You're living in Lewiston, Maine these days - which is where Elijah Ackerley told us he was from in our last issue. Have your paths ever crossed since living out there?
No, I think by the time I moved there, he had probably already left. But Maine’s pretty small, so everyone sort of knows each other. People always speak really highly of him.
Is it starting to feel like springtime up there by this point in the year?
Slowly, yeah. This winter was probably the worst in a while; super cold, lots of snow and it’s taking forever to warm up. Even today, it was cold. The wind was blowing hard off the water and that makes it feel even colder. It's around 45 degrees right now.
I feel like the last couple of East Coast winters were pretty mellow but this year really dragged on and caught folks off guard.
Yeah, it was like two summers ago, we got a record amount of rain - like an insane amount. Then last winter, the weather was really nice and that carried into the summer. I’d say this past summer was probably the best we've had in a while—weather-wise, it wasn’t a drought and there wasn’t too much rain, just warm and mellow.
That’s nice for a change. I’m all too familiar with the unpredictable east coast summers.
Moving ahead - you’re clearly one of those few guys that are still at the top of their game in their mid-30s. Is there anyone else in your age bracket that you look to for inspiration these days?
I would say Thiago [Lemos]. I’ve spent a lot of time with him and I think he’s like 33.
Really? I would’ve guessed that he was like 28 or 29.
I think he’s around 32 or 33. I used to think he was way younger than us. I’m not sure if he thought I was older or younger either. I just remember talking with him and he was like, “wait, you’re not even that much older than me.” He said he’d been watching me skate for so long, he just assumed I was older or something.
Makes sense.
I’ve spent a lot of time with him. He’s just naturally strong and it doesn’t seem like he follows any specific diet or regimen. He just skates non-stop. He’s like a machine. It’s super inspiring watching him go into a plaza spot and just skate all day. He’s just a powerful skater and I’ve always admired that.
All of his movements just seem so fluid.
I wanted to bring up that premiere tour that you did with him and Jamie for the release of the NB# ‘Intervals’ video last year. It seemed like you guys did more traveling for the rollout than most brands could afford for filming trips these days.
It was really cool. Back in the day, doing a premiere tour was such a big part of finishing a video. That kind of faded out over the years but this brought it back. It felt like we were all celebrating together. The energy at the premieres was amazing—everyone was hyped and seeing it on a big screen just made it feel special. I don’t go to many premieres normally, since I live out here, so this was a rare and cool experience.
We hit a bunch of cities and the energy after each showing was unreal. People were buzzing. It just felt different than throwing a video online. You got real reactions, not just comments. Seeing people respond in person - cheering and connecting - it made it all feel more real.
Totally. I was at the LA one and, like you said, there aren’t many premieres anymore but this one felt like it had a massive turnout. The rooftop afterparty was a nice treat too…
That theater was amazing too - maybe the best one, honestly. The way it looked and sounded was top tier.
Absolutely. All of that gothic architecture on the inside made the big posters with your faces on them look pretty elaborate.
Were there any other venues along the way that had a standout vibe? Or was the energy pretty high across the board?
Oh yeah, Madrid was wild—huge turnout. And Brazil… man, Brazil was something else. Everyone there was so hyped and just incredibly genuine and respectful. That one probably had the most love overall. But Madrid felt massive too - super high energy.
Those sort of events really seem to hit different in places where there’s not as much going on skate-wise.
Definitely. The Boston premiere was a big one for me. I brought my wife, my two daughters, my brother, his wife and kids and my mom. I was tripping that my kids were old enough to be there and to actually watch it. They’re always curious about what I do, but this was the first time they really got to see it. They were blown away. It actually made me a little emotional.
That’s gotta be wild to have your two worlds come together like that.
My brother’s son was totally tripping. My brother told me, “I know he knows what you do, but I don’t think he really knew.” Darwin had made photo books and handed them out, and my nephew brought his to school and was showing it off to all his friends. That was cool to hear.
If you did enough to inspire the next-gen - clearly you did something right!
I wanted to ask you about a couple tricks from that part: specifically the opener and the ender. For the roof to roof gap in the first clip, was the roof made out of that soft tar material? I was wondering how you were able to get speed to roll up for it.
Yeah, it was. I had to bring in plywood and screw it down.
On both sides?
For sure. I tried just riding up it first to see if it was doable, but there was no way. It was just that soft asphalt roofing and I stopped immediately and slammed.
That’s brutal.
Some scooter kid had hit it before and he used plywood too, so I figured that was the only way to make it work.
Did you end up taking it down afterwards or did you leave it bolted on?
No, I took it down because we were getting kicked out. I honestly thought that was going to be my last try. Some kid tried to park there mid-session. This was in State College, Pennsylvania, and it was during the summer when the whole area’s basically dead—no students around, just empty dorms.
I had been out there the day before and got everything set up. I was ollieing up and trying to ollie across but I realized I was losing too much speed by the time I hit the top. I was just about to try it for real and then it started downpouring, so I left the plywood there and came back the next day.
I got there around 10am, but that side of the building was in the shade so everything was still wet. I waited around until around noon for it to dry out, then I set up a piece of metal so I could pump into it instead of ollieing up. I figured if I could ride up easily, I’d try the ollie-over. But even that was hard - it was really steep and long and I was pushing as fast as I could.
I finally started making it over (barely) and then this kid pulled up and parked right in the way. Tim Savage, who was filming, asked him to move and the kid got all bent out of shape. He ended up calling the maintenance guy who looks after the property.
He came out and was like “what are you guys doing? You put plywood on the roof?” He thought we were nuts. I told him I had silicone to fill all the screw holes afterwards and that the roof was already in rough shape, so we weren’t making it any worse. I was like, “I’m not leaving it like this.”
He was cool enough to give me one more try and that was it - that ended up being the make. Right after, I packed everything up and drove straight home, nine hours back. I had come up the night before to check it out, stayed the next night to finish it and then just hit the road.
That would’ve been so hectic to go back and do that whole mission again - rebuilding everything and setting it all back up...
Jake Darwen actually wanted me to go back to shoot a photo but I was like “nah.” It took all I had to just to get over the thing once.
It seemed like you were sprinting at it full speed. As a matter of fact, after watching your part it looked like the only time you got towed in was for the frontside flip over the street gap at the end. Was that just coincidence or do you try to avoid towing in?
Honestly, I’d rather get towed in - it saves your legs. A lot of the stuff I skate ends up requiring a long run-up and I get burned out quickly from sprinting over and over. But at that spot, you physically couldn’t push into it fast enough. Maybe someone could finesse it somehow, but realistically, it needed the tow.
Seems like it.
I’ve always wanted to kickflip it or frontside flip it, but it was always a challenge to find someone with a proper bike in the city. The guy who had towed me before had sold his bike. So we tried to find someone else. The first guy showed up with a little dirt bike, maybe a 50cc, that just didn’t have the power. Another homie came through with what I think was a 250cc, but that thing was too powerful. I was flying.
Then his bike kept shutting off. It had an electric start and the battery eventually died. We had no tools and the battery was under the seat. We somehow figured out how to get it off and jumped it with some cables. I told him, “just don’t shut it off again.” I tried like five more times, but by then I was overheated, the whole day had passed and nothing had worked out. It sucked.
How did you end up finding the sweet spot?
Eventually, Jamie was like, “dude, why don’t you just buy a bike and I’ll tow you in?” After some time passed and they were planning to come back to Boston, I thought, “realistically, that’s the only way.” We couldn’t seem to line anything else up.
Someone mentioned there were cheap dirt bikes on Amazon, so I looked it up and bought one. We were coming back from DC (Thiago had just done that line there) so when I flew back into Boston and drove home, the bike had been dropped off in my driveway.
I had to assemble the whole thing: handlebars, front shocks, wheels—everything. I got it running, loaded it in the back of my Jeep, drove up there the next morning and Jamie towed me in. I landed it, threw the bike back in the Jeep and just drove home.
That’s probably the first I’ve ever heard of someone going out of their way to buy their own transportation for the roll up. It seems like there’s always a random passerby at the spot that happens to have one.
Yeah, right? That’s usually how it works out but this time I just couldn’t find anybody. It ended up being super sick having Jamie help me out though. I’ve got so much respect for him and going through that with him there just added something to it. It almost gave me extra motivation or energy - it’s hard to explain.
Have you used the bike since then or was that just a one-and-done mission?
I’ve just puttered around my house on it so it was mostly for that one time. I do have another spot I want to use it for, but it’s at a school so I’ve gotta wait until summer when it’s empty.
But the thing with towing is, it’s all about having the right person doing it. Jamie was helping me figure out the exact speed, the timing and the takeoff... that’s the biggest key. You’re not wasting energy by pushing but if the speed’s off, even by a little, it can go bad fast. If you’re going too fast, you’re just getting launched.
Sounds like a fine line between maintaining control and getting tossed.
Yeah, I kept eating it so hard on one side. My neck actually got messed up at that spot. The first time I tried to skate it, this girl was playing with a tennis ball against one of those handball courts and she just wandered into the path while I was flying in. I tried to swerve, but the landing is this narrow strip so if you go off that, there’s no saving it. I just launched myself and got full whiplash. Ever since then, I’ve had neck issues.
After I landed the frontside flip, I had migraines for like five or six days. I started seeing a chiropractor and after one visit where he adjusted my neck, it just went away. I couldn’t believe it.
Yikes - I get sketched out at the thought of messing with your neck and spine like that.
For sure. I was nervous about the adjustment at first—I told the guy I was a little worried he might break my neck. He just laughed and said, “If we were breaking necks like that, we wouldn’t be in business.”
It just feels so good, you know? I'm always cracking my neck anyway—but the way they do it, that’s probably how it should be done. I actually feel way better. I would’ve paid twice as much to go on the day that it happened, especially knowing it would fix my neck like that and kill those headaches. At a certain point, I would’ve paid anything to get rid of that pain.
Does that mean you’re never going back to that spot or are you actually more down, now that you know you’ve got a fix if your neck gets jacked again?
I don’t know. It’s definitely one of those things where, you really need to know what you’re gonna try. The only other thing I’d go back for would maybe be a Tre flip maybe. We thought of that originally, but for me it’s usually easier to clear distances with stuff like frontside flips or 180s. I was already leaning that way and Tim was like, “frontside flip for sure.”
Not many people out there can say that frontside flips come easier than tre flips.
Speaking of which, I wanted to ask about Filming with Tim as well. Somewhere I read that you guys would take one route out to a spot and then an entirely different route home, just to see if you could come across anything new. Is that right?
Oh yeah, that’s Tim’s whole thing. He’s a spot hunter. He’ll look stuff up on Google Maps and he has it set up in the app where it can track your location and show you what’s nearby. So if we’re driving on the highway, he’ll refresh it and be like, “yo there’s something off this next exit—we should check it out.” I’ve skated with him so long now, it’s just kind of how we move. Honestly, I love it. It’s always like, “when are we ever gonna be in that random town again, anyway?”
Tim usually knows where something is anyway. If he says there's a spot off the next exit, he’s usually right. Even if it ends up being a bust, it’s still worth checking. But if it’s good, we either hit it right then or log it for later. It just helps so much, because honestly, most of skating - at least for me - is about finding the right spot.
That’s half the battle! Especially for the homies that are used to carrying full binders of printed out spots. Being able to log them in real time is a game changer.
I remember that. It’s wild - just flipping through some photo book and being like, “oh, this one looks kind of sick,” but not having directions or anything. You just had to wing it.
Like you said, you’ve gotta be strategic when you’re skating in some random area that you’ll probably never wander through again.
It’s super helpful and Tim loves that kind of thing. I usually do a lot of the driving anyway, like when we go out to Pennsylvania, so I’m always down to take a different route. You just never know what you’re gonna find. And sometimes you’ll come across a total gem in the middle of nowhere, and it just gets you hyped.
It’s the thrill of the hunt!
That being said - what do you have your sights set on for the future? Any other projects or travels planned this year?
Honestly, I just plan to keep filming. That’s what we do anyway. Even when one project’s done, I just keep going with Tim - it’s just part of the routine. I’m working on a little Element part now and they kind-of hired Tim for that, so it works out perfect because I see him all the time anyway. We’re just doing it on our own terms, which is kind of how we did the New Balance part too.
With that one they were like, “you guys can go wherever,” which was rad. But it got to the point where it was just easier to figure stuff out ourselves. I was talking to Levi Brown, the team manager, and was like, “look, instead of me telling you exactly where we’re going and where we want to stay, it’s easier for us to just go hit a few areas, stay a night, bounce around, and then just get reimbursed after.” It let us be more flexible and hit more stuff.
Once we started doing that, Levi was just like, “if that works for you guys, go for it.” We’d head out to places like Philly and I’d just book the hotel, cover gas and food, and then send over an invoice to get reimbursed. That just became our routine for most of the trips, and honestly, it worked super well. It made everything a lot easier, more productive and maybe even more cost-efficient too, since it was usually just me and Tim—no flights, just driving. We weren’t staying anywhere fancy, just keeping it simple.
I’m sure it felt like way less pressure to be moving around on your own schedule.
Exactly. Not everybody’s into that kind of process, but we both are. We don’t mind the long drives, the scouting, the searching for spots. Some people can’t handle sitting in the car for hours only to get somewhere and have it suck or get kicked out. But for us, that’s part of the fun.
Photos: Jake Darwen
Originally published in Issue 6 - July 2025