{"id":94825,"date":"2022-01-07T18:31:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-08T02:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/?p=94825"},"modified":"2023-09-21T12:03:30","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T19:03:30","slug":"andy-anderson-talk-story-with-bill-danforth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/andy-anderson-talk-story-with-bill-danforth\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Anderson Talk Story with Bill Danforth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ANDY ANDERSON INTERVIEW BY BILL DANFORTH<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andy\u2019s individuality and unique outlook on skateboarding all around drew George Powell\u2019s attention as someone whose expression needs to be seen and heard. He\u2019s as passionate about freestyle as he is vert and he rips both. Andy knows no bounds in his skateboarding abilities and it seems that he looks for more things that haven\u2019t been done on a skateboard, so he can do them on vert, street or freestyle with no holds barred. With massive respect for skateboarding history, he tips his hat to Stacy Peralta, Rodney Mullen, Grant Taylor and Bill Danforth as well as Canadian heavies like Colin McKay, Ryan Decenzo, Kevin Harris, and his first sponsor, Hippie Mike, and Red Dragons mentor, Sean Hayes. Andy reps Powell Peralta as well as his Mind Control helmets and wears his jean vest covered in patches in honor of his longtime shop sponsor, PD at Skull Skates, representing the hardcore scene and attitude in Vancouver. His creativity has been seen by everyone that he has come in contact with around the world, constantly inspiring everyone\u2019s imagination when it comes to skateboarding. I interviewed Andy as he was on his way to the Olympics, and posted it at juicemagazine.com, just as he arrived in Tokyo. Bill Danforth then followed up and talked with Andy about Canadian skatepark history. Read on for more from Andy and Danforth!<\/em> \u2013 INTRODUCTION BY JIM MURPHY<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andy, how the hell are you? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m doing good. How are you, Bill?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good. I wanted to ask you about some of the old \u201870s skateparks that are still being utilized in Canada, especially in the Vancouver area. I understand that you grew up in White Rock. What are your opinions on the White Rock Skatepark?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That White Rock bowl is one of a kind. As far as I\u2019m concerned, it\u2019s the last bowl built without coping. I think it was finished in \u201989. Monty Little and this other guy, Nelson Holland, were working on all of the snake runs in Canada together. They did Seylynn, Griffin and China Creek too. Monty Little told me that he was away out of town, so the other guy took over on the White Rock project. He was more experimental with it and steered away from the snake run and tried to make it more         current, so there\u2019s a halfpipe in there. The deep end is like a China Creek pool and there\u2019s a ditch in the front. It\u2019s less snaky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I\u2019ve had some good times rolling around in that. It\u2019s definitely a cruise. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh yeah. I think it\u2019s one of the deeper ones, when it comes to pools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can tell that it was built after the other parks. It\u2019s a blast and it\u2019s unique.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is amazing. It got me good at fly outs. It has this great 13-foot roll in to an 8-foot launch. There is no way you\u2019re not getting there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Canadian fly out! Hell yeah. What are your thoughts on Seylynn? When it was designed, it was mathematically perfect. You can see in the movie, The Seylynn Story, they used math skills to design that. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Seylynn park is a work of art. It\u2019s absolutely amazing. I think they did exactly what they set out to do, which was to make a bowl that beginners could experience and ride down the flat bottom. It\u2019s not really flat because it all slightly turns, but you can get better and then start carving the five waves in it. The most experienced skater could have a blast doing that and they can also pump over the hips. When you\u2019re going over the hips, you\u2019re cooking. You\u2019re going up and down so fast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard pumping up that thing, but some folks kill it pumping up from the bottom. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, it\u2019s so sick that it\u2019s a downhill that\u2019s made to go back up. Imagine if there were pump tracks next to hills that you can bomb. You could bomb the hills and pump back up. You wouldn\u2019t need a car to tow you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s Canada\u2019s oldest existing skatepark. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is. There is one older park, but it\u2019s buried. It\u2019s in West Vancouver, but apparently it was much more rigid and weird to skate. Seylynn was the good one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seylynn almost got destroyed when the river next to it overflowed and washed out the foundation of the park. It was sticking out of the ground five feet and the concrete didn\u2019t crack. It was built amazing. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I just think the river was jealous of all the skaters. It wanted to feel that flow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs] Yeah. Give me some thoughts about Canada Day at Seylynn.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada Day at Seylynn is the ultimate gathering of bowl skaters. It\u2019s a blast. It\u2019s a kick off for the Bowl Series, which is an awesome series of contests that happen at all of the old school bowls at Griffin, Seylynn, Whistler and White Rock. Every year they kick it off with Canada Day at Seylynn and it\u2019s just insane. Everybody is coming together and they\u2019re making slushy martinis at the top. At the bottom, everyone has their lawn chairs out and photographers are there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a huge presence of Surrey Boys. They are Surrey proud. It\u2019s just amazing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh yeah. Hippie Mike comes up with his Surrey stake and sticks it in the ground and it\u2019s on with Surrey Stu and all of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are great. Let\u2019s talk about Griffin. It\u2019s smaller than Seylynn, but it\u2019s fun. What do you think of Griffin skatepark?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deep end at Griffin has a couple of kinks that almost hit vert, if you know where they are. You can fly so high out of Griffin. When I was a little kid, me and my dad would go there and I would be doing the most tweaked out melons that I could, going higher than I\u2019ve ever gone before. That was always so exciting for me. Then there is the section with the halfpipe where all the Plan B videos were shot. Danny Way and everyone was learning flip tricks out of there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sluggo ripped that place.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I think Sluggo learned the back flip at White Rock and then went to Griffin with it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStop bitching about the fact that you don\u2019t have the perfect ledge in your town or whatever. Just go! Go harder!\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s talk about the Whistler snake run. Whistler is such a chill super friendly scene. They have the honor system with the stick in the ground for everyone\u2019s beers. That\u2019s got to be a Canadian thing, the beer in the creek. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. Whistler is its own vibe because it\u2019s up in the mountains where everybody is there to mountain bike, skateboard or snowboard. I don\u2019t know what Seylynn used to be like, but now it\u2019s around some big buildings in an area where it stands out. Griffin is at a community center in a more posh neighborhood. Whistler is exactly where it should be next to the mountains and the creek. There are bike paths all around and everyone is super active. You could be riding on the bike path and see the bowl and take a spin and then get back on the bike path. It just makes sense. I think it\u2019s the largest skatepark as well. It has the most sweeping waves of all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they made the addition to the other side of the park, that really added to it. You either rode the snake run or you rode the new park. That was one of my favorite places. It\u2019s just such a cool scene. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s great. Snowboarders and skateboarders kinda own that town, so there is so much love there for skateboarding. That\u2019s why I love coming down to Venice or Oceanside and those places because, when I skate around, people understand what I\u2019m doing. They\u2019re like, \u201cHe\u2019s skateboarding. That\u2019s his sense of getting a wave or his sense of expression or zoning out or zoning in or whatever.\u201d Sometimes you\u2019re in an area where people don\u2019t get what skateboarding is and people just want to yell at you like a dog. They see you and they\u2019re like, \u201cHey! Hey, stop! Hey! Stop!\u201d They don\u2019t understand it and they get angry. Whistler is the opposite of that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s funny that you mentioned Oceanside. When I moved to Oceanside in \u201984, we were getting chased by cops for riding the curbs at Ralphs. Times have changed and now skateboarding is accepted. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank god!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay. I think we\u2019ve covered everything but China Creek. It\u2019s a Jak\u2019s dominated area and a fun place to skate. It\u2019s not in the Bowl Series because they have their own contest at China Creek.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yep. The Jak\u2019s contest at China Creek sets the tone for the year and it\u2019s one of the best contests. It\u2019s so fun. You get all of these gnarly skateboarders with their jean vests and patches and blood and sweat all over them, but their intention is to stoke out the beginners and the little kids and the dude that doesn\u2019t have enough money to buy a board. They put that dude in first place and give him first choice at all of the winnings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s some true dedication.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

100%. They are truly dedicated to skateboarding. The last time I went, I won the Advanced category, but my trophy said Intermediate on it. I was like, \u201cWhat?\u201d I found out later that they gave all of the beginners the Advanced trophies. It\u2019s my favorite trophy. It\u2019s the only trophy I\u2019ve ever kept because of the presentation. That was just so rad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s cool. I love that Canada has fought long and hard to keep the old skateparks. Growing up in Detroit, I used to go to  Sarnia and ride that \u201870s concrete bowl. To this day, they are still ripping it. I gotta give props to Canada for keeping the   tradition alive. In America, they pave over paradise to build a parking lot.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joni Mitchell! She\u2019s Canadian. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is. If you care about skateboarding history, Canada is the place to go to ride some of the stuff that nobody is ever going to build again.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You nailed it. In Montreal, the Big-O pipe was made for the Olympics and they wanted to pave over it and put in a parking lot. Instead, they put it on a crane and moved the whole thing somewhere else. It was going to get demolished, but somebody said, \u201cLet\u2019s not demolish it.\u201d They figured out how to pick up this giant piece of concrete and move it. It was an insane amount of effort that went into saving it. That\u2019s the mentality that you\u2019re talking about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
DUMPTRUCK LAPPER GRIND WITH STYLE AND FLOW. ANDY ANDERSON CAN AND WILL RIDE ANYTHING, ANYWHERE AT ANYTIME. PHOTO \u00a9 DEVILLE NUNES<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Marc Tison and Barry Walsh wrote the book, “Pipe Fiends”, about that place. Credit goes to them for saving the Big-O. It was those guys and countless others. They preserved a huge part of skate history. Montreal has Cherry Park and all these skate spots. It\u2019s seen better days, but it\u2019s still there. I love how Canada looks at things. They preserve it. It\u2019s amazing. It\u2019s been really great talking with you about Canadian history. Do you have any shout outs that you\u2019d like to give?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, my list is too long for me to name everybody, but I want to give shout outs to Hippie Mike for meeting me when I was seven and helping me out and teaching me how to do the mini launch and the Gravitron at White Rock bowl where you\u2019re rolling on the deck and you roll straight into a carve in the deep end. I want to give big props to P.D. at P.D.\u2019s Hot Shop and Jeff Cole and Sam McKinlay and all those guys. They are so rad, giving me the grit that I\u2019ve got today and introducing me to the whole world of the Jak\u2019s. Thanks to Michelle at Antisocial for being the best. Thanks to Rick McCrank and shout out to Alex Chalmers for being an inspiration and teaching me how to skate a bowl without ever meeting me. I was watching his part in Flip\u2019s Sorry video and he was just killing it and showing what can be done. Thanks to Ben for hooking me up with wheels back in the day and putting me on Rollerbones. Thanks to Sluggo for showing me what a real true professional looks like. I ran into Sluggo at the Hastings Bowl, when I was super young, and he was telling the gnarliest party stories ever. I was like, \u201cIs that what happens when you get good at skateboarding?\u201d Thanks to George Powell and Powell Peralta. George is the reason that anybody noticed me. George had blind faith in me. It was literally him helping me out as a homie and seeing that I wanted to integrate freestyle into other things and him wanting to push the same direction. George is the best in the world at making the best wheels, the best boards, the best bushings and the best bearings. He loves product design and innovating and he really appreciated my mentality towards designing the shape of my board like, \u201cThis is for this and this is for that and you need this to do that.\u201d That kind of logic speaks to him. I feel like he knew more about me than I knew about me. George and Stacy wrote a paragraph or two about me before Stacy even met me. Stacy just saw me through video and understood my whole outlook. I was like, \u201cOkay, this guy is deep.\u201d Thanks to Kevin Harris too. Stacy Peralta and Kevin Harris had various conversations about how they both think that the future of skateboarding is bringing freestyle into other things. Through my connection with Kevin, I think Stacy saw me as a way to help represent freestyle, and Kevin has been cheering me on, from behind the scenes, for a while. Then I got to meet Stacy when we went on the Powell tour in 2015 and that was so heavy. Props to Deville [Nunes], the Powell TM too. He is the shit. I also want to thank all of the RDS guys, especially Sean Hayes, for helping me. He\u2019s been my guiding light for the last four years and he\u2019s turned me from unknown to world renowned. I have to give a shout out to my parents too. I grew up in White Rock, but in the first six months of my life, I was in North Vancouver, and my parents would walk through the forest and take me to Griffin. They didn\u2019t skate, but they would sit with me and watch the skaters when I was a newborn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s so cool. Thank you, Andy. I enjoyed talking to you. All the best of luck to you. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you, Bill. I have to give a shout out to you. So much inspiration for my skateboarding has come from you and your early era of street skating. Without fully relying on the ollie, you were doing bonelesses and finger flips and no complys and jumping up walls and picking up your board and doing fat acid drops off picnic tables. That style and soul and street skating style is skateboarding to me. I\u2019m not going to spend 80 million hours perfecting one trick because one guy does it really well. I\u2019m like, \u201cNo. I want to skate that.\u201d You just point at something and figure out how to skate it. That\u2019s what I got from you. Your inspiration to me has been to skate whatever you\u2019ve got in front of you. Stop bitching about the fact that you don\u2019t have the perfect ledge in your town or whatever. Just go! Go harder!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I really appreciate that. I can\u2019t wait to skate with you again. We\u2019ll go out and do some old school street style tricks.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hell yeah! I can\u2019t wait.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FOR THIS STORY AND MORE, ORDER ISSUE #78 AT THE JUICE SHOP\u2026<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANDY ANDERSON INTERVIEW BY BILL DANFORTH Andy\u2019s individuality and unique outlook on skateboarding all around drew George Powell\u2019s attention as someone whose expression needs to be seen and heard. He\u2019s as passionate about freestyle as he is vert and he rips both. Andy knows no bounds in his skateboarding abilities and it seems that he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4027,4028,4041],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-interviews","category-skate-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/AndyAnderson78-Danforth-copy.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94825","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=94825"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94838,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94825\/revisions\/94838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}