BRIAN ANDERSON: Oh, you know what?
I almost forgot to get you a water, and I was in line, so I
got you Gatorade.
And there's M&Ms if you guys want some M&Ms or gum.
JERRY HSU: You could do a trick to land there, maybe.
BRIAN ANDERSON: I bet you could land
in it anyway, still.
Seems like it.
Maybe it's because I have soft wheels.
I'm not sure.
JERRY HSU: That'd be sex with your trick
and land in it anyway.
BRIAN ANDERSON: I know.
JERRY HSU: Because it's not skate stop.
Does anyone skate it, you think?
BRIAN ANDERSON: I don't know.
I don't feel like people do.
[GRUNTING]
BRIAN ANDERSON: Shit.
I'd like to roll away.
JERRY HSU: That's my board.
He better not break it.
BRIAN ANDERSON: Oh, that fucking hurts.
JERRY HSU: Oh well.
BRIAN ANDERSON: That kitty litter doesn't
let you land in it.
BRAD STABA: We used to skate that thing every single day.
We would take the BART from [INAUDIBLE]
straight to [INAUDIBLE].
And we would like buy a boombox and bring a fucking
whatever mixtape and just push play and skate that thing like
all day, smoke weed.
We didn't go there with cameras, you know?
PATRICK O'DELL: You would just go to session it?
BRAD STABA: We would go there every single day, seriously.
The thing is like he didn't go into skateboarding like, I'm
going to be a pro.
I'm going to get sponsored.
I'm going to make this tape, and I'm going to send it to
this guy and they're going to give me free shit.
It just happened, you know?
And if it didn't happen, he would be doing like--
he'd be work for the city.
He'd be work for the park.
He'd be doing a normal job.
Just living, you know?
Now he's one of the best skateboarders ever.
[GRUNTING]
BRIAN ANDERSON: That's a make.
I don't care.
I think that's a make.
PATRICK O'DELL: We'll run the photo.
Did you get the photo?
JERRY HSU: Yeah.
It's already--
I'm sending it out virally.
BRIAN ANDERSON: Those rocks.
Fuck.
PATRICK O'DELL: What's up?
Welcome back to the show.
This week's about Brian Anderson.
Brian is probably a little bit different than some pro
skaters in that he's worked in his life full-time jobs as
like a cook and all these different things.
So I think he's one of those skaters that really
appreciates probably being pro, because he knows what he
has to go back to if he doesn't skate.
The first video I remember him in was the "Welcome to Hell"
Toy Machine video.
He had like shaved head.
This big, beastly guy who's got a lot of pop.
He's really gnarly.
My favorite trick Brian Anderson does is 360 flips.
I wanted to do this episode to kind of get an insight into
who he is as a person.
So after the Beauty and the Beast tour, I went up to San
Francisco to meet up with him and see what his life's like.
And I don't know, I just wanted to get in his head.
He seems like a really intriguing
subject for the show.
And so this is it, the Brian Anderson episode.
Hope you like it.
FEMALE SPEAKER: OK, what can I get for you?
DONNY BARLEY: Yeah, I want to get the
western omelette, please.
FEMALE SPEAKER: OK, white, wheat, or rye?
DONNY BARLEY: Wheat, please.
Does that come with home fries?
FEMALE SPEAKER: It does.
DONNY BARLEY: Can I add bacon to the omelette?
FEMALE SPEAKER: Inside it?
DONNY BARLEY: Yeah.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Sure.
DONNY BARLEY: Thank you.
FEMALE SPEAKER: You're welcome.
PATRICK O'DELL: Do you come back to Carlton a lot?
DONNY BARLEY: Yeah, I come back like
almost every weekend.
It's funny.
This place is all remodeled.
It looks good, but it's not the same.
Me and Brian used to come here all the time late night.
Just get coffees sometimes, and then get fired up and go
on late-night missions and stuff.
Skating, or coming back from like a punk rock show.
This is where all the freaks would hang out late night, so
it was fun.
And then, Brian--
I think he might have been like 11 or 12, and I remember
one day we were skating my friend Jason's halfpipe.
And these two kids just kind of walked up the driveway with
their knee pads around their ankles.
And it was Brian and his friend Joe.
Brian just jumped right on the ramp and started doing
everything.
Like, we were pretty amazed.
BRIAN ANDERSON: I probably met Donny when I was in like sixth
grade or seventh grade or something like that.
I was on Donny and Jason's team--
Team 911.
And they made me do all these different slappies in
order to get on.
They're like, all right, you've got to do backside to
fakie or whatever and an Ollie Smith.
And I did all these things, and they let me
ride for Team 911.
You get the little sticker that's the 911 emergency call
that parents put on their home phone.
And you put it right underneath your front truck.
So I was psyched, dude.
DONNY BARLEY: So there's a monument right here on the
right hand side.
We used to skate it all the time.
And it's like a Vietnam memorial or something.
See those little slants right there?
We used to skate those all the time.
The veterans would come by and be like, ready to murder us
for skating a monument that represented these lives that
have been lost fighting this war.
I guess it is pretty disrespectful, but when you're
young, you don't comprehend it.
Brian's house is over here.
This is it, yeah.
That's the house right there, the gray one.
Brian's room at one point was in the three
windows on the top.
I remember like ollieing down the stairs all the time when
I'd come hang with Brian.
So this little side street--
we had like all these little ramps and boxes and little
rails and stuff.
And Brian would just to keep them underneath this weeping
willow tree, and we'd just drag them out.
But Brian's parents were like super, super
mellow and super nice.
I think Brian's parents were like maybe somewhat strict
with his older siblings, but by the time Brain was a
teenager, they were probably like, eh.
BRIAN ANDERSON: The whole story is--
I think my art teacher in high school was telling me that if
you you do a portrait, you can check it in the mirror.
And if it still looks proportionate, then you did
all right or whatever.
It'll help your art.
And then so I realized that's a way to watch my favorite--
because I'm regular footed, so I could watch all my favorite
goofy footers skate regular footed.
So you could put your favorite skater on TV.
And then you chill out here with the mirror, and you can
like see your favorite skater skate switch, on
the opposite foot.
So that's pretty cool.
So this is the only ghetto-ass mirror I have.
Look at it, it's regular footage of Keith Heath.
This is so tight.
Whoa, dude, so cool, man.
DONNY BARLEY: And he's just always had this artistic
approach, as opposed to athletic approach.
And that's the difference between certain like amazing,
talented skaters, you know?
I feel like maybe I have an athletic edge, but Brian--
he's always got his flow on, man.
Even when he's just like getting warmed up and stuff.
And when he was a kid, it was all about like loose shots and
slapping curves and just cruising.
Just his own world man--
that's the way it's supposed to be.
It's like, you can watch the videos and get things out of
the skate videos, and a lot of the kids kind of mimic the
skate videos.
Brian--
I feel like he was smart enough to take a little bit
from all the videos that he liked and incorporate that
into his own little melting pot or whatever, you know?
CHAD MUSKA: Just doing it, man.
Like, needed a change in life so here I am in
New York City, Soho.
Lights, camera, action.
The early '90s--
whenever that was-- or mid '90s, late '90s, something--
somewhere in the '90s, it all began.
And I started hanging around with Jamie
Thomas, got on Toy Machine--
then a little group kind of started to form.
It was like Satva, me, Jamie, Panama Dan, and Ed Templeton,
of course, and Donny Barley.
And I think that was kind of like the main
clique right there.
DONNY BARLEY: All of a sudden, we're in our early '20s, and
I'm in California, and I'm getting hooked up, and it's
unbelievable.
And then coming home and telling Brian about the
success that I found and begging him to come out West
to give it a shot--
because if anybody could have made it, Brian could have done
it all day, any day.
CHAD MUSKA: Donny Barley was like, oh man, you guys gotta
meet my homie Brian.
He's crazy.
He's like this crazy skater.
He's insane.
And we're all like, yeah, you always hear that.
It's like everybody gots their homie from back in the day
that's a crazy good skater, you know.
So he's talking about him for a while, and then one day, oh,
my friend Brian's in town, BA.
ED TEMPLETON: We were on a filming trip during the
"Welcome to Hell" days.
I think Donny gets off the phone with somebody and says,
hey, my friend back from Groton, Connecticut's in town.
Is it cool if he comes skate with us today?
DONNY BARLEY: I called him from Huntington Beach-- like,
me and Ed and Muska and Jamie are going to come up to Frisco
to film-- and you have to.
You have to get to San Francisco.
I will pick you up.
I'll pay you back for your bus ticket--
anything.
I just begged.
And I had already spent like six hours in the van telling
these guys, when we get to Frisco, my friend Brian's
going to come us.
You guys are going to trip your balls off.
This kid's the best skater ever, ever.
It's so corny thinking back, but I think I did say
something like, hey man, if you really want to make
something now's the day.
I just didn't know if this opportunity was going to come
around again, you know.
BRIAN ANDERSON: I wasn't concerned of fanning out on
them or nothing.
I didn't even know who Jamie Thomas was.
Ed Templeton was like my idol when I was little.
So Jamie Thomas was news to me, and Chad Muska--
I didn't know who he was, either.
And he wasn't "The Muska" yet.
CHAD MUSKA: We went skating, and all of a sudden, I was
like, damn, this dude's doing some crazy tricks.
He's got like ill [INAUDIBLE].
And he's messing around.
He's just like rolling and just does like a 540 flip on
flat ground or something like out of nowhere.
And you're just like, what the hell.
And then all of a sudden, he just started going around us
in and just started busting and busting and busting and
like crazy, crazy ass shit that like none of the pros
were doing.
And we're like this dude's not even sponsored.
He hadn't even skated in two years, and all of a sudden, I
was just so psyched on him.
I remember being like, this guy's insane.
He can do any trick he wants to do, anything.
ED TEMPLETON: He starts killing it.
Real sketchy, though.
You could tell he doesn't skate all the time.
But he ollied over the rail to boardslide--
and it's in the video-- he boardslides down the long rail
and comes off.
And he's just flapping all over the place
when he does it.
And I think at that moment, we were just all like-- here's
the whole Toy Machine team.
We're supposed to be these dudes who slaughter stuff.
Everyone gets to these rails, and no one's feeling anything,
and we're all being wusses.
And then this dude from Connecticut just
manhandles this rail.
DONNY BARLEY: I think he did it first try, or he slid half
of it first try.
And they were just like, what the fuck.
Chad's like, Danny, go get the camera!
And Jamie's running to the van and going up to Brian like,
hey Brian, can you do this again?
BRIAN ANDERSON: I didn't know that it was
OK to refilm something.
Like, I would land it and be like, ah, I landed it.
I didn't know that it probably looked kind of gross and I
should do a smoother one.
Muska got hurt that day we skated in San Francisco.
He tried to tailslide the [INAUDIBLE] ledge.
I don't know if it ever came out, but he
slammed really hard.
He was in the van, I remember, after that.
He was like, I just want to fucking smoke this bowl.
And I was like, whoa, this dude's bumming.
I passed the lighter through the window to
Chad, like, here dude.
I know you need to get stoned right now.
You're so hurt.
DONNY BARLEY: Right when Chad and Brian connected, I knew
that that was half the battle.
And then it was just a matter of convincing Ed and Jamie to
put them on.
CHAD MUSKA: It took everybody else a minute.
Everybody was kind of like, I don't know, I don't know.
And me and Donny were like, yeah.
And I remember Ed was like, oh my god, this guy's dope.
I think Ed liked him because he was tall and lanky, kind of
like Ed was.
So Ed was like, oh, I like this guy.
ED TEMPLETON: I think all of us--
especially me and Muska, because Muska's there-- and
we're all like, holy crap, this guy's amazing.
Let's put him on the team.
And Jamie was just like, no way.
What're you guys thinking?
I don't know what Jamie will say to this, but at the time,
he was not for it.
Obviously, we're not just going to throw a guy on right
there on the spot.
So we told him, hey, we're really interested
in you a real way.
Do you have any footage?
BRIAN ANDERSON: Those guys said, make me
a sponsor me tape.
So I skated around in Sac and got some cool
stuff with Mike Rafter.
And then we went to SF one day, I was like, I want to
front side blunt side Hubba Hideout.
I think I can do it.
And I did it.
So we put that in sponsor me tape.
I shaved--
bicced-- my head.
So Jamie and Ed, once they saw the front side blunt side with
the bicced head, they were like, oh, this dude looks like
he just got out of fucking jail.
Cool.
ED TEMPLETON: And we were just blown away that we were
getting a sponsor me video from a dude--
Donny's bro from Connecticut--
and he just bicced his head and front-blunts Hubba
Hideout, which was just completely ludicrous.
And I mean it was like, chill-giving, almost.
The team watch and they're like, holy fuck.
And that just submitted him on.
I think Jamie was instantly, definitely on.
Chad and I were already like, we love the guy.
And I think everybody else on the team was just like, yeah,
no-brainer.
Front-blunt Hubba Hideout like a man.
Yeah, I put him on.
That was definitely the one push-over thing that he did,
and he just looks so bad-ass doing it.
MALE SPEAKER 1: In the Toy Machine video when he shrinks
hubba with that look.
I'm like, who the hell is this dude?
Like 6 foot fucking 9.
MALE SPEAKER 2: He took hubba down a foot or two with those
fucking eyes.
PATRICK O'DELL: He had a shaved head.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Yeah, and just looking so beast
rolling up to it.
MALE SPEAKER 1: Comes around and he just stares right at it
and he's just like oh, it got scared and was all [INAUDIBLE]
and shrank a little.
Brother's going to fuck me up.
DONNY BARLEY: Brian Anderson--
he's from Connecticut.
We grew up skateboarding together.
He's the best.
CHAD MUSKA: All of a sudden, he had a part in a video and
he went literally overnight from being like nobody, to
giving up skateboarding, to coming in on a random visit--
he became sponsored and started off to his career
pretty much like that, unexpectedly.
So I think that was really cool to see that all go down.
BRIAN ANDERSON: Jamie Thomas and Templeton called me, and
they're like, all right well, we're going to
make this video soon.
We want you to fly to San Diego and work on it.
So I said OK, great.
I think that was the first time I
ever flew on an airplane.
And I was taking off in [INAUDIBLE]
like, whoa my head.
This feels crazy.
And I landed in San Diego.
Jamie picked me up in his Honda Passport, and he said,
this is Elissa Steamer.
ELISSA STEAMER: I think I remember that day, too.
BRIAN ANDERSON: I didn't know that you were going to be on
Toy Machine, and I didn't know much about it either.
And I didn't know anything about you.
ELISSA STEAMER: I think I had seen your footage it in the
computer, maybe.
BRIAN ANDERSON: OK.
And then we just stayed at Jamie's house in Pacific Beach
and went out filming.
ELISSA STEAMER: I have this bad reaction when somebody
wins a trick, I'll scream, right.
And I'll always happen to be around the
camera for some reason.
And I remember that kinker--
BRIAN ANDERSON: It was my last trick and you went, whoa.
ELISSA STEAMER: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
PATRICK O'DELL: You know, it's funny--
I always thought that was a kid yelling.
ELISSA STEAMER: That was me.
I was a little kid.
Not really.
20-year-old.
BRIAN ANDERSON: It was awesome because I was psyched to just
be skating with people that ripped
constantly, all day long.
CHAD MUSKA: I remember the process for filming for
"Welcome To Hell." It was a crazy process, man.
So every once in a while, I got to stay on Jamie's couch.
And that was a privilege and a curse at the
same time, I guess.
Because I'd wake up at like 6:00 in the morning to Jamie
blasting Slayer and getting a pan and a tin and banging them
to my head and wake up with this dick on my shoulder or
something like that, crazy-like.
Jamie was crazy, man.
I woke up to a lot of crazy shit at Jamie's house.
Jamie had an agenda all the time.
He was like, OK, we're going to wake up today, and I got
this new angle I'm thinking about filming of you on the
handrail, and you're going to bust it today.
BRIAN ANDERSON: In my part there's a line.
Jamie's like, you should half-cab up this curb, and
then-- but he didn't command me.
He's like, Brian, maybe think about--
but it's helpful.
I like that about Jamie.
CHAD MUSKA: Brian started filming the illest video part
that was competing with all of our parts.
And we're like, oh shit, this dude's kiling it.
We have to step up our game to keep up
with his part, I remember.
ED TEMPLETON: For sure when that name came on the screen,
the collective skate audience must have been like, Brian
Anderson, what?
But then he just proceeded to slaughter everything and skate
super big hubbas and have this kind of groove.
You can see it in his lines.
He does a trick and does a couple swerves.
He's just got this jazz to the way he skated in that video.
And all of us were just super-psyched on it.
CHAD MUSKA: And it was like the video's coming out, we've
got to finish it.
And we worked it so hard in the video--
at the premiere it kind of all just fell apart that night.
DONNY BARLEY: Sure enough, Jamie tried his ass off, but
for some reason the computer crashed.
CHAD MUSKA: And it was, this was the reason, and that was a
reason, and people were drinking, and I was drinking,
and the kids were upset.
The kids wanted the videos so there's a lot of crazy energy
that all came out in one night.
I quit the team.
They kind of put me back on.
And then I quit again.
And then they kicked me off and it was like this whole
thing, and it just was time for me to move on.
DONNY BARLEY: The video was supposed to be--
Chad, I think, was supposed to have the last part.
Once Chad was gone, I think we went back in rearranged it.
And so we hit the road.
And we brought the video with us.
And every demo we'd show up and get out of the van and try
to rip as hard as we could for the kids.
Usually, we'd end up back in the skate shop.
The kids would watch the video and it was really, really nice
to see the reception of the video.
It was so positive.
Kids would watch it and just walk out of the skate shop
speechless.
BRIAN ANDERSON: I didn't know how gnarly people were going
to look at "Welcome to Hell." And at that time in
skateboarding--
obviously after amazing, amazing Plan B
videos, and all that--
I feel like maybe there wasn't anything huge besides
"Indecent Exposure" or something.
So I think Jamie blew lot of kids' minds with "Welcome to
Hell."
ELISSA STEAMER: I had no idea what I was
getting myself into.
You know what I mean?
I had no idea it was going to be so heavy of a video.
Because of the Toy Machine video--
I had never even seen a Toy Machine video before.
BRIAN ANDERSON: After that video came out, because people
didn't know who I was, I went on this tour and I had an easy
time doing demos.
Because they were watching Jamie and Ed and Maldonado and
Satva, so I would just kind of skate around, and that
introduced me to doing demos.
Because otherwise, I probably would have been
like, uh, this is weird.
ED TEMPLETON: The rad times about that era for me was just
tour, as a general.
I was just, like some of the funnest tours ever.
For me, shooting photos I guess is what I'm saying.
Like I was documenting this whole like--
just those guys, just the team.
I guess you can kind of equate it to some people have this
like, I was the high school captain of the football team
and the king of the prom, or something.
And they live their whole life looking back on those one
achievements in high school.
It's like, for me, that era is one of those things I look
back on, and just be like, man, those were
the best times ever.
Those are the times of our lives.
That was right before the era where it was real important to
be filming all the time.
So demos and fun were the main focus, not let's go use every
spare minute at a spot and trying to get footage.
It was literally like, let's go buy a raft and go rafting
for the hell of it.
Or eat good food, skate spots when you feel like it, show up
at the demo and kill it, that kind of stuff.
BRIAN ANDERSON: Skating for Ed was great.
Ed had never messed with you.
We could smoke all the weed we wanted and drink beer, and
that was fine.
because he knew we were all down to skate.
And we all would wake up and go do the best demo we could.
ELISSA STEAMER: Like friends are friends, right?
But it's almost like you form a different special bond with
like a teammate or somebody that you travel with
all the time for--
you know?
BRIAN ANDERSON: When we were partying and stuff, I was kind
of her personal bodyguard.
ELISSA STEAMER: Yeah.
Where were we before we came here, Donny?
I've still got to make a book of people's stories of
dragging or something.
But, yeah, he's protected me a lot.
PATRICK O'DELL: Tell me about that.
BRIAN ANDERSON: Love protecting her.
ELISSA STEAMER: Oh, just like get in between some angry
person and me, or carry me home, or find me on the side
of the road, or something.
BRIAN ANDERSON: Sometimes somebody would be saying some
inappropriate things.
ELISSA STEAMER: Inappropriate, that's the word.
BRIAN ANDERSON: Just like, come on.
And I'm not a fighter but I certainly
have a lot of sisters.
I feel this need to protect her.
ED TEMPLETON: This was just funny because Elissa had
dranken way too much the night before and was just completely
fucked in the morning.
She had already barfed there on the curb,
right where she's sitting.
Mike had some porn mag, and it was just funny.
I wanted to kind of get a shot of like the stuff Alissa has
to put up with, driving on tour with a bunch of guys.
Constant porn mags everywhere, and girls walking by the van
definitely get commented on in pretty rude ways, and
obviously Elissa just like laughs at all that stuff and
thinks it's funny.
ELISSA STEAMER: It really wasn't difficult.
It was kind of like the funnest thing ever.
Because, I mean, I had to skate all the time in order to
get into the position to go on tour, so therefore all I hung
out with was guys all day, every day.
So it was just like the same thing.
It was just like switching from one pack of wolves to
another pack of wolves.
PATRICK O'DELL: Yeah.
BRAD STABA: Brian's great, man.
I had to get him to come out here.
Like, he usually denies me for most everything.
PATRICK O'DELL: When we were filming this, he'd be like,
ah, I'm super busy, but OK, let's just
try to make it work.
Then I'd be like, so what do you have to do that you're so
busy today?
Oh, I gotta go to the grocery store.
And it was like really [INAUDIBLE] stuff.
BRAD STABA: Stuff that he could just do in two seconds.
And you know he lives right next to the
grocery store, right?
PATRICK O'DELL: Yeah, that's what he'd do.
He's right next to the Safeway.
BRAD STABA: Dude, he could hop his back fence, and literally
he's in the Safeway.
So he doesn't use the going to the grocery store one on me
because I'll call him out in a second.
But yeah, he'll whip out some fucked up excuses, man.
Pull.
I met Brian in 1997.
And then we went on this Europe trip.
It was Donny Barley, me, Brian, and Josh Spiegel.
DONNY BARLEY: Brian and Brad totally were like
instant best friends.
And I think they've just been homies ever since.
Just weird personalities that kind of click
for whatever reason.
PATRICK O'DELL: So then "Jump Off A Building"
was the next video?
BRIAN ANDERSON: Oh, that's right, yeah, "Jump Off A
Building."
PATRICK O'DELL: Is Donny Barley in that, or had he
already left?
BRIAN ANDERSON: Nope, Donny left.
He just didn't jive with Ed for a little bit there.
ED TEMPLETON: "Jump Off A Building" era was kind of like
a great era but also a strange one at the same time.
Jamie had departed to do Zero on his own.
Up until that point, Jamie's took Toy Machine from--
obviously "Welcome to Hell" and that whole era was a lot
of Jamie influence.
Me being lazy and having someone who was super eager to
make the team rad and do all this-- make the video awesome.
I was just like, that's great--
do that.
When he left it was like, oh, it's back to me.
I've got to do this up to the same standard
that we just set.
So without Jamie, it was kind of like
independent-contractor style.
I expected the team to go out and film their own stuff.
Like go out and film-- give me the footage.
That was that era.
BRIAN ANDERSON: Skating was just so easy to go film then.
I was going out with Brad and Moreford every day.
And Brad would film me.
Brad filmed tons of my tricks in that video.
BRAD STABA: Dude, he did this gnarly tailslide down this
hubba ledge.
I videod it.
That stood out only because I was behind the lens.
I really only pay attention to stuff that involves myself.
ED TEMPLETON: At one point, the pressure starts coming.
It's like, hey, we want you to do this and that.
We want you get a photo for an ad, or there's another video
we're working on.
Let's film.
And if your main focus is just like, I could just as soon be
a chef than skateboard, then obviously you're not going to
give your sponsor exactly what he wants.
I remember like just philosophizing with him,
saying something like, you can do all that stuff.
You can still become a chef if you want.
But you have this talent at skateboarding.
And you can just do this for a couple of years and
potentially make a lot of money.
And I feel like he just switched in his head.
He just decided, yeah, I'm just going to slaughter
skateboarding, and easily did it.
He just won the Moonster contests when he wanted to,
and the world championship--
won it back-to-back, I think.
And started just killing contests and making big
contest money and pretty much put himself on the map just by
deciding to.
PATRICK O'DELL: How'd you find out that you were going to be
Skater of the Year?
BRIAN ANDERSON: Well, Gabe said he wanted to work on an
article with me to get me shooting photos for it.
And then towards the end of the year, I kind of realized
what those photos were probably for.
I think around November it was like--
somebody told me, or--
oh, and then I had to shoot the cover.
So I knew.
The cover was me in a chair with like a cigar and a fake
Toy Machine diamond medallion.
There's like wheels everywhere and trucks.
It was supposed to look like a No Limit
album cover, basically.
BRAD STABA: When he got Skater of the Year,
it was pretty cool.
PATRICK O'DELL: I remember I went to that party.
I remember it was like Donny and Maldonado
and all those people.
BRAD STABA: Yeah.
Alls I remember is I saw him for a while.
We hung out, and then I guess I had his check.
You know they give those guys the big checks, you know?
So I was in charge of his check and somebody
responsible, like Ed or somebody, was in charge of the
trophy, I think.
Brian was just in charge of blacking out.
BRIAN ANDERSON: During Skater of the Year--
I'm shooting photos for Skater of the Year--
Monty Carol calls me and is like, hey dude, I heard you're
[INAUDIBLE] at Toy Machine.
I just wanted you to know, we could help you out
over here at Girl.
I'm like, wow man, that's so nice.
I was blown away.
And I said, no man, I'm not doing it.
So I didn't do it, obviously, and I stayed.
But I was really sick of Toy Machine.
And I knew dudes were over it.
We went on a tour, and Maldonado was bummed, Kerry
was bummed on Ed.
At the end of that, I called Rick and I was like, hey dude,
I was wondering if that the thing that Mike said--
that offer--
is still there, because I'm kind of over this thing.
And Rick was very concerned.
He said, what about Ed Templeton, dude?
I don't want to be that guy that takes you from Ed.
And I was like, well dude, I'll deal with Ed.
I care about him--
I love him, but this is my progression in life.
ED TEMPLETON: Kerry left, Bam left, Mike left, Elissa left,
so Brian's call was I'm going to quit, because we have to
rebuild Toy Machine from where we are.
And I don't want to do that.
But what am I going to do?
I based all my relationships with the riders on the team on
friendship.
So none of these quittings was like me flipping out or being
pissed at anybody.
It was always just like OK, are you sure?
OK, go for it, you know, what can I do?
It was sad, for sure.
I was fully bumming.
I've had these periods where people have quit, and it
leaves me no choice but to try to get in this rebuild mode
and try to be optimistic.
But I can't lie when I say there's like tearful nights
when that stuff happens and self-doubt
comes into the picture.
Am I blowing it somehow?
Am I not not making Toy Machine not what it can be?
Is Girl that much better?
How do we run stuff that makes everyone want to quit?
I don't know, I just start freaking out.
I feel good about it on the fact that I base it on
friendship and that I care about Brian's career more than
I care about my Toy Machine business.
So if he's going to be happy, then I'm happy.
Brian went on to Girl and continued his destruction,
basically, without Toy Machine.
BRIAN ANDERSON: Me and Jake Phelps found this on the river
in China in Beijing, I think?
Wait, is Beijing the one where they cut down all the forest
and now it's really windy there?
Right?
JERRY HSU: I don't know.
BRIAN ANDERSON: What's the other major city there?
JERRY HSU: Shanghai.
BRIAN ANDERSON: Shanghai.
What's the one with the river going through it?
JERRY HSU: Shanghai's got the spots.
PATRICK O'DELL: Jerry knows everything about China.
JERRY HSU: Anything else you want to know about China, you
could just ask me.
BRIAN ANDERSON: This is where I go grab my boards.
This is the first in the quiver.
I'm really proud of my quiver, lately.
We screwed my shoes in here.
And I thought I was going to be able to boardslide a
handrail with them on.
Just rollerskate up--
I'm regular footed, so I thought I could front board
[INAUDIBLE] handrail.
What I did was I was actually standing on the handrail, and
I had Frank [INAUDIBLE]
he held me up and I balanced on the rail, and then he ran
away and I jumped off the handrail in the air and he
took the picture.
It was pretty scary, actually.
This is one board right now.
This is a tapered tail.
It's got a really good tail for 360 flips.
So I call this my three-flip board.
I'll ride my own pro board.
Sometimes I put some stickers kind of close to my name or
almost over it.
I've done that before.
And then there are times when like--
what the hell, man, I should ride my board, you know?
This board totally sucks to skate but I
put it together recently.
It's a Steve Alba, obviously.
I spent a lot of time on the sticker job on the top.
Probably some serious Buddha involved with that one.
Yeah, Efil4zaggin, man--
I forgot all about Efil4zaggin.
PATRICK O'DELL: What's Efil4zaggin?
BRIAN ANDERSON: I think it's the NWA record.
It's Niggaz4Life backwards.
This is my real Steve Olsen.
And that's it.
This one's really fun.
So my quiver is up to--
these don't count--
seven.
That's pretty cool.
And I skate them all, like all week long.
That's it.
PATRICK O'DELL: What skaters are out now or that you know
that really inspire you?
BRIAN ANDERSON: Well, my favorite skater is probably
Nick Trapasso.
And oh, you know my all-time favorite
skater ever is Ben Schroeder.
He inspired me.
Even the guys in my neighborhood I grew up with
were always like man, Schroeder-- that guy's just
kind of a beast.
And I think as I got older I got taller.
So when I actually see him live now, I'm
like whoa, I get it.
That's why I understand what he does, because it's like
he's bigger than me, for sure.
But he's pretty oafy, and it's like the best.
I love it.
PATRICK O'DELL: What about--
you were telling Jake that you didn't read the magazines.
BRIAN ANDERSON: Oh, yeah, just a long time ago.
It was like--
well, I'll be 33 this summer--
so it must have been three years ago or something.
I don't remember the situation.
He asked me something and I was like, dude, I'm
30 years old, man.
I don't read the mags.
And he just loved that for some reason.
I wasn't trying to be funny.
I was like, I don't know dude, I'm trying to not look at
those things.
JAKE PHELPS: You had that same shirt in
the Jerry Hsu episode.
PATRICK O'DELL: Yeah.
I wear it a lot.
You got anything to say about Brian?
Can you--
JAKE PHELPS: Encapsulate it?
PATRICK O'DELL: Yeah.
JAKE PHELPS: He's just a good, solid boarder.
He's easy on the eyes.
I hate to say it, but a lot of people try wicked hard and
they end up missing it.
But Brian--
he comes in the park-- he does a full line
when he comes in here.
BRIAN ANDERSON: OK.
JAKE PHELPS: What are you going to make?
Is it possible?
BRIAN ANDERSON: Change it up.
JAKE PHELPS: Spice it up a little bit?
BRIAN ANDERSON: Switch, slappy, half-gallon--
JAKE PHELPS: Oh, this is sick.
This is my favorite line.
This switch slappie on that wall of doom is gnarly.
Watch this.
Go get them, B. Yeah!
Are you okay?
BRIAN ANDERSON: Shit, I'm going slow.
JAKE PHELPS: Black socks and shit, that's hard.
Back tail-- oh, here it comes.
15 seconds, world cup.
Yes, and that's time.
Did you see it?
15 seconds, Daniel and Bostic where's my wine?
Fucking bitch.
PATRICK O'DELL: Is that why you gave him
Skater of the Year?
JAKE PHELPS: Why I gave him Skater of the Year?
PATRICK O'DELL: Or why he won Skater of the Year?
JAKE PHELPS: Well, he was Skater of the Year because
he's just a solid dude.
He repps the mag and people that are good.
I mean, it's a pretty illustrious crew.
Some people win, some people don't.
Chad Muska never got it, fuck.
BRIAN ANDERSON: It's going to be mad rewarding, son.
I was watching like a baseball game, and you see the coach
out there, and he's like 65 years old.
I kind of realized he's coaching because he loves
baseball, obviously.
So that made me feel better about the future of
skateboarding.
Like well, it wouldn't be strange if I stayed and worked
in skateboarding, I guess, because it's something I
really like.
You know, like how somebody would like baseball or
basketball.
Because sometimes you think like, dude, this
skateboarding thing.
You see some bozos skating down the street and
you're like, ugh.
But for us it's different.
We really, really like it.
So fuck--
I mean, why not?
I should be proud of that and enjoy that, so--
it was kind of like something I just told myself, or had a
realization that everything's okay.
JAKE PHELPS: Ta-da!
BRIAN ANDERSON: I like that switch grip.
It was the one I wanted to do.
Thanks, Pat.
It was fun.
PATRICK O'DELL: Thank you, Brian.