Pauly On The Pod
Pauly On The Pod
Florida Ramp Builder Stories: Paul "Toothless" Vaughn
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Skateboarding scenes don’t magically appear. Somebody drags plywood home, straightens nails, builds a ramp, and invites the crew over until it becomes a real thing. We’re sitting down with Paul “Toothless” Vaughn, a Florida skateboarder and lifelong ramp builder, to talk about what it takes to keep skateboarding alive from the ground up.
We go back to the first board, the first trip to Kona Skatepark, and that instant moment of knowing you found your tribe. From there, Paul breaks down what it was like skating parts of Florida where there was barely a scene at all, and how DIY ramp building, scavenging materials, and sheer persistence shaped both his skating and his life skills. We also get into stance, fakie versus switch, frontside and backside comfort, and the skaters who influenced his style, from the classics in the magazines to today’s heavy hitters.
Then we shift into Jacksonville skate history and ramp lore: the Toothless nickname, early sponsorship experiences, and the path to building for InstaRamp, including the bigger pro ramp and rebuilds. Paul shares what it was like living at the warehouse, the sessions that made it special, and the stories that only happen when skateboarding is right outside your bedroom door. We wrap with favorite local skateparks like Monument and Treaty, design input at Saplings, and a real take on how skateboarding feels now that it’s bigger, cleaner, and even Olympic.
If you ride for the culture, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share it with a friend who still skates, and leave a review so more skaters can find the show.
Cold Open And Inside Jokes
SPEAKER_03Hey everybody, it's your boy Pauly Walnuts.
SPEAKER_05Polly, what's your mama's sweet ass?
SPEAKER_00And I got the one and only dude. I was about to come in so hard. And I was not ready for that one, dude. Keep this. Keep this, dude. Let's keep going. Let's keep going, dude. Oh my god, dude. Oh fuck. We're keeping this one, Polly. We're using it. Oh, I was not ready for that. God damn it. I didn't know that was coming. That's a new drop you were telling me about yesterday, wasn't it? No, one of them.
SPEAKER_03Oh man. I couldn't contain myself.
SPEAKER_00No, no. No, no, dude. I'm crying. Holy fuck, I wasn't ready for that. Yeah, I got tears in my eyes. Yeah, no, no. Just keep just keep this shit rolling, dude. This is the intro.
Welcome And How We Run
SPEAKER_03Right. Oh. Let's let's let's let's take it back from the top. All right. Hey everybody, it's your boy, Pauly.
SPEAKER_05Polly, wants your mom's sweet ass.
SPEAKER_03I got the one in the homie, Dr. Fucking Jones. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_00You're calling me Hotshot Jones now that I'm walking out with my booty shorts around and everything. But Jesus Christ, dude. That's so fucking funny.
SPEAKER_03You like that one, huh?
SPEAKER_00Dude.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I want to cry so bad. Like I am crying.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Oh fuck, that was too good. Yeah, it's a that scary movie drop. But anyway, let's get to the serious stuff.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03We got business to attend to. Hey everybody, thanks for tuning in. This is Pauly on the Pod, where we uh put in work and don't take ourselves seriously at all if you can't tell. Oh man. So we uh we we're stoked that you're tuning in. If you don't mind, take this time to go ahead, like, subscribe, give the thumbs up, um, all that good stuff, uh, to the Instagram, the podcast, the channel, all that stuff. Uh, we'd be super stoked and very appreciative. Um, but my dude, today, uh, thanks to the doc, we were able to sit down with the one and only Paul motherfucking Vaughn.
SPEAKER_02It's yeah, the tale of two poles.
SPEAKER_03The the one and only uh Toothless is his uh nickname. He's a uh Florida legend. He's lived all over the state. Um rad surfer, amazing skateboarder.
SPEAKER_00Oh, dude, fucking radical ramp builder. You haven't even read the bio that I sent you, dude. You're gonna laugh so hard after this.
SPEAKER_03No, I haven't even read that bio yet, man. So I look forward to that.
SPEAKER_00But dude, you're gonna laugh so hard, dude. No, it was a great day.
SPEAKER_03Um the wife was uh was home, so she was able to sit in and uh co-produce on this, and uh you were there and go ahead.
SPEAKER_00Well we told her we told her that we're gonna do uh you know a podcast with another Paul, and she thought we were the we were just gonna use a mirror right in front of you.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah. But little did she know we had the one and only very disappointed. Yeah. No, um Paul Vaughn is a dude that I've uh looked up to basically my entire skateboarding life. Um he was kind of a little bit older, um, ripped all terrain. Uh back in the day I remember him kind of shaved head, bleached, shaved head, um, you know, kind of that snaggle tooth that he's known for in the fucking charge it style. I meant to tell him uh next to Buck Smith, in my book, he's got one of the best backside bonelesses on tranny, and uh yeah, was super stoked to sit down with him and uh chat it up. What you gotta say, my dude?
SPEAKER_00Oh dude, I love Paul Vaughn, man. Ever since uh we crossed paths back when I was younger and shit, we'd just been boys and everything, and all all the fucking old Instagram had quarterwear sessions and everything. Like dude shit was it was it was really good to sit down with them and talk again because it's been a while. Hell
Raffle Winners And Shirt Update
SPEAKER_00yeah. Um also uh we should let everyone know that we have all the picture frames. We're getting those all set up to get sent out to everybody.
SPEAKER_03Um yeah, big shout outs to the winners. Um Chip, um, Josh Mulligan, um, and who who are the other two?
SPEAKER_00Um we have Kimberly Mullen, that is Aaron Mullen's mom.
SPEAKER_03Yep, big shout outs.
SPEAKER_00And Leslie, and I can't pronounce her last name because I don't speak freaky tiki Dutch. Is it from the something like that?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. But she's uh she's sorry if I butchered it, but at least I tried, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, no, dude. I just gave up instantly. Like even at night, do we like even that night when you pulled it out? I was like, uh I don't know who that is. I think it's one of Jake's uh buddies. I was like, oh no, wait, wait, wait, that's Aaron Willand's aunt. So yeah, those are um those are in the works coming out. As soon as your uh your son and your nephew get over here, you'll have your pictures, alright? Don't blame us, alright? Because the text will be back in two days.
SPEAKER_03Hey, well, big shout-outs and and thanks to everybody that did uh donate and and enter the raffle. Um super big shout outs to all of the winners out there.
SPEAKER_00Um other news. What's the other news? I just got a box in yesterday from Kyle Ferrer.
SPEAKER_03Oh, and the shirts are in.
SPEAKER_00And we got shirts going out. Okay. I talked to Kyle again yesterday. He called me while I was on my uh way back after us doing the podcast, and um he's got three other shirts that he's gotta make for us to get out as well. So people, they are coming. If you donate 25 bucks, you're getting a shirt now. Guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02Like a fucking you know, teenage boy, they are coming.
SPEAKER_00Dude, you should have hit the button and be like, sweet ass.
SPEAKER_03No, I definitely should have, but fuck. Oh god. Anyway, man. Uh appreciate everybody for for tuning in, dude. And uh I appreciate you, my friend. And uh super shout out to uh Paul Vaughn. Hope he uh continues to keep the Stoke alive, and I hope everybody enjoys the episode.
SPEAKER_00I swear to God, dude, I think we get better at this each time.
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, well, the numbers will tell. The audience will judge, thumbs up or thumbs down, like gladiators in the Coliseum.
SPEAKER_00But until next time, I guess we're doing worse every time.
SPEAKER_03Enjoy the show.
SPEAKER_02Get the fuck out of here.
SPEAKER_05Shut the fuck up.
Meet Paul Vaughn Toothless
SPEAKER_03All right, all right, all right, everybody. It's your boy Pauly. Polly wanna crack him. Hey, and I got the one and only Dr. Jones.
SPEAKER_05You call him Dr. Jones!
SPEAKER_03Super stoked to have the guy that we got sitting down. Today's episode is a Tale of Two Paul's. We got the one and only Paul Vaughn. Welcome to the show, my friend. How about you? I recommended that we call it uh Tale of Two Paulis. But uh Oh yeah. We'll get we'll we'll get into the uh the nickname. Many know him in uh in many circles as Toothless, but Paul, first go ahead and tell everybody a little bit about yourself. How old are you? How long you've been skating, where you from, kind of thing. Oh, let's see.
SPEAKER_00How much do you weigh and what's your blood type?
SPEAKER_01Forty 49 now, I think no, 48. And uh been skating for the better part of 35 years. Jesus Christ. And um building ramps for as long. And uh yeah. So when uh when did you get your first board? 1987. My mom's boyfriend um he surfed and skated, and he was like, So do you skate? And I was like, I mean, I could push around on a skateboard, and and then he asked me about Kona and I didn't know what it was, and he was like, Oh, we're and I didn't have a skateboard at the time. So he gave me a skateboard. It was uh vision agent orange handy trucks with uh vision shredder wheels, and he brought me up to Kona and as soon as I walked out the doors there at Kona, I was I felt like I was on the moon.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01I saw everybody flying around and I knew instantly I wanted to do that.
SPEAKER_03You know, I knew instantly. Yeah, I definitely know that feeling because that was kind of my introduction to skateboarding too. Um when I was a teenager and I first moved here was and and I remember walking out those back doors, man, and then it was like
First Board And Kona Shock
SPEAKER_03literally like you were on the moon and everything looked so big and it was just all concrete and people flying by was like I didn't even know skateboarding was uh you could do tricks or anything.
SPEAKER_01I thought it was like uh push down the street and carve left and right and more to fly, maybe in a car, maybe maybe walk the dog a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Hoverboard around with some. Yeah, I was eight, man. The first time I ever went to Connor to go pick up my cousin, and like I didn't start skating until I was eleven, but that was like the first time I seen skateboarding, and I was like, I wanna do that.
SPEAKER_01Instantly no.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yep, found your tribe, found your tribe. Um so you said uh it was your your your mom's boyfriend. Um are you born and raised in Jacksonville kind of a thing?
SPEAKER_01On and off my entire life. Yeah, yeah. Most of the uh most of my growing up until I was about 13 or 14. Uh I lived in town, like Bay Meadows and Lakewood and stuff like that. But uh then I moved then I moved back down to South Florida, and after I'd already started skating for like two years, I got pretty good. I moved down to South Florida and um there was no skateboarding scene. There were like maybe 10 skaters in the keys, you know. And so we had to make our own scenes. We had to build ramps, find cul-de-sacs to ransack for wood and build ramps in and stuff like that. And so that gave me uh gave me a boost in learning how to build stuff out of wood, you know. And that supported me throughout all of my skateboarding, just knowing how to build ramps, you know. Being on the prowl for those new construction sites are like a fresh load of lumber midnight operation.
SPEAKER_03We didn't even do that at first.
SPEAKER_01I wasn't even that ballsy at first. It was just finding pieces of old billboards and straightening nails so you can use them again. Oh, yeah. Yep, it was a different time back then, too. Yeah, yeah. Nobody had screw guns, you know.
SPEAKER_00Nails are stronger back then as well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and nothing was battery powered like the way it is now. Nothing. Not a thing, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Fucking battery, you mean I put my watch?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, nowadays it's uh people are still kind of mind blown when I pull up to most job sites, and I like my chop saw is battery powered, my table saw, you know. It's like because I work for and I'll pull up and it's it's minor stuff. Obviously, if I was pulling up all day, I'd probably still have corded stuff, but it's normally like showing up to reset a window and new trim kind of stuff. So that battery powered has changed the game for sure. I even got a battery-powered lawnmower now. Yeah, I've seen a lot of people getting those now. But also they apparently they work, you know. They work. Yeah, it's really light, very easy to maneuver around the yard and uh quiet. Quiet, yeah, and you don't have to mess with the whole thing. No, when you have your headphones on, like your ear your earbuds and your mowing, you actually hear like the music crystal clear. It's great.
SPEAKER_01Every now and then you gotta pull your earphone off and be like, is this thing running? Exactly. The first time I started it up, I had to do that. Wait a minute, what?
SPEAKER_00I don't know. Oh, it's on. I don't even think I hit a linkagrush.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, most of my stuff's battery
Building Ramps To Build A Scene
SPEAKER_01powered, but uh I'll I'll never work with a circular saw that's battery powered. It's just uh they you know they bog down and wood still. They do. Unless you have like a 36, uh, you know, or something like that. But it's pretty rare.
SPEAKER_03That that Makita skill saw, in my opinion, is like that that's the best damn one. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's the workhorse, I feel like, for every job site. Yeah, especially every ramp build for the most part. You know it's gonna be a good build when you pull up and there's a couple corded Makita skill saws on the site. You're like, absolutely. We're cutting trannies today, boys. Somebody's done this before. Yep, yep. Um, let me ask you regular goofy footed? Goofy foot? Yeah, goofy, all right. So uh frontside or backside preference.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it changed throughout the years, you know, but uh both nowadays. But at first it was uh backside, I felt stronger because I could see the ramp I was coming back into, you know. Yeah, and then uh got over my fear of frontside shortly thereafter, maybe a year and a half into skating and started doing Smith grinds and stuff like that, you know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. No, I always like asking that question because the perspective it you know changes from person to person. Like for me, it always seemed like growing up and learning stuff frontside always came because I could see the lip. Right. I I wasn't as scared having my back to the flat bottom as I was going up backside, you know what I mean? And you're looking down at the ramp, but it's like having my back, it just was always or the back to the rail or the ledge or whatever. But yeah. Um switch or faky. Fakey mostly.
SPEAKER_01Oh, god damn it. That's a good idea. I had a couple I had a couple of I had a couple of switch tricks, you know, switch nose slides and stuff like that back in the day.
SPEAKER_00Sliding through with the nosies.
SPEAKER_01I feel like now it's really just a it to me, it's a it's a it's a uh switch faky ollie tail slide. You know what I mean? Like for sure, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the way my brain had to process it.
SPEAKER_03But even like I remember when I first got into skating, just the verbiage, and I mean, I still jokingly say, like, if I'll see my buddy uh Joey, like he does these rad backside tail blocks, right? Oh, yeah. It'll always be like BSTB, you know what I mean? The magazine lingo, like you'd see the photo and it'd be BSTB, and you're like, what is that? Oh, backside tail, you know, uh switch stance, SS, TS, whatever, blah blah blah. Yeah, but um yeah, I definitely am much more of a faky person as well. But when I was coming up in skateboarding, there was like minimal switch now, absolutely everybody's like you have to learn something regular, and then you gotta learn at Switch.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, switch wasn't even a thing when I started skateboarding. Yeah, it was like you're going backwards, and then and then Sam and Agar came out and he just like put it on the map. There were a couple others, like Markovich was pretty early in on that, and but
Tools Then And Now
SPEAKER_01uh yeah, Sam and Agatha changed the game with all that.
SPEAKER_00Chad uh yeah, Chad Bardi with the party grind. What's that? Said uh Chad Bardy with the party grind. Chad Bardi, yeah, yeah. He does the 180 to switch Smith and he does the switch 180 to like the right back to Smith. However, though I thought that was I thought that was Barley. Donnie Barley, okay, all right, man.
SPEAKER_03That's what I was thinking too. I was like, why does that not sound right? Right, yeah, yeah. I was like, he was close, he was close.
SPEAKER_00One of them's Australian, so yeah, yeah, you know, whatever. But um uh I'm not I've never been fake, so you know I don't really go fakey. Right, you know, I'm just not at all.
SPEAKER_03Is that the skateboard term for a catfish? Fakey.
SPEAKER_00I just call that the old switcheroo, yeah. No, I like I like gnolly and switch equally because like there are certain tricks that I like, even like in my regular stance, I would have feel much more comfortable doing the trick faky instead of just doing like if I'm gonna do a pop shove it, I'm not gonna do a pop shove it. But I will throw a faky pop shove down something though. It just feels easier and like more right. More right.
SPEAKER_03Well, I guess if it feels right, it must be right. Let me
Stance Fakie Switch And Flip Tricks
SPEAKER_03ask you this, Paul kick flipper, heel flip.
SPEAKER_01This is important. Um both back in the day when I used to do them. Okay, but uh um see he's a kick flipper, I'm a heel flipper. My hard one I had on lock was uh inward heel flips. Nice. That was a hard one for me. Like, and I work hard for him, you know, really hard. Oh yeah. Those are gnollies, just straight gollies over things, you know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I used to have good nollipop back in the day, but it was like once I uh had to have my ankle surgery. Was it front side or backside for the nollipop? It did honestly didn't matter. I could do I could do straight gollies really like high. I could do gnolly backside 180s, golly front side one eighties. Once I had that ankle surgery, it I kind of I lost that pop. Lose mobility. Yeah, yeah. It's like kind of I jokingly always call it my peg leg ankle because my foot can move up and down. I've got like no flick, not a lot. Yeah, it's yeah.
SPEAKER_00Shit's stiffer than a fucking wooden board. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03But um, all right, so uh street park or uh both. All of it. That's what I'm talking about. Altering bit. Every bit of it, man. Every bit of it. Yeah, I remember watching you skate back in the day, and uh that you definitely like I looked up to you a lot as a teenager, like you, Tim Johnson, just because it was like God.
SPEAKER_01Me and Tim used to feed off of each other. Oh, big time, yeah. Like he'd do something. I'm like, oh, I need to do something. And yeah, just next thing you know, we're both sweating it out. Like this was a shaved ring in our shirt. Shaved head Paul Von Day. Yes, sir. He's got he's got number two all day.
SPEAKER_03But I always knew with that that almost that Mike V, like just militant, you know, straight fucking shave.
SPEAKER_00And I'm like, we have five dudes, I'm beating up six. What's going on?
SPEAKER_01I couldn't afford to go get a haircut, but I had a pair of clippers, you know.
SPEAKER_00I still do that, dude. Courtney tried to charge me over for haircuts, and I'm not having it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we got we got my beautiful wife in here.
SPEAKER_05Uh she's kind of cost money, you know.
SPEAKER_03That's right. That's why I always look good. She's sitting in Manning uh the computer co-producer today to uh help as we uh talk about some things. If we need to pull up any videos or content, she's here for it. So thanks, Bib.
SPEAKER_00Very glad to have you part of the podcast, Mrs. Walnuts.
SPEAKER_04I appreciate it, Chris.
SPEAKER_03So uh Mr. Vaughn,
Favorite Skaters Old And New
SPEAKER_03favorite skater growing up, and then uh who would you say favorite skater now? You can do a top three. I understand it's hard. Oh man.
SPEAKER_01I came unprepared for that one. Um whoever pops in your mind.
SPEAKER_00You know, fuck it. Take ten. Choose ten.
SPEAKER_01Well, first off, I've really, you know, just from the skate mags when I first started skating in '87, like it seemed like every other page was Christian Hussoy.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know. Because of the style, and that's that's what drew me into liking him. But uh uh Natas Kapas. Okay, uh Mark Gonzalez. Yep. Um, there you go. There we go.
SPEAKER_03What do you what do you what do you think about now? Any about any uh current guys, younger generation that that really catches your eye?
SPEAKER_01Um I really like uh I like Foy a lot. Oh yeah. Um really like uh uh Chris Russell. Yep. Um let's see. I'm a hater. I got no hate. No, I've just met the kid before. But um yeah, uh Chris Russell sh stands out big time, but there's other dudes. I can't even remember some of their names right now. Like uh a lot of these kids that um grew up wearing fool pads in parks all day, every day, that like ride padless nowadays, you know. Jake Fluton, uh Randy, uh Tristan Ranny.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, like um, uh Jamie Fool.
SPEAKER_03What's his name from South Carolina? Oh my god, it's on the tip of my tongue. Oh, what's his name? Skates the Mega Ramp 2? Yes. Fuck, what is his name? Kriner. Yes, click Croiner. Because when he did uh when Andy Roy had his podcast, Ripride, I actually sent Timmy. I was like, bro, you've got to check out this episode with him because when he gave shout-outs of his biggest influences, he said going down to Jacksonville, Florida and seeing Tim Johnson skate. He was like, when I saw him, he was like, that changed the game for me. And it was like, I know what I want to do with the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_01Tim lit a fire under a lot of people's butts. Oh fuck yeah. He really did. He lit one under my butt when he came down from St. Mary's.
SPEAKER_00Me as well.
SPEAKER_01When skate asylum, skate asylum opened up at the beach. Yeah. And that was the first time I ever saw you skate. Was I really that that far back? Yeah. Yeah, I was just coming out of um like I didn't quit skating uh for four or five years, but I've rarely skated for about four or five years because I surfed every day. I was just I was surf bum every day. You could see me on the beach, you know. Oh, yeah. Bleach blonde hair and then but then but then the skate asylum opened up and it and it it uh brought me out of that. I was just like, oh yeah, that's right. Skateboarding, you know, it brought me right back in, and then um I started amping on that, and then Tim moved down here, and that just lit a fire under so many people's boots. But yeah, back to talking about Clay Kreiner and whatnot. And a lot of those kids who uh a lot of them remember Tim and Tim like teaching them how to do stuff. You know what I mean? Like they learned they learned a lot of their chops off of what Tim was doing, you know. I did as well, you know.
SPEAKER_00But if you would listen, Tim
Tim Johnson And Coming Back
SPEAKER_00would tell you how to do it, like you were doing it wrong and like.
SPEAKER_01Oh, he'll tell you how to do it for like half an hour or two. That's Coach Tim.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, coach Timmy. And he gets a little frustrated when you like I you could just tell he's like, Well, why isn't it coming to you the way it'll come to me? Like, you just gotta do this. He wants you to do it so bad.
SPEAKER_01He really does.
SPEAKER_00So simple.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00No, it's wild as fuck that dude even like knows my name and everything. And like, like we're good, solid friends. Like his son and my youngest daughter, they're in the same second grade class together in like elementary school.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's rad. He uh I remember because kind of similar, I just kind of got distracted with like partying and nightlife, and I didn't realize it, but there's like a five-year stretch where like I skated once a year for like a five, six-year period, maybe. So you swear. I swear. All right.
SPEAKER_01And then I phased in out of that too for a little while when I was a bartender.
SPEAKER_03And then I started getting back into skating and everything. And I remember we were over at Rick Morgan's house before he had the skate lab vert ramp out there, it was just the mini ramp he had. I remember hanging with him, and he was like, and I was just bummed because I was like getting close to 30 and stuff like that. And I'm like, I'm just getting back into it. I remember what I was like, man, fuck you. He was like getting close to 30. Dude, he's like, some of my best skateboarding was in my 30s. He's like, You fucking just fucking get on board again. I just remember talking to him near the campfire, near the ramp that night, and those few words, and I was just like, Yeah, you know what? Fuck yeah, I'm getting back into it. And then I was like working at Kona again, and it was like it was like snowball effect. Yep, yep.
SPEAKER_00Dude, you remember Harlan's birthday at the Instagram warehouse? Yes, yeah, I did. Fucking uh Mullen was there, like there was a whole there was a whole gaggle.
SPEAKER_01I remember that's the last time I saw Mullen too.
SPEAKER_00I haven't seen him in so long. Oh, dude, I just seen him the other day. He looks as gorgeous as ever. Sexy man, dude. That's it. Honestly, dude, his wife classed up. I respect it. All right, that's a beautiful man. But um Tim, like he did the uh he like from the big quarter pipe, like launched up and like hit like the hangar rail and nose picked that shit. I'm pretty sure up top, yeah. I'm pretty sure it's still on my Instagram right now. Like, you just get it. Is it you have that clip? Yeah, I'm pretty sure you got it.
SPEAKER_01I've actually got an Instagram. We put a piece of pool coping up there on that list. Yeah, just that was that was we called it Timmy's ledge.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so you remember the extension on Rick's mini ramp, the one that was like recessed back. Okay. So yeah, I've got I took a picture, a rad picture, of Timmy doing a front side nose pick on the handrail out of that behind it. And then someone actually I've got the photo of someone taking a photo of me get being the one. Yes, I remember that. Yeah, I saw those, I saw those picks.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was like, fuck yeah. One was from behind. Yep. And one was from, I think from the other angle. You know. But yeah, Timmy, man, if he sees something sitting up high, if he sees sitting up something sitting up high, he's gotta hit it. Oh yeah, you know, he's gotta hit it.
SPEAKER_03He's an animal, man, and he's got that uh just that focus. What are you doing? Oh, he's Instagram posting. We got we got babe over here. It was filmers, filming, filmers at the time. Promotions
First Sponsors And Tryouts
SPEAKER_03going on. Um we're gonna take a break here in a minute, but before we do, just kind of wanna add were you ever I mean, you were sponsored. Who were you who was your first sponsor?
SPEAKER_01Oh, um I got I got a cool story about that. Um skate asylum opened up and I got it got me. Can you kill that audio, bro? Yeah, I'm trying to skate asylum opened up at the beach in uh 97 and it got me back into skateboarding, so I was in there sweating it out every day. Masonite. Oh, yeah, masonite uh dingleberries and my hair on my belly and chest, and just and and so uh I started standing out a little bit, I guess, you know, and um Chris Kendall and a couple other kids who uh who um were skating up there at the time, they were like, Are you sponsored? And I was like, No, you know, he's like, What? You know, they couldn't believe I wasn't sponsored, and they were like, Oh, you gotta come up to and they brought me up to um Waves, Waves Surf Shop, and um the guy who in that place was like, Okay, well, skate on the parking lot for me for a minute, and and I'll tell you. I skated for a few minutes and he was like, Yeah, you're on the team, and then and then um uh shortly thereafter, um there was a skate company. It was around the time Beast was a thing. No, it was Hulk. Oh, before Beast, yeah, before Beast. It was Hulk, and around that time there was another skate company um that star that whipped from around here was uh called Myth Skateboards, and they were gonna have tryouts. They wanted to add a skater to their roster, another skater to their roster, and so they had tryouts at skate asylum. So me and maybe ten other people were up there sweating it out, trying to throw throw down, and um Joey Corey was one of them. Joey was like, you know, he was maybe pfft 11 or something like that at the time.
SPEAKER_00He's Paul Hart's.
SPEAKER_01And he was already learning frontside flips from his brother, from Joey or from uh um Ryan. And um, and he was standing out, and so it was pretty much Joey and I were the two guys that were probably gonna get picked to be on the team. And at the end of the night, the guy came up to me and he goes, We want you to be on the team. And I was like, only if you put Joey on with me. Oh yeah. And so they did. So they did. They gave they gave me a board, gave Joey a board, and then Joey quickly beat that board to hell and called them up and was like trying to get another one, you know, or like, here, could can I give you twenty bucks for a board or whatever, you know. And they wouldn't return his calls, and um yeah, they wouldn't return his calls, and he was crushed. And Ryan Corey saw that, and he had uh he had Beast he is yes, it was Beast. It wasn't Hulk, it was uh about a year later when it became Beast. And um Ryan saw that and saw crush Joey, that they wouldn't call him back. Joey felt like he'd done something wrong or wasn't good enough, and da da da and so he decided he was he already had the car lot and he decided he was gonna start um start Flatline so that he can push all the people that he knows that deserve it and and and whatnot. So uh part of the reason why he started Flatline was because of Joey getting crushed like that, you know. Wow. Yeah, it was but um but I really did like that that I told them I was like now I'll I'll be on the team, but only if you put Joey on too. That's Joey's awesome, you know, because he's a star. He's gonna be a star, you know. Oh yeah, for sure. You could just tell.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Um, fellas, I found the video. What video? Of Tim Johnson doing that nose pick. Well, let's check it out.
SPEAKER_03Why don't you send the link to my Instagram and we can pull it up on the computer? There it is. Oh, you got it? I built all those ones.
Break And Quick Reset
SPEAKER_03Off the top rope. We've been talking for I think about 20 minutes now. Uh be back if we got 15 minutes.
SPEAKER_00Hey, this is the folly on the party on the party. Dr. Jones, Dr. Jones, get that.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
Toothless Nickname And Key West Days
SPEAKER_03All right, guys, and we're back. It's your boy Polly. I got the doctor. Hello. And the one and only Paul, aka Toothless Vaughn. Let me ask you, when did that nickname come about? Because for as long as I've known you, that's been like the oh, you know Toothless?
SPEAKER_01Paul Vaughn? That's from um Rick Morgan would remember when I got coined that too. Um when we lived in Key West. Nice. Um, so were you down there with him? That's where we met, yeah, in high school. Hell yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um so the whole scene I was telling you about that we had to maintain down there, uh, he was a part of that. That's fucking awesome. But um, so what what was I saying? Uh something about being toothless and recruiting. Yeah, yes, that's right. So my buddy Jeremy uh coined me that is this uh down there Jers? Yeah, Jers. Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah. Slaughter, right? Yeah, Jeremy Slaughter. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Rest in peace to that dude. Didn't know him, but I know that you're friends with Rick and Yeah, it was like me, Rick, Jeremy, and Dorian.
SPEAKER_01We were the three uh basically the well the four um honkies. The four best skaters down there that were like maintaining the scene, creating ramps and and finding spots and waxing them up and uh but and we had a bunch of other kids like uh coming up underneath us, like uh Ben out in he's out in um uh San Francisco right now. But uh yeah, so he named me toothless. At first it was uh N T no teeth. Okay, and then quickly went to toothless and I've owned the name ever since.
SPEAKER_03Hell yeah.
SPEAKER_00Ever since I've known you, you've had teeth, so yeah, well, you know.
SPEAKER_01The irony in it or the sarcasm.
SPEAKER_00Yeah the ironicness.
InstaRamp Builds And The Pro Ramp
SPEAKER_03So what I really wanted to talk to you about is uh a lot of people know about InstaRamp. Yep. And these awesome mobile half pipes that can pull up at any one of your events you're actually rocking a shirt right now. You're the you're the one that built these ramps, aren't you?
SPEAKER_01Um built the pro ramp, the one that he has now.
SPEAKER_03That's the bigger one?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I've uh I rebuilt several of them that were already built when I came on. Like totally took it to taking them all apart. But uh the pro ramp is kind of George and mine's baby when we brought that thing from the ground up.
SPEAKER_03Hell yeah. So how did that uh I mean, J had had you known George since back in like the skate asylum days?
SPEAKER_01Yes, absolutely, absolutely. He was uh he was a ripper on anything he put his feet on.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. No, that's what I used to inline skate as well. That's how I kind of because that was the hot shit when I first moved to Jacksonville. George was really good at it too. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Watching him. He he had stylished everything.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he ripped. He was he was definitely a super fucking talented dude and seems to have been very successful with the Instagram adventure. Absolutely. Weren't you living out there at the warehouse? Yeah.
Living At The Warehouse
SPEAKER_03What was that like? Any crazy stories?
SPEAKER_01Uh because there was like little skate parties. Yeah, there's been a few funny ones. Like uh I was asleep one night and about uh 1 32 in the morning. I hear skateboarding going on downstairs. I'm like, okay, whatever. Um it happens from time to time. And then uh the next morning I wake up um and George uh had called me and he's like, So did you get to meet him? And I was like, Meet who? And uh evidently little Wayne and his whole crew were there.
SPEAKER_03I remember hearing that had come through.
SPEAKER_01And when and uh when they left that night, they left stuff everywhere. I was picking up, you know, blunt roaches and stuff all over the place, you know. Like they're picking them up, you must open them. They hit it hard that night, man.
SPEAKER_02We were just talking about him earlier, actually.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we were when we were in here doing the little trio. Dude, uh I I used to love going to skate at the Instagram warehouse and shit. Like, I think it's really like, you know, like we've known each other, Paul, but I think that's where we really became like tight homies and everything was like through those sessions and shit.
SPEAKER_01Cause like Yeah, it was nice having something right outside my bedroom door and just water skate. Yeah, you know, anytime I wanted, you know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah, there was a little time when I was working at Conan, I was actually living in a house in Sin City.
SPEAKER_01But the rainy days were rad because it brought people out. Oh, hell yeah. When it was raining. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Night sessions and shit, though, were always the funnest. Yeah. Dude, you remember when I brought the boys from uh from Pennsylvania and shit? And they uh their one homie like fucking as soon as he got there, he just like looked at the big quarter five in front blown it like first try out of nowhere.
SPEAKER_01Uh vaguely, I saw a lot of stuff go down there, man. Oh, yeah, okay. I really did. Yeah, many, many nights.
SPEAKER_03Did you help build the uh the skate park that
Little Wayne Night And Aftermath
SPEAKER_03was at the warehouse?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that was from the ground up.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. That was my first uh round wall I ever framed up. Cool. That one quarter quarter that was back over there. I think it was fun. Yeah, it was. It turned out really good. I was stoked. Dude, uh did you do the surfacing for it too and cut all the pedals and all that? No, the surfacing was done. I had to leave I went out of town for like a month or a couple of months at that point. And uh I had just framed it all up. And uh Joey Vogel uh he he uh surfaced that thing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01R IP.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, for real. Yeah. Dude, that corner was so sick, dude. Blasting like 50-50s through and truly. All the way through, yeah. Dude, front 5050s on the thing felt so good.
SPEAKER_03What would uh what would you say your favorite skate park is uh locally and then uh and then just any favorite skate park or skate spot you've ever skated?
SPEAKER_01Favorite skate park locally is monument.
SPEAKER_03Hell yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um represent it just has uh it has a little bit of everything, you know. Yeah, fucking love money, dude. It's uh yeah, it's great. Um second and close for first is uh treaty.
SPEAKER_00Right on St. Augustine That's St. Augustine, so um I think it's the same.
Building The Warehouse Park
SPEAKER_01You can just do forever is at Treaty. Hell yeah. You can literally hit the entire park. Um except for the little kitty pole. Oh, yeah, because that's down now without without pushing once. You can hit everything in that part of the marathon line. You can drop in and just hit everything.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I won't the one thing I will say, like treaty back in the day, that step up didn't seem like shit. But man, skating that step up like in my 30s, I'm like, damn, this thing is big. It's just like long and a little bit taller than I remember, but it's like longer than I remember. Is it still breaking off into the oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Is it really?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Dude, I was talking to my homie uh Jake Patterson fucking the dragon uh just like earlier this week, and we were talking about uh like skating it and everything. And uh like skating the step up, because like he likes to do like backfoot heel flips and like back on any late like backfoot heel flips, and you know, like I do like gnarly lay flips and shit. And I was like, dude, I'll be honest with you, doing a gnarly lay flip up that fucking thing was the scariest shit in the world because if you did not fucking hit it right, you're gonna clip and catch every time. He's like, dude, it's the same thing for doing straight just
Favorite Florida Parks And Lines
SPEAKER_00fucking backfoot heel flips. It was so scary.
SPEAKER_03That's what I'm saying. It's long, it's definitely longer than it for than it looks like, and uh it's not tall, but for how long it is, yeah, it's kind of tall. Yeah, no, for real. Because you definitely gotta fly up that thing if you don't and you clip.
SPEAKER_01How about the things uh that have been done up the big step up?
SPEAKER_00Oh, the big euro, dude. That fucking thing. Oh that's a lot of space, a lot of space to carry. I'll I I want a best trick contest there once upon a time.
SPEAKER_03Are you talking about the one where you're from the bank and you skip the over the big bank? Yeah, over the tiny bank. The little bank? Yeah, over the bank, from the one bank over the little bank. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the big euro. Yeah. Dude, and you know what's funny? I've only done two tricks of that thing ever. I've only oldied it, and I did hard foot blade flip of it. That's it. Yeah, I've only old it. I've never old it. Like, I've never tried anything else. Only reason I tried hard foot blade flip is because I was the contest and I put my last ten dollars in it. So uh I need that money.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, my favorite part about that park would probably be that uh, what is it, seven foot wall? Just that whole deep end side. Yeah. Like seven, maybe eight. I think it's seven.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It's just so fun. Yeah, something almost right, just perfectly divert. Yeah, exactly. Have you ever noticed those corners are really hard to five-o through? Oh, they're scary. They're yeah, they're hard to grind through, period. Well, they're they're it's uh there's something about it. They're too tight. Well, it's something about the geometry or maybe the metal in those sections are softer or something because they just always feel sticky to me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, I've definitely noticed that for sure because I can make it like halfway kind of through them, and then it always feels like my front truck bites, even if I'm doing like a 50-50. Right.
SPEAKER_01Like you know, something bites whether it's even if you stand up on a on a stamp 5-0, yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_00It's gonna bite on on the way through. I remember the first time I like I did a like a back 50 on the seven-foot wall, like obviously a long time ago. That was with like Kyle Farisi and shit. And like as soon as I was coming in, dude, like I had to sink so low and like suck it all in because like I had never like really done a big 50-50 on that, on something that's tall. And I was like, holy fucking Kyle! I was like, Yeah, that definitely looks like uh you're probably not gonna try that again, are you?
SPEAKER_03No, that whole little section's fun too, because you can kind of almost skate that like uh a mini ramp with a pump pump in the middle. Sure, you know what I mean? Really, really, really fun. Yeah, um, really good spot to learn uh some stuff. At least back in the day, it's a little bit more weathered concrete now, not as smooth as I remember, you know, overskating it.
SPEAKER_01Plus, we're a little spoiled nowadays, too. That was like maybe the second park in Florida ever ever done by Team Payne.
SPEAKER_03Right, yeah. No, we're definitely, definitely spoiled little bitches these days.
SPEAKER_00Everything is so perfect. Like, dude, I'm not a fun like I'm not a fan of Sunshine Park. Fuck that shit, because like that shit's too perfect. I don't like it.
SPEAKER_03Nah, it's rad, I just don't get to skate it much. What park? Sunshine out of Jack's Beach.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Everything's just too perfect, dude. And like I just I I I need I need some flaws for me to find it.
SPEAKER_01It's fun, but it's usually pretty busy, and some of the geometry is a little redundant, you know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, for sure. Now let me ask you uh this.
Designing Saplings And Learning Concrete
SPEAKER_03I know that you had helped Willie with some of the layout for saplings, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I had a major major input with Will with Willie and them boys. You did all the cat like design, the whole the whole backside of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Most everything else was already done when I came on with them. And uh I learned a lot from those guys.
SPEAKER_00Fuck yeah. Oh, dude, they're right. I can actually, dude, Paul, I was gonna tell you I I want to get a hold of Willie and try to get him on soon enough.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, we've had him on before. I'd love to get him back on. It's been a while.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, I wasn't there a part of that one. I so weren't you out there for who was it, Radcliffe's birthday?
SPEAKER_03Oh no, yeah, he came on before Radcliffe's birthday, and then we went there and skated for two.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, you know what? You are right, yeah, because I was there for Radcliffe's birthday, and I did have Willie on for a little bit.
SPEAKER_03No, I haven't been able to skate that back pocket yet, but I've been uh looking at it, drooling and dreaming. I've reached out to him a couple times with yet to link up for the session.
SPEAKER_00My l my last time I got a chance to skate was actually at Saplands. Oh, was it? Yeah. Was I there that night? Uh I think so. I think I skated with you there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, we definitely skated there, but I think uh that night uh you as uh you you and Art were fucking trying to see who could drink more out of the gym bean bottle. Yeah, I yeah. We have those. Those are my those are my heckle heckle nights.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where I just sit back and heckle.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. Oh fuck, that show was so goddamn funny, dude. You two were like it was actually more entertaining watching you two fucking to see who could drink more than it was to even like look at the skateboarding. Cause R would get like furious about it. He's like, All right, man, cup number seven, where are you at, Paul? Oh, that's cup number eight, and he's like, son of a bitch.
SPEAKER_03Shoutouts to R Carter, man. Yeah, buddy. Love that dude. Shout out to all those guys, the whole Barn Bowl, uh, sapland crew. They took me in under their wing. They've done a lot of rad things uh for skateboarding here.
SPEAKER_01Like I said, I learned a lot from those guys. They had you know, they already had a lot of knowledge on uh concrete.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, two of my favorite things to skate a Kona is the fucking the wall jam on the back side of the concrete, and then even the little punk wall by the stairs on the on the street course. Yeah, the punk wall. It's so much fun. That's the one I that's that's I love those.
SPEAKER_00I can spend two hours riding that thing. Me too. You know, yeah, me too. Me too. Dude, skating over the stairs and everything, fucking that wall's so sick.
Skate Culture And The Olympics
SPEAKER_03So let me ask you this, Paul. Um, since you've got you know been been around for a hot minute, like how do you feel about uh skateboarding these days as a whole? And how do you feel about like Florida skateboarding compared to like where it was when you first started and you know, like you were younger? Like, did you ever think it would come to this point? Do you think it's a good thing it's in the Olympics kind of thing? Like, just give me your thoughts and then we can uh I don't really call it.
SPEAKER_01I don't really pay much mind of to or t towards the fact that it's in the Olympics. Um I don't even watch SLS that much, you know. Uh I prefer the video format. Hell yeah. You know. Like I, you know, I I like the big contests. I'll watch the big contests, Tampa, Tampa Pros. I'll always watch those. Fuck yeah.
SPEAKER_00But uh Dime Glory Challenge.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, and the Olympics, uh, you know, it doesn't impress me much. Like somebody said, I don't remember who it was. Shot Sniper Olympics. Hey, that's a somebody said the Olympics need skateboarding, skateboarding doesn't need the Olympics. I can't remember who who actually I've actually heard that too, and I can't remember who said that, but I've heard that's absolutely true. But as far as Florida skateboarding goes, there's so many people that skate nowadays, it's hard to keep up with who's the next upcoming Florida skateboarder, you know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, do you think do you think um I guess because times change and everything, like quickly everybody moves out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. They either all collect in Miami or they take the plunge and go out to go to LA, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Um well, I mean, how do you feel about like the culture, even just around the city? We obviously have I mean shit, since I first moved here, we've got more skate parks and skate spots, and it definitely seems to have grown like um in your lifetime. Like, how do you just kind of feel about do you think it's too industrialized and corporate at this point? Do you think there's still What do you mean like too much of it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I go I I I go through that when I think about it. Um, in that uh I wish it was back in the day, I wish it was still a crime. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You really enjoyed those days. You were getting away with something when you were skateboarding. For sure. And nowadays hopping the fence, now yeah, fucking running. Yeah, whatever. Yeah, yeah. And uh so I go through those moods, but you know, progress is progress. Yeah, for sure.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03Well, right on, man. Well, uh, I just gotta
Where To Find Toothless
SPEAKER_03say, um, you've been an inspiration in the skateboarding world to me, dude. Thank you. And especially like as you know, we're not the closest friends, um, more acquaintances, I think, than than than really friends, you know, over the years. But uh, yeah, definitely have always looked up to you uh from a distance. Stoked to have you on the uh the episode, and and I appreciate everything that you've done to contribute to the tribe and the culture.
SPEAKER_01Just trying to keep it going.
SPEAKER_03Tell everybody where they can find you on social media. Uh you on Instagram?
SPEAKER_01What is it? It's uh T W O T H L E S S S. At Toothless.
SPEAKER_00Yes, the one and only. Dude, Paul, I appreciate you coming on, buddy. Uh, due respect that you answer my phone calls because we're actually friends, Paul. He likes me better than he likes you, Paul. I'm fucking busy, Chris. I'm not home all day. But hey, man, like I super rad and enjoyed it, man. Like, you've always been a good fucking dude, a good solid homie, and fucking um all around great skateboarder, but all around fucking rad, dude. So hey, thanks for coming on and hanging out with us, man.
SPEAKER_03For sure, man. Thank you guys. Thanks for everybody for listening, and uh, as always, peace, love, and skateboarding.