Terrible. Happy. Talks.
Stories. Skateboarding. Art.
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Hosted by Shannon Farrugia
Terrible. Happy. Talks.
(Audio version) #236 - George Richards: Camaraderie. Skateboarding. Newcastle.
George Richards is a 27-year-old sponsored Skateboarder from Newcastle NSW Australia. Past guest and close friend of George, Aimee Massie sits in as this week's guest co-host. George takes us on a journey through his life so far, sharing deeply about his love for his home town, finding skateboarding, the importance of camaraderie and that time he met Aimee on the set of a Visa Paywave commercial shoot.
George reveals the balancing act of integrating skateboarding with other passions like skate coaching, negotiating brand deals, and his foray into fashion modelling. Plus, we explore the energy of live events and how a supportive community can elevate your performance and career.
We wrap up with personal stories that highlight the importance of family support and the unique communal vibes of skateboarding. George's innately easy-going and kind nature is apparent and endearing.
Throughout the episode, we play a variety of skate clips of George doing his thing, so check out the full video production on the Terrible Happy Talks Youtube channel.
Enjoy,
Shan
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Speaker 2:Like. So, for example, like was this one of your shoots that you did?
Speaker 3:That is not one. What is that? Is that your shirt? Where is that? It starts off so nice and then, towards the end, amy just starts doing like all of these body variables and late shoves and you just end up walking out of there like again.
Speaker 2:This episode is brought to you by Young Henry's, the most iconic beverage company in Sydney, Australia. Go and to you by Young Henry's, the most iconic beverage company in Sydney, Australia. Go and get yourself a Young Henry's. They support music, art, skateboarding, surfing, and you can support them by getting yourself a Young Henry's. You can also support the podcast by getting yourself a Young Henry's. So go and get a Young Henry's. I think it's that simple, and always drink responsibly. Hey, it's Shan here.
Speaker 2:This week I catch up with competitive skateboarder, content creator, male model and also Newcastle local. It's Mr George Richards. George is 27 years old and at such a good time in his life. He's really designing a lifestyle by design. He talks about brand deals, skate comps. He's been in injury recovery. It's a great story. George is one of those people who has a real natural sincerity about him, immediately likable he's a genuine listener. Likable he's a genuine listener, kind to his core, and it's just such a pleasure to spend some time with him. Friend and past guests and close friend of george's uh, miss amy massey sits in as this week's guest co-host, adds her two cents just a week before she heads off to Paris as a judge for skateboarding in the Olympics. So sit back, relax and enjoy getting to know Mr George Richards. Everyone Cheers Boom. Yes, Mr George Richards.
Speaker 3:How's it going?
Speaker 2:Good dude. No relation to the pro surfer, Mark Richards.
Speaker 3:No, none at all. I'm so glad we clarified that dude Got to figure that out first.
Speaker 2:Man, it's so nice to have you on the show.
Speaker 3:Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2:Dude, I love your skateboarding. Thank you. Why are people from Newcastle so damn good at skateboarding?
Speaker 3:It's insane, isn't it, why they just keep coming out of there.
Speaker 2:Well, what's your?
Speaker 3:theory on it. I don't know, I swear it's. I think you get better at skateboarding when you have people to skate with that you enjoy skating with. So the more fun you have when you're going skating, you skate with good mates, you have a great time. You've got so much more confidence. Confidence is what makes you good at skateboarding. So I think just everyone out there having fun, really good mates it just pushes everybody and everyone excels so much faster and we just keep bringing these skateboarders out of newie.
Speaker 2:It's just working yeah, I had chris yo on the show recently, the founder of amnesia skateboards, you know, and the history in that city is deep absolutely, it is yeah, it's a good spot for skateboarding do you feel like you're the next generation or you're one generation behind now? No, do you feel like you're the next generation or you're one generation behind now?
Speaker 3:No, I definitely feel like I'm either one behind or that weird sort of in the middle one. I don't know weird little stepchild or middle child.
Speaker 2:For those that don't know, do you mind sharing your age? I'm 27. 27, dude, you've got so many good years ahead of you, I hope so. You've got lots of friends.
Speaker 3:Yeah, newcastle again. Just good people to go skating with. I've got a nice little group of people that I just enjoy spending time with at the skate park or skating. That's good, good little net.
Speaker 2:And we've got the lovely Amy Massey with us today.
Speaker 1:I'm back.
Speaker 2:You're a delight, amy, I'll say it. You're a delight, amy, I'll say it, you're a delight Thank you. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:How did you?
Speaker 2:two meet.
Speaker 1:That's a good question.
Speaker 3:Was it on an ad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we met. We both got asked to be on an ad together for Visa Paywave.
Speaker 3:That would have been 16, 17 maybe. Visa Paywave yeah, down at Five Dock Dude. Yeah, I'd never been asked to do anything like that before. And then we had that message and I'd never been asked to either.
Speaker 1:It was like our first proper ad. It was a proper commercial ad. Yeah, no shit.
Speaker 3:And George got paid way more. To be fair, we both just sat in bin bags and ordered coffees all day. We didn't do that much.
Speaker 2:What was the requirements for the ad? What did you have to do?
Speaker 3:Just skate the bowl Pretty much, yeah, cruise around the bowl they built like extensions.
Speaker 1:They built like shop extensions on the bowl. So George had to go up and like do frontside grinds and stuff on it.
Speaker 3:No, I had to fall off.
Speaker 1:Oh, you had to fall off.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 1:He had to throw coins in this window and fall off. He's like so I'm getting paid to fall off my board every try.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it was the first time you could like start tapping your card when that came out. Yeah, it was, and then I was paying with coins, but everyone else was paying with the tap and pay thing.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:So everyone else was learning their tricks, but I was falling over my coins. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I remember seeing him just like who is this dude? Like he's. I remember seeing him just like who is this dude? He's shredded. Yeah, and we became friends after that.
Speaker 2:So that was the first time you'd seen him skate in real life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like first time, I reckon that was the first time we met. I think so I don't think we'd, unless Bob Zilla.
Speaker 2:But I don't even know. I think that was, after all, that that's so sick, yeah, yeah. So yeah, you like treating your friends pretty good, like you don't like pull their hair and shit. Jock Not on purpose, because like you don't pull their hair on purpose. Are you sure? I don't believe you, man, because I've heard that you pull people's hair when you skate and shit.
Speaker 3:What have we got? What's this I didn't mean to. I didn't even know until I saw the video.
Speaker 2:I felt so bad. So tell me what happened. Tell me what was the night a Volcom demo or something?
Speaker 3:No, it was the Young Henry's Miami Marquetta trip, so we'd gone all the way up the coast just having the best time, and then finally got to this event at Miami Marquetta and all these bands were playing and we're skating the mini ramp. And then Kai's helping me jump up onto the railing and I just started falling back and I must have grabbed his hair.
Speaker 1:It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. Did you film that, Amy?
Speaker 2:I didn't film it, I was standing right there. Can you pause it there? You can't pause it, can you, jocko, when it? Zooms out, you can see my arm tat so I must have been standing next to the person filming. Here we go right up, slow-mo, here it comes. But I was right there, here it comes yeah rip so good. But how much do you feed off the crowd in situations like that?
Speaker 3:You don't hear them at all. You feed off your friends.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:That's how it works.
Speaker 1:Everyone's skating really well, so everyone else tries to skate a little bit better yeah, I'll stop moving, so the chair stops I wonder, what that was no, it's a chair it was this demo was um, different too, because it was like a dj on the stage, then the half pipe, then the people, oh so the people coming in to watch the dj, but then they're like holy shit, there's a mini ramp here yeah so there was like those, it was packed full of people, but you, yeah, you couldn't. You couldn't see any of them, you just skate that event was so much fun.
Speaker 3:We kept getting told that like this was going to be our last demo, so we'd go backstage and I'd be like perfect end of the trip, let's have some beers, yeah. And then someone would come back out and be like one more demo happened like two or three times it's so sick.
Speaker 2:They really showcase skateboarding and if they put it before the dj, that's so sick. Yeah, like you know, going back to you know, filming a commercial and making money from that. Is that a trajectory you're still on in terms of making a living that way?
Speaker 3:I don't know. I think it's definitely something that works with skateboarding. My theory with skateboarding as a career is always not so much focus on skateboarding as itself, but think I have all these other things that I want to do. How do I bring those into skateboarding and build something that works?
Speaker 2:Gotcha.
Speaker 3:So, whether that's I was trying to study architecture for a little bit so whether it's doing CAD work for skate park designers or coaching and bringing coaching in, find something that works and if any of them start to run, run with it and see where it goes.
Speaker 2:See what sticks. Yeah, exactly, see, that's rad. I mean it's a good message for young people who have no clue what they want to do with their life absolutely even adults. Uh, I think need to accept that you can change your trajectory and your career path and what you want to do yeah, at any time you can have lots of things going at the same time. If one of them starts to kick off, then works for you, and these are kind of philosophies that your parents have instilled in you um a little bit.
Speaker 3:So my, my dad especially has always been um someone that works really, really hard at what he's doing and someone that focuses really, really hard on what he's doing, um, but at the same time, he definitely grew up in that sort of time where you like, you get a trade and you do your trade. So dad's a sign writer and he's incredible at it and he's done it my entire life, um. But he has always sort of shown me that there's lots of different ways to do things. Like you don't need to go to uni when you're fresh out of school 18. You can always do that later. You could always decide you want to change jobs. You can always just leave the job that you're at because you don't like it or you don't agree with it. There's always something to do.
Speaker 2:There is Amy. When you were on, like I asked you sort of similar questions. But do you feel like the future would have some sort of academia in it, like study again, or do you think you'd go more down your own business type of route?
Speaker 1:I think I kind of want to get involved in coaching after the Olympics. That's like something I want to try as well, Like what George was saying try all these different things, see what you like the best, and then you also get all these skill levels. You know, like different skills from doing all these different things that you can then do it all.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like I've done, emceeing judging, I want to do coaching. I want to see if I like that.
Speaker 2:Podcasting.
Speaker 1:Podcasting hey.
Speaker 2:I'm here the co-host. Let's go baby, yeah, and then circle back, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or do it all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the skate coaching thing. You've done a fair bit of right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, ever since I was like 15, I think yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's a while then, that's like over 10 years.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a while.
Speaker 2:When you first started, it was a relatively new thing. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I was at the skate park one day and I'm pretty sure I was 15 and the parents of this girl that you skate the bowl and we'd like our daughter to just progress and love it and get better. And I started doing it just like that. And then I started working at the local indoor park and then when I moved to sydney I started working with monster skate park and then I just started getting more and more of my own sort of work to the side of just kids that want to get better at skateboarding.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sick.
Speaker 3:But it's been really fun. And then I ended up doing it in China as well, which was different.
Speaker 2:Tell us that story.
Speaker 3:I think Renton actually organized it.
Speaker 2:Renton Miller.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they wanted someone to coach their Olympic team or their future Olympic team for like 2032 or something like that. So it's really they're thinking little kids yeah, but um yeah, they flew me over there and put me up in the hilton and I just went there every day to the skate park. There'd be for how many weeks just for one week, just to try it. They wanted me to move back and live there yeah and not, and those kids speak english uh, some of them broken English, but not so much I can't speak Mandarin.
Speaker 3:I can say mightian and quietian, which is go faster or go slower.
Speaker 1:You should tell him how they like selected the skaters.
Speaker 3:Apparently they went to some sort of school where they do lots of different sport or something and just showed everyone a skateboard, got every single kid in the school up to have a go and then pick the top 20 on their first attempt and that's it. You're shipped down shenzhen every single day. You do six hours of skateboarding, two hours of school, until you're an olympian. I guess it was different. I would get to the skate park every morning and there'd be two lines of kids, full pads, skateboards next to them ready to go, and they've just done two laps of the oval to warm up yeah it's different look, I have been resistant to skate coaching and probably spoke out about it, yeah, but um, I have kids myself and I've been trying to teach them to skate.
Speaker 2:My son's really into it yeah won't listen to a word that I say. And then, just recently, do you know Jim Dandy from Queensland?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:He's a coach for this Skate City thing they're doing at shopping centres and I just put my kids in it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, cool.
Speaker 2:And, oh my God, they did everything that Jim's so common.
Speaker 3:I get so many parents that say that exact thing.
Speaker 2:You know like teaching a kid to drop in was what was the catalyst for me becoming a high school teacher.
Speaker 3:Yeah, wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because over the years like just being at skate parks and whatever, as I got older kids were like how do you do a kickflip or how do you drop in? And I'd teach them and I'd feel as stoked when they would do it as when I first learnt it, like I kept getting that. I'm like this is rad.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I was like I don't know what I want to do with my life. I've become a teacher Cool.
Speaker 3:That's amazing. Yeah, that's so cool.
Speaker 2:Can you tell me like, if you reflect on your childhood in Newcastle overall, from like the age of, like zero, you know those early years like zero to ten how do you reflect on that period of your life?
Speaker 3:It's a hard thing to remember. There was a lot going on, we had a lot of fun. I feel like I was at a good school and then I had good friends and so many good people around me and then I think I started skating when I was eight. I think Maybe that got me bored. So there was lots of support from everywhere that I was.
Speaker 2:I was pretty lucky who were like some of your major skate influences when you were that young when I was a kid.
Speaker 3:Um, a lot of them were just older dudes from newie. So a lot of the older blokes that you see skating like crowdus bay or we'd go down to the entrance and you'd always see those guys just having so much fun. I remember watching.
Speaker 3:I think it was dan ridley doing a frontside tail slide and a frontside ollie to the entrance and you'd always see those guys just having so much fun. I remember watching I think it was Dan Ridley doing a frontside tail slide in a frontside ollie. When I was like this big, I'm like I want to do frontside ollies. That looks like so much fun.
Speaker 2:And you have a nice frontside, ollie, thanks. Hey can you get a clip up? There's the one at Rockdale, the clip of George skating the little bowl there and you do a frontside ollie over that hip and you just float. Oh, the other day I think it was the other day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I believe it, and there's the hair pull.
Speaker 2:Oh, what's that? What were those? Oh, is that your modelling? We'll talk about your modelling later. That's a sick photo, by the way. Let's get that. Here it is. I think this is it. I think you do a frontside ollie here. Did you see it Over there?
Speaker 3:Maybe We've got a couple of clips of rock tail, is it? I don't know.
Speaker 1:Backside, tail, or maybe you didn't, I think I filmed this.
Speaker 2:This one you definitely filmed. It was from a while ago. Yeah, maybe you don't do a front side ollie, here it is. That was a front side ollie, there it's about to yeah.
Speaker 1:Back from the start.
Speaker 2:I lost it, we'll go again. So talk us through this line Like what are you doing?
Speaker 3:for those that are listening and can't see this A little roll in 50, which went absolutely so much more wrong than it should have. Backtail, because that's such a fun spot to backtail. The coping there feels incredible, but this actually works really well, and you land in nothing.
Speaker 2:Holy North, holy North. I didn't know what else. I didn't know how do you rate that bowl? You had blonde hair there.
Speaker 3:That bowl's amazing. It's so small but it's really really fun.
Speaker 2:Because Rockdale is one of your favourite parks. Hey, amy.
Speaker 1:I love it. Everything's so little.
Speaker 2:Is that what you like about it? Yeah?
Speaker 1:And it's just little. Is that what you like about it? Yeah, yeah, and it's just smooth Like that bowl. The coping it's probably got the best coping in the whole of Sydney area that sounds so good, I can't say Australia because I haven't been to all the parks, but it's got really good coping, yeah right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I've seen you skate barbage bowl. How integral has that been to your personal development?
Speaker 3:Probably huge In saying that. I remember being a kid and I'd only been skating it for a little while. It hadn't been open for that long, actually. I think it might have even been like the opening event and RJ Barbaro was there and I remember him coming up to me after we skated the bowl and he said this is the best bowl ever, but this is the worst possible place for you to learn how to skate.
Speaker 2:Why this is too big.
Speaker 3:Well, I didn't believe him at all to begin with Too mellow. No, it's not that. I realised afterwards that that thing is so perfect that if I get to a park that has a slight bump or something in it, it takes so long for me to get used to it. Yeah, gotcha Ages.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you just look. I was like I was watching Marley skate it the other day and then I was and I've seen you skate it and it just looks like you can just tell you've been skating it for that long.
Speaker 3:Everything just works in there. You know everything about it. Yeah, it does. It works so well. It's the best, like most simple design where you want to make it work. How are things at home as a kid? Um, they're all right. Um, I had dad moved to sydney when I was pretty young and I lived with mom, um, so it was all just uh busy. I guess, just like walk to school in the morning, walk home, go skateboarding kind of the routine.
Speaker 2:Just keep it going what suburb of Newcastle were you in?
Speaker 3:I was in Highfields. Okay, yeah, good spot right on the Fernley Track straight down the school.
Speaker 2:I don't know the area.
Speaker 1:I don't even know Highfields, like I know Newey pretty good, but I don't know Highfields.
Speaker 3:Have you ever been on the Fernley Track? There's like a tunnel and it's a downhill that just goes like a real gradual downhill. Yeah, exactly, so that was sort of in my backyard. So you just walk out the back and then stand on your skateboard and you arrive from Katara.
Speaker 3:That's so good and like going to school as a kid, like were you a good student, you'd say yeah, oh, looking back as that as a kid, I feel like I was I almost bit off more than I could chew. I always wanted to do like so many different subjects that were science related or engineering related or somewhere fit into what I thought I wanted to do at the time um, without realizing how much work that would be, especially when I'm finding this love, skateboarding and going to events and all that.
Speaker 2:you come back and miss a little bit and you're six weeks behind in two days yeah, for sure, I, yeah, I get it, but still like what you like chasing that dream. You know, I guess I was thinking about like what I was going to talk to you about today, and it comes up on the podcast a lot like this notion of chasing a dream yeah where do you think you're at with that?
Speaker 3:It's hard to say because I feel like the best, like you always chase it and you always put as much effort into it as you can, but you've also got to make sure that all of those things happen organically.
Speaker 2:Gotcha.
Speaker 3:But I think I've been very lucky, especially recently and in the last few years, amy being an integral part of that and introducing me to my first management agency that helped me so much with skateboarding and sponsors and going to events and doing work with Instagram, putting content out for brands and ads and things. I think that really took me to a place where I had a really good net of sponsors and people behind me Gotcha, and then that all just sort of snowballs on each other as you let it happen.
Speaker 3:So, we do events like the one we did with young Henry's where we went on that boat trip, yeah, and then that introduced me to a friend of mine that takes lots of really good like. He's a great photographer, especially for fashion. So he started taking photos of me for Brixton's a great photographer, especially for fashion, yeah right, so he started taking photos of me for Brixton and then from there, someone from my agency now IMG must have seen those, I suppose and we had a meeting. And then gets me to today, really.
Speaker 2:So that new agency is a modelling agency? Is that correct? Yes, yeah, it's one of the biggest in the world.
Speaker 1:The biggest in the world.
Speaker 3:They're huge.
Speaker 2:They're pretty big. They're huge, excited. It's wild.
Speaker 3:I'm so excited.
Speaker 2:So, like, how comfortable are you like with talking about that?
Speaker 3:I'm comfortable talking about it, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cool man, that's great.
Speaker 3:You should. Yeah, yeah, cool man, that's great, you should be comfortable with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to do it if I wasn't comfortable talking about it, but yeah, I like it a lot interesting, a bit different. So yeah, yeah, I mean, is it getting you a lot of work? Was this one of your shoots that you did?
Speaker 3:that is no one. What is that? Is that your shirt? Where is that?
Speaker 1:It's not my shirt.
Speaker 2:I don't know whose shirt it was so what's the back story, Amy?
Speaker 1:I think it was JD's ex-missus. You guys swapped shirts. You're like I need that shirt and you put it on. You rocked it all night. I swear.
Speaker 3:we were at an event or something and there was definitely way too many beers I could wear that. That looks sick. We were at a pub.
Speaker 1:We were at a pub in Newcastle.
Speaker 2:It looks like you're in a pub. That's in the pokey room.
Speaker 3:Perfect.
Speaker 1:And you and what's his ex's name again?
Speaker 3:Yeah, Jess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jess, you just swapped shirts and you're like, yep, this is sick, perfect.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was like I could wear that.
Speaker 2:Really, what about the next one? Jock this one? Yeah, what about the next one? Jock this one? Was this one one of your fashion shoots?
Speaker 3:No, this was at Amy's event for BWS last week. We were standing in there and I was like that thing looks sick. I really like that shirt Was that just last week yeah.
Speaker 1:And I also had the same shirt and I was wearing it one time and he replies like I need this in my life. And then we got to a fence and he sees it in a lodge and he's like to the girls that were working can I have this shirt, can I get it? And they're like yeah, and he's like no, I'm being serious. Like I actually want to wear it and they're like okay, he comes out in it on and all the girls are just like sick, like he's rocking it. Yes.
Speaker 3:I don't know why, but it really hits a chord with me when someone tells me that I'm not allowed to wear something because it's not manly enough. I hate that so much.
Speaker 2:Let's discuss this. Why? Why do you hate that?
Speaker 3:I just, I have no idea. It just hits me and I'm like this is something. I don't like at all. I can't agree with that. Okay, so we were in the store and I said that it was cool, I could wear that. And then one of the boys goes no, you can't.
Speaker 1:You absolutely can't. That's a girl's shirt, yeah.
Speaker 3:Sweet, I'll have that please.
Speaker 1:But basically, like if you show the next image, if you pull up the next one, or this oh, there was one more.
Speaker 2:That's a sick photo. I want to talk about that in a second. There, oh there was one more.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about that in a second. There was another one where we were at an event and we swapped shirts, George and I, and then he's like I'm just going to walk around this party in this. I was like, are you sure? And he's like, yeah, and I was like, all right, and then I go, just so you know like you're going to get a lot of attention from girls. And he's like, well, I thought you were going to say from guys. I'm like, no, trust me, A lot of girls are going to come and talk to you. He's like whatever, Amy, he comes back like 20 minutes later. He's like I've never had that many girls ask me for my Instagram in my life.
Speaker 2:Really. What do you think the attraction is?
Speaker 1:then it's just like they see a guy. That's just comfortable in their own skin. That's one of the reasons. Yeah, I reckon it's because of that, and I don't know. Girls like to see V-lines and abs.
Speaker 2:No do they yeah, yeah that's it, we come back to the thirst trap, can guys? Do thirst traps. We talked about thirst traps in your episode. George is the living proof of it. So that's a form of thirst trapping. Excuse me, look at you proof of it. Yeah, excuse me, look at you, look at you, all the girls, all the girls are just like they always stare at him how long? Did you leave it on for the whole night? No shit, yeah, I thought it was just like I can't check it out.
Speaker 3:We went out like, yeah, I walked to the after party as well. That thing was sticking on the the young henry's event up in queensland where we swapped shirts yeah, it was the funniest one that I think that's where that started, with me being really upset about that.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, but who cares?
Speaker 3:I know, Amy had been covered in beer and she was freezing. I was like, well, we'll just swap shirts, because I had like a big, thick T-shirt on. I guess, and then we were walking down the street in Byron and someone had a full-on go at me for wearing a girl's crop top.
Speaker 2:Like, what, like. Just what are you doing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, like asked me if it came in bands, and I was just so crazy so were you like receiving some, like you know, harassment and discrimination. Yeah, ridiculous, you felt it.
Speaker 2:You felt that discrimination, you felt that harassment.
Speaker 3:Which is something that I don't really.
Speaker 1:I'm not on the receiving end, I think what you need to do is just keep wearing it, and then you'll just influence people to do it. You know what I mean Make it a trend?
Speaker 2:Why were you covered in beer? Just asking for a friend.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm pretty sure I got absolutely fucked up like in a mosh pit.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's what happened.
Speaker 3:That was that miniskirt gig.
Speaker 1:The miniskirt.
Speaker 3:Yeah, miniskirt play and we were all in the mosh. I'm pretty sure I probably know what do you mean a miniskirt gig?
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:No, the band is miniskirt. Oh, I didn't even know.
Speaker 2:Did you know?
Speaker 1:No, I thought there was like some say yeah, I got pumped by this dude Like he, just he. I don't know what happened. I think he kicked me or something and I went flying back onto my back. No way and like fully got whiplashed and all my beer went all over me Crazy. And I remember coming over just like I just got pumped. You can't go in the mosh anymore. And then when we went outside it was freezing. Yeah, yeah right, so we swapped shirts.
Speaker 2:But going back to the modelling stuff in all seriousness, like, is it something? Is it another example of something you're just going to play around with?
Speaker 3:see, where it goes and Absolutely and then change your mind later. Yeah, well, no, I really like it. What do you like about it? Like it, what do you like about it?
Speaker 3:I just think it's so closely connected to skateboarding, but it's not skateboarding okay. So I feel like skateboarding influences a lot of fashion and there's a lot of people who have been influential in skateboarding that have been so closely connected to fashion, which I love, um. So, as this has started to work, I feel like it's just an extension of another facet of skateboarding that I can get behind and be a part of, but I'm really enjoying it. I'm enjoying like having that sort of skateboarding is still my main focus, but this takes the pressure off trying to go to contests and trying to perform every single time you get on your skateboard.
Speaker 2:I can just have fun, gotcha, because that has been part of your journey, like, for example, possibly qualifying for the Olympics at one stage.
Speaker 3:I was on the qualifying team for Australia, so we went to all the qualifying contests and, like all like you do tours and world championships and all that sort of stuff. I finished third in the country.
Speaker 2:Amazing.
Speaker 3:When Tokyo came around, but obviously I didn't have enough points to go through.
Speaker 2:But it was great to be a part of it. Okay, so the possibility of actually qualifying was off the table.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Is that because you didn't accumulate more points, or was it something else?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you need to accumulate a certain amount of points, or no? The way it worked at the time was the top 20 go. But because it's the olympics, um, each continent has to have a representation and every country is only allowed to take three interesting. So if the top 10 are all the us, the top three go, seven get deleted and everyone else on the list moves up. So you need to make that top 20 cut and be in the top three of your country.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. So am I correct in saying like you were trying to compete and qualify during COVID?
Speaker 3:Yes, right.
Speaker 2:In America, yeah, so we got to travel During COVID yeah.
Speaker 3:It was a lot. We got a government exemption. We got to get on a plane at Sydney Airport. I think there was 12 people on our flight, or something insane.
Speaker 2:Did you get a whole row to yourself?
Speaker 3:Yeah absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:I wonder how much flights were then, because I heard flights were so expensive. True.
Speaker 3:You wouldn't have been paying, would you Not, for that one? No, so that was good Nice. We thought we were going to have to no-transcript. I know it's only two weeks away, but we've just had a phone call and everything's funded, which they were actually so stoked on. Everyone pretty much said that's great, have a party anyway.
Speaker 2:Did you get in?
Speaker 1:trouble during that time?
Speaker 2:no way, there was no way I was going, oh, that's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you could I just yeah, I couldn't think of anything worse during traveling during that time. Like it was a scary time too. No one, no one knew what was happening there's uncertainty wasn't there yeah and um, like george, when he came back, like he had to quarantine in America for two weeks in a hotel room and then quarantine two weeks again. Like as soon as he got to Australia he was in a month in quarantine, like solitude, the quarantine hotel.
Speaker 3:I had to do hotel quarantine when I came back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Did you have to pay? No, what did they pay?
Speaker 3:That was paid for. Oh man, yeah, that would have been a lot, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's like. Yeah, it's a month of your life. You never get back, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was a little bit less, but it was still quite a bit of time. I remember Amy was coming.
Speaker 1:Amy came to my window and I was like, yeah, George, come down. And he's like shut up, Let me in the pub, eh Taunting him. Yeah, he's like oh, he wanted to kill me.
Speaker 2:He wanted to kill me. Tell us about that experience, though, like were you in a room by yourself, or was it other people?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I was in a room by myself. I remember seeing the photos from like cheesy internet and they could see the harbour bridge from their window and the view was incredible and I looked out my window and there was a brick wall.
Speaker 2:No, no. So how were you feeling your days? Like watching a lot of TV, working out and stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we were doing. It was pretty much like prison gym workout. Yeah, I had a skipping rope, which is great because I'm 6'4 and the hotel room's not that tall. Yeah, so the poor people below me and above me were just hearing this skipping rope all day, just ceiling and floor.
Speaker 2:Because you're tall and hitting both.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Is that how small it was?
Speaker 3:It was pretty small Dude. It was a weird experience. Coffee once a week.
Speaker 2:Why? Yeah, you can, was a weird experience coffee once a week.
Speaker 3:Why, yeah, you can order a coffee, but only once a week from the cafe and they deliver it yeah really what they're just like sleep all day?
Speaker 1:no way, so you had to like.
Speaker 2:We drink an instant coffee because like yeah, they had instant coffee.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you drink. Are you a coffee guy? Yeah, love coffee. Yeah, so good. That's same dude. Yeah, so good.
Speaker 2:That's so crazy. Hey Jock, can we get a clip up? Let's just get one up, We'll talk about it. Let's see what we got. Let's just surprise us. We've already done that one. We've got that one. Next one We'll go back to the fashion one in a second.
Speaker 3:What's this one, this oh the rambles video with brixton. This was such a fun trip actually it was the best trip and hell at the same time. I got so sick. I just I'd rarely ever get sick and I got a really bad flu that entire time and I had to do a voiceover for the entire clip. And then day one, we went all the way out to this big sort of full pipe and I just completely misjudged where the flat bottom was and broke two ribs. No, yeah, so I already couldn't breathe then I broke two ribs.
Speaker 3:Then I had to film a voiceover no way with broken ribs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, broken ribs are the worst oh my god, I've had them. It's just like, and they linger, and the pain's there and you're scared to breathe too deeply, scared to cough scared to to sneeze.
Speaker 3:Everything hurts. So that's a Brixton ad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude.
Speaker 3:Kind of. It's more like so Tori, who was my manager at the time, and Hamish, her husband, came to Brixton and said, hey, we want to do this. We've got this great idea. We're going to go down and do this clip in South Australia and sort of pitch it to them, made it all work, then brought me down there and we got it done and it turned out to be incredible. I was so happy with it.
Speaker 2:Dude, like again, like this is just your life is being documented in such a cool way. You know that, don't you? I feel really lucky about it to be honest, so you acknowledge it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely Every single turn I've had with skateboarding has been so lucky.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm super happy to be where I am.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're both getting similar opportunities and it is so good and I get to experience it with George a lot of the times too, because we were on the same sponsors, like Young Henry's Brixton that we got to go do all this fun stuff together. It was really sick.
Speaker 2:Do you think, amy, it's like it's a form of collaboration, you think, with George, or is it just more friends helping friends?
Speaker 1:I think friends helping friends Like when I started getting all these gigs, I was like George would be perfect for this as well, like he's trying to do a similar pathway to what I was doing anyways, and I'm pretty sure he was happy to be featured in some of my TikTok videos, which I was like all right, well, if you're willing to do that, then you'll probably be the good person to put through to more sponsors and stuff. Yeah, like I'm pretty sure I don't know, is that how you got on Brixton?
Speaker 3:No, that's how I got. I ended up being managed by Tori.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and then she was talking to Brixton. Yeah, Exactly.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:The two redheads Interesting.
Speaker 2:I guess my question to both of you in some ways, like I think we've sort of answered it, it's like what's the end game? You know what's the end game with that? Is it just let's ride this for as long as we can?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I think that comes back to my sort of philosophy, with skateboarding being this thing that you can bring so many different career paths into. Okay. So have all these different plans happening at the same time and then yeah if you can't skate anymore, then I'll go and do cad work for a skateboard skate park company or I'll do some coaching do you think would it be safe to say it's building like an industry, knowledge as well?
Speaker 3:absolutely, that was the whole idea. Like you've spent so much time inside skateboarding, learning all this industry knowledge, you may as well take a career path and just headbutt it straight into what you already know gotcha.
Speaker 2:So now you're getting like maybe in fashion industry knowledge uh, slowly I'm getting there I love it, but um or is it more like like you're a creative as well, like, do you see yourself as a creative somewhat?
Speaker 3:I've no idea. I just see myself as someone that goes skateboarding and then things happen sometimes.
Speaker 1:He's very creative. He sees like your creative eye, sees like high-quality videos and like high-quality photos, and you've got a certain niche to what you're doing and that's exactly why IMG has picked you up, because they see that niche and they see that you're a good-looking person or you're a unique-looking person as well, so they're taking that.
Speaker 2:Why loving Uniquely good-looking yeah?
Speaker 1:But that's what they look for they look for unique people with, like certain bone structures and stuff, and it's really cool that they're like they're choosing a skateboarder, you know what I mean. So it's a good opportunity and you can just see how it all plays out. Like there's Evan Mock, he does that, he does the skating and he rips and like does the modeling really really well and he's making it huge. Yeah, rips and like does the modeling really really?
Speaker 1:well and he's making it huge, yeah, like. So I know nixon wants to do it too, but he's on a whole nother, a whole nother path dude he's such a good skater.
Speaker 2:You skate with him much I have heaps um I never know where he's gonna be.
Speaker 3:I swear. I just come to sydney sometimes and he just turns up.
Speaker 1:That's great, I love that kid, he's a gypsy floating around.
Speaker 2:Can I say this Like I don't know him personally, but he looks like he's a good-looking dude.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure he is yeah.
Speaker 2:So he'd be cut out for that trajectory as well.
Speaker 1:He's done a little bit of modelling as well, but he's focusing on, like he's young, so he's focusing on, you know, trying to go pro for Kreacher. He just signed internationally with Kreacher, so that's the first step.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I feel like you know, when he was in that last trip in the States, in my mind I'm like there's going to be like some sort of bidding war over that guy. Yeah, there would have to be In terms of being targeted as like the next big thing.
Speaker 3:Let's face it.
Speaker 2:And not just that, like the fact that he just skates everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's just Kreacher's probably the best fit for him, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it works.
Speaker 2:Speaking of Kreacher's Marley Ray, the new skate park in Newcastle, put up a clip.
Speaker 3:How's that?
Speaker 2:And there's a 13 stair there and he just ollie'd it as a setup to roll into the bowl. Did he it's insane.
Speaker 3:It's so wild. I kind of look at the 13 stairs.
Speaker 2:Like I don't think they made the 13 stair to be skated. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Like it wasn't planned.
Speaker 2:It's just a big stair gap.
Speaker 3:The park's not even done. There's probably going to be stoppers or something on it. I want to see that clip.
Speaker 2:You should see it. And, like you said, like lands that lands and then boom straight into the bowl, and I think he does probably like a Smith grinder or something, and then a backside 360 over the hip. I'm just like that kid man.
Speaker 3:Wild, he did that first try.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you're a bit of an ATV as well. Sometimes Do you skate street.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I skate as much as I can. He skates street.
Speaker 1:He does. He skates straight better than me. You do, thanks, I can't grind rails.
Speaker 3:I'm pretty sure you just beat me in a game of skate. That's all we got here.
Speaker 2:Actually I don't want to say it, but did we actually decide who won skate today?
Speaker 3:No, I don't think I can put myself through it again because I think Amy's beat me like 17 times in a row.
Speaker 1:I love skate.
Speaker 3:When.
Speaker 2:Amy did the nollie shove-its. I was like damn you, amy.
Speaker 1:I can't do that. I know what people hate and I'm like, all right, I'll do these ones.
Speaker 3:It starts off so nice. And then towards the end, amy just starts doing like all of these body variables and leg shoves and everything, yeah, and you just end up walking out of there like again.
Speaker 2:It is the best way to warm up, I reckon.
Speaker 3:And I'm walking out of there like again.
Speaker 2:It is the best way to warm up? I reckon it is for sure. But speaking of warm ups like, do you do much for your body?
Speaker 3:Yeah, In terms of you warm up, you train. Yeah, so I've been doing ever since I hurt my MCL.
Speaker 2:I want to talk about that.
Speaker 3:I started doing a lot of strength and conditioning and then just sort of picked up on the fact that it was making me feel so much better when I went skateboarding. Yeah, so much better, so much stronger, so much more nimble, lighter. It just works. And now I think I'm at a point where, if I don't do it, I can really tell the difference in how my body feels.
Speaker 2:Can we get the clip up because you sent us a clip of you post mcl surgery is. Is that correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So let's find it here. Yeah, so you had a complete tear of your MCL. Yeah, back in six weeks Is this the clip you sent an associate. Was that it?
Speaker 3:No, so the clip of me actually snapping my MCL isn't on there, because I was doing a slappy.
Speaker 2:Oh, you did it, doing a slappy.
Speaker 3:Slappy is a gnarly man.
Speaker 2:They get people.
Speaker 3:I'd had pain in it for a little while and I didn't really take any notice of it, and then I just sort of slipped off the back of a slappy Right.
Speaker 3:And then you heard it just go like this it was disgusting With the MCL, yeah, but I've heard that if you're going to do any of those, those ligaments I heard, the mcl is the best one because it's got blood flow. Yeah, yeah, it'll heal all right. And what you just heard, it go pop. Yeah, you made like a pop, you can feel it, you can hear it, and then it's. It's so strange, it's not so much heaps of pain.
Speaker 1:It's you feel sick, yeah, in your knee really sick touch wood is this wood jock, have you ever? Have you ever had?
Speaker 2:a knee injury. Have you, Amy?
Speaker 1:Yeah, remember, we spoke about my dislocation.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, but you didn't tear it. I didn't. Yeah, you didn't have ligaments, you just popped it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that was horrible, I don't know, just popped it out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just no biggie.
Speaker 2:It went back in surgery.
Speaker 1:post that, no, yeah I just did the surgery myself. Did you have surgery for the mcl?
Speaker 3:no, um I had so many people look at it um which? I was really lucky for. And then we sort of figured we could get it back and we had the world championships in rio in nine weeks. I think um. So I was full on and I've got um cultivate Recovery up in Newcastle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's get that clip up, jock yeah.
Speaker 3:They're amazing. They helped me so much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've been past that place. Where is it? I want to go back to that Instagram. Is this yeah, just that one Looks. That's the one I reckon. So tell us about this. Is you at Bar Beach?
Speaker 3:Bowl, just like clips before I snapped it.
Speaker 2:So that one, there you did the splits that one sucked. Why are we wearing a?
Speaker 3:Hy-Vee's vest. I thought it was funny at the time because it was out the scape. It wasn't very funny. Yeah, this place is the best, and then the hyperbaric oxygen chamber. That's what I was in as much as I could like, almost every single day. And it just compresses the oxygen down. You get more oxygen into your bloodstream and then it just promotes tissue regrowth.
Speaker 2:Can you breathe in?
Speaker 3:that yeah it's amazing.
Speaker 1:It's like when you go on a plane and you know when your ears pop and that kind of feels like that. It's like pressure.
Speaker 3:It is the best nap you will ever have as well, Really yeah because there's so much more oxygen in the air, so your breathing slows down Is that place got sauna and ice bath.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you've got to go check it out. It's amazing. It's so good. It's around the corner from my house actually. Let's go.
Speaker 2:I'm going, mate, We'll do a session While we've got this clip up. Just keep it going, Jock, Bar Beach Bowl. There it is. What's your favourite element of Bar Beach Bowl?
Speaker 3:My favourite element barbitch bowl. My favorite element of barbitch bowl I think it's got the best coping out of anywhere I've ever been to. But I'm biased because that's where I always skated when I was growing up. I just think the simplicity of it. So, like john, I'm fairly certain it was johnny bergerts yeah, the designed it and that design for a bowl, the difference, or just having so many different elements in it, but it's still being so simple. Yeah, I think that's what makes it work.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I think there's a lot of bowls coming around now that have so many different elements, and it just makes it too complicated.
Speaker 2:It's confusing, yeah. Yeah, I mean, like Bondi Bowl is an example of that, they kept it pretty simple.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because really it's just like I wonder if Bogart's like built his idea of Bondi Ball.
Speaker 3:I'm sure he would have taken elements from Bondi and lots of other places he would have skated.
Speaker 2:That's sick man. I love it. It's so good, yeah. So, going back to your trajectory in life, you graduated high school. Yeah, yeah, were high school days. Good times for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they were okay. I feel like I was doing so much skateboarding that everyone thought that I just wasn't coming to school. Yeah, um, we do events and things, so I'd disappear for a week and then I'd get back and be like, oh, I did this event, like it was going here and all this sort of stuff, and then be like, yeah, all right, cool, not sure you were no worries like this skateboarder is just ditching school for a week out of doing god knows what I don't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but yeah it was a. It was a strange situation because no one at my school skated really. I had one friend there that skated for a little bit um, but everyone else just sort of I don't know, played cricket and xbox I was the same, like it was the same for me in school.
Speaker 1:No one really skated. It was weird it was so weird.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But your parents were supportive yeah, you said that, and yours as well. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Dad used to take me to the skate park and just sit there, I'm pretty like. Studying, or was his bachelor's or his master's, I don't know, but he would just like do all his uni work in the car at the skate park and just let me go skating for four hours.
Speaker 2:It was the best, so you got a close relationship with him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:What do you like about him the most?
Speaker 3:That's hard to put a pin in. Hey, he's so much fun, he's a good bloke to talk to and I feel like he's just really got his head screwed on the way you want it to be, like he's sort of that.
Speaker 2:Like more of a mate vibe.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, yeah, that's the relationship I've got with him, but he's also that person you can look to and be like hey, this is something that I'm doing, and I just want some sort of guide on how I can do that properly.
Speaker 2:Sick man. No, it's nice to hear, like I guess, like since I've been doing the podcast for a while like one of the most interesting things that come out of it is that, like parents like to listen to their children speak on the podcast.
Speaker 3:Yeah, cool.
Speaker 2:You know. So I sort of asked that because your dad might listen to this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I see how he does. Yeah, because you might not say that to him.
Speaker 2:I had a really interesting thing. Have you heard of Chris Markovich, old skater, pro skater from the 90s? Yeah, I had him on the podcast actually years ago and I got an email from his mother, Beverly Markovich.
Speaker 3:Really.
Speaker 2:Saying thank you. I've never heard my son speak like that, and good to hear him in a different setting. That's incredible, Because I think as we get older, some people just don't talk to their parents as much.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you should, absolutely so I just think it's good. Yeah, everyone get out there, call your mum, call your dad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, call them all up, Call everyone. When I went up to the Goldie last week, I went and visited my nan and pop. How were they? And I left my podcast on the TV as I was leaving.
Speaker 3:Locked the TV, so it plays on repeat.
Speaker 1:I was like there you go, guys, enjoy. You're going to learn about my whole life, do you?
Speaker 2:know what it is. My parents are elderly and they watch your episode. My mom's like oh that, amy, amy, massive. She's just delightful, isn't she? I love your mom already she's taking me started. I love my mom too. I'm a mommy's boy. But yeah, that's, that's super sweet. Hey, I want to go back to like some of the like your lifestyle and you and amy have cultivated together. Can you get that picture up of them at the rolling stone music awards? And I want to talk about that night Like this one. That's a rad photo.
Speaker 3:That was so much fun, so tell us about that night.
Speaker 1:What was that? That was Brixton.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so Brixton took us to the music awards and we just got to show up, go to their. They had a custom hat. Oh, it was the first time they had their like customizable hat station. Yeah, where you could go and get your sort of name or anything you wanted laser engraved onto the hats yeah, sweet, it was really cool.
Speaker 1:They were like um, it's gonna be your first red carpet event, so it was really exciting.
Speaker 3:Dorothy the dinosaur was there yeah, we were kicked off the wiggles. I think we got kicked off the carpet for someone Like Tina Arena. Kicked us off the red carpet.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, because we skipped the whole line. They were like Tori I can't remember who said it, but they're like you don't need to wait in this line. So we just started walking to the front and just went on the red carpet and then we're doing our thing and then yeah, then, yeah, tina whatever her name is Tina.
Speaker 2:Tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, tina, it is fun. It is fun, or is it just a bit overrated?
Speaker 1:You know who has experienced all this Musker.
Speaker 2:Chad Musker yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, when he was dating Hilton Paris Hilton.
Speaker 2:Paris Hilton. Yeah, I remember when he was dating him he would have had to do all that, but yeah, it's just different from what you're used to.
Speaker 1:It's very out of your comfort zone.
Speaker 2:What do you do when you see Famous people? Are those things?
Speaker 3:Normally accidentally not recognise them.
Speaker 1:Deliberately not recognise them.
Speaker 3:I just stare at them from across the room or awkward. Everyone's just a person, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a big realisation I've had over the years. Yeah, for sure, it's just another person trying to get through this experience. Whatever this is, yeah.
Speaker 3:And if there's one thing I know about people, the last thing they want to talk about is work yeah. Whatever this is, yeah. And if there's one thing I know about people, the last thing they want to talk about is work. So a lot of these people, if you go out and not know who they are, that's probably the best experience they're gonna have yeah, why do you think?
Speaker 2:because they're constantly having to speak to people like fans and things like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah I mean, even amy and I meet obviously not so much. I'm sure every single time you go to a pub or go anywhere, the only thing anyone wants to talk to you about is skateboarding and TikTok.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean yeah, sometimes like.
Speaker 2:I guess, I don't know, do you get that a lot?
Speaker 1:I think, well, now everyone just wants to talk to me about the Olympic stuff. Yeah, right so it's like everyone's like, oh, paris, paris, paris, paris, um, but it's sick because, like, I actually want to talk about that yeah um, but yeah, what we do for work so different to what other? People do as well.
Speaker 3:So it's almost like you want to talk about what you're doing because it is nice I get like fully imposter syndrome, though, so people ask me questions about skateboarding and all that sort of thing, and I'm just like I don't know how to talk about this without just talking about myself the whole time. I'd rather find out what you do. Well, I always.
Speaker 1:I'll just always palm it back onto them.
Speaker 3:Like.
Speaker 1:I'll say what I need to say and I'm like, anyway, so about you? And I never used to do that. It took me ages to learn because I would talk about myself for ages, right. And then I never used to be like, anyways about you. And someone pulled me up one time and was like, how come you never ask about their lives? And I'm like I didn't even realise I was doing that. And they're like ask about them. And then I started doing it and then I was like, oh, makes sense.
Speaker 2:But to be fair. To be fair, most people just want to talk about themselves yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It took me a while to realize like I was. This was when I was in my early 20s, you know, I was just all I cared about was skating. So when people asked me questions about skating, I couldn't shut up about it yeah, gotcha, yeah.
Speaker 2:When you have a conversation with someone, amy, do you listen or do you wait your turn to speak?
Speaker 1:I, I used to, um, not listen. Now it's changed, but now I listen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah I think people just want to be heard. They want to be seen yeah and like I just want to bring up something that's kind of heavy. I'm sorry, but I think it'd be nice to talk about. Like, especially in the skate community, there's been some heavy losses lately with people taking their own lives, and I just want to put the message out there that you know, we do need to talk to our friends, but I also think like we need to listen, and we need to really listen to our friends okay because if you do take that time, I feel like you will see the signs.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. There's so many people that'll just sit in their little shell to so many mates that you'll just like not talk to you for so long.
Speaker 2:But you really should check in is that something you do with your friends?
Speaker 3:uh, now especially I swear this last year has just been so full of like just those instances that it's become something that's really important to me, like calling, calling your friends on the way home. You're always in the car, just call.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it doesn't take that long and it's not weird either.
Speaker 1:It's not like oh, you haven't spoken in a while, so like oh, they're going to be weird about me calling. Like they want people want to talk to you. Like, just call them up. I call my friends all the time, all the time and checking on them, like I don't want to lose a friend.
Speaker 2:But what does it do for your own mental health, Amy?
Speaker 1:I mean like you can help each other through everything. So yeah, like say I've got something going on in my life and I've been depressed like I'm not going to sit there and just not talk to no one about it. I always voice it out because I can't have it. You can't have it like on your shoulders. You know what I mean. You need to get it out, talk about it, get over it, move on.
Speaker 2:You know what I?
Speaker 1:mean Like there's so much more to life and yeah, it's very self like. It's just selfish when people do that. You know what I mean, because they're not thinking about anyone else, they're thinking about themselves. And then they go and then you know there's so many people that are just sad and it hurts. So people need to talk to each other.
Speaker 2:And I don't know why it works. It just works. You know, I've often thought about like, why does that work?
Speaker 3:This human connection.
Speaker 2:But I think also, like when you get whatever's in your mind and have to then process it and articulate it through your mouth, it is a release, okay, and it helps your brain make sense of those things, because sometimes, like, the thoughts in your head can be deceiving and they can be inaccurate. You know, you can just make situations out to be worse in your head than they really are, and things like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So when you verbalize it, it's like, okay, I get it all right, that makes sense. It's actually not as bad as I thought.
Speaker 3:Yeah, get that perspective. Yeah, just try to understand yourself a little bit better even.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's rad man, yeah. So, jock, what other clips we got there? Let's get that photo up. There's one in the bowl he's doing like a. It looks like a backside nose blunt it's that one.
Speaker 1:Can we stop there?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So let's talk about this photo. Who took it? That was Joel when we were on the Young Henry's trip.
Speaker 1:Oh was it. Yeah, how good is it. It is such a sick photo.
Speaker 3:I was so happy when he showed me that that was on the second day of the Young Henry's trip, or first day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so is it a front side nose blunt, front nose blunt. It was the first day, no pads.
Speaker 3:I I've actually never done one in there with pads. I've done them a bunch of times, but I have never been able to make it work with pads on.
Speaker 1:I don't know why. Well, because look how kind of your foot would be touching your pad on your knee. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Yeah right.
Speaker 1:If you tried it with pads, you'd get in the way.
Speaker 3:The first time I ever did that trick in there. I had Marley pretty much tackle me as soon as we got out of the ball, Because he was so hyped for you. Yeah, the little hype guy was so sick. What's the key to that trick? Try and kick yourself in the back of the knee with your back foot, okay. I think, or actually I don't even know, I swear, you can just feel it and then it works, or you feel it and it doesn't work.
Speaker 1:I've never done one, so don't ask me.
Speaker 2:I've got a theory on blunts.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I once heard that just pretend they're a rock to fake you, or a rock in. So don't linger there too long. It's just touch go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you've got to be straight out of it for sure, but on vert's different as well, again, because your nose doesn't hit the wall, yeah gotcha. Or your tail doesn't hit the wall. It just sort of floats over the coping and you've got to hope that it works.
Speaker 2:Crazy man. No it's a beautiful photo and for those that are listening and not watching the podcast, it's a black and white photo of George coming in on a frontside, nose blunt, in the deep end of Bar Beach Bowl. And unless you've actually skated that bowl, it doesn't really. George makes it look easy, but that's a deep bowl. What is it? That's a 13-footer, isn't?
Speaker 3:it. No, it's only 11. It's only 11? Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:Only 11. I mean, have you skated it? When you're in the deep end you're like, wow, it's deep, there's so much wall here, but I'm not a skater or a ball rider.
Speaker 3:Once you get used to it, it's better for it to be bigger.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Especially if it's got a lot of transition, because you can just land in the transition and slide out of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I always get smoked on the small ramps, not the big ones. Yeah right.
Speaker 1:But that's the thing, right, big bowl skaters they'll skate mini ramps and they just die on it and then, like, if you take me a mini ramp skater to the bowl, I'm going to die. It's weird how, like, big bowl skaters can't really skate minis. Yeah right, it's like almost too small for them.
Speaker 2:It's too small. I get it. Well. I've heard that like they've got more transition to work with, so things can move slower.
Speaker 3:Exactly yeah, you do less, every movement slower.
Speaker 2:I think I just like going really fast, do you?
Speaker 1:ever pad up, Amy, and skate the beach. I tried growing up padding up, but I just would run out. I didn't know how to use the pads.
Speaker 2:And try to slide your knees.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd learn Like I'd run up the ramp and do the whole knee slide thing and try, and then, as soon as it come to me falling off the board, I would run out and I'm like why, why won't my brain let me do this? And then I didn't want to like get used to knee sliding either, because then I thought maybe if I took them off that I was going to go to my knees. So I was like you know what? I don't need to learn hand plants right now.
Speaker 2:That's always been my theory. It's like if I put them on once, I used to skate with knee pads on when I was younger, but I'm like if I put them on, like I'm just going to default to dropping to my knees and I don't want to do that. No, but you've seemed to have worked it out, no, you don't.
Speaker 3:No, I've definitely gone straight to my knees with my pads on and you notice because you've got you've usually got a lot of time, so you start the knee slide almost up on the vert and then you can feel your knees like the skin coming off the fronts of them yeah, yeah and you get back up while you're still all the way up at the top of the ramp and start running and then usually just trip.
Speaker 2:Dude. I just noticed in the comments my good friend who I grew up with, jeremy Rowling, jem Boddick. One of his comments is up there crackatini.
Speaker 3:Crackatini, yeah, crackatini.
Speaker 2:That's definitely something Jeremy would say. Did he ever take any good photos of you? Because he was like really shooting a lot of photos there for a while.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so he was always down at the bowl when, um, I was a lot younger and everyone else was obviously younger as well um and we'd go down to the skate park almost every single afternoon. Just skate park sick. Yeah. He'd be there quite often, either skating or taking photos, or doing both yeah, and shout out to jeremy.
Speaker 2:He actually suggested that you come on the show. He's like you gotta speak to george man. He's a legend that's sick. And I really like I still consider you a younger crew, you know, and like I'm really like, I enjoy, like I want to document your journey through this, you know, get you on again, you know, because I just think documenting is so important and I also love this long-form content, like you're a short-form content. Master. I just think there's a place for long-term content, you know so 100% there is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your YouTube's going to kick off. Hey, it will. Okay, believe it, I trust you. I believe it. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah man, where are we at with the clips? I want to see if we've got it all up. If there's anything else we didn't talk about, we talked about that one, that. If there's anything else we didn't talk about, we talked about that one, that one. Yeah man, I think we've gone through all the stuff we wanted to. Oh yeah, this is the last one I wanted to touch base with this is the one in COVID. So this is during COVID in America. Yeah, this is in Iowa, in Iowa.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sick.
Speaker 2:Tell us about the trip.
Speaker 3:It was actually really, really fun because we hadn't been anywhere for a little while. Look at that Smith grind. So it was so good to go over the States and just see all my mates. That's been the biggest thing with all of these contests Like you go over to a different country and all of a sudden you're with your best friends in the world from all over the world and you're all in one spot. So it's almost like a little reunion of people you haven't seen in so long and that's the best thing about them. And this was no different.
Speaker 2:Who did that? Benihana? Obviously, it was a little different.
Speaker 3:I think that was Keegan.
Speaker 2:Okay, Keegan Palmer? Huh, yeah, I think so. How's the front?
Speaker 1:people I run so little in this Like look at Kieran.
Speaker 3:It still seems like it was so recent, cheesy.
Speaker 2:Man, I do not miss those face masks.
Speaker 1:I'm going to have to wear one on the plane. Yeah, I actually get that. I can't afford to get sick.
Speaker 2:I get that Do you want to share about? Because last time we had you on it was just before Istanbul.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You were just about to go to Istanbul.
Speaker 1:No to Budapest.
Speaker 2:Budapest yeah. And can you tell us about your experience there? You got really sick.
Speaker 1:So yeah, just some guy on the plane next to me was coughing his lungs out. Oh how good and I just thought maybe it was a smoker or something and I'm a mouth sleeper so I sleep with my mouth open and I was in the middle seat so this guy was coughing into my mouth all night on the plane, coughing his lungs out. So bad I was like. I remember waking up like he's all fucked.
Speaker 1:And then he's still coughing and I'm like, oh, I'm going to get sick. And then two days later I'm I'm basically dead in my hotel room, Like I was. My temp was about to reach 40 degrees, I was about to go to hospital, I had to get the doctors to come in and give me a needle, and all this and, like I didn't get to judge the contest because I was too sick, so I got to judge the last day, but I was the alternate judge.
Speaker 1:So, I didn't get to put a score in and it made me realise I love my job. I was like, because I had so much FOMO, I was like, oh, I actually really like doing this job.
Speaker 2:Being part of it. Yeah, yeah. Well, the good news is you got it out of your system now and you're not going to get sick when you go to Paris next week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, so I have a next week or this Sunday. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:How proud of your friend here are you for doing this? Couldn't even tell you how proud I am. She has so much fun, she loves what she does.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:She's doing incredible things almost every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, been keeping busy.
Speaker 2:Do you guys get asked? I don't know if I should ask this, but you're good friends, but do people ever go? Oh, are you two like? Oh, someone asked if anybody was my girlfriend today. I was going to say do you get asked that often?
Speaker 3:A couple of hours ago yeah, maybe siblings.
Speaker 1:Has anyone ever said?
Speaker 3:siblings Weirdly? No, because that's what I'd go for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no. But today at the IMG models, she was like oh, is this your girlfriend? And I was like oh, I'm his friend. No, we've been good mates for, like I don't know, I couldn't even tell you Like 10 years, 11 years.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so many trips, so many fun times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep, and you are uniquely good looking.
Speaker 3:So are you. I don't know if that was a dig or not. I think it's a compliment?
Speaker 1:No, because earlier I said you're good looking. You've got a unique look. That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:Is the point you're making. Like you know, these days you've got to have some kind of little feature or different factor of being.
Speaker 1:I think it's bone structure. They look for bone structure, do they?
Speaker 2:If you've got like nice cheekbones, I'm just going to look at something Nice cheekbones yeah, nice.
Speaker 1:And like he's got fair skin, like the fair eyebrows and stuff, it's a unique look. Yeah, it is. Which is yeah, they want unique people, I guess. I don't know, I'm not a model.
Speaker 2:I'm going to put this to you what advice would you give to, like you know, we're starting to wind it up a bit, but what advice would you give to an upcoming skateboarder who wants to make something of it right now?
Speaker 3:I think my advice to them would be just keep doing what you're doing. Just keep skating as much as you can. Just keep trying to get better, not as quickly as you can, but as organically with those people that support you as you can, and then just keep taking in everything that you see at the skate park, like if you're there with your friends. Get your friends and go. Let's film a clip like let's try and get this done, let's try and learn a new trick. Just stay busy and just keep trying to be productive, because the more productive you can be, I swear. Skateboarding is not even about how good you are at all. It's about who is pushing themselves the hardest.
Speaker 1:That's my favorite thing about skateboarding it's about who's having the most fun. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Who's just pushing themselves a little bit harder than they were yesterday? Who's putting in a little bit more work than they were yesterday?
Speaker 2:like their own personal boundaries exactly.
Speaker 3:Yeah that's what it's all about it is man. That's what people notice as well. If you want someone to or a brand or anyone to get behind you, I swear they notice just how much work these kids put in.
Speaker 2:That's the first thing that comes up work ethics, key for everything absolutely and I think that's the biggest lesson skateboarding teaches people is work ethic and resilience. How many times like fall down seven times, get up eight, you know.
Speaker 2:Exactly Love it and that translates into everything you do, and that's why I do have a lot of respect for you, for what you guys are doing, because you're just doing life on your own terms and not letting you know you're not conforming or being like dictated by haters or people that resent this alternate path that you're taking. I think it's really crucial and especially like the older gatekeepers of skateboarding. I think they need to wake up and go. This is the next. This is what's going on with the next generation maybe.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just want to enjoy what I do. Yeah, next generation maybe? Yeah, I just want to enjoy what I do. Yeah, that's all it is I just? Want to enjoy what I do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some of them won't change. Some of them that's just how they're going to be, like it's the next generation, that's all it.
Speaker 2:It's going to be changing so it's just like people are just gonna have to get used to it, I guess and that's funny because, like when the older crew and myself included, like we were deemed as like misfits and outcasts for doing something that was different but, then and I'll do, I've done it myself. I'll readily put shit on people doing something that's different to the norm. Now, yeah you know. So who am I? So who am I to judge?
Speaker 1:I mean, we got some looks today when we walked into that IMG building because it's a corporate building. There's heaps of different companies that work in offices in there and there's two dirty skater rats walking in with their boards to a corporate building and you just people like double looking like you know like who, looking like. You know like who are these people? Why are they in here?
Speaker 3:yeah, it's been such a strange transition to go from. Well, I swear it's still stuck, with so many people where they see someone with a skateboard and go this person is just absolutely no good doing nothing that's a stigma, that whole stigma exactly. And then just knowing in the back of my head, especially when we were doing all like this trip, still I was getting so much of that everywhere and then going, like I, someone can show up to my house at 2 o'clock in the morning and ask to drug test me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's bizarre.
Speaker 2:The Olympics. That's what they do. That's what they do. They catch you out, yeah.
Speaker 3:But people still have that stigma, like all this strength and conditioning, all this mandatory drug testing. I'm like you, dirty skater rat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. We're always going to be misfits Always. Let's keep it that way. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Actually, I want to say one more thing. I do believe that there is some gatekeeping required in skateboarding. Yes, To keep things a little bit, to keep things legit you know and keep it real there has to be some of that and calling out of things that aren't positive or conducive to the culture.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Yeah, I say that.
Speaker 2:But open-mindedness is key as well. Whatever, that's right, dude. I don't know, man, how are you feeling? Do you think we've got it all out? Is there anything else you want to talk about?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know, I feel pretty good. I just want to say thank you again for having me, of course man it was so much fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just one more thing.
Speaker 1:What's next for you on Instagram, I believe? Hopefully a few more events, hopefully a lot more modeling. I want to do it as much as I possibly can.
Speaker 3:Hopefully a trip or two, just try and film as much as I can too, george, and I want to work on more clips together and stuff on IG and yeah collabs.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I'd love to do another video like the Brixton one. I've been talking to a couple of mates about that. That would be great. Not something that's completely solely focused on being a skateboarding video part, but something that's more lifestyle orientated, with the same sort of trick selection, so like pick tricks that I would want for a part, but then build them into a lifestyle clip instead okay, okay, that's what I would like, so not an actual video part.
Speaker 3:Yeah, not just like four or five minutes of full-on skateboarding, nothing else, something that's got lifestyle added to it, but the skateboarding is still at the level of something that I'd want to release for a part, gotcha.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sick.
Speaker 3:I'd love that.
Speaker 2:Creative YouTube. You are creative YouTube channel. I do not need a youtube channel why don't you need?
Speaker 1:a youtube channel, man?
Speaker 3:yeah why, not, I guess actually have.
Speaker 1:You got tiktok I haven't, I haven't posted for tiktok in a long time yeah, he was actually starting to go viral because he started to tiktok around when I started it and um his clips, some some of what there was a Kieran Woolley one I'm pretty sure you uploaded on there. That went crazy.
Speaker 3:That was Instagram. That was like 9.7 million views or something ridiculous.
Speaker 2:That's just crazy, the amount of views and it wasn't even me, it was Kieran.
Speaker 3:Obviously, it was Kieran.
Speaker 1:Kieran Woolley, kieran got a line and like just went viral.
Speaker 3:I put it up just before he skated the Olympics and I was like good luck, kieran, yeah. And then it just blew up, and then it got good views on his account too, but it was almost nothing compared to what it did on mine and I cannot understand why it happened. It's bizarre.
Speaker 1:I was filming Kieran's run in the Olympics when he slammed into that cameraman in my living room and like it was the funniest thing ever because you can genuinely hear me cracking up, laughing like, oh my God, I can't believe that just happened and I put that clip on TikTok and I think it got 10 million views or something as well. It just went viral. But then, like I guess, a lot of other people were at home filming it as well, so there was just all these different clips on there. It went super viral.
Speaker 1:And then Keegan's did as well, because he got interviewed and he looked stoned on the news.
Speaker 2:But he was like really tired.
Speaker 1:He's like yeah, dude, like I'm just so happy that I won and everyone was like remixing it, like is this kid high?
Speaker 2:Oh right, so good. Yeah, I interviewed Kieran in Kingpin Skate Shop in Wollongong Shout out to those guys. We did a live podcast and he talks about that. And then my friend, ryan Grant edited a visual of him talking about the experience of running into the cameraman, yeah so good.
Speaker 3:And then we played the clip.
Speaker 2:I mean, just hearing it firsthand was just so funny, you know. But I feel like congrats to Keegan Palmer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely he won that comp.
Speaker 2:But I kind of feel like Kieran's hitting the cameraman. You know who kind of won the day as well, you know. And for us people from Wollongong. We're just like yeah, that was from Wollongong, you know? Sick, absolutely so we love him. Yeah, man, alright, we might leave it there, cool, mr George Richards.
Speaker 3:Everybody thanks so much again, and thanks, amy Massey.
Speaker 2:Hey George boy thank you, thanks, jock cool cheers this was recorded at the Media Joint.
