Interview with Paul Machnau

What’s new, Paul? Not too much. Working on my graphic and shape. Just skating and enjoying summer. I just got a 2000 Dakoda Sport. I’m super hyped on that.

Do you haul around stuff in it?
Yeah. Some wood so we can skate some more spots up here. In Vancouver, a lot of the run ups and landings are messed up. There are cracks or grass and stuff.

How is the downtown area?
They’re capping all the rails and ledges. Doing everything they can to stop us from skating. We have been going out to the suburbs to the schools.

What’s the name of the city your from?
Cranbrook. It’s ten hours east of Vancouver. It’s in the middle of nowhere. I had to move so I can skate all the time.

How many people are in Cranbrook?
30,000 people.

How was it growing up skating there?
It was cool, just my friends and me. In elementary school when I started skating, we had a launch ramp in our driveway and just skated it every day and loved it. Then when I got into high school, we had a skatepark that wasn’t too good, but we’d build stuff and take it to the park and skate it as much as we could. It was like the crappiest stuff, but it was still fun to us. Once I got my license I started traveling and going places.
How old are you?
22.

I’m a year older than you, and when I was a freshman and sophomore in high school, skaters in San Jose, which is a big city, were looked at like outcasts. Did you ever feel that in your small city?
Oh yeah, it was definitely like that in my town. There were a lot of hicks and cowboys in my town. It was harsh. They were really rude to us and we got into fights. We had so much love for skateboarding, and didn’t care about these other people. It almost put us in a better mind state. We looked at life in such a different way than they did, so it was almost better for us to go through that.

It’s funny because now skateboarding is the cool thing.
It used to be that the skaters were the dirty scraggly kids, but now it’s like the jocks are out and the skaters are in.

The media has a lot to do with making skateboarding look cool to the mainstream.
Yeah, it’s finally getting the respect it deserves from the masses.

Yeah, but cities, at least in California, think that as long as they build some crappy little park, they can outlaw skateboarding in the rest of the city.
Yeah, skateparks are the wave of the future. It’s getting so illegal to skate. They are going to have to start designing parks to look like the actual stuff you’d skate in a downtown or something. I just don’t understand a lot of the parks in California. Are they designed by skaters?

Well, they are getting better. Some cities have horrible parks that aren’t designed by the people who should be doing it.
Yeah, they just need to have the skaters on site to make sure it’s all being built correctly.

So what are the things you like about living in Vancouver, rather than L.A. or something?
The good things are the skateparks. You can hop in the car or a bus and be at a park in 10 or 15 minutes. Then keep going and hit all the parks. The other good thing is that we don’t have to wear any pads. They don’t force it. It’s skate at your own risk. And they even give tickets if you don’t wear your pads, which I don’t really understand. It rains way too much up here. We have to do a lot more traveling in the winter to get photos and footage. It’s definitely worth living up here for the sun that we have, the freedom that we have.

You like traveling?
Yeah, I’m definitely down for traveling. I love being able to travel for almost free. I get to see the world, meet new people. It’s a lot of fun.

How’s your leg doing?
It’s doing really good. It’s all healed. It doesn’t bother me at all when I skate so I’m super stoked.

Are you psyched to be pro now?
Yeah I’m super psyched on it. It’s a life goal for me. I just want to feel right and make sure I’m doing the right thing at the right time.

What do you like to skate?
Definitely street. I have always just cruised the streets and tried to find stuff. I do love park and ramp skating as well, we just don’t have too many ramps up here.

Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?
I want to still be pro, depending on how my body holds up. I’ll probably still be living in Vancouver. I will still be involved with skateboarding, whether it be owning some sort of company or still skating pro. Skateboarding has been in my life for the past 12 years, and I want to be involved then, too.

What do you think skateboarding will be like in the future?
A couple of years ago people were saying and thinking that skateboarding couldn’t get any bigger or gnarlier. But with every video and magazine you’re still seeing more and more progress. It’s kinda gotten past the point where it won’t die down. It’s showing up on T.V. and movies, in commercial and videos. I don’t see it dying down any.

What do you do when you’re not skating?
I drive around looking for spots. I do that quite a bit.

I do that too.
Yeah, you always seem to come up with something.

Do you have any other hobbies?
Oh yeah, I like golfing. I’ll do that when I have time. I used to snowboard a lot, I still do it sometimes. I love fishing. I haven’t done it too much lately. Just hanging out with my friends at the beach.

Who are your sponsors?
Brigade, Emerica, Bones Bearings, Bones Wheels, Independent Trucks, Mounting Machines Hardware, Red Dragon Clothing, RDS, Dragon Sunglasses, Nixon Watches, Apallo Backpacks.

Man you’re hooked up.
Yeah.

Do you have any advice for kids coming up? I know a lot of kids whose goal is to get sponsored.
I’m not too stoked on the kids that come up and say, ‘Yo, can I get sponsored?’ I think you should just let your skating do the talking. For me, people just saw me. Moses saw me skate, I wasn’t seeking it out.

What about kids in Missouri or something?
Just try to get out to the big cities, or send your videos. Don’t worry about it, maybe look for some contests.

Any shouts out to your peeps?
Just thanks to everyone who has helped me out, everyone knows who they are. And a big shout out to my parents for supporting me for all these years.

This interview first appeared in Skate One Magazine in 2001

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