Peter Smolik
Peter Smolik
Words: Rob Brink
August 2008
Another one that was supposed to be for the Berrics over a year ago... enjoy.
Are you at The Berrics filming your part right now?
Ya. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I’m trying some tricks I’ve never tried before.
Back in the day, when people were doing stuff on ledges and flatground, Pat Duffy hitting huge rails and stairs... way ahead of his time... and some people didn't get it. By the time people were starting to do what he was doing you were in the midst of coming up with some of the hardest ledge combinations of the time. Flip in, flip out... tailslides to noseslides, etc. A lot of people are just now catching up to you. At the time, were there mixed reactions to your bag of tricks? Did people hate on you? Was it accepted?
It was definitely respected, because you can’t knock it. Once you spend that amount of time trying one trick you got to get respect for that shit, homey. ‘Cause that shit’s fuckin’ like a battle. It’s a mathematical equation to just deal with the weight, balance, gravity, speed... all that shit mixed into one thing... one moment of time... one movement. I mean, ain’t nobody really hatin’ on it, but it took them a little while to catch up and shit.
When you see something like all the ledge tricks in Fully Flared, do you get psyched? Get frustrated? Seemed like a ton of stuff in that video, you and Daewon and some other guys did ages ago.
All of that comes into play. And it hypes me up at the same time cause it’s like, “Damn I want to increase my skills and do some shit I haven’t done, and that nobody’s done.” And those motherfuckers in that video... they did some shit nobody’s done either. And that psyched me up because it’s always good to see a new trick go down in the vocabulary of skateboarding.
Of course. So do you feel like you need to do those old tricks again or do you feel like you've already covered that ground and just need to keep it moving?
I mean, it’s all part of one trick. It extends into the next level. You could do the same trick every time but you could do a flip out of that motherfucker and get to the next level so you can accomplish more for yourself.
So to come up with a new trick, where does your brain go? ‘Cause it’s harder to come up with a new trick now than ever, right?
Yeah. I got a couple of tricks up my sleeve. But I think it’s just about really being in contact with the right obstacles. You don’t have to worry about being kicked out. You can have a consistent slide or whatever. I think that’s what it’s more about. You get in the zone.
I got a bunch of tricks, but they’re super difficult. And sometimes I don’t even want to try ‘em around people ‘cause I want to get that shit out first! I don’t want those motherfuckers biting my shit like that, you know?
So does stuff just come to you while you’re skating or are you up at night in bed and something pops in your head and you’re like “Dude, I should try that!”
Always. I can be skating or I can be chilling at a bar or something like that. And like, grab a pen and napkin and start writing down tricks in secret codes and shit.
Some people find crooked grinding a rail a lot more mentally challenging than say, a fakie tre, fakie manual to fakie flip out. So what makes a great skateboarder? Style? Speed? Difficulty? What do you prefer?
I would say the diversity in your skateboard mentality. Like your style and being able to adapt to your surroundings pretty much. You can’t just always do manuals and shit. Because maybe your crew is over going to manual pads! You can’t always go rails because how long is your body going to last on the mother fucking rails every day?
With the ledges you get bored as fuck skating a mother fucking ledge all day unless you’re creating something new. But I think it may have to do with the body too, because I could be doing a four-hour session on one maneuver and try to come back the next day or something and I can’t do shit. Like my pop isn’t consistent enough, because I’ve been using those muscles so much. I’ve worn out those muscles, so maybe if I go skate some tranny before that or the next day, I’ll work my leg muscles so they are nice and fresh. You’ve just got to play the game a little bit smarter nowadays.
Name some great skateboarders?
There’s a lot of great skateboarders. That is a complex question but Daewon Song’s a fucking maniac.
Going back to your older video parts, what was going through your head when you started doing some of the things you were doing. Like did you specifically want to do stuff that no one had done or were you more just like, out skating?
I mean, I was definitely plottin’ and plannin’ maneuvers. Always. I gotta be ready to fire off. Always looking for the perfect spot to do it at. I always like to be original and shit. You could have a list in your head and be like “Oh shit I could do this trick at this spot!” Because you feel it that day. And sometimes you don’t even need to be skating and you can create like that. Or sometimes you need to go to the spot knowing that you need to get that trick there, but maybe it’s not the day for you, so you learn a different trick or something.
Was there anything really sick in one of your parts that was a one-time trick and you never did it again?
You know what? I’m not even sure. Once a trick’s already been conquered you can always summon that skill up again.
Is there a crazy trick you’ve done but never got on film?
Oh, there’s been days. I don’t know what trick it was, but there’s been days when I pull that shit and the cameraman’s fuckin’ sleeping and shit. And then you spend another three hours trying the same trick you fucking pulled a second try or something... like some crazy-ass spontaneous shit.
Your parts in The Storm and Fulfill the Dream seemed far more technical than Guilty. Did you tone it down consciously?
That’s when I started skating schools up here in LA. I would see fucking kids trying to slide and flip in and out of everything like all crazy. It kinda got trendy and shit. I already conquered that portion of the obstacle or whatever you want to call it. I conquered that realm. Not all the way, but for that moment. So I just started skating shit that was fun. Like boosting off gaps and shit like that. Skating whatever because you can go all over the world and there’s some weird-ass obstacle that will confront you and you want to get a trick on it.
When I go out of town on tours or whatever. mother fuckers are always taking me to a ledge! I’m just like “Uhhh, I could skate this shit in San Diego, homey! Where’s the ill shit?” So, yeah, in Guilty I was just skating different shit to have fun.
What do you miss about skateboarding back then?
I don’t even know. 10 years ago it was the same shit as it is now in my eyes. It’s the funnest thing on Earth.
Who were your influences then and now?
It kind of depends on who I was skating with or the videos I would see. I would be like “Okay I’m going to do some shit that nobody is doing.” Like even now, to this day, I’m just like “Yeah I’m going to do some shit that nobody’s ever done before.” So, I kind of influence myself in that way, you know? ‘Cause I get motivated when people pull their tricks. It’s like a positive battle. Just like “Okay let me see if I can top that shit.”
Did you ever think you’d still be a pro skater at 30, say when you were 20?
Oh, hell yeah, dude. Once I started skating I knew I was going to be in the game for life. That was really my mentality. I’ve always wanted to have my own company like I do now with Sk8Mafia. It’s probably because back then I would look at magazines maybe when I was younger like 14 or something like that and be like “Damn this mother fucker’s 30 and he’s still skating? That’s sick!”
Age doesn’t really matter in skateboarding because the vocabulary of skateboarding is unlimited. There’s no possible way that you can ever stop learning on a skateboard.
It almost seems like there’s more dudes over 30 and beyond in the game now than there was like 10 years ago.
Oh yeah for sure, dude! Because it’s more accepted, you know? And I guess motherfuckers are healthier. I can’t explain that one. It’s a good thing. Skate for fucking life, bro.
After Guilty, you sort of disappeared and laid low for a bit. What were you doing while not in the limelight of skateboarding?
Hahah. It’s kind of weird because when you’re filming all the time you never get a chance to practice something like a five hit combo or something, you know? You’re like always filming shit and you can’t go skate—like it’s just too much fucking filming.
So basically I was just like “I’m just going to skate.” I never stopped skating ever. Not for fucking one day, unless I got hurt or some shit. I got hurt and fucking Shorty’s kicked me off their team, dude. I was just like “Fuck this!”
I was just like “I can’t wait till I get better.” Got better and then started collaborating… started focusing more on Sk8Mafia because back then it was just a way of life. It was a mentality. But I made the fucking connections and I was like “Okay well I got a bunch of underground homies that I know are very talented and it’s our turn to shine! To create something a fucking mentality or it’s a movement.”
So basically I was just plotting and planning on how we were going to actually get Sk8Mafia out there. I would still skate like a motherfucker with no money and just live to bring up Sk8Mafia.
I guess there are a lot of people who think you had a "comeback" in skateboarding. Which might not be the case. Just that you weren’t in everybody’s face filming and shooting interviews and stuff for a few years.
Exactly, I mean a comeback from where? I mean, where the fuck did I go? I’ve been in San Diego the whole time. There’s different ways to play the game of skateboarding. You can get in magazines all the time or you can do some ill-ass shit and pop in and pop out real quick.
These days you’ve gotta have photographers and filmers at your convenience all the time, you know? It’s kind of hard to do that when the photographers got to do their job taking pictures of everybody. Unless you got a staff photographer and when you got a staff photographer, I go skate for my photographer and the magazines are like “He’s not a part of our staff.” So they wont accept the photo ‘cause it’s not one of their photographers on a payroll or something like that. It’s all these stupid-ass fucking reasons. It’s the politics of skateboarding.
So tell us about Sk8Mafia.
Basically I came up with the name because it was like a movement and shit. I would go to a restaurant and some kid’s mom would own it. And I would trade skateboards for fucking food and shit like that.
I was like “Hey, sick! What if I could do this shit all over the fucking world?” My boys Dan Connelly and Josh Priebe are part owners too.
We just collaborated and actually turned it into a business. So we got Kellen James. Larelle Gray, Brandon Turner, Wes Kremer, Jamie Palmore, Tyler Surrey. We got a bunch of little homies too. It’s pretty tight because our whole team is from one city—San Diego That’s what skateboarding is. They probably have Sk8Mafia’s in every city. Like, just the mentality. It’s like a skate crew, but it’s for everyone. And I want to be able to have like spot lists or some shit like that on the website. So everybody can get shit done instead of getting kicked out.
It seems like you guys have worked really hard and built it up from the ground up—totally grass roots. How was that different for you than when you became a part of the Shorty’s thing?
It feels fucking really good. That’s just what I’ve always been doing and shit. You know what I mean? Fuckin’ being with the underdogs because it feels better. Kind of pushing you to accomplish. It feels better because you could do whatever the fuck you want and you’re not told what to do. You make the fucking rules. If you bring it from the ground up people have more loyalty towards it. My heart is in this shit. And that fucking reflects upon the image of the company and the way it presents itself.
You’ve got a ton of SD pride. What do you love about San Diego, other than the fact that it’s home, of course.
“We’re from a town way down that never gets any props. Some seem to think that LA is where California stops.”
You know, it’s that type of mentality. It’s like it’s just super fun down there man. They got the ocean breeze, the beaches and the skate spots. It’s just chill. Just representing and having a good time I guess.
You were on Shorty’s in its prime, Osiris too. What was the biggest check you ever got? Or the most outrageous thing you ever bought?
Fuck dude. I got a Suburban. I got a fucking 1996 Chevy Suburban 4x4 as a signing bonus. I still got that beast but she’s been sleeping for fucking two years.
That’s pretty sick to get a truck like that. Tell me about LACED. What is it? Who's involved?
That’s me, Jake Brown and Dan Murphy. It’s our clothing company we just started. We set it off at the X Games. Jake got third with the Laced shirt on!
It came from us just being like brothers—the same mentality. We love to have fun and we like to create. It’s basically in the same as Sk8Mafia. I’m an underground fucking street skater. And Jakey Brown’s a crazy-ass vert mega jump skater. And then Murphy, he’s killing it too. So it’s just a company for skateboarding because there’s no segregation in skateboarding. Skaters are skaters… they set tasks to accomplish and create for themselves. And they understand that and that’s why the brotherhood of skateboarding is so strong.
I saw you with a light up Sk8Mafia skateboard a few weeks ago. What’s up with that?
Were in the process of figuring that out right now. We’re still skating the shit out of the prototypes.
Does it feel the same as a regular board?
It’s skates the same. You’ve got to kind of land bolts a bit more with the Sk8Mafia one. But the actual Photon light boards are the ones who are putting it out and Sk8Mafia is just collaborating with them. Those are a lot stronger than the ones with the Sk8Mafia House logo because the holes are drilled all the way through and it can break easier. It kind of makes you land bolts more. It’s a fun fucking around with shit. Imagine bombing a hill with all your homies at night and that shit being all lit up, you know?
What else do you have coming up?
We got a Sk8Mafia am video dropping. I might even just come out with a video of my own damn self with a teammate or something, you know? I kind of want to do how the Wu Tang did that shit. Let each motherfucker shine at a different time. I don’t even know what’s cracking with it but my boys are filming like mother fucking maniacs. And they kill it. There’s going to be some good footage coming out soon.
Anything else you want to add?
Add something, homey. Add this. My sweat ain’t made out of barbecue sauce so quit bitin’ my shit, son! Hahaha.
That’s an ender if I’ve ever heard one.
Well there you go. Have fun out there.
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