Alexis Sablone

Alexis Sablone joins GLWT.
One of the most respected to ever do it. Chiseled into our Mt. Rushmore. We talk process, obsession to perfectionism. Where it helps, where it doesn’t. Early childhood attempts at Frankensteining the perfect specimen (via bugs). And why skateboarding is just cool and it always will be.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Good Luck with That is an iHeart Women's sports production
in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
What's up, skaters, I'm Ashley Raefeld and this is good
Luck with That. Joining me today is Norvasconcello's Mimi Noop
and the most legendary guests of them all so far,
Alexis Sabloone.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Welcome to the pod.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Thanks thanks for saying yes, sorry, I gave you the
wrong addressed wan want turns out twenty fifth is really
different than fifty fifth.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
And to keep in context, we're in New York.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah, I was like surprised that I Heart Radio had
a studio in the twenties, but I trusted you.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Here we are now here we are now.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Don't ever trust me again, all oh man, And if
anybody knows, having the trust of Alexi Sabloone.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Is like kind of the highest honor. So stop just
speaking the truth. Okay, I'm just speaking the truth.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
But sure, everyone who hasn't been paying attention for the
last twenty six years of your skating that has been in.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
The public eye.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
You broke out on the scene twenty four years ago
during PJ Lad's Wonderful Horrible Life.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Some Boards.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Sponsors that come to mind are Firm Weekend, Alzheimer's X Games.
Three gold medals, two silver, two bronze. You were an Olympian,
Just to add that in there. During the Tokyo twenty
twenty Games, you should have had a bronze. If anybody's watching,
we all knew that was supposed to be a bronze medal.
You became later the coach of the Paris twenty twenty

(01:34):
four Games, so I can't wait to talk a little
bit more about that. You have the cover of Thrasher
in twenty twenty four. Sorry, the list is so long,
We're going to be here for a bit. You were
featured in the New Yorker for skating and.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
The Guggenheim, and you also have an illustrated caricature, which
is like maybe one of the highest life bucket list
things to have. I remember seeing that and being like,
that is so fucking cool.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
I'm sure there are plenty of celebrities who want that
to happen, and you got it, so that's amazing. You
were the first woman on Converse and the first woman
with a pro model and full design authorship. You went
to Columbia undergrad for art then you went to a
little tiny school called MIT, kind of a Ponzi scheme

(02:19):
school and had a master's in architecture and design. Basically, Alexis,
I can't tell, We can't tell.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
If we want to be or be with you. Welcome
to good luck with that. Can I add in one
more stat Yeah, you are the top US women's skater
to perform, like place the highest than any Olympics since
Tokyo and Paris, still highest placing US women's skater women's

(02:51):
street one trick away from a golf medal, which I think, yeah,
it worked out how it should.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
But yeah, just want to add that, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
This is very funny because you guys are my friends
and you're just speaking like accolades.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
At my face, and I'm like, this is for the listeners.
But here's what I want to know, alex is, how
much have you been sleeping lightly?

Speaker 3 (03:16):
I mean, you know, my usual uh not as much
as most people, but it hasn't. I think the next
three day I have a deadline coming up, and so
I've been pretty good and the next couple of days
are gonna be pretty bad.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, I know. I think your process is like kind
of madness, right, just stay up, work through the design.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, I try to end up in a different situation
every time, and here I am every time. I don't
know why. I'm still trying to figure that out.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Are you down to talk about the project or just
don't want to?

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, it's for a it's a park in New Haven.
I'm incorporating skatable features, but it's much more of like
a full kind of multi park, kayak launch playground, some courts,
some pretty areas to.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Walk I wanted. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
It's been a very fun project, but also the scope
is pretty big, and and I've just been I just
always ended up down to the wire. I don't know,
because I just I hate I just I think I'm
just a perfectionist. And so I tell myself I have time.

(04:31):
I'm like, now I can come up with something better.
I can do it better. I can do it better
until I'm like out of time, and then I'm just
I have to just move on with what I have.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Is that the same skate process too, I've kind of
always wondered because like perfection is everybody.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
No, because I'm much less skilled at skateboarding, and so
it's just like, oh, that's how I did it. That's
I mean, I'm picky, like if I'm not doing if something's.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Not proper, I will read it.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
I'll be like, you know, but I think to me,
it's I've for some reason I embrace that a little
more and I'm like, yeah, that's personality, you know. It's
like that's it's got some character like I you can
do you know, like I always think about. Yeah, it
was like Brian Anderson's like you or no, Mark Johnson

(05:17):
and like motors, He's like you can just like if
you can imagine it, you can like do it on
a skateboard. And I've like found that to not be true.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
That is not true. I will I will meet you there.
And as much as I have dreamed of that being true,
that is not true. Yeah. I always go on to
big ideas.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
And then you get humbled really quickly and you're like,
how about I just do the thing that I can
do on this spot, And usually that takes six hours
and I can't walk afterwards, and so if I roll away,
I'm like, that's that's what we got.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
Different with design.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yeah, I'm I mean, maybe I'm a perfectionist. Yeah, I'm
I there's a bit of that in all things for sure,
but I find I don't know. With design, I just
like expect. It's like, actually, anything you can think of
you can make, you know, and and your body is

(06:13):
not the limitation your mind is. So I think I
just have I don't know that. I just expect to
get something that I feel really good about, to get
to a place, and it's just such a process.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
So we were kind of trying to scheme of like
why you have so much.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
You're very smart, high intelligence level, you also have this
amazing emotional depth level, and we don't know how you're
able to have both at the same time.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
And Nora brought up this, like really interesting, Oh, this
is just my favorite story.

Speaker 5 (06:42):
We were like having lunch or dinner sometime and you
brought this story up, and I couldn't stop laughing. It's basically,
as a kid, you were trying to create the perfect specimen. Yeah,
you remember this, and the way you spoke about it
was like this could be the funniest horror film ever.
But you're talking about like collecting the body parts of

(07:02):
bugs and things and you had them in like what
were they soaking in under the bed?

Speaker 4 (07:08):
Tell us, tell us what this actually is? The tell
explain it.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
I was really into.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
I guess it was like a Frankenstein story. I was like,
you know, I didn't. I don't know if it's because
I didn't have that many friends. Maybe that's me like
analyzing posts. At the time, I was just like, this
is my project. Like I always have a project. I'm
obsessed with it, and then I see the world through
whatever the project is, and like I'm like scanning for
things that have to do with my project. And back

(07:37):
then the project was make myself a little like a
little friend, a little person. I had this like Gray's
Anatomy book that I just I liked the drawings. I
didn't know what was going on, but I was like, oh,
it's just like parts that go together, So why can't
I just naturally like find all the dried up bugs
and the like under in the corners of the windows,
and like I'll just collect them until I have the

(07:59):
brain and the legs and like all the parts. I'll like,
you know, jolt them together with a little battery.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Normal kids stuff, normal kids.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
And then but then the really fun part was like,
well I had a lot to figure out there to
solve that. But in the meantime, it was like, well,
this my friend is gonna need a house and clothing,
and so it's like you know, pizza night, and it's
got the little table in the middle that like holds
it together.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
I'm like, I remember that tape.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
My friend has a table now, you know. And then
like I begged my mom for sewing lessons and she
was like really, like are you And because I needed
to make the wardrobe and I was like cutting little secretly,
like cutting little swatches out of my family's clothes.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
My god, like.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
Deep things deep in the closet. Was like they'll never notice.
And I had them all in like a bag up
in the attic. I was like trying to like sew
together little jeans and stuff for for my my future person.
And and then I I moved on to like I
wanted to make a walkie talkie watch in a tic
tac box. After that I didn't. The person never got got.

Speaker 5 (09:07):
Yeah, but the brain was moving. The brain was moving rapidly.
Now that's just like when you told me that. I
was like literally in tears with that one. That and
then the story of you getting is it eighty six
from Whole Foods. That's another fun one as well.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Does this involve blueberries, which I'm sorry did not bring
you a piece offering of fruit.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
That's okay, you've done that in the past, Alex. This
is like you've done enough, thank you enough, harm Okaya,
come on, come on. I finally feel comfortable going in there,
and then they're not gonna because I was told i'd
be arrested on the spot if I ever see I
like went around with the bag of grapes and I like,

(09:47):
was enjoying grapes. You'reting the produce, and then ID to
make sure it was and then I put the bag
back at the end, and this was always like.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
She stole grapes.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Okay, so this is Look, my parents divorced before I
I have no memories of the great together. I'm making
excuses for myself, but but no, it's like when I
was at when my dad had us on Wednesdays and weekends.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
You know, when I was at the grocery store with my.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Dad, he was like, yeah, here, try this grape test.
You got to test out what you're gonna buy. You
gotta know you test the grapes.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
That's what we did.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
We walked around and we would like test a couple grapes.
I tried to do that with my mom around the
same time, and she was like, that is criminal behavior.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
You're going to be arrested. Don't like never do that.
But I don't know. I guess I just so habit
was already right, yeah, she is an attorney, so.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
Is yeah, but uh, I don't know. I I just
tested too many grapes. And it was honestly, I was
working at a restaurant uptown, so was like right after college,
and I lived in Bushwick and that Whole Foods was
like in between and so, and I was on like
a very I was like, I can spend like ten

(11:06):
dollars a day, like that's what.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
And I don't know.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
It was just like the perfect thing. While I like
shopped around for whatever, kombucha or whatever, I was spending
my ten dollars.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
It wasn't cheese. It wasn't cheese.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
No, it definitely wasn't cheese.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
I hate cheese.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
So I was a repeat I did it like, oh,
you're a repeat vender.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
And so then they I were on the way, I
was paying for my stuff and they pulled me into
a back room and they've like we've been following you
for days. If you I just yeah, it just played dumb.

Speaker 6 (11:39):
I was.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
They were like, if you ever stepped foot in New
York City Whole Foods again, you'll be arrested on the spot.
And I was devastated. I was like, where am I
going to get my kombucha or grapes? And I was
scared for years to go back in there. I mean,
if they're hearing this, I don't know. I feel like,
it's fine. Do you know who owns foods? It's fine,
Please steal grapes everyone out there. Well, now I'm like,
I'm decades older, not going to the facial recognition. What

(12:01):
are they scanning? They are scanning your retinas though, or
your palms? What do they have there? Like, you know,
the option to pay for them to like scan your
fingerprints and eyeballs, that's all of it, and dental and.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
Then sell your I don't got it mining it out.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
So I'm what I'm hearing is that this was pre
Converse money, ten dollars for what you had to buy.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah, fast forward, it was twenty one.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
It was pretty X games.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Oh, it's pretty alluse then.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
Because I was working at that restaurant and we had
a we had a kitchen fire. Everyone was fine, but
like we were all getting unemployment, Like no, we like
all of a sudden, there's no work. And so that
was going on when I That was when like maloof
Money Cup came and it was at that event I
saw like friends from skating I hadn't seen a while,

(12:50):
and someone brought up or no, that was that was
manny Mania, and someone brought up maloof Money Cup and
they're like, yeah, there's like a twenty thousand dollars women's
purse which you won. No, I did not win one.
I did not win, but I was like twenty thousand dollars,
like back when I did contest when I was like
when I did two contests when I was twelve, you
won like five hundred dollars. So I was like I

(13:13):
need that, and I like wrote emails and got in
at the last second, and I know my wheel fell off.
I hit my head twice. Like Brian Anderson was like
hovering over me. He was like I was at the
bottom of the stairs when I looked up and he
was there and he was like are you okay? And
I was like wow, but no, I got the Destroyer Award,

(13:34):
which I think meant I fell the most, and they
gave me a sawge all, which I wasn't going to
fly back with, so I just gave it to someone.
But that led to me getting in as an alternate
to the to the X Games, and I was the
first sex Games that had equal prize purse, which was
nice to me. Me knuperty here. And I squeaked into
that because Lorraina Lima like rolled her ankle and was

(13:57):
still going to skate even though she couldn't like do
any tricks. But she was the last place was still
like fifteen hundred bucks, and so I was like, let
me skate and I'll give you fifteen hundred bucks no
matter what. And she let me skate and I got second.
I won twenty grand and I gave her fifteen hundred
bucks and sweet, and my budget went way up.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
That's right, but not at whole.

Speaker 4 (14:18):
That also led to us creating a new role the
next year where if you're hurt, you cannot skate, the
alternate is put in. So that's funny. I remember that, Yeah,
two thousand and nine.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, that was the one. Also, everyone got hurt in
that contest because it was like a huge I cracked
my ribs like in the beginning of the contest and
skated like a There was like a twelve stare hand right.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
Yeah, people were just set. We had like a bike
set in the middle. Right. Do you remember the podium
for that, Maris?

Speaker 4 (14:44):
I think Marissa won that on her twenty She won
twenty grand on her twentieth birthday.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
However, remember that because I won twenty grand.

Speaker 4 (14:50):
Okay, she won twenty grand on her twentieth birthday.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
That's probably her next one.

Speaker 4 (14:54):
Then and then when you won, yeah, yeah, that's when
you were like, I'm winning this now.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
I'll butt you broke her to deal. You're like, look,
I'll give you a cut. Just get out of the way.
It seemed when when yeah, you're smart.

Speaker 5 (15:08):
Yeah, we'll be right back with Alexis sablone.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
After we listened to some sweet ads. Maybe also had
a story. We're just going to go around the campfire
and tell stories.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
Preferred me and we had a story about when it
was the day your pro shoe came out the first colorway.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
Oh no, that colorway with Commerce, not your signature shoe.

Speaker 4 (15:42):
First colorway with Commerce with your name on it, which
was a green shoe that I wish I still had.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
It was so good. You picked the right colors, you
picked the right shoe, You did the whole You did
it right.

Speaker 4 (15:53):
It came you had. You had like a sampar remember
in Rio that January. I remember seeing it then and
then ye, it.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
Was my first colorae. It was like a one star
that I had like modified, so I had like a
rubber and then rubber to the vamp. And then you
want me tell the story?

Speaker 1 (16:10):
Are you telling the story?

Speaker 4 (16:11):
I'm just I'm just saying it with time and then
I'm gonna love it to you.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
To tell the story with my parents for the other
day for the first time, and at the dinner table,
she was like, I want to bring up the story
about the shoe. I was like, where we are now
we're talking about that. I actually didn't know that story, though,
I guess, And who knows the way they'll like twist
how what that story is going to sound like the
next time I hear it from them. When they're like,
tell the story, I'm like, it just escalates. I mean,

(16:34):
they think they're remembering the right story. But I was
more extreme. It was very excited to share the story though.
But yeah, so January you had you had the samples in.
By May we were in Shanghai for X Games Shanghai
and you had that was the day that Colorway was
coming out.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
Now I'm gonna love it to you. Just set the scene, Okay.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, so it was X Games in Shanghai, but we
weren't staying in like the center of Shanghai. We were
out by like Shanghai Disney or the event was by
Shanghai Disney, and there was like not that much around,
like everything was far from and we were staying far
from where the event was, and so it was just
kind of like maybe kind of pre uber, I want

(17:13):
to say, or at least there it wasn't so you
had to like get it was just an ordeal to
get from the hotel to the venue, and you had
to kind of get them to like call you a
car and then so you're once you were there, you
were there, and I think it had been a it
was practice and I was just kind of like trying
to have my headphones on and I get like sick

(17:37):
nervous before contest. So She's like, no one talked to me,
and I'm just gonna like at the last minute went
it was time to skate, then I'll just skate, and
so waited up until that time. So the contest is
starting in like ten minutes. And yeah, my first Converse
colorway was coming out that day, so it was like
a nice thing to coincide they were gonna They ended

(17:59):
up bouncing something on the loud speaker. But I go
into my bag to get my shoes out, and I
have was the left shoes you had had two left
shoes because I came to Shanghai with two pairs and
I just like grabbed and so I had two lest shoes.
I just like, you know, and I was wearing like

(18:20):
boots or something. I don't know what I was wearing,
but it wasn't something you could skate it. I was
just like, uh oh oh, no, no way to get
even just like walk to try to find a car,
and this is it. Like I wouldn't have made it,
and no one would pick you up because you know,
you're just like out there.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Like they literally were like and they still do this.
They're like, if we're going to choose an event space
or build a random thing for this.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
We're not gonna let you enjoy that city, no out,
and it's also like let's pick literally like fever dream shit,
like where do you wake up in a dream.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
That's where we're gonna have our fucking event.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
Yeah, well this is quite nightmare. I was like, oh no,
this is really bad. And so Mimi's frantic trying to
like get someone to go back to the hotel in
case we can make it.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
I forget what number I was in the heat, but
there wasn't enough time.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
And and then like Manny was there, and Manny's a sweetheart,
and he was like, I don't know, was anyone like
looking for my sized shoe? And someone that was there
that I think he worked for Converse in China, so
it wasn't like completely around it, but he was there
and he had my sized shoe and he was wearing

(19:30):
the shoes, like the shoes that came out that day
he like had because they came out that day, but
since he worked for Converse, he like had them. I
think he was a half size, either bigger or smaller
than I was, but it was like close enough at
that point, and he and Manny was like, he has
the shoes and he just like handed them to me
and I scared the contest and got third, which was
like probably the first time I placed in X games

(19:52):
at that point in a while. I mean me kept
like the stars aligned, the stars aligned, as she loved to.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Say, and he had stars on your shoes. Yeah, because converse,
that's right, but with.

Speaker 5 (20:03):
Stars had five points and then there was these five
angels that came down and carried you up.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
And then after that, anytime I like did horribly in condos,
which was many times, and we'd be like, it's okay,
you just need the stars to align.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
The stars just didn't the line like stop with that?
She can't. Is that what you tell all the kids
now that you coach?

Speaker 3 (20:22):
That's how I coached. Yeah, that's all I learned from
You learn.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
From me coaching? You taken your own coach? Yeah, how
did you coach popens?

Speaker 3 (20:32):
She's so easy to coach.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
You just tell her the stars aligned, and she actually
does understand.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
She just like looks out for five minutes and freezes
and it's like, yeah, Benny does something really cool.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
Now.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
I think what I learned, I don't know, Mimi. I'm
sure it was challenging to coach, because I can be
terrifying in that when I'm in that.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
Headspace. But Mimia is a good.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
Friend and knows me, knows how to deal with me,
and you know, we would like bicker sometimes she'd be like,
what if you try, like don't talk to me, and I.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
Would just like, are you uncoachable?

Speaker 3 (21:11):
I just feel like I I'm probably not great to
coach for sure.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
I'm stubborn.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
And I also come from an air of skateboarding where
it's like a coach, I don't know, like I'm gonna
I'm going to do this.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
You're also.

Speaker 5 (21:28):
We're like most of the best skating that I've ever
done is just me trying something over and over and
over again to land at one time. You know, that's
like what we're doing. So it's so weird to try
to like mold that into a.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
Content contest is very different, and that's why it's like
really high highs and really low lows, especially as a perfectionist,
because you're just like, let me try this until my
body is broken.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
Don't tell me that's it.

Speaker 3 (21:53):
I don't get to try this again, and you just
you you blew it, and now you just get to
wake up the next morning and think and like fix
eight on the kick flip front fifty and why your
truck felt like stupid stuff. But you can't help, and
it doesn't help that like money is on the line
and you're like, oh my god, I could have had
forty thousand dollars if I just was able to do
the trick that I know I can do anyway. But

(22:15):
I think what I learned from me, I mean me
and me still it was it was mostly like it
felt like a confident on emotional support a friend like
just I was I needed like emotional help during contest.
I felt sick. I've like just I could not calm
myself even when like rationally I was like this, even

(22:36):
after the point where I was like okay, I like
I don't need to take out a school alone if
I don't win this contest, even after that point, it
was just like just that the unnaturalness of just like
three two one dropping in like that will still give
me nightmares and it's just like I couldn't. It was
really hard to get past it and never could. So

(22:58):
just having me me there, I think was extremely important
for me. And so I think that's was my takeaway then,
as like when I coaches just I think different different
skaters require really different things, and so it's not like
a once it's like this is what you have to do.

(23:18):
It's like, okay, let them like read them and read
the skaters and see like what they are asking or
what they need, if they need reassurance or if they
want ideas or if they you know. But I just
find that like unless someone's telling me they're going to
do something, or I'm just kind of like that's a
really bad idea, I won't say that much. If it's

(23:42):
a really bad idea, I'm like, well you can do that.
You're you're not gonna get the points you need. So
if you want to get the points you need, I
think you should do this or this, But it's your decision. Yeah,
you know, I think that like autonomy a skater if
they were raised in this contest world and are kind

(24:02):
of different generation of scare, it's still you're still a skateboarder,
and it's and I mean, it never feels nice. I
don't think for someone to like you still have that
kind of independent spirit of someone telling you like no,
you're doing this, It's like I could never do that.
That just feels wrong.

Speaker 4 (24:20):
It's so important to be like a critical thinker and
like you you do that normally, but I think a
lot of the kids, like they're used to people telling
them what to do, so it's almost like being able
to encourage them to make their own decisions always good.

Speaker 5 (24:33):
But we also weren't training, Like there were no scrimmages,
there was no like show up, and like it's so
different now we're.

Speaker 4 (24:41):
Outside doing pull ups at midnight yeast, you're doing seeing
karaoke at like one am and being like, well, hopefully
I can.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
Get The mistakes are higher now, so it does make
sense that there is a little bit more structure and
the kids are so much younger, which is kind of
wild how.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
And everyone's way more consistent.

Speaker 2 (24:59):
Yeah, because they're coming at it from a point of
view of like they're training.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
And they know what to do.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
There's been like a little bit more evidence of how
to skate a contest, and yeah, there are these rules
that are becoming formal, like in it and how to score,
like we know what the judges they're looking for, and
so that's probably really interesting. And yeah, like Leo was
talking about just how like back in the day, like
it would just be like whoever got the podium the
trick would be whatever that trick was, they would copy

(25:25):
their trick and then do it worse but still get
the points in terms of style. Yeah, I wonder is
that still happening from your perspective of like, oh, this
is the trick that I need to learn now to
get the podium win.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
Hmmm. I mean I think within a contest you see
some of that.

Speaker 3 (25:43):
It's like if the judges, if they judge something higher
than you're expecting and it's an easy tricks, everyone like
hops on the bandwagon. Suddenly everyone's like like Smith guy
and met Houba and you get seven, like everyone just
starts doing it because it's it's a game.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
Like.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
But I don't know in terms of like what people
are learning. I think I can't speak for other all
the skaters, you know. I think there's I see like
some very I don't know what the Japanese are doing,
but it's so different, different song, different should be studied.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
Yeah, we have questions.

Speaker 5 (26:23):
Chinese deal they made a deal with some deity somewhere
and they're just the stars.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
They didn't deal with the stars.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
People are learning how to skate under like three years,
under twenty four months and are showing up at the
like most high elite like competitive skateboing scene.

Speaker 6 (26:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (26:39):
The thing that blows my mind that I get fed
occasionally as those mini ramp contests they do and it's like,
I don't those oh six or Yeah, it's like a
six or seven year old doing like twenty tricks that
involve some sort of kick flip or heel flip variation.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
Out of like a pint and out or whatever.

Speaker 5 (26:58):
And then they're doing like an AI and they are
literally not old enough to tie their shoes.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:05):
Yeah, that's where you worry about the critical thinking thing
a little bit, because it is I mean, that's you know,
kids are incredible prodigies. More power to them. But uh yeah,
I don't know. I think the two are a little
bit fundamentally at odds like contest skating and just regular

(27:28):
old skateboarding, because a lot of that is do what
you feel. Even on any given day. It's like when
you go street skating, it's like, I don't know what
I'm gonna I might have an idea what I'm like,
if I'm really into a trick, I'm like I'm gonna
practice this or I'm gonna do this, and then my
body is like nope, actually or my head, it's like
just you get some other idea because you're like this

(27:50):
feels possible today, or like that feels impossible.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
Whatever.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
You like listen to yourself and it takes you in
some other direction. And that I don't know, ability to
like listen and respond to yourself and like be led
that way is part of the the like the building
of the your independent nature. And so yeah, it's really

(28:16):
different to be like this is what you will learn.
These are going to be your tricks, and you will
just try them until you can do them through the
pressure and through the anxiety. You know. It's that's like
it's some brute force. I mean, it's I respect it still,
like it's incredible to watch. I don't know, I hate

(28:39):
you some word progress in this context, but the progress
are like what's possible now, especially in the women's side.
But but yeah, the other stuffs, in my opinion, the
most important.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (28:55):
Yeah, we'll be right back to Alexis's laboratory after this quick.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
I had break when you're like those are my fondest
memories of skateboarding or like that was like my sweet.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
Spot where I was like really in flow, and I
enjoyed skateboarding.

Speaker 1 (29:20):
Skateboardings, it's not enjoyable. Sometimes we all talk about the fun.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
It's fun, but like the career of it is not
entirely an enjoyable ride.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
I wouldn't say there's like an ear where I was like, oh,
it was all fun because I've always been not good enough,
you know, I'm always like it's like one day is
it's great until I have a you know, I can't
do what I want, what I'm trying to do, and
then I am mad at myself and I like lose
my temper. But so like I think it's just sprinkled in.

(29:50):
It's like, I mean I still have with the right crew,
like the right weather, the right city. I don't know,
you're just skating around with your friends and you're like
this is like I'm lucky that I get to do this,
Like this is nice, Like this is I mean, I'm
most nostalgic of course for like nineties skating, like when

(30:11):
you cause, I just I don't know when you first
find skateboarding, then find your first friends and like start
to understand, like start to you know, like become obsessed
with like like brands all seem cool and the pros
and all the things. It's just a whole new world
and it feels like, so no one's ruining it for you.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
Well said Noura, It has ruined it for you.

Speaker 5 (30:39):
Yeah, you get to like actually like soak it in
and like be obsessed with what you want to be
obsessed with and watch the video parts. I'm like, how
do you remember the first thing you learned that you
were like, what, I'm the shit.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
I'm so like mine was an axle stall. That that
was your I'm the ship moment. That was the I
can do this.

Speaker 5 (30:58):
Oh And I was like yeah, and I was wearing
like a red Roxy shirt and these like Zo York shoot.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
Like I remember everything.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
Until heel flip. I learned heel flip before kickflip. And
I remember like exactly where I was on my on
my deck yeah night, like in the like doing it.
Like I think I landed like in the corner on
the railing, but two feet were on the board because
the number of times you just do something and you
like you just like flick your foot and land with

(31:28):
one foot next to the board like I was doing
that for months. Talk about people learning to skate in
three in two years. Now they're like blunt sliding handrails.
It's like I was, you were it was the dark ages. Yeah,
like we were also alone anyone. I didn't skate with
anyone yet. I didn't. I just had like my video
and like my three magazines, and I was like, what's

(31:51):
going on here? Like how how do you get the
board spinning? How do you get the board up in
the air? Like it was, but it was it was
problem solvent. It was it was fun, you know, I think.
But then with every that's also with each thing you learn,
then you have more expectations for yourself. It's like it's
kind of fun. No, it's not that fun to suck
that much. But there's a sweet spot in the beginning

(32:12):
where you're like you can move without falling down, Like
you can move with speed, like you can allie a
little bit, Like you get that and.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
You're like, I'm yeah, alling up a curb possibility is
getting unlocking that where you're like, oh my god, I
can go anywhere now alling down like counting the stairs
for me, I want to hear your unlock aha moment.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
But for me, it was like I love just awling.
Era of the loading docks.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
Okay, I loved I loved the loading dock, and I
loved like figuring out how.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
Many more stairs. I could like show up to school
and be like, oh, it's the six days when you
would be that. It was just going big for me
at the time. Uh, but it took me like three
years or two years.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
I don't even remember. It was painful, holling so for
me to learn a kicklip. But then when that unlocked,
it was like from there, everything's up, but it is where.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
I just stopped.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
I was like, I figured it out out, no need
to do anything else. I got my kick flip, but
just take it to the bank.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
It's funny that you is you're saying that about me,
Thank you, No, it's it's my story.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
It's also but I get it.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
I can see that your heel flip was the first
flip trick that you learned, because that is one of
your like power tricks.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
You have a I mean, you have an incredible kick flip.

Speaker 5 (33:19):
But it's also like, you know you're from New England
when you're learning to heelflip.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
On decks, you know, like that's some like that a
bumper sticker.

Speaker 5 (33:28):
No, I mean It's like this deck was taken from
pieces of the Mayflower.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
I was able to heel.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
Flip on it like drift my my unlocked?

Speaker 1 (33:37):
Was it unlocked? Trick to unlocked? The one that like
like the one where you thought you were the ship?
Is that how Nora said? The trick was a board slide.

Speaker 4 (33:47):
On this little like there's this little ledge in Cuba
and Nexus. We lived in Guantanamo Bay. There's a little
ledge in next to this little bar like bar when
they served drinks. This Jamaican guy worked in there, and
me and my friend.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
Jamie was hammered at twelve years old.

Speaker 4 (34:01):
Now I made us Shirley Temples and would give them
to us, and so we'd go down there and drink
Shirley Temples and skate. Me and my friend Jason, the
only other kid that skateboarded on the island with me.
So we would get Shirley Temples and like try to
skate this. The last I remember, I board slid it
and I was like, holy shit, I just did what
they do in that music video and excess devil was

(34:23):
it devil inside? They board slide a bench. This is
like late eighties. They boardslide a bench I was like,
I just did what they did in the video.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
Holy shit, And I on something that I don't know
who saw that? Another Shirley Temple for me after that?
More Shirley Temples, mister man. Yeah, yeah, it's freaking iconic.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:46):
I had a There was like an old bed frame
in my basement and so I like broke it apart
and like nailed it to the But it was like ones.
It was one stare on the deck and the I
was like a railing everywhere. But so I had so
I learned to grind like the stare. But then you
would just run into a railing like you couldn't. You

(35:08):
couldn't land the trick. So it was a lot of stalls,
you know, and a lot of but that was Yeah.
I was like right by my angle iron, I did
my heel flip. I did it with a with a
body barial, but I didn't care. It was like two
feet were on the board. That's all that mattered.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
And I was like.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Whoa like yelling in you know, it was like nine
pm school night.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
There seems to be a theme at your house of
you taking things and destroying them and rebuilding them. Did
you like, how did you what did your sisters think
of you growing up too? In all of this? Were
your parents concerned for this behavior?

Speaker 3 (35:43):
I was the youngest. I have a younger now half
brother and have sister on my dad's side, but I
was the baby, so.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
Lotus.

Speaker 3 (35:54):
My stepsister's twelve years older than I am, so she
was a teen and we were just then. And then
Lindsay is three years older than I am. So the
Lindsay and I would unite against load, you know, like
she was with her cool friends and we were just
like a nuisance. Like I would come down and be.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Like, here's my g I joe underwear.

Speaker 3 (36:14):
Look, look look, And I remember her friend like threw
them in the ocean and like locked me outside.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
Stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
But then I got back at her with she had
this like tray of like perfumes, like all these different perfumes,
and when she was in the shower, I was like,
this is a great idea. I like went in and
sprayed every perfume like five puffs.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
All hazmat situation came.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
Back in like her eyes started burning. So yeah, there
was that was the family order. Yeah, Lindsey was just
you know the other day I was we were like
I was in the car listening to music with my
girlfriend and I was singing along, but I sing like
I don't know any of the words. I know the
tune and I know like the syllables, like the sounds

(37:01):
like words, but I don't know the words.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
I love to witness it's.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
It's But I remember getting yelled at by my sister
in the car with my mom, like when I was seven,
because it was the same situation. I used to play
a game where I would like play the radio and
I would like play songs on the radio and just think,
I like keep singing words until like something was the
right word and be like I knew this song. I
can just try to like predict the words. And I

(37:27):
was singing along the other day and I was like, wow,
I like my girlfriend really knows all the words, and
she's like, what are you saying? Not one of those
things is the words. I'm like, it's like close, just
like like just kind of like fuzz your ears up
a little bit. So yeah. My sister also knew all
the lyrics but could not hold a tune. She would
just like, yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
That's wild because you're good at karaoke.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
Singer and every time in karaoke'm like, that's what this
song was like, no way, what you know, I'm just
singing like whatever. I don't know they thought I was.
I was like a nerd, and then I got into
skateboarding and then I was like kind.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
Of cool, but no other weird. Yeah, I played sports.
I played sports, or the sports that I mean.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
I played like little league on the boys team when
I was younger.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
Then I played.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Basketball, soccer, and lacrosse, and then skateboarding twisted your brain
and that just became the one.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
I kept playing sports. Oh, I didn't know that.

Speaker 3 (38:32):
Yeah, I played sports. I was like the captain of
the basketball team and like all the you know, I
was like, I like sports, it's just skateboarding doesn't feel
like a sport. It's a totally different thing. I I
ended up quitting soccer after my freshman year because I
didn't get along with the coach and it was fall,
and that was right, I think. Then I started like
skating Boston and going to the city and I was like,

(38:56):
I don't I don't know.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
And that was about the j LAD you were filming
probably at that point, right, if this is one.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
Of your freshman soccer. That part came out in twenty
twenty two or wow, two thousand and two, two thousand
and two. Yeah, that was around the time.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
Like I don't know the exact it was. It was
in high school when I started going to Boston and
skating in the city, and so yeah, fall I didn't
I didn't play soccer. I would just skate.

Speaker 5 (39:29):
You were like a little peanut though, so you like
looked twelve. I feel like at sixteen.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yeah, people thought you were like much younger.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
I feel like the media at that time, which was
limited talking to the massive skate media of two.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
Thousand, I mean I was like maybe fourteen, fourteen fifteen
when we were filming stuff. I don't I don't remember.
I mean I remember filming, but this is always like, yeah,
my memory is strange.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
It didn't feel I wasn't like we are making this,
yeah video that people that you're going to be talking
to me about right now.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
All the guys always want to talk to you about
that part. I don't care. I want to talk to
about now here because you've done so much beyond that.
And that was just like the breakout moment. But like,
when I think about you.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
I just think about just yeah, the long continued career
you've had in skateboarding and all the different fascinating touch
points and the friendship and that's like been the best
part of the whole journey of getting to know you.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
We were talking because we're in New York. We get
to see Leo, right, We got to see Leo finally.
And the bowl.

Speaker 4 (40:29):
Last night, Alexis you can't get out of it.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
No, I'm just kidding. I know you're busy. Sorry, we
kind of be balling. You could meet bet.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
He hasn't show off because he last time we bowled,
he like destroyed maybe.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
Twenty strikes a row.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
He started twisting the ball and like, you know, the
bowling's inconsistent. Like, I don't know, We'll see you guys
can let me you guys just can report back what
he does tonight. But it was like he was on
fire and he was like he went back the next
He sent me a photo the next day from the
bowling alley, like he went back next.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
He's like, is this a fluke or is this real?
Just strike after strike?

Speaker 2 (41:03):
Like some our brains if they were studied, like our
addict brains, It's just like once we get hooked on,
like the learning process, it's just like we're all in.
The commitment is crazy. Like I'm not surprised that le
I went back to the bowling out and I say,
if you learned how to hook.

Speaker 3 (41:16):
The ball, I will be I'm curious skateboarders should be studied.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
Well, like just there's definitely some place in our brain
of like we really thrive with repetition and like problem
solving and then but the obsessive nature that we all have.
It's just different words of our obsessions and our process,
but like it's just like kind of psychotic, how obsessive
we are.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
With just like perfecting, tweaking, moving it around, like getting
it right to where it needs to be, and then
you're maybe satisfied with it.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
But I just all learning like that is for me
that way. But all I was trying to say is
how kind you were, because I was Leo was taking
us on them. I was just like walking around and
I didn't have to look at any of the signs
to get on the freeway going right the freeway. Wow,
I didn't have to look at any of the sciences
to get on the subway going the right way. And
Lee was like, yeah, when I first moved to New York,
Alexis sat down, drew me out a map and explained

(42:07):
the entire New York subway system to me, like perfectly,
colors and everything at a coffee shop. You're like, so,
this is how it works. And he's never for gotten it.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
Not surprised by that, not surprised.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
Yeah, cool, Yeah, I'm glad he's here, even though I
haven't seen him in like two months, three months, because
he was he was in Portland and then came back
for like a Ladygog concert, and since then, I've just
been in this project a hole and I'm like, I
can't talk to you until after the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
Well weldered welder. I'm on the mid welding, but you're
on the tig welding. Big dog. Just watch obsessively watching
videos on laser welding.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
Those videos, Oh not yet, I don't have one. They're
really expensive. But just anytime I need a break from
my project where I'm drawing a park, let me rewatch
that video on this person unboxing their laser welder, and
me just look at the specs and think about what
it would be laser whatever. Don't I don't laser world. Yeah,

(43:05):
I've been take welding. Laser holding just is perfect. It's
like it has like a wire feed like a mag welder,
but it just like lays down like it doesn't even look.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
Like a bead. It's just and they're just like hatch dumb.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
No, It's like done and it and it also cuts,
And that's how I got into it because I've been
thinking about getting a plasma cutter.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
But I kind of like that about welding is like
the it's so imperfect and then you can kind of
like just get it to a perfect place so it
feels really.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
Emotionally healing where you're just like I can make this
go yay.

Speaker 3 (43:43):
Yeah, I that is nice when you learn how forgiving
it is like wow, my walls are so bad, but
you're never gonna know it because I just keep sanding
so it looks perfect. Yeah, I've been into welding. I
made that chair for the Sneeze Colla.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
Yeah, we're you happy with it because I was deeply
impressed by it. Yeah. Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
If you haven't, I'm just gonna again just know if
you haven't seen it, Sneeze mag check out it's online.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
Pull out your phone. Look at it.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
I consider it a modernist chair, like like what era,
It's round, it's beautiful.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
You fucking slappy this shit out of it. Yeah, Matt
Price got a dope photo on it. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:23):
Yeah, I've been making chairs and making some more that
are like kind of in that family watch Out And yeah,
I don't know. That was my first. I like built
a bender to like bend the metal. That was my
first welding project was the building the bender. And then
every no one wants to hear about this, but I'm

(44:44):
really into it. And because like when you build others,
you know, when you've worked with like wood, or when
I build my little cardboard models or any any kind
of joint, like you glue and then you wait for
something and then it's like you just like touch it
too hard and it breaks. You're like I gotta do
it again. And it's everything feels you know, like think
there's like a I mean, I guess you can do it.

(45:05):
Like with wood, you can do joints, you have to
worry about the green. With metal, you just like like
one tack and you can like stand on that thing
like it's strong, like that's it just feels like magic
I don't know. It's scary because it's like you're turning
metal into like it's like the consistency of taffy or something.
It's like bright orange and glowing, and it like when

(45:27):
you're welding, it's like goes through to the other side.
So it's just like you're turning everything in your path
into like basically in between solid and liquid.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
Well, you're like destroying in order to like create too,
and it's also like fire. Yeah, it's visually really fun
and the sounds so scary. Is it dangerous?

Speaker 4 (45:46):
Like if it part of that red hot drippy stuff
fell on you, what would happen?

Speaker 1 (45:50):
Like it just burn your leg?

Speaker 2 (45:52):
Yeah, and then there's all different little bead like torch
welding all it's it's all nuts out there.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
But like, can you talk about the slow impact chair
that you made real quick? The assignment for that? Why
did you do?

Speaker 3 (46:06):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (46:06):
That was the cut? Yeah, it's not a hickey.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
Everyone, those that are looking, Yeah, this was an incident
with an angle grinder, A late night incident with an
angle grinder and a hoodie string don't wear hoodies?

Speaker 1 (46:20):
Well, what was the ask? What was the assignment?

Speaker 3 (46:24):
The I'm gonna forget the name of the Vince Kelly
no no, but of the Vince Kelley curated it. But
the name of the show was basically the premise. The
concept was like build a chair or some kind of
functional furniture or some object based around an iconic skate

(46:45):
spot of your shoosing.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
And I my.

Speaker 3 (46:51):
Chair is based on the flushing Flushing meadows great which
actually Leo and I did yoga and then are sitting
here were talking about this because I was still between
I was either like pyramid ledges or flushing, and I
was like, oh, yeah, flushing. You should like take a
piece of foam and like smush it onto the grate
and then like imprint the and then that could be

(47:12):
the chair. And I was like, God, so that's where
the idea hatch actually, But in the end it was, yeah,
I had leftover metal from the other chair, and so
I wanted the exact dimensions of for people, I guess whatever.
The flushing spot is basically like former side of World's Fair,
and it's the big globe in a fountain that's drained

(47:34):
and when it's drained, it's it's a famous skate spot
that has like a ledge over a metal grate and
then also a flat app and so I wanted the
exact dimensions of the metal grade. So I went out
with like my calipers. It ended up being the coldest
day of the winter. It was like negative.

Speaker 1 (47:52):
It was a day my mom.

Speaker 3 (47:53):
Like called me to the difference, like make sure you
don't go outside tomorrow. It's gonna be extremely cold. And
I thought of that while I was like running across
a sheet of ice that like the whole fountain was
just like I like slipped and like fell at some
point and just like but it was like a crust
of ice and then it was like snow underneath. And
so I just like was in the middle of the
flushing like Great in January, and it was just like

(48:15):
submerged in like an ice sheet and like dying laughing.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
People thought of you walking there.

Speaker 2 (48:22):
No one was.

Speaker 3 (48:23):
There because it was insane to be outside, and I
had my my calipers were like freezing my hand.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Oh and then like I was trying to.

Speaker 3 (48:29):
Take pictures of my you know, and your phone just
gets too cold, and you know, like everything just died.
But I like measured and yeah, basically it's just I
wanted that Great is like very unfriendly feeling when you're
skating it. It's like because it's just a lot of
like metal going in different directions and you like think
about at least I always thought about like getting my

(48:50):
finger caught in it and like, and so I was
just like, how can't I turn that into something comfortable
or that you like want to put your body on. So,
oh yeah, I just had very little time to complete.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
It came out great, very glumptious looking. Yeah. I actually
want to make that.

Speaker 3 (49:09):
It's kind of like that's that design, but instead of
making it out of a grate, I want to make
that out of solid like solid sheet metal, so basically
it's like single sheets so it'll be like smooth. So
that's like on the list.

Speaker 4 (49:23):
Hey, listeners will be right back after this quick ad break.

Speaker 6 (49:30):
Outside of the furniture and the chairs and designing entire
city municipal parks, what are you working on these days
or what are you like trying to work at?

Speaker 1 (49:50):
Any video parts coming up? Any any other like.

Speaker 3 (49:55):
But there's one that's been in the works, Okay, in
the works, the video part in the works.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
Maybe I have.

Speaker 3 (50:02):
Fourteen tricks ooh yeah, so fourteen to go. I think
I do it by numbers because.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
I do you really why because you just know that
that like makes it?

Speaker 3 (50:14):
Why for so it's so overwhelming to like like I
don't I mean, I don't just get to the number
and say I'm done. But and also I'm talking, I've
done this so many times. I haven't had that many parts.
But it's just like it's really overwhelming, and I don't
want to think about how it all works together until
it's like way nicer once you have like twenty it's like, okay,

(50:36):
let's let me look at what I have and then see,
so you want twenty eight tricks on this one? I
mean that's aspirational, but that's like what I've I've found
is like a that's a maybe not for like modern
day attention spans, but I've found that's like I think
that's a part that feels like body of work. Yeah,
and I'm just I guess old school.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
Like that's like any clip I get, I'm like, save it,
save it.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
No one's even gonna watch this oneever it comes out,
but I want it all in one place.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
Yeah, you're halfway through a video part.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
Oh okay, because twenty eight it's like maybe I'll get
to like twenty six. Okay, yeah, I'm designing another shoe,
designed another shoe. See what happens with that?

Speaker 4 (51:24):
Not only designed another shoe. Was in Japan in November
with me coaching women's street contests, and then when you
weren't on the field of play coaching, you were in
your room with pieces of cardboard everywhere making the shoe.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
Yeah, yeah, that shoe. I like, look, my first shoe
I made out of cardboard. This one I made out
of like duct tape and like cardboard and fabric, and
I like three D modeled and three D printed the soul.
I like got really excited about buying a three D printer.
I was like, oh, I have that. I'm building this
in my computer, so then I could just make the
actual I just find like sometimes it's like I like

(52:04):
when people leave a little room for the imagination, but
sometimes not that doesn't work in every context. It's like
I just want to be like, this is what I want,
this is what we should make, and like really spell
it out so it's in my mind, like then it'll
be undeniable.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
Yeaheah, that's crazy. It's not cardboard either.

Speaker 2 (52:20):
I mean the materials cardboard, But when you actually look
at these models that Alexis makes.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
They are seen this model, though I think it not
this one.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
But I've seen past models of yours, of course, of course.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
But I just want to like stress.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
When we're talking about materials in your mind, you kind
of think about this like very like DIY looking rough draft.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
There's nothing rough draft about these models.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
In any way, is all I'm trying to stress, Like
they're like insane, Like the precision that you bring to
everything you do in life is just unreal.

Speaker 3 (52:51):
I was really excited when I got to Japan with
my entire suitcase fall of model parts and stead of clothes.
But I was like, oh my god, I'm gonna get
to go to all the I'm gonna get to go
to the art store and like get like enamel paint
and like all these things to fix up, you know.
So I like, you know, did a little art store
tour and then by the time I got to where
the con where the event was, which is like nice

(53:12):
to tell about tiny room, and I have like twelve
enamel paints that are just imagine like nail polish.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
On, like like it like.

Speaker 3 (53:23):
You just crack the bottle and you're like I can't breathe,
like I lost brain cells. And so I have like
twelve bottles like that, and I'm like have my stuff
all like the shoe parts, like I'm cutting out patterns.
It's like everywhere, and I have like little pieces of
duct tape to try to like on the lids because
I was using the other side of the lid as
like the jars to And they were like by day three,

(53:45):
they put a note under my door. They were like
we need to for like health and we need to
like clean your rooms, so can you take the do
not disturb sign off? And so I was like in
a stand up, like I would hear them outside and
like wait till I didn't hear them, and then like
quickly close the door and like run out because they
I was like, they can't walk in and see the
situation that I have to.

Speaker 1 (54:06):
Ask you to leave. They're like stop grapes. It was
a bit. It was a bit of a yeah, you
don't open the door.

Speaker 4 (54:15):
And just the smell like the glue smell.

Speaker 3 (54:18):
Giving me new towels. So I just had like it
was like forty towels piled up like in front of
the door, and then just you got past the towels.
It was like paint and like swayed swatches and like
little crumples of like three D print.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
It was just really And the team.

Speaker 3 (54:37):
Shirt that we got, I was like, I think I
need to have back this with fabric, so I cut
it up.

Speaker 7 (54:41):
Yeah, I care wear this on, wear this on finals
day and then you're like, oh I cut that shirt.
Was a theme from your childhood to now. I just
want to point that out. You have a thing for
cutting up the fabric.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
It's so good. Did you get to go to shabuya Hands?
Is that the store? What's the seven floor art store?

Speaker 3 (54:59):
Yes, that's I don't think that's it's not too hands.
That's one of them, but I don't know if that's
the seventh story one. There's a crazy called like lemon
GAESOUI that's sorry about that. I don't know how you say.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
But it's like all for modeling, so it was like architecture.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
It had oh that's insane, little scale face like little
things for scale models, and I went not there too.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
You have to freight some of that back home because
everything's this big. Fair enough a little bag? Okay, like this, Well,
this podcast is called good Luck with that, and we.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
Always want to kind of know as you're moving through
the world what you need some luck.

Speaker 3 (55:39):
With finishing this project on time.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
Yeah, okay, well we're sending you that way.

Speaker 5 (55:44):
Are you listening to stuff while you're doing your project
or you music?

Speaker 2 (55:48):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (55:51):
Sometimes audio books, music.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
Yeah, it's just sometimes I forget to music anything on
in the beginning, and then twelve hours pass, I'm like,
why am I not listening to anything? In the six
hours pass, I'm like, oh, I still forgot to press.

Speaker 4 (56:09):
Like I just I should probably eat something or drink at.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
The tunnel vision, you know.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
It's yeah, I have some extreme bless this mass, you know. Yeah, okay,
And what.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
Do you want to see for the future of skateboarding?

Speaker 3 (56:28):
I hope it's there.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
Yeah, I hope it exists.

Speaker 3 (56:35):
I don't know. I think we're entering a dark period.
But sometimes the most creative things come out of dark.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
Yeah, I don't know. We talk about what's so dark
about it? There's two worlds of it. Now we're getting
into a hole.

Speaker 3 (56:47):
I mean, I think I counting the twenty minutes we lost.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
I know, and I lost your trust forever. I think
the end of streets in a weird place.

Speaker 3 (57:01):
And I don't know. I think it's a lot of
it's many complicated things coming to a head kind of
what can be so vague. There's just so many pockets
of things that you can find out because of like
social media and like any obscure thing. It's like you're

(57:22):
not the first one there. There's a million things. And
it's like skateboarding, It's like everyone's skateboards. Now it's jocks.
It's it's a jock. It's like used to be anti
jock and now it just is that. And so it's
and I think that maybe like I don't know what
the corporate like, I don't know what the expectation was

(57:45):
from those big companies, but I think like a lot
the whole industry now has just gotten used to a
certain way and is built on like corporate dollars. But
it's allowed all these like smaller brands to flourish and exist,
which is cool, but it's like the industry is just
like it can't support it all, and and the corporate
companies are starting to say, like, well, what you know,

(58:07):
are you athletes? Are you influencers?

Speaker 1 (58:09):
What are you?

Speaker 3 (58:09):
We actually we're not seeing enough of a return here
or they're I don't know, maybe they're they're not sure
what to do with sk I think skate brings like
in a weird Yeah, a bunch of old dudes, Like
what else is new? I don't know, And I think that, well,

(58:31):
we all know. I'm sure this is what you guys
have talked about on the like we've talked about it. Yeah,
we started a place where it was like, you can
have some free skateboards, but no one's gonna pay you.
And then it turned into like a tokenism situation or
it's like, Okay, every brand's got to have their girl.
We're gonna pay you less, but you're here. Aren't you
lucky to be don't you feel lucky.

Speaker 1 (58:52):
To be here?

Speaker 3 (58:53):
And uh, But then as soon as like the indust
well why I talk about the industry, I think I mean,
as soon as things go start to like take a turn,
it's always the girls are first to go.

Speaker 1 (59:09):
Yeah, it's the biggest grind market in the whole thing
right now.

Speaker 3 (59:12):
Yeah, and it's still like yeah, people, some of the
people in positions of power, it's like they're still putting
on the It's like the guy they wish they.

Speaker 5 (59:19):
Were, you know, like that's what put on their voice. Yeah,
and I couldn't hold a job anywhere else put them in.

Speaker 3 (59:29):
But yeah, so I mean that's been a persistent I mean,
I'm not trying to like down play that. I guess
I was just speaking to more like the overall climate
of like the industry and like is skateboarding. I mean,
I think I believe that skateboarding will always be cool
because of like fundamentally what it is and like reappropriating space,

(59:52):
using the city, like just this object that allows you
to like see the city in a totally different way
and and have and like make it your layground.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
That's cool.

Speaker 3 (01:00:01):
It doesn't matter how uncool the rest of skateboarding like becomes.
At times, it's like that's cool. You won't change my mind.
But it's not the same as it used to, Like
in the nineties it was. It was less cool in
some ways in terms of like you know, diversity, inclusivity, visibility,

(01:00:29):
but it was cool and the kind of like authenticity
of like the certain individuals that were there and like
the way people skated, and like it wasn't just like
for a clip on social media, Like I just wish
I wish we could like rewind and like avoid all
that but nice, but we can't.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
And so yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
I think dark and maybe I just like the future
of everything's looking dark right now, so we don't have
to go there, but you.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
To point out like kind of the problems and create
the solutions.

Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
But like you said, there's going to be some new
creative blooming, yeah, bloom of all of this.

Speaker 3 (01:01:09):
I don't know that. I don't know about solution, but
I stand by skateboarding fundamentally is still cool and anyone
that wants to do it can do it however they want.

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
And it's like whether there.

Speaker 3 (01:01:19):
Maybe it's maybe it's less the romantic like the thing
that drew me to skateboarding, which a lot of it
was like wow that those genes look really cool and
like the graphic like just stuff tied to the material
world kind of you know. I mean a lot of
that is that wasn't all of it, because then then

(01:01:41):
once I got there, I was like, oh, this is
like independence and freedom and like I can do this
how I.

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
Want, and I got obsessed.

Speaker 3 (01:01:46):
But like, but yeah, I think the material part of
skateboarding is just like going in like now, it's just
it's just mainstream. It's not as cool. I don't know,
it's not as cool, and like what in like the
life cycle of brands is a weird thing. I think
that these are all just like newer questions for skateburing

(01:02:07):
because skapring just hasn't still hasn't been around as long
as some of this other stuff, and like started from
a really different place, Like it's not an organized sport.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
It's not like what is it?

Speaker 3 (01:02:19):
And it's built on this foundation of like dudes praising
other dudes.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
I don't know, there's just a lot, there's a lot there.

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
It's not there, But skate ring's still cool, and I
think that's gonna take us out for this week.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
Alexis, where can our listeners find you on Instagram? Physically,
physically emotional?

Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
At the coffee shop one inch from my computer screen
at Whole Foods Instagram? Yeah, I'm on there. Unfortunately I'm
on there.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
Yeah. What's your handle though? Sue me?

Speaker 3 (01:02:50):
Nee?

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
Okay? And can I just get a could I get
a quick like wat? Whysect?

Speaker 3 (01:02:56):
I don't know that name a million years ago because
it was me. I just kept saying that I don't
know where I guess like Suey nane Ay, and I
just thought that was so random and funny. It would
crack me up every time. My girlfriend at the time
was like, stop saying that, you're so annoying nicknamed yourself.

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
That's my name it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:17):
I was just saying it. And then she had an
Instagram account, and so I was like, Okay, I should
finally get one, and so kind of is like a
ha ha, like I I finally got.

Speaker 1 (01:03:26):
One, But guess what my name is. It's just a
joke and you've never changed it. I mean, I don't
think you have no.

Speaker 4 (01:03:35):
No, because I think I try to get you to
use your real name, like ten years ago.

Speaker 3 (01:03:38):
You need to someone's like holding a hostage or something,
or maybe someone just has the name, but it didn't
post anything. But at some point I tried. I was like,
all right, huh, I don't need this forever. I can
like flip it where it's just mine.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
I just love her.

Speaker 5 (01:03:52):
I love when my friends like have like handles like that.
And then I'm just like, why can't I remember it?

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
All?

Speaker 5 (01:04:00):
Like I have people that I regularly DM and I'm like, fuck,
I have to go find there.

Speaker 1 (01:04:05):
For the people whose names you don't know and you
only know a hand. Oh that's great. That's great too.
We're grateful to have you here.

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
Thank you so much for absolutely everything in skateboarding and beyond.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
Listeners you can find us at at.

Speaker 2 (01:04:18):
Good Luck pod like, subscribe, write, review, do the whole
damn thing.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
Yeah, we'll be here next week.

Speaker 5 (01:04:28):
Good Luck with That is an iHeart women's sports production
and partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment.

Speaker 8 (01:04:35):
We are your hosts Ashey Rayfeld, Nora bas Conzlos, Alex White,
and Mimi nu. Our executive producer is Jesse Katz, supervising
producer Tari Harrison, video producer Daniel Goodman, and video production
by School of Humans.

Speaker 4 (01:04:50):
This podcast was created by Ashley Rayfeld.

Speaker 8 (01:04:52):
Listen to good Luck with That, a skateboarding podcast, on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.