K: When’s the last time you skated a parking garage?
Swank: Haven’t bombed a parking garage in a long while. Downtown San Diego was the best in the eighties. It was all business down there so the weekends it was dead. You could session all over with out getting hassled. We used to bomb the concourse all night long. Alan Losi shocked me with one of those taser things at the top of the concourse. Real funny Alan.
N: Do you still skate much? If so, what is your setup right now?
Swank: Not as much as I would like. We have this gnar, gnar little ramp at skateboard.com that takes the piss out of me. I have a quiver. I am trying to try and have a deck with a difference in the nose and tail and mellow concave. Of course I have a “go-getter.”(secret weapon).
N: Do you still take skate photos? Film or digital camera?
Swank: Not often. I have had my fill. I went on tour with Rocket from the Crypt last summer and filmed and shot photos the whole time. That was fun. Digital all the way. Canon G-1 and Olympus E-10. I am looking for the Olympus E-100 RS on ebay.
K: Who was your favorite skater to shoot or watch back in the day, and today as well?
Swank: Back in the day. There were so many. Craig Johnson, Jeff Phillips, Chris Miller, Lee Ralph, it just goes on and on. Today again too many.
K: Your videos have a rep for being kid of arty, which I can’t vouch for since I’ve never seen them (hint, hint… [ a hint he has ignored!] ). Is that a natural extension of your photography and zine-making? When was the last issue (and number) of Swank Zine? Have you considered taking it out of the mothballs?
Swank: Huh? What? Fuck if I can remember the details there. I own swankzine.com!! Just wait.
K: What’s your favorite and least favorite thing about the skate mags today?
Swank: Favorite – I don’t think I have any. Least favorite – they come out too often and they are too thick. It’s a burn out. I do like that there is constant change with riders and tricks and shit. It just keeps mixing up all the time. That’s the great thing about skateboarding.
K: Do you consider yourself an outsider in the industry?
Swank: Why because I am anti social and hate big events? Or is it because I don’t have a college education. Hey I have a fresh jive Mike York action figure! It’s all good.
N: If you had polled skater 15 years ago on who would be the most powerful figures in skating in the year 2000, I don’t think Steve Rocco or Tod Swank would have come up. You were always a fringe kind of guy. How did it happen for you, and what made you so successful when so many other well-known skaters tried and failed?
Swank: I don’t think so either. I think if you asked today I definitely wouldn’t come up. I am pretty low key. Fear was probably a big factor in making happen and maybe luck. Yes luck was in there. I feel lucky everyday. Lucky to be alive. Lucky that I am not just a non-thinking amoeba. People take so much for granted. It’s not over yet, failure could be lurking right around the corner waiting to whack me across the back of the head. It’s good though. I have learned so much.
K: Have you ever arm wrestled with Rocco? If not, what about playing footsies?
Swank: Just golf and some gambling.
K: Back in ’96 or so when I registered the SkateAndAnnoy.com domain, I tried to register skateboarding.com and skateboard.com too. I think you had one of those and were using it for Tum Yeto or something. I read in Transworld Skateboarding Business that you sold it to someone (Transworld). You’re a pretty forward thinking guy, did you anticipate selling the domain and the explosion of the web? I remember the first time I saw the site it was pretty unorganized and scattered. Did you handle the code? What about your web presence now?
Swank: Technology overall is exciting and fun. The web is a killer medium. I always dreaded going shopping because it is impossible even today to find stuff. When we first took a jab at it, it was premature. We did this trade show and had all these computers and had our products and companies cataloged on there and we were trying to get other people into it. People didn’t know what it was. Shit I didn’t know just a few months before. I did sell the domain to a new company that I have a hand in. VP of Industry Relations is my title and I am still very involved. It’s a problem solving company, an educational company and a place for skateboarders to come together. I come from the manufacturing side of skateboarding and we are working on the problems that exist out there. I hate looking into my warehouse and we have all these products and kids want them but they can’t get them because there are too many. All the manu’s have this same problem. I could go on and on. I just want kids to be able to get what they want plus it’s just fun. I have all these domains and ideas for crappy little sites like IgotSwanked.com.
0 comments.