I used to skate. Now I'm whack.

I sacked the rail super hard on the first try

I started skating I think around the summer going into the 7th grade. The year was 1996 or 97? I was the last one in my friend group to pickup skating so I sucked pretty hard. But I didn’t have anything else going for me so I just kept at it. I think being around kids who were better than me made me progress a little faster. Maybe a year or so in, I caught up to the level of most of my friends. So I sucked less and sucking less is what it’s all about.

Fast forward, like 5-6 years and I’m actually pretty good. I was getting some sponsors and stuff. Winning a bunch of local skate contest around SoCal. My parents were stoked that I was finally good at something. Because skool was not it. After I hardly graduated high school I got a job in a warehouse of the skateboard distribution company Black Box, which housed some of the most well known brands in skatboarding at the time Zero, Mystery, Fallen and a few others.

That job was so fucking sick, the owner Jamie Thomas was basically my favorite skater as a child so I was like fanning out super hard everyday at work. This job and everyone who worked their taught me everything in life. I could write a freakin book about everything that happened at Black Box. From being skating the private skatepark everyday at lunch to being tased while walking down an office hallway. I could go on and on. But that job is how I discovered design.

Now I have arthritis in my right foot from skating and I can’t skate anymore. I have to get shots in my stupid foot just to walk without pain. But skating is cool and pain don’t hurt.