ROB DYRDEK: He's truly lived in all of like the true skate
meccas for pure street skating.
You know what I mean?
Like no one else has done that.
When SF was cracking, he moved to SF.
When Philly was resurging, he moved to Philly
and blew Philly up.
When LOVE Park went down, he made the movement to spending
six months a year in Barcelona.
And then he desperately tried to Chicago into Philly.
That didn't work out so hard.
And he is pure of, wake up in your house and
go skate raw street.
And a lot of people can't say that.
And he never followed trends.
He hated on every trend as it came and went, and talked
about how wack it was.
I don't even like that.
And I'm like, that shit's hard to do.
That ain't hard to do, that's just wack.
And went through it all.
And it's one of the purest, pure street
skateboarding careers.
There's no like-- he didn't have gimmicks in video parts.
He didn't--
there was no gimmicks in ads.
You're going to look at his footage from like whatever
year that was, in like '98 till this year, and it will
seamlessly blend together.
His pants and his shirts might have gotten a shade tighter.
But all that footage would have just blended together for
his 15-year career.
It's so weird, because it's like, to me,
he's still on Alien.
Like he's such my--
one of my very best friends in the world.
I know him so well.
I talk to him about everything.
Nonstop, my advice to him, every single time was, you're
not me, man.
Like do not waste your time and headache trying to start
companies and do this other stuff.
It's not worth it.
Like, you are a skater.
Just skate.
MALE SPEAKER: Dude, fuck you--
JOSH KALIS: Shut up!
Pussy.
MALE SPEAKER: I don't want to get up.
MALE SPEAKER: Just fucking do it.
JOSH KALIS: Shhhh.
MALE SPEAKER: Come on, Dyrdek.
Do this right now.
ANTHONY VAN ENGELEN: You think he knows who who are?
Just say Rob Dyrdek.
What's up?
JOSH KALIS: Being a dick comes natural.
ROB DYRDEK: Now, then, at the end of the year, fall and next
year's contract will be $1500 with an option to buy out.
So it's $18,000.
You have the option to say, buy it out for $6,000.
It's always dangerous to cross that line for these athletes,
you know what I mean?
Especially the urban skateboard image.
I mean, that-- that could flow into the cities like nobody's
business, you know what I mean?
And that's why he gets paid so well.
That's why he has the-- he's the featured pro on DC's new
shoe line, you know what I mean.
OK, great.
Good talking to you.
You take care now.
Bye.
[LAUGHS]
ANTHONY VAN ENGELEN: Oh, god.
MALE SPEAKER: What was that?
ROB DYRDEK: Dude, I just sealed the
deal so gnarly, man.
Like he was just like, well, I understand that.
If you could please-- if you can get me that in writing
with a proposal in writing, if you can explain to me how
coming into this market, what you need to be, if you could
just explain it to me, I mean, if we could take it to the
powers that be, I know we could make
it happen like that.
I was, like, all right.
MALE SPEAKER: Do you remember the name you told him?
ROB DYRDEK: (LAUGHING) Oh.
Mike Johnson?
MALE SPEAKER: Mark Johnson.
MALE SPEAKER: You better write that down.
MALE SPEAKER: Freddy [INAUDIBLE] called.
Whooo!
JOSH KALIS: Now like me and Dyrdek got AVE on.
I saw AVE's Wheels of Fortune and was like, holy fuck, dude.
This kid gnarly crooked grinded and picnic tables on
like flat ground, you know?
And switch front crooking.
And I mean, he was gnarly.
He was doing all the tricks that I either was doing, to a
gnarlier bigger level, or that I wanted to do, and he was
already on this crazy other level.
And I was just like, fuck.
AVE was so stoked.
Well, I feel like the Workshop was always known to not have
people living by each other.
But everyone clicked, and everyone got along.
And when we hung out or went on a road trip, or like--
I mean, it was mad fun.
[PLAYING "HEART AND SOUL"]
JOSH KALIS: But it's not as personal anymore.
It's not as friendly.
You know what I mean?
Shit, I'll go on a road trip and not even know who to talk
to anymore.
It's like, fuck, man.
Become a lone wolf.
ROB DYRDEK: I understood his position.
When that new tier was sort of being rebuilt again, he just
lost his voice in that.
And I think for him as he became more and more
alienated, so to speak, it just started to wear him out.
PATRICK O'DELL: Did you disagree with anything that
Dill or Bill said in Dylan's episode?
JOSH KALIS: Well I-- he used the wrong word.
Because up-river is usually like, fucking, in jail.
PATRICK O'DELL: Upstream.
JOSH KALIS: OK.
Yeah.
Upstream, downstream.
But I don't know what he was getting at, you
know what I'm saying?
Because he said when I left the Workshop, it became less
upstream, or up-river.
To tell you the truth, if anything, I think it's a
little bit more uptight now.
You know what I mean?
And I'm not really like the uptight dude.
And so I left a company that I thought was getting more
uptight, more focused on fashion and accessories.
And I'm just not really a part of that.
Like, I'm not with that.
Like, you can tell in my video or in my video part, it's
completely different than the rest of the video.
They're--
they're going on their way, and they're like whatever type
of music that those dudes are going for in that direction.
And just like, that's not me.
You know?
ROB DYRDEK: It's so funny 'cause I call Dill, and I'm
like, I'm like, look, dude.
He's like, what, dude, I don't even like--
And I'm like, dude, what does up-river mean?
And I'm like how can you?
He's like, you know, where the fishing's good.
And I'm like, how are you gonna put--
and my whole thing is this.
It's Dill--
Dill's just spouting off.
Me and Barra are up-river, you know what I'm saying?
Kalis is not.
It's like, and even like--
even like--
telling Kalis, like god, it was just him kind of--
like, OK, your name got accidentally put in there.
It's like, it's like, me and Barra are like
TV and fucking website.
Like me and Barra are like so far gone, like it makes sense
for being up-river.
Like he just accidentally put your name in there.
It doesn't feel like shit-talking, you know what
I'm saying?
It's just Kalis doesn't want to hear his name.
You don't want to be lumped in with me and Barra, you know
what I'm saying?
You don't.
If you were fringe, close to me and Barra, maybe.
But like, he's a purist.
Our problem with Kalis, DC Video, Alien Video you name it
video, he's done a year before everybody, like crying about
like, where, deadline's coming and we're losing our minds
paranoid, like freaked out, like hopefully
we push this thing.
And he's got nine minutes of footage, and he's mad about
like something being cut out.
And he's also a dude that's on the Slap
message boards all day.
He's--
he's in it, man.
He's in with the shops, he's in it on the message boards.
He's in it with anyone who wants to talk about it.
He'll break down.
He'll hate.
He'll come around.
He is a skate rat.
JOSH KALIS: Like I feel like, shit, I rode for the Workshop
for 13 years.
I know the Alien Workshop.
I know it.
Like, I lived it.
And it just wasn't there anymore.
To me, I realized that there was nothing personal about it.
Even though I had a personal relationship with the owner,
or Dyrdek, there was nothing personal about my position at
the Workshop.
And I just kind of felt like I was floating, doing nothing.
There's no personal graphic.
There's none of that stuff.
Kinda over it.
Six months before I quit Workshop, me and Mark
Appleyard were actually toying with doing
our own board company.
And I mean, the only thing we didn't have was a name.
I mean, there was people ready to do it.
And me and Apple, it was like, we were gonna
have our own shit.
But then what happened was is Apples wasn't ready to like
take on the responsibility.
He just didn't want to.
And I--
I get it.
I'll take on responsibility.
I don't give a shit.
But it just ended up not working out.
So I was talking to Stevie about it one day, and I was
like, yeah, man, me and Mark are talking about, been
talking about doing the company for a while.
But I'm not sure if we're really going to do it.
So I don't really know--
I don't know what I want to do.
Like, I don't really want to ride for the Workshop anymore.
But I don't--
I don't know.
I don't know what to do.
And then that he was like, damn, yo.
Maybe we should do something.
Blah, blah, blah.
And I was like, actually, you know what, bro?
Why don't you put a old fucking original DGK homey
white boy on DGK?
And he was like, who?
I was like, come on, dog.
You know what I'm talking about.
He was like phhhbbt.
Say the word.
STEVIE WILLIAMS: Let's go.
I was like, that's what you want to do?
He was like, yeah, fuck it.
I was like, how much you want?
He told me.
And it wasn't even a question.
It was just, let's go.
I thought that was really something that me and Josh
both deserve.
I think it's really, really cool on my end, for me to own
a company and have the person that saved my career skate for
my company.
So I don't really look at it like it's my company.
I look at it like it's a situation that was put in
front of us due to grace of God.
Everybody knows the story.
Everybody know that I came from shit and
Kalis hooked it up.
And for me to get laughed at for doing a company that
people said wouldn't work, and for it to be so successful
that my mentor skates for it?
That's priceless.
It wasn't--
Josh could have said, I want $20,000 a month.
And it still wouldn't have mattered.
Because it's a priceless, epic situation that--
you can't buy that shit.
It's just, it's crazy, yo.
And that's my man.
He got my heart.
Everybody don't get on the team like that.
And he gets a nice check, you know what I mean?
So.
PATRICK O'DELL: He reps it pretty hard.
STEVIE WILLIAMS: Yeah, well, that's the deal.
It's not so much--
I don't be like, Josh, you got to--
I still really don't even talk to Josh that much on the
phone, 'cause he's like my brother.
But what's I tell people on the team, I
tell them, like, look.
He's going to show you the ultimate professionalism.
Josh is the professionalism of skateboarding.
He knows how to attack everything.
He knows about this trick.
He knows about every goddamn thing I don't know about.
But if I'm not on tour and Amber's on tour, like Marquis
or Duane, or things like that, they can ask a legend pro like
Kalis how to handle shit, from counts to tricks to how to
handle demos.
He's a pro to look at, to model yourself after, doing an
excellent job in your career.
JOSH KALIS: May sound dumb or old school or something, but
like respect is so important to me.
All through the '90s, and even '80s, and I mean it's always
been that you didn't have to be like physically the best
skateboarder.
Like of course there's always people who are better and more
consistent or whatever.
But when you build like a form of respect around you, people
accept you and they bring that in.
And they want to like earn your respect.
It's all about respect, man.
PATRICK O'DELL: Tre-bomb, 360 flip, good day or bad day.
Oh!
TED LEE: I mean, it's just crazy to look back 20 years
and to think, like, Josh is kind of my friend's kid
brother's friend.
14 and goofy and whatever.
Josh was always like a really hyper kid.
Like he was jumping off the walls, like ready to go skate.
Or like so-and-so is here, so I'm going to go do this.
So you could see kind of that like cocky, like punk-ass kid
edge or whatever.
I say that in a loving way, but you know, that's, I think,
one of the reasons Josh is where he is.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
MALE SPEAKER: Yeah, Josh.
MALE SPEAKER: Good job, Josh.
Hey, Josh, be proud of yourself.
That was great.
MALE SPEAKER: Hey, be strong, man.
MALE SPEAKER: Do a good disco maneuver.
TED LEE: And now look at--
not only has Josh stayed relevant and grown with his
career, but the whole industry has changed, obviously, so
dramatically and he's really been able to ride
that and do his thing.
And it's rad, you know?
It's so cool.
I'm proud of him.
So I don't know.
It's funny.
It's like one of those things.
When his career really started ramping up, and I remember
thinking, like, I hope this really works for him.
Because he's one of those guys that--
I mean, it's rad, but I don't know what else he'd be doing
if he wasn't skating.
PATRICK O'DELL: What do you think you're going to do--
like how much longer do you think you'll be a pro or skate
or whatever?
JOSH KALIS: I don't know, man.
I'm definitely not one that would sit there and milk it.
But I'm definitely not one that's like ready to stop.
I don't know.
It's kind of tough to think about, because I've been
living the same lifestyle for 10, 12 years.
And I'm a high school dropout, man.
I really don't know what could take place of
skateboarding for me.
Financially, mentally--
like I really have no idea.
Who knows, man?
Who knows?
I don't know, Patrick.
I ain't even thinking about that shit right now, buddy.
Fucking sunset is setting.
I'm going to Atlanta tomorrow to skate in the new DGK
private park, called The Playground .
And that shit's gonna be tight.
PATRICK O'DELL: Thanks, Josh.
You wanna head back?
JOSH KALIS: Yeah.