Robert Brink - Writer

Danny Supa Unedited Interview!

January 31, 2007 | Skip To The Comments (1)

Here's the full-length interview from my Danny Supa piece in this month's issue of The Skateboard Mag

How long have you been in Venice now?
Goin' on seven years now. I just try to head back east a lot, that's all.

Ya I'm from NJ. Been here a little over two years, but I'm kinda homesick. I got home every two months or so.
Ya, I hear ya there. It's a big change.

I see you still got the 917 area code though.
Yeah, haha. Gotta keep it.

And you are 27 right now?
I just turned 28 on October 13.

What are you working on lately?
Just trying to finish up filming for the Nike video because we have some deadlines coming up for the footage. Then working on the Stereo video is after that.

Any idea when that is supposed to drop?
Probably later in 2007. It's gonna take a while to edit. We have a lot of skaters and it's gonna be pretty crazy.

Were you born in Thailand?
I was actually born in the Bronx in New York. My mom moved me to Thailand for three years when I was really young because she had to stay in the US and make money for us to live there. But both my parents are from Thailand and me and my sister were born in New York.

Do you remember being in Thailand as a kid?
Ya. I went to school out there and wrote and spoke Thai and everything. I can still speak it but I can't write it at all.

So when did you move back to New York?
Around the fourth grade.

So were you happy living there? Or were you more psyched to move to New York?
I was so young back then it didn't even matter to me. I was just happy to be wherever—Thailand or New York.

I heard you might have some good Thailand stories as well. Got one for us?
We went to this town called Lop Buri. It's like a monkey town pretty much. And in the town there are these two places where the monkeys hang out at where people can go see them and stuff. And there's like 50 to 80 monkeys just running around, like across the streets and runnin' on telephone poles and stuff—its nuts. So every year they have a festival for the monkeys, 'cuz it's a monkey town, so the people lay out a bunch of fruit and stuff every year and the monkeys come and eat it. And they have these signs saying "watch your purse" and stuff, because the monkeys will snatch your purses. This one monkey punched a bunch of holes in Joey Pepper's water bottle 'cuz Joey was messing with 'em. They are pretty crazy lookin'.

So people just sit around and wait for monkey drama?
Yea, the monkeys will start fighting with amongst themselves, or you can buy food at the place to feed the monkeys. Just throw it to the monkeys and they will catch it. And they will just flip around and hop off the benches and jump into the water and stuff. It's pretty funny. We got a bunch of pictures.

So is your family still in Thailand?
Ya, my mom has been there for about five years now, because she retired from being nurse in the Bronx. And my sister lives actually in New York.

Do you get to visit your mom a lot?
Actually I got to go twice in the past year, but before that I hadn't been there for fifteen years. So it was kind of a trip seeing my family all grown up.

We you and Harold Hunter good friends?
Ya, we were good friends.

What's the one thing you miss the most about him?
Oh, there's like a million things. He would always make everyone laugh and do something that Harold would do, ya know? Like whatever town we would go into each night on a Zoo tour, he would make an announcement about all this stuff he was going to do, like "I'm gonna party tonight, I'm gonna do this!" and "I'm gonna do that!" And we would be like "we're in the middle of nowhere, how are you gonna do all that?" But he would just be a party animal and get it done. Thinking about Harold just makes me laugh.

What's one thing you think people should know about him that they might not?
He was a really caring friend. If he had $2 in his pocket, he would give you $1 of it.

How does losing someone like that in your life change you? Or change your skating even?
I just look at New York differently because a huge part of New York died along with him, because he was pretty much New York. And I just kinda don't want to live all wild the way some people do. I want to take care of myself. It makes me think about life and makes me want to do stuff to make my body and mind feel better.

Well life is strangely fragile sometimes.
Ya, you gotta watch out.

What do you miss most about New York?
I miss my close friends and family. I miss skating through traffic in the streets. There's nothing like skating through traffic in New York. San Francisco and Philadelphia and Chicago are sick, but there's nothing like New York.

The energy in New York…its so much energy. It gives you so much energy. You are just out all night skating or with friends. People are just hangin' out on the block, you know? It's different. Sometimes in LA you won't see people for a long time because people are on different schedules or in cars and stuff. In New York you'll see people all the time. Everyone's on the block, doin' there thing, hustling or whatever.

Well the minute you step into New York you can smell it, hear it, feel it.
Definitely. I love going back home.

Did you find it hard to adjust to Cali, being from NYC your whole life?
I was actually pretty psyched, because when I used to ride for Tree Fort back in the day, I actually moved out here when I was 16. I lived in Encinitas and Pacific Beach for almost a year and then I came back to New York. But I would always come back to California here and there so I was pretty comfortable with it. I already had a lot of friends here. I really miss my friends in New York but I try to go see them as much as I can.

Other than maybe skateboarders and industry people, did people out here react weird to you or people that you get along with differently?
It's pretty easy to get along with people out here. It's pretty much the same kinda people everywhere. You got your fake people and your real people. So I just try to hang out with the good people and the people I like to. But it wasn't hard for me at all. Some people don't get the way you do things, and you don't get the way they do things. So you just try to learn from it and go with the flow. It's not a problem for me at all.

How much of being in Cali right now is career related vs. personal preference?
I would say a little more than 50 percent career related. I can skate all year around. But I'd wanted to move to Cali for a long time. My girlfriend is from here; my dogs have a lot more room to run around here. It's pretty much a lot of things combined—me, my girlfriend, skating and my dogs. I just want to be able to move around. I can't stay in one place forever—I gotta keep moving. I didn't get tired of New York. I was just over the scene and wanting something different.

It can get overwhelming or exhausting at times…you just want a little bit of space and quiet every once in a while.
Ya, my friends from New York will come out here and they are like "How can you live out here? It's so boring!" But I don't need all that crazy action right now. I was in New York for twenty years and I don't really miss the cold weather too much [laughter]. Sometimes I miss wearing big jackets, though.

Tell me a good NYC story.
I was walking across the street one time at 42nd and 5th Avenue and my girlfriend had a walking cast on, and this cab driver kept revving his engine at us, because the light was green and we were still crossing the street. I was like "Yo, chill out, we're just trying to cross the street." And he had a fare in the back too and he was all wylin' out, and I'm like "Yo, chill the fuck out!" So he just kinda sped past us. So I was all pissed off. I was about to go skate so I had my board in my hand and my girlfriend in the other, so I hit his trunk real hard with a board and made a dent or whatever and I just kept walking the other way.

So all of a sudden I hear someone go "Hey watch out!" And this big huge six-foot-tall cab driver is running after me. His cab is parked a lane away from the curb, his door is wide open, the fare is in the back is like, buggin' out and he's running towards me. So I'm like "Oh man, what am I gonna do. This guy is gonna kill me!" So I take my board and hit him in the face with the griptape side and his glasses fell off and he was kinda dazed. And I turned around to see if my girl was alright, and she was like "Yeah, I'm cool." So the next thing you know the dude grabs me by my sweater with his huge monkey hands and I was kind of tough with him for a minute. And a security guard came by and broke it up because we were in front of an expensive building. Basically he wouldn't let go of me and I couldn't get out of it. He was just real big. Then the cops came and I had to get arrested because I hit him with my board instead of my fists. The cops said "If you had used your fists I could have let you go." And I was like "What am I supposed to do, this dude is huge and he's running after me?"

So I had to pay for his glasses and take an anger management course. But I hate cab drivers. At least the dickhead ones anyway.

So do you have a temper?
No I don't have a temper. I try not to fight. I just try to keep it mellow. But if you bottle things up inside, you'll eventually explode. I don't think I have a temper at all.

Funny you brought that up. Todd Jordan told me to ask you about that one.
Yeah, well I figured I would just tell a mellow story 'cuz the kids are reading this and I don't wanna say anything too crazy, haha.

After doing a bit of reading about you, one of the things that came to mind is loyalty...quitting Zoo because of what happened with your friends [Todd Jordan and Anthony Correa] getting kicked off.
Yea, it got to the point where Ecko came in and it was all good. We were getting paid more. But then they started wanting to do stuff like writing contracts for skaters and putting trucks and all these things in the contracts. We were like, "You don't even make trucks, are you crazy?" And all this shit happened.

The guy was basically pointing at people and saying "You don't skate as much as this guy," or "you're living out in Cali and you don't even skate that much." And I was like "Dude, chill, you're in a suit. Just let the skater side of Zoo York handle itself." So basically I didn't get along with one of the guys over there and I kinda quit and got kicked off at the same time. If my friends weren't going to be there, then I just didn't want to be on the company and I'd rather just not get paid. If it's gonna be like that over there I just don't care. It hurt me to leave Zoo because of Jeff Pang and Rodney and everyone but I just had to do it. I'm not gonna just be on a company with random people. I want to be on a company with people I like, that's what skating is about. Not just throw some people together, go out to dinner and everyone is all quiet and shit.

I just can't stand the corporate side sometimes. Dudes were looking in magazines and then saying "This guy skates more than you." I was like "man, I've been in this game for a while, but whatever."

Well look how many times that team has recycled itself, with the exception of Zered. And you'd be a fool to get rid of that dude.
Yeah, like every year man! That company just changes every year. Even when I was riding for them it got to the point where everything I was saying was bad. I have no love for that company. I have love for Zered. He's doing his thing and I can see why he's staying. It's all good.

And you were with them for almost 10 years?
Yeah, about ten years. Pretty much since 1994 and I turned pro around 1999. Yeah, I was with them for a while.

So leaving was a huge risk…
Yeah it hurt me. I looked at all my Zoo clothes and stuff like, "Fuck, what am I gonna do now? Who wants to put me on?" But I kinda didn't give a fuck and just wanted to skate. But I figured if I deserved to get on a company then they would put me on.

Well, it's kind of honorable. Having your friends' backs, not choosing the paycheck over the happiness. And waiting it out to see what happens instead of rushing to find something stable or the money.
Hell yeah man, I appreciate that. Because if you work hard enough, you'll get what you deserve. I just wanted to not even have to talk to those people. It got to the point where they would tell the team manager to find out what lines I had filmed on each day or what tricks or who I went out with. I was like, "Are you kidding me? This is Ecko, fuckin'…the rhinoceros company." I tried to say all this stuff in my TransWorld interview but they cut all of my shit out. I was pretty bummed about that.

I'm pretty sure The Skateboard Mag will leave it in and be pretty cool about it.
It's all good. If they have to cut stuff out I understand how it is. I don't wanna cause any beef.

Well yea, I mean, no offense to you, but I thought that interview was kinda mellow and boring. I was like, lemme try to do a real interview here.
Seriously, they emailed it back to me with all that stuff missing and I read it and I was like, "Whatever. Just use it. I don't even care because what I want to say isn't gonna make it in there anyway." They were kinda all goodie-goodie and they gotta cater to their market or whatever and it's different.

So after quitting Zoo, you were on Vehicle for a bit, but basically Nike was your main support, right?
They definitely supported me throughout that stuff and they believed in me and didn't have any doubts. They were like "We know you're gonna get something soon." And they were patient and helped me out.

Well Kevin Imamura [Nike SB Communications Manager] seemed really stoked that you were one of the first guys to take the leap of faith and do the Nike thing at a time when maybe not many people would have. Especially since you were involved with Converse at the time or whatever.
I didn't really have a shoe sponsor at the time. They had just canned the whole skate thing at Converse. Kenny [Anderson], Felix [Arguelles] and Chany [Jeanguenin] all had their shoes just taken away. And I just had a shoe about to come out at the trade show but no one wanted to order it because the skate department at Converse was goin' down. O was going on about three months with no shoe sponsor and I was kinda trippin' out and getting some shoes from other people here and there. Then Robbie Jeffers from Stussy called me. He had some old friends in Oregon that did Nike stuff and they wanted to start a team. So him, Huf and Scott Johnston. So they picked us four…me Gino [Iannucci], Reese [Forbes] and Richard [Mulder].

It's pretty rad that you four are all still on there. Do you ever go on the Nike site and make your character dance around and stuff? It's pretty funny. I just did it for about five minutes and you looked like you were having fun.
Yeah we had to take so many photos in different poses for that. It was pretty funny. I like that.

And how did the Stereo thing come about? Has it been like two years now?
Yeah, about a year and a half. I really wanted to make Vehicle happen but it just didn't happen. It was going real slow and we didn't have a lot of money. But I was actually skating with Benny Fairfax in Puerto Rico on a Red Bull tour together. I was kinda drunk one night and I hit him up like "Yo what's up with Stereo?" And he was into it and said he'd talk to Chris [Pastras] when he got back from the tour. And a couple months later I was on because Chris was down for me and I guess the team was too. All we had to do was wait for the okay from Jason [Lee] because he wanted to see some footage. But then after he saw the footage he said he liked my skating. And I knew Dune from back in the days too when he used to come out to Zoo and chill with Rodney.

I was just gonna ask you if you call him Dune. I was emailing him the other day, like "What's up Dune!"
Yeah I call him Dune or Chris—doesn't matter.

Was he purposely trying to get rid of Dune and replace it with Chris?
I'm not sure. I dunno how that all came about. But me and Freddy Gall and Danny Renaud, we all call him Dune, and I'm sure other people do.

I told him in an email the other day, "I'm not calling you Chris…you're Dune!"
Haha, yeah. I like that one, man.

I remember first hearing about it and being like, that's kind of an odd fit, but it's also perfect. Then Chris said the other day to me, "I think he would have made a lot of sense to be on the original Stereo. Obviously his skating is more up to date but the same spirit and style is there that was there with people like Ethan [Fowler], Paulo [Diaz], Carl Shipman and the original guys."
Yeah, I remember Ryan Hickey and all those guys used to ride for them.

Bobby Puleo…
Yeah and Mike Daher.

So you're stoked and getting along with really well with team and feel comfortable there?
Yeah. Since back in the days I've been a fan of Stereo and Jason and Chris are super chill because they've been in the game for so long. They are good people. But the only person I really knew was Benny. I had seen Clint skate before and I was psyched on him. So I met Benny and then met everyone else through Benny pretty much. We all clicked right away…me, Olly [Todd], Tony [Silva] and Dyson [Ramones] and the rest of the guys. It was pretty much like "Alright, I'm on and those guys are psyched and I was psyched and we skate good together.

I'm stoked on how stylish of a team it is. It's not all about bangers or whatever.
Yeah, everyone's got their own little style of skating that they do.

You are kind of known as a style skater, where some other guys are known for doing huge tricks or being real tech or burley. Do you think style takes longer for people to appreciate in a person's skating?
I guess it depends on the person. If someone wants to see a skate do rails or something, I guess they'll be psyched on that. But if someone wants to see some style they'll be psyched on that.

Well I think as I get older, I appreciate and look for style more whereas when I was younger I would look for someone who was doing the newest or the best tricks or whatever.
For me it's always been about style. I mean obviously tricks too, but more about style. I started skating switch because of Salman Agah pretty much. And just watching Jovante [Turner's] tre flips and big spin flips. Just dudes like that, you know, Robbie Gangemi…dudes with ill styles that skate fast. That's what I like pretty much. I like big bangers too. But as you get older you probably do appreciate style more.

Like if you think of say, Scott Johnston, 'cuz you mentioned him before. He doesn't always do a ton of tricks but everything he does looks so good.
Yeah, well the way Scott skates is super fast and he's on point all the time. Scott's got some steez.

So the people influencing you were more style-based skaters?
Yeah. I would just skate the way I skated. Not trying to imitate but we just skated like each other in New York. We just slashed the curbs and skated around and just did tre flips on the way down to the Banks or whatever. It was so fun and it was our style. Just cruising, and if people got left behind then they got left behind.

It's too bad. You gotta learn to keep up.
Yeah, like someone would call us like "Where are you? I'm gonna jump in the train and meet you!" And we'd be like "Damn, I thought you were right behind us!" We'd be like 30 deep, rushing up Midtown at night. That's what I miss.

How did New York City shape your skateboarding?
Oh man, it shapes your skating and your life a lot. There's so much that goes down and you gotta watch your back. Like weirdos and stuff. You gotta look around all sides of you at all times because you don't know if a car or a biker or a stupid bike messenger is comin' around or something. So you have to watch that and get used to all the cracks and all the crazy terrain and stuff. It's actually funner to skate stuff that's kinda messed up, ya know? It makes it more challenging. But it's dope to go to a perfect spot too.

How about your personality?
I'm not trying to be a dick to people, but a lot of people tried to fuck with me when I was real young and shit in New York, so I would not try to…well not put a mean face on but not put a happy face on. So some people think I look mean but I'm really a nice person. So I just try to be more open and stuff. I actually started talking more when I moved out to California when I was young, and then when I came back to New York, people were like "Damn you talk a lot more then you used to." And I was like "Cali kinda opened my eyes a little bit." I kinda got used to both. I dunno if it was just my age or what but going to California had an effect on me so I just started talking more.

So in skating now, whose styles do you admire? Who do you think of in skating when you think of good styles?
Oh, good one. I've always liked Mike Carroll's style. He's one of my favorites. For the new guys, I like Omar Salazar's style. He's really fuckin' spontaneous. He can just fly around the skatepark and be around the whole thing in like ten seconds or he can bomb a hill or skate street or do whatever and he's got crazy styles going.

He's nuts. I was with him in Costa Rica not too long ago and he was all hyper and like, falling down stairs. Then he was cooking food and stuff. He's like MacGyver.
Yeah, he's awesome; he's definitely one of the funniest dudes.

Who were your skateboarding influences?
Mainly the guys on Zoo York. Like Vinny [Ponte], Peter [Bici] and Jeff [Pang]. And Gangemi, Ryan Hickey, Mike Hernandez. And I looked up to these guys out here too like Eric [Koston} Guy [Mariano} Rick Howard. Pretty much all the old Plan B dudes.

What are your favorite videos?
Definitely the old Zoo videos. The first one. And the Plan b and Girl and Chocolate videos. Flip is pretty awesome too and all Dan Wolfe's videos.

How about this King Stampede clothing company you are involved with?
I'm the only skater for them right now. They are based out of Brooklyn. My friend, Nick Lamella from New Jersey does it. He just opened up a store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

On the average day where and who do you skate with out here in Cali?
I just wake up, take my dogs out, go down to the beach to get some food and stuff, make a few phone calls. Usually I skate with Daniel Castillo, Dario the filmer, Chris Roberts…pretty much the Chocolate dudes. I'll go downtown and skate with the Stereo dudes when they are in town, because they are always on tour and stuff. I skate with Benny and Clint Peterson all the time.

How did you end up in Venice? Was it somewhere you had your eye on?
Well I met my girlfriend out here in California and she lived in Venice, a little further away from the beach. So I started hanging out with her and went and lived with her in Venice for a few months. Then she moved back to New York with me for two years and then we ended up moving back to Venice to live. And that's pretty much how it happened.

So you two have been together for a while, huh?
About eight years.

So you gonna get married soon or what?
Ah, we're not in a rush. We know we are gonna be together. I mean her parents and my parents want us to but…

It's just a piece of paper.
Yeah, we look at it like that. It's cool too for people who do get married. We just aren't in a rush because we know we are going to.

I always wonder what you quiet dudes are thinking about the rest of us. Like are you ever around people who are just constantly talking and running their mouths or being all loud and just thinking "Fuck I wish everyone would just shut the fuck up already!"
Nah, I just like to observe sometimes. Or people are talking about stuff I don't want to talk about so I don't even say anything. But if I have something to say. I'll say it for sure. But sometimes I'm real quiet, but I get talkative if I'm comfortable around people. But I don't want to blab on about stuff when I don't know the people around me. So I just kinda like to not talk sometimes.

Pastras said you are a "silent but deadly nice guy who could break your arm off if provoked."
I don't know where he got that from! I'm not strong at all [laughter]. I guess because people think I'm standoffish.

He said he calls you Uncle Supa. Why is that?
We were in Miami one time, at the ghetto bank spot and we saw this little helpless little defenseless dog. He couldn't be more than two weeks old and someone just left him there. He was all malnourished and really shaking—he couldn't even walk. So I got him a shoebox and Clint got him some cat food, because it was the closest thing we could find. So we were like feeding him and stuff. Then I took him into my hotel room and washed him up in the sink. 'Cuz I have dogs and I don't see how people can leave their dog like that. I know it was just somebody in the projects who had too many dogs and just left him there. I kinda just felt for it and washed him out in the sink and just chilled with him for a bit. Then the next day I brought him to the vet and actually got an owner for him. I was pretty psyched to do that, so I guess that's why they call me Uncle Supa.

Dune said that you "help keep everyone in order, laugh a lot and are pretty quiet most of the time. Then you just go rip. People should follow that example and I think they do when they're traveling with him."
Yeah, I like to laugh a lot. It's one of my favorite things to do, and to have fun. But if something's getting out of line then I just try to get in the middle of it and make it stop because I want everyone to have a good time. You know people get drunk and they want to start fighting people, you know?

Todd says they used to call you "snack man" because you eat a lot.
Yeah, 'cuz I would always get the munchies and just have like fuckin' five different things at dinner and not even remember ordering it, like "Do I have to pay for that?" Or just have all types of snacks on me at all times. Like Todd, Pang and Zered pretty much gave me that name.

Then Todd went on about how you would order the most random stuff at McDonalds and Wendy's, get tons of stuff at gas stations and empty out the hallway snack machines at hotels.
Hell yeah, I would seriously eat a huge breakfast. Like once we were at Squat & Gobble in San Francisco. And I had gotten a huge breakfast, then after that whole breakfast I got a strawberry crepe. I dunno what happened; I used to think I had a tapeworm 'cuz I would never get fat. I eat pretty much everything on the planet pretty much and then skate it off.

Do you find that as you get older you gain weight now?
Nah, I'm maintaining. My stomach pretty much looks the same. I actually just skate it right off or go bike riding a lot or take my dogs out a lot. But I try to keep busy skating mostly.

Tell us about Vinny Ponte's restaurant in New York with the angry lobster and bottles of Dom Perignon.
Ya, it's this eight-pound lobster dinner called "the angry lobster" and they bring it to you on this big rectangle plate. It's all these cut up pieces of lobster and it's so good. You feel like you've accomplished something when you finish it. Its so bangin', and you're sitting there at the dinner table and your champagne glass or water glass never gets below half way down because someone is waiting there to refill it for you--it's super nice. When the Yankees would win they'd always go eat there. They have trophies from them over there, and just pictures of Vinny's grandfather hangin' out with Joe Pesci and those dudes. Crazy photos of Joe Torre and stuff. It's just a really good atmosphere and really good Italian food. Really good lobster pizzas and stuff.

Living out here, I miss the real Italian food.
Oh I know. I went to a spot out here, like a New York pizza place, and I'm like "Yeah can I get it to go? Can I get a bag for it?" And they were like "You want me to put it in a bag?" and I was like "Yeah, just slide it in the bag, man." So they put two paper plates over it and put it in the bag. I was like "You didn't have to do all that." But you know, I understand they don't really know.

Yeah like out here places are all prod that they sell pizza by the slice. Like, how else would you sell it?
Yeah, like that's how I grew up. 75 cent slices in the Bronx that were bigger than my whole face.

What's Vinny up to now?
He's got his shop, Rival, its right on Hudson. He's also been doing a lot of stuff with Wu-Tang. DJing and making mixtapes for Raekwon and Chef and hanging out with Method Man and stuff. He's been really busy with his shop and DJing stuff, so that's pretty much what he's doing now. He skates when he can. He's still got back noseblunts on mini ramp and all that shit. He's still sick.

Who would you say are your tightest friends?
Vinny—definitely my best friend. Zered, Todd Jordan. Obviously my friends out here like Castillo, Chris Roberts, my friend Dave.

And you have a thing for buying gadgets? iPods, cell phones? Todd says you have the world's smallest video camera that you got in Japan?
Oh yea, it was a while ago. I had this Sony Ruby thing. It looked like a point and shoot. But it was a straight video camera. I dunno, I like electronics a lot. I think its 'cuz I'm Asian or something.

I was gonna ask that, didn't know if I'd offend you.
Oh no, its cool, I don't care. I grew up hangin' out with Reda, so…that guy's nuts.

Tell us about your pitbulls..
I got one like 10 years ago when he was three months. They are both red-nosed pits. I have two of 'em now—Havoc and Simba. The one is 10 and the other is seven. I just take them running and stuff. I don't fight them or anything. They both have their ears and tails and stuff. When I was living in the Bronx or New York, people always wanted to fight my dogs or mate my dogs. I was like, "Nah, I don't wanna fight them, I don't wanna mate them, you know?" Just leave 'em alone, because people would fight their dogs and if they didn't do good they would just kill them or dumb shit like that. I would be walking around, walking my dogs in the Bronx and I'd look around and there would be a dog fight and people are just sitting there fighting their dogs. I just hang out with them and take 'em skating and stuff and just chill.

A lot of people will go right up to them and say "hi" and stuff, but a lot of people see them and cross the street to get away because they think the dogs are vicious. But they are just playful dogs. They have a lot of energy and they are like 70 pounds each, so people think they are kind of crazy.

Tell us about Sheffey trying to tackle you mid contest run?
Oh man, hope he doesn't kill me for this, haha. It was my first World Cup contest in Germany. And I guess the whole time he was just trippin' out—just kinda being Sheffey. So I started taking my run and Dimitry [Elyashkevich] was filming it, and before I even dropped in there was a piece of paper getting thrown at me. Then I tried a tre flip over the hip and bailed it. So after that, I ran down and grabbed my board. So Sheffey runs up the same hip and just jumps over it, like he was ollieing. And I went to pick up my board and I feel a fuckin' pole kinda just jab me in the back. And I'm like "What the hell?" I can tell its metal, but he didn't hit me hard with it, he just touched me with it. So I turn around and it's just me and Sheffey on the course, and Sheffey is already like 15 feet away from me, with this huge metal rod, just swinging it in circles. So I was like, "Alright, Sheffey's over here, so I'm gonna skate over this way." So I went over and told Greg Carroll, who was announcing, that I wanted to take my run later. I ended up taking my run later, didn't make any tricks 'cuz I was all shook.

So later on I was on top of one of the bank ramps, talking to Chris Lambert and Sheffey walks by and he's like, "Hey what's up Chris?" and Chris is like "Hey, what's up Sheffey!" Then he looks at me and he goes "Don't fuck with me Supa! Don't fuck with me! Im'ma fuckin' kill you!" And I was screaming at him, like "What the fuck did I do to you? Just tell me what I did!" You know? And after that, I was just like "Chris, let's just go to the hotel room and smoke." I had to get outta there.

So he just had a random moment?
Yeah, I guess it was just one of those things.

I remember back in the day being at Tampa pro, back when Sheffey was skating. And I was standing next to Kenny Hughes and Donny Barley and they were like "Dude Sheffey is skating; I'm not goin' in there!" And Donny can rip a park and Kenny is massive and even they were like "Let's just practice later."
Yeah, dude…the whole time I was just bugging out, like "Why the hell does Sheffey hate me?" Because we've always been chill—we had been friends for a while. I had talked to him and stuff. And then like a year later, I see him at a bar in Cali and I'm like, "Oh great." So I'm sitting there getting a drink at the bar, and then he comes and sits right next to me, and I'm like "Oh shit, what's gonna happen?" So he puts his arm around me and kisses me on the cheek and he's like "Yo Supa, I'm sorry, I was just drinking or something. So I was like "Yo man, I already forgot about it. I don't even care, it's all good." And ever since then he's been super chill to me.

I've been seeing him around lately. Is he back on the scene?
I actually saw him a few months ago at this LA halfpipe demo downtown. He was chillin'. He wasn't drinking or anything and he was pretty mellow to me. I hope he starts skating again—that would be sick.

What part of skating is work for you?
Only when I have to go shoot an ad or something, but even then, if you don't feel like doing it, you don't have to do it that day. You can just go skating or something. Yeah, I guess only when I have to shoot an ad or something, but it's just skating so if you don't think of it like that and it won't be like that.

Who are your favorite skaters right now?
Everyone on Nike pretty much. I like Dylan Rieder a lot. Damn, there's a lot of heads I like right now.

Is Gino still skating? I heard he's been filming with Dan Wolfe for the Nike video.
Yeah, he's actually been ripping. He's gonna have some dope stuff.

He's my all-time favorite. I was so bummed when I heard he wasn't skating a few months ago or he supposedly retired or whatever.
Yeah he's one of my favorites too. But you know, some people just need to chill and get away for a while and then come back into it. But Gino's always had it; he's just doing his thing.

What's you favorite trick to do?
I'm always gonna love doing 360 flips. I love doing late shove-its and one-footed ollies and stuff. Just random little dorky stuff like that. Heelflip shiftys—those are definitely fun.

What's one you suck at or can't learn?
It's actually pretty a simple trick but I still can't do it—frontside heelflips. I just want to learn those.

That's kind of an awkward one, though.
Yeah, a lot of people do them. I think I can do 'em if I keep trying. I feel the board flipping good but I just gotta get my body to jump on it.

You don't see a lot of people doing that lately. It would be cool to kinda bring those back.
Yeah but when you see people do it, it looks so sick.

What about when you aren't skating? What are you doing? Who are you with? What inspires you?
I just try to skate a lot and if I'm not skating, I hang out with my girl, go have a drink, play with my dogs, take them skating or go play some pool or something.

What are your future goals in skating?
I just want to try to make as much money as I can from skating so I can be secure and just be able to buy a house later on.

What about when skating as a pro is over?
I was thinking about designing shoes and stuff. It's always been a hobby of mine—trying to design clothing or shoes or gear and stuff.

Would you want to maybe do something with Nike or do your own thing?
That could be something. I'm just trying to skate right now.

If you could give a message to all the kids and people reading this about life or skating or whatever, what would it be?
I would just say, don't worry about getting sponsored, just skate. If you are gonna get sponsored, it'll come to you. Don't ever quit skating. It keeps you out of trouble and sometimes it gets you into trouble. Just don't ever quit skating. And don't worry about getting sponsored. I always hear moms and kids coming up to me asking "Oh how do I get sponsored?" and all this stuff. Its like, just skate. If you skate around the right people and don't have an attitude, you'll get your stuff going.

Well ya, I have kinda realized that if you're good, and doing it right, there's going to be people out there who will make sure you get hooked up, whether you are out there networking and begging for it or not.
Yeah, and basically, just treat people the way you want them to treat you.

What has skateboarding given to you and what do you feel you have given it?
Skateboarding's given me a lot of joy. Just skateboarding and landing tricks and making friends all over the world and being able to travel. I never thought I'd be able to pay my bill with it. And hopefully I can give back to skating by getting kids psyched to do switch stuff or if kids want to start skating like me or get something—I get psyched. Like when kids bring up photos of me to sign or something. I just hope I'm giving something back to the kids that gets em psyched to skate, that's all.

What are your fondest memories from your life skateboarding?
Ah man, the New York nights, you know, skating all night at Astor Place—just hanging out all night and skating until like four or five in the morning, then going to Burger King in the morning to get coffee then still skating.

Me and Vinny would always just film each other, back when he lived in Jersey and stuff. I would go to chill in Jersey him, because I lived in upstate New York for a little bit. We would just skate and film each other, just me and him, and we would look for the biggest stuff to ollie down and shit like that. Just experiencing life through skateboarding—all random stuff, ya know?

That's about it then, unless you got any last words? Shout outs, etc?
I want to shout out to my moms and my sister and my girlfriend Erica, my dogs, Vinny, everybody in New York—Zered, Pang, Gangemi, everyone at Stereo—Jason and Chris. That's pretty much it for right now.