Mark Appleyard: thrasher magazine skater of the year 2003.

THROUGHOUT ALL THE YEARS I've been involved, each individual chosen to be skater of the Year has been a master; that's just how it is. For each one it takes a certain amount of natural ability, but it also takes devotion, time, and commitment. Mark Appleyard skates naturally, and has the control to combine small technical tricks with very large obstacles--with a type of ease that might make one believe it's only natural ability with no hard work. Here is Mark Appleyard, one of a kind. A new era has begun. Take notes.--Mark Gonzales

MARK APPLEYARD You're originally from Toronto, Canada?

Just outside of it; a little suburb town. I always say Toronto so people know where I'm talking about.

Do you ever go back there?

I hardly ever do--about once every year and a half. My family moved out of there so I don't go back anymore, but I should go and see my friends. I just gotta find the time. Lately I've been traveling a lot and trying to go on all these trips. That's what makes me happy fight now. That's what keeps me going, skating different shit around the world.

Did you know when you were a kid that it could be this great?

Well, no. When you're a kid, you don't think about where it's going to take you. You don't even know you're still going to be doing it after all those years when you're just starting. You don't think about the money or where you're going to go, or how you're going to get to travel. You skate because you love it, and you need that everyday. It just becomes part of you. I wouldn't be able to live without it. Once you've been doing it for so long, it becomes obvious that you can't stop. It becomes one of your natural everyday things. I feel weird walking up; I usually just roll.

You started skateboarding in 1991?

Yeah, about that time. My brother had a board and the kid who lived across the street from me had a mini-ramp. My brother was always good at building shit, so he built a couple launch ramps and quarterpipes and jump ramps. There was nothing else to do.

So you hung out with older kids?

I'd hang out with my brother's friends 'cause they skated. I would just be a little tag along, the annoying little brother.

That's good, though.

Oh, fuck yeah. He would be bummed, like "Go find your own friends," but I would still just tag along and skate. I used to spy on that guy because I didn't actually know he had a mini-ramp--I used to creep around his yard, sit there and look through the wooden fence ...

What were the best memories of that time for you, the things that you'll remember for the rest of your life?

At that time it was just videos, magazines--I'd get all of them. The best memories are having that feeling of just learning: it was so fucking fun everyday having that new passion. Just that was fucking great. A few years before I moved down to California I had a skatepark and that was probably the best time of my life, when I had a skatepark--fucking amazing--in my backyard, pretty much. I used to go there everyday after school 'til fucking night and chill with my homies.

You were 15 then?

I was 15. There were good times before that, too. I grew up at a lot of parks, outdoor cement parks. We used to go there all the time, just locals, the same bunch of crew coming there. This one was just a bowl and a wading pool; we'd skate and launch out of that all day long. Then the city ended up building a quarterpipe there and a bump, so then it was just a fucking scene. I've logged some serious hours and years in that place. I basically was raised by the skateboarders in that area, the locals in that park.

They made you the person you are?

Yeah. I mean, they're the greatest. They're my real homies. When you move to California you have friends, but they're only so much of a friend. The people you grew up with and the people that are your real homies, you always remember them.

Is it hard to determine your real friends when you're around all these other people, especially now?

I think it's pretty easy to tell. You can tell if someone's trying to get to know you, or trying to be down with you just so they can look better or something. Usually they just look like clowns and you can see right through them. I'm aware of it.

What was the first moment when you felt like you'd actually made it as a pro skater? Tampa?

Well, I wasn't pro when I skated that Tampa contest, I was going into those am ones. After that I felt like I was coming into the scene, because I got a call from a couple different American companies. I thought, "Whoa! That's cool. That's better than two boards a month or just some Canadian company." I started noticing when I got on Flip, I think, because that was probably more of a shocking moment. They're just great; I looked up to them like "Holy fuck, this team is just insane. These people that I never thought I'd be talking to are asking me to ride for them?" I was like, "This is pretty fucking serious." That was shocking for sure. When you're a little kid you get off from watching these guys. Then I'm going pro and it was scary and it was shocking, but I had to do it--couldn't say no.

If you could live anywhere in the world ... Well I can live anywhere, pretty much, so I should be living in Barcelona. That's what I plan on. I'm going to try and get out there pretty soon. I don't know when. I'm getting over living in Southern California.

You're never there.

It's true. Like I said, I'm always trying to get companies to take me on the road to some new country. Life on the road....

What's your favorite skatepark in the whole world?

Just because I spent so much time there, probably Beasley bowl.

Tell me about the Mark Appleyard skatepark in the Cayman Islands.

I went out there on vacation because my mom was out there and I ended up meeting this architect who owned a lot of properties, like a lot of the shopping malls and shit on the island. He was designing an insane park for his kid who skates. He found out I was pro and showed me his documents, so I went over them 'cause some of the shit he had made was just too big and gnarly for the kids there. I helped him out. All I did was cut off two feet on a couple things and change a couple designs. It's going to be cement. He got amped and said, "What if I name it after you ..." I wonder if he's actually going to do it. It's massive looking.

What tricks are scary for you? +++ Lots of tricks are scary it's not so much the tricks; it's what you're leaping yourself off, throwing your carcass down. I don't really hit too much super gnar stuff, but--actually, I don't hit any super gnar stuff.

But you make it look pretty easy. You look so fluid. What's the most unpleasant part of your job?

There really isn't that much that is unpleasant, Not in my experience, I wouldn't want to come up now, as opposed to coming up two years ago, It's just evolutionary; kids are jumping off higher shit, flipping whatever else; packing some nuts, man. I might just be getting old. When you're young you learn so much so quickly. I think I might be going through the slow down scene.

What type of people do you like to surround yourself with?

The people I'm with right now. Dirty skate rats, DSR It's the only group of people I can be on the same fucking wave-length with. Lots of people freak me out in the general world.

Describe for us your perfect day.

I pretty much can do anything I want to do. Or, I don't do anything I don't want to do in a day. So that alone is pretty perfect. I'm just doing what makes me happy and what keeps me sane. The perfect day, I guess, I definitely need music in my day. The last thing I do at night is listen to some Leonard Cohen.

Do you ever feel exhausted--just totally burnt out?

Oh, fuck yeah, dude. I feel haggard and question if I'm going to be able to go on. My body gets so fucking sore. It's the endurance, too, lately. I jump down things a few times and it's like, urgh, your back and your neck, whatever. It's not like going to the loading dock anymore and jumping off all day. It's just crippling.

That's the spot you used to skate?

Well, when you're a kid you just try and find a leap, just throwing your carcass off whatever you can throw your carcass off of.

What avenues after skateboarding do you want to pursue?

As of now, I don't know anything else that I could be happy doing that didn't involve being able to skate whenever I wanted to skate. I don't think about the future like that, 'cause that would just bog me down and get me thinking. I'm trying to live right now; I'm in a space where I'm just really living for the now.

That's good. You're simpler like that.

I've been told I'm really simple like that. I could probably just be happy living on some random island or something, as long as there's skate and smoke.

Would you rather skate a perfect rail or a perfect curb?

That depends. Since I'm sponsored I have to say "I like to jump down some big rail." I don't know, dude. There's only so much fun you can have on a curb. If it was a nice mellow rail I'd say, sure. I don't get all amped off seeing a perfect 20 'cause I know it's just like, "It's nice. Yeah. Let's get going." I'd say, "This would be good for so-and-so."

So you would have been class of '98 when you came up in Tampa? Who else came up in that era?

People blowing up at that time were Jeff Lenoce, Kerry Getz, Dustin Dollin ... A lot of those guys that would go to those Tampa contests. That's where shit would go down. Everyone was busting so hard, and the am contest was gnarly back then. Everyone was going completely apeshit. A lot of those guys are so fucking good. It seems like the ams were older then than they are now. Now they're a bunch of kids that look like Sheckler, like they're 12--I'm not talking shit. Love the Sheckler, everyone loves the Sheckler. Sheckler was at some of those contests. He was like, eight.

Did you go to the pro contests as an am and check them out?

I couldn't afford to get there to just check it out.

Skateboarding is skateboarding, It's not a direct reflection of your personal political or religious beliefs.

I agree, I agree. There's people out there who are pushing their beliefs into skate-boarding through marketing themselves. Some big name--I don't want to name names--but they're making product with whatever they're strongly believing in, brainwashing kids. I went to a demo in Utah and said fuck you to the guy putting it on. The skatepark was at this church; I didn't know that, otherwise I wouldn't have gone. We got there and this guy was putting up all this propaganda making skate booklets saying "Just skate in the park." They've got them in a cult, it's ridiculous. They're pushing it on young kids who are psyched because they get to skate this park, but at the same time they're fed all this other shit.

Well, that's what happens. People see skateboarding as cool, and they want to ride on the coattails of it.

Oh, yeah. There's a lot of that going on. Those are just the people getting into it with no love. Fuck them. If that's an ulterior motive, to push some stupid beliefs, then they're not going to be around at all.

Have you ever been hurt?

Yeah. I've been hurt to the point where I've had to take time off. But never ... I don't want to talk about that shit.

Do you have a car? You don't have to say what kind, 'cause that's just a trap.

Yeah. If you're buying something just to buy it so you can say you have that or use that as your status, it's just stupid. Why would you have it? These videos coming out with what guy has what car is just polluting skateboarding. Nobody cares. It's just making kids want to skate 'cause they think they can get that car sometime. They should be seeing what the person is like as a fucking person, not that he has enough money to buy shit or bow cool he is because of what he has. It's like, you might as well be a jock. You're not a skate rat driving around with your board in your lap. Fuck, go home.

Are there any trappings about being famous that effect other areas of your life as well?

I don't consider myself any different from anyone else, I swear. People know me in the skate world, but that's not even too crazy. All kids want to do it ask you a few questions when you're skating, and that's not too much to ask. It's not like I go to Blockbuster and someone's giggling and saying "Hey, that's Mark Appleyard." It's not like that; it's not a problem. People ask yon when you're an older guy what the hen's going on anyway.

Who was the first guy you approached to ask some of those questions?

It was probably just some guy that was older than me and skated, and I just wanted to know his technique or about whatever I was doing. I was just amped up. I was getting in the mix, trying to figure out what was going on, and I'd ask anybody.

What's the dream vacation?

The one I'm on right now. There's nowhere else I'd rather be right now--on a trip in South Africa with a good crew and having fun, skating everyday, and doing a real skate rat tour. Connecting here to go on some world tour--Europe, Asia, Australia, and all that. If I didn't have shit going on, well, I guess I don't have anything going on. You've got to go home every once and a while, so probably just go home and handle some shit.

Clean your dishes?

No. I don't do shit like that. I'm a real minimalist.

I like that.

That's a happy way to live. The less you have to worry about, well, the less you have to worry about.

Definitely. The stuff is all great, but you can't take it with you.

Can't take it with you.

What were the three hardest tricks that went into the Flip video?

The new one?

Talking about Really Sorry, here. Or just in general.

There were lots of hard times in that. I can't say one was that much harder than the other. By harder I think you mean how much hard work I put into getting it. But there were times I would have to go back to a spot three times, maybe four times, to get something--light it up and battle away at trying to get it. For the Really Sorry thing I had a few tricks, just a few, left over that I was going to try and save.

Switch biggie?

No, that was in the filming time. I had tricks, doubles of when the first one came out I was going to keep. When Really Sorry came along I was on with a lot of tricks in the right places in Europe. And I was filming and on skate trips most of the time so it just came together. It didn't feel like I was going out to make a video, because the pressure was off from the first and only Flip video so it was just like I was going to skate, not going to stress. And that's how the video turned out. To get super stressed, that's a lot more unnatural for me. When it's like that I'm less likely to get shit done. If I'm at a spot and I really like it, it's just natural for me to want to push my limits and try to do something I've never done before or try to do something new, just try to progress on it. You want to feel the feeling of the new trick and be amped on it so you just try it. It's much better if you're skating all the time; you're not chilling until you've got a deadline. Then you've got to bust. I don't like that kind of shit. That would make you feel your job.

To think of all the dudes on the Flip team, does it make you nervous that you have to come correct?

It was a lot like that in the beginning, but now I pretty much know everybody well enough that it's not like I've got to let them know what I can skate, or try to show them stuff at spots. Sad but true, you have to kind of be like that when you're trying to come up--you have to bust out whenever you get a chance. Now I've been doing things on my own schedule, going out with my friends and the people that I enjoy being with and some random filmers. Right now that's how shit's working out for me. I would be too high-strung nowadays going out and planning a mission for the next weekend. I don't plan what I'm going to do the next day. I just go. I'd rather let it fall into place.

Is it weird having your name on a shoe?

I wouldn't say weird; I would say it's pretty fucking cool. It was a shock to me. For the first little while I was like "Whoa, that's weird," 'cause it's more than just a deck, nowadays especially. They're handing out decks left and right to kids. But a shoe, a shoe used to mean something. When I got my shoe it was fading out of that meaning-something era, when it was true tippers getting shoes and real legends. It seems like shoes are going out like boards these days, and I'd like to see some changes in that.

When it's all said and done what do you want to say you gave to skateboarding?

If I have to be looked at, I guess, I want to be known as a guy that loved to skate and tried to push it. Just a fucking skater--dirty whatever. I don't need to be known as anything; I'm just another skater.

Do you think you could make 40-years-old?

Like The Phelper? I don't know, man. What's it take? I want to. I hope so. I know I'll be a creaky old piece of beef jerky by then. I'd be amped, for sure. I know a guy in Hawaii, he's 53 and he doesn't skate street but he still shreds his mini-ramp. That was pretty inspiring when I saw that--this 53-year-old man who just skates his ass off and he loves it more than the kids. That's all he talks about. He's 53 and has businesses and a life outside of skating, But he chooses to only talk about skating. You can tell it's all he really has a passion for. I look at people out there in the world ... If you don't have a passion--whatever it may be--you're empty: You're just going to end up buying shit to try to make you happy.