PATRICK O'DELL: We need an intro.
JAVIER NUNEZ: An intro?
All right.
It's Javier Nunez, aka Hands.
And we're going to go inside the store talk about Menace.
Good old Menace days that a lot of
people have yet to hear.
All right.
Come on guys.
Let's talk.
PATRICK O'DELL: Where are you from?
JAVIER NUNEZ: Bayonne, New Jersey.
PATRICK O'DELL: How far is that?
JAVIER NUNEZ: Well, when you take the bus and train, it
took me about an hour.
I be in sixth grade, seventh grade, after school I go to
New York by myself.
I'll just be out.
I'm like, I'm not chilling in Jersey.
I'll go to New York and meet my other friends, skating in
the skate side.
My name is Javier Nunez.
I've been skating for a year and a half.
I'm age 11.
The most place I like to skate is the banks.
The "Wheels of Fortune," was just I was skating the banks,
and Pepe Martinez was up there with his filmer from DC.
I believe his name was Dave Schubert.
And fuck yeah, he just saw me skating the banks.
Pretty much all those tricks that he filmed me
do, I really did.
And he was like, dude, let's film that again, and get you a
little thing on this "411 Magazine."
Let's interview you.
I'm like, all right, cool.
And then that was all filmed in 15, 20 minutes.
PATRICK O'DELL: The whole part?
JAVIER NUNEZ: The whole part.
Yeah, it was quick.
It wasn't that long.
STEVIE WILLIAMS: 411 days, he was the fucking little Spanish
dude skating at the banks.
And I was the black kid from Philly.
He skated for Dead End, and I skated for Element.
He would come down to Philly, stay at my house, hang with
the homies, skate.
And you know my mom, we got so many crazy little kid stories
in my house that me and him will forever, forever, forever
be friends.
JAVIER NUNEZ: I know you obviously
saw this book already.
Scoops--
pretty much what we're talking about, that whole era.
See, that was actually me right here when
I was on Dead End.
Before Zoo York, that was my hat.
And then we have me skating through Manhattan.
This whole book, Ari Marcopoulos shot.
He told me to this day, Jav, I remember you being young and
cursing me out, telling your friends, why is this old man
following us for the photos?
Obviously, I got mad a little for it.
But yeah, he tells me that every time.
You're cursing me out when you were 12 years old.
And I told him I'm sorry Ari, but that was when I was young.
I didn't know no better.
That's the whole crew.
That's pretty much the crew you be skating with.
You can see in this photo, Harold Hunter just being
himself, snapping on somebody.
And then look, he got all of us laughing.
I was around all these guys going to clubs in New York--
being exposed to so much shit that these kids in my fifth
grade class had no clue.
I couldn't have conversations with them just because they
weren't on my level.
PATRICK O'DELL: Who's your skate crew?
JAVIER NUNEZ: We were considered the young dudes,
because everyone was older, so it was me, Maurice Key, Joey
Alvarez, all the usual suspects from late '90s, mid
'90s that were skating at the time.
PATRICK O'DELL: Is that around the time you were in "Kids"?
JAVIER NUNEZ: Yeah, pretty much all this shit happened in
the span of two years, man.
Once I got my foot in New York, I started meeting all
these people.
They took me under their wing.
Harold was the one that got me in "Kids."
HAROLD HUNTER: My name is Harold Hunter, and I skate for
American Dream, which is totally cool.
JAVIER NUNEZ: We just skating through the city, just pulsing
up our aster, and then Harmony Korine comes walking by.
Harold saw Harmony and was like, Harmony, you
got to put Jav in.
You got to write him in the movie.
Harold was serious to Harmony.
Harmony was like, yeah, you know what?
I actually got a role for you in the movie.
So I was like, cool.
I didn't think nothing of it.
PATRICK O'DELL: Oh, is it real alcohol, real weed?
JAVIER NUNEZ: Today it was real weed, but I already was
smoking before we were doing the film, so I was already
exposed to all of that.
And then, he just made us feel comfortable by letting us
really smoke weed.
No biggie.
STEVIE WILLIAMS: I just thought Jav was
just bigger than life.
I'm like damn, he shot past me like crazy.
He was the model.
He was doing TV shows and movies and "Kids." When he got
on Menace, I was like, damn!
He's going to be one of the best teams in the world.
He had to sponsor, so when he came up to San Francisco, and
I was ripping around in the streets, he would
be right with me.
Because he already had to sponsor, so he could go and
shoot photos with all of them, and then come back
to hang with me.
I just really thought Jav was the truth as a young kid.
JAVIER NUNEZ: The switch flip over the wall, couple Cali
tricks, something on the banks.
I didn't really have a full part in the "Trilogy." Like I
said, man, I should have been more of my skating as well.
I have myself to blame.
I don't blame no one else, because I was a little
knucklehead back then.
And to be honest, I didn't listen to Reem half the time.
I didn't really skate much--
like I said, me being around a whole
different world of people.
All my friends didn't skate every day.
[INAUDIBLE].
Not like out here, where people skate every day and
have a clique of friends that is willing to film.
That's what made me move to Cali.
To be honest, if it wasn't for Kareem, I wouldn't be involved
that much in skating, because he's the one that took me out
of New York, New Jersey to expose me to the whole skate
world industry.
I never forget that.
PATRICK O'DELL: You were on when it was Fabian and all
these people to when it was Spanky and all those people.
JAVIER NUNEZ: Yeah, pretty much.
When it came to our city, I was the older one.
It wasn't Little Jav no more.
It was Little P-Rod, Little Devine, Little Mikey.
PATRICK O'DELL: And none of the people that were older
than you were on anymore?
JAVIER NUNEZ: No, except for Lee.
It was just only me and Lee left.
PATRICK O'DELL: You had a board on City Stars?
Unfortunately not, I never had a board on City Stars.
My first pro board was Shut.
PATRICK O'DELL: Did he ever express to you, fuck, why
aren't they turning me pro?
STEVIE WILLIAMS: I can't even go there.
I can't.
Because it hurts.
It hurts me to know that--
it just hurt, yo.
Yeah, of course, Javier would get solidate that Kareem
turned Paul and them dudes pro and all of that.
And I was there with him every fucking day.
Me and Reem had a fall out because of Jav.
And I respected Kareem so much that I didn't want to
disrespect Kareem, but Javier was my blood.
I knew him before he even met Kareem.
By the time it was for him to shine and get that value from
Menace, it was already City Stars and Kareem already had
all of these dudes.
So when Jav wanted that light, I don't think the light was
shining on that team anymore.
So it's hard.
You got to do it when it's supposed to be done.
PATRICK O'DELL: Were you bummed at all when P-Rod
turned pro?
JAVIER NUNEZ: Yeah, I wasn't bummed that P-Rod--
he deserved it, obviously.
But I was like, you know what?
Yeah, I was kind of bummed out on Reem.
I was like, it's kind of lame.
I been with his team forever, and these dudes are getting
boards before me.
But I guess, he felt like these dudes are killing it and
all this shit, which oh, whatever, man.
STEVIE WILLIAMS: Jav's hard-headed.
That's all I'm going say.
That's my man.
And I love him, but Jav's going to do
what he want to do.
And that's just Javier.
Everybody's different.
Jav had the chance to be where I'm at.
And when he was given a decision, he
didn't take it, yo.
And he got the opportunity.
He didn't take it.
He still has the skills.
And it's harder to get on companies when you're older,
so you might want to take advantage of those things in
your early 20s.
JAVIER NUNEZ: My mind, I wasn't always 100% focused
with skateboarding, which I wish I was.
But I'm trying to get back into the swing of things and
just skate a lot.
I took a lot of things for granted when I was younger.
And as I get older, you start realizing this shit, learn
from your experiences.
PATRICK O'DELL: And you have HBO show.
JAVIER NUNEZ: Yeah, and now, the producer from "Entourage,"
Rob Weiss, happened to come by the shop and was like, know
what, dude?
You're perfect for this character I have.
You fit perfect, man.
It's about this crazy skateboarder, bipolar dude
from New York.
But I don't let these dudes blow air up my ass.
I'm like, all right, it is what it is.
Before you know a couple months down the line it gets
picked up for first season.
WILFREDO GOMEZ: I'm going to make you real proud at the
event today, watch.
I'm feeling real good.
RENE CALDERON: Just don't set no kids on fire.
JAVIER NUNEZ: The season was over, but now, HBO picked up
the season again to come out in the summer of 2011.
So I go to New York in March to start filming.
Is LA a lot different than New York?
JAVIER NUNEZ: It is.
It's more relaxing for me.
I did it.
We did it all, running around New York City when it was real
grimy at the time.
And it was real fun.
A time for a change in my life, I did
the New York thing.
Now, I come to LA to get different things going on.
PATRICK O'DELL: Cool.
Thanks, Javier.
JAVIER NUNEZ: No doubt thank you, Pat.
STEVIE WILLIAMS: I got a crazy a story about Jav.
We in my crib, right?
And we was playing this knockout game, where you stand
up against the wall.
And then you hold your breath, and they pump on your chest.
Jav pumped my chest.
I black out.
I have a dream that Ryan Hickey frontside
flips the bank wall.
Next thing I know I hear, boom!
I wake up like what the fuck?
I'm face first on the coffee table, and my mom's like, what
the fuck is going on?
And I look at Javier's face and Mancha's face is like oh
shit, you almost died.
We played a knockout game, and somebody's supposed to catch
them if they fall.
He just let me fall and fucking hit my face on the
coffee table.
And I looked at this nigger like, yo, I should fuck
you up right now.
I'm glad I didn't die.
And me and Jav always bug out on that.