Dave Bachinsky Interview

3/09/2015

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Dave, what were you doing last night when I hit you up?
I was out skating till one in the morning. So fun. Just set up whatever we want at the OC Ramps park, a crew of us.

So you’re sponsored by a ramp company, OC Ramps?
Yeah. Those guys are so awesome. They brought all of the homies together. We got Jordan Hoffart and Ryan Decenzo, Greg Lutzka, Manny, myself, Ronnie Creager. It’s sick because they end up giving me a lot of scrap wood that they don’t use. Like, I got a giant backyard so I’m just building in the back there. It’s so rad. You can make fires and everything like that, too, you know?

What are you building back there?
A woodworking shop. You gotta come down to see it, dude. I’ve just been cutting up old skateboards and making frames out of them and selling them—giving some money back to where I grew up. But yeah, all kinds of random stuff.

So you’re making crafts? You’re not making ramps?
No ramps. I wish we could make a nice mini ramp in the backyard or something. I don’t have the space.

So you sell these crafts on your website, right? And then you give the money to support the community back in Lowell, Massachusets?
Yeah, I mean it’s pretty wild seeing the skateparks that we grew up at—skating those every day. And you come to California and you have parks that are, like, next-level, Street League set ups. It’s insane. I go back to visit during the summers and I want to make those parks better, you know? I raised about six-hundred bucks last year. I basically give seventy-percent of my profits to the city of Lowell. I’m trying to raise four grand this year.

Have they used the money for anything yet?
Not yet. They’re still just trying to collect it and save it all up. We’re doing good but we’ve still got a lot to do.

East Coast skateparks are pretty trife, those concrete pre-fabs compared to all of the custom-made ones on the West Coast. In the '90s, Massachusetts had pretty much the worst parks ever built and they were all over the place.
Yeah, it’s pretty sad. I don’t know how we figured out that car bondo works so good, but over the summertime we were at least two buckets deep just fixing the asphalt or the concrete. So that was always interesting. Like, “Oh, shit. Another winter passed. How much destruction just got murked in the park?" You’ve got to restructure everything afterwards. It’s fucked.

I love how you’ve been fixing up the town park with some bondo.
There’s an Autozone right across the street. That shit worked great.

Do you tell Autozone, like, “Hey, man, this is for the city. We should get a discount.”
Can we get sponsored?

I’m trying to fix up the flatground, fix up my quarterpipe at the skatepark.
Yeah, we need that. We need a bondo sponsor.

So you’ve got this Darkstar part. You’ve got a new board sponsor. Tell me a little bit about how that evolved since the demise of Think skateboards which was about two years ago. Where have you been since then?
I was kinda talking around. I had a lot of offers throughout and I was waiting for something to really dial in. I was down in Oceanside. OC ramps had everyone together and Greg Lutzka and Ryan Decenzo were, like, “Dude, you should talk to Chet. We’ve been talking about you.” And I was, like, “Really? I’ll have a word with him.” So two weeks later I just reached out, just seeing what his thoughts were and he was down to get something going. I was so hyped for that after, like, two years of not being in a van or being a part of team thing where you’re just getting out and about. I’m psyched to just get in a van and go charge around. So starting at the beginning of this year, I’ve just been filming for a part. We’ve got the whole VX video and it’s been insane. We’ve gone through, like, four cameras. Shit sucks. But yeah, I’m psyched we finally finished. I’ve been out filming, trying to do as much as I can with that.

Is it a solo part or have the other Darkstar dudes also been filming?
Actually, I don’t know if I’m supposed to say but I did get an email saying that we’re going to be doing a Darkstar video within the next two years or maybe even three, so I’m psyched.

So this project is just you with the VX.
Yeah, it’s just me. The housemate has a trick in the part so I’m psyched on that. We got a little back to back.

Why did you guys choose to do it all on VX?
We were filming for Salt N' Pepper a year ago and me and Manny had just been skating all of these spots—we wanted to have tricks at the same spots because we’re always skating together. So once we started editing that video, I realized that I didn’t have one northeast clip at that time and I was, like, "Holy shit." I ended up digging up some and I was so hyped to have some Boston footage. So fall comes around and I wanted to enjoy fall with some friends, skate the city and enjoy that weather. I ended up starting to film with Tim Savage and he had a VX and we got some stuff back in Boston and I was so hyped. The whole last part, that’s all I wanted to do was get out and skate the city. So finally I was sitting there one day, right before I was finalizing the Darkstar thing, and I was, like, well, I should probably figure out a part if I’m gonna be a part of the team. Me and Chet were talking about it and I was, like, "You know what? I’m gonna do a whole VX part 'cause I started doing all that back in Boston." So ever since then, me and Tim have been trying to get as much going as we can with the VX and that’s how it all came about.

So you already started making a VX part last year in Boston. You already kind of initiated the process.
Yeah, Exactly. I kinda actually ended up reaching out. I was, like, let’s see what the people think on Instagram: HD or VX? And everyone was down for VX so I was, like, you know what? Fuck it; let’s do it.

You took an Instagram poll?
Yeah, that kind of finalized it all. But it was funny, being in Massachusetts we film VX a whole lot and we never had a problem. But now in this day and age with technology, I get out to California and we’re filming with the VX and of course it breaks and it’s, like, my homie can fix it, you know. Fuck no he can’t fix it, like, send it to China? Two cameras are broken. We started talking to people about where they send their VXs for repairs and they’re, like, "North Reading, Massachusetts," which is right where we grew up.

How many VXs did you guys go through?
Technically, we went through four to make the part.

So four trashed VXs.
Well, they kinda still work. They got fixed but they’re all fucked. Or I’ll try a line for an hour and then they’ll just shut off.

Did you ever land a trick when you’re filming with the VX and then realize that it didn’t capture?
No, but just recently I battled this trick, a 50-50 through three kinks and, dude, I ended up trying for, like, an hour and I kept getting to the kink and then popping out. Then all of the sudden, this woman walks out and I grind the whole thing after talking to her and I’m, like, "Oh, I’ve got it," and I couldn’t do it for another half an hour. Then finally, like, bam. I nailed one. I ended up getting the trick and I look up, I’m looking at my friend and he’s, like, "Dude, I said don’t go." He thought he heard a trash truck coming down the street but it was a FedEx truck and it parked right near the landing. My friend only caught just the middle of me grinding while he was trying to tell me not to go. I was, like, "What? No! We gotta do this for the part," you know?

What happened to the first one after you were talking to the lady?
I ended up actually getting murked. I grinded through the whole thing and just kind of belly flopped straight to the ground. I couldn’t pop out at the end. Technically, I got all the way to the end of the rail. I grinded through the whole fuckin' thing, finally. I had been trying to skate that spot for years and then I finally land one and the footage isn’t useable. I did it twice and after I was done I had to paint the rail because I wanted to hook them up because they hooked me up, you know? The neighbors were really cool, so we got them beer and it was sick. It was a good day.

But you had been going to that spot for a few years?
I found it driving around with a friend and then we tried it and this guy ended up coming out and just freaking the fuck out on us. I was, like, "I’ll go get paint." So I got the paint and we came back and he freaked out on us again and I’m, like, "Dude, what the hell?" so we just left. But I went back two other times and I only got to grind it maybe a couple times, at that, and I’m, like, "Fuck, I can’t get this trick." It was down to crunch time for this part and I was, like, "Dude, I want to hit this spot, I’ve always wanted to grind this. It’s a rad-looking rail. I gotta get a piece." So it ended up working out, but it’s been, like, two years looking at that spot.

So I think I met you about ten years ago. I think I shot your first photo in Thrasher. You’ve come a long way since then. I mean, you’ve gone through how many board sponsors? City and Think?
Yeah, just City and Think.

When did you turn pro?
Oh, man, I think I was nineteen or twenty. I’m not sure.

So Darkstar is just your third board sponsor ever, huh?
Since I turned pro, yeah.

Have you seen your pro model?
I have. I was so hyped because over the last four or five years I’ve been working with artists and stuff like that. Finally, I got my good friend to draw something for me. Chet was open to new ideas and he let me have the opportunity to make something for the first board, so Dan Zvereff ended up drawing it up and I was hyped. And now we’ve got other stuff in the works that I just saw yesterday. We’re doing some motorcycle goods.

Is your board already out on Darkstar?
Uh, yeah. It just went up like four days ago.

Cool. Well, what else? You kinda spilled the beans on the possible Darkstar video. I don’t think they’ll be bummed on that, but what else are you gonna be working on after this part drops?
Well, I’m trying to do do more with Venture, trying to film an HD part and trying to raise some more money for back in Lowell, Mass. And then I’m trying to get these Roll the Dice episodes going, so we’ll roll dice and put cities on there and film a whole edit over a weekend: camping and skating, lighting up spots and just getting two cars full of skate rats to join the mission, so we’ll see where the next six months takes me along with contests and every other thing that comes about.

Have you done an episode of Roll the Dice yet?
We’ve done two of them. We’ve gone up to Santa Barbra and we also did Lake Elsinore, so we’re just trying to do smaller cities. Go to the random ones that no one really hits. It’s been fun.

Where are you gonna put this up? Where are they gonna be hosted?
What’s good, Thrasher mag? Let’s do it.