{"id":56571,"date":"2016-01-20T12:26:34","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T20:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/?p=56571"},"modified":"2016-01-20T12:26:34","modified_gmt":"2016-01-20T20:26:34","slug":"skate-colorado-tim-mott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/skate-colorado-tim-mott\/","title":{"rendered":"Skate Colorado: Tim Mott"},"content":{"rendered":"

SKATE COLORADO<\/strong>
\nTIM\u00a0MOTT<\/strong>
\nINTERVIEW by\u00a0MERK<\/strong>
\nPHOTOS BY ROB HOOVIS AND COBURN HUFF<\/strong><\/p>\n

What do you get when you mix together epic countryside, friendly skateboarders, 300 days of sun, a strong DIY ethic, a huge backyard scene and municipal skateparks that are second to none? Colorado! Here are just a few of the core people that make it happen in Colorado. We could fill the whole mag, if we were to interview everyone, so sit back and enjoy and then come on out for a visit. \u2013 MERK<\/em><\/p>\n

So we\u2019re doing this Colorado story and I wanted to get your two cents because I know that you contribute quite a bit to the scene. Let\u2019s start off from the beginning. Where are you from and when did you start skating?<\/strong>
\nI grew up down on the Gulf Coast of Florida in Sarasota. At four years old, I got my first skateboard at Maas Brothers.<\/p>\n

When you were four years old, what board were you riding?<\/strong>
\nIt was a Nash 15 Toes and it had non-adjustable roller skate trucks and clay wheels with loose ball bearings. There were a couple of kids in the neighborhood that skateboarded and my brother did. That\u2019s what influenced me to get into it. Living in Sarasota, it was kind of a hippie town and they\u2019ve got an art school there. What caught my bug more than anything else was when I saw this barefoot dude in a pair of cut off jean shorts grabbing hold of the back of a pick-up truck on a longboard that was actually made out of a ski. Seeing that, I was like, \u201cI want to do that forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was in the late \u201870s?<\/strong>
\nThis was around \u201875. By then, skateboarding had really taken control and that was it. From there on out, skateboarding ruined my life. [Laughs]<\/p>\n

Skateboarding saved it and ruined it at the same time. So you\u2019re in Florida skating and coming up during the big bang in the mid \u201880s?<\/strong>
\nWe were skating all over the West Coast of Florida and all of the East Coast ramps, like the Cambodia ramp, the Gainesville ramp, St. Pete\u2019s, Sarasota, Naples, 301, NSD, Naples Skate Drunks\u2026<\/p>\n

Cambodia ramp, I haven\u2019t heard that one in a while. That was a big monster.<\/strong>
\nYeah, and it went through three iterations, as did most of the ramps that were around then. It would start off as a 16-foot wide ramp and then we\u2019d go steal enough plywood to add another eight feet and keep building.<\/p>\n

Florida has always had a good strong scene. You had Kona, Orlando, Daytona and all of these awesome spots, so what brought you out to Colorado?<\/strong>
\nIt was reading Action Now and being exposed to snowboarding. [Laughs] That made me want to try and do it.<\/p>\n

You never rode a snowboard before?<\/strong>
\nI never did, but I wanted to. I\u2019ve been following snowboarding almost as long as I\u2019ve been following skateboarding. I thought it was cool as shit. I even ordered an A-Team snowboard out of Action Now so I could go ride the sand dunes because they had the sandboarding deal in Action Now. I was like, \u201cThe only way I\u2019m going to do it is to pack my things and move to Colorado.\u201d I\u2019m just not the kind of guy that was able to save the money to come out here for three days and spend $4,000. So I packed up my shit in \u201899 and moved to Vail. I had a buddy, Skip, that I grew up skating with in Naples that was living out here. He was like, \u201cCome on out. You have a place to crash.\u201d I spent two years up in the mountains and they already had some parks going on there. I was like, \u201cHell yeah. I\u2019ll live in the mountains and go snowboard and hit these new concrete parks getting built out there.\u201d Then Denver happens and the Vans Park happened and it was like, \u201cIt\u2019s time to move.\u201d<\/p>\n

You came down from Vail to the Front Range. Explain to people what the Front Range of Colorado is so people can get a geographical idea of how the State is split in half.<\/strong>
\nThe State is literally separated by the Rocky Mountains. The Continental Divide runs straight through the middle of the State. It\u2019s pretty flat on the Front Range and, all of a sudden, there are 10,000-foot mountains. It\u2019s absolutely insane. In summertime, it slows up in the mountains, so I ended up hooking up with Murphy Productions and doing the Vans Triple Crown stuff and working for the Vans Park here. It was a no-brainer. We have epic skateparks going on here on the Front Range.<\/p>\n

No doubt. The Vans Park was an epic park, but the pay-to-play thing didn\u2019t pan out.<\/strong>
\nNo. Vans opened and, eight months later, the Denver Park opened and you can\u2019t compete with free.<\/p>\n

When did the Denver City Skatepark open?<\/strong>
\nI think it was 2000 or 2001.<\/p>\n

That was during the explosion of all of these parks that were starting to blow up. That was the first wave. At the time, the Denver City Park was one of the biggest in the entire world, right?<\/strong>
\nAbsolutely. It was the biggest until Louisville got built. The Denver park was 42,000 square feet when it got built. Louisville was 60,000 square feet.<\/p>\n

The Denver Park is epic. My only complaint is the lack of pool coping, but it\u2019s smooth as glass. It\u2019s a fun park to ride.<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s one thing that is amazing about being out in Colorado. There are skateparks everywhere, even in the mountains. A lot of the initial parks, like Salida, Silverthorne, Breck and Crested Butte were funded by Colorado GOCO grants, which is Great Outdoors Colorado. That\u2019s one of the reasons that we have such an amazing skate scene. The state of Colorado puts money into open space and youth activities.<\/p>\n

In Colorado, unbelievable skateparks are popping up like groundhogs. Do the cities just have a more liberal mentality or is there a keeping up with the Joneses type of effect? What do you think it is?<\/strong>
\nI think there is a little bit of both. Towns like La Junta want to keep up with the Joneses. It was the same with Trinidad. The whole reason they built a park was because there\u2019s a competition of who is going to be the biggest small town in Colorado. I think, more than anything else, it\u2019s a bit more liberal-minded. Just about everyone in Colorado does some kind of activity, whether it\u2019s mountain biking, or rock climbing. There are 70-year-old dudes up on the mountains on skis, so no one thinks about the liability because everyone is doing some kind of activity that could kill them. Even the Frisbee golf guys go out and advocate to have stuff built. That\u2019s what the skateboarders have done here. They\u2019ve taken it into their own hands. Crested Butte was James Hedrick and a bunch of the original Burnside dudes. They approached the city and made it happen. It\u2019s great that there are these kinds of activities out here and I think the cities just kind of go, \u201cSure. Let\u2019s do this. It makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has a lot to do with a firm showing of people who are willing to stand up and show them what needs to be done and guide them along the way. Aside from all the epic public skateparks, there is a huge DIY aspect here as well. How many backyard pools are there on the Front Range built for skateboarding?<\/strong>
\nYou don\u2019t even have to hop fences to skateboard illegally because everyone has a pool in their backyard. It\u2019s gotten kind of ironic. I will go work on a park and volunteer and I will skate it the entire time it\u2019s being built but, as soon as that thing opens, I\u2019m back in the backyards.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re either building or we know people who are building, so we skate the bowls first. Once it\u2019s open, there are too many kids with scooters.<\/strong>
\nExactly. I think that\u2019s prevalent not just in Colorado. It\u2019s pretty amazing that we have six backyards that are poured in place concrete with pool coping, besides the epic backyard structure at Jerry\u2019s. It\u2019s absolutely insane. The reason is that we all grew up skating backyards and now that we\u2019ve figured out how to work with concrete, why build a ramp? I absolutely love a backyard ramp but, if you own a home and you\u2019re putting it in as an investment, per square foot, you can\u2019t beat concrete. It\u2019s like, \u201cLet\u2019s build a bowl. Let\u2019s build what they\u2019re not building in the skateparks like backyard pools or really big gnarly bowls.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing that struck me the most when I moved here is the friendliness of the people. What do you think it is that makes people so friendly and welcoming?<\/strong>
\nThat has a lot to do with the majority of the people here aren\u2019t from here. We\u2019re all from other places in the country. There is a Michigan contingent and a Virginia contingent. We chose to be here because of the lifestyle and because there is snowboarding and it\u2019s pretty liberal on the Front Range. We all want to be here. We didn\u2019t want to go to California. We didn\u2019t want to try and go be big. We just wanted to be. We just wanted to have positive people to skate with. When I moved out here to snowboard, I found skateboard mecca.<\/p>\n

What is the biggest misconception about Colorado?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s that we\u2019re all snowboarders or hippies.<\/p>\n

What do you think is the best and worst part about Colorado?<\/strong>
\nThe worst part is not having a beach. Growing up on the coast of Florida, you get used to a large body of water. Living here, if the mountains were the ocean, it would be epic. For me, the best part of moving here was meeting a whole other world of skateboarders who are in my age bracket and peer group. I\u2019ve never skated with so many people that are the same age as me, even though we\u2019ve traveled the States. In Florida, we\u2019d drive six hours just to ride a 16-foot wide vert ramp. Colorado is like a retirement home for old East Coast skaters. Even in California, I\u2019ve never seen as many people on skateboards as I have seen here.<\/p>\n

What is your favorite part of Colorado?<\/strong>
\nThe mountains are beautiful, but I love the backyards and the friendliness and the good people.<\/p>\n

What is your favorite spot to skate here?<\/strong>
\nMy backyard. [Laughs] It\u2019s kind of a retirement bowl, but it can be as gnarly as you want it to be or as mellow as you want it to be.\u00a0It\u2019s 7-foot with 7-foot trannies in the deep end with a 9-foot top radius. It has about 2 feet of flat bottom in the deep end, so it\u2019s very pool-like. The shallow end is 4 feet deep with 6-foot trannies, so it\u2019s a little whippy and a perfect little mini ramp with two square corners in it. It\u2019s something that you will be able rip ride all your life.<\/p>\n

What were your costs and concerns going into building the bowl? Did you do a call with the city and find out about liabilities or did you just dig it?<\/strong>
\nActually, I will start with the Egg House because that was the same. We rented this house with a one-car garage and a dirt floor. One night at the bar, we were doing shots and we were like, \u201cWe can either bowl in the ramp or we can build a bowl in a one-car garage. Let\u2019s build a bowl in a one-car garage.\u201d After that night drinking at the bar, we woke up and started digging. It was kind of funny. We made the choice wasted, but we started digging sober. Now that we have our new house, a ripping guy, Joe Hernandez, moved into the joint and dug the bowl back out after we moved out.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about the bowl at your new house.<\/strong>
\nWe looked for a house that didn\u2019t back up to anybody and had a nice quiet facade from the exterior. I figured out the shape and then arranged to have 15 roll-off dumpsters come one hour a piece on a Saturday. I rented a mini excavator and a Bobcat and ran the entire thing in a day and a half.<\/p>\n

Do you think one of the reasons there are so many great backyard pools at everyone\u2019s house is because of all of the skatepark builders that live here?<\/strong>
\nAbsolutely. \u201cTeam Grindland\u201d built our bowl. You couldn\u2019t pay to have that crew. I\u2019m so grateful to Shaggy and James for all of the guidance and help. Without those two guys, it wouldn\u2019t have happened. I would be hand-stacking that shit, and that is a whole other story.<\/p>\n

With all of that said and done, tell me a little bit about Bad Egg, the zine that you and your wife, Ashley, do. Do you think the art of the zine is being lost with the Internet takeover?<\/strong>
\nI think possibly it is being lost. That\u2019s one of the reasons that I was into the idea. Ash was like, \u201cWe should do one for Colorado. We haven\u2019t seen any zines out here and we have such a great scene. Let\u2019s make a zine about it.\u201d We produced the first issue and, luckily, we got some amazingly good people to take photographs of.<\/p>\n

Who do you think contributes the most to the skate scene in Colorado?<\/strong>
\nI have to give props, first and foremost, to Bruce Adams. Cedar Crest, hell yeah! That\u2019s another reason this place is so amazing. It\u2019s directly related to him. Secondly, I have to give it up to Caleb Moore and Terrill for building the Humbler. Before I even moved here, I remember seeing photos of the Humbler, which was basically an above ground wooden pool. I was like, \u201cHoly shit. Look at that thing.\u201d Props to the entire Arvada Army: Jeff Wastell, Dave Tuck (R.I.P.), Jerry Hahn, and on and on. It is just amazing. We have some guys up in the mountains that really hold it down as well. It\u2019s phenomenal and we love everybody in this scene. I think everybody brings something to the table, just like any other place but for some reason we just have a vast majority.<\/p>\n

Everyone contributes. If you can\u2019t help build it, at least bring the beer and lend a hand.<\/strong>
\nI have to really give my wife a lot of props for everything she does. She has been all over this state making sure that our skateparks are built by skateboarders for skateboarders. She is the one that goes to all the city council meetings that no one wants to go to and what she does is amazing.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how she does it. It\u2019s tireless work. That\u2019s how this stuff gets built. We all should say thanks to Ashley and the CCPS. Mott, it\u2019s been really good talking to you.<\/strong>
\nYou too. Thanks, Merk.<\/p>\n

FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, ORDER ISSUE #73 AT THE JUICE SHOP\u2026<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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SKATE COLORADO TIM\u00a0MOTT INTERVIEW by\u00a0MERK PHOTOS BY ROB HOOVIS AND COBURN HUFF What do you get when you mix together epic countryside, friendly skateboarders, 300 days of sun, a strong DIY ethic, a huge backyard scene and municipal skateparks that are second to none? Colorado! Here are just a few of the core people that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56572,"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":[4027,4028,4041],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-interviews","category-skate-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SKATECOLORADO7-8.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56571","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=56571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56579,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56571\/revisions\/56579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}