The one thing that we all have in common, no matter what generation we come from, no
matter how we skateboard, what we're into doing on our skateboard, we all love skateboarding.
And to try to put some sort of, I don't know, words or face to that, you know, that kind
of love or admiration for this inanimate object, like, so that's kind of the concept
of it. Send a love letter out to skateboarding, and it could be anything. So yeah, I'll throw
a love letter to Olson because he's insane.
Like, the first skateboarder I think I got was the cover of him doing the rock and roll
at night, flash in the back. It's like a white cover or something. He was a huge influence
on me as a little kid, you know, like, I went and paid money for his deck. Like, it had
checkerboards on it. The thing was huge. The board was as big as me.
The first time I actually met the dude, I got on Santa Cruz at like 15. And they flew
me up to San Francisco, total loan mission, totally brand new, foreign to me, little kid
freaking out. And I get off the plane at SF and Olson's there to pick me up.
But no, wait a minute, I don't know. Yeah, I have no recollection.
I had a leather jacket on. He was fucking sweating bullets. I was 10 in the morning.
Really? I didn't sweat that bad back then. Maybe I did. Whatever. Yeah, that's great.
Picked him up, sweating bullets. What kind of car was I driving?
Some sort of fucking shit beat up like, like an old Volkswagen rabbit, you know.
Really? 84. A rabbit. Yeah, Ty Ease's car.
Guy picks me up. He's talking a mile a minute. He's freaking out. You know, you don't say
much to your kid. I can't believe Santa Cruz flew him up in 84. They had no money then.
He takes me back to his house. His, you know, he's got this, this spread that's overlooking
the city. I mean, it's this beautiful view. I'm thinking which we had two different places.
I live with Thatcher and Swenson at that point. He was dating the blonde chick that was in
all the ads with him. I don't remember her name. Ty Ease, he used to go out with Alva.
I went out with my ex-chick, got married to her and, you know, the trade was on.
He basically just kind of abandons me at this apartment and he's like, go to sleep. It's
still light out. I locked him in the room. Lock him in. I told him to go upstairs and
go to sleep or something. I wanted to fuck the chick, probably.
That was my introduction to the dude, like, you know, as a person.
And we had no interaction. Go upstairs and go to sleep. It's 10 a.m. You need to get
some sleep, kid. So you have a hectic drive tomorrow morning. I mean, what is that? It
doesn't make sense. I didn't say, oh, let's go skate Hunter's Point. I need more on
this tour. I don't have any regular. I don't remember even picking him up at the airport.
He was just, he was just awesome. He's an awesome, awesome dude. And he's still around.
You know, like the impact he's made on skateboarding is so deep and profound and most people don't
even know or care. But like every once in a while, you got to come out and, and show
some fucking love just to do it. Like, fuck, I know, you know, we all know, you know, well,
there's some other guys doing the Monty grind before Monty. But maybe it was not an intentional
grind, but it was. They just didn't know how to do a backside kick turn.
