Legacy Crew Stories: Rick Andrade

You can trace a skate scene through its spots, but you understand it through the people who built it. We sit down at Kona Skate Park in Jacksonville, Florida with Rick Andrade, a longtime skater born and raised in Austin, Texas, who started skating in the summer of 1986 and carried that energy everywhere his Navy career took him. From backyard mini ramps and ditch sessions to the influence of Bones Brigade and classic skate videos like The End, Rick explains why he always leaned toward going fast, going big, and making it look right. 

Then we get into the real Jacksonville skateboarding history: Skate Asylum days, Kona memories, road trips, and the DIY grind that turns a tight crew into something bigger. Rick breaks down how Legacy Skateboards comes together, from blank decks and hand-cut stickers to contests, demos, and the “Legacy crew” reputation that followed them across Florida. Along the way, we swap stories about growing up, getting hurt, finding balance, and what it feels like to return to skating after life shifts into marriage, kids, and a career that demands you move. 

We also nerd out on skateboard setups for anyone who cares about what actually works under your feet: board sizes, wheel sizes, OJ vs Spitfire vs Bones, Independent trucks, risers, and bushing combos that help you stay stable at speed. Finally, we tackle the big question about modern skateboarding media: did Instagram and instant clips “break” skateboarding around 2013, or did it open the door for more skaters and smaller brands to get seen worldwide? 

If you’re into skateboarding culture, skate history, Kona Skate Park stories, or the intersection of a military life and a lifelong skate habit, this one hits home. Subscribe, share this with a friend who still talks about VHS premieres, and leave a review so more skaters can find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And Legacy Crew Tease

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Hey, I'm Rick Andrade the Kid, and you're listening to Polly on the Pod with Polly Walnut and Dr. Jung.

SPEAKER_08 0:44

Hey everybody, it's your boy, Paulie. Get the fuck out of here. You know I got my boy on the phone with me, Dr. Jones. Dr.

SPEAKER_09 0:52

Jones!

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Dr.

unknown 0:53

Jones!

SPEAKER_08 0:53

What is good, my dear? Congratulations, my friends. What are you up to?

SPEAKER_10 0:59

Just chilling the crib, man.

SPEAKER_08 1:01

No doubt, no doubt. Yeah, I'm just trying to knock out a few things on the chore list. Just got home from work a few minutes ago and uh Yeah, you know, doing the damn thing. Um I hear you. But before we get into this, why don't everybody do what Joey Diaz does and uh like, comment, subscribe. We'd be hella stoked.

SPEAKER_09 1:18

I don't even think he does that.

SPEAKER_08 1:22

But yo, um, our guest this week, uh we've been piecing the legacy team back together one one uh one piece at a time, if you will. Uh one player at a time, and uh stoked for the uh the godfather of the legacy crew, Rick Andron.

SPEAKER_10 1:42

The mafioso himself, dude, the Don.

SPEAKER_08 1:45

Right? The Don. So uh he was he was able to link up with us. We recorded up at the uh legendary Kona Skate Park as always, and uh yeah man, hella fucking rad conversation. Um dude, super fun. Yeah, touched on a lot of things that that previous guests have have you know talked about different stories, kind of added to it. Um learned some new stories. I was about to say, learned a c heard heard a few new ones. Um Yeah, no, um and then we uh yeah, we we we at by the end of it we we continued to spitball and talk about getting the whole legacy squad that is still available in local um together for a whole legacy panel storytelling.

SPEAKER_10 2:39

Oh man, we got we got four. We need one more to come in, and I think it's on.

SPEAKER_08 2:45

Right on, right on. Well, hella stoked what you got planned for this weekend. Wait a minute. I know what you got planned for this weekend.

SPEAKER_09 2:52

So why don't you tell them what I got planned for this weekend? You're watching my dogs and my lizard.

SPEAKER_10 2:57

I'm gonna bring over poster notes so I can post where I put my balls on all throughout your house. Let you know, and they're not gonna be in normal places you suspect.

SPEAKER_08 3:09

Oh, yeah, I'm sure. I'll be like, how do you get to the top of the curtains? Uh yeah, no, because I was about to say I'll open up my closet and like take out a collared shirt a few weeks from now when I'm going to a formal dinner and there's like a post-it on the cot on the on the collar, or the lapel, if you will.

Bahamas Plans And Chaos Jokes

SPEAKER_09 3:25

In the pocket, right here. They didn't fit, but I made it work.

SPEAKER_08 3:30

There you go. Yeah, no, uh, me and the wife were headed back to the Bahamas. Uh super stoked.

SPEAKER_09 3:35

Quick trip, but uh I got real estate down there or something, dude.

SPEAKER_08 3:38

Soon enough, maybe. I don't know, goddammit.

SPEAKER_09 3:41

Didn't you tell me you bought a coconut tree or some shit or a plot of a plot of coconuts?

SPEAKER_08 3:45

No, we got homies down there. Um, I know people were actually uh kind of abandoning all of the tours and kind of touristy things that they present for you to do down there because we've been down so much recently that it's like we know what we want to do, where we want to go. They've got a big national park with these caves. Um, in for scuba diving, it's really epic because they've got a lot of blue holes that go down like hella deep.

SPEAKER_10 4:08

Um story of my life, dude. Every woman I've ever known.

SPEAKER_08 4:14

Yeah, no, but uh, we're just uh snorkeling, gonna take snorkel gear and uh and and and go walk. There's some caves that you can kind of hike through. It's uh the Lucayan National Forest or National Park.

SPEAKER_10 4:25

Um you buy some special goggles just so your nose fitted in them.

SPEAKER_08 4:30

Sure enough did, dude. I got a big old Guido Italian nose, buddy, and it's hard for me to wear a mask without any water leaking in. So I got that high-tech one where um you don't have to like you don't have anything in your mouth. It covers your it's the whole face mask and the and the snorkel comes out from the top, and it's got a little buoyancy plug that uh plugs it. So when you get when you hold your breath and you go underwater, it the snorkel end doesn't fill up with any water.

SPEAKER_10 4:57

Um some bitch can smell from the Bahamas if I didn't take his dogs out or not, I can feel it.

SPEAKER_08 5:01

You already know, Daddy. You already know. But anyway, man, um looking forward to the vacation. Actually, when this drops, I will be in the Bahamas, so um I'll still be at Paul's house.

SPEAKER_10 5:17

Uh everybody comment and contact me because I'll be the one holding it down. Yeah, you know, if anybody wants to talk to Jones, I'm probably gonna pay. I'll be the guy.

SPEAKER_08 5:27

There you go. Um without further ado, um, the one and only Rick Andrati.

SPEAKER_10 5:34

Oh man, you gotta I was gonna come in big, dude.

SPEAKER_08 5:36

What you got?

SPEAKER_10 5:38

Now everybody, I want you to welcome the man, the myth, the legacy, Rick Andrati.

SPEAKER_06 5:46

Let's fucking get it. Should be played at high volume.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Fucking attempt, people.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Okay, you throwing up the crazy crazy get the fuck out of here. You are poly on that.

Rick’s Origins And First Board

SPEAKER_08 6:32

Alright, hey everybody, it's your boy, Pauly. Look how you grown up, Paulie. And you know I got my boy, the Dr. Jones.

SPEAKER_09 6:39

And what's up, Doc?

SPEAKER_08 6:40

Hey, bro. And as promised, after the uh Travis Ochab episode, uh, we are piecing the legacy team history back together, one guest at a time.

SPEAKER_10 6:51

Would you say we're creating a legacy?

SPEAKER_08 6:53

Yeah, I mean, uh uh telling the legacy. The legacy continues with today's guest, Rick Andrati. Welcome to the show, my dude. Buddy. Thanks for having me. Pleasure to be here. Yeah, man. It's been a long time in uh in the making, if you will. But uh before we get into all of that, for those who don't know you, um tell them a little bit about yourself. Like how old are you, where are you from originally, and uh where did you start skateboarding? You know, what age, where did you start skateboarding?

SPEAKER_10 7:18

You can be a woman and lie about your age.

SPEAKER_04 7:22

I'm 26, no. Yeah, I'm 21, 41 times. So uh Rick Andrade stats. Um born and raised in Austin, Texas. Hell yeah. I'm 48 years old. I'll be 49 in July.

SPEAKER_05 7:37

Get the fuck out of here.

SPEAKER_04 7:38

Really, bro. Yeah, I'm calling.

SPEAKER_10 7:41

He looks younger than both of us. I was about to say he's got them Joey Dia genetics, bro.

SPEAKER_04 7:45

Yeah, so uh I'm originally from Austin, Texas. Uh started skating in the summer of 86. So I want to say it's like my sixth grade, going into seventh grade, summer middle school, summer, yeah. Yeah, you know, elementary, and you know, in Texas, we had seven and eighth grade. It was called junior high school back then, yeah. Middle school as it is now. So yeah, I started skating back then. Nice. What was your first board? Uh my first real board was the uh Perwillander Boneite. Oh, second. Yeah, so it was kind of a hand-me-down from a neighborhood kid, because that's the one who I kind of want to say started skateboarding for me. Um I think it had like some old school tracker trucks, it had the copers on them, and I remember the the OJ2 team riders back then. Hell yeah. Like the those type of wheels on it. And then my first real skate shop board. I got at the uh skate shop there in Austin. Let's go skate. The guys lived caddy corner from me. Hell yeah, shout out to them. So they yeah, so that's kind of where my mini ramp days started was in their backyard because I had a six-foot plywood mini ramp, 12 feet wide, right on. So go to skate shopping out there, then you know, go home and just roll up to their house, and you know, a bunch of older dudes, you know, skate shop workers, and they kind of went on from there.

SPEAKER_08 9:14

Hell yeah, I guess that's how how it always happens, how it happened for I feel like all of us, where you know, you just kind of meet some older dudes, and then they that's you know, they take kind of take you under your wing and that you learn what a session is, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_10 9:25

Like they make fun of you really hard. Oh, the hate.

SPEAKER_08 9:29

Oh, yeah, you gotta earn your key for sure. For sure. But uh definitely nothing like it. Um are you regular or goofy? Uh I am goofy footed. Hell yeah. Um if you had to pick frontside or backside, I would say frontside. Hell yeah. Really? Got a favorite frontside trick?

SPEAKER_04 9:45

Uh I would say if I had a favorite frontside trick, it would be a front side five-o to tell. Interesting. For me, okay. Because again, that's a fun one. I I don't go as big, but I still go fast. Hell yeah. I can't go big. Preach, preach, young kids don't know this. Yeah. Once you get over that 45 mark, you know, it kind of hurts when you fall, takes days to recover.

SPEAKER_10 10:09

And you gotta tell me. Yeah, and I was about to say, depending on how your cards are dealt, and I mean bugging Chris is over here.

SPEAKER_08 10:16

I'm still on crutches. Yeah. But he's moving around a lot better. Yeah, that's good. For sure. Um, switch or uh faky. I would go faky.

SPEAKER_10 10:25

Hey yo, okay, I like that.

SPEAKER_08 10:27

Kick flip or heel flip? Kick flip. All right. Street, park, or both. I would say all terrain. Hell yeah. Um favorite skater growing up? Oh.

SPEAKER_04 10:38

I was about to say, I'm gonna assume it's gonna be a Texas guy, but you know Well, I mean, growing up in Texas, I don't want to assume we had Jeff Phillips, Mike Crom, Mark Roach, all those guys from the DFW area, skate park of Houston. So you had David uh what was his name back then? I can't think of the name off the top of my head, but those Houston guys, we had some locals there in Austin. Kelly Byrd is straight local out of Austin.

SPEAKER_08 11:04

Yep, hell yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:05

Um some other ones, but growing up for me, it was a Bones Brigade. I mean, everybody's was Bones Brigade back then. So that was that era, you know.

SPEAKER_06 11:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:15

Bones Brigade. Hell yeah. Um, I want to say Krishna Soy, Sneakab back then. Um didn't did like a lot of the the hard chargers, the Salba, Malba, yeah, for sure. The legends. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 11:30

A lot of Christ grinds. Yeah. You mean airs? Yeah, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_08 11:36

Um so uh let me ask you this. If you were you got a favorite video part?

SPEAKER_04 11:41

I'm assuming you said Bunge Brigade, probably something from uh you know, it's like watching the in search for animal chin video back then and those type videos, but that's red. I want to say my my favorite skate video is the end.

SPEAKER_10 11:56

Oh Tony Hall.

SPEAKER_04 12:00

It's just the way they put that video together with Keith Kirchard and the street skating,

Favorite Videos And Style First

SPEAKER_04 12:05

Brian Sunner, the soundtrack, buck skating in there, like everything. It it's that to me is my my top number one, and then my second one would be H Street Shackle Me Knot. Hell yes. Oh shit, yeah, dude. And maybe some streets on fire and some wheels on fire from that, you know, from nice like era, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 12:28

Hell yeah, man. I love that. Um, definitely some good videos. Yeah, the end, man. I remember watching that for the first time, and yeah, that was definitely a jaw dropper. You're the first one to for to you know say that was your answer. So that's kind of like, hell yeah, that's a good one. I almost kind of forgot about it, you know?

SPEAKER_10 12:42

Yeah, there's been so many because that's the part Heath fucking got dragged in by the van and did uh front lip down in El Toro and everything, too.

SPEAKER_08 12:48

Yeah, and then the one at the end when they uh they when they caught themselves on fire too and they ran off the road off the pair. It was just like it was the whole video was just like epic.

SPEAKER_04 12:56

It seemed like on another level. Bucks Bucks part where he's always number two, number two, number two, and it goes through that whole Tony Tony Tony, and it's like all you know, he's they're making him portray that whole number two spot, and then he finally just kicks in and it's all him. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 13:13

He had like they would have the gap, like the like the vert ramps, like with a like gap between them. Yeah, inside the arena. Yeah, he would come over and like you know, he'd grind the gap, or he'd fight for the gap, or even did the front invert on it, didn't he? Yeah, I think so, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and like then they had the Jeep and that, and then just Bucky just came through and just dude, Nolly flipping the tail slides and dude.

SPEAKER_08 13:35

Oh yeah, yeah, they didn't say so. Uh um, let me ask you this, you know, because kind of from that, you know, just growing up in that era, bonus, if you will. I mean, were you more kind of drawn to like the Tony and the more kind of technical tricks, or were you like more Hussoy? I was more Hassoy. Yeah, like the bit, like just go big, go fast, and look stylish.

SPEAKER_04 13:57

Coming up through skateboarding and coming from that era, it's always been that type. Go big, go high. I'm not a big tech. I got a couple flip tricks in my bag, you know, to this day at my age. That's all I still got. But like going big back then was like the the best thing I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_08 14:18

Yeah, and it was like if you're gonna do something though, make sure it looks good. Yeah, like do it with style. Style always matters. That's what she said. But but yeah, yeah, right. I'm just kidding, she never said it. But but but I also, you know, just always related, you know, just because I'm a tall guy, and every time I would see footage of myself skating, I'm like, why do I look so awkward? You know, so it was like I related to kind of the taller guys.

SPEAKER_10 14:40

I gave that Sasquatch a board.

SPEAKER_08 14:42

Yeah. Like I could have been down real low for that center of gravity.

SPEAKER_10 14:46

Hey Rick, I gotta admit, man, one of the favorite things that I've ever seen you do since I was a kid growing up, man, is your like your backside Ollie North on mini ramps to just smash in your back tail and come in. Because it's like you just you blast it, you just float that ollie north, and then you bring it back last second and just come right back in. And it's always been one of my favorites, man.

SPEAKER_04 15:06

I like that trick, but I learned it on accident. That is it was almost like a backside. Uh I was going for a backside disaster one foot. Yeah, yeah. And then for some odd reason, it kicked a tail, and so I was like, whoa, and I've just perfected it. Yeah. And I actually got it on vert, too. So that was like one of my tricks in my bag in on vert rant, was that. Hell yeah. Dude, that's so rad. When was the last time you skated Vert? Ooh, I want to say the last time I skated Vert was it's been quite a long time. Yeah, it's been a little while for me. Like I skated the combi in California because I was, you know, I was in the Navy and I was stationed out there. Hell yeah. And when we moved from the East Coast back out, or from the West Coast back out to the East Coast, we took, you know, we went up north and saw the redwoods and we went through LA. Oh, yeah. One of the things was, oh, I'm gonna skate to Combi before I move out of California. Do that. So we went to the vans park, yeah. And you know, me and my son, we went and I got skate to combi, and that thing is a beast. I mean, standing in standing in the deep end on the flat and looking at the walls, it's like, oh, and I'd say I got below tile in that thing, because it is so massive. And when you watch the the the van's pro uh contest that they had at the combi, yeah, and you see those airs that are coming out of the thing, you don't you cannot fathom how big that bowl is. Dude, big tranny, big air for sure.

SPEAKER_10 16:37

Yeah, too, and nose grunts around the corners there and shit, too.

SPEAKER_04 16:39

It's and then and then the gap, the clear the gap to gap right over you.

SPEAKER_10 16:43

Yeah, yeah. Who who did that? That was um oh god damn it. Uh it was uh it it just happened

Vert Memories And Navy Moves

SPEAKER_10 16:50

uh a few years back, but it was oh god damn it. I can't think of his name. I'm gonna Google it. We'll get back to this.

SPEAKER_08 16:55

Yeah, I can't think of his name right now either. Um let me ask you, when did you uh when did you move to Jacksonville? Was the Navy brought you here?

SPEAKER_04 17:02

Yeah, so I I'm a Texas transplant, so I'm like some of the other peeps that you've had on your show, like Julian. I knew Julian and VB. Oh yeah. I was stationed up in VB.

SPEAKER_06 17:12

Oh, cool, cool.

SPEAKER_04 17:13

So right on. Yeah, I joined the Navy and then straight out of high school, I'm in Virginia, and I met that's where I met Julian, Trey Winslow, Serge Ventura, all those guys. So I met all of them, and Kyle Barrard back then was he was little. Yeah. Like he was a little guy. So we go to session, and Kyle was doing everything below coping back then. Yeah, just Grom style, like just Grom style, but I mean, he's his dad was all into it, and you know, Kyle came up, and then I moved from there in '96, came down here, and the first park I went to was skate asylum. Like I already been to Coney a couple of times in Road Trist, but I I started out skate asylum, and I that's where I met Steve Buchanan, you know, rest in peace for him.

SPEAKER_08 17:59

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:59

Uh Buck and all those guys, and Lep, Stewart from Truck Stop. Yeah, yeah. So I met all those guys, and then Stokes, and then you know, you had Myth, Beast, you had Hulk back then, Flatline, the Corey Brothers, like all those peeps that you've already heard through other podcasts from other guests. Yeah, those are the same crew that I I got mixed up in at Skate Style. It's a good crew to get mixed up with, bro, for sure. So it was it was kind of cool because it's like I would show up, we'd have good session, you know, party or whatever, road trips, go here, go there. And then no one really asked me what I did for a job except for the older guys. They're like, oh, you're different. Yeah, they're like, hey, what do you do for a living? Oh, I'm in the Navy, so it's kind of like you know, some people are kind of cool about it. Some people are like, Oh, you're in the Navy, so you're like one of those fucked up, you know, sailors that go through here, you know.

SPEAKER_06 18:52

Yeah, are you like or like how serious are you? Are you like a cop? Do I gotta be worried about you?

SPEAKER_10 18:57

Like this guy's a cop.

SPEAKER_04 18:59

What level of trust do we have here? Exactly. So, you know, and but I grew up in that skateboard family, you know, and it's nothing changed. It's just I didn't indulge myself in the extracurricular activities. Yeah, obviously, yeah, you know what I mean. You know, because I had a government job.

SPEAKER_08 19:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Gotta do what you gotta do. Yeah, more adult than some of us at that age, so good for you.

SPEAKER_04 19:19

I won't say I wasn't an adult so much at that, but I had a job responsibility that I knew. So but I still partied with everybody back then and you know, the road trips and contests, a little bit of champagne.

SPEAKER_03 19:31

Yeah, the the whole, you know, what do they call them?

SPEAKER_04 19:34

Soda breaks, the soda breaks, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I partook in all that, you know, and it was good, it was a good time.

SPEAKER_10 19:40

So hey Rick, I want to ask you a question. So you went from owning your own company called Legacy to becoming a dad and starting your own family and truly creating your own legacy. Your thoughts?

SPEAKER_04 19:51

So yes, interviewer Jones coming in hot. So so this y'all you've had Tim on, you've had Travis on,

How Legacy Skateboards Started

SPEAKER_04 20:00

yeah, we've had Paul on, yeah, and we're all on. We're in the talks with Stokes. Yeah, and Stokes. So the the way Legacy all started was it was a core group of us that always sessioned together. So no matter what park, we are always together. So it's me, Tim Johnson, Travis O'Chaab, uh Toothless, Carl Landon, Stokes, Eric Beltree. Yeah, he got his yeah, he's got his stuff going on. Wish him the best for what's going on in his life. Um and I had the truck stop that's I got hooked up with LEP. So that's the pre-years of truck stop when truck stop first started, is when Legacy started as well. Because it was like, you know, I see myth, I see Bees, Flatline, like I see those guys, but there wasn't a team of those type of core skaters that we had within those names. Like Legacy was just that, it was just these older guys with a couple younger kids in there that we just had fun sessioning. So we just, you know, it was we talked about it ripped. And I was just like, you know what? I being from the being from Virginia and knowing some of those peeps up there, and then I started making phone calls, and it was funny because I had hookup through truck stop as a marketing manager. I would call companies to send us product for the truck stop parties, yeah. And so I knew people, and one of the people, one of the guys I knew that would send us product from Syndrome back then, Zorlac, you know, FKD Baron Syndrome, was one of the twins, Rod James. So Rod James and his brother, they they're from Virginia, where I knew them when I was stationed in Virginia, skateboarding. I met them up there, skating Potomac Mills, vans. Shout outs to the Navy for the networking they did in your skateboarding life.

SPEAKER_08 21:51

They had no idea what they were helping you with.

SPEAKER_04 21:55

It was kind of cool because now I'm you know, I'm doing this side gig with with Left. With truck stop. And so it was like, hey, Rod, you know, you sent us product, you know, I'm I'm looking to start my own skateboard company. What can Syndrome do for me? It's like, oh, I'll send you some shapes, you know, we'll hook you up. I'll be your guide to, you know, your sales rep for your boards here. Just send us your graphics. We'll take care of you, your family from the East Coast, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was like, all right. So we started out small. It was, you know, my money, my project money. Right. And it was basically the first set of boards we got was all just blanks. So I had legacy stickers printed up local at like one of the fast print Kinko's things off Bay Meadows Road. Right. And Phillips Highway. You know, I went in there, gave them the artwork, and they back then it was just a roll of like a thousand stickers. So I you had to cut every single sticker. Oh, yeah. I remember, I remember getting some of those.

SPEAKER_10 22:50

I had to do that for Peterson when he first got the block, print the block, did cut two thousand stickers.

SPEAKER_04 22:54

Yeah, and that's what we did. We got, you know, we cut them with the scissors and then found a company here local to do the print the shirts and then the hats got embroidered. And so we started skating syndrome blanks with legacy stickers on the bottom until we got the first print. Oh, yeah. So we were, you know, we were a team. We start going to contests, start doing these demos, you know, showing up at parks, doing road trips, got involved in the Burning South series that Jay Turner down at Central Skate Park now. He does anchors, anchor skate supply down south. So it was kind of like what Aaron Mullen said on your show. He was like, We're gonna qualify at everything for Crown, right? That's what Legacy was doing. We were going to every Burning South series contest, and it was the same. It was like one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, top ten, top ten. So we were qualifying at all these contests, and everybody knew who we were when we showed up. It's like, oh, the legacy cruise here again. It's like, oh, the crown cruise. Like you saw the same people at every contest. Oh, yeah. And but it was all Florida homegrown companies. Oh yeah. You know, and same thing, Deep South. You look at the Deep South guys, you know, Rob Aaron back in the crown days, Deep South, BC, all those dudes from you know the west coast of Florida, Mobile. Yep, yep. Like all those guys. So it was and then it got we started more advertising. We started getting boards in local shops. You know, we had them out at Skate Utopia. You remember Dave Kolosh? Oh, yeah. Had that had Skate Utopia out in almost Middleburg. What? I was middleborn, yes. Back then, Orange Parks. Yeah, I'd never been there, but I'd not heard about it yet. So yeah, he was he carried our boards and then Board City back in the day would carry our boards. Um the other Chris Jones. Uh the other one.

SPEAKER_10 24:41

There's not another one. There will never be anything.

SPEAKER_04 24:44

There's another Chris Jones ex-skate boarder too.

SPEAKER_03 24:46

He still skates, older guy.

SPEAKER_10 24:47

I just apologize.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

Older guy, part of my generation. It's probably Chris with a CH.

SPEAKER_08 24:51

It's definitely a Chris with a CH shoot. He knows what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_10 24:54

Yeah, I can heard I heard it because he didn't say it with a K, so I knew I could tell where there's a K and a C H.

SPEAKER_04 24:59

So it kind of it just kind of got big. Yeah. And you know, when we're we're rolling down to Pembroke Primes, Miami to do demos with my dad contests and stuff like that. People are taking us out. The team manager, you know, the skate park manager's taking us out down to Miami, club in. We're you know, we're getting rock star treatment. Yeah, we're getting and it was just shocking because you know, we're rolling in my cavalier back then. So what year is what year is this? This was from see, I think we initially started it. Let me see, 96. I got here, 98, 97, 97 to about 2000. So how hard did how hard did my party? That's what that was the run.

SPEAKER_10 25:41

How hard did my party or my dad party? Because I can, you know, so I can realize what happened back then. I don't know any of those stories. Yeah, you know, he's Chris with a C and

Miami Demo Night And Bar Drama

SPEAKER_10 25:50

I'm Chris with a cage.

SPEAKER_04 25:50

Yeah, there's there's there's a lot of good partying. Um there's this one, I can tell you one because this involved Travis, prior, prior, uh, prior guest on your show. We go down to Miami, we do a demo down there, and uh the first night, it was a two-day demo. So we go down there the first night, and it's me, Tim, Dan Ahara, which now lives in Canada, but he actually won Tampa Am on a legacy board when he won Tampa Am, it was on legacy board. Then he turned pro, gets on the Vanswarp Tour, does that deal. Yeah, yeah. Um, he was there, Eric Veltry, and Travis and some other peeps. And uh we go down there, we do this demo in a strip mall. So we show up in Pinbook Primes at a strip mall.

SPEAKER_10 26:34

I stripped at a mall one time.

SPEAKER_04 26:35

Is there like a skate shop in the strip mall? So you remember skateboard house? Yeah, yeah. Okay, so it was like that, but it was bigger. Sweet. So we we rolled up in there, and my buddy that set it up, uh Brent, he his first name's Brent, but he was a he was Wally. We called him Wally here. He was a fruit booter back then. Sweet. He he rode he rode for Skate Utopia and Dave Kalash. Bro, some of us had an evolution in gnarliness. So he was the one that set it up because he moved down there and he was like, oh, you know, they want to promote the park, they want to get people and teams down there. Yeah. He called me up, and you know, we went down there and we showed up. We met the park manager, the park owner, and the park manager, I forget his name, but he kind of reminded me of Sal Masakela. He was a black dude, he was real cool, you know, all kind of like Sal back in the early. We do the demo, they get us to our hotel, and then they're like, All right, we'll give you about an hour and a half shower, you know, and stuff. We'll come back and we'll take you out to eat and we'll take you out on the town. On us, we're like, what? So we're like, yeah, cool. So, you know, they come back, they get us, we follow them in my car, and um we eat at some Mexican side restaurant, and then we start walking down Miami, you know, area.

SPEAKER_10 27:51

South Beach?

SPEAKER_04 27:52

Yeah. So we're we're hitting all these spots up, and we go to this one bar that they the park manager knew the people. So, you know, we get in, they take up the VIP, you know. They're like, oh, right this way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. How old is that kid? Travis come behind the velvet ring. Travis is the youngest one in our team. That boy's 17, bring him on in. He's not of legal, no age, and he knows this, but you know, I'm gonna call him out. But because, you know, that was back then. It was it was one of those things. Hey, we've all done them, all done those things, bro. So we've all been there. We're we'll we're partying. Um, they have pool tables. So me and Tim like to shoot pool. We used to love in Airbnb. Love to shoot pools. Oh, he still does.

SPEAKER_10 28:28

Tim's still does.

SPEAKER_04 28:29

We go down there, we're shooting pool. Dude pulls out money, right? And starts, he wants to start playing for money. Tim does? No, this guy, this local shop owner. No, no, just the local guy at the bar. At the bar. Because you know, he's we're people are putting their money up to play the next game. Right, right. Right, and me, me and Tim are just running the table as as doubles, right? I mean, you already said. So now he's got to come in with a little bravado, a little flashes. Like, now he's been sitting there, so he rolls up, puts the money on the table. I was like, bro, I don't think you want to do that. You don't want these problems. He's like, he's like, we can take them. He's like, no, I don't want to play doubles, I want to play singles. He's like, I want to, I want to play you. So he's pointing at me. Oh, yeah. Well, I thought I he he, I guess he thought that one, I was the weakest link, but two, I had a little bit too much to drink.

SPEAKER_08 29:14

Yeah, so he thought shit was sweet and he was about to run it. He was about to, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:18

So I was like, all right, so I put my money up. I think it was like 50 bucks the first game. So we were like, okay, cool, it's reasonable. Yeah, I'll spot the 50. So we play, he loses. So then he was like, You want to go double or nothing? So I'm thinking this guy's a sharp. He's pulling me in, right?

SPEAKER_08 29:33

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He gave me one to gain more, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:36

And now all these other people are starting to show up. They're bringing us pictures of beer, you know, and everybody and Eric Velcher's there.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

Travis is like, he's like, Yeah, Rick, you know, he's all going off.

SPEAKER_04 29:47

He's like root, you know, rooting in the background. So I was like, Yeah, cool, we'll go double or nothing. Dude loses. Oh, shit. And then he starts to pull his his money off the table. Oh no. Oh, yeah. Oh no. Oh no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So at this point, remember Was he in there with the crew or solo? No, he was in there with a couple dudes, too. Okay, okay. But when I when he pulled the money and didn't want to pay me, that's when I was like, and I was feisty back then, bro. I mean, I I I owe a lot to my wife, Trisha Andrade. Thank you very much for for coming in my life. But I'll tell you right now, I was I I'd love to fight. I feel you, brother. So and now now we're in a bar in in Miami, South Beach area, and we're non-locals. We're skateboarders, we're dressed like skateboarders. You know, yeah, yeah. And this dude doesn't want to pay me the money that he just lost to me. So then I'm like, you're gonna pay, or you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna pay. You're gonna get one way or another. So there's not no other option. And now Tim, you know, Tim's a scrapper too. Tim's a black man, you know, we all know how Tim can be, so he's all like, I got your back, Rick. Fuck this motherfucker. But I actually I I hit the dude with the pull stick. Yes. And Travis didn't have no idea what was going on. So you hit the dude with the pool stick? Yes. To get my money, and then, you know, so the bouncers come in, they start breaking it up, they kick the dude out because, you know, one of the things.

SPEAKER_08 31:19

You started shit. Yeah, you put up money, you didn't pay. Yeah, and he didn't pay.

SPEAKER_04 31:21

So I ended up getting the money, they kicked the dude out. We go back up, the guy, you know, the bar owner and the park manager, they they kind of settled everything out. I was like, all right, cool, I'm cool, dude. I just wanted my money. I'm sorry, you know, whatever. You guys want some chicken wings? So we go up into the VIP, and the VIP was straight up in the middle of the bar. There was a set of stairs, you turned a corner, you turned left, and there was an open loft. That was what they called their VIP. So we're all up there, you know, we're drinking, we're partying, we're having a lot of. Could you kind of look down on the bar? Yeah, we could look down and see the pool tables and the little dance floor they had, DJ and everything. So you could see everything. Right, right. So it was time for us to roll out because we had the demo the next morning. So we were like, all right, it's time to roll, we're gonna go. Now, what time would you say this is? It is, it must have been like one o'clock in the morning. Nice!

SPEAKER_07 32:10

Nice.

SPEAKER_04 32:10

So like the ripe point of the night, right? So Travis turns that corner and misses that first step. Oh, naturally, and he goes down all these stairs. And we're all like, oh my god, dude, we're we're trying to get down the steps, we're missing a couple, but you know, we're still on our feet. We're sliding down, doing the skateboarder. I got the balance, you know. I'm sliding down.

SPEAKER_03 32:36

And we get to the bottom and we pick them up. We're like, dude, are you guys like, man, I'm I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm there's nothing broken, I'm good. Just my ego. Yeah, yeah. So there's a job. So now we have shout out, Travis, nothing but love, brother.

SPEAKER_04 32:49

So now we have to get back to the hotel. I've done much worse. I'm in no condition to be driving, right? Or maybe you're in the right condition to be driving. I think we picked who was the most sober to drive my car to follow the Wally and the park manager back to the hotel because we didn't know our way around. This is before uh GPS on everybody's.

SPEAKER_08 33:08

Like people don't realize back in the days. You had to follow somebody.

SPEAKER_07 33:11

Yeah, there was no Google Maps.

SPEAKER_08 33:13

That's like when Travis showed up with a scrapbook. I was like, this is awesome! Like I get to explain to my children what a scrapbook is.

SPEAKER_04 33:20

So yeah. I'm I just remember that night hanging my I'm in a cavalier, a two-door 96 green cavalier. That was my ride back then. Yeah, Chevy Cavalier, not big vehicles, two doors, the green lantern just sliding on by. Yeah, six people piled up in that thing, and I'm hanging out my the window, yakking on my car on the way back to the hotel.

SPEAKER_10 33:49

That shit'll buff out. That shit'll buff out.

SPEAKER_04 33:51

So we we make it back to the hotel. I I we all wake up the next day because the Wally shows up at our hotel and is like, bro, y'all need to, y'all need to get up and get to the park. So we're like, okay, we don't remember how to get there. We get all our stuff, we check out a hotel, we get back in the car, and when I go to put my stuff in the trunk, I'm looking at my car and I'm like, what the fuck is all over the side of my car?

SPEAKER_03 34:15

And they're like, and Tim's like, oh bro, you were blowing this night coming back from the hotel. Yeah, oh you man, you were so fucked up.

SPEAKER_04 34:25

And it was like, man, and he's like, and there's another time where Tim was like that when I knocked myself out at Skate World on the the big vert quarter in the corner. Yeah, oh I know what you're doing. I had I come across that box and I hit it and my board slide out, and I hit it like perpendicular to the ramp, so my head knocked, and I did a helicopter spin onto my back, and I didn't get up. And Tim comes over there and I come to, and all he's saying is kissing me on the map. He's like, Rick, bro, wipe your nose, bro. There's chicks looking at you. You you you have boogers blown out all over your face.

SPEAKER_03 35:04

And I'm like, hey, shout out Tim Johnson for being a realist, dude.

SPEAKER_07 35:09

So Tim's trying to do you a solid tongue. He's like, no, there's girls here, bro.

SPEAKER_03 35:13

He's like, bro, everybody's everybody looking at you, and you got boogers all over your face. So it's the only two times that I've ever been that that worse where Tim Johnson of all people was right there going, clean yourself up, or let me do it for you. That's fucking great.

SPEAKER_04 35:29

Or you did that, you know, that was your mess. And so those were those were good times. We had good times with legacy guys. Oh, dude. And then it just it just went out on its own.

Injuries, Growing Up, Family Life

SPEAKER_04 35:40

But you know, that was about 2002, 2003 time frame, and that was the same time like I had my ankle surgery. I was coming out of rehab, I was still from a broken ankle, yeah. Previous broken ankle, another another surgery, and then I was doing the truck stop stuff, mainly concentrating on that with Lep. And I had met my wife at the time. She was my girlfriend, so I met her at that time. So it was kind of like she was kind of one that kind of steered me straight.

SPEAKER_10 36:09

Made you a good man.

SPEAKER_04 36:10

You know, I feel your brother. And so it was kind of like, okay, and you know, cut back on the drinking, you know, some you know she I grounded you. Well, yeah, but at the same time, I I I was I got ordered out of here. I went to Virginia for a year, came back, then went from Virginia to Mississippi. So I was an instructor at my service school in Mississippi. We're in Mississippi, like Meridian. Meridian, Mississippi, right down the road. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then I met I lived in Mobile for like two years. So you know that area. Yeah, yeah. So I met some of the local guys out of uh Jackson, the Dock 36 crews, brazen skateboards, and those guys in that area, and then the Hammond guys. I met the NOLA guys all from there. Oh yeah. And BC? Yeah, well, BC had already known from being in Florida and Jacks during that time. So she made the move out there. We started living together, and then from there, you know, this is not the well, it is public knowledge if people know how we met, but and you know, but we ended up getting pregnant and we got married. My son was born thereafter. He was born in Mississippi, and so still doing Navy thing, and then come back to Jacksonville, and that was in 2007. And so then now I'm back here, got a kid, now I'm senior in the Navy, so it's kind of like, oh shit, I gotta concentrate on my career, got a kid now, you know, and that whole grow up kind of happened. But I was skating on the weekends and you know, getting old man jammed sessions. That's when Emerson uh was just now coming around. Back well, it's it was a little bit before that. Right. But Monument got St. Augie.

SPEAKER_08 37:54

Yeah, we started getting a lot more parks around here. That's what I tried to explain to some kids. Like, man, when I first started skating here, like we There was nothing here. Yeah, there was there was like you had Backyard, Kona, yeah, skate asylum, it seemed like yeah, skate world, that was it for a long time then skateboard house like.

SPEAKER_04 38:10

And I I did a I did a park manager gig at skateboard house with the Allen twins and rookie and chip, Southworth. Uh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I did did managing there and saw some tours come through there. But I mean, without the Navy in my background, I I don't think I'd actually be where I was in skateboarding or even have a piece of legacy skateboards at any point because uh the Navy helped that happen. Hell yeah. Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_10 38:36

You know, and I am um to say that I'm American.

SPEAKER_04 38:40

To say where I'm at today is because of the Navy. Yeah, it's true. You know, 48 years old, I'm retired from the Navy. I did 28 years, you know. But that pension check I would like to I got a retirement check from Uncle Sam. Hey, brothers.

SPEAKER_07 38:51

Yeah, no, and and thank you. Thank you for your service. Thank you for serving our country, man. For real.

SPEAKER_08 38:55

But uh I I come from a like a family of mainly army, you know, like uh veterans, but uh no, big, big, big support for the troops and appreciate your service for serving. Yeah, yeah. You know, it was a job to me.

SPEAKER_04 39:08

You know, that's how I saw it, it's like a job, but I still had my life outside of my uniform. So it's kind of like some people can't detach from that, but I was able to because of my skateboarding family. And the funny thing is, is that when I came back and after retirement, it's everybody has grown up, they're all families, like everybody's married, kids, family, got shit, all right. Real life stuff, but the new hip and then. You know, it's like, oh, when was the last time you're on board? Oh man, it's been ages. Oh, we need to get back old man jam. And then you know it's funny how I hooked up with Tim Johnson because I was running down Kernan and Ashley Malise Boulevard, you know, and I hear this, hey Rick! And I was like, What? So I stopped, and there's Tim Johnson in the middle, Ashley Malise in front of Sable Palm Elementary, and he was like, He's like, What the fuck, bro?

SPEAKER_01 40:04

He was like, Oh he's like, What are you doing? I was like, I'm running to my house, just pull up to the next road. So he pulls up, he's like, Oh man, he gets out of the truck, gives me a hug. He's like, I heard you were back in town, you know, you're retired. I was like, Yeah, bro. He's like, I live literally right around the corner, bro. Yeah, I got a fucking ramp in my backyard.

SPEAKER_04 40:18

You need to come, skate, stoked your back. Yeah, I was like, cool. So I showed up at Tim's house to ride, and everybody that I knew from way back when was there.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

They would just like they're like, dude, what happened to you? We thought you fucking fell off the face of the earth. I was like, no, Navy. Yeah, yeah. They were like, Oh, that's what happened. Yeah, they like kind of put us on boats and ship us all over the place.

SPEAKER_04 40:38

So it was kind of like that mentality of if you weren't like one of those in cr in circle friends you didn't know. Yeah. Like, it's like you know, like a Tom Penny. Right? Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like everybody was like, What what you pulled a Tom Penny, it just disappeared. And next thing you know, you see footage of Tom Penny like killing it. So doing flip shifty. So that's kind of like how it happened. And it was it was cool, you know.

SPEAKER_08 41:04

Well, yeah, you're definitely one of those cats that I remember seeing a lot like during my teenage years, like, especially working here in the counter. I mean, I think I started working here in 2000, left in 2002. Yeah, that was prime legacy days. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 41:17

Prime legacy days.

SPEAKER_08 41:18

I remember like speaking to Sal Massikala earlier. You remember when the first Tony Hawk tour came through and Sal tried to drop in on the Vert ramp?

SPEAKER_02 41:25

So did he make it? No, I can't remember if he made it on just eight shit.

SPEAKER_08 41:29

Yeah, he just ate it. Yeah, he ate it. But he tried a couple of times. I remember that.

SPEAKER_04 41:32

Yeah, so back to you and Kona in those days, you know, you have the Bones Brigade tour that came through here. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you know, with st with Steve Cabb, Jason Ellis, Javier Sarmento, Rob Washburn. Oh, yeah. That was when they had the the full steel street course. The big one. The big one, the huge one. And that was like the grand opening with the with the bones guys here.

SPEAKER_08 41:53

Yeah, that was like the um, and didn't they uh Rick Thorne came with X Today, right? Yeah, not then. Not then, that was then.

SPEAKER_04 41:58

That was after that. Okay, all right. So we were the only ones that were I'm mixing, I'm mixing, but yeah, yeah, I remember I I remember. Yeah, so we were the only ones that were allowed to ride with the Bones guys along with some of the flatline crew and stuff like that. And then and it was after that we partied with with them. You know, we went back to the hotel and Jason Ellis was like, Man, y'all skate that mini ramp like it's a fucking vert ramp. Like, I can't believe half the stuff y'all were doing over unders with you know Tim and Travis and you know the you probably saw the the photos in his scrapbook. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Where Tim's going over. That was at that demo. Oh, sick. On that old the old mini ramp here, the double coping spine with the with the back set quarter, the extension. So that was that demo. But when Rick Thorne and that crew came through, is when Buck was on that tour too, Buck Bucky Lissette. And he was in the trailer. Well, when I lived in VB, I skated with Serge a lot, Sergey Ventura. And one day him and I took a road trip up to Woodbine, Virginia, okay, and met Buck and Derek Krizakis. Krizakis, I for I I can't pronounce his name all the time, right? But Baltimore guys, you know, local pros out of there. And I met Buck for the first time there. That was sick. So I got to ride, you know, Woodbine old school Vert ramps with them. And then it was funny how he remembered me when they came to that demo. And I had I had I had broken my wrist at Skate World on the Vert ramp. And I was in a brace. You got a little flippery in there. Yeah, I was, you know, yeah. And I was in a brace, and you know, everybody was at the the the trailer trying to get them to sign you know autographs, and I was like, Buck, what's up?

SPEAKER_01 43:39

And he was like, Hey, let my man through.

SPEAKER_04 43:41

So we all went through the crowd, you know, the whole legacy team. We were all in there, you know, hanging out with the guys in the trailer and stuff like that. But back then, it was cool, but I'll tell you what's even better was the 45 year birthday.

SPEAKER_08 43:55

Oh, the 45 anniversary.

SPEAKER_04 43:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I brought my daughters. So my daughters were never exposed to my skateboarding. That's awesome. Ever. Yeah. So when we go, I took my middle daughter Eleanor to the SLS. So we got the tickets, we went. Super. And I saw a bunch of people there. Yeah, yeah. That I haven't seen. And then that night was the Kona party. Yeah. Right? So we came to the Kona party. And my my girls were like, How do you know so many people?

SPEAKER_07 44:26

Because daddy was doing big things, baby.

SPEAKER_10 44:28

They were like, I used to be somebody.

unknown 44:31

What?

SPEAKER_01 44:32

They were like, What? How do you know? How who are all these people?

SPEAKER_04 44:36

Why do they keep coming up to you, hugging you? I was like, because this was my life before y'all were born. Before you were my life, this was my life. And my wife was like, We get home, and my daughters are telling my wife, they're like, Oh, dad is did you know dad was famous? Do you know that he knows all these pro skateboarders? And my wife has always been the grounded one. She's like, Yeah. Your dad thinks he's cool. That was way back when. And he's just an old man now. But you know, it was just that full circle. Like they never knew. And here's Steve Van Doren, which Travis and I, I remember meeting Steve the very first time at Skate Asylum when they did the van's warp tour back then. Oh, yeah. The big vert ramp in the back. Yeah, yeah. Me and Travis had just qualified, and that's when Van Steve actually came to one of the qualifiers and handed us, you know, our ticket to say, hey, we'll see you at the He's such a cool dude. Cool dude. Like super nice. So we get in line to get food out here, right? And there's Steve Van Doren in front of my two daughters. And he looks over and starts talking to them, and they're like, you know, they don't know who he is, number one, but they were like, Who's this? I was like, This is Steve Van Dorn. They were like, Who? I said, His family legacy are the shoes you're wearing. Yeah. And they were like, What? And I was like, he's Vans. Yeah. And they freaked out, dude, because they were like, oh my God. And he met them, you know, signed some stuff for them, took pictures with them, and it was just crazy. That's so rad.

SPEAKER_08 46:05

I I can actually relate to that big time because my oldest, like, you know, I was back managing here when she was, you know, pretty young. Like, I mean, you know, kindergarten, first grade, kind of years back managing here. And uh, she had a lot of experiences and and met a lot of people, saw a lot of cool things. She didn't really realize like the grass at that age. At that age. Yeah. Now like she's a teenager, and even like the 45th, when she met Steve again for the second time, she was like, and he was like, Oh, I love your eyeliner because she's doing the whole thing.

SPEAKER_04 46:36

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 46:37

But just and then she like it was like it clicked. And then she started going back and she's like, Oh, those guys that I met at that Red Bull demo. And I'm like, Yeah, like Zion Wright and Ryan Scheckler and like Jamie Foy. And she's like, Yeah, they're like really famous for skateboarding. I'm like, Yeah, I know. She's like, I had no idea at the time, but but we took a picture and I was the one announcing, here everybody in Coda make some noise. You know, it's like, but she had that light bulb moment, and that was like, it was kind of cool. It struck my old man ego. It was like, Yeah, your daddy, you know, you know, I put in some work. I'm not the star, I just help things, you know, make things happen. What's that legacy?

SPEAKER_10 47:11

So the year's 2004. So the year's 2004, boys. I got my scooter, okay? I'm coming in hot. I'm going right. No, I'm just fucking with y'all.

SPEAKER_08 47:20

I was about to say, were scooters around in 2004? They might have been. I think they're. Oh, yeah, yeah. I think 2002. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 47:26

But hey, I wanted to show y'all something funny because like this shirt's completely badass. See? Easy easy rider motorcycle shit, you know? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Look how gay it turns, real quick.

SPEAKER_06 47:39

Mark's scooters. Oh, scooters on the back. That's hilarious. That's hilarious. Oh, that's so funny. Okay, Harley.

SPEAKER_10 47:45

Thanks, Grandma.

SPEAKER_07 47:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 47:47

I was about to say, what is that? Uh something from like Sturgis or something. But no, that's like Harley. Not the Harley, but the Harley.

SPEAKER_04 47:54

The the the Foley.

SPEAKER_08 47:55

Yeah, but hey guys, we've been talking for like

Quick Break

SPEAKER_08 47:57

40 minutes. Let's go ahead and uh take a quick break and then we'll come back and wrap it up. Cool.

SPEAKER_00 48:31

You don't know what they are talking about. It's not something that's the same.

Board Sizes, Wheels, Truck Preferences

SPEAKER_08 51:16

Alright, hey guys, your boy Pauly. You know I got the doctor with me, and we're still here with the one and only the kid, Rick Andrati.

SPEAKER_01 51:24

What's up? Had to take a nice little break.

SPEAKER_08 51:28

Yeah, had to take a quick break. Uh we're we're recording here up at Cona Skate Park again. And I got my kids out there skating or running around causing trouble. So after about 40 minutes of not putting my eyes on them, I'm like, let me go make sure.

SPEAKER_10 51:44

They might be dead, they might be alive. Oh, oh, okay. They might be dead, but they might be alive. Who knows? So let's figure the shit out. Who knows? I know my mom called me and she was like, hey, do you want salami sandwiches for dinner tonight?

SPEAKER_04 51:55

Would that be as long as it's got mustard. Is that fried salami with onions? You know, some fried salami with some onions on some white bread.

SPEAKER_10 52:03

Oh, that's what I'm saying. You know how we do it down south.

SPEAKER_04 52:06

It's like fried bologna.

SPEAKER_08 52:08

Yeah, man. So uh we we kind of left off at one point. I know Chris you said you you got a few questions. Uh why don't you let them rip?

SPEAKER_10 52:17

What's your favorite board size? What's your board size you like ripping?

SPEAKER_04 52:20

So I was riding an eight by thirty-two for the longest time, and that's just a odd size to find now. You know everybody's like a eight point one two five by thirty-one point zero five. It's like seeing you a straight eight by eight point three six straight eight by thirty-two, right? And you it's a very hard size to find. So I kind of went up to an eight and a quarter by thirty-one seven five or thirty-two. Hell yeah. And I'm riding um a heroin deck right now, so it's kind of around that. I like the shape, but I I think I may have to go a little bit higher. Maybe almost like width or like or like width-wise. Yeah, yeah. You know, because I can't I I I'm so I was so used to riding my my legacy boards, and then I got hooked up by Rick Morgan with felony, so I was repping him for a while. So I my feet were accustomed to to that that stuff that size board. So skating now as as much as I can is I I think I may have to go just a little bit wider. I gotcha, I gotcha. So maybe like an 8-3, almost pushing it to an 8-5.

SPEAKER_08 53:30

You like you like the popsicle shape?

SPEAKER_04 53:32

Yeah, I do like the popsicle.

SPEAKER_08 53:34

You like a uh steep tail or a or more shallow, kind of shorter tail? More of a sh steep. What about your nose? I personally maybe it's because I got a really big nose, but I like a big nose on my skateboard personally. He said it, not us. He said it. Hey, bro.

SPEAKER_04 53:51

Steeper tail. You can tell I'm Italian just look at the nose. And I guess it's I always ride in the back seat. Like I'm always in the back seat.

SPEAKER_10 53:58

I'm more of like kind of is that what they call you the kid?

SPEAKER_08 54:03

Maybe as long as he's in the car seat. No, no, so I'm more of like in the in the a lot of times I find, especially like riding tranny, going fast, like bomb the snake run, anything like big like that. I tend to be heavy over my front foot, but the first like real board sport I learned was like snowboarding. And that's heavy over your front foot. So I tend to kind of yeah, it's more of a dig, it's more of a heel toe. Yep, yep, yep. Kind of pivoting that back, yeah. Your hip and then your back foot heel and toe. Um I board that uh I just went back to a popsicle after like eight years. When I was 30, I broke uh like a brand new deck, and Marty gave me a Z-Flex like bullet shape pull deck because it was just one that he had. He was like, It's yours if you want to ride it. Like, so I took it and then since then I've basically been on shape decks of similar size and nature for the most part. And uh I don't flip trick like I used to, I can't. My ankle's so fucked, you know.

SPEAKER_04 54:57

Yeah, so no no more flip tricks.

SPEAKER_08 54:58

Yeah, yeah. So it's I've always ridden kind of a a a bigger board, but uh I kind of was on that shape deck vibe for a little while. Now I just got a popsicle and loving it. Yeah. Blood wizard.

SPEAKER_10 55:11

That's how I quit smoking cigarettes, was eating popsicles.

SPEAKER_07 55:14

Make sure that's what they were.

SPEAKER_08 55:16

No, but actually now I'm kind of like on a mission to like, well, maybe I could learn a few flip tricks back now that I'm on the popsicle. Yeah. They've yet to come back, but kind of kicking the idea around. I've I've I've I've made a few attempts. Landed Primo a couple of times and then uh took a couple of days off. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 55:38

The board that's been uh you have to ride away. Yeah, right away.

SPEAKER_06 55:43

There you go.

SPEAKER_10 55:44

The board that's been sitting in my garage for the last three years staring me face to face is uh it's an anti-hero uh Grant Taylor board and it's size eight point four three. And when I first got it, I was like, this is my favorite size I've ever skated. Because I used to get eight eight point three eights, and I loved those. But when I found this one, I was like, yo, this is my thing. Like this is like yo, this is perfect. I don't know if I I mean, I don't know if I'll ever buy another skateboard again, because I don't know if I'll actually be able to ever skateboard again. But I do know, like, if if I got I I got I know where I'm going. But um also uh what's your wheel size, your favorite wheel size to get? If you're buying a new set of wheels, where are you going?

SPEAKER_04 56:21

I've always been a 58. The lowest I'll go is to a 56. I'm 56. But I think that's because of my my Texas upbringing, right in ditches, backyard, plywood ramps, uh, Lone Star, skate park at Houston. Yeah, fair enough. You know, that size wheel, we didn't have small wheels back in you know that time frame, 80s, you know, late 80s. Yeah, yeah. They were all manual. The tiny wheels came in. Yeah, they came in the 90s. Big pants, tiny wheels. Big pants, tiny wheels. Pressure flips. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 56:50

A lot of manuals.

SPEAKER_04 56:51

It's like big pants, tiny wheels. For sure. I never went to a tiny wheel.

SPEAKER_08 56:56

I actually uh I'd maybe I don't know. Uh I've pretty much always ridden 56s. 58s um are usually like my vert setup, or like if I had like a strictly park setup. But I don't know why I just but I like the square wheel, the full conical. Yeah, that's what I yeah.

SPEAKER_07 57:14

I don't like the the rounded.

SPEAKER_04 57:16

So I I was uh I was an adamant back I was a constant type S. So Serge, BB, he started type S Urethane. That's all I was writing. Then from the type S I went to the Spitfires.

unknown 57:31

Right.

SPEAKER_04 57:33

So I I rode Spitfire religiously, and then for some odd reason, I just my last set of Spitfires just didn't do me justice. Say it. And then when I said, you know what, I'm gonna buy a brand new set of wheels, I went with the OJ2 hardlines. You thought he was gonna say bones, didn't you?

SPEAKER_10 57:51

I really did, dude.

SPEAKER_04 57:53

I I did I did I did ride bones for a bit. I did.

SPEAKER_06 57:57

No, because this was a personal thing because he was looking at it.

SPEAKER_04 57:59

I did ride bones for a bit. Yeah, yeah. And I just switched to the OJ OJs hardliners, and they're you know, they're full conical. Yeah, yeah, and they're I love them. Yeah, OJ makes a really good wheel. Yeah, I I I I like OJ's. You know, OJ's were good and they had their bad, and then now they're back, you know, they're making a good wheel. And now I heard the new dragons are the new wheel because everybody I know like the new bones, the dragon wheel.

SPEAKER_08 58:28

I don't know that one, but I can tell you this. Out of necessity, for the first time in years, I haven't heard that one either. I put I had to buy some bones wheels because I really needed some wheels. Had flats flat spotted some really bad. Were the SPFs? No, they were the oh my god, ATFs the X something like X Factor or Flex. It was like something really like a corny name. Ew. Bro, they're awesome. It's literally Is that the one with the dragon on it?

SPEAKER_07 58:54

It might be.

SPEAKER_08 58:55

That's Shua. That's what I'm calling. Shua. Question for you. Hey, shout out to my boy. Shua, Jax. It has like a dragon graphic on it.

SPEAKER_04 59:02

It's like a softer wheel, but what were the what were those bones wheels that I bought?

SPEAKER_08 59:06

The uh the the bones X Games, X Games Formula. X formula.

SPEAKER_04 59:12

You have a you have a set in the the Pro Shop, go grab one. Does it have a little link of a dragon on it? I want to say that's it, maybe.

SPEAKER_08 59:22

I haven't heard of the dragons yet. But yeah, if you don't mind, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:27

So uh I think Paul Toothless had a set, and he was he was riding them at Willie's, and I was just like, is that he's like, Yeah, those are the new, those are the new bones wheels. And I was like, oh.

SPEAKER_08 59:39

Bro, I put them on because out in it, like I said, I went to the block, I came here, they didn't have what I normally skate, and normally one one or both places always have. So you settled. I did. I did, and I literally was got no self-esteem, dude.

SPEAKER_10 59:54

I settled. Can't even stand up for himself. What the hell is this?

SPEAKER_06 59:57

You couldn't hold out for your wheels, so you settled. You're right.

SPEAKER_10 1:00:00

But it was it ended up being. You know what?

SPEAKER_08 1:00:04

I support local business, but you settled.

SPEAKER_10 1:00:08

Hey, Google's pretty local, it's on all of our phones. Thank you, bro.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:11

Thank you. Okay, so that's why I stayed away from these because these I like maybe they look a little similar. Yeah, these are the ones, the the dragons. So I got these in 56, and uh I could not be happier, to be honest with them. They're soft, like they skate, they're quiet and they're smooth like a soft wheel. But like I reverted out everything like first try. There was no like weird, awkward, oh, I gotta get used to this in order for me to skate. But I did some power slides, you know, like through the freestyle.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:40

But they're so skinny.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:42

The ones I got were a little white. Why did the fight? Yeah, fatter ones. Yeah, yeah. And I ended up getting 56s. That's a lot of play.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:47

It's like big pants, small wheels.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:49

Yeah, no, I like my wheels.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:51

I like my wheels fat and flat. That's what she said.

SPEAKER_10 1:00:53

Yeah, dude. I uh being for Monument Man when I was like younger, and like especially like the way that I like I skate and I like I skate training and I skate, like I do all these like weird flip tricks and shit, like you know, late flips and whatnot. Like I like you would never guess. Like I skate SPF Bones 58s because I would get those and I wouldn't need another like pair of wheels for a year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:13

I like I mean I I did ride bones for a while, and I just I switched back and then spit fires and then I just now I'm writing OJs and I I love them.

SPEAKER_10 1:01:25

I gotta admit something, guys.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:26

Um Yeah, so this these dragons are a 93A urethane, urethane. But I can uh go ahead. Well, you know, like there's the A scale and the B scale of the urethane. I think I'll probably have this backwards, but I think the A scale, one of them is like much more the difference between like a 93 and a 94 on one of the scales, we'll just call it A for right now, is a much smaller than uh difference than the B scale.

SPEAKER_10 1:01:55

Somebody's gonna comment on this and just you know, hang on.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:58

It might it might be backwards, but but one of one of them like just that one point is like a very big, like a much bigger difference in the density of the of the urethane. Yeah, the derometer. Where yeah, the derometer, so where where the other one, which I think the A is the one that's much more dialed in, where just like a different point on each one is very minuscule, but it kind of makes a big difference. Where like on the B scale, it kind I I might have this backwards, but it's like one one or the other. But the way that they're advertising these is they're a 93A, um, but they roll like a 101A in the parks and like an 85A on the streets. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:02:32

Um that's a 52 in the park, and it's a 52 in the streets for about a week.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:36

Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:02:37

What are you talking about? I see the MM on that, dude.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:40

Yeah, no, I mean these are the ones that he brought us are small, like I was saying. I I got the 56 and I got a little bit wider wheel on mine. Um, dude. But yeah, no, I like I said, out of yeah, I I settled, but I was pleasantly surprised.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:54

But it's wheel preference is is is that it's it's individual wheel preference. Yeah, like I I've seen I've seen guys ride a wide wide board, longboard uh you know, trucks, you know, but your truck clearance is only as as big as, you know, I think the max clearance is a 55.

SPEAKER_10 1:03:13

Which brings me to my next one.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:14

Which means if it's a 55 mil clearance, then you can't ride a wheel bigger than a 55. Right? So I've always ridden risers. So that's why I would ride 58s.

SPEAKER_08 1:03:26

I've always ridden 58s, and it was funny when that's probably why I've always ridden 56s, because I literally only do the shock pads on my like regular setup, but my vert setup, I would always put like a little bit thicker of a riser and ride.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:43

See, on my vert setup, I ride 60s.

SPEAKER_08 1:03:45

There you go.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:46

So there's the difference. I ride 58s all the time, all terrain, and when I get on Vert board, I ride 60s. Let me ask you uh your bushings.

Bushings, Risers, Setup Science

SPEAKER_04 1:03:55

Okay, so this is a conversation I have with a lot of people.

SPEAKER_08 1:03:57

Oh, okay. Because I feel the major difference.

SPEAKER_10 1:03:59

Oh, so I was about to get into this kind of thing, and this will follow it up with you.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_10 1:04:04

Alright, this will be my last question on the subject. Your favorite kind of trucks to skate.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:08

Indies. There you go. I want to talk about talking about something. And again, but it's the environment that I grew up in. So back then it was tracker, goal wing, right? Yeah, right. Yep, I'm indie, independent, you know. Build a grind. You know, and I've I've you know, people grind people label each other like, oh, you're label whore. You're never gonna write anything other than you know, it's all about the label. No, because indie stood for something, and you know, corporate America is it was a society changes with times, and you know, things do become offensive to certain people. Right. You can't make up for the past, but you can make some adjustments because our kids are growing up in an environment where they don't understand, and when you have to explain to them certain things, like m my kids never saw color being a military family. We moved, we moved, we moved. We're we're we are they were uh exposed to any type of culture that you could possibly think of being a military family. Well, go to Arlington.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:09

So it's like one of those things where it's like, oh, we're doing away with the iron cross on the on on the independent trucks. It's like, what? That's a staple. Yeah, and that's like it's it that they don't, it's not even that's the thing, it's like it didn't mean that. But symbology changes. Exactly. You're right.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:23

Right from from generation, because if you go back to the Renaissance era, what we look at is Satanist being the pentagram. During the Renaissance, the pentagram represented the passion of Christ, meaning the the five wounds that Christ endured during during his crucifix. One for each point of the star.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:37

You invert the pentagram, and now it becomes evil. It's now satanic. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:41

So again, it's a preference to everybody. So, you know, wheels, bushings, now that you got on bushings. I was that skater that would never swap out my bushings. I would take, I would take my skate key and I would ratchet that ratchet down on that kingpin as hard as I could. And I would let them sit for a couple days, right? And then I would start loosening it up, loosening it up until I got that perfect feel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I and I'd keep that that kingpin and that bolt, that nut exactly where I loosened it to. And then the bushings would just basically wear in. Now that I'm older, we ain't got time like that no more. I don't have time like that no more. So I basically I swapped out my my stock bushings, you know, every time. And I ride a hard bones bottom bushing with a medium bones bushing on the top.

SPEAKER_08 1:06:43

Really?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:44

Yeah. So I don't have to ratchet down on my kingpin. I have like one thread showing on my king pen, and they're perfect. Now they don't jiggle loose like like other people's trucks do, but I don't need that because see, mine don't jiggle loose, but I ride I ride mediums, but the same.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:02

Like I immediately like I buy my independent trucks and I buy my bones medium bushings and I immediately swap.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:08

So you go medium, medium. Yeah, I went medium, medium, and it was just too too wobbly for me, too loose. Right. So I swapped the bottom with the hard and they're perfect.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:17

So on my vert setup, I actually have kept my bottom barrel bushing and just put a medium bones top because the what I learned actually from Martin Ramos passed this knowledge on to me, a lot of the knowledge I've gotten in skateboarding. Preach. Yeah, but uh learning and then I looked more into it. The physics of the bottom cone bushing is much more responsive. So I can keep my trucks kind of equally as loose on my vert setup, but just changing that bottom bushing to a barrel bushing, the response you get under more speed, it kind of stabilizes out a little bit. So it's just intriguing, you know, if try it, put put one on and bomb it. I gotta get back to a vert.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:59

Do the wheels fall off, too. So speaking of vert ramps, I've I've always been trying to get to daddles.

Local Spots And Old Man Sessions

SPEAKER_08 1:08:04

Yes, I I hopped on that build, it's fucking radically.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:07

I've yet to ride it. I heard it's a lot like the old skate uh world vert ramp back in the day, but I don't know. Pretty similar, but of course, a skate world vert ramp was steel. Yeah, true. And that thing was passed, and we loved riding it.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:22

Uh the dattle pepper ramp is definitely really smooth. You don't really have to pump through it. I've only skated it twice, even though I helped on the build, but like I said, I haven't really skated vert a lot lately. I think we need to get a session down there. Yeah, I was gonna say that's been one thing I've been talking about. I'll follow you guys to take a road trip down there. Yeah, bro. Fucking a weekend is usually the best because uh shout out to my buddy Brennan. He is a middle school teacher. So during the week they do it in the evenings, I think on Tuesday. Yeah, he always posts Saturday or Sunday. Yeah, come out right on the and they actually got a mini ramp they're they're moving out there. Somebody had a mini ramp that they were like moving, and so they're like, hey, if you want to come get the skeleton, it's structurally good, and so they're in the process of moving that out there. Nice, so yeah, been wanting to get Brennan on here because he's uh really, really, really cool positive influence, you know, in the in in the St. Augustine scene. But you know, we definitely gotta make a trip down there. We're actually uh myself and uh Trevor and uh and the buddy Joey. Have you been down to uh the solar bowl?

SPEAKER_04 1:09:22

No. Oh dude. We're gonna we're gonna go down yeah, since I've been back, it's basically been Kona, uh AB, uh Sunshine, uh Emerson. I live right down the road from it, and then you know, it was cool back when it when it started. And then now it's kind of all graffitied out and stuff like that. Yeah, janky. Um, haven't been back there. Uh, of course, Tim's, Willie's. I got to skate Keith's pool with the old man Jan.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:48

See, I haven't seen Keith yet, man, but I I want to, but it looks so much fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:53

And last Wednesday was the old man's session at Keith's, and all these heads showed up. Like it's it was packed of people, and they were just killing it. I'll just I took a couple runs, I'm like, I'm good. I'll watch everybody else ride. I'm good. I had my few runs, I hit my walls. I I will just sit and watch.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:10

But that's how like the older I've gotten, like in the big sessions like that, like I kind of the same. I'll get in, get my few runs in, take a break, maybe come back, get a few runs in. A lot of my heavy skating comes when it's literally just like me and two or three.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:22

Two or three, yeah, and that's how it is at Timmy's now. It's like, you know, it's like four, maybe five max of us, and we're just we're there, and there's no itch or no rush to get us uh uh a run in. Like everybody is there, just like, oh yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_10 1:10:40

Which brings me up to this point, fellas, for $29.99 a month. You can get skate coach extraordinary Dr. Jones to help you out every Sunday, and uh, you know what? First session's free.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:50

First session's free. First session's free. I thought all the sessions with you are free for you.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:56

Shut up, man. Dude freaking no. God damn it. Well, uh, you got you got any other questions

Did Instagram Change Skateboarding

SPEAKER_07 1:11:01

for my dude?

SPEAKER_10 1:11:01

Yeah, man, I actually do, and it's um uh you know Jacob Magazine is.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:06

I've heard of it.

SPEAKER_10 1:11:07

Okay, so Jacob Magazine this week came out with a video, and it's pretty much like uh the title of it 2013, the year modern skateboarding broke. Yeah, you showed you shared this with me. This was really interesting. You can find it on YouTube. Uh, I sent it to you on the uh poly on the pot uh Instagram and stuff. Yeah, um, which the video is talking about how Instagram parts and clips changed everything with uh putting out skate videos, which is why like like everything's so instant now that it's like uh most teams can't put out like actual like skate videos don't mean the same anymore. And then now kids out of nowhere can just show up out of nowhere, and now they're like the big brand new deal. And it's like you know, it's they say it's what it broke, like it broke skateboarding, but honestly, it took it to a whole different level. But at the same time, like you know, when you waited for a brand new skateboard like video to come out, it came out, and like you know, you could buy the VHS and all the boys just sit around and you know watch it. But like, you know, I'm kind of curious on like your thoughts on that.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:05

And yeah, like kind of moving to the digital age, like the way that it was presenting was seemed like 2013 was the era when was the year when Instagram started allowing you to upload 15-second video clips. It was the first time Thrasher went to the emag. Right, yeah, yeah, I remember that. Yep, and then same uh um Transroller Forest Edwards switch flipped. Uh yeah, Wallenberg. Wallenberg. Um, and that was the first time that there was a skate clip, like a banger like that used for just an individual clip for promotion and not ever used in an actual escape video. It got it, it got an ad in the magazine, but it's never this very interesting 13-minute long video about kind of how 2013 seems to be that cusp of where we transitioned into the modern era of the way that skateboard media is shared, if you will.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:57

What are what are your thoughts on since you know you growing up from the 80s to the 90s to the 2000s to during the break we know now that you're 25 years old, so the doctor and I had a had another similar conversation during the break, but you know, in the in the 80s and 90s, it was like everything was about a magazine. Like magazine, VHS tapes, you know, you you waited for a video to come out, 90s, a lot of word on the streets, like I'm sure too. You know, you waited for that next issue of Thrasher or Trans World to s to see, and then you know, you had skate videos that you only saw at the skate shop, so people would actually hang out at the skate shop and just watch skate videos all day long. You know, I've done that. Skate parks, they started watching, you know, VHS, pop it in, and then we went D V D and then DVDs. Remember the 411 video magazines? Well, the four 411 video magazines, they were awesome because they not only did all the video premieres or clips, but they did all your ads, they did contests, like they went everywhere, and that's how I kind of stayed with the no with my Navy travels, is v you know, 411 video magazines. Right. Then when it social media started to appear, it's like, oh wow, this is crazy because it's instantaneous. You know, you look at Elliot Sloan and his setup in his backyard, you look at Pedro Vars, and you you look at all these kids that are coming up that are bangers, and they just show up to skate arc, take a couple runs, somebody's filming, gets that one trick in, and it's it's worldwide. Right. It's and everybody's like, oh my god, did you see that? Like Travis always sends me clips, and I'm like, dude, I already saw that. You know, it's sick. And it it's I don't see a fault in it, but again, you you have to change with the times. Right. And I think that's one of those things where at our age it's you've seen it go through so much change that sometimes change is good. It's not it didn't make the video go away, it just took away from that nostalgia of let's sit in Timmy's garage and watch the same video three times in a row. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you're like, oh my god, rewind it. I did you see how did he do that? Or how did that happen? Like, did you was that switch? Was it faky?

SPEAKER_08 1:15:25

And then I remember when my parents finally got the VCR that had like the slow-mo thing where I could hit the button and just go frame.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:31

And then you would you could see it. But yeah, again, I don't think it's hurt the industry. I think it's it's good. It's definitely good for locals or like I think small companies. Yeah, small companies, they get their their their information out there. I think it will eventually be one of those things where mainstream media is the only source of information we'll ever get. Like I eventually think that, you know, and I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I don't get involved in conspiracy.

SPEAKER_10 1:16:04

Let's talk 9-11.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:05

No. When you when you look at old school Terminator, the very first Terminator movie with Arnold in it. All right, let's go. All right, I'm in, I'm in. You know, all that stuff way back then. And you look at current time with AI and Tesla. Now we got all this chat GPT shit going on.

SPEAKER_10 1:16:23

It's like, were they really saying something back then?

SPEAKER_08 1:16:25

Dude, when you watch Star Wars back in the day, dude, in the 70s, bro they just had there, you can go online and you can find the chat GPT, or no, okay. It would it was the other AI that actually mimics mimics the uh the vocal. The vocal the voice. Yeah, that was on the news.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:42

It's like people are using AI to do it.

SPEAKER_08 1:16:44

There's a full episode of Joe Rogan AI with Joe Rogan and Donald Trump and Joe Rogan and Steve Jobs, and it even in the beginning it sounds just like him. And he's like, This is Joe Rogan. No, this isn't. This is an AI version of Joe, and it goes, it's like a three-hour podcast, and it everything from the mannerisms in the language, you know what I mean? Like the subtleties of the dialects and and it sounds just like them. It's that's scary.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:09

But that's technology, it's a computer, yeah. It's a computer. But again, is that's skateboarding, you know. Skateboarding is now a digital, it's a digital platform to promote everything. And I don't I think it's good because you know, you can go on Instagram, you can you can go to anybody's page and look at the latest video.

SPEAKER_10 1:17:30

It's like, oh or some of their older stuff if you want to do that.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:33

Oh bro, honestly, like I, you know, because I follow like a lot of there, I I call them young kids, they're all in their 20s now, but they're like kids I taught skate lessons to or we're in, you know, skate camp or just growing up around, you know what I mean? And so I follow them on you know social media and now I see them and they're all in their like early 20s and they are ripping. And I'm like, every morning, it's like fuck yes. Yeah, some of the stuff they're like. It's like I'm like so fortunate because I'm like, man, you know, back in the day, like that wasn't.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:00

Have you seen the video clip of the one little um Asian oriental kid on the mini ramp? He's like five years old. Um he's doing all these sick kick flip blunts, everything, every mini-ramp. 360 and I was like, yeah, dude, he's five years old and he's killing it.

SPEAKER_10 1:18:18

Well, you know what happened was it's because the Japanese learned that uh skateboarding's gonna be in Olympics. Now they're all trading them like they did for ping pong and shit, dude. Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_08 1:18:26

Now they're like, we will conquer the world piggying the brain shit.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:29

Yeah, that's one of those things. It's it's like you would never see anything like that without social media today. Oh, for sure. You would have to wait for that DVD or that DVD, or or they might not ever get discovered. That's why I never got discovered, you know.

SPEAKER_08 1:18:47

For sure. Well, hell yeah, man.

Culture, Identity, Skateboarding Family

SPEAKER_08 1:18:50

Well, we've been talking for almost another 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_10 1:18:52

I got one last one, it's a short one.

SPEAKER_08 1:18:54

Yeah, go for it.

SPEAKER_10 1:18:54

Let's let's uh uh Rick, run it your favorite food and your favorite drink after a rad skate sesh.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:00

My favorite food and drink after a rad skate sesh, huh? So my favorite food is Mexican, because I'm Mexican. I'm not Filipino. You said it, not us. I'm not Spanish, I'm I'm Mexican. Aren't you getting tacos?

SPEAKER_08 1:19:13

I don't I don't want to be rude, but I assume just you know, because I was you know, you look to me, you look Mexican, but then when you said you're from Austin, Texas, I'm like, you'd be a moron to think anything other.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:23

Yeah, earlier when I first Filipino people talk Tagalic to me, and I'm like, no, I'm not, I'm sorry, I'm not. I I don't I'm not Filipino. When I first got here, he was when we lived up in Newport, Rhode Island, people would think I was Sicilian because of my last name. I'm like, no, sorry, you know I'll I'll tell you know, speaking of it. Like I thought he was one of us. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_10 1:19:48

Oh, he's one of the he's one of the good ones. Never mind.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:51

If you really want to hear a good Mexican story with me and with me before you do that, can I tell tell you what happened when I first got here?

SPEAKER_10 1:19:58

Can I tell him? Because when I first got here, you were on the phone talking with your wife. He's on the phone with his wife, and he's like, they're having like a food truck in their neighborhood tonight.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:06

And it's it's a Mexican food truck, bro.

SPEAKER_10 1:20:08

Yeah, he's ordering tacos. Ordering tacos.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:18

I'm probably gonna go home and eat pasta, son.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:21

So hey, I had that for lunch today.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:24

I had a carb up to skate. There you go.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:28

You know, uh God rest my my my wife's grandmother, she just recently passed. She she passed peacefully, she lived to be 92, 93 years old. You know, God bless. And I I didn't know my grandparents growing up because they they died the same year I was born, so I really didn't have grandparents. Shit. So when I met my wife, uh, I went to meet the I knew her, my in-laws, but I didn't know the extended family. Is your wife Mexican? No, she's white. Okay. Yeah, my wife's five seven, you know, she's taller than me, you know. And you know, she she used to swim competitive, so she had the you know nice, nice swimmer bodybuilders. Yeah, yeah. So back to my story. So we're dating, right? And her dad kind of prepped me because he's from that that era of you know, of age where it's the whole race differences, you know, brought up in that type of environment. Right. But that was because, you know, grandma grew up in that early 40s, you know, 90 years old. It's you know, 1930s. You can't change their thoughts. Yeah, so you gotta think about that. She's seen the world change much more drastically than we have. World War I, World War II. I go, I he's like, Rick, I want to I wanted to tell you, you know, my my mother can be a little bit more than me. I was he's like, you know, I joke about I say, Yeah, that's cool. I understand, you know, that era, that generation, I understand, no big deal. My wife's grandma father was retired Navy, you know, so he loved talking chit-chatting with me about Navy. Talking ship shit. Yeah, yeah. Talking ships. So, you know, I go meet extended family, you know, uncles, cousins. I already knew my brother-in-law, he's JSO cop, detective, you know, retired. And um, but he was a beat cop then. So we go for Thanksgiving dinner at grandma's house, right? And she lives uh over off old Fort Caroline. She used to live back there in that area on the waterside.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:30

Nice. And so by where I live. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, very familiar. So where my folks are at.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:35

Uh, you know, we're we're there, we go through dinner, and you know, they had a formal adult table where the adults sat, and they had a kids' table where the kids sat. I was very fat type of uh, you know, five, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and she was like, Rick, you know, go ahead and have a seat. Trisha will serve you. I was like, No, ma'am, I'll serve myself, you know. I I I'll she doesn't have to wait on me. She's like, oh no, she's a southern girl. You know, the the the women wait on the meal. I was like, no, I'm good. I wasn't raised that way. She's like, my daughter will do as I raised her. Basically, so you know, we go through the meal, my brother-in-law is about to leave with his wife, and grandma decides to sit at the kid table, and we're about to have dessert. And she was like, uh, so Rick, uh, your last name, Andretti, what is that? Italian? And so my brother-in-law is about to walk out the door, and he was like, Oh, I gotta come back. So he sits down. He sits down and grandma and Southern Bell, Georgia. Um uh what are they Baxley, Georgia, born and raised up there, you know, Southern, all the way, true and true, Southern Baptist. Was it a peach club? I think that was so Rick, uh, your last name is Andretti, right? So that that's Italian, like the race car driver. I said, No, ma'am, that's not my last name. She's like, Well, what is your last name? And I was like, Well, my last name is Andrade. It's pronounced Andrade, you know. That I was like, she's like, Oh, so that's not Italian. What is it? I said, Well, I'm Mexican. Rubro. And then so she, yeah. Oh, rubber is right. Andretti has T's. Andrati has a D E. She's looking at me and she's like, Oh, like there was the shock now because there was, yeah, that that whole like light bulb moment, like, whoa. Oh, yeah, yeah. And she's like, Oh, so you're Mexican. And I was like, Yes, ma'am. And she goes, Oh, do you know how to do landscaping? God. Oh shit.

SPEAKER_08 1:24:29

Oh no. God damn it. Oh my god.

unknown 1:24:32

What?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:33

Like, I know my own yard. I know my own guard.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:36

Oh, God bless her. Rest in peace. Yes, rest in peace, Miss Dot. Dorothy Sneed, Mesh in peace, you know. Yeah, I love you for everything that you did for my family.

SPEAKER_10 1:24:46

And allowing me to do your yard for 15 years old.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:48

It was one of those things where it's kind of like back to the whole thing of wow, the generation changes of skateboarding, the generations of changing through social media and and how we raise our kids today.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:02

You know, it all it all circles back to one thing or another, but that was it was so one of those moments that I will never forget because of my culture, you know. Right. And that's what skateboarding is. Skateboarding is a culture, it's a lifestyle, it's family. It's it's always gonna be there. And you know, when my wife, when we were dating, it was like uh, you know, and she would I'd make comments to her, it's like, ah, my skateboard's my first girlfriend. You know, I can kick her, I can throw her, I can ride her hard. I can't. She don't talk back and she's always there.

SPEAKER_10 1:25:37

You know, and I can't.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:39

She's always gonna be there, you know. And that was back in the young days, you know. But yeah, it's skateboarding's always the first love, you know, it's always gonna be there. And you know, I wouldn't have friends, I wouldn't have family like you guys, you know, I wouldn't be on this show talking about life.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:54

It's definitely a tribe, dude. Definitely a tribe.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:57

And you know, once you get in it, it's hard to leave. You know, it's like till the wheels fall off. That's all it's about. Till the wheels fall off. As long as you can still ride your board and have a good time with with your friends for 20, 30 minutes, Sash, even an hour. God forbid, marathon an hour. Right, right.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:14

It's gonna be a long day.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:16

It's good.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:16

We're gonna be icing the knees later, boys.

SPEAKER_10 1:26:18

Honey, get out the Epsom salt.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:20

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:21

We're gonna be soaking tonight. Favorite food, definitely Mexican drinks. I drink occasionally now because I don't I don't indulge in the in the soda breaks during sessions anymore. Because you just yeah, yeah, I just can't do it. I can't take the risk of going home, you know, driving and all that stuff. I got family. Man, I just stole it. I just yeah when it when we were younger, it was like it was, I want to say it was a rite of passage, but that's what everybody was doing. Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:46

Everybody was doing it, and it didn't affect me like personally, physically, the way that it does now. It's like, holy god. Back then, metabolism was a little bit different. Yep. Yep, for sure. Everything you look like, heartburn didn't exist for me.

SPEAKER_08 1:26:59

Like it was like, what's heartburn?

SPEAKER_04 1:27:00

Yeah, what is that? You know? Oh, why is my tongue telling me no no? I have to take all this medication for my you know acid blood pressure, like blood pressure.

SPEAKER_08 1:27:10

Why is that dude making a noise? Why is he groan every time he gets up off the ground? Like he kneeling, like and then get up, it's like, oh, I know that now.

SPEAKER_10 1:27:19

Making no noise a man should make.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:20

Yeah, yeah. So when when we finish this, uh I'm not gonna roll around now because you know, it's getting a little late. It's getting a little late. We all have kids, you know. But I'll go home, have my tacos.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:32

I love you, buddy.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:33

I'll probably I'll probably have some liquid death. There you go. Because, you know, uh that's my carbonated water drink. Yeah, my choice of of wall of drink.

SPEAKER_10 1:27:41

So water gatoring, Capri Sun, man.

SPEAKER_08 1:27:44

Same, and I'm probably gonna uh I'm probably gonna soak I got I I got a white trash hot tub, one of them inflatable ones.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:51

I saw I saw your video. Like I I I watch some of the stuff that you post, and I'm like, dude, he's riding his backyard. He does he not have shoes on his feet? And his wife's out there rolling in a bikini.

SPEAKER_07 1:28:04

Yeah. So I'm like, living the life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:07

Yeah. So I it's like I keep up on you the stuff that you post and you know with Dr. Post and everybody. And you know, it's it's cool seeing stuff like that. Yeah, same. Unless we didn't have social media, I would not know what's going on in your life that you were putting out there. Same thing with anybody else. It's like, oh hey, you know, same. Yeah. This is what's going on with my family.

SPEAKER_08 1:28:28

Much easier to keep in touch with like so many other people. And it's like I run into people that I haven't seen in person, maybe like in a few months, but where it's like immediately hit the ground, like, dude, I was golfing last week. Seeing you went out, like, bro, like, you know what I mean? It's like it's easy to do. Dude, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:44

I did this thing and I was like, dude, they're about to have a grand, they're about to be grandparents.

SPEAKER_10 1:28:48

That's crazy. I saw that today too as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:51

You know, it's like, wow.

SPEAKER_10 1:28:52

I do this weird thing where I don't post on someone's social media when it's their birthday. I just wait till the next time I see them, and I'm like, oh, happy birthday. Like, dude, that was six months ago. Yeah, that was a good dude, really. Oh, all right. Come on, bruh. Really? It's just like, man, because it just it means more to me to do it face to face and over social media like that. Oh, well, I mean, dude, that's your fault for not finding me. Yeah, okay. I'm at the house, dude. Y'all know where I am. You know what?

SPEAKER_04 1:29:15

When it's my birthday in July, I'm gonna call you on my birthday to make sure you wish me happy. Oh, bro. Your birthday in July. We'll have you up here when we're doing the live show. We're gonna all sing happy birthday for you. It's gonna be my 49. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:29:27

Yeah, right on. Why don't you go ahead and

Social Handles And Legacy Panel Plans

SPEAKER_08 1:29:30

tell everybody where they can find you on social media so they can follow what you got?

SPEAKER_04 1:29:33

I think I think it was Timmy or somebody had to check their stuff because Oh, Travis did actually. O Chabalero. I have it. It's O Chabolero, but I don't know how it's. My wife posts more of our life and tags me in the stuff. So as far as my my stuff, oh man.

SPEAKER_10 1:29:53

Yeah, go to go to your that.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:54

Yeah, go to that thing. Yeah, right there. It's just straight Rick underscore A. Rick underscore Hendrade. I love it. That's what it is. Uh yeah, Rick underscore A. It's all lowercase. That's okay. That's me. That's on Instagram. You'll see a picture of uh my Melana Fakey as my my Instagram profile photo. It's at Doc36 Skate Park back in the day in Mississippi. Hell yeah. Jackson, Mississippi. Doc 36. Shout out to the Gulf Coast. Yeah, yeah. Good times.

SPEAKER_08 1:30:20

Well, we appreciate everybody for listening, man. Super stoked to have you sit down with us, brother. We'll definitely do it again in the future. I want to get together like that. We need to get the Legacy Panel. Panel. The whole panel.

SPEAKER_10 1:30:32

Yes, for sure. We can do the whole panel, dude. I've been talking to Stokes about this too. I told him you're talking about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:36

Hey, Stokes, if you ever hear this, I call I call you out every time we have a session at Timmy's and you say you're gonna show up at the next one, let you know. You didn't show up at the last one. We called you out.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:46

We let you know. We let you know. Come on, dude.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:49

Now we're calling you out on the podcast. Yeah. Oh, you were actually gonna call him? Can we get this on on actual phone to be like, bro? Yeah, if you uh connect to the Bluetooth, let me do if you search Bluetooth, it'll be B2A. B2A. So we're actually gonna call Stokes right now to call him out. B2A-2 to get him on the next your next podcast. Yeah, that would be awesome. Or whenever. Oh, you dude, you need to turn your Bluetooth on. At least I know how to do that. Alright, dude. B2A. Is it not showing up?

SPEAKER_10 1:31:20

No, it's available devices coming up.

SPEAKER_08 1:31:23

Oh man, we might have to postpone that. Yeah, we may have to put it. Don't disconnect anything. I have to put it in pairing mode.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:30

Yeah, don't disconnect anything. Don't do that.

SPEAKER_08 1:31:32

Alright, well, Stokes, we're gonna send you the link. You're gonna listen to this. We're calling you out. You're on the niche. You gotta be on the next one. And then we'll get a panel together. But I want to do that for when we do the live show because we're gonna set it up here and we're gonna like kind of all sit here. We're gonna have engineer, a little bartender, have a couple high tops set up, a little house band. Yeah, that would that do you know if you can get live?

SPEAKER_04 1:31:53

I'm always free. You know, soccer season is over for my daughters, thank God. It's been a long time. So one one more tournament weekend, and for each of them, we're done with that. So more skateboarding. I'll have the free time. We call out everybody, we get Stokes, Toothless, Timmy, Travis. Hell yeah. You know, yeah, for sure. Those are all the guys that are still local. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you can get us, I mean that's the core. That would be sick. It'd be awesome. Hell yeah. And disclaimer, Travis O'ChaB, I know I called you out, told a couple stories in there. Facts may have been construed here or there, but that's how I remember it went down.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:32

Oh, once we get you all together, I'm sure there's gonna be many more stories. Paul and I are just gonna shut up and let y'all tell again. Yeah, for sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_08 1:32:39

Well, all we're gonna do is stoke the fire and let it burn, baby. Stokes. All right, man. Well, we appreciate everybody for uh listening once again, and always peace, love, and skateboarding.

Closing Thanks And Sign Off

SPEAKER_08 1:32:50

Thank you.