James Craig: "Let's skate some rippin' shit!"

Thrasher Magazine, June, 2003 by Michael Burnett

So what's been up with James Craig?

Just trying to skate man, taking it back to the old stuff, like when I was a kid.

How so?

Just trying to have more fun with skateboarding. Skating's too serious; all these kids are looking past the fun factor. You gotta have all these gaps and rails, you gotta be doing this and that. It takes away from the good a little bit.

Who pushed it in that direction?

It's natural progression, in terms of how big skateboarding's gotten. There's so much hype around everything. Just watching the 411, you see stuff that's so good that went unnoticed. You've seen the same trick 10 times in the same video already, and it takes away from the skater who's doing it.

Like sensory overload almost?

Definitely. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but once it reaches a certain level it's been taken too far.

What have you been doing to take the edge off and enjoy yourself?

I try not to force it too much anymore. If I'm not feeling like skating, I don't do it. But once I feel it--bam! "Let's go to 10 spots! It's on! This is fun. Let's shred and go skate some rippin' shit!" Just trying to skate different terrain. Skating around, not driving around.

That's a tall order in SoCal.

I live in OC, so I know my area and all the stuff I want to skate is within skating distance. Or you can drive to a place and then skate all around downtown Fullerton. There are lots of nooks and crannies that not too many people know about.

Was Grind King your first sponsor?

No, Society skateboards was my first real sponsor.

What was your first photo in a mag?

My first ad was a Grind King ad--switch heelflip down three stairs in Long Beach. Ripping.

When you think of the time that you were coming into your own and turning pro, who do you think of as being in your group? Who did you come up with?

A lot of the dudes I feel super close to are the dudes I used to skate CASL with. We all kind a came up at the same time. Guys like Ryan Kenreich, Rabble McKinley, JP Jadeed, Joey Brezinski.

It must feel pretty good to see all those dudes doing well.

It's sick. My first sponsor, Society the team was me, Luis Cruz, Kenreich, my brother, who doesn't skate anymore, and Robbie McKinley. We're all still holding it down today.

What would you have to do to get kicked off Blind?

Multiple ways. Anybody could get kicked off their team at this point with how the industry is. There's always the new kid, and they're usually more hungry than you. They're not thinking about the $20,000 knee surgery. They're thinking, "Let's do it! Let's bang out these hammers!" I do my part, get coverage, shoot video.

We're gonna drop a Blind promo soon.

What? A Blind video?

Promo.

Is there ever gonna be another Blind video?

We've had discussions about that lately and a lot of people disagree. I wanted to do the Blind video around the time of Rodney vs Doewon II but they wanted to put my footage in there. And the reason I didn't want to do that was because, to this day, that's some of my favorite and best footage. If we'd decided to work on the Blind video then, we'd have a solid video that would have been done a year ago. Now it's just the case of me being hurt and Ronnie was hurt, Josh crashed his bike. Personally, for me, trying to make the next Blind video, the successor to Video Days, that's so much pressure.

Yeah it is.

It's not going to be a promo for the new video, but more like the 101 video or Tim and Henry's Pack of Lies; the shit you can put in and then go skate right after 'cause you're pumped up.

So is your knee all better?

Ninety-nine-percent.

How much time were you on the couch due to that injury?

I didn't start skating until six months after the surgery, but I was riding on my board after about four months. March 30th was my two-year anniversary of getting surgery, and I really felt close to 100-percent three or four months ago.

What's your craziest Lavar moment?

Lavar is just a strange cat. He makes me laugh so hard and he's one of the sickest skaters. Most skaters are a few cans short of a six pack. Most of the dudes who are really really good, there's something in 'em that makes them a little weird, and it helps them to be so good. One of the craziest things was on tour one time, he was going off about how aliens wanted our cheeseburgers. They wanted the Foreman grill and they had no idea how to make cheeseburgers. That's why they were coming down. He went on for seriously two hours.

Did he ever tell you about how he was shrinking?

He didn't tell me that, but he told Gideon, "Dude, I'm gonna shrink myself." Most people who are short want to be tall and vice versa, but Lavar was this short kid who got tall and he wanted to be short again.

Who's your best friend on the team?

Gideon Choi. He got me on Blind. I've known that guy for 12 years.

He's pretty underground.

Yeah, Gideon's underground. He's actually been skating a lot and he'll have a sick part in the new promo. He was going through a phase where he was going to school and trying to skate at the same time. He's just really trying to break out of that, clear his head and go full-bore.