Robert Brink - Writer

Jason Adams

October 27, 2008 | Skip To The Comments (11)

Jason Adams
Words: Rob Brink
The Skateboard Mag December 2008

There are more than a few pro skateboarders out there who cringe when you ask them how old they are. Jason Adams isn’t one of them.

I read an old Big Brother interview with you and learned all about the BMC [Beautiful Man’s Club]. Is it still in effect?
Just in spirit these days. There’s still a few people out there. It was me, Jai Tanju, Tim Brauch and Crazy Eddie that started it in an elevator in Long Beach during a trade show—as a joke. It was created out of way too much time on our hands and we just drank way too much. But next thing you know now there’s like BMC Japan and they’re still fully into it. Years ago I went there and they had BMC shirts, all written in Japanese.

Were those the dark years?
Kind of. I did drink a lot, so half the time I was having the time of my life the other half was dark depression. I was just pile of shit basically. The high moments when you’re just partying everything’s great. And then there’s the next day and you’re like “God I hate myself. I don’t hardly skate anymore and I feel like shit and I’m broke and I live in a shitty house with eight dudes.”

Is there an equivalent in to those great times in your life now?
I’m just in parent mode. My life totally revolves around that. I’m always going to myself “Your kids are awesome. You’re going to look back and go ‘fuck it went by so quick.’ Enjoy this now.” My life’s so different now I can’t find a parallel. My kids took place of all that.

You seemed really self-deprecating in that Big Brother piece…
That’s been my biggest struggle my whole life. At the time I didn’t realize I was just doing things differently. It was always hard because back then no one really got it.

I know I didn’t get it. In older videos I wanted to see flip tricks and new tricks and stuff. Then when Label Kills and Bag of Suck dropped and I saw your parts, it finally made sense to me.
When I first turned pro I was trying my fucking best to keep up. But at one point I remember thinking “It’s over. I’m just going to do whatever the hell I’m going to do.” I’m definitely a “glass is half empty” kind of guy. The last few years I’m aware of it and I try not to let it get to me, but it still creeps in there sometimes.

You’ve been pro forever for some great companies though. Does that help validate what you’re doing? Make you feel better?
I’m always seeing what I’m not. It’s not what I’ve done, it’s “This isn’t good enough.” But I’m kind of fucking over it.

I found an interview from 1993 and you were asked if you would let your daughter date a skateboarder someday…
Yeah, and it said something like “Fuck no. But I never want to have kids.”

You’re like “I’ll never get married. I’m not responsible.”
At the time I was 19 years old. 19 going on 12—totally immature for my age. I thought I was a raging punk rocker dude and everything was so new. I was getting money to skate. I had my own apartment in San Jose. And it was like “Fuck dude, I’m doing it right now!” I didn’t plan being married with children. But I met a girl; fell in love, got pregnant real quick. It was a big eye opener. It totally wasn’t planned but it all worked out just fine. Pretty much we defeated all odds—the fact that here we are married eight years later with two kids.

On my 25th birthday it was like, “Dude you’re whole ‘I don’t want to grow up’ attitude isn’t going to work. Clean up your act or you’re going to blow everything.”

Yesterday when I called you had three kids to babysit?
Two are mine and one was my daughter’s friend who spent the night. My wife went to the gym so I was in charge. The kids will be fine and once I get on the phone all hell breaks loose. So now I know not to try to do anything.

Do you freak out about providing a life for your family off of skateboarding?
I’d been freaking out… even before. Even more after the first kid came and then even more when my wife quit her job to stay with the kids. It was a panic attack. It wasn’t until this year when I was finally like, “You’ve been freaking out for 15 years and you’re still here.” I’m 35 and I feel more comfortable now—just finally in the last six months. If it changes I’ll readjust.

Do you ever envision what you might do after skating?
I really don’t know. I just kind of have all my little projects. My only plan right now is to fuse my projects with my skating. I’ve just always got by being me and that’s all I’m going to keep doing.
You met your wife right after Tim Brauch passed away.

Isn’t it strange how life compensates for something gnarly happening?
I’d met her a few times before that, but when we actually did spend some time together it was the day after the funeral at a skate jam barbecue for Tim. She had a friend who had died the same day Tim did and we got together talking about that.

When Tim died, the next day, somehow I knew everything was going to be different. It was the end of that era for me. You brought up the BMC thing… when Tim died it was done. Everything was different from then on out. I think it was like that for the entire skateboard scene in San Jose.

Being that you do skate kinda differently than most people, are you numb to all the crazy stuff in new videos?
I don’t hardly see skate videos anymore. Even the day I turned pro I couldn’t compete with what was going on. So why trip out now when I’m 35? It obviously doesn’t matter.

Do you feel disconnected to the skateboarding world?
I do feel disconnected. I totally miss it. I’m constantly frustrated ‘cause I don’t skate as much as I want to—mostly because my lifestyle doesn’t jive with a skateboarder’s lifestyle. I’m up at 6 am and then I’m home for dinner and I need to be in bed at a decent hour to start it all over again.

A lot of times I just go skating by myself to keep myself from having a heart attack when I do go skating. I just get on my board and go to feel the clickety clack under my wheels. I just cruise.

Do you ever get on your board, skating all alone, hit a rock and eat shit?
I hate that… you slam so hard on the sidewalk. When I was a kid I was in my own little world and it didn’t matter. There’s so many times now, I’ll go out and skate and it’s like I’m a grown-ass man in a schoolyard by myself feeling real weird. I eat shit on a rock now and I’m like “Shit the mailman’s right there and saw that.” It sucks.

What’s a trick you wish you could do?
Backside smith grinds. I’ve learned them but I’ve never been able to do it to where I have it. I’ve spent so many hours trying to get it down over the last 15 years. But fortunately, I’ve always had the back tail.

Matt Eversole said deep down you regret quitting enjoi and that you’d admit it.
[Laughter] Fuck you, Matt. Matt has his panties in a wad. As much as he’s cool about everything he’s a little pissed off at me for going back to Black Label.

How is it riding for Black Label instead of enjoi?
The difference is enjoi is owned by Dwindle, which is publicly owned and Black Label is in a warehouse about the size of my house owned and operated by John Lucero. So that’s a huge difference. It’s not like one is better than the other. I just dig the smaller vibe. To be honest, there’s probably a small underground crew of people all over the world that have kind of backed me over the years and those people want to see my name on a Black Label board more than on an enjoi board.

I was depressed for like two weeks when I quit enjoi. Not only do I love those guys, but I was part of a serious group of talent and it was really amazing. Matt really bent over backwards and watched out for us, which you wouldn’t get at a lot of other companies.

Do you sell more or less boards when you do an old school-type shape?
To be honest, in this day and age, no one’s selling boards unless you’re Ryan Sheckler. I’ve always ridden shaped boards. Everyone makes shaped boards now but with Black Label, when we came out with the “Punk Point” board, no one was doing boards like that. I actually rode it and to this day it sells really well considering the state of the board market. But for me it’s more important to put something out there that means something. Not mass-produced fucking shit. If it didn’t sell a ton I’d still want to do it cause there are those few people out there that it reaches.

That used to be the theory behind a personalized graphic, which, unfortunately, barely exists anymore…
I’m kind of stuck in skateboarding when I was a kid. I’m super influenced by that and I miss it sometimes.

What’s Combat Rock all about?
It’s this brand I’m doing. I walked into a skate shop one day and everything’s the same. Everyone’s saying everything’s limited edition and all this shit, but there’s so much of it.

I’m going to make wheels for myself just ‘cause I’ve always wanted to do unique wheels—how they used to back in the day when there was a pro wheel with a shape and multiple sizes and colors. But it’s not a wheel company. It’s all going to be driven from hand-painted stuff. Shirts, wheels, boards. I want to always get collaborations going with people—stuff they might have wanted to do but haven’t been able to with their sponsors that won’t conflict with their sponsors.

What was with your nose? You regret fixing it?
When I was five I fell off my bike and exploded my whole face. I went to the doctors and they didn’t even consider me breaking my nose because it’s mostly still cartilage when you’re that young. When I was in high school and I started to grow, one day Jovante Turner was like “Your nose is crooked.” He would always give me shit. I’m like “Dude you’re fucking tripping.”

The older I got the crookeder it got. Then I was 19 I broke it again. Finally it came to a point where it was starting to bother me and I noticed when I was skating I’d get lightheaded. Jamming around the park and I’d be seeing stars because I wasn’t breathing right. So I went and got it looked at and they’re like “We have to break your nose, straighten it, and that’ll make you breathe better.”

I was never self-conscious about my crooked nose, but I was after I got my surgery. I was worried that people thought I got a nose job, which I basically did. I kind of miss my old nose. It was such a part of me.

I heard you have really good meltdowns when you’re filming.
I don’t have them as much anymore. I’d get frustrated because I’m such a fucking vagina. It just gets to the point where I’m fucking mad at myself for being such a pussy and I talk shit to myself. “You’re a fucking fag. You’re a fucking pussy.” Luckily I’m not one of the people that kills the vibe. Everyone’s just kinda laughing at me.

The first thing two different people said to me about you was, “Tell him Stencils aren’t art.” Why are people hating on stencils?
‘Cause it doesn’t fall into that typical painting/sculpture/photography genre. I don’t’ really care. I’m not claiming to be some intellectual artist. I just got into doing this shit and all of a sudden people want to see it. There’s always those haters, just like when I came up skating years ago.

It seems like in the last few years your art’s been getting just as much coverage as your skating…
I think it’s a good thing because as many people hate it, there are just as many who like it. It helps everything I do. It makes that board that I did the graphics for that much cooler for a certain person and it allows me to keep everything going. I really like doing this stuff and these people are into it. What am I supposed say, “No,” because there are people that hate on it?

I’m just trying to find that little niche. It was the same thing with skating. When I started out I was never the most talented but I loved it. So I tried to make it happen. When I look back, me thinking “I’m not good enough” really held me back for a lot of years. So I’m trying to let that go and heading into this full bore. I don’t know what’s going to happen, I’m just into it like I am with skating.

If you had to pick one to do for an hour right now, would you skate or paint?
I’d go skating cause I’ve been painting shirts already and my brain’s fried. Jai is here. He’s outside. I don’t know what he’s doing but right now if I had an hour I’d be like “Come on Jai let’s skate and go get a beer.”