I say anyone that's trying to make skateboarding
a career, the first thing you have to know
is that you're only as good or as popular
as your last trick or your last video.
And you've got to keep challenging yourself.
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Doesn't matter how far you get.
Even if you're considered skater of the year, you're number one,
you won the event, people will forget about you
very quickly unless you keep outdoing yourself.
And that's-- that's the key.
Like that's what's kept me relevant
all these years is that I just continue to challenge myself.
I didn't really care how I rated in competition.
I didn't really-- it wasn't about the coverage I got.
It wasn't about the accolades that I got.
It was more about what's the next trick.
My advice for anyone that wants to do contests
is the first key is confidence.
Know that what you're doing you're
capable of doing, that you've done it
in practice hundreds of times, because the first thing is you
hear your name called, and you drop in, and the first instinct
is like, what--
what am I doing?
I don't know how to do this.
And if that's your attitude, that's
how you're going to fail.
And so you have to approach it like, oh, another practice,
another practice run just like I did yesterday.
If you can maintain that sense of confidence and calm,
it's going to carry you through.
But I also think that you need to, in the beginning
especially, stay conservative with the tricks
that you know you're going to make, the ones that you
have dialed in.
And if that gets you to the next stage of competition,
build upon that.
But don't keep doing the exact same run,
because if you scored--
let's say you scored an 85 with that run in the beginning.
By the end of the event, you're not
going to score an 85 with it.
That's just how it is.
I know it shouldn't be that way.
I know the judges shouldn't be looking at like that,
but they want to see improvements.
If you're trying to make a name for yourself or you're trying
to pick up a sponsor, the best thing you can do
is to do something unique.
Choose your own style.
Don't just copy what you are seeing in videos.
Don't just copy the trick of the week.
If you're doing the kind of tricks
that people are used to seeing, you're not going to stand out.
If you showed me a silhouette of someone doing a trick,
I could probably tell you who it is just
based on how they keep their body positioning.
And that's what I love about it is that you
have your own signature style.
And that is hugely important, especially now.
Especially with how diverse skating
is, there are so many different terrains, and styles,
and disciplines to skating that it's hard to stand out.
Some people only skate ledges.
Some people can only skate transition.
But once you find that focus, you find that you excel in it
and that maybe you're going to do things
that no one else has done.
So if you have something very unique,
you've got to run with it, because that's
going to be your hook.
That's going to be the thing that gets you recognized.
And at some point, you can learn other styles.
You can become maybe one of the most well rounded skaters
in the world.
But that hook is what maybe gets you the recognition
in the first place.
Let's say you competed quite a bit
or you're used to it at least.
When they call your name, that will sometimes
give you the extra motivation to do something
even bigger, even higher.
And I see contests runs of mine, especially
through the late '80s, early '90s, where I know I wasn't
going that big in practice.
I know that I didn't even try that trick the run
before my competition run.
But you suddenly get this energy, this adrenaline,
that will carry you into doing things you
didn't think you're capable of.
And sometimes that can work against you.
Sometimes that adrenaline is too much.
And it gives you too much confidence.
And suddenly you think like, oh, I could do this with no speed.
And of course, you can't.
But you have the sense of invincibility and excitement
in you that you think you can.
And so you've got to find that balance.
And you've got to figure out how to control that sense of hype.
Don't go all out.
Like use it.
Use it to give you a little bit extra boost.
Use it to maybe do that one trick
that you were considering but weren't sure about, but don't
use it to suddenly do something you've never done before,
because that's just-- that's not going to work.
In my era of skateboarding, competition
was the most important thing.
The only way that you're going to be recognized,
the only way that you're going to get a sponsor,
the only way that you're going to get in a magazine
is if you go to the competition and you do well.
There was no-- there were no skate videos.
I took competition very seriously
because that was the only gauge of success back then.
So I would go to wherever the contest was
going to be in a few weeks and practice and practice.
Practice the routine.
I would draw a diagram of the pool
and write numbers down in each spot of where
I'm going to do which trick.
And that's the kind of discipline
that I had for competition because it was that important.
And then I would have certain tricks
that I could swap out for harder tricks.
So let's say the finals are three runs.
First run is a little conservative.
It's the run that I know I could do but has
all the elements that I like.
If I made that, the second run is like,
well, this trick over here is going to be a no-hander.
This one's going to be a little bit trickier.
This one I'm going to add a varial into it.
And sometimes that didn't work.
So the third run, I got another shot at that.
But I think that my whole key to competition
was be conservative in the beginning,
do the things that you know you can make, and build upon those.
And always have a backup plan.
I think that a lot of the skaters that I
was skating against back then did not have a backup plan
if they fell.
And I always knew that if I fell,
OK, if I fall on this run, I'm starting over there
and I'm going to go into this routine,
because I've got to try to maintain a score that's
going to keep me in the event.
And a lot of people when they fall in an event,
they fall apart.
It's over.
They don't know where-- they don't know where to go.
You gotta have a backup plan.
Competing can be all consuming.
It can be your only way of life.
And it's exhausting.
And it's debilitating.
I mean when you're in that mode, especially if you're
successful, and you have a bad day, by all accounts,
you're done.
You suck.
You lost.
You know what I mean?
And when you're living in that black and white world,
it's rough.
And it's depressing.
And it's lonely.
And that's why I stopped competing,
because I didn't want those pressures anymore.
And I did feel like I had an outlet
for other ways of skating.
But there are people that--
I mean, especially now.
Skateboarding's in the Olympics.
There are people that are only solely focused
on competing and training.
And it's brutal.
And if you can handle it, more power to you.
Like if you really can maintain that level and that creativity
but also that consistency, then it's your calling.
But it's not for everyone.
Eventually, skate videos came into play in the mid '80s.
It was cool for me, because I knew
that I could compete and do well because I
had a big bag of tricks and I could
adapt to different terrain.
But I also knew that I had an even bigger bag of tricks that
are not as consistent that I could do on video
that would be more impressive.
And for me, that was the perfect blend,
because one allowed me this outlet for the tricks
that I really wanted to do but I couldn't do consistently
and I couldn't do in competition.
And suddenly this element of video
became far more important than the competition element.
1999, I won a bunch of the biggest events.
The best trick contest happened at X Games.
I did my first 900.
That obviously got a lot of hype.
And I was already considering not competing anymore,
so I just said I'm not going to compete after '99.
That was it.
It was kind of like I'm either going to end on a high note
or I'm just going to fade away.
To decide to step away from competition
was probably a defining moment in my life
in that it truly allowed me to do things
that I never imagined possible, and not just skating-wise.
Like definitely, my skating improved greatly
after I stopped competing because I
was free of this conservative attitude
where I had to land the tricks all the time.
And I was able to step into a mode
where I was doing a lot of exhibitions.
And I was allowed failure.
And when you're allowed that failure,
and you can keep trying stuff, I learned so many more tricks
within like three years after competing that I wanted to do
but was afraid to try because I knew
they wouldn't be consistent.
I knew I might get hurt.
It was so liberating to not compete anymore at that point
and definitely the reason why I was able to maintain a career,
because I didn't have to prove myself in competition.
I just had to stay relevant.
I just had to stay progressive.
It allowed me to have this crazy longevity.
I mean I never imagined when I was 20 that I would
be able to skate into my 30s.
And then when I was 30, I was like that
would be cool to skate when you're 40 like as a novelty.
And I'm 51.
And I just learned a new trick last week.