Ali Boulala - The Original Baker Boy [ALL FOUR PARTS]

I remember my first thought automatically was like and I wish it was me I wish but I was dead I used that for a long time as an excuse to keep using J like just numb thoughts the guilt and pain away and I know now from being sober and not used drugs for 723 days now I can see like what the addiction really is and it's not really only about the drugs or whatever poison I put into my body when I liked something a little bit I only want to do that all the time every day see she only ever do one thing only then eventually you get good at it and that's what happened with skateboarding I could not not do it all the time every day because I'm an addict you I have a Swedish passport my name is Ali boo Allah which is not Swedish at all my father came from Algeria my mother from Finland and they met in Stockholm and it was my be younger brother that said oh I want to buy a skateboard we started rolling around the neighborhood I bought the skate video called the young guns or something really [ __ ] [ __ ] and of course my brother he bought hocus-pocus and then finally Marin what's that were like oh holy [ __ ] okay this is skateboarding like well okay it was like a whole new world opened my favorite became my Carroll my room there was one vault it was only by Carol nothing else just look through it every magazine like pop my cow cut it out put it on the wall at least half like six months of the year is just you can't skate outside unless his undercover yes snow by this dark the whole time freezing cold let me skated like this underground carpark under the Sheraton Hotel but before that me and my brother and our crew from this area had our own move loading dock under cover on that became our spot and I was there until nighttime until my mom just come there I got the gold room go to sleep go to school tomorrow they said they can't bring you or work to school so I just thought okay pull [ __ ] you oh she won't come to school then I just go skate only I didn't quit school I just didn't think I just skated instead my first sponsor was preggers at G spot that was one of those skate shops yeah we just everyone hangs out every day all day or that's what I did was probably around 1991 a long time ago and smaller the kid whining about everything crying when missing tricks it was the smallest guy but probably the most talent to see that right away there was a couple of guys was really good that try the lucky United States but never had the talent or didn't work as hard as all he did all it was little bit more dedicated I guess they were like a couple of friends that were going to America one was Matthias rings Jim Matthias had been there before I think he was already pro so he had hooked up a place where we could stay in San Diego and it's [ __ ] mad Hensley's brother's place which he came to visit sometimes too and played pool that was insane for a sixteen-year-old kid like this is mad hence his pool table the [ __ ] am I doing here well then Matthias is like what we're going up to Huntington Beach now like what like ya know ruin flip is there like and we went to Huntington and then one night they're like dude Jerry Fox is coming to Huntington High to watch you skate and what what who the [ __ ] is he what why like I used the owner of flip we don't play Tom penny Jeff I skated with Jeff pretty much in front of Jeremy Fox I do remember clearly going to the high school and just watching him skate and I was skating there too but I do remember watching him and I remember how rad is like style wasn't and just his ball control which is visible immediately and then Jeremy goes yeah we were new team you're not gonna go ride for girl or something now he said I'm like oh forget about my carol companions to [ __ ] you know yeah but he didn't say much that first time you think that you go to a rock concert or Led Zeppelin and then after the concert like Jimmy Page or Jeff rally comes up to you like hey so I want you to be part of our band on Wednesday you're gonna come to our studio and you're gonna pick up some instruments that was pretty much what happened he's like Wednesday you come to the warehouse and take stuff which was [ __ ] crazy a banna piece of [ __ ] I think we had all moved to Warner Avenue yeah we all live in Huntington he lives an apartment right around the corner with Alex mole and him and he was just like a fun little little dude like good energy about them you know like a little version of penny he had like shaggy hair and wrote for flip and had the baggy jeans and dressed like penny and did good kick flips and switch flips you know but everybody wanted to do that when I came to America I'm just seeing this ball so like this is how it looks like in real life holy [ __ ] okay this is so much smaller than what I thought but then I saw Tom scape every single try he just makes a trick like them okay so this is how it's supposed to be for sure I was weird sometimes being the woods table for the same clothes old I was at the Huntington Beach Park and I remember it was like 11:00 in the morning and I remember he was drinking a beer and I was like oh [ __ ] does this guy think he is that maybe I'd have waited till like 5:00 or something like that they were a bit older to me that other skaters I was not a wasted little kid they drank beer like that was a normal thing and they didn't really know much about it and they got drunk once in the park here puked McDonald's fries and like oh that was not fun and they're like oh let's do it again and again anyway then when I went to America that normal thing was to smoke weed all I know that everyone called me Baker boy because I was getting baked all the time they started saying he was the biggest Baker like he's just such a baker you know and the name of the company like is about him in a way he went from just being like a roller skate kid to find and that he could have a beer and just let loose and so he let loose with everything I think at that age 15 and 16 you're kind of experimenting with a lot of stuff and so yeah I remember when he went from the real baggy you know blue jeans white t-shirt long curly her straight into the super tight black skin tight ripped jeans and belt buckles and in fact I remember the very very first time I seen him dressed like that was with Greco I mean imagem got into it vicious and sex pistols and stuff bad role model you know Sid Vicious in the same time I'm listening to like biggie smalls and mob deep and then like Ramones in six pistols and like oh my god it's a video with six pistols and it was the rock roll swindle I mean what's that every day and then one day were like okay well boy let's just go and buy some gear like they have in the movie I think people thought that it was a joke at first but it wasn't and then there was like oh my god well that's so cool you everyone can have whatever they want you don't have to have white t-shirt Peggy James here's the thing what alley he looks he's one of them kids that he's a star so he doesn't matter like he puts on the baggies he looks sick puts [ __ ] that [ __ ] on he looks sick it doesn't matter what he wears because he looks good in whatever he wears you know everybody was skating together drinking together having a good time and I was just all this attention on it but that article came out with the Warner crew the pissed drunks like this whole like thing was happening it me Matt so and Aaron Piercy sitting somewhere thinking about how we're just getting drunk all the time and then someone said oh you get pissy drunk cuz it's like in a big a small song he says PC drunken like yeah that's what we got last night piece drunk piece yeah we are the pace drugs let's just call ourselves to piss drugs and then I think it was pearcy who drew the logo I'm an alcoholic but but I'm gonna call myself piss drunk to make it look cool so I'll still keep doing it we're all got so wrapped up in it at that time you know everybody doing what they were doing and looking back on it you know I could see like [ __ ] you know yeah there would be reason for concern especially like say Ali or Jim yeah him and Jim became like really good friends you know they like bet off each other it was just me and him did everything together straight away whatever it was we were at such a stage of like not thinking about what we were doing and just doing their personalities were very extreme both of them if one him did it another one had to do it like even more you know with everything the common denominator was the drinking and the drugs like getting [ __ ] up going out every night skateboarding at that particular time in our lives and that's what it was when we were together yeah we did a lot of drugs and we went to San Diego and it was some sketchy house with some older dudes stay bought drugs crack it was crack I remember before doing it I'm like this is not gonna be the only time I've had like two major slams in my career and that's what made my hurry I broke my arm and I became crawl that's it that was a four on one flip amateur part I think I just turned 18 and Deacon came with my board like yeah you're pro now him and Jim we're drinking vodka behind like a store gordon's vodka with [ __ ] orange juice we drank a whole bottle seven in the morning and cops came while we were drinking behind the Ralph's and he got pinched and I got colors my dude what I'm from Sweden with you I'm 18 like you're not in Sweden now boy and they arrested me and I sit in jail for blood I know how long I could collect call Andrew sometimes I'm like fully help me get it be out of here like dude your bail is like $75,000 or something like damn hopeful baby here for a couple of years so but I don't know what thing and then he ended up spending like two weeks in a deportation bus like going from jail to jail and they're finally they're like yeah you getting the release now but you could only because you have a ticket to leave we the whole flip team was go into France a nice call fail hand look you have to come a [ __ ] pick me up then he comes with some girls I think drunk they're like drinking in the car or straight away I'm like this is why I went into jail for about your give me a beer he went to jail and then came out and filmed his part in that video it was like six or six or seven really amazing tres 180 nosegrind the Wilshire real that was all the morning that he got out of jail Andrew and went skating with Jay I can with them and then film about [ __ ] with the same clothes that I had in the holding and that was the last time I was in America no it's like hard to explain like once you enter the world of Ali like how everything becomes like interesting [ __ ] hilarious or like getting you into his apartment and just like seeing like all these DVDs of the show friends and I was like you like friends lady what the [ __ ] he's just like just the best [ __ ] show ever Chandler he's got something about him that you want to be around him he's got this like this energy about him and it's like spontaneous and it's really fun you know like one is people when you're hanging out with him you kind of giddy or just you just stoked to be around him I just wanted to be around a person like that that was uninhibited and just said what they wanted to say my hacks is out you know I'm not necessarily like that I'm like more shy so I was like wow that's so exciting you know to be like that must be so cool I kind of wanted to take pictures of him all the time this is Alli just like yelling it's something he was always screaming it's something or someone or at nothing why didn't you put it up buddy why are we he was super into remote-control helicopters at the time like he just always got some obsession and then so he'd always have to stop at a hobby shop because he [ __ ] broke a propeller or something like we need to go to the hobby go to the hobby then we skate I bought a lot of [ __ ] expensive remote control toys remote-controlled [ __ ] was my [ __ ] first gets a paycheck it's like a remote-control car everybody's drinking you know everybody's all paid for you know like everything it was just he's just like all or nothing you know we were in South Africa on on this tour and he wants to jump out and like get eaten by a line half his body was outside of the van and we were like grabbing him telling to stop he's like took the headrest off of the van you know he's trying to like rest from all the partying and I mean I could say I miss the good times but it's not really good times because it's my in my brain it's the addiction part that just misses the part of being [ __ ] up in on something there surely I had good times when I was drunk because I was drunk all the time said it was good times bad times whatever times I think those the first time I like skated with somebody properly who's just like on a [ __ ] bender I was like wow this guy's like messed up all the time but he still would rip if skating is incredible Styles incredible Ali was just like so unique and creative and I think that um he would just look for different stuff to skate that was like kind of scary maybe you know like it was a really sketchy spot with a skinny skinny run-up and super tight train it was just he just naturally made it work I've seen some of the stuff that he's done and I don't think anybody else can do it we're filming for flip video and in Leon there's the massive 25 stair the same day I think it was I'm like there's another 25 stay with this ledge let's just film an old slide down that so I have something if I break both my legs 25 exactly it's not really a impressive one of those 1993 type deals we're here like then then we go to 25m and I'm like okay well this is it I'll do it okay go almost made a but the board just snapped like the tail and the middle I thought okay well we'll just come back tomorrow and it started raining or it was already raining a bit I think the photographer like Oliver I'm Fred from there like drying out the landing with with t-shirts I knew in my head if I don't try to jump down this now it's never gonna happen but I almost made it like he wasn't that bad of a slam or anything but then I thought okay it's [ __ ] possible next try I'll do it couldn't get enough speed so I kick the board away and that's that was the end of that yeah great kick your board away that's [ __ ] clever I wasn't expecting it to be that much of a flight I wasn't prepared and I was like holy [ __ ] this is actually flying and that's what I've wanted to do ever since I started skating fly on my escape order dawei's gates you can definitely pretty rad a burg skaters about Linda you're like it loves to fly I guess II don't really Stace I remember when I was younger I'd my oh there's gotta be a little bit higher somewhere you can just fly off it's the thought that counts sometimes and it takes people to knock down those barriers for people to realize or even believe that it's possible and he knocked down a pretty big barrier which i think is a testament to you know is his ability you know as a skater which he often gets overshadowed by his extremely strong personality and character that's the end of the day right there ah jump in myself now it's not everything is so [ __ ] this day's over man I'm going home again so [ __ ] be it I read [ __ ] like oh I have to smoke weed when I skate it makes me better like no it's a [ __ ] lie it doesn't I know that it doesn't like all but yeah you become less scared if you ever come yeah but you're also if you [ __ ] up your balance so it's less chance you're gonna make the trick if you're [ __ ] stoned or drunk or whatever I know that I've made it a little bit more difficult for myself to get as good as I could have I don't really have a good answer to how the [ __ ] that I jump down all that [ __ ] you know everyone sees those type of people that walk in the room and it ones like oh my god that's that guy and Ali was that guy who get away of anything right it's what's funny in life in a skating he puts himself in really super dangerous situations and he likes it he was just living so fast and he ran into a lot of problems and stuff as a result we got stopped by the police so many times 13 times within one year they always ask me so why did you start doing drugs and still to this day I don't have a good answer for that all I know is that I kept doing it even when it was [ __ ] if it was fun if it was [ __ ] if it was raining if of a sunny if I was happy sad it didn't matter like all I know was that I just had to keep doing it the motorcycle accident didn't happen probably something else would have happened just like because he was read reading negative spiral go long at that time when you're drunk and everybody is drunk and everybody's if they're blacking out and people are using drugs anybody can die on any given night it could have an alley you know Shane could have lived it could have been another way around it's just that's what happened you know Oh barely remember any bad moment with him was always happy smiling making everyone else smile skating really good when I thinking that names will be younger than everyone but really [ __ ] good some people have it you know Shane had it and Ali had it that's why they'll so like like you want to be around this person this person is so fun so funny and it's just like Shane saw that in Ali - that's why he kind of started to like flare out like Ali style you know like he looked up soon I remember when he had some some crazy gear that I even thought was crazy and like damn gays maybe a one step further in the flamboyant here stays here I don't know maybe we just got it from each other every morning I would come pick him up on the bike and then we'd go to two sports we were follow the pan CS always wanted to ride the back of the bike that was the thing he liked and he said I would go back to Australia I get my own bike but that AIC never happened and what led up to the accident or anything like that I I just have no idea I just know what people have told me Ali had just got this moped and Shane had been like asking him to like give me a ride and Ellie was like I don't have her I don't have a spare helmet on sale so all day long it was like he refused it was just like one of those typical nights where you go out and have some drinks with friends and then we went back to my apartment for an after party it was like maybe five why the worst six of us and just hanging out and then Shane was getting into the bike like excited at Ali's bike and had always wanted to ride a bike and in the beginning Ali was like no no no no you're not allowed to ride it and eventually he was like if anyone's gonna ride it I'll write it people are like hey you know like you gotta hump each probably not do this and then and then they just heard this sound and they did like two laps around the block of my apartment in the second lap they just uh swerved out and hit a wall I was at the bar before it happened and my wife kind of made me go home early and then I just got this phone call from from Halley's girlfriend it was just like hey Shay in an LA Hospital so I say I was in a coma half went with Shane where Shane was and then other half went where Ali was so we've got a call from the other guys saying that he passed away and it was just the most sobering experience I remember sitting at the front of the Alfred hospital and we would all just lost and crying and it just became so [ __ ] real but Ali could go to and that was scary really really really scary that was probably the worst night of my life for sure boo Yong you know the first time I came close friend and passed away seen him a day before on their necks don't even I mean even still to today it feels like he's just on a trip on another sketch from somewhere else I mean we lost a friend you know I mean we lost a friend and Ally was in a coma and there's no positive side to that you know you're sitting at home going dude my friends still in a coma he's still in a coma is he gonna come out he's gonna come out I mean I always thought of a Kaymer is kind of like you wake up from a big sleep and but the actual process from you know being an induced coma to coming out of that to been going to rehab it was at least four months they asked me about Shane and I'm like yeah where the [ __ ] is he why is he gonna visit me in hospital like no like you don't know what happened to him I'm like no tones if I can come here don't you remember I'm like no what I remember boss [ __ ] you on the bike and I'm like yeah so I was in like everyday what's the deal Lena like yeah you had an accident I'm like yeah okay sure like we're going home now it's pretty serious and I remember my mom being there like oh no think positive think positive and that used to piss me off so much like how there's nothing good here Shane's dead I can't walk let me just lie but the mainly was a brain injury which then caused heterotopic ossification which is some sort of a calcium or like fake bone growth in the hip joint which is why I still am limping from it someone came to visit me he had brought the drug dealer then in that instant like in my sick addiction brain I thought oh I hope he brought some drugs for me and I don't I don't think Allah brought anything because I was like almost died in hospital and I couldn't walk so of course it in [ __ ] buying it bring any drugs for me but that's what I thought that's I don't know how how the [ __ ] I ended up thinking like that instantly like Oh crack which is it sick I know that it's the sickness and addiction is it's a mental [ __ ] illness it's definitely not sane to think like I think yeah I remember laying in the hospital bed like them this is gonna set me to [ __ ] prison like I wonder how long so they said for meeting room two I was like okay I've already done like a little bit of it Ali's in the coma this whole time and he's gonna wake up to like he's gonna wake up to see him like to dealing with his best friend is dead and he has to go to jail for it for a year in are off inna which is crazy that's just that's that's what drink-driving is so it's [ __ ] you're gonna [ __ ] for everyone no one said that to my face but only Internet of course people like that all-time [ __ ] like oh I wish you had died instead of Shane and I read site like that and I'm like yeah no [ __ ] that was saying the first thing that I thought of was oh I sure I I know what you mean as I wish the same thing too there's a lot of survivor guilt of course just wishing that he'd being the one that died and not chained um or that he'd died as well and then when we found out that he was going to go to jail like he was it was gonna happen either way I think that was a little bit of comfort to him that he could pay back something for what he'd done what I knew like this is gonna maybe be good for me to go to jail I knew done wrong I knew that it wouldn't bring Shane back but somehow and I think still like I needed to go to jail otherwise everyone would have killed myself then I said for two years I could because I was so injured I could just go up to the medical thing every night like oh I'm in pain lit up in here trim it or whatever the quick release really strong was that I just be really stoned from them they first they send me back to the maximum-security and then with the immigration jail in anyway I'm sitting there and they finally they get like here's your plane ticket now I can't remember how long it was in the immigration for but I landed in Stockholm 16th of March free oh my baby - basically Ali's essence is always still there but there's a part that's not there and it's really hard to pinpoint what exactly it is but when I see photos from before or films of us from before it's it's kind of like a different guy this is after the accident it was like Ali's volume had just like turned down like you know a bunch of notches it looked like he had just gotten older someone can just wake up one morning and feel it a tiny bit [ __ ] and be like okay well that's it I quit and that's like the end I've reached their bottom just like that and they never drink again from someone else kids like me kill your friend killed almost yourself not being able to walk learn how to walk and go to prison for two years and still keep [ __ ] doing it well I think he was miserable for a long time after that when he went back to when he went back to Sweden he was drinking again and partying and before I was ready to party like do crazy [ __ ] about acid I was almost drinking - I've almost to forget or something like that or take away all the negative feelings and I wasn't able to skate so I just kept doing the only thing that I knew how to do which was using drugs in every [ __ ] shape or form though the only thing that I knew that I had to do was to put something into me that made me feel different in my head somehow there was a lot of self-medicating after the accident I mean Ali was quite reluctant with therapy and things like that he still went but I think for him it was a lot easier just to drink not that he wanted to because and ultimately when he drank and it made everything worse he was he was drinking and talking about it and I'm like telling him like you got to get clean like this is this is this is it you got to get clean you know he told me you know he's like I really want to it's just after everything that happen I don't I don't know you know he basically said I don't want to live with this you know like I don't want to have to face this you know I don't I don't it's too hard for me right now I remember like well Andrew telling me when he got sober I remember exactly what I was thinking I was thinking he is a [ __ ] idiot he's a traitor how can you become sober Oh on like on purpose or whatever are you [ __ ] stupid is what I thought you [ __ ] traitor how could you butter yeah that was that was wrong of course it was an excuse it was a defense mechanism or whatever to her I don't know what to call it but anything to not try to get sober looking at some rocks on the ground randomly gravel like a hole that kind of looks oh it's a sign I should smoke right now or like just any anything could get excuse and I had imagined myself doing that until the day that I died if I didn't die from it I was gonna do it until I died I think I woke up in the middle of the night like okay with you [ __ ] world is pointless and I took something I don't know what it was whatever some substance woke up went to my dad's restaurant and then prepared the cash register and of whatever to open for lunch then I went down into my car at the parking lot I was like okay weird if I come I'm gonna go I didn't know what where to go because everything was so pointless I'm like oh I don't even know where I'm going but I'll just get out of here first and I like turned to early into this pol scratch decided to car and go okay either I Drive full-speed into the [ __ ] wall now or I find it like a cliff to drive over or I Drive myself to the mental institution so that's what I did I drove to the psych ward emergency so I'm waiting for the psychiatrist and then he starts talking to me and this goes okay so how do you feel I'm like I don't know how to describe the feeling I feel nothing like everything is pointless so do you you saying that you feel like you want to die I'm like yes that would be nice not to live for short they describe more drugs that I know it's like diazepam narcotics pretty much and I go home and I'm like dude I have so much of this [ __ ] that I take this [ __ ] all the time and other [ __ ] fail all the time and now I get more of this [ __ ] like this cannot be the solution here I was just like why would they give me more the [ __ ] that I already have I meet my friend's mother we sit down and we talk and then she just finally goes here is a place you can go to a place where a bunch of addicts only addicts in and there's talk and that was what the solution was they said to them do whatever they did and I've been sober since then I guess it's first time his life hasn't been blurry for a long time it took almost three months before I realized and my brain returned into my head like it seemed clearly why I felt like died I wanted to die that was because my brain was empty from doing drugs for twenty years I still count days and I don't know how long would we do that for but I've also come to the conclusion that the counting days thing for me is like I'm switching the obsession to something sometimes I wait - it's past 12:00 for my counter to click over and like yes have fun more day like woohoo Danelle 726 days the the best that I've felt it's you know I got its own job now he's I've seen him cook which is like crazy just looking after himself more I guess he's getting more self-respect sometimes I just wake up and I think okay today today maybe I'm just not going to kill myself or use any drugs it's like a good way to start the day for him to go on and do what he's doing now and being sober and you know through all the bad [ __ ] and everything he can be a you know he can be an inspiration to people that he's seen the worst of it you know I mean that's about as bad as it gets I he actually sometimes gets taken to little tech towns in the middle of Sweden to speak it's like an honorary speaker to share his story at least if that someone sees that oh my god that [ __ ] got sober that maybe is possible to whoever you don't have to wait for the world to [ __ ] crumble over you or on you until you quit you could just [ __ ] quit whenever today not only had he lost one of his really good friends because he made a really stupid decision he also lost one of the things that he loved most doing and that's something that's really hard for to live with each day when I chose Kate now it's just subtle how even to explain it it's so weird like in my head I know exactly how everything is done Mikey I can do it in my head but then when I go to actually to do it it just doesn't really communicate trying to tell myself that it's gonna come back for sure it's a sad thing that I linux can't scan but then it's also sad that I don't I'm not really even trying as much as I could and I know that this parking garage there is right there where I started I go there whatever I want start again from zero I just I don't know there's way more horse things than that the letter can't skate that's why I think it's he's so strong man because like most people that that happened to would would have died by now you know they would have killed himself I think you just inspired a lot of people that to make skating fun you know and the fun part of skates the most important the serious part you get fun it was more than just the character and the woman's clothing you know it was the scape woman it's something fun to do it's like playing guitar or Playstation or whatever you want to you could say that it's an art form but could Dawkins in some way that it is like to sell people it's it's a [ __ ] sport and it's a job and it's whatever it's as important as you make it just the same as with everything else compendious argument with it with a one of my friends he's an art dealer he's like know if there was no art there would be no world I'm like no no I don't know it's like there won't be a TV I'm like TV is not necessary for the earth to survive art is not necessary for the world to keep turning like that's saying skateboarding is an ether like I I think that the world will keep turning and surviving if there was no escape route Oh you you

Channel: Twexz

Views: 496,499

Rating: 4.9276948 out of 5

Keywords: Skateboarding, Ali Boulala, Vice, Baker, Documentary, Ali, Boulala, Story

Id: I4Mxpxrce9U

Length: 42min 46sec (2566 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 22 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/connie-reynhart]

I especially remember Boulala for his tries to jump down a huge 25 step stair in France.

Around 12 years later professional skateboarder Aaron 'Jaws' Homoki successfully cleared it.

[u/malvin77]

Wow man, sounds riveting....

[u/fROMOHIO1]

Sad to see a similar situation happen with Cory (Kennedy) and Pstone in September.

[u/RandyMarshmall0w]

This was really good! Did you see the guy in the comments who wrote a nasty youtube comment to him 6 years ago? :o