Bleav in Skateboarding with Jim Gray

070 In the Patch With Cabbage Bradfield, Podcaster, Skateboarder, Musician, Lover of Skateboarding...

My first ever Dual Podcast where we recorded this with the intent for it to be a podcast for each others shows, but I lagged severely and he posted his quite a while ago on his podcast. Check out the podcast as posted by Cabbage and check out some of the other people he's interviewed. FIND IT HERE

So, first I start off with an apology to Cabbage, some shit in my life went a little south a couple days after recording this, and I just put the Podcast on hold while I took some personal time to fume, pout, be sad, feel sorry for myself, and so many other foolish realities we all put ourselves through. That sad, depressing bout lasted a few months, but it ended up that I just did not do any new podcasts or finish this one for almost a year, and just focused on living and staying healthy. Then, I finally decided it was time to get back on track, so here we go. Cabbage and I both do these podcasts merely for fun, and not for profit so I hope he will understand.. Please forgive me Mr. Cabbage Bradfield...

Cabbage is an East Coast Skater, and we share lots of stories about skaters, doing podcasts, perceptions versus reality, skate politics, marriage and divorce, therapy, weigh loss, other podcasts and shows, our styles of podcasting etc... We are definitely a different breed of Podcasters who float to our own beat. Thanks for joining me Mini Ramp Champ Cabbage, I had a good time..

If you follow Cabbage's podcast, you may have already listened to this, but if not please enjoy.

069 Clayton Graul, Skateboarder, DIY Enthusiast, leader of @UrbanSkateProject

I've seen Clayton around for years now, or at least a decade or so, just another nice easy going skater to cross paths with, or at least that's what I thought. I start seeing more and more very cool DIY spots popping up all over Southern California and notice that Clayton is behind many of them, or maybe most of them, but certainly has a heavy helping hand in the DIY Skate Spot Movement.

You can see his everyday instagram @clayton_graul and see another middle aged man out skating curbs, crusty ditches, quarterpipes, and a whole lot of random stuff. Definitely loves rolling on his skateboard, that is very apparent. If you check his @urbanskateproject page you can see the many projects he is working on, has worked on, in progress etc..... He leaves tips for other DIY builders around the country about materials and tools etc.... All for the love of skateboarding, and not money, got to love and respect that.

So, we sit down and chat, you will learn some of his roots, inspiration for building DIY and his opinion as well as my big mouthed opinion on public skateparks in general. I think I speak for both of us in apologizing for our dogs who just would not stop playing with each other and making noise during the recording, but hey they are our dogs, so they are perfect, right!!!

Hope you enjoy my chat with Clayton, and thanks as always for listening.

Episode 068 Scott Pellet S.O.S. Friend, Skater, Hollywood Film/TV editor, TEXAN!

Scott and I met over 10 years ago when he was trying to help put together a film on the history of Texas Skateboarding. We quickly became friends and have stayed in touch since then, sharing meals, skating, stories, hanging with family and mutual friends, etc...

Scott found an interest in filmmaking at an early age.  Being a kid who grew up in the Dallas area and riding at the Jeff Phillips Skatepark, the first major media project he put together was on Jeff Phillips. Scott's love of skateboarding, filmmaking and music have filled his life and still do.

He has been working in the Hollywood TV/Film world for quite awhile now.  I have been fortunate enough to get to visit him at some of the studios he was working at and see sets for successful TV shows such as The Goldbergs and Chuck. He has worked as an editor on the TV shows  "Chuck" (NBC), "The Goldbergs" (ABC), "Mad Dogs" (Amazon), "Sneaky Pete" (Amazon), "L.A.'s Finest" (Spectrum), "Painkiller" (Netflix) and the Lionsgate feature, "The Devil You Know".  You can check his IMDB credits by clicking on this IMDB link.  You will see all the cool stuff this skater has done. I am stoked I have gotten to see a lot of it up close and personal over the years.

For several years, Scott and fellow Texans Heath Cherryhomes and Jake Kirby would make an annual pilgrimage to all the local skateparks while Heath and Jake stayed with me during the summer. We were all given nicknames and Scott's was S.O.S. "Sex on a Stick".  I had Texas-sized stickers of our nicknames printed for our helmets symbolizing our brotherhood....

Things we discuss in this podcast that I think some of you might find interesting are our skating adventures, his work on his first film about Jeff Phillips, his Hollywood gigs and the time he filmed interviews (including Jeff Grosso) at my house. Hope you enjoy meeting another interesting person who has passed through my life and is also a skater and very talented in other realms...

067 Geoffrey Gunderson, Vaquero Skateboards Owner, Skater and Friend

Geoff is a skater and small skate brand owner I've gotten to know and become friends with over the past few years. He is a So Cal born, Oregon Raised, eventually a Nor Cal transplant, so we talk about that and our perceptions of the preconceived attitudes that come with each amongst other things. We have had some great sessions together over the last decade and we talk about some of those times... Flower Shop in SF, Weirdo Bowl, etc....

We talk skate shops vs. chain stores and what small skate shops provided for skateboarders which is so rare today. In the old days "Kooks were Kooks, but who gets to decide who a Kook is, some other Kook" We even give props to some longboarder friends of ours, so damn we must be the kooks... hahaha  We talked about one of our mutually favorite skateboarders Josh Rodriguez!  We both feel Josh a craft beer who has never had a model which is unbelievable, and lots of guys that have models are Coors Lite... lol  we had a fun conversation and hope you enjoy it...

Geoffrey skates everything, and I like that. We talk about some of the issues in sponsoring skaters, our own perceptions and what stokes us out vs what's cool to do. Both of us are stubborn and do it our way. He has a great 14 year old Danny Way story amongst others.

066 Chantelle Heroux, Founder of "Bridge to Skate" Non-Profit

We talked about her nonprofit, Bridge to Skate. She does great work in South LA using Skateboarding as a tool for support, motivation, and making lives better.. I am happy to call her a friend and think you will enjoy the story of how she found Skateboarding, or maybe better said how it found her. I’d say all the people she’s helped should be thankful she got kicked off the soccer team! I know I am!! 

Also known on Instagram by @blondecrisis911 and @bridgetoskate.  Chantelle popped in for a little chat, a hug for me, and lots of cuddling with Tiago.

She has a great story including building a school that houses 27 students in Honduras. A quote from the Bridge to Skate Website...

With exercise comes education, and vice-versa. The two can’t be separated when it comes to living a healthy and fulfilled life. An extension of the BTS concept of providing community support, our school development efforts have already led to changing lives. Our goal, where needed and endorsed, is to complete the “trifecta” – skateboard park, playground and school – in order to give the local community a strong foundation of growth that can lift it from impoverished circumstances over generations.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with this creative, passionate, and giving human being, also known as Chanty.. We start out with a great conversation about Chad Muska which I think will entertain you..

065 Dave Andrecht, Hall of Fame Skateboarder, Podcaster, Skate Industry Lifer, Friend, Inventor of one of the Greatest Skateboard Tricks Ever. Special Guest--Bobby Goodsby, founder of the first and still running Skate Camp in America.. 

Dave Andrecht, AKA "The Raver", was an early air Big Air Pioneer and he created the Andrecht Handplant, one of the most seriously cool tricks on a skateboard. It was one of my favorite tricks ever. Dave also has worked in the skateboard industry most of his life, and was a key player in the H-Street story, and shares a lot of history there that I did not know about, and you will learn about too. His Sims signature model board was one of the coolest boards built in that era, and I'd kill to have one on my wall..

Most of all, Dave is just a good human. I have always gotten along well with him and anytime we've ever seen each other in the last 40 years, it's been a great interaction. I think you will be able to tell that in our interaction, we are mutually supportive of each other.

Dave recently started Sk8boardnation a YouTube Channel/Podcast. He does great research and asks meaningful questions about the guests history and experiences in skateboarding, unlike me who just talks too much. Please check out his podcast on YouTube when you get a chance. He wrote down 5 pages of questions for me, and I could probably only come up with 5 questions not pages if I interviewed myself, that will tell you how deep Dave digs, and how much cool stuff you will see on there. How he got that video of my performance on "Dancing with the Stars, Yugoslavian Edition", I'll never know.

Dave showed up to the podcast with an old mutual friend Bobby Goodsby AKA: Bobby G, the founder of the first US Skate Camp, and it is still running today. He joined us and we shared some good conversation with him too... Hope you enjoy this special podcast..

064 Lonny Hiramoto, Skateboarder, Friend, Shape Stealer, and former Hoodlum...

Lonny is an awesome skater, and hit the pro skateboarding scene as a youngster in the late 70's. I assumed he was older than me cause he was in Skateboard Magazines when I was a kid, but turns out he was just amazing at a young age. We didn't actually meet until 20 years later, now he is a great friend, and die hard lover of rolling on his board, and he's actually two years younger than me.

You'll hear some interesting stories, a bit about his Hoodlum Days, and one of the best stories ever about how legendary skater Shogo Kubo (RIP) gave him his first skateboard, just to get him out of the house, so he could make out with Lonny's sister, and even better he had no idea Shogo was a good skater, much less a legend in the making. It's one of the most random and funniest random occurences I've ever heard in our little skate network.

This podcast was an accident as Lonny was just popping by to show me the sample deck he had made after copying one of my (Art School Skateboards Jim Gray Guest Model) shapes.

Hope you enjoy his Christian Hosoi stories, Lester Kasai stories, and a lot more. Hope you enjoy my chat with this living legend.

063 Alex Romero, Skateboarder and Optometrist to Skateboarding Superstars, and to me too...

I met Alex at the Vans HB Skatepark with my friend Chuck Walstead. Alex was just another one of us skaters, and my friend Chuck said, he's my Optometrist too... I immediately said I am coming to you. I prefer to do business with skaters whenever I can. After going to Alex, I was stoked knowing I had someone who cared about my eyes and my world.

So turns out his clients include skaters Eddie Elguera, Scott Hostert, Christian Hosoi and Pops Hosoi, Mike McGill, Eric Dressen, Chuck Walstead, Dennis Martinez, Darren Ho, Nick Rosenthal, Cholo from Scum Skates, Steve Caballero, SkateMaster Tate and Mark Waters (RIP, Two Rad Skaters both gone too soon), Christian Jacobs (of Yo Gabba Gabba and Aquabats fame), Parker Jacobs, Billy Zoom and so many more.... Turns out this skater is taking care of the eyes of many of us.

So, we chat about life, what takes a guy from skateboarding to Optometry School, and what skateboarding means to him and how it has and does influence his daily life. One look around his office and you'll see.... The stairway going up to his office is lined with skateboard decks and pictures with his awesome clientele.

It was awesome doing this podcast with him, because I really have always wanted my podcast to be converstations with people I've met throughout skateboarding, not just pro's or people from the industry but just interesting people with different stories. I hope you enjoy, and if you need some new glasses or contacts, hit up Orange Circle Optometry in Orange, CA...

062 Thibault "TIBS" Parise A French Skateboarder on a longer deck who sells Clay..

You may need an interpreter for this episode as Tibs speaks Fringlish which is a cross between French and English..... Just play the episode at half speed and you will be OK... Tibs talks about how he came to skate on longboards after breaking his shortboard and only having the longboard he used to get to the skatepark with him, and ended up liking riding the longboard more. I support that fully, skate what works for you, anyone who tells you what to ride is a complete Kook in my book.

Tibs skates fast and does tricks I certainly can't do on my mid size board.. He also owns a business called Clayer which imports Non Toxic Green Clay from France for pain relief etc..... I have used it many times and it's also great on cleaning wounds, extracting the toxins etc...... or at least it worked well for me.. I am not a physician, so these statements are not approved the the FDA, FTC, FBI, IRS, ABC, or any other judgemental tyranical organization.

Being a longboarder he knows all about narrow minded and foolish thinking, and we talk about that like being told he couldn't ride in a skate contest because he wasn't a skateboarder(seriously??), and the realities of having value as a skateboarder when someone needs you, and that door closing in your face when someone more valuable comes along(I've definitely felt that door before)...

061 Teddi Dean AKA: Teddi Bennett OG Bones Brigade Member, Modern Elder

Teddi was an original Bones Brigade Team Member. I used to skate quite frequently with him in the late 70's, early 80's. He had a buttery smooth surf style, growing up surfing in Huntington Beach in the 70's. He seemingly disappeared from skateboarding in the early 80's, and I always wondered what happened with him. I re-united with Teddi in 2015 and learned of his interesting life story, and decided it was time to share it with more of the skateboard world.

His website describes his life pat simply "Curiosity led Teddi Dean from life as a Southern California pro skateboarder to travel as a student of the Dharma. He is now a mindfulness and meditation teacher".  Teddi currently works down in Baja with the Modern Elder Academy. 

Obviously there is a lot of stories on that path, including his days on the Bones Brigade, and his respect for Stacy Peralta. He also spent some time in the film industry, teaches and practices Yoga and Meditation, and he shares some background of the formation of the Modern Elder Academy. He also talks about getting Stacy to come and speak at the Academy as a Modern Elder, a term I love, as I yearn to be one myself as I just turned 60.

I hope you enjoy learning about or catching up with Teddi, another amazing product of the pioneering days of skateboarding.