Oct 18, 2009
Author: Andrew Norton
Trial by Fire
It was almost three years ago that Lee graced the cover of this magazine with his now infamous red pants. Love them or hate them, they certainly got people talking—the gnarly Wallride helped, too. Without getting stuck on what the flavour of the month is (as monitored by message board lurkers the world over), Lee stays true to himself. He doesn’t let armchair skateboarders dictate what tricks he does or what hue his garments should be. And if that cheesy tidbit of guidance councilor wisdom doesn’t get you hyped on Lee, his on-board skills are undeniable. It’s been a minute since Lee’s first interview and he hasn’t slowed down, throwing himself head first into the world of skateboarding by spending plenty of time down south in California. He seems to be fairing well, not only gaining the attention of major sponsors but also wrapping a part for the anticipated Sus Monts video. Through it all though, his humble attitude has stayed the same, but we’re still working on the pants.
Gap to Backside Smith Grind. Norton photo.
Were you born in Toronto?
Yeah, I’ve always lived in The Beaches. It’s right by the beach, obviously. It’s nice real estate, so that’s where the rich, preppy people hang out. There was definitely a lot of out-of-car yelling and hating from beach bros and jocks. Also going to a jock school didn’t help with that.
You went to a huge private all-dudes school, right?
I went to a pretty big jock school. All the jocks were really good at hockey and stuff, they would bro down with the hockey coach, teachers, and just cruised through school. I think that school produces the most NHL hockey players in Canada.
When I was still kind of playing hockey, there was a defining moment when I broke my leg skating at skate camp and I missed hockey tryouts because of my broken leg. It was then that I realized skateboarding is way more fun than being yelled at by a coach or whatever.
Crook Pop Over. Zaslavsky Photo.
Alright, let’s set the record straight, did you go to skate school?
I went to skateboard camp. My parents worked over the summer, so they had to send me to camp. I mean, as a kid, what else would you rather do? You’re going to be skating with your friends, might as well be at a skatepark that has legit ramps. CBMK was just a sweet option, and Brett Keon’s definitely a homie. I appreciate all the help he’s given me by letting me skate the park and just different advice he’s given me.
What kind of weird jobs did you work when you were a kid?
I was a baseball umpire. And seriously, that really fucking sucked. It was a bunch of middle-aged parents getting mad and yelling at you, being way too emotional about a kid’s game. That’s also what kind of turned me off sports. I did that for one summer and I was completely over it. I mean, it was pretty sweet, you get like $30 for a bit over an hour’s work, but you definitely deserved the $30 for all the times you have to get yelled at.
Tell us something people might not know about you.
First of all, graduated from high school as an honour roll student. Also, I’m kind of enrolled in university right now.
Are you working towards a degree?
I guess. Right now I’m in psychology. It’s interesting learning about different disorders, not learning how people’s minds work, but giving a little insight into different things, and I was definitely hyped on that. It’s an interesting subject. But, I’m sure when I decide to focus on school a little more I’ll go on a different path. I’m kind of trying to stimulate my mind. It helps with my skating because it clears my brain and helps me focus on the trick a little bit easier, just to balance it out a little.
Is that something you want to do in the near future, focus on school?
I’m young and my body is still good, so I’m just going to play it by ear. Go with the flow.
Anything else that gets your brain going?
I’m definitely a fan of art. I like different periods where people would look at something differently, or seeing a new take on something that people have done thousands of times. I also think that applies to skateboarding. If you see something new, not to sound like a jock or anything, but you want to take on that battle and conquer it.
Do you think skating is more of an art than a sport?
I’d say it’s a sport in the sense of physical activity and also contest skating is more of a sport. It’s timed, it’s judged, that’s about as sport as it gets. I think it all has its place. Contest skating is pretty fun, you get to see all the homies, you skate a park which is fun compared to going out to film because it’s just cruising. But, I also think that it’s an art; capturing a moment in time in footage or photos, trying to make it look as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Also, when someone has a sick style, I’d say that’s kind of an art.
Nollie Heelflip. Zaslavsky Photo.
Your last SBC interview was almost three years ago. What’s changed since then?
A little bit more mature, I’d say. Just realizing the realities of life, I guess. Dealing with money, having a job, and having to take the financial aspects more seriously.
I understand you worked as a telemarketer for a littke bit, any good stories from that? Any people ripping into you on the phone?
I got lots of yellers. Yelling at you about how much of a scam insurance is and how much they hate you and they wish that you would die. But you got to be prepared for it, you know —it’s telemarketing.
I understand all your credit cards have been cut up?
They’re not exactly cut up. The three things that suck about San Francisco are the crazy people who lurk there (I think SF kind of just attracts crazy weirdos), the bad drivers, and the parking.
The parking really sucks, the permit parking is always taken up and it’s only two-hour parking spots left, so you have to move your car every two hours. It’s honestly impossible to keep on that 24/7, so the tickets just stack up. Initially, I owed about a $1000 to the city and I owed more by the time I left. So, I’m in debt to my parents, just kind of working odd jobs to make money to pay it back and stack some dough so I can go back down to California.
Polejam. Norton Photo.
Seems like you have been taking some acting jobs.
I’m not going to lie, and I hope my agent doesn’t see this, but it’s a really good way to make money. It’s kind of like winning the lottery when you get a gig after all that time you spent going to auditions. I mean, it is kind of fun, if you think about it. It’s kind of like skateboarding. If you manage to make money acting or skating, would you rather be doing that or working a day job doing hard physical labour? Not that I’m not doing physical labour, but you just really appreciate getting paid for doing something that’s not hard or boring.
Have you ever had any speaking roles?
I was on The Jon Dore Television Show. It was me, and this random guy. We were supposed to be at a party, drunk or something, and the whole scene was about making a baby smoke.
Any prep work for the role?
Researched it pretty heavily, did some investigation. Surprisingly, mothers aren’t down with getting their baby to smoke.
What surprised you the most about doing work for movies and TV?
I was skating, which is considered stunt work. If you think about it, all these people are there taking their time to organize and coordinate it, and it costs a lot of money per attempt. When you fuck up an attempt, you just wasted a $1,000 of this company’s money, so that does put a little more stress on it and it does make you realize how big of a picture it is. I did this Honda commercial and it was a ridiculous number of cast and crew members. Just so much work goes into it. I had to Boardslide a handrail, a flat bar actually, it was sloped on a down angle, but it was a flat bar. They cast me because they thought I looked Spanish.
Kickflip, Late Shov. Woytowich Photos.
Do you like going to California for six months and coming back here for six?
I like having my family and friends here, but the weather and the skateboarding situation is seriously incomparable. Obviously you get tired of stuff here, and there, but in the long run I’d say I would be way more hyped to be able to live in California. I mean, coming home to see family and friends is always good but the skate life is awesome.
Do you ever get heat for the kits you wear? You had a cover wearing red pants, that’s pretty bold.
I mean, people will hate, but if it fits me, I’m down. I don’t really care what people are saying.
Is it fashion or function?
I’m not going lie, I was just looking to get a really awesome pair of pants that were super stretchy because I rip so many pairs of pants in the crotch. I was pushing like 15 pairs of American Apparel pants, so I was just trying to get a really stretchy pair. Once I found them, I rocked them until there was no ass left on them. The whole pant fell apart and then I made them into shants. Those were the ones I got the cover in.
What happened to those shants? Do you have them up on the wall now?
I think they’re in the drawer. Actually, one time I got sucker punched when I was skating this flat ground spot one night. This random thug comes up and sucker punches me in the face. I guess he was drunk or something and just wanted to cause beef, I needed like five stitches—that was the last time I wore those shants.
Tre Flip. Norton Photo.
Has your gear mellowed over the years?
Well, it has a little bit. Garrett Hill said it pretty good, he said, “It’s just a colour, you know? Who says you have to wear blue or black jeans? It’s a colour, so why not rock it. If you’re hyped, rock it.” Same thing, going back to ripping jeans and shit, I’ll rock a pair for a really long time and I’m also kind of superstitious. If a pair of jeans starts treating me good, I’ll rock the fuck out of them.
Your sponsors have changed up a little bit since we spoke last, how did that come about?
Definitely some sponsors have changed. I went on a Stereo trip to Phoenix Am and I was riding for my old sponsor, but I was hanging out with the team and it was really relaxed, but at the same time everyone was shredding and skating cool spots. It was just something I was hyped on and wanted to be a part of.
Have you ever met Jason Lee?
I met him once at ASR. I briefly got introduced to him. I’m definitely a fan of My Name is Earl, though. It’s a pretty sick show.
Ollie. Norton Photo.
Does anyone close to you ever express their concern for your personal hygiene?
My girlfriend did enforce a no dreads policy in San Francisco. My hair would dread up from getting hella sweaty in my beanie. She put it this way: “If I had dread locks and my hair was super sweaty, would you be stoked?” It was a good point, so after that I became a little more aware of it. I went three weeks and then tried to comb it out to be business-like and it seriously took a bit over an hour, man. I had a massive hairball after.
What are some notable couches you’ve crashed on?
One of the first times in California I was staying at Corey Duffel’s house. Corey was probably one of the first pros that I’d met. You know Shred Central has that shirt that’s like a Ramones logo, and Corey is a fan of the Ramones, so I gave him that and a Dayglo Abortions CD.
This other time I was sleeping at this girl’s house and both her and her boyfriend are barbers and they have wigs that they practice on around the house. I’m about to sleep and I see a wig on the floor and I’m like, “Dude, this is fucking gross!”. I pick up the wig and throw it to get it out of the way. Turns out it wasn’t a wig, it was Sammy Baca’s hair. He was passed out face down. I picked up his head thinking it was a wig and tried to throw it across the room. I just grabbed his hair and motioned to throw, but he was obviously heavier than a wig, so he just kind of rolled over. I don’t even know if he remembers that.
Ollie Sequence. Christian Photos.
You got a part coming out in the Sus Monts video. First of all, what’s up with the name? What happened to Apple Jacks?
With Apple Jacks, the people involved sat down one night and they’re like, “We got to think of the name right now.” They were just brainstorming for hours and hours and that’s the name they came up with. They were hyped on it and they thought it would be different. But the different legalities of naming it after the cereal came into play and they didn’t really want to have to deal with that. Mark Webber ended up changing it to Sus Monts, which is a little different.
What does the name Sus Monts mean?
In all honesty, I think it means shitty montage, man. I think in Calgary vocabulary it means shitty montage.
Does that reflect what the video is?
We got three or four years of filming going for this, that’s a lot of time to get good stuff for your video and obviously we wouldn’t be putting it out if we thought it was a shitty montage. It’s footage of skateboarding that we’re hyped on.
What was the hold up on the video?
It’s skateboarding. We’re on our own time. Everything takes forever and no one’s ever going to be completely satisfied with their parts. So that’s a lot of it. It’s almost done, though. We’re all pretty much hyped on our parts. Not exactly sure who’s going to have full parts, but it’s going be me, Antoine Asselin, Kevin Lowry, lots of sick montages with Ben Stewart and other gnar shredders of all sorts. It’s going to be sick, man. There’s going be a bunch of homie montages.
What do you think of your part?
I’ve only seen one really early test edit of it, and with all the time we’ve spent filming, we want to have a lot of recent footage. You can always film more stuff, so I guess there’s got to be a cut-off point. It’s also about getting a balance of old stuff that we like that’s at a cool spot or whatever, and new stuff that were hyped on. I’m definitely hyped to see how it’s edited, how everything all goes together. I think I got last part, so I’m stoked that they decided to end the video with me. Pretty sweet with all the awesome dudes they got in the video that they decided to hook me up with last part.
Kickflip into the Bank. Norton Photo.
Who’s part are you looking forward to the most?
After being in San Francisco with Antoine for a good portion of the time and seeing some of the tricks he’s done, he’s just got a really good style, so I’d like to see how his part comes together. I’m hyped on Mark’s editing, he’s going to make the whole video look good.
Who stokes you out to skate with?
All the friends. Definitely Jeff Folgmann, just how he goes for it is kind of rare. His gnarliness just hypes you up, you see him giving it all he’s got and you’re like, “I should be doing the same thing, skateboarding is fun! What’s the worst that can happen?” I like skating with anyone with a positive attitude who has a good frame of mind going. I don’t like negative Nancys, man.
What’s the best piece of advice anyone’s given you?
My girlfriend telling me to be myself. Be you, just be chillin’, doesn’t matter what happens, at the end of the day, just be hyped.
Here is Lee's Part from Sus Monts. To embed video, click here. To purchase Sus Monts, click right here.
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