Dallas Clayton hit my awareness when his viral sensation started flying around the internet and in Google’s TV spot. It made me smile, like it did for millions of others. Recently I had the pleasure of seeing him speak–he was very awesome in person and pulled the crowd into his world. After the talk, I had the chance to shake his hand and learned that skateboarding played a role in his shaping his awesome life.
When did you start skating?
Honestly, I grew up around skating since maybe age 10, 11 – I mean I had a skateboard when I was very young but never did anything with it. Then most of my good friends got into skating pretty heavy around 13. So from 13 to 16 just going to spots every other night and hanging out in parking lots and having fun. The strange thing is, I never really got into it then. I watched the videos, I pushed around, I was super into the culture of it but I was always just on the sidelines. Maybe this logic makes sense, maybe it doesn’t, but by the time I was 13 or 14 I just figured, “Oh, I’m not really any good at it, I’ll just leave it to them.” Then around 16 or 17 I looked around and said “Man, if I’d have really started skating then, I’d probably be a lot better now, but now there’s no reason to start.” This sort of logic, I think keeps a lot of people from doing a lot of fun things.
By the time I was 18 I felt like I’d been around skating for so long that I had definitely missed the window to enjoy it to its fullest – I just kind of watched everything from the sidelines. Fast forward a few years and I move to LA and end up making friends with a handful of skaters, so it’s just all around me but still not something I’m active in. Then when my son was born around 23, 24, – for some reason it just made sense like “if you don’t participate in this, you’re missing out on something that is super fun.” Skateboarding is so interesting, because as much of a brotherhood as it provides it can be pretty scary if you haven’t ever really done it. It’s not like basketball or something where the worst case scenario is you miss a shot. The older you get, the harder it becomes to convince yourself that falling off things is worth it, but the part that made it easy for me was just skating around with my son. He was so young that we could just go to a tennis court or a parking lot and push around, and then from there just find the freedom and the fun in being in control and falling down and getting back up. Since then I’d say I’m as much of a skater now as I’ve ever been, but would hardly throw myself into the same category as kids who grew up doing it every day. I feel like I skate the same way I ride a bike, for pure fun, transportation, to get out into the world.
What was your first skateboard?
As I said, I don’t really have a “first board” story. I always just had whatever showed up at my house. By the time I was a teenager that meant lots of New Deal and Plan B and Hook Ups decks. There was a point where I was 16 or so and took a trip to SF and through a family friend I ended up at Max Schaaf’s house. He gave me a huge stack of used decks – maybe 10 or 15, tons of old Real decks, and just random decks that had been left there by various SF guys. They were totally thrashed but I remember being so stoked to bring them back and give them out to all my friends. This was all pre-internet, so the only way people were getting stuff that wasn’t at our tiny local shops was through CCS and no one had any money cause we were all in high school. I remember bringing all those decks back and it was like a stack of gold bars to my friends.
When did you stop or slow down significantly?
These questions are funny because I feel like I’m answering them or perhaps living them in reverse. I guess I try to skate once or twice a week, but nothing crazy. Maybe by the time I’m fifty I’ll be ready to really go big.
What do you do for a living?
I write kids books.
When you are not skating, how often do you think about skateboarding?
I guess I never developed the addiction for it, but it seems like it’s everywhere all the time. I took my girlfriend skating for the first time about a month ago. Just her pushing around on a little Penny, and she was so into it. Like if you’d never been swimming in your whole life and someone took you to a swimming pool for the first time. She says that ever since then she’s so aware of every skater she sees on the street. Like they were invisible to her before, and now she can’t help but look at them and wonder where they are going and how she can be a part of it.
How did skateboarding affect the direction of your life?
Well, for me part of what makes skating interesting is that so much of it is build on or around this DIY culture. The same as music and art and all the energy that goes with it. The fact that you could take something that inherently has no rules, no structure, no sales value in and of itself and turn it into a sport, an art, a community, and a massive industry, in turn producing tons of talent and inspiring millions of people simply through the collective love and passion of those involved – that’s incredibly inspiring. Knowing that this can happen, is like knowing that anything is possible.
What is the connection between skateboarding and creativity?
I suppose a skateboard is the same as an instrument or a brush or a pencil – it’s something that is easy enough to pick up, but it’s up to you to shake the art out of it. It’s up to the individual to channel the energy and spend the time taking that tool and using it to change things.
More about Dallas Clayton
Dallas Clayton.com, A Very Awesome World.com
Connect with Dallas Clayton
