Adrian Day interview. Darren Jacoby pic.

I first met Adrian when we were kids at the Look Ahead skatepark, he did a 1-foot on my new Tony Hawk and gave me a bit of a ‘can you do those?’ look, he however denies this to the day. We only really started hanging out in the late 90’s either because of hardflip contests or partying; I think it was that simple. Since then we’ve traveled allover, been mugged with HIV needles in Amsterdam, been through riots in Nairobi, crashed cars, dated sisters and spent far too many hours in Brazen Head having very intellectual conversations about the state of everything. The one thing that has remained consistent the whole time I’ve known Adrian is his motivation for skating; I don’t know too many people who push themselves harder skating or know more about it. This interview is based on one of those Brazen Head conversations, Cheers.

Okay, so most kids today got into skating because they started rollerblading but realized how gay it was but enjoyed rolling. Blades were clearly before your time, so was is it a case of roller-skating? Did you have those ruffle socks that cover half your boot?
Dude, I reckon rollerskating was hella stoked when rollerblading came out, 'cos it finally didn't look like the gayest thing on the block. The only thing I did a bit before skateboarding was BMX. And not that seriously, although I liked the film RAD.

So you are one of the older skaters in the scene, yet you still get major film and magazine coverage, how have you maintained your longevity? Are you using steroids, you know that will hurt a potential Olympic career. Or has adapting your style / what you skate been a factor?
What's worse for skateboarding - Steroids or the Olympics? The most major thing would be my need to skate and progress at it. I've never considered myself a naturally gifted skater but I've loved it so much and worked super hard at it. And yeah, I skate the shit I like to skate, have fun skating, so I'm always down to get footage or pics. You can never stop progressing - even if you are 60 and skating some new pool and you grind some part of it - you're progressing. I've gone thru plenty phases in what I like to skate, but that has just always felt natural. It was never conscious.

You aren't 60 yet, but you are definitely on the pool missions at the moment; did the Hallmark channell play ‘Gleaming the Cube’ to get you all inspired?
No, but Salba and the Chlorine film rekindled the fire.

In the early days of your skating, skateboarding was very much punk, what I mean is that its was very DIY, there was a definite ‘don’t care’ attitude and anyone who didn’t skate could fuck-off. Skateboarding has definitely lost that, it is global brand now, certain groups in skating still have that ‘don’t care’ attitude, though most of them create that for the image of it. Is this good or bad for skating?
Losing it's edge is definitely a bad thing. I often think of skateboarding like Kurt Cobain - when he was young these jocks would beat him up but when Nirvana got successful those same jocks would be singing Smells Like Teen Spirit in their cars.  Skateboarding's the same. When we started, most of society despised us, but that kept all the right people in it for the right reasons. I look around today and wonder how many of these kids will be doing it when they've gotta start working or when skateboarding's popularity drops. On the other hand, its size and total sold-out direction helps a lot of skaters live, make money and survive off of what they love. My attitude is that you can't change it, so use it to your advantage. A balance of both would be acceptable. It just sucks when skateboarding and skaters are censored by TV or even companies. Keeping it raw keeps it an artform. Censoring makes it a jock sport.

Theres no balance though is there; I remember at a certain skatepark there were kids smoking weed under the ramps, but nowadays you will get a lifetime ban if you are caught eating food in the park. Remember the Arena park, tell us about that place?
That place was ridiculous. Why is it that churches all build parks? It's to save 'lost' kids. When they build a park, it's their sneaky way of reeling you in and therefore making money off of you. The Arena was ironic. Huge kakky skatepark at a massive Evangelical type church, where you couldn't swear. You couldn't swear yet there we guards everywhere weilding machine guns. Protecting their millions I am sure.

When World Industries first burst onto the scene, their whole image and graphic style was so unique, they ultimately plagiarized everyone, but didn’t copy anyone, which was kind of refreshing for skating at the time. In SA I think you guys (Familia ) helped bump the scene off the stale track it was going down. Is it important having a unique style, or does it matter if people just bite eachothers style?
Well, this can extend to every single facet of everything. Liking music because someone else does or trying to skate like someone else or whatever, that's just lame. No one has ever been great by copying ideas. It's not a case of being important overall, its about what's important to you. In skateboarding there are billions of companies following the same strategy and addressing target markets. But at the same time if you feel a style that people are doing already, it's gonna be hard to not do something similar. We just want shit we like and for it to be original. If we thought differently we would have made bandanas and spikey bangles. Familia has its following, we have good product, there's thought that goes into the artwork, I personally don’t believe in art for the sake of art. There's an underlying message. It's like music - if theres a band singing about some bullshit that doesn’t matter, there's no depth. If you have a song loaded with passion or message, you are going to have heart in it. It's like comparing Sum 41 to Fugazi.

I guess that is reflective in everyone on the team; they all just skate how they want to? Has Loucas ever taken you out for dinner to thank-you very much for putting him on the team?
Yeah we all skate different. It's rad. Loucas hasn't taken me to dinner yet, but he has apologised for focussing boards after I shouted at him.

We all joke about choosing a board for its graphics, but boards are pieces of functional art. Before ’92, new graphics came out less frequently, do you think there was more depth in those boards, was there more anticipation, or has always been a way of just making mega sales?
There wasn't necessarily more depth. I mean, all those old Powell VCJ boards were saying very little. They were just skulls and shit. It's always been a money thing, but then graphics meant more to pros because they were less consumable and you'd have a board out for a couple of years. Then graphics became less important because a pro would have a new graphic every month, but without a doubt that period of mass producing graphics was the most creative. Graphics then had balls, again, sort of separating skaters from society. Now graphics have mom and dad approval.

Is that what you love about skating, been separated from society?
Well, it's not that separate any more, but at the same time the true rawness of street skating or riding pools is. I definitely like being able to see society for what it is. Being apart from it gives you perspective, and the things that people blindly accept, you can see differently.

A while ago you told me you were thinking of starting a cult. How is that going, what direction are you taking it?
Yeah, I love a good cult. The easiest one to start would be a Christian affiliated one. Like Branch Davidians or The People's Temple. If you use Christianity you can get away with all sorts of nonsense for years before anyone cottons on. Then you can gas everyone.

You have a whole bunch of collectors skate stuff, like books and boards in your house. A lot of it is reflective of bygone eras, do you reminisce about ‘the older days’ or is it just because new stuff isn’t old enough yet to collect?
It's not so much reminisce, but it was all so exciting and new back then so things had more meaning. I like having things that make sure I can't forget or maybe that I had and am reminded of. All the era's have been important. One leads to the next and so on. New stuff is worth collecting too, if it appeals to you. It's worth getting a board if it has a dope graphic and you wanna keep it as an art piece you know?

Besides some short stints in London, you’ve always lived in Joberg, has this city shaped you, do you have Jozi pride? Johannesburg is becoming increasingly hard to skate, do you find yourself adapting, what does your future hold?
I don't think I really have any pride for it. I may have before, but not now. It's becoming harder to skate and sketchier. The future... ultimately I want to move to Barcelona. Estudio espanol so hopefully that'll be my eventual desination. I'm contemplating a stint in Cape Town too. Get some Tik.

Some people call you a hippy are you a hippy?
I don’t like the term hippy because I'm not a flower toting free-loving freak. I'm quite an angry person, I get pissed off with all the shit that’s wrong, there's a lot of injustice and a lot of uneccessary shit that goes on based on profit. So if I'm a vegetarian and that makes me a hippy then call me a hippy, I don’t really care; its more about what's right and what's wrong and making those decisions yourself.

For you, is being vegetarian purely an ethical thing?
It's unnecessary to eat meat, it’s a brutal thing. I wouldn’t kill something, so I'm sure as shit not going to pay some poor peasant to do it for me and have it done in ways to minimise outlay and maximise profit. It's done on mass - it's not like people are going out into a forest, getting it themselves and eating it. In the animal world, meat eating animals will catch an animal and share it amongst the family and won't eat anything for another 2 weeks; humans just consume and consume unnecessarily, I don’t want to participate in that.

We've turned animals into machines for eating? That’s probably how half the people believe it to be?
Yeah, people don’t buy into the reality of it, it's all disguised. You don’t see an animal getting slaughtered, you buy a package, you by a product, it sugar coats it.

There shouldn’t be serving suggestions on the packaging, there should be killing suggestions?
Yeah…It's like Linda McCartney said ‘If abatoires had glass walls, nobody would eat meat’. Most people couldn’t go out there and kill something, but are quite happy to have this lie sold to them. Ignorance is bliss. Also in this day and age with science where it is, its completely unneccessary to test on animals, that’s just a level of torture that is unneeded, all it does is keep a bunch of mediocre scientists in their job.

You are the kind of person that would rather have a homeopathic remedy for your illness and you seem to be perfectly healthy, do you think modern medicine is that needed? Sould natural medicines be explored and take animal testing out of the equation?
When I was in varsity I studied sociology and there's something called iatrogenesis and it relates to the overprescription and underconsumption of drugs. Some doctors are on kick-backs from pharmaceutical companies; they are just businesses, they want to make money. That’s why when you go to regular doctors with the smallest thing wrong, they will put you on a course of antibiotics, which fucks your system up so in 6 weeks time you are sick again. The worst is cosmetics; having an animal tested on and brutalised in a lab so a woman can look a little prettier or some guy can have his skin moisturised; that makes no sense.

Or how about the fur farms, where animals are having their skin pulled off while still alive and thrown on a rubbish heap to die, for fashion.
Fashion is revolting, I want nothing to do with fashion.

Are you also a bit of a treehugger?
I believe we are busy fucking this planet up, constantly, with very little regard. It comes down to this, everyone should just do their best, it’s a natural progression; like we recycle now, its important. When the pillars come crashing down and we cant even drink the water, I at least want to say that I wasn’t responsible for that.

So when the pillars come down and it's judgment day, oh wait…you don’t belive in judgement day?
I don’t believe in religion, I think its one of the biggest poisons on the earth, it stops people thinking for themselves. Its easy for me to attack Christianity as its one of the closest ones to me, but I don’t believe in any religion. I believe that nature is god, nature controls everything. If nature wants to take everyone out the equation, it will do it, and it will do it because we deserve it, to reset the balance.

In this country, there's only a few people running the skateboard industry, how do you see skateboarding run in this country, how are you guys doing your part?
I feel that skateboarding should be in the hands of the skateboarders, however there aren't that many people who are that competent; people think ‘hey lets start a board company, and we'll be millionares’, that’s not the way it works, nobody makes a lot of money, you have to have a huge empire to be making a lot of money. If things are benefiting skating then it's cool, but the way it seems to me at the moment is that no one looks at skating holistically and is caring about skating in general, that’s what needs to happen, because without skateboarding, you are all out of your jobs. A lot of people will just move onto the next thing, which is probably worse than being out of your job. The pie is only so big, and everyone wants the biggest piece. If everyone was trying to make skateboarding last instead of a quick buck, things wouldn’t start to look bad and the real skaters get disillusioned.

I hear Big Brother magazine is making a comeback, what are your levels of happiness at?
Through the roof; that was the only skateboard magazine that seemed to be fun. Skateboarding musn't be this clean-cut awesome thing; skateboarders aren't from the rugby and cricket private-school sector of life, we are out on the streets. Going skateboarding, you are almost at war; you aren't supposed to be there. It follows that train of thought. We aren't here to be accepted by society. The more skating is kept fun-based and reckless, the more people will be attracted to it.

Skateboarding's more of an art?
Artists, writers, musicians, these are the people that push the social envelope, and skateboarders are the same, but there's a lot of people that want to catagorise it, harness it and resell it, but that’s not its true nature.

Its like anyone can pay a wad of cash for some still-life to hang over their tuscan fireplace, whereas a piece could be monetary worthless, but filled with creativity; for me that’s real art.
That’s why I don’t give a shit about seeing Ryan Sheckler doing some 10ft drop kickflip on some street course, when I can watch Ricky Oyola charging round the streets of Philadelphia jamming on walls and hitting pipe jams.

I saw on TV the other night, the Laureus awards, Sheckler & Shaun White up for awards, but you don’t see Ricky Oyola or Donny Barley up for an award.
Exactly, because you have jocks voting their version of skateboarding. I don’t even see that as skateboarding. Leave us alone.

Well said, let's have a beer. Any shout-outs?
All the people and stores who support Familia. Ryan Payne and Peter Nicholson at Billabong. Dave at Von Zipper, Ockie at SFA. Ben Bergh, Sven Martin and G-Scott for pics. JJ for filming. True skateboarders. And you for doing the interview.