Robert Brink - Writer

Crossovers, Cars and Kids: Lasek Lets Loose

March 5, 2006 | Skip To The Comments (0)

Crossovers, Cars and Kids...Lasek Lets Loose
By Rob Brink
EXPN.com, April 2003

In May 2003, a story I did on Bucky Lasek ran in ESPN magazine. The original interview was much longer and ended up getting cut down a ton, so ESPN decided to run the full-length version on EXPN.com. Here's how it went:

The rèsumè of Bucky Lasek lists wins at every major skate comp in his 13 years as a pro. He's also a world traveler. He's funny. Consistent and creative are the words that stick. At home, he's Mr. Mom and right now he's refereeing a wrestling match between daughters Paris, 2 and Devin, 5. He wants to skate. He should be doing chores. He's getting set for the Global Championships. He was happy we called.

Brink: You are teamed up with Andy MacDonald for the U.S. at Global X Games. Who's the team to beat in skate vert?

Bucky: Bob Burnquist and Sandro Dias of Brazil. Bob's got the tech and Sandro's got the big air. Basically, they are gonna win it.

Just like that?
Yeah. Sandro is on fire and Bob's just incredible.

You're just getting over a nasty knee injury. What happened?
I had a big old gash. I wear two of those carbon fiber CTI knee braces. I was skating this sticky ramp in New Zealand in February and I was knee sliding out of a trick. But the sticky ramp pulled my kneepad, which is wrapped around my knee brace. The hinge of the knee brace jammed into the side of my knee and punctured my knee, basically just ripping my skin open.

How long were you out?
I have been skating for about a month now. I was out for two months.

Touring, television, magazines--you're like a skater rock star. Or are you?
Skating's actually the easy part. When I'm at home, I'm so busy running around refereeing and playing maid that I don't have time to think about skating. Sometimes when I go to the ramp, I just sit there and watch-unwind. It's hard to turn it on and turn it off.

Do you want your daughters to grow up to be pro skaters?
I would love to see them skate. I know that if I took them to the skate park constantly, they would become skaters. I take them sometimes, but they don't really get into it. They are at an age where they scare easy. I don't know what to do about that.

You've made the choice not to be anti-mainstream. Why?
I have always competed, so when the contests started happening, everyone was going. It was new and it was pretty sick. The first contest I won, I got $500. So I wasn't doing it for the money. Nowadays, contests are so big and you win so much money. I have a wife and kids, so why not enter contests?

The money is huge.
It's insane. Contests are helping me do what I want to do and make a future out of it. I'm not sitting at home hating on everyone who enters contests, with nothing to show for it other than the fact that, "I'm cool because I don't enter contests." I don't get the hating part. I don't hate on anybody.

Who in skating inspires you?
All the guys-anyone who is pushing it. Bob Burnquist, Rune Glifberg and Tony Hawk on vert. On street, Mark Appleyard, Mike Carroll and all those guys.

Do you still skate street?
I haven't had time.

Do you ever feel that skaters play it too safe in contests?
I don't want to name names, but we definitely raise hell at them. Skateboarding definitely isn't a quiet sport. We mock and mess with each other constantly. So if someone is doing the same old stuff, it's known.

Are you ever the one getting ranked on?
No. Usually I come out with new stuff and keep it fresh. I always try to do something new for a contest.

Would you rather see consistency or risks?
I'd rather see both. I try to make a consistent run and I try to push it. It's weird. You can either get first or last place. And if you get last place, everyone looks at you like, "He's flippin'!" It's kind of hard in my situation. If I don't place top five, people are going to be like, "He's falling off." They expect to see you do good, and when you do good they just write it off.

Who's the most jock-like skateboarder?
Danny Way, and that's no dis. He's a machine. If he's hurt, he's working to get better. If he's better, he's working to get hurt.

Who should have played another sport for a living?
I could pick anyone in the sport that could be good at anything they want to be. It's just opportunity. If they played baseball, and if they were into it the way they're into skating, people would be like, "Mark McGuire who?"

How about Tony Hawk?
They call Tony Hawk the Michael Jordan of skateboarding, but Tony would probably be more of a computer guy.

Are you into other sports?
I used to play baseball and football back in junior high school. I was good at baseball-I played every position. I do other things now. I play golf and basketball. I try to do everything.

Does golf stress you or relax you?
If I'm keeping score, I get stressed out. I'm not really that good. I just started.

What sport would you have been good at if skating hadn't gotten in the way?
I think I'd probably be racing cars. I've been to a couple of driving schools, but mainly it's just for fun.

What do you drive?
A '98 four-door BMW M3, a Volvo T5 Wagon and a 2003 M3.

Favorite?
The 2003 M3.

Where do you run it?
I go out to Palomar Mountain every once in a while with my buddy Jared. He's one of my friends who doesn't skate-he's into cars and stuff.

Dream car?
A white Ferrari. I have always liked Ferraris. The Enzo is insane.

You used to drive a VW Corrado, all hooked up. Do you still have it?
I had a hard time getting rid of that car, but it was hard to trust it. Every time I would drive it to L.A., I'd get paranoid.

Did you ever skate to be cool? Why did you start?
Once I stepped on a skateboard, I didn't want to step off. I remember the sound of the wheels going over the cracks in the sidewalk and how it felt to carve and to learn how to Ollie up a curb. I had a little lapper on my back truck so I could slam into a curb and go up it. That was sick.

Kids across the country now skate to be cool. It's like baseball used to be. How do you feel about that?
It trips me out. I see kids who look more like skaters than I do. We used to get made fun of for wearing baggy clothes, and now everybody rocks baggy stuff.

What keeps you going?
It's a motivational thing. A lot of people don't stay motivated enough to excel-to keep learning. They lose the vision. That's why a lot of great skaters just fall off and don't become anything. I try new things all the time. And when I try something, I go all out.

What will skating be like when your kids are 15?
It's still going to progress, but I don't know how long it can progress at the same level. The street skaters now are banging out all these gnarly tricks. Things are getting so gnarly that if you mess up one time, it sets you back so much that you can't return to that level. Guys come in and they're insane and sick. Then they get hurt and fall off.

What do you think about all the young guys coming up?
I love them, man. It's a whole other level I have never seen. Watching Mark Appleyard skate is poetry in motion right there. Watching Rune Glifberg and Lincoln Ueda skate vert is sick. It makes you want to get better.

How does it feel to be the guy who helped pioneer the sport and helped it achieve its status as a "cool sport?"
It makes you feel good inside that you have done something positive and that people appreciate it.

How much longer will you skate?
The only thing I can do right now is keep skating. A lot of people ask me what I'm going to do after I'm done skating. But when I started skating, people were like, "What are you going to do, skate all your life?" When the time comes to be done skating, then I'll worry about it.