Name - Mike Gross

Nicknames - Oh, I've had many over the years. I got my first nickname in Kindergarten. It was 'Motormouth'. I talked non-stop back then, but I guess the name kinda damaged my brain, because I'm all shy now. I don't talk to strangers much. My second nickname was 'Grosshead'. I got that one somewhere around second grade. That shit would make me cry alot. Everyone hated me. I was that kid that had no friends. Even the loser kids hated me...I was a total outcast. I eventually went to a new school, and the old name never resurfaced, but that didn't stop my new classmates from coming up with a couple of doozies. For example: 'Ride American'. I don't know many people that ever had a two-word nickname, but I never considered it something to be proud of. It came straight off the back of a black jean jacket that I bought the summer before going into the seventh grade. I thought to myself while on a back to school shopping spree with my mother "Surely the other kids will fear and respect me when they notice I'm strutting about in a black denim jacket with a giant patch on the back featuring a Harley-esque motorcycle underneath a large bald eagle, with a pair of thorny roses wrapped around the side, and a banner telling them all to 'Ride American'. Of course, I was mistaken. They still hated me. For some reason, I wore that stupid thing almost every day of the seventh grade. Into the eight they still called me 'Ride American' for some time, but the name eventually gave way to 'Screech'. I always had a big mop of curly hair, and I was historically the biggest dork to ever walk the halls of the Tri-Valley public school system, and 'Saved by the Bell' was a huge success among my peers at the time, so the name stuck. At least the real Screech was somehow down with the cool kids. He got touch Lisa sometimes, and he's even spend the night over at Zach Morris' house. I was down with nobody. By the ninth grade, I'd shaved my head and bought a skateboard. No more Screech for me. Now the only name I heard was 'Skate Rat' (my second two-word nickname). But this name was different from the other ones I'd had in the past. I got to share it with others, as I was no longer alone. I actually had friends now who were also known as 'Skate Rat'. I was in Heaven. I was kinda happy for the first time in my life, and I owe it all to skateboarding and the guys that accepted me into their crew. It didn't take long before they gave a nickname. They simply dropped my first name and referred to me as 'Gross'. I didn't mind; a lot of people take their last name as a nickname. I've been 'Gross' for about ten or eleven years now. I'm proud to be 'Gross'.

Years breathing - I'm twenty five.

Sex - I'm a man.

years skating - I bought my first skateboard on October 8th, 1990.

Tech dog or Slash dog - I guess I'm pretty tech, because I rarely try anything that I'm scared to try.

Old Skewl or New School - I don't try to flip in or out of anything...ever.

Regular or Goofy stance - I like to switch it up, but if you want to get technical...I'm Regular. I was Mongo footed for a couple of years after I started, but I couldn't stand to watch other kids skate that way because it was so fucking ugly. I just decided one day that I had to learn to push correctly, and that's exactly what I did. It was like learning any new trick.

Favorite people to skate with - Bash and Ty because they both motivate me in different ways. Skateboarding is not as fun for me as it is when I'm with one of them. It's even better though when its just the two or the three of us.

Favorite place to skate - I don't really have a favorite place to skate. But my favorite thing to do with a skateboard is to go skate different places or different hits that nobody else ever skates or ever has skated. I like to get those obscure spots on video so that I can have some variety in the finished product.

Board setup - A board is a board is a board as long as I like the shape. I used to skate Spitfires, but I recently made the switch to Darkstar. I'm skating Accels right now, but they use the same chemisty and moulding process as Darkstar, so its all good. I like my wheels to be between 55mm 60mm. My truck situation has also changed recently. I skated Indys for years because they are ,hands-down, the worlds best truck, but I've switched over to Tensor recently because they skate just like Indys and they're lighter. I don't give a shit about that little plastic slider nub thing though...I think its kinda stupid to be honest.

Favorite Pro Team - That's a bad question because teams are always changing. I can't pick a current team for that reason. The best teams of all time in my opinion were H-street and Plan B. I think that H-street was the most innovative team to ever grace the world of skateboarding and skateboard videos. Plan B packed more talent into a small team than any other company ever has, and half of that team crossed over from H-street.

Favorite Skate videos - The Blind Video (1990), Hocus Pocus, Bootleg, Useless Wooden Toys, Questionable, Second Hand Smoke, A1-Meats, G&S Footage.

Best Pro Skater - That is so hard to call. Here is a list of what I consider the best pros from my generation: Tony Hawk...its pointless to deny it. I'm 99% sure that Tony Hawk is the most important skateboarder of all time. He's made up more tricks, won more contests, held more records, and has been looked up to by more people than any other skateboarder ever has. I think that he will hold that position forever. Tony Alva...I don't know why, I wasn't there. All I know for sure is that he was fucking bad. Rodney Mullen...is responsible for nearly every street trick that does not involve sliding or grinding. It took awhile for people to adapt his style of skating (freestyle) to what we now know as street skating. One of the first people to do this was...Matt Hensley. He made street skating popular, and turned it away from hand plants and slappy grinds. Ray Simmons and Jeff Pettit...the originators of going big. These guys were the first to pop down big gaps and they also took rails into the double digits. They busted stalefish out of a three foot launch ramp over a nine foot ladder...FUCK! Mark Gonzales...In his part for Blind video, he started with a carve session in an alley and finished with a boardslide down the biggest, gnarliest double kink handrail that anyone had ever seen. I'll bet that most of today's pros could not do this rail. There will never be another Gonz, and thankfully, he's still going strong. Frankie Hill...the sketchiest skateboarder of all time, he was the first to take 'tech' over and down big gaps. I think that he was the first fearless skater. Salmon Agah and Andy Howell...were the innovators of switch-stance. They saw that once you reach your peak, you can always start over. Pat Duffy...came out of nowhere and did things on big rails that nobody had ever seen before. His part in the first Plan B video will surely go down as the most memorable part of all time. Bob Burnquist...is basically the second Tony Hawk. When vert seemed exhausted of new tricks to try, Bob stepped up and showed the world that there will always be another trick, or ten, or twenty. Honorable Mentions: Jason Lee, Ed Templeton, Mike Vallely, Guy Mariano, Mike Carroll, Rick Howard Sal Barbier, Steve Berra, Danny Way, Kris Markovich, Willy Santos, Jeremy Wray, Tom Penny, Jamie Thomas, The Donger, Rune Glifburg, Bucky Lasek, and I'm sure that I'm forgetting about fifty other guys...oh well.

Favorite Tricks - K-grinds, nose bonks, power slides, backside smith grinds

Other things you enjoy besides Skateboarding - I like to go hiking, but I usually have to do it alone because I don't know many people who share my love for the great outdoors. I also enjoy nature photography. I like to go out to eat. I am a movie fanatic. Sex is nice. So is getting drunk with my friends.

Favorite Movies - I have several: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Dazed and Confused, Cannonball Run, Full Metal Jacket, North Shore, and about a hundred others.

Favorite Bands - I have several: Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, The Jimmy Hendrix Experience, Randy Newman, Mazzy Star, Otis Redding, Bob Dylan, Minor Threat, and about a hundred others.

How do you feel about your local skate seen - I don't know much about my local scene any more. I've kinda grown up and away from it. I either go to the park and skate with everyone, or I go skate other stuff with one or two people. Its been a long time since I was really part of a crew. I think that your crew defines your scene. From what I can see though, the younger kids in town have made a pretty solid scene for themselves. They even have a blader in their crew. I think that most of them will be pretty damn good in a couple of years.

Telephoto or wide angle - Macro

Are you going to hell - Yes, as a matter of a fact, I am. I'm leaving within the next couple of months. Seven hours away from my family, my town, and all of my friends is a place called Hell, and I have to go there because my boss tells me so.

In 500 words or more describe yourself - Are you crazy? 500+ words sounds like a lot. I'm not sure if I'm complex enough for that. I'm a pretty simple guy. If I think 'Fuck You!', I'll say 'Fuck You!'. If I think 'You're cool', I'll say 'You're cool'. I'm not the kind of guy that'll say 'You're cool', and then say 'Fuck You' when your back is turned. I love money. I once saw a bumper sticker that I really liked...it said: 'Sure, money won't buy me happiness, but it won't buy me poverty either'. Fucking genius. As I said before, I'm an outdoor enthusiast. I can step into nature at dawn, and just walk until dusk without ever getting bored or tired. I don't know a single person who feels that way...except maybe my father. I don't fish or hunt though...I don't get any sort of thrill from it. I had to babysit a dog recently for my girlfriend's mother. I couldn't bring myself to leave it alone for more than a couple of hours at a time. He went to the Lancaster contest with me. All in all, he rode in four different cars, visited five different houses, went to two different skateparks, and met about 200 people. It was an exciting week for that dog. I don't smoke pot. I do smoke cigarettes. They have been good to me so far. I have one bum ankle and one bum wrist, and the other two are not far behind. My feet are fucked up really bad these days. They ache in places that they shouldn't. I sat on my ankle yesterday while I was out riding my skateboard. I heard something pop. I'm not walking that well today. I guess you can never get too old to skate, but I'm starting to think that you can get too old to skate a certain way. I think that my body has been trying to tell me something lately. I want a new car. I like jokes that feed off of prejudice, whether it be racist or sexist or about fat or handicapped people. A lot of my friends look down on me because of it. What can I say really? I like to laugh, and I like to make other people laugh. Maybe its wrong, but thats the kind of shit that makes me laugh. Everyone wants everything to be all perfect and good, but I think it would kinda boring if we didn't have anything to laugh at anymore. I eat meat. I don't really think that its right, but I do it anyway. I'm not perfect. If I were, people wouldn't look up to me and aspire to be me...instead, most of them would resent me. I watched a rollerblading video once, and it was pretty fucking good. I've never seen a good blader in person, but the guys in that video deserved to be in a video. I never put skate stickers on anything. I have shitloads of them, but they just sit there. I'm 5'9" tall. I weigh about 145lbs. I have brown hair and brown eyes that turn frequently green. Given my short stature and small build, I somehow still manage to be quite the ladies man. I once had four different girls within the span of a month, all of which were very attractive...of course. Not too bad, I must say, for some loser kid with the nickname 'Grosshead'.