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Terrible. Happy. Talks.
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Terrible. Happy. Talks.
(Audio Version) #234 - Chris Yeoh: The Art and Legacy of Amnesia Skateboards.
When was the last time you heard a story where skateboarding, art, and personal resilience came together in a beautiful tapestry? Join us as we sit down with Chris Yeoh, the visionary founder of Amnesia Skateboards, in the heart of the Paint Studio communal art space in Marrickville, Sydney. Alongside our guest co-host Steve Tierney, who has been an artistic force behind Amnesia's graphics for nearly two decades, we navigate the rich history and spirit that have defined one of Australia's most enduring skateboard brands. Chris opens up about his personal journey from Newcastle, NSW, reflecting on how art and skate culture have been integral to his life.
Chris shares candid stories of Amnesia's journey, touching on the relentless balancing act between a day job and creative pursuit. He recounts the challenges faced, from production mishaps to the emotional weight of losing his brother to cancer. Chris's heartfelt account of turning grief into a meaningful art show for cancer research is a testament to how skateboarding and art can bring communities together for a greater cause.
We reminisce about iconic skate videos, early skateboard models, and the strong friendships forged through skate culture. From the enigmatic stories of skaters like Ben Cox to navigating family dynamics, this conversation is a heartfelt ode to the enduring passion for skateboarding and the community it fosters. Whether you're a skate enthusiast or someone intrigued by the intersection of art and resilience, this episode promises a deeply nostalgic and inspirational journey.
Enjoy,
Shan
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Hey, it's Shan here. This week I catch up with founder of one of the longest consecutively running skateboard brands in Australia, mr Chris Yeo, and Chris is the man behind Amnesia Skateboards. Chris and I sit down in the Good Space Art Gallery in Marrickville, sydney, which is a community art space created by Nick Collison, and Steve Tierney operates out of that space as well, and Steve sits in this week as guest co-host, which is quite fitting because Steve has designed graphics for Amnesia skateboards for about 20 years. Between Chris and Steve and I, we go deep on the history of the brand Amnesia roots and the skaters that have ridden for the brand over the years, artists that have designed graphics for them over the years. It's a great history lesson, to be honest, about Australian skateboarding. It just goes deep. Chris shares about his personal life, what it was like growing up in Newcastle, new South Wales, australia, and much, much more.
Speaker 3:Now we don't do a video production this week it's audio only, but we do have some amazing video productions coming up and we've done a couple of really good ones recently in the studio. So I could really use your support and go and subscribe on YouTube, but if you're someone that prefers to listen to audio-only episodes. I've actually moved the whole back catalog of audio episodes to YouTube as well and you can find those episodes under the podcast tab on the Terrible Happy Talks YouTube channel. So it's become kind of like a one-stop shop for video production episodes and audio only episodes. It can all be found on YouTube and, like I said, I could use your support. But in the meantime sit back, relax and get to know Mr Chris Yeo. But these mics are on every podcast.
Speaker 2:You see right, Actually, you know what. Check one.
Speaker 3:I was turning my headphones down. Yeah, now let's go Check one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
Speaker 2:That's good. Yeah, okay, actually, maybe a tiny bit more. Yeah, yeah, cool, you got me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, actually, maybe a tiny bit more yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Cool you got me yeah, yeah, so I'm good Dude, you're good Okay.
Speaker 3:Mr Chris.
Speaker 2:Yeo.
Speaker 3:Dude, I never used that shit so good though, Chris man, so stoked to have you on the show.
Speaker 2:Good to be here.
Speaker 3:In Steve and Nick Collison's art studio yeah such a nice place. Yeah, it's a good spot to do this. What are you?
Speaker 1:working on at the moment, steve in here, lots of stuff actually, and yeah, I've got a couple of exhibitions, this stuff coming up, which is exciting since being back in Sydney, but um, but I'm working on these giant collages that kind of came out of. Funnily enough, uh, some work I did for chris last year interesting yeah, there's. I did a series of collages that are going to be on some boards coming out soonish yeah taking a while, um, and but I've done.
Speaker 1:I've blown them up really big, like two and a half meters by a meter and a half or something like a full plywood sheet. So they were graphics, they were collages that I made and then I scanned them in. We printed the boards and I already had the idea in mind anyway, but I, yeah, had the scans high res and then blew them up big and printed them out big and remade the collages large scale.
Speaker 3:Nice, so when's it on?
Speaker 1:I've got an open studio here where we are on the 27th of July.
Speaker 3:In Marigold, Sydney.
Speaker 1:Yeah, saturday afternoon, nice, all the artists that are in the studio are going to show work, so it'll be cool.
Speaker 3:Do you need a DJ for the?
Speaker 1:event we might actually yeah.
Speaker 3:I know show work, so it'll be cool.
Speaker 2:Do you need a dj for the event? We might actually. Yeah, I know a guy. How much, how important is art to you as a long time skate company owner, chris? It's everything like.
Speaker 2:Just think, like remember when blanks were really popular, like it was just soulless. You know, like I think all the pros were using blanks because it was just soulless. You know, like I think all the pros were using blanks because it was the companies were trying to save money in the 90s and you know you'd look in the mags and everyone's wearing writing blanks and then all the kids started buying blanks, right, because they wanted to be cool, and it was just like. You know everyone's writing the same thing.
Speaker 2:I think artwork's really important in terms of, you know, differentiation of what your brand's all about. And you know we've been working with Steve I think since 2006 was probably the first graphic he did for us, and we've worked with a lot of different artists over the years, but Steve's been the most prominent one, one because we've just known each other through skating for a long time. Back in, I remember coming to Sydney to film Steve because the original idea for the first amnesia video was to have an omni section and Kerry Pogson gave me a list of all the people and I came down and met Steve and, yeah, I should grab that footage.
Speaker 1:Actually, totally, man, I'd love to see that footage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was like, yeah, it would have been 94 or something like that Wow. Yeah and yeah, it was a good time back then, you know.
Speaker 3:Why exactly?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I guess I was young and like that omni section didn't pan out for many different reasons. Like you know, amnesia was such a low budget thing. We had really big ideas um. But you know, kerry fogson from omni was um really helpful at the start. I guess when I first um started making boards I wrote a letter to him back in the day before email and stuff so good and so old school and krie um wrote me back and, uh, I think I can afford.
Speaker 2:I could afford eight blanks for my first order and I said to him I wanted them to be raw, but what I meant was like just the veneer um, but he sent me like eight raw blanks that were unsanded unsanded, leaving the edges like straight edge no, no, just raw. Like I had to sand those by hand and it was just like right this is a nightmare, yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, carrie poxson like such a legend, like he could have just ignored my letter. I don't think many people were getting like, uh, their brands made through omni and and not long after that time started up, um, and then a lot of other companies criminal and that started using omni as well. So, yeah, shout out to carrie pogson yeah yeah, well, I mean between you and him.
Speaker 1:It's got to be the longest running skate brands in australia, right, like consistently yeah, I think so, yeah are you claiming it no, I know we've.
Speaker 2:There's been a few years where we've had uh hiatuses like I lived in london for a couple of years but I think in terms of an anniversary you know we started 30 years ago this year, so yeah congrats, congratulations man thanks, would you say at this stage in the game.
Speaker 3:Does it feel like your legacy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, look, I don't know Like, I've always looked at amnesia as like a passion project and it's. You know, there's been times where I've sort of thought about sort of chucking it in, but it's always been that creative outlet on the side, like in my day job. It's very much logical and systems and very much left brain, um, and not just the amnesia. Something is just making things and just putting it out there, uh, working with skaters and just trying to create something. And you know I've been lucky enough just to meet some really rad people over the years and form friendships and, you know, make videos and work with artists and work with many different you know manufacturers over the years as well. So it's been an enjoyable process. So it's more a labour of love. It's not really a profit motive or anything like that.
Speaker 3:At any stage in the game. Did you ever have those big dreams?
Speaker 2:I think so when I was younger, but I don't think it was realistic. Like, the skateboard industry in Australia is very fickle and I think back then, maybe in the 90s, it was hard to really get boards made, compared to now. Like every shop is a brand, there's lots of brands, brands coming up, which I think is awesome, right, but it also means there's like a oversupply of um boards. So it's a it's a bit of a difficult market if you want to sort of um make a living out of it.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean totally like, like, don't give up your day job yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 2:But I think for me and this isn't a cop-out like I, kind of like that I think if it was my day job, probably take the fun out of it, you know yeah so I've kind of sort of, over the years, uh accepted the fact that you know I'm not going to be, you know, steve rocker or someone like that can sell a company and move to hawaii, um, but um, you know, it's just something that I enjoy doing and I've got to meet, you know, a lot of cool people along the way. Yeah, yeah man.
Speaker 1:Well, the thing I mean as an artist myself and obviously, like you, we've worked closely together over many years. But the thing that I do think that stands out with Amnesia and I like about Amnesia is that even though you had your brand, like you've got the logo, the hand thing and you've done logo boards and I've even helped design logo boards for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But you've probably done artwork boards more consistently than a lot of people where you just do a series Like, did you do series with, like Brad Eastman and Marty Baptist and people like that as well, right, yeah. And because a lot of companies you know Mahoon obviously you know had a strong brand aesthetic.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Time did as well, but I feel like you've done worked with artists, like you said.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's when we make boards maybe not the last lot of boards we made which were heavily logo-based, and a lot of that's probably from Ben Cox, like in the original Amnesia team. Like he did a lot of creative input into what we made and some things I didn't really understand what he wanted to do. They were really obscure. Like he did this one that was like a Rorschach sort of. It was just a whiteboard with black smudges on it and he was like, yeah, and it was all charcoal sort of rubbings and stuff and we got Omni to make that and it sold really well. There was no amnesia written on it, there was no logo, nothing.
Speaker 2:So Ben was really a big inspiration. Like he was a bit of a contrarian um in that sense and he like just such a original thinker and skater um, but that's probably a bit of influence from him as well. And then later on I ended up working at avon card postcards and that's where I met my wife and they always did those free postcards and all the ones that got picked up weren't the ones that were the corporate ones, like Lipton's IST printed all over it, it was the artist cards that were like really, you know, from the artist's sort of self-expression, you know.
Speaker 1:Well, you actually hooked me up with doing a series of them as well, right? Or was it Hunmi, when she was working there as well?
Speaker 2:I think it was maybe Hunmi and then I helped Marty get one as well because I always did, like every two weeks they did two artist cards.
Speaker 1:That was awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:How random.
Speaker 3:How did that job come about at a postcard place?
Speaker 2:I was living in London and then my brother was sick with cancer and we, you know, my mum, called me and said you know, things are getting bad. So I had to come back to Sydney and I just looked in the Sydney Morning Herald and found that job. And I went and my wife was on the reception. She was like just started working there. And then I ended up getting the job there and, you know, one thing led to another.
Speaker 3:That's amazing dude. So what's your day job now?
Speaker 2:I work in the software industry so I look after their internal systems and processes. So it's very much, you know, left brain activity, logic systems, everything's black and white. There's no room for sort of anything to go wrong in that sense. So that's why I'm saying like when I do stuff that's more right brain or you know, I think there's still stuff you need to work in a skate company that's operational. But then the stuff I enjoy is like the art, the, the skaters, the you know, the filming.
Speaker 3:You know the creative side of it yeah, dude right, yeah it's just such a like a polar opposite, you know oh totally balance. Do you find it balances you out?
Speaker 2:then yeah, definitely. If I had to work seven days a week doing my day job, I'd just uh, yeah, I'd go nuts. Yeah, not, I'm not saying I don't enjoy it, I love my job, um, but yeah, I do think you need a healthy balance yeah, for sure yeah wow, man, 30 years.
Speaker 3:Hey, it's so insane, dude, it's so I don't know, like, like steve said, like there's no other company that's been able to sort of sustain it, but in terms of like the financials, I mean, has it cost you financially on a personal level?
Speaker 2:um, no, it pretty much pays for itself, but there have been some times where we've, you know, things have gone wrong. So, like I had a, there was a woodshop in canada that sent me like a batch of boards that were drilled off center. Um, there was a batch of boards that came um from china, where I, you know with with the Asian woodshops. You've got to be very specific in your instructions and I wrote like 30, as in 30 quantity times, you know, 8.0, 30 times 8.125, et cetera. But they thought I meant 30 inches long.
Speaker 1:Right, so you're looking back short.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So all the boards came back short, but we actually turned that into a good thing. So that's when we did the Cross, the Board, the art show. So we just had these 100 boards that were not writable and we just thought, okay, you know, this was a couple of years after I lost my brother to cancer and I was like, let's try and do something good about this. Let's do an art show. We get 100 boards, 100 different artists, and raise some money for the try and do something good about this. Um, let's do an art show. We get a hundred boards, hundred different artists and raise some money for the cancer council. So that was um, and we got like I wrote to chad mosca. He's like, yeah, I'm doing one for sure. He did like this ghetto blaster, I think, steve, were you involved in that?
Speaker 1:yeah, I'm pretty sure, yeah, marty baptist kendone.
Speaker 2:Uh, ricky swallow. Anthony lister, dust. Dustin Dolan did one. Dustin Pat Noho. Like everyone, the thing is, when you talk to people about cancer, it's such a wide impacting condition you know like everyone's been touched by it when you tell them you're doing it, for that everyone was all in Plus. It was such a rad concept, right. You get a blank board and you put your own sort of expression on it and then they all get exhibited, which was great. Yeah, ken Doan. Yeah, ken Doan did one.
Speaker 3:How did you score that guy?
Speaker 2:We just contacted them. You know that's what I mean. You just say you're doing it for the Cancer Council and people were just like more than willing to help. Nardis did one, but it didn't get there until after the show. But we auctioned it off on eBay and that was through Dean Wells. So Dean Wells was working at Quicksilver and Dean Wells is a good friend of mine going way back to high school days and yeah, it was a shame we didn't have that one for the art show. But then it arrived and it was this big charcoal. The board had been charcoaled and then it just said thank you on top of it, which was rad.
Speaker 3:Yeah, how old were you when your brother passed?
Speaker 2:I was what was that 2005?
Speaker 1:Late yeah.
Speaker 2:I was nearly 30, yeah late 20s yeah.
Speaker 3:Wow, it's a wild experience that one right and like you said it touches so many people. I mean, my family's been touched by cancer as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Did your family. I guess would you like to share about how your family came together to support one another through that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was kind of weird, like I was born in England and I moved to Australia when I was 11. My parents actually were going to move to Melbourne when I was two, but my grandmother got so upset they just canned the idea, had a couple more kids and then we moved here in 86. I was the eldest and we moved to Stockton, right. We were from the Midlands, right in the middle of um England, in Northampton, and I actually went to school two blocks away where Radlands was, but that was like two years after I left or a couple of years after I left um. So my background, like my dad's Chinese, my mum's English, and then we moved to Australia from the Midlands. It was a full culture shock, wow. But in terms of how we supported each other, my parents broke up when I was in year 12, so they hadn't talked to each other for a long time. So you know it, it was hard. When my brother actually died we're all in the room and, um, my parents were there and they'd never talked to each other and then when he took his last breath and passed away, they just like embraced each other and I was like tripping out man because I was like they haven't talked to each other for like 10 years or something. And um, and my sister was, yeah, it was um, it's tough, you know, because my brother, you know I was banned from skating when I was younger because I broke my arm so many times, like the last. The last one was like I smashed my elbow at stockton uh, mini ramp, the half pipe there and the surgeon said to my you know, don't let him skate. So I was banned.
Speaker 2:But I just wanted to be around skateboarding so I could push my brother. You know he was four years younger and he fully got into it but he wasn't totally, you know, it wasn't in his heart. You know he's more a car guy, but you know that's sort of how I kept in skating and then, you know, got into taking photos and stuff like that. But you know, my brother, I don't think I'd be doing amnesia now if it wasn't for my brother, because when I came back from London he was dying, um, and my brother wasn't backwards and coming forwards like he was like I'm more, I'm more laid back and like, uh, more introvert. He's like he was a panel beater and he was like fully more newcastle than me. He goes what the fuck you're doing? How come you're not doing amnesia and you know you love that like why aren't you fucking doing it? And I was like what? And he's dying man, like he knew he was dying, like probably had like a month to go, and just made me think, you know, oh shit.
Speaker 3:Like yeah, okay, I'm gonna give it another go, because I had a sort of break there for a couple years I wonder if, like in his last days, his perspective would be so much different to ours and you start to identify what's real in this life, and maybe that's why you think.
Speaker 2:Totally, it's like a real.
Speaker 3:it's a real thing, Like it's passion. It's what this life's about, isn't it? I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think you're right. Like you know it's not, you know it's not my job, but it's something in my life that you know I love, and you know it's the things you know. When you're on your deathbed you're probably thinking about those things in your life that have really moved you, you know. So I think that's one of the things.
Speaker 3:Oh man, it's really epic. Yeah, I want to clarify for listeners, though, that we're talking about Newcastle, australia, which is in New South Wales, because you know, you know the people in various parts of the world that listen. Just to clarify. And, uh, you said you lived in a, an area called stockton, which is a suburb of the city of newcastle yeah can you describe like your childhood in in an area like that?
Speaker 2:well, like I said, we came from the midlands in england and we moved to a place that was two blocks from the beach. So I remember my sister said to my dad after a few months like are we still on holiday? And yeah, it was a culture shock Like it was like going to the beach and just great weather, skateboarding. You know that late. You know you know 86, late 80s, um big sort of boom in skating around 88. Like you know, even people you wouldn't have thought of were buying boards at your high school.
Speaker 3:It was kind of strange so that's where you started skating, or did you start in england?
Speaker 2:no well, I saw one guy riding a skateboard. That was like an 80s sort of wider board in England, but that was just like once, like a fleeting thing someone going past my house and then in I think about 80, yeah, in 87, that's when I started seeing people skate. And then towards the end of year seven I met like my best mate ever through high school. Like he was mixed race, his mum was Malaysian, his dad was Australian. We were kind of like brothers. Everyone thought we were brothers and he was like into skating. He had a vision psycho stick. He was like into records, got me into all the music that I like, like all the hip hop around that time, and got me into skating as well. So I hadn't really had a really good friend until I met Kelvin rest in peace. He's passed now but he was a big influence on me and just steered me the right way. I think I had an AP Knight Raider skateboard when I met him and then he was like no, you've got to get something better than that.
Speaker 3:A Psycho Stick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't get a psycho stick. I think I got a Rob Roscoe.
Speaker 3:Was that your first ever board?
Speaker 2:It wasn't the first ever. Well, besides the Knight Raider, I think the Roscoe yeah, it was a proper board, proper board.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what was your first proper board, steve Tommy Guerrero, which is hanging up in my studio.
Speaker 3:Loma Grea was my second ever board. My first one was the Lance Mountain. Yeah, crazy, crazy, yeah. Like what? Okay, like, let's get this out of the way. Like what drew you to skateboarding originally? Like you just like the look of it, or was it a friend? I don't know.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say a really cliche thing, but I did see Back to the Future and I saw that and I was like wow, that's sick Everyone. And then in high school in that year seven there was a maths teacher that let some of the kids use the VCR in one of the maths rooms in Newcastle High at lunchtime. And then I went there and someone bought Future Primitive and then Search for Animal Chin. So that's where I first saw my skate videos. And then I think the video that really like knocked me for a six was Public Domain. Like I was in, we didn't have skate shops back then. We had Pacific Dreams, which was a surf shop, and Ray Richards, which was Mark Richards' dad's shop, and the owner of Pacific Dreams his daughter was in my year at school and I'd go there and she goes. Oh, we got this new video and put it on and I just saw Ray Barbie, steve Sires, eric Sanderson, chet Thomas.
Speaker 2:And they're cruising down the street. Oh man, I remember like standing there.
Speaker 1:That black and white part yeah.
Speaker 2:The black and white part Unbelievable yeah, and Chriselle, who was the daughter of the owner, just grabbed it and she goes just take the video and I go, nah, and like she gave it to me like the brand new public domain and I had to pay it back over time Like I couldn't afford it. That was rad. Yeah, I think my family got sick of me watching skate videos. You know, before school, every day, you know? Yeah, dude.
Speaker 3:Awesome. I remember in that one part Ray Barbie does a backside 360. No comply, yeah, I'm just like oh my God, yeah, like blew my mind.
Speaker 2:No, comply, no comply stuff he does.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's still, to this day, insane, yeah.
Speaker 2:And there were some of the biggest hand rolls in that part back then, right.
Speaker 3:Was there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there were some hand roll parts Amazing dude, so were you a good student at school.
Speaker 2:I was if I respected the teacher. So in year seven I came first in science in the half yearly and yearly, but I didn't do any homework, but I just really respected the teacher. In year eight I came second last in science because I just didn't respect the teacher. So for me and that's always been the case it's probably been of a downfall for me in school because you're not going to get on with every teacher, right, you just got to, you know, get the work done. But for me it was just like if I didn't like the teacher, I was just like, had no time for it and I didn't put in the effort which is, you know were you a good student at school, steve.
Speaker 1:I was pretty good yeah yeah, but I, yeah, I was definitely I just kept to myself and just did the work. You know, I wasn't a man, I wasn't really highly smart or anything like killing it, but you're diligent, I'm diligent and knew I was there for a purpose to get you are actually things done and you're one of the most diligent people I know.
Speaker 3:I'll send it to you on the phone. He's got such a can-do attitude.
Speaker 1:But I was also at the time skating in high school and skating with people that weren't going to my high school, so I would just go to school. I had friends, but I wouldn't hang out with them after school, so I'd just go to school, do my school stuff and then go skate or go see my real friends. I had real friends at school, for sure, but it wasn't like school life wasn't my life. I just knew I had to do it and get it done and get on with life.
Speaker 3:Did your parents push you academically?
Speaker 2:Not really Like my dad's like the black sheep of the family, and so he's lived a third of his life in Asia, a third in the UK and, yeah, probably a third maybe a bit more now in Australia. So he's pretty much like laid back. I think by the time I got to high school my mum was more focused on my brother and sister, so I was sort of left to my own devices. But I was, you know, I was pretty good at maths and science and that sort of thing. Yeah.
Speaker 3:What was things like at home?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a bit unstable sometimes. Like my parents' marriage got pretty bad towards mainly probably when I was in high school, towards the end, and they finally separated when I was in year 12. So it wasn't the best environment. But you know, love my parents today. You know they're rad, so I think it just wasn't the best environment. But you know, love my parents today. You know they're rad, so I think it just wasn't right for them. My mum was 19 when she had me. My dad was 27. Two totally different cultures. Yeah, it is what it is.
Speaker 3:It is what it is. How did you two meet anyway?
Speaker 1:I mean just skating, just like you said, probably like you said when you came to Sydney to film yeah, when I got that list from Kerry, yeah, yeah, I think it was you.
Speaker 2:Alex Smith, stephen Justice he gave me, like all these names and numbers. Yeah, jake Brown.
Speaker 1:It's so funny that stuff back in the day because I remember when I was writing for Omni and Steve Justice was on the team.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And the team. Yeah, and he was living in melbourne and we were all going to melbourne, like me and davo, a couple guys I didn't know him at all. Yeah, and kerry pogson gave me his phone number, called him up. Yeah, he's living at home with his mom and his family and I'm like, hey, we're coming to melbourne, can we crash your house? He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, three dudes rock up at his family's house. We stay for like two weeks in melbourne, like I mentioned that yeah, pre-internet right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't even know him was, it's just because we were over the same team and he turned out to be a legend and we're still friends, but like crazy different he sent me some footage actually that greg stewart filmed, and on the hi-8 tape was the flow dog video. Oh yeah, so we actually got that. I mean, ben and everyone in newcastle, like in our small clique, were like watching that and just blown away. Um, so it was kind of a lucky thing that, yeah, he sent us that tape that melbourne footage.
Speaker 1:When that came out, it blew everyone away. We were, we were in sydney, thinking we were killing it, and we're just like oh my god, ryan dennery's is like like, but how did you meet ben cox?
Speaker 2:like, oh, good question so when I, when I couldn't skate and I was banned, my brother was skating and, um, there was a. There was a halfpipe spine into a bowl at, uh, caves beach. It was in this squash court and it took us. We used to get the ferry from Stockton and like a 50 minute bus ride to caves beach near Swansea, um, and we went one day and Ben was just out the front skating the curb.
Speaker 2:Um, and for anyone who knows Ben, when you meet Ben it's like you've been best friends forever and he's just got this mad charisma and energy and it was like he goes do you want to skate the curb? And I had my arm, I had this thermoskin on there. I wasn't supposed to skate but I was like, yeah, yeah, we skated the curb. And then I think he ended up moving into Cooks Hill and that's when we started hanging out a lot. And then when I got into photography and filming and doing little, like I did a little T-shirt company and stuff, and then when I ended up doing the zine, like Ben was always around and he was such a natural talent that it was just. You know, he was always keen to go shoot photos and go skate and so so the zine was first and the zine was called Amnesia, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the zine was called Amnesia and it was just an outlet for me, like I was printing black and white photos in high school and I was always a mad magazine geek, like I really identify with Jim Turvey, like I had all the mags skating life you know Skateboard Australia 540 back then, and then you know the thick trans worlds from back then with Grant Britton's photos and you know Sturt and all those photographers. And Amnesia was just my idea of just creating a magazine. That was just local. Me and a guy called Brett Everhard started it and he was doing the writing and the interviews and I was doing the photography. Yeah, and I bought this electric typewriter. This was pre-desktop publishing, so it was all cut and paste. So, electric typewriter, you need a liquid paper. If you made a mistake and you're cutting the… With scissors.
Speaker 2:Yeah, with scissors.
Speaker 3:Just cut the whole article out, the whole paragraph out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, pretty much. And then lay it out and then photocopy it down at the local Conica. It was a Conica sales centre. It wasn't even supposed to be for consumers to go in there. And I went in there like just this I don't know 18 or 17, I don't know how old I was and I go, yeah, I just want to do this photocopy. He's like, yeah, yeah, and they just gave me some money. But then I ended up getting picked up by the Arts Council and they gave me access to dark rooms and free photocopying stuff like that.
Speaker 3:It's almost like a collage, Steve.
Speaker 1:Totally that's collage, but that's the original zine vibe, and there's people today trying to emulate that. It's kind of come full circle electronically yeah, kind of well. There's probably people still trying to do it like going back to that old school, like because that 90s thing now is so if in fashion as well.
Speaker 2:But I know people doing that it's like having something physical to hold billy harris is kind of doing yeah totally right yeah he's brought back the rule authentic yeah, I'm sure he's doing exactly that og vibe of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so sick. How'd the name amnesia come about?
Speaker 2:um, it was from. I don't think anyone knows this, even on the team it was from those like tapes.
Speaker 2:so when me and kelvin my friend we were working at woollies in mayfield and there was this girl in the deli and she was giving us these rave tapes from the uk and, um, there was this guy, like there was this crew called Amnesia House they're from Coventry in the Midlands, actually, where my mum was born and we'd listen to these tapes and there's this guy, probably off his head on ease or something, going Amnesia, amnesia. And that's just like. I just always liked that name, not that amnesia was related to like the rave scene or anything, but we just always loved the name and I always like to think about it like amnesia. It's sort of like if you're skating or in the mode, you forget about all your worries, so it's like that sort of concept.
Speaker 3:I knew there was going to be some depth there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I was hoping you wouldn't forget.
Speaker 2:Oh shit, sorry, I fucking couldn't help saying that dad joke right there, Damn it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like shout out to no Negative magazine Billy.
Speaker 2:Harris yeah, exactly, is that Billy? Yeah, it's Billy Harris. I didn't know that. Yeah, awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, from what I've seen, it's like really well laid out, like original zines. And Jim Turvey. I went skating with Jim Turvey the other night.
Speaker 2:Oh I went skating with Jim Turvey the other night.
Speaker 3:Oh cool, he's a skate nerd.
Speaker 2:He was just a kid Like I didn't even know. His name was Jim until like probably five, ten years, like recent. As you know, it was always Barney. You know, it was just Barney at the skate park and he was always that little kid like asking questions and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:How did you meet him Just?
Speaker 2:at South Newcastle Beach Skate Park. That was sort of like before that everyone was an admin where it's a five-star hotel now, and that was sort of our EMB in Newcastle and that's before there was any sort of parks, and then, when South Newcastle was built, that's sort of where we hung out, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I'm new to the Newcastle area, yeah, and the one thing that really stands out is how strong that skate scene is.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And obviously I've been aware of the skate scene up there forever, but living there, you see how deep the roots are. Why do you think that area has such a strong scene? What's going on up there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. I think there's a lot of grassroots organization and there's always been a strong community. Like even before my generation. You got the older guys like john bogart, anthony simmons, um shane, as those guys there's always like a crew of skaters that, uh, there's always sort of a hardness to skating back then but if, if you're willing to come and give it a go, they they're supportive. And we had the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Skateboard Association so they would have like these meetings and you'd go and have pizza and they'd talk about how can we get skate parks and stuff like that. So I think that's a big part of it. But even now, like I see you know the skaters coming out of Newcastle, it's just you know Connor Reeve and Sean Ryan and Rowan and those guys, it's just I don't know.
Speaker 3:I don't have a good answer for that. Yeah, I've asked a few people and everyone's got a different perspective and view on it, I guess. But also it doesn't really have the abundance of mega skate parks like Sydney does, but still, everyone's just like pushing so hard yeah but some of those street skater guys like you mentioned connor and rowan and a bunch of other guys. They've just shut that whole city down, man there's not a spot that hasn't been completely, you know, destroyed by those guys that new new balance video.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh yeah see conor reeves backside nose, yeah, yeah and that front side blunt slide on the.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's good to see some of those new castle spots because he's like I never thought anyone would skate. Um, like there's that curve rail that goes around that rowan skates like yeah we used to look at that like yeah, as if, and now you just see them skating it like it's standard. It's like what?
Speaker 3:yeah, and you know that. Yeah, the rail, I think, was at the blunt side. It's on an angle, it's in a like residential area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, up on the hill, on the hill have you ever have you looked at it?
Speaker 3:no, like I know that street the video doesn't do it justice on how gnarly it is yeah it's so steep the landing and fast and narrow and it and just like, wow, yeah, rowan did something crazy on it too recently, I can't remember, but yeah, pretty cool. Yeah, next level you sponsored Connery for a while yeah, yeah, we did.
Speaker 2:yeah, so like probably for a couple of years, 2020, maybe for a couple of years yeah, yeah, nice Like.
Speaker 3:Did you just identify him as?
Speaker 2:No, it was through a writer at the time, simon lydia, that we wrote for us for a while and he just said I think I just asked him any you know new up-and-comers? And he, yeah, said connor, so we just started floating in boards yeah yeah, nice sick. Yeah, it's good to be part of different people's journeys at times. Yeah, it is, huh. Yeah, but I was just like leading into, like do you think you've got an eye for talent now? Yeah, it's good to be part of different people's journeys.
Speaker 2:At times it is huh yeah, but I was just like leading into.
Speaker 3:Do you think you've got an eye for talent now?
Speaker 2:No, I don't know. It's usually the other team writers. I rely on people like Keeney and stuff like that They've got. I think they've got a better eye, but maybe I don't know, because you're not trying to be.
Speaker 3:Steve Rocco right, no, they've got. I think they've got a better eye, but maybe I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't know, because you're not trying to be Steve Rocco, right?
Speaker 3:No, no, I love that you brought that up. I mean, did you guys watch the Jenkum article?
Speaker 1:Definitely yeah, yeah, yeah. What did you?
Speaker 3:think of it, Steve.
Speaker 1:It was good. Yeah, I mean it's great that he engaged and, like, answered questions. Yeah, I was really interested in his. He's just saying he's just bought property in New Zealand, which I reckon he's part of the billionaire underground club, of all those billionaires that are buying land in New Zealand and building bunkers the bunker people. I didn't know, that it's a huge thing and it's kind of a conspiracy conceptual idea. No one knows for sure what's happening?
Speaker 3:Can you blame him?
Speaker 1:I'm sure if anyone's doing it, he would be doing it.
Speaker 3:I thought he seemed but it was great, yeah, and I thought he seemed like pretty down to earth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the interviews were cool. It was like really cool. There was a few things I can't remember. Yeah, specifics that's the Greek wedding next door. Wow, there'll be some crazy cars out there. Someone just did a mad burnout at the front Magville, let's go.
Speaker 3:yeah, wow, yeah, he seemed down to earth, but totally it was good that they got.
Speaker 1:He got him like amazing and really, yeah, he asked good questions and got good answers like yeah, there was some cool stuff in there I think ian mitch now and patrick odell are my two favorite journalists, like even outside of skateboarding. I think if they were journalists anywhere else they'd be amazing yeah, well, the new applicated stuff that's coming out again now is amazing. Do you like it? Yeah, I mean, I watched that new um it's a little bit more polished than the old ones yeah, for sure, but yeah, but I don't mind that.
Speaker 1:But also, yeah, I don't know the new one with um anthony van england's amazing yeah and his story's so fucking awesome, dude I mean, I knew he was rock and roll, but I didn't know he was that rock and roll have you seen it, chris?
Speaker 3:yeah, I've seen it did you know about his struggles with addiction?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think I've read or maybe seen, uh, something about it in the past.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I, I didn't realize how deep it was. No, I mean either, I thought he was just like.
Speaker 1:I just thought it was his style. I thought it was. I mean, I knew he must have partied because it's dildos and you know it was the thing, but I didn't know.
Speaker 3:It was like he was that gnarly, yeah, yeah I love jason dill oh same yeah when I watched that I was like sorry, dude looks older yeah, but that's all right.
Speaker 1:That's where I feel like he's fallen. He's just found himself into his proper crazy art art vibe thing. Now he's not.
Speaker 3:He doesn't give a fuck he really doesn't he never has, has he do you reckon they're just like completely balling from like FA and hockey has to be?
Speaker 1:They must be Like loaded, you mean.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like ball and like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, has to be. Fa must be killing it. The links with Supreme and everything. Yeah, you go to New York and you see the shops. There's lines like out the fucking. I know it's crazy. They'll just do one drop of some product and but why?
Speaker 3:why do some like brands pop off and others don't like? Is it just? Does it purely come down to the quality of the team? Do you think that is the most important thing for for a pop-off?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think so yeah, in a way it's videos as well, like, I think, just whatever the latest video is um, like I just try and think back to when I was a kid, like that public domain video, right, that was just. I know time goes quicker, I guess, when you're older, but when you're a kid you're sort of in that moment and it's like whatever's stoking you out at that time is like what you identify with. So I think videos play a big part. I don't know so much now, though, because there's so much content that it's. I don't know if kids today have the same experience we did like in the late 80s and 90s.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's different. For sure, the content is so much more accessible.
Speaker 3:I don't know so much of it so you think it's like this element of exclusivity gives it that kind of like more desirable feel for customers? I think so because they kind of did give off, they made it. They try to make it a little bit exclusive. I mean, supreme was definitely like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, yeah yeah, I mean that works too. But it works outside of the skateboard world. Like they're clearly selling to not just skateboarders. I mean that's fine.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like good on them. That's where you're going to make money. But the thing is it's like a legit skate brand. It's not like someone just come in to sell to skaters from the outside. They've just found a bigger audience. But FA's been around forever. Like I remember when dion kovac had his shop in sydney in 2001 or two and they had fa t-shirts he was. It was a t-shirt brand for a while. It was just like they were just he was just doing, it was just every night and it was like exclusive stuff then as well. But I'm sure he didn't make any money, it was just like a thing and he's just kept it going and then it's. I guess then they blew it up when what about about 10 years ago, whenever it started proper?
Speaker 3:Wow, that's crazy. I didn't realize that. I just thought it was like those guys got together and said let's do this and kill it, because you know they're some of the most respected skateboarders of all time and that's how it goes. But I want to get back to you, chris, in terms of your life journey. Let's go some more chronology here yeah, so after high school, what'd you do?
Speaker 2:I did year 12 again. So I got to the end of the summer holidays and I think this was just after my parents split up. So I was a bit lost and it was the day before you had to enroll for the next year and I just went oh, I'm just going back to school, I don't know anything else. So, yeah, went to. You know my son calls it. You did year 13. You know he always gives me a hard time about it.
Speaker 2:But I went back, did the HSC again, didn't really try, got marginally better.
Speaker 3:Or.
Speaker 2:TAFE no at school.
Speaker 3:I just went back to school yeah, dude, but uh, or tafe no at school. I just went back to school?
Speaker 1:yeah, dude, yeah, okay, like a toolie, but how old are you? What year was that? What did you graduate?
Speaker 2:you're older than me uh 92, and then I did 93 years old.
Speaker 1:You're older than me, two years older than me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so you're 50, yet I'm 50 in december nice how does that feel saying that? It's weird, like I don't know. I think people are living longer now because I remember when I was young and I saw my uh english grandparents when they were like 60 and 61 and they looked really old.
Speaker 2:But maybe it's just a perspective yeah, so you did year 13 I did year 13 and then I went to tafe after that to do like computer programming, because I've always been good with computers, um, but then I kind of dropped out of that and then, um, I ended up moving to sydney and I got a job at a lift company talking to people trapped in lifts, so I'd be the voice on the other end. Um, when you got stuck in the lift and I did that for two years, it was intense because you'd be answering phones, right, talking to people that were either trapped in lifts or disgruntled lift owners, and on then you'd be ringing technicians who don't really want to do the work and you've got to motivate them to go and get the person out or fix the lift. So it was like this fully intense job, but I did that for two years what's the training for that, like, do they give you some?
Speaker 1:no, like no psychological, just tell you how to work the phones.
Speaker 2:Pretty much, yeah, and like I had some pretty like sometimes when there's a change of shift in the afternoons, um, like in the city, because I'd finish at four and then you'd have one guy that just looked after the whole city from four till six, but that's when everyone was leaving work. So you'd have three people trapped in the city and one guy and you're like, yeah, I've got three PILs, which is person in lift, that was like the terminology. I've got three PILs.
Speaker 1:I've got a PIL here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they'd be like oh yeah, and some of them had really like cranky personalities. So you just have to learn how to deal with different personalities. But I think I learned so much in that job, um, in two years, and in terms of what like communicating communicating, dealing with difficult personalities, staying calm um problem solving problem solving, yeah, just multitasking and just dealing with that's the craziest job.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't even know that existed yeah, I was telling someone this story the other day. Um, there was someone at Randwick Hospital. This woman rang me and she'd pressed the button but the button goes through to their security centre so it didn't come straight to me. And she rang on her mobile to the call centre where I was, and she was stressing out and she was quite heavily pregnant and I told her the process of what was going on. I said we've received the call from security and there's someone on the way. And she just started losing it and I just went I've got to use some tough love and I was pretty strict with her and I was like, look, you need to do what's best for your baby now and you need to just calm down, take some breaths and after after it I was a bit worried because maybe I was a bit like came on too strong.
Speaker 3:That sounds pretty nice to me.
Speaker 2:Anyway, she wrote a letter to my company and they gave it to me and she was like thanking us and just saying how good a job I did and like, yeah, so it was kind of nice.
Speaker 1:You'd be perfect out there. You're a pretty calm guy, though, from what I know of you, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think I'm the type of guy that's really calm, but then if I lose it it's like you know nuclear. So which isn't very often yeah really yeah yeah, because I've I've not now, but maybe in the past I'll bottle stuff up, you know all right.
Speaker 3:So nothing in particular triggers you. It's just holding it all in yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. How do you manage that now?
Speaker 2:Now, it's just like expressing how I feel and trying to be better at communicating that sort of thing, who to Like?
Speaker 3:your partner, friends, colleagues.
Speaker 2:Yeah, partner, family, friends yeah, Interesting yeah.
Speaker 3:Fuck, that's the craziest job description I've ever. I can't believe.
Speaker 2:I did. It was intense, yeah, yeah. And then I end up getting a resentment over this new call center manager there and and instead of just saying, um, I quit and get another job, I said I'm gonna move to london. So I kind of moved to london because I had a resentment with someone in my job, oh yeah, because I didn't really know how to just say I didn't want to work there anymore. And then I ended up going to London and just yeah.
Speaker 1:Did you still have British passport and stuff? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I've actually got three citizenships.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:Australian, British and Irish through my grandmother Irish.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, dude, you're so interesting, I wonder if that job still exists.
Speaker 2:I think it does. It would have to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can't use ai for that like so, like what's the typical call? Like so the security will put you through to the person like hey, I've got no. Most of the time you press the button in the lift and it goes straight through to the call center where I worked. A lot of the time it's kids mucking around or it's someone that's just stuck uh, momentarily, and then the lift sort of resets and it's okay. But then you get. The worst ones were elderly females that couldn't speak English because they would totally lose it. So that was sometimes hard because you'd need to ask them where they were. But maybe now they've got technology that will tell you where they are and which lift?
Speaker 1:they're in like a building, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's another story. It's pretty intense, um, so if you drop your keys down the lift shaft you have have to pay like 400 bucks or something to get them out. And then in surrey hills, like a cleaner dropped their keys down there and they didn't want to pay it, so they got one of the other cleaners to stop the lift and they climbed down the lift shaft and then someone must have called the lift somewhere else and they got crushed between the two lifts and died. So it's a pretty gnarly story. But what sort of freaked me out was when the lift technician said yeah, when we got there, the police were using the body bag as a doorstop to keep the door open for the motor room.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I was like what I was just like, but you know, I don't know, that's intense.
Speaker 3:So gnarly dude.
Speaker 2:It was a pretty interesting job, but it was pretty stressful and I was just like, yeah, going out at night and then doing the job. You know what?
Speaker 3:do you mean you were going? So were you offsetting the stress? Because it sounds stressful?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was drinking a lot. Yeah, right, okay, okay.
Speaker 3:Do you think it drove the drinking a little bit because it was so good?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think so we can imagine that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think there was one time where I worked 26 days in a row because they started to open the calls from the weekends instead of using like a pager service, and that was like, yeah, pretty intense.
Speaker 3:So was it like servicing, like every lift in what Sydney?
Speaker 2:Yeah, in Sydney for that particular company. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And you were the one call operator.
Speaker 2:No, there was like two or three of us during the day and then on the weekends I was just one person people just get stuck in lifts like every day yeah, like they're shopping all the westfield shopping centers. There's escalators that break down and there's lifts in private homes there was do people ever ring you on the escalator going?
Speaker 3:I'm stuck on this.
Speaker 2:It's like just fucking walk up it no, but I remember there were some people that lived in the toaster you know the Bennelong apartments near the Opera House, and they were going to one of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and they were stuck in the lift and they were just like riffing into me saying this is the second time, but then you talk to like they missed the ceremony.
Speaker 2:I think Gough Whitlam's wife, like there was people who have lifts in their homes, like in Darling Point and Point Piper and stuff like that. It was pretty interesting. They stuck and then some of the technicians went to Bob Hawke's house and there was like three of them and he's like saying to his wife hey, love, get him some beers.
Speaker 3:Here's a story about Bob Hawke. I used to live in Rose Bay on. O'sullivan Road. I remember once I was like skating on the footpath out on my street and there was like an old dude and a chick walking towards me.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I'm skating and like I didn't want to get off my skateboard and they didn't want to walk onto the grass, yeah. So I just committed and just kept going.
Speaker 1:And as.
Speaker 3:I got closer and closer. They stepped onto the grass and I skate past and it's Bob Hawke and his girlfriend Blanche. Bob Hawke and his girlfriend Blanche was it.
Speaker 2:I remember he had the divorce with Hazel. I was like no way, it was Bob.
Speaker 3:Hawke, I just made him walk onto the grass.
Speaker 2:I don't know, it was crazy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, crazy dude. Yeah, wow, that's so unique. So after that job and like, where did you go from there?
Speaker 2:Did you go to university? No, and like, where did you go from there? Did you go to university? No, I went to uni later, like after I was 40 actually, and did some study there. But after that I stopped doing amnesia and moved to London and just got an admin sort of job and I was just like partying and stuff over there.
Speaker 2:But then my brother got cancer in 2000. That's when I was just like partying and stuff over there. But then my, my, my brother got cancer in 2000. That's when I was working at the lift company but it was in his knee and he had the choice of getting his leg amputated or getting his kneecap removed and getting a titanium kneecap. And he went through all that and then everything was good. And then that's when I moved to London and but then over those two years it sort of spread to his lungs and that's when it sort of progressed and then I moved back after that. But yeah, london was a bit of a. You know I wasn't doing anything career-wise, really, it was just more. You know, like a lot of Australians do, go to London for a couple of years and just party.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I got sucked into that too, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got sucked into that too. Yeah yeah, did you like it? Yeah, I did, but it was a bit soul-destroying. Like yeah, like I like England, like I've got a lot of good memories there from childhood. But I think if I had my time back, I would have travelled more in Europe and not partied as much. I would have tried to make the most of being in that location instead of just hanging out with other Australians getting drunk.
Speaker 3:That's exactly what I did. I didn't travel hardly at all because I had no money, because I kept spending it at the bar. Yeah, it's ridiculous, ridiculous. Yeah, man, then you're back in Australia and like back in Newcastle then or Sydney.
Speaker 2:Back in Sydney. Yeah, then my brother passed away and that's when I sort of started amnesia back up again. I think that's when I….
Speaker 3:Sorry, was that around what 94? No, no, it was… In 2004, I think. Yeah, my brother died, sorry, 2005.
Speaker 1:2005, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah and then.
Speaker 1:yeah, that's probably when I reached out to you, we would have been talking, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then Kerry was actually doing Omni again, but I think he started a factory in China and then he did our first batch of boards, which Hanmi did one graphic and you did one?
Speaker 3:Yeah, no way. Yeah, cool man, who was some standout? Well, no, actually, what are some standout graphics for you over the years that you feel are iconic for the brand?
Speaker 2:Well, I think the early ones in the 90s, like, um, david david old new did one that was, uh, this angel board for ben which like sold like hot cakes. Like I remember I was working at central station records with in newcastle and they asked me to start a skate shop there and then that's when I was doing like all the omni boards and I remember I I dropped some boards off there and then I came back later and the like, the guys who owned it were Greek, didn't know anything about they were DJs, they didn't know anything about skating. I'd teach them how to grip a board and stuff like that. And I came back one day and Christo goes hey, chris, I just sold seven Ben Cox boards today and I was like what?
Speaker 2:yeah so those early graphics, um, I think are iconic. And then later on, you know the stuff we've done with Marty Paptis. I always liked Steve's collage graphics as well. So, yeah, there's been some good ones over the years. I've kept most of them, except for the 90s. Like I've got everything from 2005 onwards, but yeah, I wish I had those 90s ones. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I wish I kept all my Omnibni, but I didn't keep any of my omni boards really either. It's like stupid all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah you don't think back, then you're not thinking about the future.
Speaker 1:You're in there who did the logo? Was it wade?
Speaker 2:no, it wasn't wade. So we actually just lifted that from this old uh war propaganda book from europe. Like it had a whole heap of stuff from europe like french graphics and I don't know what that uh logo started out as. But we just sort of took it on as our own and then there's been different versions done over the years.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no way. Yeah, did you guys do like amnesia tours?
Speaker 2:um no, but I guess we did our own sort of thing. I, I think me and Darren Keeney and Peter Schiffman drove up to Brisbane in my dad's car once and just went up there to hang out with Shane Wallace and that sort of thing. And then there was a tour we did with Gordo Peanut, darren, a few other guys, kent Lunny in 97, and we just named it the Tencent Tour because we had no accommodation and we were just like driving in a van and then, you know, drinking ourselves to sleep wherever we were. I think we slept in a private school, what?
Speaker 3:Just like sleeping bags, and that's it. No, we didn't have sleeping bags?
Speaker 2:We had nothing.
Speaker 1:For how long?
Speaker 2:I think, I don't know. It's probably like four or five days. We went up to Nexus for that comp and saw like I remember being at Nexus and Jeff Rowley rocked up and just destroyed that place.
Speaker 1:Those Nexus comps were awesome yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because that park was just sick everyone went up for it. Yeah yeah, and it had like the like the wedge to wedge and there wasn't a lot of those around it was done really well and yeah, one year the dc super tour was there remember it was like all the
Speaker 2:dc yeah, yeah. Yeah, there was. I think there was two tours that were clashing at the same time, so they had the full.
Speaker 1:That was that they had the super tour shirts or whatever.
Speaker 3:It was there so sick like a sports jersey. Yeah, that was the sickest time that was like rick howard, jason, maxwell, johnson, yeah, yeah moses at conan, yeah.
Speaker 1:Rudy johnson all like the full dc team. Colin mckay yeah are you stoked?
Speaker 3:you're related to scott johnson, like yeah, yeah brothers, yeah did we get that?
Speaker 1:oh, all the time. I mean fuck. He was one of my favorite skaters, like obviously you're just known for being really clean and like yeah, but it was like a way, you know, everyone emulates the skater that they can, and I mean, he just did look like me obviously yeah but I was like yeah, classic but it wasn't that hard to like.
Speaker 1:you know, when you say you see people who copied chad mask or something, it's like an obvious you have to change a whole thing. I didn't really have to change much, so he was one of your favorite skaters.
Speaker 2:Oh for sure, Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 3:So good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, funny.
Speaker 3:Who was your rate of some of your favorite skaters of all time?
Speaker 2:Like Australian or just.
Speaker 3:Anywhere yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I've got to say that just the amnesia guys were. I'm kind of biased, though, right. You are biased, but like Ben Cox, like he was just a contrarian and didn't really want to be in the spotlight, so he became like this mystical folklore oh, he is, he's an enigma dude.
Speaker 1:He's a mystical folklore character. Even now Of Australian skateboarding, yeah, like one of the best skateboarders Our country's ever produced. But just came and disappeared when he wanted to. I mean, obviously I know he went in some dark times With drugs, but Even when he was at his peak he was just. He'd just appear and he'd be like what Bangkok's here, and he'd yeah. Like the Tugger Escape Park. Remember, you just come there and just do this crazy shit and you're like, and then you'd be gone again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm like, like I remember I merely came up to Newcastle once and he goes oh, do you reckon, ben and I want to come skate the Marble Rail at Civic. And I went to Ben and Ben goes no, I've got a headache, and like went home, like he just wasn't into the whole fame, everything which um, you know, he was just in the moment and it's kind of like an artist in a way, on his board.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely, yeah, wow, it's funny you use those words to describe him like what was it mystical?
Speaker 2:yeah, he was like you'd go to places obviously this is before the internet and like people would like talk about bing cox. Yeah, I've heard about bing cox. Yeah, like I'm a big fan of Kaney. Like Kaney and Shane Wallace, they were on the original team and they're just.
Speaker 3:Who are both still ripping? Oh, do they?
Speaker 2:have back on it. It's crazy, Like who would have thought at this age like the stuff they're doing?
Speaker 1:It's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Shane's insane again.
Speaker 3:Shane's just like a new board sponsor.
Speaker 1:He does right. Right, he's got a board. Hasn't he got a pro model?
Speaker 3:I think they actually do yeah they might have Given him a pro model. That's crazy. Yeah, did Shane ever write for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, he rang me Like I think I got a message Call Shane Wallace. I just got this memory Of ringing him from a pay phone In Sydney, I don't know Before mobile phones. He was like hey, yeah, like I really like Ben and Darren, so like can I get on the team? I was like yeah.
Speaker 1:And I remember yeah.
Speaker 2:I remember I was riding my board through Hyde Park in Sydney at night and Sid Tavia come up to me on his board and he put his arm around me and goes, ah, Shane's on the team and I was like so stoked. I was like a little kid.
Speaker 1:There was a few of those dudes back in the day that just feel like they came out of nowhere, like Shane. I remember when he came to Sydney and just I was just like holy he could pop his board Like he could do backside kickflips over a wall you know what I mean or over shit, and we were all still trying to get our boards up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, didn't he pop shove it into the pit. Yeah, yeah, he yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he just came from, seemed like nowhere, and I was like, oh okay, we're not that good as we thought we were. Yeah, and like the Melbourne crew and Darren man I remember Darren back in the day and he was like so gnarly, I was kind of scared of him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really.
Speaker 1:Why? Yeah, well, the manly crew always seemed a bit gnarly, really, yeah, but I remember that crew being a bit like oh shit, they're so gnarly, the manly dudes.
Speaker 2:That's interesting, yeah, I guess. And then you had the Borkos as well. Like I didn't know Darren, but Gordo let me sit in on the editing of Plebs at Newcastle Uni and he had all the Darren footage and I was like just loved his character and his style and his skating. Just loved his character and his style and his skating. So I sort of wanted to put him on Amnesia even before I met him and like, and then I remember I copped heaps of shit from the Newcastle crew for sponsoring a Sydney skater. Like I had people come up to me and go why are you sponsoring this Sydney cunt? Like fully intense, right. But then Darren came up to Newcastle and stayed for a while. Like he had this big bag of clothes and like cans of food and stuff and like once I got to know him he was just like you know.
Speaker 3:He loves Newcastle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's for good reason. Yeah, wow, I just wanted to tap into that. Owning a skate company back then that was doing okay for a while, were you getting like sponsor me tapes of kids and stuff you were? Was it sick?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then on Instagram later on, you know, oh, you still get, it Okay, yeah.
Speaker 3:Even more recent times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, nice yeah.
Speaker 3:Nice. I remember. What about those letters you showed me?
Speaker 1:of kids sending you letters of like, send me some stickers. I've still got them all, yeah. So I kept all the CLS ones. Just because they're so rad, I've got them here in a folder. Didn't you get a letter?
Speaker 3:of a kid, like requesting sponsorship even though there's no like evidence.
Speaker 1:Oh for sure, yeah, and it's so funny because they write in and you can tell they don't really know what your company is.
Speaker 2:They're just like it's just a numbers game sometimes. Yeah, totally yeah, and they'll send you a video.
Speaker 1:They probably send it to all the ads in the mag like, yeah, but some advice.
Speaker 2:If anyone's listening, like if you're gonna send a sponsor me tape like buy that product and have it in the video, do you know?
Speaker 1:what I mean. Yeah well, yeah, I've got a letter where a kid was like, oh, I've got the cls hat and it's so rad and I was like we never made hats yeah just hustling yeah, totally do you consider yourself a hustler?
Speaker 2:not really, no even as a company owner not really like.
Speaker 3:I'm probably not um because I don't think hustling's bad. I don't think it's a bad thing. Yeah, like there's always a bit of a hustle to everything if you want things to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think in the sense of like trying to work out how to get things done. I think I am, in that way, like reaching out to Kerry. You know, working out, I think with a skateboard company there's so many different moving parts, you know. So just trying to work things out, probably from that sense, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So how are you going to celebrate the 30 years?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know, steve and I were chatting so I was like got all those boards so it'd be great to put on some event, maybe in Newcastle. So if anyone's got a space like reach out.
Speaker 3:Dude, I've got a two-bedroom unit.
Speaker 2:Sounds novel. Yeah, but you get to do a new year, for sure. Oh, you'd have to do a new year for sure, oh you'd have to do a new year.
Speaker 1:You could bring those artworks up too and do like a full event. You could do it at the museum actually.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know Jim Turvey did a photo exhibition at the museum and they're actually really skate friendly, the museum.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, the people that work there, yeah.
Speaker 3:They actually advocated for the legalization of skateboarding at Civic Park Because it's outside the museum. Did you know that?
Speaker 2:yeah, I heard that in jim's interview and um, super supportive, yeah, like I, I went up to see that um exhibition because there was a lot of the amnesia stuff in there and it was yeah, it was yeah blew me away, because you forget about all the different magazine articles and everything and to see it in that you know venue where back then there's no way we would be in like a museum or anything like that. So it was kind of cool.
Speaker 1:So, sick man, it validated it you know, yeah, you get the original video on a screen or something at an event. It'd be sick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that'd be cool and just like old people coming through, like you've known for years that'd be awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it'd be. Where did you meet your wife At the postcard company? Yeah, no shit. Yeah, so that was around what 2000 and 2005? Yeah was she a designer?
Speaker 2:no, she studied film uh, long beach in the us, like she's from balcom hills, so she's a walker and um, yeah, she studied film there. And then she came back to australia and got that receptionist job and that's where we met. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Nice yeah. So you were like the graphic designer.
Speaker 2:No, I was like the distribution, Like I did all the operational stuff, which is kind of what I've always been good at like operations, making things happen behind the scenes.
Speaker 3:It's like a workplace romance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was, but I think over 50% of people meet their partners at work apparently, so it kind of makes sense. It's where you spend most of your time.
Speaker 3:We spend, yeah 90% of the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That hurts actually it does doesn't it.
Speaker 3:I was talking to Emily today at the skate park. Actually she's like, are you still teaching? I was like, yeah, still teaching, and he's like five days a week. I'm like, yeah, still teaching, and he's like five days a week. I'm like, yeah, five days a week, and it's just like yeah, when you think about it, do you really like where you're going every day of your life? It's a tricky one, and when you have kids, it becomes more pronounced in my mind because I now see it as time away from my kids.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So it's hard to find that balance.
Speaker 2:It is yeah, yeah, so it's hard to find that balance.
Speaker 3:It is you feel, like you found it to some degree.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I'm pretty lucky in terms of the, like, my day job. I really love it. It's, um, I get to learn a lot. I think the thing with me if I'm not, if I was doing a job where you're just doing a repetitive thing, um I wouldn't enjoy it. But if I need something like and some of that comes down to just some sort of self-motivation as well, like, I think if you're always keen to learn, then you're going to make the job better in a sense if that makes sense, that makes sense.
Speaker 3:Yeah, how's fatherhood changed you?
Speaker 2:It's definitely made me less selfish, yeah, and try and be a good listener, Like I've just. I just noticed lately, like put my phone down and just be present for my kids. You know, my daughter's 13 now and it's just been a blur. It's just gone really quick. My son's turning 10 next month, so it's like how can I be there for them? And sometimes I realise I'm not even listening to what they're saying and they're telling me something that's really interesting to them but it's not that interesting to me. But I can make it interesting if I think about you know, from that context like how would I want my parents to behave around me?
Speaker 2:Maybe that's a good way to put it.
Speaker 3:Like, as they embark on their teen years, do you feel like you're drawing closer to them or do you feel like you get that feeling of like I'm losing my kids now?
Speaker 2:A little bit because they're forming their own identity. But I think that's just a natural cycle of you know, growing up you need to separate from the parents a bit. But I feel like I've got a good relationship with them where they can come to me and like if they've got any challenges, like I always try and tell them where I've made mistakes in life. You know, like my son thinks I'm a criminal because, you know, when I was six I set my parents house on fire. When I was 16 I stole my parents van van and rode off the van and threw my neighbour's fences in Stockton. Were you drunk? No, no. Like I was on my L's and I had driven the van around the night before with my brother and it was just around the block and down the back lane and around again. And I remember the video days. I'd just got a copy of video days and I was doing the VCR to VCR. The video days. That was like 91, I think.
Speaker 3:Bootleg.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and my best friend Kelvin came over and I made the mistake of telling him yeah, we drove the car around the block the night before and he kept going come on, let's do it. And I'm like no, no, no. And then nightfall, and he kept going come on, let's do it. I'm like no, no, no. And then he kept pestering me, pestering me. I go okay, and I just think because of that I wasn't in the right mindset. Anyway, we pushed the car down the street, jumped in my brother and Kelvin were in the back, no, kelvin was in the front and then I went around the block and I was okay.
Speaker 2:But when I went around the back lane, instead of putting my foot on the brake, I put it right on the accelerator, right down in second gear, and it went through two of my neighbour's fences on one side and then I overcorrected, went into another fence and then my brother got out of the car and goes get out of here. And I drove it and the car broke down right out the back of my house and I went in the house and I told my mum hey, mum, I scratched the car. She's like what? She was like reading a book and my dad was down at the RSL, like you know, having some beers and something, and then she goes, go get your dad. And then my mum was saying to the cops, arrest him, arrest him.
Speaker 3:And then, I think, to teach you a lesson.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally Like I don't know if one of my kids did that I'd be flipping out. And then when the cops came, and then they ended up sending me a fine for neck driving and driving without a licensed driver. The car was totaled and it just been resprayed and um, and then the insurance company thought my dad was setting me up because he'd been down the iris, they were drinking, so there was this full investigation and they they were trying not to pay him the insurance money but it came through. So so again I try and tell my kids like the whole truth where I can, because I think like I've made a lot of uh, shitty mistakes in life, and try and just uh be honest with them that's cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good. Yeah, yeah, because you could just not tell them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah I think, yeah, personally, like something I've been thinking about a lot lately in terms of, like, being honest with my kids, but it's like a tough one because it's like how do you know they're ready for that truth?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But in my opinion, if they ask the question, I'm going to try and give them the most real answer as possible that they will understand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't know, because they're going to work it out eventually yeah so and I feel like it's just part of their journey of truth seeking like I think everyone is seeking some sort of truth and it starts so young yeah well, I feel like it's important to me because with my son, because my dad is now with major but very heavy dementia and alzheimer's and can't tell me any of the stories like a lot of his stories anymore and I'm at a point where I kind of there's a lot of stories, I know a lot about him and I talk to his sisters, my aunties and stuff and they tell me stuff. There's a lot of stuff I don't know about my dad and now I can't get it out of him. Yeah, and I'm like I want him to know, like the right time is the right time to tell stories like that. He's only five, so I'm going to wait. But also, when he asks me stuff or if he wants to know about me, I'll make sure he does know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I always thought there should be like a business that does documentaries on people for their kids. Yeah, Right, like you know, like similar to this, right like a podcast, but it's more, yeah, like uh, telling stories and stuff. I always think about my dad's getting old as well and like he always tells me rad stories about the past, growing up in malaysia and, um, you know, fights he got into and having a pet monkey.
Speaker 3:It's pretty rad, it's classic yeah I yeah, are your kids curious about you? Like you said, they think you're a criminal because you do that to your car. Because I'll tell you, my kids have become curious about my character, yeah. So my son said to me have you ever stolen anything, dad? I was like, well, and it was true, like when I was about his age.
Speaker 3:I think, or maybe a bit older I stole five bucks out of my mom's purse and at the time that was like probably that was a lot of money. I was like like stealing like a 20 or 50.
Speaker 3:Now you know what I mean yeah, totally and it was just like such a big day on and she worked it out and I got in trouble and then I owned up to it, you know, and I tell him that story and he loves it. But now every time like he gets in trouble he's like but you stole five bucks ones off your mum.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they don't forget it, right?
Speaker 3:No, they do. But you can see his little brain like working it out like okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Dad's made the same mistakes as me. Like it's okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think being honest with them and also apologising when you've made a mistake, like sometimes if I've lost my temper, if I'm tired and that's happened, you know, many times as it does being a parent when I'm in the wrong, just saying, hey look, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that, because I think that's happened to me when I was growing up but there was no explanation and sometimes you internalise that right, growing up, especially when my parents were going through their tough patch, you know I blamed myself a lot for what was going on and felt like it was my responsibility of fixings. And even in adult life, like being the eldest son, I was sort of the go-between because I didn't talk to each other. So that was like I had to grow up, maybe a bit more quickly in that sense than I should have, when they should have been sort of looking out for me. But you know they did the best they could at the time with what they had was there?
Speaker 3:was there no talking like related to just pure bitterness from the divorce?
Speaker 2:yeah, pretty much, yeah, it went on for 10 years uh, yeah, I think it's more on my mum's side. So, like you never know the whole story of what's happened, my dad's pretty laid back and um, but you know, I talked to both of them still but you noticed it as a kid, like you noticed that yeah, um, where?
Speaker 2:yeah, since they divorced. Yeah, they just didn't just communicate through me. So I think recently, like we didn't have my brother's ashes for a long time because he, just before he died, he married his like high school sweetheart and she had them for a long time and then recently she had a kid and then she realized I think, um, you know, it was never a big deal to me about his ashes because I'm so, I'm like it's like with me in spirit, but for my mum and sister it was like a big deal and they used to angst over it. And and then I think recently we got the ashes back and they're up at Fern Bay and my mum and dad came to that and then my mum actually came back to my dad's house for like lunch, like it was awesome.
Speaker 3:How did that feel it?
Speaker 2:was awesome man. That's what I was leading to.
Speaker 3:I was like what's the resolution?
Speaker 2:Oh, it was great. Then they chatted and it's like I think you know, having to bury a son is not like the easiest thing, right? Obviously they've had their challenges, but that was yeah, it was great. There's a photo of me and them that we took at that lunch and like I look so happy, like a little kid. You know they were talking. Yeah, it was just, you don don't realize, you don't realize, like, how much it impacts you until you get it back, sort of thing. So you know, so I'm trying to learn from my family and try and you know, break the the chain some some way.
Speaker 2:But you know I'm not perfect, you know I'm gonna make mistakes as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, wow, man, it's really interesting that you bring that up.
Speaker 2:It's cool.
Speaker 3:Thanks for sharing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no worries.
Speaker 3:It's kind of delicate, but I think a lot of people probably need to hear it, you know so, myself included.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because what we're talking about, that whole no talking thing, was a big theme in my dad's side of the family. Yeah thing was a big theme in my dad's side of the family. Yeah, just like resentment would pop up between them and then just oh, we don't talk now. And that went for years like my dad didn't talk to his brother for 30 years that's crazy until his deathbed. You know that's a lot of that's a lot of time holding resentment, yeah, bitterness, and it does like I think it polluted his life.
Speaker 2:It was like toxic. That's crazy. 30 years is a long time.
Speaker 3:It is. It's kind of ridiculous when you consider how short our existence is on this planet.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we just don't want to forgive one another. I think fundamentally that notion of resentment infiltrates so much of our world, including world wars. It really is at the core of what's happening throughout our world, especially in more recent times, with some of the atrocities occurring. It comes down to just people holding on to long-term resentment, Anyway, something that just came to my mind. So anyway, she got deep yeah, anyway. So I don't know, man, how are you feeling? Do you want to keep talking or are you out enough?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm feeling good. This has been good Is there anything we've forgotten?
Speaker 3:Steve, I hate that.
Speaker 1:I don't know. We've covered most of the, definitely the skate history, yeah, yeah, okay. So you've got a set of boards on the way, right, we've been.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we did the graphics.
Speaker 1:last year, when I was still in Mexico, we finished those off, right, yeah, and then they're on the way.
Speaker 2:They're on a ship, uh, from san diego, landing in early august, so yeah, people can get them on the amnesia website yeah, be able to get them on there, or kingpin um yes, kingpins on the support, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So dave spin, dave bodnar, who's kind of like the vert version of ben cox the mystical spins yeah, definitely mystical, one of the definitely one of the best vert skaters australia's ever produced, and just oh, he's a legend.
Speaker 2:Yeah he's become one of my best friends and um, just to tell you how I met him, yeah, it's just a funny story so, um, I was when ben gauchi was on amnesia for a while, like in the late 2000s, like the aughts, and so I was hanging out with him a bit and Guy Miller because Guy was taking photos and stuff back then. And then I rang Guy Miller one weekend and said, hey, do you want to go out skating? He goes no, I'm going out to Penrith to set up the shop in Kingpin. And I was like, oh, do you need any help? And kingpin and I was like, oh, do you need any help? And, um, he goes, yeah, yeah, come with me.
Speaker 2:So I drove out and spin was there and he introduced me and I was fanning out like I was. I couldn't like it's like I couldn't talk. You know, like I was fanning out because I'd heard so much about spin, like from ben cox because he lived in melbourne. Um, spin was down there and they used to street skate together. But it was similar to ben, where you just hear these like stories, and he didn't have that much coverage. And like I was helping paint the shop, I was painting the ceilings and stuff and like we've just become really good mates. And he's a bit of a contrarian, like Ben Cox as well, but he tells you what's on his mind, which is really kind of refreshing, even if you know you don't see eye to eye. So yeah, he's been a big supporter and, yeah, just a good mate.
Speaker 3:Such a good skateboarder. Yeah, yeah, so natural.
Speaker 2:Like some of the stuff he did on. Monster like even you know, probably 10 years ago he was just. I think someone compared him to Colin McKay recently, maybe on this podcast.
Speaker 1:I was like he was so smooth for sure it was like he was like a bit like Max Scharf and a few guys where it was like like they were kind of street skaters on vert, like he had a, he had style and it looked like a street skater yeah and he popped his tricks like when he didn't just like air out, he like kind of ollied yeah and um, but yeah, he stood out for sure.
Speaker 2:I think there was like possibility of him getting on flip or something at one point, but then he wanted to move back to australia and, yeah, didn't really pursue it. So yeah, he's the man he's such a funny dude too got a dark sense of humor, like ben as well like. I think sometimes people like that can get misunderstood, but um, I don't, that's my kind of humor.
Speaker 3:Yeah, his name comes up a lot, and it's been coming up a lot lately.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And Ty Colling like hit him up to be on the podcast. I think Guy Miller even hit him up once as well. He's just like no fuck, like apparently. He's just like no fucking way, because I think he said something to Ty like I'd probably get in too much trouble because I talk too much shit about people. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:He would for sure.
Speaker 3:Something along those lines, and you know, I guess he's sensible enough to realize that he's got some funny stories.
Speaker 3:Yeah but, anyway, Cool, Chris man, it's been so nice bro and you're an amazing human and I'm so glad to be connected and, like I was saying to you earlier, it's just a bit of a trip to see you, because I don't think I've seen you in like I don't know however long, but I was with Peanut and Peanut showed me a photo of you and I out drinking, probably on that Tencent tour, and we were just like it was a group of us and it just turned out you and I just were taking a photo together, and that was like probably the only time we'd ever hung out 26 years ago, maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's crazy. Well, thanks for having me. I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3:Absolutely man, and thanks Steve.
Speaker 1:No worries, yeah, it was a good little session earlier too.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Good to get rolling Steve's ripping.
Speaker 1:And Amelia showed up out of nowhere, yeah it was nice to see him.
Speaker 3:Steve's in training dude.
Speaker 1:I'm in training. I've got to go skate with Devo in a couple of weeks. He's been ripping, same as Darren and those dudes, so I'm like I've got to at least have some stuff ready.
Speaker 3:I couldn't believe when you got that line first shot. Today, Just really clean easy.
Speaker 1:I was like well.
Speaker 3:Steve, he's been training. I'm jealous, Mr Chris.
Speaker 1:Yeo.
