The Bunt Ft. Aaron Snyder S24 Episode 02 “Oh shit, another developing board brand I can eventually get kicked off of.”

17:32Aaron Snyder:That's awesome. Dude, I mean, you just went through a lot of history, so you may have already said it, but the next question is, What is your first big break in the skate industry?

17:42The Ghost:Yeah, I think definitely Lake Owen Skate Camp. That was probably the first big break because I had not only was it like seeing who were then like big time pro skaters like in person and skating with them. And then also getting that little bit of like taste of like, you know, you can you can hang like you can you can hang in the session. So getting to that point where you're comfortable and meeting people that are out in California, that was like a pretty big break because I was in media connection. And I was like now in touch with people that were like living it outside, like already in the industry.

18:18Aaron Snyder:In high school, did you know, like once you graduated, you were going right to Cali? Was that like the plan?

18:24The Ghost:I knew that probably before high school. I think like by high school, I was already completely checked out of anything that was outside of skating. Like I had almost flunked out of high school freshman, sophomore and junior year. And then it was only at a point where, you know, like my parents are like, what the fuck is wrong with you? Like, dude, what do you got to do? Like, so it was kind of like a challenge. Like if you want to, if you want to chase this dream, you got to show us that you're like, you're mentally capable of performing at like the most basic. You should be able to pass high school and get through it.

18:59The Ghost:So then senior year, I did well and got a three-something grade point average, but I didn't care. As soon as I graduated, I was just out to San Diego.

19:09Aaron Snyder:Dude, because that's a pretty young age. Now that I have a son, I'm like, if he leaves right after high school, I'm like, he's still pretty young, man.

19:17The Ghost:Very young. Yeah, super young. And this is also, this was 1995. It's not like they hit me up on the cell phone. you know we're like me and my friend are driving out there by the paper map you know like old old school map and like checking in on pay fee pay phones at hotels and it's not like we're like oh here's our next stop we're there in 82 miles going until we stopped that's crazy man i mean

19:45Davis Torgerson:that's just how it used to be yeah i love that um before you got into some of your board history You got up to Maple with Mark Johnson and stuff. Tell us a bit about that era and then eventually making the move to shorties.

19:57The Ghost:Maple era was cool. It was simultaneously incredible and eye-opening and a little gut-wrenching because it started out and you're out in California. Three months leading up to moving out. I rolled my ankle. So right when I got to California, I was just starting to skate again. was on maple meeting everybody like you said like uh i knew immediately after skating with mark like once or once this year like that the dude is like a absolutely mind-blowingly special kind of talent so even that was just inspiring to be around and like the type of sessions that were happening because like we had our own little infrastructure already there like the filmer that we grew up with that made our shot videos.

20:46The Ghost:He was a dude that came out and was like now the filmer. He was the guy that eventually made the video troubleshooters and tactical manual. So it was like very comfortable to like come out and even though there's like all these new elements like skating with Mark and skating with dudes like that you grew up with, like Donger, Kian Liu, Jason Carney, there was still familiarity because you had your friends that were doing it. And yeah, so it was pretty incredible. And then ultimately, you know, sucked because I what felt like finally back to like myself, like I was skating really well, getting tricks every time I would go out and then rolled my ankle super bad in the middle of filming for seven steps to heaven and was really disappointed in my part because it had like glimpses.

21:39The Ghost:I'm like of what I think it could have been but then it was cut way way short and then right after that I got kicked off so it was like oh welcome welcome to the skate industry kid yeah wow what what did they say the reason behind kicking you off was I guess it was justified they put on Jerry

21:58Aaron Snyder:Sue like listen Aaron we made a trade yeah yeah yeah no that's not it's coming back to me now

22:07The Ghost:At that point, you got to be like, you know, because that was like Mark's little protege.

22:12Aaron Snyder:Yeah.

22:13The Ghost:So Maple was, you know, Maple was changing, like Maple was going through its own little change. And Maple is kind of like, it's weird. Maple is kind of like they're kind of almost like a Dark Star-esque parallel where they have like moments where the team and the riders were really cool and unique and were like could have done something pretty awesome and potentially sustaining. and then it just felt like it just went in a way that was, I don't know, generic.

22:38Davis Torgerson:Yeah. That doesn't sound like a trade to me, though. That just sounds like getting cut and sent to waivers.

22:45Aaron Snyder:Yeah. I should have phrased it nicely, you know.

22:48The Ghost:That's not – yeah, there was – it's a trade except there's nowhere – You're going to free agency. Right, exactly.

22:56Aaron Snyder:It's just a roster move.

22:57The Ghost:And at the time that this happened, I was starting to skate again. So it was another one of those things, right? Like there were things in the Maple video or if I had either not gotten hurt or just like held all that shit a little bit to do like one full part. So I always felt like the first couple of years, everything was like a half part. You know, like just a little taste and then disappointing finish.

23:25Davis Torgerson:Yeah. Fuck. So what's the shorty story then? When does that come into play?

23:30The Ghost:Trace happened really, really organically. It just happened because at the time I was skating this spot, Mission Bay, all the time. It was one of the only weekday spots, a little bike rack, steep wedged banks all around it, and a plastic bench. And I was starting to skate with Muska more and more, and he was lived right down the street. And I was just friends with him. At the time, I would, one, I had a video camera and a car, whatever. We'd like, we'd pick up like four or five dudes, roll around San Diego and film something if we could. And then that was right around the time that the toy machine thing dissolved.

24:09The Ghost:And when Shorty's was starting up, he just asked me one day. He was just like, hey, you down to ride for Shorty's? I talked to Steve and he said he's down. So if you're down, I'll let Tony know. then it was like that it was done and i think it was like sammy and jesse were already on uh me brandon and smalik were skating all over san diego and then it took like i can't remember how long to convince them to put on smalik but it felt like forever why uh because they had like um they'd initially set their marketing campaign where it was like muska it was like supposed to be like three super pros like three and the marketing campaign started out with polaroids turned over and there was three polaroids and muska was flipped over and you could see him and it was like who's it gonna be next and then they reveal steve olson's they're like oh my god who's this third person gonna be and so they they thought because nobody knew who he was he was a complete no name unless you lived in san diego and you knew he was the best and so tony didn't want to put him on and there was so much marketing happening even already for like for fulfill the dream like we're already well into filming it and small like i don't even was just like getting maybe just like writing boards from brandon i'm not sure exactly how it went down we can basically like told him we're like dude he's he's so good that it's going to be better by people not knowing who he is because the credentials are already there you already got muskens and olsen if they're saying this dude's this dude's certified it will cause more intrigue and people will immediately be like damn what's going to happen like who is this guy so i ended up causing more curious like curiosity and interest a lot of it was like a lot of expectations for a minute that was maybe going to be penny maybe like one of those types of names so the small it was like a bit of a left left turn from a business standpoint that he had to be kind of convinced of and then small like i remember it was just like one night he was drinking goldschlager and just fucking called tony he's like this is it he's like fucking small x the dude we're making it happen i think i mean donald

26:27Davis Torgerson:i don't want to speak for you but that was a little bit before i started skating when fulfill the dream came out so like it's so cool to hear this not knowing how that went down and just seeing

26:36Aaron Snyder:the full video probably a year into me skating yeah i didn't i wasn't around for the lead up to fulfill the dream either i didn't know about these polaroids or the building of the team i just saw fulfill the dream and uh misled youth i like the same time those were like the two videos

26:54The Ghost:i mean they marketed the shit out of that video for like i think over a full year and it was like there was i think i'd have to go back and look i really think that there was at times where there were like three or four two-page spreads per magazine for this video like it was like in the same one there'd be multiple two-page spreads so the like hype that they built up for it and how about this you could only purchase the video by the case as a shop you only purchased like 50 of them you couldn't reorder whatever like it was like because they came in like a whole pos like box display that you're meant to display it in so yeah they were really really good at marketing

27:40Davis Torgerson:well even though i wasn't skating at the time i know that the fucking smolik reveal must have landed like huge or at least his part backed up all the hype because it's i just watched that the other day again one of the fucking most memorable parts ever the whole video though is actually it's

27:57Aaron Snyder:incredible for like a first video to watch i didn't know what i was watching at the time that's a great But it was like, oh, this is incredible.

28:05The Ghost:I mean, Santa Barbara, what is it about Santa Barbara companies? It's like, I don't know if you've ever gone back. Like, I grew up on Powell videos. So I grew up on Future Primitive and Ban This and Propaganda. There was a time when you're so hardcore as a skater when you, like, rebel against those types of videos because they're almost just, like, they're not just trick-oriented. There's a film and an understanding that skateboarding is a special thing, and they kind of try to portray that. I think Shorty's and Fulfill the Dream had a little bit of that magic. I look back on it and think of how ridiculous we thought it was when we're riding on the horses and having to stop for photos and climbing up to do this.

28:55The Ghost:We're like, what the fuck is going on? What does this have to do with skating? and you look back on it and you're like all right that's pretty cool well it was like pretty cool

29:02Davis Torgerson:especially for like a little kid yeah which is what you guys were which is crazy yeah when you watch it now like damn they were fucking all like brandon's like tiny and sammy oh man brandon brandon was 15 that's crazy 15 years old so sick small like though wow the big reveal yeah man

29:22The Ghost:And Smollik was, he was so far ahead of that whole, you know, there was a lot of good skating happening down there and he was way above all of it.

29:33Davis Torgerson:Speaking of being ahead of the times, in our last episode of last season, there was an email about Backtail 270 shoves. And I was like, oh yeah, the first one I remember seeing was Mark Johnson in a chocolate thing. And then Wenning did it switch in a Transworld video later. But then I watched his part the other day. And I'm like, oh, he like fakey, didn't like fakey all into it and did three shoves and fucking fulfill the dream.

29:58The Ghost:Yeah, yeah. Oh, wait a minute. I know exactly what you're talking about. I know what you're talking about. You're talking about the small, like the, he's wearing the South, those dope South shoes. I'm almost sure what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. I always loved that, especially the way that he did it. I remember right when I saw Wenning do it, I was like, damn, he switched back tailed into that. It's fucking sick.

30:19Davis Torgerson:Yeah. Okay. so it was fakie like he did the switch back tail three show but fakie it was yeah fakie exactly or

30:26The Ghost:we would have said front side yeah that's what i say yeah front side half cap nose to send me shove

30:32Davis Torgerson:the old trick the back tails shove back tails and stuff that like i've seen people starting to do

30:38The Ghost:again more recently so sick he was ahead of all of that stuff so what was it like premiering

30:44Aaron Snyder:fulfill the dream did you guys have like a world tour a little tour like how were the premieres for a video like as anticipated as Fulfill the Dream?

30:53The Ghost:We had one premiere. It was at Snow Valley. It was at like this resort, like an hour or something away from like LA. And it was sick. They had like a whole day's worth of events. They had a skate park there. So they had like people skating. And then they had a huge stage. and we had like five music acts ending with, who is it? The Invisible Scratch Pickles, A-Track, who was a sick DJ, and then the Alcoholics. I don't know if you guys ever heard of that band, the Alcoholics. And that was before the video played. So then they're like, they stop playing, everybody rushes the stage, sitting on stage in the crowd out back, video plays, crowd goes wild.

31:44The Ghost:rest of the night's a little bit crazy and then i remember that we we had like every room in the hotel in like the local hotel booked and uh like the next day just the level of carnage outside was fucking gnarly but as far as i know that was the only the only premiere that they did i think

32:07Aaron Snyder:i saw a flyer for that somewhere someone maybe in my research posted it it was super fun i was

32:13The Ghost:really fucking salty though because the premiere the premiere like the video was one of the first videos ever to be edited and like a non-linear editing system so it was like computer-based as opposed to like just like vcr dubbing basically one-to-one yeah and the computer like messed up and somehow i had four tricks that repeated instead of played so i had like four tricks missing and in the place where they should have been were four repeated tricks from that had already played

32:49Aaron Snyder:again so i was like what the hell is going on who edited the video isn't there a little story behind

32:56The Ghost:that yeah it was edited by the owner's girlfriend um so random i mean they were like she actually like helped start the company and was like really instrumental in most of what what built it even though they weren't technically married but yeah she she edited the video and was like holed up in their little house and writers would be able to like sit and help go through what do you want where and yeah it was like it was really cool because it was the first time it was like mind blowing that you're like what do you mean the footage is imported into the computer

33:34Davis Torgerson:that's so sick uh they obviously fixed it by the time it went out so didn't get the quadruple no

33:42The Ghost:No, they didn't fix it They just simply removed the repeated tricks Oh, fucking hell Damn So I lost four tricks that were supposed to be in there Damn, whoa I have a couple of them I think I have two of them retrieved, like, personally And two of the other ones are gone forever Wow So, yeah, as a skater at the time I was not stoked about it.

34:15Aaron Snyder:If you leave the beaches of Scotland and head south to Europe's answer to Miami Beach, London, and the beaches along River Thames, then here is a good sentence to know. If you're sitting down for a meal with a Londoner and he or she, or whoever the person might be, says, bruv, the ruby is proper pang here, innit? Then that means, my friend, the food is really good here isn't it remember that and your trip to london will be great this language course was brought to you by none other than chpo the worldwide leader in sunglasses and watches and always doing it for the people

34:55Davis Torgerson:you said you're a little disappointed in your previous parts they felt short and injuries played a part in that how did you feel about this part oh exactly

35:03The Ghost:same way fucking hell i i don't know i admit it was the same way like i remember i had gotten hurt a couple times for the filming of that and never it was like always like kind of back never fully fully back i remember going and editing my part bring it back to with with april up in santa barbara and at the time like i didn't have anything for like a last trick my last clip was like a lame 50 50 down this like double kinkaba that was really really easy like to do it's like wasn't even scary and willie had already like lip slid it or i heard that he had lip slid it hadn't come out yet crazy and so i had like went back to san diego and i think it was only like a week before the premiere and that was and then like that was when that week i did the fakie 50 fakie tray flip and I immediately like called and I'm like I will drive up right now like you have to get this in there like I remember being stoked because I had had like you know I had a few like new manis that I hadn't seen done before here and there but I didn't have anything that I felt was like a cool last trick so at least I had felt good about that one trick even though I was overall pretty like it's hard I don't know if I've ever had a part where I'm like that part was up to my standards or even something that is like close to that but as time goes by I can at least look back on them and appreciate them now you know like now I watch it sometimes and I'm like dang that guy was pretty good and then other times I'm just like what the hell were you even

36:49Davis Torgerson:thing yeah it's like chasing the dragon for like most skaters that want to fucking push themselves

36:55The Ghost:it's never never enough you're in your head you know what you're capable of and it was it's also tough because at that time there was no where to fucking practice the practice wasn't a word in skating you get laughed at for even calling it practice for going skating flat ground like you know it was like you're learning you're trying to learn something new in the streets when you're have limited time and then very limited time like opportunity to take something that you've learned and then apply it to all you know gaps and rails and all this other shit like there was just no skate parks around and everywhere was a bust except for like a few few spots a lot of times i'm just like oh my god if i would have just had a a ledge

37:44Davis Torgerson:yeah well you figured out fakie 50 fakie tray yeah with nowhere to fucking practice but i mean it sucks that you weren't completely satisfied with the part but regardless that's one of the most iconic videos ever and like that just it's just being in that video cements you

38:00The Ghost:like you know i think i'm more stoked to have been a part of it you know than than actually like the part itself but it had it had a few a few a few bright spots dude i feel like it like

38:13Aaron Snyder:such a cool era the next generation like how did the legend of muska and even just shorties as a whole grow after fulfill the dream like what was the aftermath of the video the aftermath was

38:27The Ghost:muska became like a legit star i think at a level that i don't think skating had seen since like maybe like Hosoi in the mid 80s. He was like actually like legit mobbed everywhere he went. You know, it was kind of like knowing you're living in like a peak. That was the counterpoint to like the aftermath of the video was also maybe getting kicked off again for, I would say like justifiable reasons in the end, which was they didn't see me as a viable long term pro it had taken them a full year to get their shit together to turn smaller pro and they were not going to turn anybody else pro for a long long time which they ended up not doing you know they they held to that so yeah they're just like somebody's gotta go and they had a oh yeah that was other thing right after fulfill the dream they had a like their manager money manager was like embezzling tons of money from them like hundreds of thousands of dollars so right before I got kicked off that was like they got they hired this new person from outside of the skate industry to come take a look at everything shaped their kind of like organization and uh re-evaluated their like future like layout how to like you know get financially stable and i guess i was one of the one of the uh unfortunate uh parts you had to get rid of oh that's the worst i hate hearing that was the money manager um a skater uh no i don't think so at least let it be a skater i hate when the non-skater i didn't know what way you're gonna

40:13Davis Torgerson:go with that i just hate when a non-skater comes in steals a bunch of money from like yeah it's hard to make money in skating and there's a company actually popping off in some fucking random fuck comes yeah it takes all the money like a rare moment but i mean it was crazy because at

40:28The Ghost:the time it was like a big deal because all the pros were getting uh like five grand a month and that was well above you know industry standard so that ams it was weird they were they were paying brandon and i only and they were and they told us not to tell the other dudes don't tell him you're getting paid like why not like dude it's 200 bucks

40:56The Ghost:just give him 200 dude it's not that big a deal yeah like you're running you're running 12 page ads in trans world every every month like tripping over like paying the ams a couple

41:09Davis Torgerson:hundred bucks wow i really hate to hear that i in my like little kid brain i just like to think that everyone's fucking balling out of control on brands rich yeah like especially in an era like that when like you guys are fucking top of the game yeah because dude yeah no you guys had like

41:25Aaron Snyder:everything like was like black panther bearings dodos shorties hardware it was all combined you guys had the like everything the little kit that every kid had to have the whole like was it it was all coming out of the same place right everything so like how there was a stranglehold on the whole industry at one point the only thing you didn't have was trucks and shoes but it was

41:49The Ghost:really tricky too because they got that big by sponsoring everybody as a hardware company right yeah shorty's hardware company so they got away with it and then they bled over into all the other accessories and then shorties and the name and the logo kind of became like a soft goods brand as well so the team was so so fucking big and the second they were like we're doing boards the whole industry is like uh we got a conflict of interest so they had to it was kind of a big separation part where they had to like a lot of dudes had to quit or yeah see whatever but yeah they it was like they had like a fleet of brands and ghetto child fuck i forgot about that like it

42:35Aaron Snyder:was a child yeah that was moscow's company that's crazy and then but talk about rosa a little bit and how she took over the skate world man like every kid's dream rosa was i think she was pretty

42:46The Ghost:sure she was like a kindergarten teacher in actual in her real life and she would she would come like the the owners they'd you know they probably contractually obligated to come to hang out with these fucking shithead little kid skaters uh but she'd show up at like at the owner's house for like barbecue we'd have like barbecues team meetings whatnot and she was just super cool she was just like down down down chick she was like it she was like the the super super model of the skate world every kid had that poster of her in the bolts yeah it's a pretty iconic image but yeah i i only met her a couple times but she was super cool and yeah she was she was like that's why i mean shorties like they were just they were like marketing genius they were dude dude that kit of

43:39Aaron Snyder:like all the things was like a must-have i don't even know what to do with half of this shit but

43:45The Ghost:Dude, look at some of their old Big Brother ads and they're like insane. Some of the Big Brother ads are so pushing the boundaries of good taste.

44:02Davis Torgerson:Hardware brands. That was the blueprint, man. Because look at what Diamond did after. Just put everyone on and just... Paid nobody.

44:11The Ghost:Yeah.

44:12Davis Torgerson:Just t-shirts. Yeah, right? Yeah.

44:15The Ghost:I mean, hey, the price to be on the cool companies sometimes.

44:20Davis Torgerson:100%. Can we get a couple stories from some of your legendary shorties, teammates, starting with, let's go with Steve Olsen's story, if you got one.

44:32The Ghost:I think a cool story. Yeah, I got our Steve Olsen story. I think it's a good, like, capsulizes kind of who he was, which was we went one day to Carlsbad just to take a look. and I think we were out to go skate the curved ledge out front. It was this long curved ledge. I turn around and I see him already falling over the other side of the fence and running in to go check out the big gap. And I jump over, follow him in, and when I get up there, he's already pushing full speed up to it. He goes out, olives it, gets pitched off his board. and um and i said to him something to the effect of like oh do you want me to like i don't have my camera with me and he's like um that's okay i i don't need a camera and he goes goes back up and and now immediately tries a kickflip and this is a long ass time ago and i think it was like only been kickflip by like markovich at the time and he like kind of comes close and i go steve are you sure you don't want me to go get a camera he goes dude i'm never i will never forget this because they like it it was like you could see it him enacting this throughout his skateboarding he said how do i know if i'm ever going to be alive at this spot again in my life i might as well just do it now and he just kick flipped it damn nothing and like that's awesome it was just like how he how he rolled was like he was the most spontaneous skateboarder i've ever seen

46:15Aaron Snyder:but what does that quote have to do with you getting the camera dude like we could still get

46:20The Ghost:the camera and film this steve no i didn't i i didn't have my camera like there was some reason where like i either didn't have it with me and we're out of battery like it was i was unable to film and i was just completely the thought that he that in my head i'm thinking like what it would take for me to even attempt to jump down carl's bag it certainly wouldn't just be thinking like well i might never be here again i feel like i'd be like what am i going to try how you know who's going to be shooting it how many angles who's shooting the photo three filmers and a photographer man come on yeah it's like no fuck it i'm just going to kick flip it for

46:59Davis Torgerson:myself that's so gee that's what peace of mind love that what about muska similar to like what

47:07The Ghost:i just said about steve olson where he's talking about i never might never be here and i'm like in my head i'm like god damn i wish i could be like that like muska would be the dude where he would roll up to a spot like and i'd be i'd be there to film it he'd roll up to something 25 five times, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. And then locking in and committing and just fucking doing it. And I was like, thought in my head, cause you know, you're like, that's, that is all it takes, right? Like you're, you know, how you're going to do, you know what you're doing. Once you can clear that part of your brain and get everything out of the way, like he was living proof that like, you could just fucking handle shit.

47:50The Ghost:And, uh, and I never had that. Like I would just roll up like 50 times and then just go home. I filmed a bunch of this stuff in Fulfill the Dream. It was all first try. Let's see. It's like a huge 50-50 and a kink trail in Irvine. No slides of triple kink. I can't even remember where it is. Another huge 50-50. Tail slide in the rain. I shot that. All that stuff's first try. he would just he was just on like an absolute path of destruction yeah uh what about one more

48:28Davis Torgerson:what about smolik man because i remember we asked donald remember we asked wes kramer that years ago and i think he told a story about them fighting each other and he was like yo smolik's

48:38The Ghost:the craziest oh my god smolik is like i would say this i think this goes i think i'll tie this back to Muska too. I think Muska he kind of is like there's a Muska and then there's Chad. And he kind of like is able to decipher the difference. And I think Smolik is the real thing of what people think Muska is. Smolik's like actually that fucking dude. He's fucking wild out of his mind, genius and fucking nuts all wrapped up into one. Quick story was filming for fulfill the dream. We were on tour in New York. Um, and we got like two, we got hooked up by this girl that I was dating and to go to this nightclub that was like the hottest spot in town.

49:31The Ghost:I think it was called Veruca and it's like red carpet.

49:36Davis Torgerson:Oh,

49:36The Ghost:show up. We walk up, they get us like right in. And, um, we're like sitting, We're sitting at the table and Spock's got like his arms around two models. And he starts getting, I can't remember what he started getting like, you know, worked up about. And he starts like yelling at the dude sitting across from us. And he starts grabbing ice chips from the champagne bucket. and he's just throwing them across the table right at this dude. And after like the third time, guy like turns, like looks, and gives this like look. And we're immediately like pulled, escorted out. And it was the dude that he was doing it was the owner of the club and the guy that had gotten us in.

50:35Davis Torgerson:Oh, my God. Come on. That's good, man. The hand that fed him. This just popped into my head. I just want to say this before we move on from Smolik. At the end, we do rapid fire and we always ask, like, worst style. And over the years, I feel like a number of people have said fake style. Like, any fake style is the worst style. But when I was watching his part the other day, I was like, Smolik has the greatest fake style ever. It's not on every clip, but when he puts it on and he's exaggerating, it, like, gets you so hyped. so that's a correction for everyone that said fake style is the worst style not in small's case

51:15The Ghost:yeah you're right there was yeah he was he's right he's just toeing the line

51:21Davis Torgerson:yeah like it's his natural swag but it's clearly like he'll just like put it on like i just did

51:27The Ghost:that but it's like it's so sick he got a little more he he developed it so to speak yeah it was

51:33Davis Torgerson:a little less so when i went out of skating with him i love it personally so shout out

51:38The Ghost:I like Smoog's the best.

51:40Aaron Snyder:So after Shorty's, you made your move over to Darkstar. Leaving Shorty's, was there some time in between the move and what led you to Darkstar?

51:49The Ghost:It wasn't a ton of time. I think what led me to Darkstar was opportunity. I was just trying to figure out who the hell would want to sponsor me, like really at that time. And it came down to just like connections, who you knew, who I had built connections with in the industry at that time. And at that time, it was like Ryan Kenrich and Chet Thomas and Galea. I think we had just moved in together. And that was like right when I got on Darkstar. I had moved from San Diego to Orange County, moved in to Galea, was skating with him and Chet all the time. So that was how I got on Darkstar. Also, I was riding for the wheels.

52:32The Ghost:So that's probably a big, that was like a big... Put it in the door. similar thing. I was on the wheel company and it was right when they were starting the board company. So I was like, oh shit, another developing board brand I can eventually get kicked off.

52:48Aaron Snyder:That could be one of the first ones here. You're the first to go.

52:55Davis Torgerson:Yeah, those wheels were fire though. I remember getting a pair. I don't think I ever had a pair of those.

53:01The Ghost:They were good.

53:04Aaron Snyder:People think that now that that was a canadian company like that's a common thing easy mistake yeah a lot of canadians

53:13Davis Torgerson:on it macknow descenzo hasty john hanlon later paul trepp right all trip damn it was a canadian company cameos like half half probably some more we're forgetting but yeah um so get tricks or die

53:31Aaron Snyder:try in one of many epic digital videos you absolutely snapped with the tech combos you became known for uh how was it filming for that video awesome filming with friends filming with

53:43The Ghost:friends it was like um bill weiss and dennis martin those are the two dudes that that are like the the two guys the duo behind that whole series digital i think i need to go back but i'm pretty sure I have a clip in in every single digital that's one one that I missed I had just moved to LA so I was meeting and filming with like a whole new squad I met Mike Marosco who he was living in Simi Valley younger young kid at the time and he was only like 18 and uh he had his local squad he was making like shot videos he started started filming with him started meeting all the West LA dudes like Robbie and Chris Roberts and I was skating more I was not sponsored and it was kind of liberating in a strange way so it was just it was a good time because it was living by the courthouse skating there all the time filming there when we wanted and when we you know when it was convenient when you're feeling it so it's kind of the ideal ideal film a video scenario that makes sense for sure that video was on repeat at adrift

55:01Davis Torgerson:back in the day when it dropped i remember watching it appley i lived upstairs for that summer and he came down and galia's part like he watched galia's part with us for the first time and he was i don't remember verbatim but he was like damn that was three minutes of grade a footage i was like hell yeah i love that video talk about underrated clip like halfway through when you're

55:27Aaron Snyder:like let's take this party back to cali like where were you because it seemed like you were filming in cali the whole time and then it just is like more cali we were in a we were that was

55:39The Ghost:on an arizona road trip okay so yeah we were we were like all packed in the car uh it was yeah with the 40 in hand i think that was awesome oh yeah yeah i mean it it was yeah that that switch pop shove it took longer than it should have so okay so that was the same probably rifled off like three or four tricks and was like all right yeah good luck nollie heel back tail same trip same trip yeah nice same trip damn yeah and he was there was like a it was like a big debate like whether or not he had done it like he was wait what do you mean he's just convinced he was like somehow convinced like it was like what either wasn't good enough or it was like droopy or his front foot was not or like something like no i don't know i just remember being like

56:31Davis Torgerson:no you're tripping yeah you kind of get that vibe in his intro and he's like guess what I don't like it we're doing it again yeah man

56:41The Ghost:between hit yeah I mean for sure you got I mean dude that's what the great ones do honestly yeah

56:49Davis Torgerson:man I wish that was maybe my favorite video series I loved on I loved all the trans world videos and stuff but digitals like for some reason just were always so entertaining

57:02The Ghost:it had a really good mix of like hardcore skating and really good editing like good just you could tell it like had like a like an unpretentious yeah

57:13Aaron Snyder:yeah they were light and the lineup was always wicked yeah they were great at building the video yeah and like the good recurring characters like there was always apple yard in digital like you knew you were always getting that was what was cool it was like you had like all the

57:28The Ghost:dudes that were like immediately in their orbit yeah and any oh hey you sure here's a clip like you could siphon off one two or three things and because the videos were so well received you know you're like all right i'll definitely give you yeah you wanted to be in there because

57:45Davis Torgerson:there was like gnarly hammers not just people's throwaway in the montages i've gone back and

57:50The Ghost:watched a few and it's shocking how much really good skating just in the montages goes by yeah Ryan Smith was in a bunch of them.

58:00Davis Torgerson:Like Darrell. Another. Yeah. So good. So 180 fakey Manny. Fakey Trey. Take us behind the scenes on that epic banger.

58:13The Ghost:I mean, it goes back. I think it goes back to what I was just saying, where when you are at a point where you're skating somewhere regularly, sessioning it, like having no real pressure on it, and you're comfortable with a spot, That's usually when the best shit happens, and that was pretty much the case with that. I think when I first moved to L.A., I could barely nose mani, that thing. It's tall. Like, it looks at you, and you're like, it's not high. It's not high to ollie up. It's high to do manis on, for sure. And I could, like, front 780 fakie mani, I think, was always my, like, go-to, like, dip into the well for a mani trick.

58:56Davis Torgerson:like that would always be it but it was too high to get up on and it was probably like skating there

59:03The Ghost:all the time for well over a year and then wasn't filming and like randomly got up on a 180 fakie

59:13Aaron Snyder:manny and i was like holy shit surprised yourself it's it's possible it's possible so i started like

59:21The Ghost:kind of like training for it like trying to like just go there and like repeatedly see if i could do 180 fake humanity and then once i knew that i could do that then i then i called mike morosco to film it when i did it i really truly was like i finally got something that it felt like i was like oh this is something i'm actually proud of it was like really like almost like only trick where i'm like this feels like it's like worthy of you know end trick in a video part and it was like probably within a month or two of uh get tricks or die trying so that was my only like regret with get tricks or die trying that's a part that i like but i don't like that it ends on like a gimmicky like manny nose manny spin around like dude why is why did it do that

1:00:11Aaron Snyder:i don't know who made that call because looking back you're like why is that the end

1:00:20The Ghost:what would again i'm like i felt like there was a lot of quality stuff i'm not sure anything qualified as something that would have been like truly satisfying as like an ender that's why i want to like i wish that i could go back and shoehorn in that as like the the last trick in that part because it's like it is it's probably my favorite part but yeah it just like again ends and i'm like All right. Okay.

1:00:47Aaron Snyder:What's the plan to just fakie flip out and then it was like working well so you then pushed it to fakie tray?

1:00:53The Ghost:The plan was to do it to fakie tray just because shoot for the stars I guess. And then while I was trying it I did one to fakie flip and it's the first part of it is way better than the one that I did for the fakie tray. Like I like was going a little faster and I remember just like plucking in, just like locking right in and my feet weren't quite how you want them to be. And I didn't, and rather than try to like wiggle into a fakie tray position, I'm like, I'm perfectly set up for a fakie flip. So let me just do that.

1:01:27Aaron Snyder:I'm like, oh, get the tail.

1:01:30The Ghost:So it was like, it was like much better execution in terms of pure manual, you know, logistics. but at the end of the day, I would take the 180 Fakie Manny Fakie tray out over that by the mile.

1:01:46Aaron Snyder:For sure. So we talked to Dave Mayhew a little bit leading up in the interview. Absolute legend. Hope to have him on the pod someday soon as well. But he said you've always had the best balance, which I mean we've seen and we know now too. But he also said that back in the day they had a name for that. Do you remember what it was? Boo Balance. Yeah. What is that?

1:02:10The Ghost:My family's nickname for me growing up was boo. And it was like, it was pre, it was like before even like my boo was like a term, you know, that didn't even exist. It was like my grandpa, my mom's birthday is around Halloween. And my grandpa wrote her a birthday card when she was pregnant. And they didn't know if I was a boy or a girl. and so it was like something to the effect of like roses are red violets are blue it's here's just us me you and little boo oh that's kind of cool so they started calling me boo before i was born as a like non-gendered way to refer to me and then it came out and everybody just my family called me boo and then as a young teenager you could imagine how embarrassing that was so all my friends started calling me boo that's awesome that's dope boo balance i like it

1:03:09Davis Torgerson:yeah you mentioned by the time you're filming that last part uh the digital part you were already not sponsored um what was the transition like for you after that i don't know if more sponsors came into play after that or anything but like just transitioning out from being a pro skater uh what was that like for you after skating at a high level for so long uh not easy

1:03:31The Ghost:it's definitely not easy uh there were no real sponsors that came along and i i think i knew that like i think i knew in the back of my head that anything that does present itself as an opportunity would be temporary you know i mean at this point i'm in my late 20s and that's already like kind older especially at that time you know so my head was just thinking like what can i do that was more like it wasn't like what i what do i want to do it was like what can i do that was when i ended up a friend of mine was working for tv development for cbs he was like the assistant to like the head of TV development.

1:04:21The Ghost:And he got me like a job as a transcriber for this production company. And that's like literally, it's just taking the footage and creating like a script of every single thing that's said or shown on it. And after just like a couple of weeks of doing that, I, they learned that I knew how to work the editing software because I was so bummed how all my parts had come out thus far just like wanted to be able to do and like have control and edit them myself so it was like hey this is kind of a skill that I picked up I guess I could do that so um they did they got uh they put me doing some like assistant editing work and it was for like some pretty big tv shows at the time it's like the show intervention I don't know oh my god you worked on that dude not no it's worse i was the guy that had to take like you know those

1:05:18Aaron Snyder:interviews where it's like oh that was so heavy man bearing their like life and their soul like

1:05:24The Ghost:i had to go through that raw footage i had to be like here's your selects get ready oh shit dude that's insane it was brutal um and then yeah and then uh that led to like um you know us you know some other assistant editing jobs, which led to real editing jobs, which led to lead editing jobs. Um, and so, yeah, I just kind of like slowly worked into the world of post-production through like reality TV shows. Uh, so I was working for after, after, um, intervention, I was working on UFO hunters, worked the night shift on UFO hunters and then worked, uh, did seven seasons as the lead editor for true life to MTV show.

1:06:12The Ghost:Oh my God. That one was crazy too. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Yeah. So it was like, it was, um, that's so cool. It's certainly not like an easy transition. It's, it sucks. It sucks to dedicate like your entire life. And then it's funny, like you, you, you, you really should see it coming a lot farther off. you know you really should see them coming up from from way farther off than you actually do so um you know faced with that reality it's not easy it's why a lot of skaters go through a lot of you know hard times i think trying to find that transition i think for me i was just lucky enough that one of the skill sets that i was that i picked up through skating was directly translatable to jobs in my area you know i'm like all this software all this editing shit this was like a new thing it was like i'm like working alongside you know 65 year old editors who are doing things exclusively on avids uh but then there's like adobe premiere coming up and they're like you know they're trying to hang on like we're early adopters of this like as skaters that's what But the coolest thing is we're early adopters of almost all technologies.

1:07:30The Ghost:So you're really like ahead of the curve when it comes to knowing how to adapt and apply all of this stuff into something that is useful to someone.

1:07:41Aaron Snyder:You fell into a wicked spot then. I mean.

1:07:44The Ghost:I ended up in a wicked spot.

1:07:46Aaron Snyder:Yeah.

1:07:47The Ghost:I didn't fall into it. Between that, there was also a couple years of pure freelancing, of trying to find out what else I want to do. I worked in the TV industry to tell the point where I started feeling completely disconnected from skating and skate culture and everything about that. And so I wanted to really find a way to come back into it in some sort of roundabout way. because also it was like my skill set felt like it was a little more in line with where skating and skate culture was at with being able to tell their own stories and do like little documentaries and things like that like it was you know there's a whole that stuff didn't really wasn't really around in like the super early 2000s it was like on video that was like really the only it was the only thing that was like this is about skateboarding and it's coming from a culture of skateboarding are you guys familiar with oh yeah loved that they're fucking awesome you know they're super cool but that actually had like you know resistance at a point for skaters who are like oh it's lame all the time there's a lot of storytelling yeah so but cut to like years later it's like the youtube generation and everybody's a content creator and everybody likes to see the lifestyle of everybody else and like it it fits fits perfectly so uh that was when yeah so that was when i was like i'm gonna get a job that somehow allows me to work back in skating uh so that was when i started working for rockstar energy and they have a whole skate team bmx team like moto most of those cultures there's a lot of like personality crossover like overlap so it was definitely like a feeling of like almost like coming home in a sense of like being in and around more of the culture that you grew up with even though the job that you're doing is in line with what you've learned over the last decade sick that's wicked what was the team or like when

1:09:58Davis Torgerson:did you start there because they've had i feel like different different dudes over the years

1:10:03The Ghost:I was there seven years ago. Okay. Seven years ago. So when I started, like, David Gonzalez was still on.

1:10:11Davis Torgerson:Lutzka? Another digital legend? No, it was after.

1:10:16The Ghost:Also, Wisconsin.

1:10:17Aaron Snyder:Yeah. No way, really? Damn, there's a good squad from Wisconsin then.

1:10:21The Ghost:He was a full generation behind me. Yeah. Yeah. Came from Milwaukee. John Alley, too. Sick. Dude, royalty. That's awesome. You came straight from Wisconsin to my couch, too. Damn.

1:10:37Davis Torgerson:Well, that's sick, man. Made it back to skating.

1:10:40The Ghost:Yeah. No, for sure. For sure. It's fucking... It's good.

1:10:45Aaron Snyder:So what's next for Aaron Snyder? What's coming up for you?

1:10:48The Ghost:Oh, Christ. A bunch of work, man.

1:10:51Aaron Snyder:You get to go to events and stuff now, too. So you're pretty much like... You're ingrained in it again.

1:10:57The Ghost:It's pretty busy. Like, again, like I just got back from Las Vegas two weekends ago. working at a music event called sick new world uh rockstar does this thing that uh in portland called rockstar energy open it's um a huge fucking skate contest music festival super cool it's going to be our third year doing that we also do it for uh snowboarding and we're gonna start i think for uh surfing as well um and then uh we also rockstar got bought by celsius i don't know if you're familiar with that drink celsius so um i've been working a lot of like cross brand type of stuff so uh we'll see there's like there's no shortage of there's no shortage of things and that we're doing as a brand and it's pretty cool to be able to kind of like dip around and do uh have your hands involved in a bunch of different cool stuff

1:11:58Davis Torgerson:Yo, yo, yo, it's Rapid Fire with the Ghost. And this week, we're honored to be brought to you by the only trucks we ride. It's Thunder, baby. And they've got news for everyone riding big-ass boards. The new Thunder T2s are now available in 10-inch wide 181s and 9-inch 161s. Perfect for your horse pills, zoggers, and everything else in your curb quiver. What? And everything else in your curb quiver. Pinch perfection, elevated height, and remastered geometry. You get me? Thunder trucks. If you know, you know. Hit up your local for a set at 9x, The Drive, So Hip, in Canada, and LB Skate, Eastern Border, and Atlas in the States got you covered.

1:12:52Davis Torgerson:All right, Aaron, we got one more little section before we get you out of here. A little rapid fire.

1:12:58The Ghost:All right.

1:12:58Davis Torgerson:You ready?

1:12:59The Ghost:All right.

1:13:00Davis Torgerson:Favorite skater?

1:13:02The Ghost:Guy Mariano.

1:13:03Davis Torgerson:Favorite video? Mouse. Favorite video part? Guy Mouse. Favorite style? Wade.

1:13:14The Ghost:and amu is uh pretty next level yeah hell yeah uh which skater had the biggest influence on the

1:13:21Davis Torgerson:way you skate rick howard anyone ever tell you you guys kind of look alike and it's like old

1:13:27The Ghost:videos and stuff yeah the dudes at the rotation station which was the skate park like it was like an hour and a half drive from where we grew up guys at rotation station station would call me little Rick.

1:13:42Davis Torgerson:I just rewatched, oh, shout out Switch Trey Gang in Fulfill the Dream that you did, but I was like, damn, you and Rick, you guys could have had tricks in each other's parts and no one would know. I'll take that. Most talented skateboarder on planet Earth? Shane. True. Favorite trick?

1:14:04The Ghost:Trick flip.

1:14:05Davis Torgerson:Hardest trick for you?

1:14:07The Ghost:Hard flip.

1:14:08Davis Torgerson:Most illegal trick.

1:14:10The Ghost:Ride on grind.

1:14:12Davis Torgerson:This generation, man. Spoken like an OG tech god. Yeah.

1:14:17The Ghost:I'll say this. I say that, but it's mostly just out of jealousy. I'm like, I wish I could have gotten rid of the riding on.

1:14:27Aaron Snyder:We're so fucked up now that sometimes people do that and we're like, oh, that was sick. And you're like, wait a minute. Brainwashed by the acceptance of riding on to things. favorite clip you've ever gotten

1:14:38The Ghost:with the 180 fakie manny fakie tray on the courthouse and also the the other the line at DWP with the fakie 50 fakie tray it's in um get tricks or die trying I like that one I think I like the way I did it more and I was I like having I like getting tricks on like iconic spots my favorite shit is seeing stuff that

1:15:04Davis Torgerson:other people escape but also it's a good trick yeah i have no disrespect to the filmer i just wish they were a little closer to you like some lines at that spot when they're like really parallel it just it hits a little different that's probably on me because if you'll notice

1:15:20The Ghost:that place if you've ever been there the pillars are pretty close to the benches so depending on what trick you're doing you have to either go in line or you need to curve around it so if you notice I'm like curbing around the pillar to take like a bigger wide angle and I think that um I think that that did some injustice to the film yeah I shouldn't have said that

1:15:48what's the worst trend you've been a part of I don't really pressure flips I don't know

1:15:53The Ghost:Never really was a trendy guy, at least in my memory.

1:16:01Davis Torgerson:What's the gnarliest trick you've ever witnessed?

1:16:04The Ghost:A couple of things. When I first moved out to California, I saw Chad Knight switch backside flip down the sports arena double set. And that was way, way, way advanced for the time. That was super fun.

1:16:18Aaron Snyder:That's the Jeremy Ray triple?

1:16:20The Ghost:It's the same one, yeah. Double set. The four flat four. it's pretty long yeah it looks heavy for for those days then by the way that jeremy ray if you if you ever find yourself in san diego do yourself a favor and go up and look at that jeremy ray triple set it's like in inhuman yeah how insane that is i gotta peep that damn i want to re-bring up all of that muska first try shit you're on pins and needles because you're looking at a dude doing something that is super fucking gnarly like big dangerous pushing the boundaries of what's even been done so far and he's not attempting it in a way that makes you nervous right you're like jesus christ what's going through his head he's like oh fuck next one next one next one and then that like lock in and just fucking do it and bang it out was just like an ability that he had that he would just do over and over and over and do it.

1:17:16The Ghost:And there's also, if you notice, uh, he does like the, the back to back nose slides that, um, the Arco rails, it's like the nine stair and then the 17 stair or something like that. And he did that one first try as well. And I'm filming and you can, it's why it's filmed so bad. Like I'm not, I'm not expecting him to even like to try it. And he's just like, it doesn't, does it. Danny Minnick, I think, or was shooting it on film, and it's like completely underexposed. Like it's almost black. I'm filming is shaky. Like, dude, I'm sorry. Fucking, you just did like the gnarliest first try back-to-back no-sides ever, and one angle's black and the other angle's shaky.

1:17:58Damn.

1:17:59Davis Torgerson:Legend. What's the one trick that got away?

1:18:04The Ghost:Probably switch, pop, fakie 5-0, fakie tray. I think I always wanted that one because I loved Mariano originally doing Switch Pop Fakie 5-0 Fakie Flip. It's like the World Park. It's honestly like a two-inch high little fun box, but the way he did it was so good. I always wanted to do that one and also wanted to do Switch Vario Flip Fakie 5-0 Half Cab. Those were both tricks that I like. Came close, but never got it.

1:18:38Davis Torgerson:Oh, that would be crazy. Damn, those are a couple of dope ones. Did Stevie do that one?

1:18:44The Ghost:Which one?

1:18:45Davis Torgerson:Switch Vario Flip, Nose Grind, Half Cab.

1:18:48The Ghost:Nope. No, it hasn't been done still. I mean, I did Switch Vario Flip, Fakie 5-0, or Switch Vario Flip Nose Grind, however you want to call it.

1:18:56Davis Torgerson:TX did that one too, real good.

1:18:58The Ghost:hell yeah it's a it's a weird one but kind of works because also always loved that i just love

1:19:05Davis Torgerson:that trick switch pop fakie 50 180 i mean enrique lorenzo did it in digital uh la high i think but i just saw yuto did it on a little rail in japan but it's like a steeper rail i saw that crazy

1:19:21The Ghost:yeah yeah that was that did not look like the rail to be doing that on no definitely not when

1:19:27Davis Torgerson:When he half capped out, I thought like as soon as he started, I'm like, oh, sick. I know that rail, like that's a sick trick. And then the half cap out, I was like, whoa, that would not be easy. And then the other one, Fakie Trey out. I'm sure you saw Tiago do it on the fucking table. The year he should have won SOTY.

1:19:44The Ghost:I, yeah, that was like a definitely a realization moment for me. Like when I saw that, I'm like, I cannot fucking believe this is like how good skateboarding is now. There's somebody doing it. I mean, it's not like that was a norm.

1:20:02Davis Torgerson:He's like best of the best.

1:20:05The Ghost:Yeah, I mean, he's talking like for sure. He is best of the best.

1:20:08Davis Torgerson:That was ridiculous, too. I'm also a switch of nose grinder. So they always stick in my brain. And that one also blew my mind. I'm like, you couldn't do it on a normal ledge first. I went straight to the fucking picnic table.

1:20:20The Ghost:Anyway, one of the fulfill the dream tricks was Switch Pop Vicky 5-0 on a table on flat.

1:20:26Aaron Snyder:That's one of the ones you lost, right? Yeah, that was one of the ones I lost. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, that was the lost clip. Did you find – is that one of the ones you found?

1:20:33The Ghost:No, that one's gone to this day. Damn. Yeah. That one's gone.

1:20:39The Bunt:Brutal. That's sad. Yeah, brutal.

1:20:41The Ghost:I never even saw it. That's what's funny. I never even saw it. I haven't even filmed it in April. It was filmed by like somebody random just like holding the camera. and then they taped over the footage. Damn.

1:20:52Davis Torgerson:Did you get the fakie flip out? No. Well, if it makes you feel any better, I've also tried that one a gazillion times. It's also gotten away.

1:21:01Aaron Snyder:Switched up nose grind fakie flip?

1:21:03Davis Torgerson:Yeah.

1:21:04The Ghost:That was like the original golden goose that I was after and then I just eventually, after having no luck with that, I'm like, I might as well just fucking try the fakie tray flip out instead because half the time the way that you get into that trick your feet are almost better positioned to do that than the

1:21:23Davis Torgerson:fakie flip yeah i could see that i got no fakie tray out knowledge but um best one my favorite one at least danny montoya on the up ledge was picture perfect and it would be so hard on a fucking up ledge yeah that's a good one what's the biggest bunt you've ever witnessed probably me trying to skate rails in the early 2000s i think i think i had a long history of

1:21:51The Ghost:getting myself up to a point where i thought i thought i knew a trick well enough to take it to a rail only to just like right up to it and then half try and eat shit that's when you know you know there's there's more to life in skating what's the last new trick you learned um last new trick i learned big big spin sugar cane

1:22:17Davis Torgerson:on transition oh sick wow i don't think i've seen that one it wasn't that recent though

1:22:23The Ghost:that i learned it my learning i'm i'm i'm thoroughly into the relearning tricks face with my life.

1:22:32Davis Torgerson:Just keeping the ones you got.

1:22:34The Ghost:Relearning.

1:22:36Davis Torgerson:That's a great feeling too. Oh, that's the thing.

1:22:40The Ghost:I always wondered that. I wondered like, what's that going to be like when you're like, you suck and you remember being good? It's like, I remember when I was good. And it's great because every single thing that you do do that's even halfway decent, it's just as fun as it ever was. You're really happy about it.

1:23:00Davis Torgerson:Dream job after skating?

1:23:02The Ghost:Exec producer of documentaries probably be my dream job.

1:23:06Davis Torgerson:Favorite local brand?

1:23:08The Ghost:I'm going to say Sunday Gravy, the local Italian spot up the way from my friends. That's sick.

1:23:15Davis Torgerson:Hell yeah. I like that. Favorite local skater?

1:23:19The Ghost:Brian Baca.

1:23:21Davis Torgerson:What's the one sponsor you regret riding for?

1:23:24The Ghost:I don't know if I regret riding for any sponsors. probably i mean i would say like maybe like dragon sunglasses just because it's like not my style but in terms of sponsors like you know i was always trying to get more sponsors i'd even say billabong but like looking back on it billabong was a freaking awesome sponsor because at the time they would just do allotments of gear and say you get 35 pieces of gear per month and the way that their warehouse was constructed was that there was zero difference in gear from a keychain to a wetsuit. So you could roll in there and bring like 10 wetsuits. I think it was more like, I don't have sponsor regret.

1:24:06I just have like, you know, sponsor wishes.

1:24:11The Ghost:You know, it was like growing up, did I dream of a life as a pro for Darkstar? I'm like, no, of course not. But, you know, there's only, There's only so many seats at the cool table.

1:24:27Davis Torgerson:So you were the local wetsuit dealer back then? Yes. Love that.

1:24:34The Ghost:I think I still have a couple disintegrating in my garage.

1:24:42Davis Torgerson:Favorite teammate ever? Shit.

1:24:45The Ghost:Galia.

1:24:46Davis Torgerson:Hell yeah. That's big, bro. Galia, if you're watching, make sure you send us a clip or two for the Bunch video. And, yo, Donald, did I tell you? So we have a video coming out at the end of the summer, Aaron, and we've been talking about it for a gazillion years. It's finally time to start asking people for homie clips and stuff. I asked Galia for a clip actually years ago, and he actually tried to switch crook this crazy thing in Vancouver. But, you know, we're not getting any younger, so that was probably five years ago i'm like it's probably asking even more now to be like yo can we get a couple of fresh clips so last time i asked him like a month ago he was like he's like yeah yeah i got this back nose grind that was uh the concrete cover and i'm like you mean the one from like 15 years ago

1:25:38Davis Torgerson:the clip never came out i'm like i don't know if we can pull that off i don't know if it's time That's so dope.

1:25:45The Ghost:We can work with that.

1:25:47Davis Torgerson:Oh, my God. If he doesn't get anything new and y 'all see the back nose grind, you know what happened. That is fucking hilarious. Yeah. Fucking Galea. Worst teammate ever.

1:26:00The Ghost:Okay. Chris Dobstadt.

1:26:05Aaron Snyder:I think we've heard that one before. Well, what's up with Chris, man?

1:26:10The Ghost:i don't know he was he was he was just kind of too cool to connect with i guess okay he was too busy doing you know localizing his park i feel like that yeah i feel like the reputation you

1:26:25Davis Torgerson:just hear things here and there is that he was very cocky or something i think my memory is like

1:26:31The Ghost:was one time on like a session and we're like skating some spot and there's like a group of people skating it for you know probably like a half hour and like he like he got up and it's like he got up and like got his board and said something to the effect of like i better get on this session somebody better somebody's got to land something which is pretty incredible actually this is like just fully throwing us into the bus i suck i guess i'll get into this session so we can get a clip these poor filmers are dying out here i love those stories like so kooky and

1:27:05Davis Torgerson:in the moment you're probably like what the fuck but like thinking back on it yeah it's so that was awesome yeah and it's probably annoying because he actually has the skill to back that up he probably got up and just he'll flip front five-o'd something or like a hubba or something

1:27:20The Ghost:i'm sure that i'm sure if you weed through some of the wackiness that there has some absolutely outrageous skating that he has done oh yeah i actually just re-watched uh

1:27:32Davis Torgerson:his subject the change part and it's so insanely good why did you watch that

1:27:38The Ghost:is that the one where he nollie back heels the sports arena double set or no nollie heel half

1:27:44Davis Torgerson:cap heel and back heel and they're all flawless and we watched it it was our buddy mike mains his birthday and chris dobstaff somehow came out and he'd never seen it so we put it on for him and he like was he hyped yeah yeah that parts he's like so this dude didn't is this guy didn't he didn't take off dude he like kicked back salads as a skinny hubba like he had the craziest bag of tricks uh shout out we should get him on the pod one day i'd love to hear like if he's mellowed out or like where he's at if his egos got like checked with his career probably not going the way he planned um anyways moving on from the legend christoph staff uh worst worst company bike anybody remember bike skateboard what oh my god oh yeah that's the thing that's bike skateboards that's taking it too far like you know everyone tries to have the one word companies now like

1:28:44The Ghost:some fucking yeah that's taking the the ironic name slightly too far yeah i kind of love that

1:28:51Davis Torgerson:as a worse company. Worst trend. Ride on grinds. Sticking to your guns. I like that. Worst style. Ginwou.

1:29:06Aaron Snyder:You went current, dude. Is that a hot take? I just didn't think we were going current. That's crazy.

1:29:14The Ghost:I mean, I can only... It's recency bias, maybe. That's crazy. It's hard for me to watch.

1:29:21Aaron Snyder:Dude, what a call.

1:29:22The Ghost:And it's going back like to the, you know, really quickly to like the whole like Street League thing, judging thing. Like it, it's so it sucks that Street League was kind of created like Dierdik's whole idea was it was like skate contests do not really reflect like skaters. Like that's not really how we think or feel. So they kind of wanted to create it more in the mold of like, like how, how a skate house would like view skating. And it's just not, it's just not what it turned out to be.

1:29:56Aaron Snyder:I know it's changed over the years.

1:29:59The Ghost:And they sell you, you'll hear, all right, so here's the judging criteria. It's based on difficulty, execution, and style. But it's not. You can't judge on style. You can't judge it based on your gut. You have to judge it for its, I guess, technical merit. Even if a dude does a front blunt varial flip down a big rail, it doesn't matter how weird and wacky and unpleasant it looks you're like nine four

1:30:37Aaron Snyder:yeah that's a tough one i know it's the days of like appley yard and biebel and dylan reader in street league are long gone like that was the recipe that we were sold those were the coolest

1:30:50The Ghost:things like you would you would have like real real dudes and even even though it ultimately like what it proved was like the dudes that were making and winning the traditional skate contests were also the same dudes that are going to win your street. I know there's no like magic recipe to be like,

1:31:08Aaron Snyder:there's no contest that would get them to win.

1:31:11The Ghost:Tweak the format. Then like the real skaters are winning. We're all real skaters. They just,

1:31:17Aaron Snyder:you just got to keep those guys out of the contest. If you want someone else to win.

1:31:21The Ghost:Yeah. Good luck to them.

1:31:22Davis Torgerson:there last but not least who's the last person you want on the sesh fuck i'm just gonna i'm

1:31:32The Ghost:gonna def i'm gonna throw a dob staffs on the bus just one time you know yeah one one session is all it takes okay it's one thing to show me up it's another thing to tell me you're about to do

1:31:44Aaron Snyder:it yeah that part wasn't necessary huh um dude thank you so much for coming on the show sharing your stories and memories man that was an absolute blast man appreciate it thank you

1:31:55The Ghost:thank you guys for having me your show is fucking awesome dude thank you man appreciate you

1:32:07Aaron Snyder:all right welcome back to random skater of the week the fastest growing segment on youtube hosted by our good friend davis torgersen and brought to you by mob grip the number one choice of professional skateboarders worldwide and the reason's simple it's the grippiest baby this week we got ducky back in the building dude i don't know how long it's been but it's been way too long hype to have you back what's cracking man dude uh stoked to be here i don't know i moved to la from sf a while ago and just fucking telling my same bullshit loving uh la skateboards

1:32:41The Bunt:yeah that's what's up man yeah what's up with the career change yeah give us a rundown real quick uh fucking tattoo apprentice for almost like fuck it's almost pushing like two years now and yeah i took that deluxe unemployment and just hopped into tattooing love it yeah recording live from the shop yeah thank you yeah it's been great so you and davis never oh yeah oh we were saying how we haven't met in person yeah yeah we've never met in person sorry this is our intro but this goes way back i saw my first tampa am i was just like there and uh pretty much you left you left like i found this real board with like a bunch of like like dc stickers and shit on it and i was like fuck there's all these boards here i'm just like flying back with these things and uh it was like i'm pretty sure it was yours based on the stickers and I just like clipped up on this like trash board you left but I set it up when I got home and just like skated it for like over a month or something I remember being like a good luck board for like when I was like hell yeah yeah probably like this is like Tampa Am so I was probably like 16 or something yeah what yeah was it maybe I think when I skated for DC I only went to one Tampa Am.

1:34:07The Bunt:I don't remember the year, but I think I got second. So it might have been that board?

1:34:12Davis Torgerson:Hell yeah. Definitely a good board then. Throwing in a little extra information.

1:34:18The Bunt:Nobody can confirm. Do you still have it? Maybe we can send it to the Skateboarding Hall of Fame or something? I thrashed that thing. I skated it for a really long time. I started pushing a month and a half or something. yeah it was crispy that's pretty random so we've we've sort of met before yeah

1:34:41Davis Torgerson:yeah so that's all the people that think davis is just known from this tamp am second place back in the day yeah leaving boards had a whole career before random skater

1:34:53The Bunt:yeah some some like my shit that board uh it went to someone that probably did uh something above a 10 stair which good for that board because it wasn't doing it uh with me skating it so right dude i gotta look up your uh yeah your tampa am second place run i'm sure that's you started you started inspecting is was this the board yeah yeah um have you seen any of these before i did my research today i watched like a few of them okay so you know a little bit the deal i'm gonna be listing off a bunch of clues to one random skater you all get three guesses and blur them out at any time you can ask questions um what do you what do you reckon your skate nerd level is um i don't know i feel like it it ebbs and flows but uh i'd say like uh around like a six maybe modest yeah i like it i go through my times where i'm like on slap and shit like just trying to keep up with everything going on and shit he's an educated man i think he knows his shit yeah i try to stay with the times too i'm not going like way oh jim like okay what's the new what's the new hot shit you know

1:36:08Aaron Snyder:so if the bones brigade comes up we're fucked i don't know i get talking about like i remember

1:36:14The Bunt:like the spine ramp shit like who was hand planning when you know see he knows his shit um you guys ready

1:36:26Aaron Snyder:let's fucking do this

1:36:28Davis Torgerson:let's get it man

1:36:29The Bunt:previous teammates of this skater include Danny Way Chad Muska and Rodney Mullen OG kinda legendary cop this skater to the best of my Googling ability has not had a crooked guess board.

1:36:57Aaron Snyder:That narrows the odds.

1:36:59The Bunt:That narrows it down. This skater had a cover of a magazine that was shot in Peru.

1:37:12The Bunt:It's the fucking third clue, dude. The first five are always so annoying. Muska. muska god damn skater shot in the daylight you think i was gonna give you their last name right now i was just hoping mad circle i just googled mad circle and eastern exposure and the crooked shit that's all i got it's a good basis we shall we shall see we shall see um speaking of board brands this skater was on was on like flow for alien workshop but never got fully on

1:37:54The Bunt:was in the camp but never was fully on the team um okay we're gonna move on still early this skater has had a last part in a trans world video that's a big clue early on early on yeah it's tory holy shit fuck yo

1:38:19Davis Torgerson:what the fuck yo i knew it after the second one but sorry i was like maybe did you know the cover fuck i need to remember this i didn't sorry i knew it with this guy i forget which clue i knew it by but a couple ago i was like oh it's tory and then i was like maybe it's big cat but that wasn't making sense.

1:38:35The Bunt:Yeah, Big Cat's not the random

1:38:36Davis Torgerson:kid. Holy shit. Sorry, Ducky. Thanks for coming out. Appreciate you. Catch you next time. Good luck with the tattooing. K-bye.

1:38:43Aaron Snyder:They're going to stop coming on the show. Fucking hell. I'm back,

1:38:48The Bunt:yo. Yeah, this guy's been studying in the offseason. Keep going. Let's see when these guys will get. Wait, so it was the alien on Flow Clue that gave it away? No, what were the clues again? Previous teammates, no crooked guest board, cover in Peru, flow for workshop last part in a transill video we elaborate how'd this flow to workshop thing like so he skated for shorties he was in that shorties how to go pro video and then after that after shorties ended i think it took him a while to find a board sponsor and he was flow for alien for a while and then he got on almost classic alien almost um he did manual varial flip on three up three down the one of the my next clue is when this skater re-signed with their shoe sponsor it was reported on cnbc nice cnbc had an article about i think because dvs put like a press release and sent it fucking everywhere and they had an article on it tampa pro winner copenhagen open winner did a photo shoot an interview for lacoste kind of random it is um all the previous teammates are with Boar Brands.

1:39:56The Bunt:At one point, owned two brands in skateboarding. What was the other one? Grizzly? Grizzly and Thank You. Oh, yeah. Collabed with the horror movie franchise series Saw for a pro board. Bro. I think he really liked Saw. Hey, Tori.

1:40:19Davis Torgerson:Like I said to Guy, when you hear this, it's time to pull up, bruv. You're back on plan B. Let's talk about it. Tori would be a good one. Not one guess, god damn it.

1:40:30The Bunt:Tori would be a really good one. Yeah, I don't know. I don't even think that was poor effort on my part. I think that was just say it came to play. We're going to have to do something about this guy. Yeah, Safa just really loved... What was it? Hallelujah? That was the Transmo video? Yeah. See? Back three kickflip. knows i kind of stopped i'll be honest i stopped watching those videos after like what is it the the dan wolf one there was like two he did back to back those were like the goaded ones like a time to shine and first love those were uh john holland and um jason hernandez those were yeah money i don't think wolf did one oh he did the um the eastern exposure that's why i was like okay i did some research that obviously didn't pay off

1:41:28Davis Torgerson:that's impressive my guy was looking up photo i mean video who was making videos yeah i don't

1:41:36The Bunt:think it would have helped you i don't think it would have helped anyone say it was yeah he's too on it man it's gonna be a long season that was fucked man that was yeah this is gonna be can he go 12-0? Can he have the perfect season?

1:41:50Davis Torgerson:It might have just been the teammates, to be honest, because when you said it again, I'm like, I already had Tori in my head, and then I'm like, I'm going to wait a little bit.

1:41:58The Bunt:Well, you already had Tori in his head. Well, fuck.

1:41:59Davis Torgerson:No, no, no. I mean from the teammates. From the teammates. Oh, got it. I was like, plan B, because this is what allowed me to narrow it down. Danny Ways only had very few sponsors, so it was easy to lock-in on dc riders or plan and then i was starting to think plan b it's one of those two and then i just started connecting muska and shorties i was like oh everything i was just working off danny way tree and then rodney what was rodney's almost almost yeah yeah so he was

1:42:35The Bunt:already in my head yeah all right all right duly noted no more d-way fucking previous teammate

1:42:42Davis Torgerson:yeah well if you do if you do previous teammates to stop me from doing it that way just it's got to be people that have switched teams a number of times where you can't narrow it down too well that's what i did for the previous one um but i try i was just like oh they're so legendary that maybe it just is you know what i will also say i'm starting to get used to your style you went with three three triple ogs so i actually knew it was going to be someone young because you're trying to throw us off this guy can read the clue master you've done that before you've done that before or it's like time for me to step down and resign it's been great everyone yeah yeah

1:43:21The Bunt:you gotta switch up your algorithm or something yeah yeah i'm just saying i'm just saying ducky when you're done this is taking over can i take your apprenticeship dude you just come over over here i'll fucking teach you okay you'll be my friend well

1:43:38Aaron Snyder:that was fun Davis is fired Ducky thank you man thank you for coming on

1:43:47Davis Torgerson:I might have to come get my first tattoo man

1:43:51The Bunt:I'm here right by G Park I don't actually have a tattoo either I'm right by G Park

1:43:58Davis Torgerson:let's link up you've got mail

1:44:04Aaron Snyder:Welcome back to the post office.

1:44:06Davis Torgerson:Episode two.

1:44:07Aaron Snyder:Inbox starting to fill up ghosts. We got a couple to get through. Who we got up first?

1:44:12Davis Torgerson:None other than the legend himself. Jay Burles. Let's see what I mean. He's busy editing the video. What could he be possibly wondering over here? Hey guys. Can each of you tell us about your favorite story or moment while traveling for the Bunt video? Shout out to Cornwall, Ontario. big shout out um

1:44:36Aaron Snyder:dude this could be fucking any traveling moment but speaking of Jay Burroughs my mind immediately goes to Jay going missing in Detroit um after a long day you know many natty lights being consumed we tried to sit down for a family dinner at a classic Mexican spot and uh dinner goes by takes forever service was questionable at this dinner safe it will not go back to the restaurant but uh we get to the van we start looking around and jay's gone we can't find jay nowhere to be seen we start calling him phone's dead um justin bull checks his ring camera to see if he's on the porch waiting at home nothing there so we send out the search party mason grabs a scooter everybody else grabs another natty light obviously and we just scoured the city looking for him and just when we were ready to give up the ghost being the greatest team manager on earth that he is found jay saved his life and uh jay's life continues on

1:45:53Davis Torgerson:I didn't think you were going to go there, man. I don't think that's what Jay was expecting from his email, getting roasted. I'll try to think of another one.

1:46:01Aaron Snyder:That's not roasted. That's not roasted. That's just facts.

1:46:03Davis Torgerson:That's just facts, bro. That was epic. I remember some of us were trying to just go back to the Airbnb saying, oh, he'll emerge. And Malta was like, no, no, we're doing this. We're finding him.

1:46:17Aaron Snyder:jake and jesse were sitting in the van and i was like dude get a beer like we got to find this guy and jake's like are you guys fucking serious man yes dude we can't lose them man

1:46:29Davis Torgerson:and his phone died yeah yeah that was epic epic epic trip the first trip with like uh the cali homies um squad for life now um i was going a little more wholesome you know i'm saying I couldn't think of anything to be honest. I mean, there's too many memories, but a lot of them are too insane. Mitch in Dallas, you know, we won't go there. I wasn't there, so I couldn't go there. I'll just say as far as the actual video, a nice, really nice one was we were skating this like long flat bar you might have seen on Instagram in Dallas, green flat bar out of a car distribution. and uh two things happened actually malto couldn't get the right angle for his trick and then the owner of the dealership was so nice that he was like oh i'll move the car that's parked there out of the way so you have a better angle then he's like realized he didn't have the keys they weren't on site so he's like you know what i'll do i'll put it in neutral and we can all push it i've never seen an owner of a business that's being skated especially when we're at

1:47:43Aaron Snyder:board could hit your cars dude they were like so nice range rovers too like it was not just like

1:47:48Davis Torgerson:a honda dealership like yeah i'll just respect to honda that's southern hospitality so so the squad we all moved this car together got it out malto could get his angle and uh then the dopest thing was who landed it first i think malto landed his trick and then carlos was battling a trick too and they'd both been battling, but they caught the classic 1-2 back-to-back, which is rare when both people are battling for a while. And obviously the squad erupted. That was an awesome moment. Plus two for the video. You know what I'm saying?

1:48:27Aaron Snyder:Big day for the bunt video, of course. Heat wave. I mean, every day. Is it a heat wave if it's just always that hot? Yeah. Texas. Epic email. Thank you, Jay. Now back to work, man. All right. Next up, we have an email from Nick Shields. Hey, Bunk Crew. As skaters now in your mid to late 30s, mostly late, man. What habits do you wish you had picked up as a teen? Much love, Nick S.

1:49:02Aaron Snyder:That's hard, man. That's 20 years ago, dude.

1:49:08Davis Torgerson:i haven't really changed there's the things that i wish i was doing more then i still wish i was doing more now like stretching and injury prevention instead of just dealing with it once you get hurt like just all that shit i feel like i'm still just as bad i can't think of anything that i'm doing now that i wish i was doing then to be honest um in my teens instead

1:49:32Aaron Snyder:of smoking weed i wish i worked on flipping in and out of tricks a little bit more would help me a little bit more in present day um had my priorities a little crooked back then

1:49:46Davis Torgerson:yeah i i thought of it as like skate habits but we're talking anything yeah i don't know maybe i'm better at using a calendar now i don't think that was that important when i was a teen though

1:50:02Aaron Snyder:yeah shit i still need help with that

1:50:06Davis Torgerson:yeah nick shields bro i don't know how old you are but whatever you think you should be doing more of just just do it no time like the present thanks for the email um next up yo the one minute rule this is a minute and five seconds i will let it slide but just that was that's a close call right there we got a voice note from sean rona let's take a listen hello there the bunt got a

1:50:39The Bunt:little question for you as well as a bit of feedback not sure if you're aware but on spotify it appears that they automatically generate descriptions for each of the time stamps and i'm realizing now that it keeps spoiling the random skater of the week I did a little digging and I saw that you can turn that feature off in the Spotify for podcasters thingamabob. And I think you should. I think you should let the people play along with a little bit of honor. Some of us are keeping score and we're taking these tallies pretty seriously still. Did I say that right? Anyway, my question is actually inspired by that recent Palace video, which was filmed here in good old Detroit.

1:51:30The Bunt:If you could pick any established team to come to your lovely city of Toronto and film their own full-length video, who would you like to see? Thanks.

1:51:44hmm well first off love constructive criticism like that not people just coming in hot making

1:51:52Davis Torgerson:demands and shit but you know well thought out and definitely should do that i didn't know that that was happening spoilers um but i'll go take a look at spotify after this and try and fix that for you. Team. Damn. You got one? Hmm.

1:52:22Aaron Snyder:I don't right now.

1:52:24Davis Torgerson:Who's popping these days? Man, we got a bunch of teams coming to town soon. I thought they were going to get rain.

1:52:34Aaron Snyder:All the teams. past or present team

1:52:39Davis Torgerson:that makes it way easier yeah bring the sorry team let's go back to like 2002 let's get Arto and them boys in the building yeah

1:52:54Aaron Snyder:or the America this is skateboarding squad that would be fucking fire

1:53:01Davis Torgerson:they did hold it well not the whole team

1:53:04Aaron Snyder:Yeah, we just want a whole T-Dot video out of this team, Detroit Styles. Fuck, man. Bring the real squad. So the boys, they got everything in that team. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Get the real team to T-Dot. I know they come every summer for the Bunt Jam, a couple of them. So just bring the whole squad. Spend seven years in Toronto working on a video.

1:53:31Davis Torgerson:Yeah. Okay, I'll go with bring the Huff team. just thinking Brad Cromer in Toronto damn Mason although he's been here a handful of times he's never had time to skate street always curious what he could pull off out here Dyke Cyrus Huff team's fire Eric Herrera et cetera never a dull moment watching a Huff video yeah okay i like that all right next up we've got an email from aaron bliss

1:54:10Aaron Snyder:yo what's the funniest thing will marshall has said to you guys dude seems like a riot

1:54:17Davis Torgerson:damn off the top of my head i can't think of anything but he did just have us cracking the fuck up uh one more tyler warren's wedding story oh nice like i said on random skater or maybe that no that hasn't come out yet so forget that chill you gotta chill yeah so was that tyler warren's wedding two weekends ago now and the next like i went to bed at 12 30 kevin lowry brought me back to the hotel got a good sleep was still very hungover the rest of the crew went to the bonfire whatever the hell they did they got back to the hotel at 6 a.m so they were completely cooked and on the way there there was five of us me chuck and lowry in the back claire and mitch up front on the way back we didn't realize we had an extra one will was coming with us so we go to get in the whip pop the trunk open and and will's just laying in the trunk he's like what the fuck so three in the back one in the trunk and uh kev asked will how he was doing and he just like started firing off like a million funny he's like how you doing he's like you're looking at it and he's just like oh bro we were just dying and he was so like funny for the first like 10 minutes of the drive and then we looked back a little bit later and he was just out cold uh nice hour-long drive in a in a trunk lying down it was fucking hilarious

1:55:56Aaron Snyder:yeah he needed that rest though that's good man worked out for him i don't think i even have one dude i don't spend too much time with will to be honest with you so not that close with him

1:56:11Davis Torgerson:wish i was closer um but yeah you are right he is a riot hyped he's pulling up for the jam All right. Next up, we got an email from Daniel Robertson. Donald, your kid in hockey yet?

1:56:30Aaron Snyder:Very Canadian question. No, not yet. He's only turning six in September. He's supposed to start his first hockey season in October. So we'll see how he goes. He's been running through learning how to play with me twice a week for the last two winters. so I think he's ready to spread his wings and fly so we'll see how he goes

1:56:53Davis Torgerson:that'll be epic

1:56:58Davis Torgerson:I thought he was but I guess playing with you doesn't count he meant in hockey

1:57:04Aaron Snyder:he's not in a league but yeah he's been playing since he was like 2 we would go I would teach him how to skate for the first few years now the last two years we've been playing hockey pretty consistently yeah twice a week thinks he's better than he is alright next up we've got an email from Zachariah Lee I do up to whatever the fuck DJ Khaled said and whatever Safa says Bunt boys thanks for keeping the real shit coming for almost a decade or is it over a decade I can't remember y 'all the realest I gotta ask a real one Have you, Dono and Ghost, throughout all of your years through thick and thin, ever seen one or the other or any other homies do an illegal trick, not an illegal trick you both have agreed to, and in each other's own mind, given them props, knowing rightfully so that you actually thought it wasn't of proper caliber?

1:58:06Aaron Snyder:Meaning internally, you didn't think it was fully valid, but you gave proper props anyhow. I feel like this happens when we were all younger. I know we all got to give props for whatever's landed, but sometimes those internal thoughts be real. Hope that wasn't too confusing. And it's the best pod on goddamn earth. Thank you. That's really nice, man. And it's just over a decade.

1:58:33Davis Torgerson:Yeah, I think May 26th, if I remember correctly. Late May was episode one. Crazy.

1:58:41Aaron Snyder:10 years ago so this is the ripe age of 27 years old man and here we are or maybe 28.

1:58:53so each other or a homie doing an illegal trick for sure i'm trying to think of a specific one but that happens all the time because we've said it before but got homies that they might have an

1:59:06Davis Torgerson:legal trick in their bag but you just want to see if they're working hard and they're hyped when they land it uh i'm trying to i remember the one homie doing like switch 180 smiths who's not nollie smiths at dunbat and i say yo that's that's your shit you get it you're hype Let's keep it moving.

1:59:31Aaron Snyder:No, go more inner circle, man.

1:59:38Aaron Snyder:I mean, our homie Simon has a pretty, his bag teeters on legal or illegal. But he is an all-time great in the TDOT skate scene. Most reasons, like Simon has hard flips. like one of the best most iconic toronto hard flips and we were skating this uh big bank you'll see it a lot in detroit it was in the palace video we just talked about and he battled front foot impossible on this bank for probably four hours dude like one of the most intense bat and the whole time in my head i'm like he should just be hard flipping you know like that's a clip in the vid hard flip but he was so locked in the front foot impossible and i don't think he's skated since absolutely killed him front board kick flip in 66 tapes later

2:00:34Davis Torgerson:yeah that's a good one but just in general it doesn't really we don't care if it's illegal if if it's in your bag and you're working for it and you do the clip do the trick you're getting some props it's not like it's not like we care that much about illegal tricks we just try to not do them ourselves try we try yeah uh yeah i can't think of any other ones who in our crew is popping off illegal shit i mean morgan holy shit he had a phase of hella illegal tricks he knows it pop shove smith the little handrail kick flip front 50 to switch crook uh like pop shove smith front shove all that kind of crap but even at the time i think i was like this smith

2:01:25Aaron Snyder:dude who out of our homies has the most proper bag of tricks

2:01:30Davis Torgerson:like never veered on the edge of illegal that's easy the first one that comes to mind cody brown but jacob williams bag was smaller than cody's and that was like the two of them even just cleaner not cleaner but like so pristine because he didn't even venture too far out when he wanted to do something new it was a switch back heel to front crook like shit cuz yeah i guess the two of them were cody ever do anything illegal oh for sure if I really think about it. But we won't go there. Jake's, I don't think I can think of a single illegal trick. No. Just all your nollie basics that you want to see on rails.

2:02:18Davis Torgerson:From nollie nose to nollie back nose blunt. Yeah. Yeah. That's a nice one-two right there. Shared part, you two, in the next bunt video. of dust off the cobwebs boys all right who's next up in here still oh my god next up we got a voice note from who the hell is this benjamin cabrian i don't know that the world needs to see this photo but let's take a listen You got it? Yeah.

2:03:03The Bunt:Welcome back, Bump Boys. Saifa and Richie. Oh, sorry. I had an Apple Yard moment right there. I'm playing. You know what I mean. Don Cron. Don one of one. D Jones.

2:03:15Aaron Snyder:I like that. What's up?

2:03:16The Bunt:This is Ben Cabriana calling in once again. Saifa, I got a couple questions for you. That photo of you laying on the ground surrounded by a bunch of pairs of Nikes looking like you're so hyped that you just got a box. Got a couple questions about that One, what was your favorite pair of shoes Out of that box And two, do any of those pairs of shoes Withstand the test of time As some of your favorites of all time Love that you guys are back Miss you guys very much Anybody that says that There's a better skate podcast out there I'd love to beg to differ See you guys soon Wow

2:03:56Aaron Snyder:Wow.

2:03:57Davis Torgerson:That's a real listener right there.

2:03:59Aaron Snyder:It is, dude. Ben. What an email. He did his research.

2:04:05Davis Torgerson:All right. I mean, this picture is insane. I can't remember who took it. I hate that it found its way somehow onto the internet here. Actually, I don't really care. It's funny. In this box in particular, oh those black and orange blazers i never skated those but i kept those for years as chillers and then for skate ones these dunk lows here uh and the first adrift video we did stick up kids i skated those a bunch got a bunch of clips so i'll say those um and those ones hurt me because i swear if you look at how much they are now they're like two or three k and i skated a bunch bunch of pairs of those should have kept a couple you know i'm saying but did not give a fuck back in the day just skated everything in the boxes thanks for the memories and the embarrassment but thanks for the that was an epic voice note for real that was a fucking real one all right

2:05:06Aaron Snyder:next up we've got an email from brendan booth which pros do you think would be most likely to use ai in a video part to clean up a sketchy landing and which pros do you think would be most likely to use AI to turn a bail into a make. I mean, same difference. We don't need two here. Which pro? Gary Rogers. Probably. If he was a pro. I'm playing. Dude, I mean, if Dustin Dolan knew what AI was, maybe he would use to clean something up. I don't know, man. Sheckler to finish the El Toro backside flip.

2:05:48Davis Torgerson:yeah i don't know if he would the only this is just too fresh in my mind this person is not a pro skater and only people who have been to the bunt jam barbecue on sunday would know this one but um our boy tommy's dad big ron ai master these days he would we should ask him he'll probably maybe we can put a clip next week of ron skating but yes he's been slowly mastering the art of

2:06:17Aaron Snyder:uh ai dude mastering is a interesting word

2:06:25Aaron Snyder:legend absolute legend all right y 'all that's gonna wrap up this week's edition of the post office get your emails and voice notes into the bunt live at gmail.com we want to hear from you man

2:06:48Aaron Snyder:Welcome back to the Rundown, the skateboard world source for sports brought to you by NFL Canada. Ghost, we are inching closer to the NFL season.

2:06:59Davis Torgerson:I cannot wait. September 9th, 2026. You know what I'm saying? We on and popping. Patriots, Seahawks, of course, they're going to hit us with a Super Bowl rematch out the gate. I hope the Patriots don't get embarrassed again We obviously like an intense game I don't think they will I did see AJ Brown Dislocated his thumb in practice

2:07:24Aaron Snyder:Push right through it

2:07:26Davis Torgerson:He didn't leave practice He's built like that

2:07:31Aaron Snyder:Prediction for that game Just a quick prediction

2:07:33Davis Torgerson:I think the Patriots Patriots win 24 To 16 You know what I'm saying

2:07:45Aaron Snyder:They're going to score 24 points on that defense at home

2:07:49Davis Torgerson:Oh it's in Seattle Dude They're putting up the banner

2:07:53Aaron Snyder:They're getting the rings It's a fucking Probably like a 14-6 game

2:07:59Davis Torgerson:I think they're going to be worse this year man They lost fucking Then they lose their coordinator And they lost

2:08:07Davis Torgerson:Kenneth Walker

2:08:09Aaron Snyder:Our B's are replaceable In this world man

2:08:12Davis Torgerson:I'm just saying forget the exact score I got Patriots I got Seahawks And then we have an international game In Melbourne Niners and Rams Dude does Aaron Donald come back I think so I hope so Why not dude Like why not

2:08:34Aaron Snyder:Shotgun I call the Rams You can't have them I'm not cheering for the Niners dude I'm also picking the Rams and uh that's just how it's gonna be man back to divisional breakdowns we're starting the afc south texans colts jags titans obviously the texans won this division last year dude you see that pic of fucking cj streld walking into training camp how could you not see that brother man he uh zero aura coming out of cj stroud right now um this is the year that takeover started last year or maybe the year before we're always waiting for the prince who was promised to fully blossom let's give him one more year trevor warrants in the jags it won't be quarterback dominance he's it just ain't like that but the jags win this division man i'm not mad at it

2:09:36Davis Torgerson:one bit i actually i'm pretty sure i agree but maybe just to mix it up a little bit i mean i don't trust the colts they were on a crazy pace last season and then daniel jones got hurt they fell off a cliff missed the playoffs remember they were first they were like one of the best in the league bro who was it jeff saturday was talking about them being the best team in the league i think they were eight and one maybe yeah yeah jonathan taylor went fucking psycho but i think they never won another game after that i might be tripping maybe one oh yeah the daniel jones injury completely wrecked them yeah i might have seen their last win of the season or last or second last that berlin game um anyways you know what i'm going with the texans man we got to remember this league ain't about aura it's about results you know i'm saying were people talking about sam darnold's aura last year no and what they do a casual super bowl so texans hopefully that i mean they re-signed their main defensive studs i'm pretty sure uh nico collins ain't going nowhere you know i'm saying they went and got david montgomery bro but the

2:10:49Aaron Snyder:o-line is still a concern i'm going with the texans loudly about david montgomery man well that's your your sleeper he ain't a sleeper but like what a spot to land man they were desperate for a running back i mean nick chubb had weeks where he was great i fucking forget the other guy's name woody marks woody marks there you go i probably spent 100 fab on him one week didn't pan out But like the Joe Mixon role, man, Joe Mixon was incredible. And now David Montgomery, that's great for them. What is the ceiling for Cam Ward and the Titans, man?

2:11:26Davis Torgerson:I think under 500, but I think they start to creep up maybe six, seven wins, man.

2:11:32Aaron Snyder:Asking for a friend here, you have two choices in a keeper week. Sam Darnold or Cam Ward. What are the rounds? They're off by one. Sam Darnold in the ninth.

2:11:44Davis Torgerson:Yeah, I remember Sam Darnold in the ninth. I think Cam Ward in the eighth. I might go just roll the dice on Cam Ward because we've already seen the peak of Sam Darnold. When we're talking keepers and maybe keep them for a few years, I always want that upside. And you think I'm bullshitting you, but I think that's what I would do.

2:12:07Aaron Snyder:I don't think there's a wrong answer in this one. But I would wait for some preseason. is the problem. And then the other option is you keep David Montgomery over both of them.

2:12:21Davis Torgerson:Yeah, could do that. I would just want to see some preseason tape even though it's really misleading. I just want to know if that O-line is still dog shit for David Montgomery. Hard to say. Let's predict the division though. What's your 1-4?

2:12:40Aaron Snyder:Miss Jags Texans Colts Titans I mean maybe the easiest one to predict all right I'll go although

2:12:47Davis Torgerson:the Jags are so fucked man like yeah week to week I'm going Texans Jags Colts no Titans Colts yeah right dude you're okay no hey you never know every year there's some crazy stuff like I forget all

2:13:03Aaron Snyder:right all right like I mean that is one of the most boring divisions you know not much excitement down there in the AFC South.

2:13:10Davis Torgerson:There's probably eight teams that made the playoffs last year that will not make it this year. Don't forget that. And I might have made that number up, but it's like a number around eight. How do you even come up with that? Oh, Bill Simmons. He always breaks that number up. What, like there's eight new teams? Yeah, that happens. Yeah, which means you can't just look at last year's standings and be like, oh, it's going to be the same.

2:13:31Aaron Snyder:No one did, but the Titans did not get much better.

2:13:34Davis Torgerson:I know, but maybe the Titans are the shocker team and the colts fucking daniel jones is slower than i mean he's coming off fucking

2:13:42Aaron Snyder:torn achilles man he doesn't yeah but he never had to do much lost michael pittman that was better they're better off without him who's like bro alec pierce man yo that was one of the most interesting contracts yeah there's some question marks it was like it was like yo he's getting this huge raise. I was like, why, dude? You know, like, that's some Gary Trent shit, man. Yeah. Alright, moving down to the AFC West. Always a competitive division. The Broncos, the Chiefs, the Raiders, and the Chargers. Similar to the Jaguars, I feel like the Chargers are the same thing. Every offseason. Justin Herbert, Justin Herbert, that.

2:14:31Aaron Snyder:He got his coach. He got this. He got that. Where do you see this division ending up?

2:14:39Davis Torgerson:I mean, I hate to be that dude because it is every damn year. But something feels a little different this year.

2:14:46Aaron Snyder:What is it that feels different?

2:14:48Davis Torgerson:It's the fucking six months. What feels different actually is the rest of the division. I like that. And I actually, like, let's assume Amari and Hampton doesn't miss, like, half the season. They went and got Mike McDaniel as just an OC. I like that. And then the Raiders aren't ready. You know what I'm saying? Kirk Cousins slows my last Mendoza. I'm running. Yeah, but he's... Kirk Cousins is starting the year, I'm pretty sure. So, I'm not... They're not a threat to me yet. The Chiefs, we got Mahomes off the ACL. We got Walker. they always needed a running back yeah rice be looking slow and then the broncos we got homie coming off ankle surgery so i'm more looking at the rest of them okay and the chargers i feel like i feel like this is their year but they always all get hurt too but i'll go chargers i want to say chiefs homer chiefs broncos raiders so the broncos go from winning

2:15:49Aaron Snyder:were they the oh i guess they were second place below the patriots so they go from second in the conference to potentially missing the playoffs is drew luck drew luck not going to be ready drew luck the fuck you talking about bo nicks oh bo nicks same guy same guy different name

2:16:08Davis Torgerson:they did get waddle so that'll be interesting i don't know you know what i shouldn't underestimate the broncos i'm just never been a big fan my real my heart says chiefs but my brain says chargers

2:16:20Aaron Snyder:broncos chiefs raiders if josh allen beats the broncos in that playoff game which he should have they had they lost that game rather than the broncos one do the buffalo bills win the super

2:16:36Davis Torgerson:bowl hell no hell no they get to the super bowl they get there obviously i mean but the seahawks beat them bro i the seahawks beat them they barely beat the jags and then they lost to denver like i think that defense i don't think anyone was stopping them and they handled the rams like yeah they made it was just their year yeah all right in this division return to greatness There's lots of slander about Patrick Mahomes the last year or two.

2:17:06Aaron Snyder:Two years ago, they win all the close games. Last year, they lose all the close games. This year, the Broncos, you know, coming off that huge season, I think they regress a little bit. Like you said, the Raiders, everything's up in the air down there. The Chargers, hope is the worst thing you can give someone. And all they ever have is hope. The Chiefs win the division. Everything is returned to greatness. Over there in Chiefs Kingdom. Rasheed Rice does what he's supposed to do. Kelsey. What's that? You're keeping him. That's just. Kelsey is not what he used to be. He's a lower tier tight end, but we don't need that out of him anymore.

2:17:48Aaron Snyder:And then Kenneth Walker, huge upgrade. They've needed a running back since they lost Kareem Hunt. But I do believe in Mahomes. The Mahomes hate is crazy, man. Mahomes clearly the best quarterback in this division. they still got andy reed they had a wonky year last year so be it chiefs chargers broncos raiders

2:18:10Davis Torgerson:that's just how it's gonna be one more thing on the chiefs like i'm not buying everything you're selling but i want to buy it because i'm a fan but one huge thing that pissed me off for our keeper league they got rid of that bum ass motherfucker probably they got rid of that bum matt naggy sent them to fucking new york unfortunately where i got jackson dart but they got they went and got eric the enemy back who when they're when that offense was fucking zipping and flying zagging and mahomes was qb one or two every year it was the enemy and now and then immediately he went remember he was terrible for fantasy for two years in a row Matt Nagy kicked that bum out the fucking door.

2:18:56Aaron Snyder:So... Matt Nagy just brings down quarterback production wherever he fucking goes. But we're talking about this guy was chasing Brady's greatness. And now people are so easy to just love the shiny new toy. Like Herbert's gonna be this guy that takes over the division. I don't believe it, man. I don't believe it. It's Mahomes... It's Mahomes' division to lose. It's gotta be. Yeah.

2:19:21Davis Torgerson:Nah. I hear you. I'm just giving the Chiefs this one more year as, like, a potential retooling year as he, like, comes back from the ACL.

2:19:33Aaron Snyder:What do you think about Kenneth Walker?

2:19:35Davis Torgerson:Oh, I'm so excited. I mean, I started playing fantasy. My second year was Kareem Hunt's rookie season. So, like, I was used to seeing a beast. And then there was Jamal Charles before that. So it's been a long time, remember? And then it went all downhill. Clyde Edwards, Clyde Edwards, a layer. And it's been patching together. I mean, they've won Super Bowls with, you know, scat backs and shit. But it'll be nice to see a workhorse there again. But I've had Kenneth a few times in fantasy. He does tend to miss a fair number of weeks. So hoping for health over there.

2:20:13Aaron Snyder:Agreed. All right. Transitioning out of the NFL, something we don't really like to do, especially when the NFL season is approaching. both super excited for it dude something you know came over us this summer the world cup didn't expect to be as locked in to the world cup as we were but dude just quickly your your

2:20:35Davis Torgerson:world cup experience man it was both amazing and so frustrating at the same time most soccer i've ever watched in my life um no question there i was absolutely loving it but then the the shit just feels too rigged man sometimes it was so blatant and so annoying and uh that was very frustrating at times like it's just like a foregone like yo morocco's third goal and then the comeback like there's argentina specifically let's let's not hold back on that no it was like they got help 100 all the way through uh and had they won that in penalties oh my god that would have just been absolutely brutal but uh i can say i'm a fan and i'm i suck since every four years because i'm already like excited for the next one yeah very excited for the next one i also was locked in

2:21:34Aaron Snyder:started with canada you know backed canada we had a nice little run um won a knockout game which was i think you know more than we could have ever expected our city was buzzing we were hosting games you know there's flags flying everywhere in the uh multicultural city we live in man every nook and cranny of this city was popping with world cup there was tvs on every sidewalk you name it man the city fully bought in that was incredible um yeah it was rigged fully for messy they scored some big goals but uh for the most part the games were exciting the goaltending was fantastic and i think sometimes people don't like watching soccer because there's not much excitement a lot of the time not a lot of scoring not a lot of shots on net but there was high scoring games this shit was back and forth um you absolutely love the world cup yeah i think that's

2:22:33Davis Torgerson:what used to turn me off that's why i was never a big hockey or soccer guy just because like the the 0-0, 1-0, 2-0. But once the almost goals start to get exciting and you really lock into it, there is way more excitement than you might think if you're not giving it a chance. And you mentioned Canada's knockout game. It was 0-0 the whole game, and I think we won in the 92nd minute or something. Or didn't win, but scored, and just had to play some D for a few minutes. Incredible. shout out to canada and i didn't know this going in but the first we tied the first game in the group stage and that was the the best we'd ever done so everything after that was gravy that was

2:23:18Aaron Snyder:7-1 one game yeah i mean there's a clear discrepancy in talent you know oh yeah you can see the levels there's like once you get down to like the final eight or maybe call it 12. everyone after that is like it's the worlds apart yeah um who was your favorite player

2:23:44uh damn good question

2:23:48Davis Torgerson:i gotta like look back at the teams who is yours i had to be jude bellingham man for england

2:23:54Aaron Snyder:you know harry kane started the the tournament as the the leader and obviously was the leader for England, but we saw the rise of Jude Bellingham. And then when they lost that game to Argentina in stunning fashion, Argentina was just not much sportsmanship. They would scream in your face after they beat you too. And one guy, I think he was saying some shit to his teammates, and Jude was there, and Jude slapped him in the back of the head, and it makes me like him even more. So I think the rise of Jude Bellingham was one of my favorite parts.

2:24:39Davis Torgerson:Damn, I can't think. I mean, it's boring, but that was our guy in 2018. Mbappe emerged in the last World Cup. He was incredible in the finals. Back-to-back golden boots. And I just found out he's of Cameroonian descent. So let me just go with Mbappe still.

2:24:59Aaron Snyder:So it's a goal scoring machine, man. You got anything else sports wise?

2:25:07Davis Torgerson:Sports wise, let's go Steelers. Let's stay under the radar. Let's just shock the world and win a playoff game or two.

2:25:14Aaron Snyder:You can't stay under the radar with fucking Aaron Rodgers. I don't know. No one has any expectations.

2:25:21Davis Torgerson:Yeah, he was going crazy.

2:25:23Aaron Snyder:He's going off on Fauci, man. We ain't going to touch on that shit, but that's Aaron Rodgers wheelhouse right there. I plead the fifth. All right, y 'all. Y 'all know where to find us next week, episode three, next Wednesday. Let's get it.