I played team sports, but I never felt like I fitted in that well, so this allowed me to be part of a community but to do it in my own way.

Most of my friends are skaters or were skaters at one time, so they obviously relate.

Snowboarding is a spawn of skating, and skating is my passion.

I believe that people should take pride in what they do, even if it is scorned or misunderstood by the public at large.

There were so many things associated with it in terms of music and fashion, and a different way of thinking that, for me, skateboarding represented so much of what I wanted to do with my life at an early age.

I love the fact that there is now a skate park in almost every city, but it will always have a rebellious/underground edge to it because it is based on individuality.

I think that there's a sense of self-reliance that exists in skateboarding that kids can take to their daily lives. I think there's also a sense of creativity and community-based goals - in skating, even though it is an individual pursuit, a lot of things that you learn are things that you borrow and expand from other people's ideas. I call skating a combined evolution - it's individual, it's artistic, but at the time, there is a communal push to keep doing your thing. And a sense of camaraderie in that.