Adam Davies Interview

Interview: Adam Davies

by Duncan Ewington


bsts pop over - fenning

So the basics first, Age, sponsors?

19, Circa, Independent, Santa Cruz, Street Machine, Grill'd burgers for November.. I've raised $112 already!

You used to be known as Mike Mo, as it is Movember and you're sporting a lil' stache, I thought it'd be a fitting question as to ask how you got the nickname?

For a while I'd just skate Lakai, as I'd get them cheap from Street Machine, and before I got a board sponsor I'd get Girl boards alot, as well as liking flat billed caps and backtails - so there you go Mike Mo!

So you work in a skateshop (Street Machine) sometimes in a skate distro warehouse (Lush), and are usually on a drip feed of youtube clips of skateboarding... what else do you do other then eat, breath and shit skateboarding?

I've been hanging with the Girl friend, my two and a half year old sister Zara, and have been recently getting into the foreign exchange, as well as the usual movies and TV shows.

You've been studying the stock market and usually have a scheme up your sleeve. What sort of career do you think you might end up in if skateboarding doesn't work out for you?

Probably being a professional trader.

What gets you psyched on that?

It's fun using a system to predict where the markets will go, as well as there's the potential to make lots of cash.

Is it much of a gamble?

You just have to backup the system, and make an educated guess, rather then do it like a slot machine.

Do you think the strength of the Aussie dollar is a good or a bad thing for the Aus skate industry?

I think it's good for the distributers as it's cheaper for them, and bad because people will buy online overseas. It's good for the distro's as they can put more back into their teams and promote skateboarding.


fsns - bibby

Is the dollar going to get any better?

I heard it might go up to $1.40 by next year, but nothing's definite.

It's good for travelling that's for sure. You've done a fair bit of travelling before haven't you? Where have you been and where's you're hoped next destination?

I've been to Europe with my mum, and went to Barci for a week in 2008. I went to Italy and Germany on a couple of different trips. I might be going to Japan for a family wedding thing soon, as well as I'm saving for a trip to the States and Canada in July.

Hopefully I'll be over there around the same time.. Have travelled much of Aus?

Um yeah, my Granma lived in Queensland, so I used to go there as a kid. I used to go to Sydney a bunch filming for the Sticks vid with Jamesty and Alba and a bunch of other cats. I've got family in Adelaide as well, and filming over there is fun with all those guys.

How'd it feel getting pipped at the post in the Mannie Mania contest?

I wasn't too fussed to be honest. Psyched that I came second in Clifton Hill so that I could go to Sydney, as I normally freak out in comps. I was psyched that I learnt a ghetto bird to mannie in the comp. Dean was doing tricks like every three seconds and skated so good. I would have been stoked to go to the States on Red Bull's card though.

I think Callum was one of the funniest things I've seen in skateboarding for a while!

Yeah he was just going nuts on that thing? He took the pressure off and was having fun.

Especially at the Riverslide qualifier.

Yeah it's good to have someone like him in it taking the piss out of it and having fun. When he bought that Monster energy drink that was the first energy drink he'd ever bought.


bng - fenning

So do you go on the Forums much?

Yeah pretty much check it every day, and the funny pics thread, though it's gone to shit lately..

Do you post much?

I've been sussing it for a few years, but have only ever posted a few times. Mainly just check it to see all the new clips, and I've sold a few things, posted a clip, that's about it.

So you mainly just lurk� Did you have a favourite Halloween clip?

Getrad's as rad, as it brought back memories from the Waterloo funs. I definitely think Lenin's one should have been in there instead of Cornwell's.

You skated that park of Ben's in Bairnsdale?

Yeah I've been there it's fun, that's why I liked his entry, having skated it, as well as the final cut was good.

Did you got to the recent Halloween comp dressed up?

I was going to wrap myself up in toilet paper and then it rained, so I didn't want toilet paper stuck all over me. Like every year it seems like less people are dressing up and it's becoming just like a regular comp.

So while we're on the supernatural theme, if you had one superpower what would it be and why?

Ummm, probably teleporting. So I can get to tonnes of places pretty quickly and save a lot of time getting to spots. Or have you seen that movie Next, the Nick Cage one wher he can see into his own future by two minutes? You could make a lot of money on the stock market! And you could see if tricks are going to work, and get everything first try.,

I know you're a bit of a movie buff, name your top five and why?

Gotta love movies like the Matrix which make you think, comedy like the Ace Ventuar series, Inception which is sort of like the Matrix, Inside Man - which is about a bank job, and probably Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas. Gotta have a lot of respect for claymation, as it takes so long to do. I did a bit of animation in Highschool and it almost killed me! I like those kind of creepy but cool animations.

Living in Melbourne you see and lot of crazy things, and especially working in shops on Smith Street and Chapel Street. What's the freakiest thing you've seen?

Haha we had at the Smith Street store, with Reece, some guy come in at five on closing time pinging off his head and chewing his face off. He started stroking the shirts like a dance move, and flicking through shirts, being like this is "Fucking Awesome!" whilst loving the most disgusting shirts. He tried on the tiniest tees while wearing the baggiest pants. He bought a shirt after half an hour and took ten minutes trying to get the note out of his pocket! He left and then came running back in freaking out about how he lost his keys. There was another time after skating Ben's park in Bairnsdale and we stopped off at a country metal park with obstacles that run into walls and flat banks that reach the sky.


bsf - fenning

That's the Bairnsdale one eh?

Yeah, we pull up at the park and pull out a skateboard and hear a little girls voice go "Skateboards suck, you guys are fucking gay!" We're looking around to see where it came from to see a ten or twelve year old girl on a scooter on top of a ramp using language you wouldn't expect from a young girl. So we're trying to skate around the park in the dark and she's riding around heckling us saying how her brother and mum's a cop and they're gonna come and shoot us. We told her to quit scootering and start skating. Out of the blue she starts yelling that Fenning had called her a cunt, which for anyone who knows Fenning is a Jehovah's Witness and doesn't swear. So she's chasing him around trying to kick him. So we get in th car and she pulls out a hammer! She was holding a can of drink, and as she's about to throw it at us he tapped it out of her hand with his board and splashed back at her. So she gets more aggro with the hammer and we got a bit worried. A local 14 year old grabbed it off her and then she ended up spitting on the car as we drove off.

Yeah Bairnsdale is gnarly, some dude got axe murdered on the main street last year! So what do you think the best Skateboard.Com poll question has been the best, and do you think girls with glasses are hot?

I'm not sure which one is my fav but yes girls with glasses are hot! I voted for that. I like how the answers are worded, like Yay and Ney.