Terrible. Happy. Talks.
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Terrible. Happy. Talks.
#239 - Ty Neilson: The Sk8 Shop Owner Diaries.
Meet Ty Neilson, a beacon of resilience who has risen above his challenging past to illuminate the path of a better life, and skate shop ownership. In this episode, we unravel his journey from a tumultuous upbringing in a government housing area, to finding solace and community in Skateboarding… and Cricket.
Ty reflects on the importance of local skate shops as community pillars that not only provide the tangible items required to skate, but moreover, the intangible elements; a sense of belonging, inspiration and significant cultural influence.
Ty’s journey is one of perseverance and commitment. He recounts the day he chose to walk away from financial security by quitting his job as a concrete cutter, and spending all his house deposit money to open a skate shop. A small price to pay in order to follow a dream, and not work for someone else’s.
From the emotional ties to skateboarding culture and its role in the Olympics to the societal judgments and stereotypes we all grapple with, this conversation is a heartfelt tribute to personal evolution, and why some things just aren’t worth stressing about.
Mike D. RIP.
Shan
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Hey, it's Sham here this week I catch up with Ty Nielsen, do you understand, did it tough in his early years and the man's come good. He's more than come good. I really sensed a conscious soul who is seeking to improve himself in a lot of ways, which he has and he continues to do. Pure skateboarder, loves it, but also an avid cricketer and sports enthusiast, which is interesting. He's a bit of a juxtaposition because on the outside you'll see a lot of tattoos, maybe some face tattoos, neck tattoos, all that stuff. But yeah, he's kind of challenges the stereotypes which I love.
Speaker 2:I want to make mention, unfortunately and sadly, the legendary Mike D passed away this week. For those of you who know who, mike D is a long-time, lifelong skateboarder from Canberra and very well known for emceeing many, many skate comps over the years. Most notably and consistently was the Belco Bowl Jam. For me, mike D leaves a memory and a mark in my life personally because I was at a demo and a skate comp at Fairfield Vert Ramp, just watching with all my friends from Nowra and I'll never forget Mike D on the mic just hyping up the crowd and he's like look at this crowd and he's like and then we've got the Nowra boys over here and he actually called us the Nowra boys like we'd never actually sort of said that to each other, and we all just looked at each other and we're like, fuck, yeah, we're the narrow boys and I think it sort of solidified our crew and bonded our friendships.
Speaker 2:But yeah, rest in peace and my condolences to everyone who was close to him, family and friends. But anyway, in the meantime, sit back, relax and get to know Mr Ty Nielsen.
Speaker 1:Cheers and time doesn't exist. Shut those cataracts, catch the virtual list. Now let's get back To what makes things seem Forever weather. It's unseen, unheard, or it's 16 again, not a bother. Fill this old man river. Kill a floor that gives all Coming upstream Quiver Six star easy rock. Drop to the floor Lower to the earth, causes to cosmic shock Ball. Kick a perfect 40, 20 off a loose Bird boot Soft.
Speaker 3:Now I feel like you're mature and I'm a virgin.
Speaker 2:Good, and it's a Sunday night and how old were you when you lost your virginity? I don't remember Really. No, that's better. That's better. Yeah, how do you not remember losing your virginity? How do you not remember losing your virginity?
Speaker 3:To be honest, there's a lot of growing up that I don't really like remember or take note of in my brain, if that makes sense, like I just don't think about it. I'm like, oh, it wasn't, I mean.
Speaker 2:I don't know, Is this too heavy to ask? But is it because you've blacked it out?
Speaker 3:No, no, I just don't think it was a very significant moment in my life that I wanted to remember, and I know that sounds fucking weird, but I don't know. It's just there's been so much shit happen since then that it's like oh, that's just another day on whatever fucking day. It was Tuesday, wednesday, let's go with 14, and it was Wednesday 14?.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I didn't even start period until 16. Yeah, really, yeah late bloomer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right, yeah, I don't know Like there's been as sad as it sounds, there's been so much that's happened that I just don't really find those things significant to like be like. Oh, it was, you know, 24 degrees, the window was slightly open, the breeze was coming through, Like it wasn't that big a moment in my life that I was like, like you hadn't been like thinking about it a lot before that. Oh, probably, like I think everybody is or everybody was, but I don't know Now, it's just like oh well, fuck it.
Speaker 2:I don't know why I asked you that question no that was a good way just to yeah. Hmm, I remember. If you're out there. Really I don't know if I should say a name, did you? I've said it. Do you remember the last name?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man yes.
Speaker 3:Are you an emotionally attached person, though, with things like that?
Speaker 2:Damn Good question, I reckon. Yeah, I don't think I am. Do you think you're detached from your emotions? Yeah, you say that pretty nonchalant.
Speaker 3:I'm not a really touchy-feely kind of person.
Speaker 2:How does your girlfriend feel about that?
Speaker 3:She's a very touchy-feely kind of person. You need her. So it's like, yeah, we're breaking barriers.
Speaker 2:Do you think?
Speaker 3:she has softened you up a lot.
Speaker 2:Probably. Yeah, do you? Are you just like you know? Okay, let's, for those that are listening, like Ty's covered in tattoos Up to his neck Face, so some might say that's a bit of a harsh exterior.
Speaker 3:In what way?
Speaker 2:Well, it's Tough guy look.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, but I'm not very tough. But I was sort of mean like do you think I've got a cat? Did you you know, a girl at a skate shop or asked me if I was bisexual because I was a male with a cat that's a bit of a stereotype yeah, and I was like where did you?
Speaker 3:she was like, oh, statistics show, and I was like where did you? She was like, oh, a statistics show, and I was like what statistics? And she goes, oh, I think I just kind of made that up and I was like that's super weird. How old was she?
Speaker 2:Like early 20s, see it's the next gen millennials man.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They think they know it all.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I did. Did you Like not know it all? I thought I did.
Speaker 2:How long did it take you to realize that you don't know it all?
Speaker 3:Until about two months ago, dude no, I don't know, I think I was just I always hung out with older people, so I was so scared to like say dumb shit that I just kind of shut the fuck up until I was spoken to. I didn't really come out and like forcefully say what my opinions were. I was like I was kind of just like, oh fuck, I'll just sit here and take it all in.
Speaker 2:Interesting. Yeah, were you, because you were scared.
Speaker 3:Not so much scared. Like a lot of people I grew up with I was scared of, but I wasn't scared of how they were going to be towards me. I just knew they were like, let's say, the tough guy thing. They were pretty tough dudes and I just kind of was like, all right, let's watch how they handle themselves. And I noticed that like they were very reserved in their opinions until it was just a close-knit thing and then they would say how they truly felt, but like they wouldn't. It's like that thing of like you know you grow up in a derelict area. It's like every day is playing a game of poker.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like you've got this face of like oh, all right, even though I'm shitting myself. I'm going to look at this dude like I'm going to bite his face off, but on the inside you're just like oh, I really really hope this guy just keeps walking.
Speaker 2:All right, so you just described the area that you grew up in as a derelict area. Yeah, how do you reflect on your childhood in general, then?
Speaker 3:How do you reflect on your childhood in general, then? Oh, it's pretty rough, okay, in what ways? Single mom, housing commission, domestic violence, all those like I know it sounds bad but stereotypical things you would think about from a housing commission area Drug addicts, people getting stabbed, gunshots, police, always around yeah, so, like I guess it's a bit of a heavy way to start, but it's interesting because I don't know. I think the virginity thing was pretty like.
Speaker 2:People need to know yeah.
Speaker 3:Can we come back to that, Like let my brain try and figure it out?
Speaker 2:I really don't know. I love that, I just but listen, circling back to the housing commission and stuff like that. I mean in Australia I think there is a lot of people from that demographic. But then if we fast forward to where you are in life now, you're a business owner.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's super weird.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I've heard and growing up in it myself that there's a cycle and when you're living in an area where people are making money from selling drugs and not working on Centrelink, it's hard not to follow the same path. So what do you think was different for you to break out of that cycle?
Speaker 3:Well, I think I did follow that path to a certain extent but then veered away from it. But I always had, like, a stable house. A lot of the people I grew up with went through the same things as me, but they had an unstable household where my mum was like, you know, just because we live here doesn't mean we have to act like it. We had routines like Sunday was, you know, shower, clean your ears, get your toenails and fingernails cut before you went back to school on Monday and all of those things. Like we had times we had to be at home and like we still had rules where a lot of other kids in my area didn't have those rules.
Speaker 3:Like because, like, mum was a drinker but she wasn't a drug addict where a lot of the parents other people's parents were drug addicts so they were so high they didn't even half the time I didn't even think they knew where their kids were. And then they'd roll through the door and, you know parents are slumped out on the couch or whatever. Like I went to other people's houses and I thought like we had it tough. And then I'd go to other kids' houses and be like fuck, like I need to get out of here Like this is gross.
Speaker 2:Oh right, yeah, so your mum really sounds like a champion.
Speaker 3:Yeah ruler.
Speaker 2:Do you mind if I ask where dad was?
Speaker 3:Mum and dad were split, so dad lived in Cessna.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:He owned his own business and successful. And yeah, we were in. First we were in Gwendolyn and then got moved to Windale.
Speaker 2:Okay, so for those that are listening in other parts of the world, newcastle, australia, is about two and a half hours north of Sydney, and these are suburbs of that area.
Speaker 3:Yeah, lake Macquarie.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Like, so fuck two minutes from Newey.
Speaker 2:really, do you ever think it's funny how, like aesthetically, we have one of the most beautiful environmental areas of the world, but the social problems are still prevalent?
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I feel like that's everywhere I've been. It is Like I don't think you can pigeonhole it to just certain places. Like you know, you go overseas and you travel and you just see like the same cycles happening in different places, but just on different levels. Yeah, but it's like like the playbooks the same right, like the class system yeah, it's the class system, man, yeah, and I, I don't know.
Speaker 3:I really like, even now, like i't drink, I don't do anything like that, I don't associate with those people so much. I still feel connected to those types of people. Instead of, like I'll go out into Newcastle, let's say, to a fancy place, and I'm like, oh, I don't belong here. Like not that I mean. Like they treat me differently. Like me on the inside, I'm like I don't fit in here. Like these aren't my people, like I don't know what the fuck that cheese is. Like you know, like you look at the menu of a restaurant, let's say, and you're like fuck, is this? Like you know, like I'm a simple dude that just likes simple things, and I feel like sometimes, when you go up in classes, life gets complicated.
Speaker 2:I think. So I also think, going back to that, with those people you said that you grew up with, like let's look at the positives, like, what do you like about their characters? Okay, yes, they might have negative aspects.
Speaker 3:They're resilient.
Speaker 2:Okay, right, so they've got negative aspects, maybe antisocial behavior, violent, maybe criminal behavior. But what's endearing? Yeah, so resilient, yeah.
Speaker 3:Doesn't matter. At the same time, like their friendship doesn't change. Like I know for a fact that half of my friends that have been to jail or whatever I could leave them in the skate shop for two hours by themselves and come back and nothing would be any different. They'd probably just clean the place for me, like I wouldn't have to trust them, like, oh, I'll take money out of the till or you know, like that I could just go, dude, dude, I'll be back, and they'd be like, yeah, sweet, I'll hold it down and I might not get any customers in that time while they're in there because of the look of them.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I don't know. Like they're just loyalty thing, yeah, they're just solid people. Like, as much as they've got faults and and all the rest of it on the surface, like on the inside, they're still fucking human. They've still got emotions, just like we all do. They've got fears, like we all do it, we all. Before we leave the house, you know you look at yourself and you think, fuck, all right, do I look okay today? Like they're still self-conscious as well about whatever they're doing, no matter how high they are or whatever they're doing, there's, there's still that like thought pattern in their head, like I talk to some of them now at the front of the shop and I can see the embarrassment on their face, like they know what they're doing isn't right but they're a product of their environment, like it's just that cycle and then like don't know, don't know any other way yeah, and it just continues.
Speaker 3:What?
Speaker 2:was your relationship with your dad like?
Speaker 3:um, me and my dad don't talk now but I don't know, not really that great. Like I never really felt a strong connection to my dad, like I never really felt like when I was like around him or whatever. It was like a loving, endearing family. But then with my mom complete opposite, my sister's complete opposite I was really I'm really close with all of them amazing yeah, so good, so I going to ask you this question.
Speaker 2:This is something I wrote down. Actually, you're a skate shop owner, yep. Why are skate shops relevant?
Speaker 3:Why are they relevant? Yeah, it's the fucking stepping stone. For what? For skateboarding. Like it's the place like when I was a kid I wasn't allowed. It's. It's the place like when I was a kid I wasn't allowed no, not not allowed.
Speaker 3:But, like you know, the skate shop was the place you went for like peace of mind and you were welcomed and you felt wanted and that was where you went and fucking seen the latest skate videos. But I remember, like oe bobby and that they used to run newcastate and Stocky, like you'd go in there and they would treat you the exact fucking same as anybody else and that always spun me out. I'm like I don't have anything to give to these people, I don't have anything, I don't have any money, I don't have anything else, but they would just welcome you with open arms and make you feel a part of something. But I also think, like the local skate shop, they're the ones that are connected to the distros and the stepping stone for the skateboarders in the local area. Like you know, like distros will ring you and go, hey, what's the go with this kid or what's he or she about? And then you know, you create that relationship and like, help them progress, progress to the next level but also Sponsorship-wise.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like I don't know. I feel like your local skate shop. It's kind of like a youth group, like it's just where everybody comes and like it's adults' youth group. Yeah. You know, everyone just comes and hangs out and talks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, everyone just comes and hangs out and talks. Is that something you've noticed, though? Like just the spectrum now of skaters in terms of age?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So you know, you're getting guys that want to come in and talk about what it was like back in the day, yeah, and then you've got the new crew coming through and buying their first skateboard right?
Speaker 3:Yeah. And then you've got the ones in between that like don't care, like you know those dudes that come in, and you're like, oh, you see that new skate video. And they're like no, I don't watch skate videos. And you're like what do you mean? They're like I just skate and it's like rightio, sorry. Is there a lot of those sort of guys? There's not a lot of them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, which is I don't know. I always spin out on it because they're like, oh, I just skate man, I'm not involved in the skateboarding world or whatever. And I'm like, all right, so you play guitar. And they're like, yeah, and I'm like you go to watch music. And they're like, yeah, and I'm like same fucking thing. Like they go, oh, I don't want to watch to music when you can play it. But yeah, I just don't see it like that, like I just I love everything about skateboarding.
Speaker 2:Do you also feel that it's your little piece of the culture and navigating and driving the shape of the culture? That's a bad question, but you know what I mean. Yeah, I get where you're coming from. I guess it's your way. Shape of the culture.
Speaker 3:That's a bad question, but you know what I mean. Yeah, I get where you're coming from.
Speaker 2:I guess it's your way of influencing the culture, because you can choose the brands that you stock.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's a manifestation of what you enjoy.
Speaker 3:Yeah well, I remember when I was younger I'd walk into the skate shop and you get this overwhelming feeling of like fuck, look at everything.
Speaker 3:Like skate videos, the dude behind the counter is always the older dude that you thought was fucking cool as shit. You know, even if nowadays you think back and you're like fuck, that dude was pretty lame. But, like you know, like I probably get that as well, like kids probably walk out and go fuck that dude's lame but whatever. But there was this sense of like fuck, look at this world. Like there's all these boards, wheels that's where you checked what was going on. You read skate video. You read skate videos that's a good one. You read skate magazines, watch the videos. You did all that. You got this like sense of like fuck, let's go.
Speaker 3:I want kids to feel that now. Yes, dude, I want kids to feel that now. Yes, I want kids to walk into skate shops now and and feel that like fuck, look, this is raw, like this is what skateboarding is. It's, it's the sound, it's the feeling, it's everything else. And I want every person that walks into the shop, whether they've been fucking skating for 50 years or it's the first time, to feel that same feeling.
Speaker 2:So beautiful, dude, the feeling that you had when you were trying to regenerate that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I want people and I don't want kids to miss out on that feeling that I got, like that's the part that I think, like I've been to before I opened the skate shop, like obviously hanging out in skate shops all the time and all different ones, some of them I'd walk into and I'm like, fuck dude, do you even care? Like do you give a shit right now about anything other than fucking liking somebody's fucking post on Instagram or some shit? Like you know, you feel like I've walked into skate shops like not just Newcastle, like I'm not even saying Newcastle like all over the world and you just feel like some of them are just like they're over it.
Speaker 2:Is that because it's such a tough industry though? I mean let's face it, like in this modern era of online shopping, you know, and people looking for discounts and bargains, you know, skate shops are suffering.
Speaker 3:Yeah, 100% man. Massively and like I say that in a way of like not trying to be like fuck you to people or anything like that, but I don't know, like I've had dark days in shops, like we've only been open nearly two years, like that's it, like there's people out there that have been doing it for fucking way longer than we have.
Speaker 2:I reckon the first two. If you survive the first two years, that's the hardest part, and then you'll just be all right, You'll keep going. You know that, don't you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, people say that.
Speaker 2:They say if you get to the two-year mark, you're good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right, have you heard that? Yeah, but come on November.
Speaker 2:What Christmas.
Speaker 3:I just mean that's when we opened November two years ago.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're almost there. Shit Sorry, I haven't jinxed it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll go to the shop tomorrow and just do $0 for the day and be like fucking Shannon, did you lose your virginity in a skate shop?
Speaker 2:No, I'm just wondering.
Speaker 3:Just because you don't remember us. I thought you might have no. Sure I'm pretty positive there's like two.
Speaker 2:There wasn't really very many chicks in skate shops back when I was younger either, so if I did it was not cool but seriously though, like it is a tough time for skate shops and it's like it's interesting what you were saying about like and from being serious now it's like recreating the feeling that you had as a kid, and it's like that's what online shopping can't do, right yeah, and I think it's like that thing of like I'm still fresh, so my positive levels are still high.
Speaker 3:Like you know, like there's been there's dudes out there or chicks out there they've been doing it for 10, 15, 20 years. That are probably like listen to this young fella, he'll learn, like in five years' time. Let's see if he's still fucking smiling. But I don't know, I just I view. I don't know. I always say it and it sounds so corny, but I view the world differently.
Speaker 2:In what way?
Speaker 3:Like I don't get hung up on things. In what way? Like I don't get hung up on things, like I struggle to stress over things.
Speaker 2:Such as Like, as a business owner.
Speaker 3:Like say, you have like a few quiet days, I'll stress for like a few hours and then I'll be like fuck it, like I can't change if nobody come in today, I can't, you know. Like you sit there and a few times you'll be like fuck, what are we doing wrong? Like you know, you sit there and a few times you'll be like fuck, what are we doing wrong? Like well, you know, what can we change, what can we do? Blah, blah, and it's just like fuck. We all have bad days. Like it's just, you know. I think stress and worry bring stress and worry, and the more that I stress and worry on things and bring negative energy into the skate shop, it's only going to bring negative energy in from the outside if that's all I'm throwing out. So if I'm sitting there by myself, I just start thinking happy thoughts.
Speaker 2:Where do you think the mentality comes from, though, if not stressing, because we all stress?
Speaker 3:Yeah, when we were talking the other day. It's just I've had so many dark days that it's like fuck dude, like I can't keep thinking that shit every day. Like not every day is going to be the worst, not every day is going to be the best. But you know how many days do you think are the best days in a month? Probably four, maybe five If you're lucky.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like memorable, like you know. It's like when people drink all the time and they go, oh you know. Like people tell you about the good times but they don't talk about the 16 depressing, fucking drinking sessions in between the two happy times in that month. And that's how I view life now, like I try and view it as like I'm not going to have, you know, february 28 days. I'm not going to have fucking 28 good days. Like that's just not possible. Well, maybe I don't know.
Speaker 2:People need to hear this, because I think people have an expectation and it might be perpetuated by just constant information being thrown at them through social media and TV. Yeah, well. Every day has got to be magic, and I've got to be killing it.
Speaker 3:Yeah too many people get hung up on those fucking positive social media videos where, like you know, it's like some fucking gym junkie dude being like, if you haven't fucking done, and you're just like, settle down, buddy, like you have a bad day as well, but they're just like. They're always like. I think there is too much positivity out there where it gets to a point where, like, people start believing that one bad day is the end of it because of that positivity influx of just like. It's just, you know, like their whole Instagram reel or whatever. If they're sitting there, it's just positive affirmation after positive, after positive, and then they go and they fucking have a half shit day and they fucking think the world's going to end. Yeah, dude, they're like oh, I'll do all this. And it's like fuck, settle down, like you had a bad day.
Speaker 2:And they're addicted to dopamine hits, like they're constantly getting dopamine hits. And they're addicted to dopamine hits, like they're constantly getting dopamine hits, like, oh, someone commented, someone liked, and they're just chasing, chasing, chasing. It's like dopamine, dopamine, dopamine, and then they don't have that or something happens.
Speaker 3:Yeah it's like heroin. Well, not that. I've tried it. But I mean, like they reckon that first time is like the most euphoric feeling and then you're just constantly chasing that. And I feel like people go through dark times or whatever else and then they have that real positive time and then they're just constantly chasing that feeling again where it's. It's not always going to be that way, and the moment that they don't get it, they start fucking negative again and it's like fuck the circle of life.
Speaker 2:That's so true man.
Speaker 3:But I just try and not do that. I try and see the positives in the negatives.
Speaker 2:See, that's a resilience thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like that means like. To me that sounds like somebody's resilient, Like that's a marking of resilience.
Speaker 3:Yeah, or I'm naive.
Speaker 2:It's not very naive.
Speaker 3:No, I just always say that as a joke. I just don't, I don't know, it's hard, because in my brain it makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like the way that I think. And then when I sometimes I try and explain it, I just like I listen to myself explain it and I'm like that's not what the fuck you mean. Like what do you? This sounds like garbage. And then in my head I'm like no, but I meant to say this.
Speaker 2:Gotcha, how long did you have the dream to open a skate shop for?
Speaker 3:Oh, since I was young.
Speaker 2:Okay and okay then. So then, how long when you actually got serious about I'm going to do this? How long was the process from like okay, we're going to do this, to getting it open?
Speaker 3:To be honest, if we go back so how it come about was Newcastle Skate was pretty much done and dusted and that was like a second home to me Was that in the CBD.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and they had one at Charlestown. Then they closed Charlestown, just had town, and then they reopened too and that closed down and I just I didn't feel a connection again to a skate shop. Like, I love everybody and everyone's doing their thing and I fucking love that. But for me personally, I'm a very firm believer on connection and if I don't feel connected to something, I just I'm like is this the right thing to do? Not like, supporting your friends is all fucking always the right thing to do.
Speaker 3:But I just after a while I was like I hurt my back, I was a concrete cutter. I hurt my back and you know you're laying there having dark days and you're just thinking, fuck, like I was told there was a chance I wouldn't skate again, I wouldn't be able to play sport again and all of those things. And then I just was like no, I'm not, I'm going to skate again, I'm going to play cricket again. And then when I was at work I was just like fuck, dude, I'm just fucking working for somebody else, I'm just doing shit for somebody else.
Speaker 3:Someone else's dream, yeah, and I was like I always wanted a skate shop and I'd lived in Charlestown for so many years and I'd always walk around there and say to Laurie, my girlfriend, all the time, like fuck, charlestown needs another skate shop. And then I don't know what happened.
Speaker 1:It was just one of those moments. You just got the wheels in motion.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think we were like looking to save for a house and stuff like that. And I just come home from fucking work and was like we're opening a skate shop.
Speaker 2:Is that because you were just like I just don't want to go back to concrete cutting and yeah, I just physically couldn't.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, like the pain that I was in every fucking day. Wow, man, yeah, like I'd get out of bed looking like I was fucking 80. My back was just shot to shit and then it led to hip issues and you know, fucking vice versa. And then you know you just keep going and then you're like you're looking at your bank account, going sick. I've got money but I'm miserable.
Speaker 2:Like I'd rather have no money and be fucking happy and you're breaking your body, yeah, which is then breaking your mental health.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then what? So I can have money in my bank account and it's like I just don't. I know as a business owner it sounds fucking weird, but I just don't value money that fucking highly over my fucking mental health and my physical health. So I just yeah, and you know, laurie was just like fuck, let's do it.
Speaker 2:Laurie sounds like a legend. Yeah, she's pretty cool. You know a lot of partners, especially if you're about to buy a house, would be like oppose that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but then are they fucking. Are they really the person for you?
Speaker 2:Good answer Far out. I'm impressed Because I just think a lot of people need to hear it. You didn't hit the fucking button, though Shit. Every time you say something good man, you get the.
Speaker 3:Oh man, that's what I've been working towards. Now I can relax.
Speaker 2:I feel really bad about making jokes about losing your virginity. I don't know. Now it's like I'm fixated. I mean it's a serious thing. I'm sorry I brought it up. I don't know how we started. It's going around in my head Like now I'm going to ruminate on what the fuck can I ask him that? But then part of me wants to know how old you were really and who the girl was, and we'll come back to it. Yeah, it's fucking Dude.
Speaker 3:It's weird because I think that, as you know, the older you get, the more mind blanks you have. Like I was trying to talk, I think, to Laurie on the phone Sunday afternoon. I think yeah, and I just could not fucking get two words together that made any sense.
Speaker 2:Would you describe Laurie as your best friend?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's kind of hard to not say that. Like you know, know what is it, would we say before february be 11 years, and there's not too many times we've had a day apart and we're still both alive, so that's something special. Man, how'd you meet? Oh, we met at the pub. Interesting. Yeah, I was leaving and walking down the road and Laurie actually ran down the road.
Speaker 2:To catch you on your way out, so she'd been checking you out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we'd spoke inside the pub Did you have mutual friends and stuff. No, no, never met each other, but I'm kind of weird with shit like that. I don't like I wasn't a guy that went out and was like, fuck, I hope I find a chick or anything like that. So if I spoke to anyone or whatever else, I've always been such a firm person of like I'm just going to do my own thing and yeah, if it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't, and yeah.
Speaker 2:So you're just being friendly, and then it just sort of evolved from that. Yeah, nice man, nice I don't?
Speaker 3:yeah, that's a weird one to like think back about, because you know my version of how the night unfolded would be different to Laurie's.
Speaker 2:But this goes back to what we were talking about at the start. It's like we have no control in this life, Like you didn't go out that night thinking you were going to meet the most significant person in your life, did you no? But Then the universe just put her there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the part that I believe that you know I was meant to be there at that time. She was meant to be there at that time and, for whatever reason reason, she got the feeling to leave the pub and run down the road.
Speaker 2:Well, some something out there pushed her to do that lori despo. Yeah, awkward, just kidding, no way but yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3:I I think now that it's fucking rad because everyone just meets on Tinder now or some internet dating site, don't get me started. And people are always like, oh, where did you meet? And I'm like at the pub. And they're like, oh, on a Tinder date and I'm like never had Tinder.
Speaker 2:Dude. So it didn't exist when you was last single, or it only just started, or something. Oh, it probably didn't exist. I hadn't.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if we delve too far into my life, everyone's just going to be like fuck, this dude is whack. No, dude, I say it to Laurie like we'll be going somewhere and I'm like you know, like people always assume that males think a certain way or whatever else. But I just grew up with females, so I don't look at women like they're objects or they're there for us or whatever else. I see them as Just fucking humans and just comfortable being around them.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like I don't. You know, like I used to fucking hate it when we'd be like Having a beer or something and the boys would be like, fuck, go out and pick up some women. And you're just like, oh man. Or they'd be like that chick's fucking hammered, go talk to her and you're like, yeah, sick dude, go fucking talk and take advantage of a drunken chick. Like the fuck is that? Like I just hate that whole culture. And then being on job sites and shit, and you hear like the way that dudes talk about chicks in smoko sheds and you're just like they're not a badge of honour man, like you know, they'd be like, oh, mum, you know, on the weekend I did this, this, this and this and everyone would be like fuck you. And you're just like, oh, this is wrong. Yeah, like I'm going to go fucking eat my cheese sandwich outside.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, but that whole dating app thing, it's another dopamine mechanism. People are like swiping, swiping, they get a match, boom, dopamine hit.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then like okay, from my experience it's sometimes like you match and then you don't even talk. I've got the dopamine here. I don't even feel like chatting, I don't even feel like texting. It's not chatting. And then people say oh, we say we're chatting. No, you're not chatting, you're sending each other digital messages.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just I can't do that like I'm a real, like I, if I want to talk to you, I'll just ring you or I'll be like hey, we should fucking hang out and do something like I can't, I don't know. Just I find it so fucking weird that so sorry about the swearing too. It's so bad, dude. You're like the first person to ever swear on here, yeah, but I'm just, I try not to and I swear more.
Speaker 2:Why? Is that something you want to work on personally, no.
Speaker 3:Not at all. It's like that thing of like I don't know, it's so fucking lame, but swearing sounds so cool. What about?
Speaker 2:when you're in the skate shop and you're selling a Christmas complete To a middle aged woman Buying a skateboard for their son's Christmas present.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I know boundaries.
Speaker 2:So you get professional.
Speaker 3:Well, I wait to see what kind of person they are. Then that tells me the level of what I can go to, but I don't know. I think once you break that barrier and you break people down, you can really say whatever you want, and it's how you deliver it. It's the context of what the situation is as well.
Speaker 2:Do you think it's made you a better communicator, being, you know, in each?
Speaker 3:retail. No, I've always been able to talk to people. Have you yeah, it's weird and it's so bad to say, but I've always been able to, but not wanted to. Why? Because sometimes people will talk and it's just for the sake of talking and it seems so pointless. Some conversations, all right, and then you're just like where is this going? Are we just doing this? Because this is the social thing to do? Yeah, so sometimes I just go all right, I'm out I hope you don't feel like that with this podcast.
Speaker 3:No, no, not at all. I hope people don't listen to it and go fuck, is this?
Speaker 2:I mean I'm just gonna get, let's get I do. I want to get in, I want to get into the mind of you and I also want to, but also I see the seat is I want to celebrate. Let's celebrate you. Let's celebrate the life of ty today. What do I want to get into the mind of you? And I also want to, but also I see it as I want to celebrate. Let's celebrate you. Let's celebrate the life of Ty today. What?
Speaker 3:do you want to?
Speaker 2:know. Well, I do like you. Mean, I love how you've already been opening up in the last. However long we've been speaking, you know, but I just have always. I haven't known you that long, but I like the authenticity and just the ability to speak openly about how you feel. You know, I think there can never be enough of that in this world. But what my question is is like, as someone who does speak about how they feel, what happens when that is offensive to someone? How do you manage that?
Speaker 3:It depends what they find offensive, I think, is how my reaction is to that. Like sometimes I can say things that can be deemed as offensive, but then sometimes I'll say things and I'm like, oh, come on, mate, like seriously, like if you find that offensive, like you've got no hope.
Speaker 3:Yeah okay, like as everyone says it and everyone knows it, like being offended is subjective, so like, what I find offensive isn't what you would find offensive or what they would find offensive. So it's so hard to navigate it these days, more so than ever because, growing up, like you know, low-income areas there's such a diversity of people. You basically you survived by taking the piss out of each other and making jokes out of shit situations. So you know, as bad as it sounds like, that's how you did it. You know you took the piss out of people to show that you cared, if that made sense.
Speaker 2:Makes a lot of sense. I mean, let's face it, this, this existence that we are navigating as people who've never actually been here and navigated this experience like we're talking about earlier yeah uh, it's, it's. It can be really dark and really confusing, and I just think one of the smartest ways to do it is to to make a joke out of. That's why I think stand-up comedy and a good stand-up comedian who can turn the darkest thing into a joke.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I think there's something so powerful and so healing about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's great you know, I know there's certain lines that you're like fuck, all right, that's a bit much, or whatever else, I don't know. Man, sometimes I think there's like these people get this sense of like superiority, like when they're like oh, that's offensive. And it's like fuck, shut up. Yeah, like there's so many fucking bad things that are going on in the world and in day-to-day life and you're upset about some words Like okay, cool, yeah.
Speaker 2:Like Do you think that's a privileged thing of people who've never endured any like real suffering, or they've had it too easy?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I used to think that way. I used to think like, oh, what are they worried? I've had it worse than them, but then that's possibly the worst thing that's happened in their life. So you've got to like I've learned that as I've gotten older I have to start taking that into account more, of like like Laurie's taught me a lot about that sort of stuff, like you know. I used to think, oh, that's fucking nothing. And then I'm like then she would go, but that's probably the worst thing that's ever happened to them personally. And I'm like, oh shit, yeah, I didn't think of it like that, yeah. But also I've got this really bad habit of talking without thinking and then not being able to really show remorse for what I've said. Like if it has offended somebody, I just like sometimes I can't get my head around it. Like, no matter how much I know I should be like, oh, sorry man, but then sometimes I'll just be like no, so you've become more conscious that you do that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're conscious of it, conscious that you do that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're conscious of it now, I'm conscious of it. It's still a work in progress.
Speaker 2:Just going back to like why did you stop drinking?
Speaker 3:I just think I wanted to be a better person. Like the area where we grew up in is full of alcohol and drugs. My family relies very heavily on alcohol and I just got to a point where I was like fuck, somebody has to break this cycle. Not to say that I was the one that broke it there's probably fucking heaps of people in my family or whatever that don't drink or whatever else, for whatever reasons but I just alcohol was just everything Like go play cricket, let's drink, go skateboarding, let's drink, go to work to drink.
Speaker 3:And I just feel like it got to a point where it was like this is like we go out for dinner, or I'd go skating, let's say, and I get home and go to Laurie oh, do you want to go to the pub for dinner? The only reason I want to go to the pub for dinner was to drink more schooners. I didn't want to go to the pub for food. And then to get to the point and the amount of times we'd end up at fucking Macca's or Domino's or something because the bistro would shut and I'd be like, oh no, the bistro is shut, oh well, have another beer before we go.
Speaker 3:And I didn't think it was a problem. And then, until you stop, then you realize that it's like, fuck this, and I said it to you earlier. Like I've grown to sort of hate alcohol, but not hate the people that drink, if that makes sense. Like I hate what alcohol does to people, but I'll still go and hang out with people if they're having a beer or whatever else they're drinking. But yeah, I think it just consumed me too much. Like you know, if we were going to, let's say, laurie's dad's for lunch, I'd be like, oh, let's stop and grab a six-pack.
Speaker 3:It's like you don't need it, but you just did it. It was like smoking Do you smoke. Not anymore.
Speaker 2:Okay, dude, pretty clean living.
Speaker 3:Yeah, except for Dr Pepper, and you still got all your teeth. Yeah, that's why I? Have a mustache to cover it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, that's a pretty good advice. You know if that's your only advice really. Yeah, you look healthy. That was the first thing I noticed when you said it. I was like Ty, looks really healthy. Yeah, I think it's just. Do you feel like the longer you don't drink? Going back to that whole, you're a work in progress thing yeah like do you feel like the stopping of the drinking is actually like significant in that journey of self-improvement?
Speaker 3:yeah, I feel like I'm, to put it bluntly, like I'm so much less of an arsehole, like I feel like I was, like I think back to certain people or certain settings or certain places I've been and I'm like, fuck, that person's really cool because I wouldn't still talk to me.
Speaker 2:Right, okay.
Speaker 3:Like you know, just being arrogant and all the rest of it when you're fucking drinking all the time or whatever, like I was, so I can't even think of the word like Obnoxious, yeah, or detached from people Like I just didn't fucking care about anything If it wasn't something that I was interested in. It was like don't care.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 3:And now I think, and I'm like fuck man, so many people hung out with me for so long while I was a pisshead and now they still talk to me. I'm like I look at them and think fuck, you're crazy.
Speaker 2:I mean, have you lost friendships from those days?
Speaker 3:I think, so I realize that I have not much in common with a lot of people other than alcohol.
Speaker 2:That's a big one, that one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like there was. Like you know, you have like sober conversations with the person and you're just like we are nothing alike, we don't have anything in common. The only thing we had in common was 5.30 on Friday afternoon. I'll see you at the pub. But yeah, I think as you get older, you just naturally lose friendships. I reckon, whether it be alcohol, drug, like moving away from places or you know. Like you talk about people sometimes and you label them in certain genres of your life. You're like, oh, that was a friend from school, that was a friend from soccer, that was a friend from cricket, and you start putting them into categories of friendships, not just they're just friends anymore. So I think, yeah, if you start to categorize your friendships, I don't think it's a true friendship, if that makes sense For sure. Like I think you're just like oh, yeah, I'm friends with that guy because we played cricket together. And then, outside of cricket, you see him and you're like, oh, this is awkward, we've got nothing to talk about, it's not cricket season, how would you?
Speaker 2:define a good friend.
Speaker 3:I don't know Different characteristics. I think A good friend is somebody that I like, that age old thing of, like you don't have to see him for fucking five months and then you just get along like a house on fire. I think it's somebody that you feel 100% comfortable with telling them anything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I reckon that's the big one I think that's the thing, like if you're hesitant to say something to someone about them personally or you personally or something that you're feeling. I think that's like more of an acquaintance than a friendship. But I always say to people too, like I don't really have friends. It's like a running joke, like with the guy at the coffee shop that I go to. Every morning he's been running this like same joke about how he's trying to be my friend and I'm like dude, we're just acquaintances. So this has been a run and battle for a while and I find that is a friendship, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like that's a rad friendship, like somebody that's trying to be your friend 100%.
Speaker 2:I think, too, like that was a big one. Going back to what you were saying about friends drinking, like categorizing friends Like drinking buddies- yeah, that was a category of friends Like oh, they're my buddies that I drink with.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I was saying to you and Laurie earlier Like oh, I used to Think I was having all these Deep and meaningful conversations and you get six beers and oh, I love you, man, you're my best friend and stuff. But I just realized like those conversations are pretty empty, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and.
Speaker 2:I reckon I've had more deep and meaningful conversations with my local barista.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah it's weird hey.
Speaker 2:You know, I've learned stuff.
Speaker 3:Dude, have a skate shop and put a lounge in there. Yeah Fuck, you'll have some deep and meaningful.
Speaker 2:Do you feel like you're counseling people sometimes?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm like fuck dude, I should put $15 an hour on the door. That's right though. Yeah, but also there's oversharing.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 3:Sometimes you're just thinking like fuck dude, is there nothing going on in your day that you felt the need to come here and tell me that yeah?
Speaker 2:Do you think you're just coming across people who just want someone to listen to them because they probably don't have anyone else?
Speaker 3:And I'm like going back to it before I'll talk to anyone. Yeah. And I think people know that now. So, like you know, when you like I put it out there and I said the door's always open if anybody needs anything, but then at the same time I think like I know it sounds like a dick thing to say, but I'm like, fuck, I shouldn't have said that. Yeah, because sometimes you have mind-numbing conversations where I'll be staring at the person and just being like fuck, like they don't realize.
Speaker 2:they've just talked at you nonstop for an hour.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I think, like going back, like you know how you were saying, with that dopamine hit of social media, people are telling you things for their own dopamine hit, like they're telling you something to make themselves feel better. And you're just like, did you even ask how my day's going? Like, did you for one second figure out that I might not respond in this conversation because I'm having a bad time? But yeah, some people just fail to see that and I'm not fucking perfect. Like I'm probably guilty of it as well. Like, well, I'm fucking 100% guilty of it.
Speaker 3:Like you know, you've probably had conversations with people and then you've felt it yourself where you've walked off and just went fuck, maybe I just overshared to that dude or that chick so fucking badly and they're probably going through a shit day and all I've done is just unload my shit onto them and then walked off. And then you just go down the road and you're just like, fuck, like what's going on with them now? And then you, like you, you get home and then you start fucking overanalyzing it and you think, fuck, should I message that person? And then you think, fuck, am I just going to look like a dick if now I go. Oh, by the way, how are you?
Speaker 2:You know like, yeah, does that get like? You know, talking to people all day like that sometimes does it get mentally exhausting for you? Yeah, so like, aside from skateboarding, what other strategies do you put in place for your own mental health? Do you have any?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love sport.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't want to sound stereotyped to you. I've stereotyped you as, like, this guy's a pure skateboarder who loves Antihero and John Cartier yeah, well, you're right, there's no way he'd play cricket. Yeah, and I'm just like, and then you're like, I love cricket. I'm like I don't know why I didn't pick it.
Speaker 3:Dude, you should see the dudes at cricket. They're just like who the fuck is this?
Speaker 2:guy, is he playing dickies?
Speaker 3:Yeah, white dickies. But like I rocked up to a game once and I was walking across the field and me and one of the guys had been to the pub first, as you do before cricket, and we're walking across the field.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and the captain of the other team's like oh, mate, just want to let you know, because we had a large each, and the guy's like there's a cricket game going on here soon and I was like yeah, we're playing. And he sort of went ha ha ha. And then I went up, got changed and then had to go down and do the toss because I was the captain and he was like what the fuck is this? And then, not to sound like a dick, but then I proceeded to score 100, that game.
Speaker 2:Dude, did you so you're like a badass at it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I went to the sports high school for cricket, do you?
Speaker 2:remember Merv Hughes? Yeah, I mean, is that why he got the moustache?
Speaker 3:Nah, dennis Lilley, man Dennis Lilley, australia's Fast.
Speaker 2:Bowler. So that's a Dennis Lilley mode, nah.
Speaker 3:Dennis, it's a sick mode. Dennis Lilley was the man he'd come in with that, hey, I remember with that gold chain swinging the chest hair out like golden era.
Speaker 2:You don't see, now they're all shaved and but more views, but his was more of a handlebar, whereas yours is more like. What do you? What did we call this cookie duster? Yeah, is it a cookie d? I don't.
Speaker 3:What's a Cookie Duster?
Speaker 2:Never heard of. You haven't heard of the Cookie Duster. No, it's like it's a way to describe A certain moe shape. Yeah right, you've never seen the Cookie Duster, where they dust the cookies.
Speaker 3:No, who's fucking dusting cookies?
Speaker 2:I don't know, I didn't make up the slang. I don't know where it came from. Look it up, google it what's a cookie duster? And there'll be a picture of Merv Hughes or maybe Dennis Lilley.
Speaker 3:No, I think Dennis Lilley had like a. Now I might be getting their mows crossed.
Speaker 2:Well, no, no, no, remember, like Merv Hughes, his handlebars went all the way down to his chin, but yours don't.
Speaker 3:But did you ever watch cricket at all? Casual, oh well, like, if I'm into something, I'm fucking all the way in. I noticed, like I don't dilly-dally on the sidelines, like I'm not, like, oh, I kind of like that. I'm like fuck, I'm in or I'm out. I'm a very black and white person, Like there's no real grey areas.
Speaker 2:I'm going to challenge that. Yeah, sweet, I think there's way more depth to you than you make out. I think it's like oh yeah, I'm black and white, but I think you go deep yeah maybe Anyway, sorry that's just an observation.
Speaker 3:No, getting back to the moustache Mitchell Johnson in the ashes. He had this sick moustache and just fucking destroyed the poms and then he shaved it off. But then when they went to play the next time, he fucking grew the mustache back and fucking destroyed it again and it's like pfft, really yeah. Now when you watch Mitchell Johnson bowl without well, he's retired now but you watch him bowl without a mustache and you're like who is this guy?
Speaker 2:Just looks shit.
Speaker 3:Just a left-armed nobody.
Speaker 2:Mustache this guy is fucking badass. He's better. Yeah, it must intimidate the batter.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because it just sort of says man, this guy doesn't give a fuck. Yeah, it's like as bad as it sounds or whatever, I'll be walking down the road and dudes will walk past and just go. That's a sick mustache and it almost puts a spring in your step. You're just like fuck.
Speaker 2:Does Laurie like it? I don't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I got the nod she gave you the eyebrows up yeah. But I used to have a super long beard, Did you? And Laurie loved it. And then I wanted to shave it off and she was like no.
Speaker 2:And then I shaved it off and she's like I can't believe I like you with a beard. She thinks she looks better without the beard. Yeah, yeah, but the mo caps it. But hang on a second. My question was like how do you deal with your mental health? And now we're talking about Dennis Lilley. You know what? You're actually pretty hard to interview, sorry. No, that's all right, don't be sorry, it's good, it's a good challenge. Okay, go back to it.
Speaker 3:I'm pretty good at just bouncing back to things.
Speaker 2:My question was like aside from skating, what strategies do you put in place to manage your own mental health? So it's just cricket.
Speaker 3:No, I love, like I watch a lot of sport. I love baseball Interesting, like Paul Laurie has to hear me like every day talk about baseball Interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Baseball cricket, like there's a correlation. Like stick sports.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and when I was at school.
Speaker 3:so how it started was when I was at school I was in the cricket program and there wasn't enough baseballers and I asked and then I got into it like that. Then you know, my favorite skateboarders growing up all wore fucking giants jerseys, like Tony Trujillo. Sf hats, loved SF. My favorite color was orange, started watching baseball and San Francisco Giants were orange and I was like fuck, fuck, this is perfect Interesting. And then I just fucking loved it. I love, like as bad as it sounds. And, going back to it, I always loved when the fucking pitcher threw it at the batter.
Speaker 2:Like as an intimidation thing, as a strategy, yeah, like fuck this guy bang.
Speaker 3:And then there'd be like bench clearing brawls and they'd all run out and fucking. Like I also like the sport there's so much strategy to it right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm a very like. I love sport. Like I love like going back to cricket. I love cricket, but I love test match cricket sport like I love like going back to cricket. I love cricket, but I love test match cricket. I love that there is 11 people out on a field strategically trying to work together, yeah, to unlock a batsman. And you know, they put a field in place and it's like a game of chess, like the batter is trying to counteract the moves that the fielding team are doing. And they might put those strategies in place for, fuck, six overs, seven overs, half half an hour an hour, and then it's just like that one strike ball and then that doesn't work. It's like fuck, all right back to the drawing board. But I like that side of it. I like in baseball when they bring a certain pitcher out just to face a certain batter and then he'll strike him out or whatever and all right, hit the showers, buddy, you've done.
Speaker 3:That's it. Yeah, I just like sport, any sport Interesting. I come from my family's super competitive Interesting.
Speaker 2:Both my sister. Oh yeah, gnarly, what sports were they into Soccer?
Speaker 3:both yeah right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, I was a soccer player.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Well, originally in year seven I was in the soccer program in TSP and then I transferred into cricket.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, see, you're an interesting dude.
Speaker 3:You know what is it Like somebody said to me the other day it's like the Shrek thing, like onions have layers.
Speaker 2:You do have layers.
Speaker 2:I think we all have layers, yeah, but again, like I need to just give myself a bit of a slap over the head because I don't know. Like I speak to a lot of skateboarders. I know a lot of skateboarders and I come across a lot of skateboarders who are like no, it's just skateboarding and I'm a hardcore skater and this is all I do. But I think like I've skated my whole life too I think I was working it out the other day I've skated for like I'm 47 and started skating at 10.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that tripped me out when you told me your age.
Speaker 2:Thanks bro, I mean, I think thanks no, in a good way, I was like yeah, I was like it's like 37 years of skateboarding and, yeah, over the years it's waned, but it's always. It's always been there. I've always had a skateboard and gone through periods. But what I was, the point I was going to make is that, like I do find it challenging when I meet skateboarders who are just like I'm 100% skateboarder and it's like, look, I think so am I, but look, I've got other interests and that's okay, you know. Yeah, it doesn't mean I'm any less of a skater than you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know. I just I think it's such a I don't know closed-minded thing to just be all in on one thing, Like you can't be as much as you want to say it. Like there's no fucking way that people are just into one thing. Like I find that hard to believe, like when people say it.
Speaker 2:The thing is, bro, I just want to come clean here. I stereotyped you as that yeah, that's sick, that's not sick. I'm disappointed in myself for not going. Hey, there's layers to this guy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I stereotype people. It's a natural, fucking human thing to do. Why? I reckon that's how we judge people.
Speaker 2:But why do we?
Speaker 3:judge people then Because you've got to like, you know when people go, oh, don't be so judgmental. And it's like well, how the fuck do I know whether I like the person or not if I don't judge their actions? I think it's a protective mechanism.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like a primal.
Speaker 3:Hey, you have to judge people. Yeah, like, no matter what, like you have to like, if somebody comes up and talks to you, you've automatically made a judgment call, whether you want to talk to this person or not. It's instinct, like you just do it and then you'll walk away and people will be like you're so judgmental and it's like fuck what Well, you're kind of like am I going to be safe here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, at the very core of it it's like am I safe, you know? Yeah, I mean that's what your primal instinct's doing. Yeah 100% Macron or primates. It's like, is this guy going to try and?
Speaker 3:kill me. I just that's. I love the word irk and that's an irk of mine is people that say that fucking shit, what, Don't be so judgmental. And it's like fuck, you're judging me for judging somebody else now.
Speaker 2:Ooh, it's true, man. Yeah, so it's like fuck, like fuck. Just do you think that's some woke bullshit?
Speaker 3:woke. Now, that's a fucking weird one, isn't it?
Speaker 2:I don't know, do you want to go there? If well yeah, what do you lay it on me? No, no, just just, but in line with. I mean, I probably shouldn't have brought that up, but it's more just like, because I do say it sometimes it feels like it can be predominant in that. Whatever you want to call that, culture, movement, whatever, hey, don't judge us and let's be inclusive, but if you don't agree with this, we're going to exclude you. Yeah, and it goes in line with the same as what?
Speaker 3:you're saying, I think it's so.
Speaker 2:Don't judge, don't judge, but I'm judging you for judging.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's so funny that like there's groups out there that hate on other groups and they'll be like you, fucking, haters, fucking, and it's like you're hating right now, yeah, but if you don't agree with this, we're gonna hate on you, yeah. So it kind of trips me. I try and not delve too far into those worlds because I feel like you just left more confused. Like you look into it and then and you try and talk to some of the people that are in those circles and I feel like I'm just like whoa, I, I feel like I don't know really like how to say it without sounding rude, is I feel like sometimes I walk away from those conversations dumber than I was, like, as bad as that sounds, but I walk away and I'm just like, oh man.
Speaker 2:Was skate parks a place of refuge for you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're also intimidating as fuck.
Speaker 2:Okay, so that's interesting because for me, like it was the only place I felt included, you know, and I could be myself.
Speaker 3:Was the skate park that you skated at in your local area.
Speaker 2:Well, we didn't actually. You know, if I'm straight, I'm showing my age here we didn't have skate parks. We didn't have a skate park. Yeah, you know, we used to skate like a concrete bank in a car park that wasn't made for skating for like days on end, yeah, but was it in?
Speaker 3:your vicinity of where you grew up?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and then we used to skate in Kmart car park and it had a few slap of curbs in a man.
Speaker 3:I don't know why I said vicinity, like I was trying to sound smart.
Speaker 2:Well, dude, you used the word completely correctly.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but when? Sorry go. Yeah.
Speaker 2:When I was growing up, like Windale skate park was pretty fucking scary, but is that just because that area would have been gnarly, whether it was just like a frigging slippery dip in?
Speaker 3:a you know what I mean. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it wasn't really representative of skate park culture.
Speaker 3:No, but then I felt intimidated when I went to Newcastle as well. Why, I don't know. I just I feel like the Newcastle skate park. Until and I know it sounds bad until I was involved with the people there, it felt very clicky, Okay, From an outsider's point of view and we'd go down there and just be like fuck. But we were kids, they were probably nice ass and we were just fucking scared.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly Like you would, just because you didn't know, and maybe it's also too because maybe they were summing up to see if you were kooks and you were going to bring what you were bringing to their space.
Speaker 3:Yeah, their environment yeah.
Speaker 2:Are you going to be a kook and ruin the vibe here? Oh yeah, for sure. So maybe it was that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know the local, I don't know, it's a weird one. Like skateboarding just felt different back then. It had like a there was no social media, like it was just skateboarding. Like you had to go to the skate park to see who was skating for the day or go to the pay phone and ring the house phone and then it was like, nah, they're at Johnny's. And then you'd ring Johnny. Oh, no, they're going to Timmy's now. And you're just like fuck yeah.
Speaker 2:Fuck, where is everyone? Yeah, or you'd see them and go. Hey, I'll meet you here at 9 am tomorrow. Yeah, and then you'd be there at 9't there and you're just like Fuck, I just caught two buses to get there, yeah.
Speaker 3:And you're like Well, I might as well Fucking skate anyway. Are you a skater by yourself?
Speaker 2:I am Well. Actually, I went for a skate by myself this afternoon. Yeah, like I wasn't when I was younger.
Speaker 3:Do you find it hard To motivate yourself to do scary tricks?
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:I've got a friend in Wollongong, ty Jeffrey, who will just for no reason just go by himself. I'm going to go oh yeah, 10 stair, just because I haven't jumped down anything for a while. I mean, he's not that young, he's probably 30 now, but just will go and do it, and then sometimes he'll, just because we're in the modern era, just set up his phone on the ground and just film himself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, see, I've been caught in the two minds of it now. Like I don't like social media so much but like, obviously I use it. But lately I've been really wanting to go around and take photos of, like old skate parks and that's only because we started a little photo wall at the shop of all the older places around. And now, looking at those photos, I'm like, fuck, I wish we took more, I wish we did more. But also then there's those moments where you sit around with your friends and you talk about those times and it's just like, fuck, all these people are just imagining this, like because, if, say, we were sitting here talking about a time that me and you went skateboarding and there was a third person here, they're picturing what it was in their head, like it's human nature. So they're picturing something and you like I always think it's funny that I could have been like, oh, I remember that day I did a frontside grind over that thing and they've pictured it. But they're picturing it fucking perfect, it wasn't perfect. No way.
Speaker 3:But in their brain and in their mind, like if you told me that you did a trick today, like say, you said oh, I crooked, grunted the ledge at the pond. There's no way I'm going to imagine that was sketchy. Thank you. Yeah, but you know what I mean. So then, not having that footage there almost gives it this mythical presence.
Speaker 2:Brings the magic back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because you make people imagining what you were doing and you're just like remember that fucking time that such and such did that, and everyone's like yeah, yeah. And there's one person in the room that just goes fuck, and you probably only slid fuck half a metre and in their head they're just like fuck man.
Speaker 2:And then everyone starts telling each other and then it creates like urban myths. Yeah, and like, since I've been in Newcastle and even before I moved up here and back in the 90s, I knew who he was and I probably even skated with him randomly. It was Ben Cox from Newcastle. Oh yeah, and he's just such an OG of Newcastle. But like his name has just been coming up constantly in the podcast and I swear to God he's become like an urban myth of Newcastle skateboarding. Yeah, you know, there's all these Ben Cox stories and actually, while I'm on here, I'll plug it. On the 14th of December at the Paint Studio in Marrickville myself, steve Tierney, chris Yeo from Amnesia Skateboards we're doing a 30 years of amnesia art show from all the artists that have done artworks and all the old amnesia memorabilia oh, that's sick.
Speaker 2:And Jim Turvey is also part of it, bringing out all that stuff. And so where was I going with this? Yeah, ben Cox. Oh shit, I lost my train of thought. Oh fuck, that happens lately. See, that's age right there. I just lost what I was saying. But yeah, urban myths, ben Cox is one.
Speaker 3:I don't think I've got too many open myths. I've never really done anything, but do you?
Speaker 2:think, like going back to what you were saying sorry, I'm talking too much. It's like I hate talking too much on it. Like what I'm saying is like yeah, with the mobile phone era, it's like when everything is being recorded.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I feel like people can get caught up in it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, they can't skate without. Oh, I've got to get a clip every skate, yeah, and also I feel like people gravitate towards the same things because it's so prevalent on social media. Like now you had to hear about a trick back in the day by going to the local skate shop or something you know. You'd walk in and be like well for us. It was like did you hear Simon Lyddiard, ollie, the fucking Leap of Lyddiard. No, like those. Be like. Well for us.
Speaker 3:It was like did you hear simon lyddiard, all he'd, the fucking leap of lyddiard? No, I was like you know, those things were like shit. That was like circulating around skate parks or skate shops or you go to the skate spot and those things were talked about where nowadays it's just like it's just there. And then the one of my other fucking things that irks me the most is when 500 fucking people share the same person's fucking story, like they've done a trick, and then everyone shares it and then people reshare it and then it's like why don't you like it if they're resharing it? I don't know, I really don't have a valid reason. Why do you reckon if they're resharing it? I don't know, I really don't have a valid reason, I think it's.
Speaker 2:Why do you reckon they'd do it?
Speaker 3:Oh, it's like it's obviously to you know, show fucking homie some love and all of that. But sometimes it's like it's too much where. It's like was that that great that it had to be reshared? Like I know that sounds very, very cynical, but sometimes I look at things and I'm like are people sharing that because of the trick or the person? And that really plays on my mind sometimes.
Speaker 2:Or is it clout chasing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, like, oh, this person's got some noteworthy, I'm going to share it. I'm going to look part of the crew. I'm going to fit into the fucking social norms of, oh, the other five of my friends that I go skating with did it, so I better do it. Yeah, and I think sometimes, in saying I think I think, sometimes I think too much about things. Yeah. And then yeah, I think that's a. Sometimes I think too much about things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then yeah, I think that's a good like. That's a double-edged sword, that one, because, like, I think, it can be your greatest strength as well, but it can be a weakness as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, I've always been a fucking thinker and sometimes it's annoying.
Speaker 2:How has it affected you negatively, Because I just just think too much. And then what's the symptoms? What's the knock-on effect on that? Like you mentioned that sometimes you have trouble sleeping.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but then I don't want to be social Like I. Just some days I'm just like fuck, I can't wait to just be at home, nice, and I don't think to just be at home, nice, and I don't think that's a bad thing either. I think too many people are scared to be alone with their own thoughts, and I feel like that's something that I've grown to enjoy. It's like fuck, it's almost like taking a ride at a fucking amusement park. You're just like fuck, I'm alone with my own thoughts. This is a fucking roller coaster.
Speaker 2:Scary sometimes.
Speaker 3:The whole fucking time. I hate roller coasters. They're fucking scary.
Speaker 2:People spend their whole life avoiding being alone with their own thoughts. They numb out on, I mean, alcohol and drugs are very obvious, but they're numbing out on social media. They're numbing out on pornography. They're numbing out on consumerism. They're numbing out on swiping, on dating apps. So everyone's just spending their life avoiding that. Yeah, myself included, well, myself included.
Speaker 3:But I'm working on it. Yeah, I think we all do it, though like to extent, like I'm not innocent in the whole fucking thing, Like I don't have it figured out.
Speaker 2:You didn't say, you didn't.
Speaker 3:No, but I mean like, sometimes when you say things, it can be interpreted by certain people as like oh, fucking, yeah, this guy's killing it, he thinks he's killing it, you know, but I'm just, I don't know. I think as I've gotten older, I've just learnt to accept that I'm me and this is the fucking ride we're on and let's just fucking go with it.
Speaker 2:These are kind of spiritual themes. You're bringing up man. You know that, don't you? Yeah, but Like if you spoke to a Christian, for example, that's what they're doing, that's having faith. That that's actually what you're talking about is like a form of having faith.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm a very firm believer in energy Okay, energy okay and like vibes and stuff, like not to be like I don't know, I don't go down the hippie train of like not to say that's a bad thing.
Speaker 3:I think that shit's rad, but it's just not me like. But I love that people are into that stuff, like what's? Yeah, people getting in touch with nature and shit that shit's fucking rad. Like, go for it. Like in saying that I don't want to do it, like I just it's not me, yeah, but I think it's sick. But I'm a big believer anyway in energies and, like you know, put positive vibes out there, you're going to get it back. You put negative shit out, you're going to get negative back, yeah, and I don't know. I never thought of it like spiritual way, I just think of it as living.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. We're talking about age a bit. As I'm aging, I'm actually becoming, I believe, about what you're saying more and more, because so much crazy shit's happened in my life and I guess I'm having like maybe some would call it a midlife crisis. But you start to have these existential ideas about well, why am I here?
Speaker 3:Do you think it's a crisis or a realization?
Speaker 2:Actually, crisis is the wrong word, because exactly what you're saying it's like all of a sudden I'm finding he's more peace. Yeah, like I'm just like that's not worth worrying about. Fuck it, I'm good.
Speaker 3:I'm good, I think, like I say to people sometimes you've got to go through so much negativity to be so positive, and I firmly believe that has to happen.
Speaker 2:But see that breaks a lot of people. Dude, like the fact that it didn't break you makes you kind of exceptional.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it breaks most people.
Speaker 3:Like I was saying before, like before we started this, like I look at life as the universe has thrown the shit my way because it, for some unknown reason, thinks that I can absorb it and can keep moving and maybe somebody else couldn't absorb it. So I just look at it as like a badge of honour, like in a way of like not I'm fucking, I survived this badge of honour, but like a badge of honour that the universe in some way, shape or form thought I was strong enough to handle this situation. So it's thrown it my way and just went there you go.
Speaker 2:Do you think you've done it on willpower alone?
Speaker 3:No, not me. There's been plenty of other people that have helped me.
Speaker 2:Through your mental struggles.
Speaker 3:Yeah, mental, like people don't realize that they're helping, like they're indirectly helping.
Speaker 2:Just like, but helping you like with what you've been through.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:In some of maybe some traumatic things that happened as a kid.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, so you haven't done. You don't feel like you've done. You've had to do it all alone. You've had support with that.
Speaker 3:No, I don't. Yeah, I definitely don't think this has all been me. Okay, like that. I know people that have that mindset, that have gone through some dark things and risen from it and just been like, fuck, you know, I did this and I'm like you did yeah, you did, but fuck, thank the other fucking hundred people that helped you along the way. Like it's very selfish to think that you can go through so many bad things and then come out the other side and think that it was just all you Like. Everybody needs help, everybody.
Speaker 2:They do. That's what I've learned over the years that, like you, can have the strongest willpower in the world, but it's still. I think it takes something exceptional to really help you. And, like I constantly hear people say, oh, the universe has got me back on this one, or the universe did that Like, is that a reference to, like something supernatural? You know, that's what I'm starting to think.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm just brainstorming here Like to go down that road. I don't fucking think we're alone.
Speaker 2:That's what I mean, and that's what I'm starting to feel more and more. If I had said this 20 years ago I would have laughed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I, If I had said this 20 years ago, I would have laughed. Yeah, I would have just been like fuck, have another beer, buddy. But I think that you can't. It's very naive to think that it's just us.
Speaker 2:I really, really used to Like I don't know what it is.
Speaker 3:Like a guy asked me the other day if I was religious and I said I'm not religious, but I believe there's something. I don't know what it is and I don't think as humans we're meant to know. Like I've gotten to that point where I'm pretty comfortable with like yeah, like we're just here to fucking enjoy this part of it, and then the next journey will be shown when we get there can I ask that?
Speaker 2:why did he ask if you were religious? Was it just you having your conversation?
Speaker 3:yeah, there's a I can't remember what they are. They across the road um jehovah's witnesses, yeah, and they, they perk up at the bus stop or perch up and yeah, you just come over and start having a conversation and, like I said, I'm not, like I might not be religious, but I'm not one of those fucking people that just wants to shut the door on them and fucking Like everyone else. Yeah, I just feel like that's such a shit way to treat people.
Speaker 2:It really is. But you know those people, man, I'm telling you, I've spent my whole life shutting the door on them and giving them shit. I did for a long time, yeah, but if you actually stop and talk to them and the shit they're talking about, it's some pretty supernatural shit.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, it's like that's pretty heavy. You know, like if you really think about it and how much conviction and belief they have in it, it's like that's I mean that's brave, like would you go and knock on some random dude's house because you had this belief in something like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I wouldn't do it, I'd be so scared.
Speaker 2:I crack up like and then they get told to fuck off and they go, okay, and they leave.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like if I Get enough to fuck off all day. I was thinking about it. That was a weird burp. Hey, it's cute, it's cute. I don't like the C word. Fuck, no, like my mate the other week. He was like oh, they're a fucking cult. It's a fucking cult. And I was like yeah. And I was like Don't you play footy For a local fucking sporting team? Thank you, you pay money to go there. He's like that's insurance. And I was like, yeah, but you're told to be there at a certain time and you be there. You're told a certain job on the field and you follow those instructions and all of that. Like it's the same fucking thing really CrossFit gyms.
Speaker 3:Come on now, yeah now that is a fucking cult. I don't. That shit scares me, like you know what scares me the most is walking past the apple store before it's open. Yeah, that's a cult and they're all cheering and shit and fucking. Yeah, doing aerobics together and dude.
Speaker 2:My friends own a skate shop in wollollongong, Kingpin Skate Supply. Best dudes, good friends, and when they were doing the SB Dunk Nike SB Dunk releases like, people were like I don't know what was going on. I was really out of touch with what was going on. You probably know more than me and they were sleeping out overnight lined up on the street out the front of the shop. Do you remember that era? Nah, Just to get these like because there's a raffle for the Dunks or something or the Dunks would.
Speaker 3:Only Was that like there was one with kickflips as well. Kickflips Like there was something to do with the shoe. You had to do a kickflip in them when you first got them.
Speaker 2:No, no, no. No like a different one, but with Nike, I don't know, but anyway, Limited release Nike Dunks and like oh, yeah, and it was like and then, yeah, basically like people and you can only buy them through shops, you couldn't buy them online or something. Anyway, come on, sorry, short, people were sleeping. I was like that is a cult.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know Very culty Are you getting tired?
Speaker 2:No, no, no.
Speaker 3:What else you got for me? I've got some questions for you, sick. How far are we going?
Speaker 2:Look, how far are we going. Okay, I've got a question for you. I'll write this one down. Aside from John Cartier right, who are some other skaters that have made a strong impression on you over the years.
Speaker 3:Eric Dresen oh nice.
Speaker 2:I love Eric.
Speaker 3:Dresen skateboarding Yep, obviously Julian Stranger. I think he's fucking the myth. He kind of is yeah, yeah, I love that shit. Jason Jesse I was given a Jason Jesse board when I was younger and then I watched the video and saw him do a frontside ollie on a vert ramp and I was like fuck Best. Yeah, I was like like I need to fucking do that jay adams he was. I know everyone fucking has their issues with him with whatever he fucking supposedly did or didn't do, I don't know.
Speaker 2:But I mean, he's the man like yeah, I don't know, it's's the OG, the O-O-OG. Yeah, it's fucking raw In terms of yeah, that modern skateboarding OG, you know, the one that got it away from going in and out of cones, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3:I fully look at like I'm attracted to those types of skateboarders like that more of a I don't really fucking care side of it where, yeah, I'm not really down with what is it Street League. Like I watch that and I'm just like fuck, I'm so bored?
Speaker 2:I did have a question about something similar, but why are you so bored with Street?
Speaker 3:League. It's just so robotic. But why are you so bored with street league? Just so robotic. It's like I say to people like I'm fucking nobody in skateboarding, but when I watch it.
Speaker 3:I'm just not excited. I get it Like I don't watch it and fucking go fuck, that was amazing. I just watch it and go, okay, cool, like it's not that I don't, the level of skateboarding is fucking nuts. But it just doesn't get me Like I don't watch Street League and think, fuck, I want to go skateboarding. I watch Street League and go, fuck, I might put the kettle on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but it's so sporty. I went to street league in sydney last year and I mean it was. I loved it because I caught up with a bunch of old friends. But this is a weird observation uh, someone did a 50 50 on a knee-high ledge, shove it out as just like a, like a in-between trick, as they're set up for who knows what. Yeah, and I got really stoked on that trick because I'm like, oh, that's something I might be able to do. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I was like, oh, no way, like I might be able to do that. That's sick. You know what I mean, because everything else is just like.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think that's the thing is like I just like simple skateboarding done stylish yeah. And I just get bored.
Speaker 2:You appreciate the athleticism.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and it's weird because I love sport, that's what I was going to say. But, like, I want skateboarding, I skateboard because it's not sport and that's my. But when I was younger, that was my getaway from sport was to do that. So I never wanted the two worlds to collide and I think that's just why I don't not that I don't not like competition, skateboarding or anything like that, it's just not me.
Speaker 2:All right, you don't want the two to be mixed? Yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 3:It's like I want to go skateboarding to get away from the sports side of life.
Speaker 2:How'd you feel about the Olympics? Well, I didn't make it, so fuck it. What do you mean? You didn't make it. I've seen you training.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know, I trained so hard too, but come on, give me your observations on the Olympics.
Speaker 2:Let's go.
Speaker 3:I didn't watch it.
Speaker 2:How do you feel about it in general?
Speaker 3:Don't care. Look, and that's 100% honesty is I don't care. I'd never watched it. I didn't care for it. Yeah, like, as sad as it fucking sounds, I just watched the same fucking skate videos that I've been watching for the past fucking 20 years.
Speaker 2:Look, can I make an observation, because I haven't really got a chance to do it on. Here Is that all right. I mean the level of skating, especially for the men's street, because that was the only one I fully watched, and I watched the men's park purely because I wanted to watch Kieran Woolley from Wollongong. I mean the standard was so mind-blowingly high and in my opinion the athleticism of those guys and the risk that they were taking and potential harm to their bodies was well beyond most athletes in the Olympics, in my opinion.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then when I found out, like how much money that they were actually getting paid to be there, and look, I know they're getting endorsement deals with their sponsors, but who cares, they're going to get them anyway. And the amount of money the Olympics makes.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And the amount of money that the skaters weren't making. I'm like, because I do like seeing skaters make money. I'm like fuck yeah, because how hard is it for?
Speaker 3:a skater to make money.
Speaker 2:It's just corporate greed, no one makes money skateboarding, you know, and so it's like that. I'm just kind of like and Tony Alva apparently said it the best, he said the Olympics needs skateboarding more than skateboarding needs the Olympics. Yeah, anyway, thanks for letting me rant.
Speaker 3:No worries, man, that's all better. I was going to say that's what I'm here for, but I'm yeah, he's like you all right now. I feel good you might be able to sleep now.
Speaker 2:Dude, thanks, man.
Speaker 3:No worries.
Speaker 2:It's funny how we connected on a serious note about the lack of sleep thing, man, because, like you know, poor sleep has plagued me my whole life. Yeah, I hate it, but I like it and that's what's interesting, because, like those hours at 1, 2 in the morning when everyone else is asleep, they can be dark hours if you don't like what's going on in your mind.
Speaker 3:Yeah, some nights it is very, very dark.
Speaker 2:So you said you do things like try to educate yourself in that time.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know. I've always been interested in human behavior. So I like to watch a lot of shows about, like I don't know, the human brain and like you know, the way we conduct ourselves, the hands, all of those sorts of things. But then I'll fucking watch that for a little bit, the way we conduct ourselves, hands, all of those sorts of things. But then I'll fucking watch that for a little bit and then watch a fucking episode of my Name is Earl in between it, like I think there's got to be balance, like you can delve, like you know, in whatever you're looking into or whatever you can go down the rabbit hole of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Of whatever else, but you've got to be able to bring yourself back out of it. Yeah. And what's a better way than fucking? My name is Earl.
Speaker 2:Do you ever watch it? I mean, I was watching it. That's. Jason Lee yeah, no one understands that it's.
Speaker 3:Jay Lee yeah, do a tray flip. I know right what does he say the pow. You know, like in his nine club. He's like nobody does the pow anymore, like the board doesn't slap into the feet. It's all that. He hates that stanky leg, tray flip, oh where they catch with the front foot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, he's like well, bring back the pow. Yeah, it's true. Eh, mm, mm, it's funny. I used to have tray flips so consistent, and then I remember one day I was with a guy. He's like, yeah, do the stanky leg tray and like show you how to do them. And it ruined my trays Because I was trying to copy that and I don't reckon I've ever had trays as good. Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3:I've never had trays, I've never had flips.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're not for everyone.
Speaker 3:I've never. I was always like I found it weird when I'd like we'd be at the skate park and kids would be doing kickflips. It's like there's a fucking ledge there or there's a quarter pipe or there's a rail. I just didn't take that shit to the car park. Yeah, like, why did you skate all the way to the fucking skate park to play flat ground skate?
Speaker 2:Well, the barracks had a lot to do with that movement yeah, I never got down with the barracks either with the battle of the barracks yeah I went through a state in the early days, so close-minded, no well, it's like you said earlier, it's like you like what you like yeah, it's, it's like skate, like skate parks, or I'm just.
Speaker 3:If I'm not attracted to it and I don't feel a connection with it, I can't get into it. And I'm not going to just get into it for the sake of everybody else's getting into it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I just never really watched it Fair enough. Oh, actually no, I did check out a lot of the time that. What is it First Try Fridays.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I thought that was sick.
Speaker 2:That was pretty sick. They stopped it, though, because it was like I think they were too scared of people getting injured. Yeah, it's cold. And then they throw themselves down a tent stick. Yeah, straight out the car, fuck that. It was the entertaining shit.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It did. I don't know, Like I haven't been following the gossip or the news, but I don't know what happened with the barracks.
Speaker 3:To be honest, I don't. Yeah, they just died. Hey, you think like being in a skate shop six days a week? I'd know more about skateboarding.
Speaker 2:You don't watch Gifted Hater or anything. No, you know who Gifted Hater is.
Speaker 3:Somebody asked me that the other day.
Speaker 2:I think you'd really like him.
Speaker 3:He showed me one episode of the guy and I was like fuck this guy.
Speaker 2:You know it's funny, I was the same. I was like, well, this is some dude just with a fucking laptop. But I've got to say, man, he speaks some fucking truth and he says some bold shit that people need to hear. Yeah, and a lot of this stuff he's saying is like that's pretty on point.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:And I think you'd actually like him personally.
Speaker 3:Yeah, do you know what? I watch baseball a lot at the skate shop.
Speaker 2:So you think it's your way of not getting too involved in the politics of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't want to be involved in it. I just want to ride my skateboard and sell skateboards and talk about how rad skateboarding itself is. It is rad.
Speaker 2:Listen, man, I want to start to wind it up, but I've got a few last sort of things I want to ask you to touch on. The first one is, like we're talking about the Newcastle skate scene and I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit Like how do you, how would you sum up the Newcastle skate scene in general?
Speaker 3:Disconnected.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, do you want to leave it at that?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah, do you want to leave it at that? Oh yeah, I just, I feel like everyone's um. I feel like social media has a lot to do with it, a lot to do with the um. Yeah, it's really, it's a very, very too cool vibe for me, like you gotta, you gotta be friends with certain people and hang out at skirt and skate spots and yeah, I feel like a lot of people and this sounds bad, but a lot of people from town don't see it but a lot of people from out, like our way, notice it a lot more, and it's probably the same out here, like out in Lake Macquarie area.
Speaker 3:But yeah, it just seems to be like there's certain groups that if you're not affiliated with that or you're not in that sort of clickiness, then you're sort of just on the outside. And that's not just my opinion, that's through what I get from other people coming into the shop. Okay, yeah, it's very weird because I don't see it mostly. So it's kind of like secondhand information at the same time. Yeah, but yeah, it feels like there's just a I don't know. I think it's just a generally fucking weird disconnected vibe amongst society. That's a good observation.
Speaker 3:Like it's not just skateboarding and I think we just lump it into skateboarding, but it's just humans.
Speaker 2:It kind of is man yeah it really is Like being new to the area, I'm very disconnected from everyone.
Speaker 3:So yeah, more so, yeah, or more so. I think skateboarding is suffering from the disconnection in society. Okay, I like that. Like that's more to the point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I feel that in society, I mean as a high school teacher.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know like I mean, I've been a high school teacher for a while now. I see, just I've just watched the mental health of young people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I also. I also feel disconnected myself from people, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:But you seem like you know a lot of people.
Speaker 3:I know a lot of people and everything like that, but I don't talk about my past a lot and I think people have this preconception of who I am, but they don't know why I am who I am, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Can I ask, though where are you getting your information from in regards to this perception of what people have of you? Like? What are you basing that on? What do you mean? Well, you said like people see me a certain way, but because they tell me that like after conversations I have with them.
Speaker 3:They're like oh, that's what you're getting I thought you were fucking or you know this or be that, but you're actually not.
Speaker 2:That that's the feedback you're getting from people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay and I'm like, oh no, dude, like, but it's, it's crazy. I think in society at the moment we judge people on just what they say, without wondering why they're saying it, if that makes sense. Like you know, people have judgments on things and stuff like that, but we don't really delve into. Okay, well, we just go. Well, that's a shit judge. Like you know, they've said some shit but we don't really delve into. Okay, well, that, we just go. Well, that that's a shit joke. Like you know, they've said some shit but nobody really wants to delve into why they said what they said because of like what's their experiences have been and what's led them to this point in life like people.
Speaker 3:I think we're so fucking afraid. Yeah, to find out about people's experiences. Yeah, and I don't think people like I know I don't talk about it enough.
Speaker 2:About your past.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so then it would give more, so more people of an insight into why I am a bit more carefree about things.
Speaker 2:How do you feel when you do open up about your past to people or in public? What does it do for you?
Speaker 3:Well, it gives people a better understanding of the reasons like I am the way I am and the way I think and those sorts of things. So that takes a bit of pressure off in a way, those sorts of things. So that takes a bit of pressure off in a way. Like I feel like when people get to know who I truly am and not that fucking, like you said, that mythical fucking, whatever it is, I think then people start to understand more. And I don't think we do that well as a society at the moment 100%.
Speaker 2:We're just looking at the surface. Yeah, yeah and nobody.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know, it's fucking weird man.
Speaker 2:Oh, it is like one example I'll give you at school as a teacher. A kid will come to school, get might get sent to my office because they're told to teach you to fuck off, or something like that. I'm like dude, like what's going on yeah and then they'll go.
Speaker 2:And then the second you go like, I'll say, like are you okay? Like what's going on? Yeah, and then they'll go. And then the second you go like, I'll say, like are you okay? Like what's going on? Why did you do that? You know, and every time. Oh, I didn't sleep last night because mom and dad were fighting all night and I've had no breakfast, and then that teacher had a go at me and I just clicked. You know what I mean. So, like there is behind everyone, there's, there's a story yeah, and I don't think we hear the stories enough.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I agree, and people are so quick to judge people's actions based on their experiences and not the other person's experience. Yeah, that's a good observation. Like I do it all the time, like I'll judge somebody on what they've done and then be like 24 hours later, go fuck. I should have tried to understand why they did what they did, yeah, not just hammered them for what they did. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's good man, that's like, that's next level stuff.
Speaker 3:It's growth, yeah, but like I was saying earlier, you've got to go through shit Like I only come to this because I watch a lot, because I don't sleep, because of past trauma.
Speaker 2:Dude, I'm so sorry to hear that man, I did it. You shouldn't apologize. It wasn't you, I know, but I'm just, I guess, like I don't know. I feel sad hearing that you know. I do yeah but then it's also shaped me into who I am today okay, and you acknowledge that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I wouldn't be who I am now without that.
Speaker 2:So dude, that's what I mean. Like it's pretty. It's pretty exceptional, because a lot of people would have succumbed to ways of avoiding numbing out and not like. My mom said it to me once I was going through a really hard time. She's like my as far as I'm gonna like. My mom said it to me once when I was going through a really hard time. She's like, as far as I'm concerned, my mom's like the biggest guru in the world, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And she's just like there's no shortcuts and you've got to walk through the fire. That's what she said. You've got to walk through the fire, yeah. And then when you do that, that's when you'll find the peace, the contentment and the satisfaction. But you try to avoid it. The problem's not going anywhere. The fire's still going to be there. There's no way around it. Yeah, but at the same time, how do you walk through the fire? Through grit and determination and support and reaching out and being fucking honest with yourself and everyone else around you.
Speaker 2:That's what I mean, you can't fake the funk.
Speaker 3:Yeah, people need to hear that out and being fucking honest with yourself and everyone else around you and you know.
Speaker 2:That's what I mean, that's what people and you can't fake the funk.
Speaker 3:Yeah, people need to hear that though. Yeah, because too many people fake it.
Speaker 2:They do and they can get away with it. Sometimes they'll get away with it for years, but the truth will always catch up with you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like I'm in no way shape or form, am I an angel? Like fuck dude. I think back to some of the shit that I've done over the years and I'm like fuck, I've got some bad karma coming my way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but do you feel like that's shaping your identity? You know what I mean? Like maybe you don't have bad karma because maybe you're making amends to people through your behaviors and action, by being kind and being loving to your partner and being a good son and helping people in the skate shop. Maybe you won't get bad karma.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I don't know. At the same time, I'm heaps positive. I always think that I've been tarnished with a bad luck brush, like everything that I, I don't know Not everything, but like a lot of shit that I do. Something goes bad from it and you're just like Fuck. Come on, man, like just give me one win.
Speaker 2:I look at a dude who's having heaps of wins man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you gotta have Fuck dude, you gotta have wins Even. Yeah, I don't know. I just like I said, I think I think too much and then my brain just doesn't stop.
Speaker 2:Again, I reckon it's a gift and I think personally I'm sorry if I'm speaking out alone here, but I feel like you're in a process of harnessing it. You're on that journey Because I think it's a gift, it's not a hindrance, and I think you're harnessing it and you're working out how to utilize it in a positive way. I can tell Even by the things you're saying and the way you're acting. I can just tell oh, thank you. Sorry, unsolicited psychological advice, that's completely inexperienced and has no credibility.
Speaker 3:Advice is fucking rad.
Speaker 2:No, but I just like, if I had to observe you and all the things you've said to me in the last hour and 42 minutes, okay, you just it's very obvious that you're someone that's like living their truth through your behaviors and actions, and even the stopping of the drinking is very significant.
Speaker 3:But I think, when you come from the world that I did, you can't fake it, you can't hide it. You can't like I can't. This is the fucked up thing. I can't unsee what I've seen and, as much as I'm positive, I can't ever unsee that every night.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:So that in itself. Then sometimes when people go, oh, you know, like you've come so far and it's like, yeah, I have, but also like there's so much that goes on behind the scenes that I'm just like smiling and joking all the time, and then when I go home I'm like, fuck, no, but yeah, I don't know. Man, it's really hard because you want to be so positive and so I don't know uplifting and tell people everything's going to be all right. Why, knowing that there's so much fucking shit out there. So I think that's the worst battle that I have is every day I wake up and I'm like fuck, like I want to be positive and I want to be happy and I'm going to take that carefree attitude into life. But then at the same time there's that little voice in the back of your brain that's like ah, shit's not that great.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, you don't have to look far to realize that there's a lot of brokenness in the world.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but how do we fucking you can't? Yeah, I know, and that starts to make me angry.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I know that's bad.
Speaker 2:Gotcha.
Speaker 3:Because, like I start getting like fixated on things Like why, and then that leads to the not sleeping, and then that leads to the overstimulation of other things, and then some days you might get it you wake up and you fucking don't know who you are.
Speaker 3:Yeah dude all the time. Yeah, and then you know, then I said it to Laurie the other day I was like then I feel like sometimes I can project that on the customers, Like one day they'll come in and I'm happy-go-lucky, tie, and then the next day they come in and I've got something super important and I'm short and I'm blunt and then I'm like fuck. And then that leads me back to what we were talking about before. When I walk into skate shops and see that people aren't interested, Then I'm like fuck, I hope I'm not being that because I'm not interested.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you can't be on every day. No, I mean I don't want to say his name, but a friend of mine who also owns a skate shop, he's been doing it for many years, I mean yeah, I mean he's gone through periods where he just can't even look at a customer because he's just like, oh, do I have to have that same conversation again? And whatever, like you know, and then it fluctuates, it goes through like seasons of like that, and then you'll have these inspirational periods.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think most people would appreciate that, as long as you're not being a complete prick Tom. No no, but you can't, you can't. It sounds like I don't know if you could keep that standard all the time. Man, like, do you hold yourself at a high standard now?
Speaker 3:Yeah, because that results back to that. I want everybody to feel what I did when I walked into the skate shop yeah, okay. So then sometimes I feel when customers leave and I haven't been that like what I think is up to standard of service, I get real bummed. I just like how you care so much and then I'm like fuck, I don't want that person not to like skateboarding. It's so nice, you care. Yeah, I think more, so I don't really care what they think about me. Yeah.
Speaker 3:More so than I want them to not think that people in skateboarding are assholes. Yeah. And I want them to walk out and just be like maybe he was having a bad day, but skateboarding's rad.
Speaker 2:Man, it is rad and it's been like a pretty long conversation and I don't know, man, is there anything you want to end on? No, no, no. How can give the people some advice about how they can support a local skate shop? What are they going to do? Give them some tips. Ty's tips.
Speaker 3:I don't just fucking. I think that the one thing I've noticed in skateboarding is one thing I had growing up that you know a lot of other people have was loyalty. Okay, and we as a skate shop and I know fucking every other skate shop around here and around australia gives back to the community. Like you know, like a kid comes in, he's got a buster bearing. You put the bearing in, you give it you've. You know it's got a shitty board, you got an old board out the back. You give it to them, you get them on their way. You give away whatever you can. You try and support the local skateboarding community and you give to these younger kids and then when they need a board, they buy it on OCD online and you're just like what the fuck? Okay, like you come here every day or every second day to get. You know oh, I need to loosen my trucks, I need a skate tool, I need to use the bathroom. Can I put my drinks in your fridge?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And then they come in later on and they've got a brand new board from somewhere else and you're like, oh man, that hurts, okay. So I think more so, just loyalty to your local, whichever skate shop it is, but if it's independently owned, just buy from them. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like whatever skate shop it is. If you're in an area that you're not from, try and go buy a sticker. Yeah, yeah, like anything. Yeah, like a souvenir. Yeah, just I Like anything. Yeah, like a souvenir. Yeah, just, I don't know. When I was younger we just you, supported the ones that supported you, and now it just sort of feels like kids just bounce around until they find whichever shop's going to give them a deal, gotcha. And if they don't get the deal from the shop, their parents go to City Beach or surf, dive and ski and buy the $40 fucking enjoy board. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's just yeah, and chances are they're going to buy the wrong size board. They're not going to get the experience. They're not going to get the advice that comes along with it. That's the reality.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that I don't know. I don't think most kids care enough anymore about the local skateboarding shop, Like when we do like the games of skate and we give stuff away. Fuck dude, so many people I've never seen before roll up, yeah, Because there's something to get for free, yeah, and then you never see them again until you put another thing on for free and then they pop their head up and not to say that you know, they're kids, man, they don't know any better. Yeah so.
Speaker 3:I think, as local skate shops and the older people in the community need to communicate to the younger kids more about those things. Even if you're at your local skate shop and you're an older dude or an older chick and there's some youngsters there and you can say that you know, go and give them some advice, tell them to maybe, if you need a new board man, go see fucking the guys in town at either shop in there.
Speaker 2:Because, just to clarify, like most skate shops will have like a bargain bin as well. You've always got sales on. There's always sales boards. So it's like, let's say, you're a young person who doesn't have a lot of money and then like I'm just going to jump online and buy something cheap online. It's like, well, you can still do that through your skate shop. Yeah, 100%, and you can still do that through your local skate shop's online skate shop.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know skate shops online skate shop. Yeah, and so it's like put the money where it's going to support your community.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's made it kind of like socially like kids are socially awkward at skate parks and stuff. Now because we found ourselves and our voice inside skate shops and at skate parks how to communicate with other people and all of that. So I think that's one thing, that if everyone keeps buying online and doing that sort of stuff, then you know if you bust a bearing at the local skate park, where are you going to go get your bearings from. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:You got to wait three days online for them to be delivered to your house. Yeah, yeah, that's just a bit like I don't know. Fuck dude, everyone's struggling at the same time and everyone's looking for to make ends meet it's true, man. So it's challenging times at the same time of saying that fuck, you gotta do what you gotta do, 100 man, you gotta do it and if you got to do 100 man, you got to do it.
Speaker 3:And if you got no money and somebody's got a 20 dollar board, you're probably gonna buy it yeah, who knows?
Speaker 2:but anyway, I think that it's good insight to see what's going on, to hear it from you.
Speaker 3:So yes, I've yeah, but look, we're only new to this game.
Speaker 2:Yes, and no, you know skateboarding. You're a lifelong skateboarder, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:In terms of the business side of things.
Speaker 3:Well, I worked at the skate shop for eight years when I was younger.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know the ins and outs.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and my opinions are just my opinions.
Speaker 2:Hey, where did the name Amigos come from? Just liked it. Yeah, just friends.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's right friends.
Speaker 2:yeah, that's right and I fucking hate the show friends, so I couldn't call it friends, but it was an idea like you just wanted to be like I just wanted everybody that come to the shop to be a friend. Yeah, I love it. I love it, man. I've been to mexico and there's a mexican restaurant in my of Wollongong called Amigos. Oh sick Dude, I know Like. I mean seriously, when are you going to get a little taco? Stand out the front of the shop.
Speaker 3:Nah, if I ever do, man, it'll be a burger shop.
Speaker 2:Really, yeah, sounds bad, I'll be there. All right, man, we'll leave it there. Mr Ty Nielsen, everybody, thank you you, thank you, thank you.
