SLO LIFE Winter 2010

| Meet your neighbor
Why didn’t you choose a career in art?
Actually, my friend had an embroidery company down the street from
where I grew up. He started asking me to draw things for his customers. For
example, he’d get some job with the fire department and he’d say “Kevin,
I need for you to draw a Dalmatian with a crooked fireman’s helmet that
looks like an old-time Chicago-style gangster.” Then the next day it would
be something else. He would call me and say, “I’m meeting with my client
in ten minutes - I need you to come over and talk to this guy.” That led to a
job with a t-shirt company, where I did a lot of silk-screening.
Why didn’t you stick with it?
Well, one day this lady came up to me and told me that she was putting
on these skateboard shows and paid $100 per event. She had this
traveling ramp and would go to motorcycle events and promotions at
K-Mart parking lots, and sporting event halftime shows, all sorts of stuff.
So, I said, “Ok, when’s the first event?” thinking it would be some deal
a few months down the road and she said, “I’ve got shows Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday...”
What did you do?
So, I went in the next day and quit the art job. I remember there was this
old hippy guy that worked there and never said anything to me, but
he just laid into me when I quit. It was an important lesson that I didn’t
fully grasp until later, but I learned about the impact that we each make,
whether we like the job or not. We all hold value, but I didn’t realize it at
the time. I was 18, and I just thought I was sketching out these stupid
t-shirts. But, after I was gone for a while, I started thinking about it and
started wondering, “Wow, who’s going to do that work now that I’m
not there?” I really should’ve given them at least a two-week notice or
figured out how to do some work from the road or something.
Don’t be too hard on yourself, Kevin. i’m sure they got it worked out…
So, when did Jennifer enter the picture?
I was filming a commercial for Mello Yello soda in Hollywood. This guy,
H.B. Barnum [a songwriter and record producer], who I had not heard
of at the time, had emptied his pool so that we could skate in it for the
commercial. It was a great place on Mulholland Drive with a view of
downtown Los Angeles. Jennifer had just recently graduated from Cal
Poly and was working as an assistant for her brother who is a professional
photographer, and she was renting a room in the house next door.
Anyway, my friend had parked his truck in front of her driveway, and Jen
came over to ask him to move it so she could pull her car out.
this sounds like a true hollywood love story!
H.B. grabbed her by the hand and walked her over to make the
introduction. Let me say, a girlfriend was the last thing in the world I
wanted. I was working hard and really focusing on my career. But, as
Jen likes to say when she tells this story, she walked next door to “find
a skateboard on its side, an empty pool, and her husband’s eyes.” We
just clicked right away. Later that day, after we finished filming the
commercial, Jen’s landlord was feeling pretty flush because he had
received some money for the use of his driveway, so he bought beer for
everyone, and the two of us sat on the back of my truck and just talked
about things all night like we had known each other forever.
How does Jennifer feel about your skating these days?
She loves it, and I think she wishes I would do more of it, but I‘m pretty
busy these days. I can still compete in the Masters Events, which are 40
and over. I’ll be 43 this year. They have this thing called the Old School
Skate Jam where they invite all the old pros to get back together. I went
to Tony Hawk’s facility in January to skate the Boom Boom Huck Jam
Ramp. It was nice to skate with Tony again, and I was able to thank him
for supporting the SLO skate park [The Tony Hawk Foundation recently
provided a $25,000 grant to help with the development of the skate park
in San Luis Obispo]. He said that they are really careful about who they
donate to, but that “they were really impressed with SLO.”
how do you keep in shape for skateboarding?
I have a ramp in front of my house now where I mainly do BMX tricks with
my son and some of the other neighborhood kids. It’s a lot easier to fly
through the air on a bicycle instead of a skateboard, especially now that I’m
older. Right now, I’m trying to learn how to do bar spins; that’s where you
spin the handle bars completely around while the bike is airborne.
Don’t you ever worry about falling?
That’s one of the things I’ve always appreciated about skateboarding
- the humility of it all. You’re always falling down. I mean, there is a lot
of failure involved in the sport. I would say that 90% of skateboarding is
making mistakes. You are constantly falling. And when you fall, it hurts.
You are hitting concrete. The other day I was riding my skateboard with
some neighborhood kids, and I tried a new trick and fell. They were
really concerned and came running over to me and said, “Oh my gosh,
Mr. Rucks, are you okay?” And, I said “Yeah, I’m fine. Why?” And, they
said, “We’ve never seen an old man fall like that before.” So I got up and
brushed myself off and said, “I fall all the time. That’s how you improve.”
“Kevin Rucks - A strict vegetarian with a burning passion for the
toughest, most enjoyable sport in the world, Kevin plans to skate,
draw and make the earth a better place to live.”
thrasher Magazine, november, 1990
Seeing all of these kids running around the neighborhood must bring
back memories.
It really does. I remember my dad coming home from work – I do the
same thing now. He would love it when he would come home and see all
these kids in the front yard, but then he would get a little annoyed with
all the soda cans all over the front lawn and the candy wrappers all over
the place. And you’ve got all these random kids in the house. There’s
never a dull moment when you have a ramp in your front yard.
What does the future hold?
These are tough times for everybody, but I’m hoping that with this
18 | slo life magazine