Stevie Williams
November 29, 2007 @ 2:37 PM
Stevie attracted a lot of attention wherever he stepped. Somewhere in amongst the plethora of ‘Wow are you that guy in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater?’
Questions I saw a tiny kid looking up at him in amazement with his haggard skateboard in one hand and a massive marker pen in the other. He said ‘WOW man I can’t believe Steve Williams is in Leicester!’ I thought about it for a second and I couldn’t really believe it either.
Just before the tour ended I sat down with my re-instated favouritest skateboarder and tried to find out what inspired him into being so weirdly fucking good.
So how has the tour gone for you Stevie?
- Yea I’m happy with the tour.
I’m happy that the kids respect it and like to see the DGK team, it was
a good experience.
Where was your favorite stop off on the trip?
London and errm that one spot Martin Luther King or some shit.
Milton Keynes?
- Yeah that’s it; Milton Keynes.
I couldn’t believe the scale of the media presence on this tour. How many
interviews do you think you did?
- Oh shit! I don’t even remember, maybe like
fifteen or twenty.
Didn’t some weird reporter ask you to swap clothes to make it look like
he could skate?
- Yeah that’s some straight commercial shit. I don’t know
how they slipped that guy in there. I just do interviews for the
record, ha.
Ah crap man. I was gonna ask to borrow your camo trousers.
- (Stevie
laughs like he’s gonna truck me in the head)
If you had to pick an all-American Olympic manny pad team, who would
you pick?
- Wow man, (short thoughtful pause), um me, Daewon and Joey
Brezinkski.
If you could poach any pro to ride for DGK who would you choose?
- Yo I’d rather get an am. I wouldn’t really wanna steal nobody.
Who where the guys that really inspired you when you where younger, growing up in Philly and skating Love park?
- Yeah well my homies that I grew up with, we inspired each other every day. We looked up to Jovontae Turner, Guy Mariano.
Did those guys ever come through Love back in the day?
- Yeah, not Jovontae but Guy and Henry did, I used to look up to Henry Sanchez a lot too, he was the best. THE BEST.
Sanchez was always a step ahead right?
- Oh yeah! Henry was twenty steps ahead man! Yeah but inspiration-wise; Guy Mariano, Javontae Turner, Sanchez and Jason Lee, that type of stuff.
Have you got any favourite tricks that you’ve seen go down at Love that you’ll always remember as being banging?
- You know how Kalis talks about Ricky jumping the double trash cans out of the bump?- (Stevie rolls his eyes back in a ‘whatever’ fashion and I sense he’s not really that into that shit ) errm what is the best trick I seen? My homeboy John Pooka back in the day 360 flipped the can.
What out of the bump?
- Na man, on the side, off the flat. And my man J- Sann he inward-heelflipped that same shit off the flat.
Were you hyped today when the little 13 year-old kid was talking to you about Love Park?
- Yea it was trippy, ‘cause I been skating longer than he’s been born. Just to hear that little kid say that, cos you know it means Love Park is still kind of around in people’s minds and around in spirit too. It’s crazy ‘cause I never thought I made that much of an impact, especially with kids that where so young and so far away from where I grew up.
You told me the other day that you only ever broke three boards in your life, do you remember how you did them?
- Yeah one was a long time ago; it was a Brian Lotti. I broke that skating off the ledges at Love. I don’t really remember the second time. The last one I broke was in Spain a year ago skating off a ledge. I always break them skating off shit.
Is there any flatland trick that you’ve never been able to do? It’s just that it seems you can do most of them.
- I can do ‘em but i just don’t like the way they feel. Like switch frontside 180 heelflips.
Are there any that you just can’t do?
- Errr naa, not really.
I once saw Jamie Thomas beat Brian Wenning in a game of S.K.A.T.E with a late shuvit and it totally bummed Wenning out. Have you ever played someone you really wanted to beat and lost?
- Yeah. Marcus (Mc Bride)! He always beats me, he’s about the only dude I play at S.K.A.T.E. Well the team’s the only guys I play, I don’t really want people glorifying that they beat me, cause it does happen.
So you ride for this Rim company now called Zenetti, what are the packages like?
- Well its not really packages but I got free rims on my truck and free rims on my car. It’s pretty cool.
What’s the longest time you ever quit skating for ?
- Sheesh… I never really quit skating but I stopped for a whole while before. There’s been times I haven’t skated for 5 months, 3 months, 2 months. It was only cos I wasn’t having fun, so I sat back for a while and re-motivated myself and hung out with the team.
Is that what motivates you a lot, the team?
- ALWAYS, yo. Jack, Lenny, Marcus.
Is that who you skate with most in L.A?
- Na I don’t really skate with them on a day to day basis like that. I been skating with Rob Dyrdek and Steve Berra at the skatepark. Paul Rodriguez and Jereme Rogers sometimes. All that stuff is so close to my house its pretty weird but whatever. I like skating in the nighttime. I’m in the warehouse from like 7-12 sometimes to stay on point, keep on my board and get some exercising done.
So do you have any last words?
- Yeah: DGK All Day.
IF YOU KNEW BETTER YOU’D DO BETTER!
You can read the full D.G.K. tour article in Kingpin issue 48
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