Ethan/21/Iowa
How is it in Iowa?It’s alright; the weather goes from one extreme to the next though. It’ll be in the negatives during the winter and then in the high 90’s to 100’s. Worst part is all the humidity though, feels like a swamp outside from late June until August
I know all about that, except for the negative temperature part. You live there by choice or living with relatives?I was born in the same town I live in, only reason I’m still hanging around is cause my dad passed away from cancer December 18th 2011, so now it’s just my mom and I and I just think it’s too soon just to leave her in an empty house.
Oh wow that’s crazy man. What are your plans when the time comes?GET OUT OF IOWA haha. Pretty much leave the Midwest, there’s nothing here for anyone. I’d like to go to Colorado or something, not too far from Iowa, but a lot more freedom there. Here you don’t even get treated like a human if you look slightly different
Colorado is definitely a solid plan. You going to school now or is that part of leaving Iowa?
That’s part of the leaving part, only good schools around here are like U of I or ISU and both of those will just drive you into debt.
That’s another huge problem in Iowa, there isn’t shit for jobs. I have friends who’ve been looking for 6 months to no avail. Here it’s either you have to go to some trade school or just work in a factory…those are about your only options for work around here. I refuse to work in a factory cause that’s what my dad did his whole life and he always told me he never wanted me working in one. I used to work for some photography company where we developed all the films for high school/college graduation and for marathons. I was in charge of up loading all the pictures on to the server.
Swampy, full of rednecks, no jobs. This sounds like where I live! The photography job sounds neat though, better than a lot of other jobs you could’ve gotten. So how long have you been skating? What got you started?I’ve been skating for ten maybe eleven years, I quit for about two years though. How I got into it though was my neighbor’s oldest brother was extremely good, he used to be sponsored by a shop here in town. Used to watch him skate all the time and eventually he had two old completes that he gave to his brother and I
Nice. Did he ever get farther with skating? Give his name if you could.Nah, he eventually quit skating for some dumb reason, he was really good with turntables and stuff and started producing beats for people. Then he moved out to Cali and I haven’t really heard much about him because his brother and I had a falling out
Damn. So how far along have you gotten with skating? Is it ever something you tried to make something of, or purely for fun?I got to the point where I could do handrails, big sets like 8-10 stairs and stuff like that, but I was never trying to get even a shop sponsor or anything. It was just something to do with my friends that I got good at. I’d never want to be in a position where I HAD to skate to meet some dumb deadline or something.
What’s your current setup?Deathwish 8.25, Thunder lo’s, Bones Reds, Bones STF.
How much skating do you do now? Do you find it as fun now as you did before?It depends, obviously I can’t skate at all during the winter, so there’s like 4 months gone out of the year, but during spring and summer I try to skate at least 3 times a week. Except for if it’s really windy or super hot. Yeah, it’s still fun, but not as fun because I used to have a group of like ten friends that all skated, so we’ just spend our days at the park messing around and stuff. Now it’s a mission to get at least two people to go skating. They’re all too busy getting drunk or just wasting away on hard drugs.
Damn that’s no good. The similarities between Iowa and Florida keep growing. So who were your favorite skaters growing up, and who are they now?Erik Ellington has always been my favorite. I haven’t kept up with the skate scene to see who any of the new comers are of the past two years or so, but like everyone I like Reynolds, Cole, Thomas, Hsu, Caswell Berry, Louie Barletta, the old school Shorty’s team, Daewon etc
That’s a pretty solid list. Did they influence your skating in any way?Haha, Erik definitely did. I learned f/s and b/s flips because of him, and also b/s bigspins.
That’s pretty neat. What’s the skating scene in Iowa like? Any good parks around?Nah not really haha, there’s one indoor park in all of Iowa, all the other parks around just have rusty metal ramps. There’s a decent skatepark in Iowa City, but it’s all concrete and it’s kinda just one massive bowl. A lot of the skaters in Iowa just have shitty attitudes as well; they just want to play games of skate and brag about the winner.
I can totally see why you want out of Iowa now haha. Do you have any hobbies or activities outside of skateboarding you’re serious about?Not entirely haha, I mean I’m always pretty much down to do whatever, but living here your choices are rather limited.
I have to agree you need to get out of Iowa. I can’t believe people willingly live there.Are there any redeeming qualities at all about Iowa? Anything?
Well, aside from there being nothing to do I guess it’s not too bad of place if you want to raise some kids or something. It’s not like you have to be afraid to walk around town when it’s dark out. No one is gonna stab or shoot you haha.
At least there’s that. Gonna roll into some top 5’s. First; Skate videos.1. Deca 2nd to none
2. Emerica This is Skateboarding
3. Baker Baker 3
4. Foundation That’s Life
and for 5…ugh…I’d have to say….shit I don’t know there’s too many haha. I just like skate videos where it’s got that vibe that all the people on the team are actually friends not just grouped together to have a sponsor.
Dying to Live, Welcome to Hell, a bunch of the old classics, because you know they weren’t getting paid that much back then yet they were still hucking their bodies like each trick was gonna earn them 1k.
That’s an interesting point about the old videos. Those guys definitely have my respect. Back to top 5’s; TV shows.I don’t stick with tv shows very much, but I like Squidbillies, Metalocalypse, Home Movies, Sealab 2021, Trailer Park Boys and South Park.
Haha nice. Next; food.Anything that’s got chicken in it, I like Mexican food and stuff, but I’ve also got acid reflux so it’s kinda hard for me to find food I can eat and not feel like death after words
Finally; Rappers, old or new. You can go beyond five if you want to haha.Oh lord haha. Dr.Dre, Eminem, Cunninlynguists, Jedi Mind Tricks and all the little off shoots from that group, 3 6 Mafia, Lil Wyte, Bone Thugs N Harmony, TRINIDAD JAMES (haha), Biggie, stuff like that, 90’s gangster rap/g funk is my jam.
That’s awesome, any stand out albums you still like today?Well, I’ve owned 3 copies of 2001 cause they just got so worn they wouldn’t read anymore, I’m on my 2nd copy of E.1999 by Bone Thugs, Doggystyle is still just as amazing as when I first heard it and of course Ready To Die will always be good.
You like any of the new guys or you mainly stick with the older stuff?Mainly older stuff, I can relate to it a lot better than “ohh I drive fancy cars, got tons of money and bitches” haven’t experienced that so not worth me listening to haha
Yeah I hear you on that haha. Any shout outs you’d like to give?BIG UPS TO THE GURUS AND OXC!!!!1
