Everything that I'm really about is being an individualist. I believe in individuality.

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'm not out here on the front lines trying to create clones, or consumers, or worshippers of who I am, and what I do. I'm trying to nurture the idea that you should do your own thing, which is really powerful.

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.

I don't like to get too involved in the idea that "I'm a role model" and that everything I do is right. I don't think that's the case at all, but I think who I am at my core, and what I represent at my core, is something that is meaningful, and can be something that other people can gain inspiration from.

I grew up with heroes, people who made me aspire to raise my game, to dream bigger and I like to keep it that simple.

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.