Mark Appleyard Interview

February 02, 2009 @ 12:32 PM

Cayman Island. Or is it Islands?

There’s three. There’s one main one, where the skatepark is.

What’s your connection with the place?

Nothing, we own a house there. I bought my mom a house there. I go there here and there, I’ve been going there since before they had that world’s second largest skate park.

Check the seq here.

Were you involved in making that thing happen?

Not really. They were going to make it anyway, but I met the guy who was funding it and he showed me the plans and I just gave him a little bit of advice. Like don’t put any stairs in there, it’s a skate park. People just want to roll. It was going to have stuff like double set handrails and stairs and stuff. I just gave him my opinion, which I think ended up changing the whole plan completely. It turned out really good. It’s just too hot to skate there!

It’s too hot?

Yeah, it’s like humid hot, it’s different hot from what people would be used to in Europe or Canada!

What’s a good time of year to go?

Any time that’s not the hurricane season! Do some research on that on the internet.

Does it get pretty gnarly there with the ol’ wind?

Yeah, it can get pretty bad. There was that hurricane Ivan that went there and did some damage. A lot of horses died.

Really? What did they die of?

There was like a lot of water and nothing for them to eat. They were up to like their neck in water. It made it awkward for them.

In Blackpool, where Bardy’s from, some old dude got killed when the wind blew him against the wall a couple of years ago. He was just doing his shopping or something. You go to Cayman a lot?

Yeah, my mom lives there, I go like twice a year. It’s nice, I recommend it!

Anything else besides the park there to skate?

No, you just got to bring some swimming shorts.

Any sharks..?

Not really (haha)! Lobsters, they’ve got lobsters, stuff like that.

You want to say anything about the tattoo you got when we took the portrait for this?

One Love, it’s just something you can say and I think people can dig it. It kind of represents some sort of knowledge, knowing what’s up on a grander scale. It’s easy on the eyes man, straight away you can tell that I’m chill when I meet you. And I’d been listening to Bob Marley for like six months straight, I think that had something to do with it! (haha)

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