
By Big Mike – Vision Team Manager
Original Interview from 2001
I saw Tas Pappas skate in the 1996 Hard Rock Café World Championships, … screaming 7 foot kickflip indys, huge 540’s and the signs of a potential 900 at any time. He ruled the vert world, and he won both that contest and the total points championship that year. He was only 21 years of age.
No one could have known that the next two years of his life would bring such disaster. Injuries and disappointments hit the then ‘world champion’ like a plague. After, snapping his PCL ligaments in both knees, breaking his back, nearly loosing his eyesight, and falling out with his board sponsor, Tas dropped to 44th in the world in 1997 and 39th in 1998. The injuries were dragging him down and things looked bleak.
A lot of other skaters have quit for a lot less, but you have to know Tas to know that’s not the Pappas way. In 1999 he reemerged from obscurity to prove that the same kid who ruled the world at 21, could still skate with the best of them as a 23 year old man. He placed 22nd at the Slam City Jam, 8th in Milwaukee, 8th at the X-Games, 7th in Northhampton, 2nd in Munster, and 2nd in Prague. For the entire year he finished 3rd in the 1999 World Cup ratings. Not bad for a skater everyone thought was to banged up to ever skate again. He’s a survivor.
Vision was Tas’ original sponsor when he was coming up as a young skater in Australia, and this year we here at Select Distribution are proud to announce that we have signed Tas to a full sponsorship, Vision Shoes, Vision Skateboards, and Smith Safety Gear, complete with pro models totally designed by Tas from the ground up. We know a lot about survival … and Tas has found a home.
He’s come full circle, back to the top of the sport he loves and back to the company that supported him when he first started off. This is his interview …
TAS PAPPAS INTERVIEW
Give me some background information, where were you born?
Melbourne, Australia
What’s your nationality?
Australian / Greek
Favorite skater?
For vert, Christian Hosoi and my brother Ben.
For street, Daewon Song, Tom Penny, Sean Sheffey and Huy Lee
Favorite food?
Greek & Sushi
Favorite Musicians?
I like Faith No More, Roy Orbison, Slayer, Metalica, Bowie and all the other greats.
First Skateboard?
A Vision Psycho Stick from my Mum n’ Dad
Who’s the skater that influenced you the most?
Christian Hosoi, I saw him when I was 12 and he blew my mind. After that, I started taking my skating seriously.
What was it like growing up with the skate scene in Australia?
Australia has some really great public skateparks. You can skate for free everyday on either street or vert.
Where are you living now?
I moved up to Hollywood this year to get closer to the music business and to get into the Southern California skate scene a little more. I can street skate every day here and there’s a vert ramp about 20 minutes down the 5 Freeway.
Did you say you street skate every day?
Ya, I’m known as a vert skater, but I love to skate new stuff every day. It keeps my skating fresh. There’s a whole new scene happening up in Hollywood right now and it’s a lot of fun.
Why don’t you skate street in World Cup events?
I think the courses aren’t true representations of street skating. There’s just too many quarter pipes and coping that you would never find on a real street. I feel that vert riders should stay out of street competitions and let the real street skaters do their thing. It’s a little weird when you see a vert skater placing high on a ‘street’ course doing basically vert tricks on quarter pipes. I don’t feel that’s fair to the real street skaters. If they ever build a pure street ‘street course’ maybe I’ll give it a try to see how I’d do, but for now I’m happy skating vert.
So what do you think of contests in general?
Honesty, I love to enter contests. I view them as showcases, where you can compete with the best in the world. There’s politics involved of course, but I love to skate with the crowd yelling in the background, so it’s worth the trouble.
What do you mean by politics?
I don’t believe contests are as hard as they were in the past. I don’t compete to loose. I think the crowds want to see full-on competition, but you always hear riders saying things like, “I’m just happy to be here.” Or so they say.
Skating is about having fun with your mates and setting goals for yourself, but to show up at a contest just to collect a paycheck and act all politically correct is a bunch of crap. The whole scene is to distracting. It’s the skating that I came for, all these guys acting cute for television is stupid.
You said the politics and scene were distracting, how do you stay focused before an event?
A good woman and plenty of ah, “exercise.”
Speaking of women and exercise, what do you think about girl skaters?
They’re great, especially when they do lip tricks and backside tail-slides, that really turns me on.
Lip tricks and backsides, ha, I think we need to get back to ‘skating’. Do you consider yourself in a comeback mode right now?
Comeback mode, no, just getting over my injuries was my comeback. I’m just happy to be here having fun with all these nice guys. Just kidding, that was my Extreme Games speech. Hell ya, I’m gonna comeback and show those shit talkers what’s up.
You mentioned that one of the reasons you moved to Hollywood was to be close to the music scene, what’s that all about?
My brother Ben and I have put together a band, ” Gudamunkas ” and we just finished our first single, ” Vegas “, so I wanted to stay close to the music business in L.A. and to be able to check out the local clubs without having to drive to far.
Does this mean you’ll be leaving skating to go on tour with the band?
No, we’re a way off from completing the album yet. Ben is in Australia laying tracks for the final cuts, but we don’t expect the C.D. to be out till Christmas. If we do go on tour it won’t be till next summer. The ‘ Gudamunkas – Guna fuk us Tour’. Maybe we’ll get a spot on the 2001 Warped Tour, then we could get our music out and still skate every day.
Speaking of skating everyday, what happened with all those injuries in 97 and 98? How’s your skating coming along?
Right after winning the Triple Crown and the World Championship, I seriously tore up my PCL ligaments in both knees. Then to make matters worse, I fell going down some stairs and smashed my eyeball into the back of my eye socket. I was seeing double, and had to have a plastic sheet put in the back of the socket to get my eyesight back. I was just trying hard to get back into shape but everything was going wrong.
What about your back problems?
My friends and family were helping me to stay focused and get back in shape, but I was having back problems and I couldn’t seem to get back my rhythm. It was suggested I see a trainer, and that’s when I was diagnosed with a stage four injury to my lower back. Stage six and you’re crippled, so it was a really tough time for me.
So how does it feel now?
Everything is great now. I eased back off the competition circuit the last month so I could spend more time on the band, but I’ll be ready to go for the X-Games, Gravity Games, Triple Crown in Oceanside and the Plywood Paradise event in Ventura. It’s going to be a great year.
You said your friends and family all helped to keep you going, is there anyone you’d like to thank from that time?
My brother Ben, Jason Genaro, my Australian mates Steve Douglas and Travis ‘Pretzel’ and all the California crew that kept me laughing when everything seemed bad.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank now? Sponsors, friends, family?
Ya, Erick and all the boys at Billabong.
Joey from Indy,
Lance at SpinRecords.com,
The whole Pie.com crew,
My mates in Gudamunkas,
my brother Ben Pappas,
all my friends and family that have kept me going all these years.
Dale Smith at Smith Safety Gear,
Brad, Tom, Heidi and the crew at Vision
What is it like skating for Vision?
It’s like coming full circle. Vision Street Wear was my original sponsor back in Australia, so riding for them makes me feel like a kid again.
What are you working on right now, any signature models?
Ya, the second day after I was signed, I got together with Craig in the woodshop and put together my own shape for my signature deck. They’re being pressed right now as we speak. We’re going to have a street and vert model, so everyone can skate a Tas deck.
What about your shoe model?
Heidi, Tom, and Mike have been showing me insoles, outsoles, laces and anything else I might need to design my shoe model. They even cut some shoes in half so I could get a better idea of what I wanted. With luck my model should be out by the next ASR Tradeshow in San Diego in September. I’ve got some definite ideas about what I want, and it’s looking really good. They are even talking about letting me have a Smith Safety Gear signature helmet model. I’ve had some ideas I’ve wanted to try out for a long time, and here I make it all happen.
I guess you’re having fun then?
Select really has it together when it comes to putting out product and getting things organized. They started booking plane flights and hotel rooms as soon as I told them which events I wanted to attend. And they have already started working on my ads, web interviews and coverage. It’s been great.
Any last words for young skaters coming up?
Ya, keep your heart true, follow your dream and beware of the demons.
We brought this article back from the dead as we enjoyed the read and the look back – hopefully it brings back a few memories for you too.