{"id":88095,"date":"2018-09-01T11:43:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-01T18:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/?p=88095"},"modified":"2022-07-02T17:45:31","modified_gmt":"2022-07-03T00:45:31","slug":"duty-now-for-the-future-artisan-skateparks-tom-dupere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/duty-now-for-the-future-artisan-skateparks-tom-dupere\/","title":{"rendered":"Duty Now For The Future Artisan Skateparks Tom Dupere"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Duty Now For The Future Artisan Skateparks Tom Dupere<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Since the \u2018\u201990s, when a crew of skaters started sculpting cement skate structures at Burnside, many skaters took that inspiration and began to dream of building with concrete in their communities. Coming from the Northeast, Tom hooked up with Geth Noble in the early days of skatepark building and, after building projects out West, fulfilled a dream of working with East Coast skatepark company – Breaking Ground – with mad genius, Sloppy Sam Batterson. Then Tom hooked up with Artisan to build some incredible parks. Over the last 20+ years, Tom has a unique story of the work ethic behind the roundwall we carve and grind!<\/i><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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DUTY NOW FOR THE FUTURE: ARTISAN SKATEPARKS \u2013 TOM DUPERE<\/h4>

INTERVIEW AND INTRODUCTION BY JIM MURPHY<\/strong><\/p>

MURF: Name, rank and serial number.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

DUPERE:\u00a0Tom Dupere, age 45, New England boy, born and raised in Massachusetts, North Shore.<\/p>

Did you get to skate the wave of the late \u201870s concrete parks?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

I didn\u2019t get to get into that, but, as a kid, I remember going to Aubuchon Hardware when I was 8 years old and buying a plastic board that said, \u201cHawaii\u201d on it, and that was the spark. In \u201883, freestyle bikes were huge in my town, so I got some janky bike. The magazines would have skating in ads, so I was like, \u201cWhat\u2019s this?\u201d Then all the older dudes that were riding bikes quit and started skating. In \u201884, I bought a Neil Blender coffee break board, and that was my first real deal set up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Were you still in the town that you were born in?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Yeah. It was killer because we had the beach right there and the older cats, like Steve O\u2019Hara and Chris Santos and all the surf skate dudes, were big. Chris Santos was one of the only dudes to get all three boxes at the C Bowl. That\u2019s a little history I had to throw in. Those were our influences. They had the spots. When you\u2019re a kid, you\u2019d see them riding a pool and you\u2019d try to weasel in, and they\u2019d show us the way. Where I lived, it was old mill towns, like Amesbury, Lawrence and Lowell, along the Merrimack River. Once those mills shut down, they were abandoned, so they were like a playground for us. They had loading docks, street stuff and inclines. When you\u2019re a kid, you\u2019re going to skate whatever you can find. East Coast, in the \u201880s, was tough.<\/p>

Did you ever ride any of the backyard ramps like Freddy Smith\u2019s backyard or the blue ramp?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

O\u2019Hara had the fiberglass blue ramps and that was my first tranny introduction. They made all kinds of configurations and they\u2019d throw a sheet of plywood up to four feet of vert and put a curb on there. It was like a 4-foot high vert ramp, basically, made out of fiberglass. I\u2019d go to Skate Hut sometimes too, when I was a kid. Later on, it was Maximus, the Playground and spots like Turtles across from City Hospital. Once you figured out the train, you could get to the city in 45 minutes and it was on. We\u2019d just skate all day. I would be down at Metals at Government Center and we\u2019d be like, \u201cLet\u2019s skate to Turtles.\u201d Turtles was on Soldiers Field Road, which was miles away, but that\u2019s what we did. We would go to City Hospital and get kicked out for skating there, and there was still the Black Hole ditch and I saw Freddy Smith there ripping. As a kid, I didn\u2019t know who Freddy was but, a few years later, I figured it out. Those were the days. All we were seeing were the magazines in the \u201880s, and then you\u2019d see those cats live and you\u2019d be like, \u201cIt\u2019s happening everywhere!\u201d Nothing against California, but I was a kid on the East Coast and I wanted to see dudes skating here. Once you get hip to the older scene and you\u2019re on your way in, it\u2019s on. The door is open.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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In the late \u201880s, vert skating was huge. What kind of skaters did you look up to?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Powell was huge. I remember the first dude that caught my attention was Lance Mountain, because he was the every man. Cab and Hawk were the sickest, but we had no access to vert ramps. Lance was cruising down the street and hitting curbs and banks and I could do that. Then it was Gonz and I was always down for Santa Cruz, like Jason Jessee and Jeff Kendall. I loved vert, but I couldn\u2019t access it. It\u2019s the same for a lot of kids from that era. There were no ramps, so you were trying to do it on the street. If you had a bank, it was bonelesses like Jeff Phillips. At the same time, street skating was being born and you\u2019d see Gonz and Natas ollieing trash barrels and you\u2019re like, \u201cI want to do that.\u201d So much was happening in skateboarding progression-wise. The whole thing of vert dying was bullshit to me. That was just companies trying to sell street skating. I loved street skating, but I love all skateboarding. Whatever we could get our hands on, we were going to ride. Gonz and Natas were my early heroes. That whole era was amazing.<\/p>

When the \u201890s came on and it was all about the street scene and little wheels and baggy pants, where were you on that scene?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

In 1990, I was 100% skateboarding. We\u2019d go to shows at the Rat or the Channel. If we weren\u2019t skating, we were checking out a show or we were going on a road trip to skate. In 1990, I graduated high school and my uncle and aunt that lived in California came home for my graduation. I had some money from a job and I asked them if I could catch a ride to California with them. They said yes, so I went out there and bummed around a bit and I got to go to Venice Beach and street skate around. That was like my first solo road trip. I turned 18 that summer and got the bug to travel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Was your mind blown coming to Venice?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Yes. The summer I turned 16, my friend Dan and I spent the summer with my aunt and uncle in Southern California and I got to go to Upland. I still have my card. I saved it because that was monumental to a 16-year-old kid. I just ate it up. Then we went to Venice and saw Dressen, Murray, Oster, Tim Jackson and Jesse Martinez chilling at the wall. I still have a picture of Hosoi from that day. Christian rolled up in spandex shorts and no shoes on this cruiser longboard with soft wheels, nose wheelie-ing, with no shirt and extensions in his hair and his scarves, and the chicks were flocking! I was like, \u201cYes! That\u2019s Christian Hosoi!\u201d That was in \u201888, the pinnacle! It was sick. We got the whole experience. We were kids and we were looking at our idols.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Did you skate with those guys?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Yeah. I remember Tim Jackson and Jesse Martinez, two of the baddest muthafuckas, were so nice to us. They were like, \u201cWe\u2019re going to skate this slappy curb. Let\u2019s go.\u201d They were destroying it, and we were just scratching a slappy, and they were like, \u201cYeah!\u201d Then the jump ramp session started to go off and you\u2019re standing in the back and then you get the balls to try something that you\u2019re never going to land and everybody is like, \u201cYeah!\u201d They were cool as shit to us. John Thomas was there and he was like, \u201cYou guys are from Boston? Do you know Freddy?\u201d We were like, \u201cYeah. He\u2019s the legend.\u201d It was cool to have that experience as a kid. They were like, \u201cHell yeah, come skate.\u201d Venice was gnarly. They were cool because we were skaters and we were just trying to check it out. That was a highlight of my skate life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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TOM TAKES IT TO THE STREETS WITH A LAYBACK WALLIE AFTER SLINGING CONCRETE ALL DAY. PHOTO \u00a9 ROB COLLINS<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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When you saw the technique of forms, rebar and pouring, were you amazed?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Well, at that time, you couldn\u2019t just jump on a website and find limitless information on how to build with concrete. Geth was smart though. He went to UC San Diego for biology or math or some crazy shit. He\u2019s smart and crazy at the same time, like all of them are. You have to be a little crazy to think you can get away with stuff. Geth was smart and he just went for it. Looking back to how we built Newburyport to how we do it now, it\u2019s like, \u201cHow did we get away with that?\u201d Standards are tighter now. Back then, most towns were like, \u201cI don\u2019t know what is going on.\u201d Now there are regulations and it\u2019s not the Wild West out there anymore. So Geth came in and I have the utmost respect for Geth. It was tough because he was still figuring it out, but he had knowledge and skills. Luckily, we all kind of came together. His girlfriend, Stephanie, was part of the company and she did a lot of the business stuff, but she was in the field too and she got in the concrete. She was tough.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Nice. Were you able to get your hands into the form?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Oh yeah. We got thrown into the fire. It was learn by watching and asking questions. Geth would show us and then you just had to figure it out. I mean how do you hang steel in a vert bowl? You put a giant stake in the ground and weld it. It was crazy shit like that. It was like, \u201cHow do you bend steel to the pocket?\u201d We\u2019d put it in the crook of a tree and push it with a bobcat. It was crazy. We didn\u2019t know there was a place that would do that for you. At the same time, budgets were stretched so thin that you couldn\u2019t afford to do that. You had to make it happen. I feel grateful I got to be in it in the early years. I\u2019m not claiming that I have been in it forever like Monk and Red and those cats, because they are the reason why, but I got to experience what they learned and it trickled down. I got to experience the early stages of skatepark building on the East Coast. I did a few parks with Geth and I learned a lot from him and he brought this cat, Lenny Earnshaw, from Florence, Oregon, which was Geth\u2019s town. Then Geth hired me and brought in this other guy, John, from Wyoming, who was a sick carpenter. He didn\u2019t skate, but he ended up being a really cool cat and he showed me a lot. He figured out forming, so John showed us and we figured it out. Then this 22-year-old kid, Noah Powell, came on. He had just started to get into carpentry and framing houses and he\u2019d work all day doing that and then he\u2019d come and help us. We were working from 7AM to dark, 10 to 12 hours a day, every day. It was sick, because we were learning how to tie rebar and then we were forming and setting coping. It was a crash course in skatepark building.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Once you shot a wall, it\u2019s a one shot deal, so you better be ready.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Yeah. We did the small bowl first. We poured that and learned how to float and Geth did all the cutting. Through doing 4 to 6 pours for a 4-5 foot deep bowl, we started to pick up how to float. It took a minute to learn how to finish concrete. That was the one thing that people were still struggling with a little bit. Once you figured that out, it clicked.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Explain what float and cutting means.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Well, after you form everything up and you have your rebar in there, you\u2019re going to shoot shotcrete into that. The truck shows up and the pump comes on and you\u2019ve got shotcrete. It\u2019s gnarly, especially the first couple of times you see it. You\u2019re like, \u201cHoly shit!\u201d There is so much pressure coming out of that hose pushing concrete rocks. It\u2019s gnarly and it\u2019s dangerous and exciting. I was living a dream at that point. I\u2019m like, \u201cHow did I get in on this?\u201d I was just trying to take everything in. You watch Geth and he\u2019s got this tool in a radius shape of whatever radius you\u2019re trying to make, whether it be a tight four foot or a mellow 10 foot. He\u2019s got this cut tool on a pole. At that point, we had all our forms in and then we cut off the form and we were screeding with a 2×4. It was crazy. Geth was like, \u201cDon\u2019t touch the tools. You\u2019re not even close to being ready for it.\u201d So we were just moving the hose around as he was shooting. This was my beginning experience first doing concrete. You\u2019ve got these hand floats that you\u2019ve made out of fiberglass and wood with handles and you\u2019re in there shaping the pocket or the straight wall, making it perfect. It\u2019s got to be the best, so you\u2019re doing that and it\u2019s crazy. For the first few years, it was heavy. Geth had to do it all. He\u2019d cut and then he\u2019d float. He was just running back and forth. I started trying to pick up the float as he was cutting. I would get in there and I\u2019d float and he\u2019d kind of let me do it. I was like, \u201cI\u2019m going to keep doing this and see what happens.\u201d I\u2019d lump it up sometimes and he\u2019d fix it, but I kept doing that and he kept letting me. That was his way of showing me how to float a pool or a pocket or a vert wall. It was a matter of just pushing my way in there. It was more of who was going to pick it up. You had to want it and I just went for it. It got to the point, a few years later, where we were doing a park and I\u2019d get in there, but he\u2019d still try to control it and take the float from me. We got into a situation where the mud was getting away from us and he was still cutting and trying to float, and I was like, \u201cDude, I got this. Go finish cutting that.\u201d He let me run it and then I started to cut whatever. It\u2019s a hard thing to explain because, unless you\u2019re in the hole when the mud is going on the walls, you can\u2019t understand. You can see a video of it, but you\u2019ve got to experience it. It\u2019s magic, but it\u2019s also chaos.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

When it comes down to it, you have concrete, a substance that is going to set up within an hour and, if you\u2019re not on top of it and pouring it correctly, the clock is ticking. There is no room for a break.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Yeah. Even when the machine shuts off and the concrete truck drives away, you\u2019re still in the hole. If it\u2019s August in Texas, you\u2019re fucked because it\u2019s going to go even quicker. If it\u2019s October in Vermont and it starts to snow on you, you\u2019re going to be there for 15 hours at a shot. It\u2019s crazy. There are so many factors and the clock is always ticking. Once you get into a rhythm with a crew, it\u2019s cool. It started to get that way when I went to work with Sam. He\u2019d cut and I\u2019d float and we didn\u2019t have to talk. We knew what to do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Rad. So you\u2019re out there skating and then you get back to the East Coast. It\u2019s the \u201890s and street skating takes over, so what was your vision? Were you going to get a job and skate or what?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

When I came home from California, my old man was like, \u201cAre you going to college or are you going to get a job?\u201d I said, \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to college.\u201d I graduated because my mom threatened my life, and you have to make your mom happy, so I suffered through. I was raised in a small Northeast New England town, where it was all about football, hockey and baseball. My uncle was the hockey coach and the hometown hero at sports. He got into the Olympics in \u201864 and he was the Northeastern all-time goal scorer, which was cool, but I wasn\u2019t into that kind of sports. My dad was also a great athlete, but my dad was super mellow. He was like, \u201cYou don\u2019t want to play sports? Okay, go skateboarding.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>

What did he think of skateboarding?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

I remember him seeing some early Powell videos that I was watching and seeing Rodney Mullen and going, \u201cWhat\u2019s this?\u201d He thought it was insane. Then he saw vert skating and he was like, \u201cHow do they do that?\u201d He\u2019d try to stand on my board and eat shit, but my dad was a hockey player that could ice skate like crazy. He couldn\u2019t figure out how a skateboard worked, but he saw how much I liked to ride my skateboard and it translated to him. He was amazed that we, as 14-year-old kids, figured out how to take the bus from our town to two towns over to get the train into the city. He was like, \u201cI\u2019m an adult and I\u2019ve only been to the city a handful of times. How did you figure this out?\u201d We were like, \u201cWell, we have this thing that can take you anywhere. You\u2019re just pushing through a city looking for things to ride it on. It\u2019s crazy.\u201d It took my mom a little longer because I would just be like, \u201cI\u2019m out.\u201d I\u2019d take off for three or four days and go to New York or wherever. My dad was like, \u201cWhere did you guys go?\u201d We\u2019d be like, \u201cWe went to Vermont. There was this indoor bowl there. We went to the city and skated the Brooklyn Banks.\u201d We\u2019d show him photos and he was into the adventure of it and he thought it was sick.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

That\u2019s cool. Let\u2019s talk about how you started working with concrete. In the \u201890s, things started going off at Burnside. Were you aware of that concrete resurgence?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

For sure. By \u201892, Burnside was starting to really happen, and I ended up moving to San Francisco in \u201894 because some of the dudes that I grew up skating with in New England, like Matt Pailes and Dan Drehobl, had all migrated West. They were good and they moved to San Francisco and got sponsored. The scene was happening there with street \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>skating, Embarcadero, the hills and all of that. That appealed to me, and winter was coming, so I was out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Were you bros with Drehobl and Pailes?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Yeah. Pailes and I grew up skating the first Newburyport skatepark and going to the city street skating and going to ZT\u2019s and the Playground. I went to the Skate Hut with him. RATZ opened up in Maine and that\u2019s how we kind of hung with Drehobl. I\u2019d see him in the city now and again, but he was in Maine. Once Who Skates got going with the indoor skatepark, it was on. We\u2019d go up there three or four times a week and skate for hours. There might be three feet of snow on the I-95 and we were rolling up there in Pailes\u2019 three-speed Volkswagen with no heat. You\u2019ve got on a one-piece snowsuit just to try to stay warm, and you get there, and the park was just as cold. It was an indoor park in New England, so it wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>

I remember that park. It was rad.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

It was killer. That was my first taste of a real good bowl and I was comfortable because I think some of my first round wall was Upland.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Were you getting tiles at Upland?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Well, we started in the back in the rounded over bowls and then it was the ditch. Then some of the older cats were like, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to carve with all four wheels on.\u201d They tipped us to it in those little round bowls and then we got the balls to skate the full pipe. It was big, but it had that round lip, so it was like bombing a hill. The big deal for us was to get to the line, and then you had to try to get above the line. I got to skate the combi a couple of times and I just remember it being heavy. I was 15 with not a lot of tranny experience and that was some of my first round wall. I definitely ate shit and then got it a few times and then I hit a tile, and I was pumped. That sparked it. On the East Coast, Tom Noble had that bowl at RATZ in Maine that was really nice. I didn\u2019t fuck with the vert ramp, but I liked to carve. I\u2019ve always ridden super loose trucks, even as a kid so, with the back and forth, I get destroyed. [Laughs] It\u2019s sick, but I love round wall. It feels great to go fast and hit tiles and coping and figure out a line. That Noble bowl at RATZ sparked it and then that shut down and those dudes left. They went to San Francisco and they both did sick. In \u201894, I ended up going to SF too. Pailes and Drehobl were living on Oak and Octavia Street, which was a pretty heavy neighborhood, and I moved in there. There were six to eight people staying in a studio apartment at a time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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That\u2019s standard.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>

Yeah. I had a bed, so I paid $100 a month. Drehobl had the living room, so he paid $200. Pailes had a bed and that was $100. Rent was $500, so whoever else happened to be there could stay a month for $50 and get floor space. I did that for a while and I got to see a lot of cool shit go down, like the EMB heyday. That was a cool experience. I would go to EMB and it was such a scene. I was kind of shy, especially back then, so I got along with people and people were really cool, but I was into checking out the Avenues, the spots you\u2019d see in a Powell video, like Tommy Guerrero skating hills. I was a literature nerd too and I was really into Jack Kerouac because he was from Lowell, Massachusetts, and that sparked shit in me, as a kid, so I kind of followed his lead. He was a Massachusetts small town mill boy and he went out to SF and bummed around and wrote and did his thing. I was going skating and checking the scene out and seeing some local music and bands and traveling. I lived there for a while and then living in the skate house with six or seven dudes was getting old, so I decided to go back home to New England for the spring and summer and work. You make a few bucks and then you go on the road again. At that point, Burnside was getting photos in magazines, and I was like, \u201cOh, what\u2019s this?\u201d Also, we were building stuff as kids, like kicker ramps, jump ramps, quarter pipes and mini ramps. We\u2019d steal wood and I was lucky enough, going to high school in the \u201880s, that they still had shop class, so I got to take metal shop, wood shop, print making and automotive and that set me up with some skills. I bounced around the road a lot and I\u2019d go out West. Eventually, I lived in Boston for a while in the mid \u201890s. Maximus was happening, after Dougie bought it with Rom, so that was the spot in the winter. Street skating in the city was killing it and Boston was a cool place to be. I had this deal where I lived next to B.U. in an apartment with this chick that went there and I rented the living room for $300. It was a nice college neighborhood and I had a job at Whole Foods. I\u2019d get out of work at 10PM and I\u2019d skate to City Hospital and meet up with Roger Bagley or Dougie or Jahmal Williams and push around all night until four in the morning. Then I\u2019d go home, crash, wake up at noon, get a coffee and go to work at two. I had the hook ups at Whole Foods too, because I worked in the produce department, so anything that fell on the floor was free game. You could literally eat free awesome food. Everybody that worked there was a punker, so everyone hooked everyone else up. It was like, \u201cHey, can you get me an avocado and I\u2019ll hook you up with a smoothie or a coffee?\u201d It was a good time to be in your early 20s in Boston, skating and going to shows. In \u201897, I ended up going to San Francisco again and, by that point, Drehobl and my good friend, Greg Ware, were living there and they had a nicer bigger place in the Mission. They were super cool and they\u2019d let me crash for as long as I wanted. I\u2019d go there and sleep and the rest of the day I was out. I had a sleeping bag and a backpack to my name and that\u2019s how I wanted it. Those guys had already been to Burnside, and Portland was starting to become the spot. By then, I had skated Maximus and I was looking for pools and skating the C Bowl and the Framingham pool and I was on a mission to try to skate everything. I got to Portland in the early stages of Burnside and I was like, \u201cThis is sick!\u201d When you\u2019re a kid and everybody drags their weird ramps to the empty parking lot and you have the jam, it\u2019s sick, but this was like Willy Wonka. You\u2019re like, \u201cHoly shit! What is going on here?\u201d Then there were the local characters. Damn! There were no companies then; no Grindline or Dreamland. It was just Monk, Red, Sage and all those dudes. The seed was there and I remember being like, \u201cHow do we do that?\u201d Wood parks were still king on the East Coast. To my knowledge, Nashua, NH, was the first New England concrete park and that set it off.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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NASHUA, NH. PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM DUPERE<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Were you in San Francisco then or had you made your way back to the East Coast?<\/strong><\/p>

I had gone back to the East Coast and I was living in a skate house, but it was cooler. I was probably 27 or 28, and I got a girl and we were kind of living together. I had a good job and a brand new truck and a chick and I was skating. We\u2019d travel, even it if was a weekend in New York or a trip to Cutting Edge in Vermont. I never quit skating, but I had a nice thing going. All of a sudden, the chick was over me, and I didn\u2019t have a place to live, so I went back to mom and dad\u2019s. I didn\u2019t want to go back to the skate house because you get used to having your zone and it\u2019s cool to not have to share a bathroom with five dudes. I moved home for a minute and started working with this kid who had a landscape deal, but his deal was brick and stone work. I wanted to work outside and skate and drink beer, and he got me into doing brick and stone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Was it building stone fences and walls and stuff like that?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Yeah. It was building nice river stone walls, typical New England brick walkways to a nice stone wall. I was doing that and I was into it. I was\u00a0 <\/span>making good money and I learned how to run some equipment. At that point, skateparks in New England, besides Nashua, were all pre-fab bullshit parks \u2013 the plague! I\u2019d seen what was happening in Oregon and Washington and you\u2019d hear about Grindline and Dreamland and see them building stuff. Then the town of Newburyport, MA, which is just over the bridge across the Merrimac River, said they were going to build a skatepark, which was a huge deal. The first I heard of it was in \u201899, even before Nashua was built. Chris Santos was on that committee and he\u2019s the OG. He knew what was up and he said, \u201cWe can\u2019t have this pre-fab bullshit. There are dudes out West that are building these parks.\u201d He got the town going in the correct direction. By 2000, Chris said, \u201cI\u2019m buying a house in Maine. Can you sit on the committee for the Newburyport park?\u201d I was like, \u201cYes, I can.\u201d So I got involved. We were trying to get Grindline or Dreamland to come out, but they already had their hands full. By that point, Geth Noble had started Airspeed. He had worked with those cats on all that earlier stuff and then Geth went one way and Monk went his way and Red went his way. After I looked at the photos on Geth\u2019s website, I sent him an email and it was on. He came out and the town was into it. People showed up for the design meetings, so there was a lot of input and everybody had a say. Geth and I would talk once a week and it got to be springtime and time to start building after the New England winter. I had been trying to run a snow plow for this guy and it was harsh, and Geth was like, \u201cDo you want to work on this project with us?\u201d I said, \u201cSure. I have no experience with concrete. My background is brick and stone, but I can use power tools and read a tape measure and do carpentry.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

You knew how to mix mortar from doing the brick and stone too.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Exactly. I had enough knowledge from wood shop and working on landscaping where I had driven bobcats and excavators and moved earth. Geth said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to show you what\u2019s up.\u201d They showed up in April 2001 and I started with them at the end of April and we built Newburyport and I\u2019ve been doing it ever since.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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YA GOTTA BE READY FOR ALL WEATHER CONDITIONS, SO YOU BETTER HAVE YOUR TARPS READY TO COVER YOUR FRESH CONCRETE. PHOTO \u00a9 JUSTIN GORMAN<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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So you went from working for Geth Noble and Airspeed to working with Sloppy Sam when Sam started Breaking Ground Skateparks. Tell us how that went down.<\/strong><\/p>

Well, Sam worked with Airspeed at the beginning on Newburyport. He showed up and we were tying rebar in the big bowl in the rain on a Saturday, and Sam comes strolling up in his cut-off Dickies and button-up shirt, smoking a cigarette. He was like, \u201cWhat are you guys doing?\u201d We were like, \u201cWe\u2019re tying rebar.\u201d I knew Sam because he went to school in Boston and he skated Maximus and he was always doing something at Turtles. The Island was happening and I\u2019d see him and all the 5.9 boys there. He was like, \u201cOh, so how does this work?\u201d He crawled down into the pit and started tying rebar with us. Geth and Stephanie were like, \u201cWho is this cat?\u201d I said, \u201cThat\u2019s Sloppy Sam. He\u2019s a rad dude.\u201d Sam was like, \u201cCan I help?\u201d They said, \u201cSure.\u201d He said, \u201cI\u2019m basically going to start coming every day until you start paying me and give me a job.\u201d They were like, \u201cOkay.\u201d So he slept on the floor and showed up every day for two weeks and worked for free. Then Sam joined the crew and it was on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Killer. At the end of two weeks, how did he advance?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>

Sam had a building background. His dad was a builder. Sam is a smart cat, so he figured it out in his own Sloppy Sam way, which was sick. It was like, \u201cOkay, this dude is on our team. This is killer.\u201d The crew got tight and shit started happening and we had already figured out concrete, so we kicked it to Sam and he learned fast because he wanted it. I remember Sam saying that he wanted to learn so he could build more parks on the East Coast. He did two jobs with us. We finished Newburyport and went to Jackson, Wyoming. On that job, Sam really figured it out. Sam is a genius. He\u2019s a total idiot and a genius. I love Sam. He can do some shit and you\u2019re like, \u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d But he figured it out and Geth realized that Sam figured it out and he was like, \u201cYou\u2019re going to leave, aren\u2019t you?\u201d Sam was like, \u201cWell, I told you I wanted to do this on the East Coast.\u201d It wasn\u2019t in an argument way. He just wanted to build parks back home. Geth was like, \u201cAlright.\u201d So that was the split. We finished Wyoming and Sam went back East. I was going to live in Oregon. I was working with these cats and they had jobs lined up, so I kind of bummed around with them on one more job in Eugene in 2003. I was working a million hours a week building this park and then I was going to move to Portland. Then they were like, \u201cHey, we have a winter job in Mexico at a private surf resort. This dude wants a big monster bowl.\u201d The deal was that we weren\u2019t going to get paid because all of the money was going to build the bowl, but we would have a free room at a surf resort on the beach with meals and free drinks. I\u2019m like, \u201cFuck yeah. I\u2019ll go to Mexico for the winter.\u201d This was in early October and the rainy season was starting, so I was going to fuck around for a few weeks and then start to head to Mexico. I went to San Francisco to see the boys and I went to LA and Arizona to see some friends. Then I went back to Southern California and I was getting ready to cross the border and go to Mexico for the winter and build this bowl and maybe learn how to surf. I\u2019m literally just about to drive into Mexico and I stopped at the store to get some supplies for the 12-hour drive and Sam calls me. He said, \u201cTD, what\u2019s happening?\u201d I told him I was just about to go to Mexico to do this gig. He goes \u201cDo you want to come to Rhode Island and start a company? I\u2019m starting a company and I\u2019m going to build a park in Jamestown, Rhode Island. Do you want in? I got the job. It\u2019s a go. I\u2019m starting in two weeks.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cYes. I do. I want to go back East and build skateparks with you.\u201d That was the beginning of Breaking Ground.<\/p>

No way. Did you have to tell Geth and the people in Mexico that you were out?<\/strong><\/p>

Yeah. I got wind that Sam had gone and worked with Monk on that Pearl Jam bowl. He did it Sam style. He showed up and said, \u201cCan I help?\u201d He shadowed those dudes to get more knowledge. Sam had been talking about doing a company, and the dude, Lenny, that I was working with, was like, \u201cI\u2019ve been talking to Sam and he says it\u2019s happening.\u201d I kept it in the back of my mind, but I didn\u2019t hear from Sam until I was ready to go to Mexico. In my mind, if Sam was doing it, I was down. I was in it to build skateparks back home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Did that set off a bad vibe with Geth?<\/strong><\/p>

No. I remember talking to Stephanie and I was like, \u201cThe Mexico gig sounds beautiful and I\u2019m ready to go, but I\u2019ve got this once in a lifetime opportunity where I can give back to where I\u2019m from. I\u2019m an East Coaster. I\u2019m a New Englander until I die.\u201d I had a lot of East Coast pride and I couldn\u2019t not do it. They understood. First and foremost, we\u2019re skaters. It wasn\u2019t personal. I have so much respect for Geth and Stephanie for taking us in and for having the balls to start a company. That\u2019s a heavy thing. They were bummed, but they were cool because they had a new wave of workers coming in. Once Sam called me, I pointed my truck East. I had a Johnny Cash tape and a Black Sabbath tape and I drove three days solid to Rhode Island. I didn\u2019t even go home to see the folks. I just showed up and said, \u201cWhen do we start?\u201d It was November and we were in Jamestown, Rhode Island, next to Newport on the water, Breaking Ground 2003. I did every park with Sam until the last one in 2010. It was the best ever.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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MONTE VISTA OVERVIEW. PHOTO \u00a9 ROB NELSON<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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What parks did you build?<\/strong><\/p>

Jamestown was first, which was a cool little flow park. It\u2019s Rhode Island, so they have that 4-foot height restriction, so we made a shallow end with a loveseat and pool coping and a bank to curb. We gave it some flow. Sam always had really good ideas and I always liked everything we built. After that, we did that bowl in Saratoga Springs, NY.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

That bowl was killer, but I had heard that they dozed it.<\/strong><\/p>

No. It\u2019s still there. They filled it in and then they dug it out a few years ago and it\u2019s going again, to my knowledge. They had filled it in a few years ago because of the sand and some town liability bullshit. Then everybody made such an uproar, and people were just pouring letters and emails to the town and skaters were saying, \u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d They dug it out and it\u2019s skateable. That was our second gig and that was a real deal bowl.<\/p>

Yeah. I loved that pool.<\/strong><\/p>

That\u2019s where Sam and I really gelled. He was the cut man and I\u2019d float. We really cut our teeth on that job. It kicked up like, \u201cWe got this. We can do this.\u201d We had a really good crew, with George Rocha, original dude, and Jeff Paprocki, who did Groton skatepark. He\u2019s an unsung hero of building shit with all those Connecticut parks that he did. He was one of the first cats. It was George, Jeff, Lenny Earnshaw, myself and Sam. Then we got The Bomber, who was the nozzle man. After that, we did Martha\u2019s Vineyard and Providence, RI, Lewiston, ME, Northampton, MA, and Westerly, RI. We also built some shit at Groton with Jeff. We were all over. We did a ton in New England and then we went up to Michigan and down to Texas.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Were you on the Fairfield job?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Yeah. We had Gump, at that point, which was killer, and Young Will. From 2003 to 2010, I did every park with Sam and it was great.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

What happened in 2010?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

By that point, parks were starting to be more accepted and we weren\u2019t designing them on a bar napkin anymore. Towns were starting to\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>expect real deal professional shit and you had to be on it. Your plans had to be right and you had to have stamps on your plans. It was getting to be a business. Not that it wasn\u2019t a business before, but there was a ton of leeway with the towns. It was more about your reputation. If you did a good job for a town, then the town ahead of you knew that you had done a good job on the last park. We were professional even though we didn\u2019t look like typical construction workers. We were skaters first. Once you win them over and you work your ass off and they see that you care, it carries on. Then it got to the point where we needed an office crew. Sam ran the construction and he ran the business, so he was doing two jobs that were full time. He brought in Gump, Nathan Guthrie, who was like the foreman, so Sam could be off-site more, but Sam wanted to be in the field. Why wouldn\u2019t he? Who wants to run the business and do all the office work? I get it. In my view of what happened, Sam was just stretched too thin and it got to be too much. Unfortunately, some of these other companies that aren\u2019t necessarily in it for skateboarding had the resources to have four people in an office dealing with towns and the business. It just got to be too much. I totally get it. Sam was getting pretty spun at the end. That\u2019s not talking shit on Sam in any way. It was just a lot to do. I could see it coming. Then we did the Andover skatepark in 2010 and I just remember him being like, \u201cI got this offer to sell the company and I can clear my debt and sell off my equipment and make a little money. I\u2019d have to work for these dudes for a year under contract, but they\u2019re offering a deal to bring us in as Breaking Ground.\u201d<\/p>

Was that the American Ramp Company?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

It was ARC, which is the shotcrete company. In my opinion, they wanted the name Breaking Ground so they could put it out there that they had done all these parks when they didn\u2019t do a single one of those parks. They made an offer that was monetarily nice. It had insurance, and all that, so they dangled the carrot and we all took it. We were like, \u201cOkay, maybe we can make this work.\u201d One of the deals was that they had to keep the crew together. We were like, \u201cYou can\u2019t split us up. This works because of the crew.\u201d They were like, \u201cYeah, yeah.\u201d So they sent us to Prince Edward Island in Canada in September, right as it started to get cold, and we started to see this ARC company\u2019s true colors. They split up the crew and sent half of us to Prince Edward Island. I\u2019m there and my wife was nine months pregnant and it was starting to get cold as shit up in Northern Canada. We were finishing up and I was talking to the office people and I said, \u201cI have to go. My wife is due in a week.\u201d They were like, \u201cCan you just stay a little longer and help finish up?\u201d I said, \u201cOkay, but I\u2019m driving the company truck back on this day. This is it.\u201d They kept pushing us and pushing us and, finally, I was like, \u201cI have to go.\u201d I drove 14 hours and I got home at 7:30 in the morning and my wife said, \u201cMy water broke.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cLet\u2019s go to the hospital.\u201d A few hours later, my daughter was born. All that happened in 48 hours. I went home the next day to shower and check the dogs, and the office people at Prince Edward Island called and said, \u201cHey, you left?\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cYeah. I told you I was.\u201d I thought they called to say congratulations. Instead they\u2019re busting my ass because I left. I told them, \u201cYou knew my wife was pregnant when you hired me. I stayed almost two weeks later to help you guys finish.\u201d They were like, \u201cOkay, when can you be back to work?\u201d I was like, \u201cWhat? Never. I\u2019m over it. You guys don\u2019t give a shit about skateboarding. The writing is on the wall. We all know why you hired us. You just wanted the name and the resume.\u201d We all quit. Sam was still under contract with them, but he understood. He toughed it out for a year and then that company ate a turd. That all went down and I was like, \u201cWhat do I do?\u201d I had a wife and a newborn. Luckily, I had some cash, so I took the winter off. The cool thing was that since we were all on the books, I got to collect unemployment. I needed a break at that point. I was really bummed that Breaking Ground had to end. It was nothing against Sam or any of that, it was just everything. It\u2019s probably like when\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>somebody is a pro and their sponsor says, \u201cHey, we\u2019re not going to put your board out anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Oh yeah. I\u2019m familiar with that deal.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Yeah. At the same time, I had a daughter, which is awesome. I\u2019d been on the road for years building parks, so I stayed home for a bit. The winter went by and, luckily, I knew a few of the dudes with Artisan. They had worked on some parks with us, like Bowie, Maryland. This dude, Mark Gwaltney and this guy, Country, did some parks with us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

That Bowie park is cool.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Yeah. That was one of my favorite parks that we did. Gump was good friends with Gwaltney and Country, and he\u2019d go down there to North Carolina and hang out and skate. Artisan was happening, and Gump got on and then he put the word in for me, and I went out to Cherokee, NC, in the Smoky Mountains on the reservation and we built that park. That was my first park with Artisan. I got on in early 2011 and I\u2019ve been with them ever since. It\u2019s like an extension of Breaking Ground because we\u2019re all tight. We have a good rhythm and everybody knows what to do. Once I did a few parks with them, it was like I had been with those guys the whole time and it felt right.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

You guys did Woodbridge and I hear that is one of the best pools on the East Coast.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Yeah. Sick. We did Atlantic Beach, NC too, and Dave, \u201cScience\u201d, was the design idea behind that. It\u2019s kind of got a Hanger feel to it, 12-foot deep with 2 feet of vert in the deep end. It\u2019s serious.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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SCULPTING PERFECT ROUNDWALL IS A TEAM EFFORT AND WHETHER YOU ARE ON THE GUN, MANNING THE PUMP OR FINISHING WITH THE TROWEL, THE TIMING AND COORDINATION IS KEY! HAVING SKATERS IN THE CREW SHOULD BE MANDATORY. ARTISAN HAS THAT COVERED! PHOTO \u00a9 ROB NELSON<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Nice. Tell people about Science Fair A.K.A. Dave Maxwell when you first met him and you were on the job site.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

I\u2019d met Dave previously. He was living in Colorado just being Science Fair, fresh from living at Skatopia for a minute, and just wild as hell. He\u2019s a skate rat and he\u2019s infamous. Everybody knows him. We were on a road trip to build that park in Wyoming and we went to Caleb\u2019s, and he had that Humbler bowl. The Vans deal was happening in the mall, so we wanted to hit that and Aspen. Team Pain had some parks happening in Colorado, so it was a destination. We were like, \u201cLet\u2019s go skate that on our way to Wyoming.\u201d We went out to Caleb\u2019s for a party and Dave was there being Science Fair and everyone was getting wild and we were all partying. It was getting late and everyone had already had a few drinks and Dave was in the kitchen, and the next thing you know, Dave is naked, with his pads and helmet on, just hanging out drinking beer and just being Science Fair. That was my introduction, like, \u201cThere he is.\u201d Later on, when I went to work with those dudes on the park in Cherokee, he was the nicest dude ever. Dave rules. He\u2019s like Sloppy Sam. Anybody else is going to see him and think he\u2019s crazy, but he knows what he\u2019s doing. He has his way. He\u2019s smart as shit. Have you seen his backyard bowl? It\u2019s insane, just to build that, and he built it pretty much by himself.<\/p>

I was there in the beginning when it was all ribbed out and he was like, \u201cIt\u2019s going to take me 10 years to build it, but I\u2019ll do it.\u201d Ten years later, it was done.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Yeah. To see him skate it, it\u2019s beautiful. That\u2019s the magic of skateboarding. How do you explain that dude to the masses? You don\u2019t. You have to know.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

I flew Dave out to the Vans combi bowl for a contest and he ripped it. The first day there, out of the box, he did a roll in lipslide around the corner, probably the farthest that anyone has done one there,\u00a0 <\/span>with bonelesses in the corner.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Yeah. When he flips the switch, there\u2019s nothing like it. Even if he\u2019s dorking, you\u2019re like, \u201cWhat the fuck?\u201d He puts these lines together and it\u2019s like, \u201cHow is he still going?\u201d He\u2019s the best. I love Dave. I have spent a lot of road time with him and I stay at his house just to hang out. We\u2019ll hang out and mow his lawn and drink beer and watch Star Trek.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Yes! So the Artisan crew is all hardcore skaters that are totally dedicated to what they\u2019re doing. Do you ever get on site and go over budget because you want to build the best you can build?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

This is what is sick about Artisan. Andy Duck, the owner, is the mastermind, and he\u2019s really good at problem solving. He knows we have X amount of dollars and he figures out how to optimize all of this by working with the design. He gets it down so that we don\u2019t get in the field and go, \u201cWhat do we do?\u201d It\u2019s always laid out and you have a vision of what you need to do. He\u2019s on it. It\u2019s hard to explain because that shit can be really tricky, like, \u201cMan, I want to do this or that.\u201d He accounts for those types of things, like, \u201cOkay, let\u2019s throw a wrench into the mix and mix it up.\u201d He has that buffer to be able to do it and not shoot the budget. He\u2019s got it nailed down, so there\u2019s always wiggle room. You can get away with a few things and not be like, \u201cOh, man, we\u2019re blowing it.\u201d It\u2019s always\u00a0 <\/span>really easy to make it happen. He\u2019s a solid dude and he\u2019s done a lot for me. He\u2019s given me my second wind in doing this because it\u2019s been since 2011 and shit is just getting bigger and better. We\u2019ve got three crews running now, which is sick. We\u2019re doing really cool shit and we\u2019re all getting to have a say on design. At that park in Colorado, they wanted a bowl and they were specific about what they wanted. It was a 9-foot bowl with a foot of vert and tiles and pool coping and a nice waterfall and hips. All around that, it was up to us to figure out what was going to work. It was at an existing park, so we had to tie it all in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Which park was that?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

That was Pagosa Springs. It was a small skatepark that got built a few years back. It had a little 4-foot elbow bowl halfpipe with a street hip and a bank. We built the bowl and we could either make a retaining wall around the bowl or pour a deck on the bottom and a deck on the top. We were like, \u201cLet\u2019s make this retaining wall slanted so it\u2019s skateable and then connect it.\u201d So they let us do that, instead of insisting that we do the easiest cheapest thing. Andy worked it out that we could add a bunch of river rock and make everything flow around it, so they got more than just the bowl. In Nebraska, it was just a flat slab of concrete that had a bunch of shitty pre-fab ramps. They got rid of those and wanted different things, but they had a budget for more, so we added a middle feature and a side feature. We made a weird flowing China bank pump bump thing with a couple of curbs. We\u2019re lucky that we get to do that kind of stuff because it makes for a cool park. Why make the same thing over and over? It\u2019s a give and take. I get that it\u2019s a public skatepark and I understand that kids want a ledge and they want this and that, but we\u2019re like, \u201cOkay, we can get that in there, but you\u2019re going to want this too.\u201d It\u2019s like putting a stair set in a skatepark. Come on. If you\u2019re 12 years old, you want to jump down stairs, but if you keep skating, when you\u2019re 20, you\u2019re going to want to carve around and hit some coping. You don\u2019t have to necessarily skate a bowl. There are so many cool flow aspects that we can build.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

As far as flow goes, I see more snake runs being built where you can pump the whole skatepark without having to kick. Where do you see skatepark building going? What do you want to build?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Personally, this has been a topic with Dave and I and the other cats. You look in old Skateboarder mag at the old skatepark with that lunar landscape and you\u2019re like, \u201cThat looks insane.\u201d From what you read, it looks better than it actually was, but if you take that and make it, it could work. Look at Red and those guys. I see it happening. It\u2019s more of a morph now. You can make this terrain never-ending and you can go in any direction with no pushing. You can show up and there\u2019s a bank to curb over there and you can warm up on that for awhile. Then you can get into the snake run and there are all kinds of hips. There\u2019s granite and pool coping and steel. That\u2019s the shit. Look at how kids skate now. Look at Grant Taylor and Kevin Kowalski. They grew up on that stuff, but they can get down on the street too. With public skateparks, it all depends on budgets. You can build mega parks with a plaza and a snake run and a bowl. There\u2019s room for everything. Personally, I want to do a flow park and have some grindable lips and some bigger shit. You can go anywhere with it and you can skate that \u00a0 <\/span>forever. Let\u2019s face it. The older you get, the harder it is to take the slams, but you still want that feeling. You want to keep rolling and grinding shit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Have you ever seen Reading Skatepark?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Yeah. I went there with Sam. I went to Lansdowne before I went to Reading. That was before I got to go to Burnside and I thought that was the shit. Later on, I went to Reading with Sam. We were on our way to Skatopia to do the first bowl pour there and we stopped and hit Reading. It was like, \u201cThis is amazing.\u201d I think it was gone the next year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Did you ride the Kink Sink pool?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Oh, man, yes. It was one of those deals where Sam and I pulled off the highway and he was like, \u201cIt\u2019s around here somewhere.\u201d We drove around forever trying to find it. He finally found it and we got a 45-minute session before the sun went down, and it was perfect. It was just one of those times where you\u2019re on your way to Skatopia to build some shit, and it\u2019s Skatopia, so who knows what\u2019s going to happen, and then you stop to skate this park that has been there since the \u201870s. It was killer. I\u2019d always see that one in Poweredge, and it was one of those parks that was always in the back of my mind. I\u2019m stoked I got to hit a few of those.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Does that make you consider that kind of park design?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Yeah. I remember having conversations with Sam and that\u2019s ultimately what we wanted. You have the lunar landscape with endless bumps and hips and turns. You look at it like, \u201cWhat is this wall going to do?\u201d It could bring you back one way or you could cut through another way. I got to go to Derby in the \u201890s and that was one of my favorites because you could just jam and hit the lip. I haven\u2019t been since they redid it, but it looks cool with all the curves and grindable lips. It looks even sicker. I want to build a park that size and I want a city to step up and build one on steroids with a $2,000,000 budget too. We could make an epic snake run park. It\u2019s been happening with Orcas Island and Lincoln City and all that. It\u2019s been pushing that way and we\u2019re starting to get that. It\u2019s tough because it\u2019s a public skatepark, so you have to walk the line if the kids want street or whatever. It all depends. \u00a0 <\/span>Sometimes, you have to go build a plaza. Nothing against a street plaza, but street skating is in the streets. Andy is really good at getting them to build what we think is right. We put street stuff in there, but we get to put our influence into it. Back in the day, there weren\u2019t that many skatepark building companies and we had the Northeast, so we had free reign to do what we wanted. We usually built our own designs. Now the big jobs require plans. We\u2019ve built some California Skateparks designs and it\u2019s just one of those things. It was a big park and it was financially good for the company, but you couldn\u2019t change anything. Nowadays you can get sued for changing plans. It\u2019s not the Wild West anymore. We got lucky. We never had to build any bullshit parks. We were in our zone with Breaking Ground, and everyone was cool and had our backs. The local skate community knew us and we knew them, so we worked together on park designs. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>

You were building parks a few years back when all the kids wanted street plazas, but you built something gnarly for them instead. Do you find, when you go back, that they were stoked on it?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Yes. There has been such a crazy turnaround in skateboarding. A kid that starts skating when he\u2019s 12 or 13, wants a 10-stair, a rail and a ledge. A lot of times, those kids end up quitting, even if they get the 10-stair and the hubba and all that. They get a car and they get a chick and they\u2019re done. It\u2019s the kids that are kind of quiet and hanging back that end up stepping up. They are the kids that become the locals. That\u2019s what makes it worth it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Do you ever build a ten stair in a park and you go back and not see anyone riding it?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Oh yeah. I think Andy and the guy we work with, Brad, who does design, have a good way of pushing their influence a little bit like, \u201cYou might want that now, but if you mature and stick with skating, you\u2019re gonna want a bowl. You may want a 4-foot bowl now, but, as you progress, you\u2019re going to want to ride an 8 or 9-foot bowl because your skills are going to get better.\u201d It\u2019s along those lines. I\u2019ll talk to kids and I\u2019ll go to the park too. I like to know what people think and get opinions and then I try to push my influence too like, \u201cA skatepark should be somewhere you go and there\u2019s a little bit of everything, but it\u2019s more of a flow. With street skating, what good is having a street park?\u201d I know that\u2019s what some people are into, but the whole thing with street skating is going out into the street and doing it. I guess you could practice it at the park, but why not go to the park and learn to ride some tranny. Learn how to turn and feel how your skateboard works instead of just going straight and doing a trick and landing and then picking up your board and walking up the stairs. More power to you if you want to blast a rail, but you\u2019re only getting a tiny bit of it, if that\u2019s all you do. To me, a skatepark should be like Del Mar or Big O or Upland. Skateparks should be these places of magnitude. I want to see a snake run on steroids. Let\u2019s build Mars out of concrete.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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CHEROKEE FLOW BOWL. PHOTO \u00a9 ROB NELSON<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Yeah! What is your opinion on skateboarding in the Olympics and what it will do for skatepark building?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

We talk about it because it\u2019s crazy. Coming from the \u201880s, where skateboarding was considered a waste of time and people would fight you and jocks would hate on you, now they want skateboarding. They want that juice. With the Olympics, who cares? Before this skateboarding thing came up, have you ever watched the Olympics? I have respect for athletes because they dedicate their life to it, the same as we do skateboarding. At this point, the Olympics needs skateboarding so the kids will watch it. They\u2019re trying to sell something. It\u2019s ratings and commercials, so everything is based on money. Part of me thinks it\u2019s lame, but you knew it was going to happen. The corporations have come in. From a skatepark standpoint, it\u2019s going to be like the X Games and all that. It\u2019s going to turn more people onto skateboarding, which I\u2019m for. If it means more kids will start skateboarding, because they see skateboarding in the Olympics, and some of those kids skate for the rest of their lives, that\u2019s good. There are no rules. To answer your question, more power to the Olympics. People want to get paid, I guess, and I can\u2019t blame them. Some of these dudes have families. All I see is that it\u2019s just going to mean more skateparks, and that means that we stay busy and everyone else stays busy and more cool shit gets built. If that brings people in, and they figure it out and they\u2019re down, cool. It\u2019s obviously going to spark some towns to build more shit. I\u2019m 100% down for that. Also the skateboard industry doesn\u2019t have magic elves that pay for things. People have to buy shit. If that means that people that continue to be in it for life for skateboarding can keep going, great. Lance Mountain should be paid forever. Gonz should be paid forever. It\u2019s one of those things. It could go either way. Tomorrow I could be like, \u201cFuck the Olympics.\u201d Overall, it\u2019s crazy. It\u2019s going to bring in the general public, but they are here already. Look at how people dress now. It\u2019s like skaters without skateboards. You can go and buy the pre-packaged image. Whatever. If it lets dudes be able to go on trips and tours, yeah. On the flip side of that, it\u2019s going to bring mainstream people in, but that just creates more underground. There are still going to be people who are out there, like us, that are going to skate no matter what. You and I are still out there going to skateparks and we see these kids and we know what\u2019s up. We know how the other cats did that for us when they handed down those traditions and that knowledge. It\u2019s this crazy thing. The counterculture and the underground is going to feed off these other people seeing skateboarding in the spotlight. Look at how crazy skateboarding is. There are so many different facets to it now. It\u2019s an amazing time to be a skateboarder. You can be anything. It\u2019s got flavor from the \u201870s, \u201880s and the \u201890s. It\u2019s all in the pot now. There is no reason to just say, \u201cI\u2019m a ledge skater\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m a street skater.\u201d You have a full plate in front of you and you can do anything you want. You can go anywhere and there will be a skatepark. Kids are out there on the road and that\u2019s great for skateboarding. All you need is your board, your backpack and your friends and you can get out there and skate everything.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

In the late \u201870s, the concrete skateparks got built and everyone was skating and then the parks closed. This time there are tons of parks getting built and they\u2019re not going away. These things are here to stay.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Exactly. The other side of that is that the skaters are building most of these parks and there\u2019s the whole DIY thing too. It\u2019s not just the dudes building Burnside, Channel Street and Washington Street. People are going out in the woods and building shit. It\u2019s like the vert ramps of the \u201880s have created this metamorphosis into today\u2019s concrete structures. Anything is in. You can just slap some concrete on a barrier or go out in the woods and start building a snake run. There is so much wild shit out there and it\u2019s great. It\u2019s only going to get stronger. There are so many people doing it, beyond the parks. People just took it upon themselves to build their own spots. If they can\u2019t get a skatepark, there is abandoned land everywhere. I love that. That\u2019s skateboarding. Skateboarding has always made its way through. You remember when we were kids and we were trying to get parks and the cities were like, \u201cYeah, whatever, kid, beat it.\u201d So we learned how to build a ramp. Skaters just make it happen. If it looks like they\u2019re not getting a skatepark, they\u2019re like, \u201cWell, there\u2019s a bridge over here. Let\u2019s start building.\u201d It\u2019s just going to keep going. I don\u2019t see it stopping. Even if the skateboarding industry collapsed, and it was like the dark days again, you have to remember, that\u2019s how Burnside started. There was no place to skate and they just made it happen. It\u2019s like Mad Max or some shit. Look at Skatopia. That\u2019s not normal shit. Normal people that are going to watch the Olympics, could they understand it? That\u2019s the beauty of it. Even at a skatepark, people don\u2019t know what goes on. I\u2019m sure, to most people, it looks like chaos. That\u2019s the beauty of skateboarding. Even though skateboarding is in the spotlight and everyone wants a piece, you can\u2019t just get in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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AFTER ALL THE TRANNYS ARE POURED AND FORMED, THEN YA POUR THE FLAT AND SET THE COPING! NOTHING LIKE THE FEELING OF ANOTHER CONCRETE CREATION TO RIP RIDE, LIKE THIS ONE AT ED PECK\u2019S COMPOUND! PHOTO \u00a9 JUSTIN GORMAN<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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You have to pay your dues.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Exactly. You have to earn it forever. That\u2019s the way it is. You have to put your time in and that\u2019s what makes it great. To see it progress, as far as people building and starting their own companies, is great too. As big as skateboarding gets, there are always going to be those skaters that push back, like, \u201cNo. I ain\u2019t doing that.\u201d That\u2019s why I fell in love with it. You can do it however you want. The door is open. In this digital age, you can go online and figure out how to pour concrete. It\u2019s sick. The bottom line for me is that I\u2019m a skateboarder. I love to see what Dreamland, Team Pain and Grindline are going to do next. I love to see what Evergreen is going to do. I have total respect for all of those companies. I just want to see more of it. Let\u2019s keep it going.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

What is your Duty Now For the Future?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

I just turned 45 and I\u2019ve been building skateparks for 17 years now and I want to keep going. It\u2019s been rad. I\u2019ve gotten to work with great dudes, and we have some younger dudes on the crew now too, so I get to pass on knowledge to them, and they\u2019re stepping up. It feels good to hand down something like that. I\u2019m fortunate and I feel blessed that I\u2019ve gotten to do this. Skateboarding has given me everything in my life. I\u2019ve gotten to travel the world and meet amazing people and have cool experiences and build skateparks. I just want to keep on progressing and continue to learn and strive to do better. I want to see some really out there designs. People aren\u2019t afraid to step it up and I think it\u2019s starting to come around that way now. I\u2019m not seeing as many plazas now. Kids are seeing all these dudes that just rip everything, so they go to the parks and rip it and then they go to the street and rip that too. I want to keep traveling and building and try to be a good husband and father and good friend to all the people that I love and care about. I want to keep skateboarding. I remember being a kid and I wanted to make it to 40, so I made it to 40. Now I want to skate until I\u2019m 60, and see what happens when I get there. How old is Tony Alva now? He\u2019s 60. Lance and Salba are still going and that\u2019s inspiring. I just want to keep riding my skateboard and handing down the knowledge of what I know and get another generation building, so they can keep it going.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Killer. Is there anybody that you want to thank or shout out to?<\/strong><\/p>

Yes. I want to thank Geth and Stephanie with Airspeed for giving me my start, which is sick. I hadn\u2019t really talked to Geth in a long time, but I did a little work for Grindline building that Burlington, Vermont, park and they had a park going in Marshfield, Mass and they needed heads and Andy was like, \u201cHey, would you work with these dudes? You get to be home.\u201d I could go home after work every day and be with my family. I said, \u201cSure.\u201d So I worked for Grindline on that and it was rad because Rabbi was running the crew and he was one of the first dudes I met. I met Rabbi, Shags and Lil Eddie when they went to Skatopia to do that first bowl, and Sam and I went up there. I learned a lot from those cats on that bowl pour. It was cool to see Rabbi again. I have tons of respect for all those dudes. Then Grindline was like, \u201cDo you want to go to Israel?\u201d This was on Christmas Eve. I was like, \u201cWhat?\u201d They said, \u201cCan you leave January 2nd?\u201d I was like, \u201cYes.\u201d I didn\u2019t even ask my wife. I just said yes. A trip to Israel is a once in a lifetime deal and you have to go. Andy, the owner of Artisan, was the one that told me they wanted to take me over there for a month and a half and he was totally cool with that. He knew it was an opportunity for me to travel. In Israel, I got to work with Sage from Burnside. It was cool and it was such an experience and then I came back to the States and started working with Artisan again. Geth ended up going to Israel to help out, so he was there working with Sage. It\u2019s crazy how it all worked out. I have to thank Steph, Geth, Andy, Sloppy Sam and all the people I\u2019ve worked with. I want to thank my mom and dad and my wife, Carlena, and my daughter, June. Being on the road away from home can be tough, but my wife is a really tough woman and she holds it down. She gets what this means to me. I want to say an extra thanks to Andy Duck for the opportunities, and thanks to Russ Pope and the Transportation Unit, Rob Collins at Converse, Pete Talbot, Justin Gorman and Noah Powell for always being down to roll. I have to thank skateboarding. Thank you skateboarding. Thank you too, Murf. This has been awesome.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, GET ISSUE #76 AT THE JUICE SHOP HERE.<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Since the \u2018\u201990s, when a crew of skaters started sculpting cement skate structures at Burnside, many skaters took that inspiration and began to dream of building with concrete in their communities. Coming from the Northeast, Tom hooked up with Geth Noble in the early days of skatepark building and, after building projects out West, fulfilled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-fullwidth.php","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":[4032,4027,4028,4041],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-duty-now","category-featured","category-interviews","category-skate-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/IMG_0304-copy.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88095","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=88095"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90268,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88095\/revisions\/90268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}