Who is Ira Ingram
It’s always interesting to peek behind the curtain of the skateboarding industry and see some of the characters involved. For example, the people who place themselves behind the camera, rather than in front of it, can be incredibly fascinating. More often than not, you will discover that these people are just as, if not more, passionate about skating than the skaters they are filming. Ira Ingram is definitely one of these people.
Luckily for us all, over the past few years, Ira has managed to find himself on both ends of the camera. Not only has he been an integral part of filming and editing video parts for brands such as Red Bull and skaters like Jamie Foy, Ira has also been dropping parts and ads which legitimately hold their own. As curb skating has become more and more in vogue, skaters around the world have quickly come to realise that he is up there with some of the best when it comes to slappy-based skating.
This makes Ira Ingram an incredibly interesting person to chat to. Considering his experiences in the world of skateboarding, be it trips he has been on, scenarios he has encountered, unbelievable skating he has witnessed and battles he has personally fought on his own board, it paints a very complete picture of what being a skater in the industry looks like. I can’t thank Ira enough for taking the time to answer the insane amount of questions I threw his way, I know it’s no easy task. So yeah, thanks, Ira, you bloody legend!
I know you’ve just got back from a filming mission with Jamie Foy. How was it?
The trip with Foy was good. It was our last trip for this video part we’ve been working on, and it’ll be out end of April. And you know, he’s kind of the best person ever to film. Anthony Acosta says he spoils us, and it’s pretty true, you know, you kind of don’t have to worry about much. He’s gonna make all the decisions, and he knows what he’s doing, and he’s just insane. Yeah, we went through Texas and ended up in Oklahoma, and pretty much got everything we went after, except for this one big rail at the very end. Last day of filming got the best of him, but it was a fucking roller coaster. So we’ll be back. But the trip went great. Part’s amazing, it’s done, and that trick that he does on the current cover of Thrasher Magazine is going to be in there, so I think people will be excited to see that. Yeah, it’s neat. We’ve been working on it on and off for a couple years.
When you are on these trips, do you ever try and find a cheeky curb spot to skate whilst you are out there? What’s your skate/work balance like?
Yeah, I try to skate here and there on trips, but usually it’s not anything if I’m filming. You know, when you’re working on a skate video, especially, sort of like in dad mode, making sure everyone has food and you’re driving and getting gas and getting hotels and making sure everybody’s happy. So not a lot of time for a slappy. I got a rhyme in! [Laughs] Yeah, I skate here and there, but for the most part, you know, by the time the filmer starts skating, everyone wants to leave.
Who is Curb Killer?
When did you become Curb Killer?
I don’t know that I am Curb Killer. The whole thing, the Curb Killer thing, really started as a joke. I still feel like it’s kind of a joke. My buddy Brendan Klein and I were skating a curb, a little driveway to curb, and well over 10 years ago, God, probably closer to 15 years ago. And, I mean, Instagram was new. I don’t know how long ago that was, but anyway, um, I was skating a curb with Brendan Klein, and hadn’t skated a curb in a long time, and was really actually bad at slappies. We were, he was kind of, we were just kind of laughing at that, and I don’t remember exactly how it started, but curb killer was sort of tongue in cheek. Was kind of, because I was so bad at them at the time that we were laughing about that. It was definitely ironic. And then we had a bunch of mushrooms, and he tattooed it on my foot, and took a really lovely photo of it right after he was done with the tattoo. And then I just had the Instagram since Instagram started so long before I really got it back into skating curbs, you know, reverse engineered that one. [Laughs]
Curb nerdery
What was the first slappy you learnt?
Slappy crooked grind, just regular old Slappy crooks was with my best friend growing up, Daryl Wayne Anderson Jr, and we learned them. We both learned them. And he had a he lived on a hill, and there was this curb in front of his house on a downhill, and we waxed up, like three sections of it. I don’t know how many meters that is. We would just try and hold on to crooks as long as we could, until we got these beautiful wave grooves in our trucks. And we became kind of obsessed with that, and like, how deep you could get that crooked ground wave. I mean, slappy front side 5050. I probably didn’t even learn that I was in my 30s, and then it’s like my favourite trick of all, if I keep one trick when I’m old and dying, which is soon, [Laughs] then that it would be Slappy front side, 5050, but slappy crook, good old slappy crooked grind. That’s the first one.
You mentioned on your Nine Club that you can barely fs grind a bowl. I’ve been told on numerous occasions that ramp skating and curb skating cross over a lot, technique-wise. Do you agree? I only ask as I suck at transition skating… so basically I need to hear you say there is no correlation, please. 🙂
I don’t think transition skating and skating curbs are as intertwined as people think, outside of the feeling of getting into pool coping, maybe, but the weight shift, I think, is way more drastic in transition. And transitions always been like, much harder for me, outside of like a mini ramp. I think, you know, they’re two sides of the same coin. People saying that are like a front Slappy or front side grind in transition or like similar. It’s, I mean, it is and it ain’t, you know? I just think they’re different categories, you know? I think skating, transition and curb skating, sure, they’re similar, but like all skating has its similarities, I think they’re, you know, apples and oranges.
What size board were you skating when you first started getting serious with curb skating? How did it develop into 10” eggs etc?
I started skating in the early, mid 90s, and so I’ve gone through the whole fluctuation of board sizes from the puffy shoes and 7.75” or 7.5” boards, like, which is ridiculous, because I have huge feet, but everyone else was skating that at the time, you know, whenever that was. I’ve skated everything over the years. In my late 20s, mid-late 20s, I settled on an 8.5” popsicle for a really long time. And then when I got into curb skating a few years back, I was skating a lot of like these Prime Wood shapes that Abe Bethel and Chris Pastras were sort of pioneering. There were these really cool bullet shapes and tombstones and really darty, fun shapes and squared off tails. And those were kind of between 8.5” and 9”. And then, you know, Fos is a shape master, and I don’t know exactly how, you know, I do. I got a 10” egg from Fos, and was like, blown away. There’s something that I love about just being able to plant my foot on a board and not dealing with the toe or heel hang as much. And then the taper on the eggs I fell in love with, and the Razor Edge on different shapes, just really give you a lot of control. And they just feel good for slappies. I’ve kind of never gone back. Swampy and some of the Heroin guys skate huge boards. I typically keep it between 9.5” eggs and 10” eggs. And the 10.75” that’s out right now is, is pretty fun. That’s about as big as I’ll go.
Collaborating with Heroin Skateboards
How did you end up linking up with Heroin?
Gosh, I just live close to Fos and was seeing him around. I don’t exactly remember how we met, which is weird, but I knew I just liked him right away. He’s such a sweetheart, and we’re both dorks, and both love skateboarding. And, yeah, I know we hit it off right away. Maybe it was when Tony Carr was on Heroin Skateboards. I know we started [hanging out] when Tony Karr was on Heroin skateboards. I had been filming a lot with Tony, and I think it was around that time that I really got close with Fos, and that has never really changed. You know, eez my m8!
How important is a Razortop Construction?
I fucking love the Razortop. Shit hurts when it hits your shins, but the nose and tail are routed thankfully. I think for me, especially if I’m trying to flip a bigger board, that Razortop just grabs the flick, and that, combined with the tapering of the eggs, just makes a 10” board flip like a 9” board. You know, it’s like driving a fucking Ferrari.
You know, it’s like driving a fucking Ferrari.
I notice you were skating 215’s a lot before Slappy released their 10” trucks. How do the Slappy trucks compare?
Man, I’ve been a lifelong Indy skater, and, you know, I still love Indys, and everyone over there is awesome. I thought I would skate Independent trucks until they put me in the ground, but Sinclair hit me up to test. He wanted to do a 10” truck. And I love Sinclair, so I started testing them, and they’re good out of the box; you don’t need to tighten them. The factory setting is perfect for me. He’s just a mad scientist. He reminds me of Fos in that way, where he’s just constantly tweaking things and playing with ideas until something feels really good. And that’s where the Slappy Trucks are at. So they turn great, and they feel light and strong, and I just love how they react. They turn amazing, and they stop you just at the point of wheel bite. I really loved skating 215’s, the only issue that I ever had with them is that they got really loose over time and just pegged me into wheel bite. Especially… pegged me? Sorry. [laughs] They would just put you into wheel bite a lot easier, you know. I don’t know, the Slappy’s just felt good as soon as I skated them. Those are the only trucks I wanted to skate, long before we decided to do the Curb Killer truck or anything like that.
Collaborating with Slappy Trucks
How did the Slappy trucks collab come around?
Sinclair asked me if I wanted to do the Curb Killer truck, and I remember my response was like, Yeah, Fos is into it, I’m fucking definitely into it. You know, it’s like the first Curb Killer board all over again, where people have kind of just gone nuts for them. It’s really, really awesome to be a part of something like that. You know, for someone in their mid-40s, it’s really some childhood dream shit that you get to play with this stuff and have people love it as much as you love it; it feels really special.
Is the 10” truck the ultimate slappy size?
I think the 10” truck is pretty perfect. You know, the 10” Slappy’s are great. I feel the same way as I do about the 10” egg, where it’s just kind of perfect for me. You know, everything’s fucking subjective man. I think that, where I’ve settled, that’s my favourite shape. It’s my favourite thing to ride. The combo is really, really, really satisfying. I usually skate between a 51 and 52 millimetre wheel, although I really want to put out a 50 millimetre Snot wheel. I’m really curious to go a little bit smaller for certain setups, especially like a 9.5” egg with the 50 millimetre. I’m really, really, really curious about that. So maybe something like that will be coming in the future. But yeah, I mean, the 10” trucks and the 10” egg, that’s my like dream setup. I always have one of those in the old trunk.
Have you managed to skate the new Slappy inverted hollow kingpin that’s just dropped? How much of a difference does it make, if so?
I skate the inverted kingpins. I don’t know if I’ve gotten the hollow ones yet. How do you know? Does it say on the package? Sinclair doesn’t tell me shit, man. He sends me trucks, and I skate them, and I love it! I don’t know, I don’t know if I’ve skated them. I love the inverted kingpins. The clearance on the Slappy’s is already so insane. I love slappy front smith grinds. It’s one of my favourite tricks in the world and you just will never feel that kingpin with the inverted design. Hollows are probably even better!!
More curb nerdery
What makes the perfect curb? Is there such a thing?
Man, what makes a perfect curb? The concrete mixture, you know, biased to California, we’ve got some good hard stone concrete. You know, like Costco, my kind of day-to-day spot, a lot of those curbs feel like almost granite, and they have a good little, not quite 45-degree angle. You know, you don’t want a curb that’s sticking out, so you go to slappy and you’re just catching the edge. You want like, a little bank to that thing, and then if the ground has a swoop up to it, you get bonus points. But from there, like, as far as a good clean edge or a nice bull-nose, worn down, chunky curb, like, I like both for different reasons, and they just feel good. But yeah, I guess to me, it’s more the concrete. And, you know, if you have a gutter next to that curb and there’s a pitch down, it might as well be inverted, so you want a good flat or bank surface up to it, and then a nice lean into the curb edge. I think that’s the most important thing.
Do you have a favourite curb spot?
Costco and Los Filas are my favourite curb spots. It’s on all the curb killer boards, I think, our little Atwater Village gem. And shout out to Matt Marcus, the first person ever to wax that spot. Took him a long time to convince us to go there, and we’ve been skating ever since, and it’s great. It keeps expanding. Jay, Tim and Hurst and a bunch of boys down there, Charlie, Captain Nate. It’s a good crew. I like the old guy crew in the morning. They’re just always busy. They’ve been knobbed, we’ve de-knobbed them. Got a couple of those off, and then Jason Hernandez built some stuff there, and a couple of those things are still going. It’s really, really neat. You go there and you’re like, oh, there’s kind of all these phases of it. I still go to the first phase, which is getting really, really chunky. But, like I said, that has its charm. So yeah, that’s my morning meditations and Buddhist Slappy ritual.
Does California actually have the best curbs, or have you found any better ones on your travels?
Yeah, Lyon. And a big part of the reason I love Venice. Lyon is, you know, Daclin and Ben and Fred everybody, everybody with the Wall Street crew. The Lyon scene is so rad, it is like a paradise, you know, like in California you’re not going to be next to that river with the swans and have a fucking baguette with brie and some sausage and red wine. That’s a really nice day, you know? That’s a really fucking nice day.
Yeah, that one’s hard to beat, but Costco is my favorite place in the world. Venice is such a specific, beautiful spot, because you just have that downhill. I mean, you push once or twice and it’s like riding a wave, and then you just walk back up. That’s pretty unique. I don’t have Costco tattooed on my body, I got Venice, so I don’t know what that means…
How/Why has curb skating taken off so much over the past few years?
When I started skating at Costco with Pastras and some of the fellow Union Curb Club dudes, it’s funny, it felt really to me, that it was returning to this thing that I did when I was younger. And I think that a lot of people feel that way, but it’s crazy the amount of people that are just like, die-hard curb skaters now, I don’t think even in the 90s, when people were skating curbs in video parts that there was this, like, flag-waving curb skater, you know, it’s really kind of exploded, which is cool. It’s fun.
There’s this simple act of going to a curb and doing slappies with people. I feel good, I learn tricks, you can push yourself, you still get smoked on curbs. It’s not safer, because everything that happens happens really fast on a curb. You know, your ribs and your knees and everything are just really close to the ground, and you don’t have a lot of reaction time to run out, like a ledge or flat rail. I think probably the resurgence is because people want to return to that, like it’s nostalgic. You know? It’s like where most of us learn to skate, so it’s satisfying to go back there. As your knees are ground down, you don’t have meniscus or cartilage, slappies hurt less. Maybe, I don’t know, they still hurt though I’m just as sore as if I go skate a park, as if I go skate curbs.
Which slappy variation do you struggle with the most?
Oh man, I have been trying to learn slappy backside noseblunts. It’s so hard, I can do slappy noseblunts, but for whatever reason, getting the slappy into the back noseblunt has just been real pain in the ass. I either go slip into back lip, or it washes out over the top, or just hang, the truck hangs in sort of an over crook. So that’s probably been the biggest struggle. I mean, I haven’t done a good one, so, yeah, probably slappy back noseblunt. I guess if you’re talking combos… I don’t want to get into that, yeah, probably the nose, the nasals, the noseblunts.
Is a slappy fs smith with the front wheels down legit?
I think it is, yeah, if your weight’s on the back. Okay, slappy front smiths. I’ve heard this from a lot of people, depends on the curb, it depends on the height of everything. Look, if your wheels are dragging, but your weight is on the back truck and you’re grinding a proper smith. I mean, I fucking do them like that all the time, so I’m gonna count it. Maybe that’s just so that I don’t look lame. You know, you need smaller trucks and smaller wheels for most curbs, at least in California, to fully be up in the smith, you know. And also, have you seen fucking Hersk do a slappy back smith, his wheels fucking slide? And if that isn’t legit, then nothing’s legit.
Is a slappy fs smith with the front wheels down legit?
I think it is, yeah, if your weight’s on the back… Okay, slappy front smiths… I’ve heard this from a lot of people; it depends on the curb and depends on the height of everything. Look, if your wheels are dragging, but your weight is on the back truck, and you’re grinding a proper smith… I mean, I fucking do them like that all the time, so I’m gonna count it. Maybe that’s just so that I don’t look lame. You know, you need smaller trucks and smaller wheels for most curbs, at least in California, to fully be up in the smith, you know. And also, have you seen fucking Hersk do a slappy back smith, his wheels fucking slide? And if that isn’t legit, then nothing’s legit.
What is the secret to slappy crook nollie b/s 180 out?
Slappy crook backside 180, you got to get in the crook, you’ve got to be over the front foot, to turn your shoulders, you turn your back to it, and just bring your legs around… And then it’s like a pivot. It’s like, if you have ever done a little nose bonk off a crack and you just do the little pivot, 60% of the time, it works every time. Feels good. You know, it’s all in the shoulders reverting out of anything or turning out of anything is. Nobody asked this. But, I’ll say you can pretty much slappy into anything on a curb, if you’re bending your knees and you’re low on entry, that’s really like noseblunts, fucking, powerslide in to switch crook, all those things. It’s about getting a low centre of gravity. Your body wants to stretch out when you’re used to popping an ollie and so you have to unlearn that. You need to compress, get low and push yourself down into it. But, yeah, slap it quick. Back 180, shoulders!
You mention getting a lot of concussions throughout your life in your Nine Club interview. Have you ever picked up a gnarly injury on a curb trick?
A gnarly injury, let’s see.
I’ve hit my head. I’ve hit my face.
I’ve broken fingers, hands, wrists, and a toe…
My big toe broke recently, took me out for a while, which sucked. Really bad.
I haven’t knocked myself out like when I was younger and skating handrails and stuff. You know, a lot of my concussions were from when I was a bouncer in a bar for a long time and getting hit with bottles and stuff, but skating gaps and rails was definitely the bulk of my skateboarding concussions and a couple of snowboarding concussions when I was learning how to snowboard.
All my friends used to be really good at snowboarding when I was growing up. I didn’t go much, and I tried to follow them, and I would almost 100% of the time catch a head injury. But yeah, not curb skating; I’d say it’s mostly fingers, toes, ankles, and knees. Oh, I dislocated my shoulder on a curb. That’s probably the worst thing. Separated this shoulder that took I separated this shoulder when I was living in San Diego, and it was really bad, really, really, really bad for a long time. That shit sucks, takes a long time to heal. It still hurts.
You like to watch gnarly (gore) videos on Twitter. How do you keep images of broken ankles – or worse – out of your mind whilst you are skating? The older and more injury-prone I get, the less my brain can handle it lol.
We grew up with rotten.com and all these horrible websites when in the unfettered days of the early internet. It doesn’t like turn me on or anything, but you know, Welcome to Hell was one of my favourite videos. I love slam sections. I don’t really have a correlation in my brain with like, seeing a bad slam and then thinking it’s going to happen to me. And usually when I get really hurt, it’s because I’m doing some dumb shit or not paying attention or fucking around. So it’s not something that sticks in my head. I mean, if you almost roll your ankle, that’s way worse than watching stuff on the internet, to me, you know. Close calls will freak me out a little bit, but that’s about the only thing. But I love [Thrasher] Hall of Meat. I actually got to film one. I have a hall of meat interview with Chris Colbourn, Cookie. That was a fucking scary one, but I was stoked I got to be in one of those. And Ewan Bowman filmed it. I can just keep talking. He’s the best, The Scotsman. You met him. We had Thai food. Anyway. Yep, Hall of Meat. Love it. Big fan.
Filming and other projects
You’ve worked with Red Bull a lot over the years. Does that mean you are able to get that special Red Bull treatment if you ever get injured etc?
On trips I’ve gotten to see physio folks a couple of times, and actually, that’s when I tore my meniscus, right before an Australia trip. I forget the PT’s name, but he was awesome and took the time to, like, check my knee out, and just saw me limping while I was filming.
So I’ve gotten some love from them, for sure. I can’t necessarily go into the facility that they have in Santa Monica and just, you know, take advantage, like the Red Bull athletes do. But that’s okay, you know, I’m, I’m fine. They’re good to me, you know, I don’t work at Red Bull. I’m a production company, so I work with them. When you’re on a job, they definitely take care of you.
Red Bull curb jam like Manny Mania? Slappy Psychosis?
Fuck, that would be cool. We did a Red Bull curb thing, was it curb kings with Pastras? I kind of think it’s best just left to the streets, you know? I like what Willie Santos is doing with Curb Wars, because it’s so raw and just like, that’s kind of where it belongs. She belongs to the streets.
You’ve done a lot of live TV within skateboarding, be it ETN or various contests. How hard would it be to do a live King of the Road? Would you do it if it were possible?
We did Copenhagen, which is a wandering contest through the streets.
You could totally do King of the Road live. It’s possible, bonded cellular packs on cameras, lots of batteries and mobile charging. I don’t know if it would be entertaining to watch, because it’s going to be a lot of driving, but you could tune in and out. You know, it’s like they do Cops Live, and they just go from van to van, right? I imagine you would do that. You would kind of have a team if you could coordinate when teams are getting where you could switch from team to team, and it would be pretty raw, but like, you know, you can do anything with money. Yeah, it wouldn’t be the same, but you could do it. It’s not gonna look like the TV show, unless you have pre-built packages.
What is your favourite live skate event to work/worked on?
Tampa is such a special place in my heart because I grew up ordering the VHS, and now I get to produce the live broadcast. But really, really been stoked on PSL and that project, and been working with Mike Mo on that for a year, and it’s fun to just do something different, and to not give a fuck about sort of what normal contests look like, and to kind of create our own thing that we just want to see.
We both love sports, and Mike and Vince are just like, super punk, we’re just down to run it and do it and see if it works and put it out into the world. The response has been really awesome. So that’s a really fun one, but I’m excited to go to Tampa pro in a few days, actually, so that’ll be fun. Yeah, Tampa’s a big one, Copenhagen was fun… but yeah, really right now, really just fired up on PSL, there’s the stuff that we have going on, and the things we have in the works that are planned are, like, really, really exciting.
Anyone you haven’t filmed that you really want to? If so, who?
Oh, that’s a tough one. That is a tough one.
The only person I can think of that I haven’t filmed who, like, would be great, would be like Tom Penny, like the high-five era, like, this is a time machine wish.
I got to see him skate in Huntington Beach in that era. And actually, like, one of the days they were filming for the Big Brother video, Shit, and I had just broken the shit out of my leg. I had just gotten out of a cast and was with my friends, and they were skating. He gave me a skateboard while sucking on a Heineken, which I skated and then broke, and I don’t have it anymore, which I’m so mad about. But Tom Penny, that era. You know, I’m lucky. I got to see him in person, but it would have been really cool to try and film him.
You’ve worked in and around the Tampa contests a lot over the years. How do you/they go about keeping it fresh and detached from the usually serious nature of skate contests?
[Laughs] Do we keep it fresh at Tampa? I don’t know if we keep it fresh. I think the part of the charm of Tampa is that we’ve gone back.
I get to work with Paul Zitzer and Schaefer on this show. You know, for a while, SLS came in, and it became a bigger production, and for a while, there was Fuel TV and stuff. This is going to be, I think, 15 years in the producer chair roughly. So that’s like 30 shows, because we do two a year, obviously. So, we’ve seen it go through all these ebbs and flows. Honestly, we’ve gone back to a really simple formula, and part of that came from like, you know, skate budgets are just at a lower point…
It always goes up and down. But what we really like is that you’re hearing the announcers, it feels like you’re in that fucking room, and so much history is in there. We only need four cameras in the corners to cover the entire park and the skating, and the energy. We pulled a bunch of replay and live scoring out, and that shit is just because the skaters feed off each other, and I think that’s the most important thing that we’ve done. I think it takes a lot of balls to realize that because a lot of productions build themselves up, and they feel, you feel, painted in the corner, like you have to keep doing more. We learned with Tampa that it doesn’t need to be more; it just needs to be Tampa.
You were a massive part in creating ‘Rolling Away’ and other skate documentaries. Do you have any documentary-based role models outside of skateboarding?
First of all, I can’t answer that question without saying Kirk Dianda. On Video was a huge influence personally and creatively. Yeah, Kirk Dianda, I think. He was so ahead of his time with On Video, and is such a genius. I talk to him all the time still, and he’s a huge mentor.
Who’s a huge documentary influence outside of skateboarding? Errol Morris is the king; he’s a legend. He’s created several different categories of documentaries that are really inspiring. I think Fast, Cheap and Out of Control is one of the most beautiful documentaries ever made. And it shouldn’t work, but he made it work so well. Thin Blue Line created, like, true crime re-enactment documentaries, and still, nobody’s done it better. Fog of War, Gates of Heaven, Vernon, Florida. He just did that MK Ultra series on HBO. That’s like, super brilliant, the name escapes me right now, but he’s the master. Errol Morris for sure. Watch everything!
How are you getting on with the Zane documentary?
Ooh. The Zane documentary is a tough one. There’s so much to do. We’ve got now, I want to say, it’s approaching 30 hours of interviews. There’s a mountain of archival footage, and we’re just processing that. We’re in post, though.
There are a few interviews to pick up… we actually just shot Fos’ interview, and to get it to a place that we see it, there’s a lot of work that still needs to go in and post. So, it’s really, really beautiful. It’s something that feels too important to rush or fuck up, to me, but it’s getting there. We want to keep the core group of people that, like, loved him, working on it, and that means it’s moving slower than I think all of us would like it to move, but we’re making good progress.
You are a big music fan. If you were to make a skate video with zero budget for music rights, how would you go about selecting the soundtrack for the video?
There are always creative ways to approach music, especially if you have to get a license.
I say, don’t monetize it, throw it up. Use whatever you want first, because that just feels like the good old days. Some of the funnest solutions I’ve found are, you know, looking for new artists and people who are looking for exposure, building relationships with them, and then sometimes you get to watch them kind of blow up, not because of your project, but because they’re out there making great shit. If you can kind of tap into that early and help get them some exposure, it’s a really symbiotic thing. Just going to like local concerts, you know, listen to younger people than me [laughs], and then the other side is just making music, you know.
I love playing music, and I’ve played music for band projects; that stuff is always really fun, and it feels really personal. I mean, fucking John Carpenter just made his own shit all the time, and that worked out well. So, you know, yeah, just figure it out. I mean, you could just fucking bang trash can lids together and record it and have a friend fucking play guitar and sing in a van and cut to that, like, there are a 1000 ways to skin that cat.
How many stories have you got that you aren’t allowed to tell? (Giant skateboard / Sheckler tail drop in the You Good vid etc…)
I have stories I can’t tell, for sure, can’t tell you about them, but there’s some good ones! [Laughs]
How did you nearly get thrown out of Chateau Marmont?
God, you guys did fucking research!
This is crazy. I don’t know how you know that story. I was just too drunk. I was working 411, and my friend Paul had a job there, and like, Radiohead was hanging out there, and it was just this really cool scene, and I didn’t have any money, so I think we were just probably passing a ball around to pre-game and then go hang out and try to look cool. Then I think I actually, just didn’t see a step when the security guy was checking IDs, and I fell right in front of him. I don’t know if I was that drunk, but I definitely tripped and fell, and then they weren’t going to let me in. And my buddy Paul, who works there, Paul G, thanks, buddy. He convinced him to let me in, and then I spilt a drink all over Kirk Dianda. But, yeah, that place is notorious, where celebrities go to OD…
I know you have discussed it before, but for those who haven’t heard the story, can you tell us about the giant skateboard incident?
The giant skateboard one is crazy. I couldn’t tell it on the Nine Club.
Rob and Big, well, California Skateparks [owner] Joe made this massive skateboard that was like the size of a school bus. We were working on the Camp Woodward show, which is where I first met Zane, and we had been riding this thing around the entire skate camp and filming. It was the last day of, I think, principal photography, and we’re all getting ready to leave Pennsylvania.
On the second-to-last day, California Skatepark Joe tried to ride it himself. Couldn’t steer it because it takes like, fucking five people or six people to steer that thing. It has trucks that actually work and looks like a 2000-pound school bus-sized skateboard. It’s a dangerous thing, and he got tossed off the side. You can find that footage; it was on Entertainment Weekly. It got leaked. He jumped over the side, didn’t get run over, but then the skateboard goes through some dirt jumps.
The footage that doesn’t really exist is the next day, a bunch of us went to get some pickups, and everyone decided to, like, not put the kids on there any more. We had the kids from the show on the board, but it was attached to a truck. It wasn’t, like, ever free rolling, you know.
I hit the ground on my side. I kind of tried to roll it out, but it felt like getting thrown out of a truck.
We needed some super wide shots. So we put the crew on there, and we shot, I’m talking like, really, really wide. When the skateboard had gone off the jumps, something had partially broken, and as soon as we shoved off on the skateboard with all of us on it, the back truck broke. We were going down this hill, through a valley into another hill, and you would come back to rest. But as soon as you went over the crest of the hill, you’re going, like, 25/30 miles an hour. I mean, it was pretty fast. The truck broke right away, and we got, like, the world’s biggest speed wobble. It was like a ping pong paddle, like hitting my feet. I remember just flying suddenly, and our rider got ran over and broke his femur and had memory loss, and our DP broke his wrist, and his glasses broke against his face.
I hit the ground on my side. I kind of tried to roll it out, but it felt like getting thrown out of a truck. Then I flew home from Pennsylvania the next day, and apparently, my spleen had ruptured and was bleeding, and I fell down almost dead in front of my ex-wife, and she called 911, and they rushed me to the hospital. This was on 4th of July, which is a big holiday over here, and so there’s fireworks going off outside my hospital window as I was like, having convulsions and whiplash and throwing up into a little bucket thing.
A year later, that same big fucking skateboard was in the Fourth of July parade in my parents’ neighbourhood, and my dad sent a video of it, like, look at this, you dummy. Happy Fourth. Anyway, that’s fun stuff. I’ve told it before, but they wouldn’t let me tell it to the Nine Club. I think Woodward was a sponsor.
Did you ever find the footage of you trying to grind the 22-stair handrail behind El Toro?
Ah, no, Darrell Anderson has that somewhere, or the Anderson family has it somewhere, or it’s gone. The handball court, El Toro rail grind attempts. I’m pretty sure we were using his mom’s camera back then. So I would love to find that footage. I badgered him forever. I have the 13 stair feeble where I got knocked out. That footage is on my Instagram, but, yeah, I mean, I didn’t really come close to the 22. I got 16 stairs down and jumped off, and just got smoked. And then there’s probably about 30 or 40 Ollie in, jump off, run down the hill bails. So it’s nothing. That one try I did stand up though, and should have stayed on…
Are you pro now?
I am not pro? Fuck no, I’m not pro. Absolutely not pro. No Pro. [Laughs] No, it’s cool, I do not consider myself pro, and I never will. But I’m trying to film a fucking video part, so that’s a positive way to end it. So, hit me up in another four or five years, I’ll have that thing fucking wrapped up the way it’s going so far. [laughs]
I’m just a middle-aged, lucky idiot.
Thanks Ira!