Attention: Philanthropy<\/p>\n
1500 E Duarte Rd.<\/p>\n
Duarte, CA 91010<\/p>\n
\n
JUICE MAGAZINE<\/strong>\r\n\r\nDYLAN RIEDER<\/strong>\r\n\r\nINTERVIEW, INTRODUCTION AND PHOTO BY STEVE OLSON<\/strong>\r\n\r\n[Interview from February 2013]<\/strong><\/pre>\nThe gift of a goofy footer,
\nTo have a style is kinda cool, too.
\nTo be able to rip, is a blessing…
\nCan I get an Amen, brothers???
\nSettle down, it\u2019s time to tell you,
\nThis is about Dylan, and not Bob.
\nFrom behind the curtain,
\nAnd I do mean ORANGE…
\nThe great escape…
\nOn the adventure only dreams see possible…
\nLiving it and being it…
\nThis is \u201cDylan.\u201d<\/p>\nSTEVE OLSON: Where\u2019s the booze?<\/strong>
\nDYLAN RIEDER: What do you want? I don\u2019t drink anymore.<\/p>\nOh, you don\u2019t drink anymore? Okay, so they call you Switchblade?<\/strong>
\n[Laughs] No.<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s your name? Obviously, I know your name. Can I have a shot of whiskey?<\/strong>
\n[Laughs] Oh, yeah, I have a bottle of whiskey stashed under my pillow.<\/p>\nWait. What is your name?<\/strong>
\nYou know my name.<\/p>\nJust tell me your name. It\u2019s so simple.<\/strong>
\nDo you need a glass for your whiskey?<\/p>\nNo.<\/strong>
\nWhiskey is high in protein.<\/p>\nEverything about whiskey is good for you.<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s probably organic.<\/p>\nAnyway. What is your name?<\/strong>
\nYou know my name is Dylan.<\/p>\nBob Dylan?<\/strong>
\nTotally.<\/p>\nWhere do you come from?<\/strong>
\nOkay, I\u2019ll play along. I come from Westminster.<\/p>\nSo you were born in Westminster?<\/strong>
\nYes. That\u2019s where I was born.<\/p>\nHow did you ever get into skateboarding? Did you surf before you skateboarded?<\/strong>
\nI think I started surfing before I skated. My dad surfed and my dad skated.<\/p>\nOh, really? Your dad skated and surfed. Do I know your dad?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t think you ever met my dad. He was not in the scene. You know what? Maybe. He surfed Huntington. He\u2019s 50.<\/p>\nWhat is his first name?<\/strong>
\nJoe.<\/p>\nJoe Rieder?<\/strong>
\nYeah. He probably follows you on Instagram. [Laughs]<\/p>\n[Laughs] No, he doesn\u2019t.<\/strong>
\nHe definitely does.<\/p>\nGuaranteed he doesn\u2019t. What was it like growing up in Huntington?<\/strong>
\nIt was cool. It\u2019s a beach town. I\u2019d go to school, go surf and go skate.<\/p>\nDid you finish school?<\/strong>
\nNo. I didn\u2019t finish school. I dropped out after 11th grade. I went to high school for a month and then I started home schooling and then I stopped doing that. I could have finished, but I was skating. I was traveling and living it up.<\/p>\nHow did you get into skateboarding? What was that process?<\/strong>
\nI did it through the neighborhood kids. I played sports and stuff.<\/p>\nWhat sports?<\/strong>
\nI played water polo and swam. I was doing water sports and training for the Junior Lifeguards. I was doing that and skating too.<\/p>\nI know your drill. I played water polo and swam too. What was your stroke?<\/strong>
\nBreaststroke. I\u2019m really good at the breaststroke, in both ways, now. [Laughs]<\/p>\n[Laughs] What did you play in water polo?<\/strong>
\nI was the sprinter.<\/p>\nYou were the guy closest to the wall where they drop the ball.<\/strong>
\nI was the dude.<\/p>\nYou did well then. I used to not be able to play because I wouldn\u2019t go to practice, but I could play because I lived in a pool my whole life. The coach would tell me to go in when we were down and I\u2019d go make a couple of goals. He was like, \u201cI can\u2019t play you all the time because you don\u2019t come to practice.\u201d I was like, \u201cWho cares? It doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d I was going skating, but I liked water polo.<\/strong>
\nI did too, except for the Speedo thing. That was harsh.<\/p>\nThe Speedo thing was messed\u00a0up. I would go and wait for the substitution and I\u2019d have my gym shorts on. The coach was like, \u201cYou can\u2019t do that.\u201d I was like, \u201cYeah. I can. I\u2019m really not feeling the Speedo thing.\u201d<\/strong>
\nIt was a pretty homoerotic sport. [Laughs] You\u2019re guarding dudes and you dunk them by putting your legs around them and dunking them.<\/p>\nI don\u2019t care. I love to go and swim against anyone. So you got into skating from rolling and cruising as a little kid?<\/strong>
\nYeah. When I was young, my dad would drop us off at Merdy Park and we\u2019d skate there.<\/p>\nWhat was Merdy Park?<\/strong>
\nMerdy Park was the first skatepark they built in Huntington. I think it\u2019s the one that Ed Templeton designed. It looks like an ashtray. I skated there with my friends after school. Then my dad built us a kick ramp in the garage. My neighbor down the street, his dad was cool and he surfed, and his kid skated, so he had a flat bar and we skated that.<\/p>\nSo you really skated?<\/strong>
\nWell, when you\u2019re a kid, you\u2019re doing kid stuff. Then water polo got weeded out, but I still surfed and skated and did some snowboarding. I did all that because my dad would take us to all that shit. My uncle owned a surf and skate shop too.<\/p>\nWhich one?<\/strong>
\nK-5. It\u2019s down in San Diego. I just grew up in the realm of action sports. What a better place to do it than Orange County?<\/p>\nHow was it growing up in Orange County?<\/strong>
\nIt was awesome. Honestly, when I was 13, I was already getting sponsored, so I was traveling. I\u2019d spend the rest of my time at the skatepark, as any skater would.<\/p>\nWhen did you realize as a kid that you\u2019re good at it and then there comes a point when it all starts happening?<\/strong>
\nI think I was 11. That\u2019s when I started doing the CASL contests. At the time, I had a few buddies that I skated with at home, but they started to get interested in other things and I started to focus on skateboarding. I started to see myself progress faster than they were when I was doing the CASL contests. When I was 11, that\u2019s all I did. I pretty much lived at the Huntington Park. During that transition from middle school to high school, I wasn\u2019t really going to school that much. I was at the Huntington Park all day every day.<\/p>\nWho were the cats that you thought were really good skaters?<\/strong>
\nAt that time, in 2000 and 2001, the Baker dudes, like Reynolds, were doing it, and Reynolds was still coming to the Huntington Park. I\u2019d see Tom Penny there occasionally. That\u2019s when Tosh Townend was starting to get really big. I thought he was super sick too because he was from Huntington and he was skating Huntington Park. Ed Templeton was around. I looked up to all those guys that were living in Huntington. It was more Reynolds though. He was a big inspiration in my life.<\/p>\nWhy? Was it just because he ripped?<\/strong>
\nThat was when the Birdhouse video, The End, came out. That\u2019s when I started watching videos and paying attention.<\/p>\nYeah, but look, I\u2019m old and I saw The End and it was done well. If I was a kid, I\u2019d be like, \u201cThat looks good. I want to be like those guys. I want to have chicks around me and be good on my skateboard.\u201d<\/strong>
\nYeah. It was Jeremy Klein and Heath Kirchart. That shit was sick when they had the chicks in lingerie setting up their skateboards. That was awesome. That\u2019s when I started to pay attention. Andrew was skating big rails, so that influenced me.<\/p>\nWhat is a big rail?<\/strong>
\nThat was 2000 and everything was big. Andrew was frontside flipping over 12-stairs and that\u2019s still big. That was when it started to get big. Misled Youth came out. The End came out. Sorry came out. That was all within a few years time zone.<\/p>\nGoing big was the thing.<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s still around. That was just on the cusp of my time.<\/p>\nWhen did you start to get sponsored?<\/strong>
\nWell, I rode for my uncle\u2019s skate shop, K-5, and that was my first sponsor. I\u2019d enter the CASL contests riding for K-5, when I was like 12 or 13.<\/p>\nWho did you skate against then?<\/strong>
\nBryan Herman was in CASL.<\/p>\nIt blows my mind when I do these interviews and these dudes talk about the CASL contests, I can\u2019t imagine them as little kids. I just don\u2019t see you as this little kid in a CASL contest. I just know you as Dylan. It blows my mind to think of you and Herman as little kids. Even when I talked to Duffy, I can\u2019t think of him as being a little kid. I trip on it.<\/strong>
\nCASL has been around forever. They used to do the tours with Vision.<\/p>\nSonja and Jeanne have been around for a long time. When I was skating in contests, I was skating in the U.S.S.A., which then became CASL. Those broads have been doing it forever. It blows my mind because I just think of you guys as these dudes, not as kids that came up through that ranking system.<\/strong>
\nA lot of us were in it. I was in it. Sheckler was in it. Torey Pudwill was doing it. Paul did it.<\/p>\nI took my kid, Alex, to a CASL contest out in Victorville and homeboy just freaked. He was little.<\/strong>
\nI was thinking about that. Alex was not in CASL.<\/p>\nHe was not having it. We were trying to bribe him. I was like, \u201cI\u2019ll give you $100. Just enter the contest.\u201d He was like, \u201cI\u2019m going to the car.\u201d It was crazy. How did you do in the CASL contests?<\/strong>
\nI never won anything, but I didn\u2019t do too badly.<\/p>\nWhen did the transition start happening and you were starting to get sponsored by companies?<\/strong>
\nI started getting stuff on flow because I used to skate the Vans Park a lot. Remember that guy Adil Dyani? He was a vert skater dude. He rode for that shoe company PTS. They were a random shoe company and they started giving me shoes.<\/p>\nHow was that to get free shoes as a kid?<\/strong>
\nIt was the shit. I was in sixth grade, so I was going to school with brand new shoes every day. It was sick. I didn\u2019t care what they were.<\/p>\nThey were free.<\/strong>
\nExactly. I was getting shoes from them and then I won a contest at the Vans Park. They had a finals contest in New York, so I got flown out there and I skated in the contest and did okay. The dudes from Zoo York were at the contest and they were like, \u201cHey, we want to flow you boards.\u201d So I went to the Zoo York offices with my mom. I was 12, and they sent me a box of Zoo York boards.<\/p>\nHow was that?<\/strong>
\nThat was sick. It was super random to get picked up by an East Coast company. I didn\u2019t know anything about Zoo York. That wasn\u2019t my coast.<\/p>\nGetting a box of boards was good though?<\/strong>
\nIt was sick. I was stoked, but I knew that wasn\u2019t who I wanted to skate for.<\/p>\nDylan Rieder accepts the Award for Best Video Part in \u201cCherry.\u201d January 2015. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Who did you want to skate for?<\/strong>
\nAt the time, I wanted to skate for Birdhouse, Zero or Toy Machine. Those were the teams that I looked up to. I ended up getting flow from Birdhouse through that dude Brian Sumner.<\/p>\nOh, he\u2019s totally cool. I like Brian.<\/strong>
\nHe\u2019s a good dude. He hooked a lot of us up.<\/p>\nSo you rode for Birdhouse and PTS?<\/strong>
\nI rode for Birdhouse and PTS for a little bit and I was getting shit from them, and then I ended up meeting someone that worked at Quiksilver. I did a look book for their youth catalog. It was a skate shoot, and that\u2019s when Oblow first started working at Quiksilver, so he started taking note of my progression and he took me under his wing with Quiksilver and then he hooked me up with Osiris.<\/p>\nYou rode for Osiris?<\/strong>
\nYeah. Osiris and Quiksilver were pretty much my first big sponsors.<\/p>\nDid you think you were going to be doing all this when you were a kid?<\/strong>
\nWell, I knew that I wanted to be a professional skateboarder. When I was in sixth grade, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I wrote, \u201cI want to be a pro surfer. I want to be a pro skateboarder.\u201d Looking back on it now, I wish I\u2019d have gone the surfing route, but it didn\u2019t happen that way. Skateboarding is harsh. I mean I\u2019m thankful I became a pro skater, but the surfing lifestyle seems like fun.<\/p>\nWhy does that lifestyle seem better? Professional surfers cruise from island to island and then they have to wait and the waves are flat. It\u2019s just a different vibe.<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m sure they get sick of the same things that we get sick of.<\/p>\nI mean, they could travel to France and it\u2019s flat. All of a sudden, it\u2019s like, \u201cWe have this window to surf this contest and there is no swell, so we\u2019re going to surf in two foot waves. This sucks.\u201d It\u2019s probably frustrating.<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m sure it\u2019s annoying, but on a beach, there are chicks hanging out. There are no chicks in skateboarding. Now there are, but the chicks that go to Street League are not my type of chicks, you know. I like chicks in a bikini on the beach, or a chick in a bikini in the middle of the street or wherever.<\/p>\nLet\u2019s just talk about the chick in the bikini. Really. You\u2019re going to roll up and say, \u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d And she\u2019ll say, \u201cI\u2019m sun tanning.\u201d<\/strong>
\nSick.<\/p>\n[Laughs] Oh, please. You\u2019d get so sick of that.<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m sure there\u2019s bullshit over there as well. I\u2019m sure they get sick of being on the beach and want to be in the city, just like a kid in the city wants to go to the beach.<\/p>\nI get it. So you were riding for Osiris, Birdhouse and Quiksilver. How old were you then?<\/strong>
\nI was 13.<\/p>\nYou were a little kid.<\/strong>
\nI was a little shithead with braces. My first trip, I went to Miami with Oblow and the Quiksilver dudes. It was Reese Forbes, Tim O\u2019Connor and Stefan Janoski. My first trip was to Miami, which was pretty funny.<\/p>\nWhat did you guys do?<\/strong>
\nWe skated a lot. We got high on the beach. I had never seen naked chicks on the beach, but in South Beach you can go topless. I was a 13-year-old kid just tripping out, like, \u201cWhere am I?\u201d I was at that age where all I wanted to do was skate. I ate, slept and breathed skateboarding.<\/p>\nTotally. Let\u2019s go skate.<\/strong>
\nThose dudes were smoking weed the whole time and I was oblivious to it. I remember I wasn\u2019t allowed to ride in one of the cars because all those dudes were smoking pot. I was like, \u201cThey probably don\u2019t like me.\u201d I was just a little kid and it made me totally insecure, but they were just smoking pot and I wasn\u2019t old enough yet to be around that. I got more exposed later on down the line.<\/p>\nWe\u2019ll get there. Did you get to go all over the world with Quiksilver?<\/strong>
\nI went to Australia a couple of times. I did a couple of contests in Europe.<\/p>\nDid you like riding in contests as a kid?<\/strong>
\nYeah. I liked them. At the time, I was still struggling with skating street. I could skate rails and stuff, but I was not really good at flipping my board. For me, I was used to skating in contests and I was doing okay in them, and I liked skating in them. I had that competitive thing going.<\/p>\nThat probably comes from water polo and swimming and whatever else?<\/strong>
\nIt comes from being a kid and wanting to win. I would get all bummed if I didn\u2019t win and I\u2019d break my board. I\u2019d get pissed.<\/p>\nNow that you\u2019d had a taste of it, it was insane, no?<\/strong>
\nIt was great. At that point, I was still in school.<\/p>\nDaniel Lutheran and Dylan Rieder at the AYC\u00a0Launch Party 2013. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n What was school saying?<\/strong>
\nI think it was summertime, so I did a couple of big trips in the summer. When school started again, that\u2019s when I started high school and I didn\u2019t hang out with any of the kids that I used to hang out with.<\/p>\nYou were on to something.<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s when I was only focused on skateboarding. I didn\u2019t talk to people. That\u2019s when I totally closed in on myself. I was super introverted. That\u2019s what skateboarding can do to you. I couldn\u2019t relate to the kids anymore. I was like, \u201cHigh school kids are screwed.\u201d I was already getting paid to skate, so I was like, \u201cWhy am I in school?\u201d I was battling with my mom, like, \u201cJust let me travel.\u201d I ended up getting my way and going to home school for a year and a half. I just couldn\u2019t go to school. I couldn\u2019t take a two-week trip and come back and try to get caught up on Spanish class. No way. That wasn\u2019t going to happen.<\/p>\nYeah, but you did get to travel to Spain. Whatever. It\u2019s a harsh one, but you\u2019ve done ten years of school. Then you\u2019re traveling and you\u2019re not missing school because they\u2019re not teaching you shit about the real world.<\/strong>
\nRight. I was like, \u201cWhy do I have to be here?\u201d When you\u2019re a kid, and you\u2019re making a little money doing something, you think you\u2019re above it. I probably should have finished school, but whatever. I don\u2019t regret it now. I mean, I regret some things, but…<\/p>\nWhatever you want to do in that world is whatever. I\u2019m just not the biggest fan of school.<\/strong>
\nAlex stopped after eighth grade, right?<\/p>\nI pulled him out after ninth. I was like, \u201cDon\u2019t go there. You don\u2019t need it.\u201d<\/strong>
\nWas his mom pissed?<\/p>\nNo. He did home school.<\/strong>
\nDid he really do home school?<\/p>\nSure. I looked up shit online and there were all of these different curriculums. For me, I split school in the 11th grade because I was traveling and getting paid. I\u2019m not against learning, but I don\u2019t think they teach you everything you need to know. That\u2019s just my opinion.<\/strong>
\nI think kids should go to school, but if you have something going on that\u2019s a potential career path, follow it.<\/p>\nEducation is education. It doesn\u2019t mean that they are the only ones that can teach you what\u2019s going on. They help. Learning is cool.<\/strong>
\nLearning is cool. [Laughs]<\/p>\nWhen did you step over from amateur to pro? You were young when you turned pro, right?<\/strong>
\nI was 19.<\/p>\nI thought you turned pro at 15, but you went through the ranks.<\/strong>
\nYeah. I switched sponsors and put out a video part.<\/p>\nWho did you put out a video part for?<\/strong>
\nI put out a video part for Transworld. At that time, I was getting shoes from Nike and I was riding for Deluxe for Rasa Libre. It was Matt Field, Nate Jones and Reese\u2019s company.<\/p>\nMatty Rodriguez. How was that?<\/strong>
\nIt was cool. I was growing out of that phase of only skating rails and the whole tight pants thing. I was changing.<\/p>\nYou were growing up.<\/strong>
\nI was 16 and I started to smoke pot. I was hanging out and getting accustomed to skate tours and skate life. I was growing into what I thought was cool at the time. I look back on it now and I was just growing into myself. Birdhouse wasn\u2019t what it used to be. All those dudes quit. Heath quit. Andrew quit and started Baker. It was just the ams, which was cool, but I was growing out of it. Reese asked me to ride for Rasa Libre. It was a new company and I was like, \u201cYeah. I like Deluxe.\u201d I rode for Spitfire and Thunder. They put Omar Salazar on the team. So I was doing that and going on tour with those dudes. I was living with my dad in an apartment, and I was just traveling and doing my own thing. I was starting to live the life of a skateboarder.<\/p>\nThat can sometimes be self-destructive.<\/strong>
\nYeah. I was doing whatever I wanted because my dad didn\u2019t really care. He looked after us, but at that point, I was uncontrollable. I was making my own money.<\/p>\nHow old were you?<\/strong>
\nI was 16. I was making my own money and traveling with older dudes. Everyone that I traveled with was at least five years older than me, always.<\/p>\nDid you have a fake ID?<\/strong>
\nYeah. I had a fake ID. I was smoking pot, drinking and getting laid, having a good time and living the life. As clich\u00e9 as it sounds, that\u2019s what happened. I started filming for the Transworld video and I was coming up to L.A. a lot and skating with Jason Hernandez. I put that part out and when I was filming for that, I quit Nike and started riding for Vans. To this day, I think I\u2019m the only person to ever quit Nike. I don\u2019t know anyone that has ever quit Nike. Before Spain, I put a pair of Vans on and filmed a line in Vans. I was like, \u201cWhy am I wearing Nikes? I can\u2019t even feel my board wearing these.\u201d I can actually feel my board in Vans. I had never skated Vans before because I always had a shoe sponsor.<\/p>\nYou could feel the difference.<\/strong>
\nIn Vans, I could feel my board and they looked good. I got a box of Vans, and then I called Nike. I appreciated it, and they gave me an ad and took me on a couple of trips, but I was still growing up and developing and knowing what I liked. I liked what Vans was doing. I liked Vans shoes, so I quit Nike and rode for Vans. Then the Transworld video came out.<\/p>\nDid that Transworld video blow you up?<\/strong>
\nYeah. That was the one where people started noticing me. When that video came out, Rasa Libre was going out of business. I was on Vans at that point. That\u2019s when AVE was on Vans and he said, \u201cCome ride for the Workshop.\u201d<\/p>\nWorkshop had a cool team.<\/strong>
\nYeah. It was Dill, AVE and Heath… Heath was always someone I looked up to. He was a big inspiration, and he was one of my favorite skaters. I\u2019ve always watched those dudes skate. At the time, they were my favorite skaters. Then Jim hit me up to ride for AntiHero. Workshop and AntiHero were my favorite companies, so I was kind of stuck in the middle. I didn\u2019t want to bum the Deluxe dudes out because I had been riding for Deluxe, but I didn\u2019t feel like I fit in with those dudes at AntiHero. I liked what they were doing, but I didn\u2019t see myself as an AntiHero guy, so I started riding for the Workshop.<\/p>\nYou were more of a Workshop guy.<\/strong>
\nYeah. Those dudes took me under their wing and that\u2019s when I started skating with Greg Hunt and that\u2019s when they were filming for the Mind Field video. I think I went pro in those two years of riding for Workshop and that video.<\/p>\nThen you started to get paid. Did you ever think you were going to get paid to skateboard?<\/strong>
\nWhen I first started getting paid, I didn\u2019t know about skaters being rich or any of that. I didn\u2019t think about those kinds of things really. When I turned pro, I was like, \u201cBoom! This is what I\u2019m going to do.\u201d<\/p>\nYou followed the path to it.<\/strong>
\nI climbed the ladder. I put in a lot of time. It\u2019s crazy to think about it now. I\u2019ve been a sponsored skateboarder since I was 13.<\/p>\nWhat trucks do you ride?<\/strong>
\nThunders. I tried to ride Indys and I couldn\u2019t do it. I really like Thunders. They just feel different. I\u2019m used to light, quick-turn trucks. Indys don\u2019t do that for me.<\/p>\nDo you ride your trucks loose?<\/strong>
\nYeah. I don\u2019t take out bushings and they\u2019re not rattling, but I don\u2019t ride tight trucks.<\/p>\n\u201cLoose trucks save lives.\u201d<\/strong>
\nExactly. \u201cLoose trucks, loose women…\u201d<\/p>\nThere is no incrimination happening right now. Okay, all of a sudden, Mind Field comes out, but before Mind Field, there was a lot of other stuff happening.<\/strong>
\nTo me?<\/p>\nYeah.<\/strong>
\nLike what, the drug thing?<\/p>\nI don\u2019t care about that.<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t care if we talk about it.<\/p>\nI don\u2019t care either. That\u2019s not my angle. I\u2019m more interested in your transition in skateboarding. Being a sponsored kid for a long time, there definitely had to be burnout periods.<\/strong>
\nYeah. When I was 15 to 18, I was going to San Diego a lot to skate. I had a couple friends that lived out there and filmed, so I was staying with my friend Russell. I was still super into skating, and they were smoking pot all day, so that\u2019s what I did for the longest time.<\/p>\nWhy do you think you smoked weed? It\u2019s just out of curiosity, more than trying to depict your character.<\/strong>
\nI guess my friends were all smoking pot, so I wanted to know what it was like.<\/p>\nIt relaxes you, right?<\/strong>
\nYeah. I was growing up and I wanted to try new things. I was going on tour with these kids. When I was riding for Birdhouse, they were all smoking pot. It wasn\u2019t like peer pressure. It was like, \u201cI want to try smoking pot.\u201d I tried to smoke pot for the first time and I didn\u2019t get stoned, but the next time I did get stoned. I was like, \u201cThis is great. This is way better than drinking.\u201d I was kind of drinking, but not that much. I just really liked being stoned, so I started smoking pot. I was making the money so I could buy the pot, so I was getting high and smoking weed.<\/p>\nDo you think weed affected your skating for the better or worse?<\/strong>
\nI think it changed my skating. For me, it got me out of my skate rails phase. When I started smoking pot, I started skating more transition. That really influenced my Transworld part because it had a lot of transition in it. I always skated transition. I grew up skating the Vans Park with the combi bowl and the black bowl. That was super fun.<\/p>\nThe black bowl was so fun.<\/strong>
\nIt was great. I always skated that, but that wasn\u2019t what I was focusing on. Once I started smoking pot, I skated more ditches and really developed my all around interests in skating. Then big rails started to look bigger stoned. [Laughs] I didn\u2019t like skating rails stoned. Then I started honing in on my skill set. I started flipping my board and doing other things that I got into. Not to promote smoking weed or anything, because I don\u2019t smoke weed anymore. At the time, I was into it. I\u2019d take a bong hit and go skate or roll a joint and skate around. I was really into that mentality. It\u2019s funny because the kids that I skated with at home didn\u2019t smoke pot. I was the only one that smoked pot. The kids I would go on tour with like the Birdhouse kids, they all smoked pot. Once I quit Birdhouse, the kids I skated with every day, didn\u2019t smoke weed. I got tired of going to skate spots and always being stressed out because I always had weed on me, and roaches in my pocket.<\/p>\nYou were thinking if the cops rolled up on you, you would get busted.<\/strong>
\nYeah.<\/p>\nBut you didn\u2019t get busted.<\/strong>
\nNo. I never got busted for pot.<\/p>\nWhat about injuries and slamming and all the stuff like that in skateboarding that\u2019s obviously inevitable?<\/strong>
\nKnock on wood. I\u2019ve been lucky.<\/p>\nHave you had any gnarly accidents?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve broken my arms a couple of times, but I\u2019ve never had a broken leg. I\u2019ve never had any huge injury where I was out for six months. I\u2019ve had injuries that have kept me out for a couple months, but never that long. I\u2019ve been pretty fortunate.<\/p>\nHow do you keep the passion going for skating?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s because it\u2019s kind of all that I have. I look at it more now, as I\u2019m getting older. I think, \u201cWhat if I didn\u2019t have skateboarding? What would I do?\u201d<\/p>\nSkateboarding gave you a life, in a cool way.<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s what I\u2019ve always done since I was a kid. It\u2019s always been there. As hard as skateboarding is physically and mentally, it\u2019s just as mental as it is physical. I think that\u2019s what a lot of skateboarders struggle with, when it becomes a job, and they\u2019re too cool for it. For me, I feel like I\u2019m pretty professional when it comes to skateboarding. I know what I need to do. Now you have contracts with companies with certain obligations in it, so you go on tours that you don\u2019t want to go on, but you do it because it\u2019s part of your job. I\u2019ll still bitch and complain about it, but, at the end of the day, it\u2019s my job. I don\u2019t have work any other way. I think that motivation of it being a profession helps. Skating is still fun to me, but it\u2019s just different. It\u2019s not how it was when I was a kid. I don\u2019t go to the skatepark now to hang out and socialize. It\u2019s not that kind of community for me anymore. I go to the park and skate a couple nights a week to train for whatever I want to do on the streets that weekend.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s more of a discipline to do what you\u2019re expected to do because you\u2019re getting paid.<\/strong>
\nYeah. Don\u2019t get me wrong. I love going to Arto\u2019s and grinding around the bowl. I also like the feeling of putting in the work of trying a trick for two hours and then landing it and getting that high and satisfaction off of it. That still really excites me.<\/p>\nDo you still get the high or do you just get the satisfaction?<\/strong>
\nWell, it just depends if it\u2019s something I\u2019ve been thinking about and really want to do. I like doing things that have never been done in skateboarding before, like the impossible… I don\u2019t want to sound self-centered.<\/p>\nWell, there are certain goals that one sets. Of course, you\u2019re trying to take yourself outside of what\u2019s normal and mundane. It\u2019s more of a personal goal. If you set a goal and you do it, it\u2019s just that much better.<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s like completing a video part. You put in two years of hard work, and I\u2019m never satisfied with everything I did, and I always feel like I could have done more or done it better. After seeing the video part put together, I liked that feeling of, \u201cYeah. Damn, I worked my ass off… Look.\u201d<\/p>\nDylan Rieder and Rob Dyrdek at the AYC Launch Party 2013. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n You work for two years to get four minutes for a video part. It\u2019s insane the ratio of the time put into it to what goes into a video. I think that\u2019s a huge commitment of your life as a skater kid.<\/strong>
\nIt takes time. If you\u2019re a street skater, there are a lot of variables that work against you.<\/p>\nWhen you\u2019re filming for a video part, do you think about what you want to accomplish and the things you want to do, or do you just go do it? Is it a thought out thing or do things happen because you go to a place and you have the thought that you could pull a trick there?<\/strong>
\nI have premeditated things that I want to do. These days I haven\u2019t been going on street missions because my head is not there, but I like to skate a bunch of different things. I\u2019m doing lines and not so many gnarly single tricks. I\u2019m into things that have more of a flow. That\u2019s where I am now.<\/p>\nWhat is it like on a street mission? Take me through it. I don\u2019t know this world. If you go to a place and you\u2019re thinking of doing something and there\u2019s security or a cop and the spot is taken away, that would piss me off.<\/strong>
\nThat always sucks. Skating in the schoolyards, I have to wait all week until Saturday and Sunday. For now, we have this one schoolyard that we skate, but it\u2019s not going to last forever, because we\u2019ve been destroying the tables. I\u2019m sure the janitor is fed up with us not putting the tables back, because we drag them into the middle of the playground. Eventually, that spot will be gone after the neighbors complain about the noise, and the tables will all get locked up. The tables have been locked up before, but we got bolt cutters and got the tables back out. So I wait all week for that. I go to the park during the week and train, and then wait for the weekends to get the trick, and sixty percent of the time I don\u2019t get the trick.<\/p>\nHow frustrating is it to not get the trick?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s annoying. It sucks. I get pissed. I have anger issues. I snap my board. If I try a trick for two hours and I don\u2019t get it, it will send me into a state where I could punch an old lady on the side of the street. I probably wouldn\u2019t do that, but there have been times when I\u2019m so frustrated that I\u2019m waiting for the cord to snap in my brain and I\u2019m not coming back, you know. I\u2019m angry and then I go get wasted.<\/p>\nBut you don\u2019t do that anymore.<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t do that anymore, but I did. I got a line the other day that I\u2019ve been trying. I went there like eight times and then I got it and I was like, \u201cYeah! Let\u2019s go to the bar and celebrate!\u201d But, I don\u2019t do that anymore. I don\u2019t do anything anymore. I\u2019m just a recluse these days. I\u2019m only a social person when I drink.<\/p>\nWhen you\u2019re not drinking, you don\u2019t want to go out?<\/strong>
\nYeah. I\u2019m in a thing where I\u2019m trying to get healthy. I grew up living that lifestyle and now I\u2019m like, \u201cWow, I\u2019ve done that for a long time and I really haven\u2019t been focusing on myself.\u201d Now I know what it is to feel everything. That\u2019s the thing with not drinking. I\u2019ve always dealt with problems by masking it through drinking or partying. Now I\u2019m at the age where I can\u2019t do that anymore. I\u2019ve done it, and I still want to be a professional skateboarder for a little while longer, so I\u2019m figuring out what there is to do besides not sit at a bar and drink. I\u2019m doing other things like working out. I have to learn another skill soon because my skateboarding career won\u2019t last forever.<\/p>\nHow do you deal with that?<\/strong>
\nI struggle with it. I\u2019ve always been good at skateboarding and I\u2019ve made that my career. Now I don\u2019t know how to start something else. I don\u2019t know how to put in the time and make that first step. Say I wanted to be an artist. I haven\u2019t been to school or an art class. I\u2019ve never done that before. Now I\u2019m trying to figure out what I want to do and how to do it. I could say that I want to take music lessons, but that\u2019s something you can just do on your own time. I\u2019m at the point where I\u2019m about to take Computer Programming classes where I really have to read and learn. I\u2019m not saying that I\u2019m super into that, but I might go back to school and learn that shit.<\/p>\nYou can go back on your terms with the focus of wanting to learn computer programming or whatever it is. I think within skateboarding and going through it as a kid, you learned a lot of things that you\u2019re not even aware of, from marketing all the way to design. It\u2019s a good thing. I never wished that I didn\u2019t skateboard. I learned so much more than if I had been stuck in a book that I had no interest in. It\u2019s a heads up and a blessing more than anything.<\/strong>
\nYeah. It\u2019s cool. Riding for anybody, boards, clothes and shoes, you see the process of how things are being made, and I look at that now as being a part of a creative process. Designing shoes, I understand now. I don\u2019t know the technical part of it, but I know the construction and how it works. If I want to be a designer or start a board company, I have enough knowledge to do that. We\u2019ll see where it goes. I don\u2019t know what is going to happen. Right now, my life is a bit crazy and intense, but skateboarding is there.<\/p>\nSkateboarding is intense. It seems like skateboarding is on a whole different level of danger, especially now more than ever.<\/strong>
\nYou can\u2019t be a pussy and be a skateboarder. That\u2019s just not going to work.<\/p>\nThat\u2019s it. I was just waiting for the right ending. That\u2019s good.<\/strong>
\nCool.<\/p>\nJames Ransone, Dylan Rieder, Alex Olson at Steve Olson Art Show at the Hadid Gallery in Beverly Hills, CA. Oct. 2012.. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The following statement was released by Dylan Rieder’s manager:\u00a0On, October 12th, 2016, surrounded by family and friends, Dylan Joseph Rieder passed away due to complications from leukemia. His passion for life, art, music, fashion, and skateboarding has always been contagious. Dylan will be remembered by all as a loving son,\u00a0brother, and friend. In lieu of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60380,"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":[4027,4041],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-skate-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/dylanr.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60378","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=60378"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62576,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60378\/revisions\/62576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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