At first glance I thought you were a California kid, but you’re originally from Pennsylvania, right?
PA, man - that’s where I’m from! I claim Philly out here because nobody knows Bucks County, but I’m from the suburbs.
Got it. I skated that prefab Falls Township park back in the day so I’m familiar with that zone.
That's real close. Tom Asta and all those fools skated there a bunch.
I saw you had a part for Dogwood Skateshop out back in the day as well so that helped piece it together. We gotta give a shoutout to our boy Rich Van Horn.
Oh he’s great - he’s holding that skate scene together still.
Being that it’s so rural out there, it seems like that probably had something to do with you learning how to build and modify DIY spots. Is that a fair statement?
That’s absolutely it. Plus just working a bunch of shitty jobs and realizing that there’s a lot of stuff out there, but you gotta just make it work better—for me, at least. Some of these core-lord guys just want to skate everything how it is but I’m the opposite. I’m like, “whatever makes it easier”, you know?
Absolutely. Using the right tools opens up an entirely different world of spots, because you can look at something crusty or unskateable and know how to make it work.
Even beyond that, there’ll be rails with no landing or something with no run-up. I’ve done some outlandish things to make something work, like pour a concrete sidewalk before the thing to make it look better and stuff like that.
That’s dedication right there!
Being that moved out to California right after high school, did you already have that whole collection of tools when you came out here or did you drive them out?
It’s funny. I kinda just worked a pizza delivery job before I came out here. I had somewhat of a blue-collar background, but no tools at all. I drove out here in my friend’s little Subaru with literally nothing.
Then I just started acquiring one tool at a time. I was getting the tools for skating, not for work so I slowly acquired my own whole setup. It was just one piece at a time, building out the arsenal.
That’s exactly what I was gonna call it.
To be honest, I didn’t have an option, especially living in Long Beach when I moved out. The skate craze in that city was nuts. All the Florida dudes - Ish Cepeda, Tyson Peterson, Jamie Foy, Nikolai Piombo and all these big names now were, for the most part, just unsponsored and had just moved to Long Beach. Kids were just fucking spots up. That’s when I started to be like, “damn, I got nothing to offer” and I just started trying to make shit happen.
It’s funny, speaking of guys from your zone, we interviewed Ronnie Kessner in the last issue and he was talking about how nuts it was to have all those Floridians popping off down there.
When did you eventually feel like you had really broken through and could make skateboarding work for you?
Honestly, I probably didn’t really have any sponsors out here until I grinded that curved kink rail at the Long Beach convention center.
One night, me and the boys were fucking around at the rail. I was drop-in grinding it and we all had a few beers in us. Kevin Liedtke was there at the time and kept calling it “the Nyah rail.” I remember thinking, “dude, I just grinded half of it while being kind-of hammered.”
I didn’t really get any recognition until I grinded that rail. After that, people all of a sudden started fucking with me. The word must have gotten out, because then I was getting boards from people and got on Vans and started getting shoes. I think then I started realizing, “damn, maybe I gotta just try to grind shit.”
I feel like that clip was one of those “tricks heard ‘round the world” before clips started going viral individually.
Exactly, that was still at a time when your part really mattered on YouTube more than anything else.
That clip definitely made the rounds. I also think it got so much attention because so many skaters have walked down that set since all the old trade shows used to be in that building.
I feel like that definitely carried some weight and helped me out a lot. I wasn’t really thinking about it at the time when I was trying it, but I think that was kind of my breaking point.
I suppose that lends itself to all of the online commotion you’ve been a part of lately with these 'World’s Longest Grind' challenges this year.
Without going too far down the rabbit hole, do you feel pressure to one-up other people, or are you mainly trying to skate things that personally get you excited?
I don’t skate unless it’s like a mission for something. I don’t know how to explain it. I almost need to find some virgin rail or some hubba that doesn’t seem possible. If I know someone didn’t do it or someone sends me a photo of it and I’m like, “let’s make the trip.”
I feel like it needs to be a mission for something gnarly to come out of it because I mostly do a lot of boardslides and grinds. I’m 30 years old, dude. I’m not reinventing the wheel, learning new flatground tricks and stuff.
That’s what I like to do and that’s what gets me stoked, so it kinda has to be that way. It’s almost like a stunt. I just go out, grab my board and all my tools and shit, and fix something up that I’ll get super passionate about.
I didn’t want to call them stunts but that’s what a lot of your tricks feel more like.
You were also big on snowboarding back in the day. Do you think that influences the spots you’re drawn to and the need to go big?
Yeah, I’ve got a big snowboarding background from growing up on the East Coast. I filmed a couple street snowboard parts and was almost more passionate about street snowboarding than skating until I moved out here. I think a lot of my spots translate in that—boardslides and grinds and big stuff.
That reminds me: when I rewatched your Dogwood part, I remembered that clip where you hit the double kink rail in the snow and then you do it on wheels. Which of those came first?
Snowboard first. It’s funny, that rail is right down the street from my house. It was aluminum and I looked at it all the time. When we first set it up on a snowboard, it became this thing we’d just do whenever we got snow. I probably hit that rail so many times. It was just fun to hit on the snowboard.
Then one day I was like, “I wonder if I could grind this thing.” When I came home from California, I had done some of those bigger kinked rails, and I looked at it again and it spoke to me.
But it had this crazy downhill run-up so I actually cut it and lowered it a couple inches to make it possible because it was nipple-high. I was so passionate about making it grindable because I had lived next to it for so many years.
I feel like everyone has some absurd spot that they live down the street from and daydream about.
I also made copers because I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to grind it. I made plastic copers out of PVC because I was determined. It ended up working out for sure.
Out of the tricks you’re known for, like feeble and boardslides, which one is the most comfortable to you?
The most satisfying and my favorite trick would just be a boardslide. There’s just no better feeling. I feel like that’s the snowboarder in me.
That makes sense. You also skate a pretty wide board too, right?
Exactly, I skate size 9.0 boards - I like a big board.
I figured that was the case.
You’ve never seemed afraid to approach tricks differently either— like doing grabs or cavemans. Was that something you consciously embraced?
Like I said, I don’t have much to contribute to these insane technical kids, so I always had to make my own way with my trick selection.
Do you ever feel pressure to do more “legit” tricks that you need to pop into or not use your hands for?
Honestly, in that Dogwood part I didn’t do a single flatground trick, besides if you count the tre flip into the water at the end. I could do a tre flip down a small set of stairs or whatever, but I never really let it bother me. I’m like, “this is what I’m going to contribute.” If you hate it, then don’t watch it. There’s plenty of other shit. Go watch someone you like to watch. I didn’t really let that get in my head too much. I was just like, “I’m gonna keep doing what I can contribute.”
Let’s chat about your career specifically.
You went pro for Al Partanen’s company, Space Pupil but then quickly transitioned to over to the team at Blood Wizard. What caused you to shift from one brand to the next?
In the past, no one had really ever reached out to me. I was friends with so many pros in that Long Beach era—up-and-coming dudes that were just on and had stacks of boards. I was homie flow so I just didn’t have to pay for skateboards ever.
Since all my friends were giving me decks, I was never really concerned about who I got boards from. Then Wolfgang [Ragnar] kind of gave me the layup and was like, “hey, Al’s starting this thing…” I was a fan of Al from the Creature days, so I was 100% all in. But there was really no team. It was just him helping me and he had always mentioned that I was going to have the first pro board.
Then Lizard King was bouncing around and popped in, so I was like, “alright, I’m gonna keep holding out for my board.” At that time, I was putting out more footage and had talked to Chris Gregson about going to Blood Wizard. I was going to Swamp Fest and that’s like a Blood Wizard thing with him so we always had this thing going back and forth where he was like, “come on over, dude. The grass is greener, we can help you.” And I was like, “no, I gotta be loyal to Al. I’ve been here for so long.”
Lizard King was like a second wind so we skated more but after he left it was just me and that’s when Al gave me my board. The timing was awkward because I’m like, “how do I hang on to this and be thankful without seeming like I just wanted to bail?” In one sense, you could say I got my Space Pupil trophy.
Al took it super well and was just like, “they can do more for you, dude. I don’t want to hold you back - do your thing.” When I called Chris, he was hyped so that’s how it went down.
It’s a blessing to be able to part ways on good terms and at the end of the day, a good team manager should want to see their riders continue to prosper.
Oh yeah, we still talk. He’s always hyped in my DMs if something comes out or if Blood Wizard posts something, he’s still down. But that was the hardest thing I think I ever had to do. That felt like breaking up with a girlfriend. I was like, “I’ve got so many years with Al and he’s been so good to me”, so that was tough.
Have you been able to skate or travel much with the Blood Wizard crew quite yet?
Not yet but I’m looking forward to it. Chris [Gregson] is so busy and he’s the most-goated filmer in my eyes. Whenever he’s home, I always hit him up and he’s down.
I’ll have eight or nine different spots lined up, and he’ll come out and we’ll just see how many we can get done. That’s kind of the way I skate. It’s not like, “let me cruise around with all the Blood Wizard guys.” It’s like, “I’m going to bring you to this rail that I made possible.”
It’s more mission-based, like I was saying earlier. I’ll miss a lot of those sessions or some of the trips to the skateparks I’ve been invited to with those guys. I’ll kind of just be like, “I’m gonna sit this out and work on a spot.”
It sounds like you’re way more productive as a lone wolf more rather than jumping in the van for every session.
I honestly feel the same way. I feel like I’d be taking up a seat in some sense but Chris gets it and he knows my style. He’ll always put time aside when he gets home from whatever trip he’s on.
I would say I’m halfway done with a Blood Wizard part. I think we’re going to design maybe my own graphic because the first one was part of a team series. I think I’m gonna drop my board when the video comes out so that should be cool.
We’ll be waiting to see it!
Is there anything else we should be on the lookout for?
First thing’s first, I’m definitely going to take the world record back. We welded a 420 foot rail so that’s happening.
I took a minute to hit up everyone I could to get funding for this shit because it is so hard to build something like this. People don’t get it, dude. It’s weeks in a hot field. This isn’t Red Bull making it for me and giving me a shaded tent with Gatorade before I can skate. It’s brutal, but we got an extra hundred feet so hopefully we’ll take back the title. Hopefully that will settle it for good because that would be 100 feet farther than anyone else.
And for anyone reading this, there’s a spot drought out there. The way that they’re building these spots, they’re getting so smart with building new infrastructure that’s not skateable. I would say it’s never too late to start your toolkit and contribute to your community. Make something for everybody. I try not to gatekeep my spots, which is painful. It’s hard sometimes because people will do way sicker shit and just throw it on the Instagram but at the end of the day, you’ve got to give back to skateboarding.
Photos: Taylor Ballard
Originally published in Issue 8 - October 2026