Through skateboarding, I have an open line of communication, some common ground and common ground is big man. That enables me to travel around the world and no matter where I am, or who I'm with, connect with other young people, and I can have an instant dialogue and an instant relationship based on the fact that we skateboard, and when I'm doing appearances and demos, that's not lost on me.

I don't talk down to kids. Usually someone my age who's talking to a ten or twelve year old is yelling at them.

Through getting sponsored and becoming a part of the Bones Brigade and Powell Peralta, doors were being opened. The entire culture was shifting from ramps to street, and I sort of became a poster child for that.

I don't want to be an object of consumption. I like to get out there and participate because I care about it. It's not because I've gotten filthy rich off the hides of young skaters that I feel some sickening obligation to act on, and make myself look like I'm not that bad of a guy. It's because I actually care.

They'll try to apply the rules of the day to the game, where you can't touch your board with your hands, or you can't step off your board, etc and I want nothing to do with it. It's like a game from a different planet or something and it's hard for me to relate to anybody who would think of skateboarding in such a narrow way.

I grew up on the Bones Brigade as well. The very first skateboard video I saw was the Bones Brigade Video Show and I'd always valued the Bones Brigade and Powell Peralta as the ultimate in skateboarding.

I desire to have a dialogue that's positive, and communicative and moves forward, and is about something real, not just consumption.