by Jon Steele
Do you feel young as ever?
First tattoo?
Well pretty much, I mean from like 20-40 really doesn’t feel that much different. I’m sure in the next couple years I will feel my age a little more, but it’s pretty much the same as long as you are skating and surfing a bunch. Nothing different, you just start wearing pads, people start talking and saying, “Oh, you’re getting old and you can’t do this and that,” but I think you can, just try not to get hurt and slow down and fuckin’ be a little more aware of your abilities. They become a little bit worse with skating and such.
I got a little cross on top of my left hand. I saw the poster for the movie “The Blues Brothers” and John Belushi had a little cross and I said “Ohhh I want that.” I lived next to this low rider girl and she tattooed it on me and then after that that was a Thrasher tattoo, which has since been covered up. Best tattoo? Duke Kohonamoku, Miki Dora, my mom’s face, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords on my back.
Above my eye, the scribble. I let some guy practice and he didn’t know what he was doing. He scribbled some thing you can’t even read anymore. It was my mom’s maiden Italian name, “Cirinciona.” Tattoo “213”, what’s that about?
What percent of a surfer are you now?
“213” is L.A. I grew up in Venice and consider myself Vencie for life…6th grade to 12th is where you kinda establish your roots I think.
I’m 100% surfer when I’m surfing. You should be 100% of whatever you’re doing at the time.
Worst tattoo?
Well now you have your own pro shoe? That must feel good? Osiris is helping me out a lot. I got some Grind King Trucks which are a little wider, designed more for parks and pools. I also got a deck from Dog Town skates and an old school deck from Z-flex. Most influential band? They change a lot. At first it was Ted Nugent, then punk rock really influenced me a lot. I grew up with Suicidal Tendencies and they were a huge influence to me. I listen to a bunch of different stuff now. In the 80’s I was kind of brainwashed and only listened to punk rock. Now I put on Black Sabbath…I like a bunch of different shit now. I put on chick music when I’m with my chick.
What does the 100% skateboarder tattoo mean? I consider myself a skater who surfs. Surfing in the 80’s I kinda established that. I thought surfing kinda got soft, kinda stupid. I got into punk rock. Surfers during that time were really snobby and kinda closeminded. I felt I wasn’t a surfer, but a skater who surfed. I didn’t want to call myself a surfer. But now, I’m happy to be a surfer again. I just programmed my life to be that reckless skater…punk rock attitude thing.
What do you do for work? Well, I was working at the House of Flys, but now I just get endorsements from Osiris, Dogtown and Grind King trucks. I’m basically getting paid to skateboard and go to the beach again. I kind of want to take advantage of that again while it’s here. It’s a nice welcome.
open your mouth. Surfing has all sorts of different groups of guys. There are lawyers, doctors, and real conservatives, and then you get the drunks and the drug addict guys. I mean, there’s such a large group of different personalities. You got long boarders, short boarders, boogie boarders, whatever, we’re all out surfing. I just happened to fall into that Surf Nazi category.
Surf Nazi? What is a surf nazi to the uninformed? You might see a swastika on my board or something, that doesn’t mean I’m a racist or don’t like Jewish people. In the 60’s there were these surfers who were anti-establishment, punks before punk, and they called themselves “Surf Nazi’s.” We used to draw swastikas on our skateboards for shock value and freak people out. Even though I am proud of being white. There is nothing wrong with being proud of who you are, whether you’re black, white, Mexican or whatever… I believe we are all equal until you
Did surfing and skating come to you with difficulty or were you just naturally born with it? No, I’ve been skating and surfing before I can really remember. I started at 4 years old, my step-dad was a surfer and I grew up on the beach. Back then, skateboarding just came hand in hand with surfing. That’s what surfers did when the waves weren’t good. In the 70’s it became more popular and available for me to pursue it more. Which do you prefer, surfing or skating? I have always liked both of them equally. I couldn’t pick one of the two. A lot of peo-
ple ask me, “What would you rather do, surf perfect waves or skate a perfect pool?” It’s like asking me if you would rather have a hot black chick or a hot white chick. Pretty dumb question ‘cause you love ‘em both. What do you get out of surfing you don’t get outta skating and vice versa? I get barreled out of surfing. Actually I get the same enjoyment out of both of them. Finding a really good pool is like surfing perfect waves. Surfing perfect waves is a little more special cause it doesn’t happen that often. There are shots of you skating barefoot. Do you recommend skating barefoot or were you trying to up the ante? I was always the guy skating barefoot, I hated shoes. I was a surfer kid and I learned to skate before they had grip tape and I really didn’t like shoes. When I was a kid, I had an allergic reaction to wearing closed tennis shoes, and my feet would crack and stuff. I didn’t really like shoes. I think it was an early surfer thing. We used to skate pools without shoes just for the fun of it, but obviously it is better for your heels and stuff with shoes. You’re deemed as being one of the most influential people in skateboarding. How does that make you feel? I’m proud to have done everything that I have done for so long. I started in 1965, and I’ve seen a lot of people come and go. It blows my mind how somebody could stop skating or surfing. I just have so much fun, I’m just as stoked now doing either one as I was as a kid. Fuck, I love it, it’s kinda what I really live for. It’s what my life revolves around. You can’t let other things get in the way like drugs and stuff, which I happen to have done at one time.