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PJ Ladd - 9 club interview
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| <div class="content-centered"><h2 class="post-title"><a>PJ Ladd ｜ The Nine Club #396 [BLYSP3zo_nI]</a></h2><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Alright, we are back, huh? We're back at the Nine Club, everybody. Today we have a very special Special. Special guest, Mr. PJ Ladd, is with us. How are you, dude? Good. Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Good to be here.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Dude, hey, first of all, thank you. Thank you so much for coming, man. This has been great, dude. I don't think I've seen you in a long time. Maybe Honestly, the last probably time I saw you was like Battle of the Barracks, maybe. We had a good conversation over there. Or just maybe about barracks session or something. Yeah. Yeah. That was a while ago. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. What um we were just talking before the show and like you skate you skate like every day, right? Mm-hmm. What what what keeps you going, man? I don't know why that's funny, dude, but like seriously, because like I feel like as we get older, sometimes it's harder to keep up with what we're doing. Like is do you just like do you just need it? Is it what what keeps you what what's what's the drive? Maybe love.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Love the game. Perfect. I love that. I'm feeling healthier than I've ever felt, so that's a plus.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">How uh why so healthy? Have you just been eating properly, exercising?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, I mean, you know, I never you know, party too hard. Never done a drug in my life. Okay. Never even smoked weed. Um I could probably count on my hands how many times I drank. And that was like, you know twenty years old, you know. Yeah. Um so yeah, I'm healthy as I've ever been. You know, it doesn't hurt that I've done at least two and a half hours of yoga and meditation every day for fifteen years plus. So that You know. Two and a half two and a half hours?</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">What's a PJ LAD day? You were waking up.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">At least uh the last time I missed a day was 2013, so That was thirteen years ago. Yeah, thirteen years ago. Wow. So it is a lot of a lot of energy to work with.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Do you go to I know, but do you go to a class? Like how do you Yeah. I do it at home.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I have my personal practice. Okay. But I do have a teacher go to class. Gotcha.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">I don't know. I feel like, yeah, man. Damned. I that's one thing I need to get into. One thing at a time for me though. Um that's cool. Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Thirteen years. Well uh 2005 is when I started. Wow. But then I had a daily practice to kind of develop in 2010, go to classes around that time and then really Stuck with it. Do you wake up? Do you wake up and do it?</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Or we're just going right into it, aren't we? Well I just think it's interesting, you know, because like I I feel here's the thing, dude. This is what I'm saying, man. It's like we get older, I feel like our Some of our skills can diminish, our body can diminish a little bit depending on how you take care of it. And I ask you, well, like what what drives you? Because like I look at your skateboarding like it you you you can still do anything you want on the board, which is like phenomenal. You know what I mean? So I I'm like I love that. I love that you could just jump on your board, you skate every day, and you could just still</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">keep up with the best of them, you know. Thank you. Yeah. Cool man. I mean the yogis say you may leave your body one day, but you don't have to grow old. And I hope that I'm getting better every day on all levels, just as a person, before I even step on a board. Right. I'm getting healthier, you know, clearer, smarter, stronger. Um, so that's my attitude. I love that. You know, and uh the body will follow the mind. It's the mental component that usually weighs people down. It starts to bog down the body.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">So true.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">So that's where meditation comes in, you know, which is popular nowadays, where it was never really talked about decades and decades ago, but now it's like on every corner and everybody's kinda talking about it because they realized that they had to you know, take out the trash. It's like a desktop computer, you have a trash bin and it fills up, starts to slow down the computer, you know? So you gotta empty the trash bin. And then you're clearer of focus. And, you know, if the physical component of Whatever it is you're doing in life becomes much easier. It becomes more of a flow.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Man, I think my trash can is just overflowing.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I think they bought in more trash cans to put on the curbs.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">How do you feel that you things are speeding up you know in general?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">So the the pressure on the psyche in this information age is is mega. Right. Um so you need a technology to sort of direct the mind. Everybody said that every so society, every tradition, spiritual or other, you gotta direct the mind in a sort of positive upward direction and the body will will follow. Right. Um but the subconscious mind Which gets overloaded. It's like the storehouse of the mind. It gets overloaded, bogged down. And that's uh directing 60% of your actions, is the subconscious mind. So it'd be like if you were trying to play the piano. You're consciously thinking of the movements. Right. Right. Very mechanical. very, you know, thought out and kind of rough at first. But as you do it consistently, they start to become more fluid. And let's say forty days they start to become what people would say second nature. Sure. Right. And then eventually I don't even have to think about it, right? I could talk about what we're gonna have for lunch while playing the piano. Because it's become a subconscious sort of pattern of energy. Right. Right. And then that there can be more of a flow and there's less sort of stress and less sort of mechanical movements. It's become second nature. So when the mind's clear and you have a there's a sort of you know uh pattern set, then it becomes much more fluid, much more easier, and then there's less stress. So clearing the subconscious mind is is uh is the first order of business because you blink your eye, you have a thousand thoughts go into the subconscious space. Right? That's a lot. So that's like hundreds of thousands, like basically an immeasurable number of thoughts going in and overloading the subconscious mind every day.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Every waking second of the day.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Every waking second. It's actually not until seventeen days after the breath leaves. the body that the mind stops working. Oh like when you die. So that's why every tradition has a a uh uh kind of a ritual to send the the uh frequency in the the person in a better direction.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">And you say that meditation helps empty the trash bin?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Are you like I mean I I don't mean me to I don't need a tutorial right now, but like are you Are we ch is it is it something we fought? Like how are you dumping? How are you making the dump?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">So, you know, meditation in general will um add a higher frequency energy into the system and then all the sort of lower frequency stuff will drop away. So if you're in a dark room you add light it just kind of goes away. Um so it's similar in a way to that.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">So you're just kind of saying like if you're in the state of meditation, it's uh it's just automatic it's an automatic dump. Yeah, there's an an intelligence to it.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">And there's And the um so all yogas right this is how we started this conversation. This is great, bro. All all yogas work to raise the kundalini, which is a dormant energy at the base of everybody's spine. But kundalini yoga in meditation specifically just do it faster. So the difference is the speed. Okay. Right? And because things are speeding up, we just need something that's gonna actually work faster and keep in pace with the times. So, you know, the c sort of yoga is on the corner that may be more physically based, like a core power yoga. It's one of these types of places. They just work the physical body, right? And the strengthens but that's a good thing. Sure. Um but you know, they're not Working the mental component and the spiritual component apart.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Right, which is very important.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. I love it. I've tried to meditate and I feel like my I sit there, my mind's racing, my cat's meowing, there's something going on. There's a car driving by, there's a fire truck happening, somebody's yelling outside. I can't get into it, you know? It's like I I've tried. Do you ignore all that stuff? Do you ignore I'm I'm it's funny, but it's like true though. There's so much outside shit happening</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, totally. That's why they call it a practice. Okay. So I want to be original and not let the things outside of my environments move me. I want to, you know, famous one is I don't want to be a product of my environments, I want my environments to be a product of me. Yeah. So you know, once you've kind of uh had some stillness you're more present than you've ever been and the centers are sort of open and you're having an experience just sitting there likened to some extreme experience of um that you might have in life, like say um of you know, people go to an amusement park to get some emotion in the body. Where if you really get into it in meditation, you can start experiencing these, you don't get caught in it, but it becomes an experiential situation. you're experiencing it. And in that moment it becomes enjoyable. Right. You know, because you're you know, everybody talks about the third eye or the sixth center or the you know, once that's open, you now have views into all different types of sit you know things. Yeah. And it's your it's getting played like a T V screen. And it's not like you get caught up in it or that's the point of meditation, but it does become entertaining. And people talk about their past lives. They talk about all this stuff. I don't get too much into that but it does become like you said, my my environments are uh noisy. But once you really drop into that, the environments will just kind of calm down because uh you're affecting the environments. Especially with like animals, you'll notice that there's a lot of noise or and eventually once I am you know calm, contained, content, continuous, collected.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">The animal follows kind of the environment sort of follow, yeah. I give my cat way too many treats, so it just knows that it's good follow. It could be meow until I Give in. I enable it. For sure.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">So you do the meditating and yoga every day? Do you start off? In the morning doing that? Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Every day starts with it. It's called sadna. How how how long do you meditate for? So about thirty Forty minutes of that is y is yoga.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Okay. Okay. Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Wow, that's good. And then I have a 31 minute meditation.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">You know what? I admire you, dude, because I think just doing nothing and Well, you're not actually doing nothing, right? But you know what I mean? Sitting there in your own thoughts, maybe you're not your own thoughts, you're down you're dumping stuff is like That is phenomenal in itself. The world that we live in with social media and like just every stimulant that we have at our fingertips is like Dude, I ask anybody out there listening to this, go sit there for an hour 45 minutes and do nothing</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">But it's like a butt like a breathing technique that you're doing in this process. You're not just sitting there still, right?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Well yeah, the Kundalini system there's three thousands of meditations, each with a different energetic result. So whatever you may be working on, you could choose a meditation for that. There's five base ones that like Okay.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">And when I say nothing, I don't mean nothing. You know what I mean? You're sitting there In your own thoughts.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Well, I always have it, you know, the the mantras going through my head. Okay. Yeah. Affirmations are popular nowadays, so you could kind of liken it to that. Yeah. Um It's the the you become what you predominantly think about, right? You're gonna set the mind in a direction and it just kind of magnetically pulls in. That's why the subconscious game usually pulls in according to that. Right. And it hijacks this uh pineal gland which you know people know about. And then it starts getting thoughts according to that, throws you all off track, gives you emotions that you don't want, and then you starts to um you know, magnetically attract things that you just you weren't really looking for. You know how many times you try to get into a situation that you didn't want to get into and you got kind of pulled into it. And how many times did you want to get into a situation that you couldn't? You know, that's usually the subconscious mind sort of at play. Right. Um the spirit, your soul. Human being was designed to uplink to spirit. Um, but it's the mind and the body and the spirit. It's the it's the Trinity. It's you need to have kind of both going. And the body you want to be healthy and So running and exercises are are good, the yoga is you know great, because you want a strong nervous system to be able to hold the power of the meditations, to be able to hold the power of your of your spirit, you know. And that's that's the game. You just want to uplink to that. Like you said, I don't want to think about board stuff. Yeah, 'cause you want just to be present here, now, just live and being human being, not a human doing. Yeah. And then so and with that being this that that can grow exponentially. You know, and think that's with with the attitude, it'll give you the altitude to kind of perceive things and then um You can do yeah. Then the the f like we start talking about skating or physical whatever you're talking about. Whatever you're skating. Yeah, we jumped right into it. No, no, no. I So then it becomes easier basically.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">With the meditating, have you noticed it help your skating so you don't get upset as like I don't know, back in the day you you might have gotten frustrated, but do you get frustrated less easily from doing this skating?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Well, you're humans and you want to enjoy all the human emotions that come up from the experience. That's the point. mercy of the emotions, right? You want to enjoy it. And in order to enjoy it I have to have this sort of second position where I'm not caught in it. And what it will do is it'll give you the ability to move the emotions. Emotion is just energy emotion. You need anger. It's a fire. You're not gonna you're not gonna digest any food without it without fire element and if it'll break your shackles. Dude, I got my own. What holds you back? And that's never gonna you're always gonna be climbing. You're always gonna be trying to do new things, challenge the system, grow. Um it's human nature to expand. So you need that element to it. Now if that's all I'm experiencing, it's just gonna burn me up and it's not enjoyable. You know, so you wanna you wanna use these. Again, you wanna direct the mind, which is going to create emotions. Those emotions are going to charge your system, your aura, your electromagnetic field that surrounds the body. Which if you can't see it, they can take pictures of nowadays. So it's not anything esoteric. Yeah, and that's sort of a met and then I'll sort of magnetically pull you in. That's the house you have to live in. Right. If it drops below nine feet, you're you know, by definition depressed. So you want to kind of grow that thing and make sure it's big because that's the house you have to live in before you live in any sort of physical environment. So then yeah, you're not like, oh if I'm skating good I feel great. Oh if I'm skating bad I feel bad. Mm because right that's just that's not fun. You're just kind of like this bouncing ball back and forth. Who wants to do that? Right. So it's like if you watch Penny skating Uh obviously has like a drug influence and stuff, but I do use him as an example just being an escape nerd. Is that like it didn't seem like he cared whether he made it and it didn't seem like he cared whether he didn't make it. Right? He had that neutrality And what that always led to was him landing everything. But it's hard to get to the neutral standpoint. Because you need energy in the system. If you ap if you need a systematic application of a energy enhancing technology, which is the Kundalini Yoga meditation. Okay. Then you can go through the gears of the mind, which are negative, positive, and neutral. And it goes in that sequence. You know, you walk into an environment and the negative's like, what the fuck's going on here? You know, like protect your ass, you know? You know, and then you then it hands it off to we're good. We're in the fucking nine club, we're in Roger's old department Sure. Then it's like positive, like, okay, what can we do here? We can talk about skating, nerd out, like fuck homies. Like what when's last time, you know, that's what it's opportunity. And then If there's then it goes to neutral, which sees both and just acts according to what the soul's sort of direction is in being now, you know? And then if you can escape from that point. Skateboarding becomes a completely different experience. Like just a just a basic trick becomes um a d a way more depth of an experience. And that always I think expresses itself. And I think in the common lexicon of skating, we say, I'd rather watch Gino push. Right, because there seemed to be something more coming through than a than a programmed mental you know s you know, there was something more to it. That's the combination, let's say, of the d the Trinity, which is mind, body and spirit. And if you can connect you're in the zone. Remember Jordan is just kinda like this. Yeah. Well he hits the three and he's just like, I don't I'm not I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it because uh he's in the zone. Yeah he's basically super conscious. He's kind of connect you know he's connected those th those things and It's just coming through and he's just like and he's giving an interview actually later and he's like I could still be there playing because it takes less energy. Right. So you could do that for For as long as you really want. There's certain prep and recovery that you gotta take care of with the body. That that may go up a little bit, but you do it as long as you really want. I want to t end today with more energy than I started yesterday. I want to be happier today than I was yesterday. That's it. That's that's all you're doing. To keep it simple, I wake up and do things as accurately as possible and I go to bed. And I want to be happier and profit. And if I come to into challenges. That's just an opportunity to express my infinite capacity to grow. So that skate trick that's bugging me that I have to use my anger and I'm fucking yeah, I'm frustrated, but I'm consciously frustrated using the fire to just like let's break the shackles 'cause I want to go up. Right. Right. I wanna I wanna climb the mountain here. You know, you need that fire element. And if you're doing it from the neutral standpoint, it can be enjoyable. And then when you go through it, go through Right? You pressure makes a diamond. I went through it. I now have something I didn't have before. And I learned the lesson and I'm in a whole new reality stream. So a lot of the times with these meditations in the Kundalini system, they could be challenging. Like arms up in the air for fifteen minutes, eleven minutes. But that attitude is n is priceless. Yeah. And if I go into the challenges conscious with an open heart, usually the challenges just drop away. Then you're in the rare space some of them looking for challenges because the sailboat doesn't say without the resistance of the wind. I need the I need the challenge to grow. So see how the attitude and the paradigms take.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">But you're like looking for something that's not there. Like you're trying to you're trying to like formulate something, right?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Well then it gets into a subconscious strike where I'm calling in problems which I think which which then you're not really doing it. Right. You're not you're you're just you're just kind of calling in a problem to think you're doing something. It's like when people you know, th I love my haters is like a DGK thing, right? Because if I do something positive, I'm gonna get the polarity response. Right. But if I just Go out there trying to get haters. You're not doing the positive thing to get the haters.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">fully whether it you meant it or not, like relates to skateboarding.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Because it gives you so much energy. Right. And then I'm just using the energy the skating in a some ways to assimilate the energy that I get from the yoga, the meditation, the mantra and the breath work. Yeah. Those are the four wheels. And i in three minutes a day. Yeah. Is is uh seriously beneficial. Um because again, all yoga's work to raise that dormant energy at the base of the spine called kundalini. Right. Sounds like a new agey word, I realize. Yeah, yeah. Did you ever see that medical symbol? It's called the Kadusha symbol. It's a Pole with the snakes going up it. Yeah, we've all seen that. It's like hidden in plain sight. So or the rod of a scrupulous where it's the pole with one singular snake. But those are similar. Whereas the pole represents the spinal cord And the snakes represent kundalini. Kundalini just means coiled serpent. So it's rising up the spine, and then it goes out this pineal, and then the wings represent the ascension of consciousness. So it's funny it's in a plane. And we use it for our health and wellness which just is consciousness. Yeah. And then there's the the chakra system, which is where the energy is collected, stored, and projected from So then we're a sophisticated situation. We're just haven't been taught it. Um and that gets into a whole other topic of why we haven't been taught, why it's been hidden. Why is it coming out now? You know, because we're at the change of times now. So in 2012 remember they were saying, Oh the world's gonna end. You know, remember that shit? Oh, the Maya 'cause the Mayan calendar ended. Right. But that was a consciousness shift. So we ended one age and now we're in like another age. But we're only 14 years in, you know, for that's gonna go on for a 5,000-year golden age where this stuff will be more common. Um so but we're just sort of uh the pioneers of it all. And uh yeah, I mean if that's dude, thank that helps at all. Yoga means union, right? Yoga Yo, I'm I'm I'm come in linking finite body to infinite. And then Once you can do that, what else do you need? You're free. You're sovereign. You're independent. And then you become magnetic. And then that magnetic attracts whatever it is that you want to do, whatever you and nobody wants the same thing. That's what's beautiful about the sort of mundal of humanity. Right. So we're all kind of adding to it in this great, great way, you know, which is dope. Compete and compare and be confused. And skateboarding is definitely in this compete and compare mindset. And that needs to kind of chill. Right? Like playing games of skate. There's like there's like a weird like like, yo. You've won a bunch of them. You've got some trophies.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, but it's all about f having fun in that sense. It's not you know y you can't take yourself too serious, you know what I'm saying? Like We're all here to have fun with this.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">You're just like part of a culture, right? It's not like oh I need to beat it. I want to climb a mountain. In order to get there I gotta beat everybody and to get there no it's like no I'm climbing the mountain I gotta bring people with me. Right we're climbing the mountain together. Yes. There we go. So you land your trick you ins that inspires me. I get stoked. Yeah Not a lot of other I don't know what do you want to say, culture, s sports, whatever you want to say, arts, you know, whatever, but that's have that attitude. And that's inspiring. And inspi inspiring just means in spirit. I've put you more into your originality. by being more my regionality. That's why your success is universally beneficial, whether it's in skating or life, creative endeavors, entrepreneurial podcasts. It doesn't matter, just create and do rad shit. It's gonna it has a magnetic effect on every we're all connected, right? And uh so I say that a lot to people because they think like, oh, if I have success, I'm being selfish and it's just about me. It's like no. That's you got if you don't have it, you can't give it. So go for it and create and add and give and earn and then give back from that place. That's Amazing, you know. Now I'm just going 'cause we just started.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">No, it's amazing because I it's it's really like uh uh I'm discovering who you are and how you think about things, you know. And I I think that's super interesting because like For the longest time I've thought about like skateboarding as such an individual thing, which it is, but at the same time, we're all connected and we're all feeding off of each other, you know, to move forward and progress and like to um like conquer this thing that we that we're gonna do.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">It's an internal game. Yeah. For sure. Right? Because if you have that challenge, which have to use the fire element, the anger, there you go. Healthy way, consciously, not just cotton. We've had exper I've had experiences in both besides that. To to to battle the trick Right? Mm-hmm. And then I go through it, now I have something I didn't have before. And you can take that as a s sort of metaphor outside in other areas of life. But now because I have that thing, I've added. energy. And I'm inspiring other people to do the same. You've inspired a lot of people, dude. You've inspired a lot of people. Thanks, dude. Same. I hope I'm getting better every day. And I hope that continues until I leave my body. You know, so that's my attitude. Right. And I have that attitude with with everything, you know. You haven't lost a step, bro. Not to cut you off, you have not lost the step.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">But now I uh I understand it a lot more by the way you expressed what you do on a day-to-day basis. I mean That's a lot. You know what I mean? For anybody to be to do something consecutive day to day to day to day, but you obviously have a love for that just like you have a love for skateboarding. So it makes it easy and it's not a task in that sense. It's a part of your day.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Yeah, they at first it kind of becomes like the I gotta force it and then it becomes of easier. So and then it because it takes 40 days to s at least. or the start of it for the neurons to start to form a pattern. Right. That's why I use that piano thing. Yeah. But then you go to the these sort of yogi demarcation points of forty, ninety, hundred and twenty days. And then once you hit a thousand days of a meditation, it could be three minutes, could be five, eleven, thirty-one, sixty two, two and a half hours. If you do it for f a thousand days, it becomes a part of you. It's just a part of you, that energy. And it's imprinted on um what they call the subtle body which carries your soul lifetime to lifetime. I know that sounds out there, but um makes sense. No I I Cause you know, some people are just born and they're like, Oh, they just have it. Well they've done the work, they've crystallized their consciousness in some ways, right? Right. There's a story of a a friend of mine he went to a his friend's house who had a kid. Ca Yeah. Friend of a friend had a child, went to their house, and the kid's like, I don't know, he's gotta be like four three or four, you know, and he's just Let me be five. And he's just got like these vacuum cleaners and they're just all taken apart. And he's just like fiddling with them and just like and the my my homie's just like, well the fuck's up with the vacuum cleaners? Yeah. And he's like The the dad of the kids like, yeah, I don't know, I just buy him a vacuum cleaner, it takes it apart. If buy him a vacuum cleaner, it takes it apart. You know, so it's just like, first of all, it's a good dad. Right, cause you know there's some like reincarnated engineer of some s where he's just the kid's just trying to figure out something of the exploration of whatever the kid w Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">No, it's true. I mean like I Yeah, it's interesting man. And I love what you said about uh going back to like Gino and like why do we say like oh just I want to see Gino push is because there's something there.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">There's something Yeah, that intangible Right. There's the energy to it. You know, that's the sort of spiritual component really. So that's why we were talking about, oh, I don't want to think about it. when it comes to skating. There's some truth to that. Yeah, because you know the point isn't to think about it.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Because we all but but we all can get in our own head. Exactly it's like I can get on my board and start judging myself within the first couple minutes of am I having a good session? Am I having a bad can I Ollie? Is my board feeling good? Like all of these thoughts are now on my shoulders because I'm like thinking about I'm judging myself off of the start of my day almost. Yeah. The chatter, the monkey mouth.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Yeah. You gotta like get rid of that. And it doesn't stop. I need to throw it in the trash. You need to well first to direct it. Yeah But also you have a high frequency you have a high geared mind to be able to do the level of skateboarding you've done. I mean that's one expression of it. So it's like it takes a strong arm to wield a heavy sword. So if you have a high frequency mind you got you need a application of something that's gonna direct it strong.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Well it's interesting because here's the thing, is like I'm looking at, you know, Chris Josley Right. We just had him on the show. He just 360 flipped El Toro. He did it eight years later than he did, you know, he he waited eight years to do it again or, you know, do it from the first time. And I I think that's remarkable, dude. I think like to for a person to, you know, go from one point and then just as he gets older, he is he's progressing, right? I think a lot of us may be like either stay on a static line or maybe degress a little bit. Like I I think it's really hard, depending on the age or whatever, to to prog to progress, right? And I'm like, so I think people do it in different ways. You know, maybe he's fitness and feeling good and he's actually had to delete a lot of stuff from the last couple of years that he's gone through. But like I don't know if he's meditating, he didn't really talk about it, but Maybe subconsciously he's deleting files and stuff like that. And it it's just interesting to me to see like a person like you that's like you know, uh just constantly just fucking good at skateboarding and then a Chris Joclin who's like 360 flipping the 20 stairs eight years late. Like I think that's phenomenal. Like you don't see that happen too often. No, it's raw. Right. So I'm like, how is he I don't know, he's just in this mental state now, you know, and also a peak physical condition</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">He's young dude. He's still young.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">He's young, but still eight years later. I think it's fucking phenomenal, bro. You don't see it.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, d I mean going back to pointing the mind in the right direction, right? Yeah. If you do point it in the right direction, it's gonna give you some emotions. And you can make those emotions Bigger, you can kind of charge yourself up and to create the emotion. I mean you start thinking about a hot day long enough, you're gonna start to feel hot. And you start thinking about cold day long enough, you're going to start to feel cold. So if I really get into that, I can grow that exponentially and infinitely. So the emotional um Emotions i is a superpower really, but you gotta direct that too. So if I do and use my emotions and not be used by them, I can now have energy a lot more energy and motion. than maybe someone else that maybe has to like work. So you know, Chris is just so such a highly charged person. Right. And it's cool to see. Um that's that ten energy thing, 'cause he's you know, he's a but anyways, I'm not gonna get into the numerology of this one on the freaking nine club. The first thing I asked him when I met him, you know, what's your birthday? But um highly charged. Yeah. And he's There's these types about like David, you know, David Goggins, he's this like internet guy, you know, and he's just really extreme with his situation, right? He he'll run two hundred and eighty mile or a hundred mile uh marathons in the in the desert uh in the middle in the height of summer. Jeez. Right. Well he's gnarly. And he's just doing it manually. He's just doing all these gnarly physical things to get some Right? Some f of that pattern. And he says it a a number of times, like, yeah, maybe it could be done in meditation, but I'm just, this is the way I'm doing it. Right Right. So it's easier than that, I guess is my point. Um, but it can be totally done like that and it is inspiring. But there is a um Yeah. Yeah, you could say that. Right. Not to not to take a w No, there's different ways to do that. Right? Not to devalue it by any means. You know, strengthening the body. Yeah. That's a good thing, because you have to live in the body. If it's strong, it's healthy. and the nervous system is strong, you have you're you're gonna enjoy your experience as a human. Yeah, yeah. So it's a good thing. If I go to the gym I'm only working the physical body. I'm just strengthening the physical body. But again, we're mind, we're body. And we're spirit, right? So there's yoga, there's meditation, and then there's sound mantras, and then there's breath work. Breath work is popular now, pranayams. So if I do the yoga, which yoga just means union, right? I was saying that earlier. then I'm linking with something infinite. It's beyond time and space. I'm not stuck in a matrix trying to muscle my way out of the matrix. So I have to do such an extreme event to just get some positive feelings in the body. You get these adrenaline junkies that jump off fucking bungee jump off the building and then scrape the ground by it's a ma it's like next level and you're like fuck. But why are you doing it bro? Yeah. Yeah It's right. They get some sort of feel out of it. So what we're all I'm saying is like might be a better way. Now now if I can generate that feeling if I can generate that feeling.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">And I'm not at the mercy of this emotional battle with it within myself, right? Now I enter into whatever it is that I want to do, whatever may hope it's I everybody has gifts. Everybody has unique gifts that they want they can express. And if I enter into that, like not see something from it and I just come neutrally, originally to to to to add and to experience and to learn and grow. Like you you just You're gonna yeah, it's just gonna be a different experience. And then I guess in this case, what what that looks like to the observer would be different rather than um kinda using the thing to get something. I'm sc so we started the conversation. I'm skating good, I'm having a good day. I feel good. Skating bad, I feel bad. This is no there's no way to live, you know. You gotta g if you get neutral about it doesn't mean you don't have bad days. Right? But I'm approaching it like we're saying as a challenge. that uh is just an opportunity to for me to grow. It's a duality planet, this positive, negative, up, down, left, right, sun, moon, right? You just you have to get um used to that there is an antagonist pr you So and if you can experience those from the neutral standpoint, um then you can enjoy them. And then what comes as a good is a good thing. Then what comes as a challenge is just you you're at least you're um have the attitude that I'm gonna enjoy this challenge and that usually makes it a thousand times easier. Right. If not just drops the whole challenge away immediately. And then then you can learn faster, you're clearer And you don't get caught in this g game of like ping pong with like the emotional body. Because there's a whole section of the population on the planet that thinks if I get caught in some emotional space, I'm mr I'm helpless to change it. And it's just not true. You can because the emotions are preceded by a thought form. There needs to be a mental position to it. And that's movable. And when I can move it, I can create the emotions in the body I want to feel. And then I become sovereign, independent, happy, contained, and then there's nothing on the outside can move me. And that's why this stuff what we were saying earlier, why haven't we been taught this stuff? Then you can go down that path, which m might be another podcast. But I'm prepared for it. There's a reason. Yeah, you that's why and some people say, oh well that's dangerous. Well who's telling me that? Yeah, the people that don't want you to practice and be independent sovereign or and are profiting off or you basic yeah, basically being a slave. So meditation, which used to be, you know, kind of new you know, that's it now it's just uh people are realizing no, it's just just what you need to do to release empty the trash bin, so to speak, release the pressure. And once that is that I'm clear. And when I'm clear, I can start skating clear, I can start doing art clear. Usually artists are really you know, whatever comes through on their art, but whatever it is comes through as you whatever it is that you are doing and wanna do and it will the experience will be hype.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">But could that be the meditation in itself, the artist painting or us skating? Couldn't that be us doing the meditation in our own way and deleting files?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">It's a good question. Yeah, they can they can complement and supplement each other, right? Uh-huh. So it's why the household, they call it a householder's path. Where it used to be like the y the the idea of the yogis up in the mountain, the ascetic life. I'm not I'm just renunciating the world. Well actually you make a lot more progress being down here. Mm. Right. In the world, of the world. Like not in the in the world, not of the world, but you're in the world, you know, doing everyday stuff. You have families and lives and things you do. You've just added energy to it. Whatever it is. Whatever it is that you're seeing is, just live it up. Have fun. Enjoy your life. Just if you add energy to it in any capacity, you're gonna enjoy it more. The Kundalini Yoga meditation is an authentic spiritual path So it has a lineage of like this person did this, this person did that, and they've added to it. Okay. So when you practice, you're now gaining the benefit of of the th of the goal what they call the goal of all the practitioners before you've you've you've tuned into it. So it's beyond time and space. And those you operate in time and space with the ability to not be caught in time and space. It's very powerful.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Were you like this during PJ's wonderful horror day? No, but have you always had some type of like feeling or because when we're younger We're not really some people are maybe in tune with that, but I don't think a majority of the population or young kids are like really thinking the way that you think or practicing those those techniques and stuff like that, you know what I mean? Do you think you had that stuff when you were filming for videos like that back then?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Um I definitely was born with you know a connection to it. Sure. You know, and it sure it took me twenty years to reconnect. Whereas like sometimes you get kids just born right into their parents like conscious. We all know how it could have been, right? Shit. Whatever. But it's for a reason. It taught me something. So now I can talk about and help and teach I guess and from that place. But I liked skating for for a lot of those reasons that we're talking about. You know, I just kinda like kinda learning about myself. There's some people that learn intellectually. I think that's like six percent of the population, you know And it's a very uh left brain curriculum driven sort of public education, Rockefeller public education system, you know, that wants to turn you into a worker. Sure. Not not necessarily teaching anything. Yeah. Yeah The parallelograms, you know, not to do your tax return. You know, just ba it's be you weren't taught stuff, you know, so so you know, you had to work it out. But I d had a few moments in my life where I look back on and there was a full sort of like uh grokking sort of body blank moment of like whoa this I have a r this is resonating at this time.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">It was what did you even think like do you think now like if you didn't s start skating like you could Would you even have tapped into all this maybe at a at a certain point? Or maybe skating was the catalyst? It's a good question. It's an interesting question.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if you could answer it. I was always a reader. Oh. Yeah, I always read really I've always read a lot. Even as a kid. Like I would be in the my yeah, just dead of winter skating in my dad's garage next to my dad's garage, just like I would have a book I would re you know, read and shit. I was a reader. Really? It was interesting. Like instead of watching escape video, you would just read a book? Yeah, which if you saw the area I grew up in, you'd be like That doesn't that doesn't work, you know what I mean?</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Does that instill it in through your parents or your mom or dad? No. It's just natural.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">My parents my parents left me alone. Okay. Okay. Yeah, they were just like Do your thing. Do your thing, yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">So what you would skate and then finish skating and then read? Or before you would skate or skate for an hour or two, just like chill for a minute.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Huh Yeah. It's funny, right?</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Well, especially nowadays where reading is not really I wish I was a reader more as a as a young kid. I'm I'm living through my son right now, he's such a great reader's red live, probably over a thousand books. I what? I bug out. Wow. Yeah, it's c it's crazy. Nice. So from that standpoint I got I'm I I get jealous. I I don't even know I didn't even know there were that many books. I know.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah man So when you were like growing up, you said you were like uh you skated outside your dad's shop or something, is that what you just said or Yeah, my dad owned the auto parts store. Hmm, okay. And then what it how did you even like What what attracted you to skating? Like what who how how did it get introduced to you?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I've asked my mother this a few times. And I haven't really gotten it because I don't remember. Really? Interesting, right? She says that I found something at like a yard sale, like an old like uh remember they would have like scooters like on the skateboard with the handles. Back to the future style, right? Something like that.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Well, maybe not that old.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">You know, with the wood box on it.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">No, you know what I mean? I used to have one of those. I didn't know you're talking about.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">And then she got me aboard.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Because I wouldn't leave that thing alone. Yeah. Isn't that weird? That's crazy, dude.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. You grew up a probably around skating your whole life, yeah? Uh my you know when my next door neighbor skated.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Um and they were skating in my neighborhood. It was kinda like a f not the f I wouldn't say famous, but it was kind of a rather popular spot. for people to kind of skate and downhill and stuff like that. And then so I always kind of had a skateboard because my neighbor gave me a skateboard. But I don't know in my so I I I feel like When people ask me when I started skating, I always say 15. Why? Because I think at 15 that's when I started to try tricks and I could I I know that I I realize that you could use this thing and you could get a different board to skate, right? It wasn't just knee boarding or buttboarding down the street. So I always had a board, but my definition is when you start to try to do tricks. That's kind of my when you started skating. Interesting. That's just me. I don't know. I I I wouldn't say like, oh, I've skated my whole life. Like that's not really true. You know, it is true, but it's not He's a big surf surf culture in the Santa Monica.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">How old how old were you when you started, PJ? Five.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Wait a minute. Are you going off my how I feel when you start doing tricks or I didn't do tricks for a while. Okay.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Ten. Yeah. Okay. And then I was just a little bit. But you said five. What makes you say five? I had a board. I would ride around. Okay. We build quarter pipes and do kick turns.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh see, that's the thing. That's a trick though. You're doing a quarter a no no, you do a quick turn on a quarter pipe. That's a trick. Like that's not a knee boarding or butt boarding, right?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Yeah, I had a friend move in a few years after I started skating. Okay. Um he was my neighbor. He was a couple years old. His name was Adam Davenport and he skated. So h he we would he would build shit and we would skate in the driveways and the streets uh in the street the street up front and stuff like that. Mm-hmm. Um you know. But I wasn't doing tricks It's interesting.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">What was yeah, when did you start getting into tricks? At ten years old you're saying?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">And how did you even what did your neighbor Can I show you that stuff or did you see videos at this point or what was going on?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">It was a few years later, but I got Plan B question because that was my first video. Damn first video, bro.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh yeah. That was like my second video or third, maybe third blind video days in it was like questionable and the the the speed of That the progression was just insane. From like year to year. It was like what the hell? I don't even know what I'm watching anymore. You know what I mean?</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">What were your thoughts on that video?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Well it was just that was normal.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Makes sense.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Mike Carroll's your favorite skateboarder? Is that true? Why?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Skates everything. Ah. Yeah. Yeah. Skated everything. And just the EMB. Yeah, embarcadero. You know, that was that's kind of like the format I have in like sort of the Love Park, you know, Pulaski Park. you know, Brooklyn Banks and Barcadero. Now Brooklyn Banks a little less, but Plaza, you know.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">The reason why, I mean Mike Currow's one of my favorite skaters too, and I think it's like you know, his style, the way that he did the tricks, but I think also plan B like questionable like in virtual reality for that matter is like it's also the music The music that went along with the part that made that that part just fun more phenomenal than it already was, you know? For sure. Like that's what Like if I hear those songs that my curl skated to in that, I'm like, dude. I get like goosebumps. Yeah. You know, it's like That's and that's crazy whether that a song is attached to that person. Like I feel like it's a few and far between these days, you know, that that happens. Right.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh, then you get stuck with like a act like you're known for a song. That's a cool if it's a good song, that's a that's a cool thing, yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">But growing up that was all it was all good music that was attached to it. Now, granted it was a i it was all like, you know, they were They were punking it. You know, they weren't doing music is powerful.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, right. And music combined with skating and skate videos It's super powerful. Even though you had no no music in one of your parts, but why?</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Why didn't w who whose choice was that? Yeah, this is in Really Sorry, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Silence is golden.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I didn't think I was had enough footage for a part or and I was almost not gonna have a part. Oh okay. Yeah. So me and Steve Scuba Steve, we just filmed a lot of stuff and like a couple weeks. No we did because I was just like fourth quarter it. Um like because I wasn't gonna have a part. Wow. And that's a whole backstory too. So put up 60 points in the full and then I was like, yeah, just don't put since it's not like a a real part, at least that was my thinking. Yeah. I was like That's a Mike Carroll board. I love that.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh wow. Oh, because you were saying that you would sticker up like girl boards and just put Flip stickers on it or something?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I mean I've been doing it for a while. Like since element days. Just spray paint. I was down, you know, down for the companies. I just, you know, liked a certain board. So wait, you gonna go buy these boards Just trade or trade. Okay.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">So wait, what happened with the the no sil the silence is you were going on the story.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, so I just didn't think of it's Weird to watch. Um It's amazing to watch. It's not weird. So it was your idea. Yeah, it was my idea. I didn't think I had enough footage for a part, so I just was like, yeah, put it with no music. There was some uh inspiration from Eastern Exposure Zero, which that damn Wolf compilation. Because he did a a lot of that Eastern Exposure video in black and white and then he came out with a video that was like a a mix of everything that he had filmed, maybe his whole life to that point in color but didn't put music to it. It was a really quick sort of montagey type video that somehow I had that I watched a lot, you know. Gotcha. Um the Eastern Exposure videos, the Dan Wolf stuff Underachievers, all the all the those videos had a big impact on a lot of dudes in the East Coast. So that was a sort of s a side. to that was like, oh just make it like uh Eastern Exposure Zero. But also Tim Dowling had that video called Listen. That's just true. Which yeah you you had some shit in there for sure. I watched a lot of that video. Hell yeah dude um Yeah, and the D V S's there was that was a sick video. It was Tim Dollin, was he from Santa Monica? Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Santa Monica dude</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">And he was already filming with the girl and chocolate dudes. And he's a reason why I got kind of introduced to every everybody like that. I think uh growing up in Malibu I had a bunch of friends that skated and then they all kind of partied and kind of got into other things and I had to kinda go find another another skate posse, you know. Yeah. So he kind of was the catalyst to like introduce me to everybody.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh that's cool. Yeah. I really love that. So um one thing about the footage though with no music, it has a sort of sound to it, actually. It's interesting to w someone mentioned that to me and I was like, Oh, I kind of agree. It does. Yeah. And then like it kinda it's Funny to think about everybody has their own sort of like when they skate the sound they make when they're skating.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">It's like Well there's especially the way I mean just gonna say the way you land tricks is really solid so it sounds nice But I was gonna say like what was up with the benches? Was that like was that fourth quarter right there?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">The a hundred percent. Yeah. Yes, you had the benches. Shout out to Scuba. He had a homie. Um I can't remember his name now, but he had the truck. We put him in the truck and just film Filmed it like that because Steve was you know we were lighting stuff up at night and he had generators and lights the whole setup and then we just lit up the benches just to kind of get it done. Why didn't you have footage going into it? So after the c last Coliseum video came out, the guy who filmed that video didn't want to film For flip. Oh, okay. Which was like, hey, I I got you a job filming for Flippin' S. And he didn't want it. No. Interest.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Wow. Okay.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">So it kinda killed the momentum a little bit. And there were trips happening, like I was traveling at this point. Okay.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">So because you right after Wonderful Horrible Life, that's when everything like popped off for you. You know, I mean you were getting flowed by element, right? In the very beginning. You were gonna have a part. In element? Is this all true? You're gonna have a part in element, but then you all the footage went to Coliseum. How? Why? What what was the deal right there</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, I mean I'm a young kid at the time. And Element was actually paying me really well as an AM. Really? I think it was like fifteen hundred bucks a month, which is like three thousand now. 15 yeah like holy you know a lot of Burger King man so a lot of train tokens you know I was down for element too like I d you know, Johnny and the the squad they had was very East Coast, Donnie. You know, Donnie would hook me up with Ellen. Yeah. He he had He was living here. I'm sure you skated with him at that time. Eric Dr Eric Dr.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Dresson, Donnie Barley. Weird, odd couple. Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Amazing though.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Where would you skate? Courthouse. Every courthouse, ponds, beaches. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'd cruise out, do some missions. Yeah. Really fun. Great, great dudes.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. So he was out here and then he moved back to the east coast. And when he moved back, I don't know, we just he just kind of sought me out And we started skating, I was tripping, you know, because I was Donnie was a big pro at that time. Donnie you know, Donnie. Uncle Don Don. Don't you think? Okay, okay. So Yeah, I just started skating with Donnie Barley all the time as a young kid, and it was pretty sick. Wow. Um, so he got me on element and And that went on for a while. Yeah. So Kenny Hughes, man. Yeah, a lot of a lot of Reese Reese. Tim O'Connor? I think Tim had just Yeah, Tim had just gone to Oh Habitat? Yeah. Okay. Oh but he was on for a sec. There was still like a connection. Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">And then so you filmed a bunch of stuff and so what happened with the video?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, so I think Element was going through a lot of changes. You know, I actually got on this on Element the same time as BAM Like the ad, Bam's ad first ad was when my name was like on a ad for the first time. Well I yeah, now it's official. Amazing. It's funny. It's just kid shit, you know, that you're just like oh shit. Um famous dude. So so that was but he was at that time just a you know toy machine ripper FDR. He hadn't really gone full full full full bam. Full BAM yet. Yeah, yeah. And then Um Bill Elman was selling to Billabone. So they were going through changes and that way Johnny was, you know, seeking a partnership to grow his business uh exponentially. Um, so there were changes and I th I didn't process it so much as a kid, you know. I just knew that Donnie and Kenny. They were like kind of a you know there was like they were a little bit, you know, frustrated at things and there was just the vibe kind of was but everybody was still on the on the team and it still was like you know still cool in car. Um but I just yeah just wanted to escape for something since they were pr pr that was a bam direction was a was starting, you know. Yeah, it's CATing for something a little bit more like um I'm trying to get into the headspace of where I was at as a kid.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Well I'm just trying to think too because like as a kid, right, you say what, fifteen? Something like that.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, it's fifteen to s three two or three years.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">So like I I I I'm almost thinking there's gotta be some out outside influence there. Maybe a little bit of Donnie Barley and and Kenny Hughes, like you were saying, but like you had all this footage that that was gonna be in the element video. Did Donnie Barley and Kenny Hughes stay on element? Or did you just be like I'm out of here. Or did somebody else from Coliseum say, hey, take all your footage. Let's put it in Coliseum. Let's you're gonna have the best part. We're gonna call it PJ Lads one of all, you know, millions sold.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I don't know. Yeah. So they got so it was like an AM squad like uh Tosh and Colt and they wanted to make an AM video. Okay. So that was the initial sort of motivation because we have been making shop videos. like for forever, you know. Yeah. One of the dudes got a V X and that was like a big deal, you know. So if we were filming with him with like proper stuff and then stuff would be in four and one and we would make like legit shop videos and we would have like premieres and they were like these events and it was pretty fun actually. Sick. 'Cause it was just what we were doing anyways, kids skating around the city. And uh so Yeah, it's it's fun times, man.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">How did how how did that name how did they come across that name?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">So so let me finish the point. So yeah. So that was the original catalyst because Elman was gonna make an am video. So I was like fucking going hard for this, you know. Okay. So then I started with that. But as he kinda got into it things uh element were kind of changing and then, you know, the Coliseum guys you know, we were talking about potentially starting like a board brand, you know? Mm-hmm. And then they were really into flip and Um, I th you know Flip was sick at the time, international. Obviously Boston's like kind of has that European flavor. Um So ended up um riding for f going to ride for Flip with the idea that, you know, Jeremy We would write for Girl and Ryan would write for this company and turn pro because we didn't want to turn ourselves pro, I think was the the the final thought. Um, and then we were kind of the come back and do it. Okay. If I were that that was kind of what I talked to Matt about, the the owner of the sh the skate shop at the time. Okay, okay. And we're we're young too, so keep this in mind. And uh so that was it the thought there. Okay. You know, because we wanted to do a board brand. A cold Coliseum.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">You would di you don't know you don't even know the board. That was just the talk.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Oh Yeah, so that would that was funny. Okay. Yeah, but but element was kind of it was definitely going into the to the bam direction. Yeah. Because they needed something to grow their business. And that's fine. Which it exploded. I've talked to Johnny later on too, and he was like, you know, you had to do that. Yeah. And I was like, okay, respect. And uh But I I was always like super down for for element and yeah. Uh Ryan Kingman, you know, did a lot. Shout out to Kingman. He did a did a lot to help me out as a kid. The team was sick, Jake Rupp also. Yeah, yeah, a lot of you know, a lot of homies. So it was a good good s good it was cool, man. Yeah. There there was a There was a moment that definitely was like super rad. It was clean, but still like and obviously going from underworld element and its roots with Andy Howell. Right. It's super dope. East Coast, you know total hip hop, up to you know cleaned up to element to kinda it was like in that trajectory. Yeah. To to kind of blow up, you know, sell to Billabong and get kinda blown blown out or or let's say For sure, for sure. Um expand. Yeah. Um and they wrote off they rode BAM still t to two, I want to say five hundred mil at one point.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">I mean they were they opened a a BAM shop pretty much in Times Square.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yes. So yeah, just to do something more sorta skate. I feel like go ahead.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">No, I was just saying I I feel like it's uh it was like the perfect fit. Like you kind of went in there and that video came out. And it was just kinda like perfect. Mm-hmm. You know? I don't know if you felt like it was perfect or if you even skated with any of those guys.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">The guys at the shop, definitely that was their f favorite thing. And I was supportive of them being supportive of me and like just going in that direction to eventually try and create something off of it all. That would be our own. Interesting. So it was a weird like sort of thought out But slightly naive at the time.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Did you get offers from a lot of people at that point?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Like what what cut can you say what companies? I wrote girl boards. Girl boards most of my childhood. Okay. And uh that was my kind of my shit Uh and go on to. What what happened? Um Yeah. So and then I got on S And I got on S because Donnie hooked me up with America, I would rock his shoe. But then it was like well he's more of a it seems uh S was more of a vibe, uh not uh America. So Yeah, I rode for S and then um Tony at S was like you should ride for girl that's more of your fit I'm like yeah that makes sense And I remember going to the girl park, skating there quite a few times, just in that time period. But then like everybody came, like, you know, Eric and Rick and Mike and the squad, and I was just like, this is sick, you know? So that was definitely one of those days of like, yeah, you know, they've mentioned like, yeah, you know, element makes our boards, so we need to be like cool about it, but you're you know welcome. Like they're not gonna huge deal you, but if you quit then they're Yeah, because everybody was getting the the hint, like you know. And what happened? So I mean yeah, I just again I th I if I'm thinking about it, if I'm like, you know, recapitulating what went down in my Teenager head. We were gonna start a company but it would just made more sense. And also Jeremy wrote for Girl and he kinda had that. And then I was gonna write for Flip, Glon was gonna write and then we're gonna come back and like do a board comp that was kinda like the thinking. And then they were really down for flip and I was just down for what they were down for. Not that I didn't like them and I liked the international flavor and all that. It just So that was the direction I chose, which was maybe perfect, but maybe strange. You could kind of look at it. Uh both ways. It also it definitely threw when Dave didn't want to film anymore, like he was just like, no, I'm just gonna Do my Boston Towny thing. Okay. That threw a g huge wrench in the gears for sure. Where is it? And then that's whole other thing but then I saw I did see Mike and Sam skating the court h uh standing LA High one time and they left like a and</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">napkin contract like we will still keep on like that's amazing I love that when it comes full circle like that I mean dude I don't know how that didn't work out but Um, like you said, it it probably would have been a little strange with you and Jeremy, but nah, I don't think it would have. You know what I'm saying? Like But I think it would have been pretty funny. Like I I love how you know the teenage mind works in the sense of like you guys saying, Oh, we're gonna go skate here and there. That would have been the hardest thing to do to probably leave those situations to come back full circle, you know what I mean? Probably which it didn't happen in that sense. But fuck man, I wish he would have gotten girl. Alright, no, I appreciate that.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">But also at the time period, sorry Kelly, real quick, at the time yeah it's after the think about the time period though flip was huge. True. Huge. I mean they were they were killing it at that point too. So yeah. Making, you know, looking back and being like, oh, was it the right decision or not? I mean, it was the decision that was like pertinent to the time and the era I feel like, you know?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, I mean I don't think I saw less than like three thousand boards the whole time I was there. Wow. They were doing really well. That's when they were on top of the game. And yeah. Well also But I also didn't like their boards, so it was the whole thing. Like the Prime, not I like the brand. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were getting their boards from Prime I believe. Okay. Or the end of Prime, then they were going to Mad Madrid brothers out of of Clearwood for a second. I was like, oh dude, still trying to get 'Cause I I like those flatter boards but then they just became the nose and tail became I just got strong. But I did like the flat metal. So anyways, there's a whole board thing. Board too. So I would s uh also when I was skating for element I would Spray paint, girl and chocolate boards and put element stickers on them. I again I'm down is down for element. I just liked the ride what you wanted to ride. I like those flat boards. Those chocolate boards made by Taylor. were really cool because they were like flat and uh steeper nose and tail, same angle nose and tail, which if you go back and look at those uh parameter numbers or we're we're no one was making boards like that. That was a furniture factory, right? Yeah, I believe so. Down here, right? I believe so.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh yeah, girl chocolate had They were different boards.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, Taylor Dykma and then PS was making the um the girl boys. But he had a f he had to make them really thick because they were the flatter middle concave. So they were a little bit Heavy but rad shapes because Paul is really good at the 2D look down template. Um to answer your question, Kelly. Matt was watching Matt was in film the guy that owned the skate shop, he was in film school And uh so he was like into like making movie documentaries and editing and just they were studying that type of stuff. And they were were studying some documentary with the name with that name. So he was like, W would you want your name to be in the title? They called me. But I don't care I don't care. Yeah, I didn't think anything of it. 'Cause it's just it's a skate shop and you were kids, you know, it's just we're doing Just having fun. That's where the name did you that's where the name came.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Did you have any idea it was gonna get the response that it did?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">My goal with that part was like I just wanted to it to be as good as pros parts. That was like that was my thought.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh so you weren't it was so you weren't just you were you weren't just going out and filming with the boys. You had like a fire and disaster. Not like an agenda, but you were like you had a a A direction. Yeah, I was I was committed to a direction. Yeah, I was definitely committed.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I definitely yeah, burned the boats and like this is it.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Wow. At this time you were getting Paid by Element. So you already had a taste of the industry and you already had a lot of people.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I had gone trips with Element, sleep skating with Donnie. Right.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">And so that makes a little more sense when you're like, let me skate as good as the pros and let me like really like hammer this part down when you already had like a taste of the industry. You know, and like what it's all about and what's possible.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, and I mean I just skated a lot. Well that's a that helps. Right. A part like this that comes out, are you having any say in the music, in the uh editing, or are they just kind of making it They kind of were doing their thing.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Like I said, Matt was going to school and for film and editing and the guy Artie was a strong individual. personality. He definitely had his viewpoints of how he wanted things to be. I just wanted it to kind of I was just being a team player or being a team leader player to try and make a semblance of some thing cohesive um and bring people along like of all the rippers and everybody in the um in the area.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">I mean this created a Few careers.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">This went viral.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Jeremy Rogers, Alexis Sablon, yourself, like Galant. Gallant. It put a lot of people on the map, dude.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, and shout out to You know, Boston and its skate history. Yeah. You know. Yeah. I know Roger's here. Yeah. Um There was like a lot of really sick ass dudes that came out. Boston has a great New England has a a really gnarly skate history. I was really stubborn as a kid and kinda looked to like what was happening in you know, the videos I was watching, like trilogy and and what was happening in California, you know, more. Right. Um so I didn't you know I didn't not that I I always showed those guys respect, but I didn't put them like on this pedestal of like the dudes. I could see that. Okay. Boston's like had And does it just looking back on it you kind of realize how gnarly of a skate skate history it does have. Right.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Well I feel like at that time too California had a lot of things, a lot of stuff. Just LA in general had a lot of Motion, you know, had a lot of things going on, lot of different companies, like you said, trilogy California all that stuff. It was like I mean, I don't think you were the only person on the East Coast that was paying attention to what was going on and a fan of what was going on out here. You know, it was like insane. It was insane.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, you were the epicenter of it, huh? I It's crazy.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">It's crazy.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">So would you skate down the boardwalk? Like is it w to get to sand gaps? What did you skate?</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">It depends on uh you have to understand back then too it was like er mid nineties maybe and um there was a lot of You know, it wasn't there's some gangs and stuff. You know, it wasn't like you had to be kinda, you know, watch your back a little bit, you know, especially with Venice. You get into Venice, you skate the Venice pits, it's like, hmm, okay, getting a little dark, we should go. You know, it's kinda you had to kind of mind your your P's and Q's on when to when to hit the road and stuff like that. But um yeah we just skate everywhere. Take the bus into into town and then just skate. Skate, skate, just skate. Was the Venice Pits the m the main spot? We had it, it was like our triangle. It was like sand gaps. One of sand gaps. Venice pit, courthouse. That was kind of our triangle. And the ponds was kind of on the way in the middle of that. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah. Still there. Still there. Yeah. It's crazy.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">So did you get out and do a line or anything? No, but I'm like, is the background still good? Is that another flat?</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">And they're like curved, they're like so little.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">I saw someone skating that recently. Really?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">What's and and you were on Blind, right, before Girl?</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Never had a sponsor before Girl. Oh I mean I had a float, I I did get Boards from Blind, the uh again Tim Dowling hookup, gave Rodney Mullen a sponsor me tape, and then because I just didn't know what was happening with chocolate. I I think it might In my mind, I didn't even want to skate for blind. I wanted to skate for chocolate because that's where all the dudes were, you know? And then um I don't know, the way Rodney wanted another sponsor me tape and I I didn't I didn't I just said I didn't send to him. I I c I had my eye on my prize. Sure. You know what I mean? And no disrespect to Blind or Rodney or anybody, but That's where I wanted to go.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, that's powerful. Yeah. So directing that's holding the thought. Exactly.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Also I feel like a lot of people sometimes will just kind of take what they can get. Yeah. You know, and it maybe will bite them in the ass, uh uh at the you know, so you might as well go for what you want.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, I have confidence, trust in the unknown, enter the unknown without fear for sure.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">And I figured hey, if I just keep skating with these guys and and be around and everything they they They they gotta put me on sooner or later. You know?</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">That was one way to go about it.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">That's a good that's hard. Was Robbie McKinley from this area?</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Uh he was from Florida, but he then moved here, so he was kind of in the mix and he skated for blind. Yeah, he skated for blind.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Uh Inland Empire and then Santa Monica, yeah, you're correct. Did he skate for blonde then went to Rudd? But you were already.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Well here's the thing. We were both in the sa our first video for Girl and Chocolate w was the uh the chocolate tour. With the Danny mnemonic. Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">But wait, was your sponsor me tape to get on Girl and Chocolate for both of you with the listen video pretty much? Kind of, yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Because I never sent them a sponsor me tape. It was just like skating with them. That's sick. Then the listen video. Yeah, so you're you're right, I was kinda getting flowed. Daniel Castillo was my first sponsor. He gave me boards. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then he kinda was like, dude, fuck this dude and then we'll get this Give him all my boards on my box, you know? So he just pawned me off to to the guys down there.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">But yeah. I agree though, but being in the mix is definitely a strong like way to kind of Get in the mix. You know what I'm saying? Being in the mix is a good way to get in the mix. Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Well that's why I was asking PJ earlier too, because like what were you even skating with these Flip dudes? Like you were on flip, but like were you even like I mean you maybe go on some tours, but out here we were skating together, you know?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, that's true. Yeah, no. No. I didn't skate with those dudes, no, but I had already kind of built up like the name for myself. For sure. So I wasn't I wasn't M, I just went on there as a with a board. Which I didn't even like see or talk about it just showed up in a box. Wait, right away?</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Right away they just sent you a board with your name on it.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, like I got a box and just like They were the biggest boxes too. I'm sure.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">I know you like kind of turned down the girl thing, but I thought it was always cool. You had your what what do you would say? Like you you had I don't know you You rode for four-star and S and and f and flip. You kinda had your eggs in different baskets, I guess you'd say.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">And you were b four star, you he was in the you were in the building.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, yeah, true. I was a bad sick. Did that kind of happen through the whole like, hey, I'm gonna write for a flip, but they offered you a spot on four star?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Well, element Part of Element was that I wro um I wrote for their clothing company. Because Element ended up becoming a pretty big apparel business. But at that time as a kid I was like I want to ride for four star and then I remember specifically s them saying you that's it probably won't happen. That's not flip Said that. No, this would have been element as a game.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh Elm uh excuse me. Excuse me.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. I know that's weird. But so I was on Element, I was like, Wanna write for four-star because four star was a shit, you know Totally. And they were like, that's hard. You could that probably not gonna happen. You can't. You know.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh, not even that you're con Contractually you can't do it, but like you literally just won't be able to get on force.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, right. That's what they present to you. Like you're not gonna be able to get on.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Well, I was already That's amazing. Yeah. So I w I wrote for them for the clothing for a while, but I did have that in the back of my head of like I want to ride for four-stars someday, you know, that'd be sick. Um So when I not that that was my plan, but you know, when I uh left Element and wrote for Flodad, then I was like, well, I'm on S with Eric and Paul, mm, you know, and then it just ended up working out. I just and it wasn't even like a a money grab or anything like that. It was just c I just was just cool. Yeah, I was soaked on that. And um Well actually I remember at pr at Soltec one of the things was was Eric was trying to or they were in talks about Soltec buying four star and distributing it and and, you know, making it. So that was like another thing too, I for one of the reasons why I wrote for s for four star. Oh because it was gonna become this um basically Soltex uh apparel apparel business which later became Altamont. Uh no way.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">I didn't I had never heard this four star story before. That's crazy.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, it's it was like whisperings. You know how people were talking, business is happening, you know? It was one of those things. Um but it stuck out to me. 'Cause I was in in uh in the mix. Uh just getting on the yeah, getting on the S and stuff. It's interesting. And then I they were doing a colorway of like a shoe, an Excel shoe, and I was like, Yeah, just put a four star on there. Um and so there ended up becoming like one with a B, like a Boston B. And then but that was originally supposed to be a four-star logo.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">No way.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah But they but then Eric called me, he's like, Yeah we can't put that on the shoe because there's a star in converse with Sue, because they have the star. That's like funny Well to be fair, like it's even crazy to put the Boston logo on there. Yeah. Yeah, they had they had to switch it a little bit. Oh they did.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">I feel like Converse is like closer to the shoe thing than Boston, right?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I feel like people just Yeah, yeah, because the shoe thing. Later on actually I got an accountant whose Yeah, that's what it became. See how it's not quite it's a little different than the the official New York Yankees is the only major league baseball team that owns their logo. Oh. Everybody else is MLB owns. Oh real okay.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">That makes sense.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">New York Yankees own their logo.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, yeah. I heard that actual voice.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Um And I had an accountant actually years later, maybe two years, three years later after this, who was fr who was uh Larry Lucino's w the owner of the Red Sox uh wife. They were friends. So then I got was like, Hey can I use the can I use the l I would have been able to use I was like can I use the logo and they were like, Yeah, sure. I didn't end up using it for anything but uh the opportunity presented itself.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">But so they were about to put the logo, the four star logo on the shoe and then they just can't they just said no we can't with the star.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, yeah. I mean it's just a funny aside story. You know, just try to get skate nerds. Yeah, that's like it was that's how uh into the Four star it was, yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">But but that's like 'cause that's funny because that was a pretty iconic shoe that came out that people still talk about to this day that was supposed to be something completely else. Something else.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Yeah, maybe. It's funny. So yeah, I I rode for four star, which was cool to be at a at a girl company. Yeah. Um and I was I was hyped on it.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Well like I said you're in the build super champion fun zone, man.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, that was I never had a really great trip to Japan, but that was a good that was cool just a just a funny video.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">I feel like back then it was like four star was like the premier And I'm biased, of course. But I it was like dude they the clothes were so good. Everything about it, the videos were good, the clothes were good, the riders were good. Like it was just like a the perfect company. It was a very clean aesthetic. Yeah. Clean aesthetic. Clean aesthetic. Well said, yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">And if I feel like the videos were like actually fun. Like it was great skating, but they had a fun vibe to them.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">They weren't so serious. Yeah, I remember one time like We were in downtown for like a catalog shoot and we Spike was there and we went to like a like a Target or like a a Walmart or some type of store department and just like the toy section and he just bought a bunch of like props. And just just like, I don't know, like Mac Shaft with like Hulk glow. I don't know, it's just funny. Spike doing his thing for the four-star shoot, so that was cool. Um so when did the beach curbs become like the everyday spot in Santa Monica?</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, that this is uh five um catalog shoot for four-star.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, and these things were just the funniest.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Watch spikes. Right here. Boom.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh that's where that Oh I remember that. Oh my god. He saved that camera though, huh?</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">It's amazing, dude. Yeah, it was a man good, good vibe. The one that uh Marcus Olsen is in the store and he hippie jumps over the uh the watermelons. Remember that in the box and stuff? Anyway. Um honestly the sand gap I don't I don't remember. I think it was just always there.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">It always seemed like a w odd spot to me to like be the everyday spot. I realize you get kicked out of everywhere else sometimes. Yeah. But it just</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Well, the whole thing was Did you skate there like every day?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Every uh damn near.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">I mean it was just a s it was like our skate park. We just go there. Like I You would go there because you know somebody would be there. Or if nobody was there, somebody would eventually show up. You know, it was a one of those spots, but um You know, you got roller skaters, roller blu you got everything on wheels, bikes going by, so it's like they they it's day y you can't kick us out.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">You know what I mean? Like you can't I think a few times a couple cops tried to were like What are you talking about? This is there every wheel is here and you're gonna kick us out, you know? So you think fun spot</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Do you think that it was just as crowded back then as it was now?</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh you mean in in terms of skaters or crowded? Yeah, skaters. Man, I think there's a there's more, I think. Do Hard to I don't know, dude.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">And I'm not even there that often. I I think every time I've gone it seems like there's like a</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Well now that it's the curbs, but it's migrated down to the those curbs now.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">I feel like it's that's the funniest thing to me is that Everyone skated something else there back in the day and now it's this whole other thing and no one skates the original stuff.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Well the original stuff is very rounded. It's very skated, very yeah. But um Yeah dude it was uh yeah everybody that would come through on a tour or something would like stop there you know so and it was just one of the spots too where you would just like Oh, let's film something. Oh, you gotta forget like you know, you're feeling something. It was just a lot of the filming there wasn't like planned, I don't think. It was just kind of like, hey</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">So it's almost like let's get the day going, you know, like you don't get kicked out. Let's start off here.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Did you end up going to Santa Monica like a ton just to get out of that heat?</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">For sure. I I mean yeah. I mean I'd have to I'd get picked up 'cause I didn't have a car until I was probably twenty one. So I definitely yeah, we got picked up and we definitely would leave the valley. But there was definitely times where we were I mean, there was a lot of skate spots in the valley. So For sure. Yeah. A lot of skate spots, yeah. So, um but yeah, we come down here definitely quite a bit.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">When's the first time you saw Paul?</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh shit, Paul I saw when he was like f either fourteen, fifteen, just randomly s at I fac I don't know exactly where. Um Is that before All City? You know what, dude? It could have been at Nigel's house. Cause you used to always skate at Nigel's house and I used to Nigel used to tell me like, dude, you gotta see you gotta check out Paul.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Where would you meet Nigel Nigel was funny how OG Nigel is. Oh dude, he's been around. I just saw him last week at the courthouse. Oh sick. Skating. I think from 118 possibly</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Didn't you sell him gear back in the day? And I used to sell him a grip of DVS's back in the day. Okay, cool. He'd sell them for more than I'd sell and so he'd come up. He was the first reseller. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Yeah, he mentioned that last time he was on. He was like, dude. I was so cool when I was getting shoes from you brush. DVS was the Dunlop brothers? The Dunlops and uh and Gavin, yeah. But it was Gavin's kind of like orchestrated the the idea of of bringing everybody together, so to say. If that's he he pretty much panpicked the team and they were the back end of like kind of funding it and and kind of making it come together</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Was you know Herb?</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, that's my it's my uh my uh his guy, yeah.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">What was he was is the Dunlop Brothers and him like what was the connection with him and DVS?</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Was it what 118 They I mean Herb used to do their tax</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Do do all this stuff. Yeah, okay. What is this connection?</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">But I knew he was the Yeah, every it seems like w with within that circle kind of everybody started to use not use everybody, but um were um you know you should you should use this guy. I got a guy. I got a guy. Yeah yeah I got a guy. And then he becomes a Herb was I mean he's he's been such a great guy throughout this Journey with for myself. I've been him with probably the last twenty plus years so wow, sick.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Good dude. Helped me out a ton. Yeah. I'm sure it as you said.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">I mean if he have if I would have seen anything weird I'd definitely eject real quick. But yeah, he's he's been great.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">When you were getting you you were making money at a young age, fifteen. Were you always were you good with your money? Were you would you save it or spend it or a little bit of both? I was okay. Yeah? Okay.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah It's not how much money you make, it's how much money you keep. That's always key. This is the question. This is the question. Well you you got two jobs, right? You got the the one you do for money and then you got you gotta get your job for your money. Yeah, that that mentality. Yeah. Yeah, I did okay. Anytime you're in the sort of employee and self employed, independently contracted car category getting paid. Um it's you definitely gotta inv you gotta invest, you know. You also gotta pay your taxes.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Because you're paying taxes fifteen year old kid, you know, that do that they don't teach this in school. They don't know that oh he's getting paid, he's got you know, it took me a while to figure that out.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I didn't really start figuring it out until I, you know, was on S foley and then I signed a r a really bad deal actually for like a long term It's like six years which like not the best money, but I just was like I'm fucking committed, you know. I didn't like have a agent or have anybody look at it. It was just like boom.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">That was your first contract that they presented</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I believe so. I was getting paid but uh that's the first one I remember from them. This is S you're talking about? Yeah. Okay. Like I wanna say eight months to a year into it the the money just quadrupled and I was like, What what happened? you know? And then I just waited next month and it was like the same amount, you know? Huh. Like more like more than quadrupled. I was like, What's going on? 'Cause I didn't negoti renegotiate anything, you know. It was just it was like But that ended up being Mark Waters actually. Oh wow. He was like, do we we uh he just went to bat for me behind not me knowing internally. This is just everything you learn like later on, you know. Right.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">I never heard is I mean I didn't heard the story before particularly, but that's amazing.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yes, that was good.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Mark Waters is Amazing dude.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, he went to bat for me uh as a as a younger kid. So then I was like, I gotta get my scene together, I gotta start, you know. Wow. Working out shit.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Um very common in skateboarding just to sign on the dotted line though, I feel like. Especially back then.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">For sure.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, very common. I mean who who's got lawyers, you know?</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">I think you just don't think about it in a sense of like this is not the norm, you know what I mean? And now you have this contract, you're just like, Oh, what do I do? Sign it?</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Like you know, it just Right.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">You don't think like let me go get somebody to look up over the Oh yeah, you know?</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">We're gonna go to HR Block and get a good lawyer, you know. Look at the taxes. You know, like where are you gonna call it? Like who the the billboards? Like, hey man, I got this skateboarding contract you need to look at.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">That's why word of mouth in the industry in a sense of like if there's somebody that you're working with, it's really cool to pass it along to somebody else to kinda help. them along their journey because if they have no idea what's going on because these things are not taught to you in school that's one thing that we should be taught in school is about taxes because it's very important in life. You start learning from the inner circle.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">That was part of my reading. I read every single Robert Kiyosaki book. It was so funny. It was like fifteen of them. I read them all in like a So fast too. Those are really good books average step point that shit. But yeah, it's true two point. That's what I was saying earlier. It's good to be f educated in that respect, because it's just energy. Yeah. You know, it's just ultimately energy and when you get a lot of it, it just amplifies what you already are. It's neutral. Yeah. But, you know, it's gonna amplify. It's have a sort of strong directional signal to the system.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Speaking of energy, what was it what was the energy like here? Look at this.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Look at this squad.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Throwback. That is insane, dude. That's real fun. That is the S squad back then. That was a heavy squad.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">How did you feel going into it? Because you're kind of like you always seem like a quiet type of guy. How was it like going thrown into like just to the top like that?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Um, I had a confidence to me because I had been skating for so long, skating with Donnie, everything we talked about, right? I just just had it naturally from my upbringing. Um, I definitely didn't get it from S. I didn't even know I was on the team at this point. Really? Yeah, I felt that on this tort that Tony was just bringing me along. Oh. Like just to have you there? Like it's like, yeah, there's like maybe the f the kid that like could get on the company. Did you did you see that thing recently with Rodrigo? Like I didn't even know I was on the team and he's like filming for Medic Mati.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh I didn't no I didn't s but I did see that actually, yes.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I had the same kind of experience with that. I don't know what that was with communication or how the structure of company versus employee, you know, like that happens at skateboarding. We're the king, we tell you know, I don't you know, I'm young, so the communication aspects that happens</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">A lot in skateboarding.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">But yeah, in that photo, I didn't even know I was on the team. That's amazing. I didn't even think I I was just thought I was just like Tony was bringing the the kid that might get on the team. And I talked to Paul about this recently because Paul had gone on a trip or two like to I thought it was Japan, but he said England. And then he had like s extras in the DVD, you know, so I was like, oh yeah, Paul's on. Okay. And I was always like</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Was it mainly just like a bunch of like demos and stuff on the on this trip?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. That was just a demo trip and a classic old skate trip, you know, when things are Those are big demos dude.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Look at that squad right there. That's uh I'd go watch that demo any day of the fucking year. I'm telling you. Wow. Only do what it's bored Oh yeah. Never leave home without it. And the c the Krieger three bolts. Oh well you got the three one, two, three?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, because I saw Ronnie had a board with just three bolts and I thought that was cool.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">You know what I I I honestly think that I think that it that came from like up north.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">That's what I I think it did.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">I I I I couldn't s I swore I saw like Sheffi and like these guys do it and then I I did it too, the three bolts, you know. I would always kinda come on come loose a little bit, but um Where did you where did you see it you said? Veronic money trigger.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Did you put it exactly the same way every single time</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I just remember like the one had to be they had to be uh they couldn't be on like the same side. Oh, I think they started to rattle Yeah, they started to break, so then I went back to four. Right. Yeah. I I I was trying to be cool iconic.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">I went from three to two sometimes. Yeah, dude.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. It's just pure laziness.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Did you know it was a cool yeah.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I don't know. Did you guys did you go to SF often to skate? No, maybe Jeron did, but E and B footage and stuff. So Did you go to like FTC and just the whole thing?</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, yeah. The whole experience. I I mean I stayed up there for like a good two months, probably one summer, and people are like, dude, are you aren't you from San Francisco? It's like dude. Nah. I spent a lot of time up there, but no. I mean at that time everybody was like very um warm welcoming and like very cool. So I always wanted to go up there. So I'd stay up there with uh with Mike York, I said with him quite a bit and um Where did he live? He lived in Berkeley. So we would take the bar out to his out to his place, but we'd also go over to um our our buddies uh heiress. And he had this big warehouse in Oakland. And y you'd probably seen it in a couple videos, but like he had like skate spots inside of his his warehouse. And this was this warehouse was an actual house because his dad was a gnarly artist. He made like these metal sculptures and like he's very well known. I forget his name at the moment. feel bad. But um that was like a really like hot spot for everybody. Everybody in everybody would go there. Ron Allen. Sick. It's like a skate loft, an artist loft. Pretty much. Pretty much. But it was he was very open like and welcoming to everybody, you know. So All the dudes at that time would always go back to his crib and like skate and hang out all night. It was one of those spots. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Good good times out there. Did you see LeVar? Yeah. Spent quite a few times qu quite a minute with uh with L Ovar as well. Great skateboarder, great kid. He was very young at that time.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he was a big inspiration for me. See somebody some not same age, but you know, just like okay, this dude students young and not Brandon Turner.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">There were a few that I was like, Yeah, no, he was heavy at that time. And he was on blind. He had his moment. Yeah, he was like yeah, the f the man. And actually I've been seeing I don't know if you guys have been seeing him but he's it seems like he's on the gram now. He's kind of like poking his head out a little bit to kind of like sick It's pretty rad. Is he skating right? If he's not skating, it seems like he's about to. Damn him and his brother Marcus.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">I always trip because there was like a four-in-one. He has a profiles and he's skating a girl board in it.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">For who who was Marcus?</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Uh LeVar. And I was like, damn, now he would have been sick on Girl too. I don't know, just I saw it was a rant it was a clip at the library.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Maybe it was on the tail end of the the blind situation. Maybe.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">I don't know. Talking about plan B and questionable and you growing up on that and then you know, the Laval the World Camp. They they weren't the same, but they were like kind of very, very, very similar. But how did that feel w cause you were on the plan B when it came back? Right. How was that like a nostalgic move for you or was it like what how how did that even come about?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I think just being influenced as a kid. It was always in my head as like the brand.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">It's crazy company. And uh</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Certain brands don't come along too often that change skateboarding.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, I mean people knew that like I like plan B. Even Like when I rode for Element on my the van I had it was like a plan B sticker next to an element sticker. Amazing. Because it was just like a skate sticker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, for sure. Which was funny 'cause later on Plan B did a licensing deal at Billabong. So element and Plan B were the two board brands. So I actually kinda A little bit of a circle about talking about you manifested this.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, called it for happening.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Funny. But I think when the plan B thing came into the industry, it was a little bit Do I want to say shakeup? It was an interesting move because we, you know, from the, you know, we're we're in the industry, but from the outside looking in, it was like this huge move where all the they were getting all the A-lister skaters at the time, paying them some big money to to come in and you know, we're like, wow, is this gonna last? How do How do people get, you know, whatever, $10,000 a month, each rider and this and that? How do how is this going to be even be sustainable? You know? And it was kind of like this It was an interesting moment, you know? Interesting moment.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">It was a huge sh uh I think it was a huge shake up.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Okay, so shake up is the right word. I think it was.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">I think you're right on that, yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Did you feel any of that? Was it just like wow, this is like kind of crazy or What was the vibe?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Well, I would go to San Diego. I would stay in San Diego and skate with Gallant because he lived there. Or would when he came out from Boston. would stay in San Diego because he rode for c uh KO or Expedition. That's right. And DC, which were both in that area. So I spent a lot of time in San Diego and then met Danny and he had heard that I liked Plan B. It was like my thing. Right. Um so I'm not sure if that was when the seed was planted or what. But my first I mean and at this point I'm it's it was so interesting 'cause I'm still kind of just floating around but uh making money it was interesting times. Just like tr in between trips, in between Boston, East Coast, West Coast. Um I didn't buy a house at that time yet or have even a place yet. I was just floating. It's funny. So I was staying with Gallant and I just wake up one day, walk upstairs and Danny's in the living room, like on the couch, because he had heard, you know, that I was staying down there. That was the first night there. Okay. Um so somehow yeah, it was on the radar of on his radar, you know, about stuff skating and Yeah. I'm I mean I'm sure he'd probably heard like oh you know, this new kid you know, new whatever big skater. He probably just wanted to You weren't new. Yeah, yeah, not new, but yeah. I was around. Yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I would s I remember like I don't know if we talked about it but he just knew. Okay. You know, but that w th was probably a year or two bef a year before it really um formed. Oh wow.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">That was like the first approach in a sense of like Him being in the living room kind of like opening that door and seemingly interested?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I don't know. It was just the first time I met Danny. He knew I would like plan B. It was it's just it was definitely s I don't know. Yeah. But uh trying to remember exactly how the gears started to hard it to go on that. Well, cause they took like P Rod from Girl, right? They felt it, we felt it. Yeah. Who else is the first one?</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Galant left expedition. That was on the team. I was so bummed when he left to go to that.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Who who else was on the plan B for squad?</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Wenning? Brian Wenning. Yeah, he left Habit. Dude, they swooped a lot of people from big companies, dude. They did. That's why everyone was kind of like kind of pissed.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Well they did what they did they did what they did initially. That's how they formed plan B from the beginning of it. True. You know Yeah. Second lineage.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. I think they were trying to shake it up a bit. Well they were trying to make this like powerhouse team at the same time, I feel like, you know, like how it was before. If they were gonna reintroduce plan B, they were gonna come soft. They weren't gonna come with some just you know, whatever team. They were gonna like do it. That uh for sure with Colin McKay and Danny Way at the helm of it, yeah, a hundred percent. They're they're they're making moves.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">They did it. They did that.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. So were you so were you stoked when you got on? Was it like this like thing like nostalgia you know nostalgic kind of moment, you know, where you're like wow I'm on this heritage brand. I'm on the brand that I used to watch back in the day</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, I was really hyped. You know, I'm on a team with my friends, Paul, Gallant. Um making money good money. Yeah. On something new. We we all we had ownership At the beginning. Oh seriously.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh I didn't know that. Oh shit.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">So there was and yeah, there was a lot of check the boxes on that one. Okay. Okay. That was cool. That definitely makes it more enticing.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Ownership?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Sal Barbier who did the original like was gonna do the art direction originally. He was in the mix for a bet second there. Yeah. Um that was cool. Yeah I know I'm missing things about it, but yeah, I was stoked. That's cool. You guys had that video.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">What was the it was like a promo video. That kind of was like your guy's first. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was I remember that one song like your time will come and I just always stuck in my freaking head.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. At this yeah. Yeah, I was hyped on Plan B. School is strong as fresh.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Who is filming for Plan B at this time? Are we just filming with Scuba a lot or who who were you who were you filming with? That's a good question.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">That was Raya Chevers that filmed that. Okay. That was Sean Rogers on a DC trip. I had actually tried this same line on a S trip. A couple years before I had it in my head that I wanted to go back and do it. Complete that. That was like that was like five minutes out of the van. Yeah, because that was at a time where I didn't if I got into a battle with a trick uh I d I went through the battle, like I landed it. And I could remember the ones that I didn't because there was like less than ten. Like I just and it like I I held that like I need to just get this Done, you know. Um and that for some reason that line at at the dome was one of them. So good, bro. Um it was on a at this point I was on uh DC. This is a DC trip. Gotcha. Gotcha. Um yeah, like a year before two before that. Just hungry after playing.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Knew it. I'm sorry to cut you off.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, yeah. I that was I remember that day. It was funny. Wow. Did uh I don't know if this is a good thing. Okay.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">What um did that did that move to plan B kind of get you over to DC as well with Danny there? Is that how kinda worked out?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, no, it totally was. So when p when Paul got on Nike Or got the deal with Nike, right? He was on S and was about to get a pro shoe, which ended up becoming I think Eric's like seventh shoe, but it was a really good one. Um but he got he went to ride for Nike when that happened. maybe a few months I was getting calls from Adidas and I was getting quartered by Discaper Adidas because they were gonna move Scape because Adidas always had a scape program. Um you know I may not be the one to talk on Adidas's skate history, but I'm just telling you my experience at the time, what was was going on. The Adidas was at uh separated their company under uh originals and performance. Okay. were under performance, technical shoes, um bas you know all the basketball uh highly sort of um performance based shoes. And then the originals was all the classics, the shell toes or the superstar. Yeah. And all those shoes. And then uh skateboarding h was always under performance. But they made a really the kind of like uh not the most s you know, pretty shoes. You know, they were always very performance based. This would be have been like the Jamal Williams Uh shout out to Jamal Williams, Boston Head. Um Matt Beach era. Matt Beach. Yep, good call. Shout out to Matt Beach dude. Paula Diaz, that type of era, where it was kinda random, but they did have a skate team for like a long time. Very, very low key, but yes. Yeah. Um, but then they were gonna move it to originals and make like this big play 'cause maybe you know, 'cause they seemed like Nike was or whatever. But anyways, uh I flew up there to Portland like three or four times and I was like really stoked on the idea I was loyal to to Esk. I loved us, you know. It was like my shit growing up too, like Eric and all that stuff, you know? Um So I mean I I had no thought to leave. I was good, I was getting paid okay, it was pure skate, like you know. Uh the athletic companies, that was just you know, it was a thing, but um I was pretty stoked on it. So I should yeah flew up there like three or f yeah for three three or four times dude and uh it was like kind of that planted the seed about potentially leaving uh S to ride for it, you know. And then Eric Um, ended up leaving too to ride for Lakai. Right. At the same time. Um, which didn't which affected Soltec as a company big time and I thought was like yeah, definitely bombed. But it didn't affect me as like Well now I gotta leave, you know. Because I was just like, I'm stoked on it. Like I'm at that this point confident enough in myself and who I am as a person and skater and Maybe my leadership abilities aren't fully developed, but they're definitely developing and better than they were as a kid. Uh-huh. You know, filming the Coliseum type of stuff. Where I was definitely a strong leader, but it just couldn't articulate it or verbalize it in uh ways. Um so that was all kind of happening. Weird, right? Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Well yeah, I never knew the Adidas thing.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. So what happened with that? So when I was like gonna do it Uh I don't know if it was Danny Collin or Plan B at this time had hired this guy, Tom Jones. Um same name as the singer, yes, but really good dude. Great music. Really good dude. He was Ken Bloch's protege, like at DC. Because you know Ken marketing genius in a lot of ways. Sure. And uh he had he had taught this guy or Ken uh Tom had worked for Ken and they were tight and I mean DC is early days. It's really rad, epic, you know, skateboarding, entrepreneurial success story, that book and everything, you know, it's cool. But DC did what they stood for on their principles and Calus and Stevie and all that stuff. So Tom he went to work for Plan B and to really blow it up. And that's when I started to like, you know, be in the office more, learn more from Tom, really double down on like trying to help plan B, marketing, graphics. everything like it does that was like kind of my s foray like to learn internal stuff. I always had that 'cause we grew up skating and around brands and no you know right we we know that stuff as far as you know, you know, basic. Sure. You just wanted to get more into it. More into it, yeah, feel more part of it on the internal end. So I I really respected Tom. Yeah. Um he taught me a lot, which he learned from Ken. And I and I was friends with Ken, but Ken and Damon had sold DC. already. So they weren't like checked out but they were n not not there like full time, you know. I think Ken always wanted to be the athlete and you know, went and formed um a successful racing career thing and developed the whole category. And Damon went off to have other entrepreneurial success. Um shout out to those you know super inspiring. Sure. But so they sold that the company to Quicksilver and Tom then went to and came into plan B And we were doing that stuff. And he and we'll say, well, he you should take a meeting with DC first, you know So I took a meeting at sort of the last second with DC and uh because the DC at this time was a f you know like a five hundred million dollar company with skateboarding at the forefront. And they were creative. And they were like Yeah, hey, like, you know, the skateboarding category of Adidas I think at the time was like six million, which is so funny to think about now. Now it's hundreds of million. Sure. Um and you know it's not their main focus. You know, which is just actually if you know business is a classic like sales line that like everybody would use. It's not anything like how you know it's not like you're epic sales pitch, but it really kind of resonated with me. I'm like, yeah, plan B, D C I'm down. Tom. Mm-hmm. I really like Tom. Like we can make DC 'cause it was going in that like it was going in a a d like a kind of off where it used to be. So we were like, yeah, let's make T let's just make it like what it was again, kind of like fresher and tech uh tech more technically performance-based or um yeah, just like kind of Kind of dope La How it was, you know, so did so at the last minute yeah, I just ended up and they also offered like a ridiculous amount of money. So I mean it it's not about it, you know? No, but it is a byproduct that had an effect, you know, for sure for infl for making the decision. So it's funny because not even a lot it might Association with DC isn't as strong as other companies. Right. Right.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">But uh it's actually where it made up. It's funny because I just picture I just when I think of PG LED, I think of S. You know, I d I don't think of I don't I don't think of DC. It's funny. Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">How long were you with DC?</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Five years. Oh that's a good one. Five years? Yeah. When did S take its like hiatus? How long a well after like This 2000 scenario 1112? Okay, so that was like later later than this, right?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, I was gone for a few years.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Okay. Okay. So interesting, man.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, you had a pro shoe on S2. Were they trying to like counter or they probably money was so big they they probably couldn't even match anything. Did they try to offer you anything else</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I think they w they were and would have, yeah. At least gotten s close.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">But uh Was it just time? Was it time to live I Kostin goes to over here to La Kai, Paul goes to Nike. Like was it was the band being kind of broken up? Was it just time or what?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Maybe. Yeah. Communication also wasn't like strong, but</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. It's so crazy, dude, to be involved with like you've been involved with some of the biggest skateboard companies in the industry. Learned a lot. I can imagine, dude. You've been around like amazing people too.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Damn. I learned a lot and I I'm holding a lot of like knowledge and wisdom in that area and arena. Right. That I uh be cool to express in some way, shape, or form creatively. business wise someday, whether in the skateboarding world or o outside of it. But yeah, it it was a I basically got my MBA too in skating. Yeah. I've been around some heavy, heavy people.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Did uh what what uh did Adidas offer you like a pro shoe or anything like that?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I think it was part of the deal, yeah. Okay. But they didn't w they were a little reluctant to like get into like negotiations. I think they were just they were looking for somebody who was like Just gonna let's just go in, you know.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Was Yasha the guy you met at the demo a long time ago, the one you were talking to or no?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">No. No, that would be that would have that was Yasha's boss at the time. Some gu you know, some guy that worked at a D D C USA that that probably reported to the same person in Germany that you know, Yasha. Yasha might actually have been still skating at this point. Um, funny enough. Um Good dude Esher. Yeah yeah yeah that's really good too.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">He's been in that spot for some time now, right?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">In that position. Yeah, he's I mean he he skated for Ad Adidas and uh he's running the show. It's pretty cool to see pretty cool to see. They did offer a shoe, yeah, that was a thing. Then and who uh Dennis Bouges is the one that got whatever that was like Oh no way. They just kind of gave it to him.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, funny. Wow. He he man, he got a great shoe out of that deal.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I'll tell you that right now, man. Wait, that shoe's still still perfect fit. Oh yeah. Yeah perfectly amazing fit. Wow dude. That's crazy. Like I said, that I'm not maybe not the one to speak on like Adidas their whole ding and skating, but I that it was like a an a funny moment in my experience that came up. Right. That was the kind of the catalyst for other avenues that I went down.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">And then I mean like I don't know, there's so much stuff we could talk about, but I I just I think like you're known for your flat ground. And then like, you know, you've you won the S Games of Skate and you won the Battle of Barracks twice in a row, you know what I mean? And W was that any th I mean I feel like th those are evil you weren't even a th like you'd you're not practicing for those, right? You're just skating You're just skating, you go in that day, you play whoever you're gonna play, and that's it. That's what I feel like outside looking in. Is that kind of the truth? Is that like how it goes down? Some people train for this type of stuff, you know? Yikes No, but you know what I mean? They get ready, they see who they're gonna battle, they go what's uh what what tricks do they they don't have, what gonna get them on, you know? I feel like you just go in and escape You just do your thing. Yeah. Um but it's like here you are playing Mike Moe, right? In the championship battle, right? At the old barracks, by the way, which was fucking the one of the best barracks I think. Hell yeah Um but you guys are friends, right? You and Mike mom? Oh, 100%. And here you go playing, you know, it like I said, I feel like you just kind of come in, you're gonna just It's another day.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I mean you can totally see I'm super uncomfortable with that board, except I mean that worked, but this was like me going through board molds and still Figuring out that stuff.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Wait, so when you're going through board board molds and you're not really that comfortable with your board, like are you worried now? Or are you just having a bad day? Or are you trying to get through it? Like what's the</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Well, I mean it's just flock around, so it's just something you can still, you know, do finagle a little bit.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Is this is this the Adidas right when you're talking to Adidas at this point?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">No, this was after DC. Oh okay.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh okay, okay.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I just started wearing Adidas again.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">But um yeah uh but Mike Mo is you know was is one of the best skateboarders he changed the game a lot you know with um the video parts that he came out with and everything. So I think even just to play Mike Mona game of skate is a little intimidating, you know? Do you were you are you at all intimidated when you go out and play games of skate, especially in front of a large crowd like that. I don't take you as a large crowd guy. Yeah, I mean But all the barracks is something it's different than a contest, you know? It's all eyes on you. Games escape flat ground.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, I remember the first one of the first times I went to the barracks, it was like I think it was like Greco was playing skate with s maybe a Carol I don't know, it was really like random. Just like, whoa, okay, that's not what you'd expect to see every day. You know, but it was one of those that's what you're saying. It was like organic. It was like that was just that was what was happening. And people play games of skate just to fuck around and warm up, you know. It wasn't like a Take yourself so serious. It w yeah, and I still I I I still held that even um just 'cause you that that's just what makes games escape fun. I didn't you know want to get into yeah, so I just that's how I always approached it. Even if there was like other people like watching it was still basically just your homies. playing skate and it's more about like just flat around and learning. Yeah. You know? Right. Than it is about Like can having a comp there's not a competition was just like we're warming up and we're just kind of like seeing where we are in the day, you know. Yeah, that was it. Yeah, so I always held that sort of mentality about the whole thing. Even though I thought it was cool um that they you know, held held events, got brought people together to just do fun. funny, cool shit with cool people. Right. It's ridiculous and fun and awesome and weird at the same you know, it was just, you know, the barracks was Just a cool place for people to go skate. Everybody to go skate, no bust.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">That's what was fun about the first barracks, like I said.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">The first barracks was dope</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">That barracks was really fun. There was it wasn't anything that we knew of. It wasn't any pressure. You would go in and skate and if something happened, maybe you film it. There wasn't any like It was just it was like wholesome. Yeah. It was very wholesome.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">That was when there was like 10 to 15 people in there. It wasn't like blown out like a spectacle and all that. No. Yeah. No</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">And you knew you were gonna see something sick that day if you went there. Like you knew there was gonna be someone dope doing their thing.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I've never skating with Ave a lot there actually. I still think about those sessions. That's another part of the way. And Steve gave me a key So I was just like going at like whenever where you know. And then street skating at the time was so hard. You get kicked out of everywhere. There was no like meetup spot. Yeah. Like that. Um BMB type stuff. So and I was just like fuck it, I'm just gonna skate the barracks every day. So then I just started going there like all day, every day for a while.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">I think a lot of us were to be honest, yeah. Sharpening that tool</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yep.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Practicing. Just kidding.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Skating. Just skating. Just skating.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">We were talking before the show because we were like, you know, I'm interested because like you skate you skate almost every day. Right. And you just came out with your own boards here, which is like your shape, your um let me grab it real quick just to show people, but like you've uh You design your molds, your this is your shape, and people can go get it on your website, pjlad. com, right? Um How often does a skate skater like you go through a board? Like does it is it like a a few days? Is it A week, two weeks, what what is your uh I mean obviously kinda depends what you're skating too. If you're skating like skate parks and stuff, maybe it lasts a little longer, but average.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, true. It's a good question. Yeah. Um Those boards are epoxy resin, so they're stronger. Okay. And they kind of stiff and hold the pop longer. So like a week or two, you know, skating every day. But I really could skate it longer. Oh you could they stay they don't flex. If the tail doesn't flex I'm good. Like I I could continue to skate a board. But if I have the option to set up a new board I'll I'll set up a new board. Yeah. Um, you know, if I have a st stack of boards then that I'll just set it up but Um they last longer with those. They actually start to feel better actually too, because they're they're really stiff at first. Oh. Do you leave your board in the car? So the thing with epoxy resin is it doesn't it doesn't sog out, it doesn't absorb heat. So it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Amazing. It doesn't also I was down in Costa Rica for a year for almost a year, skating every day where you just sweat everything out, hold my board. And there was a point where I was bringing uh two pairs of shoes. Because I was sweating through my shoes where I would step on the board it would go and this is gross, but it would just go onto the grip tape. Like the grip tape was just wet. Oh. But so that's gross, but The board didn't absorb the water.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh. Crazy.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. It was just insane. It didn't flex in that extreme heat. Okay. In the extreme cold it c we get like really stiff because obviously if you take vapor and make i you know ice is solid so maybe too stiff but yeah it it doesn't flex out. I so I leave them in the car. It doesn't matter. Okay. But if it's a water based</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Construction It's gonna flex because you've been going through shapes and trying to you you're very hands-on is what I should say with like your shapes and what you like to skate and everything like that. Um, I just went through uh and people some people call it madness, right? I don't know if you would equate it to madness or just kind of fine-tuning what you want. in a board. Well, I learned all the parameters.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I learned all the metrics.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Mm.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">You know, I just went into the engineering mode to kind of learn what all of the numbers represent when you start to design a board mold. It's pretty It it can get pretty um in depth. So when I rode for, you know, element and rode the girl boards that PS was uh pressing on the D mold which are really flat. I like those and then they actually s Element would make boards from that mold for me for a while there. Okay. Which is really cool. Um those are some good days. That lasted maybe like six months a year. But then it kinda just got dated that mold. It got really like flat on the nose and tail where I was getting stronger and could pop more. So I didn't want like the low eighteen degree. You know, I wanted more like up what it is. But you know, I'm still just you know, had just turned pro and I just felt like asking for a board mold although I do remember asking Ian Deakin about it. He was like, Yeah, it's not out of the question, but we never explored that just because I felt I had turned pro recently. Mm. And now I was just a little out of my league to start like getting into like their manufacturing of like their presses. I just wanted to be like You know, yeah, I'm spray painting other factories boards and doing this, but you know, I'm supporting. Were you telling that? I was just showing them by doing it and and you know, writing like sticker like just so it's visibly like no this is like your stuff or as you know appeared to be. Yeah. You know, but I definitely was like trying other factories and and boards and all that and uh and whatever brands were coming out of there. So, you know, I just didn't I just didn't want to like I guess again I'm young or you know, meddle too much. Even though I totally could have. I could've just gone in there and been like, yeah, this is what I you know, I just it was an education process to some extent. Sure. But if I had just sort of like confidently gone in, m it probably could have worked out. Mm. So when Flip went when I left Flip to ride for Plan B, that was obviously, you know, another thing too, where they had their own Factory, the distribution there, Syndrome had their own factory, and they were producing boards, and those boards they They weren't the best boards either, if I'm um with all due respect to the times, they were pretty flee and I r did work with a guy, Troy Churchill, for a while there to change the molds at that time. Okay. Who I think set up ASF clutch. Which is a popular wood shop now and now it is. Um I think that wood shop is a hundred percent robots. What? Like I don't think it touches a human hand. I could be so wrong because I haven't really dived into this stuff because I've actually gotten the mold done. Okay. So I haven't like uh been up to date on what factories and skateboarding's in a weird spot too. Sure. So sometimes molds and and equipment and stuff changes hands as we were talking earlier with uh yeah. So yeah, I think that factory is like it literally just sanded, boom, and then just goes out the door, which is which is wild. Um So I didn't I didn't really uh press too hard at Plan B at the beginning. You know, I mean you're like you're just you're everything else was so on point. And uh was just w was riding them but not not happy with it. I was just making it work. You know, I was just making it work. And then after about a year or two, Plan B moved to uh Billabong with the licensee license or set up to eventually sell. Because Billabong was like buying companies, Ruca, Von Zipper, uh they had bought Element years earlier. They were just purchasing companies crazy for crazy amounts. Um so No, we were just positioning or the you know, those dudes were uh more at the forefront of positioning that company to be purchased. Sure, you know. Um which, you know, that's a dualistic statement too. You know, if you want to, you know, build a company and keep it and have it be your thing and then, you know, that's another Avenue too. That's totally fine. It's just you have to hold it and you know, you have to continually hold it and keep your eye on it. And Uh whatever. So when that happened I went to I was like, okay, now I'm um we're with Schmidt. I'm gonna fully get a mold now may 'cause in my eyes he was the premier board maker. Right. Or at least had sold the most amount of boards and had been the the main manufacturer. So I dived in with Paul, and that's this was when maybe 2007 about you know making the molds and stuff And uh quickly learned I I was in for a long road that this wasn't gonna come easy and I couldn't figure out something was very wrong, you know. Um, but I continued to just learn like um how to make board molds and constructions and I went down to Tijuana and um just started measuring the different parameters of the boards and then what what uh on the CAD program makes, you know how do you get that result? Right. And then he was giving me samples. I'll really was just looking for a flat middle concave board with a steep nose and tail. I went through like a whole education with a to its nth degree, but it's it's really not that complicated.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">But it is different though because we if you like you were saying before, when you use resin it's a different thing. When you use like glue, they have to have more concave, right? Is that Is that a good story to tell.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Um, because I'm now just kind of deciding how much I want to go into the Paul Schmidt's stories or not. But It's a good story about him and Chris Markovich because uh Chris Markovich went to Paul that said he wanted he wanted a thin board. So Paul is like, okay, we can make a thimble, but we have to add con we have to add a lot of radiuses everywhere. We have to add concave, because you have to make it strong. You know, it's just water-based glue constructions. Okay. So that ended up becoming the featherlight mold, which I think is the most sold m board mold in in the history. And I don't know if Chris got cut of that, but he deserves it. So that became like a thin board with a lot of concave. But that was the original sort of deep dish concave in the popsicle stick era. I can't speak for eighties boards. That's before my time. Sure. I think they were just making concave in the front of the board to make sure your foot's sorta solid when you're skating transitions and and all that. It's just before my time. But in the popsiclexic era it was always flat, concave, because mechanically speaking you're doing you know, kick biome you know, whatever how you do a kick flip, is y this it doesn't make sense to have the type of concave. It just it it just tur you know i messes you up.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">S pretty much.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">It's yeah, it's almost like too simple. Um so that stuff came in later for strength. Yeah. Um Paul uh he made his boards thicker, ten and a half mil thick. instead of the usual tent to try and get some strength in his boards and uh and then that yeah I imagine that's why Chris wanted Chris Markovich wanted that thinner board, then that became sort of the mold that everybody copied. To this day. People yeah I can look at it and say that was just the original copy, you know. And I I just didn't I didn't like it for a lot of reasons. Um and that deep middle concave being one 'cause I want to feel my boy. I want to sort of like uh Um it's called an anatomical sort of design where the heel and the f it's you can design shoes like that too a little bit. Yeah. The origin some of the some of the best skate shoes are anatomically designed where you feel the heel. uh in the in the forefoot. Uh but so I like personally th always like that flatter stuff, just going back from conditioning as a kid skating, that Demold those D Mold Schmidt curl boards and Taylor Dykmutt made chocolate boards from my um childhood.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Why do you why do you like the d like does it does it particularly help with something skatewise? Just the way you feel? Flip tricks. Flip tricks, okay.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Electrics, biomechanically. If you ask any physicists or any um, you know, engineer or or sort of biomechanic um sports medicine type, y the way that you do a kickflip, yeah, you want your you want to be able to feel the board like that. Cause you like yeah, so it just makes f sense for flip tricks in my Yeah, I mean so Yeah You can make do with the sides up and people have, and in my opinion, that's why the wider board has become um, I guess, a trend now. is because you're getting more of the middle flatness.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Makes sense, yeah. It does make sense. But like I always thought the the c the concave and the sides was was meant for like actually so it could grip your foot better. That's like n the weird understanding I would think, but I always like flatboards too. I don't know why that uh flat ground always made sense for flatboards.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Well your f your foot isn't flat.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, if you watch people skate it long enough, if you like watch dudes they'll they they start to m their f set their stances start to move like this. So it starts to like fuck you up in a way. Like with the concave boards Yeah. Oh okay. Because you you naturally want to sink into the board. Cause you're trying to ground you're trying to ground cons you know to get a to feel for it. Right. Right. Um And then you flick off the nose. You don't flick off the side.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">So basic on this board though, you I guess I've you don't see often the flat boards with the steeper nose and tail. So is this kind of the only one out there that you kind of know of?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, a hundred percent. And you can make flat boards nowadays since all the new constructions have come out with um, you know, carbon fiber. laminates and uh uh the the heated glue constructions um because you can make a stiff board. It may have a breaking point, maybe not so much with the carbon fiber stuff, but but at least it doesn't flex. And then with the common five is just not really gonna break unless it's like seriously uh put weight on it. You you can get a board to not break with flex, but to me that just defeats the whole purpose 'cause once you press down on the tail to pop You're losing all your pop, you're losing your pro preoception, you or your your your can your uh fast switch muscle can just flex. Yeah, you don't you also if it's a complete metal board it's gonna reverberate. That's that's like the extreme. You don't want that either. So there's a there's an energy absorption that does have to happen with the organic material. That's why you haven't seen it go. 100% away. Yeah. Um so I can see where's there could be some preference there. I'm not trying to negate people's preferences. No. But I do want to delineate between like conditioning and reality of like you know, what you're looking for and um so I'm just you know there's a this is a whole long thing but I'm trying to give you the parts to it that tell somewhat of a story. But it was definitely a situation of like, yeah, then I went to Schmidt to get the mold and I'm like, oh, okay, it's not happening. Mm. You know, and he and he's he is telling people that I d am knowledgeable more than any skater he has ever met when it comes to mold constri molds and that stuff, but I still didn't have the board. Okay. So it was a little bit of an issue. So I so I went to um uh guy and just got a a mold done. That it took a um little bit to s to f to get in contact, you know. Okay. With somebody that could do it. Um but we just hammered it out for the sort of thing. This was years ago. This was years ago, yeah. Twenty thirteen or something. Twenty twelve, something. Gotcha.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Was this was that the same shape as this now? Or is this a little bit of a tweak?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Okay. It's been tweaked some. Yeah. Um but Yeah, it's fun to learn the numbers and and stuff. It can get it can get uh Yeah, it's fun to me.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Well I'll just tell you right now because like looking at your board right here, it is very flat, but then you got the little concave here and then it's a steep nose and tail which Of course, going back to like my day, I I loved steep noses and tails, but I, you know, you stand on this thing, it's like I think I've just been conditioned, maybe along with everybody else, to just be used to a concave style board, you know? It's like, this is like I I would love to even try even though I'm I'm through with all the madness stuff. I would love to try a flatter board because of but the look at the concave though. It's like You've got the best of both worlds right here. That's what I think.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, I like the steeper nose and tail. You know, I've built up a certain strength too so I can pop a boy with a steep nose and tail. And we need to start putting numbers to these, I think, as skaters. At least to the nose and tail angle and concave depths. Oh, okay. Um there are other p parameters that have numbers, but you know, I think those two should be more common language. Um so this is twenty one five. This is a tw the angle of this is twenty one five. Twenty one five on both On both sides. It's symmetrical in that way. Taylor Dykman boards were symmetrical, nose and tail angles too, interestingly enough. Oh. It's funny. But not not not anybody else was. That's why they skated pretty good. Okay. So I just got it done. And it shouldn't have taken as long as it did. It definitely affected my skating, but I learned a lot and I'm better for it. Whereas, you know, when people say I don't want to think about it. I understand where that statement is coming from because that's not the point of skating, to like think it. No, you just want to skate and be in the zone and flow and enjoy it, land shit. l you know, learn and stuff. Um, but I do think that statement is coming from a place of f f a little bit of fear. Knowing like once I get into the arena of like trying to learn all this stuff, I I I can't come out of it like clean with knowing, you know, I just I'm gonna c get a little bit confused by it all.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Like you said, like I I I'm the type I think I've I've come to the conclusion that I don't want to think about it. I don't I'm that type of Because it just it's just too much for me, you know. It's like I've gone through all these iterations of listening to Schmidt, listening to Andy Anderson, listening to all my friends about different, you know, styles of trying to get the perfect board. But also I'm trying to like you know, just skate slappies, but then I wanna like pop my click my tail around and I wanna I want the best of both worlds so right now I'm trying to like really dial it in and have the best of both worlds where I can have like I want a 775. I know that's not gonna happen if I want to do slappies and the 775 truck is so small, so I have to make um you know just what do they call it? I gotta make uh I don't know. I gotta make uh I gotta concede a little bit. I gotta conform and just figure out what I actually like to skate.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Mm-hmm. How much time and energy are you gonna put for a return? I don't want to put time.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">I just wanna I wanna put I wanna just try to do it.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">For me. Yeah. Yeah, because I'm coming from the place of like predominantly doing a lot of flip tricks and popping my board. If I wasn't popping my board, a lot of this stuff wouldn't be really that relevant.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">But but here's the thing.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Right if I'm just riding like In carving, the shape might matter, you know, because it's like a surfboard. I want to like, you know, it has a certain like style to it. But now you wanna if you want to do both. But if you okay, but if you s take a board and you just stand it still and you do an Ollie, you've now you're you're you're in like a a different arena of things 'cause you've added your mind whether you want to think about it or not. So you have to have s a few key concepts down about like what certain Because you ever see kids nowadays trying to ollie on or learn flip tricks on boards that are too big for 'em and they do eighties ollies and it's and they can't flip it around. You know, that's just because they're bio they're they don't have this this is an extr that's an extreme example using the kids, but they they don't have the strength to get it around. That can also happen with if you get the nose and tail too steep Right, 'cause I I don't I haven't you can you can build it up, but at a certain point it's like lifting, you know, I'm not gonna go bench five hundred pounds. Right. You know, you gotta work your way up, that can happen. And then it's also annoying if it's if y if you know you have more sort of flick or pop, but you can't get it out of the board. And that's go going back to when the the nose and tail became too pancaked on the old uh boys I was riding growing up where I just wanted steeper nose and tail because I had built up that certain strength. Sure. Sort of fascia strength, type two muscle that like fast switch. Yep. It's like what they jump with. And there's a neuron connection to that type two fascia too that people don't really take into account. Um that's where you see like trainers on the Bosey ball, the balance board, like throwing balls because uh it's indifferent 'cause they gotta develop the brain muscle connection 'cause it's fast twitch. It's ply you know, so it needs to uh it needs to be quick. So that's like 'Cause you you're not really like thinking skating when it comes to like popping. It's like almost happening beyond your y your ability to sort of um process it. Although you can it all sorts of slow down when you enter like, you know, whatever the the zone you know, when you're in the sort of mode of skating. Sure. Um but I tell people all the time that type two or I don't have the exact words I'm not a sports medicine. uh graduate, but that I just have my experience of it, but that that type two fast switch muscle, type B, uh whatever they call it, fascia. It has to be pliable because you're only using a few muscle groups to skate, you know, the peroneous muscle, which is the shin muscle, uh, it's the calve. And then the IT band and then up in the hips. You just use these same small muscles over and over and over again, and then they just nod up. Yeah. And they nod up and then they stop working. So then it's like, okay, well now you you're just handing the work off to another muscle group. And the next thing you know your shoulder hurts because your sh your shin muscles tight. Don't worry about it. Yeah, but then you go to a massage dude and they just or or you try working out your your shoulder not realizing the root of the problem is your shin muscle because you're only using a few small muscle groups over and over again. They need to be pliable. They need to be released. Right. And then then you get into like hydration of it and all that. But they if if you don't release those you're actually kinda hustling backwards because now your frame, whatever your frame may be, so e every body's different, right? So so this is where you can't talk about the boards without the person and what they're trying to do. Right. That's where it gets interesting. Yeah. Because he the relates people's biomechanics to the the physics of of what a board is. So you get into like I don't know, it gets to be fun in that way. And scientific. I like numbers. I'm a numbers person, you know. Not only numerology, but just in an engineering sense too. I like to dive into it all. So but but going back to the the muscle stuff just to get that on sort of get that out there because I've been running into it a lot lately like I had a friend um was having an issue with something and I'm like dude like you ha you have to release and stretch these muscles. Stretching alone is not gonna not gonna work because you're just trying to stretch muscle that's basically inflamed and taut. Right? And then you gotta breathe. You know, breathe into it 'cause you need prana in the body. You need enough energy to run those muscles. So going back to you know, the very sort of practical side of yoga And the thing that animates, you know, you get enough energy and prana in the body to actually use those fast switch muscles to pop and then release them. Tom Brady. the American football player wrote a book, the T B twelve book, that's all about pliability. So he relates his whole entire success story to the fact that everybody was training one way, which was bulking up and trying to become muscle football guys. He was like, I'm just was just training to just ab absorb. Right. So he's trying to he's just he did he added like way more pliability than he actually did strength training, which I think is I mean we're using traditional ball sports, but it's just a it's a biomechanic sort of body function that needs to happen with skating. Because what happens is once those muscles tighten up, I've seen enough fucking knee surgeries in my life for the same fucking purpose that this this needs to get out there. It's like you your your muscles are so tight you're in your bones and joints now. You're in the frame. Your joints are now taking all of that impact. Damn. And then they then those things just go then you can't it takes a lot of time to heal ligaments and joints. Sure. Um so yeah, you want to make sure you have an you you have enough Strength. Uh-huh. In the type that whatever that you call it. Type two, type B fascia. To get the body out of the f frame and then you can jump. 'Cause if you think about when we go skate, obviously there's sloppy sessions, there's mini ramp sessions, but uh just an again normal street session, you're you're jumping the whole time. And to to sustain that over a a number of times comfortably You know, um you just have to you the muscles just have to be pliable and strong enough and eventually it won't take much work you won't have to do it, you know Because because once they become strong enough, you won't have to go back and re-release them. They can now hold your weight, whatever that may be. Because some people Some people we're all different. Yeah, that's what's that's cool about it. Um but there are definitely like you know if you have a if you're you know si six and a half feet tall you need a longer wheelbase board, you need di you know what I mean? So all that stuff. So it does relate to the board, but you have to have a certain amount of strength to like all in kickbook all day.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Can I Could just a person just Google this like fascia thing and then figure out how what the best exercises or stretches are for that?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, I mean totally. I went to uh a guy years ago that I just googled, needed a sports massage guy. This is a long time ago. And I just googled it. I was actually in downtown LA skating and I was like, dude It was like the beginning. Yeah, it was in Dante. I was like, I need uh we were doing f some film ad campaign thing for something. Okay. But it was like immediate, like fuck, I gotta skate, you know? So I literally Googled sports massage guy, went to the guy, walked in, and I'm like, I had an ankle thing, right? And he looks at me and he's like, it's not your ankle, it's your calf. He worked on my calf for 15 minutes. The ankle issue that I had for like six months went away. So he was able to see the root of the problem, not the fruit of the problem. And then I was like, oh that guy's good. Right. And then uh I think our art. He's still doing his thing, I think. But so that and then he taught me things like you can just do it on your own, which is basically just nowhere to massage, which is you know, a few um it's like your calf and your shin muscle and f that's why foam rollers are are popular now. It's and this isn't rocket science. So foam rollers are good. Sometimes can't get those pressure those points. I get pretty far with those, the hyper ice. Gun. Oh, massage gun. Yep, yep, yep. Um, I go through them fast. I like burn them out though. You know, because like I use you know, use them quite a bit. You can get pretty far with that. Okay. You know, and when you hit those spots, you'll be like, whoa. Oh yeah. Holy shit. It's like when you're rolling out your IT band. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. That's all it is. That's all it is. Okay. uh said before I get into like oh yeah you can stretch it or m massage gun or foam roll. Those are prac these are very practical basic things. But I will add just because I'm here that the Akundalini Yoga set um is is highly beneficial for for somebody. And wasn't the runners trying to run a mile in like four minutes or something for a long time? And he he yeah, I think his name was Rod Rod Thorne. But he discovered Kundalini later in life and he was like, well if I had this then I could break I would have I knew I had it in me. I just couldn't find it. Oh. Right. So he he he kind of sort of deduce like oh okay I've I added that at the time it would have given me the the ability to do that.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Is that something that you have to build up to? to do? Or is it kind of you can just learn and kind of get into it right away.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. It's and you'll get immediate tangible results. Seriously? Yeah. I'm immediate tangible results, yeah I need to flick one up on Yelp, man. Add it to the list, Chris.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, I'm trusting it.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">I'm on a mission right now. Wow. That's just you know what's funny is like just growing up skating, we just We would just skate. We didn't think about any of this stuff. So I wanna I mean, after this I've healed from this, I kinda wanna look into something I'll Outside of the skateboarding to get myself to be able to skate again. So I might look into that.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, 100%.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">It would have been very re like rare at the those times in like the early nineties to come across somebody that was really into these things and if they were you'd be like dude this is like the how naive and weird we were at that we were like I'm not doing none of that shit.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">What are you talking about? Working out was like crazy. And then back then.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Whereas now this is becoming like, you know, as we are kicking the can, we're like, dude, we gotta do something. We gotta do something. So, you know, it's rad to kinda hear, you know, uh exactly your process and what you go through. within the the yoga experience 'cause I hadn't thought about doing it, but I mean hearing what you've said today I definitely would entertain it. Mm-hmm. That's for sure.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">I feel like there's two parts, right? There's a part of like As skaters, we just want to be able to skate as long as humanly possible, right? But then as like a human, we want to be able to like achieve or just feel as good as we can physically and mentally. You know what I mean? So it's like with those two combined, if you can like figure out your methods of making both of those happen, like that's that's the key, I feel like.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">And with that attitude and these practices you can you can totally Um achieve that easy. Yeah. Yeah. And consistent practice is obviously gonna get more results. For sure. Yeah, for sure.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">I'm already experiencing it with just running. It's opened up a whole new I feel my brain being rewired. My physical self is is different now too. Like it's it's it's changing. It's weird.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">It's like a breath exercise.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Yeah. Hurt us also like just having stuff go by. Like just different little things. Uh running is supposedly just Yeah, endorphins and totally like rewired.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">You can run like um satanama. You could say that as the feet hit. What Sate Nama? Yeah, like S A T A N A M A Sata Nama. It's like Sat Satnam, but like Satanama. You can add that to the to the movement. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">And what does that do? Sate Nama is a Kundalini Yoga mantra representing the cycle of life, birth, life, death, rebirth using Sanskrit sounds linked to Sat. Nom. Truth is my identity. Each simple.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, when you say it, the the the tongue tip hits the roof of the mouth in a certain sequential pattern. And hits meridian points that affect the neurons in the brain, which then form that co that corresponding pattern. And now you have the pattern mentally become what you predominantly think about so then you can project the psyche into the environments to get a certain result And you're using the Satanama which is the elemental base, the water, fire, air, uh earth, uh ether space, you know, Internet, Ethernet, that's the fifth one. Oh. Um to for the elements. The f the which everything your body is made of those elements, right? So you want those in balance. And then that will give you the the health if the along with it the balance of the elemental forces while you're running. You know. S so it's super powerful situation. Okay. Um you c if you even just add that to the something. See how see how simple it can be For sure. And basic.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">It's crazy, dude. I'm super down. I'm excited to I want to go run right now.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I'm gonna run home, I think, and just run over again. Yeah. I'm excited to try it. I really am. So Satanama will give you control of the elements. Okay. I think it was Nicola Tesla who said if you want to understand the uh secrets of the universe, think in terms of frequency, vibration, and sound. Everything's a sound.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">And I'm not saying it in my mind, I'm saying it out loud. You could. Oh. You can do both. Oh. Oh, okay. I thought it was something I needed to say to have the frequency.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">That you're gonna get a more of a effect, but yeah, you could do it mentally too. Okay. Um yeah, so it's all just you know, you're t s uh getting the that sound within you. Yeah, and then it kind of goes back to I'd rather watch Gino push, you know? Because there's like a something coming through that's just of a higher caliber. Dude, it's you know true, man.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Some people just don't understand it They're not on that wave.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Well then they don't want to understand that different things for different people at different times. You know, and you gotta let people work it out too at the same time. And inspiration is more valuable than knowledge in a lot of ways. And your success is universally beneficial. So true. And then that way you're they can do whatever they want. Right. I'm doing me. True. I mean and I'm in whatever the environments are gonna do, I'm gonna be happy And I'm not gonna abjugate that to like to to the outside. Right. Right. And and if the environments are doing a certain thing that's making me feel I'm off court. Uh that's bad language. You made me feel. It's making me feel. I know I'm I choose that. That's part of it. And then I can affect it in a positive way to uplift. Doesn't mean I'm insensitive. Right? Doesn't mean I don't have empathy And those are cute key human qualities that kinda separate us from all the other c interesting characters walking around on this planet right now. Um so you yeah, those emotions are good and they make us human, but we just have to have that that a certain you know, uh ability to it's a bad navigational tool. You know, if you're feeling good, feeling bad, it's it's not necessarily indicative of your progress. Um and you don't need to get stuck in it. You can enjoy it on all levels. And Satanama will give you that ability. It will give you ability to move the gears of the mind and give it infuse enough high frequency energy. to to maneuver things the way that you want to, which is gonna help everybody around you and help those dudes and people that maybe don't want to or Again, people are working out different incarnations, you know, and are here for different reasons on this planet. And we have to enjoy it with all the other characters. And uh And that's okay, you know, if they don't want if they don't want to, you know. So um different things for different folks, different times and also it's not for everybody, but it is for anybody. It's a good thing. You know, so they can they can practice and gain. from it too. So and spirituality's caught, not taught, they say too. So it's interesting.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Like you said before, like, you know, it it's it's it depends on the person's timing and all that 'cause if you told me all this ten years ago I would have been like But like I am at the point where I'm r willing to receive and Yeah, I think we're all just s ready for like the truth.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. For sure. I think that's coming. And that's sort of it's coming out it's coming to be and coming um as we move deeper into this time. Um so to me that's inspiring. And to me that's inspiring even in a skateboarding way. Yeah. You know? And I think it's like cool to you know, both dude.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">I just wanna So I wanna evolve, I wanna change, I wanna be better, I wanna you know, there's so many things that I think we can do On a daily basis, you know?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, and you I mean if I walk into a store I only have ten bucks, I just limited, you know. But if I walk into a store I got ten million, I just got more options. Right. So fuck it, I just want more energy It's the whole game is I just want more energy, you know, and I got more options. So whatever's happening to me, I have more options to maneuver. True. And uh enjoy. Man. And uh that yeah, so that's Satana mantra, Satanama broken down is like super superpower.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">I'm I'm I'm all about it now.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Satanama.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">It's a good one. I'm gonna run</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">You chant that when you run it there.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">I'm gonna chant it going to bed tonight.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">What do you thought about?</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. No man, I this has been Amazing, bro. Like I I love because here's the thing, man. There's that we could talk about skating all day long. There's so much more to life than just skating, you know? And I I feel like talking about all this stuff is good. Some people aren't real ready to receive it, but it some people are, you know, and some people are ready to receive it, need to hear it, you know? And I think I'm ready and I think that's what brought you into that chair right now, you know? Mm. That's what I'm saying. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">And to try this new board here that is that like literally for all the years you were trying to find a board or build it, is that the end perfect product for you? For me. Yep. Yeah. So you find so there is no madness anymore. It's like, oh, this is it. I don't have to tweaks to it or anything? No, it's been that way for a while though. Okay. All right. Yeah. Well, congratulations. Thanks. No, it's awesome.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">And like I said, you can get this board on your website, what pjlad. com. Yes. You're selling them and this is amazing, bro. I love it, dude. And it is a it is a it is a great shape, dude. And it they come in in what uh uh eight What what's this?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh you ride a seven nine I do. Which is funny 'cause that's the one that sold out fastest. Wow. Interesting. Which I didn't think would</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Well those are the people that actually pay attention real close to you in the kind of similarity.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Let me ask you a question, just because if there's people out there, I remember I would try to copy people's setups. I think I stood on Eric Costin's board one time years and years ago and I said, okay, I'm this is a this is the perfect board, dude. Eric Costin is writing the perfect board. I need to copy this thing. Click for clack, you know. What what what trucks do you ride? What size are they? Wheels, bearings, bolts? Stickers. No, but let's get uh you know if somebody wants to get a feel for uh what a PJ lad is gonna skate, like and they wanna like replicate it, what what what would it be?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, so I've ridden fifty ones, I riding the Bones STF. Okay. It was a batch they had made actually a while ago, but I just have so many left over. I'm still running.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Okay, so basic bones 51, whatever the thing was, ST something.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. Okay. And then actually I'm riding Thunders right now, but that's just kind of messing with something different. Oh, really? Experimental-wise. Okay. Because really venture highs. Venture Uh-oh.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Which will affect your pop. Totally. Right. Yeah. Okay, okay. So you're just experimenting with that usually venture highs. What what size uh uh the ventures for this board? For f uh five two Seven nine. I ride the five twos. Five twos.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Okay.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Five two highs.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Do you ride the one forty seven thunders then?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yes. Yeah. It's funny if with all the board stuff everything else I'm pretty. Like cool, like the Really? Not like You're not that I'm not uh just like That is interesting. I can kind of ride, but whatever.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">That is the most That's actually awesome. Sate Nama thing I've ever heard. No, that's crazy to me Yeah. That is fucking weird. Yeah, that is I never knew that either. Insane. Okay. I love that though. That's amazing, dude And then what, just some bones bones bearings, I would assume or something like that. Yeah, I've been running Swiss, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very good. Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Love the Swiss. What about the top color of the board?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh yeah, yellow tops, Ronnie Krieger So only yellow tops. Yeah, I got them all in yellow. I mean I think every board is yellow.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">I'm a huge fan of yellow as well. It's probably my favorite one. But I didn't know if it was only yellow for you, but I mean colors have a frequency, dude.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I mean it's like the the the rainbow, you know, is the is the actual sequence of the visible light spectrum. So it's like low of low sort of the your reds and then your hive ultraviolets. And it's like you get measurable into a n into a number. So so a lot of people are like, oh I don't like red top stains. You've heard that right? Yeah, of course. It's like red's like the lowest red root chakra color. Really? Yeah. So the visible light spectrum and the the the chakra system or the energetic vortex system within the body is all the same. uh light sequence. Yellow's the highest? It's higher. Higher. Yeah. What's blue or purple? Yeah, purple's pretty hot. Okay. Yeah, I guess that you get into those I like blue and purple tops. Yeah, blue's sick. Blue's sick. Purple.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">But yellow's the high yellow's the higher dude.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Well is right in the window. That was basically a Ronnie inspiration.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh okay. Oh you saw him writing it? The the three bolts and the yellow top. It's funny, right? It's how things stick with you.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Seriously.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">That's tight.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Impactful. This has been an honor, bro. I love it. You gotta come back and hang out with us more often.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">I enjoyed the skate talk though. I like hearing like you said a lot of things behind the scenes that kind of blew my mind to be honest Like the the Boston shoe was supposed to be a fucking four-star shoe. That's pretty sick.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, like some little things like that. I loved it all. I loved it all. You can lie, bro.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">You know, I love that you're out there doing it and are you working on a project or anything? Are you working on anything?</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">I would love to film a part. Yeah Yeah. So does that mean you getting to f find a filmer or how does or you just wanna go out and skate and film or just skate outside the s four spots I skate every day.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Because ston I mean stoner's good but it's A little yeah, downhill. Downhill and it's the granite ones are a little bit taller. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. It's just a consistent basic ledge. Yeah. It's not really that like thought out.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, go ahead. I was gonna say, what do we need to get you out there filming a part? Do we just need a film or something? Yeah, I mean I know filmers.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">This just comes down to me doing it.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Okay.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">I think people would like to see that.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Shit would be moved.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">I genuinely though, would you post stuff on Instagram it It's really cool to see and it makes people happy that grew up watching you skate. It's it's so thank you for doing that. I mean that from a very not trying to like gas you up, but I was like, oh sick, like I don't know. It's fun to watch, dude. So thank you.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Thanks, Kelly.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Appreciate that, brother. Of course, dude.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Kelly, we go way back, man.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">I know. That's right.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I was thinking about it recently, KO</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Dude, he would come down. This is like he would go to down the Carl's bed. And I was like a super fan. I'm a little younger than you. But I was a super fan of him and Gulan. And then all of a sudden I got thrown in the expedition and then riding with skating with Galant and then you would and I was like, this is insane. But I never Skating with you at KO, just meeting you there, skating flat ground, and I was it was so fun, man. I remember us we h we're hanging out in Nicole's office. Yep. So random. Nicole worked there and we all just sit you would come in there and you would uh they wanted you to ride for expedition so bad back then.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah uh I would well I Troy wanted to start a company. Oh really? Yeah. Which uh which almost happened.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Surrounded b around you, pretty much? Glant, Glant and I.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh okay. Yeah, this was like as GGK was starting. Oh interesting. Yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Oh.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">But it's yeah, it's kind of way back, man.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Did I remember asked you rode your board backwards for sure. Yeah. PG's like, who is this freak?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I just no, I didn't know because Kelly had shit out and like you know, four and ones and work and I mean yeah.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">I was young, uh I was just skinny on DC, but I remember one of the most craziest sessions. was me, you and Gulant went up to SF. And remember we kept going back to that four block in San Jose? Do you remember that? Oh vaguely. Like me, you and him shared a room But I remember skating this this four block and I was trying to I think I shot it was the day I shot my uh Who's Hot? Not Who's Hot Uh Checkup or Check Checkout in Transworld. Nollyvarial flip maybe? Hard flip. Okay. I hard flipped it. And It was the weirdest thing because Ryan is just he I think he Nolly Vero flipped it, Nolly backside flipped it, switched frontside flipped it, and did something else. And then I'm trying to hard flip this thing. And then you just keep switch flipping it over and over and over and over and over and over. And I'm stuck there just trying to hard flip. And it was like the funniest battle for me to watch.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Like okay I two dudes just rifling off tricks and you're just like, damn, trying to get one over here.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">It was such like a Like It was like this is the big dog moment, dude. Like I'm I'm the young kid. I gotta do something here. But it was inspiring. It was fun to watch. Was it just fun to switch flip or what?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">No, that that means I wanted to leave. I didn't want to find it. Really? But I wanted to skate because Gallant was skating. Yeah yeah. So I was probably like, he's fucking killing it. Blake was there, right? Yep. Yeah, okay, I remember it now. So I was like, well, I'm not gonna just I don't wanna not skate. And I'm like Don't really care about this someone like w want to skate this spot. So I'll probably that's usually what if I'm doing the same trick over and over again that's what that you just wanna leave.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">I was just like this dude is just sweat flipping it so many damn times and it was a big set, so like that was a trick back then right man galant was on a tear at that time yeah dude fuck he was fucking it up did you land again I did it was my checkout it was my checkout shout out to blade back and uh and uh Greg Hunt he was filming</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">What else? That's crazy, man.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, I just yeah, that was a wild trip for me. But yeah, no, dude. I remember skating flat ground with you at uh the sand gaps at like we'd go there late at night. I remember skating flat ground there with you. I don't know On the bike path, probably. No actable edges were. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah. Good times, man.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Not weird because it's just not the best ground. It's a little grippy Little grippy ground over there at the at the same gaps.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">It was because I just not getting kicked out of spot, nighttime got lights. The lights was right there, that's why. Yeah, but I mean The courthouse fountain ledge, 'cause all the ledges at the courthouse they're all different heights. Mm-hmm. So I just uh I just like to skate that little one.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">And it's like a good length too, so you can start going straight on. It's perfect length of grind, just like whatever. So yeah.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Otherwise I drive to Paul's. Okay. Yeah, like that's gotta there's a box there. Like that's that's what I'm saying. Like You just want a box that's got like a perfect just like a warm up spot or end the day spot. That's that's how it happens, you know. But no, I gotta get in this I gotta get out street skating more.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">If you film a part in 2026, wow. Just do do a fourth quarter part. Just get out there and just film a couple weeks and just yeah, come on with a part Hyper focus. Last question before we wrap this up, but like if you're gonna go out and film a part or get are you pretty like like f locked in or you do you just want to go out and just go to a spot and freestyle it or do you want to come up with like trick lists? What's your how do you do it?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah that's such a good question. A little bit of both the process. Yeah Um the days where you just kinda go skating with homies and the crew and you know, you just kinda going with the flow, those are always fun. Sometimes the best days. Sometimes the best days. Sometimes the best.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah. But not planned days for me are the the best days 'Cause when I overplan shit I just it fucking always backfires and I hate that. I like to just go out and skate and and and if something happens It happens.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, but exactly. You got the crew with you, you got the filmer, you're bringing these people to come do that s single trick. Now you're like ah Something's wrong. There's people around. Yeah, that's a good topic. Maybe one bet best left for another discussion.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">We're gonna get you get you back here later this year again, dude.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, I'm down because I'm not sure.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, we could go on for a a lot more time. We 100% could, you know, but that's the beauty of it. You know, you come back, come hang out We'll we'll talk about stuff we didn't talk about. PJ, we got some stuff for you, dude, if you don't mind to take home, you know. Got a couple couple of nine club things if you want to take home. First of all, dude, PJ Lab, man, dude, it was so awesome talking to you and hearing those stories and the Sunday Top. What is it again? I have to remember, I have to get in my mind. Satanama. Satanama. Satanama. Satanama. You gotta pronounce it right. Satinama. Satanama. Satanama. Satha. Satama. Satana. Satanama. Satanama. Love this. Satanama. I have to I'm I might have to replay this episode.</div><div class="speaker">Jeron Wilson</div><div class="transcript-line">I remember an old Dirty Bastard said that in one of his songs. Did he really? He said Santana. Oh no way. Old Dirty Bastards is Old Dirty Bastard. He might have been the head of the game on that.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">All right. Um we got a hat. I know you are you you wear your hat. Uh what what is it called that you wear the</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I just wrap my head up. I got long hair. You got long hair really? So I'll put a turban on, wrap it up, or just put it in a beanie. Okay. My hair's really long.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">What how long? Duh as long as dubs? Dubs got some length It's curly too.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Does it go down? Yeah, it goes down.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, I pull it. Oh yeah. Oh shit. It's probably long. Okay. Yeah. Well but Uh yeah. If you wanna, you know, here's a nine club hat, we got uh Richardson makes this uh beautiful hats right there. Or if you, you know Give it to the homie if if you don't want to wear it. Just give it to somebody who really wants who needs a hat or wants to rep it, dude. Best hats in the business, I'll tell you, Richardson. Oh, you got a new sponsor today, man. Nuts and Bolts is our bolt company. I was just guessing that you ride uh Phillips. No, no, no. No, I put Allen key? I read the Allen key. Alan or Phillips? I read the the Allen ones. Oh you know what? I picked these out for Mike mode. They're Phillips. He returned them to us because he doesn't skate anymore. But uh I picked him out for him. Phillips, we'll give you some Allen key after this. Two packs of bolts, man. New sponsor. Nightclub t-shirt for you. Look at this.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Thank you, bro.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Navy's your color, dude. I'll wear navy.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Navy's color. I only wear navy and blue, uh Navy and white, or blue and white rather, so Perfect. I'll tell you this right now.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Those are my colors. My favorite shoe colors, navy and white. Yeah. Favorite shoe colors of all time, dude. Oh Uh nineclub Yeti. Coffee, Yurba Mate, whatever you want. It'll keep it cold, keep it hot. Yeah, there's our nineclub yeti. Right there. This is epic. And last but not least, you know, I gotta bless you with uh the nine club switch flip manual. All right, dude. If you wanna take that so good. And again, you gotta come back.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I s I think about this trick all the time 'cause it skate the courthouse a lot, you know.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">I'm gonna tell you.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Such a hammer.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Didn't say uh you skate the stage?</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">I was skating it the other day but I you know, trying to get myself skate it more. Just manual in oh god switch manualin. Damn you switch manual in that thing still, bro. It's fucking hot.</div><div class="speaker">Kelly Hart</div><div class="transcript-line">He had some sick shit on there, dude.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Man. Yeah, I wanted to get more. It'd be cool to get a trick on this. I mean you have the the trick of the All tricks on the stage. Oh, definitely on top of the face. Yeah, that's next next next level. But yeah, if I got a trick on the stage it'd be high You gotta get one. Another one. Another one. Another one. Another one. He did like this is sick. This is so rad. Thank you, Chris.</div><div class="speaker">Chris Roberts</div><div class="transcript-line">Of course, dude, dude. And thank you, PJ, for for coming by and again. We're gonna make it happen. We gotta get you back on the show. Come hang out with us if it's not Ryan Gallant. Jeremy Rogers, Abigail, whoever you whoever you want. Or the live show possibly. Or the live show, you know, come let me hang out. Talk skate with us, dude. Yeah. PJ Ladd, man. Thank you, bro. Appreciate you. Thank you, PJ. Thank you, brother. Thanks for having me.</div><div class="speaker">PJ Ladd</div><div class="transcript-line">Yeah, dude.</div></div> | |
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