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“You get sponsored by these companies with no personality and then all of the sudden you don't have one.”

Mike McKinlay interview By sandro grison March 5, 2009

Allegedly quoted by Colin McKay as “the best mini-ramp skater, ever”, This week we watch the part of “hometown hero”, Kelowna BC native Mike McKinlay. This was the part I was probably most excited to see when I first got my copy of Nobodys from Kyle in our local indoor park. I remember scraping $8 together, pleading for a deal with him to give me $2 off because I had a trick in it. Now over 10 years later this was my favourite interview. We talked about a bunch of things: how sick it was that this DIY video views as a “team” thing, but it wasn’t really a crew of good friends who hung out outside of skating at all. It was a selection of the best skaters Kelowna had at the time, all with different styles and interests, but nobody really knew anything about anyone else — they just knew they could find each other at City Park.

What do you remember about your life at the time of making this part for Nobodys. What was happening with you? I was trying kind of hard to get noticed. I think at the time I was trying to get a bigger sponsor. Timebomb was hooking me up, and it got me motivated to go even further. I wanted a proper board sponsor to match my already proper shoe sponsor. I knew I was somewhat unhappy though as well. There were other things that I wanted to do with my life (like get more into filmmaking), and I knew that making a living from skating just didn't seem realistic to me. It was distracting to think about and in some ways I wasn't skating for the right reasons. You had a pro model though right? Wasn’t this when that puppet graphic Sam drew came out on eternal? Yeah, that was pretty sick. Eternal had sponsored me at the time and I have to give them some serious props for wanting to help out a "non-christian" such as myself. That's back when I rode 8 inch wide twigs. Other than your brother, who do you remember skating with the most. And of the guys who have parts, who is still a stranger to you? Or is there any interesting stories there? It was actually a weird time. I'm not sure what happened, but I guess I sort of drifted apart from a lot of the guys in that video. I was pretty close friends with everyone on that vid at one point, and then I just remember filming with Kyle on our own most of time. I think everyone hated me or something. Kids do the damndest things... I skated with my brother almost always. Both of us were pretty reclused compared to the rest of the Kelowna scene. As much as I guess we were sort of the hometown h____s, we were still pretty on our own. What about your relationship with Ryan Smith. How did you guys fare? It was a total Zoolander situation. I was the older guy watching Ryan come up and I'll admit I was pretty jealous. I was watching this kid get really good, and it was hard to all of the sudden be second to a young guy. We lost touch because of it and it's pretty fucking sad to see that happen. Yours and Sam’s skating was always extraordinarily good, so it makes sense that you weren't ordinary in the social circles. Yeah, but I think I was weird though in that I didn't always like to learn the most current tricks. I would just want to do airs at the Kelowna park all day long because that's all that was fun to me. People got bummed out on my progression schedule. It wasn't up to par. It still isn't. Something else I find interesting about this video is that it was totally straight edge. Even the token crazy antics are all substance-free, total just like, Ferner fun. Josh Sacrey, Ferner, Keith Yerex, Sam, and you… Even Kyle, nobody was drinking or any of that. All except Ryan… Yeah, that's very true. I think in some ways in order to stand out and get good in a small town you really have to lay off that shit. All of the skaters in the video were super dedicated to skating well. I think they'd all agree to that. Everyone was working daily to get better and partying wasn't much in our personalities I don't think. Yeah, I guess except for Ryan. [laughs]. It didn't matter with Ryan though because of how naturally talented he was. Keith and Josh rode for your shop S&M, didn't they? Yeah, it was awesome. I have fond memories of Josh wearing an S&M t-shirt.

At Skate Camp in ‘96, he never took that shit off! I remember it was like tubed sleeves, 70s style. I remember at that camp you skated a massive flat bank (or "steep wall" as we called it) as if it was a launch ramp. And you blast out of that six-foot in your video part too. Where did that come from!? Oh yeah, my backside air abilities. [laughs]

Was this your first full video part in a video (although ultimately it wasnt really seen by many or released)... Yes it was for sure. It was rad back then because it didn't matter where the video ended up much like today. There was no youtube, etc and all you could do was make copies. That says a lot about a group of skaters that just 'wanted to make a video'. Nobody was doing that back then in small towns, and Kyle was rad enough to take it as far as he did. We all just wanted to see what we could come up with for our own benefit. After this video what happened? I got on True. Blah. When you're in that mindset, you just want to 'be sponsored' and it didn't matter by who. Completely fucked thinking when I look back on it. I wish I had more of a spine back then and just did what I want. I should've just been a punk and smithgrinds in bowls all day. You get sponsored by these companies with no personality and then all of the sudden YOU don't have one. After this video, not much happened. But thank god Kyle made it. It's the video I'm most proud to have ever been in.

END

Mike wanted to add, "Kyles video was one of the only videos to this day that was made at such a low budget, but that still had direction, pace, a flow that keeps you watching it. For a small town video (or for any video for that matter), it's a legit piece of work." Nice work Kyle, and he adds, "Sorry for taking so many tries to land everything".

Check back next week when we look at Ryan Smith's first ever video part – the last part... the finale. Click here to view all Nobodys entries and check back monday for Ryan's interview with us.