Lodge PRO, Adam Taylor

Name: Adam Taylor

Current: Job / school: Sales and TM at 187 Killer Pads

Where are you from? Cocoa Beach, Florida-USA

Where do you currently live? Carlsbad, CA

What nationaly do you feel the most? American

Family status: A girlfriend with 1 cat and 1 dog

Age: 27

Sponsors: 187 Killer Pads

Years of skateboarding: 18 years

Board size: 8.125

Wheel size: 60mm

Trucks: Tracker 149s

I change set up every: I put together a board probably once every 3 months. I ride them until their flexed out

Current Board trend: just a typical popsicle shape. I like my nose and tail the same so easier to go from switch or fake with same pop

Please state your type of terrain on your board in hours, days and years or other

Street: Not much maybe, maybe 1 hour a month haha

(Skatepark) Flow Street I do ride flow BOWL courses more than street, 10 hours a month

Miniramp: Don’t ride much strictly a mini – ramp per say so pretty much never

Long board: never. boringgggg

Vert: This is what I skate the most, I usually ride up to 7-8 hours a week.. so could be 28 hrs a month…damnn that’s a lot of vert ahah

Bowl: I pad up and skate pools maybe 2 hours a week to none at all. I count skating bowls with vert on them pretty much skating ver.

Freestyle: do no complys count?

 

 

Please tell us about your daily DAY by the hours, (or tell us about your longest day the last week’s) we want to know how your day is looking like

 Weekdays

                                                              

07.00 wake up and go to work at 187 killer pads

08.00 work                     

09.00 say offensive things with my boss

10.00 Work

12.00 Eat cup noodles, sometimes go skate at lunch break with my boss Vinton

13.00 work

14.00 Talk about how all other skate pads rip us off and they suck

15.00 work

16.00 work

17.00 Get off work, go skate vert somewhere where the session is at Like Hawks usually with the “working Mans” after hours session dudes… Sometimes Bucky Laseks pool so I can get some round wall

18.00 skate

21.00 Go home and hangout with my GF and pets, sometimes start a political revolution

22.00 Revolution

24.00 Hack

 

            The Repeat 5 days a week

 Weekends

11.00 Get up late

14.00 Fire up the Margaritaville, Listen to Jimmy Buffet

15.00 smoke 2 joints before I smoke 2 joints

17.00 Cruise around Alga Norte skate park in Carlsbad, Mostly just loiter and talk shit

20.00 Skate vert somewhere. On the weekends I like to skate Elliot Sloans vert ramp. Its got some rad obstacles in the ramp like corners on one end the offset bank to quarter. and that ramp is 14FT instead of the usually 13, so you can blast

How are you doing at the moment? Best I have been in years mentally and physically

How is your body at the moment, (injuries, knees, back, and so so)? Doing great physically, In better shape then I have been the last 3 years (I got fat after way to many injuries that lead to surgeries)

When did you start to skate and why? What tricked you into this?

I started skating in 1999. I was into surfing because I lived in a popular surfing beach town in Florida. I got a legit skate board for Easter and my dad took me to the local skate park and that was it from there! I still have that deck btw it was a Plan-B

Please comment your feelings about Skateboarding in the

80s The birth of vert! I love watching 80’s vert clips since old reminiscing vert guys are always posting them on social media and I think its super innovative on how young kids are watching these OG tricks and mixing them with new tricks. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and do all these new tricks back then when vert was king.

90s Death of vert! tiny wheels and skinny popsicles. Neal Hendrix told me it was impossible to find a wheel bigger than like 53’s  Vert skaters going from popular superstars to being broke and jobless overnight is what I think made a lot of pro skaters go crazy and do some weird shit.

The few vert pro’s that tried so hard to keep it relevant I give mad respect for such as Neal Hendrix, Danny Way, Colin Mckay, Tony Hawk, Bucky Lasek, Danny Mayer, sux that its hard for me to even think of the few..Help me out here???

2000 Pretty much when I started skating. So Vert skating was rising a little more from its shallow grave. The park I grew up skating in Merrit Island, Florida had a legit steel 13 Ft vert ramp and I honestly wanted to skate vert cause I just like flying and doing airs rather than hopping around on the flat ground.

So by 2007 I was a pro skater doing pro contests since that’s the only way to be a pro vert skater at that time and still now pretty much. There was a ton of contest like Dew Tour, X games, LG ASA Tour, Freestyle,CH and Mega Ramp Contests everywhere.

The tricks during then where starting to creep in the what we call (spin to Win) era. But the 900 club was still elite. Vert skaters where starting to flip tricks into their rotations consistently.

At this time is when Mega Ramp went from some secret ramp that no one was even capable of riding to the biggest event at X Games. This was my favorite thing to skate and at that time there wasn’t any young kids riding it pretty much just Me, Rob lorifice.

I practiced skating Mega more than most people just cause I like to challenge myself on how high I could go on the quarter and want spin flip whatever I could think of over the 50ft gap. And doing the terrifying 70ft jump which you can never get used too.

2010+

So in 2010 I hit my head at a Dew Tour contest and got a traumatic brain injury so that brought my skating career to a halt.

I got better and it took a year but after that I even got a Silver at X-games Mega ramp. After that I Hit my head snowboarding again and that was it. I don’t compete anymore now.

But enough about my dumbass. Skateboarding now is on another level with popularity. BUT vert and mega contest are dead right now, Everything has been cut. Sucks so bad cause these vert skaters are so good and doing crazy tricks and they got no way to get by in life financial even though there the best on the planet.

Besides that concrete parks are the popular thing right now that’s taking off while vert contests are slowing down.

 

Where do you stand & please comment with skateboarding in the Olympics?

Im into it actually…. its park and street so I don’t feel as excited as I could be.

Tony Hawk said it best, “It’s the Olympics that needs skating,” to stay relevant to kids now.

But something I do want to say is that anyone who complains about how LAME skating being in the Olympics. DON’T go skate all the new skate parks cities are going to build, DON’T take that job you wanted in the skate industry cause now there is money to throw around.

On another note, it has been a few months since the word was spoken and I noticed people realize its not really effecting their skate life anyway at all.

Where do you stand in terms of politics?

Super embarrassed to be a American right now…..

When I chill, I chill with,

Mostly the OG skate dudes like Owen Neider, Bucky Lasek, Neal Hendrix, Lincoln Ueda, Tony Magnusson, to name drop a few, we have a pretty tight crew and I feel I am a old soul cause all those guys are over 40. im 27, so that’s old.

I do have another crew I like to skate with more of my generation like Alec Beck, Daniel Cuervo, Markus Olberz, Amelia Brodka, Mike Owen, Packy Fancher, Beaver Fleming, Elliot Sloan, to name drop again.

I’m have been on a mission lately in (with)

Not really, Im a “vert jock” so anything under 12 ft, im struggling haha

Dream session would be,

Everday I am able to skate is a dream. With all the injuries I’ve had over the last 5 years, Im lucky to even be able to skate.

Lately I have been working on,

More flip tricks on vert. There my fav tricks to do and I just been getting back my basics. Front heel, back heel, K flip indy, Cab Heel, k flip fakie, Half cab heel, is it spelled HEAL or HEEL???

I feel lip tricks are underrated and get overshadowed by rotations like every kinda basic 540. Cause it looks more appealing and gnarly

Might just be saying that cause I cant really do 5s anymore!!!! hahaha

When I was little I would like to,

Not much has changed in 18 years since I got my skateboard at 9

I would surf a lot and that is what got me into skating. But after 2 shoulder surgeries I haven’t surfed in more than a year. and I HATE cold water.

When I’m home I like to,

watch music videos, I can sit and watch them like TV for hours…. Im also a totally video game nerd looser. PS4LIFE!

I normally call my homies for,

Who calls? its all text.

Pretty much all my outgoing texts look like this

where’s the sesh? where u skatin? hawks buckys or sloans? at Alga park where you at?,

Your homies are,

See u a few questions ago^^^

I enjoy going to,

Skate any park that has transition or vert ramp. I need more hobbies.

FAVORITS

Beer: Carona

Wine: Nope

Liquor: Tequila

Breakfast: Don’t eat it

Lunch: idk whatever sounds good

Dinner: whatever sounds good

Late-night snack: Lime Pops

Resturant: Joes Crab Shack

Skateboarders: Funny, a friend asked me that the other day and I thought and remembered how it changed drastically once I started skating pro contests in 2007 against my favs skaters…. But when they say “don’t meet your hero’s” yah that’s true.

So now when someone asks me I realized that I put the actually person into consideration rather than just their talent. Here are some of my most influenced skaters

Bucky Lasek, Andy Macdonald, Beaver Fleming, Lincoln Ueda, Elliot Sloan, Moto Shibata, Neal Hendrix, Clay Kreiner, im throwing in Aaron “wheelz”, Alex Perelson

Skatepark:  Cocoa Beach Skate park.(hometown in Florida)

Skate spot: Vertical pipes

Skate film / clip: DC video

Your fav Tricks: Fronstides gaytwists of any type, Rodeos of any grab especially lien

Art: Tattoo’s

Film: Movie? Donnie Darko

Music: Blink 182, Yelawolf, Machine Gun Kelly, Motley Crue, Moby, Eminen

Book: whats that?

City’s: Bondi, Australia and San Diego

Writers: uhhhh

Actors: Jared Leto

Skaters: Bucky lasek

Homeboys: Beaver Fleming

Radom’s: Hoes

Technology: Too many to keep up with now days , Iphone of course

Tablet: Nope

TV: Anything over 60” gotta have that blu–ray yo

Camara: Pro iphone filmer

Phone: I got 2 phones, one for bitches, one for the dope

APP: Grindr/Tinder

Car: Jeeps

Bike: a hog I wish I had

 

 

When was the last time you really won big time?

When I got a full time job at I job I really like…(adult life goals)

When was the time you really lost big time ?

IDK where to start….

When I travel, I always bring,

Make sure you bring that Multi power plug for each country. People be always trying to snatch mine

Best travel advice I can give is,

Make sure you always know how to say “Thank You” In any different language when your at that country. It really helps and wont make you look like a dickhead, especially if your American.

Best life advice I can give is,

its Not like your gonna make it out alive

Are you good with money (do you plan, safe it, cash in or blow it)?

I totally thought I was when I had it…Now I realize im a dumbass and will be paying for mistakes years and years to come.

Best travel memory you want to share?

When I went to Australia and planned on staying 2 weeks and it ended up being 2 months. Stayed with Nathan Beck for a couple weeks and we drove from Bondi to Melbourneto stay with Renton Millar and surfed along the whole way. Then I flew back to Bondi and live in the beach road motel for 1 month and skated the Big Day Out Demo… Pretty much best time of my life.

When I do not skateboard I,

Work, So I can live to skate

My fitness program is,

Don’t get fat

Do you care about your health ?

I didn’t for a couple years and now im just trying to not have a gut hanging out

Anything that concerns you at the moment?

Money Money Money bruh and the state that USA is turning into… We need another Civil War

When I get old I want to,

Die

I would NEVER,

Give up skating. I gave up on it for a while…But it never gave up on me…

I would like to see more of,

skate parks being built

That one time where I was in jail because of,

NBD

I should do more of,

Working out and eating healthy

My future looks like,

UHhhhhh

I dream of some day that I would,

Be able to work a job I love and make enough to support my lifestyle so I can have a long ass vert ramp with a mini-mega attached to a full mega with a deep concrete bowl at the end…. Prob be quite the setup…

On Netflix / YouTube I watch,

Music videos and the office

 If I could change the world I would,

Make America Skate Again

Everybody should own a,

Uhhhhh idk

The hobby I have, no one knows about is,

I collect WW2 memorabilia

I will never get rid of,

skateboard Duh

I would love to be in a movie with,

Jared Leto

Any regrets in life so far?

How much time you got?

 I currently follow (social media, instagram twitter, Facebook)

Bunch of freaks