185had an eight stair at the end of it. I thought
that I could maybe do this shit. I pushed at it
a couple times and knew I definitely had it.
When I was skating it, I didn’t have the thought
that I always had when I was 20, which was,
Here I go, forced to do another skate trick or time
to produce. I just thought it was funny I would
be the guy to do this ollie that no one had
done. I’m going to do this because it is fucking
awesome. Sure enough, I did it and some
people gave me props later on telling me that it
was gnarly and that I was not the one they had
thought would do it.
So your perspective has been skewed but
in a good way.
Yeah. At 20, what I was trying to do was to
surprise myself. I was always interested in
the element of surprise, in whatever domain
you’re in. It’s the most fun thing. It can apply
even when you’re hanging out with someone
new for the first time—it’s the surprise that
really makes you like them. Back then, my
idea of surprising myself was to do the most
difficult thing I could and to do it in a good
way, at a cool spot. That interaction was only
a two-way dynamic. It was me versus skate
history. Now with the career I’m working with,
it’s me versus me versus skating. It’s more
complex and I have made it to a different kind
of experience in a skate career. It was always
there but I never noticed it. Not that I’m
looking for it anymore—I still can’t think of
people that are good examples of switching it
up. There are people that have gone sober and
started killing it again. Maybe Bob Burnquist—
he came in hard to the scene in the early
2000s. I think there was a dry spell after but
then he started going off again.
Well, I think someone that completely
reinvented themselves is Auby Taylor.
Oh, really?He was a gnarly street guy but now he’s a
psycho vert guy. I saw him in Texas and
he can fakie air eight-feet up.
Wow, let me look this up. This is gnarly. This
part came out four years ago when I wasn’twatching skating at all. I watch a lot now but I
haven’t seen this yet.What part are you watching?
Auby’s World.
So he used to be a big jumper.
Holy shit. Nollie heel crook MACBA from
really far back.
He changed his whole shit up. I’m not
sure why but he stopped jumping and
start skating vert. I think he put in a
ton of work and now he can send it
to the sky. It’s kind of like how Ishod
started skating transition but a full
transformation. He doesn’t touch
street and fully rides an ’80s board and
everything.
Now that I’ve looked him up—wow. I like
the photo of him at Vert Attack in Malmö. It
really shows him as someone who completely
belongs in that type of skating. He’s a good
example of someone working with their
history. What I really want to do, however, is
keep little parts of my past. I used to skate
stairs a ton and like anyone else, I’m 26 and
stopped doing so. I heard someone try to
categorize me as someone who is a ten-stairs-
and-under kind of guy.
Well, are you?
He told me that I wasn’t going to kickflip a 12
stair but he liked me for that. I was thinking,
What are you fucking talking about? That
wouldn’t be a good enough trick but I can do it.
I think you should go do yourself a big ol’
kickflip.
I did.Oh, really?
Yeah, it was an eight stair off of a ledge with a
gap in between the two. I never kickflipped a
straight 12 but that guy, along with everyone
that didn’t think I was going to skate that
gap, was just making assumptions that were
so clear to everyone else except me. I didn’t
have to do it. No one was forcing me and I
RUBIO didn’t need that guy’s approval. However, I