{"id":56583,"date":"2016-02-26T08:26:19","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T16:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/?p=56583"},"modified":"2017-05-11T12:45:10","modified_gmt":"2017-05-11T19:45:10","slug":"sonny-rodriguez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/sonny-rodriguez\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonny Rodriguez"},"content":{"rendered":"

SONNY RODRIGUEZ<\/strong>
\n INTERVIEW BY DAN LEVY<\/strong>
\n PHOTOS BY MRZ AND DAN LEVY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sonny is one of those skaters who rides with full intent and is driven by conquering terrain that most skaters would look at as impossible to ride, yet for him is only there to provide the opportunity for new lines. He does not give up until he rides away and his victory is something he celebrates with valor. Sonny is one cool cat and his sarcasm is somehow engaging and not offensive and he knows how to make fun out of life. He is not afraid to work hard to get what he wants, which is perhaps an inheritance from his father who is one of the most legendary hot rod builders of modern time. In what will soon be a familiar name in skateboarding, we are proud to present, Sonny Rodriguez. \u2013 WORDS BY DAN LEVY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Where were you born?<\/strong>
\nFullerton, CA. November 2nd, 1998.<\/p>\n

What got you into skateboarding?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve always been skating. My mom has pictures of me skateboarding before I can even remember.<\/p>\n

Was this before you were walking?<\/strong>
\n[Laughs] No. It was probably when I was four or five.<\/p>\n

What is your earliest memory of skating?<\/strong>
\nI remember my parents taking me to Indy park. That\u2019s the local park that I skate, the Fullerton Skatepark. I just remember going there when I was really little. I didn\u2019t even know how to skate yet. I was just gooning it, like a little kid. I was just into it. I was hyped on Dogtown and stuff like that.<\/p>\n

Does anyone in your family skate?<\/strong>
\nNo. I\u2019m the only one in my family that actually does skate.<\/p>\n

How many siblings do you have?<\/strong>
\nI have one older brother. He\u2019s a year and a half older than me.<\/p>\n

I know your dad is into the hot rod thing, but you didn\u2019t get into that?<\/strong>
\nIt never really interested me. I\u2019d rather be out running the streets skating.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favorite stuff to skate?<\/strong>
\nI like to skate backyard pools, DIYs, ditches or anything that\u2019s out of the way. I mostly skate pools.<\/p>\n

Do you like to build stuff?<\/strong>
\nYeah. The first thing I ever built was Salamander\u2019s and then the homies and I made a little ditch spot.<\/p>\n

Tell me about growing up. Did your parents support your skateboarding?<\/strong>
\nAt first, not really. They just didn\u2019t think anything of it.<\/p>\n

Tell everyone about your dad.<\/strong>
\nMy dad was born and raised in La Habra and he grew up broke. He started building hot rods and VW\u2019s and Karmann Ghia\u2019s and all that and now he owns his own business and he\u2019s one of the top ten hot rodders in the world. They\u2019ve written books about him and stuff. He came from pretty much nothing and made a big name for himself, so that inspired me through life and helped me out. It\u2019s like skating. You start from zero and work your way up to where you are.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s rad. Do you know how to work on cars?<\/strong>
\nIn my garage, we work on our dirt bikes and build stuff. I know my way around stuff.<\/p>\n

What do you want to do after high school?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t know, maybe concrete.<\/p>\n

You want to be a skatepark builder?<\/strong>
\nYeah. That would be pretty cool. I already know my way around concrete a little bit. It\u2019s pretty cool and it involves skating. Even if skateboarding doesn\u2019t work out, I can still do concrete and build things.<\/p>\n

I know you built stuff at Butler\u2019s and you helped at Salamander\u2019s.<\/strong>
\nI helped a tiny bit at Salamander\u2019s. Ben Butler has been teaching me how to build with concrete. When he builds, I go over there and he tells me what to do and I pretty much handle it, like troweling and all that good stuff.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s rad. Who are your favorite skaters that you look up to?<\/strong>
\nWhen I first started skating, I looked up to Cardiel and Tony Trujillo and all the Anti-Hero dudes like Frank Gerwer. I thought they were all tight. I was super hyped watching their videos before I\u2019d go out and skate. I like all the Creature dudes too. I like the Overlord crew, like Navarrette.<\/p>\n

Do you skate vert at all?<\/strong>
\nThe only vert I ever skated was probably the combi. That\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n

What about street stuff?<\/strong>
\nA lot of my friends are street skaters, so I\u2019ll go out and skate street and mess around and try to hit little baby rails. Every once in a while, I\u2019ll throw myself down a set, no more than ten stairs.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the worst slam you\u2019ve ever taken?<\/strong>
\nAt Chino, I dislocated my wrist, like hand on top of my arm, all bad, and it was a 40-minute drive back. They drove me to my house while my arm bones were inside my palm. It was the worst pain in my life. I couldn\u2019t even cry. I felt like I was going to throw up. I got to my pad and my parents drove me to the hospital and I had to wait there for another hour. Then they brought out this huge needle and stuck it all the way into my arm twice. After that, they put me in a medically induced K-hole with Ketamine. I had an extremely bad trip. Everything went black and I started seeing shit that I never thought I\u2019d see. They said I was still screaming in my outer body experience because my body was still reacting to them pulling my arm back. I can\u2019t even explain it. For a whole year after that, I couldn\u2019t even think straight. Every decision I made was just different. I didn\u2019t really feel like myself for a long time after that. Even my skating was messed up. Every single thing you do, you think about something horrible happening and you see it vividly in your head.<\/p>\n

Whoa. That\u2019s trippy. Are you afraid of hospitals now?<\/strong>
\nNo, not really. As far as how bad things go, that was at the top. It could be the worst. I already got that over. A couple of summers ago I rolled my ankle and thought I broke it and I wasn\u2019t even tripping that hard because I\u2019d already been through the same thing but way worse.<\/p>\n

What a crazy experience. When I skate with you, you do some pretty insane shit, but you never seem to lose your cool. What do you think keeps you so mellow, but makes you just kill it?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t know. If I\u2019m trying to film a trick or something, I\u2019m pretty hyped on it, depending on what it is. After doing it so many times, sometimes I\u2019ll just get over it, but I just want to land at least one. Then I\u2019ll land it one time and then after that it will be like, \u201cOkay, cool. I already landed it. I already know what the whole trick is like so I can knock a couple more out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once you get it, you get it. What do you think is more important, style or tricks?<\/strong>
\nWell, anyone over time can learn tricks, but style is your whole lifetime of skating. That\u2019s what your style is and what it represents. Kids put on pads and their dads push them down a fat vert ramp and they learn tricks, but they never get style. They\u2019re just learning. They\u2019re not adventuring out and going skating and doing their own thing. I feel like style is something that comes to you on your own. It\u2019s what you do on your skateboard. It\u2019s not pushed on you by somebody else.<\/p>\n

What is a typical day like in the life of Sonny on the weekend?<\/strong>
\nI wake up kinda late and I check my phone to see if anyone hit me up or I\u2019ll hit somebody up to go skate or I\u2019ll go hang out with my friends.<\/p>\n

What do you think about school?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s pretty whack, but it\u2019s cool to go socialize with people, besides at the skatepark.<\/p>\n

You do good in school though.<\/strong>
\nYeah. I try. I\u2019m pretty smart and all, but I have a hard time doing my work. I can\u2019t really sit down and read a book. I\u2019ll be at home and I\u2019ll just want to go to the skatepark.<\/p>\n

Who are your favorite people to skate with? What\u2019s your crew?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s most of the homies at the skatepark. During the summer, we\u2019ll show up late afternoon and there\u2019s already like 20+ homies there, like Fullerton locals. I just hit them up and say, \u201cDo you want to go skate? Let\u2019s go somewhere or do a night session. I got $5 on gas.\u201d We\u2019ll just go shred and kick it and eat and do whatever.<\/p>\n

What is your favorite place, outside of Fullerton, to skate?<\/strong>
\nI have to say, hands-down, Washington Street. I\u2019ve only been there twice, but both times were just great. It\u2019s fun. It\u2019s like San Pedro on steroids. I like San Pedro too. I like DIY\u2019s.<\/p>\n

You like to travel and find stuff to skate. Is that one of your favorite parts about skating?<\/strong>
\nYeah. Last summer, we used to go skate the river beds. We\u2019d hit up the homies and half the time we weren\u2019t even skating. We were just finding new places and skating new spots. I hit up Google Earth and wrote down a list of addresses for pools. It\u2019s pretty cool. I have a tight crew. A lot of people that I know are kind of like loudmouths, so I wouldn\u2019t invite them. They get all butt hurt and stop kicking it with me, but that\u2019s what I have to do.<\/p>\n

[Laughs] That\u2019s been happening since the \u201870s for everyone that\u2019s been skating pools. You can\u2019t blow out the spots.<\/strong>
\nYeah. Out of all my friends, I have five people that I kick it with on the regular that I would take to hit a new pool I found. I had this pool down the street from my house that was not good at all. It was an Anthony cancer square, so I would take my homies there. I would be like, \u201cI got this pool. Don\u2019t say shit. Let\u2019s just go skate it.\u201d We\u2019d go skate it and I\u2019d wait a week. I wouldn\u2019t really take them to any other pools for a whole week. I\u2019d just wait. If I heard one little thing about them going back, even if it was a chill time to go back\u2026 if they went back and didn\u2019t hit me up, they were cut automatically. I\u2019ve done that with a few homies. It was kind of like a little test. That\u2019s the only way I figured out that I could find people that I could trust to keep things a secret, not be like, \u201cOh, let\u2019s go late afternoon and smoke weed in the backyard and make a bunch of noise and break shit.\u201d<\/p>\n

So you\u2019re like a general. You\u2019re like the leader of the pack. What kind of music do you like?<\/strong>
\nI like punk rock and old school rock and death metal. I like Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies, Reagan Youth, Black Flag, D.R.I. and all that good shit.<\/p>\n

Do you skate to music?<\/strong>
\nI used to skate to music, but now I just love the sound of my board. I like revert skating every trick. I like to hear it. Listening to my board helps me out. If I know I\u2019m not in full control, I can hear it when I\u2019m reverting on my board, when I pull out of something.<\/p>\n

You can hear the way your wheels are sliding and you know when to lay off on pressure.<\/strong>
\nYeah. If you land something sketchy, you can hear your wheels kinda fishtailing out. When you land something and you hear that slide, you know it\u2019s just not on point.<\/p>\n

Do you ever play music?<\/strong>
\nI started playing the guitar a little bit and then I just got over it. I have a guitar and sometimes I\u2019ll get all into it and play it for like a week and then just give up.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your absolute favorite thing about skateboarding?<\/strong>
\nBeing free. It\u2019s not like team sports. You just do it on your own. At the same time, you\u2019re with all your homies that are hyping you up and you\u2019re hyping them up. I like to learn new things and go to new places.<\/p>\n

In your dream skate sesh, who would be there and where would you be?<\/strong>
\nIt would have to be Navarrette and Lance Mountain and probably John Lucero too, and Cardiel, Tony Trujillo and Frank Gerwer at a backyard pool, all random. It would be like, \u201cOh, what? You\u2019re here. That\u2019s what\u2019s up. Just session.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone just happens to be there. What\u2019s your favorite pool shape?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019d probably say a left kidney. Most of the kidneys that I\u2019ve ever skated have been left-handed and they seem to be the easiest for regular. I\u2019ve only skated a couple of right-handed kidneys and they\u2019re okay, but it wasn\u2019t really happening for me.<\/p>\n

Do you prefer frontside stuff or backside stuff?<\/strong>
\nI suck at backside. I can barely back D, I can barely back 50. I can do backside grinds. I pretty much don\u2019t have much backside.<\/p>\n

Well, you\u2019ve got backside wall rides in full pipes.<\/strong>
\n[Laughs] Yeah. I guess I do. I just learn everything frontside, so I\u2019m pretty hyped on the frontside thing.<\/p>\n

What else do you do besides skate? Do you have any other interests?<\/strong>
\nI like guns. [Laughs] I have a couple of guns and I like to go shoot. It\u2019s fun blowing shit up. I like to shoot my 12-gauge. I\u2019ve been riding dirt bikes my whole life. It\u2019s fun to ride with your homies in the middle of nowhere, just mobbing it.<\/p>\n

If you were to give any advice to somebody starting off in skateboarding, what would you say to them?<\/strong>
\nNever give up. When you take a hard slam, you\u2019re not going to feel the pain for more than a couple of minutes, if you get right back up and try again and land it.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s all this multi-generational stuff going on right now. You can skate with Tony Alva who is 57-years-old and little kids at the same time. Does that trip you out or is that totally normal to you? What do you think of the older generation and the newer generation skating together?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s pretty cool because the newer generation looks up to the older generation. I think it\u2019s cool. It\u2019s old school. At the same time, the newer generation will never know what it was like because they\u2019ve never done it on their own. They\u2019ve always looked up to somebody. Back in the day, those people did what they wanted to do. They didn\u2019t have any guidelines. It was like, \u201cDo whatever you want on a skateboard.\u201d Back in Tony Alva\u2019s day, it was like, \u201cI want to be myself and do what I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s true. They didn\u2019t really have any rules yet or anyone to look up to except surfers, but they were definitely pioneering their own shit in skateboarding.<\/strong>
\nYeah. It was a totally different thing. They kind of turned skating into a form of surfing I guess. It\u2019s cool as shit. It\u2019s like yesterday when we went to go skate that pool. So many people there weren\u2019t even skaters. They just came to post up and they were kind of lurking it, but they were still down for skating. Half the kids there probably didn\u2019t even skate tranny.<\/p>\n

Then those two kids showed up and it was the first pool that one kid had ever skated, and the kid grinded it.<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s super sick. That one guy there was super down for pools and he was just naming them off left and right. He\u2019s just some random dude. That\u2019s what\u2019s so cool about it.<\/p>\n

One of the things that I like about skateboarding is the people you get to meet.<\/strong>
\nYeah. When we first got there, we didn\u2019t know them. They were strangers to us. If you don\u2019t skate, and you meet random people somewhere, it\u2019s not like you\u2019re going to instantly click up and be buddies. When you\u2019re skating and you go to the same spot and you\u2019re interested in the same type of skating, you\u2019re instantly like, \u201cSick, dude. What are you doing next weekend? Let\u2019s go find another pool and skate another pool. Let\u2019s go scope this one out. Let\u2019s just skate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brotherhood of skateboarding is this universal language. It\u2019s epic that you recognize that. Those kids were mad cool.<\/strong>
\nYeah. They even cruised out later on.<\/p>\n

They were like, \u201cWhat\u2019s up guys? We love skateboarding.\u201d It\u2019s weird because if you were there without a skateboard, they would have probably messed you up.<\/strong>
\nYeah. It would be like, \u201cWhat are you doing back here?\u201d If you have a skateboard in your hand and there\u2019s an empty pool right there, they\u2019re hyped on it.<\/p>\n

Skateboarding is cool like that. Okay, guns, food, skateboarding. Do you have a girlfriend right now?<\/strong>
\nNo, not at the moment. I\u2019m single right now.<\/p>\n

What do you think about Instagram and Facebook and shit like that?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t have a Facebook. Actually, my email got messed up and the homie logged out on my Facebook. I still have one, but I just don\u2019t use it. Instagram is cool. It\u2019s like, \u201cI\u2019m at this spot right now. This is sick. This is what went down.\u201d It\u2019s all cool. I like Snapchat. It\u2019\u2019s like, \u201cI\u2019m over here right now doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just a way to let people know what\u2019s up and what you\u2019re up to?<\/strong>
\nYeah. I see people on Snapchat and I\u2019m like, \u201cOh, they\u2019re at the skatepark right now or they\u2019re at this spot right now.\u201d And I\u2019ll hit them up.<\/p>\n

You use it to link up with people, not to just take selfies.<\/strong>
\n[Laughs] Exactly.<\/p>\n

Tell me what you think about selfies.<\/strong>
\nUnless you\u2019re talking to a chick, they\u2019re pretty whack. If you just take them on the reg for no purpose, they\u2019re pretty lame.<\/p>\n

For game, it\u2019s cool? Selfies are okay if you\u2019re trying to hit on chicks.<\/strong>
\n[Laughs] Yeah. It\u2019s all good.<\/p>\n

Where do you see yourself in five years?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ll most likely be skating, and working, and still skating every other minute.<\/p>\n

Is there anyone you want to thank?<\/strong>
\nI really want to thank Steve, because when I was younger, he used to take us everywhere. I wouldn\u2019t be skating as good as I did without Steve. I have to thank Mark. He\u2019s always had my back and he\u2019s taken me places. I wouldn\u2019t be here talking to you if it wasn\u2019t for Mark. My parents have always been pretty supportive of it. They don\u2019t trip if I\u2019m never home because I\u2019m always out skating. There\u2019s my homie, Ducky, and my homie, Jacob. I always go skating with them. Anaheim Skateboards has been good to me. Big thanks to Ben Butler because that was the first pool I\u2019ve ever skated. It\u2019s the same with John Tucker. I\u2019ve been to his pool countless times. The fish pool was there.<\/p>\n

You skated it a lot before it was destroyed.<\/strong>
\nYeah. I actually have a piece of coping from there. The day after it got destroyed, I rode over there on my little beach cruiser with the little motor on it, and took two pieces of coping, and gave one to Steve.<\/p>\n

Nice. Do you have any final words for the people in the world?<\/strong>
\nDon\u2019t quit skating unless you\u2019re unable to skate. Skate pools and don\u2019t blow \u2018em out.<\/p>\n

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

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

SONNY RODRIGUEZ INTERVIEW BY DAN LEVY PHOTOS BY MRZ AND DAN LEVY Sonny is one of those skaters who rides with full intent and is driven by conquering terrain that most skaters would look at as impossible to ride, yet for him is only there to provide the opportunity for new lines. He does not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56584,"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-56583","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\/SONNY1-2.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56583","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=56583"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62610,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56583\/revisions\/62610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}