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'.