Aidan Fuller is a Known Associate from Joker’s Skateshop and DLX is proud to help put out his first ever video part and interview with our very own Marketing Coordinator Brad Handel. Hell yea Aidan!!
Brad: Alright, what’s up Aidan? How you doing, man?
Aidan: Pretty good. How about you?
Brad: I’m great. It’s Halloween. Did you dress up?
Aidan: Honestly I completely forgot it was Halloween until this morning, so I still got time to figure it out I guess.
Photo : Aidan Feldman
Brad: Alright, so let’s get to this. You got a part coming out and we gotta let the people know more about Aidan. So, how did you start skateboarding?
Aidan: When I was eight was the first time I ever skated. But then I got more into it when I was about 10 years old because I had a babysitter that skated, who actually is the wife of Scott Sisamis who works at Vans, and the two of them really got me into skating.
Brad: Did you start off skating loose trucks? When did that start?
Aidan: That started probably when I was 16. That came later. I used to ride my trucks real tight when I was a little kid, actually. Then I watched Tent City and it all changed.
Photo : Brendan Klein
Brad: Do you remember the first time you went into Joker’s Skate Shop?
Aidan: I do, actually. The first time I ever went in was with Scott really briefly. But then I came again later and bought an Antihero board. And that was the first time I met Michael and Jake, who now are really close friends of mine.
Brad: Rad. So, how long have you been going there?
Aidan: I’ve been working there for six years, so I’ve been going there for about seven years.
Brad: Woah, that’s a long time.
Aidan: It’s crazy that it’s been that long.
Photo : Brendan Klein
Brad: You have a bit of a hectic second job. Can you tell us what you do and if you’ve got a crazy story from it?
Aidan: Oh, my non-skateboarding job? So I work for a towing company, and basically my job is to go to apartment complexes and look for cars that don’t have permits, or have the wrong permits or fake permits or expired or whatever. And then, I have to write them warnings. And then, once the warnings are expired or whatever, depending on the properties, then I’m responsible for getting them towed. So, I’m that guy.
Brad: Dang, narc.
Aidan: Kinda. But I mean, I dunno, people are … most of these people kind of deserve it because they get 96 hours to move their car, and if they get 96 hours, you have figured it out, it’s just like, it’s not that difficult to get away with it, you know?
Brad: Yeah, totally.
Aidan: When I first started out I used to feel real bad about it, but now I’m just to the point where it’s just like my job and this is “whatever.” My boss is super cool. He skates, so he’s cool about me taking time off skating, go on trips and stuff.
Brad: Damn, that’s cool. Let’s see…Where was the first place you ever grinded pool coping?
Aidan: That was at my friend Jake’s house. He used to have a built to skate pool and that was the first place I ever grinded pool coping.
Brad: So, what would be your favorite type of pool coping?
Aidan: Penrose is really good. That was on his pool and a bunch of different parks that I’ve skated. Actually, T-Mo and I laid some penrose at one wall at Bob’s. So, probably penrose.
photo : James Givens
Brad: I know you’ve got a skate tank set up. What do you keep in the trunk of your car so you’re always ready?
Aidan: Oh, my emergency kit? The emergency kit would consist of: extra axle nuts, bushings, extra hardware, extra bearings, razor blades, skate tool, crowbar in case I need to get a parking block or something like that, and then I got a little toolbox with a bunch of different stuff. And then I usually have extra wheels and old decks that are still alright, they haven’t broken, I keep those just in case I needed to replace a board or something. So my trunk’s always stocked just in case. So, someone else drives, I feel real discombobulated because they don’t have all my stuff. Oh, broom, too. That’s another essential that I always have in there.
Brad: Gotta have a broom. Let’s say if you could only skate one spot or park for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Aidan: Lower Bobs.
Brad: Lower Bobs. Damn, that was quick.
Aidan: Easy.
Photo : James Givens
Brad: You shot a photo with Anthony Acosta recently and that photo is in this interview. How did that happen?
Aidan: Basically, I skate this park in east LA all the time called Belvedere. It’s, five, ten minutes from his house. And I would always see him there, and he’s super cool. And I’ve always been a big fan of his work, so I just texted him one day and asked if he’d be down to shoot a photo. And he was, so it just worked out.
Photo : Anthony Acosta
Brad: That’s so sick. How long have you been working on this part for and is this your first part?
Aidan: This is my first full part I’ve ever filmed and technically this project has been in the works for a couple of years because I’ve always wanted to do it. But actually having the set goal of “alright, I’m gonna really put it out” that’s been about a year because, I don’t have a filmer, so it’s just whoever’s down to go film, basically. So it was time consuming to collect all the footage and get someone to film all the time. The whole thing is filmed by 11 people.
Brad: That’s rad, though. I mean, get it how you can.
Aidan: I honestly enjoyed doing it that way. It just was time consuming, obviously, and hard sometimes because I’d have a trick in mind, a spot, but then I couldn’t get anyone to film. I’d have to teach some of my friends how to film.
So any of the clips that I did go out with an actual filmer felt so easy because I didn’t really have to do anything except focus on the trick.
And a lot of my friends don’t have cars, or aren’t really that into driving. So, I usually would have to coordinate all of that to pick them up and whatever. Stuff like that.
Brad: You’re like team managing yourself.
Aidan: Yeah, basically. Exactly.
Photo : Ray Zimmerman
Brad: What was it like growing up in Laguna Beach?
Aidan: It was interesting, because it’s not really much of a skate town at all. There’s stuff to skate, but there’s no parks and it’s more like a surf, art type of town, so … I dunno, I pretty much just got into skating because of Scott and Jill, and I would just see spots and skate them, because there are spots. It’s just, you kinda gotta be a little more creative. But then, when I got a bit older, I would just start getting rides to parks from my mom or from whoever. And then I started taking the city buses all the time, and going all around Orange County skating. Then, once I got my license, I’ve been going everywhere. But even before then, I would take three, four buses to go skate a spot sometimes.
Brad: Damn.
Aidan: Because I just figure out the schedule and how many buses I’d have to take to get there, and then just figure out how to skate to the actual spot from there. But it’s kinda cool because it makes you appreciate all this stuff way more, I think.
Brad: Yeah. And you probably got to see a lot more of your area than people do just driving on the freeway.
Aidan: Oh yeah, definitely.
Brad: So I heard that when you were a kid, you had an obsession with watching trains go by.
Aidan: I did. I don’t know where that came from or how, but that was what I liked to do before skating.
Brad: Would you take pictures, or just watch them? Did you know the different ones?
Aidan: Yeah, my mom would take pictures for me. I was really interested in how they worked. I dunno, I thought the whole thing was super rad. Just train yards and train tracks and all that stuff. So, my mom used to drive me to San Diego and Santa Anna and stuff so I could look at train yards and all this stuff. It was pretty rad.
Brad: So, how do you eat such dry cheeseburgers and sandwiches? Why can’t you just put some mayo or mustard on it?
Aidan: I don’t do that. I just keep it dry. No cheese, no mustard, no mayo, I don’t do any of that stuff.
Brad: Damn. Would you rather have to eat cheese for the rest of your life, or ride Bones Wheels the rest of your life?
Aidan: Wow. That’s a pretty sketch one. I guess I’m gonna have to go with the cheese honestly, because Spitfire for life. That would be pretty harsh, but I ain’t gonna ride Bones.
Brad: Correct answer. How often do you eat at Chipotle? You know, like a standard order?
Aidan: Pretty much on Saturdays when I’m at the shop I’ll go there. But, there was basically a three year period where I went there five days a week.
Brad: What?
Aidan: Yeah. I went there five days a week every day after school for three years.
Brad: What? Did everybody know your name?
Aidan: Yeah. There was actually a point of time in that three year era where the manager would only charge me … it was $3.23 for a bowl of chips and a drink, because I went there five days a week, so they were down.
Brad: Is there nothing else in your area?
Aidan: No, there’s plenty. I had never been there, and I never knew what all the hype was about, and then I just ended up trying it one day. And I really like basic stuff like rice and steak, and then I was like “Oh, wow, this is real good.” And then it just kinda became my routine. I’d get out of school, go there, then go to the skate park.
Brad: Alright, I don’t know if I can get behind it, but…
Aidan: Looking back on it, that’s kinda gnarly. But that was my diet for a while. After the three year stint, I sort of took a break from Chipotle for a while, but I kinda recently rediscovered it. But I don’t go as much as before, but I will go still.
Photo : Razy Faouri
Brad: Is it true you cut your flannels into vests and you had some sort of a name for it?
Aidan: Yeah, it’s called the Hesh Vest. But yeah, I did.
Brad: What was that all about?
Aidan: A dude named Little Chris, which is funny because he’s 6’4″ but we just called him Little Chris. We skated with him all the time and I thought he was super sick. And he just cut his flannels into vests, and so I just copied him and just called it the Hesh Vest.
Brad: Is it true that the one time The Joker’s crew brought you to the beach, you tried tasting the ocean water?
Aidan: That was unintentional, but it kinda happened. Because I go to the beach once a decade, I was in the water, head underneath and everything, and I just got a mouthful of seawater. I wasn’t trying to, but yeah, I did.
Brad: I mean, if you only go once every 10 years, you gotta get in.
Aidan: Basically, it was like one of those real hot weeks and I was skating at Jake’s house, and they were going to the beach so I was like “Alright, alright. I guess I gotta roll.” But I’m not much of a beach goer even though I live near it.
Brad: Okay, so what’s next for Aidan?
Aidan: I don’t know. I’d honestly like to film another part, as difficult as it was to coordinate all that. Like I said, I really enjoyed it. It made me push myself more than usual on my board, which is cool. And it’s just cool to look back at this finished product and think “Man, it’d be cool to film another part.” So, I’m honestly just gonna keep filming and never stop and just always be skating and trying to go as many places as I can, and meet as many new people as possible.
Brad: Well, fire it up, dude. Let’s get it. We’ll put it out.
Aidan: Definitely.
Brad: Sick. Oh, anybody you wanna thank?
Aidan: I’d be here all day if I thanked everyone, but definitely all you guys at Deluxe. Jim and Mickey. And John Schuab, because he was the one who initially got me hooked up with Deluxe. And Michael Pagani actually hooked me up with John Schuab, so him too. Jake, everyone at the shop, Damon Thorley did a lot for me. I miss that dude, I haven’t seen him for a long time. Definitely Damon, Bram, Nate, Christian, Pat, James, Ronnie Sandoval, and everyone at Deluxe, really. Everyone at the shop. Scott at Vans and Johnny Layton at Vans. Acosta, Brendan Klein, Ray Zimmerman, all the dudes that have photoed me. James in the warehouse, of course, and Aidan Feldman. Dude has got the same name as me, but he’s one of my best friends. He shot a bunch of photos and filmed a lot of tricks in my part. All the shop rats at Joker’s. Jake Reuter, Joe Kerivan, Ace Pelka, Corey Reuter, T-Mo, Jeff Grosso, Razy Faouri, P-Stone, Alex Fatemi, Omar Salazar, Corey Newman, Joker’s Skateshop, Berkeley Skatepark, Lower Bobs, Vans, Our Life Socks, Jessup, Turkey Neck Zine…..That’s all I can think about at the top of my head, but I know I forgot plenty of people, so I’m sorry. Too many people to thank. Lot of good people out there.
Brad: Alright, that’s all I got.
Aidan: And you, Brad.
Brad: That’s it.
Aidan: And my mom, sister, and my girlfriend, too. Can’t forget those.
Brad: You’d have been in some trouble if you hadn’t thrown that name.
Aidan: Yeah, I know. That just popped into my head, too. That’s all I can think of off the top of my head