- Yew! - Yeah boy! Ooh. (laughs) - I was gonna say, bo. Stick with the frontside 5-0, I told you not to go too fast into that back tail. And now look. (laughs) - I need some wax on. - That's why I don't ride. Did you see that slam? - My cousin went to Australia and brought me back a skateboard. And there was a driveway
opposite our house. There was a set of flats and it had a quite wide driveway, it went down the bottom. And so you could turn into the bottom, and it had some poles
there where you park cars. And I'd swerve around
the poles on the board. And I'd go whew, do it all day. It became a problem
because my dad didn't... He thought it was stupid,
skateboarding, you know. It was for kids. He wanted me to be a man. - [Andrew Morrison] I
guess the big picture was there was a handful of skateboarders in New Zealand at that time. There wasn't that many, you know. We used to skate along
the side of the road and we'd get beer bottles thrown at us and they'd yell out, "You
nerds, fuck off home!" And so we had pretty good
comradery because we're like, "Holy shit, there's another skateboarder. What's your name?" and we'd
all hang out and bro down. - Back in the day, he was just an animal. Just the most biggest nerd skateboarder. You're not getting girls if you're that type of skateboarder. - [Lee] I knew I was good because
I could do all the tricks. There was only about
five tricks at the start. I saw some guys couldn't do
it. You know, some of them, my bros, who could tackle me on the field, could hit sixes and shit,
but they couldn't skateboard. You know? And I could. I was like yeah! And I was
getting up to 11 years old and I was like, I'm only a few years
away from being the best. And what other sport -
I would have to fight, I'd have to grow to be 21 years old, to dominate as a man in another sport, but I can have it now, when I'm a kid, you know, claim it! Stand on the throne and just
go that's right, you know. (laughing) - Just this way someone
does a lien to tail, if they don't do it right, then you can just bag them all
night and stuff the way they do their rail grinds and
stuff. Just, I don't know. You got to know what you're
talking about and when you do it's just rad fun, you
just talk all night. - [Lee] My mentor Gregor
was the hardest core skateboarder on earth. And the best. He just totally ruled. I didn't know how much
until he went to America, kicked everyone's asses was over there, then came home and told me that he kicked everyone's
asses over there and said, "You're going to as well." (laughs) He was like, "You're on track, bro." - Yeah. Lee would try a trick and Gregor was like, "That's shit! Do it again!" you know,
and keep doing it until every trick that he was
doing was done to absolute perfection. You know. And um... so that probably helped Lee as well. He had the best guy to
learn from for sure, yeah. - Gregor never really
had his day in the sun. He won a couple of contests. Got hurt. Came back. That was it. - He'd given up skating. He had to because he broke his leg. In those days, they didn't have the
fancy operations like now. He was in a cast up to
here for about nine months. And so he gave up. I couldn't believe it, we argued endlessly over that. He kinda tricked me. He
said, I'm coming to Aussie. And I thought he would skate
again, 'cause he's the best. So he came and all he
did was just teach me. It brings a tear to my
eye that he went that far out of his way to see me through. I went to Aussie in
'86, did that training, slayed everybody in
Australia to absolute death. And that was cool because
being the best rules. If I'd gone straight to America, some guys would have taken me out, I would have had to work my way up. But I went there and there was
some guys who were all right, but they weren't even anywhere
near what we were doing. (guitar playing) The only two things I think
about are skatebaording and playing the guitar. It's striving to do the raddest
things you can think of. It's thinking the things at night... - You actually lie in bed and think of manoeuvres and movements? - It's all I think about, 24 hours a day. - Us going to America's like
going over to a tennis club in America and playing with
Federer and Djokovic. These are the type of dudes
we were skating against, you know, global superstar heroes. And we were all of a
sudden like, oh my God. You know, here we are. - The first thing I did was
kick down the door and say, you don't have to be
from America to kick ass. No one ever in their first contest makes it into the top eight.
It just doesn't happen. And I got in, I think I came
sixth or something like that. (crowd cheering) - So within six months
of Lee arriving in the US he was signed with one of the biggest
skateboard brands in the world. - [Lee] I was signing
my contract for Vision and Michael Hutchence came in and I think he was signing a
contract with them as well. Anthony Kiedis was in there
doing things. So, you know, I was like, yooo! You know, this is it. I'm standing in the room.
They're standing in the room. This is the room. - [Andrew] Here's Lee Ralph. And he's skating against
Tony Hawk and Steve Caballero and Christian Hosoi. And you know, the legends of skateboarding still today. Why he's revered is because
he had a really high level of power, but also did it with
a lot of grace and style. - I wanted my skating to be rock solid, the most rock solid in the
world, to the point where it's like a machine. But also with heaps of
flair and humanity to it, I was straight edge, always straight edge. So never drinking, no drugs, nothing. A lot of the pros smoked weed and drank heaps of piss and that. And they were easy to overtake. The time they're spending doing that. I'm hammering at the ramp. All day. Just getting better and
better and better and better. Sometimes I'd be riding
and just going like, somebody stop me (laughs) 'Cause I'm on fire. - Yo! - Shit one but we're getting there. - It was shit but you are getting there. (laughs) - It was shit. - (laughs) For you. You know, for you. For a lot of other people that'd be the highlight of their day. I was at my peak, just...
I wasn't even at it. I was here, about that close
to it. And it was feeling good, everything was on. My whole life had been
aiming at it and it was on. Nothing could stop it. Then I went to Paris and did
some demonstrations over there and I'm an amateur skater in America. You're not allowed to be pro
because you have to have a green card. I went there as an amateur, so I didn't have a green card.
Didn't bother getting one. Because it's how I roll. I
never think of stuff like that. My sponsors didn't think of
it too. So I went to Paris, came back and I got deported
because they said I was making money. You know. I didn't
go back for 10 years. So that was the end. - I mean, Vision screwed it mate. He would have had a career
that would have got him... But, you know, he didn't care. He's never been bitter about it. And at the end of the day,
what'd Malcolm McLaren say? Never let the public see the band? Never let them see them play? It was kind of like that,
you know what I mean? He became an underground sort of hero. But in saying that that's kind of a little bit of a... yeah, it was just a waste. You know. He had a lot more to offer. - When I was deported from America, I think I was 19. I went to Germany then on
and off between Australia and come and see my mum. Stay in Australia with skaters. That was my lifestyle for maybe 10 years. And then I started drinking and that. Because I was depressed, you know? Yeah. - And when Lee did start partying, he fucking took to it like a bull to red. - It's all you can do,
deny the depression. You know, you don't have any other, I didn't think I had other
options. I was too stupid. So I should've just got a
green card and gone back, you know, but no, that's how I roll. - Lee was never, you know, "Oh I want to be famous" or this and that. He just wanted to skate. - But I got it. I got the
taste of it, you know? And no regrets. 'No regerts',
because it was so much fun. How could I complain? It was mindbending. It's enough to sustain
me through anything. You know? Through whatever. (Birds chirping) (Rooster crowing) (Guitar playing) The property that we're on right
now is where I've moved to. Priorities have shifted a
little bit because I'm not obsessed with skating anymore, but I'm absolutely obsessed with carving and I'm lucky that I am. That's the other claim to fame
that I've got because I went to America, and I'm Māori, and I kicked everyone's asses. And no Māori had ever done that. Not even a Pākehā from New Zealand, which I didn't consider lesser than me, but it hadn't happened. So really, it's a win-win for me. Someone had to come through and represent, and I got to be the one. So that was... that rules. I'm helping here on the farm
to keep the place going. I'm doing some work, which is, you know, I have to do some work
sometime in my life, so this is one of the times. Because I'm Lee Ralph, I haven't had to take one
for the team that often in my life, because people will step up for me. You know, they say "You're Lee Raplh. I will do that." It's the time for me to do it. And it makes it easier for me. I don't get hōhā at the
moment. I walk around the farm pretty happy. The guy's
really cool that I work with. So he cuts me a lot of slack. I'm just getting electrocuted
at every single fence. Like he's kind of, he can't believe it. He's like, I wonder if
he'll ever learn, like (laughs) while I'm holding the fence, I'm like... Somebody stop me! I'm farming too hard! (laughs) ♪ I'm out here rocking in the middle of ♪ ♪ Taranaki mainland. ♪ ♪ I'm here with the crew
from, I don't know where. ♪ ♪ Forgot to ask them their name yeah. ♪ ♪ But we're here, we're
here, we're everywhere ♪ ♪ you're there, I'm here. ♪ Woo! Yee ha! (Laughs)
Loved it, thanks for sharing, would like to learn more About Lee!
Found that the other day too. Was a legend back in the day, in a time when no one was skating between booms, Lee was just fucking ripping.
He was at Bowlzilla last year being treated like a legend. 💫
Sucks about the alcohol. So many people's stories diverted or ruined by that.
Dude wrecked our half pipe back in (maybe)1989 by launching a foot plant into the stratosphere and landing halfway down the transition.
Fucking legend
Don’t worry, we built it back better.
This guy is whack, showed up at my mates place in porirua and jumped on the guitar and started playing tuteramaengaiwi. Pretty crack up dude, fully thought he was homeless until one of the boys gave me the low down. Hes a fucking good skater.
This was great.
Wonder if they did one on Glen Sisarich.
cheers to the op , was a good watch ... what a charecter