Tyler Warren is a Canadian skateboarder and filmmaker from Calgary who skates for Alltimers. He has a super tight selection of tricks, a tenacious push and an equally quick wit. He’s been stacking standout skate clips for a few decades but most recently he has taken his talent for timing, humour and eye for finding new angles from in front of the lens to behind it.
We met Tyler years before he got into directing and after seeing his recent well shot professional commercials and finding out his plans to make a lot more, it was natural to ask him to join The No Comply Network. His focus on skating and shredding the streets is stronger than ever, most likely because when skate sessions are over, he keeps new ideas rolling with his film crew.
We called him whilst he was out skating and filming at a skate spot in Vancouver to have a long chat about growing up in Calgary, localising Millenium Skatepark, surviving Canadian Winters as a skater, meeting Dustin Henry, Keith Henry, Ben Blundell, finding motivation from Kevin Lowry, going on Adidas Canada trips, getting lost in Europe with Corey McNeil, Serenity Now, Squad Massage, his mistaken identity moment with Free Skate Mag’s Arthur Derrien, hanging out with REUP’s Meka in Barcelona, discovering about coronavirus via text from Jesse Alba’s mom, his first board sponsors, getting hooked up by HUF, skating for Traffic, Jack Sabback, Ricky Oyola, Think, moving to Montreal, hanging out with the Dime guys, Phil Lavoie, Antoine Asselin, hitting up the Dime Glory Challenges, Hugo Balek, moving into possibly the most weird apartment of all time with Will Marshall, shredding at Peace Park, getting on Alltimers and filming for their video No Idea, Vancouver, vibing with Antisocial, skating for the shop and filming a section in their first ever video, Rick McCrank, Michelle Pezel, Jake Kuzyk, DJ’ing at Palace Skateboards parties in Shanghai, Cat Taylor, Zered Bassett, Torey Goodall, the Dillon Ojo Foundation, his most recent commercials, Colony Granville, his thoughts on refreshing beer commercials, Antwuan Dixon, Baker 3, The DC video, Brian Wenning, his favourite skate videos, filmmakers, ads, spots, photographers, trips and travels of all-time and more.
Read the Tyler Warren interview below to find it all out for yourself.
Frontside Hurricane: Shot by @jeffthorburn
How’s it going Tyler?
Yeah, I’m good, how are you?
I’m good thanks
Good timing. I was trying to film my friend do a trick he’s never going to land!
Sick, so you’re out skating right now?
Yeah I’m at the skate plaza in Vancouver.
Cool. What’s the name of that plaza?
What’s it called? Literally, it’s called The Skate Plaza. It was one of the first skateparks that looked like a plaza in Canada, so they just called it The Skate Plaza haha
Oh right. It’s dope the way it’s under that bridge
Yeah, exactly, it’s really close to downtown and close to my house. How is it in London?
Life is static, it’s kinda confusing
Yeah, it’s lockdown there right there now?
Yeah 100 percent
How is this shit still around? I thought it’d be gone in two weeks!
Yeah it’s been 8 months man
It’s like psychotherapy. Have you been skating a little bit?
Yeah. A lot of the skateparks here are boarded up though
Yeah, they poured sand over all of the skateparks here.
Fucking hell
Brutal, kinda fucked up the ledges and shit
So fucked up
Brutal
How was the start of Lockdown in Canada? You’re in Vancouver. Where you there when it all went down?
Yeah, I was. Ok so I had a bunch of boys in towns, Diego Todd, Jesse Alba, and all these fools and we were running around, having so much fun but we had no idea that the virus existed. We barely knew it existed.
Then Jesse’s mom texted him like ‘I think you need to come home, there’s like this virus’ we were like what are you talking about!?
We were at the club and we were behind the bar, and picking off the fountain top shit and spraying it into each other’s mouths and shit and posting it on the internet and people were like what the fuck are you doing!? There’s this fucking virus right now!
We we’re like oh shit! And then it got really real and then they all left and then I had to quarantine and I kinda lost my mind.
Oh man, I think that happened to everybody
It made me realise I can’t be alone, I was losing it. I think everyone was losing it in their own way. It’s funny to see how crazy everyone goes because they don’t know what it is; it’s so new to everyone.
Everyone deals with it in their own way. Time went slowly at first. I’ve skated with mates in London like Arthur from Free Skate Mag since it eased up.
I know, I know. Time goes in slow motion and days are long. You know what’s funny about that guy Arthur?
I seen that guy in Barcelona and he comes up to me from behind but I never knew him at the time and he like grabs me on the shoulder and he’s like yo’ what’s up man! I was like oh yo!
But I actually hadn’t met him before then and he’s like sorry bro I thought you were my man Winkle! Do you know who that is? Thomas Winkle?
Yeah, the filmer
I was like what the fuck! I don’t look anything like that guy; I was almost like offended haha
Frontside Tailslide: Shot by @gordonnicholas
That’s jokes. Yeah Winkle is a lot older than you
Yeah, it was so, so funny. You know what’s sick about quarantine here though?
What’s that?
We’ve got the mountains by us so, so me and my friends, we’ve been camping the whole time. It actually wasn’t that bad and we got free money from the government so we just drink and swim in the lakes and kinda had a nature getaway.
It wasn’t bad. I think we’re the most blessed with how things have gone with it. It’s not that bad here.
Chilling in the mountains on a free government tab, miles away from anybody? Sounds like it’s been decent for you
I hate to sound like I’m bragging but holy shit when I hear everyone else; I just think we’re so lucky!
Sounds good. It’s been about 5 years since we met in London.
Yeah, that was the only time I’ve been to London too.
That was a long time ago. I remember meeting you distinctly
Yeah we played NBA Jam at that video game bar Four Quarters in Peckham. I would roach out there if I was you.
Drinking pints and playing games? All Night!
Yeah, it must be harder to work in that industry right now
Definitely.
Okay. So when was the first time that you saw skateboarding?
My whole neighbourhood skated at one time, basically the street I lived on, some guy moved on to the block who skated and he started building all of these boxes and putting them in the front of the street. So all the kids on my block started skating.
What was your first board?
I bought a used Shorty’s board off this kid, it had no nose, no tail off this kid, so fucking raw. Skated the front street for a year. Then all these fools stopped skating. But I just started going to the skatepark.
Yeah, sounds like he ripped you off a bit but that’s tight though
Yeah. True but no honestly it had no nose or tail. This thing had been skated and left outside for like 4 years.
Oh shit haha
It was a hustle for sure. I only knew it was a Shorty’s board because they told me it was. There was no graphic. I never thought about that until right now.
I think it’s a Muska…Just use your imagination!
Yeah for sure
Where did you grow up?
Okay. I grew up on the edge of Calgary Alberta. It’s about an hour, bus and train ride to get to downtown. It’s a pretty big city actually. I lived right on the outskirts. The only skatepark was downtown.
My mom started letting me go there when I was 11. Thank god, I met other homies who skated from other parts of the city because nobody on my end of town stayed skating, that only lasted a year for all those kids.
Yeah it just happens
Yeah.
Who were you skating with?
I was on my own and then from that skatepark I met Ben Blundell and Dustin Henry. We’ve been a trio since then. Those two are my day ones and Kevin Lowry too. He was like our mentor growing up. He taught me everything. He’s the one I wanted to copy.
He’s got a good style and does tricks proper
So different. So snappy and I don’t know…yeah Kevin is different.
Yeah he’s got his tricks down on a next level.
Yeah for real. Sober legs. Happy, quick and efficient.
Tyler and Kevin
He’s a good person to have around
Yeah, he’s a big brother to me, taught me everything and then I moved to Montreal met Will Marshall and he took everything that Kevin taught me and he threw it out of the fucking window!
Yeah those two are completely different skaters and personalities
I’m joking. I’m just playing, I’m just playing haha!
That’s jokes. So how far is Montreal from Calgary? Is it far?
Oh yeah. So basically from Calgary Vancouver is the furthest west on the coast and the closest city Calgary, is a 12 hour drive away in a car and there is nothing in-between.
From Calgary the closest place is Toronto which is a 5 hour flight or a two-day drive, nothing in-between.
Canada is big as shit but it’s spread out big time.
Canada is next level.
If you’re from Calgary and you get sick of it and you want to move to a bigger city, yeah the only place to go is Vancouver, which is still so far away.
That’s why everyone from Calgary moved here basically
So you’ve lived in the three biggest cities in Canada
Yeah we’ve only got three options. Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, if you want a city, I’ve kind of tried them all.
Now you’re in Vancouver in the middle of them all
I like it here the most. Better weather. The mountains and shit. It’s dope.
Yeah, the way it’s panned out for you during this whole thing sounds like it has been great
Got lucky there
So growing up in Alberta, what was the name of that park?
It’s called Millennium Skatepark. It’s this big ass skatepark. It’s right downtown, it’s got some attitude, it’s got some character.
It’s just a bad park but it’s massive, so big it’s kinda epic but it’s sketchy too but I guess just like any other park.
But not a night goes by at this park without something sketchy going down!
How do you mean?
Yeah, I dunno, you get fights and funny drama, it’s always a show man, it’s a cartoon show, its good shit.
Yeah, downtown skateparks, weird shit happens
Yeah, exactly.
Your close friend Keith Henry is a photographer and No Comply Member. What brought you together to skate and film?
Yeah Keith Henry would shoot photos of us and stuff when I was kid when we were running around the neighbourhood.
Keith was always down to do that and we met Corey McNeil, who you know, who introduced me to you.
When we met Corey he wanted to film. He bought a VX and we just started filming and making local videos.
Tyler, Filming with @brettgifford @alexdoyle
What was the first video you filmed with Corey McNeil?
Serenity Now
Yeah it’s a dope video man
It’s so funny. We were so hyped on the rapper, Tyga and my part was set to Tyga and Jed Anderson’s part was set to Tyga. Back to back!
That’s sick
I like his videos. Corey is good at making videos.
What’s he up to nowadays?
Corey? He’s making commercials now too; he’s just made two this month.
That’s good to hear. It’s funny you grew up together and now your both still skating and directing and producing
Yeah, it’s so funny because me and him never did that and then both randomly at the same time started doing it. We were like what the hell!? That was awesome for sure.
Where does Corey live nowadays?
He’s out in Montreal now so we don’t even get to talk to each other too much though.
Did you make films in that Serenity Now era?
I always liked making videos too but I was never really a filmer. Me and the homie bought a VX together and he would do all the filming with the homies and I would make the edits at home.
I always liked editing. I would do all the editing on Adobe After Effects. I made one skate video when we were kids but I don’t even know where that is now, I can’t even find it.
Yeah, that’s sick; you had a hand in it from the start. So I’ve got to ask about Corey’s nickname – Bacon. Why is he called Bacon?
Ok haha. Everyone asks that because it makes no sense. When we met him, at the skate shop that we would always hang out at and rode for, he would just chill at the shop all day. The guys who owned the skate shop, they would call him Bacon.
They had a nickname for everyone. They called him Bacon because they met him when he was a little and I guess he just had a little, like chubby kid, chubby face.
Now he doesn’t like to be called Bacon anymore. But he’s trying to get everyone to stop calling him that. It’s because when he meets people and is introduced as Bacon they start calling him that. He said I can still call him that though but he doesn’t like anybody else to call him that!
Corey McNeil: Photo by @dildojo
Jokes. What do you remember about visiting London?
It was good to take a trip out there. You know what else tripped me out about London?
What’s that?
The balloons that they would sell outside of the store. The whippets. What are they called?
We just call them Balloons. It’s the same as whippets
Yeah it’s so funny. I love that shit.
That stuff is crazy. It’s illegal to sell in the UK now
Yeah it really fries you. Cheap laughs buddy.
So what year was Serenity Now?
Yeah I can’t remember what year it was. But at that time we were filming for another video we filmed called Squad Massage.
It was the second one that Corey filmed and edited.
Why did you decide to make the Squad Massage video?
Honestly, we were like OK, once you finish something you just want to do the next one.
We were hyped to do the next one. We just never stopped at that age. Make a video. Make another video.
But I think Kevin Lowry actually was like we should do this one bigger. He’s the motivator you know. Then he got this job with adidas.
He was like I can get it sponsored by adidas and we can make hard copies of the videos this time and I think he kinda pushed Corey to make it a little bigger that time around and also to do trips on it too.
That’s the sickest thing about Kevin. He’ll do anything he can do to help and then he’ll like motivate you to do it.
He can do these adidas trips since he started being team manager for adidas in Canada.
Sick
So he started letting us come along on the adidas trips and he would convince us like, it’s your first time in Europe, so save up a bunch of money so once you get there you can go everywhere and kinda just got us gassed up to keep going after those trips was over.
That’s why we went to London and we went all over Europe for it. All because of him. He’s the motivator.
Okay. I thought you guys were just in London for a week and went back to Canada. So you went to other places in Europe too.
We were in Europe for almost a month at that point when we met. Which we weren’t ready for; we were so young and had no idea what we were doing
What went down on those Squad Massage trips in Europe?
It started as an adidas trip to Malaga in Spain. I didn’t even ride for adidas.
I rode for HUF and Kevin was like come along, come along, to me and Corey because he’s the goat like that.
So we started off in Malaga and then we went to Alicante, then Barcelona, went there, and after that everyone went back home.
After that it was just me and Corey left and we went to Paris for a week and just chilled with our homegirl there.
How did you get hooked up on HUF?
That was when I was on 18, just after high school I moved out here to Vancouver. This homie, Brian Wherry, was Canadian TM for HUF. I was on IPath shoes before that actually but then they dropped their whole skate program. So I came out here and I didn’t have a shoe sponsor anymore.
Then my friend was like let me put you in touch with this guy.
Then they started giving me flow, like make them last kinda deal, then one guy didn’t pick up his box and then Ryan was like you can have this box and I was like holy shit, you’re giving me all this gear!
So I got this one outfit and I didn’t take it off for a month and I did as much as I could and then he was like okay!
And then he told me that they were doing a trip and they brought me on the trip and after that I dunno he put me on.
So back to Europe, did that end in Paris?
Yeah, it was just me and Corey at that time. We were fried. It had been such a long one.
Trying to travel when you don’t know how to travel, running from city to city by the end. We were dead. Zero dollars left. Stealing a sandwich at the airport. Like yo, get me home.
We didn’t do much in Paris, we skated Republique, and a few other spots but not many others.
Did you not go to the Le Dome Spot?
You know what’s funny? We went there with our homegirl but she just wanted to go the museum. We were in vacay mode at the time.
You just went to the Museum that’s jokes. It’s a great spot
Yeah, Le Dome, I was so bummed. Man. I was like fuck. I didn’t know it was the museum we were going to. I got there and I was like are you kidding me! I was like why are we looking at this weird art there’s a session outside!
Yeah, it’s funny not that many skaters have been into MACBA
Yeah I almost forget it is a museum.
Do you ever see that one guy from London, Mecca who runs REUP? I met him in Barcelona?
He’s so fucking funny man. He’s a legend man. Is he still skating a lot, how is he?
Yeah still runs REUP and REUP wheels, still skating. He’s a dad now. Daddy REUP. He’s killing it.
Haha, That’s good to hear. Yeah I just remember getting a good vibe from him, good energy, he’s dope as hell.
Yeah he’s great. So you travelled around Europe and went back to Canada, where did you return to?
At the time, it was me, Kevin and Corey all living in Calgary. Got back and it was winter.
They’ve got brutal winters in Calgary. I didn’t stick about for it for very long, it was around then I moved to Montreal.
What do you guys do during the winter? Are there any indoor parks or spots that you go to?
Bro, it’s so bad, there’s these Catholic churches, that are all so far away, there are a couple of them throughout the city, they will have a night where you can skate in their gym on some flatbars and shit.
Other than that you can go to downtown.
It’s cold as fuck. It’s like minus 30 degrees Celsius and all the buildings in downtown Calgary, they are all connected through these overpasses.
So you can go into one building and you can skate all of downtown inside through these passage ways underground and never have to go outside.
Ollie: Shot by @keithhenry
That’s cool
It’s sketchy though. It’s something you can only pull off as a kid. You get to an age and you can’t be skating in the mall anymore but that’s how we would get through the winter skating in Calgary. It’s hard times.
In England, it’s just raining all the time but that sounds brutal
Yeah, that’s Vancouver too; just rain all winter but its better then snow I think.
Why’d you move to Montreal and how did you end up skating with the Dime MTL Guys?
I actually met Will Marshall when we were really young. He came on some skate trips to Calgary. I think maybe at Slam City Jam or something, we hung out then too.
They did it in Calgary one year when I was really little. And I remember that was the first time we met. Yeah the second time we met we were kicking it there actually.
Montreal, if you go there, Dime, that’s who you’re skating with all of the time. All the Dime Homies. That was when Dime was starting to be a clothing company.
Antoine Asselin and Phil Lavoie made some T-shirts and hoodies and were doing it out of Antoine’s house at that time, and then we all just kinda met and were skating all the time.
Will was looking for a place because he’d just moved there and so was I, because I had just moved there too; he was like you want to get a place together?
Phil Lavoie was like you guys should move in together!
Will was like are you down T? I remember him saying “I won’t kook out!”
What did you say?
I was like let’s do this, let’s find a place you know and we found a place but it was crazy.
What was wrong with it?
This girl I knew had moved in there and the landlord said look, basically we can give you this big ass loft on this party street, downtown, but there’s an old lady who lives there and she’s a hoarder.
She had truckloads and truckloads of stuff in there, just garbage, and they couldn’t kick her out.
They were like if you can move all of this lady’s stuff out of this apartment, then you can have this apartment.
Backside 50-50: Shot by @gordonnicholas
What did you do?
Me and Will were like, let’s do it, let’s move in with this girl but we had no idea what we had just signed ourselves up for!
What happened?
Basically we had to live with this old lady for a month, trying to move her out, paying rent and letting her stay there at the same time.
What kind of stuff did she have in there?
She used to own a restaurant. So she had tonnes of restaurant stuff but like dude she had piles of fabric, stacked up to a 20ft high ceiling, there was probably shit living up in there, just garbage man, tonnes of junk.
Yeah, hoarding is crazy, some of them collect expensive stuff but as if all she kept was junk
This lady’s place was that bad too. But she didn’t have valuable collectibles, she had garbage. She had a real problem. That was just some crazy weird Montreal shit that would only happen there. It was just fucking insane, we didn’t know what we were getting into.
What’s Montreal like compared to Calgary?
Oh man, it’s like a goddamn fake place. It doesn’t feel real. It’s such a different thing. The first thing you trip on when you get there it feels like Europe, looks like Europe.
They sell booze in corner stores which they don’t do anywhere else in Canada. Everything is just run different.
It’s the cheapest place to go to school, so everyone goes to study at university, so it’s a huge party city. Nobody seems to work. It’s so fucking cheap.
The difference is I’d wake up without a job and I would have 15 other homies without a job, all just wanting to skate.
It’s like a vacation dreamland. But it’s hard as fuck; I was broke as hell, the whole time that I lived there.
Why’s that?
If you don’t speak French, you ain’t getting a job, unless you’re like dishwashing or something. It’s like the law that anywhere you work that involves speaking to other people you have to be able to speak French.
Try to think of how many jobs there are where you don’t have to talk to people…There ain’t that many.
How did you get by?
I got by working at bars and DJ’ing
DJi’ing?
Yeah, I found a gig where I would DJ at this bar three times a week. That’s how I got by. But it’s a struggle. For sure if you ain’t French. This led me to leave there and grow up a little and want to make some money.
Yeah learning a new language to get a job is another job. What was it like seeing the start of Dime? What year was this?
Oh God, I don’t even know. That was 5-6 years ago, right after I got back from London. So 2014? I can’t remember the exact year to be honest.
Were you skating Peace Park a lot?
Every day. That was the go to skate plaza spot. It’s so much worse to skate than it looks. The ground is so slow, the ledges are actually high but they don’t look high. And they are hard to grind, you have to power through that shit.
I’ve seen so many people come there, thinking that they are going to fuck it up and it breaks them down so hard.
If you learn a trick on those ledges, you can do it on any ledges!
Oh look! Dustin Henry is pulling up to the spot right now. I’ve got to say what’s up to him real quick!
OK
(Chats to Dustin for a sec)
In the Dime edits they shred that spot. What is the gnarliest thing you’ve seen go down there?
Skatewise? Or?
Drop in: @oohhhyyyeeeaaahhh
Skatewise and then just on a street antics level, the craziest thing you’ve ever seen there?
That’s a hard one. Nothing comes to mind skatewise. Nothing stands out that hard.
But other shit, goddamn Montreal is a crazy place. You have this place that we lived at, the girl we lived with there, she started seeing this sketchy dude and we were on the party street, nobody was working.
I would come back and there would be 20-30 dudes we didn’t even know there and they were selling drugs out of our apartment and that very sketchy homie also knew the code to the apartment.
One time, when I was working Will calls me and was like there’s some sketchy shit going down at our apartment.
He’s like, I’m at the house you should come back and I did and this girl McKenzie was like hiding as these two guys were fighting, knocking over everything, covered in blood.
I broke them up, and it turned out they were fighting over a bag of pills.
There was another episode where there were some trap lords who took over our apartment for a week. It was crazy. It never stops.
Tyler, Street Gap Ollie: Shot by lapir0
Sounds like you needed to get out of there.
We toughed it out for a year. It was just one big open room too. I wouldn’t change it for the world. Builds character.
How long were you living in Montreal for, a year?
It was like a year. Got sick of being broke. Went back to Calgary. Made some money. Then there was The Dime video premiere, so I came back for the premiere. It was too much fun and then I was like I got to stay and then I stayed for another year. So it was roughly 2 years in total.
So you were out there for all the Dime Glory Challenge events?
I went to the first one and the second one, and third one. There have been 5 so far.
What was the gnarliest Dime event for you?
Every single one of them has been like a goddamn dream.
It happens, there’s like a million people on every corner you turn, you’re with a new crew, when those challenges start and whoever you run into, you’re with for the day.
There are so many people in town and you get so faded. Then it’s over and your like what the fuck just happened. I can’t even explain it. It’s just madness.
The first one was the most mellow; everyone was there, we all just chilled together.
But as they grew it would just be I don’t even know, the whole city just got fucking shutdown by it. So many people. It’s overwhelming.
Those events are sick.Why do you think Dime blew up so much at that point?
I feel like it’s that humour. That French Canadian Humour and the motivation that Phill, Antoine and Vincent Tsang had. They are so driven.
Even when they started making clothes, they were like that’s the goal, in the future, expand, get the homies jobs, they knew they wanted to make it big and expand.
I think the reason it worked is because of all of their crazy ass ideas. Big ass challenge contest, doing the dumbest challenges, nobody did anything like that before, and it’s just pure French Canadian humour.
The fake steez challenge was amazing
That’s the thing about those fools. Everyday it’s like a new joke, that’s so braindead and that joke stays on repeat for a month and that’ll turn into a challenge at a contest. Anything that they think is funny, they just take so far.
Yeah, like that guy Hugo who keeps shouting Jamie Thomas and eventually got given a board on Zero by Jamie Thomas.
Hugo Balek. Yeah. They made Jamie Thomas give him a board. It was a joke for the longest time and then it literally happened. They forced the chief to give him a board. Eventually he did it.
Just goes to show, if you keep saying stuff, things can work out.
Repetition yeah.
Who was your first board sponsor?
I started getting boards from this local company; this guy at the park was giving me boards. I went on an IPath trip.
Jack Sabback gave me a Traffic board at the end of the trip. He must have started talking to Ricky Oyola and he started giving me Traffic boards. So Traffic was my first board sponsor. I was stoked because I was a big fan of Traffic at the time. I still really like Traffic.
So after Traffic, who was your next board sponsor?
So Ricky Oyola was giving me Traffic boards through this skate distribution out here called Ultimate Distribution and they were trying to get me on Think.
I was like no I want to ride for Traffic!
But then they stopped distributing Traffic boards and then they didn’t have a distributor anymore.
So then Ricky sent me a bunch of boards to try and give me enough to last until the figured it out.
But after that I think it faded out because it was too expensive for him to send me boards because there was no distribution deal and Ultimate distribution hit me up and said like if you want to ride for Think, if it’s not working out, you can ride for Think, so I started riding for Think.
OK
Then, I forgot what happen to Think
Yeah I can’t even think right now?
Yeah totally, I don’t know if they stopped making boards but I didn’t get any after that anymore.
So me and Russ Milligan were like what the hell are you going to do!?
We were both kinda tripping. So I was like there’s this local company based out of Montreal, called Studio Skateboards.
I was like yo I might hit up Studio and he was like yeah I’m down and so then we both kinda got on Studio at the same time.
What was it like skating for Studio?
It was cool, because it was right when I moved to Montreal.
So we were based out of Montreal, so I was right out there with it, skating with all of the dudes on the team.
I did that for a little bit but then Alltimers started and my homies Ben Blundell and Dustin Henry started riding for Alltimers.
I was like what the fuck we’re a trio and they were both on this new thing. It sounded so sick.
Then Charles Rivard got on. At the time we all lived in this house together. I was like fuck I want to ride for it too!
Then I quit Studio and I didn’t even know whether I could get on Alltimers so I just asked them and they were like yeah.
That was easy!
Yeah very simple
You saw the opportunity and went for it. It’s a domino effect.
It just didn’t seem right that everyone was a part of this new thing and that I was not.
And Will Marshall too, yeah, we were all just skating together every day and living together. He was riding for Element and he was like fuck…I want in on this shit too and he just started riding an Alltimers board then too.
Then Etienne Gagne, he skated with us every day and he eventually got on too.
What’s the coolest thing about skating for Alltimers?
I feel like, I don’t know, they just do shit different to any other company that I’ve rode for.
Trips are just like always super fucking fun because I’m with all of my best friends. But they do tonnes of other cool shit, like their commercials.
They keep it busy with loads of other little projects you know?
What sort of projects have you done with them?
They’ll have me go and do loads of random shit.
Like go to China for the release party of the Alltimers x adidas collaboration and tonnes of weird fun shit like that.
That sounds cool
They just do different, fun shit
Where did you DJ in China?
That one was crazy. Pryce Holmes, one of the two owners of Alltimers called me and said we are doing the release party for the Alltimers x Adidas shoe in China in Shanghai. And they’re like you can come DJ!
It was just an excuse for me to come out there and have fun.
I don’t know how they figured that out but they also managed to get Zered Bassett to come out too. He skates for Converse. I don’t know how they pulled that one.
They also got them to bring Torey Goodall too? Do you know Torey?
Yeah I know Torey, he’s sick
I dunno he doesn’t skate for adidas or work for Alltimers but he came along too. It was such a fun ass time.
One year later, pretty much to the day after that trip, Pryce called me again and he was like do you want to go back to Shanghai to DJ again?
It just makes no sense. So I went back out there again like recently. It was to DJ for a Palace Skateboards party out there.
I saw pictures of you and Cat who works for Palace out in Shanghai and I was like this is sick but this makes no sense!
Yeah nothing about that one made sense.
Cat Taylor is a legend man, love that person.
Yeah, Cat is an old friend, she’s cool
Cat Taylor in Shanghai: Photo Shot by @gregfinch
Had you been to Asia or China before?
No just those two times.
Did you skate?
Yeah, the first trip was like to film for the Alltimers video but when they applied to bring me they wanted me to DJ the party but as a bonus I got the chance to film. But I tore my ACL and PMCL; so, I was injured and I couldn’t even skate.
That sucks!
But yeah the first time it was not even a week and then the second time I brought my board but it was only like four days or something and we just partied and I didn’t even skate which was such a bummer as it was so amazing out there.
So you had a shared section in No Idea, with Ben Blundell. What was it like filming for it?
That was really fun. We did a lot of trips that year that I liked. They were all tonnes of fun. And me and Ben ended up not having enough footage for a part so we just shared a part.
Sharing a part with your friend on a big company video is rad
Stoked. Thank you, I’m happy with how all that worked out.
One thing I noticed about your skating is that you always pack a lot of tricks into a single line. Why do you like to do that?
That may be some Kevin Lowry inspiration. You know why I think I do long lines?
Whenever I end up at a spot, I think this is all I can do at this spot, but it’s not quite good enough, do you know what I mean?
I’ve only got a certain amount of tricks so I’m like if I go around the corner and do it in a line, and hit that other thing across the street, maybe it’s good enough haha.
Yeah, that’s a good direction. Who’s the filmer for Alltimers?
So, it’s changed quite a lot, in the beginning it was Rob Harris, the other owner. He and Pryce Holmes run it together. Rob, he’s been filming forever.
He made that Green Diamond video and he was the filmer in the beginning.
He got older; he’s got a kid now so he had to hire other people. So for a while, it was Corey. Corey McNeil would come on all the trips.
Oh right, Bacon was filming for Alltimers?
Yeah.
I didn’t know that
Yeah. He filmed probably most of that video, the No Idea video.
Yeah, he’s good at filming that guy.
These days, I’m not sure if he even has a camera. He’s not filming skating as much nowadays.
But now it’s his homie Conor Peterson from New York. He does most of the filming now.
Is there anyone else on the team that has filmed a trick or line that has stoked you out recently?
I love watching footage of Adrian Vega skate. He’s the best one, especially in person.
He’s so polite on the board you know? He’s a steezy motherfucker.
What about Dustin Henry? I remember thinking he’s got some gnarly manuals. What’s it like skating and filming with him?
Ah it’s awesome. I love watching Dustin skate. He’s a talented motherfucker. He’s looking at me right now. I’m walking up the hill, 20ft behind him!
No way!
“Hey Dustin, I’m talking to my homie who’s in London about your manuals right now!”
(Both start laughing)
Yeah he just laughed; he ain’t got anything to say!
He’s a humble guy; the best skaters usually are!
He’s my homie. I’m proud of him. He just started like a non-profit organisation too called Nation.
It’s a setup where they got to all these indigenous communities in Canada and they go around and give them skateboards and talk to all of the kids and like give them their stories, and try to inspire the youth, it’s pretty sick. He’s up to some cool shit these days it’s really interesting.
That’s a cool thing to do
Yeah he’s killing it.
Yeah I saw your posts about the Dillon Ojo Foundation?
The Dillon Ojo Lifeline Foundation is all about my homie Dillon Ojo who passed away.
He would always talk about he wanted to do something for kids, that couldn’t afford to do after school sports activities.
He liked to play soccer and stuff like that.
So he was always trying to talk about doing shit like that and he passed a couple of years ago and his parents started the organisation in his memory and they raise tonnes of money to help out the youth.
We’ve got some really fucking good people around me doing some good things, it’s quite nice actually.
@jakekuzyk @antisocialshop: Shot by Tyler Warren
I guess that brings us back to Vancouver, where you are now. How did you start to skate for Antisocial? I know that’s Rick McCrank’s shop but Michelle Pezel plays a big role in that shop.
Yeah she’s such a special person. It’s just unexplainable how cool Michelle is. She just holds all of that Antisocial Shop that shit down.
How I got involved was through my homie Jake Kuzyk.
He makes skate videos and when I moved out here, I moved out here after high school and none of the boys, Ben and Dustin and them, had moved out here yet.
I would just skate with Jake Kuzyk. And he had also just moved here and he was filming.
What were you up to at the time?
So I would skate and film with him and he helped me to film for this one local video called Suplex and then after he made his own project.
The video was called Civic Affair and I filmed a part with him for that.
Then Michelle and Rick and that had seen what Jake was up to and they wanted him to make an Antisocial skate video.
I don’t know how Ben got on to Antisocial but by that time Ben and Dustin had moved out here and then they put Ben on and then Jake was like I’m down to make the video, you guys should put Tyler on because we’ve skated so much together. They were like yeah ok!
@antisocialshop’s @mccranker: Shot by Tyler Warren @wokecheese
Nice
Dustin…I can’t remember when he got on either but yeah Antisocial it’s just the local shop here and we’ve always just been vibing with Michelle and shit. So it just happened naturally.
So how long were you filming for the Antisocial video?
It was crazy because me, Dustin and Ben, we moved out here, but we got all excited about Montreal and wanted to move out there. But we already started to make the video here and filming for it.
So we all moved to Montreal and it put everything on hold because we weren’t really filming with Jake. So then we did a few trips and I think it took like two years to put it all together and film everything. We moved away, right away when we started doing it, so it made it difficult.
Yeah, there’s a line you do with a Heelflip up the ledge at Peace Park in Montreal, so I did wonder why that was in there
Yeah Yeah. I know, we fucked it all up! We were like we’re down, we’re down and then we moved!
That’s dope though, at least you showed where you were at. Where’s the spot where you do that 50-50 Wallride?
You know where that is? That is in Sicily. That’s a sick spot. Nice wide flatbars, you can kinda sit on there.
Yeah Chewy Cannon did a sick Wallride line on that
Yeah Sicily has the most fucked up spots man that was another Kevin Lowry-inspired trip.
Another adidas trip that he let us tag along on and we were looking for so long at going to some random cities in Europe. We went on street maps in Sicily; they’ve got goddamn natural street ramps downtown. We were like this place looks fucked up. So good.
Yeah, there’s a Gonz ‘Abnormal Communications’ edit on Thrasher there that Torsten Frank filmed and edited.
Yeah, uhuh. Yeah every spot there is like how does this exist? Such a cool place.
Yeah, have to go there.
Yeah you should.
At what point did you start making films?
That one kinda just fell into my lap. Instagram is what sparked it. I would just make edits about whatever I’d film on my iPhone.
How did your commercial for Colony Granville come together?
That was my first one. I was just at this bar in Vancouver, earlier on in quarantine, when bars had just reopened and I ran into this guy who I knew from Calgary and he was like hey man, I’ve been thinking about you recently.
He does marketing for the bar that we were in. He was like I’m under pressure to make a commercial for my bar. I was like oh yeah and they broke us up, like, social distancing!
And I was like yeah, I can help you out, I don’t know what you want me to do but give me a call tomorrow.
So the next day, he called me and I was like what do you want to do, direct it or something. He’s like I don’t even know. Then I ran into a homie that actually does cinematography and films commercials and shit and I ran into him the next day.
I told him about this guy hitting me up and I asked him if he had a RED camera?
He’s like yeah, I told him this guy wanted me to make a commercial and give me the chance to make it.
He’s like yeah I know that guy. I was like let’s have a meeting with him. So we had a meeting with the guy and I had an idea for a commercial and he’s like yeah that’s sounds wicked, I’m down. So me and this homie with the RED camera just did it
So it was the first ad that you ever made?
It was a first time experience for me, but it was really funny to do. And I just get excited to think of ideas for more little Instagram ads.
It went well, he liked it and he wants to do some more and I’m trying to write some other little scripts for other local things to make other commercials for them.
I’m going to try and make some more because it was such a fun time.
It looked great for your first one; it was a really good job.
Yeah, that’s how I wanted it to be like. The first thing I thought of, let’s have four different kinds of people, different walks of life, construction worker, a rich golfer, people that are from all over the place. And I want to make it really over the top dramatic.
I think that’s just like Phil Lavoie from Dime’s humour embedded into my brain.
That Dime shit, so over the top dramatic, is what makes it funny and I just googled epic songs, found this one, that’s way too intense for what it is.
It hit the nail on the head man, it was really funny to make.
Did you run into many issues shooting it or did it go smoothly?
I mean, big time, I’d never done it before.
Of course I had the homie filming it and in my mind, I can see the commercial, I know what each scene looks like, how it should be filmed, this part goes to this part of the song and this part goes to this part of the song, how quick each scene needs to be, I can see it in my brain perfectly.
The struggle for me personally was trying to express it. So this guy was down to put up with my bullshit so I’d hit up a homie and say you want to film this?
I’d find a location, we’d drive to it and we’d be like film it like this and this, and he was like I thought you wanted it like this? And that was the difficult part.
He was like where is your shot list?
I was like shot list? I aint got no fucking shot list bro.
I know how I want this to look. So there’s this whole professional side, the proper way of doing things, and I was getting experience with that.
We had a meeting the other day, so we could chat about how I wanted another commercial to go, with an idea I had, and he was like okay, you have to write this shit out properly.
I was like fuck! Just trust me. So I have to learn the professional side of how to do these things.
Yeah, you got the job but nailing the details is the next level bit.
Yeah. Exactly. I was so lucky and the only way it worked out for me was being able to meet up with this guy in person and put my headphones in his ear and tell him this part’s going to look like this and in the future, I can’t do that.
So I’m figuring out how to change that right now.
Have you thought about making a short film?
My brain hasn’t really gone there. Because it’s still so fresh for me and I’m still excited about the commercials.
The next one I‘m excited for is for another local beer company, that somebody put me in touch with and they were like do something for these guys.
So I want to make them a beer commercial.
But right now, where my brain is, it’s just short ads, stupid skits and a beer commercial for a bar.
I want to make funny, silly little beer commercials is where my head is at. I have sort of pondered trying to do more but I’m so far from it right now.
What skateboard brand ads are you into at the moment?
The real shit that blows my mind is when I watch these Palace Skateboards commercials.
They are so next level. Everything in them, never fails to impress me or outdo the last one that I’ve seen and I’m like okay. My mind isn’t really going into making longer or storyline type shit, but just better, short ads.
Palace has put out an ad for their Moschino collaboration today
Yeah, the one today was fucked! That was mindblowing.
Yeah Adam Todhunter did the CG for that, his work is great
Oh is that his name, Adam Todhunter? He does the effects shit?
He does a lot of the CG effects, the helmets and all that.
Did he do the Evisu shit too?
Yeah, he’s done a lot of their CG work for a few years now. He studied Architecture and learnt a lot through that.
I’m sure he doesn’t need to hear it but goddamn, tell this guy, he’s doing a fucking good job. That shit blows my mind.
Palace Ads are dope. I just rewatched that hilarious one that’s set at Southbank with the fake adidas shoe laboratory
Yeah such, a golden idea
Yeah it’s really funny. What was the first skate video you saw?
It’s hard to pinpoint that one because I used to download ones off LimeWire randomly as a kid but I think the first one might have been The DC video.
Its because my friend got it on DVD and he was the first person I started skating with who actually watched skate videos and he showed me that one.
I didn’t understand what was real and what wasn’t at the time. I remember thinking when Brian Wenning goes missing it was all real.
I thought that’s what all skate videos were like and I thought at the end you have to break records like Danny Way style, like what the hell…
This is what skate videos are like?
It was a heavy video. The Big Black Skit became an MTV Show
Yeah exactly and as a kid I’m like skateboarders hire security guards, this is how it works? Nothing made sense!
It is still one of my favourite videos to this day. I don’t know if it was the first one but it was the first one I remembered.
We just come from that generation where that can happen but now kids will just watch an edit on Instagram or YouTube.
Yeah for sure.
It’s appealing to kids, its gnarly, it’s attention grabbing
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah it’s nuts!
What’s your favourite skate video?
Favourite video? The Ian Reid Video you know Sex, Hood, Skate and Videotape?
Man, that’s amazing that it’s your favourite haha
Yeah, I think you know why it’s my favourite it’s just crazy. It’s perfect.
That was a weird one but it was funny
It’s got some good shit. It’s got some stuff that makes you feel uncomfortable sometimes some funny shit, randomly Brian Wenning in the camera and he’s so drunk like skate videos that aren’t just skating.
I’ve got a short attention span. I need that funny shit.
Yeah, they stay with you
That’s why Baker videos are the best too
Baker Skateboards’ Baker 3 must be one of the best videos ever
Yeah that was one of my first ones, too, I remember trying to get it for Christmas but that shit was like $45 in Canada back in the day to get it on DVD.
DVD’s used to be so expensive. I just used LimeWire to get that shit.
Yeah VHS were expensive too, don’t get me started on DVDs
Yeah and you’d just watch them over and over. Now these companies are like paying motherfuckers to post their videos.
Flip’s Sorry and Really Sorry are also two of the best for me.
Yeah being in the UK it was cool to watch Rowley and Penny
Yeah I bet videos were so much weirder for skaters in the UK seeing all of these crazy Americans.
Yeah for sure. The most memorable skating in the early 00s was American stuff and obviously some Blueprint videos
Who’s your favourite skate filmmaker and why?
Hmm. That’s tough huh. For real I like the Atlantic Drift videos.
Jake Harris is really fucking good. I like his shit.
He’s really good with the 16MM and he picks good songs and shit. I like what that guy does. I like what that guy’s up to big time.
Another filmer who makes my favourite videos has to be Logan Lara, the filmer for Alex Olson‘s Call me 917 company. Can’t forget him.
Do you have a favourite photographer?
There is this kid in New York; my friend ET has been shooting with, his name is Mark Custer.
He shoots the coolest fish eye photos. He doesn’t have the most professional set up but it just looks like some 90s shit.
I really like how his photos look.
Have to check his work out.
Zander Taketomo also shoots really great photos.
Yeah he shoots for adidas. I don’t know much about him but his work stands out. Who’s your favourite skater and why?
Tough, tough, tough. The ultimate question, never fully gets answered. Forever, growing up I would always say it was Antwuan Dixon. Pretty easy one for everyone to understand. He’s nice on the board, he’s got something special, he just floats around.
It’s crazy how good he was and the stuff he did.
His short lived career, he did everything flawless, everyone would kill to watch him. He was so good to watch.
He did so many tricks perfect. That Fakie Ollie down the stairs, he’s sleeping. His trick selection!
Nobody was Fakie Ollieing stairs at the time, he didn’t care about what anyone else was doing, and he was just doing tricks that he learned
Definitely.
Like he’s the only guy I’m trying to watch Double Flips because he doesn’t give a fuck.
Yeah, there are so many little touches to his skating. But Nollie Heel Crooking rails with style c’mon!
For real. Literally changing the game. Doing the most illegal tricks and turning them into the coolest with the way that he does it.
Yeah, he can still come back in some way, only time will tell
I looked at his Instagram recently and he is skating again but I hate to say it wasn’t quite the same.
Yeah but he has the potential and the stuff he did has left a big impact, people still talk about his Baker 3 section
Literally, he made an impact on me.
Do you have a favourite video part?
My favourite part of all-time has to be David Gravette‘s Bronson B-Sides. It’s just the best part of all-time. Watch it when you have the chance and you’ll see why!
You’ve lived in Calgary, Vancouver and Montreal. So where is your favourite spot in Canada?
Oooh. That’s a good one That’s a fucking good one. I’m going to say my hometown park Millennium.
Every time I go back there, all of the new generation of kids come down to the park and there’s something crazy happening every time and we just drink and skate and get into one of the funnest sessions.
It will never fail to be a good session hate to say a skatepark but that’s the goddamn truth. It could just be that sentimental part of it, or just growing up there and figuring out how to skate it.
When you skate there in summer as kid, every week, you’ll find a new thing to skate. It’s really weird like that. It’s just full of weird ass obstacles.
Sick. Where is your favourite spot to skate in the world?
Okay, I went to Chicago one time and I feel like I was in a good headspace in skating at the time. I found that whole city to be my favourite spot in America to skate maybe because I was pushing around with the locals and not just driving to all of the classic spots.
It’s a cool looking city, it was easy to find spots but it might have just been that one lucky experience.
There is also this one spot just outside of Sicily; I don’t even know what small town it is called, that it is in. I did a line there in the Dime video.
I hate to reference my own skating but it’s just this big park, that’s all slightly downhill, there’s a long curb, downhill and another curb, downhill and a ledge and ledge into a bank and then a bump over a can and then you skate into a bank.
It like zigzags down this hill, it’s just like one giant line and it’s like no pushing. It’s such a dream spot, it’s like your playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater it doesn’t even feel real.
I put a timer on my phone on the top of when you drop in it’s like minute and 45 seconds to get from the top to the bottom and it’s all just like marble and it’s in a beautiful park.
There’s a fountain, nice green grass, it’s a dream spot, doesn’t feel real. Probably my favourite spot.
Do you have a favourite trick or line that you have filmed?
I don’t know. My friends were always laughing about this one but there’s this spot in Calgary.
There this big red wide flatbar, its like shin high with a big drop on the other side. But I skated it when I was really young. I did a 50-50 grind pop over. It was the first photo that I’d ever shot and that got into a magazine and I dunno I think it’s one my favourite things that I ever did.
It’s funny because it was one of the first things that I ever did that was documented. So I think I was just hungry to skate at the time.
It’s really stupid, it’s just like a big drop, I dunno, that’s probably my favourite thing. It was all downhill after that buddy. Haha
No way, things went up for sure, you’ve been killing it ever since! Do you have any last words or shout outs Tyler?
Well, not really. Shout out to you for reaching out. Been a long time. Great to chat with you.
