A Public Service Announcement With Guitars: The BTJ Jason Adams Interview

I have no shame in admitting that I am a fan of Jason Adams.

The Kid has a timelessness about him, and about the way he skates. You see his photos, watch his parts, and want to go skate, pure and simple. He is, in many ways, a bit of a blue-collar hero.

I sent Jason an e-mail via his blog, on a whim, stating who I was, and how cool I thought it might be to ask a few questions for the blog. Now, I am a realist, and I understand that many pros live hectic lives with insanely bloated inboxes. It is for this reason that, when Jason was so quick to initially respond, much less agree to an interview, I was equal parts shocked at the speed of his response, excited by the prospect of getting a shot at interviewing one of my all-time favourite skaters, and flattered that he actually agreed to it.

What truly blew me away, however, was that, in spite of the fact that the actual interview took about a month and a half to do, that every week or so I was getting an e-mail letting me know that the interview was still a go, and that I had not been forgotten. Even if I were never a fan of Jason Adams beforehand, his willingness to take the time to keep up a correspondence with me over the last eight weeks or so, with really not much to gain from it, was enough to cement his place as an icon in my mind.

And so, without further ado, the Between Two Junkyards Jason Adams Interview.

1. So, first off, I want to touch on 1031. Hearing that you were going to be riding for Svitak got me really stoked, because as far as I'm concerned you guys made up part of what I consider to be the golden age of Black Label. How has it been skating alongside Kristian again after so many years? Being that you're kind of one of the veterans on the team, do you ever find yourself offering up any kind of mentoring or advice to the younger guys?
 
- I've never even met anyone on the team besides Kristian. I met Ben [Raybourn] one time...but ahh... then he quit. I don't get out of town much.....veteran for sure! Ha ha, I'm a somewhat stay at home dad these days. The days of touring and travel and free days skating, or  filming/shooting are pretty much a memory. A skateboarders life style doesn't fit in any where. I try!!! Damn it, I try!! It suits me to be a fancy free spirit......just ain't goin' down these days. 

2. You've released a staggering number of video parts over the years, and in watching all of them I've found that they have this kind of balance to them: not only do you manage to incorporate equal parts street and transitions, but also equal parts tricks that will amaze the average skater, and tricks that the average skater will want to go and learn right after watching. How important is it for you to maintain that sense of accessibility, to throw a slappy and slide line into a part with a lot of unique skating that most young street pros couldn't hold a candle to, much less your average grom?
 
- Well the way you broke that down is somewhat the way I would go into filming a part. Basically I go and film what's fun and comes natural to me. That said I also always wanted to make a statement about what I was into or what I thought was cool........ basically I never let go of my younger roots and influences in skateboarding. I always wanted to bring that into whatever I did in skating. But on the flip side... I knew I needed to come up with a few bangers and a few other moves to make it modern and relevant.


3. Speaking of unique skating, what's the trick behind your ability to seemingly wallride anything with a 70-plus degree angle?

- I have always been drawn to wall rides. Seeing the first crail snatcher or wallie in the mags was so awesome to me! Then when tech skating came in it was almost taboo to hit a wallride? That made me want to hit them more! the Gonz always did rad wall stuff. I really dug Tim Jackson back in the day too. That might have something to do with it. I guess I would find inspiration in choosing the road less traveled......these days there's just a lot of traffic.......

4. not to try and make you feel too old, but you've been skating long enough to have been privy to an insane amount of progression. What trick do you most vividly remember seeing for the first time? For that matter, what trick do you most vividly remember learning?

Hmmmm, good question. Hearing about Tom Knox doing a kick flip wall ride.....I would say around 86-87 man that was heavy.  JJ Rogers doing the first feeble grind on a hand rail in a blockhead ad. Hearing about Henry Sanchez doing a big spin over the seven at Embarcadero...........Danny Sargent back side slappy on the big ledge Embarcadero...... For me?...Ollie up a curb, kick flips......Front 360s off jump ramps. Rock and rolls on half pipes.......First board slide on a hand rail. Four stairs fool!!


5. I remember reading an interview you did in The Skateboard Mag where you talked about living a sort of nine-to-five lifestyle that lets you spend time with your wife and daughters. How difficult is it to be a full-time pro skater and a full-time grown-up? How do you manage that balance?

- I don't...... I don't consider my self a full time pro skater any more.... not that I don't want to be out doing it, or that I'm not skating. It's just that reality, economics and age set in. It had to happen some time I suppose...... but it was tuff for all those years of being a married father and trying to keep a skater's schedule going. It's like oil and vinegar! Even when the wife didn't have to work!


6. Anyone whose seen your art, read your blog, or watched any of your video parts knows how big an influence music is on you (I personally got into the Mescaleros thanks to your part in the enjoi video), and yet in terms of creative outlets other than skating, you gravitated toward the visual, rather than the audible. Why so? Have you ever tried your hand at music?

- Yes, and I'm not musical!! Anything I've ever gotten into it just became an obsession. I tried to get into playing music and it just didn't click?? I'm either lazy or lost or obsessed!!


7. I've noticed a trend in recent years that a lot of pros are no longer ashamed to ride their own models. I never really got the reluctance in the first place, because to me a pro model should be
something you as a pro should want to ride. As someone who has often ridden your own board, What's your take on the whole issue?

- The early 90's pro skate scene was retarded...for lack of a better word. It trickeld from that. But at the same time it could have been a backlash of the antics of some cheesy-ass ego driven pros of the 80s?? But really the 1990s were strange! Real strange!


8. On the subject, I know you like to switch up your setup frequently, but if you had to ride one size and shape the rest of your life, what would it be?

- I don't like that scenario...

9. You're stranded on a desert island with one album, one book, and one thing to skate. What are your picks?

- Man you are killing me.....The Clash, Sandanista; Stienbeck, Travels with Charlie; red curb.


10. So what is coming down the pipe for you in the coming months? What can all the Kid fans out there look forward to?

- Trying to stay focused, that's a tuff one for me. I want to do a few projects for my 20 years of pro skateboarding coming in 2012. Honestly I'm just trying to find my place right now, I'm learning how to juggle it all and stay consistant!!

11. Final question: Every so often on the blog, I'll write about some aspect of skateboarding that really personifies it. So if you'd be so kind as to finish the sentence; Skateboarding is...

- freedom....or at least a the closest thing to it.


I want to extend my hugest thanks to Jason Adams for taking the time for this.

I Don't Know Art, But I Know What I Ride

As mentioned on Monday, skateboarding attracts people from all walks, with all manner of interests outside of, yet often ultimately tied to skateboarding. A good portion of these people are visual artists. Given the abstract, often undefinable nature of both, the combination of the two is oftentimes inevitable, with examples of skateboarding crossing over into one's artwork becoming exceedingly more commonplace, amid everyone from professional artists who skate,

Lance Mountain, Pro Skater who makes Art

to professional skaters who make art, and everyone in-between.

Equally noticeable, of course, are examples of art crossing over into skateboarding; that is to say rather than a canvas being used to depict skateboarding, a skateboard can be used as a canvas. In cases such as this, it's not in any way uncommon to see one skater's art with another skater's name on it.

Mind you, an artist's work, is not limited to canvas, or seven-ply Canadian maple. Indeed, much like in skateboarding, many an artist will use whatever is at their disposal as a forum for their creative drive. Just as their skateboarding counterparts have different decks, trucks, and wheels for street spots, pools, vert ramps, and skateparks, visual artists may have various brushes, inks, paints, and spray cans for canvas, wood, paper, and yes, skateparks.

Shepard Fairey, Professional Artist who Skates

Now, for anyone who has been reading this blog with any kind of frequency, some of you may have caught on to the way I've been writing recently, and the most perceptive will be able to tell that the above preamble now segues into the topic I really intended to talk about in this post's outset. It was spurned by a recent call I got from my friend Brad, informing me that his heavily graffitied local bowl, the notorious Vanderhoof, was in the process of being coated in a layer of matte white paint: a layer of paint that he assumed would be re-covered with graffiti by the week's end. He subsequently sent me the following e-mail regarding the cover-up job:

Out with the old...

"... it defiantly pisses me off of when bowls get graffitied... for reference I sent you the picture I sent on my phone.. I didn't take any photos [with my camera] though. But I did learn the boardslide fakie on the face wall."

Now, I understand, graffiti is inherently rebellious, skateboarding is inherently rebellious. Skaters want to hone their craft, graffiti artists want to hone their craft. I am, by no means, using this post as an attempt to admonish respectable graffiti artists for wanting a right to make art. On the other hand, however, is the case that while not everybody can ride a skateboard, anybody can buy a two-dollar can of black Krylon. The reason Vanderhoof is now coated in a layer of white  is not because of the Autobots insignia carefully crafted on one wall of the hip, nor because of the clever "Vansderhoof" name-tag sprayed along the top of the tombstone's lip. Rather, Vanderhoof is likely looking more like Blanderhoof because some pubescent genius thought they were being clever by coating whatever  free concrete was left with all manner of obscenities and genitalia, likely scrawled with about as much artistic skill as the neanderthal cave drawings scattered amid the prehistoric caves of modern France. Those who aren't offended by the content ought to be offended by the abhorrently poor "artwork".

Let this be a lesson to those of you out there who think that it is cool and clever to go to your local skatepark to spray paint an eight-year-old's representation of Mommy's last gynecological appointment, with a certain four-letter word describing the view: Bad graffiti is not cool or clever, it is a lame, juvenile, eyesore, and will ruin a potentially well-graffitied park for everybody. It could be repainted a dull white, or worse:

The alternative kind of speaks for itself...

Respect your local skatepark.

Skateboarding Is... June

First off, a quick word about this segment:

Back a few years ago, when I wrote the now-defunct Frontside Blog, I got to a point where I started doing a monthly feature, just a post about one thing in particular that I always thought really was an integral part of skateboarding, and of the culture of being a skateboarder. This post will serve as a resurrection of that old feature, and while I hope to, one day, revisit all my former topics, today I'm going to kick off the feature's relaunch with some brand new material - hope you all enjoy it.

Skateboarding is... Home-made ramps

Yup, this is The Dream right here.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and as anyone who has ever stepped on a skateboard can tell you, progression, and the honing of one's craft is as much a necessity as making sure you put on pants in the morning - even one day without doing so simply does not feel right. Skateboarders are creative by their very nature, and for those of us without a wealth of things to skate at our immediate disposal, the need to create does anything but subside, and that necessity, of course, leads to invention.


You would be hard-pressed to talk to a skater who has not, at one point, built some kind of object with the intention of skating it; from propping a spare piece of plywood up on a handful of bricks, to spending every other day for three straight weeks constructing a mini ramp with the perfect transition, I know I, personally, have done the former, the latter, and everything in-between.

The building process is, quite obviously, one of the key points of what makes a home-made obstacle home-made. Sadly, though, with a combination of a decrease in free time and an increased want for instant gratification, hordes of junky plastic contraptions litter the market billed often as "extreme sports ramps".

 

This is the equivalent of getting your kid a Fischer-Price Picnic Table to skate...

Call me old-fashioned, but I, for one, extoll the virtues of building something to skate as opposed to buying it, for a number of reasons.
1) If we are talking about a younger skater, say, under 16 or so, adult supervision should, in all good reason, be required, and for that matter, encouraged. A parent helping their child build something to skate will teach the child the value of working for something, as well as how to properly use power tools, which is always an asset. It will allow for some excellent parent-child bonding time, as even the simplest manual pad should, if well built, require at least an hour or two building time. Finally, and most importantly, it acts as a way of showing your child that you are genuinely interested in his or her activity of choice, and that you are willing to support their doing so.
2) If we are talking about older skaters, then for one thing, any attempt to use a cheap plastic launch ramp will likely result in little plastic shards within an hour, and $30 down the drain.
3) Customization: The ability to build something from scratch means that you can build it exactly the way you want it. A box can be a high and wide as you like, transitions can be cut as mellow or as steep as you want, you can tailor the obstacle to exactly your skill level and riding style. Be forewarned, though, that especially when talking about cutting transitions, make sure you know what you're doing beforehand. Thirteen foot transitions on a three foot quartepipe and you wind up with a flat bank with some coping, and four foot trannies on as big a mini and you have side-by-side Jersey Barriers (which is great if that's your thing). Cutting transitions is a delicate science, and one miscalculation can dash weeks of work on your first kickturn.


Here's how to do it right.

The best part is that customization of your home-made ramp doesn't always end at the building phase. Once all is said and done, this ramp is yours, so make it feel like yours: slap those spare stickers you have along the sides of it, use the top of it to practice your art skills, be it with a spray can or paint can, just do whatever you want to make it feel like home.


See an example at 1:09.

Everything associated with the home-made ramp comes back to creativity, and that is why it is so integral to the experience of being a skateboarder. I implore any of you who have never gotten your hands dirty with sawdust and a power drill, and even those of you who haven't done so in a while, go grab some wood, grab a buddy, grab a stereo, and grab hold of that creative spirit you embrace every time you step on your board, because among so many other things, skateboarding is... home-made ramps.