Bones just dropped an absolute banger video part featuring Liam Pace, all-terrain skate warrior. Liam chose the most sketchy and dangerous terrain for his canvas and every line and trick he did was straight gnarly. He epitomizes the ethos of “Skate everything.” Whether it’s an insane ditch, big handrail, backyard pool, Mega Ramp, bridge underpass, DIY or just an obscure location, Liam rips it. He is operating on another level when it comes to trick selections while relentlessly pushing the boundaries of what can be done.
Shout out to Jono Sinclair and Jared Lucas for utilizing their editing skills to create such a rad piece of art for us to enjoy. The list of expert filmers including: Josh “Peacock” Henderson, Chris Gregson, Josue Sanchez “Ho Sway”, Eduardo Sanchez, Josh Driksen, CJ Titus, Mike Pompeo, and Jacob Nunez deserve ultimate props for the incredible footage.
The music choice was “Saturday Savior” by the band Failure, which gave it that 90’s feel and added a layer to the level of what Liam was skating. This part will have you watching it more than once to really get a full sense of how gnarly it is. We caught up with Liam for some of his thoughts on making this part and more. Respect…
– Words by Juice Dan Levy
“Years of footage. Countless miles. Broken boards, injuries, flights, late nights. Liam Pace. Filmed by friends. Made with everyone involved. Enjoy.”
LIAM PACE
interview by JUICE DAN LEVY
DAN: Liam! Wassup?! How are you doing, man?
LIAM: Yo, wassup, Dan? I’m doing good. How about yourself?
DAN: I’m doing good. I just watched your insane video part. That 50-50 shuv out on the goalpost was gnarly.
LIAM: Thank you. That was probably one of the scariest things I’ve ever done.
DAN: It was an unexpected shuvit out too because it looks like you were just going to back 50 it.
LIAM: Yeah. We were going there a bunch because Tom was filming his part last year for the SOTY race and I was down to pull up because I’d never really been able to go skate Mega since being an adult. I was just playing around with random tricks and I was like, “This one just might work.” It took a couple of days trying to work it out.
DAN: Everything you did was nuts. What do you consider the biggest challenge you faced in making this video part?
LIAM: The biggest challenge for me making this part would be just filming everything. When I say that, I mean everything because I wanted to show that I like to skate everything from tech street stuff to big rails to parks and pool and vert and being able to get on the Mega. I like skating everything. It was just kind of a challenge finding stuff that I felt showcased that.
DAN: You succeeded.
LIAM: [laughs] Thanks.
DAN: How did you know when it was done? How do you know when to end a video part?
LIAM: I don’t know, honestly. Some of the footage was stuff that I had been sitting on for a decent amount of time. I actually had 7 1/2 minutes of footy and we cut it down to 4 1/2. I just finally felt like I had checked off a bunch of things that I wanted to accomplish for a video part like that. I was like, “I feel satisfied with this. I want to put this out there and start working on the next thing.” If I ever think of tricks that I want to do, I’ll write it down in notes on my phone. There were a bunch of those on my list for a while and I was just trying to film as much as possible at the end of last year and I kinda ticked off most everything on that list. I was finally like, “I feel good about this. I have my ender. I have my trick that I want to open the part. Let’s get this thing going.”
DAN: That’s cool. You book-ended it pretty good. There wasn’t anything in there that was fluff. Everything was a banger. That’s so hard to do. You know how people will put in a line just to fill in.
LIAM: Yeah. I had some of that stuff and we started thinking about song choice and I kinda wanted to go slightly shorter and we took out a bunch of stuff that I felt like was filler. I wanted to keep it a good length but not too short. I didn’t want to have a part that felt like it was dragging on but still had everything.
DAN: Yeah. I don’t think you have to worry about that. It was insane. How did you go about picking Failure for the music?
LIAM: Actually, Jared Lucas was the person who found that song. It was me, him and Jono Sinclair editing it and we were all texting back and forth trying to figure out what kind of song we wanted. I kinda knew that I wanted that late ‘90s alternative style music that would flow good with everything. Jared was like, “I have the perfect song for you.” I was like, “I know that song. That’s perfect.” We decided on it in less than five minutes.
DAN: Sick. What would you consider your nemesis trick in that part that took the longest and really beat you up to get it? There is always one that you’re like, “I’m not going to let this thing conquer me. I’m gonna do it.”
LIAM: I would probably have to say that crook on the 18 where there’s the clip of me slamming into that BMW. I definitely got the most rocked on the slam from the 50 shuv. I got pretty close to it on that crook and I hadn’t skated big rails in a while. A bunch of homies came up to Oceanside and no one had anything they wanted to skate. I was like, “Well, I have this 17 we could go look at.” I ended up feeble-ing that and then I was like, “Oh, I’ve been really wanting to go try to crook this 18 that is really sketchy, but let’s go look at it.” We go over there and I looked at it and I was like, “Oh, what did I get myself into today? I have not skated big rails in so long.” I ended up just trying to warm up and boardslide it and just got scorpioned into that car super bad and bashed my knee into the ground and it was super swollen. I was like, “This car is kinda in the way, but I think I can at least 50-50 it. I got lucky and ended up 50-50-ing it first try. My homie, Ed, who was filming said, “Hey, you said you were going to crook it. You should crook it. You just 50-ed it. Don’t be a baby.” I was like, “Oh, here we go.” I ended up getting smoked on it for I don’t know how long, but it was probably 20 or 30 tries of just piling into the ground or scorpioning into the car. At one point, I was super pissed walking up the stairs and this girl comes out of her apartment and walks past and I was like, “Oh, sorry for yelling. I’m just battling a trick right now.” She was like, “It’s okay.” She ends up being the girl that owns that car and she drives it away, and then the next one worked.
DAN: No way. Wow. That’s sick. You warmed up on a feeble on a 17 too? That’s a huge rail.
LIAM: It was just a random day. I started taking the homies to all of these spots, and it was one of those days where no one was feeling anything. I was like, “I have wanted to get a couple of big rails for this part, so let’s go check out this one.” I’m fired up and I’m feeling it. I ended up breaking a board on the 17, first go. I snapped my tail clean off. I had to drive home and get a new board. I don’t know why I was so excited to skate rails that day. I hadn’t skated anything bigger than a 10 in so long. I was like, “Today is the day. I don’t know why I’m talking myself into this but here we are.”
DAN: That’s so great. What do you have to say to yourself to talk yourself into it?
LIAM: I don’t think it was anything specific. It’s usually skating and having a good time with the homies and we are all having fun and skating and that’s what pushes me. Every once in a while, I don’t care if anyone else is fired up, I’m just like, “Let’s go!”
DAN: That’s the best. Let’s go back for a second. Not everybody can include a Mega Ramp in their part. How often do you skate the Mega and what was it like the first time you actually skated one?
LIAM: Before the end of last year, the last time I skated a full size Mega, I was ten years old.
DAN: Whoa.
LIAM: Yeah. Then we were trying to go skate Elliot’s a bunch with the goalpost, but there was a scheduling conflict. It’s Tom’s goalpost and Tom was filming for his part and he was like, “Hey, I don’t know if you want to go skate Mega, but I’m going to take the goalpost to Bob’s and try to get some stuff on it, if you want to pull up. I was like, “Yeah. Let’s do it. Let’s go.” We probably went like 20 times at the end of last year from September through November/December. I can’t remember when Tom did the blunt flip, but we were going 3-5 times per week, as much as we could go. Bob was super down to let us come skate, which was awesome. Before that, I hadn’t really skated Mega for 15 years.
DAN: That’s crazy. Props on that one. Since this is a quick interview focusing on your Bones video part, what were you hoping to accomplish with this video part and what kind of impact are you hoping it has?
LIAM: I would say that the thing that I wanted to accomplish with this video part was showing everyone that I like to skate everything and I’m not just a transition skater or a street skater or more of a tech skater versus a big rail guy. I like to skate everything. I think the impact that goes along with it is that I think everyone should have fun skating everything. I grew up watching Cardiel skate everything. It didn’t matter what you were skating on, as long as you were skating.
DAN: There it is. Mission accomplished. It’s badass. You really came with it. It’s interesting to see because I know you post stuff on Instagram, but to see all those clips in one part was really good. You can’t front on that. What size wheels do you ride?
LIAM: I just moved up to 56s. I was riding 54s or 55s, but I do this awesome thing where I always forget to switch out stuff so when I was skating Mega last year, I was skating on 53s and pumping my life away every day.
DAN: What?! Those are like the smallest wheels ever for a Mega Ramp.
LIAM: I would keep forgetting to switch out wheels and stuff. I will pull up to the park with a fully gripped ready to go board and totally forget to switch it out the whole session and just be skating on something that definitely needs to be switched out. I just get too fired up when I get to the park or to the spots and I want to go skate.
DAN: That’s priceless. Okay, real quick, if you want to give props to your sponsors, who are they and who do you want to give props to?
LIAM: I would definitely like to give props to my sponsors. They are the ones that keep me going. Of course, props to Bones Wheels, because they just dropped my part, and I very much love them. Shout out to Monster Energy, Madness Skateboards, Independent Trucks, Mob Grip and Bronson Speed Co.
DAN: Sick. Where are you from originally?
LIAM: Tucson, Arizona.
DAN: Tucson, Arizona! That’s so rad. Well, you just put em on the map, dude. I’m super hyped. I’m gonna drop this on the site to go with your video part and then we’ll talk more soon.
LIAM: Of course, thanks for hitting me up, Dan. I’ll talk to you again super soon.