SKATEBOARDING FOR EVERYBODY
Every year skaters from near and far reunite at Burnside Skatepark’s notorious birthday/Halloween bash for a heated, costumed snake session and eclectic night of debauchery. This year marks the park’s “DIRTY 30” which is hard to believe- it seemed like yesterday the park was still a lot-lurking teen.
For me, no one in the world is more influential in skateboarding & life adjacent than Jodi McDonald. I was around 20 years old when I met her, (the equivalent number of years ago) super awkward, clinically depressed and struggling hard to find my place in the world. Jodi was warm and generous and her inspiration on a skateboard was colossal. But her spirit? Intergalactic.
Jake Phelps gave me that name and didn’t give me a chance to change it. We started the band on my birthday; they came down to see my play one of my last shows in LA with this other band I was playing with called “The Deadutantes.” It was psychobilly weirdness. The show was at the Knitting Factory. Jake and Tony were down there so we went out afterwards. We went to some hotel and thrashed this room and started talking about starting a band. We ended up calling it “Bad Shit.”
