Bones Brigade Experience Q&A - Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen, Stacy Peralta

[Music] what's up [Applause] everybody thank you all so much for being here this is the second day of the Bones Brigade experience um we started last night yesterday and we had really a spectacular time we're super grateful to all of you for being here um the reason this all happened many of you might or might not know this but Mike Mill own uh Mike Mill opened a skateboard shop eight months ago he invited us down there to do signings we figured there'd be a hundred people that would show up they'd serve white wine be like an art showing Art Gallery it ended up being thousands of people so many people that they couldn't even get in and we decided based on that that we should do something and that's why we're doing this this weekend um in 2012 we brought out Bones Brigade and autobiography and we were fortunate enough to get it in the Sundance Film Festival at the Sundance Film Festival takes place in January you have two weeks the film festival plays and your film plays about eight times over those two weeks and every time it shows they asked all of us to come there and we came there showed the film and then after the film we got up and a question and answer with the audience it was always really a lot of fun to do that with the audience and we wanted to begin today's festivities by doing a Q&A so we're going to be passing around a mic in the audience you guys can ask anything we want to get going with you we want to start this off in a good vibe so whatever you guys have in your minds whatever thoughts you might have ask away cuz we're here to let this thing rip so thank you again for being here and let's have a great day Paul do we have a mic sure oh yeah first up just raise your hand whoever wants to go okay here we go hi thanks again for uh for this wonderful event I have a list of questions but I'm only going to ask this to Stacy right now um I was wondering what do you think of Tony Hawk's impression of you which one I was wondering what you think about when Tony Hawk does an impression of you you mean like the Halloween impression or the hey man yes hey man you can't ask a question like that with Stacy on stage [Applause] man hey man don't Heyman me I think my laugh probably let you know uh I love when Tony does that I also love when he gets dressed up at me as Halloween okay there's a question back here get the mic back right back there b you can yell the question too where are you stand all right well thanks so much for doing this for all of us folks who love growing up uh watching you all uh wanted to ask what you all think of what you did back then and the culture you created versus kind of skateboarding now and did you ever think it get to this point who wants to start think RNE you want to start Robie did you ever think it would get to this point did you ever think did you ever think we'd ever be doing [Applause] this thank you so much for being here and forg not a morning like so did I ever I was always told if you scate you turn into a bum and put wasting your time and the fact that our community has grown in so many of you I met people that do the craziest things like on every level like you meet people at NASA JPL all over the place our culture what skateboarding is there's something special to it when there's a director out here uh for movies and really big in music and he comes from skateboarding there's so something so special about our community I think that lends itself to creativity in other worlds so did I ever think it would get like this no did I ever think that it would be a conduit so many gifted people to touch in a disproportional way outside culture where we have such influence and shaping culture never and I couldn't be more proud to be part of this community so uh to answer your question not not in the least uh in fact someone uncovered an interview with me from uh MTV in like ' 86 and they said uh do you think you'll be skating in your 30s and I was like yeah I hope they said what about in your 40s I like yeah no that's not going to happen at all so uh if you're asking us if we thought we'd ever get this far or be able to still even be considered relevant and skating um it's all absurd but I do feel like because skating has grown so much over these last 40 years there's just more resources and more support to be able to do it into your adult life into your responsible life and it's more accepted than ever I mean I feel like I can generally speak for this generation of of skaters that we were the we were the scum of the earth you know what I mean we were like the outcasts we were the nerds in school we were bullied because we skated and we persevered and here we are and I think we're all better for it so I don't encourage bullying I'm just saying that we live through it that's all and I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do when I grow up as well so I'll let you know I want to Echo something that Lance said the other night I think all of us feel really grateful that we're still here and that we're still able to be here but most importantly we're very grateful that we got born into the lives we got born into because we didn't create this but we got a chance to take a part in it and I hope we've been really responsible with our parts because we all feel that we're um we're humbled by this experience and again grateful that all of you were here to share this so thank you Tony actually nailed it right now um I remember growing up as a kid and it used to be you know skateboarding was a crime and we always were looked down and I just want to thank each one of you guys I follow all you guys and what you guys have done and brought up um skateboarding or forward um my question would be for you guys how far you guys think you guys now get at age are going to continue skating and other personal stuff going on where maybe you want to land something or learn something more let's see see since me Lance and Cav are the elders of the group Stacy and georan of course um uh you know we look to guys like uh Tony ala and uh Mark Lake from Florida and we're like well those dudes are older than us like look at them they're still doing backside airs and um you know and uh just it uh you know it's it's it's uh who knows you know I watch this guy and I'm like okay I'm older than him by a few years Lance is still ripping it's it's uh it's um what is it rod rod rod knows what I'm trying to say are you sure yeah I I I can certainly answer something but are you sure I all I can tell you from my perspective I never made any ultimatums and so it I just take it day by day and I'm really happy to be able to skate at a level that I feel like is professional but I'm not trying to push limits anymore I [ __ ] around and found out last year by breaking my legs so um that definitely gave me a very quick lesson in reality and uh and accepting my age and so now I've just kind of found a lane and but it it's it's amazing to see I mean these guys my inspiration I'd say like Sala is our sort of Beacon he's still doing it you know still still limber still skating back our pools and um it it's just amazing to see that we all still have that passion and everyone's still pushing pushing it to to an extent but not to the point where we're risking our future of of being healthy relatively healthy I I believe everyone in this room will do it as long as it's they can find enjoyment in it and uh that's what everyone in this room will do that's what we'll do um and we'll do it at the level we can as high as level and as as that tapers down uh when it's not enjoyable then we'll do people will do something else so we're going to do it for the L on my connects that way very honestly I re whatever Powers I started to dwindle 20 years ago and I felt like not it's connected and then very rapidly um I also felt my body starting Decay I just had both HIIT the place like it was nuts right it's super cool to learn to walk again my point is when I was younger I used to think man I will never suffer the indignity of never of stepping on a board and sucking of being less than I was the day before because that's the edge you have to drive you and it's some I sobered up to that you know what no just a gift to be able to roll around and feel that man that would be with me for as long like till [Applause] I'm um I just want to make a comment so um Kevin Harris Ladi and gentlemen yeah Kevin um I was up in Vancouver Canada uh doing kind of my best thing up there and being the Canadian champ guy kind of thing come down in 1982 and these guys are such an inspiration to me being up in Vancouver you know took pictures of just really looked up to everybody on the up there today and when I came down in 19 1982 skateboarding was probably at one of the worst stages that it's ever been and uh I came down and believe it or not I I wrode for GS at the time but I was forced in believe it or not to a pro contest because there wasn't enough skaters to make the sponsored AMS and the proos so I'm nervous I'm I'm idolizing these guys Stacy brta is God to me and I'm down in 1982 and here's how the ranking went so these guys were all my heroes I thought he wouldn't even make Po and it was Rodney Mullen first perer number two and me number three I was like holy crap I couldn't believe it coming from Vancouver walking out of the parking lot and never forget this remember the temperature in the air and everything what happened walking along and again these guys are my idols and I see Tony in the in in Stacy's Volvo and I see all these guys cavalero Rodney Mullen and Stacy goes hey you skat ride today you want to ride for the bones spade and I said no no I said are you kidding so my life you guys changed it's always been an incredible life my whole family's involved in skateboarding it's I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart what you guys have done and the inspiration you've gave to the world thank you hey you guys how you doing um thanks so much first off for doing this like I'm sure for many people in the room that grew up skateboarding this is like if the Avengers were real and they were having a Q&A 30 years later like that's especially from overseas that's how we saw you guys it was just incredible I do want to give special shout out to Tommy who's there KO on the back there because what you guys were doing it was Untouchable like I didn't even know where to go do it like and but when Tommy did the board slide in Future Primitive it was like let's go get the skateboard and go do like that was like one of the most inspiring things I think for a generation of skateboarders who were in nowhere to do that so shout out to Tommy because the question I'd like to ask is what for each of you guys is your like quintessential bone Brigade video par like what was your contribution to whatever video that you're like that's my mantle piece part and and for you guys George and Stacy what's your favorite video and like why whether it what it did for the company for skateboarding um so yeah thanks so much this is uh really sweet cheers I uh I don't none of my parts I don't really care about but my favorite is lances from the Bones Brigade video show when he's just cruising around and having fun that Maj it's the same thing like H I want to go skate because when you watch that par it's just pure joy it's just pure fun it's access to the streets you don't have to have a ramp you don't have to have a park you don't have to have money except for to buy a board go out your door and there's your skate park and that was the beauty of Street skating but accessible to everyone that was cool it's kind of you know the equalizer I want I actually want to add something to what Tommy just said because Lance's part in that video just skating through the streets was a mistake it wasn't planned and that video informed us what it wanted to be and here's what I mean by this the first thing we ever shot was Steve cabalero Mike McGill and Lance at Lance's ramp and we just happened to have tape left over from the day and so we decided we put the camera in the back of my Volvo put the cameraman back there and have these guys skate down the street well we shot all this random footage of them skating down the street just goofing off and having fun we went back to my house and looked at the footage we looked at all the stuff during at the ramp and then we looked at the stuff at these guys goofing in the street went this stuff's magic this is the gold not the other stuff and that led us to understand that we we can't forget that skateboarding is just a fun thing to do you don't have to be on a ramp you can just be in the street and that was the impetus for Lance run you know running around so it informed us so back to your Avengers comment I'm Batman no uh as far as the video part uh probably wasn't uh a pal Bones Brigade video sorry Stace uh but my most proud is the bones bearing video class of 2000 uh what 23 years ago was pretty much my my last video part and I think that's the one I'm most proud of because it shows my overall skateboarding not just vert but for Street too I'd have to say you know probably I we had fun in a lot of the videos and we gave Stacy a lot of crap for a lot of years um sorry Stace it never stops yeah um but you know animal chin getting back to that it was just so fun for us I mean um like we did things that we never did before and we just we only skated that ramp for what two days or something and uh what blew me away probably the most about that is watching our teammate Tommy Guerrero shred like all of us we're like what is how can he skate like that he's from the city he's got no ramps in his yard and does like giant slob bears like this High out and like it I was I was yeah anyway Tom hats off to you buddy [Applause] I just mentioned this to him right now and my favorite video part which actually finally sold my board was Frankie Hills part right therey Hill you sold my family board like killer Lance you're the man dude oh uh here uh I I think in terms of Bones Spade videos my favorite was ban this just cuz I put the most effort into it um Stacy uh and cess came to my house and lit up my Hillside to the point where uh there were neighbors calling the cops saying that an alien spaceship had landed on the mountain I'm not kidding that happened and the cops showed up because they had to light it so brightly because they were using those High speeded cameras but I had never worked so hard and we were we were shooting all night for like three nights and then over to fber ramp I mean that whole part was less than 5 days um and I was never so exhausted but when I saw the finished product I was really proud of it so thank you sty uh my favorite video is probably Future Primitive uh and my but one of my favorite sequences is the black and white segment of Ray Barbie Steve sides and Eric Sanderson and the reason I like it so much is because it's a group of skateboarders skating throughout the city just having fun just having a great time and the spirit of that peace was to me what skateboarding was all about what about [Applause] George hi guys uh I just wanted to say thank you for inspiring not only me but everyone here and we all can agree that skateboarding wouldn't even be here without all of you and you inspire me every single day in my life inside and out of skateboarding who is your favorite skateboarder and how do they inspire you throughout your life uh I want to go first so that I can claim Rodney Mullen and then I get him and no one else get him I I mean Rodney it's it's it's crazy back in our day there was the Bowl contest and there was the freestyle contest so loosely vert in Street but not Street cuz it was freestyle and nobody watched the freestyle events Kevin knows what I'm talking about but when they would say next up is Rodney Mullen everyone stopped what they were doing from everywhere else in the area and came and watched because we knew we didn't understand it we knew it was something Innovative and spectacular and it was going to be it he was going to be Flawless and so we just had this feeling about it and then as Rody and I got to know each other I mean I learned finger flip ER because of him um and so uh we're all you know skateboarding is is better for his contributions and and the fact that we can walk down the street now and say do a kickflip and people know what it is is crazy but that's because of [Applause] him the reciprocity all growing up especially here I am I'm just skating in a barn in Florida right I come out a couple times a year a few times and staying at saes the inspiration and then likewise going in being at Tony's Place for those domar contests in particular I still go back to the inspiration really everyone but Tony in particular air walks right watching you do that and me like how can I do that it was right back and forth the inspiration we got from each other much less on every end of it like contest after contest that stuff wears on you because you love skateboarding but then contests can pull can tug you Best in Show right it's not you anymore it's for them in a sense right for a number and there was a time of holding on to titles or whatever it it it it blurred the love I had for skateboarding for a little bit and Tony going to Tony another time too very similar he steadied me because he'd walk that same path so if anything just being on the Bones Brigade that that inspired us to other levels to everywhere you look people were sort of breaking the rules they were doing what people thought was impossible but as the years continue to go like do a kickflip okay that was an accident I did it sure but Ton's video games that's what made that's what embedded into the vocabulary of the general populace what he has done for skateboarding not just for his gifts and his endurance and all that it takes but just being the person he is too so if anything that's Tony I it's hard to say because it's era specific you know there's always Generations where you know growing up in 70s Stacy Tony Alva shokugo right but I think overall um I'd have to say Mark Gonzalez because of his contribution to our where he Stepside out of every norm and he brought in so much Creative Energy to it that it just like blew everybody's mind and I skated with him all the time you come up and stay with me you go out skating all night long and I'd be worried like where the [ __ ] is Mark you know I thought he's like dead in the streets cuz San Francisco you know it's a little sketchy so he'd come back at 3: in the morning I'm like where were you he's like skating wow and he probably learned and invented 20 New Tricks so for me it's got to be [Applause] mark can I tell you that he he texted me yesterday a video of him doing a front side cap to nose blunt on a curb he's like I'm trying to learn these on that crazy board on the crazy cerb in New York that was yesterday I I guess for me um I was like 10 years old when I started skating in a little town in Florida and uh my dad got me like these posters um and this one skater was on my ceiling and I would stare at it the night I was like wow that guy is so good I would love to meet him one day and believe it or not when I was 13 I got to visit him in California and that was Stacy Peralta and after I got on the Bones Brigade he really was my favorite so but I just want to say you know through those earlier years um Stacy brought us to the factory where George was slaving away over there and uh George brought us to this skate park Sparks galita in Santa Barbara and I was like Stace is uh is George going to skate with us he's like yeah and I'm like oh how cool and George came out on his roller skates but no it was fine because he was skating with it just stok that like we're skating with the manufact that supports all of us and thank you George for everything you've done yeah I'm not to ditto that one actually sorry yeah I when I started skateboarding I skated with guys that were four and five years older than me and they were skateboarding was Ed natalin russal and skit hiscock and they were very talented guys that were older than me and it was they did massive amounts of 360 and nose wheelies and handstands and I tried to play along with them I knew it was what I wanted to do but I was kind of no good at it and then Stacy Peralta and his crew I mean Alva and Jay I'm going to add Wall-E Tommy and a way in there um they came with this other thing that I saw that you could just kind of fly off off of a curb and you could try to hit a bank and it was more of an like an aggressive emotional thing than a technical thing and I was such um so into them that these older guys were like you're such a poser why are you trying to be those dudes um and I always thought that yeah we used to play Cowboys and Indians you guys used to play football I remember you saying Lyn Swan or something and I'm like that's what we're doing we're playing skateboarding and I'm playing these dudes and I I met Stacy in 1977 at a local skate park and I had his board I you don't know I had his board I had his shirt I had the orange the yellow and the uh red colorway my sister was there and my sister remember that day going he he C you C is ey you like we we had this dream that we like that it like he it's going to happen he know he saw you or whatever I was 13 um and years later it was became very more competitive and and you had to prove yourself through competition and I really wasn't going to prove myself maybe in that competition because I was a little bit older but in my heart I always knew why I fell in love with skateboarding and I knew that if you're you're going to do this as a professional you're you're going to all you have to do is make people fall in love with skateboarding and then the industry will want you and it was because of the images and the photos and the things that you guys had alvit never won a pool contest there was no contest for him to prove that he was the best in a pool I didn't really see it that way I was just I fell in love with his imagery so I think I had that lesson and so when it I finally came to the point where I could be part of it um I knew that was really my job is to make people fall in love with skateboarding and I would say the next guy that was really the most important person that drove me what I liked about skateboarding was Neil blender um thank you I I don't think anyone talks about it or he doesn't talk about it how uh important of a skateboarder he was rather than just a dude that made this happen he was the best skateboarder he was the one that said I'm going to go be a professional do demos everywhere my wife saw him do a demo when she was 13 um a Pepsi demo yeah um everyone saw you skate you went and did you said to make this work we have to be professional and and that was piece of it and Tony went and said you have to tell everybody that you're the best and Jay was just a nutcase and a mixture of all that is the foundation of what we [Applause] do just a quick side note because of what Lance is talking about I seen Stacy I met him actually and I think it was 76 at a contest in San Francisco I was either 9 or 10 and at the time we had seen the cover of the skateboarding magazine right the iconic 360 with the hair I seen it in real life in 1976 and it [ __ ] blew my mind and I was like it's that guy who's on the cover of that magazine cuz we just got hip to know it was that Fort Mason not the cowps one so I came up and I introduced myself as a little kid and you came over cuz I I was able to do a bunch of 360s when I was young you're like wow man that's pretty cool and I was just like totally blown away so we had a connection a very long time ago actually can can I can I jump in on this because we've all had these strange synergistic Runnings Rodney correct me if I'm wrong but you and I crashed into each other two years before we met right I was doing Demos in Florida and I was going down this snake run and Rodney and I crashed he's a little kid I think I've heard him I'm going oh my God are you okay he's okay I go meet his mother I have no idea that this kid is in my future and it he would be just based on that I ran into Lance I almost put Lance on the team a year before I put him on the team or two years before but I had a kid named Scott Foss on the team the moment I saw George I've never even told you this I had a mystical moment the time first time I ever saw George Powell it was it was um it was Thanksgiving morning of 1977 and I was skateboarding at ker Canyon school at 11:00 a.m. in the morning cuz I wanted to get ready for the food coma that I would Blast Off in later that day so I'm skating with a bunch of kids caner Canyon and I took a break and I'm sitting on the bank wall and I look down the schoolyard and I see this guy in his 30s climbing over the fence with his seven-year-old son I don't know who he is I've never seen him and as he gets closer to me I'm looking at him going I know that guy like I just knew him I was looking at him going how do I know him I'd never met him before in my life and somehow I knew him and we met each other that day we became friends that day and then about 6 months later I met him in Europe we ran into each other at a trade show in a um what do you call the in a stairwell that was completely off the beaten path and I went we ran into ran into each other and I said what are you doing here he goes what are you doing here and he goes and he goes well I'm going to go have lunch and have a beer you want to join me we sat down and that's the first time we sat down and said why don't we do something together and that was it it was all this Synergy that all of us somehow were going to get eventually get get together and it all came together but there was at times little mystical aspects to this whole thing so and it's still the other night I was saying this yesterday I was sitting across from McGill the other night at dinner and I said my God this wave that we caught decades ago we're still on it we're still riding this wave hasn't broken yet it's kind of amazing none of us expected this we're all grateful it's happened so so back to the energy that Stacy's talking about um yes skateboarder magazine was our only access to skateboarders and what we what we saw what what what influenced me and definitely Stacy peralto was one of the top skateboarders at that time and I was writing I would say 1978 I was riding for a skateboard park called Campell skate park in Northern California and we came down to Southern California to Escondido and heard um that Stacy Peralta and Steve cath were going to be one of the the the judges of the contest and so the Campbell skate park team came down and we entered the contest uh my teammate Klay Townsen got first place um I ended up getting fifth place and then after the contest Stacy Peralta comes up to both of us and says say hey I I really like the way you guys skate I'm going to be starting this team um I'd like for you guys to join this team and I looked at Stacy and I I go well can I go home and ask my mom first because I could I was only 14 years old so I couldn't just give him an answer um and Stacy Says yeah you know I'm going to be up at Winchester skate park for a pro contest that you skated in and it's a month from now and you can you know dwell on it and ask ask your parents and then give me an answer there um and I was already ready to say yes then uh but when he came up a month later um I told Stacy yes uh my parents are allow me to join this company that you're doing it's going to be called pal perela which I didn't know anything about riding for a company I wrote for a skate park so after that um you know that was 1979 and I've been writing for this company ever since then just very quick because I hadn't even thought of until Stacey mentioned this so when you think of all the interactions like meeting you or or different characters right how all of these little intangibles these things through time add up in some weird call it mystical way to converge punctuate and then change the course of your life so I was supposed to give up skating I was I think 13 and at the end of the summer and grow up for the next year of school and so that was laid down and for whatever reason Stacy Peralta who' been on my wall I had his board uh my parents knew you plowed into me two years prior and we a gentleman at my mom and he called my house were it to be anybody else had it not been the Legacy of who you were to me I don't think my parents would have ever agreed and I was still supposed to quit skating even though I came out uh to enter that contest and I remember in my heart I won the contest however little kid points and I didn't even think I was on the Bones Brigade because it was so untouchable we were on our way to the airport and you blew Volvo and Stacy gave me this patch bones for g p and I couldn't even understand does this mean I'm on the team you know and even though I thought it was going to have to end um I was going to hold on to that I built like a little Shrine cuz then I did have to quit but it was because of you later on because of the energy I wouldn't have even continued skateboarding were it not for that so I just want to add I want to give me a second I want to add something something Lance said Lance mentioned my professionalism I a lot of people have said I took skateboarding very seriously and I did take skateboarding very seriously but it wasn't because of professionalism my parents put a bigger premium on working on getting a job than on education I had a really lousy education but I worked since I was a little kid I mowed lawns got a job as a paper boy at 11 a job as a h food prep at 14 a job as a bus point 16 I've always literally been employed so what happened was I had the context understand when gns came to me Gordon Smith and said we're going to pay you 50 cents a board and put your name on that board and if we make 20,000 Boards of years a month you're going to get paid 10 grand a month to me I had scored the lottery this is the greatest job in the world and so I understood I had a responsibility to myself and that company and the sport and that's the thing I wanted these guys to understand is I'm going to take a line if you want to be a Kid Forever you got to grow up and that's what this whole thing was about if you can be a kid for the rest of your life but you got to grow up and take seriously what you're doing and when I see these guys and how well they've done their entire lives they pulled it off and that's what this whole thing has been about is living your best year I'm a 16-year-old kid and I've been 16 my whole life and that's the way I live my life and I think I can say the same thing for these guys George included we're still doing what we love doing because we've grown up as well I just want to Echo the sentiment of everybody in this room and just say that we are just eternally grateful for everything you guys have done for the sport uh and just for being the icons and the people that you are and how You' affected all of our Lives you know I'm 52 almost 53 years old most of you guys are just a few years old uh above me but but uh this is geeking me out making me a fanboy bringing me back to 85 you know when I was just 13 14 years old and now my son 15 I'm trying to pass that on to him you know and uh get him excited about skating like I was I grew up in Fresno so there wasn't a whole lot you guys are skating to NorCal and Southern California of course there's no cell phones and all we had was you know Transworld and Thrasher to know where you guys were so I'm at the ark you know or some ramp and yeah yeah I remember seeing Tony that we were so stuck when you showed up we're sitting there cranking faction and just rocking out you know but uh we just live for we'd read these ads and find out okay you're going to be the Manchester ball and Fresno on this date and we'd show up and just religiously and just couldn't wait you know the artwork that you guys made iconic on the boards and on the t-shirts you know we gobbled it up and that's just how we all became a big family right and so I we're just eternally grateful for for that and how this all launch there was no internet there wasn't no way to mass you know get this across other than the written word and you know we were gobbling up those magazines and liquor stores and stuff just keeping up with you guys so that's awesome but um I guess I wanted to you know talk mostly about what it was like being a little kid I mean Tony your dad's taking you out to Japan and you know you guys are traveling all over the United States and up and down at least California in the early Beginnings doing these uh demos and things like that how much pressure when you guys showed up in these demos we all wanted to believe that you just were there you couldn't wait to put on a show for us and we're just wide eyed just couldn't wait to see you guys do tricks but how much pressure was there did you guys you know feel like you were just obligated or was it was it actually fun it was always fun um I think we were just so focused and hungry to skate if it was a new place new terrain let's go get it let's go after it let's eat it up um it it never felt like it was a compromise or a job even in in the ter most the worst terrain because we grew up skating some of the worst Parks I mean you know Park we we've definitely romanticized them but people say like why don't you build Del margan you would hate dmar it was Ked there were coping was ground there was only one wall it was even skat so in those days we learned to skate everything so when we would show up at a place and and just skate a couple jump ramps in the parking lot thought cool because we got to connect with other skaters so for us it was super fun and I feel like none of us had aspirations of fame or fortune or World Travel and that was just sort of imposed on us and and we were like cool new new place tocate you know Tom can you tell these guys like what our um exclusive uh jump ramp tour would go like when you got there just just just let him cuz I've heard it before and I think they'd like it tell uh he's talking about tour I've spent a lot of time on the road actually I was speaking with Kevin Harris yesterday it's funny going through these old tour books that somebody had and it seemed as though I was on every single tour it was somebody would leave you know three people would leave Tommy's still on the tour three people would leave I'm still on the tour and I was like Ah that's why my knees are hurt so you know there was times when you would show up like you'd be on the road for we'd be on the road for all all summer usually in the states and then we'd go overseas um but you show up to some of these spots and you know these shops and all they had was like you know PBC pipe uh part of a telephone pole three curbs and you know and then the jump ramp that we had put on top of George's like Country Squire that we drove across the country usually in the wrong direction trying to get to the demo Rod he knows what I'm talking about um and so you know you this a huge jump ramp off on the ground and it's just it was like a show you know it's like all right perform all right here we go and you it was always super fun but the next day and then the next day and the next day and some point in time the accumulation of like the road burn and and the physical wear it was difficult that's when you're like oh right this is a job but it's a job that you love more than anything and you'll do whatever you can to keep it that's for sure but yeah we skated some pretty interesting stuff on the road I'll just say that I I just want to add one thing these guys all took what they did very seriously and they gave the audiences a lot but Tony wins the prize because there was one day there was a quarterpipe SL jump ramp and the little kids were just saying 540 540 do a 540 and Tony hearing the kids said I want to figure out how to do this he did a 540 on a jump ramp I mean it was the most amazing thing and he Landed It crouched but it was it shows the commitment that these guys made to pleasing these young kids that we would come up against and that to me was the epitome is the 540 on the jump ramp okay I'll I'll ask one about George um to get George in on the question um so can you share your fondest memory of your early days for the Bones Brigade touring touring was uh not something that I grew up doing this is something that Stacy introduced me to and I became familiar with the guys and what they needed and vehicles and things that we could figure out how to travel with built a portable ramp that the guy skated towed behind a a big truck and my experience really was just the joy and the excitement that these guys brought to to the kids that were there because you know traveling as a team as a band whatever it's work it's like 10 item here TN item there it's another hotel not this one wasn't so good but when it comes time to perform and actually do something these guys did it they really put up with all the the difficulties of doing what they did and for me to experience that and to see them do it um and stand on the side and take pictures of them or try to that was really it was a new part of my life that I didn't know anything about so I'm grateful for that because without that you don't have the excitement to know why you need to make this board a little bit wider or This shape has to change a little bit or you know the wheels aren't working right and as a designer that really drives me forward that's what I love doing uh skating for me when I started was as sty said almost a mystical experience I I saw one kid in Santa Monica riding on a 2x4 with roller skates and my eyes went like this and I went home and built one and I skated until my roller skates died and the 2x4 was trash and I didn't skate for another 5 years and then I skated in college and for me skating was always about the experience it was just fun and if anything that's what I try very hard to portray in our current company is that skateboarding is about fun it isn't necessarily about doing 20 step rails or killing yourself it's about just doing what really is cool and you enjoy so the experience of skateboarding then seeing these guys transcend the difficulties and bring it to you that was really important to [Applause] me hello I just want to repeat as everybody said thank you all for coming together one place one time for our benefit it's a very surreal feeling to have you all in front of us and one topic that did come up earlier was was uh just the creative aspect all the Innovation that was happening at the time when you all were inventing all these brand new tricks uh some of these tricks you would even take ownership of cab with the cerial m with the MC twist so I was thinking were there ever any tricks that maybe you know you were kind of not as proud of or didn't want to be associated with because there could be a stigma with that especially if the trick is uh maybe not label or branded as being cool and uh as somebody who's been trying a lot of the tricks that you all have invented I just want to know you know which one maybe I should stay away from have you ever seen a picture of me do a roast beef that's the one I you'll never see me do everyone's going to say theck well probably front side rocks I tried everything I tried sticking my tongue out doesn't work I would say avoid cannonballs they're not they're not pretty T Yeah well yeah sack tap uh that's one I'm not so proud of but I thought it was really funny and I put in the video game and because they put in the video game I had to learn it so it was literally like this would be a funny thing and then watch what you wish for because then it was a special trick then I'd go to a demo and be like do that trick oh I got to figure it out okay but then Bob burquest does better than me I let him have [Applause] it I just want to say the beauty about skateboarding is that it's our way to express our individuality so like you can take a common trick like a friend side grind and just get anybody to try it they're going to make it they're going to paint a different picture of the front side grind and that's up to the individual and I always felt like and the type of skating that I like to do is I'd rather have quality over quantity and that's why I loved Christian osoy so much because he did minimal tricks but he did them the most beautiful so everyone you know has their thing you know so you know if I if I try a front side grind instead of going two blocks I want to go eight blocks you know if I do an error instead of going a foot I I want to go8 foot you know so you can just take a real simple trick and and make it as beautiful as you can as an individual and that's what I love about skateboarding there's no rules to what the skateboard is the skateboard trick is supposed to look like you it's up to you to do that and all these guys up here have have added a flavor to a certain trick which maybe called it their own but it made it their style if you see some person's style of a trick you know you can see that even in a picture you a silhouette you know what skater that is and that's the beauty about skateboarding it's it's at its purest art form nose pick for the Cobra I I want to actually oh go ahead rney go ahead I was going to say Stevie's front hand plants for me just that you [Applause] know I wanted to add a little context again I'm going to add some bugay trivia but what what what many people don't understand is when we were building this team we did not know if skateboarding was going to be was going to stick around remember it had came and went in 1964 65 so during the late '70s we had a black cloud over our head the whole time thinking this thing could collapse and it did have a near-death experience in the early ' 80s as many of you may know but when George and I first got together we we were aware that skateboarding was a Southern California Centric thing every manufacturer existed there or 99% of them all the media existed there all the contest series existed there and we knew that if we didn't create a team that represented the country that we were never going to represent skaters around the country and so we set out to build a team that was based on making champions in other states no other company had done this and that required getting behind amateurs like these guys who were not yet Pros supporting them in the hopes that they would become the next pros and so Rodney Florida Mill Florida Alan gilan Florida Lance Los Angeles Tony San Diego Tommy Bay Area uh Steve Bay Area so this was the first national team that existed and then we had Ray Underhill in Tennessee Jamie Godfrey New Jersey so the whole point of it was to expand what we were doing so that we could represent the sport properly I just wanted to add that to the context of this uh speaking of grand under hill we have Olivia Underhill is here I don't I don't see her right now but um she came she want to be part of this so oh right there the red if you want a new tattoo she's living in La doing tattoos there's your plug Olivia all right I got you right here fellas uh long her first time caller uh growing up in the era that I did we grew up with things like May the force be with you leave the gun take the canoli and have you seen him it's right there so and I did want to say big up to Ray Andre and we miss him but I was wondering if there any particular moments you can think of that were like evolutionary moments that you recognized at the time like the first time you saw someone do a hand roll went oh okay this is different or because I know like the AL kind of took a little bit to to kind of take a hold but were there specific moments where you saw a trick or a skater or somebody that you just went Game Changer this is different now thank you well when I discovered the sealed bearing because the wheels that I rode when I first started skating uh the ball bearings were held on by a nut only so if you put a wheel on you put the bearing in the wheel try to put it on the truck as quick as you could so they would fall out and then put the other Ball Bearing in and then tighten it down and that's what a skateboard wheel was like so you know going down the driveway and the wheel roll off and the ball bearings fall out you know you you spent like 15 minutes trying to get the ball bearings back into the wheel but when I heard that there was a a wheel or a bearing sealed that you could put in a wheel that's when I knew that that skateboarding has progressed uh I'll jump in really quick Tony was really took a long time to develop as a kid as a skater okay didn't know if he was going to um but he was incredibly tenacious showed up everywhere was fierce in competition but it took him a long time when I made the first skateboard video I went down to the delmare skateboard park and I had not seen Tony skate in probably 3 or 4 months and he had grown a little bit and this is the first time I had ever seen the air walk and I was absolutely so completely floored i' had never seen anything like it I had never thought of a trick like that I never even thought a person would think of a trick like that and then he followed it that day with the finger flip and he was skating so strong and so fiercely that it was shocking well after we got got done shooting the uh the video that day I took him out to lunch and I sat across from him at the table and I said I said Tony and I believe this is right you correct me if I'm wrong I said Tony I think your time has come I think that next year you have the ability to win every single contest you enter and that actually happened if I'm not mistaken I didn't believe it but he did say that yeah we were at McDonald's well okay stay with me no we were at that coffee shop Place what's that we were at that coffee shop place near delar oh Denny's yes there two there are two options of delar Denny's and McDonald's Denny's was closer check it out I say this thing this really important thing to Tony you have the ability to win every contest his response just looks at me doesn't say word what he say Stacey does and I'm thinking does he think I'm an idiot does he not believe Mees forever I've thought like wow did that ever register it was just more in shock that that someone of your caliber could even recognize me I remember the first time Stacey ever actually talked to me we were at Upland I was skating for dog Town um and I was sitting in the stands with a few friends and Stacey came up and said hey Tony how's it going I was like he knows my name what's going on and then he said How's Dogtown treating you and I was like I good I don't I had no context there was no bar set for how they I got skateboards that's how they were treating me I said good I guess he's like cool and I looked at my friend goes what what did that mean he like I don't know it's crazy um I I guess to chime in on what I saw the first time I ever saw uh Eddie algera in the magazine was my wow my Epiphany moment when I thought wow you can do so much more with the skateboard and he was doing tricks that never been done he had an interview at colon uh front side rock El gel he did a backside area and his foot came off by accident and in the sequence he put it back on that was the spark for an airw walk so thanks Ste I'll G for that one more is the first time I saw Mike Mill do the 540 I didn't even know what I saw I needed to see it number of times just to understand what he was doing it was such a shocking thing and like the airw walk it was a trick that you can't believe someone even thought of doing it how do you even think about that let alone do it and McGill's always done it in my opinion the best because he goes upside down so that was a shocker my fondest memory of of a trick is the oier which was invented you guys know by who there you go the guy who brought me to Stacy's house okay so we were skating ramps in South Florida and um I don't know if you know about this Rodney but there was a guy that was watching us and watching Ellen do these allars out of the ramp and he's like come on what's the trick he's got screw is this or his shoes glued on is it velcro the the guy just couldn't and and when you would watch Allan do this you're just like how there's it's amazing if you've ever seen videos on YouTube of him the initial ones um just blew us all away and then of course you know Rodney took it to a whole another level I going to going to big twist in Sweden well what do you want me to say um okay well I uh a lot of people ask me this and Stacy has featured it before in our documentary and all but uh people are like well what what what gave you the idea you know and uh I had done really well in uh some contests in Florida and George and Stacy said where do you want to go for Christmas break and I was like yes I'm going to go see my teammate in Cherry Hill New Jersey I want to skate those pools and there was this guy named Fred blood a roller skater there him and Duke granny and I think Duke granny uh George sponsored for roller skaters and uh we didn't you know those are the only two guys we would like even like let skate with us because they would go up like a backside air they would actually try to grab so we're like all right that's cool they're actually trying to skatee and I saw Fred Blood come up and do a 540 like 3 4T out and came down and I just thought man that's so unfair like n that's got to be impossible because the board's just going to flip around it's just not going to work and then uh six months later Rodney and Lance Mullen sorry what am I talking about Lance Mountain Lance Mullen that could be a new trick Rodney for um we went to a summer camp in Sweden that Stacy and Allen went first off and then cab and I went the year before and anyway we skated for three 3 weeks we had 50 or 60 skaters that we would teach and most of them didn't speak English we just you know did hand Maneuvers and whatever um and uh one night I uh I said I think I'm going to try this trick and there was only two kids on the ramp and um I tap my wrist guards and I I just thought if I could just come around um I would be safe you know I could knee slide out and um within I guess within 35 minutes I made this trick which a lot of my friends don't believe me but it was it was 35 minutes and I had to do it out and then they uh I went to go we had no by the way your son he knows there's no video cameras there was nothing you know um so these kids I went to like like what did it look like they took off back to the camp cuz they were so freaked out and told Lance and Lance you know the story most of you guys know came back I was like thought I was going to do it low but I knew I couldn't do it low and uh he immediately tried to tried to do it and killed himself on top of the ramp the first time um and uh so the next day he's like we got to we got to do this for George and Stacy we got to put it in the in the what was that called the intelligence report we had no sequential camera um we he just had his little still camera and he made do he made me do it like 36 times in the same spot and then he put it together to make the twist yeah that's it one of the the first game changes that I had kind of seen I knew it was going to usher in a new era of skateboard was when nus was trying a rail it was at a contest and he was sort of playing around with it he was alling off the stage and kicking his board at it and most of us didn't know what he was trying to do like was he trying to OE over the rail to Flat didn't quite get it um because no one had ever seen anyone do it ever and once I seen that and then he started landing on it in the board slide position he didn't make it that was it I was like oh wow it's going to get really hard for me that that's when I knew things were changing uh I just want to say something this this is an inside joke but I'll share it with you guys because I think it's hilarious uh Mike was talking about fixing his wrist guards when he was going to Mo twist there's a sound that we all make when we see each other and like I know I hear it from a mile away it's like when you're if your dad has a whistle or something you know it's your dad's whistle and you go and we go and that is the sound of Mike adjusting his wrist guards and it's the sound of the Bones Brigade we all know it we all hear it and we identify each other with it there you go there's your [Applause] in that was the game changer my hey Tony my mom made that up when she wanted to get my attention she be like but then we took it we I remember but yeah that's what from it evolved it did go ahead next question hi um I used to film a lot of the contests in the 70s and ' 80s here in Southern California and skate the NSA contest with several of you and uh in the '90s when I left California I moved to Colorado I I just saw all these skaters over there and I was thinking well they just had a couple small Parks out there skateboarding is not so popular out here and I was so wrong when I got there and I couldn't believe the influence that the Bones Brigade team had outside of the small home of Southern California and I that's when I realized how big it was getting in the early '90s when I sometimes you don't know what you have until you step out of it and you see how it impacts other parts of the world or the country and I'm just curious by a show of hands out here how many of you came from out of state today just to be here and see these [Applause] guys that's amazing so that's a real Testament to the Legacy you guys have brought to us and I from my heart I just want to say thank you for everything and all the years of what you do thank you and Lyn thank you for documenting so much of it in the early [Applause] days you're welcome I have a question with the phones of today what would you guys rather have done sign posters in the early days cuz you all travel the world and you're always signing posters and then today taking selfies taking pictures signing boards signing everything that everybody brings up I was just curious what your best years were is it easier with phones or is it harder I'm just thankful there were no phones uh for our Antics in the [Applause] 80s quick shout out to Steve vanor right here who's been a great help to all of us Steve's one of skate one of the angels of skateboarding this guy and his father were the first to recognize us outside of skateboard companies and he's been with us every step of the way so big heart in this guy and he's not even a skater himself he's got a skater's heart [Applause] than uh my question actually leads off of kind of what Steve just said but um we've kind of been talking about it over the weekend but this is kind of the only if we call it a discipline an art sport lifestyle that um I I I couldn't help but wonder how many signatures I mean all of you guys but you've had to do even just last week last year a lifetime so was have any of you documented how many you've ever had to do in just a year Tony that goes that's counting how many blinks you do a day exactly so cuz we thought about other other sports will'll take a a professional athlete Star Quarterback they might do it for their career and they probably do it throughout their life a little bit maybe on a jersey or two that they've used but nothing I can't imagine any other job out there in the world that has required as many John hancocks as you guys and so thought I know that I've signed less signatures than I've bailed less signatures than I bailed I've fallen more times than I've signed answer was there one here oh so quick quick question will there'll be a Lords of down uh dog Town type movie for these guys and also how did you get L's head to fall off when he fell off the ramp and Chin or did you bury his whole body in the ground we cut it off nice and he was he was am he was fine doing that he knew it would look good so you know Lance did anything for us when it came to videos awesome great thank you I'm in the in the process of uh working on a personal documentary and also a book as well um there's a project in Hollywood you know it may may not have there's interest I should say in taking the documentary and turning it into a scripted television series don't know if it's going to happen but I just wanted to say that that's there's a lot of talk about it so that's possible okay me again sorry um I'm from NorCal just want to thank Steve uh Tommy and Tony for your contribution to the N Men movie that came out not too long ago if anybody hasn't seen that yet um and I wanted to actually pivot back back to Stacy and George um I I personally took some time away from skateboarding and I missed a whole bunch but when I came back about 10 years ago all the reissues had been out I felt like I was in a Time warm and I never knew that Stacy left pal Peralta and I was wondering what was um the reason how did you come back and and can you tell us how that happened um after I did dog tenen boys these guys asked me to a meeting at the Los Angeles International Airport we met in the restaurant again this been a long time it correct me if I'm wrong and they said look we really like the film you made we feel we have a legacy too would you consider making a Bones Brigade documentary so that was then about a year or two later Lance called me and said hey there's a tremendous demand for our reissues but we don't want to do it without you would you consider doing it and there's something I don't know what it is but it's always Lance that kind of gets inside of me and I just said yes and I wasn't expecting to say yes and then about four years later after that again Lance called me and he said said look we really want to do this documentary and he goes I need to tell you something and I go what's that he goes we are now older than you and Tony ala were when you made doown and it didn't make any sense to me to think that these guys could ever be older than us and that's the thing that got me to go maybe I should make this film so those two things and George and I patch things up and which just been a good thing it's been a really good experience is this s uh it's for Tony um Tony I'm I'm the way you guys my first I was excited about tonight CU I know I was excited to meet um Stacy paralta on the way here or as it approach I remember my first memory of him on a rolling pin board in his bedroom in Channel 5 news or someone came out to your house and interviewed what's that free wheeling yeah but um I was in woodberg Virginia in Tony Hawk you talking about autograph signed the G milk G in the middle of skate park list I'm a truck driver I was a homeless veteran and I came across that magazine and magazine rack and I decided to get a truck driving license hit skate park using a truck I hit over 150 skat parks in that journey I should actually stay with you at Houston shook your hand but and then I snuck up to your vert ramp at that restaurant and dropped in without anybody knowing I was up there but um I was really excited about this I had to be a part of this I didn't know I was going to try to rekindle these memories in front of this whole crowd but here I am doing it thank you for this whole event thank you I'm going to need you to sign the waiver for dropping on the vert Ram you know why post actively hey wait who who wait who who who wait hold on hold on I just want to say one thing um many of you don't know that Christian hosy used to be on the Bones Brigade at one time we sponsored him okay and unfortunately it didn't work out um his father and we we were all still good friends but his father didn't feel like I was moving his career along fast enough and he took him off the team I had an opening for the team as a result of Christian's loss and to make a long story short I filled that opening with Tony haw and so how's that for fate maybe Tony would never have been part of the Bones Brigade had Christian stayed but in all spirit and everything Christian's still part of the boneset he's still part of us so come on up here [Applause] [Music] Chris these guys These Guys these guys skated yesterday the comi bowl and I have to say they actually really love each other and it was so much fun watching them skate together because now now there's it's not competition but it's still pushing each other and appreciating each other so it's wonderful to see it and Christian's always been kind of a brother to all of us hey thank you Stacy thank you guys for uh but uh I do feel like you know Stacy was a huge part of my career for for that time because I turned you know amateur and literally started skating BT and Stacy recognized it and he's like you're GNA ride for us and I got on and I was hanging out with all these guys minus Tony Hawk because he wasn't on yet and then I didn't share the story yesterday but how I got off I wanted to turn pro after I won the Gold Cup I I won the Gold Cup series at my home park I was like Stacy I want to turn Pro and he's like well you're not ready and so I don't think we've ever talked about this so this is a good this is a good moment but Stacy was like I go how long and he goes well it'll be about 2 years and I was like oh definitely I'm going to turn I want to be like the youngest kid to turn pro I want to beat all these Pros I want to skate against cab and I was just had such Zeal to want to like and I was like I can't wait that long and so I got on dog town and then that's when me and Tony were on dog Town together for like a minute and then he got on Powell and then immediately Dogtown went out of business Mike Smith it was Mike Smith me Gator and Tony Hawk on Dogtown and one day Mike Smith comes to the skate park and he's got a Madrid board and he's like Dogtown went out of business and I was like what I had my model I had the graphics my dad drew the graphics and everything I mean this is dog Town Perl Stacy made a movie about z boys in dog town and I came from that I wrote for zlex because of Jay then I rode for Dogtown because of shogo and and all those guys but here I am sitting there and then I had to like I went to get a Dwayne Peters board a a Tracker board I went to hang out with uh a cab in Winchester and I was I got a Tracker ad with a 777 board and then I met Brad Bowman and Brad Bowman was like man you got to ride for Sims and these are these are these people you don't even know how iconic like Stacy Brook obviously you do you're here but for us back then it was like you either knew or you didn't and we happened to be at the right place at the right time and for me to grow up in that time zone with all those people and to have them recognize me like States even him saying I'm part of the Bones Brigade it feels good I tell you I feel like that kid again you know what I mean that's you know accepted that you're validated that you're you're affirmed you know what I mean because I heard it from my my mentors like shogo and Jay and Tony but when Stacy also recognized that and then Brad bman and then Tom Sims I had a meeting with Tom Sims and then two years later here's here's what I'm getting to two years later I turned Pro for Sims so Stacy was correct on the time of me turning pro and I don't think he knows this but that I I always thought about that and said man Stacy was right when I would probably turn pro so I thought I'd mentioned that perfect we're going to let everyone know that we've already raised 150 Grand to the skate Charities of uh that we're doing I I think we're doing three or four guys four okay so this has been very successful we've got a lot more to go today we're going to take a quick break but thank you guys so much this has been a great start thank you thank [Applause] you [Music] e

Channel: Sure Melbourne

Views: 41,757

Keywords: The Sure Store, Melbourne

Id: BaR3S6dZNqI

Length: 77min 2sec (4622 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 22 2023