Mile high skate ninja: William Spencer.

A FEW MONTHS AGO I was watching the excellent Burning Daylight video out of Colorado when, in between all the crooked grinds and kickflips, a maniac appeared on screen jumping off walls, throwing out backflips, and totally going for it in a style closer to Bruce Lee than Jason Lee. William Spencer definitely has his own take on sidewalk surfing--one that hopefully doesn't land him in the emergency room. Knock on wood.--Michael Burnett

A lot of kids go through a ninja stage. Is it safe to assume you never left yours?

You know what? I think that's exactly what happened, actually. I took karate and gymnastics and stuff when I was little, so I'm sure that played into it. I definitely had a lot of free time on my hands.

People will go a long way to try and get sponsored, but that's not part of your plan, correct?

Nah. It's kind of hilarious, but this is just the way I like to skate in general. I just think, "Hey, this looks fun," and see what happens.

So this isn't some sort of gimmicky thing to get on Grind King or whatever?

How hilarious would that be? I'm pretty sure it's not about that.

What's been your most harrowing stunt so far?

There's this thing that Adam Crew filmed for the Toebock video. There was this pipe over a river and I rode across the pipe ollieing the braces that hold it together. That was kind of sketchy.

What kind of stunts do you do without the board?

Actually, I'm doing a lot of stunts fight now. I got a job in the Batman Stunt Show at Magic Mountain. It's got zip lines, I do a high fall in it and an inverted repel. It's got fight scenes and stuff. To tell you the truth, I'm so new to it it's sort of surprising what people are afraid of here and what stunts they won't do.

You mean the other stunt people?

Yeah. Even though these dudes do some rad stuff, they're kind of wusses about it.

Did your skate background give you a leg up?

Definitely. The other people, they're not wusses, but they're really cautious about some stuff. I think, "C'mon, you're a stunt man! Isn't this supposed to be your deal?"

How high is the fall you do?

It's like 23 or 25 feet. The scary part is that I have to dive straight down and then tuck my head at the last second and land on this crash pad. It still sketches me out. Every time I get up there I think, "Here it is, I'm going to die."

In the Burning Daylight video I noticed you eat a lot of shit. Is willingness to eat shit a big part of doing what you do?

Oh man, you have no idea! It definitely comes with it. I like to experiment a lot, so that's just part of it. I'm hoping everything will work out. I'm not trying to get hurt, but then it happens.

What's been your worst injury?

To be honest I haven't done too much to myself. I sprained an ankle awhile back, but not much more to speak of.

Does your stunt work help you escape injury more easily?

Yes and no. I can cheat my way out of a lot of stuff, but at the same time I put myself in a lot of new situations where I just don't know what's going to happen. It works both ways, I think.

What kind of shoes do you wear for this stuff?

To do that front flip to board I switched to Nikes, because they're kind of bomb proof as far as that stuff. I had to get extra super insoles. I don't know if you remember, but in Burning Daylight I did a backflip off this wall in my part. It's this, I guess, sort of famous gap around here called the Colfax Drop. Anyway, I backflipped off that and smoked my heels. So since then I've had to add in some extra heel support.

What should a kid understand before he starts getting into this type of skating?

You've got to have basic knowledge of your body position in the air. Once you get comfortable with that, you can start to try different stuff.

Describe your dream stunt with a skateboard.

Maybe not a dream stunt, but check this out. I'd like to ollie from rooftop to rooftop with a car driving down the street in between the roofs. So I'd ollie the gap and then ride on the car while it's moving and then land on the other side. Or, check this out, a car coming straight at you, coming super fast, and then you hippie jump over the car and it goes underneath you and you land on your board. There are a lot of them, I guess.

Where do you hope to be in five years?

I'd definitely like to be doing legit stunts for movies. I'm definitely going to keep skating. The more I do stunts for other people, the more I feel like some kind of meat puppet. It's annoying that it's somebody else's idea all the time. That's why I've always like skating, it's complete freedom. You can do whatever the hell you want. The reason I do the stuff I do is because that's what skateboarding is: you think of something and then you go for it.