July 6, 2025 • 88 mins
Caden Skelton is a misunderstood soul whose life has been shaped by pain, perseverance, and purpose. Having battled suicidal thoughts since childhood and been constantly misunderstood by society, Caden has turned his struggle into strength. Now a local icon in Sherwood Park, he’s known for dancing with a helmet on—a symbol of both protection and identity. Through this unique and expressive art form, Caden brings light to others, especially children and strangers who find joy, hope, and even healing through his presence. Today, we dive deeper into his journey and explore how dancing, mental health, and skateboarding have become pillars of his identity and resilience.
For Caden, dancing isn’t just movement—it’s an extension of his soul. What began on a longboard after a head injury evolved into a public act of freedom, defiance, and self-expression. The helmet he wears isn't just a safety measure; it’s a statement—a marker of who he is and what he represents. Each performance is layered with emotion: a fight against stigma, a message to his younger self, and an open invitation for others to embrace their individuality. Despite facing hostility, Caden continues to dance for the smiles of children and the lives he's touched, including those he's unknowingly pulled back from the edge of despair. His dance is not for applause—it’s for connection, survival, and purpose.
Caden's mental health journey is deeply personal and painfully real. Having attempted suicide as early as grade 3, his strength today is built on the wisdom of his grandfather and a relentless refusal to give up. Being in the public eye while battling his own inner storms isn’t easy, but Caden copes by staying true to himself, setting firm boundaries, and supporting those who share his values. He challenges society to look deeper—to understand that people carry unseen pain, layered beneath diagnoses and misunderstandings. He advocates for compassion and awareness, reminding us all that beneath the surface, there is always more to a person than what we see.
To Caden, skateboarding—especially longboarding—is liberation. It’s his form of flight, a break from the gravity of life's burdens. It brings peace, focus, and a sense of control that helps him combat anger, anxiety, and depression. More than a hobby, it’s been a tool for self-growth and a way to build genuine human connection. From teaching others to ride to advocating for a community skate space in Sherwood Park, Caden uses skateboarding not only as personal therapy but as a force for building bridges. For him, every fall is a lesson, and every ride is a reminder to keep moving forward.
Caden Skelton’s story is one of raw humanity, courage, and transformation. From dancing with a helmet to skating through emotional chaos, he has turned his pain into purpose and his struggles into service. Whether through movement, conversation, or community-building, Caden is a living testament that being different isn’t a weakness—it’s a gift. His life reminds us that behind every outlier is a powerful story worth hearing, and behind every act of self-expression lies a truth that could save a life.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The first two people who admit to me that I stopped them from
committing suicide. And came up to you.
One man cried in my arms, the other bought me dinner.
This board could reach 43 kilometers an hour.
Wow, that's fast. Fun fact about this deck, I
pushed it past 80. But I'm supposed to care about
(00:21):
you when you're upset? The posture around and how they
go about going into work, going out of work.
Because they're different. How would you feel if somebody
did that to you? Rather than focusing on the
reward, which is like the title,the status, exactly that degree
of. Because the Glen Rose Brain
Clinic and EU of A told me I shouldn't even be breathing from
(00:43):
the head injury. They said right now I should be
drooling out the mood and go, OK, severe ADHD and I'm always
looking around you. You say not today, not today.
Yeah, All right. This is Kaden Skelton, everyone.
(01:04):
Hello. You may know I'm dancing around
baseline all around Shard Park. Local legend right here.
Thank you so much for coming man.
My pleasure and real honor to behere.
Well, what first drew you to dancing and why do you choose to
perform with a helmet on? That's a good question.
(01:24):
So, you know, I wanted to just do something more, you know,
because I'm sitting there on my long board.
I'm just kind of bobbing the head back and forth.
And it was like, OK, this isn't no, this is no, I need to do
(01:47):
more than just Bob the head, right?
And this is after my head injury.
And you know, my grandparents, they bought me this helmet and
it was like, OK, so we need, we need more.
And so I'm like, the worst thingthat could happen is people are
going to hate me, right? That's all I thought would
(02:10):
happen. I'm like, OK, we'll just do a
little boogie, you know, just start boogieing around.
And people were talking about meon Facebook groups.
And people were trying to figureout who I was, who I am.
And it was misconceptions that Iwas like a 40 year old.
(02:33):
There was people complaining about me but nothing really came
up about it until late last yearwas police.
At first you're just like bobbing your head around.
In the corner. Just just like this on my deck.
So why? Why did you start doing it like?
(02:55):
Well, it brought me joy, right? I was listening to good music.
I wanted. I wanted more.
And you had a helmet on at this time too, and you're advocating
right for that? Yes, yes, I'm.
A heavy advocate for it. For that, ever since that
(03:16):
incident, correct? Yeah, yeah.
Or can you tell the the viewers about that incident that started
your entire journey? So I'm riding my first electric
long board. I got it about the end of May of
2023, right? I'm riding it and this, this
(03:39):
didn't really hit my head, you know, like in the mind at least
that I was going to injure myself because again, I'm a kid,
right? And just like every other kid,
oh, you know, nothing bad is going to happen, right?
And so I'm riding this board could reach 43 kilometers an
hour. Wow, that's fast.
(03:59):
Fun fact about this deck, I pushed it past 80.
You push down a hill. Wow, how do you even stay on
there? Well, it's.
Crouching, crouching and clenching your ass cheeks just
hoping nothing bad is going to happen.
Like exactly. I was shaking man too.
(04:20):
I'd never gone that fast and theboard, it just flew up.
And mind you, were you on 80 at this time?
No, no, this, this was me going about 38 kilometers.
Wow, but still that fast withouta helmet on.
Correct. Damn.
So the board flew up. I smacked my head on the ground.
(04:44):
Basal skull fracture. Nearly severed my carotid
artery. Blew my right eardrum.
A severe moderate brain injury. Short temporary coma on sight.
There was a whole personality. Shift What were you like before
I? Somewhat similar to how I am
(05:06):
now, but I was more and people call me hippie for this mindset.
I have friends and family that are like, dude, that thinking is
wrong, you know, right. I was more so about getting the
job, about the work life, you know, I wanted to be an
(05:27):
agricultural technician. I wanted to work on farm
vehicles, but now I'm about freedom.
I'm about not working to live orsorry, living to work that I'm
(05:47):
not about that anymore. I'm about freedom.
You know you get paid enough to live, right?
But it's substantial amount and then you go and you become free
with it, not chained to a desk or to a wrench or to a hammer,
(06:13):
right? You are only chained by what
your money can get you for freedom.
So let's say you want to buy that sports car, go buy it,
right? That's what I'm about.
You know that you can get care at a hospital not because you
(06:38):
fund the government, but becauseyou're a human being that
deserves the right. OK, so you don't want to just
keep working for no end goal. You have correct?
You want something that I'm sorry.
(07:01):
I want something more than that.I want the end goal to be on
your deathbed. You can sit there and say I'm
fulfilled. OK.
And for you, that's dancing. Exactly.
It is showing people that I am free, you know, like I have a
(07:27):
tattoos I got the day after I turned 18 from Bioshock.
It's a. Video.
Game A correct? You know it.
Good. I know I my buddy talked about
it all the time back then. Yeah, yeah.
And in the game, these chains inthe first game that Jack has is
(07:49):
Jack, I don't know that name stuck in the head for a reason.
Anyways, it means that he's a slave to his DNA, but to me the
tattoos mean I'm a slave to myself and only myself.
You get to decide what to work for, rather than a company or
other people dictating what yourfuture is going to be.
(08:10):
You keep on reflecting as to whoyou're going to be and what
you're going to become and what you're going to want.
Exactly. So if you want a sports car, you
go and get that sports car, right?
Not like, and you're going to work towards trying, trying to
get afford that, despite what society says, despite what other
people may think, because of course you're going to be,
(08:33):
you're going to be swayed a certain way, right?
Because like a lot of people want this.
A lot of people want that. That seems like a prestigious
job, but for you, you want what makes you more fulfilled so you
can be on your deathbed and go. I live a fulfilling life through
to myself. It may be silly, it may be
serious, but it's true to myself.
(08:54):
Did I understand that correctly?You definitely did.
That is that is what dancing means to me, right?
That is what the helmet means tome is that I'm protecting the
most vital part of me. Without the brain, for most
(09:17):
cases anyways, without the brain, you can't function.
There's some that are brain deadthat the heart still beats.
They're the lucky ones, right? But I'm safe and I'm able to
keep myself together and I'm able to spread the joy do.
(09:42):
You think you would have found this resolve this mode of
thinking if that accident didn'thappen?
No, I can tell you with certainty that my dream, I'd
already started working towards it.
I had a recommendation letter from my mechanics teacher.
(10:06):
I had mechanic skills. I had welding skills.
I had woodworking skills under my belt.
I was prepared, right? I had that drive.
I had that ambition that you seeall these kids having, you know,
and looking back, even now, sometimes I'm like, I wish, you
(10:32):
know, I wish I had that. But then I remember how many
people have that and they're depressed.
I look at how my family reacted when they were coming home after
work and they're crying and they're mad and they're just
(10:54):
complaining and moaning and whining about all this.
And it's like, you love your job.
And they're like, yeah. And I'm like, why are you
moaning and whining? And they're like, I just don't
like the people. And I'm like, but your job
entails you to work with people and they're like, doesn't
(11:18):
matter. Like you don't love your job.
You like certain aspects of the job.
You love the cars, you love the soaps, you love the hammer,
everything else you hate. And they tell me I'm wrong.
(11:39):
And then the next day the cycle continues.
Yeah. Well, you see it like pattern
recognition, right? You see somebody walk and it
it's very telling the posture around and how they go about
going into work, going out of work.
So you living with certain family members, right?
You get to see if they actually truly love their work or if
(12:03):
they're just bullshitting or if they're they think they want it,
but they actually don't. And what do they actually want
to do? Right?
And usually it's not that job because if you give them $10
million, like they would quit and pursue something else,
right? Exactly.
I think it's like a big majorityof the United States, they had a
survey and it's like what? Like 880% of people don't like
(12:25):
their jobs. Don't quote me on that, but it's
like something high where like people are disgruntled, people
don't want to keep working and it's in various fields, right?
And what would you say to peoplethat hate their jobs, that want
to switch? What I would say to them is what
(12:47):
a lot of other business moguls I've seen say before you start
working truly in that field to the full extent, you know, you
go and you get that degree. Try and if you can try and
(13:10):
become like this. This is a trade size of me
talking the suit, right? Be the person that comes to work
in a suit or a dress, right? Do that work.
Hear the stories. If you want to become, you know,
(13:30):
a lawyer, try and see if you cando an internship right instead
of fully diverting all efforts without working in that sector.
Spend some time, feel it. No exactly.
(13:51):
Is this what I want or am I looking for that hire a position
that I'm only going to see when I'm 80 years old and I own the
company? Is that what you're really after
or do you want something lower end?
See if you like working in that field.
(14:13):
So if you want to go in a welding, OK, well, for that
you're going to have to either take welding in school or you
know, you can go to Nate or Oldscollege and take the welding
class, right? Take the mechanics class, take
the woodworking class, even in high school, Take that feel it
(14:35):
out. Casey case.
So I have to do this and I have to deal with the noise.
It has to look like this. Am I good with numbers?
Do I do I have that vision right?
Can I handle that hot metal? Can I deal with leaving the
class and I go to have a shower and I'm coughing up smoke and my
(14:57):
body sore? Can I deal with that for the
next 50-60 years? Well, rather than focusing on
the reward, which is like the title, the status, exactly that
degree of like, oh, a doctor, right, or a lawyer and that and
that suit you just picture the prestige and that the adoration
(15:20):
actually go in there and envision what it's going to be
like being a doctor. You know, the 16 hour surgeries,
like the sick people being around, the being away from your
family, being on call, your circadian rhythm being
interrupted, the 12 years of school.
It's like all that. That's part of the process.
(15:40):
And you, you need to be able to to to pursue that as well.
You need to be able to want that.
Like if if somebody looks at a celebrity and go, oh, wow, Brad
Pitt, he's so all the girls lovehim and he's such a good, great
actor. I want to be like him.
But then yes, you look at that, but you also have to absorb and
(16:00):
you also have to want the bad things.
Is he up at night? Because a lot of there's a lot
of scrutiny, like a lot of people in the celebrity status
aren't able to go to just the mall.
Like if you went to Sherwood Park Mall and you were like
Drake, like, you wouldn't be able to have a Peace of Mind
because everybody's approaching you, right?
What do you want that or do you just like the idea of?
(16:22):
It that's exactly right. Like for the welding I did like
I I'm an apprentice welder, I'm a first year apprentice welder.
I can't stand waking up at 3:00 in the morning, going to bed at
8:00 at night, and repeating that for the next 4 weeks.
(16:46):
Yeah, because I was working for 10s.
Yeah, it's tough, man. You know, it weighs on you.
And like, what, you're going to do that for 1020 years?
If yes, the money is good. Like could be making 100 grand
per year, you know, easy. But then the smoke and then the
the sleep, the cancer, the lung.Cancer and the eye damage is
(17:08):
insane but. So dancing for you has given you
a chance to feel fulfilled, right?
To be you, yes. Were you always into dancing?
Yes and no. I've always had like that little
bit of spark in the dance, right?
(17:28):
But I've always been more of a singer, which is why when I'm
out there, I also do a lot of singing, a lot of rapping,
right? I and then I also took acting
classes in junior high, right? So I know how to act, yet I
never fully spoke about this andproperly articulated it.
(17:54):
A lot of times when I'm out there singing songs or rapping,
I'm nearly crying with a lot of those songs.
Feel it? Yeah.
It's to the point where, like when I'm out there and you see
me wipe my eyes, that's not sweat.
That's not me acting. I'm actually wiping away.
Tears. What goes through your mind like
(18:17):
how you're feeling? I'm imagining, you know, with
like songs like Sleep Token or some of the songs like JT Music
songs, right, or even a Three Days Grace animal.
I've become that one is that. Banger dude, I love that.
(18:39):
Yeah, when I'm out there pointing, when I'm falling to my
knees and I'm, I'm pouring my soul, my essence, my very self
at the target, whether that be my younger self that I wish I
(19:06):
could have helped, that I could have given my secrets, my
knowledge, my tips and tricks. I sometimes I'm singing it and
I'm telling it to my family, family that I wish they could
understand. Because for me, you know, like
(19:30):
my family, most of them are mentally ill or neurodivergent,
right? Yet I tell them how exactly I'm
feeling, what it's doing to me. And instead of OK, we understand
it's don't care, man up. But I'm supposed to care about
(19:56):
you when you're upset. I when I'm out there, you know?
Like for sleep tokens, chokehold, you know that one.
I'm actively like choking myselfout there because for me, that
(20:24):
is how I'm feeling, how I'm directing my anger and my
feelings to the person I'm thinking about, the people I'm
singing about. For JT Music's Nightmares Have
(20:50):
an end, I think is what it's called.
It's talking about others. Some nightmares have an end.
Some nightmares never end, right?
And I'm pointing and I'm like twisting, you know, and it's
nightmares. Some never end.
(21:12):
That is, I'm actively singing about my personal nightmares
now. They will never end because of
the past, you know? And it's this also pisses me off
a lot when people say, you know,like the past is in the past,
(21:34):
don't worry about it, never in the past.
If it was in the past, we never would have forgotten about it.
We look at the past and we reflect on the future and how
the past happened and how it could become so worse.
(22:01):
Not a preemptive strike. What is the word I'm looking
for? We're anticipating, anticipating
this to happen. So that's what I'm singing about
there, right? And it's I'm feeling it.
(22:24):
When you're out there, yeah, listening to Sleep Token, 3
Days, Grace, Animal, Marietta songs, you feel it with your
mind, body and soul. And you said with that one song,
you you'll, you're choking and you're reflecting on the things
that have happened in the past, about the things that you've
gone through, about the family members that were there for you
(22:47):
that weren't. And it's not just a dance for
you, right? It's a self-expression.
It's to be to be able to heal, to look at your past and mourn
for the kid that I've gone through the tumultuous times,
right? And now you see that it is.
(23:08):
Has it been healing for you being able to do this?
It is, and I hope that for thosethat struggle, that see it, you
know, as much as it's healing from me, you know, I also hope
(23:29):
it's healing for those that are going through something similar.
You, you want to be known to others that you can express
yourself, that you can talk about your feelings, correct?
Because it's very traditional back then to just just put the
bootstraps on, don't tell anyone, right?
But for you, the truth has always been something that you
(23:51):
ran away from before you went dancing, right?
And that's kind of caused a lot of turmoil, turmoil deep inside.
But now, since you've been following the truth, life's been
better, right? People, you feel more connected
and you feel like you're a part of something, something greater.
And it's the more you do it right, the more you heal, right?
(24:12):
And of course, life's never going to be perfect, right?
There's going to be times where it's just going to be tough and
times are going to be great. But you still go in there and
you try did follow and run towards the truth.
And whether that be dancing, whether that be singing rap, you
go about it with the lens of OK,I'm not going to shy away from
(24:33):
the bad, Bad's a part of me. You accept that and you go, OK,
That's something that will driveme towards a better future.
Everything into account. Exactly.
Yeah, did I? Did I capture that?
You actually did perfectly. That did.
You're very well spoken. Very.
You're very. See, truth be told, I thought we
(24:54):
were just going to have giggles here, but, oh, a little dance,
you know? But this is some deep stuff,
man. Yeah.
It's. Some deep stuff.
Yeah. You're out there and you're
David Goggins has this code of you only find peace when you
decide to go to war with yourself.
Would that say, would you say that that's kind of resonates
(25:16):
with you? More than you could ever know.
You everyday, right, you're battling, you're trying to not
to give up. Now you've had a lot of support
from the the shirt Park Community.
Hey, and from the the tech talk that I posted, there were so
many people that that commented.Oh, this guy, I see this guy
(25:36):
every day on my way to work on my on my way to work from work,
dropping my kids off or he's just awesome.
And so how is the community responding to your dancing?
And what's 1 moment that reminded you of why you keep
doing it? So there's the good and the bad.
(25:59):
Over 10 attempts on my life. I've had children threaten my
life. They like weren't trying to run
you over right. You told me that and that and
take talk like I'm sure they do.You think they'll actually well,
they're just trying to be funny,right?
But to you, you're you're there.You're if they make a mistake,
it. Sets your life, especially when
I'm on the road. Yeah, like I'm off to the side.
(26:22):
You can go around me. I don't care if you're in this,
you know, couple $100,000 car and, you know, you got 500
horsepower and, you know, it's the roads yours.
That's a school zone on a schoolday, during school hours.
(26:47):
What gives you the right to go 70 kilometers?
I don't care how you you, you know, you got to go to the hair
appointment that's happening in an hour and it's a 5 minute
drive. I don't care.
The only people I'm actually going to pull right over and
(27:09):
stop for our emergency vehicles.There was nothing so pressing,
even somebody dying in the hospital.
Plan your day better. So people, these are separate
(27:29):
from people trying to run you over.
Oh no, these are people that have actively these.
These are people going 70 and a 30 on a school zone on a school.
Day and they're trying to hit you.
Oh yeah, they're the the I remember this car so vividly.
It was a white Porsche has some gold trim on it.
Is this I'm going and this is going past Clover Bar high
(27:51):
school or not high school, junior high.
And I'm just pulling up to MillsHaven.
Person is white Porsche. You know, I'm off to the side.
You know, I'm riding through rocks, you know, like I'm
already putting myself at a danger.
But it's I'm giving you the room.
You can go around. I'm going 38 in a 30.
(28:15):
OK, So if I'm not going fast enough for you, boohoo, suck it
up. I'm breaking the law myself.
I admitted this, the commissioner, and he's like, OK,
continue, we'll discuss that at a later point.
And I'm like, got it, came beside me, started shoving me
(28:38):
into the other cars and nearly took out three people's mirrors.
Oh jeez, that. Sucks and so I break on rocks
that that's scary. Yeah.
Especially when you're going 38 kilometers, that's that's
terrifying. And he gets in front of me, I'm
(28:58):
like, OK, I'm slowing down, slams on his brakes.
OK, so he, he get like this guy's approaching you and then
you're this is when you're dancing near a school.
Yeah. On my longboard.
On your longboard. You're dancing on your
longboard. Yeah, I'm just doing this.
Then he comes in and starts to come at you had to put you in
(29:20):
the side and. Then he break checks me.
I got that close to hitting him.I couldn't even get his license
plate. You weren't stationary, though,
right? You were just cruising along
past the school. Yeah.
Wow. And then when you dance in that
near baseline, do people do thattoo?
(29:40):
No, because I was informed by police officers that even though
technically I can and can't be on the road, I shouldn't because
the amount of people that have tried to injure me or kill me
(30:00):
has risen too high. So they said, if at all
possible, never go on the road. OK, so right in the corner is
where you're safe. Yeah.
Even then, people. Tried like there's a couple of
guys, they've rolled coal in my face, which honestly, like I'm,
I'm a truck guy, you know, I seea nice lifted truck and you roll
(30:23):
some like, yeah, let's go, you know, So I was, I was excited to
see that, you know, but they didit in my face and I'm like,
respectfully, yeah. But I'm just like, I don't care,
man. This is a badge of honor.
I love this. You know, you're going to
probably get a ticket for this if a cop sees it.
I'm not going to. Rick, roll coal on your face.
Yeah, they yeah. Black smoke.
(30:45):
Oh, that's what you meant? I thought they actually.
Oh, no, no, no, no black smoke right in my face.
And then there was one guy back at the end of December, from the
east side of baseline all the way to the West, who's trying to
spray me with snow and ice. Instead, he wiped out nearly hit
(31:05):
a truck. And sent karma and.
I laughed, and then he stopped, turned parked in front of
Staples and sat on the hood of his car, yelling something at
me. I just waved and I went back to
dancing. I'm like, I'm not going to deal
with that. Well, that's, that's the price
he needs to pay after doing it for so long, right?
(31:27):
And after having so many people that are inspired, they're
always going to be people that don't like what you're doing for
whatever reason. It could be you could reflect on
all the things as to why they could hate you for whatever
reason, right? It's like they just feel hate in
their hearts and they want to, they want to dish it out at
(31:47):
someone, you know, whoever. And a perfect.
Target, but but you can't like you can't let that override.
Yeah, you can't let that slide though.
You have to fight for yourself. But you can't let that override
the positive experiences too, because there's countless like
you get. Let's let's talk about the
positive. Now.
So then it's a 2 step, the positive first one is the kids,
(32:12):
right? Because you know, my family,
they tell me like, you had such a great childhood, you know, and
you, you're a happy guy. And it's like I didn't have any
friends. People would play video games
with me. You know, they'd come at my
house and play video games with me.
(32:33):
They never played with me at school.
They never came to my birthday party.
They weren't my friends, they were just kids that were taking
advantage of the fact that I hada souped up console at the time.
So for me, seeing those kids joywhen I didn't have any fills me
(33:00):
with pride at the fact that maybe their lives aren't great,
you know? But seeing me brings just a
little bit of light in their life, you know, it wiping away
some of that darkness even for asecond, you know, And they're
(33:25):
just, they see someone exuding life and joy, exuding the
message of be yourself, don't care what others think.
And makes me so happy to see that the other one second part
(33:48):
is the two men that came forward, the first two people
who admit to me that I stopped them from committing suicide.
Really. They they came up to you.
One man cried in my arms, the other bought me dinner that was
(34:10):
heavy to learn and that was in the span of three weeks that
they came. Three weeks apart from each
other. Three weeks apart.
The first one I was just like ohshit.
Yeah, that's probably when you thought like, wow, like when I'm
doing. Yeah, silly stuff anymore it.
(34:30):
It that truly solidified that itwasn't just like we love seeing
you, man, that's awesome. And then people go, you know, it
was real. Much.
Deeper exactly in the second man.
He cried in my arms that that was heavy because you know, like
(35:00):
I've, I've seen men cry, right? I've cried myself.
But to be holding a man togetherin my arms, that was.
I don't know if you've ever had to do that yourself.
(35:22):
I've had to do that. Some friends.
No, no. Do you?
You know that that weight. You know that you were holding
your actions in your arms. I've had people hold me like
some and it's just need. You don't even need advice
sometimes, right? You just need someone to hold
you, no? I added.
(35:45):
He recommended a song to me, Lake Cactus, Lake Cactus, and I
put that in the playlist. Oh yeah, you.
You got to publish your playlist.
Oh, I do. Have the playlist.
Public Oh, sweet. I'll I'll link it I'll link it.
But man, it's just yeah, it's tough every day we we struggle
hey. And it's just all it takes is
(36:07):
kind of little how are you right.
And when you see some guy dancing and you, you have a
smile on their face, like, maybeI shouldn't jump off that Cliff
today. You know, maybe, maybe I maybe
life is worth living. That maybe that smile that they
got that day was the only joy that they've ever had.
(36:28):
Like, so help. So first you started off with
helmet advocacy. Yeah.
Where like, oh, you need to makea change.
And you just like dancing, right?
You, you, you get in there and you start doing your little
groove. And 1st there's a little head
bop. And then eventually you add more
actions into there. You put more feeling as it
escalates, you get more recognition, people try to run
(36:48):
you off and it's like whatever, more positive interactions.
Hong Kong Kong Oilers game, you know, they hey buddy, what's up?
But then people come to you and tell you, hey, and you saved my
life. And that's probably when you
decide today that it's just, wow, this is so much bigger than
me. Oh yeah, definitely.
(37:09):
That's amazing. That's awesome, man.
It's just that the weight of knowing I am the pillar that
stayed their hand, you know, that is something completely
different. It's that that in of itself is a
(37:39):
heavy, honorable, honorable, honorable burden to carry.
So you've spoken openly about struggling with certain
thoughts, right? And being misunderstood.
What has helped you survive and keep showing up?
(37:59):
Would be I'd have to give thanksto my grandfather.
He told me, you know, like you're you're going to struggle
(38:21):
in life, you know, you're going to have to climb mountains,
valleys, hills. You might have to crawl through
a crate, a cave. You know, there's there's going
to be possibly, you know, creatures, you know, like
wolves, tigers, stuff like that trying to stop you, you know,
trying to break you down. But there's always going to be,
(38:45):
you know, either a nice glade or, you know, top of the
mountain with the best breeze, might even be a little lawn
chair right there to lay down and just relax, you know,
because that break is going to end.
(39:06):
And soon you're going to have togo on to the next journey, the
next battle, whether that battlebe, you know, going and crossing
a river and there's no trees or sticks nearby.
You're going to have to swim across that river, you know,
(39:30):
boat. You take that break.
You take it. You relish in it because what
you just went through, there's going to be little tips and
tricks and secrets that you learned that might help you
through this next journey, or might be two journeys away,
(39:52):
might be 4, might even be 1000 battles you have to go past
before one of these little bits of information that you learned
comes to light. But it's going to be there.
Can help strengthen you. So it's important to know that
(40:19):
while the battle's never going to end, you're going to be
stronger at the very least aftereach one.
You know, my scars aren't physical.
They're all mental. I've met countless people with
physical scars, some of them a little concerning, yet they're
(40:46):
still here. They learned, right?
Sadly, some people, they didn't have that person, that
inspiration. They didn't have the the
(41:07):
teachings. And for that, that breaks my
heart because there's always someone there, someone trying to
help, yet they didn't get there in time.
(41:33):
But all you have to do is hang on just a little longer.
Yeah, I like what your grandpa said about there are going to be
valleys and then peaks, right? And to get to the peaks you need
to trudge forward into the rivers, into the fight some
wolves and bears and are mental constant like this everyday.
(41:56):
I mean the way society is, right?
It's never like Kumbaya. It's always it's it's tough,
man. Life is suffering.
There's so many things that go wrong, dreams that aren't
materialized. There's a lot of abuse going
around, a lot of shame that we feel and it should be just can't
forget that they say forever andthere and there are people that
(42:18):
love you because for the people that didn't continue, right,
It's there's there's someone hurting right now thinking about
them. Exactly.
And if not, they could have beensomeone in someone's life and
that never materialized because they it surrendered too soon,
(42:43):
right. How do you deal with all the the
thoughts in your head? Like how do you go about it now
versus back then? Like what was, let's start with
back then? What was it like back then?
You know, it was you'd met me when I was in elementary.
(43:08):
You would have been like, damn, the autistic friendly.
Oh yeah. Then if you'd met me again in
junior high, you'd be like, was he autistic?
(43:33):
When you met me in high school? You would have been like, who?
Who are you? You know, it's as a kid, you
know, I was very happy, very bubbly, you know, very naive.
(43:59):
My family told me they, they like to claim, no, we didn't.
We never said this. They did.
But they always told me to not be so gullible to, you know,
know that there's going to be dangers.
(44:22):
So as a kid, how do I learn about dangers?
Well, I have a love for reading,pick up a history book and then
I became someone that's studied history.
(44:45):
Problem with studying history, especially when you have
neurodivergency or mental illness, you become dark,
depressing, Moody, right? But now my family says stop
(45:09):
being so, so upset about this. You know, look on the bright
side. I look on the bright side and
they're like you're being naive.You can look on the bright side,
but if you do, you have to have a level of naivety because you
(45:40):
have to not see anything bad. That is the problem with looking
on the bright side. The bright side is there's no
darkness. You have to be naive to look on
the bright side. You have to be blind to not see
(46:01):
the bad things. You know, on Facebook, on short
park groups, you know, I commentsomething, the post is taken
down because people report it because of what I say.
You know, there was post about dogs and at a dog park and their
(46:26):
kids were sledding down this hill at a dog park, they found
sticks sitting upright in rows. People were sticking sticks up
that they wouldn't let their kids.
They wouldn't let kids sled downthe hills.
(46:47):
Why said don't bring a sled to adog park and slide down a hill?
That noise is going to scare thedogs.
Some dogs are aggressive. People were hammering me with
hate saying I shouldn't say this, that I'm why am I siding
(47:11):
with the good guy or the bad guy?
Why am I siding with him? Giving reality.
It's a dog park, not a playground, right?
So I these people are bubbly, they're naive, they're on the
bright side. If you look on the darks on
(47:34):
reality, there's no brightness in reality.
Reality is This is a messed up world we live in.
People are dying by the thousands due to war, suicide
due to violence, right? All this reality is we are a
(48:01):
plague on this planet and ourselves can't think like that.
There's good in this world. Like what people say about my
dancing. OK, my dancing going to end a
(48:23):
war, right? Like it's you look at the bright
side, you try and look at the good, great going to be naive.
So for me, I I just try try to be myself, right?
(48:50):
And myself is not the me you would have met when I was
younger. OK, so you, you read these books
and you empathize too much with the war, with the suffering.
And you're this bubbly kid that looked at the history books
(49:15):
because you wanted to learn moreabout human nature.
And you realize the extent to, you know, World War 2 and World
War One and all these things that happened and the
indigenous, what they went through in the residential
schools. And you looked at the horrors
and you went to, oh, how could this happen?
(49:36):
But it's just a lot of people view that though, and they
don't, it's not to the level of the extent where they, they feel
blooming towards the world. They they view that and we can
just do better. But to do better leads to an
(49:57):
issue and that issue is you haveto expose the dark.
To expose the dark can lead to more darkness.
OK. Look at look at what's happening
right now in the world, right? It's the horrible place.
(50:21):
Because we've exposed the dark, because we're keeping things
hidden. We exposed all the truths.
Yeah, I think there's. I don't think I can grasp the
level of the world. No.
But I I can try my best to be able.
To but that's exactly what everyone can do, try their best.
(50:43):
Son a good friend and be able to, you know, share in the
community, do what's right, do what's wrong.
That's all you can do. And then lastly, build it up to
the top echelons to maybe one day, you know, achieve World
Peace. You know it's but that.
That that is the dream. That is the dream.
And if my dancing can bring that, yeah, well, that's a fever
(51:06):
dream. I would do that if I could.
How do you deal with the pressure of being a public
figure while managing your own mental health?
Good question, very good question.
(51:27):
Me, I don't know how I couldn't tell you.
It's just I be me, I be authentic.
I set a strict code to live by truth, respect, honesty, reality
(51:55):
and optimism. 5 things. I try and live by that.
I look at everything. I try and force it.
Somethings you can't force them into, it's just not possible or
(52:16):
there's not enough knowledge to know.
But for me, I try. I I become something that people
could look towards with hope or look at and say I want to
(52:42):
emulate that. I want to become that.
You want to be a role model and by fault, just following the
truth you can. You know you're doing right,
just trying your best. What message do you wish people
truly understood about mental illness that they often
overlook? Look beyond the surface.
(53:19):
When you look at a banana or an apple, do you look for the rot?
You want it to be healthy and ripe, or do you just not care?
(53:40):
That is what you have to do. When you look at a person, look
beyond the mask. Look beyond what is presented.
Listen. See how they walk.
(54:01):
See how they speak. Listen not to what they say, but
the how they say it. That will tell you more about
that person, what they're battling and anything else.
(54:24):
People, even good friends of mine, believe I'm autistic
because I have a love of dancing.
I have a love of longboarding, and when I can't longboard or
dance, I become angry and depressed.
Some of them are long boarders themselves and they don't feel
(54:44):
like this. Some of them have been long
boarding longer than I have, andthey don't feel like this.
I'm as ingrained to long boarding and dancing.
I'm as of part as of part of it as I can be as a person requires
(55:08):
water or food, that is, oh, I am.
You can't look at a person and say I'm going to learn more
about them. Just going to say no, I don't
(55:31):
like them because they're different.
How would you feel if somebody did that to you?
Do unto others what you would. Do what you would want done to
(55:52):
you. Would you punch yourself in the
face because somebody didn't hold the door open for you?
No. OK, so why'd you do that?
(56:15):
It's because you don't understand something doesn't
mean you now deserve they now deserve be hated by you.
Just like if I decided to hate you and shut you down for the
rest of your life because you decided you didn't like me
(56:43):
because I dance, but I don't like you because you bought
white bread instead of whole grain bread, That's not fair.
You you're going to get upset atme for me hating you for that
fact, OK. My dancing hurting you?
No, because you got into a car accident.
(57:04):
Is that my fault? No, in the court of law if it's
a distraction in your hands, notmine.
So are you upset at me because you failed to pay attention to
(57:25):
the road? Are you upset at me because your
life sucks? That's not my problem.
I'm out here being myself. Be yourself.
Be a happy you pay for someone else's drink.
(57:48):
Feel happy that you decided to spread along a good message, a
good action to someone else. What if they killed themselves
right in front of you? Because when you spat at them,
(58:08):
that was it, and they just shot themselves in the head in front
of you, that was it. So you want to send the message
out there and not judge people just on the surface level,
correct. You want people to look at the
(58:29):
the way they go about things andthe tone of their voice and tend
to reach out if they do need help and to not just look at the
surface level, but also look at deep within as to if they're
truly struggling. And that's the cold you live by.
That's exactly. That's yeah.
And throughout time, your friends, even they, they judge
(58:51):
you for liking certain things and without it, you feel
depressed. And they just because you
operate like that, they judge you for it.
But it's not. I'm sure they care, right?
They just don't understand it. And you want to send a message
out there that just because someone's different, as long as
they're not hurting anyone, thenthey can live whatever life that
(59:14):
they want. The diet absorbed that
correctly. That is correct.
OK. So yeah, yeah, dude, I always,
sometimes when people tell me certain things, I won't
understand it properly, but I hope I there'll be a lot of
people listening. Right so far.
Man, Yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah.
I just, I think I, I used to never be a good listener, but
(59:37):
then I just, you know, I startedactually reflecting on my words
and, or my thoughts when I do converse with people, 'cause it
used to just be like me, me, me,me, I, you know, But then you
get on top of the mountain and you look around, nobody else is
around. And it's like, what's the point
of this if it's not the other people for the collective, for
(59:58):
them, you know, because how longwould it take for a person to
kill themselves if they were alone in the world?
You know, it would just be so isolating.
That's no life to live. You need people.
And we got so caught up in just being me, being individual,
being all I need to do this for me.
But no, you can't. Do things by yourself, even
(01:00:20):
being born, you can do it by yourself, right?
Two people have to come together.
The doctor had to come in, they had to operate on you or you
know, whatever. Maybe there is like AC section
that needed to be put in. The umbilical cord was around
your neck. But then you came out here and
the interactions, you know, the food on the table, person that
you grabbed your coffee, the person that made your chair, the
(01:00:44):
bed, it's all done by people. And people really forget that
we're all interconnected and that the little actions that we
make and go so far and you, you don't even know, right?
And that's your testament to it,to those guys coming to you and
people coming out and even a smile a little can go a long
(01:01:07):
way. Small Axe, big impact.
Exactly what role has skateboarding played in your
life and has it been? Has it been a form of escape,
empowerment, or something else? Yes, skateboarding.
(01:01:29):
When you hear guys that ride motorcycles, you know, and they
talk about how they're free, theonly thing that can stop them is
themselves. Turning the key, putting the
bike away. That's exactly what longboarding
is to me. The only way to stop my
(01:01:55):
longboarding is me. If I want to ride in the winter,
I'm going to be crazy and messedin the head, more so than I
already am. I'm telling you right now, but
I'm making that choice then. I want to preserve this deck,
right? But if I wanted to, I could ride
(01:02:16):
in the rain. Ride in the snow.
I'm the only one that stops myself.
But for me, it's wings. Imagine a pair of wings on my
arms or on my back. I am Unchained.
(01:02:41):
Even though these chains may be on me, they are broken if for a
moment the only thing that can stop me is me.
Not the cracks in the road, not the people driving by, yelling
(01:03:02):
at me, swerving at me. You know, Not the construction.
Me and only me. I'm free, I'm flying.
(01:03:24):
I'm Unchained. When you're on that board, you
feel like nothing else matters. You just you're you.
You're truly present and you cando whatever you want, right?
You can. Has that always been the case?
More so after the head injury. Like you'd probably be scared
(01:03:47):
going back on there, right I. Actually had to push past the
PTSD. I'm still pushing past the PTSD
every day. When I initially got out of the
head injury, less than a month after I'm back on boards, less
than a month. Did it take a long time or I
mean a lot of courage? Well, how I basically pictured
(01:04:12):
it was if I'm unable to hop on this board and go, what am I
going to do if I get into a breakup with a significant
other? What am I going to do if my job
fires me or if I'm injured at work?
(01:04:32):
How am I going to pick myself upif I'm unable to get back on the
thing that nearly took my life? I would be less of a man if I
couldn't get over the courage ofriding the thing that nearly
killed me. So my body was actually
(01:04:54):
dislocating itself on itself. My knees were popping out of
their sockets, my shoulder. I'd have to constantly pop it
back in. This is due to the injuries or
just your body telling your. Body was basically screaming at
me saying we're gonna have you fall apart while you're going if
(01:05:15):
you don't stop. But what I'd do, I'd sit down,
pop the knee back in, pop the shoulder back in and then sit
down, breathe, drink some water.We restructure myself mentally,
(01:05:37):
have this shaking stop or slow down a little, you know, and
it'll go again. That's awesome, man.
That's it's not about how hard you hit, hey, it's how hard you
can get hit and all down, get upand keep going.
Definitely. That's that's what long boarding
is, is it's just like skateboarding.
(01:05:59):
It's like biking, just like riding a motorcycle.
Yeah. You crash, you befit, you know,
are you able to get up? Yeah, I think a lot of life's
always just going to be about rejection, about failure, hurt
feelings, right? Because it's just so much more
powerful, right? And this goes with like the
(01:06:21):
negative comments, right? One negative comment equals 100
positive ones. And that's why it probably
resonates with you so much. Or the things that pop up or
like the negative, right? Because they're powerful.
OK, when you. You feel on me, you feel on your
body, you feel it in your system.
You ruminate on that and you go,why is it so wired in my heart,
(01:06:43):
right? But it's being able to look it
right in the eye and go, I'm notgoing to let fear dictate me.
I'm going to get back on that board and I'm going to keep on
trudging along. Definitely.
And I'm not. My mind is going to tell me not
to. But.
You don't your mind doesn't knowwhat's good for it.
Sometimes, you know, like you can think certain things, you
(01:07:05):
can do certain things and it maynot be good for you, right?
But you what you wanted at that moment, right?
But it's just constantly override that and look at the
look at the bad things in your life and go, I will not let this
define me. And I like what you said about,
OK, what in the future when I have a wife and kids, right?
Am I able to sacrifice myself for them?
(01:07:28):
Am I able? Can they rely on me?
And there's a song that by JasonRoss that I always repeat.
And that's you can rely on me iswhen the the chorus is you can
rely on me when things get tough, right?
And it's just, that's what it isto be a man, right?
To be, to be, you need to sacrifice, I mean, to connect
(01:07:51):
with people, to be able to be there because things will come.
And I, I, I have this analogy oflike the Barbarians and the, and
the gates, the Barbarians will come and the castle, they will
come to your gates. And are you equipped?
Like do you have the walls builtup?
(01:08:12):
Do you have the surroundings clear?
Or can they just dig up a tunneland get through it that way?
Is is the gate well fortified, right?
And this is your life. The Riberians could come in with
missiles. They could come in invisible,
right? They could and that's like the
(01:08:32):
mind, right? Life will come at you in all
different ways, right? Disease, grief, hurt feelings,
just disappointment, microaggressions.
The the girl, the girl rejects you that you've liked for a year
now. Are you going to let that define
(01:08:53):
you? Are you just going to stop
getting on your long board and stop caring about other people,
stop living because you went through that?
Or will you look that failure inthe eye and go, you will not
define me. I come back stronger.
I come out better, you know, Andwhat lessons from skateboarding
(01:09:16):
have helped you in other parts of life, especially during your
hardest moments? Well, exactly like we just
discussed getting back up. You know that broken bone, it
will heal. Yeah.
Yeah. Just like your mind can heal.
The human body is something we barely understand.
(01:09:37):
We like to claim we understand it.
We barely know anything. Like in Pompeii, they found
preserved brain but it's impossible they they found a
preserved brain. Like they had like the
ingredients to preserve the brain.
(01:09:59):
No, they. In a jar like from years ago.
Like billions. Of years ago, you know, the
Mount Vesuvius, when the mountain erupted.
And sure, yeah, they found a well preserved brain like that
was just sitting in somebody's skull.
Oh, like after they were burnt? Yeah, this was thousands of
(01:10:23):
years ago that Pompeii happened.OK.
Think it's Pompeii, I can't remember.
I just remember that one song. You know that song.
It's a good song, man. It is.
It is a good song. I I like that song.
Yeah, it's very. Yeah, actually I might have to
add that. Yeah, add that in the playlist.
(01:10:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, but I like we We don't
understand how the brain works. The brain, like we barely
understand it. The hearts, we think we
understand, but we don't. We like to claim that we know
(01:11:05):
things. You know?
It was science. You know it.
It knows. We know they're studying it.
We know abracadabra there's a human.
Can't we do that? No.
Why? We don't know.
(01:11:25):
We don't know the human body. We don't know the mind can heal
itself. Because Glen Rose Brain Clinic
and EU of A told me I shouldn't even be breathing from the head
injury. They said right now I should be
drooling out the moose and go, OK, I don't know if you remember
(01:11:48):
that song, but it goes right? You may not know it.
What? Song is this.
It's put your arm to your wrist and you go like this, right?
It's that's the song that alwaysreminds me of it anyway.
You have to share that. With It's a messed up song, but
(01:12:08):
it's funny, right? But I should be like that right
now. Drool dripping down like a
vegetable and basically, yet I'mnot.
Doctors were shocked. They're like, how?
And I'm like, well, I just got back on the board.
You're hard as shit bro. Exactly.
(01:12:30):
Yeah, I I got that David Gogginsin, you know, exactly.
Yeah, yeah. Right mind over matter.
Hell yeah bro, right is. And literally, you don't know
me, son. Who's going to carry the boats?
Yeah, exactly. Carry the boats, you know.
Yeah, so for me, you don't know what's going to happen, but
(01:12:54):
skateboarding and longboarding, doctors claimed that actually
helped accelerate my healing process, even though my body was
dislocating itself. They they were shocked at my
memory. They said I'm one of the highest
(01:13:17):
ranked for the memory recollection and all that math
and all the tasks at the Glen Rose.
They said I'm the hot one of thehighest in years and they said
that can be thanks to me riding the longboard because I'm now
(01:13:43):
getting the blood pumping. He said it was thanks to me
doing the push ups out there because I've I've actually done
push ups and sit ups as a break,you know, from doing some
dancing. I'll just sit there and be like,
you know what, maybe some peoplemight want to go to the gym.
Let me give them the boost, you know, so I'll just start doing
push ups to do 50 push ups a day.
Sometimes right out there dancing, doesn't matter the
(01:14:05):
weather, right? And it's they're like you
getting the blood pumping, you reading books, you doing the
thing that should have killed you, made you feel right.
Now, I'm not saying don't do drugs or don't do drugs, Kate,
(01:14:31):
don't. Don't do that.
OK, If drugs nearly killed you, that's not OK.
OK, if the drugs nearly killed you, stop doing them.
Don't do drugs. Don't do drugs, kids.
Right. Like, yes.
But you know, it's the thing that nearly took my life, healed
(01:14:57):
me both mentally and physically like that.
That is shocking. Well, it's something that you
enjoyed, right? And it almost took your life.
But being able to go back on there just probably change the
(01:15:17):
neurons in your brain to be ableto look at adversity and go, OK,
we're not not going anywhere. We despite what happens, we are
staying and it comes back stronger.
Hey, and I'm not, I'm not well versed.
I, I mean, I'm, I'm in my fourthyear of psychology, but like I,
I just know the brain, the digger, you're deep with any
(01:15:39):
facet, right? The harder it is to explain
certain things. And you could say, oh, dopamine,
this, This is why we experience pleasure and we do certain
things. And then you go, OK, why do we
do certain things? Oh, it's because we want to feel
loved. OK, what is love?
OK. And then, oh, it's a feeling of
(01:16:00):
this. And then the more you keep
digging, the more you just wait.What?
It this doesn't make sense. You know, this doesn't.
And you can just go about it with fulfillment, with feeling,
right? And I don't think we're truly
ever meant to find the source, right?
I think for me, I'm religious like I'm, I'm a man of God.
I, I believe Jesus died for our sins and certain, I doubt, I do
(01:16:24):
experience a lot of doubt here and there, but I do believe that
that's the source that God is there for me.
God put me in this world. Be able to care for others, to
be able to experience the adversity and learn easy or hard
ways and be able to share stories like yours, right?
And be able to connect. And I don't think we're truly
meant to, you know, find one role, right?
(01:16:46):
There's all different purposes all around.
Like right now, my purpose is tobe able to, you know, have a
good conversation with a friend and to Share your story.
And then maybe at work, I can just be there for get the quota
done and connect with my Co workers.
And then when you're on that corner right there, hey, you're,
you're making sure you're givingit your best, feeling your
(01:17:06):
emotions and proving as a personand just it's so complex to be
human, man. It's truly remarkable, hey, to
be able to live every single dayand go, wow, I get to live.
It's a blessing to feel loved, to feel pain, to feel pleasure.
You can absorb all that. It's a blessing, honestly.
(01:17:27):
Have you ever used skating as a way to meet people or build a
community, especially when you felt isolated?
Yes, I made over 5 friends. Not over.
I made five friends just skatingalone, not including the
(01:17:48):
dancing. I've made quite a few friends
just doing dancing. You're one of them.
There we go. Yeah, buddy.
Yeah. And we're going to, we're going
to keep in contact all this while, man, because like we were
first met what, like a month ago.
Just about, yeah. And I've seen you so many Times
Now. Yeah, on my runs, yeah.
I love seeing you on my runs, bro.
Like, it's great. I ain't like, oh gosh, I have
(01:18:11):
to. Even though it's not on my
route, I always go and say hi. Yeah, honestly, yeah.
It's, you know, trying to build that community is important to
me because, you know, I've been lobbying the government here in
Sherwood Park to actually build an indoor skate park for us, but
(01:18:36):
that us skaters aren't shut downfor five to six months.
Do you go to Millennium the withthe skate park there?
I can't do tricks, so I'm unableto.
You can learn. I've tried, I've tried.
The problem is, is that for Memespent two months trying to learn
(01:19:01):
Dioli. Really.
Two months. You give your best.
I gave everything. I was wearing a helmet.
I was wearing pads. Yeah, two months.
Nada. Yeah, like.
The only thing I was actually able to achieve was just going
(01:19:29):
and I was able to achieve long distance, but I was able, it's
called pumping, right, which is pushing, right?
And so I was able to do that andI could go and go and go and go.
That's where my skill lies, not in the tricks, but ingest the
(01:19:52):
movement going, you know, like anever ending road, right?
Even if I have to go back the other way, the never ending Rd.
Whereas with the tricks, yeah, Icould, I could do the darks.
(01:20:12):
Hey hi bro, listening to us damnrobots.
Damn, You know, I, I could learnhow to do a dark slide, you
know, I could learn how to do the 900, I could learn how to do
an Ollie kickflip, you know, ButI learned all that.
(01:20:37):
I do it all, but I've stayed in one space.
That's not freedom, that's confinement, right?
Yeah, I could go when I could skate on that park bench.
Cops come write me a ticket. The indoor skate park.
(01:21:03):
Somebody listening right now, learning tricks and stuff.
What do you what do you say to them?
Push on, you know, Yes, the scrapes and the bruises and the
cuts and the broken bones, they're going to hurt.
I promise you. I promise you they're going to
hurt. You're going to wake up the next
(01:21:24):
day and you're going to be like,I'm not moving, but you're going
to have to get back on the board.
Even if you're not doing tricks,OK, even if you're on a bike or
a scooter, you injure yourself, get back on.
Yes, it's going to hurt. Yes, that fear might lock you
(01:21:44):
down. Push through it.
Are you afraid of heights yet? Are you able to go to the World
Water Park at West Ed? Don't you go down those slides?
I have a terrifying fear of heights when I'm going up on
those stairs. I'm spider man ING to the
(01:22:05):
ground, punching the ground, just trying to not look over the
ledge because I have ADHD, OK, severe ADHD and I'm always
looking around. So I'm punching to have my body
focus on the pain. OK.
(01:22:26):
But I still go down the slides, just not the really big ones.
OK, I'm going to be honest here.I don't do the really big ones,
OK, but it's I push myself to that pain like both my knees are
cut up, my elbows cut up right now both of the bones are
bruised as well. It's not a good time, but I push
(01:22:48):
past because I know that once that pain is gone, the ride is
going to feel so much better that that dancing.
I'll be able to go back and be able to do the V step again.
You know, I'll be able to fall to the knees faster instead of
(01:23:11):
being like, Nope, my back, my knees, you know, push through.
No, it's going to be scary. You can do it.
You put the mind to it. The only wall, the only limit is
you break that wall and say I'm going to do it.
(01:23:39):
What do you have to lose? Yeah, maybe an arm.
You'll grow back, I'm sure. You're Spider Man, aren't you?
Technologies. Technology has already.
They have the EXO suits. Man, yeah, do yeah.
Just you're going to have to make a metal board.
Yeah, I believe in you. Make the metal board.
Get the exo suit. You'll do fine.
(01:24:00):
Man, thank you so much for coming on the Long Term podcast
bro. I it's my pleasure, man, and my
honor. Yeah.
This. Yeah.
You there, you got it. You're very well spoken, man.
Maybe you should do well. Could we do a a podcast on the
side like a? Like.
Like, you know where the like the staples is at?
(01:24:20):
Like cross there in that corner.Like we set up a table and we,
you and I just do a pod. Could that honestly be funny?
That'd be so funny. That would actually be a lot of
fun. That would be fun.
Hey, have people be looking at us.
Like, look at those crazy guys. What are they?
They're doing a podcast. They're actually doing it, man.
Yeah, Yeah. And we could even have like, a,
(01:24:41):
a seat where, like, people couldjoin us, like, different, like,
and then you could like, we'll do little breaks where You Can
Dance and I'll just be on the side, you know?
Yeah. Yeah, no, you're going to have
to Join Now. You got to do the conga.
Yeah, yeah, You have to, you have to join me.
You have to teach me some dance moves.
I I'm very rigid, dude. I what?
(01:25:01):
Was I? Yeah.
You got to just. I feel like bro, but I feel like
tricks to skateboarding to you is like me to dancing, you know
what I mean? Bro.
OK, and it'll be easy, I promise.
Sweet. But yeah.
Do you have any last words to people who are struggling out
(01:25:24):
there and to your viewers and anything?
That's a good question. No matter what, no matter what a
hardship, pain, the loss, the demons that are fighting matter.
(01:25:48):
If you're religious, doesn't matter.
If you're believing in Scientology, doesn't matter.
If you're, you know, religious in the sense of you believe in
the old gods, Pagan gods, doesn't matter, just no, you
(01:26:08):
push on and you, you say not today, not today.
You know you will find. You'll be able to say that
tomorrow. You'll be able to say that the
(01:26:29):
next day. No matter what, know that I
believe in you. Know that Advan believes in you.
I believe in you. Know that David Goggin believes
in you, David. Goggins, you got that dog in
you. Stay hard, baby.
Exactly. Yeah, not that hard though.
Not that. Hard.
You know. Viagra Hard.
(01:26:49):
No, Yeah, more. More like a guilty pleasure.
Hard. Hey, never hear the storm.
Learn to dance in the rain. I did that the other day when it
was hailing. Yeah, I was actually out there,
man. And my you look there, stabbing
(01:27:10):
right there. Medication brother.
Oh it it hurt, but it was it was.
It was so good after though, hey.
Bro yeah, until I fell asleep and then I'm like ah, it's.
Like, I know why to do this, thepain.
But yeah, as always, to everyonelistening and watching, there is
a place for you in this chaotic world.
Never lose soap. Strengthen your faith.
(01:27:33):
Never lose soap. Yeah, that's what you said.
Soap. Yes.
No. Hope, I said.
Don't drop the soap, don't go toprison, don't do drugs.
Don't break the law. The law, unless the law is like
a dictatorship to which. Overthrow it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't lose hope.
Strengthen your faith and keep it long term.
(01:27:54):
Kaden Skelton, everyone. Dunan.
If you haven't seen him and you're from Sherwood Park, are
you really part of the community?
Exactly. No, no, no, really.
I've actually had a lot of people tell me they've.
Never seen me and they live in. Exactly.
Like, are you, do you just not go outside?
Like, what is this? Yeah, it's not.
Go outside. Meet Kaden if you haven't seen
him. Go to baseline.
I'll be there Monday to Sunday, usually.
(01:28:16):
Usually. Yeah.
Every day. No breaks.
Yeah. That's it.
Peace. That's it, brother.
Oh, it's good.
The first two people who admit to me that I stopped them from
committing suicide. And came up to you.
One man cried in my arms, the other bought me dinner.
This board could reach 43 kilometers an hour.
Wow, that's fast. Fun fact about this deck, I
pushed it past 80. But I'm supposed to care about
(00:21):
you when you're upset? The posture around and how they
go about going into work, going out of work.
Because they're different. How would you feel if somebody
did that to you? Rather than focusing on the
reward, which is like the title,the status, exactly that degree
of. Because the Glen Rose Brain
Clinic and EU of A told me I shouldn't even be breathing from
(00:43):
the head injury. They said right now I should be
drooling out the mood and go, OK, severe ADHD and I'm always
looking around you. You say not today, not today.
Yeah, All right. This is Kaden Skelton, everyone.
(01:04):
Hello. You may know I'm dancing around
baseline all around Shard Park. Local legend right here.
Thank you so much for coming man.
My pleasure and real honor to behere.
Well, what first drew you to dancing and why do you choose to
perform with a helmet on? That's a good question.
(01:24):
So, you know, I wanted to just do something more, you know,
because I'm sitting there on my long board.
I'm just kind of bobbing the head back and forth.
And it was like, OK, this isn't no, this is no, I need to do
(01:47):
more than just Bob the head, right?
And this is after my head injury.
And you know, my grandparents, they bought me this helmet and
it was like, OK, so we need, we need more.
And so I'm like, the worst thingthat could happen is people are
going to hate me, right? That's all I thought would
(02:10):
happen. I'm like, OK, we'll just do a
little boogie, you know, just start boogieing around.
And people were talking about meon Facebook groups.
And people were trying to figureout who I was, who I am.
And it was misconceptions that Iwas like a 40 year old.
(02:33):
There was people complaining about me but nothing really came
up about it until late last yearwas police.
At first you're just like bobbing your head around.
In the corner. Just just like this on my deck.
So why? Why did you start doing it like?
(02:55):
Well, it brought me joy, right? I was listening to good music.
I wanted. I wanted more.
And you had a helmet on at this time too, and you're advocating
right for that? Yes, yes, I'm.
A heavy advocate for it. For that, ever since that
(03:16):
incident, correct? Yeah, yeah.
Or can you tell the the viewers about that incident that started
your entire journey? So I'm riding my first electric
long board. I got it about the end of May of
2023, right? I'm riding it and this, this
(03:39):
didn't really hit my head, you know, like in the mind at least
that I was going to injure myself because again, I'm a kid,
right? And just like every other kid,
oh, you know, nothing bad is going to happen, right?
And so I'm riding this board could reach 43 kilometers an
hour. Wow, that's fast.
(03:59):
Fun fact about this deck, I pushed it past 80.
You push down a hill. Wow, how do you even stay on
there? Well, it's.
Crouching, crouching and clenching your ass cheeks just
hoping nothing bad is going to happen.
Like exactly. I was shaking man too.
(04:20):
I'd never gone that fast and theboard, it just flew up.
And mind you, were you on 80 at this time?
No, no, this, this was me going about 38 kilometers.
Wow, but still that fast withouta helmet on.
Correct. Damn.
So the board flew up. I smacked my head on the ground.
(04:44):
Basal skull fracture. Nearly severed my carotid
artery. Blew my right eardrum.
A severe moderate brain injury. Short temporary coma on sight.
There was a whole personality. Shift What were you like before
I? Somewhat similar to how I am
(05:06):
now, but I was more and people call me hippie for this mindset.
I have friends and family that are like, dude, that thinking is
wrong, you know, right. I was more so about getting the
job, about the work life, you know, I wanted to be an
(05:27):
agricultural technician. I wanted to work on farm
vehicles, but now I'm about freedom.
I'm about not working to live orsorry, living to work that I'm
(05:47):
not about that anymore. I'm about freedom.
You know you get paid enough to live, right?
But it's substantial amount and then you go and you become free
with it, not chained to a desk or to a wrench or to a hammer,
(06:13):
right? You are only chained by what
your money can get you for freedom.
So let's say you want to buy that sports car, go buy it,
right? That's what I'm about.
You know that you can get care at a hospital not because you
(06:38):
fund the government, but becauseyou're a human being that
deserves the right. OK, so you don't want to just
keep working for no end goal. You have correct?
You want something that I'm sorry.
(07:01):
I want something more than that.I want the end goal to be on
your deathbed. You can sit there and say I'm
fulfilled. OK.
And for you, that's dancing. Exactly.
It is showing people that I am free, you know, like I have a
(07:27):
tattoos I got the day after I turned 18 from Bioshock.
It's a. Video.
Game A correct? You know it.
Good. I know I my buddy talked about
it all the time back then. Yeah, yeah.
And in the game, these chains inthe first game that Jack has is
(07:49):
Jack, I don't know that name stuck in the head for a reason.
Anyways, it means that he's a slave to his DNA, but to me the
tattoos mean I'm a slave to myself and only myself.
You get to decide what to work for, rather than a company or
other people dictating what yourfuture is going to be.
(08:10):
You keep on reflecting as to whoyou're going to be and what
you're going to become and what you're going to want.
Exactly. So if you want a sports car, you
go and get that sports car, right?
Not like, and you're going to work towards trying, trying to
get afford that, despite what society says, despite what other
people may think, because of course you're going to be,
(08:33):
you're going to be swayed a certain way, right?
Because like a lot of people want this.
A lot of people want that. That seems like a prestigious
job, but for you, you want what makes you more fulfilled so you
can be on your deathbed and go. I live a fulfilling life through
to myself. It may be silly, it may be
serious, but it's true to myself.
(08:54):
Did I understand that correctly?You definitely did.
That is that is what dancing means to me, right?
That is what the helmet means tome is that I'm protecting the
most vital part of me. Without the brain, for most
(09:17):
cases anyways, without the brain, you can't function.
There's some that are brain deadthat the heart still beats.
They're the lucky ones, right? But I'm safe and I'm able to
keep myself together and I'm able to spread the joy do.
(09:42):
You think you would have found this resolve this mode of
thinking if that accident didn'thappen?
No, I can tell you with certainty that my dream, I'd
already started working towards it.
I had a recommendation letter from my mechanics teacher.
(10:06):
I had mechanic skills. I had welding skills.
I had woodworking skills under my belt.
I was prepared, right? I had that drive.
I had that ambition that you seeall these kids having, you know,
and looking back, even now, sometimes I'm like, I wish, you
(10:32):
know, I wish I had that. But then I remember how many
people have that and they're depressed.
I look at how my family reacted when they were coming home after
work and they're crying and they're mad and they're just
(10:54):
complaining and moaning and whining about all this.
And it's like, you love your job.
And they're like, yeah. And I'm like, why are you
moaning and whining? And they're like, I just don't
like the people. And I'm like, but your job
entails you to work with people and they're like, doesn't
(11:18):
matter. Like you don't love your job.
You like certain aspects of the job.
You love the cars, you love the soaps, you love the hammer,
everything else you hate. And they tell me I'm wrong.
(11:39):
And then the next day the cycle continues.
Yeah. Well, you see it like pattern
recognition, right? You see somebody walk and it
it's very telling the posture around and how they go about
going into work, going out of work.
So you living with certain family members, right?
You get to see if they actually truly love their work or if
(12:03):
they're just bullshitting or if they're they think they want it,
but they actually don't. And what do they actually want
to do? Right?
And usually it's not that job because if you give them $10
million, like they would quit and pursue something else,
right? Exactly.
I think it's like a big majorityof the United States, they had a
survey and it's like what? Like 880% of people don't like
(12:25):
their jobs. Don't quote me on that, but it's
like something high where like people are disgruntled, people
don't want to keep working and it's in various fields, right?
And what would you say to peoplethat hate their jobs, that want
to switch? What I would say to them is what
(12:47):
a lot of other business moguls I've seen say before you start
working truly in that field to the full extent, you know, you
go and you get that degree. Try and if you can try and
(13:10):
become like this. This is a trade size of me
talking the suit, right? Be the person that comes to work
in a suit or a dress, right? Do that work.
Hear the stories. If you want to become, you know,
(13:30):
a lawyer, try and see if you cando an internship right instead
of fully diverting all efforts without working in that sector.
Spend some time, feel it. No exactly.
(13:51):
Is this what I want or am I looking for that hire a position
that I'm only going to see when I'm 80 years old and I own the
company? Is that what you're really after
or do you want something lower end?
See if you like working in that field.
(14:13):
So if you want to go in a welding, OK, well, for that
you're going to have to either take welding in school or you
know, you can go to Nate or Oldscollege and take the welding
class, right? Take the mechanics class, take
the woodworking class, even in high school, Take that feel it
(14:35):
out. Casey case.
So I have to do this and I have to deal with the noise.
It has to look like this. Am I good with numbers?
Do I do I have that vision right?
Can I handle that hot metal? Can I deal with leaving the
class and I go to have a shower and I'm coughing up smoke and my
(14:57):
body sore? Can I deal with that for the
next 50-60 years? Well, rather than focusing on
the reward, which is like the title, the status, exactly that
degree of like, oh, a doctor, right, or a lawyer and that and
that suit you just picture the prestige and that the adoration
(15:20):
actually go in there and envision what it's going to be
like being a doctor. You know, the 16 hour surgeries,
like the sick people being around, the being away from your
family, being on call, your circadian rhythm being
interrupted, the 12 years of school.
It's like all that. That's part of the process.
(15:40):
And you, you need to be able to to to pursue that as well.
You need to be able to want that.
Like if if somebody looks at a celebrity and go, oh, wow, Brad
Pitt, he's so all the girls lovehim and he's such a good, great
actor. I want to be like him.
But then yes, you look at that, but you also have to absorb and
(16:00):
you also have to want the bad things.
Is he up at night? Because a lot of there's a lot
of scrutiny, like a lot of people in the celebrity status
aren't able to go to just the mall.
Like if you went to Sherwood Park Mall and you were like
Drake, like, you wouldn't be able to have a Peace of Mind
because everybody's approaching you, right?
What do you want that or do you just like the idea of?
(16:22):
It that's exactly right. Like for the welding I did like
I I'm an apprentice welder, I'm a first year apprentice welder.
I can't stand waking up at 3:00 in the morning, going to bed at
8:00 at night, and repeating that for the next 4 weeks.
(16:46):
Yeah, because I was working for 10s.
Yeah, it's tough, man. You know, it weighs on you.
And like, what, you're going to do that for 1020 years?
If yes, the money is good. Like could be making 100 grand
per year, you know, easy. But then the smoke and then the
the sleep, the cancer, the lung.Cancer and the eye damage is
(17:08):
insane but. So dancing for you has given you
a chance to feel fulfilled, right?
To be you, yes. Were you always into dancing?
Yes and no. I've always had like that little
bit of spark in the dance, right?
(17:28):
But I've always been more of a singer, which is why when I'm
out there, I also do a lot of singing, a lot of rapping,
right? I and then I also took acting
classes in junior high, right? So I know how to act, yet I
never fully spoke about this andproperly articulated it.
(17:54):
A lot of times when I'm out there singing songs or rapping,
I'm nearly crying with a lot of those songs.
Feel it? Yeah.
It's to the point where, like when I'm out there and you see
me wipe my eyes, that's not sweat.
That's not me acting. I'm actually wiping away.
Tears. What goes through your mind like
(18:17):
how you're feeling? I'm imagining, you know, with
like songs like Sleep Token or some of the songs like JT Music
songs, right, or even a Three Days Grace animal.
I've become that one is that. Banger dude, I love that.
(18:39):
Yeah, when I'm out there pointing, when I'm falling to my
knees and I'm, I'm pouring my soul, my essence, my very self
at the target, whether that be my younger self that I wish I
(19:06):
could have helped, that I could have given my secrets, my
knowledge, my tips and tricks. I sometimes I'm singing it and
I'm telling it to my family, family that I wish they could
understand. Because for me, you know, like
(19:30):
my family, most of them are mentally ill or neurodivergent,
right? Yet I tell them how exactly I'm
feeling, what it's doing to me. And instead of OK, we understand
it's don't care, man up. But I'm supposed to care about
(19:56):
you when you're upset. I when I'm out there, you know?
Like for sleep tokens, chokehold, you know that one.
I'm actively like choking myselfout there because for me, that
(20:24):
is how I'm feeling, how I'm directing my anger and my
feelings to the person I'm thinking about, the people I'm
singing about. For JT Music's Nightmares Have
(20:50):
an end, I think is what it's called.
It's talking about others. Some nightmares have an end.
Some nightmares never end, right?
And I'm pointing and I'm like twisting, you know, and it's
nightmares. Some never end.
(21:12):
That is, I'm actively singing about my personal nightmares
now. They will never end because of
the past, you know? And it's this also pisses me off
a lot when people say, you know,like the past is in the past,
(21:34):
don't worry about it, never in the past.
If it was in the past, we never would have forgotten about it.
We look at the past and we reflect on the future and how
the past happened and how it could become so worse.
(22:01):
Not a preemptive strike. What is the word I'm looking
for? We're anticipating, anticipating
this to happen. So that's what I'm singing about
there, right? And it's I'm feeling it.
(22:24):
When you're out there, yeah, listening to Sleep Token, 3
Days, Grace, Animal, Marietta songs, you feel it with your
mind, body and soul. And you said with that one song,
you you'll, you're choking and you're reflecting on the things
that have happened in the past, about the things that you've
gone through, about the family members that were there for you
(22:47):
that weren't. And it's not just a dance for
you, right? It's a self-expression.
It's to be to be able to heal, to look at your past and mourn
for the kid that I've gone through the tumultuous times,
right? And now you see that it is.
(23:08):
Has it been healing for you being able to do this?
It is, and I hope that for thosethat struggle, that see it, you
know, as much as it's healing from me, you know, I also hope
(23:29):
it's healing for those that are going through something similar.
You, you want to be known to others that you can express
yourself, that you can talk about your feelings, correct?
Because it's very traditional back then to just just put the
bootstraps on, don't tell anyone, right?
But for you, the truth has always been something that you
(23:51):
ran away from before you went dancing, right?
And that's kind of caused a lot of turmoil, turmoil deep inside.
But now, since you've been following the truth, life's been
better, right? People, you feel more connected
and you feel like you're a part of something, something greater.
And it's the more you do it right, the more you heal, right?
(24:12):
And of course, life's never going to be perfect, right?
There's going to be times where it's just going to be tough and
times are going to be great. But you still go in there and
you try did follow and run towards the truth.
And whether that be dancing, whether that be singing rap, you
go about it with the lens of OK,I'm not going to shy away from
(24:33):
the bad, Bad's a part of me. You accept that and you go, OK,
That's something that will driveme towards a better future.
Everything into account. Exactly.
Yeah, did I? Did I capture that?
You actually did perfectly. That did.
You're very well spoken. Very.
You're very. See, truth be told, I thought we
(24:54):
were just going to have giggles here, but, oh, a little dance,
you know? But this is some deep stuff,
man. Yeah.
It's. Some deep stuff.
Yeah. You're out there and you're
David Goggins has this code of you only find peace when you
decide to go to war with yourself.
Would that say, would you say that that's kind of resonates
(25:16):
with you? More than you could ever know.
You everyday, right, you're battling, you're trying to not
to give up. Now you've had a lot of support
from the the shirt Park Community.
Hey, and from the the tech talk that I posted, there were so
many people that that commented.Oh, this guy, I see this guy
(25:36):
every day on my way to work on my on my way to work from work,
dropping my kids off or he's just awesome.
And so how is the community responding to your dancing?
And what's 1 moment that reminded you of why you keep
doing it? So there's the good and the bad.
(25:59):
Over 10 attempts on my life. I've had children threaten my
life. They like weren't trying to run
you over right. You told me that and that and
take talk like I'm sure they do.You think they'll actually well,
they're just trying to be funny,right?
But to you, you're you're there.You're if they make a mistake,
it. Sets your life, especially when
I'm on the road. Yeah, like I'm off to the side.
(26:22):
You can go around me. I don't care if you're in this,
you know, couple $100,000 car and, you know, you got 500
horsepower and, you know, it's the roads yours.
That's a school zone on a schoolday, during school hours.
(26:47):
What gives you the right to go 70 kilometers?
I don't care how you you, you know, you got to go to the hair
appointment that's happening in an hour and it's a 5 minute
drive. I don't care.
The only people I'm actually going to pull right over and
(27:09):
stop for our emergency vehicles.There was nothing so pressing,
even somebody dying in the hospital.
Plan your day better. So people, these are separate
(27:29):
from people trying to run you over.
Oh no, these are people that have actively these.
These are people going 70 and a 30 on a school zone on a school.
Day and they're trying to hit you.
Oh yeah, they're the the I remember this car so vividly.
It was a white Porsche has some gold trim on it.
Is this I'm going and this is going past Clover Bar high
(27:51):
school or not high school, junior high.
And I'm just pulling up to MillsHaven.
Person is white Porsche. You know, I'm off to the side.
You know, I'm riding through rocks, you know, like I'm
already putting myself at a danger.
But it's I'm giving you the room.
You can go around. I'm going 38 in a 30.
(28:15):
OK, So if I'm not going fast enough for you, boohoo, suck it
up. I'm breaking the law myself.
I admitted this, the commissioner, and he's like, OK,
continue, we'll discuss that at a later point.
And I'm like, got it, came beside me, started shoving me
(28:38):
into the other cars and nearly took out three people's mirrors.
Oh jeez, that. Sucks and so I break on rocks
that that's scary. Yeah.
Especially when you're going 38 kilometers, that's that's
terrifying. And he gets in front of me, I'm
(28:58):
like, OK, I'm slowing down, slams on his brakes.
OK, so he, he get like this guy's approaching you and then
you're this is when you're dancing near a school.
Yeah. On my longboard.
On your longboard. You're dancing on your
longboard. Yeah, I'm just doing this.
Then he comes in and starts to come at you had to put you in
(29:20):
the side and. Then he break checks me.
I got that close to hitting him.I couldn't even get his license
plate. You weren't stationary, though,
right? You were just cruising along
past the school. Yeah.
Wow. And then when you dance in that
near baseline, do people do thattoo?
(29:40):
No, because I was informed by police officers that even though
technically I can and can't be on the road, I shouldn't because
the amount of people that have tried to injure me or kill me
(30:00):
has risen too high. So they said, if at all
possible, never go on the road. OK, so right in the corner is
where you're safe. Yeah.
Even then, people. Tried like there's a couple of
guys, they've rolled coal in my face, which honestly, like I'm,
I'm a truck guy, you know, I seea nice lifted truck and you roll
(30:23):
some like, yeah, let's go, you know, So I was, I was excited to
see that, you know, but they didit in my face and I'm like,
respectfully, yeah. But I'm just like, I don't care,
man. This is a badge of honor.
I love this. You know, you're going to
probably get a ticket for this if a cop sees it.
I'm not going to. Rick, roll coal on your face.
Yeah, they yeah. Black smoke.
(30:45):
Oh, that's what you meant? I thought they actually.
Oh, no, no, no, no black smoke right in my face.
And then there was one guy back at the end of December, from the
east side of baseline all the way to the West, who's trying to
spray me with snow and ice. Instead, he wiped out nearly hit
(31:05):
a truck. And sent karma and.
I laughed, and then he stopped, turned parked in front of
Staples and sat on the hood of his car, yelling something at
me. I just waved and I went back to
dancing. I'm like, I'm not going to deal
with that. Well, that's, that's the price
he needs to pay after doing it for so long, right?
(31:27):
And after having so many people that are inspired, they're
always going to be people that don't like what you're doing for
whatever reason. It could be you could reflect on
all the things as to why they could hate you for whatever
reason, right? It's like they just feel hate in
their hearts and they want to, they want to dish it out at
(31:47):
someone, you know, whoever. And a perfect.
Target, but but you can't like you can't let that override.
Yeah, you can't let that slide though.
You have to fight for yourself. But you can't let that override
the positive experiences too, because there's countless like
you get. Let's let's talk about the
positive. Now.
So then it's a 2 step, the positive first one is the kids,
(32:12):
right? Because you know, my family,
they tell me like, you had such a great childhood, you know, and
you, you're a happy guy. And it's like I didn't have any
friends. People would play video games
with me. You know, they'd come at my
house and play video games with me.
(32:33):
They never played with me at school.
They never came to my birthday party.
They weren't my friends, they were just kids that were taking
advantage of the fact that I hada souped up console at the time.
So for me, seeing those kids joywhen I didn't have any fills me
(33:00):
with pride at the fact that maybe their lives aren't great,
you know? But seeing me brings just a
little bit of light in their life, you know, it wiping away
some of that darkness even for asecond, you know, And they're
(33:25):
just, they see someone exuding life and joy, exuding the
message of be yourself, don't care what others think.
And makes me so happy to see that the other one second part
(33:48):
is the two men that came forward, the first two people
who admit to me that I stopped them from committing suicide.
Really. They they came up to you.
One man cried in my arms, the other bought me dinner that was
(34:10):
heavy to learn and that was in the span of three weeks that
they came. Three weeks apart from each
other. Three weeks apart.
The first one I was just like ohshit.
Yeah, that's probably when you thought like, wow, like when I'm
doing. Yeah, silly stuff anymore it.
(34:30):
It that truly solidified that itwasn't just like we love seeing
you, man, that's awesome. And then people go, you know, it
was real. Much.
Deeper exactly in the second man.
He cried in my arms that that was heavy because you know, like
(35:00):
I've, I've seen men cry, right? I've cried myself.
But to be holding a man togetherin my arms, that was.
I don't know if you've ever had to do that yourself.
(35:22):
I've had to do that. Some friends.
No, no. Do you?
You know that that weight. You know that you were holding
your actions in your arms. I've had people hold me like
some and it's just need. You don't even need advice
sometimes, right? You just need someone to hold
you, no? I added.
(35:45):
He recommended a song to me, Lake Cactus, Lake Cactus, and I
put that in the playlist. Oh yeah, you.
You got to publish your playlist.
Oh, I do. Have the playlist.
Public Oh, sweet. I'll I'll link it I'll link it.
But man, it's just yeah, it's tough every day we we struggle
hey. And it's just all it takes is
(36:07):
kind of little how are you right.
And when you see some guy dancing and you, you have a
smile on their face, like, maybeI shouldn't jump off that Cliff
today. You know, maybe, maybe I maybe
life is worth living. That maybe that smile that they
got that day was the only joy that they've ever had.
(36:28):
Like, so help. So first you started off with
helmet advocacy. Yeah.
Where like, oh, you need to makea change.
And you just like dancing, right?
You, you, you get in there and you start doing your little
groove. And 1st there's a little head
bop. And then eventually you add more
actions into there. You put more feeling as it
escalates, you get more recognition, people try to run
(36:48):
you off and it's like whatever, more positive interactions.
Hong Kong Kong Oilers game, you know, they hey buddy, what's up?
But then people come to you and tell you, hey, and you saved my
life. And that's probably when you
decide today that it's just, wow, this is so much bigger than
me. Oh yeah, definitely.
(37:09):
That's amazing. That's awesome, man.
It's just that the weight of knowing I am the pillar that
stayed their hand, you know, that is something completely
different. It's that that in of itself is a
(37:39):
heavy, honorable, honorable, honorable burden to carry.
So you've spoken openly about struggling with certain
thoughts, right? And being misunderstood.
What has helped you survive and keep showing up?
(37:59):
Would be I'd have to give thanksto my grandfather.
He told me, you know, like you're you're going to struggle
(38:21):
in life, you know, you're going to have to climb mountains,
valleys, hills. You might have to crawl through
a crate, a cave. You know, there's there's going
to be possibly, you know, creatures, you know, like
wolves, tigers, stuff like that trying to stop you, you know,
trying to break you down. But there's always going to be,
(38:45):
you know, either a nice glade or, you know, top of the
mountain with the best breeze, might even be a little lawn
chair right there to lay down and just relax, you know,
because that break is going to end.
(39:06):
And soon you're going to have togo on to the next journey, the
next battle, whether that battlebe, you know, going and crossing
a river and there's no trees or sticks nearby.
You're going to have to swim across that river, you know,
(39:30):
boat. You take that break.
You take it. You relish in it because what
you just went through, there's going to be little tips and
tricks and secrets that you learned that might help you
through this next journey, or might be two journeys away,
(39:52):
might be 4, might even be 1000 battles you have to go past
before one of these little bits of information that you learned
comes to light. But it's going to be there.
Can help strengthen you. So it's important to know that
(40:19):
while the battle's never going to end, you're going to be
stronger at the very least aftereach one.
You know, my scars aren't physical.
They're all mental. I've met countless people with
physical scars, some of them a little concerning, yet they're
(40:46):
still here. They learned, right?
Sadly, some people, they didn't have that person, that
inspiration. They didn't have the the
(41:07):
teachings. And for that, that breaks my
heart because there's always someone there, someone trying to
help, yet they didn't get there in time.
(41:33):
But all you have to do is hang on just a little longer.
Yeah, I like what your grandpa said about there are going to be
valleys and then peaks, right? And to get to the peaks you need
to trudge forward into the rivers, into the fight some
wolves and bears and are mental constant like this everyday.
(41:56):
I mean the way society is, right?
It's never like Kumbaya. It's always it's it's tough,
man. Life is suffering.
There's so many things that go wrong, dreams that aren't
materialized. There's a lot of abuse going
around, a lot of shame that we feel and it should be just can't
forget that they say forever andthere and there are people that
(42:18):
love you because for the people that didn't continue, right,
It's there's there's someone hurting right now thinking about
them. Exactly.
And if not, they could have beensomeone in someone's life and
that never materialized because they it surrendered too soon,
(42:43):
right. How do you deal with all the the
thoughts in your head? Like how do you go about it now
versus back then? Like what was, let's start with
back then? What was it like back then?
You know, it was you'd met me when I was in elementary.
(43:08):
You would have been like, damn, the autistic friendly.
Oh yeah. Then if you'd met me again in
junior high, you'd be like, was he autistic?
(43:33):
When you met me in high school? You would have been like, who?
Who are you? You know, it's as a kid, you
know, I was very happy, very bubbly, you know, very naive.
(43:59):
My family told me they, they like to claim, no, we didn't.
We never said this. They did.
But they always told me to not be so gullible to, you know,
know that there's going to be dangers.
(44:22):
So as a kid, how do I learn about dangers?
Well, I have a love for reading,pick up a history book and then
I became someone that's studied history.
(44:45):
Problem with studying history, especially when you have
neurodivergency or mental illness, you become dark,
depressing, Moody, right? But now my family says stop
(45:09):
being so, so upset about this. You know, look on the bright
side. I look on the bright side and
they're like you're being naive.You can look on the bright side,
but if you do, you have to have a level of naivety because you
(45:40):
have to not see anything bad. That is the problem with looking
on the bright side. The bright side is there's no
darkness. You have to be naive to look on
the bright side. You have to be blind to not see
(46:01):
the bad things. You know, on Facebook, on short
park groups, you know, I commentsomething, the post is taken
down because people report it because of what I say.
You know, there was post about dogs and at a dog park and their
(46:26):
kids were sledding down this hill at a dog park, they found
sticks sitting upright in rows. People were sticking sticks up
that they wouldn't let their kids.
They wouldn't let kids sled downthe hills.
(46:47):
Why said don't bring a sled to adog park and slide down a hill?
That noise is going to scare thedogs.
Some dogs are aggressive. People were hammering me with
hate saying I shouldn't say this, that I'm why am I siding
(47:11):
with the good guy or the bad guy?
Why am I siding with him? Giving reality.
It's a dog park, not a playground, right?
So I these people are bubbly, they're naive, they're on the
bright side. If you look on the darks on
(47:34):
reality, there's no brightness in reality.
Reality is This is a messed up world we live in.
People are dying by the thousands due to war, suicide
due to violence, right? All this reality is we are a
(48:01):
plague on this planet and ourselves can't think like that.
There's good in this world. Like what people say about my
dancing. OK, my dancing going to end a
(48:23):
war, right? Like it's you look at the bright
side, you try and look at the good, great going to be naive.
So for me, I I just try try to be myself, right?
(48:50):
And myself is not the me you would have met when I was
younger. OK, so you, you read these books
and you empathize too much with the war, with the suffering.
And you're this bubbly kid that looked at the history books
(49:15):
because you wanted to learn moreabout human nature.
And you realize the extent to, you know, World War 2 and World
War One and all these things that happened and the
indigenous, what they went through in the residential
schools. And you looked at the horrors
and you went to, oh, how could this happen?
(49:36):
But it's just a lot of people view that though, and they
don't, it's not to the level of the extent where they, they feel
blooming towards the world. They they view that and we can
just do better. But to do better leads to an
(49:57):
issue and that issue is you haveto expose the dark.
To expose the dark can lead to more darkness.
OK. Look at look at what's happening
right now in the world, right? It's the horrible place.
(50:21):
Because we've exposed the dark, because we're keeping things
hidden. We exposed all the truths.
Yeah, I think there's. I don't think I can grasp the
level of the world. No.
But I I can try my best to be able.
To but that's exactly what everyone can do, try their best.
(50:43):
Son a good friend and be able to, you know, share in the
community, do what's right, do what's wrong.
That's all you can do. And then lastly, build it up to
the top echelons to maybe one day, you know, achieve World
Peace. You know it's but that.
That that is the dream. That is the dream.
And if my dancing can bring that, yeah, well, that's a fever
(51:06):
dream. I would do that if I could.
How do you deal with the pressure of being a public
figure while managing your own mental health?
Good question, very good question.
(51:27):
Me, I don't know how I couldn't tell you.
It's just I be me, I be authentic.
I set a strict code to live by truth, respect, honesty, reality
(51:55):
and optimism. 5 things. I try and live by that.
I look at everything. I try and force it.
Somethings you can't force them into, it's just not possible or
(52:16):
there's not enough knowledge to know.
But for me, I try. I I become something that people
could look towards with hope or look at and say I want to
(52:42):
emulate that. I want to become that.
You want to be a role model and by fault, just following the
truth you can. You know you're doing right,
just trying your best. What message do you wish people
truly understood about mental illness that they often
overlook? Look beyond the surface.
(53:19):
When you look at a banana or an apple, do you look for the rot?
You want it to be healthy and ripe, or do you just not care?
(53:40):
That is what you have to do. When you look at a person, look
beyond the mask. Look beyond what is presented.
Listen. See how they walk.
(54:01):
See how they speak. Listen not to what they say, but
the how they say it. That will tell you more about
that person, what they're battling and anything else.
(54:24):
People, even good friends of mine, believe I'm autistic
because I have a love of dancing.
I have a love of longboarding, and when I can't longboard or
dance, I become angry and depressed.
Some of them are long boarders themselves and they don't feel
(54:44):
like this. Some of them have been long
boarding longer than I have, andthey don't feel like this.
I'm as ingrained to long boarding and dancing.
I'm as of part as of part of it as I can be as a person requires
(55:08):
water or food, that is, oh, I am.
You can't look at a person and say I'm going to learn more
about them. Just going to say no, I don't
(55:31):
like them because they're different.
How would you feel if somebody did that to you?
Do unto others what you would. Do what you would want done to
(55:52):
you. Would you punch yourself in the
face because somebody didn't hold the door open for you?
No. OK, so why'd you do that?
(56:15):
It's because you don't understand something doesn't
mean you now deserve they now deserve be hated by you.
Just like if I decided to hate you and shut you down for the
rest of your life because you decided you didn't like me
(56:43):
because I dance, but I don't like you because you bought
white bread instead of whole grain bread, That's not fair.
You you're going to get upset atme for me hating you for that
fact, OK. My dancing hurting you?
No, because you got into a car accident.
(57:04):
Is that my fault? No, in the court of law if it's
a distraction in your hands, notmine.
So are you upset at me because you failed to pay attention to
(57:25):
the road? Are you upset at me because your
life sucks? That's not my problem.
I'm out here being myself. Be yourself.
Be a happy you pay for someone else's drink.
(57:48):
Feel happy that you decided to spread along a good message, a
good action to someone else. What if they killed themselves
right in front of you? Because when you spat at them,
(58:08):
that was it, and they just shot themselves in the head in front
of you, that was it. So you want to send the message
out there and not judge people just on the surface level,
correct. You want people to look at the
(58:29):
the way they go about things andthe tone of their voice and tend
to reach out if they do need help and to not just look at the
surface level, but also look at deep within as to if they're
truly struggling. And that's the cold you live by.
That's exactly. That's yeah.
And throughout time, your friends, even they, they judge
(58:51):
you for liking certain things and without it, you feel
depressed. And they just because you
operate like that, they judge you for it.
But it's not. I'm sure they care, right?
They just don't understand it. And you want to send a message
out there that just because someone's different, as long as
they're not hurting anyone, thenthey can live whatever life that
(59:14):
they want. The diet absorbed that
correctly. That is correct.
OK. So yeah, yeah, dude, I always,
sometimes when people tell me certain things, I won't
understand it properly, but I hope I there'll be a lot of
people listening. Right so far.
Man, Yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah.
I just, I think I, I used to never be a good listener, but
(59:37):
then I just, you know, I startedactually reflecting on my words
and, or my thoughts when I do converse with people, 'cause it
used to just be like me, me, me,me, I, you know, But then you
get on top of the mountain and you look around, nobody else is
around. And it's like, what's the point
of this if it's not the other people for the collective, for
(59:58):
them, you know, because how longwould it take for a person to
kill themselves if they were alone in the world?
You know, it would just be so isolating.
That's no life to live. You need people.
And we got so caught up in just being me, being individual,
being all I need to do this for me.
But no, you can't. Do things by yourself, even
(01:00:20):
being born, you can do it by yourself, right?
Two people have to come together.
The doctor had to come in, they had to operate on you or you
know, whatever. Maybe there is like AC section
that needed to be put in. The umbilical cord was around
your neck. But then you came out here and
the interactions, you know, the food on the table, person that
you grabbed your coffee, the person that made your chair, the
(01:00:44):
bed, it's all done by people. And people really forget that
we're all interconnected and that the little actions that we
make and go so far and you, you don't even know, right?
And that's your testament to it,to those guys coming to you and
people coming out and even a smile a little can go a long
(01:01:07):
way. Small Axe, big impact.
Exactly what role has skateboarding played in your
life and has it been? Has it been a form of escape,
empowerment, or something else? Yes, skateboarding.
(01:01:29):
When you hear guys that ride motorcycles, you know, and they
talk about how they're free, theonly thing that can stop them is
themselves. Turning the key, putting the
bike away. That's exactly what longboarding
is to me. The only way to stop my
(01:01:55):
longboarding is me. If I want to ride in the winter,
I'm going to be crazy and messedin the head, more so than I
already am. I'm telling you right now, but
I'm making that choice then. I want to preserve this deck,
right? But if I wanted to, I could ride
(01:02:16):
in the rain. Ride in the snow.
I'm the only one that stops myself.
But for me, it's wings. Imagine a pair of wings on my
arms or on my back. I am Unchained.
(01:02:41):
Even though these chains may be on me, they are broken if for a
moment the only thing that can stop me is me.
Not the cracks in the road, not the people driving by, yelling
(01:03:02):
at me, swerving at me. You know, Not the construction.
Me and only me. I'm free, I'm flying.
(01:03:24):
I'm Unchained. When you're on that board, you
feel like nothing else matters. You just you're you.
You're truly present and you cando whatever you want, right?
You can. Has that always been the case?
More so after the head injury. Like you'd probably be scared
(01:03:47):
going back on there, right I. Actually had to push past the
PTSD. I'm still pushing past the PTSD
every day. When I initially got out of the
head injury, less than a month after I'm back on boards, less
than a month. Did it take a long time or I
mean a lot of courage? Well, how I basically pictured
(01:04:12):
it was if I'm unable to hop on this board and go, what am I
going to do if I get into a breakup with a significant
other? What am I going to do if my job
fires me or if I'm injured at work?
(01:04:32):
How am I going to pick myself upif I'm unable to get back on the
thing that nearly took my life? I would be less of a man if I
couldn't get over the courage ofriding the thing that nearly
killed me. So my body was actually
(01:04:54):
dislocating itself on itself. My knees were popping out of
their sockets, my shoulder. I'd have to constantly pop it
back in. This is due to the injuries or
just your body telling your. Body was basically screaming at
me saying we're gonna have you fall apart while you're going if
(01:05:15):
you don't stop. But what I'd do, I'd sit down,
pop the knee back in, pop the shoulder back in and then sit
down, breathe, drink some water.We restructure myself mentally,
(01:05:37):
have this shaking stop or slow down a little, you know, and
it'll go again. That's awesome, man.
That's it's not about how hard you hit, hey, it's how hard you
can get hit and all down, get upand keep going.
Definitely. That's that's what long boarding
is, is it's just like skateboarding.
(01:05:59):
It's like biking, just like riding a motorcycle.
Yeah. You crash, you befit, you know,
are you able to get up? Yeah, I think a lot of life's
always just going to be about rejection, about failure, hurt
feelings, right? Because it's just so much more
powerful, right? And this goes with like the
(01:06:21):
negative comments, right? One negative comment equals 100
positive ones. And that's why it probably
resonates with you so much. Or the things that pop up or
like the negative, right? Because they're powerful.
OK, when you. You feel on me, you feel on your
body, you feel it in your system.
You ruminate on that and you go,why is it so wired in my heart,
(01:06:43):
right? But it's being able to look it
right in the eye and go, I'm notgoing to let fear dictate me.
I'm going to get back on that board and I'm going to keep on
trudging along. Definitely.
And I'm not. My mind is going to tell me not
to. But.
You don't your mind doesn't knowwhat's good for it.
Sometimes, you know, like you can think certain things, you
(01:07:05):
can do certain things and it maynot be good for you, right?
But you what you wanted at that moment, right?
But it's just constantly override that and look at the
look at the bad things in your life and go, I will not let this
define me. And I like what you said about,
OK, what in the future when I have a wife and kids, right?
Am I able to sacrifice myself for them?
(01:07:28):
Am I able? Can they rely on me?
And there's a song that by JasonRoss that I always repeat.
And that's you can rely on me iswhen the the chorus is you can
rely on me when things get tough, right?
And it's just, that's what it isto be a man, right?
To be, to be, you need to sacrifice, I mean, to connect
(01:07:51):
with people, to be able to be there because things will come.
And I, I, I have this analogy oflike the Barbarians and the, and
the gates, the Barbarians will come and the castle, they will
come to your gates. And are you equipped?
Like do you have the walls builtup?
(01:08:12):
Do you have the surroundings clear?
Or can they just dig up a tunneland get through it that way?
Is is the gate well fortified, right?
And this is your life. The Riberians could come in with
missiles. They could come in invisible,
right? They could and that's like the
(01:08:32):
mind, right? Life will come at you in all
different ways, right? Disease, grief, hurt feelings,
just disappointment, microaggressions.
The the girl, the girl rejects you that you've liked for a year
now. Are you going to let that define
(01:08:53):
you? Are you just going to stop
getting on your long board and stop caring about other people,
stop living because you went through that?
Or will you look that failure inthe eye and go, you will not
define me. I come back stronger.
I come out better, you know, Andwhat lessons from skateboarding
(01:09:16):
have helped you in other parts of life, especially during your
hardest moments? Well, exactly like we just
discussed getting back up. You know that broken bone, it
will heal. Yeah.
Yeah. Just like your mind can heal.
The human body is something we barely understand.
(01:09:37):
We like to claim we understand it.
We barely know anything. Like in Pompeii, they found
preserved brain but it's impossible they they found a
preserved brain. Like they had like the
ingredients to preserve the brain.
(01:09:59):
No, they. In a jar like from years ago.
Like billions. Of years ago, you know, the
Mount Vesuvius, when the mountain erupted.
And sure, yeah, they found a well preserved brain like that
was just sitting in somebody's skull.
Oh, like after they were burnt? Yeah, this was thousands of
(01:10:23):
years ago that Pompeii happened.OK.
Think it's Pompeii, I can't remember.
I just remember that one song. You know that song.
It's a good song, man. It is.
It is a good song. I I like that song.
Yeah, it's very. Yeah, actually I might have to
add that. Yeah, add that in the playlist.
(01:10:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, but I like we We don't
understand how the brain works. The brain, like we barely
understand it. The hearts, we think we
understand, but we don't. We like to claim that we know
(01:11:05):
things. You know?
It was science. You know it.
It knows. We know they're studying it.
We know abracadabra there's a human.
Can't we do that? No.
Why? We don't know.
(01:11:25):
We don't know the human body. We don't know the mind can heal
itself. Because Glen Rose Brain Clinic
and EU of A told me I shouldn't even be breathing from the head
injury. They said right now I should be
drooling out the moose and go, OK, I don't know if you remember
(01:11:48):
that song, but it goes right? You may not know it.
What? Song is this.
It's put your arm to your wrist and you go like this, right?
It's that's the song that alwaysreminds me of it anyway.
You have to share that. With It's a messed up song, but
(01:12:08):
it's funny, right? But I should be like that right
now. Drool dripping down like a
vegetable and basically, yet I'mnot.
Doctors were shocked. They're like, how?
And I'm like, well, I just got back on the board.
You're hard as shit bro. Exactly.
(01:12:30):
Yeah, I I got that David Gogginsin, you know, exactly.
Yeah, yeah. Right mind over matter.
Hell yeah bro, right is. And literally, you don't know
me, son. Who's going to carry the boats?
Yeah, exactly. Carry the boats, you know.
Yeah, so for me, you don't know what's going to happen, but
(01:12:54):
skateboarding and longboarding, doctors claimed that actually
helped accelerate my healing process, even though my body was
dislocating itself. They they were shocked at my
memory. They said I'm one of the highest
(01:13:17):
ranked for the memory recollection and all that math
and all the tasks at the Glen Rose.
They said I'm the hot one of thehighest in years and they said
that can be thanks to me riding the longboard because I'm now
(01:13:43):
getting the blood pumping. He said it was thanks to me
doing the push ups out there because I've I've actually done
push ups and sit ups as a break,you know, from doing some
dancing. I'll just sit there and be like,
you know what, maybe some peoplemight want to go to the gym.
Let me give them the boost, you know, so I'll just start doing
push ups to do 50 push ups a day.
Sometimes right out there dancing, doesn't matter the
(01:14:05):
weather, right? And it's they're like you
getting the blood pumping, you reading books, you doing the
thing that should have killed you, made you feel right.
Now, I'm not saying don't do drugs or don't do drugs, Kate,
(01:14:31):
don't. Don't do that.
OK, If drugs nearly killed you, that's not OK.
OK, if the drugs nearly killed you, stop doing them.
Don't do drugs. Don't do drugs, kids.
Right. Like, yes.
But you know, it's the thing that nearly took my life, healed
(01:14:57):
me both mentally and physically like that.
That is shocking. Well, it's something that you
enjoyed, right? And it almost took your life.
But being able to go back on there just probably change the
(01:15:17):
neurons in your brain to be ableto look at adversity and go, OK,
we're not not going anywhere. We despite what happens, we are
staying and it comes back stronger.
Hey, and I'm not, I'm not well versed.
I, I mean, I'm, I'm in my fourthyear of psychology, but like I,
I just know the brain, the digger, you're deep with any
(01:15:39):
facet, right? The harder it is to explain
certain things. And you could say, oh, dopamine,
this, This is why we experience pleasure and we do certain
things. And then you go, OK, why do we
do certain things? Oh, it's because we want to feel
loved. OK, what is love?
OK. And then, oh, it's a feeling of
(01:16:00):
this. And then the more you keep
digging, the more you just wait.What?
It this doesn't make sense. You know, this doesn't.
And you can just go about it with fulfillment, with feeling,
right? And I don't think we're truly
ever meant to find the source, right?
I think for me, I'm religious like I'm, I'm a man of God.
I, I believe Jesus died for our sins and certain, I doubt, I do
(01:16:24):
experience a lot of doubt here and there, but I do believe that
that's the source that God is there for me.
God put me in this world. Be able to care for others, to
be able to experience the adversity and learn easy or hard
ways and be able to share stories like yours, right?
And be able to connect. And I don't think we're truly
meant to, you know, find one role, right?
(01:16:46):
There's all different purposes all around.
Like right now, my purpose is tobe able to, you know, have a
good conversation with a friend and to Share your story.
And then maybe at work, I can just be there for get the quota
done and connect with my Co workers.
And then when you're on that corner right there, hey, you're,
you're making sure you're givingit your best, feeling your
(01:17:06):
emotions and proving as a personand just it's so complex to be
human, man. It's truly remarkable, hey, to
be able to live every single dayand go, wow, I get to live.
It's a blessing to feel loved, to feel pain, to feel pleasure.
You can absorb all that. It's a blessing, honestly.
(01:17:27):
Have you ever used skating as a way to meet people or build a
community, especially when you felt isolated?
Yes, I made over 5 friends. Not over.
I made five friends just skatingalone, not including the
(01:17:48):
dancing. I've made quite a few friends
just doing dancing. You're one of them.
There we go. Yeah, buddy.
Yeah. And we're going to, we're going
to keep in contact all this while, man, because like we were
first met what, like a month ago.
Just about, yeah. And I've seen you so many Times
Now. Yeah, on my runs, yeah.
I love seeing you on my runs, bro.
Like, it's great. I ain't like, oh gosh, I have
(01:18:11):
to. Even though it's not on my
route, I always go and say hi. Yeah, honestly, yeah.
It's, you know, trying to build that community is important to
me because, you know, I've been lobbying the government here in
Sherwood Park to actually build an indoor skate park for us, but
(01:18:36):
that us skaters aren't shut downfor five to six months.
Do you go to Millennium the withthe skate park there?
I can't do tricks, so I'm unableto.
You can learn. I've tried, I've tried.
The problem is, is that for Memespent two months trying to learn
(01:19:01):
Dioli. Really.
Two months. You give your best.
I gave everything. I was wearing a helmet.
I was wearing pads. Yeah, two months.
Nada. Yeah, like.
The only thing I was actually able to achieve was just going
(01:19:29):
and I was able to achieve long distance, but I was able, it's
called pumping, right, which is pushing, right?
And so I was able to do that andI could go and go and go and go.
That's where my skill lies, not in the tricks, but ingest the
(01:19:52):
movement going, you know, like anever ending road, right?
Even if I have to go back the other way, the never ending Rd.
Whereas with the tricks, yeah, Icould, I could do the darks.
(01:20:12):
Hey hi bro, listening to us damnrobots.
Damn, You know, I, I could learnhow to do a dark slide, you
know, I could learn how to do the 900, I could learn how to do
an Ollie kickflip, you know, ButI learned all that.
(01:20:37):
I do it all, but I've stayed in one space.
That's not freedom, that's confinement, right?
Yeah, I could go when I could skate on that park bench.
Cops come write me a ticket. The indoor skate park.
(01:21:03):
Somebody listening right now, learning tricks and stuff.
What do you what do you say to them?
Push on, you know, Yes, the scrapes and the bruises and the
cuts and the broken bones, they're going to hurt.
I promise you. I promise you they're going to
hurt. You're going to wake up the next
(01:21:24):
day and you're going to be like,I'm not moving, but you're going
to have to get back on the board.
Even if you're not doing tricks,OK, even if you're on a bike or
a scooter, you injure yourself, get back on.
Yes, it's going to hurt. Yes, that fear might lock you
(01:21:44):
down. Push through it.
Are you afraid of heights yet? Are you able to go to the World
Water Park at West Ed? Don't you go down those slides?
I have a terrifying fear of heights when I'm going up on
those stairs. I'm spider man ING to the
(01:22:05):
ground, punching the ground, just trying to not look over the
ledge because I have ADHD, OK, severe ADHD and I'm always
looking around. So I'm punching to have my body
focus on the pain. OK.
(01:22:26):
But I still go down the slides, just not the really big ones.
OK, I'm going to be honest here.I don't do the really big ones,
OK, but it's I push myself to that pain like both my knees are
cut up, my elbows cut up right now both of the bones are
bruised as well. It's not a good time, but I push
(01:22:48):
past because I know that once that pain is gone, the ride is
going to feel so much better that that dancing.
I'll be able to go back and be able to do the V step again.
You know, I'll be able to fall to the knees faster instead of
(01:23:11):
being like, Nope, my back, my knees, you know, push through.
No, it's going to be scary. You can do it.
You put the mind to it. The only wall, the only limit is
you break that wall and say I'm going to do it.
(01:23:39):
What do you have to lose? Yeah, maybe an arm.
You'll grow back, I'm sure. You're Spider Man, aren't you?
Technologies. Technology has already.
They have the EXO suits. Man, yeah, do yeah.
Just you're going to have to make a metal board.
Yeah, I believe in you. Make the metal board.
Get the exo suit. You'll do fine.
(01:24:00):
Man, thank you so much for coming on the Long Term podcast
bro. I it's my pleasure, man, and my
honor. Yeah.
This. Yeah.
You there, you got it. You're very well spoken, man.
Maybe you should do well. Could we do a a podcast on the
side like a? Like.
Like, you know where the like the staples is at?
(01:24:20):
Like cross there in that corner.Like we set up a table and we,
you and I just do a pod. Could that honestly be funny?
That'd be so funny. That would actually be a lot of
fun. That would be fun.
Hey, have people be looking at us.
Like, look at those crazy guys. What are they?
They're doing a podcast. They're actually doing it, man.
Yeah, Yeah. And we could even have like, a,
(01:24:41):
a seat where, like, people couldjoin us, like, different, like,
and then you could like, we'll do little breaks where You Can
Dance and I'll just be on the side, you know?
Yeah. Yeah, no, you're going to have
to Join Now. You got to do the conga.
Yeah, yeah, You have to, you have to join me.
You have to teach me some dance moves.
I I'm very rigid, dude. I what?
(01:25:01):
Was I? Yeah.
You got to just. I feel like bro, but I feel like
tricks to skateboarding to you is like me to dancing, you know
what I mean? Bro.
OK, and it'll be easy, I promise.
Sweet. But yeah.
Do you have any last words to people who are struggling out
(01:25:24):
there and to your viewers and anything?
That's a good question. No matter what, no matter what a
hardship, pain, the loss, the demons that are fighting matter.
(01:25:48):
If you're religious, doesn't matter.
If you're believing in Scientology, doesn't matter.
If you're, you know, religious in the sense of you believe in
the old gods, Pagan gods, doesn't matter, just no, you
(01:26:08):
push on and you, you say not today, not today.
You know you will find. You'll be able to say that
tomorrow. You'll be able to say that the
(01:26:29):
next day. No matter what, know that I
believe in you. Know that Advan believes in you.
I believe in you. Know that David Goggin believes
in you, David. Goggins, you got that dog in
you. Stay hard, baby.
Exactly. Yeah, not that hard though.
Not that. Hard.
You know. Viagra Hard.
(01:26:49):
No, Yeah, more. More like a guilty pleasure.
Hard. Hey, never hear the storm.
Learn to dance in the rain. I did that the other day when it
was hailing. Yeah, I was actually out there,
man. And my you look there, stabbing
(01:27:10):
right there. Medication brother.
Oh it it hurt, but it was it was.
It was so good after though, hey.
Bro yeah, until I fell asleep and then I'm like ah, it's.
Like, I know why to do this, thepain.
But yeah, as always, to everyonelistening and watching, there is
a place for you in this chaotic world.
Never lose soap. Strengthen your faith.
(01:27:33):
Never lose soap. Yeah, that's what you said.
Soap. Yes.
No. Hope, I said.
Don't drop the soap, don't go toprison, don't do drugs.
Don't break the law. The law, unless the law is like
a dictatorship to which. Overthrow it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't lose hope.
Strengthen your faith and keep it long term.
(01:27:54):
Kaden Skelton, everyone. Dunan.
If you haven't seen him and you're from Sherwood Park, are
you really part of the community?
Exactly. No, no, no, really.
I've actually had a lot of people tell me they've.
Never seen me and they live in. Exactly.
Like, are you, do you just not go outside?
Like, what is this? Yeah, it's not.
Go outside. Meet Kaden if you haven't seen
him. Go to baseline.
I'll be there Monday to Sunday, usually.
(01:28:16):
Usually. Yeah.
Every day. No breaks.
Yeah. That's it.
Peace. That's it, brother.
Oh, it's good.
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