Ragdoll’s creative daredevil approach to street and transition was first majorly showcased to the skate world in his Black Label ‘Blackout’ part where his seemingly ruthless abandon for his own safety, unique flair and style and spontaneity were all expressed through his series of gnarly tricks that have stood the test of time and are still talked about today.
The rad moves Ragdoll did went on to define his future sections and became the visual template for his unique brand of skateboarding.
From Caveman Hippy Jump down Hollywood High, Tail Drops, Firecrackers, Wallrides, big rail grinds, banging ramp moves, wild hubba tricks and fast lines, whatever way he could get hands-on with the sickest tricks he could think of at the time on gnarly spots in his path became his go-to.
So we were stoked to discover what motivated Ragdoll to push himself to nail some of the biggest tricks we’ve ever seen, his process of making them happen, behind-the-scenes stories of each trick in his part and his reasoning in reflection on what the tricks and the resulting footage meant to him then and now.
Find out how Ragdoll got on Black Label and started filming for Blackout, how John Lucero motivated him and Jamie Thomas played a part in getting him on, his stories behind his standout tricks in the part and beyond, his thoughts on why creativity was crucial to making it happen, the filmers and photographers who pushed him, how Jim Greco, Geoff Rowley and Bob Burnquist inspired him and how a series of the spots he skated in it have gone on to become a part of his family history and a lot more.
Read The Ragdoll Blackout In Focus Interview below to find them all out for yourself.
Ragdoll: PVBLIC DOMAIN – Pro Griptape Ad 2023
What did you know about Black Label before you got on?
It’s wild because before I was in the mix I was such a skate rat where I just knew every company but I didn’t really know the value and what people hold dear about Black Label.
When I was young I loved Toy Machine and Zero and shit like that.
When I got on Black Label I didn’t realise the cult following behind it. I was oblivious to all that stuff and Blackout was the first video I was ever in. So yeah, it’s wild.
That’s funny because John Lucero was the first skater to do a Slappy. He’s been there since the very beginning of street skating.
Yeah. I think he won’t take credit for it though. But everyone gives him credit for inventing Slappys.
John Lucero is just the fucking homie. I don’t know if he just forgot he invented it or he’s too humble to admit that he invented it. Papa Lucero, yeah man, I guess that’s a good place to start.
How did you get on Black Label?
I was just floating around. I was couch-surfing in Huntington a lot. So I was around the Costa Mesa area and Huntington and that’s where Label was at. I was getting offers from board companies, you know, on flow programs from certain people and I was riding for Zero at the time.
I was on Jamie’s watch list. So I was living with Jamie Thomas for a while and we were filming for the Zero video. It was a tryout for me.
So I had all this footage, everything’s going good, and then Jamie and I had a fallout. I was fucking wild back then. He was too tame for what I was doing and how I was living. I was just too energised and just hyped on life and skating.
So we ended up having a fallout and I ended up going to Costa Mesa and one of my friends Luke, had a place out there, it was crazy timing.
Why was the timing so good?
I was out there because Luke had a couch I could stay on and I don’t even know how but I got a phone call. I didn’t even have a cell phone at the time – this is before the time when everyone had a cell phone and Lucero got a hold of Luke and I guess he just heard through the grapevine what happened with me and Zero – because we went to the Huntington Park and stuff and someone said something to him.
Right.
So I got on the phone with John and he’s like hey man I really like your skateboarding and everything that you’re doing, and I’m like how the fuck is that possible? This was because none of my footage had ever been out.
At the time I wasn’t getting footage. The only person I went out with was Jamie, but it turned out that Jamie was such a good dude that he sent John pretty much all my footage.
He put all my footage together and sent John a sponsor me video for me. Jamie had the vision too, like Black Label kind of fits Ragdoll’s shit.
So me not knowing what Black Label was, I just thought it was another company hitting me up but I realised they were big because Label Kills had just came out and I was hyped on that. So I was like oh fuck, okay.
What did Lucero say to you on the phone?
So John hit me up and long story short, I go to the office and he’s like, yeah, we’d really like to start giving you boards and this and that. I was like dude, I’m fucking on!
Once I met John, I was like this is my guy because he related to how I was living. It was similar to how he and Grosso were living when they were younger. He’s like, dude, just do whatever, as long as you’re skating.
He told me just don’t do drugs and do anything that’s going to fucking compromise everything. He said if you want to do them, don’t let it overtake you. I just thought oh, this is my fucking guy right here, that’s why I call him Papa Lucero. He’s like a father figure to me.
So Lucero put me on and it was kind of a whirlwind where they put me in a van immediately and we did demos and stuff, went to SF and that’s when I met Melcher.
Me and him clicked really well and we got back from that and John’s said, yeah, everyone gave you the thumbs up, I think there are a few people who didn’t, but they were kind of just salty, But I don’t want to name names.
Ragdoll: Blackout ‘Under Construction’ Ad 20-Stair 50-50: Shot by Shad Lambert for Black Label
Come on, who didn’t want you on the Label?
It was Gagne. Jim didn’t like me at first but we ended up being really good friends.
I get it, I was fucking a lot to handle. But at first, he was like dude, fuck this dude. But as we skated together, me and him we became fucking really good friends. But yeah, John was saying we want you on, we’re filming for a new video. I was like, okay, and that right there was the beginning of my time on Black Label.
Sick man, that’s cool, sounds really organic
When I was trying to get on Zero it was a mission, Like, oh, I got to impress this guy or this or that. Jamie was such a fucking profound figure to me at the time. I grew up watching this guy and it was almost like, I gotta impress the coach.
But then when I met John, it was like yo, he wants me on. It wasn’t like I got to prove myself. He was like do your thing, keep doing what you’re doing. That right there made me feel that I was a part of something. I don’t have to work for it. So that’s what ultimately Black Label was to me and I became best friends with Melcher and Adam Alfaro instantly and I was like this is where I need to be, it all makes sense now.
This is what a company is supposed to be right. You’re supposed to skate for a company because of all the feelings I was having. I feel like I wanted to be a part of something. John opened up all that, but it was thanks to Jamie because it was his fucking vision to send it to John Lucero and it worked out amazing.
Ragdoll: Blackout Ad – Long Beach Rail Front Crook: Shot by Shad Lambert for Black Label
It’s sick Jamie realised that. At what point did you start filming for Blackout? Or was that the sponsor me tape footage for Zero Jamie filmed?
I didn’t use any of Jamie’s footage for Blackout, so I started fresh, but all the footage that Jamie filmed was for my first actual video part, for Digital with Bill Weiss and Dennis Martin.
They are a big part of my career. That’s how I got connected with Jamie, he saw my footage because Bill Weiss, took me under his wing and just fed me and I would sleep on his couch.
Also with Dennis, we edited the video together. It was so fucking cool and, as I said, they were strangers but then we became instant friends and that’s how I was in Costa Mesa in the first place. But going back to the footage, all that footage was for my Digital part.
Okay, that makes sense then. So to get back to your Blackout part, the intro with that guy on the street going wild in Vegas next to those casinos. How did that go down and who was he?
He was just a vagrant. That’s on Fremont Street in Vegas, so there’s a lot of homeless people there and stuff and you can drink on the streets there and shit. I don’t think I was 21 yet, I think I was 20, so we weren’t allowed. We weren’t in the hotels or casinos drinking, so we were having street beers and this guy came up and he was fucking totally cool.
What people don’t know is that we hung out with that dude for a couple hours. We were just shooting the shit, talking about skateboarding, asking him about what he did, life shit, just being drunk and just having a fucking chat with a random. He just kept asking us for beers, so we were like, dude, you’re gonna have to fucking earn these!
I’m like, look, we’re filming for a video right now and I kind of whisper to him, like because you can see on some of the clip where I’m whispering in his ear, and then I’m kind of watching him, coaching him.
Blackout – Ragdoll and Vagrant Intro Duet, Vegas
It took a couple tries for him to do it but he nailed it.
We ended up giving him a six-pack and he did the intro for us and we’re like alright, we didn’t think of anything of it. So me and Grant and Alfaro were just like oh, this is funny footage and Lucero ended up loving it. So when I saw that moment pop on the big screen at the Vegas premiere because I didn’t see my part until then, I was like holy shit.
Then the whole intro of hijinks and me throwing my board and all that but yeah, the guy in the intro was just a random guy. He wanted a six-pack of beer, I needed an intro and the deal was done honestly.
That’s one of the funniest intros to a part, it’s cool to hear that. For the cost of a six-pack, that’s such an unforgettable piece of footage.
It was the most spontaneous you can get, because we were just walking about having beers. There’s a ton of footage people haven’t seen. This dude was like, standing on his head drinking a beer for a beer, he was doing all sorts of shit for a beer, and I was like you know what let’s pretend to do an intro. He did say I want to be in the movies. So we’re like, alright, say this, this will be for a video, and then it ended up being in the video, so it’s kind of fucking dope.
He got more fame than he thought. You could show a photo of him to any skater and they would recognise him.
The funny thing is, after the video came out, every time I was in Vegas I would go to Fremont, where we met him and look for him, because I was gonna pay that dude out, give him a couple hundred bucks or get him a room or something like that, because I think his part in the intro just set the whole tone of the video of just not giving a fuck.
At least for me, it was just like dude, this is skateboarding, it’s wild. This is what happens in between skateboarding, you know what I mean. That was just like, this is what you get when you’re a street skateboarder. That’s what that opening meant to me, and I was so hyped John used that, because to me, that’s what street skateboarding is. It’s not just all get your trick and then go and get some food.
You deal with crazy shit, you meet rad people, you meet shitty people and it was the feeling of what street skateboarding is for me.
For sure. There’s always unique, funny moments in videos that become as timeless as the tricks. So how did your bank drop-in go down? The one where you did the Tail Drop off the wooden beam into that brick bank and roll across those bricks?
That was fucking random. We didn’t even know that was a spot we were skating that day. We headed to the double set where I Ollied out to Firecracker which I guess was the first one ever done, down that marble double set.
But we were on our way to that and we had to park down the street, so we were just skating and I saw the drop-in spot.
I didn’t think anything of it. I was like, oh, I could do this and that was pretty much it. It wasn’t really scary or anything until that fall and I was like, oh, when it pans to my shirt, my shirt got ripped completely open and the only thing that saved me at the time was my mp3 player which I would always have on me.
Ragdoll, Tail Drop Slam
I had my mp3 player around my neck and when I fell onto the brick on my chest my shirt ripped open and my MP3 player actually saved me from getting fucking cut open from the bricks.
Fucking hell man. That’s crazy.
That was just a random spot on the way to that double set and it was like alright, let me get my legs going, and that was pretty much how that spot came about, that was a warm-up. I didn’t even know that they would use that.
As I said, John was a genius. Everything that I saw in my part was like, oh, my God, it was like I was watching it for the first time. Thinking oh, he used that and that.
Yeah, that Tail Drop into the brick thing was a predecessor to us going to skate that double set to get the Ollie out Firecracker, which I wasn’t even going to do.
What were you planning on doing?
I went there to do a Backside 360 down it and I was trying to huck it down it. But then I remember just Ollieing it a couple times and it just clicked in my mind because I was doing a lot of Firecrackers at the time.
I was like I could probably Ollie out Firecracker and Grant Schubert the filmer for Black Label, was like what, no fucking way, no one’s done that.
I was like wait, are you fucking with me right now?
He was really hyped on me trying it because I was just saying oh, that might be cool. He’s like dude, fuck yeah.
He hyped me up to do it and that was how that trick was born, me just saying it and him being hyped to push me to do it.
Ragdoll, Double Set Ollie to Firecracker
That’s sick. After everybody saw that and your other ones in this part, you lit the spark on Firecrackers for everybody. You pioneered that move. Then there’s that Noseslide down the tall, kinked hubba. How did that one go down?
Yeah, I remember that whole fucking thing. That was the worst. Was it the beige one?
Yeah, that one
Yeah that was a horrible Vegas spot, like you can take what you can get at that hubba . It was a fucking unicorn because in Vegas there were no hubbas besides the white one with the short roll-up that I always skated but that one it was shitty dude. It was fucking neck high, shitty roll up and you land right off the curb.
I remember my friend, Vinny Gambardella, went there and he posed a Noseslide after it was built, to stake his claim but he never went back to do it. I was like dude, fuck this. I’m like whoever gets the footage out first wins.
Ragdoll, Kinked Hubba Noseslide
Sick
It was a challenge, but I did not want to skate it. I think it was a night where we just weren’t getting any footage and I was feeling like shit because Grant was out there and the Black Label filmer and we just weren’t getting footage. So it was basically a thing where I have to get a clip to make this fucking trip to Vegas worth it or John’s going to be pissed!
I was on a mission to get at least one trick that night. So it was basically me forcing myself to get that, because I never really liked doing Noseslides or anything like that, and that was another thing. I never thought that would make it into a video part at all.
It was huge, as if you didn’t rate that trick!
In skateboarding, though, my idols were the people setting the bar like Geoff Rowley and shit. So to me, that was nothing. I was like dude, it’s a five flat five. That’s nothing. Geoff Rowley could do it easily. I would just imagine how big Geoff would go. So everything back then that I did was always on that scale of like Geoff Rowley could do something so much bigger than this.
That’s funny to hear because I would watch that and think how the fuck is he getting on to that?
That’s crazy because I’ve never heard anything like that till now. Whenever people talk to me about that part, it’s about the Firecracker or the Back Lip down the big white hubba. It’s cool, it’s flattering man and it makes me grateful.
Fuck man, people attach to different things you do so if you just keep doing shit you want or as in this case that you don’t really want to do it, it’s worthwhile. It’s going to make someone fucking hyped too.
Everyone’s got their own process and things they feel like they want to do or should do. Your Backside Nosegrind Revert down that handrail always stood out. I How did you come up with that?
I used to do that trick a lot on ledges and stuff, and I don’t think I’d ever really seen anyone do it on a handrail. But that was another trick that I didn’t go there for.
What were you originally going there to try?
I was originally going there to Backside Noseblunt it but I just couldn’t do it. It was just too high and short. I skated too fast to be able to Backside Noseblunt it. It just kept dinking and I was thinking I can’t go slow because when I went slow I would just stick or flap over.
Ragdoll, Backside Nosegrind Revert
But that trick wasn’t even the second trick I went for that night. I did Crook Back Lip and I was thinking, oh shit, this is the same feeling of the Crooked Grind Back 180 Out I do on ledges. So I ended up just doing it on that rail that night. I was pretty hyped on that trick.
Yeah, you should be.
I felt like that was me being tech. That was my tech trick.
Yeah, that’s tech as fuck.
I would see people do them on ledges and I liked the way it looked. I think Quim Cardona used to do them and I really fucking like Quim Cardona’s style so I learned them on ledges because of how people looked when they did it.
I thought well, I’m a handrail skater so I’m gonna do it on that, but that’ll be my tech trick man.
It opened my eyes to the fact it was possible to do tricks out of rails. So then there’s your line where you Kickflip a block of stairs and 180 down a set of four. Where was that spot?
That was the trip that we took to San Francisco. That was during my trial era for Black Label and as you could probably see everyone’s sitting down, so that was me trying to fucking show these dudes what I can do. I did not want to skate that spot. Nobody skated it. It was right next to that set of stairs, from the tennis court down, it’s a 14 stair that everyone skates. Andrew Reynolds does that line there?
Oh yeah, Lincoln
So we went there to check that out and I was like dude, this is just a big drop, fucking, I don’t want to skate it. It’s kind of boring, I don’t want to do anything and we were just like we’re going to the van to leave and we saw those three blocks. I thought dude, I gotta get something, because this was our first street mission together, because we were doing demos, and I rarely Kickflipped stuff and I thought oh shit, I was just feeling it so yeah, that’s how that came about, just from wanting to skate a different spot after leaving one that we didn’t like it and we ended up finding that and I think I was the only one that skated it.
Sick. That’s good, instead of looking at the same thing, you found something new
That’s what I do at every single spot I’ve ever been to. People would be saying where are you going and they would call me the wanderer. They’d be like, oh, Rags is wandering again, and I would find shit all the time and they would say what, where’s that spot at? I’m like you know fucking Wilshire, it’s in the parking lot where nobody goes. You know what I mean?
If a skate spot was a circle, gonna try and find the squares outside this circle and try to make something happen out of that so I was just always wandering and trying to find spots outside the spots and a lot of times it was me trying to just put my spin on stuff, maybe I could do a trick before the spot that everyone knows and it would give that spot new life in the video. You know what I mean. Maybe, if I Kickflipped over this bench that nobody’s ever seen at this spot, people would be like oh shit, check what he did. That’s that same spot so-and-so did that. So it was just me wanting to turn something old into something new.
That’s tight. Rather than trying to outdo other people you were finding your own way to skate spots, that’s dope. Being original is always good.
I mean I don’t know if it’s my age showing, but I can’t watch a lot of videos because it’s just that. It’s just people wanting to turn it into a contest.
I get nostalgic about that type of stuff where it’s the individual that went there and pushed the limits to open up the doors for other people to do it. I think that aspect of stuff is a little bit lost nowadays.
Definitely. But everybody gets ideas from each other, it comes with it, whether it’s because they want to compete or feel inspired by what they saw. There’s something to enjoy in all skateboarding.
But I mean, you can’t like everything. You’re a liar. If you’re like, oh, I like everyone’s skating, fuck that. I’m like I can’t stand watching that dude skate. He’s good, but no, it’s just I don’t like it. It’s like going to get fucking ice cream. You’re not going to get every single flavour because you might offend the people. Get mint chocolate chip and you hate it, but you gotta have it because you don’t want to offend anyone. It’s just like, no, it doesn’t do anything for me. I love skateboarding, I love people that do it and I fucking always will. But there’s some parts I skip.
It’s like the phrase ‘The Vert Button’ back in the day, nobody watched vert except for Bob Burnquist and Rune and maybe a few others.
Yeah, Bob Burnquist was my guy and that’s you know what going back to that Crooked Grind Backside 180 out, Bob Burnquist was a big fucking influence on my street skating because I was like, he’s doing technical stuff on ramps and I was like whoa. That opened up my mind like holy shit, he’s taking what dudes are doing on ledges to coping on a vert ramp.
Also my barefoot tricks that I did were inspired by Bob. It was in a 411 where he dropped in on a fucking 18-foot metal quarterpipe barefoot. I think it was the South Africa tour, if you’re reading this, go watch that. That’s where barefoot fucking came in for me, it wasn’t Jamie Thomas doing the handrail, it was Bob Burnquist dropping in on that shit, because that was wild yeah, that was insane.
It’s just like what the fuck. My main thing was how did he get up there? When I was a kid I thought yeah, he like crawled up there. But he probably went up there with his shoes and took his shoes off and dropped in. But as a kid thinking that, I was like holy shit, he climbed up a hot metal ramp barefoot in Africa. That’s a different type of heat.
Yeah, it’s nuts, man, so the next trick in your part after that line you 50-50 a huge 20-stair rail.
Yeah, that was me fucking stepping up to Geoff Rowley-level stuff.
Coincidentally, I think I was wearing the same outfit as that Noseslide, because that was the same trip. We went from Vegas to Saint George because one of my best friends, James Atkin, lived in Saint George, Utah, which is two hours away from Vegas, and we saw that rail.
I was scared out of my mind, I thought this is the biggest fucking rail I’ve seen and it was 20 stairs back then. That was like Heath Kirchart and fucking Geoff Rowley-level, that was my trophy. I thought I’m doing this for me, I don’t fucking care. I can’t believe I rolled away from that thing. I was so petrified.
I remember John saying. He’s like, oh, you skate, like that?
I was like nope, you’re not gonna see that shit again.
Ragdoll, 20-Stair 50-50
It’s a huge rail that must have felt gnarly
Yeah, that’s the longest I ever stood on a grind in my life. When you’re on a 20-stair rail, you have time to think and you don’t want to think when you’re skateboarding, you just want to fucking do a trick and blackout and be like, oh, I did it. But I remember like, oh my God, I’m still grinding. I’m still grinding. You have time to think about anything and everything, and you do not want to do that while you’re skating anything, anywhere.
Yeah, man, it looked epic and your next two tricks are down that hubba? The Front Nose and the Tailslide 270 Shuvit Out at the Wedge in Arizona?
We would go to Arizona and Vegas a lot, because it was so close to just driving out of California. For me that was the Muska ledge. I wanted to skate something Chad Muska skated and yeah, it was just, I never did Front Noseslide, but that’s the one I’d pretty much learned how to do it on. Yeah, that was just a nighttime session.
I was hyped on the Front Nose and the Tailslide 270 Shuvit. Similar to the rail, again I could do this on a ledge. I want to do a tech trick on a hesh spot.
How did your Wallride over that gap go down?
Everything in this part is either Vegas, California or Arizona. That’s a Vegas spot and there’s a rail right next to it that I ended up Shuv Lipsliding it. But that Wallride I remember I was thinking holy shit, there’s no rail on this and Wallride is my favourite trick to do anywhere of all time.
To me, any spot you go to is a skate spot if you know how to Wallride. So I was super hyped that we found that because everyone went there to skate that perfect rail and I was like nope, there’s a fucking perfect wall right here and I don’t remember my back being on it or anything like that. That was the biggest thing I’d Wallrided at the time.
Ragdoll, Wallride
The way that you did it was sick. As you were popping out of the wall, the board is completely Primo. I couldn’t think of anybody that would stick that, but you somehow rollaway bolts.
I had to because, as I said, that was the biggest thing I’ve ever Wallrided at the time. So every single attempt that I didn’t land, I was either landing Primo or my board would just flip out behind me.
So I had to land on my board, no matter what. If I land Primo, then I land Primo. But if I land, if I were to kick away every time I thought I was going to Primo, I wouldn’t have landed that trick. So that’s just how it worked out or you’re going to fucking get kind of smoked trying it or give up because you’re afraid of Primo and I wasn’t afraid of Primo.
Oh man, it doesn’t look like it from the footage. You put that one down with conviction
Yeah, I was bulldozing through that one.
Definitely. So that Backside 50-50 on the electric box and gap out to the street. What was the story behind that?
That was the worst night of my life on a skateboard mission. Oh my God, that was so fucked I ended up doing that.
That’s another Vegas spot at night. Shit, that might have been no, that wasn’t the same night, but yeah, just a random spot. I knew about just being in Vegas. People would hit me up and say oh, new spot, whatever. So we ended up going there. I was trying to gap to Crook but I kept landing on the curb and jarring my nose off the curb and I couldn’t roll away. So I was like whatever. I ended up doing the Back 50 to Ollie out but got that and we’re like alright, fuck it.
Ragdoll, Gap to 50-50, Ollie Out
Melch was skating with me too and he tried to Frontside Grind it and that’s the footage where he clips his back truck and goes to his neck and gets knocked out.
Oh man
Yeah, that’s in Blackout and that was mortifying. I just thought, oh my God, my friend just died right in front of me. It was something I’ve never seen before and never want to see again.
It was a bittersweet night because I got a rad trick but he got caught up in that. I don’t even want to go into detail, like all the aftermath of it, but he went into convulsions, that was a really fucking bittersweet, fucking session right there, but the trick was fun.
But, afterwards, watching my friend skate was the worst fucking skate session I’ve ever been on. I think I quit drinking for a month after that because I was just like, oh my god, life could be over.
Then it just gave me a different outlook, like, damn, dude, if that happened to me and I died, I thought would I care? I’m like you go out doing something you love. It just puts so many things into perspective and it made me think about how life can stop and how everything stopped at that moment. Yeah, that was fucking scary.
Melcher and I still fucking talk about that every once in a while when I see him and we’re thinking, damn, I think that’s the night we bonded because I think I was crying, even though he was alright, it was just because we had to go back to the hotel room. It wasn’t just like, oh, it happened, it was like, oh my god, so much shit was going through his mind. He was kind of having a breakdown, yeah, that that was wild.
That’s heavy for such a short clip. So your next clip is a line, it starts off with Wallride on a little bank to wall and then you Ollie a massive dirt gap.
That was the first street mission when John gave me the thumbs up after that San Francisco trip that we did.
That was the first mission that me and Grant went out together and that was just nothing. We went there for something else and we ended up parking his car. You might be able to see in the footage we parked down below, because we went to go skate a handrail or something. Then I think he was like yo, look at this gap and everyone’s like, oh, fuck that.
I was like if you go fast enough, you could do it and, as I said, I was on proving grounds on that trip. So I was like, well, we’re here, I’m gonna fucking try it, because I know this footage or this story is going to get back to Lucero. I gotta fucking let them know I’m out here like working for this shit.
Like I said, Wallies, any place you go is a spot if you know how to Wallride. So I was like, alright, I can incorporate a Wallie, and then let’s just go as fast as we can.
Ragdoll, Ollie
I ended up Ollieing it and to me, it was nothing, I was just all in on big shit that at the time, no problem.
I was more bummed that I didn’t know how to Kickflip, because I was like if you can Ollie it, you can Kickflip it. That’s how I always look at everything and I was like I just suck at Kickflips so I guess I can Ollie it and to me it was just an Ollie, but it made the part and impressed people I guess. But I remember that was the first session of knowing I’m filming for the Blackout part with the filmer and, meeting everybody and shit.
You can tell you just wanted to blast as high as you could. You weren’t taking any chances on it. You wanted to be in the air as long as you could.
The longer I was in the air, the more it was going to impress Lucero.
Sick. The next trick you do is Noseslide down a small kinked hubba with a red rail right next to it.Was there anything particularly tough for you on that one, or was that just like another trick?
It was just another trick but as I said, I wasn’t good at Noseslides so it was pretty scary. But, that was in Vegas. Again, that was another hubba, and if they’re building hubbas in Vegas, I’m skating all of them. I’m not gonna have any excuses.
So that was just me in my hometown, thinking it’s new, I’m skating it because I want people that are from Vegas to go there and be like oh yeah, Ragdoll Noseslide it, it’s Vegas, of course. So it’s basically me just kind of marking my territory, nothing special about it, I just thought it looked cool. I think it was more for the photo.
Right.
But yeah, that was about it. Like alright, it’s in Vegas. I can’t have someone come here and be like Ragdoll didn’t do anything on it. You know what I mean, it’s Vegas. I put my mark on it. It may not be the best, but I sparked the session because I don’t think anyone had really skated it until maybe a few years back. But now kids are 50-50’ing in it and 5-0’ing in it. You know what I mean?
So talking about landmark spots, the next clip I call it your Caveman Hippy Jump, because you just run up to the Hollywood High 16 and then jump down on your board. But what do you call it?
I don’t even know what to call it. I was calling it a Barrel Jump, I don’t know. Yeah, yours is probably the best description Caveman Hippy Jump.Yeah, it’s open for interpretation. Stupid. You can call it stupid because that’s basically what it was!
Ragdoll, Barrel Jump, Hollywood High 16
It was fucking being really hung over trying to finish this interview with Shad Lambert for Transworld and the guy filming it wasn’t even a filmer. I had a VX that John had loaned me at the time to go out with other people to get a second angle and stuff, and we had partied all night.
Shad’s like we gotta wrap this up. I was like let’s go to Hollywood 16, I think I want to try Backside 360 it. I got there. I’m like dude, fuck that. It was just like I have to get something. I’m not gonna waste this dude’s time.
It was another one of those yo, should I put my board down there and run and jump on it and Shad’s like, oh, are you fucking kidding me? Like in shock, like you’re gonna do that and I was like, yeah, is that cool? He sparked it. He’s like fuck, yes, and that’s how that one was born when I was hungover and fucking just threw something out there and they were hyped on it!
My filmer was in a band at the time, it was my great friend, Adam Lewis, who never filmed anything in his life, he didn’t even skateboard, and I was like, dude, hold this and press record and he ended up filming it.
Ragdoll, Barrel Jump,Hollywood High 16, Shot by Shad Lambert
That’s sick. But you must have been like, what if I land in Nose Manual? What if I snap the board?
I knew I could do it and skateboarding was such a different time back then. I needed that reassurance from people because people just used to fucking hate. I got hated on for all that shit after my Black Label part came out and it got hated by top ranked pros and shit. I just always thought about doing all that stuff and if I wasn’t riding for Black Label or if I was in Vegas doing shit, I would never ask my friends, should I do this?
But I was always saying, is this cool? It was basically me asking Shad or Grant, is this too kooky?
And they’re like what the fuck are you talking about?
It was me being self-conscious, like what are other people gonna think…when actually I want to do this!
So like throwing that suggestion out there, it was like I could 100% do it.
I didn’t throw it out there for any other reason besides, I want to do this. Does he think it’s cool? I know I can do it and I mean it. I landed it within four tries, maybe three tries, because I think there were two bails.
Coming up with a trick at the spot is dope and anybody who hates on new things is just jealous.
They didn’t think of it, and I want this to go into print too. I don’t want everyone out there skateboarding to be self-conscious about what they do.
People are more open-minded and shit now. Back then it was like fucking high school. What are the cool kids gonna think? If you’re on your board and you want to do something, fucking do it, because anyone’s approval doesn’t mean shit as long as you’re doing it for you. Just that self-approval, that’s all you need. You just need to skate and people are going to watch it regardless and if they don’t like it, who cares?
The only thing that holds us back is ourselves and the doubt of what people might think. If you think something’s cool, just do it in our opinion
I always kind of needed that little reassurance. But anytime the footage got back to John and he was hyped on it, it made me proud because this was the guy I wanted to make proud and he was hyped on me.
So I was like, fuck yeah, as I said, Lucero was like a father figure and I so I thought, alright, if this guy’s hyped, I’m making him happy. I’m proud, that’s when I started to let loose and be like I’m doing anything I fucking want.
What was the story behind that sick Melon Grab?
I mean people literally would use the term like street grab, you know?
It got hate and for me, my thinking of stuff that I already knew people thought was corny, I just thought, well, if I’m gonna do something, corny, I’m gonna do the best fucking version they’ve ever seen of it, you know?
So I thought I’m going to do the best one I possibly fucking can and I would try and tweak it as much as I could, cause like doing that trick for me, I’m not doing anything for anyone else, so all my skating is what I want to do.
But if I’m going to do it, I’m not subconsciously thinking I have to do it this way or that way, I’m just going to fucking do it my hardest and when you try something your hardest, you give up on how you look.
You know you don’t care how cool you look if you’re trying to fucking win an arm wrestling contest, like, if you’re trying a trick and you’re trying as hard as you can, you don’t care what your hands are doing, you don’t care what face you’re making, you’re giving it everything you can. That’s the same with street grabs and shit like that. I’m doing this as hard as I can and making it worth it.
So flash forward to the last trick I had in my part, the Melon Grab. Because it came up again like street grab and I was like this is gonna be the best one they’ve ever seen. They’re not gonna be able to say shit about a street grab after this.
It wasn’t me being self-conscious. I’m like I’m gonna put a shut up factor to street grabs. If you’re gonna do it, they better do it like this.
I’m not being cocky or anything, but I felt like I’m gonna set the fucking bar. Because I was like let’s shut some people up, because back then it was clicky and I was like I’m gonna shut some people up with this and Grant’s like fuck yeah, and he was super hyped on it. I just thought let’s shut some people up today!
Just do what feels good for you. Your next two lines at Belmont, starting at the three and down the nine are sick. What’s the story behind those?
That was just a popular spot. All the fucking greats were skating it like Eric Koston and all those dudes. So I was like I want to skate it, I want to put my mark on it. You know what I mean? And yeah, I was just in the pocket, I had a lot of power back then. I remember that around that era of my skateboarding, how strong I felt and for me popping up those stairs and stuff was easy. I was just in that window of everything feeling right and going good and yeah, I don’t ever call skateboarding fun when I’m doing it, but when I look back on it, I enjoyed doing it.
The Tre Flip up is sick and the BS 360 is tight but it cuts quickly. It makes you want to see more, but it would be sick to see the full line play out.
I’m a victim of that with watching all the Zero videos. That’s how Jamie cut all his shit.
Yeah, shotgun editing
But I mean still, I wanted to just see that shit play out.
Definitely but when it’s a powerful quick line and it’s two tricks, it loses impact because it’s almost as if those tricks didn’t happen together
Exactly. I like watching people’s bodies as they skate. I like seeing how their shoulder sets up for a trick. It’s like a dance before they actually do the trick and I was like you didn’t even get to see me fucking dance.
All you got to do is see me like fucking take a bow, there was no sexiness to it which is what I love about skateboarding, because everyone just has this dance that they do. They’re peacocking, whether they know it or not, with their push, or how they’re carving into something. That’s what I like watching about skateboarding.
Although that was kind of lost through editing, your style still comes through. So in the next clip you do a Backside Nosegrind and Backside Suski down that hubba?
Grant and I would just skate till the sun came up, sometimes pull all-nighters so we just hit as many spots as we could. I knew all the footage was getting back to John and I knew the stories behind it would be like we got all this in one night, type of shit man, I always find it crazy.
So much goes into just one clip and a video part itself, it’s like a novel. Do you know what I mean?
For sure. So then there’s your Tre Flip over a road gap and Varial Heelflip over the gap too. I think that’s the only road gap you skate in this.
Yeah, I know exactly what you’re talking about. That was in Vegas. That was just a random local spot. That was our street version of a road gap we would see in videos. It’s a little drainage ditch and it has the metal rubble shield on top and you take that off and it turns into a little sidewalk gap. I just wanted some flip tricks for my video part.
Yeah, I just wanted some flip tricks to pull everything together.
Ragdoll, Backside Smith Grind
How about your Back Smith down the rail?
The Back Smith down the handrail, I think that was my first and only Back Smith down a rail I believe, and it was when I was in Costa Mesa at the time, living with Brian Sumner and all the Birdhouse guys.
We would go to the Volcom Park every night and I remember just trying Back Smiths over and over and then finally landing them, every time. That was the first spot I hit Grant up. I was like, yo, I want to try and Back Smith a rail, and I think maybe he even took me there and it worked out perfectly. Yeah, that’s my first Back Smith on a rail.
It’s so locked in, that’s crazy that’s your first one.
Yeah I was in fucking training mode. I just wanted to do one. They felt so cool and looked so cool and I saw people doing them and I was like I want to. I love the way people look doing that trick, and I was like I need to get one for my part and after the Volcom sessions, I felt just locked in to be like, yeah, let’s, let’s go do it, alright sick.
That’s cool to hear. Then you do a Front Crook down a smaller rail and Pop Shuv Nosegrind as well, which you never see down a handrail. Tell me the story behind nailing both of those.
That’s the Long Beach rail and another spot where you see everyone skating it, I saw Danny Montoya skate it and it was in a lot of videos. On the Front Crook I wanted to bring out my tech shit that I knew that nobody knew I knew how to do and Front Crook it.
Then Pop Shuvit Nosegrind, I was on such a mission to find anywhere to do it. I’m not going to say it was easy, but it wasn’t nerve-wracking or anything. It was like I know I can do it, let’s do it. It came easy because I had a real battle previously.
Ragdoll, Pop Shuvit Nosegrind, Long Beach Rail
Here’s a good backstory for you when I was filming with Jamie for my Zero tryout, I was doing it on Wilshire 10 and that was my ultimate goal and in my mind, I did it because I Pop Shuvit Nosegrinded, I rolled all the way and I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Wilshire but there’s a crack 10 feet down. I rolled all the way to that and kind of hit the crack and stepped off my board, thinking like okay, that was good. Jamie’s like, no, you gotta roll all the way, I was like fuck, and I never did it again.
We drove from San Diego all the way there, at probably like nine at night and we didn’t get back to San Diego till eight in the morning. So I was battling it from probably 10 pm till when the workers came to work toed six the next morning.
So going back to the Vegas footage I was like this is nothing, I can run and jump away, and like I’ve already had a battle with this on a rail that’s twice as long you know what I mean.
But I was really hyped on it too, how it came out and watching the footage, in my part, I was like okay, cool, because you see shit differently when you’re doing a trick.
Then you go back and watch the footage. I was really fucking hyped on it and it was a shocker for other people to see a hesh dude do a tech trick
Your 10-stair Firecracker is rad. Where’s that?
That was at a school I had skated all my childhood, that was the spot.
It was called Burkholder, they had three sets of four stairs leading up to an eight stair, which there’s a Hardflip I do in my part down the eight and then that’s right around the corner to us, like we pretended was Carlsbad, like we pretend it was this set up at a California school and that 10-stair was perfect, I just charged it.
There’s probably clips of me not coming close, but the one I did it made it looked like I knew how to do it super good. But if you were to watch the tries before you’d be like dude, stop.
I think Grant was like you sure you want to keep going because from what I recall, I was battling that one. But when it finally locked in everything went good, like it was just meant to be, it looked natural.
Yeah it looked steez
I really love that one, I worked for that and back then the mindset was like, Jim Greco always used the term titles and every time I saw Jim he’s like you got any titles. I remember coming back from that trip to Los Angeles and I saw Jim somewhere and I was like I got a title. He’s like, oh, what’d you get? I was like I got a Firecracker down a 10-stair. He’s like holy shit, so with that I was holding titles. I don’t know.
Ragdoll, 10-Stair Firecracker
Until Madars Apse got one down El Toro you’d done the biggest Firecrackers that I’d seen
Oh yeah, back then, my mindset was like I want titles, I want someone to come here and be like holy shit, he did that. Like leaving your mark. I always come back to like leaving my mark on something.
Yeah, it definitely left an impression. Then in the next clip in that a steep bowl. You do a Frontside Bert Lipslide and a Switch Blunt to Rock. What inspired both of those?
I called it the Bam Blunt because Bam is the first person I saw to do it. It’s like the Body Varial to Noseblunt what the Switch Blunt is that sweet
I think that was Slaughterhouse
Oh yeah, never mind the Body Varial Blunt was in Slaughterhouse. Yeah, Switch Blunt, the Bertleman Lipslide and the Switch Blunt that was like on another night.
That was probably the same night as the Noseslide down the hubba, or the night when Melcher got knocked out on the gap to the electrical box that we talked about. Like I said I just wanted to show like I could kind of skate everything. So that was basically from Lucero. I was like dude I got some vert tricks for the part. So that was an ode to Lucero, me getting some bowl clips.
Ragdoll, Bertleman Frontside Lipslide
That’s sick. Back to that Hardflip you snap the board and the board just crumbles, have you ever focused a board that easily?
That’s that Vegas heat dude like boards get really brittle and that was my board setup. So, uh, that happened. My board exploded and I ended up using, Grant the filmer’s board, which was fucking like way too big. The wheels were way too big. It was his filmer board but, by any means necessary
I needed to get the trick, like if I was still walking, like I didn’t want to set up another board, so I was like yo, let me use your board.
So I ended up using his filmer board, and it worked, it always feels sick to get a trick on someone else’s board because it just feels like everything it’s stacked against you, just how it feels. But yeah, it makes it funner for me because I didn’t adjust it. You know how people are with their trucks, like they have them perfectly tightened and I was like, dude, I’m not gonna change anything.
So I didn’t adjust anything. I grabbed his board and just landed it. Like it took I don’t know how long it took, but I mean, we got it. But that was the whole mission. I was like I’m not setting up another board, like I’m already in this rhythm of landing on my board, and that one exploded. I’m like I can’t fucking take 20 minutes to sit on the sideline and set up a board, so I just grabbed his and did it.
Ragdoll, Hubba Laidback Backside Lipslide
Then there’s a series of gnarly tricks on that no run up white hubba. You Layback Boardslide, Tailslide to Fakie and Layback Back Lip it, they’re all sick man
Yeah, that’s my favourite spot and I guess I’ve already claimed the title. When people go there, they call it ‘The Ragdoll Hubba’, because word got to me that Geoff Rowley came to town and he went there and he’s like oh yeah, this is ‘Ragdoll’s Hubba’, and I think I don’t know what he got on it, but he’s like you’re a fucking psychopath and I was like I was thinking of you the whole time I was doing it.
I was like this isn’t as big as Staples Centre, so I’m I gotta fucking get every trick I knew how to do down that hubba and I grew up skating that hubba from when I was 16. That was just my favourite hubba and the crazy fucking thing is, I was just talking to my son the other day about this. That Hubba is coming out of a high school and he’s going to high school there next year.
I was like you get to brag to everybody about it and be like check out what my dad did, because they can just pull up YouTube and I’m like show this to all the chicks!
That’s tight, so sick, you’ve got real history there!
That spot came full circle to me because that pretty much put me on the map with. That was one of my first missions with Bill Weiss and Dennis when we were filming the Digital video because I did Kickflip Back 50 with him and a couple other tricks.
But that is kind of what made Weiss be like oh yeah, let’s film a part and it comes full circle that my son’s going to the school where my favourite spot is and I used to get kicked out all the time by the police because there’s a police station right there. That’s where the hubba is, at the police station connected to the high school.
Oh man that’s fucking sick. That’s a cool connection, for you to return there years later
Anytime I pick him up from school, when he starts going there next year. I’m making it a point to get a trick on the hubba. If it’s a Boardslide or a Caveman fucking anything, if I pick him up I’m doing a trick down the hubba I’m gonna either embarrass them or fucking make them proud. I don’t care. But if I’m at that spot and I gotta pick them up, I’m skating. I don’t go to that spot and not leave there without trying to skate it.[Update: His son will not be attending the school, he got into a much better High School – But he will still be showing these clips to all of the chicks]
Not only do you have that history with it, but it seems to have grown with you as well. Yeah, man, it’s as if you were born to shred it
If I ever were to build a skate park in my backyard. I’ve always said I would build those exact specs in my backyard, but with a run-up, because there’s only four feet of run-up and I mean that’s the most.
I mean it’s next to the wall, it’s steep, it’s high, but the run-up is toughest thing which is like what the fuck? How can you skate that so quick?
That’s why nobody skated that. That’s why it was a free-for-all for me, because I’ve been skating it since I was 16. So I was well-adjusted to getting that one push and setting my feet up, so I had a home-field advantage with that one.
Definitely, it shows. Your next trick is the Caveman Tailslide down Staple Centre hubba. That’s the last trick, I’d expect to see somebody do down it. What was your process behind that?
Titles. Going back to me and Greco’s talk, it was all about Titles. I was inspired by Ali Boulala. I’d seen him do Caveman Blunt Beverly Hills nine stair handrail. That just opened my mind to thinking I could do this anywhere and I love Tailslides. That’s probably one of my favourites. Anytime I would Tailslide something like a hubba or anything I’d always warm up with a Caveman Tailslide.
Ragdoll, Staples Centre, Caveman Tailslide
So going to Staples, it was just me trying to be Geoff Rowley and get to be on the level and it wasn’t scary at all because I did it four times, because I was actually waiting to meet up with Rick Kosick to shoot a Big Brother cover, which that was supposed to be, and he was an hour late. So I was skating it and I landed it twice.
I’m like where the fuck are you at? So he finally shows up, I get another one and he’s like, okay, cool, can you do it one more time? And I’m like, if I wasn’t so comfortable with this, do you realise how big this spot is? I was just like would you tell Geoff to grind it again?
But I was like, yeah, I’m comfortable, maybe he saw I was comfortable on it but I did it again. I love Kosick. But you gotta know how to deal with them. I guess he shot sequences both times so I didn’t get the cover of Big Brother with that.
Ah, that’s a shame that didn’t work out.
But he made up for it, where I got another trick for the cover after we went out, I think it was the same day. I did a Hippy Jump over a rail into a bank.
Oh, and that was the cover of Big Brother
But the Staples Centre was me on a mission to get titles. I wanted to skate something Geoff Rowley did and yeah, Caveman Tailslide was the go-to because I wanted to Tailslide it. But to me it was basic, I wanted to be outside the box. It’s like if I Tailslide it, that’s cool, but if I do something no one else is going to even attempt. That’s even better.
I think it’s just like you might as well go there and do something no one’s ever going to want to do or try to do after I did it, because you can’t really do an alternative to a Caveman Tailslide, but with a regular Tailslide you can do Shuvit out or anything like that. But once you Caveman Tailslide it, it was just like alright, no one’s ever going to go there to do that.
That trick stands on its own from all the other gnarly stuff that has happened there.
But I Caveman Bluntslid it too, barefoot and the filmer with us at the time ghosted everybody and took everybody’s footage. I’m talking like Don Nyguen and Sammy Baca, because that filmer, he lived at Hellrose with us and he just disappeared. I guess he got a job with his dad because his dad made him stop skating, because he thought it was a bad lifestyle. But, yeah, so much footage was lost with that.
Oh man, that sucks. That’s such a fucked up trick
Yeah, I got the photo with David Broach and he was there. He can vouch for it. But the guy filming that day I won’t mention his name disappeared with all the footage.
That’s crazy and you do a carve in the corner hip of a pool, at night, you never see people skate pools at night. How did you end up doing that?
That was probably the same night as the power box and the Noseslide with Melcher, because he does a backup trick with me and we were lighting shit up. So all that stuff, that is at night, is pretty much the same night or the same mission within the two days we were in Vegas. That was just me skating a bowl, like for an ode to Lucero, like I might as well get some transition shit, let’s skate it.
Then you do a long 5-0 Frontside 180 out on a step ledge?
So the 5-0 was nothing really special. We went there. It’s at that rail, it’s an 18 star rail Arto Saari had the Back Lip Thrasher cover, Ed Templeton Feeebled it. So we went to go check that out and I was like fuck, I wanted to do something on it. But in the end I was like no, I just wasn’t feeling the spot and that stage was right there and I was doing manuals on top of the stage and I was like, oh shit, we can kind of skate this as a ledge. So that was just basically that and I 5-0’d it. I think I 180’d out right, yeah, a 5-0 to 180, yeah.
Sick, then after that you do the Kickflip down double set and the gap to Boardslide on the smallest handrail ever. How did those go down?
Yeah. So that was just kind of filler footage and then the Kickflip was a battle because I never flipped my board.
It’s at a schoolyard everyone skates a picnic table with, like how you prop up one of those gates from the floor and it’s a bumped table. But that double set is right in front and I was like fuck, I don’t want to skate a table. I was like, oh, this is big enough to Kickflip, but it’s small enough for me to be able to Kickflip. So that ended up just working out I was really hyped on it.
Then I saw the rail and I was like oh fuck, gap out and that was just keeping the momentum after I Kickflipped it. I wasn’t tired and I was like I want to keep trying. So it was like threw my board at it a couple times and I thought yeah I could do it and it worked out.
Ragdoll, Gap to Boardslide
I mean, there’s so much that could have gone wrong hitting a rail that short, but it’s so fluid, almost like you don’t even hit the rai
It was almost a ghost slide because I didn’t really feel the only way I was able to land it because when I hit the rail
I pushed my feet into the Boardslide so my board would pop back out to my feet.
Because if you watch it again, it kind of looks like I ditched my board but it is actually me ditching my board. So I would feel the rail smacking my board and it kind of shot it back up to my feet. That’s what in my mind it felt like looking down on it.
If there was a flat rail and you slid through the kink, nobody would remember but the gap out was next level.
But like it’s the gap out to the tiny bit, it’s funny that you mentioned if that was a kink rail, because that’s how I envision spots like that because that’s how it came about. So I got the Boardslide because I was like if this was a kink rail, you would have to Boardslide to the end of this. So I was like if I just wipe out the middleman and gap out, it’s the same thing as doing a full kink rail. Just like the madness of what my thinking process was. I’m like it’s possible, I’m gonna try it.
Sick
Yeah, man to flash forward, I went back. I liked that spot and I went back when we were filming Slaughterhouse and I gapped to Crooked it after that.
That’s fucked as well. Then you do the Pop Shuvit Lipslide down that rail. You make it look great but was there anything particularly special for you on that one, or was it just another day?
Yeah, it was just another day I was good with Pop Shuvits. That was kind of my warm-up before I did any other handrail trick if it was Frontside. So because you can kind of ditch your board at it and get the feel for jumping down the stairs. So that was me warming up to do the Wallride.
Oh, that’s the same spot? As the camera is facing the other way it looks like a different spot. So your Hollywood High 50-50 with the gap out, what’s the full story behind that move, that spot is huge
That was ultimate titles for me because I’m like I drive by this spot every day, because I live close to there and I was like no one’s hit that and if you see the spot, you know what it is. I was like I want to fucking 50-50 it because it’s on the main street. Anyone driving by Staples when you drive by it, the first thing you think of is like holy shit, Geoff Rowley did that and that was my thing I was like I’m gonna 50 it and everyone’s like bullshit, whatever.
I was like dude, whatever. I knew I don’t typically say shit. I don’t claim shit I know I won’t step to or don’t think I can do, but yeah, that was a fucking battle.
I went there so many times I broke fucking probably five boards in one session. Then the day I had to get it was the last day for filming, for Vegas, because I was flying out to New York. My sister was getting married, so I had to fly out too. So I was in a time crunch. I think I broke two boards that day or three.
But it was a fucking battle, not just because I knew it had to have been done that day for it to be in my part and cars going by honking, there was like 50 fucking kids there lined up sitting down that day.
Ragdoll, Hollywood High 50-50 to Ollie Out
It was fucking magical because it was the worst-best-case scenario, if I was like thinking if I didn’t have to fly to New York, would I even done it that day and then I blew out my foot, like when I take my shoe off. At the end that was me relieving my foot, because once I took my shoe off my foot was so swollen I couldn’t put a shoe back on for like two or three days Because the bottom of my foot completely blew out and I took my shoe off because it was cutting circulation off in my foot and I was done.
I was like take me to my house, pick up my suitcases and drop me off at the fucking airport. But yeah, to me that was my title spot and I still get random people, like my friends that are pro, every time Lizard King drives by, he’ll shoot a photo and DM me or text me. He’s like damn fool, fucked up. Like fuck, I can’t believe he did that type of shit and I’m like haven’t been back in a while, but I’m like I went there. I was like holy shit, yeah, I was in a different state of mind, but if my body was strong enough right now, I would still push it to that type of limit.
It’s just a testament to your ability to just withstand that amount of impact as well, but with the stairs before it looks like a mindfuck
Yeah, that’s the beauty of that spot. It would have already been done, so it was like that hubba that I skate in Vegas.
For every reason why people didn’t skate that spot is the main reason why I did, because when someone goes back there it’s like holy shit, you got to do a lot of stuff before you even get to the ledge, and again it just goes back to making my mark on a spot and that mindset comes from, that era of skateboarding, the golden era
Longevity was not a thing in skateboarding, like it is now. By the time, I thought my career was over by the time I was 27, I always had that 27 in my head like my career is gonna be over, or whatever. So it was like you have to make a lasting impression with this small window of opportunity of being a professional, because no one’s going to care later down the road, because when you’re 28, you’re too old to skate.
I was always like, alright, I have to make an impression and that was what I wanted to do, to push myself and look back on shit like, alright, I ain’t got nothing negative to say about anything I did on my skateboard.
That’s sick to look back on because not only did you get it, its twinned with your sister’s wedding, landing it then, is a part of your history.
You know, I mean they found out the history and the reason that I couldn’t put on the shoes at this wedding because I was doing that trick. I remember being at my sister’s wedding. I think I had one shoe on because you were supposed to wear dress shoes and I was like I had my foot iced up, fucking just hobbling around. I had a walker down the aisle and shit because of skateboarding.
Flash forward, I have a 13 year old son. He’ll watch my parts and it impresses him and as a dad, that gives me a feeling like no other, like holy shit, he’s looking at his dad do something not everyone can do and it makes me proud that I can impress my son, because not a lot of dads can really do that or have that kind of connection and feeling with their kid, and that was the biggest part.
So trying to make a mark in skateboarding actually made a mark in my own life. So it was all fucking cool and it’s all thanks to everyone giving me a fucking shot.
That’s similar to that hubba you were talking about as well. It’s sick the fact that skating these spots are still having an impact in on you today
It just makes them even more worth it. If you know what I mean, yeah, every time anytime anyone comes to Vegas and skates that hubba, they always tag me on the post and I always smile like oh cool. It’s flattering, to say the least yeah.
Firecrackers, board to board transfers, you put them out there and they’ve became skate staples
I got a lot of shit for it. Back in the day they would call me a clown, oh, doing your clown tricks, like top pros and shit, like when skateboarders used to beef, when it was cool, like when you could have a good old fashioned fist fight or you know what I mean. Or if you didn’t like someone and you’re like yo fuck you and they’re like fuck you, like talking shit. You know what I mean. It was part of how skateboarding was back then, just shit talking, and a lot of people, when my Vegas part came, came out. It was split 50-50. Either people really loved it or they fucking hated me for it.
So how did the Melon you did out of the massive bump to bar go down that day?
Yeah, that was a childhood pool I used to go to. When I was five, six years old, I used to swim at that school so it had more history. I had seen that spot since I was fucking five or six years old. I would hang out and I would go swim in the pool because they had diving boards there and stuff.
Back then I lived with my aunt at the time so she would drop us off, me and my cousins, and then pick us up and we would always sit on where the flat is of the bump. We would just sit there because it was shaded, waiting for our aunt to pick us up because it was tall. We could see her coming down the street and then flash forward and I’m skating this fucking 15 years later and it all comes back to it.
I guess it was just embedded in me, in my head, from seeing it so much of and realising it’s possible, and it was nostalgic, being back there, the smell of it because the pool was there so you can smell the chlorine and as I said, going back to that word again, titles, and if, if I was gonna do the Melon Grab, the street grab, that was so forbidden, I’m gonna do the biggest one they’ve seen
Ragdoll, Launch Ramp Bump Melon Grab to Flat
It’s a huge grab and you’re going so fast you have to Powerslide to stop yourself hitting that car
That was, I think, a mission, just me and Grant and maybe one other filmer or a photographer. No, it was a photographer. It was me, Grant and Chad, we had driven there. We left Los Angeles at seven in the morning, went to get that trick, got food and went back to Los Angeles, that was just a mission. All I was thinking about the whole drive was we’re doing this, we’re doing this, we’re doing this and it was just a mission.
It was the pressure of thinking I dragged my friends out there to film and take photos, like we’re fucking getting this. I don’t know if I might have broken a board, I might have broken a truck, but I’m not sure if that was during the Slaughterhouse filming. But yeah, that was just that trick was in John’s mind for editing, the last trick. But in my mind I thought my 50-50 down the Beverly Hills High ledge was going to be the last trick. But when I watched the part I was happy with how everything turned out but I think that the 50-50 is the end of it.
Like what Greco used to always say fucking. It was an ‘After Black Hammer’. After you think it’s over, here’s this Melon Grab for you.
Ragdoll, Melon Grab, Shot by Shad Lambert
Yeah, you definitely banged them over the head with that. Throughout the part there’s scenes of you on a stage, in front of a mic with Ragdoll written on the backdrop, as if you’re performing at a rock show, whose visual idea was all of that?
That was all John Lucero. He had everything set up like that because I guess that’s how he saw me. I thought it was kind of corny, I didn’t want to do it and I was like fuck dude. I guess he looked at me kind of like a rock star, the way I was living and stuff like that and I was in a band and stuff. I just thought it was kind of cheesy.
But John’s vision was like no, it’s going to work and the shirt I’m wearing in that, is a domino shirt. It has like three dots on each side so it looks like a domino.
That was John Lucero’s old shirt when he was my age and he’s like, put this on and he had the whole background set up and fucking. I was alright, I saw how happy it was making him. So I was like lets fucking do it, let’s rock and roll, motherfucker.
What did you think about how the part was received at the time?
So after it got released on VHS and DVD, so the program had already happened and I guess or I don’t know back then word got around. As I said, he video was split down the middle of people – people either really loved it and praised it or they fucking hated it and hated me for it. I didn’t really care, because flash forward what over 20 years I’m talking to you about it.
So I guess I did something right with most of the people, quality lasts. I mean good things don’t go out of style.
For sure. Do you have advice for skaters who want to do original tricks and stay on their own path?
My advice to everyone out there skateboarding is do what you want and what you feel, because the testament of that part to me, looking back on it, is 100% me being selfish as I wanted to be, doing what I wanted to do on my board, skateboarding what I wanted, how I wanted, you know skateboarding?
People say being selfish is bad, but in skateboarding being selfish is the best thing you can have, because when you’re selfish with your own ways of skating, I’m going to do what I want without anybody telling me how to do something or when to do it. That’s what skateboarding is. No coaches or anything, it’s all about you. Looking back on that part, I’m proud of that part, I couldn’t be happier about the skating I did and the people that were involved with it and John’s vision and the way Nagey edited,it was everybody putting in, not giving a fuck and being selfish in their ways of this is how I see it, this is how it should be edited, this is how I’m skating, and everyone was selfish in their own way to make something we are able to talk about to this day.
You had that conviction in your own ideas and how you wanted to showcase your skating and there’s nothing wrong with that
I think that’s how it should be. I use the word selfish because if you let your skateboarding be open to interpretation, then that’s not you. That’s somebody else’s vision of what you should be doing, and not you being selfish with your own ways. This is what I want to do and it’s not selfish in a negative way, it’s selfish in the best way possible. If there is a way to be positive and selfish, the only way you can do it is by being a skateboarder.
Agreed. Also before I let you go how did you pick your song?
Oh I forgot to mention Lucero picked my song. I wanted to skate to New York City Cops by The Strokes
Sick, it would have been interesting to hear your selection in the final edit. Any last words you want to put out to people reading this?
Never. I don’t ever have any last words. Someone else will give the last words when I’m dead. But I want to thank Lucero for giving me a chance.
Bill Weiss and Dennis Martin, for getting me to that point of starting with filming for a Digital part.
Jamie Thomas for sending a sponsor me video I had no idea about to John Lucero. Also Nagey for editing it so good.
Shad Lambert, he was there on every mission taking photos.
Grant Schubert, the best filmer I have ever filmed with and that skateboarding has ever seen.
And to everybody that was a part of making it happen.
