He’s known for his next-level ledge moves, but there’s a lot more to JP than just those tech skills. He’s always joking around, betting on every try, and just bringing good energy to every session. I love seeing people get the recognition they deserve, and this past week has been just that for JP. We touch on his pro surprise, new part, being offered $600 for an ollie, his wild bag of tricks and much more!
🌀: This past week seems to have been a memorable one for you, you were surprised with 2 pro boards, and dropped a Thrasher part, how are you feeling?
Dude, feeling crazy, feeling nice man. It was a trip, you know? Got the board surprise, I knew it was coming but I didn’t know when. It was a crazy feeling, it was how I always dreamed it would be, with all of my friends there. I had a BBQ at my house after and I couldn’t eat. I was just drinking, but drinking was hard too because I would get this weird feeling, like this thing I worked for for like 20 years or something finally happened. The part I’m most hyped about is that my friends and family were even more happy than me. That was the best feeling, everyone being proud and like “He got it, he made it”.
🌀: Let’s get into this pro surprise, it was at the Willmington Ledge, a spot you seem to love, what did you think the plan was that day?
Tyrone, he’s the brand manager at NB#, he hit me up to do a wear test of this shoe that he knows I love and asked if I had someone to come film. I was like “Oh yeah for sure, my friend Shane can do it”, Shane is the guy I filmed this part with, he’s been my friend for a long time. So I was like “Ok, let’s go to Willmington”, we go there, the ledge was knobbed, so we were just going to skate flat to show the shoe. Shane came to film and he said “Yo, Joey (Brezinski) is going to come film a second angle”. Joey is a pro for Visual, but he also likes to film, so I was like “Cool, sounds good”. Carlos (Ribeiro) pulled up too. I was playing a game of skate with Carlos, and he lost and broke my board. I had no more boards with me, only old boards in my car, so I got pissed off and went to grab his board and broke it too. I went to my car, picked up an old board, and as I was setting it up, that fool (Carlos) pushed me and broke it. I was so pissed, like “This fools a dick, he’s trying to be funny right now in front of you guys, he thinks he’s the shit”. I was like (to Carlos) “Now you’re going to go to the car, get a board for me, and set it up for me”. He picked up another old board from the car for me, as I’m setting it up he pushes me again, as soon as he pushed me I was thinking “Dude, there’s something wrong, what the fuck is this dude gonna do?!”. He broke the 3rd board and I saw Steve, the Visual owner, with some boards in his hands, and he looked at me weird. He said “Hey, I heard this guy was being a dick and breaking your boards, so I thought you’d need some more” and right there, boom, my pro board.
🌀: Hahahah, that’s a really sick story, so funny.
Yeah, I had no reaction, I was in shock. Then I just heard people screaming, I looked behind me and all my friends, homies, my girl, my family all came down right there. It was crazy, I couldn’t stop saying “Oh shit, oh shit”.
🌀: Did you have any suspicions of the surprise happening, or just going pro in general since you were dropping this part?
I didn’t know when the part was gonna drop, they said soon but I didn’t know the date. I thought maybe they’d give me a board after the part, but I didn’t know it would happen before my part dropped.
🌀: Yeah, they got you at a good time.
Only when Carlos broke my 3rd board I was like “Dude, there’s something wrong with this shit”. I’ve been thinking about this day like “Oh shit man, soon I’m going to go pro and have my board, I can’t believe it” but like, not for sure, I didn’t know when or anything. The day that it happened, I had no clue, especially because of the NB# wear test. That really got me like, I had no idea.
🌀: Have you set up one of your pro boards yet?
Yeah, I did like 3 days after I turned pro. I set it up, went and skated the school by my house with Chad TimTim and a couple friends. I was scared to do the first kickflip.
🌀: Did you land it?
I landed it man, first kickflip and straight 8 after that.
🌀: Oh there you go, that solidified your pro status
Yeah, Christmas complete too.
🌀: What’s the story with each of your pro board graphics?
We had talked about it a couple months ago, Steve said he wanted to do a postcard style board, with the Brazilian look, the beach right there, the palm tree, and a stamp. The other one, he had asked me if I had anything in mind, I mentioned this tequila bottle that looks like my name. The tequila is called “Sauza”, people back in the day would send me screenshots and put an “O” over the “A” and say “One day you got to have a board with this graphic”. It’s a Mexican tequila, but it looks like my name, so he ended up doing that.
🌀: That’s cool that there’s a story behind it, have you drank that tequila?
Yeah, I’ve drank that tequila in the past, and then I got a bottle the day I turned pro, i took a couple shots (laughs)
🌀: That’s pretty fitting to drink it the day you got your pro board graphic inspired by it.
Yeah, it’s also because people know I like to drink. Drink some beers, drink some mixed drinks, I like to enjoy it. So it makes sense to have a bottle on the graphic. Everyone in Brazil was like “Yo man that looks like you for sure, that’s you right there”.
🌀: Yeah, that’s sick because the graphic is personal, it has meaning to you and your friends.
Yeah, yeah.
🌀: You constantly do ledge tricks I’ve never seen, or even thought of, how do you come up with these combos?
My mind is always thinking of new tricks. Guy Mariano is a big inspiration, because he invents tricks. It makes me want to invent tricks. But it’s also like, you can do a trick no one has done and it can be nasty, so I try to think of NBD’s, but I want them to look nice.
🌀: For trying such tech tricks, I feel like you’re always having fun on the session and joking around, is this something you make an effort to do, or you’ve always been that way?
That’s just how I am, always talking shit, making bets. Even if I’m BBQing with the homies, I’m talking shit and making bets, just having fun and laughing, that’s just what I like to do.
🌀: Speaking of bets, you are always betting on tricks, what’s the craziest bet you’ve been a part of on a session?
Yeah, one time I was on a NB# trip to SF, we were up at Clipper. Everyone wanted me to ollie the stairs, Chad TimTim, Tom K, Jordan Taylor, Jack Curtin and Pedro all put down $100, next thing I know, it’s $600 for me to ollie the stairs at Clipper. I was like “Oh my God bro, no way”, I went up to the top sweating, I couldn’t do it. I was thinking the worst shit, like “I’m not going to ollie this shit, I’m going to hurt myself, it’s not worth the $600”, so I ended up not doing it, lost $600 on one ollie bro.
🌀: So you didn’t do it?!
Didn’t do it, I didn’t even try it. I was like “I don’t want to do this shit. I don’t have a good feeling about it” and everybody was like “Oh my God, no way dude, that’s crazy”. I’d probably do it right now though, because I’ve been building up my confidence, skating a lot of skateparks, and whenever I’m in the streets I try to do an ollie down a gap, even if I’m not going to do a real trick, I just do an ollie instead of sitting down. If I go to a rail that I can only boardslide, I boardslide it. That helps, so when I want to skate a smaller rail I have more confidence.
🌀: We skated together last weekend, and you 50-50d your first street handrail, and then your ender to this new part was a Nollie Heel Front Krook down a handrail, how on earth does that make sense?
Putting both trucks on a rail scares me, if I’m flipping in I can just put my foot on the board, start tapping it on the rail, start grinding it, maybe grinding it one footed (laughs), it’s a process to do it.
🌀: I know what you mean, but that’s crazy haha. Do you have any specific routine before you try an intimidating trick like that?
Yeah man, every time before I go to a rail, I have to take a shit before I skate, I get a coffee, and then I’m good to go. But I always trip a little bit when I go skate a rail. That nollie heel front krook took 2 trips, I got kicked out, had to leave, and had to come back a little bit later, that’s when I did it. I knew that rail was going to be knobbed, they knobbed it the next day.
🌀: No way, the day after you did it it got knobbed?
Yeah, the next day they knobbed it.
🌀: What! You got it just in time.
Yeah, it was such a relief when I got that trick, I knew it was going to be my last trick. I wanted to have a rail for my last trick because it had been a while since I’ve had that.
🌀: Yeah, it was a nice surprise to have a rail trick for an ender.
For sure, yeah.
🌀: You’ve been a footage machine this past year, now that this pro part is out, what’s next for you? Anything else you want to work on, or just keep knocking out video parts?
Actually dude, I want to film a lot with NB#. I haven’t had a full part with them yet, so that’s my goal. No pressure, just take it slow, and learn new tricks to film, I want to try and have more rails in my next part. I have stuff out of the country that I want to film, so I want to travel, and build this next part right. This Visual part was only LA because of Coronavirus.
🌀: I’m stoked for you JP, it’s amazing to see your name on a board. Thanks again for taking the time to do this!
Thanks bro, I appreciate you hitting me up!
🌀: Of course!
It’s always fun to skate, and do these things. I’m always down to stuff.
🌀: It really is, I’ll hit you up soon, we’ll skate.
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