{"id":55307,"date":"2014-05-01T08:58:36","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T15:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/?p=55307"},"modified":"2022-06-07T19:04:19","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T02:04:19","slug":"todd-prince","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/todd-prince\/","title":{"rendered":"Todd Prince"},"content":{"rendered":"

TODD PRINCE<\/strong><\/p>\n

INTERVIEW & INTRODUCTION BY STEVE OLSON<\/strong><\/p>\n

PHOTO BY TOD SWANK<\/strong><\/p>\n

If it ain\u2019t from Texas…\u00a0Well, it ain\u2019t from Texas…\u00a0Todd Prince is from Texas,\u00a0and you should know it…\u00a0if you don\u2019t, he\u2019ll let you know…\u00a0Skateboarding is a special kinda thing,\u00a0either you get it, or you just don\u2019t…\u00a0Mr. Prince lives for it, since a lil kid…\u00a0it\u2019s in his blood, and he has bled for it,\u00a0maybe more than once, or maybe\u00a0from living the life a skateboarder\u00a0lives, not all, but some… 150 %…\u00a0Some agree, and some just can\u2019t hang…\u00a0And that\u2019s a fact —- JACK…\u00a0Daniels.<\/p>\n

Is Todd there?<\/strong>
\nThis is Todd.<\/p>\n

Todd, this is Steve Olson with the IRS.<\/strong>
\n[Laughs] Yeah, I\u2019m not paying you fuckers!<\/p>\n

Bullshit, we got you. Take him out. What are you doing?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m here.<\/p>\n

You want to get in on a three-way? Let\u2019s go, baby!<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m honored. I\u2019m always down for a three way.<\/p>\n

Of course, you are. Roger, go for Todd. How old are you?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m five and I\u2019m going to be six tomorrow. Copy that?<\/p>\n

Copy that.<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s more than four, Elmore. My name is Todd Prince.<\/p>\n

Where do you come from, Todd?<\/strong>
\nWell, let\u2019s get one thing straight. I was born in Pasadena, Texas, the land of rednecks, oil and gas. It\u2019s the biggest city next to Houston. That\u2019s where I\u2019m from. Pasadena is actually the 13th largest city in Texas. It\u2019s Houston. It\u2019s the same thing.<\/p>\n

How did you ever get into skateboarding?<\/strong>
\nWell, when I was seven years old, my dad bought my brother a skateboard. There\u2019s another one, a big brother kicks the board to the curb and the little brother picks it up.<\/p>\n

Bingo.<\/strong>
\nIt was like a cheesy K-Mart Cal 240. My brother just kicked it to the side of the box of toys and I was like, \u201cHey, this thing is cool.\u201d There was a hill at the end of our street and you could always bomb it. It wasn\u2019t much of a hill since we\u2019re in Texas, but that\u2019s where it all started.<\/p>\n

Were you hooked immediately when you stepped on it, like this is the greatest toy ever?<\/strong>
\nHell yeah. I had so much fun. There was a bunch of people down the street that were surfers. They saw me on the skateboard, and they were like, \u201cHey, let me ride your board.\u201d They would get out there on it and eat shit. I was like, \u201cGet off of it. Let me show you.\u201d We had these driveways that had an incline to it and I was skating those when I was eight years old. I could do kickturns and little Berts as a kid. I was skating down the road and they were like, \u201cHow did you do that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

“Let\u2019s get one thing straight. I was born in Pasadena, Texas, the land of rednecks, oil and gas.”<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What year was this?<\/strong>
\nThis was like 1975. I was just the wild little fucker on the block.<\/p>\n

What did you do before skateboarding for fun, as a little kid?<\/strong>
\nI was blowing up shit and riding BMX and breaking out windows. I was Bart Simpson as a kid. I couldn\u2019t sleep at night if I didn\u2019t break something or do something wrong.<\/p>\n

Did you play sports when you were a little kid?<\/strong>
\nThey got me into recreational baseball, for a year. You know what was rad? The team was called the Little Demons. Go figure.<\/p>\n

[Laughs] How appropriate.<\/strong>
\nIt just didn\u2019t work. I was never one to be in sports. I went to junior high and they wanted me to sign up for football. I remember riding my skateboard to tryouts during the summer. The coach was like, \u201cIf you\u2019re going to be on the team, you can\u2019t ride that skateboard. You\u2019ll break your arm or something.\u201d I was like, \u201cFuck you. My skateboard means more to me than your team, coach. I\u2019m out of here.\u201d I just skated home. I didn\u2019t want any part of it.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re idiots. Whatever. Did you have a bunch of dudes that you were skating with or were you the only kid on the block that skateboarded?<\/strong>
\nThere was a kid named Gene Hare that lived across the street from me. I\u2019m the reason that Gene Hare actually became a pro skateboarder. I had to fight for that kid.<\/p>\n

What do you mean you had to fight for him?<\/strong>
\nIt was because Gene left his skateboard at the ramp one day and this guy Jesse stole it. Gene was too young to stick up for his rights and I figured out who took it and I went and busted into the jam room where Jesse was playing with John Gibson\u2019s band, Stryker. I went over there like a mad bouncer and I was like, \u201cThis is Gene Hare\u2019s board.\u201d It was a Wally Inouye Caster with Gyros, Tracker Trucks and all that shit. I was like, \u201cFuck you, Jesse, for stealing Gene\u2019s board. You\u2019re lucky I don\u2019t beat your ass.\u201d Everyone was like, \u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d I said, \u201cDon\u2019t worry about it.\u201d I skated home three miles down rough streets and knocked on Gene\u2019s door. I was 15 at the time and he was 14. We were just kids. His parents opened the door and I said to him, \u201cGene, don\u2019t ever leave your skateboard unattended at a skate ramp.\u201d I gave it back to him and he just looked at me like, \u201cThanks, bro.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

“MY TRAVELS THROUGH PUNK ROCK AND SKATEBOARDING HAVE MADE ME WHAT I AM TODAY. PUNK ROCK SAVED MY LIFE.”<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Gene became a pro skater after that?<\/strong>
\nGene went on to become one of the baddest and burliest skaters out of Pasadena, Texas. He was one of those guys that didn\u2019t get much recognition, but he killed it. Anyone that you talked to today about Gene Hare, would tell you that the guy rules. The guy did air walks and alley-oops across the Kahuna back in \u201887. Most people couldn\u2019t comprehend what was going on.<\/p>\n

Hey, did he ever make it out to the coast to Cali?<\/strong>
\nActually, he lives in Utah right now. He\u2019s been out there for years with Brian Pennington. They both are from the armpit of America, which is Houston, Texas. If you ain\u2019t pumping\u2019 oil, you ain\u2019t doing shit here. Yeah. Gene is a bad ass.<\/p>\n

When did you start to get proper skateboards? You start off with the toy one, and then you realize you need to get better equipment.<\/strong>
\nThat was when I went from an aluminum Banzai to a Logan Earth Ski with Road Rider 6\u2019s and Bennett AdTracks, which had these plastic plates that would break all the time.<\/p>\n

Oh, yeah. When did that happen for you?<\/strong>
\nIt was around \u201878.<\/p>\n

Did you guys have pools or did you have to build ramps? What kind of stuff were you skating?<\/strong>
\nWhen I was a kid, I built ramps in front of my house. The first ramp I built, I had saved money from cutting grass and I built this shitty quarter pipe.<\/p>\n

\n

“You\u2019ve got 30 drunk, stupid skaters, carrying this fiberglass ramp, and each section weighs about 600 pounds. Out of nowhere, we hear sirens. Everyone was like, \u201cRun!\u201d It turned into total chaos.”<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Was it a real ramp with transition to proper?<\/strong>
\nThe transition was as proper as it got. You do an L shape and just lay it down like a triangle.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I was thinking.<\/strong>
\nI have pictures of me doing a wheeler on a two-foot extension that was only two foot wide. I came home from elementary school one day and some fucker tried to ride his jeep up my ramp and put a hole in it. I was so pissed. I think I even shed a tear.<\/p>\n

It hurts for sure.<\/strong>
\nI threw a rock through his window the next day.<\/p>\n

[Laughs] What other kind of bad stuff did you do as a kid?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t even know where to start.<\/p>\n

Just give me one example.<\/strong>
\nI showed up at the hills where everyone rode BMX and I had an ounce of weed in my pocket and I was like, \u201cHey, you guys want to get high?\u201d They were like, \u201cFuck you, you little punk, you ain\u2019t got no weed.\u201d I was like, \u201cFuck you! I got an ounce right here.\u201d So I busted it out and I had these strawberry flavored EZ Wider rolling papers, and I rolled a joint. They were like, \u201cWhat the fuck? Where are you from?\u201d I said, \u201cDon\u2019t worry about it.\u201d I stole that weed from my dad. My dad was in the Banditos. He was a fuckin\u2019 Bandit. His name was Spike. He was fuckin\u2019 crazy. It was good times.<\/p>\n

Do you think that\u2019s where you get some of it?<\/strong>
\nWell, yeah. I\u2019m the spitting image of my pops.<\/p>\n

So you were raised around bikes?<\/strong>
\nI was born and raised around all that motorcycle gang shit. My dad passed away at an early age, when I was 13. After dad was gone, everything went haywire. John Gibson and Ken Fillion would come by because I lived right behind the high school. We all went to the same high school. There were a bunch of us. It was John Gibson and Ken Fillion. Ken always had a picture in his locker of Brad Bowman doing that famous frontside invert at Del Mar. I used to go, \u201cFuck. Look at Bowman. That is fuckin\u2019 gnarly.\u201d They used to make fun of me like I was some little grommet. During lunch, we were in the same 45-minute lunch session. Johnny and Ken said, \u201cHey, are you that little kid that has that half-ass, half-built fucked up ramp in your backyard?\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cYeah, that\u2019s me.\u201d They said, \u201cDo you want to go with us to the Sandwich Shack?\u201d<\/p>\n

What was the Sandwich Shack?<\/strong>
\nIt was just this little sandwich shop, but we weren\u2019t allowed to leave campus, so we had to sneak off to go smoke weed and all that. That\u2019s where the marriage started with me and John Gibson, Ken Fillion and Troy Chasen, and it just never stopped after that.<\/p>\n

It just kept growing and growing and it\u2019s still going.<\/strong>
\nTo this day, it\u2019s never stopped, the camaraderie and the brotherhood. It really sparked when our local skatepark, Gulf Coast, closed down.<\/p>\n

What did Gulf Coast Skatepark have?<\/strong>
\nIt never had true vert. It was a total flow park, but, to this day, I have dreams about how rad it was.<\/p>\n

You could just go hell on wheels through the whole park?<\/strong>
\nYeah. It was nuts. The park closed down and the two guys that owned it, Cliff and Wayne, one day they just walked in the door and said, \u201cFuck it. We\u2019re closing it.\u201d So they had these fiberglass ramp pieces. We skated the park for a few years until the pump stopped working and the bowl started filling full of water. One day, this guy Joe Nichols, my good friend who is now in prison for life, probably, I love him, we had a meeting at Gibson\u2019s house and we were like, \u201cThis is what\u2019s going on. We\u2019re going to go out there and we\u2019re going to steal that ramp before someone else does.\u201d I\u2019m a little kid, like 14 years old. I was just a grommet. Joe goes and rents a U-Haul and we make the late night exodus. We\u2019re taking that ramp before the BMXers get it. As we\u2019re taking it apart, some BMXer from the neighborhood shows up and realizes what\u2019s going on and he calls the cops.<\/p>\n

What a little bitch.<\/strong>
\nYeah. You\u2019ve got 30 drunk, stupid skaters, carrying this fiberglass ramp, and each section weighs about 600 pounds. Out of nowhere, we hear sirens. Everyone was like, \u201cRun!\u201d It turned into total chaos. Everyone was going left and right. Cops got shoved into bowls full of this murky nasty shit stagnant water. I bailed out because I was on Quaaludes and I was no fuckin\u2019 use. It was like, \u201cGet him out of here.\u201d When the cops showed up, they arrested Gibson and Joe and all the other dudes that were there. They were screaming, \u201cHey, just call Cliff and Wayne. They\u2019ll just give it to us.\u201d The cops called the owners, and they said, \u201cOh, it\u2019s John Gibson and Joe Nichols? Just give the ramp to them. We don\u2019t care about that.\u201d That was the beginning of us bringing out those giant fiberglass pieces. There were eight pieces that would make a 60-foot wide ramp, so we set it up in Fred McMillan\u2019s yard and started the first real backyard skate series. That was the first time I saw Phillips, Craig Johnson and Dan Wilkes. All those Dallas guys came down. Jeff Newtown had organized this backyard skate series and it was fuckin\u2019 amazing. When the ramp was at the skatepark, it was just a U-pipe. We put flat bottom in that thing, so of course we went with 16-foot flat. That didn\u2019t last that long. The people that owned the property made us tear it down and move it to this other place. We moved it to Toby Herrera\u2019s backyard. He\u2019s another good friend. We call him \u201cThe Monster.\u201d We moved the ramp to his backyard and resurrected it once again. That\u2019s when shit got really stupid.<\/p>\n

What year is this?<\/strong>
\nThis is like 1982. Johnny had quit skating after Bill Caster passed away. He just got more involved with his brother\u2019s band, Stryker, and he just dropped out for a year or two. Then we built the ramp and that\u2019s when Jeff Newton called Johnny. Jeff Newton was like, \u201cHey, I need a pro skater for Zorlac.\u201d He wanted to resurrect Zorlac to what it used to be a few years before.<\/p>\n

What was Zorlac before? Tell me.<\/strong>
\nZorlac was something that Jeff Newton created and Craig Johnson, Jeff Phillips, Dan Wilkes and everyone rode for Zorlac. You weren\u2019t shit unless you rode for Zorlac. So anyway, we got our ramp built and we\u2019re all getting better and better, but Johnny is the guy that\u2019s killing it. This is when skateboarding was dormant, but there was still Whittier. I remember Johnny coming over in high school, before school, and we\u2019d smoke mad weed. Johnny said, \u201cNewton called me and asked me to go pro for Zorlac.\u201d I looked at Johnny and I said, \u201cBill\u2019s dead. There\u2019s no more Caster. You have loyalty to Wally and Chris. You\u2019re their boy, but you have to go on. Go pro.\u201d When Newton got the green light to do Johnny\u2019s graphics, the crazy demon skulls and all that shit, it was pretty radical. I can\u2019t believe John came to me for advice. I was like, \u201cJohnny, do it. Go for it.\u201d And he did. He flew his ass out to the Whittier contest and got eighth place out of 13 pros or whatever.<\/p>\n

I remember. I judged that contest. It was happening.<\/strong>
\nWell, Gibson comes back and his eyes are just on fire. He\u2019s like, \u201cDude, I can\u2019t believe it. Neil was doing frontside airs and instead of grabbing this way, he was grabbing that way. They call them lien airs, and Christian is doing these crazy sideways footplants, but instead of doing them this way, he\u2019s doing them like this and they\u2019re calling them bonelesses.\u201d Everything was different. Johnny was on fire. It didn\u2019t take him long to kick it up a notch and he was killing it. It was just unbelievable. We all looked up to Johnny. All we rode as kids were Caster Inouye or Caster Strople with Gyros and Tracker Trucks. We didn\u2019t have dick.<\/p>\n

Why not?<\/strong>
\nWe were poor. We\u2019re from Pasadena. We didn\u2019t have any money. We didn\u2019t have anything. All those guys from Dallas would come down with their fancy pads on, like Craig, and they looked like futuristic soldiers ready to go fight a war. They looked like a bunch of robots. It was probably like what you went through with the Nor Cal versus So Cal type of shit. We had the same kind of vibe going on here.<\/p>\n

\n

“Zorlac was something that Jeff Newton created and Craig Johnson, Jeff Phillips, Dan Wilkes and everyone rode for Zorlac. You weren\u2019t shit unless you rode for Zorlac.”<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, but there wasn\u2019t so much of that. It was more hype.<\/strong>
\nYeah, but you always have to be proud of where you\u2019re from.<\/p>\n

Well, I had pride because I always skateboarded with other people, no matter where the fuck they were from. Johnny was the baddest. I knew Johnny when he first came out here. He was Tex. It was like, \u201cLook at this little kid, ginger ripper from Texas.\u201d I did time with Tex because he was with Strople and Wally. That thing was going on and the whole time there\u2019s this little kid from Texas, which was Johnny. So modern day gladiator uniform warriors come down from Dallas, Craig and Phillips, and whoever else.<\/strong>
\nYeah. God bless \u2018em. We all loved Jeff and we all know what he did. He was everyone\u2019s everything. I remember Jeff saying, \u201cGod, I just want to beat Gibson some day.\u201d He finally got his someday because he worked his ass off. I remember asking Johnny about it and he was like, \u201cThis guy came from under the ground. I don\u2019t know where this guy came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was cool because it wasn\u2019t just dudes in California. Guys were ripping all over the country and all over the world. It finally started to disperse and go out everywhere. I liked it when other cats would come in. It was sick for me.<\/strong>
\nOh, yeah. My greatest day\u2026 I was one of those guys that never asked to be sponsored. I just skated. If you didn\u2019t have a good video part\u2026<\/p>\n

I have no idea about the video thing. I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to have to make a video part. That was after my time. Did you have a video part together?<\/strong>
\nNo. There was no fuckin\u2019 video involved. I remember coming home from skating Parker Pool, this badass pool here in Houston that everyone knows about. It was where you divide the men from the boys. By then, we were getting the ramp transferred to my backyard.<\/p>\n

\n

“THERE WAS THAT TIME FRED SMITH AND JIM MURPHY PULLED UP IN FREDDIE\u2019S LITTLE CAR. THEY DROVE FROM THE EAST COAST IN THE TOYOTA WITH THE \u201cLOUD ONES\u201d LOGO PAINTED ON THE SIDE. IT WAS THE RADDEST SHIT EVER.”<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Oh really?<\/strong>
\nYeah. I was always the first one to jump in the car with my old buddy, Joe Nichols, and go skate all over town. I remember coming home and everyone came running out of the gate and everyone was like, \u201cYou\u2019re sponsored!\u201d I was like, \u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d They said, \u201cJeff Newton called and he wants you to ride for Zorlac.\u201d He talked to your mom and she said it was a go. I was like, \u201cFuckin\u2019 A!\u201d<\/p>\n

[Laughs] I love that. So you got sponsored from a phone call from Newton?<\/strong>
\nYeah. I broke my leg a year prior at the Clown Ramp. I sat there and watched all my closest friends get sponsored at that contest. Troy got sponsored by Sims, and Ken got sponsored by G&S. Blah, blah. I was like, \u201cFuck. I guess I missed the cut.\u201d<\/p>\n

You did make the cut, eventually.<\/strong>
\nRiding for Zorlac was one of the greatest fuckin\u2019 things I ever did.<\/p>\n

Tell me why.<\/strong>
\nAt that time, we were like the Oakland Raiders of skateboarding. We didn\u2019t give a fuck.<\/p>\n

I love that.<\/strong>
\nZorlac was the punkest fuckin\u2019 company. It\u2019s sad that it isn\u2019t still there today.<\/p>\n

FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, ORDER ISSUE #72 BY CLICKING HERE\u2026<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Todd<\/a>\"Todd<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TODD PRINCE INTERVIEW & INTRODUCTION BY STEVE OLSON PHOTO BY TOD SWANK If it ain\u2019t from Texas…\u00a0Well, it ain\u2019t from Texas…\u00a0Todd Prince is from Texas,\u00a0and you should know it…\u00a0if you don\u2019t, he\u2019ll let you know…\u00a0Skateboarding is a special kinda thing,\u00a0either you get it, or you just don\u2019t…\u00a0Mr. Prince lives for it, since a lil kid…\u00a0it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4028,4041],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-skate-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/TODDPRINCE-1-2.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55307"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89523,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55307\/revisions\/89523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}