{"id":1636,"date":"2013-11-01T10:21:08","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T17:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skateandannoy.com\/features\/?p=1636"},"modified":"2026-03-03T16:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T00:17:12","slug":"simon-woodstock-booze-boxing-boards-and-bozo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skateandannoy.com\/features\/simon-woodstock-booze-boxing-boards-and-bozo\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon Woodstock – Booze, Boxing, Boards and Bozo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"simon-woodstock\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here on S&A, Simon Woodstock talks about boxing, a burning circus, his mad clown graphics from the 90s, shoes, booze and much more! Don\u2019t know Simon? Read here<\/a>, here<\/a> and check his website<\/a> for his current activities as well as archived magazine interviews from the past. When you’re ready, you may enter the circus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Why is the \u2018Circus\u2019 deck (like all Sonic and Woodstock decks) so hard to find? Do you still own some of your old boards?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not exactly sure why not many of them appear anywhere. The Circus deck was the best selling board that I ever had. But, aside from some exceptions, board sales numbers from the early\/mid nineties weren\u2019t that high in general in the industry, so I think only a few thousand were put into circulation. When that specific board pops up on eBay I think it goes for $500 or more. I actually don\u2019t own any of my old decks. I am not a very nostalgic person nor am I much of a collector of stuff. I gave a bunch of boards to Sean Cliver in the early 2000s and sold the rest to a collector a couple of years ago to help pay for a missions trip that I went on to Ethiopia. I went there in March of 2012 on a Christian skateboarding missions trip to help some of the impoverished youth who live in the ghettos near the capital of Addis Ababa. It was definitely a life-changing experience.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"(\u2018Circus\u2019<\/a>
(\u2018Circus\u2019 deck from 1995, as seen in Disposable<\/a> by Sean Cliver.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Who came up with this idea of the graphic? Why did you work with Kevin Marburg? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought of the graphic idea and Marburg and Mike Prosenko got it going. They were the artists who worked in the Sonic Skateboards graphics department at the time. Marburg was actually a part owner of Sonic (Along with Gavin and Corey O\u2019Brien and Mike Briganti).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of your designs were evil clowns, but the clown on the \u2018Circus\u2019 deck was sad, was this a specific time in your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think it was more of an abstract concept than what was really going on with me at the time (at least in any extreme sense). I thought it was funny with the circus tent burning down and the animals running away. I was just imagining everything falling apart at once in a \u2018burn out\u2019 rather than \u2018fade away\u2019 fashion. It turned out to be a bit prophetic, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In \u2018Disposable\u2019 you said the \u2018Circus\u2019 deck was a perfect reflection of your career, namely you being a sad, drunken clown that wanted to die after burning all your bridges with the sponsors.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ha! It just seemed like that at times. There were a good amount of haters after I was saturated in the media for a couple of years, but that\u2019s par for the course for most any skater who gets out there in the public, especially if you do a lot of conceptual skating. I guess I did get depressed after a while in the scene, but looking back now I have a very positive and thankful attitude towards my career. I did do a fair amount of binge drinking and so forth and I did fall into the hot seat with my sponsors around late 1998 for \u201cinactivity\u201d as I was pretty burned out from the touring and filming etc. It all ended abruptly in 1999 as the circus did finally burn down and all the participants fled the scene. Pretty good\/fun run though from around 1992 until then, nevertheless.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"(Simon<\/a>
(Simon Woodstock T-shirt from eBay)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Is the shirt from later? You said you totally forgot about it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, I had forgotten all about that shirt until you posted it. The shirt came a couple of years after the deck. It was a Big Brother shirt designed by either Cliver or Marc McKee. I think it was right after I scored the lucrative shoe deal with Vans and I was like \u201cokay, the Circus is re-vamped and high rolling now\u201d but I kind of squandered away the Vans cash and partied a bit harder and wound up burning it all down again. I don\u2019t drink anymore, though. Over 16 years sober now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did the clown sell his circus or is he just breaking it down after the show?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think the workers are rebuilding the Circus tent in the shirt graphic, that was the idea if I remember correctly. Big Brother would just do random shirt designs from time to time. There was one of me and Jeff Tremaine that commemorated the infamous Big Brother Mardi Gras tour of 1995. Actually, come to think about it, that short tour represented everything you see in the Circus board pretty concisely in about a one week time span. I\u2019m not sure how I survived some of those old days. I think Someone was looking out for me, even way back then\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clown VS. Clown<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Snowboarding also had it\u2019s famous clown during the 90s. Shaun Palmer<\/a> is a legend of extreme sports like skiing, motorcrossing, mountainbiking and founder of Palmer Snowboards in 1995. He liked illustrations of clowns in his snowboard graphics (especially on the Sims boards of the early 90s) and even cut his hair all Bozo-style and so forth. So Simon tought it would be a good idea to challenge him for a fight in the ring: snowboarder vs. skateboarder, clown vs. clown. I like that!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"(Sims<\/a>
(Sims Shaun Palmer snowboards and balloon-shaped stickers with clown designs as seen on eBay, picture of Palmer in the lower right corner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

How did you approach Shaun Palmer for the fight?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I personally called Shaun on the phone and just straight challenged him to the match. When he agreed to the fight, I had a feeling it would be a big event, it just turned out a lot differently than originally planned.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"simon-woodstock-poster\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

To last 3 rounds in a boxing ring is pretty hard (I know, I used to box for a while). How did you prepare for that fight?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the fight with Shaun Palmer (the original opponent) was set, I was like \u2018Oh man, now I need to learn how to box\u2019. My friend Freedom Silvera told me about the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, CA where Javier Mendez graciously let me study boxing with one of his pro trainers, Arturo \u201cWitzi\u201d Mata, for 5 months. Pretty grueling, but an amazing experience.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"simon-woodstock-ticket\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Were you into boxing or was it just a one-time thing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the first time I boxed, but I wound up having 3 other organized fights. My record is 3-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, you didn\u2019t fight Shaun, but Mike Muir from Suicidal Tendencies. Did Shaun Palmer hurt his hand right before the boxing match or did he get scared?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m the kind of guy that likes to give people the benefit of the doubt, so I have to take Palmer at his word on that. But, it is interesting that neither he nor his crew made any effort to reschedule the fight later on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon won this unsanctioned\/amateur boxing match on points after 3 rounds of 2 minutes by unanimous decision.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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