002 Who Am I or, Who I Am? Part Two: The Roots (page 1) (2) So now at age 16 & going on 21, I was convicted to skateboarding. The 90's boom was starting, I was a regular at Bill's & I had found the "older" crew. The guys who actually went out & filmed themselves skating day & night, which wasn't so easy back then. I met Caesar Singh & Pete Piazza, plus others & even later on had my own little crew of shredders, like Ryan Ireland, Kevin Van Hoy, Jason Sakasegawa & Seth Faulkner. All I knew at that time, was that I wanted to do whatever it took to be a real skateboarder & there was no turning back in my mind ever again as being anything else. I also wanted to do a clothing company back then called Khali, which is where the Salinas Code of the Streets shirt started. So I skated, graduated high school & moved to Santa Cruz at 17. That's where I met & became friends with the locals back then Ron Whaley, Israel Forbes, Moish, Dustin Zimmerman, Karleen, Minsoe, Dante to name a few & tons of other rippers. After a year I moved back to Salinas & worked a few jobs, partied a lot, skated & filmed what I could, when I could; until one day I just was fed up with skateboarding here. I talked to Piazza & he said that he could help me move down to Oceanside if I was serious. So with no hesitation & with no plan (most important part), I quit my job, sold all that I had (which wasn't much), packed my things, bought my bus ticket & went for it. No hesitation. It's weird I haven't actually thought about that incident until writing this now, recalling arriving there & just how awesome it was to see skateboarding in a different area of California & not only any area; Southern California. It was & still is, the Mecca of skateboarding. Just like the rapper K.R.S. O.N.E. said about rappers having to go to the South Bronx to truly understand the roots of hip hop & what it's about. I feel the same way about skateboarding. Every skateboarder has to visit Southern California, especially Los Angeles to understand skateboarding. Which, is where I found myself living soon after leaving Oceanside a year later; West Los Angeles to be exact. My good friends Ryan & Ed hooked me up with a place to stay & even a job to help get me started there. (page 1) (2)

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