REAL Skateboards’ latest release Three Seasons premiered a few weeks ago here in LA, but in a unique fashion. With a projector, ziplock bags of popcorn, red vines, and even custom red cups as a souvenir, Griffith Parl was packed with skaters excited to see what Gage, Patrick, Tanner, and the whole REAL crew had been working on. Tim Fulton and Christian Alexander said a few words, pressed play, and it did not disappoint. There’s something so special about video premieres, they always give me a rush that I don’t seem to get any other time. The sounds of skateboarding are beautiful, and speakers turned to max volume at a video premiere is all you need to hear in order to attest to that.

I’ve patiently waited for Jan 23rd, as I knew that would be the next time I could watch this video. Well, it finally came. As I rewatched the video I was reminded of how many amazing tricks there were that needed to be looped, and my mind wandered, thinking about what went into some of these clips. I was able to call up one of the stars of the show and hear a bit about the process of this video, his personal favorite clips, and much more –

🌀: What’s up Pat!

What up! I’m just in my robot legs right now.

🌀: Ah it’s recovery time. Did you get out today?

I’ve been going out with T-Huff trying to film this video for Thrasher, just iPhone clips. Over the weekend I went out and tried to get a clip but I didn’t get it, I just got smoked, so I’ve been skating on smoked legs.

🌀: Hopefully the robot legs will get you back in action.

It only does so much, but it helps for sure.

🌀: Yeah, definitely. I wanted to get an inside scoop on Three Seasons; how do you feel about today’s release?

We’ve been working on this thing for so long, it’s been such a process, so I’m stoked it’s done. I feel like I’m getting a lot of really good feedback and regardless of that, everyone’s really stoked and proud of their part. I’m just proud to be in it, I have no complaints. I’m just super stoked that it’s done and that we’re all happy with it. That’s the best feeling. 

🌀: Sick! Have you been nervously counting down the days until Jan. 23rd? 

I’ve been nervous, but I’ve also been really excited. The video has been pushed back a bunch of times, with SOTY season and different plans for people’s projects that didn’t line up. We never really had a consistent date until the end of last year, once we had this date I was just hoping it wouldn’t get pushed back. It was a relief when they followed through with it.

🌀: Yeah, seems like it worked out well to kick off the year with this video. I know you made it out to the Griffith Park premiere and the Simi Valley premiere, how did those compare?

The one at Griffith was sick! It was a lot of people’s first time seeing the video, it was in the park, and had a cool turnout. It was just different than a typical premiere. The one in Simi was Gage’s night, you know? Simi’s finest putting on for his hometown, it was sick. Everyone that came out showed a lot of love for him and for the video.

🌀: That’s dope, hometown hero kind of night for him. Let’s get into your part. Is there one trick in there that stands out to you and you’re hyped on?

I think everyone would think the Front Shuv grind (down Hollywood 16…) but the trick in that part that’s the most special to me is the Nollie Back Overcrook. I originally tried it two years ago, we were on a trip to Miami and went up to Atlanta, working on my first REAL part. It smoked me, it was the only spot I got to skate in Atlanta, it took me out for the rest of the trip. I battled that thing in the cold winter for an hour and I stuck like two. On one of them, I got pitched straight to my back and it fucked me up for a while. Then I went back two years later, on another REAL trip. I tried it on the first day and got smoked, so that was another trip to Atlanta where I couldn’t skate. I swear I broke my foot on that thing dude. I couldn’t even walk on it, it was purple and all bruised up. We went back on the last day of the trip and the cops kicked me out. I’m not really one to get emotional on a session, but I was so bummed. I had to walk off and cool down a little bit. 

🌀: Wow this thing really made you work for it.

We ended the night with all of the REAL dudes and they were leaving the next day to go to Tampa. Bailey was leaving the next day to come back to California and he had shot the photo. I was like “Dude, I’m not leaving here until I get this trick. I’m not.” So I asked my friend Christian who lives in Atlanta what he was doing that weekend, and he said I could stay with him. What’s crazy is that there was a filmer who was linking up with us every day, his name is Max Yoder, and he filmed all of the Emerica dudes skate that rail for Stay Gold. I always loved his filming so I asked him what he was doing that weekend, and he was free. The rail is at a gymnasium and it was closing that Friday, so I went to the chiropractor the next day with Christian, they worked me out and put me in the leg machine. Then I went back to the rail the next day, Friday, and we got it. I definitely blacked out. It’s crazy because the one I got looks pretty chill, but that thing was fucking me up. It was insane. In the clip you see me look back at the camera all surprised because that thing was such a battle; mentally and physically. Then I flew to Tampa and all the boys were fired up. I don’t think I’ve ever stressed out about a trick that much in my life, and we got it for this project. That’s definitely the most special clip in that part for sure. 

🌀: As you were telling that story I remembered that I was in Tampa when you showed up, you were telling us about the battle you went through for a trick in Atlanta!

Dude, exactly! Bro, I was so fired up. The boys had just gotten to Tampa when I landed it, they facetimed me while they were at dinner. Jack and Tim were like “Yeah!!!” and when I got to Tampa it was so lit, everyone was so stoked. That was a good end of the trip, just partying with everyone, sore as fuck. It was cool dude, that was a fun one. 

🌀: Stoked you got that one! Let’s switch gears to Gage and Tanner. If you could steal one trick/clip from each of them, what would it be?

If I could steal a trick from Tanner it would definitely be his Back 180 50-50. I’ve always tried to learn that one and I can never get comfortable with it, especially on a rail. That, or any Wallie to Blunt on a hubba that he can do, it’s not hard for him at all, it’s so easy. I’d love to have it like that. Gage got a mean flick, he can flick out of any trick. The Tailslides, he has it so dialed. 

🌀: Those are great picks. I was tripping on that Back 180 50 Tanner did down that rail, no one does that. 

No one, especially on a round rail. He goes heel side, to be that precise to throw it to both heels is insane!

🌀: Yeah, that’s wild.

I was there for that one too, he didn’t get smoked at all. He did it pretty casually.

🌀: That’s so crazy. I wanna know how he got so good at doing Wallie’s into tricks, I gotta ask him.

I’d love to hear his answer. He’s such a special human, he thinks so differently. He just understands it, it’s really easy for him. He just understands skateboarding.

🌀: You can see that in his skating. Let’s switch back to your part; I was really stoked on the song, how did that come about?

Just like my first REAL part, I had a friend put me onto the song. Greyson Beal was listening to music while he was working one day and found that song. He showed it to me and was like “I think someone on REAL could skate to this song, I think you could skate to this song.” He thought it was on some Chima aesthetic, where it’s slower but matches someone who jumps. It was around the time we were wrapping up the video and send song ideas in. I remember sending the song to 8 of my friends before I sent it to Tim Fulton, just to get different perspectives. Across the board everyone was like “Yeah, send it in, this is a really good one.” I remember sending it to Tim, then he sent it to Jim and Christian and I think they both liked it. We somehow got the rights to it and it worked out, luckily.

🌀: First try! Was there any hassle with getting the rights to it? I feel like that’s a common issue…

Surprisingly, this one was pretty fast. I think Tanner had a few songs that didn’t work out and he had to switch it around, but this one worked first try. Once that happened, I was committed to it. This one definitely grew on me, when I first heard it I was like “It’s kinda slow, but can I skate to it? Does it work?” Now looking at it, in the bigger picture, I think my song breaks up the video pretty well. I think it does match my skating, so I’m stoked it worked out.

🌀: Yeah, that’s amazing how smooth the whole process was. I know you spent some time in Europe while working on this, any stand-out memory from your travels?

I think I traveled the most for this video out of any video project I’ve filmed for. Going to places I’ve always wanted to skate, especially Barcelona and Copenhagen, and being able to put that towards this project was insane. Going on trips with Ant Claravall and then going on trips with Andres in Copenhagen, bringing him to Barcelona to film with me, it was my first experience filming overseas. It’s cool to see it all together and done in a project. 

🌀: I feel like your part’s really well-rounded; there’s rails, jumping, ledge lines, and even that rock spot line. Do you think traveling helped with that?

Different countries will make you skate certain things. For this project I was really trying to keep the heavy rail stuff, but also what else do I like to skate? This part was finding that other stuff; manny’s, ledges, jumping, kind of getting out of my comfort zone. That’s also really scary to put out because it’s not something I’m used to doing. I was like “How will this compare to my rail stuff? Will it mesh well together? Does it make sense?” It ended up getting good feedback which is awesome. 

🌀: For sure, people seem stoked!

Just trying to skate other shit than big handrails. Just other stuff that I’m stoked on, not just because I don’t want to skate rails.

🌀: Yeah definitely, it’s good to diversify. There’s a couple tricks I want to hear about; let’s start with the Stanford Hubba. I know it was knobbed for a bit, did you guys take the knobs off?

Yeah, so I read the interview you did with Alan and Eric and they mention me and Jamie in there. We unknobbed it.

🌀: Oh yeah, that’s right!

There’s a story behind this one. I went up there about a year ago with my girlfriend, on a weekend trip to SF. I asked her if she was down to go check out the hubba with me, and she was so ecstatic to go. I have photos of us looking at the hubba, but it was knobbed at the time. I knew I wanted to come back and skate it. Nollie Heel Noseslide wasn’t the original trick I had in mind, I had a different trick I wanted to try on that thing. There was the P-Stone invitational contest, so Tim said I could go up there with him. I wasn’t going to skate the bowl contest, I just wanted to skate the hubba. Everyone was skating the bowl and Me, Tim and Foy left and went to Stanford. We walked over there at night on some sketchy shit and unknobbed it. It took like 5 minutes, it was insane. 

🌀: Wow, so quick!

I remember sending texting Tom K photos and asking him “How do I unknob this?” and he literally sent me an animation of how to get the knobs off “Hit it this way with a rubber mallet or with a hammer.” It was so sick. Shouts out to Tom for that!

🌀: He’s the king of unknobbing.

Dude, exactly, so I hit him up immediately! Foy and I were on lookout while Tim was going at it. The rubber mallet wasn’t really working and then he started hammering it with the actual hammer and the knob just flew off. It’s crazy to think that things been knobbed for years and it took 5 minutes to get them off. We went there the day after the contest and Foy sealed the cracks with Steel Stick, we skated it, and got our tricks.

🌀: That’s such a sick story!

I tried two tricks on that thing before Nollie Heel Noseslide. It’s super crunchy for grinds, it’s just a sharp corner with jagged edges. But, slide tricks are so buttery. 

🌀: Sounds like this spot made you work too!

I don’t think I’ll ever go back for this one, but I tried Nollie Back Noseblunt for like an hour, it didn’t work. 

🌀: That was my guess!

That was your guess? Then I tried Nollie Heel Crook for another hour, but it was really grabby. My legs were kinda giving out when I decided to do Nollie Heel Noseslide. Dude, that curb. If you don’t land perfectly it will take you out, I was getting smoked by that thing. Then one just worked. It took a while, I think I skated that thing for 3 hours in total.

🌀: Well it turned out really sick! From the bottom angle, it looks so crazy. You’re in Noseslide without your back foot being on the board for a second. 

The second that trick hits your front foot, your back foot doesn’t even do anything. All of  your weight is on the front foot and it just lands right on the ledge.

🌀: I like that one. Let’s talk about your Nollie Flip Crook down the blue hubba in Miami. If I remember correctly, didn’t Ish try this before? I remember him posting a story a while back saying how he was glad he doesn’t have to go back and try it again.

So he was in Miami a while back and tried Nollie Flip Crook, he didn’t do it but he did Nollie Flip Noseslide. I was about to leave to go back to Florida and I remember him telling me “Bro I tried it, I’m not going back for it. Fuck that thing, I’m over it. You can have it, go do that shit!” What’s crazy is Nollie Flip Crook wasn’t even what I wanted to try at first, it was on the back burner. Can you guess what trick I tried on that hubba and it didn’t work?

🌀: Hmm this one’s harder. I’m honestly not sure.

Dude I tried Nollie Back Noseblunt on that thing!

🌀: Really? The same trick! I wouldn’t have guessed that because that hubba seems tall and mellow, not steep at all.

It’s tall and dinky, it’s not long. You really have to crank the Nollie up and it’s short. I would get into it but I couldn’t whip it back out. I was on a trip with REAL there, tried that, and couldn’t do it. REAL left and I stayed behind with Tyler and we went back. I tried that trick one more time and it didn’t work, so I decided to see if I could get a Nollie Flip up there. An hour or so later it worked. I did it with a broken board too, which is crazy.

🌀: No way! Cracked down the middle?

Cracked down the middle.

🌀: Crazy. Did you facetime Ish when you got it?!

No, I told him when I got back to LA though, and he was stoked. He was like “Fuck that thing bro, I’m stoked you did it!”

🌀: Haha that’s amazing. Alright, there’s one more that I need to hear about. If you Front Shuv Back 50 Hollywood, we should probably talk about it. What was the process like for that one?

I went and looked at it a few times, and then was doing a bunch of Front Shuv grinds that week. You can’t skate it during the middle of a hot day, because there’s a new layer on the run-up and the ground gets mushy, you don’t want to pop off that ground onto a 16 rail. So we got there around 9:30 am and I knew there was only a window of time until it got too hot and I couldn’t skate it. I started skating it around 10-10:30 am and skated it for about an hour. I was pretty nervous, but my friends had a lot of confidence in me, they were like “You’ll do it first try!” I was like “You think so? I don’t know dude, this thing is fucking gnarly.” It was exactly what I thought it was going to be like, I skated that thing for so long. I was thinking “if there’s any time for me to get hurt, it’s right now because this thing is really scary and it’s causing me a lot of pain.” There were some tries where I would either overshoot it or undershoot it and if I’d miss the rail I would jump to flat and land on my hip or back. There was a window where I wasn’t even getting into it anymore, each try was so painful. I remember being up there and I was like “I need to try something different because this is not working.” I switched my board around, so I was popping with my nose instead of my tail. It was around 11:30 am and the ground was getting mushy. It wasn’t letting my tail pop that well, but since my nose is a little higher I had a little more leverage to get the Front Shuv up. I was already eating shit so it didn’t matter. Three tries after switching my board around, I landed it.

🌀: That’s so crazy. Do you ever do that trick with a backward board?

I’ve never done it off my nose, that was the only time, and it worked. 

🌀: Wow! How did it compare to doing that trick down the Muirlands 14 rail?

So so different. After Hollywood I couldn’t skate for like a week or two.

🌀: Geez!

Yeah. Muirlands is so mellow, I like doing that trick on rails where you can go really fast and play with it, I can jump to flat or jump on the rail then to flat. Something like Hollywood that’s really steep, long and a tall stair set is kinda the worst. If you miss the lock-in, you just drop to the flat on a 16. It’s really long too, so depending on how you get in you have to just trust it. The whole time I was like “If I get in toes, I’m going to take that shit, I don’t give a fuck.” The one that I landed was the first one that I cross-locked.

🌀: You put some work in for that one, that’s amazing. I love that you switched your board around and did anything in your power to get it. 

That trick is a coin toss. I’ve been doing it for so long, but you never know how you’ll lock in. I remember I was like “I need to stop and come back to this thing. I can’t do this anymore.” But a bunch of the homies were there; Bailey was shooting it, Tim was filming it, Andres was filming the bottom angle, I was like “Everyone’s here. I need to do this.” We did it!

🌀: Yep, that’s a heavy one to have on your resume.

I’ve been thinking about that one for so long. In the Pocket video you can see we went to Hollywood to look at it, I’m up there with Tim just talking about the Front Shuv grind. It’s funny to see it come full circle.

🌀: That’s so sick! Now that this is out, are you already working on another project?

I’m talking to the DLX dudes about working on another REAL part. We’ve already been going at it and filming a few things for it. I want it to be all HPX, all Xtreme, keep it one camera. I want to skate some cuttier spots in LA, while also skating the same shit I normally skate; rails and jumping. Branch out a little. 

🌀: Yeah, that’s a good thing to do. You have the bag of tricks for it!

There are still a lot of tricks I didn’t film for the last one, a lot of tricks and spots that I didn’t get to, so I’m excited. I feel good, I feel healthy, I want to travel more. I know the video just came out, but we’ve been done with it for a month or two, so I’m looking forward to starting the next project. 

🌀: That’s the best way to do it! Congrats again on this part and I’ll be looking forward to the next. 

Thank you!