Contests were so pertinent that you had to think that way but today, it's not like that. You have your contest skaters, you have your video skaters, you have your skaters who don't like either of them, but they all are sponsored and get paid.
Gerry Lopez was a famous surfer back then and his board had a lightning bolt in the in the middle, so my Dad made me a surf/skateboard with a lightning bolt on it.
Back in the day however, careers were strictly built on competitions, just like surfing, though surfing is changing too so you can free surf and still get paid. So I think that rivalry was really because of the fans and the media who built it up, but it did bring something exciting about the sport, just like in any sport, whether it's Larry Bird or Magic Johnson, I think it just made skating that much more exciting.
Two weeks after the arrested I was on the phone with my wife and we said a prayer and I was crying and just so happy, I can't even explain it. It was euphoric. People said I went from freedom my whole life to prison, but in reality, I went from imprisonment and bondage of sin and death my whole life, to finding freedom in a prison cell.
I listen to purely Christian Worship Music, Christian Rap etc. People will give me some old music, stuff I used to listen to back then and when I listen to the words, it blows me away.
I'm very careful with what I let my ear gate hear on my own. I don't care if I go out and something is playing that I wouldn't put on myself, that doesn't bother me but when I feed off and get nourishment from music, it's through things that are encouraging and lift me up, things that have integrity and purpose and that's what Christian Worship Music is all about.
Without parental guidance telling you there's another way to live it can be tough but my kids have an advantage over my life. I can tell them I know what it's like and that they don't ever want to go to the places I've been, whereas when I grew up, it was so accepted and normal that if you didn't do it, you were considered weird.
I was literally living on the edge of life, to the point where I didn't know what was going to happen, not caring, taking chances and finally landing in prison and once there, all my lines were cut.
I'd gotten to the place where I wanted to quit using drugs but couldn't and finally I landed in that prison cell where everything was cut.
Kids get caught up in technical & electronic things like games & videos when all we had were magazines.
When skateboarding hit, I wanted to be best skateboarder in the world, and I fought for it, there was nothing that was going to get in my way.
I wanted to be the best in the world and at 12 years-old I won my first big amateur contest called The Gold Cup Series Contest at Marina Del Ray Skatepark. That's when I really started to believe I could turn pro, though it wasn't until two years later when I was 14 that I actually did with Sims.
Shortly before my arrest, my girlfriend at the time, who's now my wife of ten years, told me she was quitting drugs and going to church. I went with her once but that was it. After the arrest, I didn't know what I was going to do. She told me to trust in God but I mean, I was looking at ten years and was like, "God? I'm not dying, I need a lawyer. I need bail."
It felt like I was a bucket full of holes. Things kept going in but just as quickly, they'd drain out. So I had people telling me I was this and that and then I'd feel pressure to perform up to their standards, jumping through hoops so I could live up to their expectations.
Since my Dad was an artist, I grew up around art shows and openings and that had a big impact on me as well, especially in L.A. So skateboarding was the cool thing to do and I was totally attracted to it and once I saw the magazines... that was it, I knew this was what I wanted to do for a living.
