You all know the dream. Let\u2019s not pretend. I wanna be a rocker, wanna be a roller, I wanna see the world and I wanna get the girl. Well, this guy is doing it all right now! Livin\u2019 the life we dream of and giving the finger to regrets. He skates things most people wouldn\u2019t repel down, even if they had climbing gear. I\u2019ve seen him build guitars out of cigar boxes and jam the music of the gods. He\u2019s got the goods and it shows. This universe favors the bold and Nuge is the Sriracha. \u2013 CHRIS CASEY<\/i><\/p>\n
Hello. Are we all here?<\/strong> Where does it all begin?<\/strong> What do you want me to explain to you? Your life?<\/strong> Okay. Here\u2019s what happened in your life. First, you were a baby, and then, all of a sudden, you were on the road with Volume 4. It\u2019s the shit. The end.<\/strong> Let\u2019s start it off. Is it Donald or Don?<\/strong> Really? That\u2019s pretty cool. Did you get Donny in school a lot?<\/strong> When was your first encounter with the skateboard?<\/strong> A pool hall parking lot.<\/strong> Was this in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, or where were you?<\/strong> The life. [Laughs] So you start rolling around and seeing stuff.<\/strong> And you battled?<\/strong> It was too good. You got the itch.<\/strong> Did they float you a newer board or were they like, \u2018You just keep skating that thing?\u2019<\/strong> \u2018How are you nollie flipping on this nose, Don?\u2019<\/strong> Oh man. How did mom and dad feel about your skateboarding?<\/strong> So you were a saint as a child. Is that what you\u2019re saying?<\/strong> Yeah. Tell me a little bit about your crew from the Oklahomies, as they\u2019re called.<\/strong> TDS stands for\u2026<\/strong> [Laughs] Yes.<\/strong> Who was in the crew? Do you remember?<\/strong> That\u2019s the best. The Omega Man. Just get out there and look out for zombies.<\/strong> I saw a newsclip where they were saying that the tag for the TDS crew was created to keep away other rival skate gangs.<\/strong> No one was battling at the ditch or jousting? You weren\u2019t a jouster, were you?<\/strong> What? Fun time I bet.<\/strong> Sleeping at the Dagger Ditch.<\/strong> Did any park rangers come through while you were burning it up?<\/strong> Clean operation. I like that. So you\u2019re happy having a good time in Oklahoma. Skateboarding is going so good. Did you get sponsored? Did people start sending you stuff or did you just decide to go the California way?<\/strong> That Southern California lifestyle just grabs you.<\/strong> You said that you were never leaving this place and you haven\u2019t. How long has California been your home now?<\/strong> Whew.<\/strong> Time flies by really really fast here. So you\u2019ve gone through the Toy Machine lifestyle. Who was your crew then?<\/strong> Was he one of your idols growing up?<\/strong> Oh my god, Hellrose.<\/strong> That\u2019s where it really got real. Hellrose.<\/strong> You had a full motley crew rolling around there.<\/strong> What was an average day like at Hellrose?<\/strong> What time did you usually get up to go skating each day?<\/strong> Were they fighting you because you were skaters or because they were kooks?<\/strong> You were just trying to live your life. You were just being a skater.<\/strong> What was the first video that you did? Was it for Hollywood?<\/strong> You were a machine. <\/strong> [Laughs] Yeah.<\/strong> Really?<\/strong> Yes! I wish I would have known about that. [Laughs] You\u2019ve been in a lot of videos. You\u2019ve been in a lot of 411\u2019s.<\/strong> Were you stoked on filming?<\/strong> Wow. You\u2019re dedicated. So you\u2019re shooting these videos and having a fun time riding your skateboard and you\u2019re all psyched and, the next thing you know, they want you to be a Lord of Dogtown.<\/strong> I mean you\u2019re out in Oklahoma and, the next thing you know, you\u2019re getting to star in the Lords of Dogtown.<\/strong> How did that come about for you?<\/strong> How rad?<\/strong> That\u2019s pretty sick. Did you ever get to meet Shogo Kubo?<\/strong> FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, ORDER ISSUE #72 BY CLICKING HERE\u2026<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n
\nYes, we\u2019re all here. Where does it start?<\/p>\n
\nWill you explain it to me? Yes. Please.<\/p>\n
\nYeah. Explain it to me. You tell me what happened.<\/p>\n
\n[Laughs] Yes!<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s just Don on the birth certificate.<\/p>\n
\nYeah. I got Donny, and some people called me Donald, but not really. It was just always Don.<\/p>\n
\nIt was on an old Variflex Ramp Rat board in \u201885 or \u201886 at my mom\u2019s pool hall in the parking lot.<\/p>\n
\nYeah. I was skating a manual pad and a parking block in the parking lot pretty much only.<\/p>\n\n
“It was either grow up inside the pool hall or go out and adventure and skate.”<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nIt was Oklahoma City, South Side. The life! [Laughs]<\/p>\n
\nYeah. It was me and my older brother, Danny. He got me started.<\/p>\n
\nNo. He\u2019s five years older. I was just doing what he was doing. He was always doing cool ass shit it seemed like. We started skating and I skated for three years straight and then I stopped for a little bit and then started again in seventh grade and never stopped after that.<\/p>\n
\nYeah. When I came back, seventh grade style, I had a Natas board, from back in the day. It was my old board from years ago. Then I met another group of homies that skated, because my brother had quit.<\/p>\n
\nI skated that for a while and they were like, \u2018Dude, you\u2019re killing it on that thing.\u201d That was just about the time that noses came about and they were like, \u2018You don\u2019t have a nose.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n[Laughs] I still can\u2019t even do those. I still have no nose right now.<\/p>\n
\nThey were cool with it. They were always busy at the pool hall and I\u2019d go there every day pretty much. What could they say? It was either grow up inside the pool hall or go out and adventure and skate. They were super lenient about it. I\u2019ve never been grounded ever. They were just always like, \u201cYeah, whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nWell, I got into some bad shit because my brother got in some bad shit, but I was pretty much mellow and just skated and tried to steer clear of the other path, you know?<\/p>\n
\nYeah, the TDS homies.<\/p>\n
\nThe Death Squad.<\/p>\n
\nThat was back in the day. I don\u2019t know what we were doing. I don\u2019t know what even happened, but we just started making shirts and became this crew.<\/p>\n\n
“Think about it. We were like giant human beings and we were at Stonehenge and we would sit on\u00a0those things like benches. Fools were sitting there rolling dice or something.”<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nYeah. They\u2019re still around. I still talk to them all the time. It was Terry Matthews, Bandit, Dan, Gabe, Billy, Robbie and all kinds of fools. There were so many dudes, like 30 dudes. Everyone that ever came to Oklahoma would stay at that house, and they\u2019d be part of the crew too, like Richie [Belton] and J Roy [Justin Roy]. It was cool. Skating was so fun in Oklahoma back then. We had a little skate house and we\u2019d skate downtown. At night, after 5 o\u2019clock, you could pretty much skate downtown because it was like a ghost town down there.<\/p>\n
\n[Laughs] Yeah.<\/p>\n
\n[Laughs] No. There were no rivals. Everybody that skated was in the crew pretty much. There were only like 30 skaters in Oklahoma. Now there are hundreds. Back then it was a tight little posse.<\/p>\n
\nI have definitely jousted for shits and giggles. We recreated the Dagger ditch scene at the Dagger Ditch one night. It was tight.<\/p>\n
\nYeah. We used to live right down the street from there. We stayed the night at the Dagger Ditch one night.<\/p>\n
\nWe started a fire. It was sick.<\/p>\n
\nNothing. It was all good.<\/p>\n
\nI kind of figured it out when I visited California when I was 17. I came out to visit for a week or so in a Honda Accord with like six people in it. There were dudes sitting across the floorboard and shit. It was insane. We came out here and skated some ramps and the Huntington park and I was like, \u201cThis is the shit!\u201d I went back home and saved a bunch of money. Well, not a bunch\u2026 I saved like $800 and came back. I was like, \u201cWe\u2019re moving to Long Beach!\u201d I moved to Long Beach with some fools, and my $800 was gone the first day for rent to move into a place, and then I was like, \u201cNow what?\u201d I tried to get jobs doing whatever, but I got homesick and broke and went back home. I stayed there for a little while and worked at Best Buy for like two years and saved up another $1,200 and came back again. This time I decided I wasn\u2019t going back again. I was going to stay here and whatever happens happens. I don\u2019t know what happened really, but my first trip, I was on Toy Machine flow, and then I got on Hollywood and it all started from there. I met all these dudes. It was crazy.<\/p>\n
\nI remember that I wanted to move here so that I could skate all year round. Back home it\u2019s cold or rainy a lot of the time. I remember, once I moved out here, I would look out the window every day to see if it was raining. I did that for the first three months and finally, I was like, \u201cIt\u2019s perfect every day. I\u2019m not looking out the window anymore. It\u2019s fuckin\u2019 perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nI\u2019ve been here 14 years now, dude.<\/p>\n
\nThat\u2019s gnarly. It feels like six years or something, you know?<\/p>\n
\nI was living in Huntington, right by the park. I was living with some dudes from Oklahoma and then they moved home. Then I was kicking it with Matt Ball and a bunch of dudes that were kickin\u2019 it in Huntington a lot. Then I don\u2019t know what happened. I was homeless for a little bit, living in my car. Then I went on that trip and got hooked up by Hollywood on that trip. I came home and I started riding for Hollywood and I was living at Markovich\u2019s house. That was rad.<\/p>\n
\nYeah, for sure. That dude is one of the gnarliest. Front shuvits going down hills at full speed, and he was hauling. He took care of me. He took me in, like for real. He fully took me under his wing and let me stay there for free. We skated and he let me live in the guesthouse for like six months. That\u2019s when Rich and everybody moved into our first Hellrose Apt.<\/p>\n
\nThat\u2019s when it all kicked off.<\/p>\n
\nYeah. It was crazy. It was insane. I don\u2019t know how we all ended up in the same apartment building. There were five different apartments in the same complex right next to each other. It was Otvos, Atkin, James Craig, DJ Chavez, J-Roy, Richie and Lizard\u2026<\/p>\n
\nWe were all rolling around Fullerton. Imagine that.<\/p>\n
\nWell, at the Fullerton house, we were just smoking a lot of weed and skating a lot, like all day, every day, filming and shit.<\/p>\n
\nWe\u2019d go skate whenever we\u2019d get up. Usually, it was around noon every day. It was pretty good, seriously. We\u2019d party all the time and skate all the time. It was nuts. It was a sick schedule. We\u2019d wake up and skate all day and play poker and then go to the bar. Then we\u2019d get in a bunch of fights with the meatheads. Then we\u2019d go home and do it all over again the next day.<\/p>\n
\nThey were always picking on us. Maybe it was because it was Fullerton. There were all of these weird dudes that hung out there. It was cool, but there were a lot of long hairs that just didn\u2019t like our kind. They\u2019d say some crazy shit and then we\u2019d have to defend ourselves and they\u2019d just jump us.<\/p>\n
\nYeah. I was smiling right before that.<\/p>\n
\nMy first year, I was living in Huntington and I filmed this part with Mike Stanfield, Filmbot. It was called Amateur, and it got picked up by Hot Skates, the shop. They were flowing all the Toy Machine ams. I was working at Jamba Juice at the time and I\u2019d wake up at five in the morning in Huntington, and then drive to Tustin and work at Jamba Juice. They opened at six. I\u2019d work all day and then I\u2019d get off at two and leave my car in the parking lot. Then this dude would pick me up and we\u2019d skate all day until night, and then he\u2019d drop me back off at my car and I\u2019d drive home. I was doing that every day.<\/p>\n
\nYeah. I used to call Charlie Thomas at Tum Yeto from Jamba Juice. He\u2019d be like, \u201cJamba Juice? What the fuck?\u201d He had caller ID on his phone. I\u2019d be like, \u2018Yeah, dude. Can you send me a box? Just send it to Jamba Juice, care of Don Nguyen.” [Laughs]<\/p>\n
\nHeath Kirchart used to come into that Jamba Juice. I used to see him all the time.<\/p>\n
\nKirchart and Mumford came in one time. A bunch of dudes came in there, and I\u2019d always hook them up with free shit. Who cares? Hot chick. Free Jamba. Heath Kirchart. Free Jamba.<\/p>\n
\nYeah. I filmed a few 411\u2019s and then I filmed for some other shit, and then there was the Hollywood video.<\/p>\n
\nYeah. It was sick. It was really rad the whole time. I love filming and going out and trying to get a trick. It\u2019s the shit. It\u2019s like the best thing you can do. If you get one, it\u2019s the best feeling. You go get a trick and then you go celebrate it and then try it again the next day.<\/p>\n\n
“I\u00a0wouldn\u2019t be here without my homies.”<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n[Laughs] Yeah!<\/p>\n
\nYeah. I don\u2019t even know what was going on.<\/p>\n
\nSome dude was like, \u201cGo to this casting because they need a Shogo.\u201d I was like, \u201cI don\u2019t want to do that.\u201d I was trying to go get tricks, but I couldn\u2019t because I had just had surgery on my knee. I couldn\u2019t skate and I was out for like nine months and this was right at the beginning of it. So I went over there and tried out and I didn\u2019t want to do it, and then they were like, \u201cLet me get this straight. You skate?\u201d I was like, \u201cYeah. I skate.\u201d And they were like, \u201cOkay, you\u2019re it. You\u2019re him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nI swear to god. They said, \u201cSay this line real quick.\u201d I was saying the line and then they just stopped me and said, \u201cOkay. That\u2019s good. You got it. We start filming in three months. We\u2019ll hit you up then.\u201d I was like, \u201cReally?\u201d They said, \u201cYeah. We\u2019ll see you in three months.\u201d It was kind of weird, so I didn\u2019t know if they were for real or not, so I just went on with life. Then they hit me up and they were like, \u201cLet\u2019s go.\u201d It was perfect timing because I\u2019d just had knee surgery so I couldn\u2019t really skate anyway. Doing the movie worked out perfectly because all I could do was skate bowls and pump around and that\u2019s what they wanted me to do anyway. I did that and, as soon as the movie was over, after four months of filming, I was right back to normal. I was skating again and I was right back to it.<\/p>\n
\nYeah, dude. I met him at the tradeshow right after the movie. He came by and said, \u201cHey, I\u2019m Shogo.\u201d I said, \u201cFuck yeah! Let\u2019s go kick it and get a beer or something.\u201d So I left the tradeshow with him and his son and we went back to the hotel room and drank a beer. We just kicked it for a second and it was sick. He gave me a board that was signed and he was like, \u201cI\u2019m stoked you did it.\u201d I was like, \u201cFuck yeah. It was rad.\u201d It was a sick moment.<\/p>\n
![\"Don](\"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/NUGE1-2.jpg\")
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