It's gotten skateboarding and I've just loved it all my life and always told myself,
you know, if I become pro or if I, you know, if I don't come pro, then I'll own a skate shop
or if I don't own a skate shop, I'm going to do something skateboarding all my life.
Oh, yeah, you know, I've just never since then, it's just about skateboarding all my life.
Tommy himself, he's an interesting guy. I mean, he definitely has like a history.
He's like kind of that big brother figure, you know, always there, always holding it down.
He needed a block to get home, you know, on a bus, you know, he was giving some random kid the dollar
to get home on the bus or take him home in his car.
He was always there for us when we actually needed help.
He tries to look out for everybody possible that's near him and around him, whether they're family or not.
He treats everybody like family.
It was way different from any other skate shop.
Like a dad with like nine kids trying to keep everything together and she was still going crazy.
The skate scene in St. Pete, when I moved here, wasn't as strong as it was anywhere else.
I worked at a skate shop, local skate shop here and, you know, worked there for a while
and I realized how he was kind of like ripping people off, you know, like how he treated the kids
and the prices and stuff like that.
So I kind of like, you know, decided, hey, we're gonna put the skate shop where you come in and you hang out
and the prices are really good where, you know, people can afford and stuff like that.
And so I came up with it, came up with the idea, talked to a lot of people, kind of like quiet.
I met an investor and talked to him and all the rest was history, you know.
Started up a skate shop and that's what, you know, St. Pete was missing.
It was a shop for the kids and for the skateboarders.
So I'd go and hang out and feel comfortable, you know, and they'd call it their home.
Some people came in. It was one of the first days that opened. They wanted to buy a complete.
And they came in when I was setting everything up and surprised that someone was actually coming in and buying stuff.
And that's when he started getting more into it and talking to every guest that came in.
It didn't matter who you were, like, if you went in the shop, he was gonna talk to you.
They were just stopping by to look or he'd just make them feel welcome, you know.
Just anything you could do. Always have something going on to say to everyone.
I was just like the main place to meet up before going out to go to the skate park, going out to go to the skate spot, going out to go do anything.
No matter what, you could always go to the shop.
Play who knows. Watch skate videos, sit down, chill. Sometimes like pop a couple tricks inside the skate shop.
People that didn't skate would still go and they got into skating because they'd seen all these groups.
It was the funnest skate shop where you came in. It was your home, you know, not just some skate shop.
Timing, held events like once a month.
He'd cookouts, he did barbecue, drinks, all kinds of stuff.
It's just so much fun just rolling around, traveling with all the guys.
Everybody's like so crazy. It's like a big family. Like, that's what everyone at the shop was.
You gotta help out kids and teach them what life is really about. You know, you can be a skateboarder, you're not a skateboarder.
You can always go back to college and become something in college.
And most of the kids that I used to hang in the shop, I'm very proud of because a lot of them came up.
It's definitely the same place. It kept us out of a lot of trouble, I think.
All we did was just skate. We didn't do anything else.
When things started getting tough for me, you know, I didn't really have much money to get anything.
He basically supported, like, my skateboarding, like, the timing of what I needed, when I really needed it.
It was almost to the point where he was like a second dad, kinda.
He definitely influenced a lot of skaters in St. Pieter.
Stand up, and we're gonna lock it in, and keep going on.
You hit the board, you're out. You're Ollie, and you're Stig, don't go away, you're out.
I'll be the judge. Are you ready?
Stig, are you ready?
I guess, like, business started getting slow, you know.
It'd go from, like, four boards on a rack to only being one board on a rack.
The economy just started dropping. It just ruined its business.
I started noticing business started declining when the economy started, when the economy hit really bad.
I would say about 2007, 2008, when things started, you know, people started losing their jobs.
People weren't, you know, spending as much money as they were.
So that's when I took a look at a different option of joining the shop with another business.
Start Booty on 600 Block on Central Avenue.
That's where, you know, I joined business with them. That was a hair salon slash skate shop.
You know, just trying to save money and stuff like that.
Downtown was kinda sketchy, honestly.
It was weird because it was half skate shop, half hair salon, beauty parlor.
I didn't really like the environment, to be honest. I didn't like the change.
I liked it where we were at because it was, like, every skater that I knew lived in the area where the skate shop was.
Kids weren't coming in shopping. A lot of kids were quit skateboarding because I moved out of the area where they used to come to all the time.
Yeah, it was just a lot. You know, just kinda got burnt out, really.
And I started losing a love for skateboarding and that right there, kinda like, you know, on the skateboarding.
You know, I can't let my business re-roof what I love.
So yeah, I did it. I just, you know, one day decided to, like, you know, I did it for five years. You know, I'm just done.
Pretty much just came in and was, like, closing down the shop.
Everyone was like, what?
Just one day I heard that I was closed and it was like, even though I already knew it was coming, it still hurt me, you know.
It's something I never wanted.
When it hit it, it hit hard.
After the skate shop left, it kinda died down a lot.
Like, the big family that we had that used to, you know, meet up at that skate shop just kinda dispersed.
Everyone started doing their own thing.
After the finest closed down, it felt like a lot of the skaters in the area just, like, took a dive.
A lot of kids, like, started smoking, doing drugs and, like, drinking and stuff.
And it's like, not very many of us, like, stayed skating.
Yeah, to be honest, I totally missed it, like, having the skate shop there, like, in this old, original location, you know.
It was always my home. It's always where I wanted to be every single day.
It was basically like I just lost my family, you know, like the whole environment, the whole chill.
It just got hectic.
You know, I packed my bags and went back to California for a while just to collect, you know, get things going,
get back on the right path and stuff.
But then I came back and I have noticed that skateboarding has definitely slowed down.
A lot of kids are not skateboarding as they used to.
Or, you know, there's nobody's doing anything for skateboarding in this area.
It took a while to set in to be like, wow, you know, five years of my life, I ran a shop, I had kids.
You know, people were like, oh, do you have kids?
I was like, yeah, I have kids.
Kids that come to my shop are like my kids, you know.
I mean, I treat them with respect and stuff.
And I mostly missed that.
Like, the kids coming to the shop, playing UNO with them, doing skateboard events with them, doing autograph signings and stuff.
So, yeah, it took a lot of effect with me, you know.
But it took a while, you know, now set to what it is and, you know, I'm proud of what I've done for St. Pete.
And the skaters that live in St. Pete.
So, I was always a dream to have my own business and stuff.
So, it's pretty stoked on it.
I enjoyed it.
I kind of miss it.
I definitely, you know, never know if I open up another one.
Yeah, well, this is right here.
This is the Moatwater Skatepark of Tampa, the 20th anniversary art show.
So, later on the night there, it had like a little award thing and they're naming off people who, you know, had the best art,
or the most pictures and stuff like that.
I heard, you know, Schaefer say my name, Tommy Zam.
You know, we've got, please come up here and then I got up there.
Gave him this bottle of Moatwater, it's for like, part of working in the industry and the community for skateboarding.
Pretty stoked, you know.
I know it's just a bottle of beer, but it's just, you know, being noticed for what I do, what I've done and stuff like that.
Yeah, you know, pretty honored.
