Daewon Song has pushed skateboarding in so many different ways it’s almost impossible to define. 

There’s no manual for Daewon’s technical tricks yet he’s been exploring the possibility of what he can do on a skateboard as a pro skater for three decades. His curiosity and drive to try new things has helped him to achieve a whole new kind of balance but it hasn’t all come as easy as Daewon may make it look.

Daewon has had to face big obstacles but the way he overcomes them is fascinating. He’s one of skating’s most technically creative masterminds but he stays level headed and well-balanced, on and off his board.

We are stoked that Daewon is a No Comply member so we had a chat about how he had to get creative to get his first skateboard, how launch ramps elevated his skate ability, getting sponsored after three years of skating, meeting Rodney Mullen, getting on World and the end of the first ever Hardflip debate, inspirations from Christian Hosoi and Sean Sheffey, hanging with Daniel Castillo, Filming with Socrates Leal for Love Child and New World Order, starting up Almost and Deca, the reasons why there is no best ever in skateboarding, his thoughts on style and innovation, Jeremy Wray, getting high roof skating, his thoughts on Chewy Cannon, Paul Shier, filming Skate More with Colin Kennedy, creating new picnic table obstacles for Rodney VS Daewon Round 1, 2 and 3 and his favourite skaters, art and films ever.

 

 

Hey Daewon, how did you get into skateboarding?

For me it was kinda tough, I come from a typical Asian parent background, my mom was super old-school and my dad just pretty much worked a lot and didn’t care what I did.

So me, I would look around and see skateboarding and I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it just because of how my parents were.

But then my mom saw me get excited when I first saw a skateboard and so we went to a department store and she got me a board, but I’m talking like a super generic one, the wheels barely rolled, the griptape was glued on, but it was something, it was better than nothing and I was super excited.

But then it got stolen two weeks later when I was at a donut shop playing video games and that was the last board they ever bought me.

They gave me a typical Asian beatdown, like they did back in the day when that was legal and then I was like wow, I’m never going to have a skateboard again and yeah it felt weird.

I loved to skate from the very first time I got on the board, I finally stood up on it after being on my knees for the first week before it was stolen, I was mainly skating round my neighbourhood and felt like I was cool and stuff.

 

 

When did you get back on a board?

A while passed and I didn’t really touch the board and then my mom and dad went their seperate ways and my mom kinda disappeared off the map and took off you know and you know it was upsetting to me because I was like where’s mom…?

But I was excited because it was an opportunity to hustle and figure out how I could get my hands on a board.

 I wasn’t going to ask my dad, he was making enough to support the family and be in the house and whatnot but boardwise I just had to look around and find spare parts.

Then I started to think of ways to do stuff, like sell flowers and tried to sell a little bouquet to somebody and get a little extra cash so I could see someone and say ‘hey could you sell me your old board or something, for like two dollars, three dollars, anything!’.

 

 

Sick

I ended up meeting some skaters and they were being cool and they gave me a hand me down little Billy Ruff deck back in the day, I had some old roller skate wheels so I put some on them, they were the newer roller skate wheels, so they worked.

I had these Invader trucks that were generic too at the time and I put all those things together and I had a skateboard and from that point on man, I was hooked.

 

 

How old were you at the time?

You know what I started skateboarding a little late. When my mom got me the board I was way younger and then maybe a year and half passed before she left.

I was about 13 and a half at the time. Then when I got the board I was so into it, first skate video that I saw was one of the shittiest VCR videos!

 

 

What video was it?

There were lines were going through the tape. I forget which video it actually was but all I can remember is that they were launching out of ramps, and I was like that’s what it’s all about launching. I started focusing on going off curb cuts. I just wanted to launch off everything, and then my bud built a launch ramp.

 

 

So launch ramps helped you elevate your skating?

Yeah, then I somehow made it into a city newspaper doing a grab off that launch ramp and in the photo, my lips were all puckered like Christian Hosoi. I was into Hosoi. I was so pumped on Hosoi.

I had never seen a photo of myself skating like that before and I was shocked. I was like shit I didn’t even mean to do that!

 

 

@priceyhot

 

 

So how did you get sponsored?

So I kept moving at around age 13 and a half to 14 and then when I was about 15 I met Rodney Mullen and he started flowing me boards and everything after that happened pretty fast and by about 16 and a half, just before I was 17, I was pro.

 

 

That’s quick, you went pro after three years?

But skating was a lot different then, launch ramps and stuff, gradually I learnt all the Kickflips and stuff and little random things here and there, it’s not as technical as it is now.

You had a few key tricks you had to learn like three flips, back then there was no switch heels, nobody was doing that stuff, and all those tricks didn’t even exist in our heads then, we did just weird combinations of tricks.

Backside Lipslide to Backside 5-0, Nosegrind to Lip to 5-0 to Shuvit out, even though that sounds technical, it’s not, your board’s not really flipping under you, it was easier, it was a fun time to see all these things and do all this stuff.

But at the time the only way you could see any of those tricks is getting a video or a magazine and by the time you read it, it was already three years old!

 

 

What year did you go pro for World?

World turned me pro in 1991.

 

 

When did you film your Love Child part?

Love Child, was my first video part for them and it came out in 1991 but they always say 1992.

I think it was, at the tail end of 1991 but I think it came out by 1992 but I mean when you’re a kid you don’t think about that stuff, but due to production and distribution by the time the shops got a hold of it was 1992.

 

 

How was filming it?

It was so fun. First off, I just filmed everyday with my buddy Socrates Leal.

I knew Socrates before I was even sponsored, he was a local guy to me. We lived in completely different cities but we’d had heard about each other’s launch ramping skills. And we were both like, I gotta meet this guy.

People were like you guys have to launch ramp battle each other!

I was always just like whatever, you’re all crazy but then we met.

 

 

Launch Ramp Battles sounds jokes

I know, it was funny, it was a little bit like the dance movement and break culture at this stage.

We never ending up having a launch ramp battle but we ended up meshing well together and getting along and he loved filming. Soc was passionate about it, he had a hold of a camera and he was like ‘Dude, try something I’ll film you!’.

It was my first experience of filming and he’d show me the footage back and I was like ‘ah man , woah my Methods man, I always felt like they were bigger! I always thought I tweaked them more!

 

 

Yeah, footage brings it all to light

You finally get a picture of all your tricks for the first time and see what your doing on video and your thinking this looks so different in so many ways then what I thought it did.

It made me feel full of excitement and disappointment and sometimes surprise that certain tricks look cooler than it feels.

So we just kept going and going and when they said ‘were going to start filming for this Love Child video, me and Soc just kept filming the way we always had been!

 

 

So you were buddies before, what a sick connection

We were connected in a way that made us, think ‘oh, we should just continue to do what we were already doing’.

Nothing was planned. It wasn’t like Soc I have to go here and film this.

We’d go to skate the schools with Henry Sanchez, Guy Mariano and everybody else trying to film at the same time. When there was a filmer available Rocco just wanted everyone to be there, he’d be like ‘This guy’s on the film’.

That’s how you got those little bits and pieces and stuff. I got this line and I’d do it, there was no oh that’s kinda sketch. It’d be like ‘hmm that’s pretty good, maybe I’ll cut the last bit’ and then we’d just run the clip.

 

 

Seems more organic

 Sometimes all I would do would be a Frontside Pop Shuvit. It was a lot different then, that part was unplanned, it was just pure, hey I’m going to skate and see what happens. That was the section where I did that weird Hardflip

Rodney Mullen told me this guy, Dan Gallagher, did this weird Kickflip thing where he kicks it inward, back then I was doing Inward Heelflips and so I got it,

I ended up trying one over this little gap with Soc and I thought maybe I can do this. I tried it landed and I did it and I was like yeah and that was it, it was such a weird time.

 

 

Did you not celebrate filming your first Hardflip?

I was probably like let’s go get doughnuts or play paintball or go Carl’s Jr, get one plate and everybody share a cup, we were kids just enjoying it man!

 

 

Parts back then were more of a collection of random organic moments

Yeah, It’s so random, we always just skated that one school called MBI and I landed a Hardflip on flat.

Soc was like, there’s a little gap back there off this stage and I was like that could help with the timing because I couldn’t flip it fast enough and the little drop helped and that’s how it turned out.

I know there’s that debate now about who did it first, me or Dan, like who filmed it first and all these different opinions about what video it was in and who did it.

I was there at the time and I watched every video and we were all pretty much aware of everything what came out but you just don’t know and you can’t claim anything

 

 

What do you think about who did it first?

All I know is Rodney said Dan Gallagher did Hardflips first but the only thing I know is that we put it out there saying I was the first one with a documented one.

But that’s not saying I did do the first one because I don’t know there could have been a million kids all over the world who did the first one round roughly the same time.

There could have been Hardflips done before me or Dan Gallagher. It’s nothing to be mad or debate about anyway

I never say I was the first one to ever do it.That’s Dan Gallagher.

I’m not sitting around claiming it, like yeah I’m the first one with the footage! I’m like thank you for the credit and I’m sure someone did it before both of us.

The one I did was a really bad Hardflip but I didn’t even know what it was called back then so I’d like to move on.

 

 

What did you call it when you did it?

Yeah, we were calling it an inside Kickflip.

That’s because when you were doing it felt like you were your kicking something behind yourself, downwards, it was the most disgusting feeling man, it didn’t feel right but it did feel good to land something new, that’s all you wanted to do.

Keep learning and learning and then when I started to learn the basic flick of it, that’s when in 1993 in New World Order I tried to different variatons with it. I got comfortable with it, I don’t even do Hardflips anymore, maybe one to manny.

 

 

Yeah, you never see footage of you doing Hardflips

No, not really. The last Hardflip I did I was riding a board on a top of a board and I made the bottom board do a Hardflip.

 

 

Okay. That’s nuts!

I did it on a quarterpipe, it’s in an old Instagram post that I made, I do a Hardflip, yeah, I try and keep it fun.

 

 

 Sounds crazy

Yeah, circusy-fun.

I always talk about it too, back in the day people were saying in the future, people are going to ride two boards and I used to say Hell no!

I’m not going to make a fool of myself and then there you go, you never know later down the line, your enjoying yourself in a different way, whether you think it’s a circus trick or whatever, it’s an interesting way to do that trick, that makes you think .

 

 

It’s funny your so aware of that

It interested me because my general Hardflip is not so great anyway, so I thought ‘how can I do it without any expectations about how it’s going to look?’

So I want to flick the top board in the old school way I used to do it and see what happens.

I ended up trying it and the bottom board ended up flicking perfect and the whole trick ended up working out. It’s funny how that stuff happens.

It’s made me more curious and think what if? Can I?

It’s not me trying to show the world watch this man! I’m doing this now, it’s more me going, would that work? And something going I don’t think so and me saying hmm you don’t think so?

Then I try one and holy shit, I’ll watch it back and it kinda works. That’s skateboarding man, just being curious.

 

 

For Sure. It’s an adventure into the unknown.

Like I go on a hike and I want to see some kind of wildlife, I hope I see something that scares me but you don’t, if it’s dangerous it may attack you but in a way you kinda want to see something that’s kinda dangerous. I just get curious.

 

 

@cruzing

 

 

Who was in your first skate crew?

There were quite a few skateboarders around in the 90s it was blowing up again, everyone was making street crews.

There was one local one around me, the Dead End Skate Rats, I remember kinda being involved but not really?

 

 

Why were they called that?

They had this launch ramp at the end of this street that had a dead end so that’s how they came up with the name. I’m not even sure if I was officially a part of it but I’m claiming it now.

 

 

I’m sure they’d be claiming you were in now!

Haha.

 

 

They would be like Daewon built that launch ramp!

Times changed fast around there, everyone got into gangs , being writers and graffiti artists, dance crews, I just kept on skating and skating. I was the Last of the Mohicans in a skate sense at my high school.

Which is funny because I don’t really enjoy that movie but we were the Mohicans at my high school, our school’s logo was actually, The Mohicans. So I used to say I was the Last of The Mohicans.

 

 

You were the only skater at your school?

I was the only skater left at my school at one point, people were like wow, I can’t believe you still skate.

I remember, there was a friend of mine, I went into a Taco Bell and he was the manager, he was like damn you still skate, I was like ‘yeah’, I’m kinda sponsored you know.

He said ‘Well OK’, I’m the manager here so you know let me know if you need a job, I’ll hook you up, get you in here, whenever you want so you can make so money!’.

I remember thinking that’s cool of him, you know, I loved Taco Bell. Shit, I could make money and eat as many burritos as I can. But it never happened I just kept skating.

It’s such a funny thing I always look back on, him telling me that and me thinking ‘ah man I don’t want a job right now, I just want to skate and him offering that’ , thinking to myself too like man he was the manager, and he was 17.

At the time I was like it looks like he’s doing pretty damn good for himself!

 

 

Photo Shot by Anthony Acosta

 

 

True but you were pushing down a different path

Around the time of that Taco Bell offer man, at the time, everybody stopped skating and I just had to kinda veer of.

That’s when I had to start taking buses by myself to LA and I met a few people, that’s how I met Soc and ended up hanging out with him more and he lived out in Longdale. So I started to get away from my city because nobody skated.

So I ended up in the South Bay area, skating the galleria, towards the beach area, where sure enough you’ll find more skaters and I found a little crew and one of the guys in the crew had a car so I could stay in the same motion, skating and enjoying myself. It means a lot.

It really helps when you’re surrounded by friends to motivate you and you feed off that. You can lose motivation even though skateboarding is so fun.

Having my friends motivated me and it helped me and all those guys in Longdale, Sam Lennox, Socrates, Scott, Milton and this guy Jim with the car, who used to drive us all around.

 

 

In Cali having a car is really important right?

Having a car is key, everything’s all spread out. Buses here are a nightmare. I tried to take the bus up to LA a couple times and just the fact that getting jacked or people fucking with you is such a high probability.

I used to get the bus up to Crenshaw, I used to go past this park called the Murk Park, it was filled with gangsters and this one gang called the Trouble Gang who were writers, taggers and gangsters. And I always knew they were going to jack my board if they got on the bus when I was on it.

 

 

I bet having a board made you stand out

When I started to get free product, you didn’t get that much, you got like three boards, and I really cherished my product.

I used to smell the boards and grip them slowly and make sure they were setup perfect, so they looked really nice. If you got on the bus with that thing, they would roll up to you and try and take it off me.

 

 

What spots were you skating?

You know what, people always made this joke that I never left the South Bay. It’s funny because 85 percent of my video parts are filmed in spots in the same 60 mile radius.

We never went further than 45 mins to an hour, there were points when we’d drive out to San Diego but I remember being like, I don’t know about these spots…

You know what in New World Order, all those spots, Love Child even most of Trilogy and 20 Shot Sequence all of that was South Bay, give or take one or two spots.

Then by the time I was filming for the Almost video, Round 3, most of it was around here. It was only until way later in my career I started to veer out and explore different places to skate when I went on trips.

 

 

Really?

A lot of stuff, that me and Soc would film would be in Beverly Hills, Lockwood and LA, most of the spots are in a 30 mile radius. Back in the day, It was a whole thing, people would say, ’You got Daewon on a trip? Crazy!’ .

I was hooked. I was comfortable, I had my comfort zone that was big enough for me to explore.

 

 

Photo Shot by Anthony Acosta

 

 

Skateboarding makes you want to explore but sometimes you might find nothing.

Yeah lurking around areas looking for spots that people think are going to be filled with nothing and you find a gem. Also watching people skate and watching where their footings at on the board is wild.

Jeremy Wray sets up for his Frontside Flips, like you think he’s going to do a Heelflip. But then he Kickflips it..That used to trip me out because I was like why is that a thing for him? What makes that work for him?

I remember trying it and thinking wow this is risky.Then you understand he has a different type of flick where he’s using his entire foot. And thats rad. We’re all doing the same trick but we’re all doing it different. We all look at it different.

 

 

Definitely.

It’s like if somebody asks you to teach them how to Tre Flip, you can only say I can teach you to Tre Flip the way I know but I don’t know how you’re going to learn it later down the line, I can only teach you how I do it and the way I see it.

But man, I see people do tres, they flip it and it’s all backfoot and their front foot never even flicks off the grip. I’m like wow!

The tre flip’s a good one for that, because it’s all about your height and weight and how fast you can flick your feet.

 

 

Paul Shier has a crazy Tre flip, that’s really unique.

That’s the beauty of skateboarding, once you learn a common trick you can look at someone’s silhouette and once you’ve seen enough of that person you’ll know it was them without seeing their face, just their style.

We can read that as skateboarders but from an outsider’s perspectives, they’d be like ah I cant ‘ tell the difference, I have no idea who that is.

 

 

Being able to see technique

Yeah, you can see someone push down the street as a skateboarder and you can tell so much about them , if they’re beginning, if they skate as transportation or if they are really good by their posture and how they roll up to the spot.

You can tell what their setup is like, what they really like to skate, what they like to skate more of and it’s just wild, that you can read that because it’s what you’ve lived in for so long, it’s like a chef, making a recipe, that’s a bit of coriander, that flavour , you can see what people are capable of.

 

 

Definitely

10 years down the line, if someone tells you they did a trick you’ve never seen them do, you can say I deny that! I don’t think you’ve ever done that and I know you haven’t done that because you can tell they don’t skate that way.

That’s the great thing about skateboarding because when you have that sort of reputation, where you’re like yeah he is probably going to do this or that because they assume you think you’re going to stick doing the same thing you can always surprise people by doing something they did not expect and that’s exciting.

 

 

Chewy mentioned that skating’s like a language and you can understand other people through it.

So true. Chewy is rad.

He’s so awesome, such a gifted skater , such a unique style, you know when he mashes around you know even if he was dressed in a full Mickey Mouse costume, you know who that is.

That’s Chewy Cannon by the way he moves by his control and aggression and by the way he turns around, by the way he moves, this way, that way, boom, boom, boom, boom.

 

 

He’s got flow. What opened your mind to travelling?

In 1999, after Round 2 came out, I went to Australia and I remember thinking wow, there’s so much good stuff out here.

And it was like more of a tour, so we didn’t really try to film, just tour, really, so we did demos and stuff like that and being there in 1999/2000 and skating all these fullpipes on this Deca vs Black Label tour.

I really liked Australia, all the parks and bowls, big trannys, walls that were transition, buildings and museums and gaps and random gaps.

I was just like God, I have to start travelling and trying to film at different pieces. I didn’t get much stuff but I was starting to.

In round 3 I have a couple clips in Barcelona and I swear it wasn’t until the 2000s till I started to go to over places to get footage out of my comfort zone.

 

 

@giovannireda

 

 

You were innovating in your own environment

Yeah.

 

 

So, why did you skate so many picnic table benches?

To me, it was just Lego pieces. I was like wow, you can create your own stuff!

I don’t need to go anywhere else, you can make a bump to manny, a pyramid, gap to grind, I can make a grind to grind, Noseblunt them, skate them on flat, it’s just the fun to look at the track, it reminded of an old Hot Wheels track.

I remember once somebody was like when you have to Ollie up the table it’s more street!

I’m like that’s true but you could just run instead of doing an Ollie up the table.

I used to love the ‘dunk dunk’ sound when you’d roll over all of the layers. It was fun, they were just slides, I could be like oh I’m going to bail and just slide down them on my butt.

Then I saw people landing with legs inbetween the table and the seat and breaking their legs and it started to make me reconsider skating them as heavily and kinda avoid that kind of skating.

 

 

Ah, yeah sounds like a good time to get out

I started to avoid any Tailslides or Switch Crook tricks on them because I just saw that and I just wanted to Noseblunt tricks so I could distribute my weight because to me if it was going bad I could just immediately lay back on my back.

That’s why I got hooked doing so many Noseblunts and Bluntslide tricks too.

Yeah a lot of tricks always went to buggerslide, I was guilty of that for sure. Haha

 

 

I always used to think how’d he come up with that?

You know what I always used to think? How long did it take the Janitor to put them back!?

 

 

Never thought about that

Hell, I would never do that again.

For that last adidas Away Days video, I tried to make an old table contraption and I only had two tricks in there, Ollie up a table and Tre Flip over a table pyramid over a fence to Nosebluntslide down the other side table.

It was supposed to be a homage to that era. When I did that I made sure that every single table I set up, I put it back where I found it. I didn’t want to do it to another Janitor!

But back then, you’re a kid and you’re like haha good luck Janitor!

Kids are gonna be eating off the wax and the fibre glass is all rubbing on their hands and their wrists whilst their eating their lunches, looking back now like oh man!

We never used to think like that though, when we were trying to get tricks we just wanted to get stuff done.

 

 

Yeah you just wanted to push yourself

Yeah and soon as you get it your relieved and happy and get out of there and go and get some sweets you know.

 

 

So you started off on launch ramps. What motivated you to go so hard in the tech direction?

I think for me, watching a lot of different videos and especially Rubbish Heap that featured Ron Chatman and Jeremy Klein doing Backside 360 Ollies and Mike Vallely doing the long manual at Huntington High School.

I was like I’ve never seen somebody do a manual that long, his balance was great.

I remember going there not long after and me and Daniel Castillo, did it. We were so pumped.

We were like, we did the Mike V manny!

 

 

Sick!

We were pumped and we were like little kids like ‘take that Mike V! We’ll get Nosewheelies over it next, like, yeah right!

We were little kids with that mentality but we didn’t think he was a pro, who did that like three years ago and he probably did it casually and we went there thinking, yeah, we’re challenging him and ourselves to do it but by that time, he was probably doing it Kickflip in and Kickflip out. It was a fun thing though, just me and Daniel being able to do that.

It’s funny because when I got on World, I wanted to be this kind of slashy, slasherous kinda skateboarder.

 

 

How do you mean?

I was into the 2nd generation Z-Boys who didn’t skate pools but were street skaters who did like Japan airs off loading docks.

 

 

Yeah, you can see that actually

My whole thing was when I’d go film with Soc, I would set up in a way where the skate world was like, if you’re going to do a Kickflip 5-0 Grind, just do that on a bank to bench, I was like OK but I’d go and do a flip 5-0 and grab my nose and then Backside Tailslide slash back into the bank.

But they were like don’t do the back tail, just bring it in and I was like, No, I’m going to grab my nose and go into a Layback Tail Stall, they’re like no! we’re not going to use that, you used your hand!

I was like ah ok, That’s when I started to learn I can’t balance , it out with a slash, don’t do an Early Grab Judo off a curb, try and get a Backside 360 Ollies down instead.

I was like OK, I’ll try a back three then and I’ll kick my foot off without grabbing, then I started to watch more and more videos and I realised all of this, and I was like woah, everyone is cruising, doing big one foots and back 3s and Danny Sargent was doing front 360 Ollie’s where his front foot came off and I was like woah that’s crazy and I wanted to apply everything that to my skating.

 

 

Get more technical and modern

 So I just started to fade out the street grabs I was doing and taking it easy and started doing less combos like OK, just tame it down like you don’t have to do Kickflip 5-0 to Tail to Body Varials and do a No Comply right after to another Body Varial.

I was so caught up in the like the more the better, you know?

 

 

@seutrinh

 

 

Yeah there’s a balance

Yeah. Rodney really inspired me too because I would go skating with him and his technical ability to flip and manipulate his board was incredible.

I used to skate flat with him a lot at like 2AM on these tours, just me and him, chat about life and just skate in parking lots.

 

 

Bet that was inspiring

It was to me. He was a mentor who guided me and told me if you want to grab your nose and slash it, just do what you want to do Daewon. By that time I was ready, to learn about new stuff and trick selection of tricks I wanted to do. I really wanted to do Back 3s and I really wanted to grab my board less. I wanted to be more like what I saw out there.

 

 

Looks like you took it all in?

I kinda just wanted to do that and the H-Street videos had those grabs, Airwalks and One Foot Ollies that really inspired me, for a long time but it was a while since that video had come out and time had passed, so it was time for me to explore and go my own route, it inspired me to say OK, I’m going to do things differently but I’m still going to be me.

That’s what Rodney said, ‘don’t change who you are, don’t limit yourself and be a follower to these guys and copycat what they’re doing, he said, think for yourself’ but if you’re inspired by something, there’s nothing wrong with that Daewon’.

 

 

Definitely.

This was all happening around when I was 16. Rodney took me under his wing and it was him who first gave me boards.

 

 

Rodney gives skateboarding his full attention

Rodney is really honest, he’s giving you directions to avoid, things that can cause you harm, don’t go this way, don’t go to the forest this way because these things can kill you, kind of thing.

He’ll say stuff like that because he wants to protect you, and say the right thing and not the wrong thing. In his experience he knows. I remember watching him growing up, being stoked, thinking wow, I’m hanging out with Rodney Mullen but then later we became really really close and good friends, you know.

We were always on the same, I dunno, we were always thinking the same thing a lot of the time and we’d laugh about the same things.

We were always like borderline little shit talkers sometimes.

People are like ah, Rodney and Daewon…these guys are so happy they never talk shit but we were always like ‘I didn’t like the way he did that trick’ and we’d just laugh and be like ah ‘he’s not that good anyways’ or that guy sucks in private!

 

 

When you care about something , you have passionate views about stuff you don’t like.

Well, people think that Rodney would never say that kinda stuff because he’s always so positive and has always given me positive advice and stuff, but sometimes he’d turn to me and say ‘Daewon, did you really like that?’ and I’d be like ‘no!?’ and he’d be like yeah I thought it was bad too and we’d both laugh.

I was like oh my God, and we’d be like hell yeah but never to anyone’s face, always super, low-key.

 

 

That’s hilarious. Every skater has an opinion, that’s the beauty of it. What about the Deca warehouse, you took that lego building mentality to making those obstacles, how did filming

go down?

In Round 2?

 

 

Yeah in Round 2

That whole part came about because Rodney and I were both filming for something, we’d just finished filming round 1.

Round 1 came about because we both had tonnes of footage but nobody was ready to come out with a part except for us and we were such good friends we were like hey lets do a video together. Then Rodney started talking about versus, as in me VS him and I was like Versus!?

The same thing happened with Round 2, we were filming all the time, we were both filming a lot and Rodney would always show me his clips.

It’s funny because by the time round 2 came about we both took it much more seriously, Soc would go film with him and be like ‘Rodney filmed this thing the other day and I’d be like ‘what!?’, ‘Oh Shit, okay’.

He filmed like Nosewheelie 360 Shuvit to Manual to Ollie over a gap to Nosewheelie to Nollie Flip out. Like ‘Jesus Christ, he’s getting serious out there ok!’.

That put me some fire under me, I was like I’m going to just build, I’m going to build some contraptions.

Also it was just the access to the warehouse, knowing we never got kicked out, weekends were good to skate and I just had all these different ideas for these different picnic benches so we ended up being there a lot.

 

 

How did the roof gap stuff come up?

 In Round 2, I utilised a lot of picnic benches across road gaps too. All of the roof gap bench stuff that was always fun.

I remember an old Adio ad of Steve Berra doing a Crook from roof to roof and I remember thinking that looks sketchy!

I finally tried it and I tried and I was like wow I got such a rush out of it, I always wanted to do that as well.

 

 

@seutrinh

 

 

Yeah, your roof skating was always on the edge. What motivated you to do it?

I didn’t think about injury. I thought maybe if I fell I might get hurt but there was no consequences for me, the only consequence was potentially getting hurt.

Nowadays I have a son, I have a daughter, I can’t afford to fall off a roof and break my back.

But I want to. I want to try but I have the self doubt. If I go up there and fall about. I never thought about it back then but when you start thinking like that, you scare yourself, you know?

You start to think, let me check the roof, who built this roof, how old is this roof?

The 3rd or 4th t time, you start thinking is this structure even safe?

These days I look around at neighbours and I’m like oh man I hope they don’t call the cops, did a cop car go just go by?

But back in the day, everybody out the car, drinking soda, I got liquorice in my back pocket and I’m throwing my board over and neighbours would look at me and I would be like what are they looking at? Hop the fence go in and skate you know.

 

 

That’s sick!

Now I’m like pull up in the back and I saw a guy watering the grass, I don’t want him to call the cops!

More careful, shit, now I think I’m watching guy hop a fence and go into my back yard, I’d be like woah, what are you guys doing here, I’m going to call the cops!

I overthink everything now and that’s what scares me, I want to go skate them but I went to a roof gap the other day and I was like man this one’s small but it kinda scares me a little.

Feel like I’m gonna fall in but you never know, I might be be back on them. I’m going to find some that are little and a bit safe not ones where I’m really stretching and it’s like OK, this is like 8 foot to the other side, and if I fall forward I’m not going to get to the other side.

I need something a bit more smaller. I need some adrenaline. I’m started to film right now and I need to step up for myself!

I don’t know, I haven’t had a legitimate street part in a while and watching some of the new parts that came out really sparked something under me so many tricks I really used to want to do that I saw in Mark Suciu’s part, God!

 

 

Yeah Mark’s Verso part is unreal.

I remember trying the Switch Backside Noseblunt Fakie Flip way back back then I couldn’t get it to flip straight.

When I saw Mark do it, it was the weirdest thing to me, he did it so good, that part was amazing, his part inspired me and made me think I need to start trying new tricks I have in mind.

Because I used to never stop trying. If had a trick in mind I wouldn’t stop till I got it.

 

 

What’s changed?

I like to change it up a lot, one day I want to skate curbs for a month.

Then the next month, all I want to skate is transition, tranny, then bowls, then do airs, blunts and weird flip grind combos, and that’ll pass for a month and then I want to skate a mini ramp and I feel like it’s always been that way for me.

I try to change what I skate and where for myself, I get bored of a certain thing, I’m really just bored of it, I think I’ve done it for as long as I think I could, I just overdosed on something, I just do it to a point where I thought I could then later.

I think, ah shit, I should have tried this and then the cycle happens again, kinda how I got so into the picnic table thing.

It kinda happens to me a lot I think it’s a good thing, it always keeps skateboarding for myself and keeps things interesting, it always makes me want to get up and try something fresh.

 

 

Photo Shot by Anthony Acosta

 

 

You take something and apply it to the next thing?

Yeah. trick wise, I always used to Fakie Flip Fakie mannys back then when I used to skate manuals, all I used to skate was mannys but I’d do that trick all day long. Now I barely skate mannys.

It always looks like I’m doing them because I know how to do them but there’s so many tricks I like to do other then that.

The Fakie Flip Fakie manny, I’m still doing them but I’m doing them on a quarterpipe instead.

To me a Blunt Flip Fakie manny feels the same as a Fakie Flip Fakie manny to me. I’m just coming down the quarterpipe so it feels different but it’s the same trick.

I’m like god, I’m doing the same trick, I’ve always been doing since 1991 but it feels different because of the obstacle I’m putting it down on and it feels good.

In my mind I think I’m doing something new but it’s not. I’m just applying it in a different way you know?

 

 

Yeah, a different perspective.

Yeah exactly, in Round 3, I was just attacking manual pads. I was focused on Fakie flipping in, then Nollie flipping out ok maybe three flip out.

If it was multiplication, it would be 1+1, 1+2. 1+3. 1+4 1+5, and so on, I felt like I had to do all the multiplications every one.

I was so focused on doing all the trick variations, I was so focused on getting too many tricks, I missed the opportunity to do something totally different. That part for me, I was satisfied and got a lot of tricks out of my system I needed to get out there.

That was 2004 and at the same time, I was filming for Skate More around the same time which came out in 2005.

 

 

Your Skate More section was different

I skated with a different approach. I was filming with Colin Kennedy at the time and he was telling me , “you don’t have to flip out of everything or flip in, I’m going to take you to some spots I have in mind!”

Filming with Colin, changed it up for me I was excited about that. And I always talk about, in round 3 for example, I had the three flip Nosewheelie, Nollie three flip out.

When I was filming for Skate More, I’d progressed and got better skating but all I felt I did in the video part was a three flip here and there, Ollied a gap.

Colin was like don’t worry this is different!

I was like oh man!

 

 

That part was sick!

 I didn’t want to go to that premier, I thought It was going to be one of my worst video parts….

 

 

No way

The thing about that Switch Ollie Nose Manual into that ditch at the end. Colin and I just went to the spot and I did one and we just sat around after I did and we were laughing and that ended up being the last trick because I didn’t end up flipping in or flipping out.

I was like dude, people are going to expect like Fakie Flip manny, Fakie Flip mannny, Fakie Flip in, it’s just a Switch Nosewheelie, I think people might be let down.

He was like “Trust Me Daewon, people are going to like it. It’s a different feel!”.

I enjoyed the process of filming the part and I had fun, just going out, it was a lot easier for me and it opened up my eyes, to having a sense to not always not adding that extra flip.

I was the same kid where I wanted to do Kickflip 5-0 tail slash, grabbing the nose and adding a Shuvit. But later down the line I told myself ‘nah, I want to skate this way!’.

After Round 3, I got caught up trying to be so technical, I just thought ‘I’ve got to get this out of my system!’ and then Skate More, I was like I can just push this and grind further, slide further and skate places that are new to my eye.

And not get stuck in the same spot where you’re watching me do twenty different tricks at the same exact spot.

 

 

How did you find that waterfalled river bank?

Oh, that’s just a spot I found at the LA River. It’s the same spot that all the Girl and Chocolate guys had tricks doing stuff over the little water gap. Busenitz in a real video, he Ollied over the edge of it and landed on the cement on the other side. It’s quite a long distance.

I went there and filmed that Inward Heel manny and told Colin I think I can Frontside Tailslide the waterfall bank over there.

He was like seriously, you want to Tailslide that thing In the water? I was like yeah, I don’t care, looks like I can Tailslide it! It’s funny because that’s where all that footage comes in where I’m trying to wax it but it slides.

Everybody’s like you’re trying to wax water? I was trying to wax the concrete under the water but yeah the water was definitely making it a problem.

 

 

Who picked your music for Round 3?

Well, I wanted a different song for Round 3 but we couldn’t get clearance. We tried other songs but then I tried The Killers song and nowadays you can look at and people say “oh God, you had The Killers!”.

But at the time The Killers were not a big band at all, in America anyway,I heard there music as they were surfacing, and I was like I liked it and I was like would it work?

They started editing and they were like yeah it works! Getting clearance and stuff, it’s complicated. I’ve had it from people before I can’t believe you used The Killers but I’m just like eh, to each their own and it’s just a time for me, it’s like Vampire Weekend, Kings of Leon, those were bands I liked.

I remember when they were just coming up and they were underground and I loved them. Then they all had ‘that’ song that came out and blew up and after a while I couldn’t even listen to Kings of Leon.

I understand where they come from and what they mean by that. It was a time, It was sick music anyways, music can make or break a part and for me that music for me at the time, I liked how it was paired up and I was like let’s go for it!

 

 

Usually if you see a tech skate part, where the skater is doing something quick the music will be quick, like your Bloc Party song in Skate More!

You know who picked that song?

 

 

Who?

Colin Kennedy, he always had great taste in music and he would play all these songs and he had that Bloc Party song.

It was when that band and The Postal Service was a possible choice. I almost used the song Mikey Taylor used in his part, I wanted that song, but Mikey got it instead of a hiphop track, I think it made a difference in his part.

Something about the music, when the tune’s right, it draws you into the video. I really wanted to set the mood and Colin was good at setting the mood and picking all the right music for the parts in that video.

 

 

Did you own DVS?

No no, not one bit of DVS. The only thing I owned was a part of Matix clothing, I co-founded that but DVS, I had nothing to do with it except for skating for the team.

 

 

How did you end up leaving Deca to start Almost?

It was crazy. I’d started Deca through Dwindle because I’d rode for them on World for so long, and when they sold it they said you have an option you can stick with them or stay on one of our brands.

I was like now I don’t want to stick with them. I’d been with Dwindle for so long. I remember being a little upset as it had been about 10 years at the time, but I had to suck it up and say ‘Oh well it’s happened and now there’s no turning back’.

Then I was like how about you guys let me start my own brand?

They were like yeah, we’re up for that! Let’s give it a shot!

Deca was Rad, it was me, Shiloh Greathouse and all these guys that were my friends and the thing that happened to that was that being in business out of a distribution was different. I was not an owner just a founder, kinda weird but it all worked.

Still having friends involved and kinda having to talk to each other and be like ‘Hey, could you get me money?’ or ‘Hey, could you get me a raise?’, or even being the bad guy, saying ‘hey man, maybe you have to film a little bit more!’.

 

 

So it was a whole new thing to the relationship, must have been difficult with your close friends.

Yeah. It was hurting our friendships and I just couldn’t take it after three years, I was like you know what I can’t keep doing this. I just wanted to skate and I’m sick of this whole weirdness and bitterness towards each other.

Talking shit behind each others back, I was like this is not me. So I was like I’m just going to end Deca, I’m over it!, you don’t have to kick anyone off or deal with it , just end it.

 

 

Just put a straight line underneath it

Yeah, but at the end of Deca, I put on Chris Haslam and Cooper Wilt.

So I was like we should do a different brand with me, Haslam and Coop. So we thought, OK we’re going to do Artefact.

That was short lived because when Rodney left Enjoi, we were like shit, we can do a brand together.

Thing about Artefact was that I was inspired by the wrong things at the time and I wanted it be whole visually core brand but it was kinda losing it fun.

But having the chance to do something with Rodney, Haslam, Coop, Rodney, Lutzka and Sheckler, who were big up-and-coming names in skateboarding at the time, we just thought we got to do this.

 

 

How did you come up with the name Almost?

I remember the film, Almost Famous, was one of my favourite at the time, I was like why don’t we just name it Almost because I’d tried so many tricks and over things in the past where I was like, ah this Almost worked or that Almost worked, so Yeah that’s how the name ‘Almost’ came about in 2003.

 

 

Almost famous is a sick film.

Yeah love that film

 

 

Yeah. So starting a company with Rodney and taking a step back must have been nice?

Yeah, for me we were getting a percentage of the brand at founders, it made it easier for us to focus on skating, filming and just getting back to the things we wanted to do.

Everybody was just like on their own at their time, they were out there skating hard as much as they could. So you felt you were doing the least so it put more pressure on yourself and I like that. I was like I better get to it for Round 3.

 

 

At that point, everybody was coming into their own.

Yeah there was some serious calibre of skating on the team. I thought it was great we had so many high profile pros on the team I thought it was great as there were a lot of eyes on them and I felt more open to do my thing.

You felt more of a sense of comfort when you’re there and you know way more people are there to see other people on the team and not just you, so you can skate a lot better.

For me anyway as I get nervous a lot and when you feel like you’re going somewhere with a lot of new kids that people haven’t heard about, at a demo, everybody’s like OK, we’re just going to put our eyes on you instead.

You’re the one we’ve heard about, so we’re going to watch you and see what you got. I’m like I got nothing!

 

 

HA!

Seriously, I’m like not with you guys watching man, I can barely Kickflip, they’re all going to be rocket, you don’t want to see my Hardflip because trust me they’re not going to be better then the one you saw in the Love Child video!

 

 

Skating is as much a mindset as it is physical but it’s funny to hear you say that.

I’m a nervous wreck around people. It’s like how I feel about being at skateparks. Nowadays when I skate people ask me, why are you wearing so many clothes? Your wearing a hoody and jacket, with a hat on!?

I’ll tell them I’m just trying to keep it low-key and maybe people won’t be like oh it’s Daewon and I can skate better then but it’s funny but with all that gear, it’s got to the point where they can recognise me in all of that so I have to start wearing different hats and stuff.

It’s got to a point where If I’m skating and nobody’s watching, I’m enjoying my skating and having a good time but as soon as someone says, ‘hey Daewon, It’s a pleasure to meet you!’ and don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that it’s just respect, anyone who is a fan who comes up to you is great, c’mon, we’re nothing without them, but I’m nothing as it is.

I’m a skateboarder who got lucky but the fan club you have to appreciate them. I never try to brush them off, I’ll always say thank you and appreciate that contact with a fan of my skating and take a photo with them, whatever they like, have a conversation I don’t mind, answer any questions they have.

I’ll try my best but after I’m done and now I know they’re a fan, I’m like ah god, he wants to see something magical or something I dunno.

I’m like ah man I know he’s a fan, so I get nervous and then I’m like I can’t do anything! I’ll have to go and sit down for a while and just say phew! I’ve been here for a minute. Then they’ll say I saw you roll up, you’ve only been here ten minutes!

I’m like Dammit! Then, I’ll hit up my go to excuse, oh my ankle, I’ve rolled my ankle a couple days ago, I just came here to sorta test the waters.

I catch myself saying so much bullshit because I’m nervous now because after that person will get after someone who gave me so much props now wants to see me do something. If somebody’s seen everything you’ve done, they have expectations already.

Like man. Sometimes when that happens I’m like ah man.

But then sometimes, they go about their business and they’ll go skating and I’ll go skating and you skate together and you get to know them through the day and we end up being friends and I’m like OK, now I’m getting comfortable around them.

 

 

Yeah that’s cool

It’s weird how that works.

Once you get into being nervous over people watching you, it really messes you up, I’ve never been able to get past that where some people feed off peoples cheers and yeah they show up to a demo and are hyped by a crowd that’s come to see them skate. Me? Now there’s more people to embarrass myself in front of!

 

 

I get that completely but you’re one of the best

Thanks, I appreciate that. A lot of people don’t think about it like that. They’re like ‘you’re Pro’, you think you’re good, show me something! Let’s see what you got!

I’m like no, I skateboard and I turned pro but I’m just human, I eat shit all the time, I can’t land everything all the time and I’m losing tricks and I’m trying to learn new ones.

I get nervous and as a kid in front of the class, I used to sweat balls trying to read in front of the class, my whole forehead was dripping with sweat, yeah there’s this weird thing in me, where I either get comfortable really fast from where I thought that I couldn’t or it can be where I feel like I really can’t deal with something and I feel super intimidated.

The best way for me is to get to a skatepark, if I know it’s going to get packed, is to get there at 6.30 in the morning.

I’m already skating I’m already in the cycle, so then when people are showing up, me already being warmed, up , and already skating, they’re going to have to warm up and then we’re all gradually skating together.

For me that feels the most comfortable but when I go to a skatepark, that’s already filled with 40 people, and I’ve got to warm up around them that can feel a little bit weird and it makes me feel uncomfortable, that’s why I have to wear all this stuff, all the time.

If I went to a skatepark with a hat, sunglasses and a hoody people would probably be all thinking ‘what’s Daewon doing hiding from the cops!?’ Nobody even gives a shit, they probably don’t even care!

They’re probably like it’s Daewon, he’s always here to skate.’

I’ve got to stop thinking about it like they’re thinking, ‘OH. here’s Daewon, let’s watch him skate and see how much he sucks!’

 

 

@sdae

 

 

Mental blocks are the first obstacle everyone faces

Yeah I have to get past that and just say, hey we’re at a skatepark, we’re all here to skate.

We’re all thinking the same stuff too. I’m going to eat shit, we’re going to each shit together and we’re all going to land stuff together too.

 

 

Yeah. That’s the way it should be!

The formats where you do demos where everybody skates, those are the best ones!

Then everybody has the opportunity. I can see why you could not like it because you’re like c’mon, we came here to watch these guys! I watch these other guys all the time but man, it’s so uncomfortable because when the kids have to stay behind these gates and watch you from afar.

 

 

That’s not skateboarding.

The best thing about demos is interacting with everyone, bumping shoulders, telling someone you go first I got your back.

I feel like those are the best because you’ve clearly gone across the world, you’re meeting people for the first time and if they respect and appreciate what you do and get to skate with you, that’s a way better experience then seeing you stand behind some gate and seeing you do a few tricks and then you just wave and say thanks and then you guys just leave.

You’ve got to take your time for all the people who support you, if it’s going to take 3 hours to do an autograph signing, and there’s people there that know you, really want to meet you and really want your autograph, you should be there for them.

It’s like guys, how did you think you even got here, how did you think you could even fly out to the place where you’re at? It’s the people like that who got you there!

If you sat down there and just think ahh, this signings, gone on too long, I mean, of course I’ve been at a signing that has gone on to the point where people don’t even know who you are but you sign something and then they are interested and you find a fan who pushes their kids on to you and then their kids skate as a result of that!

All of it is a cycle, they might not care about you in 5 years or 10 years, they care about you in the moment, so you just have to enjoy it.

 

 

It’s rad to have that

Yeah completely. I did that when I first met Christian Hosoi, he did not know who I was but I met him at a mall demo.

I said “Wassup Hosoi!” and he’s like, what’s up dude!

 

 

Sick. What did you say?

He said what’s up to me and to keep skating and doing what you love!

 I kept thinking damn! Hosoi told me to keep skating and I took that to heart and I was like damn I am going to keep skating.

 

 

100 percent you can’t measure that. So just before you left Almost you filmed that 5 Incher part? How did that go down?

Yeah that was more hilarious, that part was more hilarious.

 I wanted to focus on, skating stuff which would make people think, should you be skating that?

Skating rocks, skating weird trees, that whole part was for me, I knew people would get rubbed the wrong way, I knew that certain people would get pissed off but for the fans who wanted to see me do more tricks, all they got was a Kickflip front crook on a rock and tree damage and the tree people came at me with like, woah you need to stay off them trees, you’re damaging all of these trees!

I was like woah they’re right , I’ve been a bit sketched out about that and I haven’t skated a single tree since that video part. It’s just that whole thing, what if I tore down everything, no skateparks, what would we skate?

Things that are around me, a rock, a tree, a weird wall, I tried to apply that but I ran out of places so I ended up trying to skate a few normal spots as well but the whole thing was basically about finding as much random shit as I could.

I found like a random tree that was like cut off and I did a Kickflip Noseblunt on one of those and like weird things, that part was awesome.

But the feedback, was like 50 percent rad and 50 percent what the fuck was that about? Are you good? You ok?

 

 

Hahaha. That part is sick.

Like, I was just exploring, enjoying myself, going out of my way to find something people would say dude honestly I’m not going to go skate that. I refuse to skate that with you. I was like alright, I’m gonna go skate this weird rock…

 

 

30 years in and you’re still rocking new tricks

My whole thing is when I meet new kids and they’re like hey are you Daewon!? How long have you been skating?

I’m like that’s so cool because usually they think I’m new to the game because they’re access to skating is so recent and they found me on Instagram or word of mouth and they think wow, when did you turn pro, a few years ago? And I’m like no, no haha I don’t even want to say it myself, so I jus say ah, it was a couple years ago!

Then you bump into some older guys who are closer to my age and they’re like yeah I quit for a while but now I’m getting back to it and I’m like that’s amazing.

They’re like I can’t believe you kept doing it all this time and I’m like yeah, I started skating when there was no nose on the boards I had to go through everything and see it all evolving into something else!

 

 

You’ve skated in basically every modern generation

I always say to people who know me, it’s like I’m a dinosaur watching UFO’s fly over me. Skateboarding has advanced that far since I started, for me it’s like watching space ships and stuff these days. I’m just enjoying myself out here.

 

 

People still watch tricks you did thirty years ago

It means a lot to me, like when I tell the pros who inspired me and if you can do that how much does that mean you know.

A lot of the new kids are unbelievable, the new progression in skateboarding is unbelievable and now it’s like Jesus Christ and I’ll be on my phone on Instagram and I’ll be like watching a kid do a trick, I’ve never seen, thinking how is that even possible?

And it’s not slowing down!

 

 

You’ve probably inspired a father and a son to skate

I feel blessed to be a part of the industry from then to now and being able to skate with all of the new kids now. Hear their stories, how they ended up skating, I love to hear that.

Some you meet, they’re a little cocky and you want them to tone that down, I’ve seen a lot of that in my life and skateboarding they’ll go out in a couple years.

Nobody is the best, everybody is out there, there’s so many amazing skaters, you cant rate anyone, depending on their situation or what’s going on in their head, anyone can amaze you.

 

 

Every story’s got a story.

Sometimes, if you’ve got stress and you still go out and roll, that makes you good at skateboarding. You can’t measure it. GX100 mashing guys down a hill, you can’t compare that to somebody doing a corked, three sixty flip over a handrail and chances are the guy going over the handrail would never be able to do the hillbomb.

So who’s better?

 

 

There is no best!

They can’t even compete, everyone is doing their own thing on their boards. It’s like an Opera singer and RnB singer, why are they competing, they are both just making music.

 

 

They’re both in their own lane

Exactly. I hope skating stays like that, it’s not about being the best.

You can use the term best ever loosely, like you do see people skating and you’re like he’s the best or that guys the best but not in a way, where you think it’s the absolute fact.

But on that day, that person, their ability, their personality and attitude, can be the best. Anyone can be the best any day in skateboarding. We’re not saying line up, these are the best guys. It’s a way to celebrate someone or people or a trick.

 

 

For sure. What’s your favourite skate video?

When I think of skate videos I always think of the Life Video.

That inspired me a lot, the music, Sean Sheffey’s part and Ron Allen’s part in the Life Video: a Soldiers Story.

 

 

Who’s your favourite photographer?

It’s always been Seu Trinh, Anthony Acosta and Giovanni Reda. Those three I went out with all the time.

 

 

Photo Shot by Anthony Acosta

 

 

Anthony was a sick skater too, he’s rad on a board

Hell yeah, Acosta, he’s been killing it!

 

 

Favourite place to skate?

You know what I’ve had the most fun in Le Meida, the school’s called Etchellman.

The school where I used to put the table down the three stair that used to be my favourite place to skate. I even went back with Colin and Switch Nosewheelie Fakie Flip with the table kinda sideways and when we went back there it took me back to when we always used to go there every weekend.

I wish I could still skate there. Nowadays it’s anywhere I can roll around and there’s less people.

 

 

Who are your favourite skaters?

Rodney Mullen, because of everything he’s given to skateboarding, everything he’s ever done.

Always Christian Hosoi, he was a big influence.

Mark Suciu, I like the tricks he does and his footing and the way he skates.

Dennis Busenitz, I like his rapid fire aggression on a board.

 

 

What’s your favourite music to listen to?

My favourite album is Mobb Deep’s ‘Infamous’.

I used to listen to it religiously. I used to have my headphones on and all day long, listening to every song. God!

 

 

Who’s your favourite artist?

Growing up there was a painter called Boris Vallejo.

He did paintings of dragons, with hot chicks on them, monsters and hot chicks on there, it wasn’t bad though, like a warrior woman, like a dragon or a monster or a creature I really loved his art.

I don’t know what kind of art Boris is making now.

 

 

Do you have a favourite film of all-time?

Shawshank Redemption, is one of my favourites.

Apocalypse Now and another one called Hamburger Hill, an old classic war movie, it’s brutal, it’s an old war movie, it’s called The Hamburger Hill, a hill these guys could not get over because it was filled with bodies.

 

 

Favourite trick that you have ever filmed?

In round 3, the Switch 360 flip, Fakie manny Fakie 360 Flip out, I went there three times to try it.

It’s funny because I never did Switch three flips until 2003 and I learned it and I wanted to do it Fakie Manual and then I was like I might as well Fakie 360 flip out for the memories and I went with my buddy and I remember being so frustrated .

Then the last time he went to film it he said I want to do rolling long lens and I was like dude, you do not want to film it rolling long lens it’s going to take it forever and I did it in like 5 tries!

 

 

Any last words Daewon?

 I just want everyone to know they don’t need so much, everyone wants so much out of this world, you have to look around yourself and have an appreciation for what you do have, I just wanted more and more and I just wanted to film and I didn’t want anything else.

Looking around at my life now and I’m enjoying people, enjoying time with my kids and get more out of life ,it’s not about satisfaction and achievement. I now enjoy every small thing in life that I missed because I was so focused on getting every little achievement.

What was I trying to get out of it? Nothing.

I just wanted to have fun, and I’ve been having fun and now I realise there’s more space in my life for other things.

Enjoy your life because there’s so much in it.