Thrasher – August 2019

183

context clues, personal experience or
look up what you’re trying to say. That’s
the thing about having an open mind
as well, people reading this interview
might think you come off as pretentious,
but it’s just how you are. I don’t think
you should have to change yourself or
the way you explain things just to cater

to a broader audience. Obviously, you

don’t want to be stuck in a box, but

people might now view you more like

an academic than a skater. I think it’s

important to let thoughts like that go.

I agree. I like what you said. One thing

that’s nice about being put in a box is that it

led to me taking the whole idea of skating

differently. Back to that question: have I

reached a different kind of career than the

one I imagined myself to possibly have, one

that would be really boring? I think I have. If

you’re working with your own career, you can

play with it so much, play with expectations.

It is so funny to hear people talk about me

skating contests. It’s a contest—you have

to skate the big rail to get a high score and

everybody knows it. So I was skating the rail

and everyone was freaking out saying, “He’s

only a tech guy; he’s not known as someone

who skates this stuff.” You can do a simple

Internet search and find the rails that I’ve

skated. At the same time, it’s true. I didn’t

skate that many rails but I was, like, Fuck

it, I’m going to do some weird shit. Lately, in

the past two months, I’ve done some of the

gnarliest shit I’ve ever done and I don’t take it

seriously at all. I did this huge ollie at a plaza

in Madrid. Thousands of people have seen it

and a couple people have tried it. Someone

even got really close but they needed a tow-

in. I thought, Fuck it, and I wanted to do it

without a moped. I had ollied a gap in the

recent past that was three feet shorter but

Think less, skate more—autopilot

kickflip backside 5-0

RUBIO

ZASLAVSKY