The party is packed today with all four chapter leaders of GRLSWIRL NYC joining us to talk about community building in skateboarding. Follow the chapter leaders on Instagram: Kristen, Cai, Windle and Schaab

If you like listening to our podcast please rate us five stars, leave a review, and subscribe wherever you’re listening. If you want us to talk to your favorite skaters, shoot us a message on instagram or via email. Find everything and anything about Quell on quellskate.com or on Instagram @quellskate. As always, thanks for joining the party.

Okay these episodes keep getting better and better. We’re back with a recap of episode three of Betty, Skate Kitchen’s HBO series. There’s not a lot to say other than: why are these episodes thirty minutes long? This one was JAM packed with so much information that I wish we got a little breathing room.

As the weather starts to turn, it’s so nice to see these summer skate scenes. Who know’s what this summer will truly bring…at least it’ll bring three more episodes of Betty!

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We open on the night after sleeping at the bottom of the bowl from the previous episode. Kirt, Honeybear and Indigo are at a diner and Kirt realizes it’s Janays birthday! Time to celebrate. Indigo realizes that she left her weed pens somewhere and Honeybear goes with her back to Chelsea to scout them out. Kirt starts smoking in the diner to distract them from paying the bill as she runs away.

At Chelsea we have a Zoe spotting! We get a vibey montage of Zoe and a guy skating and another organic title drop on the side of the bowl. Indigo starts to see these guys smoking her pens and yells at them to get them back. They’ve taken and smoked a bunch of them, and she realizes she’s about to be in deep trouble.

Her and Honeybear leave the park and Honeybear sees the girl that she had a crush on in the park the episode before. Indigo encourages her to go say hi but we later see Honeybear skate towards her to say hi and completely skates past her.

Afterwards, Honeybear is grocery shopping and realizes that Camille still works at the grocery store from the movie...that’s a funny plot to stick with. Honeybear grabs a bunch of shit and obviously goes straight to her check out lane. Camille attempts to apologize as she rings up the items. After Camille rings up everything, Honeybear says she only needs the water bottle, and they exchange “got cha” glances because that is honestly amazing revenge.

Janay is looking at our girl Jules “instagram” when she hears Kirt in the window. Jules aka Yvette is the girl who claims that Donald sexually harassed her. What are we plotting… Anyway, Kirt stole a balloon on her way to hang out with Janay for her birthday and brings it to her to celebrate. They go get their nails done and Kirt doesn’t understand why Janay is glued to her phone. Please note that Jules is with our angel Liv in these cutie fake boomerangs. Janay finally admits that Jules aka Yvette has been talking shit about her and Kirt agrees they should fuck her up.

Meanwhile, Bambi is at the Queens globe and asks fo get a clip with Camille. She loves the way he’s filming her. The other boys are hyped for her except Charlie who says some fucked up shit to her because he’s jealous that Bambi is paying attention to her. Bambi clarifies that he’s not just shooting her because she’s a woman and that she’s actually good. After skating, Bambi starts to talk to Camille about her style and she admits to love Charlie Chaplin. Bambi starts to do his walk and she feels super embarrassed. Do you feel the chemistry? Yikes.

Cut to Janay, Kirt and Honeybear pull up at the park trying to find Yvette based on nothing but Instagram. It’s New York city so I don’t know how effective this would be in actual real life. There’s some fun party where lots of Brooklyn friends make cameos dancing. Janay finally gives in and dances a little bit.

We get a dreamy synth clip of the gang skating down a street in Williamsburg. They all pull up to a spot where everyone went after skating and Farook finds Indigo. They go leave to have a drug convo. Janay is talking to Honeybear and starts judging Yvette based on her instagram and starts to justify why she’s going to fuck her up. We kind of travel through all these conversations and it really makes you feel the energy of being at a party.

Back in Farook’s car him and indigo start arguing and she leaves him to go her his money. Indigo opens one of those insane apartments where the elevator is street level. I’ve always wondered about those. We realize that indigo lives in a super nice apartment with her mom and that she’s pretty wealthy. Indigo asks for $3,000 and her mom obviously says no. She sneaks into her office and writes her check. 

Back at night Bambi and Camille are still walking around and he doesn’t invite her back up. Whats going on there? He asks her to go to “The Dome” in a hour. I’m starting not to trust this hoe. What is he doing to you Camille? Was he worth ruining your friendship with the girls over?

Everyone seems to be at the Dome. Honeybear makes Camille introduce her formally to Ash. They start to make awkward talk but Ash asks to get a drink with her and gives her her number on her board. Skater boys and girls, that’s a move I want to hear about in the future.

Meanwhile, Janay finds “Yvette” and starts screaming at her. Turns out though that Yvette has a beautiful twin who is ready to throw down for her sister. The real Yvette comes over and the girls start to get into an argument. Kirt pushes her out of nowhere and punches someone. Camille gets hit back and a huge fight erupts and then suddenly ends by a skateboard smashing the window.

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Catch our Betty recaps every week here!
If you have any suggestions or anything we’ve missed DM us @quellskate.

Wow. Episode two of Betty was SO much better than Episode 01. Watching this made me feel so many feels. Like I just felt that nice sticky summer feeling of being busy and hanging out with your friends. I specifically thought of a time Quell was judging something for Redbull at LES and then we went and got pizza after and then I skated to a roof and a bar and it felt like the day never ended. Whatever enough about me…

I want to know everything about the characters and where this is going!!! I was genuinely disappointed when this episode ended.

This as always is not sponsored, I just really admire Skate Kitchen and I think what they’ve done and continue to do to spread visibility for SO many groups of people in skateboarding is incredible. Their show is genuinely diverse and AUTHENTIC and they really care about portraying it that way. I think these girls really deserve so much and it’s awesome to see what this series will do for skateboarding. Let’s get into it!

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We start the episode off with small cuts to check in with our characters. We start with a look into Honeybear aka Elizabeth’s??! life. strict household, states island native, religious? We don’t get much more than that but maybe foreshadowing. Cut to Kirt and Indigo living their summer truth. Skating in Union Square, eating ice cream, HANGING OUT…remember that? 

Anyway, Janay and Donald are filming some sort of youtube video about Janay doing a graffiti tour. Donald turns off the comments on their channel because he didn’t like what they were saying about Janay. Sure Donald…

Now, we’re at Fat Kid wooooo! It’s my favorite park honestly, especially for beginner skating. I don’t know why but it’s kind of mellow and it’s huge so you get a bit of practice with speed and your approach. 

Kirt and Indigo see Camille and they’re still not happy about it. Camille’s mystery bae shows up and she starts filming clips of him on her phone. The girls are having fun without her, teaching Indigo a little bit. We get some vibey moments of all the girls doing tricks around the park. 

“You know those betties don’t you” a classic name title drop from Camille’s bae aka Bambi. Camille goes to talk to bae about music and editing and they both admit to watching each other’s clips. Later Camille rolls in shit and Bambi offers to help her clean it off.

Janay starts to list her ideas about her show to Honeybear. Honeybear starts to mention that there are negative comments around Donald, Janays best friend and she realizes the comments weren’t about Janay they were about him. She finds Donald and starts to scream at him in the park about lying about the comments. Allegedly Donald didn’t like someone who liked him and she accuses him of being a predator. he starts to feel trapped and Janay tries to help him. 

This casting agent scouts Indigo in the park and the boys start to laugh at her while the other girls get a little jealous it seems that they weren’t selected. She then bumps into one of Camilles friends, Luis, and he starts screaming at her. Kirt starts a fight with him to defend Indigo. Indigo starts to get really mad and quits skateboarding.  After Kirt finds the girl who has been lingering and screams that she’s gay. they get into a small argument about the girl and she leaves Kirt.

Kirt, Honeybear and Indigo meet up randomly a lot later on the quest for Indigo to keep skating. Kirt apologizes with rave toys and sneak into the park. There’s a beautiful night skating scene that once again makes me tear up a little bit. They skate around and get super high. While laying at the bottom of the bowl, Honeybear admits to liking Ash. 

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Catch our Betty recaps every week here!
If you have any suggestions or anything we’ve missed DM us @quellskate.

YAAAHHHOOOO Betty is here! For those of you who live under a rock, or somehow found this page accidentally, Betty is the newest comedy / skate masterpiece from The Skate Kitchen written by Crystal Moselle + Lesley Arfin.  Betty is kicking off its first season with six episodes exclusively on HBO. HOWEVER you can watch the first episode on Instagram live now

ALSO want to give a huge shout out to Betty + HBO for sending us such a sick package. Feeling really blessed and excited to use all those goodies to share the love. This post wasn’t sponsored - but needed to give a little love and kudos.

The description of Betty states: A group of diverse young women navigate the predominantly male-oriented world of skateboarding in New York City.  I mean lmao story of my life right...but let’s get into it SEASON ONE EPISODE ONE

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We catch Nina aka Kirt (spelling change in this show versus the movie The Skate Kitchen) taking some ass shots of a seriously bruised butt. Wonder how much of that was costume makeup or real life. She facetimes our girl Dede aka Janay because they’re about to meet up for their first girl’s sesh!

It’s absolutely foreshadowing who the guy is with Janay but we shall see. PS shouts out that Janay had on a KCDC tote. But anyway - we catch our girls at LES somewhere *incredibly* extra. Enter Moonbear aka Honeybear, and immediately we clock that she’s a filmer, so our gang starts to catch some clips. 

Camille shows up with her two boys and immediately is a way different character than her movie debut. Then we get this montage of skating and general LES shenanigans. How many times should I mention that I miss being outside? It starts POURING and they all mob to a bodega. I wonder if that was real rain or not - but I’m going to go with not. I’m from Miami and I don’t remember it raining like that here.

“Phillip” orders a bacon egg and cheese and my heart dies a little. Camille realizes she forgot their backpack at the park and freaks out on her to go get it. The girls are not having how he treated her and they all get kicked out of the bodega. 

The gang realizes that the backpack is stolen. Janay proves to be the smartest thinker trying to get Camille to use find my iPhone. Phillip doesn’t have an iPhone because “he doesn’t trust the government.” I wish I couldn’t say that I haven’t met a New York skater exactly like that but…

Phillip is really upset because he lost his “Winter Bowl Key” which Kirt quickly reminds him girls can’t get in there anyways. Our first look into the divide of the skate scene. But they make a deal that when they get the backpack thief, they can get into Winterbowl.

They run into a friend Farook and meet Indigo, our baddie smoking in the van. Camille doesn’t want to hear her stoner friends excuses and just wants her backpack. Kirt, Phillip, Honeybear and Indigo pile in Farook’s van to smoke. Janay gives her stuff to Honeybear and her and Camille embark on this adventure to get the stolen backpack. Camille and Janay first see a similar backpack on a young man, and think they find gold but in reality it’s some mean 14 year old boy. 

Back in the van, Farook tries to remember his weed prices to send out Indigo to sell some *drugs*. Kirt delivers the best line of the show “not my fault if my lets skate and my lets smash vibes have some overlap.” She tries to get Indigo to skate with her, and speaks the truth about skating: it’s not about landing tricks all the time, it’s about having fun. This scene seems really chill but it is in fact the pivotal moment of the show. The difference between how men see skating and how women are developing their own communities.

Now we get to a Fuckin Problems montage to find our backpack through Chinatown. We start to see Camille and Janay develop their relationship and it seems like a fun promising future for our ladies. Meanwhile back at the van, Indigo is learning to skate from Kirt. Indigo baby mall-grabs the fuck out of this deck while flirting with this guy to sell some weed. She skates now though “it’s whatever”. My personal favorite part of the episode is that Kirt teaches the importance of how to hold your skateboard.

Janay and Camille have a terrible interaction with an old man and start to get a little more open about the overwhelming sensation of older men preying on younger women in situations they should be safe in, like the school bus. Back in Farook's bus, Honeybear realizes she found the backpack thief on her camera. The ladies meet back up to fuck this guy up. He’s sitting on a park bench and then starts cursing at them in Spanish but surprise Camille speaks Spanish and gets! her! backpack!

YAY we did it we’re all best friends wooooooo. So Farook drops our ladies off at the Winterbowl and Camille opens the door to get in. They’re greeted by some random guy who refuses to let them in. A guy vouches for Camille but she ditches the other girls at the door. All of a sudden the sky opens up and leaves our ladies out in the rain.

That’s all she wrote.

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Catch our Betty recaps every week here!
If you have any suggestions or anything we’ve missed DM us @quellskate.

Welcome to the first, of what will be many posts from our new series: Skate Pop.

We’re taking you through on this rocky journey of skateboarding through pop culture by recapping movies and TV that feature our favorite skaters. Kicking off the series, we decided to feature the most mentioned skate movie to us in recent history: The Skate Kitchen.

The Skate Kitchen Movie is so special to us because we’ve heard that it has inspired SO many women to start skating. It’s an amazing representation of our mission at Quell: visibility for women and non binary people in skateboarding. If you have not watched The Skate Kitchen it is streaming now on Hulu. Hope you enjoy the first Skate Pop.

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First, we’re introduced to our protagonist miss Rachelle aka CAMILLE about to ollie a four stair. I’m on board for this solo sesh…until we get this BRUTAL fucking credit card scene.

I am so squeamish that this literally hurts me to watch this and has re instilled a fear in me that I can’t even put into words. The timeline seems insane because you would never get released from the hospital after having major vagina surgery that quickly and then just WALK your ass home but whatever let’s roll with it no pun intended.

So enter Camille’s mom who is my favorite Orange is the New Black character–and she has the reaction of every parent who has ever seen their kid skateboard and fall: promise me no more skateboarding. Okay mom…I promise. But Camille does NOT care. I’m kind of obsessed with the fake instagram and then like google maps transit view of LES because baby our real New York journey is about to begin!

Here we go! Enter Janay (played by Dede), Kurt (played by Nina) and Ruby (played by Moonbear). “I follow you on instagram” is my favorite introduction also. But lets stack these clips ladies. I wonder what they’re actually looking at on that camera honestly. But cut to a downtown montage that is literally making me so sad to be sitting on my couch doing this review. “Can you do an ollie?” is also my favorite introduction…fuck that guy. Who else has had that experience?

I also wonder how much of this is planned or acting - like the car almost hitting Nina aka Kurt etc. Anyway, I feel like they wouldn’t just leave her hanging like that but we had our first day skating with the ladies! Camille get her clip on “The_Skate_Kitchen” insta...fuck yeah bitch as Kurt says.

Day two of hanging out with the squad. Our ladies go to this amazing rooftop tennis court scenario and smoke weed in a beautiful sunset. Kurt brings up and incredible point about the Mandela effect. I am obsessed with this. Camille has to make up a reason to leave and it is SO awkward I am even hurt emotionally.

Still sad we have to hide that skateboard...which another thing, how is her credit card injury going ??
WHAT, was it her birthday all along??? is she vegan? 
Why is she doing the skateboard out the window if we saw her put it in the bushes?
I have a lot of questions clearly.

Now we enter a vibey montage of time passing and their relationship building. Camille states a very sweet sentiment about not feeling lonely because she’s found this group and it makes me really happy. I think it’s so important to have a safe space to feel comfortable with…I mean duh I do. Also, it’s so nice to actually have friends to be able to hang out with. I miss that feeling.

Complete side note but obsessed with this bedroom with a couch in it because WHERE in New York is this. Also I love supportive dads.  It’s so nice to know that this tampon fear has made it onto main screen. I do think I talk about this with my friends but I have to say that this is not what women sit around doing all the time . So then we move into the shitting on men portion and that’s my favorite thing to do with the ladies. The two sexual spectrums are outlined by Kurt- Do you like sucking dick or eating pussy? So Camille likes boys – not sure why we needed to state that but lets see where this goes.

Camille is late to get home and her mom takes away her skateboard. Fuck.

But, a new day is here. We’re at cooper and Charlie, the nicest person in this movie, has delivered a board to us so let’s set this up for the shredding montage. Enter trap music and said montage. Also enter another corona related depressive episode.

Camille sleeps over Janay’s house, and steals her tampons. How’d that go? We’re living our best life now, back having fun at fat kid until mom literally shows up to scream at her and actually hit her in front of her friends? So bye mom we’re leaving your ass and new jersey long island and shacking up with Janay.

It’s so sweet to have this friend moment and hear Camilles story about her struggles with puberty and identity. I think it’s a really difficult grounding point in the movie and her relationship with her mother and the pressure to make these relationships work as you’re trying to know who you are growing to be. You shouldn’t feel that much pressure as a child and it’s so sweet to see someone listening and seeing Camille have that moment where someone is there for HER.

Anyway time to go fuck someone up. We’re back at LES! There’s a dreamy Clairo song playing while there’s just a full on altercation started by Kurt. Hi Jaden aka Devon, welcome to The Skate Kitchen. Fast forward to the grocery store where Camille and Devon both happen to work.

A small but important scene here, is when the girls are on the way to the party and they start talking about their past hookup experiences. Gaslighting is the worst thing possible. I hate having to hear how many shared collective horrible experiences we have with men. But this scene brings my favorite coming of age movie scene- putting lipstick on your friend to a Princess Nokia song. Fast forward through the scenes that probably make this a rated R movie.

I’ve noticed that this movie is really like just about these beautiful friend montages and a couple key plot points but just kind of feeling that emotion and without dialogue it gives you time to like bring it back to your own self. Is that too deep? I don’t know.

Anyway, Camille goes to hang out with Devon to take photos. My fear of heights is giving me insane stress in this moment but it’s clear that this kick flip photo shoot on the roof is a ~turning point~. Especially when he says: you’re the only girl i’ve ever brought up here oh FUCK that’s the worst sentence I have ever heard.

Camille goes back to her new home, aka Janay’s home and wants to skate this street spot with the girls. I feel the tension building. Janay is nervous and isn’t feeling respected which is culminates in a skate injury and a metaphorical riff in her and Camille’s relationship. Sad.

Camille tries to ask questions about boys to Indigo and we’re finding out the tea between Janay and Devon. Tension builds when Camille lies to Janay and hangs out with Devon. But at least we get another vibey montage of skating with the bros.

The next day, we hang out at Cooper. Literally what is good with this weed she is dead??? but Indigo just realized what is GOOD with Camille and Devon…uh oh. Fast forward, another day another Cooper scene. Janay comes back to the park to hang with her friends and also beat Camilles ass because suddenly learns about her “friendship” with Devon. Seems like this is not going to go very well for the future of The Skate Kitchen.

Not that this is the point of this scene but when Camille is mad as fucks her hair looks incredible. So anyway, Camille made her bed and now has to lie in it...and by her bed I mean this couch in the living room of Devon’s apartment until she literally gets in his bed instead. UH OH. I’m excited for this all to get better because now I am sad and I miss my mom.

And here we are, mom gives the best advice to just apologize. Squad scene, we are back. Let’s vibe it out a little more. I don’t know about you but I MISS MY FRIENDS.

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This recap was written by Adrian Koenigsberg.
If you have a movie or show you want us to recap let us know.

Stay tuned for more Skate Pop and follow The Skate Kitchen's journey when Betty comes out on HBO May 1st.

Jaime Reyes is arguably one of the toughest people in skateboarding.

At the height of her skateboarding career in the mid 90’s, you could catch her breezing down Lafayette with the Supreme squad, or doing kickflips in the Rookie loft with Lauren Mollica and Lisa Whitaker.  We had the pleasure of interviewing Jaime Reyes on our podcast about her skate beginnings and career in the 90s and early 2000s. After getting to know her more and more since the podcast, we wanted to catch up with Jaime on what skateboarding means to her now and her plans for the future.  We invited Jaime to Brooklyn for a whole weekend to find out.

While we already know Jaime is a badass, we were impressed when we witnessed her push through a stomach bug (we’ll spare the details) on a humid, 95 degree Saturday. She busted out a pivot to fakie on a crusty bank and promptly re-named it the ‘puke to fakie’ - a true legend.

Jaime played a little backseat DJ, made a necessary fried chicken stop a la Harold Hunter and never missed a Yankee’s score update. She even admitted she has 23 blue Yankee’s fitted hats (the brim color changes, obviously). But what stood out to us even more, was that Jaime made sure we felt as good about skating the spots as she did, even pushing us to land our tricks before moving onto the next spot.

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Kristen Scalise: I don’t want to call it a comeback, but it feels like you’re making a comeback to skateboarding. I don’t know if that’s more because of social media. Have you been actually skating more recently?

Jaime Reyes: I’ve been skating for the last three years. I went on a seven year hiatus. 2009 I just went into a dark place after my pops passed away. When he passed away I completely stopped skating. I had been miserable for seven years. Three years ago, I was like ‘you know, I need to skate because that’s what always made me happy.’ So yes, I’ve started skating.

KS: And do you feel happier?

JR: Fuck yeah. Relearning some stuff gets frustrating but hey if I did it before I can do it again. It’s all part of skateboarding and I love you skateboarding.

KS: It doesn’t matter.

JR: It doesn’t matter because I fucking threw down some shit.

KS: Laughs you paid your dues.

JR: It’s like being in a union. I paid my dues and I fell today hard. Still paying dues. 

KS: What’s the union?

JR: The skate union. You know, like union workers.

KS: Get that insurance.

JR: No yeah, I love skating. Trying to be the best I can at it. I’m slowly getting all my stuff back. Flipping the board, jumping on ledges. I’m not going to jump down handrails and stairs anymore.

KS: What tricks are you trying to get back next? 

JR: Everything, I just want to skate. Darcy [Jaime’s Partner] said I was way happier now that I’ve been skating. I mean I built a fucking mini ramp– sweat, blood, tears and empty pockets!

KS: Does she skate?

JR: No. She’s the complete opposite of me. I am so much happier and better of a person when I get to skate. 

Adrian Koenigsberg: What about skateboarding really makes you feel that drive and that love?

JR: It’s a feeling you can’t describe.

KS: I can’t imagine trying to describe that too. You’ll know it.

Abi Teixeira: It’s just you on
that shit. 

KS: That’s something I love about skateboarding. You go and do something by yourself but with your friends.

KS: Do you think your love for skateboarding grew over the years, or was it love at
first sight?

JR: I think it was love at first sight. When I stepped on a skateboard I was like dude I love this. I ate shit, I still love you. It’s like my best friend. I call it my purse because I carry it everywhere.

AT: How long have you been
skating for?

JR: Since ‘92. Before you were born probably. I got the cover [of Thrasher] when you were in your dad’s nut sack.

AT: What year? 

JR: ‘94.

AK: That’s the worst way to phrase that. Laughs.

KS: Jaime what are you
scared of?

JR: I don’t know. Disappointing someone, or people.

KS: That’s a real fear though. Not as good as butterflies [Adrian’s fear]. I’m also afraid of that.

AK: Yeah I’m all about the crippling anxiety of disappointing people.

KS: You probably have it worse than I do. Laughs. This is an out of the blue question: Max Fish then versus now.

JR: I miss the old Max Fish, but I am grateful it’s still around!

KS: I feel like Max Fish is not only a bar but a spiritual place.

AT: What’s different about it?

JR: To me it was more of a dive bar. Now it’s a little more clubby. For the most part the peeps are the same. I love going to Max Fish when I am in town!

KS: I can’t think of any other place that is a more open arms place to skateboarders. If you’re a skater you have a home at Max Fish.

JR: When I go to Philly I go to Tattooed Moms. It’s just like that.

KS: What do you think about the skate scene in Richmond? [Where she currently lives]

JR: In Richmond I go to my friend’s house called The Lost Bowl, and it’s awesome because he has a transition park in the backyard and the front yard he has a slappy curb. Thank you Pat Lowry. I learned how to slappy on that curb, it’s awesome. There’s a planter on the front curb. He built all that stuff. Look up #TheLostBowl.

KS: Why did you like the Seaport Ledges so much?

JR: I don’t know, they were dope. There were the old wooden benches and they put the metal corner coping on the ledge. The ground was so smooth.

KS: What’s your favorite trick you got on that ledge?

JR: The switch backside 5-0 and the switch back tail line. That was probably my favorite.

KS: What do you think about skating in Brooklyn?

JR: Everything is all new to me here. Obviously these spots weren’t here when I was skating back then. It was cool.

AK: Do you feel like a lot of Manhattan spots have changed since you skated them?

JR: Hell yeah! There are like 20 Manhattan spots parks now. Back in the day it was just Riverside and the one on the West side and like Canal Street. Before they re did the LES park, it was so bad before. 

KS: Do you use wax?

JR: We talked about this. I shellac a curb.

KS: What is that?

JR: I buy these spray paint thing, and when you gloss up the curb it’s so much better.

AT: You don’t need that in New York, with the metal and shit.

JR: Yeah but did you see that spot where I did the nose slide? That has so much wax on it.

KS: People love wax in New York City.

JR: Jaime points to a three inch scar. This is why I don’t like wax.

KS: What happened?

JR: Someone waxed a
metal curb.

KS: Oh cool.

JR: Metal. Angle. Curb. I slid out and caught the corner. I had to get 20 stitches and 5 internal stitches. This was recently.

KS: I’ve never heard of internal stitches.

JR: Go look at the photo.

KS: I don’t want to look at your injuries anymore.

JR: It was so bad that the doctor thought I got bit by a dog, and I kept skating, drove home and I told my girl that I had to clean my arm up… I didn’t know. It was cold, so it must have been the fall and then blood started dripping down my arm. As soon as I took my long sleeve off, she was like you have to go to the ER now.

KS: Oh my god.

AK: Is this going to make me so nauseous?

KS: This looks a lot like the steak picture next to that post.

JR: That’s a prime rib by the way, that I cooked to a perfect medium rare, it was delicious.

KS: You earned it with those
stitches yo. 

JR: I didn’t know the whole time. The doctor was like you drove from Richmond to home, an hour, and back. Yeah, I didn’t take my long sleeve off. He was like ‘you didn’t feel that?’. He thought I was crazy.

KS: It is crazy! We skated around all weekend and you definitely skoached me.

JR: Yes, I would like to be an Olympic Assistant Skoach. Mimi Knoop, holla at ya girl.

KS: Can we start a petition? Like the Alex White Petition? It does make sense to have a park skoach and a street skoach.

JR: I would love to be a skoach.

KS: What do you like about skoaching?

JR: I just want to get people hyped.

KS: I think you’re really good at that. You really pushed me today, and I could see how you can push someone who really has skills. Laughs.

JR: I recently skoached some kids last weekend. That was fun.

AK: Do you feel like that just comes naturally because you’re interested in seeing other people skate?

JR: I am interested in everyone having fun. If they want to learn, I’ll skoach the shit out of you.

KS: Can you tell if people want it?

JR: Yeah. I hate “I can’t”. Fuck it, at least try. I think that’s probably the most important thing in the skoach. It’s not that I can’t do that, it’s I haven’t done it yet. You at least haven’t tried.

AK: I think that’s cool though, that that’s your approach to it. Especially because you don’t have to be that person.

JR: I can tell, if you want to learn, I will be your hype woman. I am going to be so hyped when you land it.

Abi T: It’s always good to have that one person.

KS: You’re hyped for yourself but you kind of feel like you did it for that person too.

AT: That shit does get me hyped. 

JR: You did a kick flip today!

AT: I tried.

JR: We all made you do a rock to fakie. 

AK: What is one of your favorite Skoaching memories?

JR: Having them land it. Everyone landing that trick. Their reaction is priceless, they’re so psyched. It doesn’t matter what the trick is.

KS: In the car, we were talking about music. Favorite song you’ve ever skated to?

JR: Gloria Estefan, Falling in Love.

KS: You said your friend Darin put the retrospective together. Who is Darin?

JR: Darin Lee is a dude I grew up skating with in Hawaii. He filmed 90% of my Hawaii stuff.

KS: What’s your favorite type of music?

JR: I like everything. Cage the Elephant. Modest Mouse. When in Rome. I loved Jay-Z’s first three albums. I used to always skate to the Pixies back in the day. Smashing Pumpkins were my favorite growing up. Let’s listen to Mayonnaise right now.

AK: How do you feel when people are making retrospectives of you? Or talking about your career in the past tense, even though you’re still here and still active.

JR: I guess it should bug me but I am just here to skate.

AK: I don’t mean to get in your head.

KS: If you’re here to skate and have fun, why should it bug you? Do you think social media has influenced skating?

JR: It glorified skateboarding. I don’t know if that’s the right word but you see more skateboarding now through social media period.

KS: Totally. Do you interact with skateboarding differently since joining social media? 

JR: I’m not sure. There’s a lot of good fuckers out there.

KS: Do you wish there was social media in the 90’s.

JR: No.

KS: I wouldn’t either

JR: I came up without it.

AK: The only reason I would wish there was social media in the 90’s is so that I could see better quality footage of the people that I really haven’t gotten to see.

JR: If there was social media in the 90’s, I think I spoke about this before, there would have been a lot more girls out there that we didn’t know about.

KS: Do you think there are more girls out there now because of social media?

JR: Oh yeah.

KS: What are some current skaters that are crushing it?

JR: Everyone’s killing it. Everyone. There’s too many to name.

AK: To go back to our social media question, do you think there’s a combined stoke that is pushing everyone?

JR: Yeah I think so.

KS: Do you think people are just as hyped to see it on social media as they are in person? Like I can see my friends land a trick in Australia.

JR: Yeah if you have a heart, you’re fucking stoked. You should always be stoked to see someone else land shit.

KS: This might just be because of my radar, but you’ve been at a lot more women focused events like Wheels of Fortune, or the SK8 Babes meet-up. Have you always attended women’s meet-ups? Is that something new?

JR: I go to wherever, whenever, whoever flys me out. Thank you to those sponsors!

KS: Are you seeing more women’s skate meet ups as
of late?

JR: Yeah in the last few years, there are more women’s events than before. It’s definitely due to social media and it is a positive thing. I don’t care if you’re brown, yellow, green, dude, chick…just skate.

AK: I feel like if you feel comfortable about the people you’re with, it’s such a good feeling.

KS: That’s what really interests me about you [Jaime] and interviews with Elissa Steamer. You are two people that have just stuck out to me as like ‘yeah I’ve just always skated’. I think there’s a personality type that is you and Steamer that is like ‘I just love it so I did it.’  I really connect with that feeling. I’m just going to show up to the park and you can just wait for me, I don’t care about how slow I’m going, I’m learning. I think that’s super sick.
    Anyway, there’s been a few movies featuring skateboarding lately, such as Mid 90’s. How do you feel about how people are portraying skateboarding?

JR: I think that Mid 90’s did a great job. They didn’t glorify skateboarding. They showed both sides, that everyone has their fucking problems. It reminded me of when I was in the 90’s growing up skateboarding.
     We all were coming from fucked up backgrounds. There were only a couple of us whose parents are together. I identified with Mid 90’s. It was the crew I grew up with.

KS: I do think the perspective they took was cool.

JR: You know, skateboarding really brings all types of people together.
     That’s a beautiful thing. 

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