPEAKER_02Red of staircase trained on his dances there.
SPEAKER_03Oh, Doc, of course, got to come with the jokes. But I want to say thank you again. John, appreciate you for coming on. Everybody check out Adderolf Skateboarding. That's right. Big props and thanks to everything they do. Shoutouts to my boy, the doctor. The doc Dr.
SPEAKER_04Jones! We'll give you some updates on the surgery upcoming. Dude, I get that surgery going, man. I'll be there. I'll give you some soft food at the hospital.
SPEAKER_03And until next time, I'm Paul Walnuts. Peace, love, and skateboarding, everybody.
SPEAKER_04That's right.