-Leo got pulled over.
[LAUGHTER]
POLICE OFFICER: We were getting phone calls, doing
things that weren't real smart, weren't real safe.
You know, in a group like this, everything kind of
sticks out.
Enjoy your ride and have a good time, but don't do
anything crazy, OK?
Thank you.
GROUP: [IN UNISON]
Thank you.
PATRICK O'DELL: Hello, welcome back to the
"Epicly Later'd" show.
This episode is the mild ride, which is Ruca's Vespa tour.
And we went from Los Angeles to San
Francisco, back to Los Angeles.
And it was a really mellow tour, like mellow demos at
like Derby Park in Santa Cruz, and, like,
just real mellow stuff.
And so this is it, the Mild Ride Tour.
-[INAUDIBLE]
Devouring its future.
Hey, Sean, Jimmy.
We're on Treasure Island at a Navy base, so call me back.
All right, bye.
PATRICK O'DELL: Have you been here before?
KEEGAN SAUDER: Uh, no.
I've never been to Treasure Island.
PATRICK O'DELL: What are you building?
JOSH HARMONY: Getting that Vespa in here,
so we can get launched.
-Ha!
JOSH HARMONY: So you're just going to stop.
Maybe you should, like, turn to the right.
-I'll do it, but I'm going to turn.
Yeah, I'm going to turn, but I'm going to stop.
I'm not going to go anywhere.
[APPLAUSE AND CHEERS]
-Is this urine?
-That's definitely urine.
Urine throw.
[CRASH]
[LAUGHS]
Urine!
PATRICK O'DELL: You know this is a mature skate tour.
ETHAN FOWLER: Of course, yeah, in all ways.
JOSH HARMONY: If by mature you mean totally awesome, then
you're right.
AUSTIN STEPHENS: I don't know.
I don't know how to sum it up.
I don't know, it's been really silly.
These things are kind of silly.
It just got banged up a little bit.
But I think they kind of have to expect that.
If you're lending out like a group of Vespas to a group of
skateboarders, it's kind of maybe somewhat expected.
That's just the--
it's just the edge of the world right now.
KEEGAN SAUDER: Yeah.
AUSTIN STEPHENS: There's no ocean down there.
It's just completely clouds and just universe out there.
PATRICK O'DELL: How was this drive so far?
AUSTIN STEPHENS: Well, pretty beautiful, as you can see.
-[GROWLING]
KEEGAN SAUDER: Just slide around and shit.
Just go until you loop out.
ETHAN FOWLER: Yeah.
KEEGAN SAUDER: Board almost hits you in the face.
PATRICK O'DELL: What about Ethan?
How long have you known him?
KEEGAN SAUDER: I think I met him three years.
He is one of my favorite skaters.
I looked up to him 10 since I was about--
you know, when that first stereo video came out, I was
like 14, 15, so yeah, he is kind of--
he is Ethan Fowler.
To me, he's fucking sick.
[CHEERING]
PATRICK O'DELL: What about the other night.
Were you in the hotel room?
Oh yeah, you were in the hotel room--
KEEGAN SAUDER: Yeah, yeah.
PATRICK O'DELL: --when he was like ranting and
philosophizing.
KEEGAN SAUDER: Yeah, well, he'd had a couple road pops,
so the conversation was flowing.
ETHAN FOWLER: We went to Burnside.
My first time at Burnside was on a
fucking eighth of mushrooms.
I got it, dude.
It was the most satisfying demo of my life.
PATRICK O'DELL: Today?
Really?
ETHAN FOWLER: Yeah.
It was fun.
KEEGAN SAUDER: It was a fun session.
ETHAN FOWLER: It was.
KEEGAN SAUDER: It was like a session.
It wasn't like a demo.
ETHAN FOWLER: Exactly.
That's what I'm saying.
KEEGAN SAUDER: This happened.
Hello.
ETHAN FOWLER: I think that's seriously the longest I've
skated at a demo in years, multiple years.
I told you that.
KEEGAN SAUDER: You said eight years.
ETHAN FOWLER: Serious, and I'm not even kidding.
KEEGAN SAUDER: You said it was the first time you'd skated
more than 10 minutes.
ETHAN FOWLER: I swear to God, that's not even a joke.
Like, it was a good time, like goofing about, you know?
It still was fun.
[IMITATING CHARACTER VOICE]
Did I tell you about the one time I'm at that computer, and
the last time I talked to that girl was a bad time.
KEEGAN SAUDER: Are you doing Sling Blade right now?
ETHAN FOWLER: Yeah, right?
Yeah, it was good, huh?
KEEGAN SAUDER: That was so Sling Blade.
ETHAN FOWLER: Yeah.
[IMITATING CHARACTER VOICE]
Man, I'll tell you one time-- every time I took that liquor,
I came down a bad man.
PATRICK O'DELL: Hi, welcome back to the show.
At the end of the Mild Ride Tour, I started interviewing
Ethan a lot.
I think on the tour, I forgot who he was.
Maybe with the beard, I couldn't remember.
And then I'd see him skate-- and I was like, damn, that's
Ethan Fowler.
I don't know.
He's just a real influential, stylish skater.
I've been following his career for a long time.
So I just met up with him and started asking him these
questions just to sort of do like a little retrospective of
Ethan Fowler's pro career.
So that's what this is.
The Ethan Fowler episode.
PATRICK O'DELL: Oh, don't let him eat the mic.
ETHAN FOWLER: He ain't gonna eat it.
Looks like Henry Rollins.
PATRICK O'DELL: I interviewed Ed the other day, and I asked
him about you.
And speaking of Rollins, he said when he first met you,
you were, like, really into Rollins and vegetarian.
ETHAN FOWLER: Yep.
And a stint of veganism as well.
PATRICK O'DELL: Really?
ETHAN FOWLER: Indeed, yeah.
It's kind of weird for a 14-year-old kid, I think.
I don't know.
PATRICK O'DELL: How did you meet Ed?
ETHAN FOWLER: My buddy Dave that I skated with was, I
guess, buddies with Jerry Fowler.
I don't know what, but I'd just gone skating with him,
and then Jerry mentioned it to Ed.
And I don't know, but we just ended up at the Huntington
High School.
[CHUCKLES]
And skating around and shit.
And, I don't know.
I guess Ed was into it.
ED TEMPLETON: Yeah, we we're just skating a lot back them.
I mean, he was like a rad kid to skate with.
And he was not just, like, a typical stake kid.
He was interested in music, and art, and stuff.
So it was kind of fun to be around a kid who was into that
kind of stuff.
He was super young.
I mean, he was like, 15 or 16 when I first sponsored him.
And he was just like beyond incredible.
ETHAN FOWLER: And then Ed called and said we'd like to
have you on board.
So I said, I don't know.
I mean, OK, turn me pro, and I'll ride for you.
And he goes, OK.
So that was that.
PATRICK O'DELL: No way.
ETHAN FOWLER: Yeah.
PATRICK O'DELL: [LAUGHS]
So wait, how old were you?
ETHAN FOWLER: 15.
PATRICK O'DELL: That's funny is that you were just like,
make me pro.
ETHAN FOWLER: Yeah.
PATRICK O'DELL: That's pretty cool.
ETHAN FOWLER: Yeah, it worked out, I guess, you know?
ED TEMPLETON: And then the weird thing happened with us
is, his parents moved to Iowa City, and that was
devastating for him.
His skate career was just starting.
He's 16 years old.
But his parents are going to move the some butt-fuck town
and take him away from California and the whole skate
scene and stuff.
ETHAN FOWLER: Yeah, the whole family picked up and split and
went to Iowa--
well, except for my brother, who was of age.
And Ed had offered to take me in, kind of like a guardian
and all that, so I could further my career.
But Mom wasn't having that, so--
ED TEMPLETON: You know, don't worry, I'll be a good dad.
And she was super pissed.
I mean, she just got up and said, how dare you.
Fuck you.
And like walked out of the room.
And I was just sitting there like, oh shit, I really, oh,
this sucks.
ETHAN FOWLER: Yeah, yeah, she was mad.
It'd be an uncomfortable thing, your teenage son going
to live with his employer buddy skate friend.
ETHAN FOWLER: Which I ended up doing anyway, I mean, that
was, like, inevitable.
TOBIN YELLAND: I had never met Ethan Fowler before.
I had driven across the United States.
Thomas Campbell had come with us.
And he had the idea to stop by his friend Ethan's house, who
was, at that time, 16 years old.
And he was a really amazing skateboarder.
And Thomas' idea was to stop by his house, say hello to
him, and shoot a bunch of photos.
And maybe we can use him for Big Brother, you know, a
magazine article or something.
ETHAN FOWLER: They were coming through from New York, and I
had met before and shot with Thomas and stuff.
And we got along good, so they came through to shoot weird
Iowa spots.
And then they were splitting and said, well, we've got an
extra seat.
You want to come?
And I said, well, yeah, but I do.
And so I just had my shit in my backpack, like an extra
pair of shoes and a shirt.
And I was like, OK, let's go.
And so I went to the bank and took out all my money and just
got in and split.
And that was it.
End of story.
PATRICK O'DELL: Didn't you tell your mom?
ETHAN FOWLER: Yeah, I was there for three days.
I called and said I live in San Francisco now.
DAVE CARNIE: Yeah, one of the first times I met Ethan, it
was his birthday.
And me and Tobin went over to his house.
And he was kind of weird.
He just seemed-- he was just kind of odd.
He was, like, playing jazz, and playing his drums, and
listening to jazz music really loud, like really crazy jazz.
And he was drinking whiskey.
I remember that.
And he was only 15 or something.
And I was doing speed at the time.
And so I offered him some speed.
And he was like, oh, fuck yeah.
And like, I didn't know he was 15 at the time.
And then I learned later that he was drunk on whiskey, he
was high on speed, but before all that, he had dropped two
hits of acid.
I don't know, obviously, I like that
kind of thing in people.
So we had a good time that night.
ED TEMPLETON: So that's it, you know?
I mean, basically, he was in our video during that time.
That was the time we filmed for Toy Machine Live.
So yeah, a lot of that footage from that period was like
Ethan in his new phase, coming from Iowa City, and you can
see him in the video smoking cigs and wearing cool vests
and things.
And within weeks of him being in SF, I get a call from him
saying, I'm running for Stereo.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
CHRIS PASTRAS: Ethan just oozed style, man.
We always used to say, like, it was as if he
was born for Stereo.
But I kind of had this vision of like, man, I want to get
like some skate company going where it's all, like, solid
skating, with big tricks, and not all the board hitting the
ground at the same time as the dude or whatever.
When he came along, it was like the golden child of
Stereo basically.
And we gave him two weeks to film that video part.
And him and Tobin came back with this part, and they went
out like four or five times.
Like the Stereo video was like, this is what happens
when you leave the house with a skateboard.
PATRICK O'DELL: Did you film a lot of his Stereo part?
TOBIN YELLAND: Yeah, I filmed, probably, most of it.
And as well as, like, I filmed most of the video.
And that was really fun.
He's just like a prodigy skateboarder.
So he just came to San Francisco, started filming for
his part, and just, basically, kind of, like, made every
trick that he tried.
And he was just in this like--
this kind of mode, just being like Superman skateboarder.
KEEGAN SAUDER: Skateboarding was kind of shit back then.
You know, small wheels, creeping at a curb, just doing
the stab and wiggle, where you don't even ollie.
You just like, uhh.
And then, I don't know.
These guys were skating fast and smooth.
It was kind of like a precursor to Eastern Exposure.
Like it was the start of skating getting good again.
JAKE PHELPS: Chris Pastras and Jason Lee were in this very
same office.
And they were going, looking through their Ethan Fowler
footage, and they were like, man, we fucking--
we got lucky on this kid.
Because he was 15, he won the world championships.
You know, I'm not worthy, you know?
He did a couple three flips and some flat grounds, some
front boards, some big spins, and people were like--
in a contest, unbelievable!
Which is all normal now, but at that time, it was all
really pretty earth shattering.
Ethan, I think he was an amazing skater.
He told me some really funny things in life, I think.
He goes, Phelps, man--
you know, this is when he was the slicked-back
fucking teen wolf.
I was like, all right, what is it?
And he's like, everyone else is all trying
to flip their board.
Man, I just want to ollie everything.
And he had supreme ollie powers.
ETHAN FOWLER: But that was the whole idea.
Like, I don't think anybody on that team was even remotely
interested in sitting there for three hours trying to get
some insane thing on a curb that they
would make once a year.
But no, at the time, I don't think it was--
I mean, it was well received in small circles.
But, like, for the most part, it was like, whatever.
You know?
Who are these goofballs?
PATRICK O'DELL: More like contemporary videos, like--
CHRIS PASTRAS: Virtual Reality.
PATRICK O'DELL: Virtual reality.
CHRIS PASTRAS: That was the one we were up against, I
think, in terms of timing.
And the first girl video, I think, had come out.
Yeah, for sure Stereo definitely always got a strong
reaction, one way or the other.
That's for sure.