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Where do you sell your product?
Mainly online. Southshore distribution gets boards
when we have enough for them. Surf House always
wants our boards and basically anybody that ask me,
“Hey I want some boards!” I’ll send them to anybody.
The Point skate shop in Dallas and a couple of other
ones over through the years. But mainly online and
South Shore has them so any shop can get them.
Is it mainly just Texas or throughout the
U.S.?
Majority of our business is definitely Texas but
there’s a following elsewhere. We have some good
team riders in other spots that have guys interested
in them for sure. A lot of people get interested when
it’s a certain model, like our S-Model. People get
interested when its somebody they like, one of their
friends or someone they look up too or whatever.
That’s kind of how it goes. Texas is the main source.
You have quite a line up for your decks,
Tony Farmer, Christian Albright, Joe Fernandez,
Mike Kelly, Richard Kirby, and I
believe a Tom Groholski. What was the determining
factor for selecting these skaters
to represent your brand?
Well there’s a whole lot more than that and I will
probably forget them all. Pat Clark, Jessie Davis, Brett
Roper, Adam Young, Hubba, Ben Schroder, probably a
bunch I’m forgetting. Sorry! It’s just guys that we’re
stoked on. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything other
than, their guest models. We just ask them if they
want to do it and we’re stoked on them. We’re stoked
on the way they ride, whatever it is and that’s who we
go with and if they say yes, we do it. Over the years
we’ve had one person who said no. Really everyone’s
pretty receptive and we just go for it. It’s pretty cool.
It’s just guys we’re stoked on.
Also when I think of cockfight, I also think
Mathew Niemann, Jeremy Smith and Adam
Wiggins. What is their role with the Cockfight?
(Laughter) Well, their babies and they grew up ride’n
for us. Mathew has been skating since he was… under
2. He could barely walk when he started standing
on the board. Jeremy was our second team rider
ever and he got his friend Adam on and those 3 have
been with us from the get go pretty much. They’re
down for life, I’m pretty sure. Mathew pretty much,
he’s my kid! He does the deal. Jeremy and Adam,
they’ve never ridden anything else.
You have some pretty sick artwork on the
decks. Who designs and selects the artwork
for each deck?
It’s a pretty collaborative process. Anybody’s allowed
to pitch an idea, anybody involved, riders, us, the
artist. Paul Newman is this guy from Dallas, pretty
gnarly skater, old guy. He was our original artist and
he always did anything we wanted, however we wanted
it and he just got kind of busy. He’d still do it but I
got this guy Jessie who also rides for us, Jessie Davis.
He is the main number one creative mind behind the
whole thing. I pitch him an idea and he takes it to the
next level and I don’t question it. He does his deal, he
always does it, never paid him a dime, he’s the best.
Jessie Davis. That’s all I’m going to say about that.
Cockfight is viewed as a backyard pool,
ditch, DIY skaters. Is this something you
have always done?
Yeah! I mean, I grew up in a ditch, at EZ-7. Every single
day, forever when I was young. That was my skate
park. I grew up in Oak forest and me and my friends,
that’s where we met after school, that’s where we did
all our ride’n. That’s where we got together and went
other places and found other things. We found our
first pool in like 87 and that started a whole other
deal. That’s an obsession that’s hard to get rid of.
Pools are hard, their hard to skate. They’re not made
to be skated and take a lot of work and their nasty.
All that goes along with it, the finding it, the cleaning
it, the skating it, and none of it’s easy. That kind of
gives it an alluring sense to me. That’s why I like it
so much and all our riders like it too. Ditches, love it.
Building stuff, love it. Staying out of the skate parks,
I love it!!
Do you have a preference?
Me personally, I’ve always been a ditch skater. I love
to skateboard in ditches. That’s my number one. I do
this (Pool) but I’m not very good at this, but I love it.
Ditch skating is what I love the most.
Have you ever had leave a spot due to cops
like in the movie Dog Town?
(laughter) A lot of times… A lot of times! When your
skating these pools, you have everything from real
estate agents, to neighbors, to cops, to owners of the
properties, there’s a lot of drama, but that’s just the
way it is. It’s part of the deal.
You guys seem like a tight-knit family when
I see you at different events. Is this always
the case, or is there drama at times?