Paul Rodriguez Explains Why Social Media Made Skating Progress EXPLODE | DSH #1804

When I started skating, it was pre-social media and a skateboard video would come out and we would

live off that skateboard video for like a year or two until the next big skateboard video came out.

So content wasn't dropping as fast. So we would sit with these videos that we had for a year or so

and study them, rewind them, pause, slow most, try to learn all the tricks that your favorite pros are doing.

Okay, guys got Paul out here in Los Angeles on the show. Great to meet you, my man.

Great to meet you too. Thanks for having me. Yeah, what's new in your world right now?

Just actually my new sneaker just dropped two days ago on the 13th. Oh nice.

And so I guess that's the newest, yeah, my P-Rod 1 Nike SB Retro release.

You guys are sick. Thank you, yes.

I'm definitely rocked those, I'll compare them. Thank you brother. They're online or?

Yeah, online. Well actually on the 16th they drop like all over online, all the stores,

on the 13th they just dropped in selected skate shops. Nice.

And so tomorrow they'll drop like full drop. See that's awesome. What goes into launching a sneaker?

I'm sure a lot of work. Well, this was good because it's a retro shoe. This is my first shoe

and this came out in 2005. So we just re-released it now for the 20 year anniversary.

So it wasn't as much, at least not for me. For the designers, it was a lot of work because

I did not know this, but Nike doesn't keep their shoe molds after five years. Like if they stop

making a shoe, they get rid of it after five years because these molds are huge and they're heavy.

And with all the shoes that Nike makes, they would have nowhere to store all these molds.

Wow. So after five years they get rid of them. So the designers,

uh, didn't have the molds so they couldn't just make them on demand. So we had to take,

luckily I had some pairs saved in storage and they had to take them, cut them open and like

reverse engineer them and recreate the shoe. Holy crap. Yeah. So for them it was actually harder to

make, remake this shoe again than it was just to make a shoe from scratch. Not nuts. Yeah. So for

me, it wasn't so much work. For them, shout out to those guys because they worked hard and

made it happen. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure that's a big part of the business, right? Apparel speakers,

sneakers, apparel, uh, you know, product. Yeah. Yeah. And our world, that's really,

that's really where we make our living. Yeah, because the money is not in the competitions, right?

Not really. Now competition money these days are, it's pretty low. There was a period there where

it was like, you know, you could win 100, 150 grand in the street league contests. Um, but I just

think they couldn't sustain that kind of level of payout. Yeah. They couldn't sustain it. So

I think it's down back to like 20, 25 grand, which is of course a nice little payday for the day,

but just for your everyday bills. Yeah. Because you got to travel, you got to train all those costs,

the food. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's just, um, it's, it's, it's too hard to do it just off contest.

But if you, if you're winning contest consistently, you'll get sponsors. So that, that's where

all the skaters, you know, make their, make their money because you get a sneak response

or a clothing sponsor. So you're just helping to push product and, when did that start

happening for you? Was it after that first X Games win or was it for that? No, it was early for me.

I was very lucky. Um, um, I, I turned pro at 17. And I was like, you know, back then skateboarding

wasn't as big as it is now. I mean, there was the X games. It wasn't as big a deal as it later

became, but it was just kind of like a small core industry. And we had like our few brands that were

just basically in our, like our few sneaker brands that weren't like mainstream clothing brands,

board brands. So at the time, I, I was with this company called S. A lot of people might notice

ES. And, um, that was like my first big sponsor. And then I got sponsored by, um,

a couple of different board brands, but the biggest one was like Girl, Skateboards.

And then later on, once I won X Games and started getting known in that world,

that's when I got sponsors like Mountain Dew and Target and AT&T. Yeah, those came along after

that. So, um, but I was fortunate enough to wear like I was doing pretty well sponsor wise before

I started, um, doing contest. Wow. Yeah. And that was a pretty new lane at the time, right? Like,

that wasn't really a lip considered living. Yeah. I mean, it still is hard. The skate industry is

hard to make a living. It's like, you know, you have your handful of guys that do very well.

Yeah. And then you have your majority of guys who are like just doing good enough to get by.

And then you have a whole bunch of them who are like, you know, still have jobs,

get some money from skating, but still work and are figuring out other ways.

You see that in a lot of solo sports. Like in tennis, I heard the same. Like if you're not in the top

10, you're not making millions. And then if you're not in the top, like I think 300,

you're not even making six figures. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's definitely, these are definitely,

like passion sports for sure. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure all sports are. It just happens to be that

skateboarding for some reason, just the industry isn't big enough to support as many people

who are trying to get into it. Mm. That's interesting. Because there's definitely a big audience.

It's a huge audience. And it's crazy because it's like the fastest growing sport among kids from like,

you know, six to 12. Oh, even right now. Yeah. Yeah. And so, um,

my theory is that it's just it's hard to understand from a general viewer. Like I can watch a football

game and not really know the like specific rules, but I know that like once they get into the

touchdown zone, they score. Right. Or I can watch a basketball game and not understand the

technicalities, but I know it's a two pointer. And then past the line, it's a three pointer.

And you know, when it goes in, they score. But with skateboarding, it's hard to tell because

it's subjective. You can see a trick. You might not understand why it was difficult. You don't know

if it was switch or nolly or fakie. Some people might notice like, if it's just big and dangerous,

they're like, wow, that guy went high in the sky. That must be really good. Or that guy did a big

rail. That must be really good. But it's kind of a language that you have to learn. You have to

like know what stance a guy is. Um, and that kind of like the name of the trick. So the average viewer,

if they don't understand the language of the trick, they probably won't get drawn into it

unless they're an enthusiast. That's such a good point. Yeah. Because I think people love sports

because they can relate to it. Yeah. Like in basketball and soccer, whatever people play that

growing up, right? They can relate to the difficulty of what they're seeing. Yeah. But with skateboarding,

I never skateboarded. So when I see someone do a trick, it's like, oh, that's sick, but I can't

kind of relate. Yeah, you actually don't know exactly what's being done, right? You know, so like,

you might see a guy do a technical trick, say on a ledge, right? Which doesn't look dangerous,

but it's probably a lot more difficult to do consistently than it might be to see a guy jump

off a big set of stairs. Yeah. You know, but the big set of stairs are more flashy and potentially

more dangerous because you could fall harder and get hurt. So that might be the thing that draws you.

But if you're a real skateboarder, you might be like, well, this guy's trick was probably a lot

harder than that guys. Yeah. So that, I think the code hasn't been cracked, but I actually think it's

about to be cracked. A good friend of mine is starting a new skateboard league called the PSL.

And he's kind of basing it off the format, like almost like baseball, doing endings,

where it's like, it's just one obstacle. One guy has to do a trick and then the guy on the other

team has to do that exact same trick that the guy did. So even if you don't know what the trick is

or why it's difficult, you do know as a viewer, like, well, this guy landed it. So this guy has to

do that same thing and land it again. And if he misses, it's like a strike, three strikes and I

switch over to the next people kind of like horse and kind of like, like, has endings. So like,

after three mess-ups, switch is over to the other team to start it. And then after like three or

four rounds, then you find out who's the most important. Yeah. That's more digestible. Because right now,

when I see like not just use and compete and then he gets the score, I'm like, how do they come up

with that score? Right. And then it feels kind of subjective, right? There is some subjectiveness to

it because like two guys could do the same very hard trick, but one guy might just make it look a

little more graceful. Right. And like, if you're a judge and you know what you're watching, you'll be

like, well, they both did do the same trick, but this guy did it with more finesse and made it look

more masterful. So you got to factor that in. So, um, yeah, it's subjective, though.

Are you a fan of that style? Like that finesse style? Like, do you think I should impact the score at all?

I think so. Yeah. Because I think for me, personally, I think I think the best people in any field

are the people who can make something very difficult look easy, you know? So I've always been a fan

of somebody because to me, that shows like they're, they've really reached the level of mastery.

Right. Now, somebody else might be able to do that same feat, but it looks like they struggled

more to do it. And that shows that they're not quite at that masterful level yet.

That makes sense. Yeah. So for me, yeah. And that's a good segue into like sports or starting to use

AI judging, right? Yeah. Now, you grew up in an area where it was all judges, like people judging

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I'm just curious. I'm curious to see if AI will factor all that stuff in, like the nuances of it,

the style, the technicalities. I'm just really curious. I'm sure at first it'll probably have a lot of,

you know, bugs, but as it collects more data and the more times it does it, I'm sure it'll get

smarter and be better. So I would imagine at some point it'll be like really good.

But it's just skateboarding. I call it a sport art hybrid because it really is subjective. It's

more relatable to music than it would be to sports in my opinion. It takes athleticism, but

it's really an art. There's no rules. You can do whatever trick your mind can imagine. If you can

imagine it and then you try it long enough and you try to learn it and you can do it, you can do it.

But there's no right or wrong. Like in music, it's like how do you compare Jimmy Hendrix to

Mozart. They're both like masterful musicians, but completely different. So same thing in skateboarding.

There might be, you know, Yornaja Houston, who's an amazing, awesome skateboarder, but then

you might have a guy like a Brian Peacock, who not many people know, but he's so technical,

he's so smooth, he's so ambidextrous. You can have a preference. I might be more of a fan of

this guy than this guy or vice versa, but there's actually no real answer to he's better or he's

better. It's right. It's not like basketball where there's stats. Yeah, exactly. Like in basketball,

it doesn't matter. You can have a funny look and jump shot, but if you go in and you score a lot of

points, you're getting somebody wants you on their team or if you are a good defender, but

you just have a like you're not smooth like a like how AI was or whatever, it doesn't matter.

You know what I mean? Like it it matters outside of basketball because like a guy like maybe

Alan Iverson or LeBron or Kobe or Jordan, they got the big endorsement deals outside of

basketball because they were phenomenal with their stats and they like made basketball look

effortless and smooth and good and they became more of a marketable kind of athlete and they

transcended it, but within basketball, you could have your run of the mill guy who's not so famous,

but he's just effective at whatever the coach needs him to do, doesn't have to be particularly

flashy or anything like that and you know, have a hundred million dollar contract, you know,

and he's chilling. That's such a great point. You bring up though because you could ask the

average person who the greatest skateboarder of all time is and they're going to say Tony Hawk.

Yeah, for sure. But when it comes to skill, that's a different conversation.

Yeah, and again, it's like they're not wrong if they feel that way because you know,

Tony is a pioneer. He was, he's invented many things and also he's opened the door for the rest

of us to have careers. He made it mainstream. He made it like something that the public general

public paid attention to. So he's a big kind of pioneer in that way as well. So you can factor

all those things into, like he's the reason why a lot of us have careers today and what we've

been able to, you know, get bigger sponsors and have more TV time. So again, it's, there is no,

in my opinion, there's no right or wrong answer. Tony's your favorite. Tony's your favorite. If,

you know, Mark Johnson's your favorite. Mark Johnson's your favorite. I can't, I can't tell you

you're wrong, you know, for sure. Was Tony someone you kind of looked up to when you were just

starting out? I admire Tony, but we skate completely different. He's a vert skater, you know,

skates avert and he did dabble in the street in the early 90s for sure. But I grew up as a street

skater. I jump stairs, do handrails, skate ledges, I skate in the school yards. I skate behind,

you know, alleyways, whatever I find architecture on the street. If I see it and I think I could skate

it, that's what I'm into. Is that your first thought when you see a, yeah, it's a habit to this day.

No matter what, even when I like, when I walk up any set of stairs, I count them. It's just like a

habit. I have to count the stairs. I'll be driving, especially when I was a little kid with my mom,

would drive and I'll, I'll be with her or whatever and I'll look out the window like, oh, I'll see

a handrail. I'll be with mom. What are the, what are the streets? Can you help me remember the streets

like, so I can help me before GPS, you know, like, so I can remember like, try to come back and

look at a spot or something. Wow, you were very passionate at a young age. Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean,

I was like, psychotically obsessed. I mean, that's how you got to where you're at, man. Yeah, it's,

I mean, I'm so grateful. Yeah, that's dope. How many set of stairs can you clear? My biggest set

would be a 360 flip to 15 stairs. Holy crap. That's my biggest. But that's not even the biggest.

People have done stuff down 20, 18, 17. You're in the air for like five plus seconds. Yeah,

yeah, probably like more like two and a half to three. But it feels like an eternity. It feels like

a long time when you're when you're doing it. But like, it's crazy how like, these tricks are like

a second or two. But so much happens. Yeah, when you're in it, it's like almost go slow. And then

you go back and you watch it on footage and you see it on the timeline. It's like second and a half.

And you're like, yeah, that is fascinating how the brain works. Yeah, even like I had a basketball

game last night and we were tied up and this kid took a jump shot. It felt like he was in the air

for like seven seconds. Yeah, like when you watch like sports movies and you see them slow

more than that. Oh, and the ball is going. You see it. It's about to go in. Like it feels like

that sometimes. Yeah, you could picture it frame by frame almost, right? Yeah, she's being show in

the moment. Yeah, that is fascinating. Wow, 15 set of stairs. That is fucking crazy. Yeah,

and that was that was a while back. I mean, you know, I'm 40 now. So I don't think I'll be

I have the desire to jump that big these days. I'll still skate a good 1012 stair. But

but that was my peak of jumping. And so that was a while back. But I never considered myself being

like one of the guys who was known for like doing big dangerous stuff. I think maybe more I'm

more known for being a little more technical. I feel like, do you think the social media has amplified

dangerous kind of aspect of it? I don't know that it's directly the social media that's amplified

it. I think what social media is responsible for is the is the progress. How fast skaters are

progressing. Like when I started skating was pre social media and a skateboard video would come

out. And we would live off that skateboard video for like a year or two until the next big skateboard

video came out. So content wasn't dropping as fast. So we would sit with these videos that we had

for a year or so and study them, rewind them, pause, slow most, try to learn all the tricks that

your favorite pros are doing. And you would take that time. And then by the time the next video comes

out, you're like, okay, now we need to learn this. But now social media, every single day a brand

new video is dropping, whether it's like a full blown video part, say on thrasher or just you have,

you know, a kid from middle of, you know, in the Midwest, just unknown kid doing a trick at his

local skate park. And it goes viral. And you're like, holy shit, like I've never seen this before.

Like, so every day these kids now are seeing something new that hasn't been done happen every

single day. So I think they're processing and that they're understanding of how fast they got

a progress is just on hyperspeed. Yeah, you see that in every sport now, right? Yeah.

Everyone's just so much more talented. It's way harder to make the NBA or the NFL these days.

100% access to information is just so easy. It's just nonstop. By the time you wake up tomorrow,

what the level was yesterday is now a little bit higher. You know what I mean? So like,

the skill gap is just, yeah, it's crazy. It's growing. So I guess as a byproduct, yes,

guys are going bigger and doing more dangerous things just because they're seeing where the levels

at. So yeah, I guess it can be responsible for that. There's always pros and cons. Yeah, but I think

it's just mainly responsible just for like the speed of the progress. Yeah, like I'm sure if you

go to the skate park now, everyone's just way better than when you were a kid, right? Yeah, there's

a lot more talent out there. In plus skateboarding, when I started was still a very young sport and

still relatively a young sport compared to a lot of other mainstream sports. So like just has so

much room to progress, so much room to grow. And also we don't have a standard court or course,

you know, like every contest is a different course, different obstacles, different dimensions,

different everything. So you can't really prepare like, you know, basketball, it's the same

court, same dimensions, everything. It's just what they do athletically that changes. Same thing

with any baseball football, whatever. Maybe golf, there's different courses every time. That

could be different. So that's maybe more comparable. So we just have to kind of prepare for

anything and everything and kind of have to be able to innovate in the moment and adjust

in the moment. That is super interesting. I never thought of that, but yeah, each course is

different. You kind of have to be well versed in many different obstacles, right? Yeah, you definitely

do. I mean, a lot of skate parks, you have similar type of obstacles, but the dimensions are always

different. Yeah, I guess as skaters, it just becomes natural that you have to adapt, especially as

a street skater. You don't control the environment. Like, you know, if I want to go set a skate,

a set of stairs, you know, I don't control what kind of concrete they have. Is it real gritty? Is

it smooth? What kind of material is it polished concrete? Is it like more rugged concrete? Do they

have big cracks before the stairs? Like these are things that skateboarders notice. We notice textures

of building materials like, you know, this ground is kind of wavy and lumpy. I don't know if I feel

comfortable, you know, like I might have done this trick in the skate park, but you know, in the

skate park, we make it a perfect environment, perfect set of smooth concrete, everything's perfect

the way you want it. But once you get in the streets, you have to adapt with the way it was built.

Yeah. So she got the building owners mad at you sometimes too, right? Yeah, that happens quite often.

Because they don't want an injury and then they get sued. Yeah, they, I wonder how often that

actually happens. I really don't think that happens often. I don't know anybody who's gotten hurt

out in the streets and sued anybody that I know of. Well, I'm sure it's happened, but I don't know.

On the sidewalk, it's probably not even their property, right? No, the sidewalk is not their

property. And I don't know if it's true, but I remember a long time ago here in that like California

past the law that skateboarding was a inherently dangerous sport. And so it was, it's not really,

you can't really sue people. Oh wow. If you get hurt doing it anywhere, public property or their

property. But I don't know if that's fact or not, that was just like what wouldn't surprise me.

We heard you guys, you guys know the risks. It's not like you're just, yeah, yeah. So I think it's

mainly like property owners getting mad feeling like maybe we might damage their property or we're just

like if it's like at a business, like we're interrupting business. So we learn to kind of

like either go after hours or on the weekends or find one place is our clothes. I think skateboarders

would by default be decent burglars. That's a take. I love that. I love that. Yeah, it's interesting,

man. I don't mind them to be honest, but I know going up there where I lived at least there was

like a negative stigma. Yeah, it happened. I think nowadays is probably a little less. I used to be

the big thing like skateboarding is not a crime. We used to like, you know, that used to be our mantra.

But I feel like now it's like a lot more accepted with things like the Olympics and the X games and

stuff like that. So I don't feel like it's as bad. And I think, you know, it's it's much more

common for a kid to start skateboarding these days. As opposed to like when I was growing up,

it was way more common. A kid goes into like little league baseball or a basketball, you know,

traditional sports. But I feel like skateboarding now, especially at least in California,

it's just as common as a kid might pick up a skateboard instead of a basketball or baseball. I

feel like it's just as much in the mix. So it's widely accepted because guys who grew up skating,

who are my age, are now old enough where they have families, they have kids, and they have fond

memories of skateboarding. And so if they have a son or even a daughter and, you know, they probably

introduced them to a skateboard early on. Yeah, you know, I'm seeing a lot of that kind of happening

now. It's a good skill to have to have that balance in the body of awareness. It's really good

balance. It's it's also it toughens you up to like when I was a real little kid before I started

skating, I did like karate, I did gymnastics, I played baseball, but I was kind of soft. Like,

I remember playing baseball after I got out of T ball into farm. I was like afraid when they

were pitching because I didn't want to get hit by the ball and like kids at that age don't have

really good control. So you were likely to get hit. So I would be all afraid. And like when I went to

karate, I did a couple karate tournaments, did all right. And then one of them, we did it without

protection. I got kicked right in the gut, got my win knocked out of me for the first time. I was

crying. I was like nine years old. I was crying. I don't want to do this anymore. But once I started

skating and out falling all the time and getting up, falling all the time and getting up, I started

like getting tougher, a little more grit, a little more like mental strength, a little more physical

like durability. Yeah. And so I think skateboarding is good for like life lessons because you have

to fall and get up, you have to fail over and over and over until you succeed. Yeah. And I think

you can do that with a lot of things in life. No, that's facts. I didn't even think about the

mental side of it. But you're right. It teaches you to be resilient, right? Yeah. Because you're

going to fail a lot at skateboarding. A hundred percent. I mean, even no matter what level you're on,

most cycling, you mess up way more every day than you land. Which is crazy, right? And at your

level to say that it's probably like hard to fathom for people, right? Yeah. I think if you're not

messing up more than you're succeeding, then you're not challenging yourself enough. You're not

pushing yourself enough. Yeah. That's crazy. Because you're in eight times, you know, metalist winter,

accomplished a lot and you're still saying you mess up more than you. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. Way more. Wow.

So you feel like you're constantly just challenging yourself even to this stuff? Yeah.

I feel like it's a skateboarding is a game that never ends. You can never learn every trick. You can

never do everything. So like, I feel like as long as my body will allow me and as long as I have

passion for it, I'm going to always be trying to chase new tricks, trying to learn new things,

trying to do new combinations, skate new obstacles. That's just what I'm drawn to. That's just what I

love. You know, maybe when I get like older, older, and I'm not like doing it at a pro level anymore,

I might not be pushing myself as much and I'll kind of just be sticking to the tricks that I know

I have very consistent to like avoid injury because when you're retired and you know, you're not

doing at a professional level, why risk getting injured for no reason? Right. Do you still feel like

you're getting better to this stuff? I do. Wow. I really do. In different ways, like I'm not getting

better at like bigger obstacles. Like I said, I'm not jumping 15 stairs anymore. Yeah. But I'm

definitely pushing myself in in different ways technically like with ledge skating.

My balance is probably a lot better over the years. My board control is a lot better nowadays.

So those are things that I'm just trying to continue to improve where I basically still can.

What was the hardest trick for you? How long did it take to land it?

So I would say all the tricks I've ever filmed in my video parts, I did a video part back in 2010.

It was called me, myself and I and it was back when like streaming was just becoming a thing

typically before then we would drop full-length video parts which is like if you have a skate team,

it's all your teammates, everybody has maybe a three to five minute part. So it's like an hour-long

video with everybody. But then we started dropping just one person parts. Once like streaming was

available like on iTunes. So I dropped, I think it was the first skate video ever be dropped on iTunes.

In 2010 and my last trick and that was it's called a Nali front foot flip crooked grind.

And I was trying that trick on and off for maybe what year was that 2010 since for about five

years since 2005 to 2010. I was dabbling with that trick trying to figure it out, trying it. I had

it in my mind, I had it in my vision of like wanting to do it and I would just try like maybe you know

a few hours here, a few hours there. Take off a couple months from trying it because I'd be like

frustrated from it and then come back to it. So I was like on and off doing that process till finally

I got it for that video part in 2010. Holy shit. Yeah so it was probably, I couldn't even tell you how

many hours went into finally getting that. And you were the first one to land that kind of trick?

Yeah, I was the first one to do that one. Wow. I must be amazing feeling. That was a great feeling.

Especially after that long and like getting disheartened and then like going away from it and then

like getting remotivated to do it again and then finally doing it. Yeah and I've only done it just

that one time. Thank God we've come film and I never did it again since. Are people because it's 2025

now are people still inventing new tricks or is everything pretty much been. Yeah. I would say at

this point it's not necessarily that a completely new trick is getting invented but just new

combinations are being invented like you know pretty much all the grinds all the slides of all

kind of been done but now people are you know flipping into it flipping out of it doing it on

bigger obstacles like the obstacles always change bigger rails of hubba ledges on tables like some

people have so much pop and they can do it on a tabletop you know what I mean and other guys might

just do it on a regular ledge maybe lower than this couch so there's a lot of never been done

tricks happening but I wouldn't call them just pure inventions they're just new combinations

like a reiteration almost yeah do you still get shocked by anything you see oh yeah all the time

all the time I'm definitely spoiled I don't watch as many skate videos these days it's just so

hard for me to keep up with every video that's dropping every day but I'm fortunate where I get

to skate with some of the most elite skateboarders in the world in person almost daily so like I get

to see these guys progress especially the younger guys who are like teenagers and they're developing

into their own and how watching how they're progressing I'm seeing them do new tricks almost daily

and pushing the limits so I'm constantly getting impressed but I love it because I keep myself

skating with people who are maybe 10-15 years younger than me because that keeps me pushing and

motivated a lot of guys who are closer to my age with the exception of a couple aren't really

still pushing themselves they're kind of just cruising and whatever and I like I want to stay in

that mindset of like feeling competitive and feeling like I'm trying to stay relevant yeah you

haven't lost that fire because you see that when people get to a certain level right they kind of

lose that fire yeah I got them there yeah it happens I mean I've definitely gone through waves after

this long I'll go through waves when I'm just like burnt out and kind of not feeling it but then

you know after a little bit I'll get something inevitably sparked me back up and I'll get on a big

like lock-in focus mode so it happens but I've learned not to panic early on when it first

happened to me I was like why do I not feel motivated this has never happened to me before and I'll

be panicky like am I over what's gonna happen then inevitably I went through it a couple times

and now I know like it's all right it's cool it'll come back like we all go through burn out

right yeah you just push yourself to to a certain limit and you just your body your mind is

just like it's take a break man I'll come back I'll be stronger just like let me be outside

escape boarding are you as passionate about anything else in life not really um you know I started

when I was just shy of turning 12 and I'm you know it's been 28 going on 29 years of escape boarding

so yeah that's pretty yeah yeah so I've been doing it since I've been a pretty young child

and all through my adulthood so I haven't really spent any time looking into other hobbies I have

other interests but I know myself I'm a one track mind if I let myself get to into it then I'm

gonna stop focusing on skateboarding so I'm gonna focus on skateboarding until I feel like all right

I did it I did everything I could I put it all out there and then like I'm super interested I

love boxing I love Muay Thai I like I love training and doing that when I can but I just don't do

it consistently because if I add that into my add Muay Thai and all my workouts that I do

and skateboard my body would just be fried all the time and I wouldn't it would take away from

the quality of skating so I'll sprinkle it in here and there just whenever I get a chance too but

maybe once I wind down maybe I'll you know pick that up a little more often yeah

where did you watch the canelo fight of course I saw I saw on your post man that was the first

boxing match I've ever been to and just the respect that I now have seen it that close for the way

they were moving their bodies I mean it was unreal and then it gets superb yeah they're conditioning

I mean that's top elite as it gets you know right now 12 rounds I had a feeling it was gonna go

all the way I'm a super fan of both of them yeah I really couldn't I really didn't know what was

gonna happen like I knew that Crawford had all the speed and the craftiness and like the intelligence

to potentially pull it off and I but I also knew that canelo is used to fighting bigger stronger people

and I was curious how Crawford was gonna handle it like everybody else and I was curious if

canelo was gonna his defense and his head movement was gonna was gonna be able to do it so I just

I couldn't call it I would lean to one side or the other yeah but I was really pleased with that

fight it was intense and like I really like how both of them are kind of really class acts yeah

they were real respectful on the lead up real respectful after the fact they're just like

they were just you know class act kind of no they were Crawford gave all the belts back

yeah yeah yeah well yes but that's how they do it you know in boxing like no the boxers get to

keep their belts they're just gonna make Crawford new belts yeah Crawford will have his belts

but that was just for the night to take photos of it after the fight so it's not like UFC oh I

didn't know is UFC like that like you literally don't get to keep your belt I believe so I think

you've got to keep panning it off yeah I know that they they have to pay for those belts too they're

like a hundred grand or something like that yeah they have to pay for the belts yeah so like once

they win it for whatever organization that makes that particular belts but with these guys it was

all four of them because it was undisputed title so like they'll have to pay for those oh so

that they can keep them yeah it's just like you know it's like a thing like even though canelo

right now is not currently the champion in those belts anymore you know but at one point he was

it's like for him when he retires he can have it and know that like yeah like hey I did it you

know so same thing with Crawford so like even though he's not physically holding that ranking

he'll still get to keep it like a trophy you're gonna go to the Jake Paul tank fight I would like to

is it gonna be in Vegas I'm not sure actually it's in a couple months they're saying tanks the

favorite by a long shot you would think so for sure but Jake Paul's massive like and tank is

smaller than me you know yeah if Jake fights out of distance right he had a shot yeah but I think

I think tank is way faster so it'll probably be really hard to hit him yeah and I think tank

obviously has way more experience but I mean if Jake somehow tags him I mean it could it could

rock him you know but I think it's a it's not like an official fight right it's like it's just

an exhibition yeah so like it there won't be like a real winner loser I mean it'll be public opinion I'm

sure I don't after seeing the Logan Paul what was it Tyson fight or no that was Jake and Tyson oh

Jake and Tyson no Logan thought who did Logan fight years ago may weather may weather so after

seeing that exhibition fight I no longer get excited for exhibition fights yeah like I do but I

always am disappointed yeah exactly that's why I don't get excited yeah I get excited because it

this one might be one that would be exciting but then then inevitably I'm like I was kind of

that's how they get you and that's how they keep making tens of millions yeah it's it's all literally

like the marketing on the front end of it that gets you going I mean these canelo payouts were in

oh yeah 150 yeah like that was like guaranteed right yeah and I'm sure I heard you got 50 oh

okay but I don't I mean what do I really know I just saw what I saw on internet but I love

never lies right but yeah but I think probably they get back into like at the gate I don't know

like whatever the the deal I'm sure they had to deal with Netflix where they also got great

money for that but yeah I mean canelo got paid and Crawford definitely got paid well but I'm sure

now he's going to be getting really paid oh he's going to be paid and now he's in the go

conversation too I mean dude yeah for sure he's undefeated still he's still undefeated and now he's fine

he beat the the dawn of our era like the best and baddest dude of our era two weight classes higher

than what he's normally and pretty convincingly in my opinion too he did the last few rounds looked

like it was one sided he really it really did he really did man he outboxed him and that's really

saying something because canelo's no slouch man it's it's really saying something that he was able

to you know make canelo look confused pretty crazy yeah did you see that one hit that's going

viral yeah yeah yeah yeah wait the the counter punching bone yeah he looks back at him like yeah

nuts yeah I'll do this have been awesome where can people find your shoes and support you

and everything um you can find my shoes at any local skate shop zoomies borders I think Tilly's

um and in online and Nike I think Nike dot com I wish I knew there was I think it's

Nike dot com and sneakers dot com and uh yeah you can find those there and you can check out

my brand primitive primitive skateboarders in a peril at any local skate shop as well zoomies Tilly's

we're all over the place beautiful check them out guys see you next time peace thank you all

I hope you guys are enjoying the show please don't forget to like and subscribe it hopes

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