Alright, we’ll start with the basics; Name, age, and where you live.
Names Terence Elijah Phoenix, I’m 19 which makes this summer fucking awesome and I live in Brampton, Ontario which is basically Little India/Jamaica.
Cool, so what’s Canada like in your neck of the woods? Educate us hosers on the Great White North.Oh it’s a nice melting pot of culture over here. I’m about 45 minutes away from Toronto and I live in possibly one of the lamest main cities. Now when I say little India/Jamaica I literally mean there’s almost no white people around. It’s nice big homes and stuff but damn is it ever boring. It’s a normal day if your street smells like curry. There’s a few dope skateparks not too far and some nice malls. Diversity everywhere! Lots of “swag” children roaming about.
That’s different. What about being 19 is making your summer so great?Indeed, it’s crazy. Well the legal drinking age is 19 here in most parts of the Great North. It’s not really the amount of drinking that’s changed but the fact that I can buy it myself too. Being able to drink at events like concerts is dope. Gonna hit up bars soon too, I have yet to do that. Although only half of my circle of homies are legal yet though so we have to wait for them to catch up to come to outings.
Ha shit I thought it was 18 up there. You learn something new everyday! It’s always nice to have that freedom. So how long have you been skating, and what got you into it?It’s only 18 in Quebec I think, fuck those Frenchies though haha. For sure! I got into skating when I was about 14 I think. I don’t skate too much now though, but once I buy some new skate shoes I’m going to get right back into it. One of my friends had a deck, we used to walk home after school together and I’d always pester him to let me do some ollies because I had known how to do them from a few years back. I met some cool dudes and I dove headfirst into it.
Damn Frenchies! Any reason for the slow down on skating?A lot of my friends don’t really skate that much anymore which I guess kind of washed off on me. The one of them that’s actually really gnarly still skates occasionally but I guess just over the past few years I lost interest in it. I also don’t enjoy busting my shit up too much.
Ha no one enjoys that, just comes with the territory. Good that you’re getting back into though. Any style of skating you prefer in particular, or do you like all of it the same?Yeah for sure, just a part of the package. I love just cruising flat and popping tricks really. I was getting into smaller handrails about a year ago and trying some stairs and gaps. What I really want to learn now though is how to skate tranny really well. I think killing a mini pipe and bowls looks really rad compared to just hucking your carcass down stairs all of the time.
I can vouch for mini ramps, they’re a lot of fun once you get into it. You said there are some good skate parks around Brampton. What are those like, and do you visit them some?Well there’s only one good one in Brampton but the other is just a 10 min. drive away on the highway too. The one in Brampton is pretty cool, it’s got a street/plaza style setup I guess. It’s got a downhill stair run, a huge 3 block, a bowl section and ledges. The other park is in a neighboring city. It’s more of a tranny style park. Lots of ramps, a huge I think 8-9 foot kidney shaped bowl, and assorted objects. I’m not a big fan of that one because I can’t ride most of that stuff well. I like the Brampton park better, it’s also newer too.
That sounds pretty good man. How big is the skate scene in your part of Canada? If you can expand on surrounding areas, that would be great too.It’s pretty booming, there’s some big names that came out of Ontario. Grant Patterson, Dave Lapchuk, Morgan Smith, list goes on! Local shredders kill it too around here. The scene in downtown Toronto is crazy, lots of gnarly dudes down there. There’s this one crazy come-up I’m stoked on. He’s 15 and he’s hooked the fuck up! I watched him go from learning tricks on mini to overcrooking 10+ stairs in like 2 years! His dad’s an awesome dude too, kills mini ramps for 35.
Care to drop his name for SB-C?Jayden Bono, look out for him! Hopefully he makes it out of Canada into the USA skate world. Being from Canada and trying to come up in skating is a curse I tell ya!
Cool stuff. It’s good to hear how skating is big there, I’ve heard of and seen all of those you mentioned. So how long do you see yourself skating?Pretty big names from Canada. I’ll probably always ride a board to cruise and do tricks. I can see myself going further with mini ramp skating than I did with street because I won’t totally gnar my shit up. I also don’t want to be destroying the tattoos I’m getting either, that would be a bummer.
That would suck for sure. On tattoos, I see you frequent tattoo threads on SB-C. How many tats do you have, and what are they of?None as of yet, I have this overkill attitude towards everything I do so I won’t be starting any until maybe next summer. I plan on getting some heavy coverage though but that’ll require lots of scrilla. First one up though is going to be a chest piece. Neo-Traditional American lighthouse with an anchor that says mom, ship wheel that says dad, and a banner above and below that says “Home is where the heart is” with a compass rose right below the lighthouse. I love the traditional American and Japanese styles of tattoo.
Shit that sounds awesome! I like the imagery. I also see you play guitar, how far along are you with that?I can’t wait to start! Seeing all of the nice art done on people at Warped Tour on Sunday got me pretty stoked. Ah, that’s one of my past loves too. I never got too serious with guitar, shame it is. I pick it up here and there occasionally but I think I got discouraged from playing because most of the music I listen to is beyond my skill level to play so I gave up. Might sell my guitar and amp to my brosef if he still wants it, he seems to enjoy playing.
I’d give it another go, start with simpler songs maybe. It takes time to get to the level bands like that are. Any other hobbies you enjoy doing?Yeah I’m thinking about giving it another go as well. After slowing down with skating I don’t do all too much now. The only thing I do to take up my time other than hanging out with homies is learning about science, mainly astrophysics and anything to do with the cosmos. Got a few books on the topic to read. Really awesome stuff. On the topic of space, that’s one of the sleeves of my arms I’m getting done. One dedicated to space and science.
Nice, I love physics mainly, that’s always interested me. Are you majoring in anything along those lines right now?That’s awesome! No sadly, I’m not. If I had figured out how much I love physics I would have actually tried to do better in high school and go to college for that. Right now I’m going into software programming/networking. Might make a career change later in life if I really desire.
Another good route to go. Going into some top 5’s now. First one, skateboarders, pro, am, local, doesn’t matter.In no particular order: Morgan Smith, Cody McEntire, Jimmy Carlin, Stefan Janoski, Lem Villemin.
Nice choices. Next, songs to skate to.I usually don’t skate to music but anything metal/hardcore/punk
Next one, TV shows.I almost don’t watch tv at all haha. Anything really on Discovery/National Geographic though.
Nothing wrong with Discovery. Last one, skate videos.Yesterday’s Future, Baker 3, Stay Gold, Yeah Right, Debacle
Cool. Any last words and shout outs you’d like to give?Shout out to the gurus, almost for being a cool chick, videon, and regularchild. Hope you guys don’t hate me for writing mini essays haha!
