[SKATEBOARDING NOISE]
JAKE PHELPS: If you treat somebody with respect, and--
a lot of people say that I have no respect for--
that I'm an asshole or whatever.
I'm just talking shit all the time.
I just say what's on my mind, and I'm usually right.
And I also found out the secret to all of it.
What drives people most insane of all, is ignoring them.
You ignore somebody, walk right by them like
you don't know them.
[CHUCKLING]
Oh God.
PATRICK O'DELL: All right, welcome back to the show.
This episode is about the editor of Thrasher Magazine,
Jake Phelps.
One thing I always noticed with Jake is everything he
says is quotable.
People love to tell you what they think of Jake Phleps.
But Jake also likes to tell you what he
thinks of most people.
We're going to meet up with him, cruise around SF.
We're going to look at some spots.
And I hope you enjoy it.
JAKE PHELPS: Look there's a skateboard person.
Look these kids are just skating down the street, just
skating street style.
That's Errol Langdon he's one of the skateboard dudes.
Nice.
Skating is big in SF.
Big, big, big stuff.
I'll take you up to The Dish first.
Did you see the original skatepark, the
San Francisco skatepark?
Where we've had riots up here before.
It's been gnarly.
Kids were all just skating around here, and the kids came
up over the hill in waves.
And then there was just a fucking free for all fight.
People just getting fucking whupped up on
bottles, sticks, and shit.
I took on a bunch of kids here one time.
These kids were waiting for the bus right here.
And I was skating down the street with my fucking knee
pads and shit.
They looked at me once, my wheels were [INAUDIBLE], my
bolts were rattling.
They were like, fuck this dude, let's fuck this dude up.
They jumped me, broke my glasses.
It was just like a rap, like Beastie Boys rap,
or some bull shit.
This is Phelps Street.
I gotta take you to this spot.
Coco's name is carved in the ground, [INAUDIBLE]
is.
He actually did that.
This is some weird shit.
You gonna be like, whoa that's a trip.
It says, Coco Santiago real skateboard.
PATRICK O'DELL: What's Coco doing right now?
JAKE PHELPS: He's cooked.
He's gone.
His mother is the last-- his mother, she was dying of
fucking cancer.
I happened to be there at the hospital.
Coco was there.
She told me, she grabbed my arm, dude she said, take care
of Coco for me.
I was like, I can hardly take care of myself.
And then she died.
Then Coco, after the night the van got shot up.
He got shot.
And, he never came back from that.
I think he's heavily medicated.
He's a ward of the state.
It's what I heard.
I've seen him once or twice.
He's got a really random giggle, every time I see him.
Or Rambo, when he says, he goes, you coulda
killed all your men?
Let it go.
He's got the knife to fucking Brian Dennehy's neck.
And he just says it to him, let it go.
And he just can't let it go cause he's a man.
And he's just like, I can't do it.
PATRICK O'DELL: Where's that one that Cardiel tried?
JAKE PHELPS: It's up by my house.
I'll show it to you.
That was gnarliest thing ever.
You've seen the--
It was in "Anti Hero" video I think.
He tries it fucking--
He tried it fucking seriously, maybe 40 times.
You can see the dirt on his face, and the blood.
He's just leaking.
[AUDIO FROM VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-No.
Leave me alone.
-Hospital?
-Just leave me alone, man.
JAKE PHELPS: That was 1997.
That's how long ago that was.
I mean people were doing big rails and shit.
People asked about, where is it, where is it?
I'm gonna go.
Help yourself dude.
No, I don't think so.
John's got, he has things named after him.
He's got the Union Square Rail.
And it's like OK, and so you guys skate, right?
Oh yeah man we skate.
That's cool, huh?
Look at this fucking rail right here.
Let's get a little taste of this.
PATRICK O'DELL: It's really gnarly when someone does
something that's right next to where everyone skates.
Thousands and thousands of skaters have had the
chance to grind it.
They've all seen it.
JAKE PHELPS: Wouldn't that be sick and then
nobody stepped to it.
And then someone steps to it.
And they say, fuck, that shoulda been me.
And you know what?
It wasn't you.
Cause that's what I always like about the name.
Cardiel, it's just one of those names.
Like what's back there?
Cardiel's back there.
You know what that means?
Get some.
Cardiel, that's all you gotta say.
He's got a whole town named after the fucking dude.
[SKATEBOARDING NOISE]
PATRICK O'DELL: What're the rules, bombing a hill?
Can't drag your foot?
JAKE PHELPS: If you have to.
Believe it or not, any way you can.
You gotta do what you gotta do.
If you're about to get killed-- the only real rules
of the road, is if you're gonna get hit by a car, go up.
Don't go down.
[HONKS HORN]
JAKE PHELPS: What's up Pablo?
PABLO CARRANZA: Nothing.
JAKE PHELPS: How you living?
Hey, you want to bomb a hill?
This guy wants to film you bombing a hill.
Wanna bomb a hill?
Pablo, what hill can you do right now?
I'll follow you down the hill.
PABLO CARRANZA: I wanna do Haight.
JAKE PHELPS: You want to do this one the top?
PABLO CARRANZA: No, the one behind you.
JAKE PHELPS: Come on dude, let's do
something big and scary.
People are gonna be like you got to put SF right on the
map, right?
PABLO CARRANZA: Yeah
JAKE PHELPS: What?
PABLO CARRANZA: Gonna die right there.
JAKE PHELPS: You ain't gonna die.
You'd be dead already if you was gonna die.
They're big.
They're big and gnarly.
They have to be.
They're fast, and death.
Death trips.
Sean Young, of course, he said he bombed 17th
Street, which is--
if anybody did that, help yourself.
I'll take you there.
You can see it.
It's death.
I mean death.
Like dead.
They've been trying to figure this one out for
fucking 35 years now.
They finally put this cage around this thing right here.
PATRICK O'DELL: No way.
JAKE PHELPS: Look, they got a cage against the wall.
Cause the bikers come, and they see the
skater's doing it.
And they're like, oh we gotta cage it off.
PATRICK O'DELL: They put a cage.
JAKE PHELPS: They put a cage.
Look, but these guys are still ready to do it.
Go get it.
Let me see you guys go over that fucking fence.
How 'bout through it?
MALE SPEAKER: Through it.
JAKE PHELPS: Yeah.
MALE SPEAKER: Man, that'd be cool.
JAKE PHELPS: Take back the spot.
I used to skate to work.
And one time, I was walking up this street.
And I found a bunch of fucking trash on the street.
And it was a picture, a slide, of Jaya Bonderov
right on this corner.
On that street.
And as I picked it up, I was like this is too fucking weird
Just a picture.
Skating's, it's permeated to everything I know.
JERRY HSU: Well one thing about Jake is I know that he
really loves skateboarding.
And it's his life.
And I think that's, I think that's really awesome.
His whole life is skateboarding, and he knows so
much about skating.
And I think that's really cool.
Because I'll see Jake, and then he'll
just throw all this--
he'll just talk about all this random stuff about skating,
that I don't even know anything about.
But it's like, man I seriously do not know how
to talk about Jake.
ROB WELSH: I love Phelps.
He's sick.
Is that what you were gonna say?
Yeah, I can read your mind.
Jake Phelps is sick.
He is a true Thrasher.
[HARD ROCK MUSIC]
[JAKE PHELPS READING SONG LYRICS]
JAKE PHELPS: Then you go back into the, this is the chorus.
TONY TRUJILLO: I was over my old band.
And, we were on tour on the Burn It Down tour in Europe
with Anti Hero.
And Jake was out there.
And we just got to talking about starting a stupid band.
Cause he knew how to play guitar, I guess.
PATRICK O'DELL: How would you describe Jake?
TONY TRUJILLO: Oh, what day is it Monday, or Friday?
I don't know, it's always different.
Today he seems really happy.
So that's good, but it's hit and miss.
I don't know.
Cause he has all the mag shit.
And he's got lots of people breathing down his neck for
the mag to get done.
He comes over here, he lets it out.
And it's good for him, a little stress reliever.
JAKE PHELPS: Some people don't like me.
I don't like a lot of people.
That's just the way it is.
But the way that the functioning magazine works is
very different from the way people understand it to be.
That is the myth, that's one of the mysteries of
skateboarding, and Thrasher itself.
Is that people think that I have a real hidden agenda.
And I don't.
There are some people that I generally dislike.
But that's for me, for reasons of my own.
But I don't go out of my way.
If you skate, you skate.
That's cool dude.
Let the hippie ride, I don't care.
And it's part of what I do.
It's my life.
I gave my life to Thrasher.
It wasn't something that I had any plans on doing.
I dropped out of school.
I just started doing drugs and fucking off, and skating.
My mom told me, she's like do what you like, and eventually
it'll work out for you.
That's about it.
And the rest is fucking history.
I still think that the mag for me is forever.
JAKE NARRATING: People are so selfish to
think that they matter.
To think that they actually fucking matter.
PATRICK O'DELL: I think it's pretty funny.
JAKE NARRATING: But do you agree with what I'm saying?
PATRICK O'DELL: Yeah, yeah totally.
JAKE (NARRATING): It's like chicks, her hair's weak, her
hair you're looking at her hairdo?
You care?
She's just like you.
She squats when she pisses.
Life is just like that, bro.
[LAUGHS]
MALE SPEAKER (OFFSCREEN): [INAUDIBLE]
shit.
That's how it be, man You know what's up.
JAKE PHELPS: Ok, I'm a see you up on the freeway, right?
No, you get up in there.
MALE SPEAKER: I get all up in there.
Man, I get in there like some wet pussy, baby.
JAKE PHELPS: --pussy up in here.
MALE SPEAKER: Jake Phelps the Man.
What's up.
JAKE PHELPS: You know it kid!
PATRICK O'DELL: Who's that dude?
JAKE PHELPS: That's uh, Fred, I don't know.
I don't know.
But I don't know who they are.
People know me.
I'm a public person.
JAKE (NARRATING): People know me from just skating.
I don't know.
I'm the crustiest motherfucker in the world.