Bowls, park, vert...Mike has it all covered.

Dave: I see you've got your new Tony Hawk Gigantic Skatepark Tour hockey jersey wrapped around your shoulder. It's probably just one of the many perks you get on tour. Would you mind telling me about some of the other things that come your way?

Mike: Actually, I haven't really come across too many things, it's pretty similar to most tours that I do, except that we're in a big bus and I'm with Tony Hawk. For the most part it's in the bus, out of the bus, we do our thing and we move on. The perks, I don't know, the perks are probably live TV coverage, you know? Reporters coming out and caring and doing stories, but I think the biggest perk of all of this is just to be in Tony's presence and to see him skate on a daily basis. To see the consistent effort that he puts out and the caring way in which he goes about his business, it's inspiring. So that's the biggest perk of this tour, to be in the presence of other great skaters. I'm used to being in situations where I'm the star of the show, and I'm the guy that has to hold everything together, and in this situation I'm just another one of the guys on the trip. It's just a very cool experience for me.

I know you're down with Tony and have met him before in the past, but has this helped you get closer to him as a human, as a friend, or a skateboarder?

I don't know, not necessarily. I mean, we don't really talk a whole lot. We don't really communicate much, you know - short talk and we keep it pretty much about the demos or about what's going on around us at the time. I think we kind of operate in different little worlds. What's really cool is that we don't have any problems coming together and working together. I don't see us as guys being like the best of friends. You never know, I think the world of the guy, I respect him a lot, but I'm more concerned right now about just doing my job and doing it the best I can. I didn't come here to necessarily make friends with anybody, or have lifelong buddies after this. I just wanted to come and do the best skating I can, be consistent, and just bring something to the tour to help make it successful.

What's the best trick you've seen on this tour?

You know, I've never really broken it down to specific tricks or single maneuvers. I think probably the most impressive thing about this tour is the consistent effort that Tony puts out. When he gets out of the bus to skate, he gets out of the bus to skate, and not everyone can do that. That's why he's Tony Hawk. After snowboarding all morning, we stopped to skate the Newberg park in Oregon and Tony really put on a show. It wasn't a demo, it wasn't supposed to be a demo, but the kids heard he was coming and came out to see him skate. He knew it and he did what he had to do. It was impressive you know? I think his skating in general is the best stuff I've seen for a while.

Tony has a high level of professionalism that he brings to the tour that I think is refreshing.

For me it is, because usually I'm around people that don't bring anything to the table. And that's what I'm all about, I'm all about delivering and doing something with the opportunity that is presented. Tony is, you know, the best ambassador this sport could have and he's the best role model that any of us could aspire to be.

Obviously you're able to articulate and have a good sense about yourself when you express your ideas. Expressing yourself on the skateboard though, on the tour, have there been any defining moments on the tour that you were really stoked on?

Nothing really jumps out. I really try to skate my best at every demo and every demo has a defining moment for me. Each demo is a memory that sticks with me because it's just a matter of going out and attacking the place and having that one line or finding that one maneuver that's going to cap it all off. I want to be able to do that at every stop. It goes from city to city, day to day, I've never been the guy who is looking for the one defining moment, it's more about a consistent effort for me and giving it my all every time I go out.

I like how you switch up your style, you bring something from the old, then mix it with something from the new. Have you been bringing back any tricks just recently?

I've done a couple tricks on this trip that I've never done before, just by mixing things up a little bit. Last couple of demos I've been doing invert to fakies or I'm taking both feet off so I'm doing the gymnast plant and then I'm finger flipping the board. It's just like combinations, mixing stuff up. A lot of the tricks I do have been done before by other people or by me, but I just kinda bring it to a different element or put a different spin on 'em, like try it on terrain no one's ever tried before.

Yeah I saw you do that thing in an indoor park somewhere where they stood the quarterpipe up on end and you ollied off, slob grab, and then you hit it. BOOM! It fell over and you stayed on it as it was falling over and then rode away clean.

When I set that up that wasn't my intention, my intention was to jump over the thing. But the ramp that I was going off of didn't give me enough takeoff, and I always believe that if you set something up you have to at least try it. So I set it up and everybody started heckling me and saying "there's no way you're going to get over that" so I went for it and I completely missed and just smashed into it and it just fell down, and I said "hmmm, maybe I'm on to something here?" So you know ten or twelve tries later, I knock the thing over and ride away.

And you got it too, you got it clean.

I'm not a quitter, I never have been and once I go for something I stick with it. I'm either gonna pull it off or leave hobbling.

Best city?

Best city so far…I'm claiming today, even though it hasn't happened yet. I really felt, as this tour has been going on, that Seattle would be THE demo of the tour, and I might be wrong. We could get in there and there could be no energy, the crowd might not be into it, the skaters could just blow it - but for me, I've been looking forward to this one. I haven't been up this way for a while, I've been getting a lot of mail from skaters in Seattle, with high expectations, you know. I've been counting the days down till when we got here and now we're here.

This is kind of the end of the US leg of the tour isn't it?

Yeah, well, of the west coast leg. We go on to Vancouver and then on to Calgary. I see this as being the demo because we've been building. We've been having really good demos and I think we get to Canada we'll be skating some cement. Calgary will be an outdoor cement situation and I don't see it as having the same focus. I mean we're gonna have a good time skating it and all, but with its size, and what's going on, I don't see a focus there like I see a focus today at the Rain City Park. Kids in there are going to be fired up, ready to go, ready to see some good skateboarding. So for the west coast leg, this has the potential to be the best demo.

Any memorable moments?

Actually the highlight would be skydiving, we all went skydiving.

Did you go in Perris (CA)?

Yeah tandem, it was pretty cool, it was definitely an experience.

Do you remember how high you were?

Yeah, 12,500 (feet). It's something I've always wanted to do. It was intense man. I was like "Holy shit, I'm falling out of the air."

So what do you do on the bus to pass time and stuff?

Answer emails. I get on average 150 to 200 emails a day. I download them from the hotels and answer them while I'm on the bus, and when I get back to the hotel I fire them off. Recently I've been just sitting up front with driver just taking it all in and watching the road go, which is something I enjoy, because I'm usually the driver. I know how important it is to have somebody riding shotgun with you, the biggest thing is not to fall asleep when you're riding shotgun and most people just don't know about that. If you're a driving man, you know.

Ok, new direction - what's up with your spoken word stuff? I know we talked a bit about this earlier. One of the things I respect is the idea of people being able to express themselves verbally. To put themselves on stage and have the confidence in their ideas and the well formulated path of thinking to be able to share things with people. Do you feel it's a good thing for you, a good way to release, a good way to vent, what is it to you?

It's an extension of my skating really, my skating's always been about self-expression. You can't really confine or limit self-expression. Everything you do is about being an individual and expressing that. So I do that with my skating. I do that in conversation. I do that in really everything I do. It was a natural progression for me to take my thoughts, feelings, opinions and ideas and present them in a forum where they are easier to understand. It gives me a forum where I can clarify my thinking and just put some stuff out there. You know, just put it out there and see what happens. I've gotten positive responses from it every time I go out and do it. It tells me I need to keep doing it. So I continue to do it. If the initial experiences would have been negative and nothing would have come out of them, then I probably would have looked at it differently. But I've been inspired to continue to get out there and I've found that it's important, and it's necessary, and I have a responsibility to do it.

And I'm inspired too, so much props on that. Obviously, you think of guys like Rollins when you think of independent spoken word, is there anybody else that you like - either a spoken word artist or an artist in general, someone that inspires you?

There's a lot of people, mostly musicians. I've never really been very musically inclined, nothing comes natural. I've been in bands and I eventually plan on doing something with music, having a band. But there's something about people that are willing to walk out on a limb and go out there and try to do something else no matter what, and stick to their guns. Rollins is definitely somebody that has been an inspiration through the years, just by being himself and sticking to what he believes in. Being about something, you know? Him and Ian MacKaye are original punk rock guys, they're both probably the most inspirational people in my life.

Have you met either of them?

Yeah, I met them both. And that's only heightened my admiration for them.

Where you livin' now a days?

I've been in Long beach for about 5 years.

What do you like? What do you think is a stylish trick is and who's doing it? Who do you give props to?

Okay, I'd have to say the new Black Label video that will be out pretty soon (Label Kills) Jason Adams does this board slide to lip slide kind of transfer thing. It's the very last trick in his part, down this curving wall, it's really long. It's just very cool looking and very original. It's probably the best thing I've seen in a while. I think it's probably Northern Cal, San Jose. Jason Adams is really underrated, he's got such a great style and his trick selection is something I really enjoy. He's not afraid to do his own thing and be his own person and this particular trick I think exemplifies everything he's about. It's the last trick in his part and once the video comes out, a lot of people are gonna be Jason Adams fans. This trick is the exclamation point on his part in the video.

Anything else you'd like to add?

I don't know, I think we got some good stuff.

Yeah, I think we got some good stuff too. Thanks a lot for talking with me…

Not a problem.

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