Thrasher Magazine

Photo: Burnett

What happened this weekend?
Dickson got married.

Dude! He’s just a kid!
Yep, big moves on his part. He nailed it.

Did you think he would be the first of your bros to tie the knot?
Well, I don’t know. She was, like, his first major chick. I think he got caught off guard too.

You find a good thing, you gotta lock that shit down.
Oh yeah. The wedding was super fun. They killed it.

Well, congrats to the Dicksons. Do you see yourself getting married some day?
Maybe.

What’s a good age to get married, you think?
I don’t know. I’m still not there yet, that’s for goddamn sure.

Insane terrain, Canadian style. Floater at the Big O    Photo: Arto

You’ve got plenty of time to figure it out. Have you been around skateboards your entire life?
Pretty much. I used to cruise my dad’s board around on my knees. It was some big ol’ pool board. I remember my first actual board was a Powell—like, the first board that was only mine. It had a skull with a dagger in front of his face. It wasn’t the original one, though, That’s McGill’s right?

McGill had a skull and snake. Maybe. I can’t remember. So for years was it just another toy that was lying around?
Yeah, but my dad was super down for it and he built a ramp in the backyard and that’s when it really took off for me. I was around six when I got a ramp in the backyard. Him and his buddies built one. After that I actually wanted to skate, more than, like, a toy.

What was the ramp like?
Pretty fuckin’ janky. We picked it up in the middle of nowhere in pieces. I don’t know how they found it. Probably just some ad in the newspaper, some shit like that. I don’t know how else they’d have found it.

Do you remember your first drop in?
No, I don’t, but I remember the first time I really hung up on a rock to fakie and rattling my shit. That was the first heavy slam I remember. You know when you do the little kid rock and rolls and you don’t realize you have to lift up your front truck? Then you finally get that one that just rocks you? That was my first heavy memory, not the drop in. Like, “Oh, I fucked up.” That rattled me.

You grew up in Huntington Beach?
Yep.



So that’s Surf City, USA, pro skaters everywhere. Who was the first pro skater you ever saw and realized they were big time?
Especially at that time! Yeah. Fuck yeah. Tempster, always. Tempster, Tosh, all the Baker fools lived there at that time. I remember seeing Penny one time! This was all at Huntington skatepark, before they tore it down. There would be heavy sessions. AVE. Justin Reynolds was super sick. He’d be ripping around the park. I was so little. I was just a little kid trying to skate this little baby drop over here in the corner. And those dudes were fucking the park up. I remember thinking they were so cool. I was, like, “Damn, those are full-grown men and they’re hauling ass!” AVE was terrifying to watch. He’d whip around so fast, like, “Damn! Get out of that fool’s way!”

When you’re that age, it’s like those guys are men.
Yeah, and they’re going so fast! And they’re hauling ass. You just had to get out of their way. I was hiding over in the corner, basically.

Did you have any early interactions with any of them at that age?
Not really. I was so shy, I didn’t really talk to anybody except my little buddies. I was too nervous. It was more, like, “Damn, those dudes are gnarly!”

Do you still skate with any of that original crew?
Not really. They were all older than me and quit skating and got jobs. But then I met up with Figgy and those dudes and it was on. Those guys were my age. They were friends my age who ripped.

When was this?
Probably at 12 or something. Just randomly. It was Gregson, Figgy. Dickson was a little later. John Demar. Spencer and Joey, our buddies who fuckin’ ripped. We just cruised around all the time. Just trying to rip any random spot we heard about. Once Chris got his car that’s when it turned around for us. We could actually go places.

Seaside blunt slide in Mar Del Plata, Argentina     Photo: Remy

Where would you go? UCI?
We could go to UCI before that. We could skate over there. That was like a skatepark for us.

Where were the spots once Gregson got his car? Bricktown?
Yeah, Bricktown for sure. All over LA. We’d skate all the LA spots and then obviously come down here to Oceanside a lot because we knew Shaun Stultz and all those fools. We were cruising around with them quite a bit. The O’Side movement was starting. Met Lannie and shit and then it was really on.

When was that?
I’d see him around but we were too young. Finally grew up a bit and then we could hang with the big boys.

Did you ever witness any epic moments on the streets as a kid that ended up in a big time video?
I saw Rune do a switch tré on a vert ramp. I thought that was fuckin’ cool. Ended up in Sorry. That blew my mind. I had no idea you could even do switch tricks on vert ramps like that.

You guys skated vert as kids, right?
Yeah, me and Gregson skated a little bit of vert. He was gnarly.

Still is!
Gregson did kickflip backside 5-0 on vert. He did switch flips. That might have been some inspo from Rune.

So you got hooked up really young. You were on the Element kids’ brand, right? What was that called?
Twigs!



There were some heavy kids on Twigs, right?
Hell yeah! Tyler Bledsoe, Nyjah. Who else was on Twigs? That one Devon Lamb kid. He skated pools. Not sure what happened to him. I can’t remember. Haven’t brushed up on my Twigs lately.

And then you got bumped up to Element at the time when they were ruling the world. But then you quit Element for Toy Machine.
Yeah, I’ve always thought Toy Machine was the shit and Ed asked me one day and I figured it was something I couldn’t pass up.

Element used to pay for your dad to go to contests with you, right?
Yeah, he went to some of the first few. My dad’s the shit. It’s not like he was one of the jocked-out contest dads trying to time my run or anything. He was just kicking it. He was never that dude, which was pretty fuckin’ rad.

Tow-in front three to the top step    Photo: Remy

Yeah, you probably saw a lot of contest dads as a kid.
Totally. “Let’s time your run, son. You really need to step it up if you wanna make the finals!” My dad was the opposite. He’s a surfer, so he’s mellow. He was never trying to turn skating into some sort of personal business opportunity. There’s a lot of those out there, though. It’s pretty fuckin’ gnarly.

So your whole family can skate, right? Your dad skates but your mom skates too?
Nah, my mom can’t skate.

I thought you told me a story about how she dropped in on a bank once.
Fuckin’, she went for it once. Packed!

What’s it like to see your mom slam on a skateboard?
It’s not good. Fuckin’ horrible. She was all drunk, like, “Fuck it! I got it!” She’s one of those girls that’s just down to go for it. She can snowboard and shit so she thought she had it.

That’s awesome.
No, but my dad still skates. He cruises around. Catches a couple scratchers.

Can he kickflip?
Nah, more like some rock and rolls, rock to fakie, some backside grinds. I’ve never seen him even try one.

You’ve been on Volcom for a long time, right?
Yeah, I think I’ve been on Volcom for 12 years now.

Who were your little buddies when you first went on trips?
That team was fucked up! Sheckler, Westgate, Grant, Angel. I just remember the early Westgate shit. I’d never seen it before. He came out on a trip and it was, like, “Holy shit! This dude is gnarly!” We were all about that same age.

Building bridges, front feeble     Photo: Remy

What was it like as a little kid on those trips?
Just candy and fireworks. I remember they took us to this porn shop one time and we ripped up the mag and put it all over the team manager’s door—just stupid little kids’ stuff. We were launching shit at each other constantly. We got into a roman candle fight. Angel got shot in the face with a roman candle on a Volcom trip. That was pretty gnarly. Shit like that. Dumb little kid stuff. Lighting off fireworks in the van the whole time. Just being bored and blowing shit up. One time me and Grant flushed an M-80 down a toilet.

What happened?
Oh, it exploded the shit out of it.

In the toilet or in the wall?
It blew out the whole bottom. Me and Grant were pretty… we’d pump each other up to do some bad shit sometimes. One time we were at that Surf Expo where they’d do that mini-ramp contest they used to do. Me and Grant had the heaviest food fight in the room. We went downstairs three separate times to get more food to launch at each other. In the room, just me and him. I think we ended up getting first and second in the contest but they took away our checks because we fucked up the room so bad. They made us pay for it. God damn. We would mostly just throw shit at people.

What did you do with your money you made for skateboarding as a kid? Where you buying yourself go karts and shit?
I don’t even know what I was doing. I didn’t really do anything with it. I may have gotten an iPod eventually. I never really bought anything crazy.

I know for some dudes it’s hard to transition from being a little sponsored kid into a real skate career. Were there ever any rough patches for your during that transition?
I think once I got on Emerica I felt like I got past the little kid stuff. They’re, like, the gnarliest team. It was insane to even start going on trips with them. But I was still the little bud. Figgy has always been this giant monster but we’re pretty much the same age. He looked like a fuckin’ man and I was still a little kid. But over those years of being flow on Emerica I finally started to grow and get more power.



I remember meeting you as a little brace-faced kid and then a few years later as a grown-up dude. It was almost like two different people.
It was probably more shocking for everyone else. I was so ready to be a full-sized dude. 

You grew up doing contests, but what happened with one of your first pro contests, the X-Games Real Street?
Hah, so I fuckin’ entered that shit. And then they said that everyone was cheating. Like you voted online but you could refresh it and vote over and over again. I had no idea. I didn’t vote for that shit.

Helluva quarter pipe! Pivot on the windowsill, harsh reentry         Photo: Remy

This was an online video contest, right?
Yeah, we heard it was Tony Hawk and those fools who figured it out that they could vote for Jaws over and over, but I had no idea and I guess somebody else got upset so ESPN decided that we all had to split the prize money. Meanwhile, I guess I won the vote and they automatically sent me the check for the original amount. They accidentally paid me out the full amount. I had no idea what the fuck was going on.

And you kept it?
Fuck yeah. They sent me the check. It’s, like, “Fuck off.” They sent me the most money I’ve ever seen in my life and then a week later they ask for it back. I was 21 at the time. I was fucking juicing! You can’t give a kid that much money and ask for it back!

What did they say?
I have no idea. I just talked to Sinclair. Told them they could fuck off.



And then you got banned from the X Games?
Yes. Definitely banned from the X Games. Fuck it. It’s not like I was doing good in those things anyways.

It’s, like, “Banned from the X Games? Please!”
Yes! I guess every once in awhile Sinclair will bring up my name and they’re, like, “Nope, still banned.” They’re still fuckin’ off it. Hilarious.

And now you’ve got every kid’s dream—a skatepark in your own backyard.
Yep, building it! It’s coming along. Can’t wait until it’s actually there!

What are you gonna build?
Basically a race track. I want something that I can go around and around on at 100 miles per hour over and over again.

Will there be free air?
There will definitely be free air. It’s already there. You know about it, Burndog! The free air’s just waiting! I saw the best “Free Air” sign at this gas station. We just need to steal it.

With Caswell as my witness, this ollie is fucked!     Photo: Remy

How would you describe your team manager Remy Stratton?
Fuckin’ epic. He’s a legend. He invented the seatbelt. He’s the coolest dude ever. Watch him do an ollie on some tranny. ‘Nuff said.

How do you do with video deadline pressure?
I feel like I’m pretty good with it. When it’s time to send it, you just try. It’s, like, “Now’s the time to try some shit.” It just comes down to that’s just how it is. I’m pretty good at trying to make something happen.

When does skateboarding most feel like a job?
Uhm, deadline shit. That’s actually the only time it feels like a job. It’s the only time when you have to really figure shit out and get a plan going. That said, it still never really feels like a job.

You want to talk about this Hoffart fence situation?
Oh, I don’t know.

Were you ever beefing with Hoffart?
No. I think he’s a little set on me now, though.

So you guys both doing the same trick was just an unlucky coincidence?
Yep. This was one of the first tricks I did after being out for eight months with shoulder surgery. We talked about it for years before that. I don’t know. Ended up being somehow in the same two weeks, we ended up doing the same trick. I didn’t really think too much about it, but then he found out I was sitting on it and he rushed it out real quick. So whatever, I entered his contest.

Did you win?
Yes, I did win, I guess. But I think it was more a pity win.

Where do you keep your Jordan Hoffart pro model?
I still haven’t gotten it yet.

Damn it! Hooooo-faaaart!
I went to grab it one day but he wasn’t in town. I don’t know. It’s a weird thing to go pick up.

Hearty heel at the Velodrome.     Photo: Remy

I can see that being an uncomfortable errand.
The whole thing got weird and I just wanted it to die out real quick, you know? Joke’s over.

Yep. I can definitely see that. What was your first tattoo?
The lil’ homie posse, KO. It was the name of our first video.

What’s your favorite? I like Popeye doing an eggplant on a can of spinach the best.
I don’t even know. They’re all fried. Still got lots of room.

Any regrets, tattoo-wise?
Ah, sure, but nothing to stress out about. I don’t get how people get tattoos taken off and shit. They’re all livable. It ain’t that bad.

What kind of pets you got?
Two dogs: Harley and Chief Boy! They’re pit bull mixes.

Are pit bulls as dangerous as people say?
Nah, they might just bark at you some times. Sometimes they go nuts when people come to the door.

Do they cruise out on the skate sessions with you?
They’re on every session. Always. We’re always throwing dogs over the fence.



I was gonna ask: what’s the best way to get a pit bull over the fence?
Probably the middle-man method is the best way: one dude on top of the fence and hand him over. Or you can carry him frontal like a baby. You can get them over that way too. We definitely had to figure it out. Those LA fences are no joke sometimes. Trying to get your dog over a 12-foot fence is a nightmare! Or you can try to find a hole. Those are the best. Just slide ‘em in or something.

What are some of the best trips you’ve been on?
Probably the Stay Gold trips. Those were a lot of fun. And then these Volcom trips. They rip, every time. Our recent trip to Barcelona was so fun.

What’s a place you’ll go any time they ask?
I think Australia’s the shit. It’s a lot like here and it’s really nice. The whole beach vibe fuckin’ rules.

How is it you have a nickname that only one person calls you?
I have no idea.

How do you have the nickname Spider that only gets used by Phelps?
Only gets used by five people? It started because Jake kept saying, “Nobody wants to say ‘Collin!’ You look like a spider!” I think it’s only the people from that trip that call me that: you, Phelper, Grant and Raven. I think that’s the only nickname I’ve really had, though.

Dog over the fence: hard. Kicky melon over the pipe: epic!          Photo: Rhino

Who do you room with on these Volcom trips?
Usually Grant.

Still food fights and blowing up toilets?
It’s gotten a little more adult. We’ll still fuck shit up, though. It’s just a little more beer induced than from candy and sugar. Nothing’s really changed.

What’s next?
Straight into this Emerica video.



Nice. And your shoulder is all good now?
Yeah, it’s fixed. Ever since the surgery it’s been all good. It’s fuckin’ great. It would pop out all the time before. I can throw a ball again. I would try to pet my dog or grab a beer off the counter and it would pop out. Sleeping. Just constantly. I think it was, like, four years. So I got it fixed, sat around for eight months and now I’m good. I remember I was talking to Phelper about it one time, ‘cause I think he’s had his done. This was when I was still laying around and he’s all, “You wait! You’re gonna slam and you’re gonna realize that it’s all good, and it’s gonna be the best feeling ever.” And I remember taking that first slam and I was like, “Well, here it is.” I just packed and it felt perfect. It was like, “Yes! We’re good! Slam proof. We’re good now!” I never thought a slam would feel so good!

Hella float from one of the best. Free air forever!          Photo Sequence: Burnett