Sandro is the brainchild, co-founder/owner, creative director and janitor at Color. An art school drop-out he got his start early in life doing graphics for skateboard companies while designing his high-school year book and slanging tee shirts, chips to crack Playstations and fake IDs. He’s proudly not on Facebook and lives with his lovely girlfriend Julianna in Vancouver BC.
“We had a baby doll all taped up like bondage and it had a crayon shoved in its ass.”
If you’ve followed this seriesof video blogs and interviews and didn’t give a shit until now, you’re probably with the majority. Back in ’97 “nobody” Kyle Shura put together a video of a selection of his own personal hometown heroes – perhaps with the foresight that one of them may prove to be a shining star among the best in the business. To most it seemed unimaginable, but for Ryan Smith the videos he watched as an escape from his crumby hometown and the pictures in magazines he admired were just enough to inspire him and go on to do great things in skateboarding. Today he could be referred to as a veteran pro with a signature shoe, and numerous pro-model decks. He even shared a photo he got from myspace of a kid who had his DC graphic tattooed on his back!
I caught up with Ryan over iChat after a brief visit with him at his home in Carlsbad, California...
Sandro: You get an other iMac?
Ryan Smith: Yeah, a chick smashed my old one.
Yeah I know, I saw it when I came over – gnarly.
I got a laptop.
Nice, at least you can hide that one... I want to start by talking about Kyle. How did you come to film with him?
He was always at the park and a weirdo like the rest of us. Kyle was a sober guy too. I remember when he first started drinking it was girly shit.
Do you prefer your skating then as opposed to now?
No I like it now better because I had the fun of yesterday I want the fun of tomorrow.
Your part has a bunch of Seattle footage in it. Was that the first big skate mission trip you ever took?
Yeah it was. [I remember] I broke boards when I filmed — life story. Simon tried to smuggle [bicycle] parts back and got caught. He didn’t want to pay duty. We had a baby doll all taped up like bondage and it had a crayon shoved in its ass. They confiscated it as child porn [laughs]. And it said “sniggers'' on its belly so they thought we were racist. We told them we got the word from a Hustler and showed them and they sat there and read the porn for like 30 minutes while we were just sitting there. Ask Simon for the paper they gave him, it says “1 sodomized doll confiscated”.
Were you ever part of the raids when some "grown-up" (as Ferner would call them) fucked with a kid and everyone beat the dude down with boards to the head?
Yeah I instigated one.
What type of skating were into during this time?
I loved Jon West and Duty Now For The Future. I didn’t give a fuck. If anyone hung at city park all day everyday we were cool. Wutkey, the rollerblader, haha we were cool.
Yeah that’s right, you had a bladder and a BMXr in your crew.
Bmx'er yes, bladder no. We were cool and skated the park but that’s it. Simon rolled with us.
I notice you were wearing DC’s even ack then. Was Peter Sullivan sending you shoes through 540 or were you just stoked on the LYNX?
I liked the Plug and the Syntax. I rode for 540, Eternal didn’t want me and I didn’t want them, but after a Skate Canada part Jeff Passe called me to give me boards so I said ‘sure, free boards’. I stole so many from them. I would go there right when I would hit bridge traffic because Jerry left the shop to avoid it. When I got there I went off and took so many and drove back and sat in traffic for like an hour.
I started getting Powell boards and would go to Green Bay [the company’s skate park], riding them right in front of Jerry when the day before I took a shit load of Eternals.
If Timebomb liked your tape, you could have gone a whole other route. The McCrank career...
Maybe, but Red Dragons were DC, so I would have bailed, I know it.
Were you around at all when Kyle was editing this? It must have been straight up PAUSE/RECROD on 2 VHS machines...
No, he went to KSS [his high school] to do it. He was a teachers pet, that’s why no one saw the editing.
Anything else you want to say about the Nobodys video?
We just skated and had fun, smoked soooooooo much pot.
What about Mike McKinlay?
Well, he didn’t like me at that time, but he fucking was always amazing to watch and a real natural. He did simple tricks with a solid style. He never had to work at skating it just happened for him. He had never had a rolled ankle, he told me he never got hurt.
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