Pauly On The Pod
Pauly On The Pod
Skateboarding Keeps You Young; Julian Etheridge
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A cracked rib that punctures a liver. A pro-era contest scene where the most technical skating didn’t always win. A Virginia Beach style that still shows up every time the board hits smooth concrete. We’re sitting down with legendary East Coast skateboarder Julian Etheridge, and the stories go way deeper than a trick list.
We talk about where Julian comes from, how he started skating back in 1988, and what it was like growing up in the mini ramp and vert-heavy days before today’s million-dollar skateparks. From first shop sponsors to traveling footage, we connect the dots between Virginia Beach, Florida trips, and eventually landing in Jacksonville. If you care about skateboarding history, East Coast skate culture, and how local scenes actually get built, you’ll feel right at home here.
Then we get into the big questions: how competition skateboarding evolved from old-school course runs to modern SLS and park formats, why judging is always subjective, and why the current generation is doing “Tony Hawk Pro Skater” lines in real life. We also keep it real about injuries, aging, and what it takes to stay in skating when recovery becomes part of the routine. And yes, we still make time for our “Is It a Sport” game and a completely unnecessary debate about Taco Town food trucks.
If you enjoyed the conversation, subscribe, share it with your skate crew, and leave a review so more skaters can find it. What’s the gnarliest slam you’ve seen someone come back from?
Cold Open And Guest Tease
SPEAKER_05I guess the joint network you know some of the poly on the pod with Dolly Jones and the Powell you on the eye.
SPEAKER_07All right, guys, it's your boy Paulie.
SPEAKER_01Look how you grown up, Paulie.
SPEAKER_07You already know who I got on the line. The one and only.
SPEAKER_01You call it for back to back.
SPEAKER_07What?
SPEAKER_06I can't believe you still have me enough to be here.
SPEAKER_07But once again, for back-to-back episodes, we've got the one and only Lucy Walnuts, ladies and gentlemen.
SPEAKER_06Hey y'all! Hey.
SPEAKER_07That's right. You know, we're bringing the kids along, we're bringing the whole team along. Yeah, it's a family operation over here. That's right. Hashtag podcast mafia up in this bitch. But anyway.
SPEAKER_06Hashtag family means everything.
SPEAKER_07That's right. And uh today, man, we uh we had the opportunity to sit down with one exceptional human being, one rad skateboarder, and uh super stoked for the guest we had the one and only Julian Etheridge.
SPEAKER_06Legendary uh East Coast guy from from from Virginia or Virginia for Virginia, yeah, Virginia Beach.
SPEAKER_07From Virginia Beach, yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_06And uh and uh just uh he's a he's a legend everywhere he goes.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, for sure. Um super and uh super stoked to have him on and uh and and talk about man, we talked about everything from his mountain biking to like him growing up skating to I mean should we play uh Is It a Sport?
SPEAKER_06I I mean Oh we did play Is It a Sport, dude.
SPEAKER_07Yep, it was it was definitely a rad episode and uh want to thank everybody for tuning in. And uh go ahead, my guy.
SPEAKER_06I was I was really upset that he uh thought truck nuts wasn't a sport, but you know, whatever. You didn't even ask that. I heard y'all playing that. I wanted to join in.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, you should definitely join in next time.
SPEAKER_06Lucy, you're definitely in on the next round, I promise. Okay. All right. Uh you gotta put that on the pinky.
SPEAKER_07Yep, there you go. Pink pinky promise. But without uh without giving too much away and without further ado, this is episode 44. Can't believe it. We as we creep ever closer to 50, where we're gonna have uh my father on.
SPEAKER_06The one who's we will and we got an episode 51 special guest.
SPEAKER_07Yep, yep, more of the walnuts.
SPEAKER_06But yeah, no uh Grand Grandpapa Nuts. Yep, grandpapa nuts. Yep, yep, and then uh oh wrankly nuts. We got a special guest for episode 51, and then episode 53 is going to be my mom.
SPEAKER_07Or 52 or 53?
SPEAKER_06No, because 52, we had uh one special guest we're not talking about yet.
SPEAKER_07Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah. Because 51, 52, and then 53. Yep, yeah, yeah, top secret.
SPEAKER_06And then 53 is going to be my mom.
SPEAKER_07Yep, top secret. We can't tell anybody because you know if we do, it's watch out.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. One in the chamber. They're coming for us.
SPEAKER_07So without further ado, the one and only episode 44, Julian Etheridge. Super stoked. Let's get it.
SPEAKER_04Fucking dumb people.
SPEAKER_01Get the fuck out of here.
SPEAKER_07All right,
Meet Julian And Early Skate Days
SPEAKER_07all right, all right. It's your boy, Paulie. Get the fuck out of here. And I got the one and only Dr. Jones.
SPEAKER_01Dr. Jones, Dr. Jones!
SPEAKER_06That's still a new drop. I'm not used to it.
SPEAKER_07What's up, everybody? How y'all doing? Oh, yeah. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. If you don't mind, take this time to like, subscribe, and share the podcast, the Instagram, the YouTube channel, we'd be stoked. But not as stoked uh as I am to have the guy that we got sitting down at the table today, ladies and gentlemen. The one and only Julian Etheridge. Welcome to the show, my friend.
SPEAKER_05Hello. Thanks for having me. Hell yeah, man.
SPEAKER_07What's up, buddy? Stoked. So uh, you know, for those that don't know you, why don't we start off uh a little bit icebreakers? Where are you from? How old are you? How long you been skating?
SPEAKER_05Oh, actually, I'm from New Jersey, but uh uh grew up in Virginia Beach. Nice. How long you been skating? Um I started skating like in 1988. 88. God damn, another one, dude. Yeah, 88.
SPEAKER_06Oh yeah, I wasn't even born yet, man.
SPEAKER_05Oh, yeah. I think I was like in fifth grade or something like that. Oh shit, you got that early start. Oh yeah. Hell yeah. How'd you get introduced to it? Uh my buddy uh Alan Siegler and Kenny Wolf, I see uh they were like the first kids I met in the neighborhood. Uh it was like uh I was walking down the street and seeing them in a park, and they're dropping in on the slide, and I walked up to them. Like a playground slide? Yeah, playground slide. Yeah, y'all kids are crazy, blah blah. And then like ever since that, you know, we're like became friends, started skating. I think my birthday was probably like uh a couple of months after that. My mom got me a skateboard, my first skateboard, it was a uh Mauian son. And yeah, I was like actually upset about that, you know.
SPEAKER_07I thought they asked what that is. Like a Maui, like Maui.
SPEAKER_05Like a Maui inside, it was like something she got from Sears or something like that. Oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07So it's it's that surf vibe, so we're gonna call it Maui in some.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I was like mad about that. And then so like the week later, my mom took me to the skate shop and like got me a real board, and it was like uh Bill Danforth with venture trucks and like OJ Two Wheels or something like that. Oh yeah. It was like the cheapest thing they had, so you know. Yeah, yeah. What was the skate? What was the skate shop? You remember the name? Um I don't even remember. Oh, I think it was like Factor or something like that. I don't even remember. I remember actually getting sponsored by that shop after a while. It was like in a basement and in a basement. Yeah, yeah. It was cool. You had to like walk around back to behind this building and go upstairs. That sounds grassroots organization right there.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah. That's fucking awesome.
SPEAKER_06So uh sign a waiver that he's 18 and up and shit.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Uh are you regular or goofy? Uh goofy footed. Goofy footed. Uh if you had to pick, would you uh would you choose front side or backside? Uh I'll say probably backside, I guess. Hell yeah. Honestly, from watching you skate, I would I would probably guess that you'd say uh you would say backside, because man, you got like a fucking sick bag of backside tricks. And everything I look at, I'm like, I'd I would definitely approach that front side, and then Julian comes in and it's like backtail or some shit.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's probably all my favorite tricks backtail sliding something, whatever I can.
SPEAKER_07And you got a fucking solid one, my friend. Yeah, um, switch or faky? Uh faky. Hell yeah. Um, I is that like a sign? I feel like it is a sign of like the age, you know what I mean? Yeah, because nowadays, like every younger person I talk to, they're all switch, switch, of course, switch. And it's like I feel like everybody kind of my age and and older is always like faky. Yeah. Back in our day, nobody was doing switch shit.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, no, the boards weren't even made to go switch, right? You know what I mean? They're not built for this signal. Yeah, weren't even built for that board. Yeah, exactly. We weren't even built for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07Um kick flip or uh heel flip.
SPEAKER_05Kick flip, yeah. Uh street, park, or both? Uh say park. Just because now that I'm older, you know, the streets like just rough and yeah. Streets is rough. Yeah, yeah, streets is rough. I'd rather ride something smooth nowadays.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah, and man, my knees can't handle it nowadays, though. No, I hear you. Uh and now all these parks, I mean you got these million dollar parks all over the place. Yeah, and they're awesome. They're doing so much with it. Yeah, and you know, a lot of them are very, very similar with similar features, but it a lot of them always have like really cool, unique, something unique, you know what I mean? That it's like, you know, always always dig.
SPEAKER_05Um favorite skater growing up. Uh it's a lot. Like I grew up uh skating like with Sergey Ventera. Uh yeah. Um uh Mike Conroy. I remember when I first met Mike Conroy, we had a ramp in the woods. Uh they call it Woodstuck Ramp. It was like my buddies had had a ramp or whatever. And uh he came by skated. I thought it was Tony Hawk at first. I didn't know. He was so good, you know. And then we started skating uh this ramp called Bayville. And of course we skate trashmore too. It was the same thing. Like back then the skate parks, all it was was like a mini ramp and a vert ramp. Yeah, you know what I mean? So you would learn your tricks on the mini ramp and then just take it to the vert ramp. And all them guys, like uh uh Alan Midget and uh Sergio Ventura, Krishna, you know, all them dudes would, you know, skate, and we grew up skating with them, and you know, I think that's kind of why uh where I got my style from, you know, seeing them more like a ramp thing, you know.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah, and honestly, like I remember when I first even started going to Kona, um, their sorry excuse for what they had was a street course at the time was just those couple of ramps on top of the snake run. But it was literally other than the downhill stuff, there was just vert ramp in uh in the mini ramp. You know what I mean? Oh yeah, yeah, that's what I'm gonna do. Yeah, yeah, vert ramp, mini ramp. Yeah, yeah. And that's where we spent most of our time. Because at that time, if we weren't during doing flyouts out of the bowl, yeah, I mean we were down on that mini ramp.
SPEAKER_06Y'all are talking to me like I'm a child right now. Like, really? Is that what it used to be like?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, that's all it was. But um, so how old are you now? Uh 47. Hell yeah.
SPEAKER_06Fucking still shredding that.
SPEAKER_07Still out there charging. I'll try. I try.
SPEAKER_06We were at uh Tim's Halloween party the other week, dude, and uh Tim's got this like new ramp that's like a little spine, but it's got like a yellow curb on top of it, like that's plastic.
SPEAKER_07Oh, like a little street spine thing?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, dude. And like Julian turned that some bitch sideways and just started fucking it up, dude.
SPEAKER_07Just skating the fucking curb on top of it? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06He was like spine ramp. No, no, no, no. This is a ledge.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, this is a ledge.
SPEAKER_06They put this beautiful curve on top for me. Yeah, dude, the front board was fucking brutal. That was that was like after your first try, like it like it was like, god damn, I don't want to try that. And then you just came through and powerhoused the second one. I was like, fuck, dude, that's so grad. Yeah, hell yeah. Well, who
Sponsors And Moving To Jacksonville
SPEAKER_06was uh who was your first sponsor?
SPEAKER_05Uh like I said, I think it's that shop factor, I think it was the first shop factor. Yeah, and uh and then after that, uh the shop WRV, uh Coastal Edge. Uh uh Kyle Burrard had a shop at one time, um, Cardinal. Yep. Yeah, so I I skipped for them for a little while. It's like I I went through like all the shops in town, you know. How long have you uh how long have you been down in Jacksonville? Uh about five years now.
SPEAKER_07Hell yeah. Yeah, that's what's up. How do you like it?
SPEAKER_05I like it. It's cool. It's uh a lot more mellower than Virginia Beach, you know. Virginia Beach is so just crowded and packed together, you know, everything's so tight, you know. Here it's like you got some space, you know. Yeah, for sure. Pretty laid back. Yeah, yeah. Oh fucking surf city.
SPEAKER_07I like the Florida vibes. Yeah, yeah. What do you how do you feel about the skate scene down here? Because a lot of people that I talk to coming from elsewhere, they're like, man, y'all's skate scene is amazing.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's a killer skate scene. I mean, there's a lot of cool uh a lot of skaters from Virginia Beach too that you know I mean, like you know, that are coming up okay. Chris Weimer, he's from Virginia Beach.
SPEAKER_06Oh yeah, Chris Weimer rips destroys it, destroys it.
SPEAKER_07And then even I like Colin Graham's from Virginia Beach, right? Yeah, Colin Graham, yeah, yeah. They've got uh a bunch of like uh you know younger guys.
SPEAKER_06Trevor Colden.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_06Uh my homie Theo uh is from Virginia Beach, dude, and he fucking wrecks shit. I've never been up there.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's never been up there. A lot of kids came from there, yeah. It's I don't know why, but it's a lot of kids came from there. It's just no, yeah. I mean, when you think of it.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. No, uh uh, I mean, when you think about like all the East Coast scenes kind of up and down, I mean, there's like, you know, you think about Virginia Beach. I mean, you think about Charleston, you think about Atlanta, you know what I mean? Right. You'd like it's kind of New York, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_06It's it's definitely a straight line up like from the way that the East Coast is connected compared to like how the West Coast is, and everything seems more like more separated in the West Coast than it does here.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, and California takes up the whole West Coast where we got, you know, what 15 states up on our side, you know what I mean? So fucking dickheads.
SPEAKER_06Of course, California does, those greedy bastards.
SPEAKER_07Greedy bastards, but uh what are your thoughts on uh Florida skateboarding? You know, being that you've only been here for like five years and such, you know. Oh yeah, I like it. You know, it's uh You think it's more of like a surf skate culture down here or kind of you know, what do you I mean, versus like up in Virginia Beach? I mean they're surfing up there too, right? Yeah, it's surfing up there, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Uh I don't know, it's kind of fairly the same, really, I think, you know, because you have some of the like skater-surfer types, and then you have the other like straight hood in the hood coming to skate, you know.
SPEAKER_07I mean, yeah, yeah. I'm from Pittsburgh originally, but moving to Jacksonville is what brought me skateboarding when I was, you know, in eighth, ninth grade.
SPEAKER_06And um Paul used to roller blade, just saying it.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I did. So I I own it. It was fun. Um don't let him bullshit you, right? No, but going back to Pittsburgh, um, when I go back and I visit and I go skate and everything, the the vibe there, it's a rad scene, but it's just like polar opposite of here. Right. You know what I mean? It's very like surf skate culture here, up there. It's very much like just blue-collar street skating. Yeah, exactly. You know what I mean? Like, we got to Philly a lot. Yeah, very similar to Philly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Because Philly was like what six hours from Virginia. Like we used to go like every weekend park and all that stuff. Hell yeah. Back in the 90s, you know, so it was shit. That's when everybody was there, dude. Yeah, yeah. It was still a bad thing.
SPEAKER_06Uh Stevie and Josh Kayless and shit back. Ah, that's rad.
SPEAKER_05I remember skating with Chris Cole and like he would be like skating with Tim's. I remember uh we're at uh what was it, FDR park? Yeah. And he was doing like hard flip, front side grab, finger flip with timberlands on.
SPEAKER_06What the fuck? What?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, way, yeah, way.
SPEAKER_06I don't even understand what that means. Yeah, yeah, it was crazy.
SPEAKER_05Crazy.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, Philly is a uh Philly's awesome. Philly's rad. My dad uh I missed that place. We first moved down to Jacksonville because my dad worked for the airline industry and uh he was working for U.S. Airs, U.S. Airways, and then when 9-11 happened and the industry crashed, he had enough seniority that he did wasn't one of the ones laid off, but they were like, your job is now in Philadelphia. Right. So he went up there for like two or three years um till he was able to switch careers, and I got to go up there and visit him, uh, you know, like the fucking Philly's rad. Right, yeah, yeah. I got to skate love before they demolished it. That's the cheese sticks. Well, not really skate. I got to skate through it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it was a Philly, it was awesome. Yeah. Skating love and City Hall, FDR, all of them temple. Good times, good times.
SPEAKER_06Dude, that's rad as fuck, man. I've never been to Philly, so I think the highest up I've been's like North Carolina or some shit. I'm surprised you even made it that far, buddy. Hey, dude, I'm a true southern dude. Anything with the word north in it, we ain't going. He was like, wait, chance of snow, what? Yes, uh uh. Oh nah
Trouble Back Home And Fresh Starts
SPEAKER_06nah. So what brought you down here?
SPEAKER_05Uh really, it was just kind of easy for us to come here. My wife's dad lived here and yeah, and he was like, Y'all can come, you know, stay with me until you get your stuff together, and you know, whatever. And we're just kind of just tired of being at Virginia Beach. Yeah. Because we were both from there, you know what I mean? And it's like back back home, I used to get a lot of trouble with the police, not really like it was more me drinking, you know what I mean? Just getting in trouble and stuff, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I feel you. And we just got, you know, I was kind of just got tired of it and ready to go. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06I'm not supposed to drink and drive. Why did it put fucking cup holders in beer?
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Trend! Yeah, that's me. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, no, trust me, we've we've both been through our fair share. Shit like that as well.
SPEAKER_06Fuck. I need a beer.
SPEAKER_07But
Favorite Spots And Mountain Biking
SPEAKER_07yeah, so of uh your favorite places to skate around town, what has been your favorite places down here? Uh we've had a few DIYs pop up and then.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I mean, I'm fairly I'm fairly close to Jack's Beach, so I skate there probably mostly, you know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07What do you get early morning session or do you brave the uh crowds in the afternoon?
SPEAKER_05Uh usually afternoon, like after work, you know, I'll go. Right now it's getting dark early, so I haven't been out there lately, but true, true. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Oh yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_06I've been noticing that too. Beach and peach. Yeah, beach and peach, yeah. Oh, yeah, doing that. Yeah, because they got those jumps back there, those dirt uh dirt jumps and shit. Yeah, and that's all like you know, DIY. That's like the DIY bike spot. Dude, that shit's big. I've been there, dude. That shit is big. Oh yeah. Yeah, it's fine. It's fine.
SPEAKER_05It's good time. Yeah, I've been riding bikes since like 2012. Sweet. On the mountain bikes, you know. I thought you're gonna say since uh fourth grade. No, no. I mean, actually back in the day we used to ride mountain, you know, ride like BMX and stuff, you know, jump curbs or whatever else. But yeah, I was like, I just never could afford a good bike, you know what I mean? So when I got old enough when I could afford one, that's why I was so it ready to get into it, you know. I mean, I can buy a real mountain bike now, you know.
SPEAKER_07Oh yeah, we're about to do this.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, putting this son bitch in twelfth gear.
SPEAKER_07Oh yeah. No, I remember like uh when we first moved to Jacksonville too, I was living over off San Pablo Road, and they had decided to put new mulch down in all of like the um there was a couple like little islands in the road, if you will, little planters and stuff, and so they had these mounds of mulch, which for what seemed like two weeks just stuck like on one side of this, and it was like the perfect bike jump. And we just literally spent like those weeks every day after school racing home, grabbing your bikes, dude. Yeah, send it for real. Yeah, that shit's a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, no, I never got into BMXing or anything. Like, it's I don't know, like uh like skateboarding rails and shit's always been like kind of scary for me because like you know, I got a metal between my legs, so I'm you'll never catch me board sliding your front board in a rail. Why? But like BMXing and shit. No, because I'll go for like back tails and like other shit, like in backsmiths, like uh just saying. Just saying. But uh like fucking having like with a bike dude and like having that metal between my legs, I'm like, mm-mm. I already got a small dick, so it ain't gonna work out well for me.
SPEAKER_07This is not gonna end well. Yeah, no, we're talking about that with uh with Carl, man. Um, you know, some like he was said one of his friends that used to skate that went to biking later in life because like the bike's more forgiving. I'm like, fuck that.
SPEAKER_05That doesn't matter. Yeah, the landing is kind of soft. It is kind of softer in a way, you know what I mean. Really?
SPEAKER_07Yeah. I just always think about the bike coming down.
SPEAKER_05And honestly, like if you if you land wrong, yeah, but if you land right, it's kind of softer in a way than land on like hard urethane wheels on the street, you know. I mean, I can feel that.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, like landing.
SPEAKER_06Are you usually like standing up when you land on the bike or you sit on the seat?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, you're standing up. You don't want to take that seat to the tailbone, son. Yeah, yeah, you stand it up.
SPEAKER_06I don't know. I'm not from here, I don't know what's going on, all right, guys?
SPEAKER_07No, I just always think about too, like when I was, you know, was younger fucking around on a bike. Like, man, I had some gnarly spills going over the handlebars, sending it and not knowing when to let go. Dude, it ditched the bike.
SPEAKER_06Dude, my first bike, dude, on Christmas when I was like, uh, it's probably like five or six. Yeah, I was I was riding around the neighborhood for the first time on Christmas morning, ran into a parked car. It was there the whole time, dude, and I just found my way to it.
SPEAKER_07Oh, yeah, it was the first time I broke my nose, it was same thing, parked car. But I was just messing around trying to catwalk, and I remember it. I was like popping wheelie, popping wheelie, and I finally got that one where I started to get that balance, so I was like, pedaled and I was riding, and I put it down, the front wheel down, right at the curb. Uh I hit the curb and I went right over, and on the other side of the it was a parking block, and I just went nose to a dodge ram, right at the ball.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, no, you didn't dodge that ram. I'll tell you what.
SPEAKER_07Yeah,
Nineties Stories And Going Pro
SPEAKER_07but um, yeah, so you know, growing up skating through the 90s and and such, I mean, I'm sure you got some cool stories and reminiscing about that. I mean small wheels and late flips. Yeah, I was about to say the uh small wheel pressure flip phase, right?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, actually, well, I like probably quit for like two years and it was like during the pressure flip, so I missed that whole thing. Oh when I came back, I was like not cool anymore. You know, I mean skipped a whole era. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, uh I used to skate for that company, uh Eastwood, then that's how I know Mike Peterson and uh you know uh Tim and everybody. It's like we used to always come to like Florida and South Carolina, you know. Hell yeah. Yeah, like um didn't you turn pro for Eastwood or uh not Eastwood, but like like a little bit after that. Um I skated for uh Sergi's wheel company, Type S wheels. Okay, Type S. He kind of Sergi was kind of the one to push me to go pro and all that stuff. That's fucking rad, man. Super rad. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_06Go ahead, Chris. Sorry. Oh, I don't I don't I was just gonna bullshit and say something not necessary. Completely forgotten now, I'm dumbfounded you put me on the spot.
SPEAKER_07Okay, so uh no, just you said you you quit for a couple years, so about like when you came back, about you know, into skating, what about when was that?
SPEAKER_05Uh so that was uh I think uh like I quit probably like in ninth grade and came back probably when I was like in twelfth grade. And then I was probably like uh 17, 18 when I came back and uh got sponsored by WRV. Yeah, skating for them for a while. It's like a surf shop back home or whatever. They had a lot of connections through the shop too. So, you know, I've got like DVS Lakas shoes and all this other stuff.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and they're prime time too.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, hell yeah, hell yeah. That was cool. Were you skating any contests? Uh yeah, I was doing contests. Um I was uh doing a do tour contest for a while. Yeah, that was cool. Uh at the time, that's when like uh it wasn't um Ryan Scheckler was winning and uh Jeremy R Jeremy Rogers. Curtis Calamarlo. Yeah, Curtis Calamarco. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rest in peace. Yeah, he just died not too long ago. I heard unfortunately was fucking gnarly back in the day for like that. And I think I think back then it was like some of them guys were like tech before their time, you know. Yeah, for sure. You know, because they could have been winning the contest, but I think there were two tech. Right so they give it to like somebody else that was that was yeah, mellowing it down more, you know what I mean? Yeah, I remember uh uh Austin Seahome and C. Yeah, yeah, Austin Seahome. I forgot about that dude. He's like super tech doing crazy stuff. Yeah, like this dude should be winning, but for some reason he wouldn't, you know.
SPEAKER_06It's like judge was like, fuck this guy thinks he's better than everybody. Sheckler, you're up again. Yeah. Well, that's your boy. I do love I do meet I do love Ryan Sheckler. That's the one I got to meet him a bunch of times.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah, me too. That's the one thing about skateboarding, though. It's you know, subjective, not objective. You know what I mean? You're not trying to get a ball in a hoop or a goal, you know what I mean? So it's like beauty's in the eye of the beholder. What yeah, I mean, if you like big big and you know, style or you know, you know, well, I think like skateboarding exactly skateboarding judges are kind of like uh UFC judges and shit, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_06Like to have like the way that they kind of like go. Because honestly, like with judging with skateboarding, like you already have an idea of like who you think's gonna win the contest, or like from what they did, right? But even then, like you know, with UFC, you already have an idea of who should win, and then like it's like completely opposite. Like, what the fuck? We're watching the same shit. But yeah, you know, I'd I know back in those days because I was young and I was watching all those dude tour videos and shit, and seeing like Austin Seahome and Curtis Calamolo, yeah. And I was like, yo, dude, these are the fucking best skateboards I've ever seen in my entire life. And like they weren't even winning that much, but they were doing the craziest shit. They should have been, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it should have been.
SPEAKER_06Dude, they were doing like tail slide 270 heel flips out and shit like before anybody.
SPEAKER_05They're doing like all the stuff people do nowadays, you know.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, and nowadays we're I mean, we've talked about this a bunch. I mean, it's turned into like what we used to play on Tony Hawk Pro Skater. You know what I mean? Flip in, flip out, yeah, yeah. I mean, now I mean people are flipping into it into a grind, and then they're going to another grind, and then they're still flipping out. I mean, it's like I remember playing the video game with my brother and being like, let's play like realistic, you know what I mean? Because we just always thought there would never be a day where someone is flip-tricking onto a handrail, then switching grind, you know what I mean? And then coming off faky or flipping out, you know what I mean? That is happening.
SPEAKER_06There's some kid right now, somewhere in the world, flipping in and switching grinds at the same time. And it's probably fine at Tony Hoggane, they probably learn it on that and be like, I'm gonna go to try this out. Oh, I think uh the skate games kind of really change the game for everybody and everything like that.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, and then just I mean, now the day is like I almost make you figure out what you can do. Like Yeah, and but I'm gonna really try that. These young kids, now you got these. I mean, there's like 11-year-olds doing 900s on the ramp, you know what I mean? And it's because they've seen so many people do it. It's like Chris said before, it was like, you know, all the this generation has seen that everything that we thought was impossible is very possible. So now it's like they're doing it younger, they're going higher.
SPEAKER_06I mean, wasn't it like a nine-year-old that did a fucking faky 1080 at first? He was like the first one to do a 1080 or something. Yeah, he was just a fucking squirt, a little baby guy.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. I remember the last duty I was at, it was like, that was what I knew. My pro career was over. It was like it's a rap. Yeah, it's a wrap. It was like it was uh uh uh Boston, it's like the Toyota Open or something like that, Toyota International Open or something like that. And like all these kids were from Japan, they're like 10, 12 years old from Japan, like destroying it. I was like, oh, but it's time for me to wrap it up. Yeah, they uh somebody called my mom. Yeah, it's time for me to wrap it up. There's like 12 years old, they're doing just crazy stuff, you know. The Japanese have like grabbed skateboarding. Okay, it was crazy back then, you know. I've said it once and I'll say it again, dude.
SPEAKER_06That nuclear bomb got them get their shit together already. All right, yeah. I still destroying it.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. No, I mean it's like it was like 20 years ago. It's like I feel like when they first started talking about putting it in the Olympics, and then that's when I first heard about even the Japanese government actually being like, Oh, we need to be competitive when they do this. So the they started building these courses and then taking kids that they saw that had potential or talent, and then being like, Oh, you're homeschooled now, you're doing nothing but training, you are gonna be the best skateboarder in the world by the time the Olympics.
SPEAKER_06Don't take math class no more, okay?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah, you take skateboarding.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05And all the dudes from Brazil too destroyed. A lot of them dudes from uh that's what I like. Yeah, the Brazilian dude. They skipped some of the girls showing Carlos DeAndretti. Yeah, that's yeah, dude. I remember that.
SPEAKER_06Uh, who was the one dude who would do that? That's who I hung out with out there. Oh yeah, there's a dude uh back in the day that uh Fabrizio Santos. Yeah, Fabrizio, yeah. Yeah, he would do the one-footed crook grinds and shit.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05They were always really cool to me when we you know out there. Hell yeah, dude. That's radish fucking. And they got the gnarly shit that they skate back home.
SPEAKER_07Dude, it's all kind of like rusty ass concrete and it's not it's not right.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. But they rip on it.
SPEAKER_07Pedro Barros skating like barefoot in a fucking crusty bowl doing like 10-foot airs, you know what I mean? Like wild. Wild. Fuck that.
Contests, Judging, And Modern Progression
SPEAKER_07Um, what are your thoughts on like the way that competition skating has kind of evolved over the years? Because I mean, you talk about late 90s into the early 2000s, you kind of had the X games format, and even NBC tried to do like the gravity games, right? Right. And it was kind of like that that street course, but it was very much like they were all similar. You had a fly box, it was almost like it was designed for skateboarding, rollerblading, or BMX. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_05I like what they're doing now with the SLS stuff. That's what I was gonna say.
SPEAKER_07Now it's like you have the Vans Park series where it's like a flow bowl kind of format, and then you have literally just like a street alley, you know what I mean? With like different features all packed in in this little thing in the arena. I think it's rad. I think they finally kind of got the competition skating dialed in.
SPEAKER_06Right, yeah, with the parks, yeah, like the park and street and in the SLS contest and shit now. Did you go to SLS while I was here in Jacksonville? No, I didn't go. No. It was rad.
SPEAKER_05I went like the day before where they had like that uh giving out money for the pod or whatever. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah. The A Shock bangers for bucks. Yeah, yeah, that was pretty fun. Yeah. Over the car. Those banks were steep as shit. Yeah. Yeah. Uh there were some tricks thrown down on that. I remember seeing like Mark J did a back lip on the uh on the uh the the across the trunk. No, he back nose wanted it. Well, I also saw him back lip it. I didn't see the back nose blunt, but that's it.
SPEAKER_05Hell yeah. Um, dude, that was so goddamn. Oh yeah, yeah, that was the one this year. I didn't even go to that. I went to the uh like the one last year or whatever. That Vulcan stone thing and what it had.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06They used to have over at Flossy and shit.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Yeah, I didn't go to that one, but I did go to SLS last year. And I went to both this year. Yeah. But no, like I just, you know, going back to the whole like X Games thing, like why I think they got it right was because I reminisce on watching the street or the you know park uh runs during during those years. And it was like you had guys that were tranny skaters and like vert skaters, and they would only hit like you know the tranny walls, and then you had the guys that would be very limited because they'd be skating the same like stairs, banister, rail, because these were all the street guys, you know what I mean? And nobody ever really there was very few that fully used the course. Yeah. And that's what I feel like now they finally got it dialed in. Anyway, those are my thoughts. Not that you asked, but I did tell you.
SPEAKER_05I like seeing people skate the whole thing, like you know, and you hit the box in the middle and then hit the do something on the quarter pipe, you know, and just keep it going, you know what I mean, instead of like just kick turning or getting off your board or something. Or yeah, getting off your door and drop back in. Yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_06I hate that shit, dude. Yeah like I mean, because the way that I always skate like skate industry was just a training, cruising around everything.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, just cruising. Same. And I think honestly, that's why Tampa, I mean, and big shout out to Tampa Ames going on. And that's why that's why they've done it so right for so long, they because they periodically changed the course. You get a group in there too. They're staples, you know what I mean? But it's like they they're constantly changing it, so there's fresh obstacles, fresh things to see.
SPEAKER_05Every year, yeah. Yeah, it's killer this year, too.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I saw they had that little bank over the over the bar, over the rail. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've seen that.
SPEAKER_06It was almost like to mimic the uh yeah, it's it doesn't even look it doesn't even look that big either, but like it kind of like looks at a decent size, but you know it's like probably four feet tall if that. Yeah, and you got like probably like a two foot like ramp to fucking go up and boost you to it. That little indoor bowl is cool. Yeah, dude. I love that. Yeah, that is fun.
SPEAKER_07That one's super fun.
SPEAKER_06I fucking shattered my knuckle in Tampa, dude, skating a contest back in the day and shit. Man, it's been a while since I've skated Tampa.
SPEAKER_07We gotta I gotta make it over there soon.
SPEAKER_06After
Injuries, Recovery, And Staying In It
SPEAKER_06I get this hip replacement, dude, we're fucking skating all the time. We're gone. Yeah, I'm when are you when when when are you gonna doing that? Uh I get it um after the beginning of the first of next year and shit. Well, okay. Don't have an exact date, but first of this upcoming year. Yeah. 23. Yeah, 23. But uh yeah, I haven't been able to skateboard for like the last two years and shit. So then after that you'd be in recovery for a while too. About six months to a year. But um, oh yeah, and I'm gonna wait like fully till I know it's a hundred percent right. You know what I mean? I'm not gonna try to jump the gun too early and some and fuck some shit up.
SPEAKER_05Right, right.
SPEAKER_06I'm gonna make sure like my body is perfectly like healed. I gotta get back into fighting shape, dude. I'll wait like 204 right now. I've always been like 155 my entire life. You can't move. Yeah, I gotta fight. That's what I'm saying. You can't move. All I can do is just lay in bed and just eat my fucking enchiladas, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, and actually before he, you know, a lot of people don't know this. Chris broke his ankle at monument and then.
SPEAKER_06No, I did I broke it at sunrise. Or uh sunshine. Sunshine? I thought it was at monument.
SPEAKER_07Okay, sunshine, whatever. But you broke your ankle, you come back from breaking your ankle, and it was like what, two months later, three months later, you're diagnosed with the hip. Yeah, yeah. About two or three months.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, two or three months later, I got diagnosed with a bone disease right after breaking my ankle.
SPEAKER_07Oh man.
SPEAKER_06Dude, no fucking my ankle break was gross. I I showed you the picture shit on Instagram. They're all gross. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's just like one side of my fucking foot's all purple and blue, the other side's all purple and blue, and then like under it, like where the bottom of my foot is, is just like fucking like a nasty shade of black and shit. Like it's ugly.
SPEAKER_07That's honestly been the uh injury that has plagued me the most, is honestly just my feet in general. Like I get planar fasciitis easy. I get I feel like I'm so prone to heel bruises.
SPEAKER_06I got gout.
SPEAKER_07I got I got my uh I had tarsal coalition in my left ankle, which is where your tarsal bones and your metatarsal bones fuse together. Ugh. So rather than there being that like soft ligament in between each little bone, it just becomes like a ball of bone. And I had to get that surgically like removed. So god damn, what about you? What what's what's been the injuries that seem to plague you the most over the years? Uh I puncture my liver. What is it? Yeah. What? On like racking on a rail or something? Like on your belly?
SPEAKER_05No, I was like, I was on a mini ramp and I was like doing some kind of like I think like a front side air, like shove it thing, grab, or what I'll I don't even remember. Something like that. And uh I landed, and when I got to the flap bottom, my board, like my feet were funny, my board flipped up, and I fell on my ribs onto the board like primo. Damn. Yeah, and then like my I cracked my rib, and my rib punctured my liver. Oh, dude.
SPEAKER_06I didn't know it was a contest, but you win, buddy. Jesus Christ, that's crazy. Yeah, yeah. I've never heard of that. So surgery, surgery to repair the liver.
SPEAKER_05It's like uh I didn't know, like, I punctured my liver for like a week later. Like uh my mom came home and I was passed out in the in the living room and she took me to the hospital, and they said like I had to get like emergency surgery because I was like in internally bleeding or whatever, you know. Fuck bleeding out and everything. Wow. She's like, and so yeah, she they were saying it was lucky she got there when when she did, because I was basically dying, you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, that's that's the rib injury alone fucking sucks. Broken ribs is uh I've broken a few at least. Yeah, broke a rib. There's nothing they can do for it.
SPEAKER_06Not a goddamn thing, dude.
SPEAKER_07Just enjoy the next six months of pain. Don't laugh or sneeze. Yeah, it's crazy.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that like cut me open and like I guess repair my my liver, and like it was crazy. Yeah, I can imagine. That was nuts.
SPEAKER_07I can imagine. I've uh we'll uh we'll take
Quick Break
SPEAKER_07a quick break. It looks like the youngest is about to get dropped off, and then uh we'll come back if that's cool with you. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's cool. We'll take five and we'll be back. I'm gonna smoke a cigarette.
SPEAKER_05This is joining Ethridge E listen to Polly on the pod with Polly Walnuts and Dodge Jones.
SPEAKER_07Alright,
Lost Bowl Memories And Old Footage
SPEAKER_07guys, we're back. It's your boy Pauly. I got the doctor, and we still are here with the man, the myth legend, Julian Etheridge. Stoked to have you at the table, my dude. Hey, buddy. I was just over here uh browsing the internet and I found uh Confusion Um International Skate Mag. Uh looks like a post from 2013. And it's the Lost Bowl. Oh, yeah. You remember that session?
SPEAKER_05In Richmond, we used to skate air a lot.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, because I was about to say uh just scrolling down, we got a frontside air on this quarter pipe here, Julian. Oh hell yeah, dude. And then a backside air right below it. But uh what was that session uh going down for? Just like have everybody out there at this bowl tell us about the bowl and everything.
SPEAKER_05We'd go out there like all the time. It was uh Lost Bowl is probably like two hours from me where I where I'm from. So we'd come go there on the weekends, hang out, there's always a big party scene there.
SPEAKER_07So it looked like a like a pool and then like some stuff on the decks.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, summertime to have the pool filled and oh hell yeah. Yeah, pool parties, people skating. Hell yeah. Yeah, it's killer time over there. Killer time.
SPEAKER_07That's what I can see. Yeah, how deep is that pool actually looking at? I mean, that's like a nice little kidney there. You see that, Chris?
SPEAKER_05Yes. I guess the deep end is maybe eight, nine?
SPEAKER_07Yeah. So like a solid real pool? Probably eight, yeah. It's probably eight. Fuck yeah. I was uh yeah, I was just like, huh, let me see while you guys were finishing up out there while while Chris was smoking a cigarette. I was just like, you know, Julianette through skateboarding. Let's play the uh Google My Name game.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, a lot of stuff comes up on Google. You looked up your net worth. Good job. Good job, buddy.
SPEAKER_07No, now I've seen this little uh dumpster. You know, clips here.
SPEAKER_05So um is that in California? No, that's probably uh North Carolina. Oh, that was big, Ollie over the rail? Yeah, that's uh Raleigh. Raleigh, North Carolina, I think. When was this? What what time? What year?
SPEAKER_07Uh just uh that was a good back clip. 2007, maybe. Nice. Nice.
SPEAKER_05So you're still living up there. I got a Wu Tango. Yeah, we used to take trips all the time. All this is stuff was out of town. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not as none of this is Virginia Beach or anything. I got a Wu-Tang song for uh one of my uh That's North Carolina, that's like a park we used to skate all the time.
SPEAKER_06Oh, the fakie.
SPEAKER_07Hell yeah.
SPEAKER_05Open the brutal. That's Florida.
unknownShut up!
SPEAKER_07Oh shit, it's lofty. Yeah, I was about to say, man, you've got such smooth style, Jolene. Fucking definitely enjoyable to watch. Thank you, thank you.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, unlike my skateboarding, dude.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, like you and I both, we look like we try too hard. I do.
SPEAKER_05I try I had to try really fucking hard to get good at skateboarding. Yeah, like nowadays I gotta try a lot harder to get anything done.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, oh I feel you. I mean, I'm only 37, but I just feel like every time it's like I take a couple weeks off because I'm busy and then I go skate again. And it's like, damn, man, if you don't use it, you lose it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you just keep buying on movies quick, you know what I mean? Like you get older, it's like I'm slow. I can tell I'm slow, slow down.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, so this is a solid video part. What was uh what is this video for? Was it just like a homie that was like shooting a video? Uh dumpster juice.
SPEAKER_05That was a good backside air. My buddy Justin White. Hello, my buddy Justin White, he made this video is uh VA Fleasers dumpster juice video. Damn, back tail.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, so everybody out there uh that is listening to us talk about this as we watch it, go ahead and uh you could just do what I did and Google Julian Etheridge skateboarding, um, or you can look it up dumpster juice. I'm sure the whole video video is firing. Um but yeah, his part is definitely not uh not disappointing.
SPEAKER_06Oh yeah, that was brutal backside flip.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, like you you you spun so late. That was so wow, bro.
SPEAKER_06I love backside flips. That was almost like a chance.
SPEAKER_05That ramp was actually Kyle Burard's old ramp that they had in a warehouse.
SPEAKER_06Oh, I remember that ramp. I've seen uh I've seen footage of that ramp. Yeah, yeah. Dude, I love backside flips like on the city.
SPEAKER_07Is Kyle from Virginia Beach originally? Yeah, yeah. Okay, that's what I thought. Yeah. Yeah, big shout outs to him in uh what Front Rock Incorporated company got going on?
SPEAKER_05Yep, hell yeah. I remember he when he lived in Florida, we used to come and visit him in uh St. Augustine or whatever. Oh yeah. We we used to come like Florida like it pretty much every year just to do that.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I remember seeing you back in the day, and like especially you know, like at events and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, all the events, Kona would have events or whatever. They had uh what was that that uh Trifecta uh bowl riders cup.
SPEAKER_07Oh, the bowl riders cup, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05I used to come to that. Oh yeah. That shits are fun back in the day. Yeah, yeah, good times, good times.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, my dude definitely has got some content on there, so you guys definitely go ahead and and uh and check that out. Um we
Is It A Sport Game
SPEAKER_07like to we like to play some games. We're some silly guys. Yeah. So uh wanna know if we play a little game with you. Uh we got we got a game we like to play called uh Is It a Sport? Um Is it a sport? Okay, let's you know, reflecting on I guess the debate on whether or not skateboarding is a sport or just a hobby. Yeah, a hobby or an activity of self-expression, right? Poetry in motion. It's an art, and it's art. Yeah, exactly. So uh we do it's not a sport, it's art, goddamn it. It is art. We have a little fun with it. My dad always had criteria because he doesn't consider golf a sport. So he's like, uh yeah, can you break a bone, can you pull a muscle, or do you break a sweat? So that's kind of the criteria. We're gonna play our little intro, and uh we'll uh Chris is gonna ask you a couple questions and you can let us know your opinion. All right. Is it a sport or is it a game?
SPEAKER_05Oh yeah, yeah, or is it a game? Is it a game?
SPEAKER_07And that's my dad. What?
SPEAKER_06Sounds like a real broadcaster.
SPEAKER_07All right. So that's essentially the uh the criteria there. Um while we go ahead and uh switch over real quick my hot drops to our uh sounds of uh approval or uh denial. Uh here we go. Go ahead, Chris. Why don't you ask our guy?
SPEAKER_06All right, everybody is your favorite game show host. It is the Dr. Jones. We are here to play a fantastic game with you called Is It a Sport. And we have a new contestant up. His name is Julian Etheridge. And uh Julian NASCAR, is it a sport?
SPEAKER_05Uh I guess it's a sport. I mean they call them athletes. They call, yeah, they call it a athletes.
SPEAKER_07They call them athletes. They call it a sport, I guess. Well, all right. Racing. Racing, yeah, racing. All right, that's money in the bank for Julian Etheridge. NASCAR is a sport.
SPEAKER_06All right, next uh we have uh pole vaulting. Pole vaulting is a sport.
SPEAKER_07There we go. I think that was definitely a sport, right? And that in the uh Summer Olympics. You can definitely get a herd doing that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Alright, uh, we have cosplay. That is not a sport.
SPEAKER_06Definitely. That's why we play the game so we can learn. Is it a sport?
SPEAKER_07Why we play the game.
SPEAKER_06All right, next I will up. We have billiards, or some people would call it pool. Oh, yeah. I think that's a sport. All right. All right, we got money up. I'm a fan of pool. Yeah, me too. And for our last and final question, the one of the night, and this one will get you all the big dollars. Midget wrestling. Midget wrestling. Of course that's a sport.
SPEAKER_07All day. All day. A little person off the top roads. You better believe it.
SPEAKER_06All right. This has been Dr. Jones. This has been Julian Ethridge and Polly Walnuts, and uh, this has been is a sport.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. So we always like to have a little fun. We like to kind of cut it up a little bit and be silly. Um I take that game very serious. Very serious.
SPEAKER_06I have a page in my house. I have a like a full page in my house, just a whole bunch of them like listed. I forgot to bring it today, but I was like, fuck it, we're still playing it. I I got I got what like all those aren't even on uh the actual page, actually. Off the dome.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, like it's on the way, let me write something down.
Taco Town And Food Truck Culture
SPEAKER_07Um no, this was uh observation uh of mine recently as uh I've been kind of driving around and looking for places to eat and just noticing an abundance of fucking taco places in this town. God, what a hell of a lot of it. Is it just me or have we turned into Taco Town USA? Is it like this back in Virginia? I mean, there's literally, I feel like I could go get 15 different tacos from 15 different places, not even to mention the food trucks within a five mile radius.
SPEAKER_05I want tacos right now, right? The whole food truck thing is kind of new to me. Like in Virginia, we didn't really have that too much, you know what I mean? Yeah, like a roach coach, and then people are like just upset about that. So, you know what I mean. A roach coach? What the hell is that? Uh a food truck. Yeah, I was about to say a dirty water dog is my granddad used to call it. Dirty food truck, yeah. He's calling roach coaches.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, roach coaches. Yeah, dirty food truck. Yeah, it's a whole community down here.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, it's crazy out here. Yeah, they got a fucking chicken wing spot off St. John's Bluff and between Atlantic and uh Monument. That chicken wing spot is fire.
SPEAKER_07And honestly, working construction, dude, when a lot of times you'll be out in these spots where it's like, you know, recently like new developments going on. So there's like nothing but maybe a gate gas station in a McDonald's, but then you usually have some fire food truck because they already know those construction workers are gonna need to eat lifesavers.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, me and my wife and kid were driving somewhere in uh we've seen like it's a parking lot, and it was like probably like 10 different food trucks is in the parking lot. Damn, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_07Squatted up parking lot, you know, meetup. Yeah, yeah. It was like a I don't know what it was. Food truck festival.
SPEAKER_06Could you imagine a bunch of food truck owners getting mad about being on somebody else's turn?
SPEAKER_05I think it was like the parking lot was made for the food trucks to come there to I mean, which we would be a cool business in a way, you know. I mean, you own the land, you rent out a section for the food truck to come to capitalism.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, capitalism.
SPEAKER_05That's how it's not for the city.
SPEAKER_06Hell yeah. Hell yeah. I want some fucking tacos right now now that you brought it up. God damn it, I'm hungry.
SPEAKER_07I know. I was thinking about, you know, like you've got L Hefe, and then you know, Moss Fire is not far. And actually, I just ran into uh Brad Cantrell up at Moss Fire recently. So hopefully we'll have him in here. You know Brad? No, he's a local skater. Uh he's been around for a while. I kind of grew up skating with him, but ran into him recently, hadn't seen him in a long time. I love Bradley Tacos.
SPEAKER_06Super good dude, super nice and everything. He's actually been to a lot of my comedy uh shows and shit and uh recorded me a bunch of times. Hell yeah. Yeah, Brad's a good dude. Um yeah, he just shows up and he's drinking beer and he's like, yo, you in on this one? I was like, Yeah, he's like, Let me record you. Alright, I got you, buddy. Hell yeah. Where do you do your comedy show at? Uh
Comedy Sets And Midweek Sessions
SPEAKER_06do them at a rain dog's, like I do the open mics there and shit. Um I've been I've been doing like a few of like uh people asked me to appear and uh to do like a set, like uh I've done one at Kona. Then uh Neon Moon that used to be right there next to the raindogs. Um I've done them at a fucking biker bar one time. That was a fun one.
SPEAKER_07You did the open mic at uh Comedy Zone too.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and I did uh recently just did the open mic at comedy zone and uh Doug Stan.
SPEAKER_07Doug Stanhope was there.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, Doug Stanhope is a performing, and then after I got up done doing the open mic, um I think I actually won, dude. And then you get a chance to uh go up like go they'll call you to like do perform like for uh some comedian at some point whenever they gotta open it. So we're waiting on that phone call comedy zone.
SPEAKER_07We're waiting on the our phone lines are open, but my boy is ready.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and then after I uh after I finished my set, Doug Stanhope came after me. So I pretty much open for Doug Stanhope. That's pretty cool. Yeah, that's cool.
SPEAKER_07Cool. Um I see a lot uh hanging out with Willie and them boys over there skating saplands. Uh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Pretty much every Wednesday I'll try to get out with them guys and old man sessions. Yeah, yeah. It's always good times. Good times.
SPEAKER_07I wish I could make it over there, man. My life is so busy, it's like the weeks I I have my kids every other week. You know, like next week they'll be with their mom. Right. So this Wednesday I'll be home early doing dad stuff. Right. And then next Wednesday, I guarantee it it happens every time. I'll end up having to work overtime. And by the time I get off and I get home, I'm gonna be like, yeah, no. My dogs have been left alone too long.
SPEAKER_05Y'all heard anything about that um InstaRamp, uh I think they're having an InstaRamp event this weekend or something like that. Um Supergirl skate event.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, so they've got the the Supergirl Surf Contest out at Jack's Beach this weekend. Um which they do InstaRamp has that ramp's killer too. That's a fun ramp to skate. Yeah, they have the last year, maybe the last couple of years, they've done this event out at Jack's Beach. InstaRamp has set up the ramp out there and they've done uh, you know, kind of a skate thing. So I know they uh they got that going. I think that's going on tomorrow, the skate thing, right? Or is that tonight?
SPEAKER_05I don't know. I like to go check it out though. I'm not sure. I think it's this weekend.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I saw them uh they had it all uh they had it down there in Target.
SPEAKER_06I don't know if they're gonna do it this weekend because it's uh Tampa Tampa Am. No, they they are scheduled to be this weekend.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, the Supergirl is this weekend at Jack's Beach, and the InstaRamp sets up a ramp there, yeah, and they do a like a bangers for bucks kind of skate contest thing. Supergirl skate contest. Right. But no, I think that's um super rad. Honestly,
Women’s Skateboarding And Kids Learning
SPEAKER_07you know, shoot, the progression of female skateboarding in the past years has been insane.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I seen that that last SLS uh contest they had, girl contest was crazy.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I mean these girls are throwing down cameras.
SPEAKER_06The uh little girl Rayleigh or whatever.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, or a Raia.
SPEAKER_05Raisa, yeah, yeah. She's killing it. She's killing it.
SPEAKER_06She's she's petite. Dude, do you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_07Like, she don't wear that, like she's tiny, but she's hopping on these hammers. She's jumping, yeah.
SPEAKER_06Do you remember uh that one video back in the day of her where she's like wearing like a two-few and heel flip? Yeah, and then like now she's the fucking gnarliest girl skater on the planet.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, Lucy got we we hung out after because she won last year when we had the championship here, uh, when it was down at the old landing spot, and Lucy got to get her autograph and all that. It's cool to see a progression, you know. I mean, yeah, it's like yeah, no, it's definitely, I mean, you know, being a father of two daughters, like it's definitely been super rad because my oldest skates, my youngest is now getting into it. She's learning little kick turns. That's cool. You know, she'll she'll drop in on a little quarter pipe if I hold her front hand. We've yet to let go, but yeah, we're getting there.
SPEAKER_06Um hold me, Papa, hold me.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, my son's seven, he's not really skating yet, but hopefully he will be one day.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I think I think the most important thing is like don't force him.
SPEAKER_05I had a lot of friends that like had I mean he's into it, but he's like more like just when I take him to the part now, he just wants to sit out and roll around everywhere, you know. I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, for sure. It is a kid, you know, seven years old. Let him be a kid, dude. I didn't start until I was like 12, so you know.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, I didn't start until I was 11. But like I think for my girls and everything, like they've just seen me injured for the last like few years, so they like have no interest in it. And plus, it's not like I can get out there and do it with them anyways. Right, right. But I think like once I uh after I'm done healing and everything and get back into it, I think they'll be a lot more interested in it. Right. Yeah, Lucy's got her.
SPEAKER_07Lucy's got her eyes on dropping in the vert ramp finally, because she can uh pump up there and like just even pump to faking and get her front wheels almost to touching the coping, and she can kick turn up high on the vert, and I'm like, you're right there, girl. That's cool. But you just you gotta you gotta do it.
SPEAKER_06Like I've never even dropped in on that vert ramp. Yeah, I wouldn't I want none of it.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_06But I love like you know, pumping on it and everything, that's fun.
Vert Ramp Fear And Why It Feels Slow
SPEAKER_06But mmm, I don't want to mm.
SPEAKER_07Thing about I've never been a good, I've had like five or six tricks on Vert my entire skate life. Like I was never really a thing that I put a lot of time or energy into skating all the time. Like I was like mini ramp and then like park and street, you know. Yeah. Um but the the interesting thing in my ver is like everything slows down for it being so like yeah, that's what it is. Your kick turn motion is slower, like just everything slows down because it's a much bigger, and honestly, the transition's more mellow because it's a longer, it's trigonometry, kids. Yeah, pay attention in high school. Yeah, as long as the line of the slope, you know.
SPEAKER_06Or drop out like Dr. Jones to get fucked up hips.
SPEAKER_05That's why I grew up skating vert, you know. I mean, yeah, it's like when you think about it, it seems like yeah, it's a big ramp but when you're actually on it riding, it's like it's different, you know. I mean, it doesn't seem like it's so big as it really is, you know. Yeah, and you definitely uh you don't realize how fast you're going either until like you slam or something, you're like, oh man, I was hauling.
SPEAKER_06I'm hauling eggs.
SPEAKER_07The worst is like when you fucking eat it through the f like the flat bottom and then you like bug splat on the other traveling to the speed of a car right there. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_06You don't realize how fast you're going until you fall. Yeah. Oh man, I want none of it. Like, I dude, like I can fuck up some transition and shit and like you know, like six foot, seven foot shit. Right. But like that vert ramp shit, I'm like, no. Tim's ramp's fun. That's a good thing. Yeah, Tim ramp's fun. The mini ramp is uh foot. I saw footage of you skating it from Halloween night and everything, too. Um Joey went out there and skated after y'all got done skating uh in the street and everything on that ramp. And fucking Joey, Joey was so goddamn hammered, he was he was making me laugh. Me and fucking Max are just heckling the shit out of his ass.
SPEAKER_07Making it even harder. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_06Oh yeah. Have y'all been over to Max's uh bowl?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I have I haven't been over there yet.
SPEAKER_05No, I haven't been there. I like to check it out. Oh, dude, it's brutal. Yeah, hers pretty gnarly. It's brutal. I like try something on it.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Yeah. I uh I can only like I I don't even want to go in that deep end. Yeah. Because it's so it's so quick, dude. There's not really a flat bottom. It's like you go down like a waterfall and then you're up the other side. Yeah, and then you're already going up, yeah. Like the old half fives. Dude, the one time I did fucking go up the uh one time I went for it, I fucking tried to do a front side air in the deep end, which I have no business trying. And dude, I just fucking I went to go do it and just started ending up doing a backflip. My board flu dude, and like it was like this close from like hitting me when I landed. Tell everybody, oh I was actually trying a Miller flip. No, they knew damn well I wasn't. You just missed the hand plant. They knew damn well I wasn't trying shit. They knew I was just fucking bullshitting anyways.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, no, I'd like to go skate maxes. That that that place looks fun for sure. Um, yeah, Tim's ramp though, it's so perfect because it's like a six-foot ramp and it's like perfect tranny to where you can like actually do feebles and smiths, you know what I mean? And then it's not overly tall because most of the time when you have a ramp that size, I feel like the builders try to compensate, and so they make a little bit more mellow, or they'll make like, you know, not Timmy, a six-foot ramp on a like a nine-foot ramp. That ramp's fast too.
SPEAKER_06You really don't have the pump, really. No, not at all. That's like uh that was a like main thing, like Timmy uh like said.
SPEAKER_07That extension's a little sketchy because it's so narrow.
SPEAKER_06I did a load of high, I I did a load of high back D on that extension. I know. You tell me every time we bring the ramp up. I know. I'm just I'm just saying. I'm just kidding. I can't skateboard anymore. God damn it, that's all I got.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, it's like someone asked us, like, why do you guys how'd you guys get into podcasting? It's like Chris, like, I can't skate anymore. So we just talk about it.
SPEAKER_05I just talk about the old times. Yeah, talk about old times. That's cool.
SPEAKER_07Hell yeah. So uh what do you got? What do you got planned for this new year? Anything cool? Any cool trips with the family or anything?
SPEAKER_05Or uh no plans really, but I'm sure we're gonna do something. Yeah. Hell yeah. We gotta take probably take a trip back to Virginia Beach soon and uh go visit the family and stuff. Yeah, visit family. They got a new park out there, it looks pretty cool.
SPEAKER_06Oh sick. I didn't see that. Uh is made by Team Payne. Yeah, it's uh little plaza deal. Oh, is that the one Chris Weimer's always skating? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, okay. Hell yeah. Yeah, that's fairly new. It's probably like two years old, I guess. Yeah, he fucks that place up, dude. Yeah, he kills it, that dude. Yeah. I think uh I remember him when he was a little kid.
SPEAKER_06He was killer back then, you know.
SPEAKER_05For real?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, dude. Yeah, he rides for zero now and shit, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Hell yeah. Fucking brutal.
SPEAKER_07Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's wild, man. It's like uh fucking if if skateboarding was a soap opera. As the wheels turn, right? You just hear the bearings in the background. All my white boys.
SPEAKER_05Oh yeah, that's I still feel young when I skate though, you know what I mean? It's like I have that still have the feeling, you know what I mean? Like when I'm on the board, I still have that feeling like that's sick, dude. Teenager, yeah, you know, yeah, keep falling in catches up real quick.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, catch it up real quick, but but it does it does keep you uh young at heart for sure. And like I remember like skateboarding, like sometimes like I never feel like really felt like I was like skateboarding until I got that one good first fall, and it's like, all right, now it's on.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah. No, honestly, that for that would you know, yeah. There's a lot of times in sessions where like I once you get that first body, I'm like, okay, I got that out of the way. Now I can really skate. Exactly. It's like I was almost apprehensive because I didn't want to get bodied, and then it happens, it's like, all right, let's go. Yeah, I know how it feels now.
SPEAKER_06So throwing it down, yeah. It kind of makes you feel a little bit better and true. Like, all right, now I'm loose. Yeah, I can just get a shoulder machage, goddamn. Yeah. Well, um, you ever skate monument at all?
Fast Concrete And Kona’s Upgrades
SPEAKER_05Uh I used to. Like before they built the Jack's Beach Park, I was at Monument all the time. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_07Did you live out at the beaches?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, Atlantic Beach. Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah. You like A B or No, I really don't go there ever. Yeah, isn't that one of Grindline Park?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, it's like Grindline Park. Yeah, it's very gnarly.
SPEAKER_05I mean, if it was smooth, I'd probably ride it more. I mean, it is smooth, but it's like uh that real grippy type, you know. Concrete, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, no, Jack's Beach definitely has that real smooth. Yeah, real smooth. Which is kind of funny. I remember when Treaty was first built, and I remember thinking that concrete felt so smooth because I'd like it didn't feel as smooth as like the indoor floor of like skate asylum or the skateboard house, but it felt really smooth compared to Kona's concrete. Yeah, and you know, now like these all these new parks coming out. I mean, I don't remember the concrete ever being that smooth on Albora. It's like really crazy. I don't like Jack's Beach. Why these kids can get away skating.
SPEAKER_05Well, you see you see what they did to Kona when they refinished or whatever they did. Yeah, so what it made it faster or whatever. I mean, that's that's that's pretty nice. Have you skated it?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it is the fastest I've ever skated. Yeah, it was way better than it was. Martin was like, he's like, I think this is the fastest it's ever been. He's like, I don't remember it ever being the same. So would they even do that? They got these big old vacuum, they it's uh angle grinder with the big old diamond uh oh yeah you know disc on it, but it has a vacuum attachment because you know that kicks up a lot of dust and that dust would get everywhere. That's really was kind of the key was not just because everybody's got a lot of grinders. Getting the ones that have the this big vacuum attachment with the vacuum where you can suck that dust out, right? Because it'll just cover everything, and then it makes all the other skate surfaces not skateable. Not to mention you'll be tr making that concrete smooth, and then the layer of dust will settle back on it, and then it's kind of hard to see what you're doing. So um Martin hooked up, I think, with Sunbelt, but somebody who was able to get the machinery, and then you know, the volunteers were out there. So God love them. I didn't contribute to that, thankfully.
SPEAKER_06I mean, that's cool. Are they about to do the snake run?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, they're gonna do the snake run. Oh, that's gonna be crazy fast. Yeah, it's fast now. Yeah, which I remember working on. Yeah, I spent one summer when I was like managing the park. It had gotten real bad, like all the cracks had been patched, so there was a bunch of speed bumps. So I had to spend I worked my way down with a tent because I was getting beat by the sun, but just like day in and day out, just grinding all of those old patches down and then going back and repatching them. But it was like some of the most tedious work coming to the contest of Kona back in the day and camping out and oh yeah, and partying a big bonfires and yeah, we they just did a family camp out there, which I was able to take my girls, and it was their first time camping out at the park because previously daddy was partying and joining in the shenanigans, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_06Papa Bear was all fucked up on Coke okay.
SPEAKER_07And they were a little too young, you know, at that time. But yeah, it was always a good time out there. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. But anyway, man, uh we've been chatting for almost another 30 minutes now.
Where To Find Julian And Closing
SPEAKER_07I definitely appreciate you coming by. Um yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, why don't you tell everybody uh where they can find you on social media?
SPEAKER_05Uh either's way probably just Google my name, Julian Etheridge. There you go. Google my Etherage.
SPEAKER_04That's a fucking awesome move, dude.
SPEAKER_06That's great. I think the easiest way to find me is Google me, bitch. Google my name.
SPEAKER_07Yes. I love it. Actually, that might be a new uh a new game we play. Yes. Can we Google your name? Google my name game for real. Setting trends over here with Julian. But anyway, man, want to thank you again. It's been a pleasure. We should definitely link up and skate soon. Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, until next time, everybody. Peace, love, and skateboarding. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Later.