{"id":94952,"date":"2023-06-05T13:56:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T20:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/?p=94952"},"modified":"2023-09-25T09:32:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T16:32:00","slug":"jake-wooten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/jake-wooten\/","title":{"rendered":"JAKE WOOTEN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

JAKE WOOTEN INTERVIEW BY ERIC DRESSEN<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PHOTOGRAPHY BY GLENN JOYCE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is nobody on earth like Jake Wooten. I first met Jake as a little guy at a Damn Am in Atlanta. He was the perfect Santa Cruz rider. Cool bag of tricks, amazing transition skills and a style that made me feel like I was watching one of the greats in their youth. After getting to know Jake, I immediately wanted to see him succeed. Coming from rural Tennessee, he was oozing with southern charm and a big heart to match. I talk about how smart he is or how he\u2019s one of my favorite skateboarders I\u2019ve ever seen, but what I want anyone reading this to know is that Jake is one of the best people I\u2019ve ever had the privilege of getting to know and I really hope you will all have the chance to meet him too. \u2013 INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW CANNON<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ERIC DRESSEN: Hey, Jake. How\u2019s it going? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

JAKE WOOTEN: Good. I\u2019ve been skating a bunch and working out and trying to wrap up some projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay. Let\u2019s go. Where were you born?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was born and raised in Gallatin, Tennessee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When did you start skating?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started skateboarding at age five. My uncle Phillip took me to Tony Hawk\u2019s Boom Boom Huck Jam and it was unreal. It was in Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. My uncle wasn\u2019t my legal guardian at the time, but he knew I was in a rough situation at home, so he\u2019d take me out. He took me to that Huck Jam to get me into motocross because he got me a little 50cc Honda racing bike. I got there and I was like, \u201cTony Hawk! Andy Mac!\u201d It was the coolest thing I\u2019d ever seen. My uncle used to skate when he was younger, so he had some boards around the house and then he started taking me out skating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was your first board?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a Mike Vallely with the elephant graphic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI grew up watching GT, Cardiel and Ishod Wair. Every one of those dudes can rip  everything and that\u2019s why skateboarding is so sacred and beautiful. Why would you not want to go skate everything? I want to be able to skate quarter pipes like a ledge or skate a rail like quarter pipe or vice versa. The possibilities are endless.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What year was that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gnarly. Did you start going to parks first?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. My uncle would take me on Sunday mornings to the concrete park in Nashville. He would drive me 45 minutes to Nashville at 5:30am so we could skate for an hour or two before anyone got there, so I wouldn\u2019t get in the way. I was going back and forth for 45 minutes on the quarter pipe, just a little kid hogging up the ramp. We did that and then randomly we would go to Gallatin park or Sixth Avenue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When did you start entering contests?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first contest was right when I started skating. The Gallatin skatepark had opened in late 2004, and they had an event the next year. Imperial Skate Shop was a shop in our town that threw it, and I ended up winning the Peewee Division because I was the only one who entered. I was the only one to enter my division, so they made someone bump down a level to skate with me. We had a pretty chill skate scene when I was young, and I started skating in contests right off at Gallatin and Sixth Avenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your uncle and aunt were big supporters in your skateboarding, and they took you everywhere to all the contests. When did you start traveling to other contests?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first contest I traveled to was King of the Groms at Progressive Skatepark in Canton, Georgia. That was in 2008 and I brought my friends, Damian and Bryce, with me from the skatepark in Nashville. I ended up skating in King of the Groms for a few years and then I also did Georgia Bowlriders and Florida Bowlriders Cup. I got to meet a lot of unreal transition skaters through that. Then I got to meet a lot of unreal street skaters through King of the Groms, so that was cool because we had a good skate scene. Besides Dee Ostrander, we had a lot of good street skaters, but they just kept to themselves. There wasn\u2019t a lot of park rippers where I lived, so whenever I\u2019d go to these different parks and events, it was an opportunity to see how good people really were and I was able to learn all these things from these people.\u201d Every time I\u2019d get to go to an event, it was pivotal in transitioning my skating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
FDR. PHOTO BY GLENN JOYCE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s sick. Your uncle is such a rad dude.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My uncle Phillip saved my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. The first time I got to see you skate was at the indoor park when Santa Cruz was on that Midwest tour. You completely destroyed the park and I was blown away. You ollied so high frontside on the quarter pipe to wall ride there and made it look so easy. That\u2019s how I always wanted to skate. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s insane for you to say that. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. It means the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Were you just on flow back then? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. In 2015, I was on the flow program. I\u2019d been getting flowed boards for about a year from Andrew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you get on Santa Cruz originally?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I was skating for Elephant Skateboards. Mike V was running it and Kyle Berard was team manager. Then I got a call from Mike V and he goes, \u201cI quit Elephant. Best of luck.\u201d Then Kyle called me like, \u201cHey, Mike quit, so there\u2019s no reason for us to stay together, so we\u2019re gonna all go our separate ways, but I think I know someone who will be interested in you. I\u2019m gonna make a few calls.\u201d I was like, \u201cThank you so much. You\u2019re awesome.\u201d Kyle and Mike were amazing to me. Kyle is still killing it with concrete work and Mike moved to Iowa. Then, on January 23, 2014, Andrew Cannon called me from Santa Cruz. He was like, \u201cI\u2019d love to get you some product.\u201d I thought, \u201cDream come true.\u201d I was like, \u201cWhat? Really? I\u2019d love that. That\u2019d be awesome.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wondered how they discovered you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I literally left this dinner with my family at the local Longhorn\u2019s steakhouse and went outside. As I got the call, it said \u201cAndrew Cannon\u201d and my uncle saw it was like, \u201cYou gotta take it.\u201d You never answer a phone during dinner where I\u2019m from, but I was like, \u201cOkay.\u201d So I went outside and Andrew was like, \u201cI\u2019d love to send you a package. I\u2019d also love to send you some bearings, wheels, trucks and grip tape.\u201d I was getting NHS flow forever and it was all companies that I wanted to ride for, so I was stoked to be a part of it. I was on flow for a few years and then I turned Am in 2018. Henry, Mario, Justin and I all turned Am together in (\u201cTil The End) Vol. 1. I\u2019ve almost been on Santa Cruz for a decade. That\u2019s nowhere close to you. What are you running on Santa Cruz?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been on since 2004, and then I rode for them from \u201889 to \u201893 the first time.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When did you turn pro?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dogtown was my first pro model, but I was kind of pro when I was a little kid. I was getting paid and I entered pro contests when I was 12 or 13. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s so sick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
FDR. PHOTO BY GLENN JOYCE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I never had a pro board until 1987 with Dogtown. Those were the original street contest days. How did you get so good? That first time I saw you skate that indoor park you were ripping so hard. You were just plain simple gnarly. You were the gnarliest dude I ever skated with.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you. I was very blessed. Skateboarding was my outlet and my way of trying to deal with baggage I had as well as emotions and everything else. A lot of it I didn\u2019t deal with, so I dealt with it through my skating. I couldn\u2019t blame my skateboard. I couldn\u2019t blame other skaters. I couldn\u2019t blame the weather, unless it was raining out or 40 mile per hour winds. Now that I have moved to Southern California, I can\u2019t blame the weather. It was a very humbling process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You had goals and ambitions and wanted to be a pro skateboarder?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did have ambitions, and a few goals as soon as I started skating. I wanted to learn new tricks every time I skated. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s the stupidest trick ever. I have to learn at least one thing every time I skate. It used to be three tricks, but, after a while, that was a battle. For me, I try tricks that I have absolutely no business trying. I\u2019ve done that since I was a kid. I would spin a 900 and I couldn\u2019t do a 540. I\u2019d try backlip to fakies. I tried invert reverts mceggs. I\u2019ll try anything as long as I know it\u2019s possible. If someone can do it, then I try to figure it out. Sometimes I don\u2019t ever figure it out, or I just haven\u2019t figured it out yet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time I saw you in a contest was at Tampa Pro at the bowl contest. You were skating so hard in practice and the contest, it scared me. You were in beast mode. I\u2019ve seen you at a few Tampa Pro Bowl contests, and you\u2019re so focused. Do you have a game plan or do you just go for it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not trying to focus on making a run for a contest or even trying to win the contest. I\u2019m just trying to have the best session and I know I\u2019m gonna get the most fired up when I\u2019m skating with other people trying their hardest. When you get that energy, you\u2019ve got to milk it for every penny you got. We need more open jam contests. They do all this quarter jam bullshit now where everyone does the same baby runs in every bowl. No. Let\u2019s get some jams going. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re definitely a good jam skater, and you\u2019re always first place in my book. We\u2019ve traveled quite a bit and been around the world together. When we were at Perth at that bowl on the beach, there were all of these Australian groms and I looked at them like, \u201cOh, they don\u2019t know what they\u2019re about to see.\u201d I always look at the reactions on the kid\u2019s faces and see their faces melt after your first run. It\u2019s sick. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means the world, Eric, seriously. I\u2019m constantly trying to push the envelope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, ORDER ISSUE #79 AT THE JUICE SHOP\u2026<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JAKE WOOTEN INTERVIEW BY ERIC DRESSEN PHOTOGRAPHY BY GLENN JOYCE There is nobody on earth like Jake Wooten. I first met Jake as a little guy at a Damn Am in Atlanta. He was the perfect Santa Cruz rider. Cool bag of tricks, amazing transition skills and a style that made me feel like I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94954,"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-94952","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\/Photo-Oct-01-2-45-02-AM.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94952","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=94952"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95058,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94952\/revisions\/95058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}