Catching Up With Joe Valdez

Catching Up With Joe Valdez 

Interview & artwork by Damian Gomez

original photo provided by Joe Albert Valdez                                                                          June 9, 2013

   I met Joe Albert back around 1987. I was in the sixth or seventh grade at the time and we were both living on the South side of Roswell, NM. He would show up at our launch ramp sessions and shut the place down with his scarewalks and huge ollie melons. Quite possibly the most daring individual that I have ever known, Joe has never been one to shy away from risk. He was the guy always skating the fastest, sliding the furthest and ollieing the biggest gaps. Everyone I knew, including myself, loved being in the company of Joe Albert. He later bounced back and forth between Albuquerque and Roswell, and we lost contact with each other.

   In the mid-nineties, Joe Albert was living in San Francisco and making his mark in the skateboard industry with multiple appearances in popular skateboard films and magazines. After decades of skateboarding, he remains active in the scene and currently has a pro model deck available through Sentient Skateboards. There has always been a certain mystique about Joe and he has retained that certain mystique up until this very day.

Damian: Beep…beep….beep…    (calling via Skype)

Joe: Damian!?

Damian: Hey Joe, can you hear me?

Joe: LOL -What’s up buddy!? It’s good to see you man, look at you!

Damian: What’s going on Mr.!? Oh hey! I see you to, you’re right there! Alright…

Joe: Uh..Watching Discovery “Blue Planet” on Netflix.

Damian: Nice, you look good Joe. This is great!

Joe: It’s been so many years Damian..It’s good to catch up finally after so long.

Damian: Let me take you back all the way to the beginning. I’m gonna jog your memory this morning ok?

Joe: LOL –alright.

Damian: What is your full name?

Joe: Jose Alberto Melanche Valdez Jr.

Damian: When and where were you born?

Joe: Gilroy…California.

Damian: Gilroy, California!? When was this? What year?

Joe: ’76!

Damian: 1976!? You know…I was never able to get this information from you when we were young. I would always ask you how old you were and you would never tell me. For the longest time, I never knew….I was also born in ’76, so we were born the same year. I always thought that you might be older or younger than I was. I would always ask you but you were always telling me something different! Ha!

Joe: LOL -Why would I do that!?

Damian: Huh?

Joe: Why would I do that? LOL

Damian: I have no idea. So ok, Gilroy, California in 1976…How long did you live in Gilroy?

Joe: Ah man, I was just born there. I grew up in Long Beach actually.

Damian: In Long Beach!?

Joe: Haha, yea…I’m a California baby. I grew up in California for my first eight years and then I moved around a lot. I moved to so many different places throughout California. I’ve lived in San Jose, Salinas, and San Bernadino. I did a lot of traveling in my youth, you know.. Most of my youth was spent on the road.

Damian: At what age did you begin skateboarding?

Joe: Eleven

Damian: Where were you living at the time?

Joe: Haha, this is funny…I was in Carlsbad, New Mexico.

Damian: Carlsbad, New Mexico.

Joe: Yea.

Damian: Huh…what…uh..

Joe: You got some coffee man? My coffee is super strong man! I got..

Damian: LOL

Joe: I got this new coffee machine right!?

Damian: Uh huh

Joe: This thing actually grinds your coffee fresh.

Damian: Yea I saw that! I saw the pictures on Facebook.

Joe: Oh yea…Cuisinart. It’s a good quality, top brand.

Damian: I got the cheap stuff. This stuff is like…the International Foods brand. You know..

Joe: Really!?

Damian: Yea, it’s nothing like what you have.

Joe: Oh whaa!..You’re drinking instant!?

Damian: LOL –Yea.

Joe: Ooh man.

Damian: Yes, I’m drinking instant coffee. LOL

Joe: Do you have Pete’s out there where you live?

Damian: What is it?

Joe: Pete’s Coffee

Damian: Pete’s?

Joe: Yea

Damian: Uuh…I don’t know. Do you buy it at the store?

Joe: No, it’s a coffee house. A chain of them…

Damian: I will check it out.

Joe: Yea, they carry high end coffee brands.

Damian: If we do, it’s not in my hood. LOL

Joe: I’ll send you some coffee man.

Damian: Hook me up! Ok, so where are we at? Carlsbad, NM…You are eleven years old. You’ve just started skateboarding. What was it or who was it that sparked your interest in skateboarding?

Joe: This is a good question…My sister’s friend was going to jail at the time and…He felt that he had no more use for his skateboard because where he was going. And like...At my age, I wasn’t able to comprehend or understand the situation but basically his contribution to me was “I don’t need this skateboard anymore cuz where I’m going,.. I can’t skateboard. I’m going to be locked up”

Damian: Right.

Joe: He thought of me and came by to my sister’s house. He said “Here ya go.” He kinda gave me the basics of how to do it. I really didn’t know how to push on the thing so I started off pushing on my knees, right? And he showed me you know, “This is how you do it.. You stand and you push!”  And that’s pretty much it…After that..Man, I was using it every day to go to the “Beach” you know. It was my transportation device. What better way to get to the “Beach” because where I lived, I had to walk like…like miles …to go to this amusement park.

Damian: Do you remember what kind of skateboard it was?

Joe: Uum, no I don’t…damn.

Damian: What about your parents? Were they cool with it? Did they support you in your decision to start skateboarding?

Joe: I was living with my sister at the time…Actually my mom was in prison, haha. So I was living with my sister and my sister was like totally cool with it.

Damian: What about your pops? Where was your dad?

Joe: My dad was uh..in San Jose somewhere, having kids.

Damian: Ok, but your sister was cool with it, she didn’t have a problem with it…Uuh, what was the skate scene like in Carlsbad?

Joe: I didn’t really know much about the skateboarding scene. I wasn’t aware that there even was a scene you know? My concentration was on getting from my place to the “Beach” which was like this river…I think it was the Rio Grande River. I don’t know, I’m not sure which river it was. It was just like this muddy river that we called the “Beach”.

Damian: And you would use it for transportation basically, to get back and forth?

Joe: Exactly.

Damian: Ok

Joe: And going back and forth, back and forth..you know. Wrecking on curbs and freakin’ cracks. I started to catch on and was like “Whoa, I can do more than just push on this thing!” I could dodge rocks and go over bumps, I could avoid cracks by leaning to the side…And then sure enough, I began leaning a little more this way, that way, turning, carving and then started hopping. Instead of flipping me, I was able to flip it. LOL…Less of the body flipping and more of the board flipping is what I started to figure out, lol!

Damian: Haha! Ok, at what point did you move to Roswell?

Joe: After eleven. I came out to Roswell and lived with my brother, Ishmael. You know my brother Ishmael, yea?

Damian: I do.

Joe: Yea, and he took on the responsibility of me living there at his place and he supported me. He actually got me my first board which was an Eric Dressen.

Damian: So that was your first real board? An Eric Dressen?

Joe: No actually…It had a dragon. I think it was called “Kryptonite” or…?

Damian: Kryptonics?

Joe: Kryptonic, yea…I think so!

Damian: Was it Kryptonics? That was a popular brand at the time. Charles had one, you remember Charles right?

Joe: Yea…No , that was my first board, a Kryptonics. I remember, we got it from like this bike shop slash skateboard shop right there where that old Mc Donalds is on Main St. Do you know where Pepper’s is?

Damian: Yea.

Joe: Ok, right there…right across the street. There used to be this little building that looked like a gas station.

 

Damian: Yea.

Joe: That used to be a bike shop back in the day.

Damian: Whoa, trip out. I don’t even remember that shit.. That’s crazy…Alright.

Joe: Yea, haha. I was like eleven or twelve maybe. After I had got the skateboard, I basically pushed around on it in Carlsbad that whole year…And then I guess the following year, I moved to Roswell.

Damian: Uh huh.

Joe: And uh, I just kept it going from there. Man, I haven’t even thought about it. I must have just kept it going…Yea, that’s right because I was living at the base. I was living on the base and you know, I met some real skateboarders that were really into it.

Damian: Who were some of your influences back then, your early influences in Roswell? Do you remember who these guys were?

Joe: Yea, his name is Andrew Buecther.

Damian: Andrew Buecther! Ha! Of course, right, he had a mini ramp out there.

Joe: Oh you know him!?

Damian: Of course I know Andrew Buecther, he had the mini ramp out at the base….The particle board ramps.

Joe: That is who started it all off for me! Because in Carlsbad, ..all I knew was how to get from here to there and that’s it you know. But once I got to Roswell, I then realized that you can do amazing tricks with the thing. You could actually have fun and do things with it. You could maneuver yourself and also maneuver the skateboard in ways that were like…Like when the kick flip was introduced to me, I was like “Oh my God!”

Damian: Haha.

Joe: You know, …I remember just trying and trying to learn how to do the kick flip. It took me like a couple of weeks to figure it out.

Damian: Yea?

Joe: You can kick it and flip it without it flying twenty miles away, lol.

Damian: Haha, yea…that was heavy duty stuff back then. The kick flip.

Joe: But yea,…Andrew Buecther and my neighbor, I forget his name…I think it was Mark? Do you know how to spell Buecther? Have you tried Facebooking him?

Damian: Man, the last time I saw that cat was years ago. He was riding a ten speed down Main St. and I was like “Whoa, there’s Andrew!” and that was it but yea, that was years ago. But yea, I will look him up on Facebook. His name hasn’t come up in years.

Joe: Yea, his brother’s name is Christoffe. Do you remember his brother?

Damian: I don’t,..I didn’t know his brother but I did know Andrew. I used to spend some time at his house skating his ramp.

Joe: Yea.

Damian: So would you say that these would be some of your earliest memories of skateboarding in Roswell?

Joe: Uh huh..Yea, that’s pretty much it. After that, I ended up moving to Albuquerque. I would get tired of living in Roswell and go to stay with my mom in Albuquerque. I wanted to expand and was just getting tired of Roswell. So we moved to Albuquerque and I loved it. I met some friends, got tired of it and moved back to Roswell because I missed my old friends, haha! We ended up moving back and forth between Roswell and Albuquerque like three or four times, it was crazy.

Damian: Did you meet skaters in Albuquerque that had an influence on you and your skating style?

Joe: Yea I did um, …actually like. One of my final moves back to Albuquerque, I ended up meeting Sean Mitchell. And we just…It was like, …I had met a new friend. This guy was really good… He would do an ollie axle on a curb and then kick flip to tail. I thought that was the sickest thing that I had ever seen in my life. He would do it like first try or something. That guy has always been phenomenal.  So from then on, I was just like…”I just met my new best friend, this guy is amazing.” I was bragging to all my other friends about how good he is and how much better he is than everyone else, lol.

Damian: What were some of the spots you were skating back then, in Albuquerque?

Joe: Oh man, we were skating….actually we were on the news one time. We would skate this hospital every morning before school. In order to get to this hospital, we would run across the freeway, across a ditch and then across the other side of the freeway. We ended up on the evening news and getting our boards confiscated. We were known as "the kids on TV", the “Sandia Ditch Skateboarders”. But yea, anything and whatever man. Ollieing over chains, up and off of stairs, it was so fun. But it was a serious thing when our skateboards got confiscated by the principal. He was like, "There was a helicopter filming you guys!” and I guess that is how we ended up on the news.

Damian: Were you skating just street back then? Or did you have access to half pipes and mini ramps?

Joe: Well in Albuquerque, there were ditches. Albuquerque is known for the really nice ditches and abundance of them. So you know, we were mainly just street skaters. Everything and anywhere, my passion for skating has never changed. After realizing that you could do more than just push on the thing, after meeting Andrew and him showing me tricks, there was just a whole new realm. It became more of my life than anything else so…you know. Everything I did was skateboarding…I guess that's why I would wake up so early and bang on all of my friends doors, haha!

Damian: Haha, do you remember waking me up at seven in the morning so that we could skate the local spots and then make our way to Fausto’s house?

Joe: I loved it because you lived so close, so it was easy for me to do that.

Damian: Yes, I clearly remember those days.

Joe: Although, I don’t think your mom liked the whole idea of me coming over early every day, haha.

Damian: LOL

Joe: I can understand that.

Damian: That was great man, I loved those days… When and how did you end up in San Francisco?

Joe: I had a dream about San Francisco before I ever came out here and uh, I was living with Sean in Denver at the time. This was more of a calling rather than a dream. I had woken up so excited that morning. The dream… It felt so real and I took it seriously.  I waited until after breakfast to tell Sean about my dream. I told him that I had dreamt about us living in San Francisco, skating with all our favorite skaters and living the life. I thought that he wouldn’t take it seriously at first but within twenty four hours, we were on the road to San Francisco. We had a couple girlfriends living with us in Denver at the time and Sean talked his girlfriend into letting us borrow her car. We pretty much just abandoned our girlfriends and drove out to San Francisco, it was crazy man! It was me, Sean and one of our friends, Damien. We stayed out there for about a week before Sean crashed the car. We initially wanted to stay for about two weeks, right. Sean had managed to get a hold of some strong chronic weed and we were also drinking Mickeys, that’s exactly the beer we were drinking and…We ended up,.. It was so strange, we wrecked into this guy’s car on a turn ramp bridge or something? I’m not really sure but Sean wrecked into this guy’s brand new Toyota which he had just bought earlier that day. The weirdest thing was that when the cops showed up, they didn’t question Sean. I ended up using the phone at some random girl’s house to call Sean’s girlfriend back in Denver. The poor girl had to tell her father about the situation because her dad was the person insuring the car! Her dad was pretty bummed but they were like super rich so it wasn’t that big of a deal. Just as long as we were ok, you know. The insurance company had been calling him to inform him about the accident in San Francisco and this guy was like “What!?” After that, he pretty much gave us orders to return the car back to Sean’s girlfriend. So our trip ended up getting cut short. And here is the bummer thing about it, on the first day in San Francisco, I broke my board off the “seven” at Embarcadero. It was retarded! So the whole time I was there, I didn’t even get to skate man.

Damian: Yea, that would be a bummer.

Joe: I didn’t have any money because the money we did have, was for food, gas and stuff like that.  So yea, I was bummed. There was no way that I could ask one of the pros because they would only swap products and I didn’t have anything to trade.  I think I might have asked but they were like “No, we can’t give you no board for five dollars!” haha. So yea, I was kind of assed out. We ended up going back to Albuquerque after that wreck…

Damian: Uh huh

Joe: We dropped the car off in Denver and to make a long story short, we ended up going back to Denver and picking up all of our stuff knowing that we had to make it back to San Francisco somehow, some way. We moved back to Albuquerque and lived at Sean’s mother’s house. We worked for her and saved up enough money to move back to San Francisco. It took us about a year to save up seven or eight hundred dollars man. It wasn’t much but we were willing to manage with whatever in order to get back to San Francisco. That’s pretty much what happened….That money didn’t last us much more than a week.

Damian: Oh wow.

Joe: So yea, we just knew that we had to get back to San Francisco because we absolutely loved it and couldn’t wait to get back. We were willing to do anything to get there. We just needed enough money for a video camera and to make it out there. Our intentions were to come out to San Francisco and film because that it what we were doing anyway. We were good at it and we knew that we could make a name for ourselves. So we got the camera and we made it to San Francisco, we just didn’t have anywhere to live. Haha, so we were like homeless skateboarders, living on the street.

Damian: Now..I remember you guys riding for a company called Cherry Bombs out there. When was this?

Joe: This was around 1999-2000

Damian: Was this before or after you had done your ollie at China Banks?

Joe: Oh this was way before.

Damian: What was it like riding for Cherry Bombs?

Joe: It was really fun man, these people actually paid my rent and I was able to quit my day job. They gave me money but unfortunately, it didn’t last too long. The owners of the company were caught smuggling large amounts of weed across Canadian borders.

Damian: LOL, I think I remember hearing about that. Was Cherry Bombs your first sponsor in California?

Joe: Yes, uh huh.

Damian: I actually carried a few Cherry Bombs decks at my skate shop in Roswell.

Joe: Do you know who did the graphics?

Damian: No I don’t. Who did the graphics?

Joe: It was Sam Flores…With the chess piece people…With the devil ..and his knight was knocked over, and Sean was the angel.

Damian: Ooh that’s right! Yea but I’m not sure if I know who Sam Flores is though.

Joe: Oh, he is from Albuquerque. He was one of our good friends that we grew up with back in the day in Albuquerque…skateboarding. Um, he’s an amazing artist and internationally known. He is like…Do you know of Giant?

Damian: Yea man, I know who Mike Giant is.

Joe: Yea, he’s like a big tattoo artist out here and he actually paved the way for us. He was like the first one to come out here. He was a big inspiration to us because he was such a cool guy and Beach Zone…He was an employee there.

Damian: So you met Giant at the Beach Zone in Albuquerque?

Joe: Yea, he was cool with us stealing boards when we didn’t have one. Just as long as he didn’t see us do it, he was ok with it, LOL.

Damian: Would you say that he was somewhat responsible for the intermingling of graffiti and skateboarding? I don’t know, it just seems like he had a huge influence in that area of New Mexico and the joining of those two sub-cultures. And then you would come back to Roswell and kind of act as the ambassador from Albuquerque bringing new trends. The kids in Roswell would eat it right up. Next thing you know, all the skateboarders in Roswell are writing graffiti. The trends were slowly trickling in from Albuquerque.

Joe: Wow, ok…Yea that’s a good way of putting it. In a way, yea…I guess I was an ambassador. That would be the accurate terminology to describe that. I guess you would say that was true.

Damian: Now would you say that Giant played a key part in that because he was an already popular graffiti artist and he also skated. Is that correct?

Joe: Yea, exactly. He's absolutely an amazing person, he is very friendly and genuine. He’s straight up, real and an easy person to get along with. Just a really sweet guy and he became very well known.

Damian: Yea, I have one of his books right here on my desk and his artwork on my arm.

Joe: Oh that’s right! I noticed that the other day. Say, is my picture coming in clear?

Damian: Yea, why?

Joe: Yours is a little fuzzy.

Damian: Oh don’t worry about it, I have a shitty webcam and horrible lighting. So yea…

Joe: LOL

Damian: Well, I’m glad that we got to talk about Albuquerque and Mike Giant. This is great because I’ve never really been able to sit down and talk to you about some of this stuff and the major influence that you had in Roswell. You were that guy going back and forth to Albuquerque, and to Denver, and to San Francisco. You brought in new music, fashion styles, graffiti and Bay Area terminology. The skateboarding sub-culture in Roswell wouldn’t have prospered as much as it did without you.

Joe: Thank you Damian, that means a lot. When I went back to Roswell, I was amazed to see that there was still a strong skate scene and kids still talking about Fausto! There is a skate park now and lots of skateboarders.  As a matter of fact, some of my nephews are now skateboarders. I’m not sure if you have seen the photo that I posted on Facebook of my little nephew Joshua coming out of the bowl with my pro deck?

Damian: Yea, I’ve seen this photo.

Joe: Seeing my little nephew come out of that bowl… Man, I need to send him another deck soon.

Damian: That is something else. Let’s talk about that ollie at China Banks. When did that go down?

Joe: My approach to skateboarding …is..is..In my mind, I’ve always gotta do something different, original and on an obstacle that has never been skated before. Untouched terrain! Like the first astronaut to touch down on the moon right? I freestyled it…I have a thing for looking past what is actually there. You’re looking at the bench, I’m looking at the bench and it’s surroundings you know? What can I do around it, over it, under it, though it….I saw these ledges on top of China Banks and was like “Wow, that’s wide enough to skateboard on!” But who would skate on that? Of course nobody. I went to the back and saw that there was a corner and I was already putting things together in my mind. There’s a gap…Ledge to ledge.

Damian: Uh huh.

Joe: But unfortunately it’s on a bridge, haha. I’m thinking, “Ok, it looks death defying, it looks dangerous and I could die OMG!” But it’s no harder than ollieing over a man-hole in the street if you really think about it. You take away the bridge…You can kind of visualize the trick right? It’s not that big of a deal but…because nobody has ever done it and it hadn’t been done….Yea, everyone really loved it. My friend Patrick O’Dell took a sequence shot of it from across the street. It was about eight or nine frames of me doing the ledge…boom, boom, boom!

Damian: Who has this sequence?

Joe: Slap Magazine.

Damian: Oh so it was featured in Slap!?

Joe: Yea.

Damian: Oh ok, trip out. I had seen other photos of you in Slap but I don’t remember seeing that one. Crazy! Had you already done it before being filmed?

Joe: The first time that I did it, we took photos. The second time…I think…Wait, there is a photo sequence and two different videos of it. The second time I did it was for my friends school project. He made this urban, skate video and called it “Joe Valdez”. So basically I went out for a week and did dome small tricks. We ended up filming the China Banks gap again for that video, it was so cool. He ended up getting second prize at Cannes film festival for that.

Damian: Oh wow.

Joe: He was on public access TV out here in San Francisco and he won some money. After everything was said and done, he ended up paying me some money. I was like “What!? For what?” and he was like “Yea, we won Joe! They loved it!” So yea, he got a good grade, got nominated and won some cash for that one.

Damian: Nice.

Joe: Yea, I was like “Wow!”

Damian: That’s rad.

Joe: All those Youtube videos that are out there right now. They’re montages of me skateboarding right… They have been edited and re-edited over the last decade. I mean, after Trevor Prescott died…I haven’t really went out and filmed with anybody else. Not that I don’t trust anyone…It’s just that when I would skate, it was more of a serious matter. I was doing something like good against evil, you know. I was up against a lot of evil skateboarding forces. I’ve always had a very philosophical understanding of skateboarding. It has always meant more to me than just having fun. It was more like, ..I was up against the devil. I was literally putting my life on the line out there. It was intense man. I wasn’t into skating with other people much because they wouldn’t take it serious. So I was very private in that respect but I also had fun.

Damian: What do you enjoy most about living in San Francisco?

Joe: The struggle. I think if you got it too easy…Life shouldn’t be like that, something’s not right. Don’t get me wrong, if life is good…Well, I just like staying productive, staying on top of my game…Just making it happen you know. When it becomes too easy, it becomes boring. I think that the excitement about living in the Bay Area is so intense…If you’re not up with it, then you get filtered out. It’s the motivation that I need to keep succeeding and making it happen. It comes down to the struggle right?

Damian: Do you have any favorite spots that you are currently skating?

Joe: My favorite spots are spots that are unknown. To tell you the truth, my favorite spots are spots that I’ve never skated before.

Damian: Fresh spots.

Joe: Yea! Finding a new spot is like finding a new toy you know. When that gets boring, you go to the next spot. The city is full of new toys, everywhere man!

Damian: Do you ever go hang out at Alcatraz?

Joe: No.

Damian: You just had a second pro model deck released by Sentient Skateboards, that must feel great yea?

Joe: Oh man, the graphics are illuminating! It’s full of color and people seem to love the shape. I technically think that it’s too wide but I don’t know…I haven’t even skated it yet.

Damian: What size is it available in?

Joe: Eight point two five.

Damian: What size of deck do you usually skate?

Joe: I like to ride an eight inch.

Damian: Yea, I have spoken with Stephen on several occasions and he seems like a real nice guy. What is it like skating for Sentient? Do you know the other team riders?

Joe: I’ve never actually met any of them and I’m not even sure where they live. I do talk to Max, he is always providing me with good information on dieting and nutrition.

Damian: Other than skateboarding, what are some of your other current hobbies?

Joe: Right now, I’ve been working out in the gym. I’m trying to make a lot of changes right now, trying to do a lot of new things. I have a lot of goals that involve the body, shape and my current weight. I’m trying to like, slim down a little bit. As you can see, I’m drinking a smoothie, haha.

Damian: Yea, I saw that, haha!

Joe: But yea, I’m about to be thirty seven now and my passion for skateboarding is still there but I really don’t have a good set up right now. It kinda bums me out…Like I had to go get some new wheels the other day but now the spacers are too high. So Stephen just ordered me some new trucks from a company called Titan and I might be able to get on the flow team.

Damian: Yea man, I am familiar with this brand, they’ve been around a while.

Joe: Oh you’ve heard of this brand? It’s the first time that I’ve heard of them. That’s crazy brah brah, lol!

Damian: LOL

Joe: But yea, so I am really looking forward to getting these new trucks. I am going to shoot a photo for the board promo soon. Just a little something, Stephen says that I really don’t have to do too much anymore. Just some tricks here and there. A lot of the tricks that I’ve done already is really good stuff so…To tell you the truth, I really don’t feel like going out and trying big things anymore because I don’t have insurance. I guess that I am much more mature and wiser about things these days. Thank God I’ve only broken my hand, things could have been a lot worse. And you can see me break my hand in the video. The part where I fall off the roof..

Damian: Ooh yea, yes…I’ve seen this.. Holy smokes!

Joe: Yea , I broke my hand on that freakin’ thing dude.

Damian: Yea, you stuck as soon as you dropped in.

Joe: Yea, and just dove head first.

Damian: You went back to Roswell recently. How was that?

Joe: Dude, it was so cool! It was like…,I’m actually wanting to go back…Sooner than later.

Damian: Yea?

Joe: Yea, I was even thinking about moving back…I don’t know. It crossed my mind but I’m not sure.

Damian: Are there any special ladies in your life right now?

Joe: Yea, right here look. (adjusts webcam to show me the Asian woman sleeping in the bed across the room)

Damian: is this “Tiger”?

Joe: Haha, yea, this is Tiger Lady.

Damian: Alright.

Joe: She’s sleeping.

Damian: How long have you two been together?

Joe: Almost a year now.

Damian: Cool,..Is she Thai?

Joe: Yea.

Damian: Yea, I showed her photo to my gf and she was like “Oh yea, she is Thai.”

Joe: Yea, I guess they are very distinguishable right? When it comes to Asians, it’s confusing for me sometimes.

Damian: Musically, what are you listening to these days?

Joe: LA underground. I used to think that I was one of those music lovers that liked all types of music but to tell you the truth, deep down inside, I don’t like all music. I used to think that I liked all music but no, I don’t. I just really like hip-hop and specifically LA underground hip-hop. So yea, like…a lot of Freestyle Fellowship and Project Blowed.

Damian: I would have no idea who these people were if you hadn’t introduced it to us in Roswell back in the early nineties. Ok, yea…So who are your top five favorite pro skateboarders of all time?

Joe: Ok, yea well , I would have to say Christian Hosoi would be the first one. So yea, I would say Christian Hosoi, Frankie Hill, Ronnie Creager, Tom Penny, and Mark Gonzales…And only because Mark Gonzales is such a weirdo. I like his personality more than his skating because he’s such a weird person.

Damian: Would you consider yourself to be a religious or spiritual person?

Joe: Uh yea.

Damian: Do you have any particular religion that you follow?

Joe: No, not really. It’s just from the heart.

Damian: Is there anything you miss about New Mexico?

Joe: The sunsets, old friends, and old times. Waking up and skating over to Fausto’s house and getting bitched out by his dad, haha!

Damian: LOL, Who are some of the people that influence you now?

Joe: Um, Ronnie Coleman. He’s like this really huge body builder guy. Have you ever seen him?

Damian: I haven’t.

Joe: He’s a big inspiration. I mean, I don’t ever want to be that big but I give him lots of respect.

Damian: Joe, what is the hardest thing that you have ever done in your life?

Joe: I completely quit all drugs and cigarettes. It took me a couple of tries man. Now I am completely sober and have been for like four years now.

Damian: Congratulations, that is awesome.

Joe: So yea, for the first time in my life, I am completely clean.

Damian: Where do you see yourself ten years from now?

Joe: Probably living in Thailand.

Damian: Yea?

Joe: Yea.

Damian: That would be wild man, that would be wild.  -Anything that you would like to add?

Joe: Just follow your dream and continue with what you believe is right for you… Never give up, it takes time but sooner or later, things come through eventually. Things do work out, so if you believe in something, never give up. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that something is not possible. Also, I do love going back and visiting Roswell, I may not ever move back but I love visiting, it reminds me of my rich heritage and where I came from you know. I would never be where I’m at if it wasn’t for where I came from. Just being an artistic skateboarder making something from nothing, we didn’t really have much to work with. Not the best obstacles or terrain but we made due right?

Damian: Right.

Joe: Roswell was the birthplace of my creativity.

The End