Two technical street skating wizards join the podcast! Tune in for a special live episode with Canadian street skater Matt Berger and Brazilian prodigy Filipe Mota. Listen as they provide behind-the-scenes commentary from SLS San Diego in conversation with The Dingo, Danny, and Brittney.
UNLEASHED goes live at the first-ever Street League Skateboarding (SLS) contest in San Diego with two of skateboarding’s finest: Hailing from Kamloops, Canada, Matt Berger was welcomed to the sponsored ranks after skate icon Rodney Mullen watched his sponsor-me tape. The Canadian has since pushed the boundaries with technical video parts, competed in the Olympics, and claimed a bronze medal at the X Games. He is joined by young upstart Mota from Minas Gerais, Brazil. Known for his complex trick combinations, Mota has been making a splash on the international scene since age 11 and recently turned heads with a never-been-done kickflip frontside bluntslide on the legendary Hollywood 16 rail. Listen closely as the two street skaters reveal their strategy for competing in SLS competitions and break down the top contenders at SLS San Diego – only on UNLEASHED!
Press the play button (and hit Like) on the new episode of UNLEASHED with The Dingo, Danny, and Brittney.
Make sure to subscribe and stay tuned for more UNLEASHED episodes. Regular editions of the show are recorded live inside Studio M at Monster Energy headquarters in Corona, California, and published bi-weekly. Also, follow @monsterenergy for updates.
Two technical street skating wizards join the podcast! Tune in for a special live episode with Canadian street skater Matt Berger and Brazilian prodigy Filipe Mota. Listen as they provide behind-the-scenes commentary from SLS San Diego in conversation with The Dingo, Danny, and Brittney.
UNLEASHED goes live at the first-ever Street League Skateboarding (SLS) contest in San Diego with two of skateboarding’s finest: Hailing from Kamloops, Canada, Matt Berger was welcomed to the sponsored ranks after skate icon Rodney Mullen watched his sponsor-me tape. The Canadian has since pushed the boundaries with technical video parts, competed in the Olympics, and claimed a bronze medal at the X Games. He is joined by young upstart Mota from Minas Gerais, Brazil. Known for his complex trick combinations, Mota has been making a splash on the international scene since age 11 and recently turned heads with a never-been-done kickflip frontside bluntslide on the legendary Hollywood 16 rail. Listen closely as the two street skaters reveal their strategy for competing in SLS competitions and break down the top contenders at SLS San Diego – only on UNLEASHED!
Press the play button (and hit Like) on the new episode of UNLEASHED with The Dingo, Danny, and Brittney.
Make sure to subscribe and stay tuned for more UNLEASHED episodes. Regular editions of the show are recorded live inside Studio M at Monster Energy headquarters in Corona, California, and published bi-weekly. Also, follow @monsterenergy for updates.
You now. Yo! What is happening? What's up? We live. We are live from San Diego. San Diego. And they are go Chile now. I was trying to make a. California shout out to Santiago, though. Yeah, right. You know you're talking about it. Yeah. Okay. Great. Great place to go. What's up guys? We are actually live from San Diego. I've been trying to get the name of the arena. I'm just going to go, Vegas. Yeah. Sounds about right. Yeah. House. Yeah. And, we are, it's a street league. That's right. Welcome to the Big League Skateboarding. Excited for all of the fun stuff going down. That's right. The famous slash. I was going to say presented by Monster Energy. But there's a noodle cup over there, a cup of noodles. So shout out to those guys for keeping the dream alive. But, we are in here. It is practice day tomorrow is competition. We are live on Twitch tomorrow. they will be live on Rumble Sports, where you can find all the slash action, and, Danny Kass here, as usual. How are you, Danny? I'm doing fabulous. Enjoying this moment. Because I love skateboarding. We like that, Jack. I love skateboarding. He actually does love skateboarding. Yeah. Did you get on the course? I skated back and forth, but then I realized it was girls practice, so I didn't want to get kicked out right away, but I did a kickflip first try. I mean, rumor has it next to the course you're skateboarding, a few slash practices in there. In the past. No, I've been kicked out of multiple slaps. Practice. Yeah, I got kicked out of the Newark one, which was fun. And I got kicked out of, I'm got my Maloof Cup back in the day. Yeah. There you go. We're not here to talk about that. Brittney Palmer. as always. How are you doing? I'm good. I missed you guys. You look great. Thank you. You that you're very scary today. Scary. Scary thing. Like like like last time we were at, PBR. You a very, Country. Yeah. Country. Yeah. You fit right in the vibes. Enough about us. We have our guest, Matt Berger. How are you doing, Matt? Doing great. I'm happy to be here. Filipe Mota, how you doing, brother? Then get. Thanks for having me. We're stoked to have you. We, we we got Matt here to carry you. Unless. Unless, I think it's the other way around, but, I hope I get shots fired. I don't, but I was talking to camera. I'm, like, really shy, so. No. You're fun. You got Danny next to you, you got Matt, you got Brittney, and we're just here hanging out. Dude, we're gonna, drop some clips, I think. first up, I have, you this is, I think, from, Celeste Brazil. If, correct me if I'm wrong. That was actually my first actually actual SLA. As I said it, this was. Yeah, it was, Salt Lake City. How old are you there? I think I was 40. How old are you now? 17. You're only 17? Yeah. You grew a lot. You got tall, bro. I know 14. Yeah, I was 14, so. Well, you are the youngest competitor. Is going back to Celeste then what was. Yeah. I was the youngest one ever. Ever. Yeah, that makes sense, because I was trying to think who I was. Also, my first slice and my first final. Now we've gone across to Matt. Matt, you are not 14 here. No, I think I was. Well, all these clips are different ages. That was last year in Australia. how old was in first get getting my three. Like, I think it was 21. Yeah 30 now. So many years ago. Late bloomer. I was in another country. Okay, take some time. We get out here to the States. It did take some time. It took a phone call from a serious, guy to get you here to. Yeah. You still speak to Rodney? unfortunately, no, he's he's pretty elusive. But when I have some events, we always catch up. He was a great guy to speak to growing up. Of course, is such a trip still to this day. Even thinking about it, it's so wild. Rodney Mullin has such a presence. I was at, Skateboard foundation, dinner and Rodney gave, like, a speech. And when that guy talks, you eat, you kind of listen. Oh, I hope you just like. It's more than kind of listen. Well, no. You listen. You stop what you're doing and you, like, pay attention. Yeah. He's, one of the greatest minds in. I mean, he built the foundation of every trick, created kickflip, always 360 flips. All the things we've evolved here because of Rodney. So that's that's been going on for a long time. We were talking about it. before we went on air. And, I remember when this was just an idea in, Rob Derek's head. and then that idea came to fruition, and I want to say, what are we in where what? I could be wrong, but, like, was the original, was it 2000, 13, 14? I was in Canada skating at that point. I, I was dreaming of maybe skating a straight leg at that point. And at that point, you, Filipe, would have been. I was I was born in 2006. So I was probably like four years old when the first. Really. When did you first start skateboarding? I was six years old. So you declined to remember? Not really. little bit not. Not too much, but some stuff I do remember now, Dana White, is now the owner of, of this company and, flip it through you. Graham. And I remember when it happened, but, there was a really cool, shot of you showing Dana your first cover on Thrasher mag. Yeah, that must have been a pretty special moment. And I believe you went to the UFC, too. Yeah, I did, I did watch the, the fight, and, I signed the magazine for Dana and then gave it to him. That's pretty legit. Yeah. Brittney Palmer was, UFC Ringo of the year for many, many, many years in a row. And, is a famed, she's a staple at, at UFC. So we're lucky to have her here. And she, she knows that, brand very well. So I think, I thought that was a pretty, pretty special moment. Yeah. Have you had a cover? not in the States. No, no, no, it hasn't happened. What covers have you had? different magazines in Canada. Some of them are still around and some of them have disappeared, unfortunately, because you know how it's went with print in general, I think print is going to come back. I hope you do. Yeah, 100%. Like, like especially in our world, I think for like surf, skate, snow. well, looking at pictures on, on a phone is stupid. Yeah. Like it's you can't get the full detail of it reading articles on a phone. Stupid. Yeah, I just think I think we're in the new phone era, but I think there be an era to where magazines come back in full, like like like at your at your beautiful new home you're building. You want books and you want stuff too. oh. Yeah. So it's, it's a thing you want to sit and read and I think coffee table books. But I really think we're going to make a turn on, magazines coming back, because looking at photos, you know, like the photo you had on the cover of Thrasher Mag, you want to look at it, you want to touch it, you want to feel it. You want to see it in full. You don't want to just scroll, scroll through it on your phone. Yeah. Do you remember, though, like, when we were kids and we would get magazines? We. Those were. That was wallpaper, you know, I mean, we would take it, tear it, hang it like that's what we need to bring back, like the collages, because I know it was floor to ceiling skater photos. I mean, he probably still has the wall. Yeah. so you moved to L.A.. Have you officially moved from Brazil in LA? Yeah. the first time I came, I was already like, I had in my mind I was going to live here. Yeah. You know me, la. So. And then, I been here for almost six years. Yeah. Do you miss home? I do, but I really like, la. So, I don't think I would move to Brazil for now. Right? I think for every skateboarder. Same as you. Moving to California was a dream. And and and I think for you guys, for your job, there's no better place. Correct me if I'm wrong in California, whether it be SoCal or Los Angeles or even San Francisco. Yeah. I mean, you always have that love where you're from, of course, but I think California is the melting pot of all the best skaters in the world. And if you want to get better, you know, I want to be out on a session with this guy because he's inspired me to try and skate better that day. And that's how it works. You know, you get to surround yourself with those people, and there's no better place in the world to do it. I like that you're just off Tampa. You had a good session there. You qualified first. Yeah, yeah, I got lucky. You got the golden ticket. Dang. Yeah. Have you ever done that? No, no, I think I think Tampa is the only event that actually does that where if you qualify first, then you get a straight shot to finals. There's no other contest in skateboarding that does that. So yeah, that was the first time I've done that. Sick. That was Tampa. Tampa. So legendary. I mean I'm like raised there. I've been going there every year since I was 13 or 14. so to me, it's just like it's a part of skateboarding. They've helped build skateboarding and it's the longest lasting event and it stays the same. Yeah. It hasn't changed, right? Yeah. How cool is that to be able to like kind of keep revisiting this park as it like slightly changes. Yeah. But not like a total rebuild. No. It's fun and just the overall energy of Tampa. You know it's it's an entirely different city city of its own really. And then the same organizers are holding it down to this day. And I think that's what's kept the magic there. So, yeah, shout out to Brian Schaefer and everyone at spot. Yeah. That's sick I know that Joey and Cody, that is for a monster. That's one of their to be a part of that. is is a huge table with the company. I know the boys brought that back or brought it to Tampa. Yeah, they were very stoked on it. Yeah. No, it was really cool. I was actually staying with, Tom Shah and Yamaha, and so I got to go see the vert skating. But it's crazy because there was a period with the vert skating where there wasn't a lot of people going to these events, and then this last one was insane. There were so many people in the crowd. There was so many vert skaters. Like definitely feeling back these days, which is cool. Well, again, and I think we're going to talk about it more today. But even at X games, I noticed that as well. And I think it's the crossover. Two of men and women, they're both kind of in it together. And I think there's a new rise of young female skaters, both street and vert, that like, is that rise of like, oh, you're like, oh my God. And the way that they've caught up, is crazy and it's insane to watch, the growth of that. Let's talk about format here. Like format completely different than Tampa format here at Street League. the way that you work on your scores, you've got to kind of build up. Right? It's like not just go throw your best run first. It's almost like a bit of a science game. Yeah. I guess with, with the new format now, it's kind of like you have to skate two finals, I feel like. Right. You just. You got to win your heat. So you got to pretty much win the contests. Yeah, definitely. And then make to the finals. So I think it makes more like, interesting because I feel like you risk everything already in the first and then say my finals, you know. Yeah. When you have that stacked heat. Right. There's five of us. Everyone in this contest could take it right tomorrow, like insanely good. But just the fact they only take one from your heat, it's like everyone's thrown their back. It's basically straight to finals, right? The final before the finals. So how many? So how many heats go? How many? How many miles of skating? five. five and a heat. Yeah, yeah. And then how many heats are there? I think there's about 4 or 5. I think five heats. Yeah. So five guys into finals. So I think it's changed a lot for me. So I'm just trying to understand it. So he goes you get your minute and then that's it. 45 seconds, 45 seconds. And then that's it. Didn't they used to be sections that was way back. Yeah. That that didn't happen before that happened before I was even in street. That was like 2010. Yeah. Yeah yeah. The sections things is done. But it's 245 second runs. They take your best run and then you get five attempts on the course and you need to get three single track scores. It's kind of complicated. But yeah they take your highest run scorer and then your three high single or you can score is right. If you do a better run, you can try to get four good scores straight right. Oh right I forget they bring that over. Yeah. So like a run of if you fucked up the run you can still catch up on the best tricks. And then how does the final run work like all the finals. Is that the same format as the heat. Yeah. So you're basically right. You're basically you got to skate two. Fine. I like to say you're in the same heat as Nigel. You're not going to like, save your tricks. You got to go for everything. True story. And then so if you don't make it in that first one out of five, there is no second rounders. There are like a semi chance there is only, whoever had the highest score of the day, but didn't win their heat, they, they get thrown in. But there was only a plus one, right. Yeah. Is that. Yeah. The second, second place that has the highest score. Yeah. From all the heats also makes this, this is sounding a little complicated for like skateboarders and other people. No. Yeah. I mean a lot of rules and. All right, I'm trying to figure it out. Like this is a real sport. Wow. It is real. And it's constantly changing. Oh. Confused. I was like, do they have team meetings? Like meetings for all the athletes to explain this? Do you guys know they just like sent an email? Okay. And I was looking I was so confused I like yeah I was just get there. And just as tell me what you think. Your English is good, you know, otherwise it'd be like Google translating. Wait, what's this mean? Yeah, I mean, it happens. Some words. You got great English. It's it's better than mine. Oh, no. You were 21 when you thought it was you. Not team close to 21. It was 2021 when you first skated SLS. So you were 14. Was it like coming in and skating against people you looked up to or skating against pros? I mean, I couldn't describe the feeling like in 2019, I went to watch my first SLS in Brazil and then 2021, I was skating the yeah, it's crazy. It's like everything happened so fast. Like it just happened quick. I couldn't like I didn't really have time to, like, feel like think, you know, like you just. So did you grow up skating like Brazilian, like local contests? Yeah. Yeah. And then that was how obviously you went and watched, SLS and then through sponsors. Then that's how they got you in to compete. Yeah. in 2020, I think I got on monster. Then 2021, I got on the Sri League qualifiers because of monster. Yeah, because they're sponsoring the event. So I skated, got four, top three. What to make this really. And I got for the I guess they like they like my skating. So they gave me a wildcard and ice skating. My first stop. Then I made a finals. So I got on the whole tour. Sick. Yeah. I got a question I'm kind of curious about in in your opinion, what the hell is going on in Brazil in with skateboarding that like, we have so many amazing skaters coming out of there. I don't know, it's just everybody. There's so good. Like, how did you like, is it a lot of parks is just a lot of good street features. Is everyone given a skateboard on their second birthday? Like, what's going on? I think it's like you have a choice. It's like a soccer ball or a skateboard. What do you want to play with? A surfboard. And then they take the other one away. Yeah. You're right, I mean, okay, and you're in UFC, right? You don't watch a lot of them maybe as we watch here. Is that what it is? You're not free television. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. I feel like. I mean, when I was like 7 or 8, I was out at the time on the street playing, you know. So I think that's what got me to skateboarding. my older brother got a skateboard from my mom, and then, he was just playing with his friends outside, like, all day, so I just would go with him. That's how I started skating. I mean, it's pretty incredible that you can get, like, a toy that is also your means of transportation, right? Like, so it's kind of like the best of both worlds. Like, I can get far away from home. I can get to the park and I can learn all this stuff, and I can make a career out of it. Yeah, it could be your job. Yeah, yeah, I I'll leave my house with my brother. Like, sometimes we're like, take bus and then push to the like get us in the stop and then just push to the park like. And what, what city did you grew up in? In Brazil. It's called, patios. You mean it's. It's a really small city. Okay. No one. What is it next to like, it's far away from everything. Yeah. Oh, wow. That's. I mean, this is incredible, right? It's how, like, everyone just grows up in, Simple. Lower. Yeah. Rio. Rio or the other big ones. Right. We'll go to Sao Paulo a lot. me and my Dora. me and my dad would drive, like, 18 hours. Wow. That's Dolly. Shout out to dad. Yeah. Committed my dream. Made it happen for sure. And, Yeah. Would it go to film? What about schooling? at the time, I used to do, like, I would go to school. Yep. Like normal school. But sometimes, when I went to, like, trips, I would just miss school. Yeah. Makes sense. Well, we have a couple questions in the chat that are relevant to, kind of everything. We want to know. What's the hardest part of competing on a course like this? How much of a run is pre-planned versus just going out there and feeling it out? You can start. I think it depends on the course on this course, you know, I mean, just in general, I think with having they have the same build every time and then they send us a shout out to California Skatepark. Yeah. Shout out Jose CA skate parks team. they send us the renderings and then they give like sizing estimates. So like when I got this email I was like, oh, it's 12 stair but at this height. And so you can kind of gauge it. I mean sometimes I have like pre-planned whole runs and it actually did work when I got there and I did that run. But it's honestly not often, you know, for me, I have like things in mind, but you never really know until you get here in it. yeah. Sometimes I like make I see the, like the email they have, like the skate park and then, you know, they then like kind of like thing about a line. But sometimes most of the times I actually I get there and like does not like it's all just yeah whatever. Sometimes like I'm doing a trick here and like I can't connect it to the, to the other obstacles. Well what is that leads to the next question. What's a bucket list trick to stomp in competition? Anything in the works but haven't landed yet. So I think you're working on, I actually be doing a trick that I haven't posted on Instagram yet, and, and I've been tried on contests. are you gonna try it? Let's see if I'm able to do here. Let's. We want to know. What is it? Come on, tell us. We want to know. They want to know. I mean, all the people who get from blunt. You have to write that down front of blunt. They go fakie is like going backwards. Okay, then you do like, 272, 70, 70 spin and like, in with a tail on the rail. We need one of those little finger skateboard. And you're like, yeah, I know that one. No, that's basically what they're doing though. Yeah. Wow. Oh that 170. There we go. Go with it. Two. Oh so you go like spin. Oh yeah. And then how do you come out of it. Or is that the secret part. Whatever you shall ever however just come out. I did see the, on your Instagram. I think it was like, was it full cab or kind of hurricane. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Back to regular back. That was really cool. Has that been done in a competition or. I did in at the Apex in Vegas. Okay. Yeah, I did my best trick. Yeah. Did you win best trick for that? No, I actually did in the contest. Not like, that was a, like a different event. It was like, different format. It was just two obstacles. It was like a hubba. And the rail was the Beverly Hills Nines. They're real. Okay. And you had like, seven tries to get three scores for bad tricks, and, I ended up getting two scores only. But I got this new trick, which I was hyped. They've been doing more and more of the apex events, right. Which is kind of new to the whole. They never really did that. Why? Like one off like best trick contests? No. Have you been doing them? I wanted to skate the apex one, but they got a very small list to work with. Yeah, it was only eight skaters. Yeah, but it looks really sick. And, like there's so much heritage spots and skateboarding, like, you know, the Hollywood. Not or not Hollywood. Beverly Hills, nine that they rebuilt is a very classic spot. so this is really cool. I think they need to do more of that because I know the heart of skateboarding loves that. Yeah. All right. Speaking a lot of skateboarding. I have a video here that's going to pop up. the street course of this is the course behind us. So everyone that's going to see on TV right now, what you guys are looking at is, who let's talk us through these kind of setups. When you see what's going on, kind of walk us through what we're looking at. Oh, they got have a whole lot. I kind of thought the obstacles would be like, super high. and it looks pretty chill, actually. Yeah. It's always hard to tell on the renderings how bad it's going to be for sure. That's it all. I was kind of asking to, like, here, I'm going to go back to it. Yeah. Do you guys like, will you go to parks once you see it to try and seek out certain features that are similar? Yeah. If there's a park that has like a similar article to it, we'll like go there a lot. And it happens to see that you see other skaters showing up, like showing up there. They're all kind of like chasing that same feature. All right. So what features are you guys most looking forward to? Ice skate rails. sure. You're into what, the down ball. Yeah. To the 12 step rail. What about this gap to down? I don't that's kind of not traditionally I skate rails, but like, when it goes like bomb trails, it's kind of more scary for me because, it's kind of different popping out of a out of a bump, you know? so sometimes, like, because it sets you up higher. Yeah. Scary. That comes down. It happens to miss your pop more, more. Right. Oh, like that skateboard right in the ankle. Okay. Almost. Yeah. That's been waiting for that. Just to say I told you spent money on it. do you guys prefer skating? Bigger stuff or smaller stuff? I think it depends on how it's built. Yeah, like it's as like, you can really try crazy tricks on that rail, you know? Like, you do the tricks that you already know. Yep. But like, let's say you have, like, a crazy trick that nobody sees yet. I don't think that's the type of rail to try, you know. Right. So I would not forget flip tail that. Yeah. Yeah. The rails definitely big enough where it's like I mean you got to be trusting yourself and know you're going to lock in. Yeah. You know, because you even if you go fast at it, you're probably not going to make it at the bottom. So you got to lock in. So this is more about consistency. And when you say lock in you're kind of meaning like how much time you actually have on the rail to then do something out. Yeah. Like when you're bored. Yes. To the rail. Yeah. Yeah. Just because it's, it's long enough. Right. Like I can't go insanely fast and try and, you know, kickflip back tail but getting low enough on the rail where I'm going to make it to the bottom because I'll be too high above the rail. Yeah. So then you got to go slower and trust it and lock and, you know, slide the whole rail. The faster you go. That hard is to like control your train. So sometimes you don't want to go too fast because you can't control the split. But then if it goes slow and fucked up you might like ended up striking the rail or something. Yeah. You don't want to take the rail. Yeah. You know, how many times have you guys sack the rail? I like pretty much every course. Damn. Is it really? Is that true? Yeah. Wow. Out here. How long do you. How long do you. How you go down for on, like, a good sacking or do you just get right up and never like, really got you don't roll around I like never really hit on the spot but like kind of like I always hit on a grind. Yeah, yeah. But yeah I got like lucky at the time they sacked. But I've had one in my life in the streets where it was like, I mean direct hit and yeah, I've never been in like a more scared pain in my life. Like, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Terrible dander I hear. It's, Really. Yeah I did, I think front blunt. Yeah. Might have been like, we need to look and see if there's any long term damage. Yeah, we'll find out later on. My worst sacking was self sacking, and I was trying to learn heel flips in my room on carpet when I was a little kid with, like, a big skateboard. And I literally did this heel flip and landed and was like, hanging in the air in my bedroom. just let me get like, shit one way or the other and just kind of been fell over the pogo like Pogo. Yeah. Is that the pogo? Gosh, that was brutal. I'm glad you're still with it. I'll never do a standing Earth in position heel flip again. Yeah. Trying to get on a carpet. Not the place to learn heel flips. So, Matt, what's your favorite feature out here? I mean, I have to skate it all, but, you know, I really I've never skated history league that's had a kink rail in it, so it'd be cool to skate that high. But I'm hoping that it's good to go all the way through and not just go out to, Obviously the big rail will be bread and butter too. It's cool. They got like a pretty decent sized rail for this course, so that'll be cool. Have they been smaller recently? Yeah, I think I mean, it all depends, but as of lately I haven't saw this big of a rail built at, at a league in a while. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. And when you say skate that thing all the way through. So you want to hop up right there and just. Yeah. Like, you see the the ledge over there, the down side down. Yeah. Yeah. Like skating through it instead of gapping the down in the flat to last down. Yeah. And and actually going through it okay. Yeah I want to see you go through it I know I want to see it too. Give it a couple hours on spent practice. Yeah. is everybody getting the email that that gets to preview the course? Yeah. There you go. Because I've, I've heard rumors of certain people getting, course links. Oh, here we go. We got the footage and I got away with it. Damn. Yeah. But like I say that that was brutal. I literally touched the Lester's at the bottom. I mean, you guys are used to skating in arenas, right? Yeah, all the time. I love the energy of it. Like the energy of when it comes down to it. And you guys are out there and it's. I mean, now it used to be waiting till the end, but if the, if, if it's from every heats, like, like a championship run, then the energy's just going to be really up there. Isn't that like we're that's what I'm saying. Like kind of like, the bad guy, right? No, I don't I think in, in competition or dark horse means like who's the underdog. All right. Well that's one of the questions the underdog, like let's just say his favorite contender. I wanted to make sure that this question was. Yeah, it made sense. So who is the underdog of the competition and both of your opinions man that roster stacked that I don't know. Well then who who are you most excited to see? How about that? I love watching Vincent. New guy okay. He's very creative. I was going to say Vincent. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's bringing a different flavor to skating contests and choosing lines different than everybody else. He's definitely one to watch for me. But you know what I love about an underdog story? It's like not saying like like someone that, you know, has the quality and the potential to be great and like, they maybe haven't gotten that opportunity to shine yet. I think that that's I would really love to hear who you think. So figure it out. I mean, it's just it's honestly hard because everyone who's in this is like gotten really close to the podium at some point. They've made a final. They've they've done something. And that's why they're still in the mix here. Yeah. And I need like a list of the names right now my brain is blanking. All right. We'll get those we can work on. I think it's kind of hard to skate. It's like everybody is like a big part of the, you know, the community industry is like what people do outside of these events. And it's always like you're hoping they can kind of bring that flavor to it, right? For sure. Let's not talk about a dark horse. Let's talk about Nyjah Huston, who I believe is skateboarding. He knows how to do a couple kickflip. Yeah, he does a lot of leg flips. You can do a lot. I heard he had a really bad slam leading up to this. I heard he ran into a cactus. Yeah, I saw the clip, actually. It's it's pretty gnarly. Hair is a big cactus. Yeah, it's ran into a cactus. He landed a trick and then was, like, all season out, I think. I didn't see the clip, but in my imagination, he's like, after being in, like, probably looking back at the rail and then he runs right into a cactus in Arizona. It always happens when you like are not doing something cool. How do you know skateboard and just run into a cactus? over the clip? Yeah, I saw the clip I'll cover from my boy wasn't doing an after bang or doing anything. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Matt. he did a really gnarly trick and then was rolling away super high speed. And as he was, like, trying to carve out and get away from the cactus, slipped out, slipped out and then went straight. And so one of the full size like saguaro cactus is there like the dog and his whole right side hit. And so he just got whatever hundreds or thousands of, of cactus needles. Free acupuncture. Yeah. Nature's acupuncture. Why would would die? Should be the gnarliest, competitive skateboarder of of long running. Would you say just on paper alone? Yeah, I think I think he's what? he's the most winningest. Yeah, I think ever. I think he might even have the most X-Games medals out of any X-Games athlete. And he's just doing one sport or one like some guys are able to do, like, three different things. Yeah. That's wild. And to think that he still does it at the highest, not just so like, oh he's at a high level. It's the highest level. Yeah. That's really that's really cool. so, talking about in a heat like you was saying earlier, Filipe showing up in in a Heat with Nyjah is. Oh, shit. We got I got to skate the best I've ever skated. If I want to push through. Yeah. That's what you gotta do for just getting the heat with him. can't say no tricks. You gotta do. You gotta do literally everything you have. So. Well, we. We'll be expecting to see your trick. When do you guys get to find out your heats? Like, not till tomorrow. Before another. They're already out there on it. Okay. Yeah. Thanks, Graham. Oh, yeah. I'm in heat two. Are you in my head or. No, you're in heat. I'm with you, Braden. Jamie? Shane? Yeah. Pretty lucky. That's a super easy heat. That's a super easy heat for you. They get them, but you're you're kind of the young buck, right? So I mean, I would say there's got to be a couple guys whose ass you do want to work. You've been watching since a little one, right? I would put Nyesha probably at the top of that list. Yeah. Of, like, people you you've been excited to compete against. I, I don't know, my whole, like, view on competitive skateboarding is so different because I feel like the tried and true like, almost like people talk it like a football mentality. Like, I can't wait to compete against this person. Yeah, yeah. but like, for me, it's always been like skating for myself. Yes. Competing. When you really out there, like it's a solo sport, it's for you. It's you against you. Yeah, right. It really is. At the end of the day. Yeah. I think that's like where it comes from. I don't think like people got into skateboarding because they want to compete against people. They got into it to compete against yourself. Yeah. It's like when you go on a tour or you're filming and you're filming the same location as somebody, you're not trying to up that person, you're trying to do your trick. Yeah, I mean, there is an element to that. You know, it's like, oh, I got gotta I saw he just did this, okay, I'm going to step up my run. Right? Like even at Tampa when I was there, I had a different run plan. And then I saw Utah Land is run the Norway late flip side. And I was like, the whole contest has changed. Now everyone's going to throw their whole bag. Yeah. So I just went from, okay, I'm not gonna do my safety. I can go straight for. I was trying to, I was trying to if somebody can help, I was trying to pull up the heats. I went to Instagram, but I couldn't find it. So if I could get that, we could riff about that for a second. let's talk about the women's skating for a second. The women's roster. did I did I did, I mean, rice is right behind us. She's been here all morning. She's awesome to watch skate and at such a high level. I remember after she won the Olympics, just watching her Instagram. Like it would be someone I checked on daily. And it was going up by the millions. Little gram level rice. Yeah. She's amazing. Yeah, yeah, she's a game changer. I'm trying to find these, these heats for you right now. I think. And, All right, guys, so today the the the second place, that's the last started. Wait, when was Paris SLS? Three months ago. Three months ago? Yeah. Did you guys both skate? Ice? Skate it? I didn't know you didn't go. Yeah, that competition was sick. Yeah, it was the, It was my first time in Paris, too. So, Wow. Did you get a picture under the Eiffel Tower? I didn't get to go there, but did you see it? Yeah, I did see it. Like the hotel stay. It was pretty cool. the breakfast was like, in the, like, the top of the beauty. Yep. So, like, you see the the tower from the breakfast lunch. Were you eating croissant? That was going to be my question. The top. Oh, the bread so good. Yeah. Is it so much butter is like butter. Yeah. not that we're gonna talk about it too much, but the Olympics are coming up there. Are you in the Olympics? right now is. There's still two more contests for it to decide who's going to be on the Olympics or not. And I don't think like anybody's qualifier yet, you know. But yeah, like, it's so complicated to try and explain. But basically the last 2 or 3 years I think it is of of qualifying for the Olympics and all the events, they're grouping all your overall points and not only accounts for, one third of your overall score. And then these next two events, which are in Shanghai and in Budapest, Hungary, those two account for two thirds. And so it there's a potential for a rerack basically like every the pressure's on everybody still very nerve racking to like not be able to be like, oh, I know I'm going and I'm good and I can prepare for it. Danny's been through that. He's two, two time Olympic silver medalist for snowboarding. So some that he's he's used to, but he got a lot of Brazilians in snowboarding right now, so it was a little easier for me. Yeah. I had a question, though, like, because I know it's such a different format for the world Skate tour. do they have a bigger field, like, is there a bigger qualifying field where it's not just like invite, or is it like per country gets so many spots? yeah. No, I mean, from my understanding is like, you have to get on your country's team and then you're like in a position to be one of the six slots for your country to go to that event. And then that's like the country quota they call it is the six slots. But now after Dubai, and since we're going into what they called the next phase, for these next two events, it's only top 44. So if you didn't make the top 44 ranking for the past two years of of events, then you're no longer in the running. And so now it's down to the top 44. That's pretty exciting though. It's confusing. It's it's very confusing. But, it's they kind of make it that way. speaking of somebody that is, she just won her Olympic qualifiers in Dubai. monster's own Liz. akima. Okay. Did I say that right? I don't know, I come here, I come on, come on, come on. Yeah. Where's Joey on that one? she finished podium for that Celeste in Paris, and she just won, at the SLS in apex. The apex? She's ripping the rails for sure. She got the unique tricks. Yeah, she she's got a a really calm, collective style. Everything she does just really smooth. And then just her bag of tricks are very different compared to the rest styles. Everything in skateboarding, right? Yeah. Like, if you don't have style, you're people are going to talk behind you. Well, I feel like they really get, you know, like an entertainment aspect, right. Like I. Right. yeah. That true story. It's true story. Yeah. That was quality I love that. Oh. So anyway. Sorry, Brittney. No, I mean, you have style. People do not talk behind your back. I mean, they people probably still talk behind my back. No, I but I think that what you were saying, it's like a solo sport. Like you want to bring style because it's still an entertainment value. And like that shock value. I think that's why Nyjah is just like the most stylish. Yeah. I mean, I mean, I think at the end of the day with skateboarding, it's like it's it's all subjective. And then like that's where it's everyone has a debate. Is it a sport or is it art. You know, because like some people have a different style and this person obviously loves it and another person doesn't like it at all, you know. So it's always it all depends very probably similar to your world coming from snowboarding right. Yeah. Yeah. That's one thing I was kind of I want to ask next next actually because like doing the Olympics through snowboarding, it's been around for maybe 4 or 5 cycles. I don't even know. But they're like started to be after the second or third Olympics. It became like this crazy progression. You're going into it where everyone was kind of on like their own trajectory, getting better and more elevated, and then all of a sudden, like kicking into the Olympic year was like everybody like started to get more interested in actually the Olympics and doing well. So like the progression really jumped into like a different level leading up to it, about like a year ahead of time. Are you guys kind of seeing that as like a pattern in skateboarding where like the progression is or since it's such an art form, is it hard to actually have this huge leap in progression? I mean, I think it's definitely like people are locking in for sure. You know, like the last ice balls, cargo skating pads are competing and like, they're working on and stuff, you know. And so there is that I guess they're really incentivized, like, hey, I really want to dial this in. You know, usually we're dialing in and you're filming in the streets, but it's a different approach when you're trying to get it consistent for a contest. but yeah, there's no question. I mean, the level of skating going into this Olympics versus last is like it's a whole other tier. It's elevated completely. And everyone who was in the last one two is elevated along with it too. Right. But, it's not like there's this massive leap, right? Everyone's like, oh, right. They're neck and neck, if that makes any sense. Yeah. Like for us, it got into, like, a lot of, like, double flipping. Triple flipping. So it would be like the sense of thing. The skateboard like is there. We're going to see some double kickflip front board, some triple kickflip front boards. Or is it too risky to kind of like be done, take that step. Who did it? Do you work? Who is the jinwoo? Oh yeah, double flip from before. If you like to watch skate double flam like blunt, slide down the 14. You know so crazy shout out Jin woo. He's crazy to watch skate. And like everybody, I thought the first time I watched the video, I thought it was a female. Yeah. I actually was like, I'm going to stop skateboarding. This. This lady's. I'll never be that good. And then I found out I was totally wrong. and it was a little dude. And I was like, all right, I'm going to skate again. I've always dreamed of doing a, like, a blunt frontside flip back, and, you know, it's like a dream. He's got those wired in like an Ollie. Yeah, yeah. So good news. Both of you guys are not in a heat with no idea, so that's good. You got Shane O'Neill, Shane O'Neill on a course like this, you might switch over that chair. I mean, yeah, he loves to go backwards. He loves the ledge too. Although I see the ledge. He loves the not. He's a big gnarly guy. Did great. Switch switch. Sorry. My bad. In Australia we say backwards. Even on a snowboard. no, we don't even say that on a snowboard, I guess. What do you say? Cab? Cab? Yeah. You guys don't. Well, if you're if, I mean cab is a trick riding fakie on your board. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Is your stance is it doesn't move, right? It does not. So I got this great quick skate question. I want to clarify, because I got in a big argument with a friend recently and I thought cab was only like, you know, like a cab, 360 half cab, fakie pop. He told me if you gnarly, you could do a gnarly cab. No, that's what I said. That's impossible. So you're absolutely right. It's really not called the Gnarly Cab. Yeah, I don't give a damn. I still call it a gnarly cab. You do, but I don't. But I know that I'm wrong. But I still do say it because saying not only 360 just it feels wrong, doesn't feel right. But he's a gnarly half cab. I think if if you did not acknowledge he'll flip frontside gnarly cab he'll I don't know. Anyway, so you sadly have cab here. Yeah. No, I know, but I know that it's it's only fakie technically, but I still it's technically terrible. I probably have people in the chat talking about it. I say I do the gnarly front 360 you do. And then the I'm playing games with somebody and they go, oh, what you do? Just like an alley cat? Just to make it easy, you know? Yeah. So they can. All right. So no I'm not winning this and I'm not losing it is what you're saying. No, this is like the same debate is like is it a frontside nose grind or frontside overcorrect. That's like a never ending debate. But, yeah. What do you call. I call it a front end. That's good. Okay. In Brazil, we say over crack. Oh, shadow Brazil. Yeah. yeah. You do a backside overcook, Can you do backside overcorrect? Yeah. Okay, I guess. Yeah. We just. Oh yeah. Because it is backside ever again. Bump to rails. Yeah. this debate will never end frontside. I can't because I remember when I was really young, in magazines and reading k grind in front side over crooks at one point. So when I was a kid, I thought it was that. And then all these old had started hazing, hazing me for it. And then so I developed the frontside nose grind term. So I don't really care. Honestly, the chat's in this two and they're very confused. They're confused. Yeah. Shout out to, Elliott by definitely confusing out people to side, front side and back side when grinding lol. When I came to from Brazil to LA then I said it front side over crack but I didn't know about the nose grind. Yeah, and people are laughing at me like I was like, what's wrong? It's like that's that's what's called as the primitive heads and Paul giving you a head time for it. It was before I was like, it was like my first month, right? Like I could even speak English. So, yeah. That's crazy. You just raising the kid that can't even defend himself. Yeah. That's fun. but at the end of the day, the trick is the trick. It doesn't matter what you call it. Yeah, I made, like, I couldn't. I could even explain. Yeah. Why? It was like, when did you learn to speak English? I, I was able to, like, talk after like eight months, I think. Okay. Yeah. That's fast. So when you moved to the States, when I moved, I didn't know any English. Any. Wow. How did you learn? Just, I met, like some people and some friends, and then I just. I wasn't really shy with them, so I did try to talk to them. And then that's kind of how I learned. Wow. That's the best way to do it. All right. You throw yourself in the middle of it and just continue. Yeah. If you can. If you have a friend, it's so much easier to learn. Well, not not not not guys that are shading you though. Yeah. Those aren't your friends. No, that that's just part of this community. They're not your. Giovanni, the reigning champ. He has. Did he win Tampa? No. less. Last year. He got second. Okay. They won Tampa. yeah. I don't know if you want to, like, win, like the last three league or. No. He did. No. You got super says he got your crown. He got super. He won super crown. Who won Paris a Aurelian. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's right. That was in his home city. Yeah, I heard that energy. Was it crazy? Yeah. It was like Saint man. Imagine. Yeah, that's that's awesome for him. guys. All right, so for heats, you've all got to win your heats. Knowledge is not your heats. who else, who else? Who else out there? You guys most concerned for like on on, on when you're practicing or watching what's going down, who you like again, I guess not a dark horse, but who you like. Shit like Yuta. Is he competing? He's on my heat. Oh he is? Yeah, he's going down. He's going down? Yeah. What about is is coy in this? Got it, I got it, yeah, you got it. Come on man, easy. Is Jamie in this boy. He's out. So I feel like he'd be one of the ones I'd be most scared of running into in the course. Because he goes fast. Yeah, he's built, he's built. Yeah. Like he's going to go right through you. More scared of jaslyn than him. Jocelyn skates fast. Yeah. To see him running around here like it's kind of. I think he's on the list. Oh, he's on the list. Yeah. He's going to be flying. Then. This is going to be a good course. He's going to be rippin over the chain, over the bank to flat, pancakes. Been calling it slice God in the chat out. in the chat. we will be live tomorrow on Rumble here at SLS. Stoked that you're here. and, do we go with there's arena? I would say buy tickets, but I'm pretty sure it's sold out so I don't. Their house. Yeah. House. I, I wish, but you can watch it live on Rumble. Daddy. Where? you'll be watching. Yep. I'll be watching it on Rumble. I mean, I've if you're in the area, I would just come and try and sneak in. I didn't say that, but that's what I was trying tickets for. Know the inner skater and you for sure. You know, the inner skater in me would be here. And maybe shoulder tap, hit a friend up that's in here to pass out some tickets. I don't know, I love a good shoulder tap. meadow. And then just getting a part. Yeah. Or if you got an Olympic medal like me too, you can just roll around. You could walk right past security. If you just show up with both. yeah. No, I know somebody. I actually had to do that to get into Canada just to go watch the Olympics. Really? Yeah. I was like, Canadian Customs is always giving me shit. Why? I don't know, just like being like a snowboarder. I'm going to Canada. They always like, bring me into, like, question and, well, you know what? They're really right. Yeah. Well, this one time I went to Canada when I was like almost 16, and I did have my friend's driver's license in my wallet by accident at the time. Oh yeah, that's going to get you and that like that. That'll do it. So anyways, I went to go watch the Vancouver Olympics in 2010 and I was like, I'm going to bring my medals because I have a feeling they're going to like, give me shit trying to get into the country. And the guy pulled me like started going through my backpack. He pulls out these two medals and I was like, I told you I was a snowboarder. So you only brought it just for the customs agent? Yeah, that was basically it. Yeah, man. Just carry those things with you everywhere you go, don't you? Yeah, they're actually in my backpack right now because I didn't really want to park. I had two Olympic medals. I would be wearing them all the time. So. Yeah. Bring them. Who else are we talking about here? Kelvin. Kelvin off with fellow Brazilian. Yeah. A lot of good Brazilians. You're right. They'll say in a super crowd. He did win a super crown in 50. He just always seems confident. Like he's always like skating. Good. Yeah. You can never rule him out. He's very consistent. Very consistent. Pull it out when he needs it. Yeah. That's it. Don't skate at practice too. He just watch people. See that's a scary competitor. The guy that doesn't practice, he just watches. He's like, always watching you land a trick. He's always staring at you. Yeah. Do you guys get nervous at all? For sure? Yeah. Is it more like right before it and then. Are you nervous the whole time? Like, when does your adrenaline kick in? I think when I drop in, I start getting nervous. Yeah, yeah, that's the moment. Yeah. So you're nervous standing up there? What makes me more nervous is waiting. Yeah, they're like filming me. I like waiting for the guy to do. Yeah, to drop in and, like, that's when I'm nervous, you know, like. Yeah, it all kind of melts away once you finally get to drop in. yeah. I don't feel like you get nervous. I don't know. I mean, I definitely do. I would be, I would be concerned if I didn't get nervous. Right? Because I feel like that's just part of the process. And you don't you to lock in, you know, if I was to to mellow, you know, it's not going to go, I don't think. What is your strategy and approach for tomorrow? Like wake up a little bit of brekkie, coffee stretch. Yeah. No, you're pretty spot on, right? It's inferred. Yeah. And he's picking up. Yeah. Coffee. Yeah. I might stretch my stretch, you know, probably more than like, he doesn't stretch because he doesn't have to yet. Yeah. He's got a couple more years to that. Did you stretch it sometimes. Yeah. here there, here and there. Yeah I, I need to start before I mean, everybody tell me when every other people. Oh you'll know. Yeah. You'll know when it's time. You'll know when it's time to start. Now. Yes, sir. Yeah, the sooner the better. Any rituals, boys. Like before. Competition. Like. Same like, don't wear, like black underwear or like I've never gotten into that kind of superstition. No, no, I feel like, you know. Yeah. Like you know any superstitions? No, no. What about grip tape? Fresh grip, fresh deck? Actually, yeah. You're spot on with that. I regret my board every time. There you go. Same. But then I'll just peel the grip off and put your grip on. And then I can be tough sometimes. And you grip over the grip on for a long time. No, that's that's bad. It's like, could I set up a board today? But if if the grip gets fucked up, I just change it to. Really. But if it's like looking new, I don't really make. No. I've been in skateboard competitions at a high level at SLS, where a pro will break that board and they don't have backups. You guys bring backups, right? Yeah, I never broke I never break boards. But like I still bring just in case. You never know. Like if it's going to just slip on chip somewhere. Yeah. Like that always do. Me. Do you have a backup complete or is it just a deck? I have a backup complete because it's hard to, like, get the same truck feel, right? Yeah, I mean, I've, like, skated my trucks to when they're, like, perfect and then set them aside to hold out for the conscious as a backup. But if I don't have to, I'll still not skate the backup if something does happen. But if it's, like, only there if I absolutely need it. Like a chip. Yeah. So it's just good to have, but I have. I'm yet to use it, luckily. Yeah. There you go. All right. So we're in San Diego. are you guys like hitting any spots? Why are you here? I don't think so. Not me. Yeah. No, I think we're just we're here for the event. Got to come back on a street mission. Probably be pretty sore come Sunday after skating this course. Yeah. I mean, do you have a favorite San Diego street spot? Man, it's been a while. The spots that I skated, cause I used to. I lived in Oceanside for a year when I first moved out here, so I skated SC a lot. But all the spots I did skate or capped are gone now. No legendary ones, but I'm stoked to skate the remake model of, what Tom Penny rightfully owns the over the chain in the back looks sick. Yeah. Do you think Tony's going to come to this? Of course. He's. He lives here. Probably not really. No, I feel like he should. I mean, he doesn't go to everything skateboarding. Well, I feel like it's in his backyard, but he's so famous that it's like this whole ordeal. Like he he needs, like, security. And people swarm him. It's like it's hectic. I was just with him in, bio accelerator in Columbia with him and his son Riley. That's cool. Yeah. Very cool. Anyway, stem cell? Yeah. For some cells. Yes. You had stem cell? No, I've wanted to get him, though. He does. It sounds right. Riley got his elbows and his, I think his ankles. Yeah. That's good. Really? His elbows, his elbows from falling. All right, well, we're basically closing down here.
It's it's it's 1:00, which means it's men's practice time, and you guys get to go test the course for the first time. Guys, thank you so much for joining. Good luck tomorrow. And you hates when your hates. So then we can watch you skate in the finals. at sorting out. Thank you Danny. As always, it's an honor. Thank you Filipe. Good luck. Thank you Matt, as always. Good luck. Brittney. Thank you. Was always. Thank you. Dango that is out from WSLs. This. Now.