The biggest lesson I learned from my dad is to support children even if they're doing something that is unorthodox.

For those that say I endanger my child: it's more likely that you will fall while walking on the sidewalk than I will while skating with my daughter.

I think skateboarding is better now in terms of the amount of facilities and the amount of support young skaters have - including encouragement from their parents. There was definitely an element to it when I was younger that was exclusive and kind of rebellious because most parents didn't want their kids skating. They thought it was a bad influence.

You might not make it to the top, but if you are doing what you love, there is much more happiness there than being rich or famous.

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

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.

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