So, you're in Denver?
Yeah, just skating some spots before this signing we're gonna do.

How has the tour been so far?
It's been really hot, to be minimalistic. We've pretty much just been trying to deal with the heat. We've been doing more games at the signings, getting involved with the kids, which I think is a really rad idea.

Games of SKATE?
More like an egg race, or a water balloon toss. You know, your quintessential summer games.

That's a cool idea.
Yeah, most kids are too intimidated to talk to you during a signing, so...

I bet kids get psyched to brag about beating Jamie Thomas in an egg race.
Yeah. I have yet to be on one of those winning teams, but I think I've got it down now.

What exactly is the egg race?
You have to hold an egg in a spoon. No thumb in the spoon, 4-dude relay race. You run around a cone that's about 20 feet away from you, first one to finish wins.

What's the secret to that one?
Stay low. Keep your center of balance low.

Who do you usually room with on Zero trips?
Usually Brockman. He's jam-packed full of the craziest sh-t I've ever heard.

Yeah, I can imagine that it's non-stop comedy.
Yeah, I'm rooming with Brockman and Marisa.

Okay, let's talk about contests.
Sure.

You don't typically skate in a lot of them, do you?
No, I don't. I've skated a couple here and there, but I didn't really have too good of an experience with it. I skated more when I was am for Zero. I did Tampa every year, for maybe four years in a row. I guess I just didn't know how to enjoy it, you know what I mean? I kinda went into it with a negative attitude, but now I'm a lot more drawn to it. When I went and did Maloof, I had a blast. It was so much fun.

What changed?
I don't know. I didn't know too many people when I was an am, and I've gotten to meet pretty much every favorite skateboarder of mine over the past couple years, and skate with them on a friend level. That makes it fun. I'm no longer detached, it feels like I'm just skating with my friends.

Yeah, contests can feel more like family reunions.
Exactly. Now, I go into it with the same mentality as going to a premiere, or Crossroads, or a trade show or something. I mean, it's a really intimidating atmosphere, when you break it down, but I've just been having more fun with them, and I've been more drawn to wanting to do a lot of them.

Do you still get the contest jitters?
A little bit, but now it's like the ratio is a little bit different. It's more exciting than anything now. When I was going to the Tampa Am contests, it was 100% nerves. Shaky legs, not eating breakfast, the whole deal. Now I just find myself looking forward to it, like the Maloof contest coming up.

Have you seen what the course looks like?
I haven't, no.

I was trying to find it online somewhere.
We got a printout of what the New York Maloof course was gonna look like beforehand, so you get to mull it all over in your head. But as far as I know, nobody knows what it looks like yet.

They had the Rincon replica last year, and the Carlsbad gap the year before that. I wonder what they're doing for this year?
Yeah, they usually replicate a cool spot. I wonder… El Toro?

Oh, Jesus.
It's definitely possible. [I think/hope he was employing sarcasm-Ed.]

The New York contest was a bunch of famous NY spot replicas.
Yeah, like the ledge across the grate, and the gap-out rail was in there.

Had you skated any of those spots before?
I actually haven't done too much street skating in New York. The times that we've been there, we haven't stayed very long. I definitely know all the spots, but I haven't done as much skating as I would have liked in New York.

I wonder if those spots held up as accurate replicas. I've heard the "Blubbas" are really hard to skate.
Well, Rowley designed the course, and he said that he didn't want to have it exactly the same. He wanted to make it comparable, but still skateable for a contest.

I read an interview with you on the Black Box site. In it, you were talking about your life, and your career, and turning pro. You said: "I used to think that turning pro was the ultimate goal, but it isn't, and I'm happy about that. There's still more rungs on the ladder." Now, were you talking about things you want to accomplish within skateboarding, or are you already looking at a life post-professional skateboarder?
It's funny you brought that up, I was talking about that with someone the other day. About turning pro. At the time, it seemed like the ultimate absolute goal. But once you get there, you kind of realize that when you get there - which is a feat in itself - you realize that there's so many other places to go.

That's what I've realized recently, and that's exactly why I've ventured into skating more contests. There's so much more that skating can offer. Skateboarding has so many different things that haven't been tapped into yet. And I love skateboarding - I love it more than anything - and I want to do whatever I can to make my impression on skateboarding. Whether that's trying something first, or doing something that hasn't been done, you know? Just really getting involved.

And there was a while where I felt a little bit detached from skateboarding. I think it was when I was dealing with an injury. And after I wasn't hurt anymore, it kind of opened up my eyes, and I realized I really want to be a part of skateboarding. I really want to do what I can to change it. Because it's changed so much over the years, and it's been such an awesome, interesting progression, and I want to be as much a part of it as possible.

Yeah, it's like this incredibly long journey to becoming a professional skateboarder, and once you open that door, you've entered a whole new world where now you're in the position to go make your mark, and have your influence.
There's steps to accomplishing anything. And a certain part of it is having the ability to surprise myself, and just keep things fresh. Trying new things has been so rewarding for me lately, I've surprised myself. I didn't know I could skate contests, and have fun skating them. It just kind of renews skateboarding for me, over and over, trying new things. Having them work out is the best thing in the world, and even when they don't work out, failure is still an accomplishment, you come away from it wiser, and you got to learn something.

That's a good outlook. What was the injury you mentioned?
It was a while ago, I hurt my ankle. It was just one of those things that took a while to go away.

Did you have to get surgery?
No, it wasn't anything like that. It had just been bugging me. And it was during that time I had that thought process.

Are you a worrier?
I'm not us much a worrier… I've gotten to the point where I can realize what things are out of my control, and what things are not. And I don't worry about things out of my control, but I definitely try to put 110% into the things I have influence over. So yeah, I guess I do worry.

Sounds more like once you know you have the ability to control something, you work to control it. You preempt worry.
Yeah. I've got enough stuff on my plate now, If I worried about the stuff that was out of my hands I'd drive myself nuts.

That's what a lot of people do. How old are you?
I just turned 23.

In that Black Box interview, you mentioned Russia was the most interesting place you've traveled to. Does that still apply?
Yeah, absolutely. The whole history of Russia is so interesting to me, and when I went there, i felt so intrigued at how different the lifestyle was. We live in this crazy world of excess and overabundance, and you go to Russia and it's a total different standard of living. Russians - and people all over the world - grow up so much harder than we do here. And going there kind of made me realize how fickle complaining is. In California, if it rains for a day, a lot of people look at it as Armageddon.

My girlfriend's from the Ukraine, and her family speaks a lot of Russian, and she taught me some things. I brought a little booklet of the things she taught me. I used it, as much as I could, to be able to at least carry on a simple conversation, or even just order food.

How'd you do?
I did pretty good, I was able to order food, and whatnot, but it still felt pretty cool to sort of be a part of the place you're traveling to.

It seems like if you make an attempt to speak the language, the local people appreciate it. I felt like that in France, too. I tried to use the French I knew… It's just respectful, you know? America doesn't have the best reputation as it is, so going to another country and having that stereotype not be there really goes a long way.

Yeah, or just tell them you're Canadian.
Yeah, huh? "Nobody hates us!"

Do you ever get downtime on trips? Like in Russia?
I always try. I'd rather get out and see stuff, than just sit around. In Russia we actually got time to go to the winter palace, where the Czar [Tsar?] of Russia would stay in the Winter, and the place is a giant museum. I like it. It gets you more in touch with where you are. If you don't try to learn about the place you're at, it doesn't make the experience very special.

What's the one place you've never been that you want to travel to most of all?
Australia. I've never been, and I've always wanted to go. All the footage I've seen, and I know a lot of people from there… It just seems like a really cool place to go.

Yeah, that's right at the top of my list, as well.
And I ride for Theeve trucks, and some of the owners and riders are Australian, and there's been some talk about a trip, and it makes me super excited.

Okay, so you finished your Real Street video part, your Feel Free part, and your Strange World part. Do you take time off?
Not too much anymore. Recently I've really enjoyed being busy, and seeing how much stuff I can juggle. It's just kind of like a test for yourself, you know? Staying busy, and staying productive. I hate the feeling of being lazy, and not doing anything productive, so I try to stay away from that. But I'm definitely into taking a trip down to the Hotel Del [Coronado] for a weekend, something like that always has to happen. But it's never like a 3-month disappearing act, where you just shut your phone off. I'm definitely down for some R&R, but I get excited about new projects, so I never disappear for too long.

What are you working on now?
We're starting to film for the next Zero video, it's called Cold War. That's the biggest thing right now. I'm trying to do a lot of signature stuff for the companies I ride for, trying to design some clothing for Altamont. I just had a signature truck come out for Theeve, that was a blast. It was a whole new experience for me, designing a truck. It's been a lot of fun.

Okay, back to contests. What do you prefer - a video part contest like Real Street, or a regular contest?
It's interesting, it's hard to compare the two. I think that both can be equally entertaining. Those two worlds don't really mesh too much. You don't really think about filming for a contest when you're out street skating, you know? It's always like you're either filming for a video part, or you're just filming with your friends. So it was different, filming that [Real Street] part, knowing in the back of my head that it's going into a contest. The Real Street thing had a ten-trick max, so it was almost like a ten-trick contest run, in a way.

What about a jam format versus 60-second runs?
I'm a big fan of the jam format. I think it's why I kind of put contests off for a while. And that's why I really enjoyed Maloof, you get to skate with 5 or 6 dudes, and it's like a mini jam.

I did an interview with Dyrdek about the Street League. He was telling me that everyone goes one-at-a-time, ten tries per obstacle, and you announce your trick before you go. So it's not quite a jam format, it's not quite a run, it's kind of in the middle.
Yeah, sounds really calculated. I'm looking forward to learning more about that, it's not something I'm used to. I'd love to be a part of the Street League, it sounds lie a lot of fun.

He told me that "If you place top ten, you're pretty much guaranteed a spot the following year." So maybe there's some rotating people out for new blood.
That's a cool twist.

Okay, you've got a contest coming up. Are you spending more time in the parks, dialing in some tricks?
You know, I didn't really know what to expect, going into the New York Maloof, but I've been on a bunch of trips, and there's some new skateparks that opened up near my house, so I guess I've inadvertently been doing that. But this time I'd like to kind of prepare for it. I'd like to do well.

What's your contest strategy?
Just get a feel for the course, figure out what you can do on each obstacle, and what you should do. And then you just whittle it down to the tricks you know you can do every try. And then throw in the more difficult stuff if you have time. And then throw in a wacky flip, unorthodox trick. There definitely is a formula.

Okay Garrett, good luck...
Thanks, man. Hopefully I won't be as shaky as I was at Tampa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoT84oeVUes&feature=player_embedded#!