If you go to a building to skate, or if you go to these places to skate, you're told it's against the law in some cities. It's definitely a bummer. It's unfortunate.
When I'm on planes, I'd talk to people and I'd tell them I compete in the X Games. Some would know what it was, but maybe half didn't. But everyone knows about the Olympics. They're really like the X Games for the world!
You show up at the Olympics, and you're no longer you; you're an American Olympian. You're part of this greater whole, and the individual doesn't matter.
What drives me now is the fact that I feel like I still have so many tricks that I want to learn and so many things that I can still do. And so many cool things outside of sports that I have been doing.
I mean, I get letters in the mail because I had a heart defect when I was one, I had surgeries and stuff. And so you get these letters in the mail that just, they are crazy, they are just like, yes, well our son is dealing with the same thing and we saw you on TV and I mean it is such a cool thing to inspire and kind of give hope.
I remember thinking that I'd way rather give my parents my money, and not have to like have them go to work anymore, you know what I mean. Because I'd way rather spend more time with them.
There's not really anywhere I can go without being recognized, but if I put my hair up, that cuts the crowd in half.
Skateboarding helps a ton with balance, precision, with air awareness... it gets your senses to be spot-on and it's also a great way to take my mind off things.
I know my family and I would always go up to the mountains just for fun. We always skied. Then, all of a sudden, my brother started snow boarding. Older brother thing, I had to do what he was doing. So I started snow boarding.
The hardest thing about skateboarding is consistency: The slightest flick of your foot or gust of wind can send your board flying, so it's really anybody's game out there.
When you think about it, we're strapping strange planks of wood to our feet and launching off of giant snow walls. It's pretty intense.