First & Last: Mike Carroll

It’s an honour to bring you the latest interview in our “First & Last” series, a conversation that explores the past and present of Mike Carroll, a pioneer that skateboarding is lucky to have still contributing, on and off the board. Mike came to visit our shop in the summer, a meet and greet event organised with Form Distribution simply because his family holiday schedule found him in the UK. It was an honour to have Mike in the shop for the evening, and his presence drew a crowd of all ages who were hyped to get some face time with a streetskating pioneer. It was amazing to be able to spend time talking about some of the seminal videos he has played a part in, and hear about his new reality juggling fatherhood as a priority. Everyone who came to see Mike left happy they had made the effort, an ‘always meet your heroes’ moment to disprove the old adage. That night, we discussed the possibility of this interview and maintained radio contact to find the best time to connect.

The shop event coincided with Mike beginning to view the world from a new perspective. It followed a return to social media interaction following a notable hiatus. He had been on tour with the GIRL squad earlier in the year, filming, skating, and fully in the mix. He had spoken to different media and given interviews. This renewed communication followed back-to-back 30-year celebrations for GIRL and Chocolate, events that took stock of the notable contribution to our culture from both companies. By the time this interview took place, Mike had also played an integral part in Jacob Rosenberg’s Epicenter book launch and exhibition. An Embarcadero-centric time stamp honouring a time Mike helped to define. We caught him freshly back from San Francisco, and are happy we could delve into the formative years he spent there, following a full memory bank refresh, soul recharged from this social whirlwind.

Every interview Mike has given over the past year has expanded on different parts of his story more than ever before, and we were keen to unearth some other facets, both from his storied past and from an equally fascinating present. One of the main rewards from his renewed outlook has been the gift of new footage, something we have always wanted to see. Prior to his visit to the shop, some flat ground skating from the GIRL warehouse hit our feeds. The “Neverywhere” tour gave us a glimpse of Mike and Rick Howard in action. There has also been some Euro [Wembley] Gap action reminiscent of DC Super Tours, and every clip has shown that classically trained form still delivering. Most recently, the Epicenter SF trip harvested some MC magic on those hallowed EMB bricks. As a spectator and a fan, it is arguable that watching a 360 flip down the three at Embarcadero, or on the flat, is as impactful and inspiring now as when first watching the flawless one mid-line in Modus Operandi. Mike talks in this interview about needing to get out of his head and out of his own way when it comes to sharing footage. We are glad that he has because it’s what we all want to see, and we hope those clips keep on coming. 

Enjoy this interview from one of the best ever to do it, a master of the craft who has shaped skateboarding culture more than most. His influence has played a powerful part over the past five decades, and we’re pleased to see it continue. This interview could only cover some of his story, but we hope you learn something new…

 

Words and interview by Jacob Sawyer. Mike Carroll outside the Slam shop. PH: Leo Sharp

 

First core memory that comes to mind of skating with your brother?

Well, there are different core memories, I guess you would say. The very first one is from the very first day I skated, which was when my cousin came over to our grandparents’ house, and that’s how I got into skating. My brother was there with my cousin, and my brother had had a skateboard for a few months before that. But anyway, we would go skating around Daly City, the city we grew up in. We would just leave the house and skate down the street to certain schools, a couple of different elementary schools, and just like butt boarding. And then, you know, we would also skate hella far from our house to a city called Burlingame, which is a little bit past SFO, the San Francisco airport. So it would just be stuff like that. Just pushing around skating, you know what I mean? Just experiencing it with him. 

He was, I think, in junior high at the time, and he had woodshop. So he built a jump ramp at school and brought it home.  We used to have that in front of our grandparents. We stored it at our grandparents’ house because after school, we would have to go and watch our grandfather. So we would bust out the jump ramp in front of their house. I think they got rid of woodshop in schools a long time ago, and that’s something they should never have gotten rid of, woodshop or metalshop. 

First trick Greg taught you, and the first trick you taught Greg?

Let’s see, I don’t remember so far back then, but maybe it would be some kind of boneless, like a bomb drop or a death drop. The bomb drop was when you would hold your board over your head and then throw it under your feet and just jump onto it, stuff like that. As for the first trick I ever taught Greg, I don’t know if I’ve ever taught him a trick; I don’t know if he would have ever allowed me to try to teach him a trick. He’s the teacher. Greg is the teacher of all things, skateboarding, and life.

 

Mike Carroll’s brother Greg the jump ramp creator utilising an Embarcadero bin that appears later. PH: Gus ‘Goose’ Duarte (RIP)

 

First good or bad memory that comes to mind from filming for Virtual Reality?

The first good memory would be getting a trick on film and I don’t know if it was the very first trick I got but it was a blunt slide – kicklflip fakie on a little kerb, that’ something that comes to mind as a good memory. The first bad memory that comes to mind from filming for Virtual Reality would be feeling like I’m out of shit, it would be all of the skating before that because I just felt like I sucked. I just felt like, how am I going to learn tricks? I can’t learn tricks. I don’t know how to learn tricks. I barely learned tricks for at the end of Questionable. So that was the first bad memory was just the stress that came that I never had for Questionable. It changed, I guess I was beginning to have that kind of stress at the end of filming for Questionable because I wasn’t learning switch flips and nollie flips and all that stuff, switch stance skating, and everyone else was doing it. Luckily,  I learned it right before the end of the video.

First hair-raising thing you saw at Embarcadero?

There were so many that could be said. I guess the first hair-raising thing that didn’t feel normal was one time there was a fight that broke out with some, I guess you would call them, civilians or adults. They were walking by, and I think they were talking shit. And then, they quickly got their asses whooped, and it was bloody, and there were skate tools involved. No stabbing, I don’t think, but it was very bloody and very scary to see. You would see fights all the time, but that was a really bad one. I was probably about 14 at that point.

First time James Kelch saved your life?

I mean, there were probably times he saved my life that I didn’t realise, but when he started making bad decisions, I think he made a conscious effort to exclude me. I’m sure there are stories out there publicly about when people started going up to Hubba Hideout and, you know, doing what the name was, smoking Hubbas. So I think at that time, I was curious, and I know that he made a conscious effort to exclude me.

First person you saw skating at Embarcadero who really pushed you?

There are so many different eras, and there are so many different people who were so good. James Kelch, just the way he skated, just because at that time you had to ollie. You had to know how to ollie because you’re trying to get up the blocks, you know?  A lot of people didn’t really have good ollies, but he was there, and he had a really good ollie, so that was just seeing what was possible. That was something that really pushed me. 

There’s another local who feels very forgotten about, who has reminded me about that time recently. He was younger, and I guess we kind of had a little rivalry at the time. This is way before EMB. This is when there were people calling the locals down there Embarcaderians. I’m talking about Jake Vogel. These were the early days, do you remember when you first saw a boardslide on a ledge as opposed to on a double-sided kerb? We were skating Embarcadero at the time and we had never seen anything like that before. We had only seen boardslides on double-sided kerbs, so then to see a photo of Jesse Martinez in Thrasher doing a boardslide on what we called one-sided was just like, how do you do that?

So as the progression started happening, I think Jake Vogel and I were the first to start doing the boardslide to fakies, and then the half cab boardslide to fakie variation. I remember that being a thing, and he’s reminded me of it recently. Then, later, when it became EMB, everyone pushed each other, but I think it was Henry Sanchez who was really leading the pack with progression and inspiration, for sure.

 

Welcome to the H-Street pro team advert from 1991. PH: Mark Waters (RIP)

 

First place?

There was a pretty big contest at what you call The Panhandle in San Francisco. They called it the Crush Contest because there’s a Soda called Orange Crush. They had an am contest, and this is before any of us were sponsored. I think they did have a sponsored division in it, also. Yeah, they did because I think that’s the first time I ever saw Ray Barbee. Anyway, so they had the contest at the Panhandle, and this is when I was a little kid. I don’t think I had met Jovontae [Turner] yet. So there were a whole group of kids from San Francisco that we’d see around, and they were super good, but I really don’t think we had met yet. So that contest happened, and then that was basically a qualifier to a different contest that was in an auditorium called the Bill Graham Auditorium, it’s really close to the SF Library, where everyone skates. Anyway, just it being in the auditorium was crazy. Tommy Guerrero was judging, and some other pros, maybe Bryce Kanights, and some other people.

I actually ended up winning that contest in my division. I’m pretty sure that was the first contest I won. But it was like a big one, at least for me, you know, it just seemed really big, and maybe that was like a moment where something felt doable, you know? Like, skateboarding could go somewhere. My mum was supportive, but I think after that, maybe there was a lot more support. It just felt like, okay, we’re gonna keep doing this. We’re gonna go to all the contests, you know? I’m pretty sure we just met Jovontae and this kid Stuart, and these other sponsored skaters that day. We just started skating around San Francisco with those guys, and then a lot of progression started from there. Progression was already happening, the ollie off the jump ramp was kind of new at the time. I think I was 12 years old, and I was doing them. I was doing my best imitation of Tommy Guerrero because Tommy Guerrero was judging.

There was also an FTC contest in 1997. I won that contest and it was on my birthday, that’s the first and the last. I can say the first pro contest I won was on August 24th, 1997, the FTC contest, and the last contest that I won was on August 24th, 1997, the FTC contest.

 

First & Last pro contest win. The back tail comes in handy at the FTC Pro Contest in 1997. PH: Mike Blabac

 

First conversation about GIRL? 

The first conversation that kind of sparked off the domino effect of GIRL was in Santa Barbara. It was me, Rick Howard, and Danny Way. We went up there to skate the Powell [Peralta] warehouse, and I think we were in a hotel. We were in a hot tub, and I don’t remember what we were talking about or frustrated about, but there must have been some kind of frustration, or maybe we were just being young and stupid, but that’s when we talked about starting a new company. Rick and I kept talking about it afterwards. Then, it had to have been within months that we reached out to Danny. I think maybe Rick must have reached out to Danny, and I think Danny was just like, “What are you guys talking about? We were just shit talking, like you guys are tripping”. I think we thought maybe we could do it through Droors at the time, I don’t know. I can’t remember that part. 

When it came to the name, I just remember being at my childhood house in Daly City and being on the phone with Rick [Howard] and Megan [Baltimore]. Or maybe it was just Rick, and we would always just bounce around names. I think GIRL came kind of quick. The way I was thinking at the time was that contests were big at that time. They’d say, “Next up, skating for Plan B, it’s…” you know? My first idea was, what if we called it Money, but we spelled it like M-U-N-I, like the Muni bus in San Francisco. So, that was one of my ideas, and I was like, yeah, at the contest, they’ll say…”Next up, skating for MUNI.”  So whatever, that was that. Then in line with that same train of thought was, you know, “Next up, skating for GIRLS”. It was plural, you know. I feel like we even thought up the bathroom logo in that same conversation, but I could be totally wrong. But it was just giggles, and then that’s just kind of how it happened, and I think it happened pretty quick. Especially as we were filming for Virtual Reality at the time, and we got the plan together and everything going before the premiere of Virtual Reality happened. 

 

“Next up, skating for GIRLS”

 

Mike Carroll GIRL Skateboards advert from 1994 featuring photos by Spike Jonze

 

First trick that made it to video, you remember being completely happy with?

I guess I could say there was a video that went before I was sponsored called Goin’ Off that I think Jaya Bonderov was featured in. I happened to be at Fort Miley while they were filming, and they put me and a couple of other kids who were there in that video, so I guess that would be one. I could go back to the H-Street Shackle Me Not video because I learned how to 50-50 handrails with the H-Street guys before I was sponsored, and that ended up in the H-Street video. I was really stoked, you know, because people were just starting to do 50-50s on handrails at that time. But if we’re talking about filming for a video, it must have been the H-Street days, and it had to have been when I was staying in San Diego, living at the H-Street house. I learned tre flip tail grabs down three stairs, and I was really stoked. I didn’t feel imposter syndrome, you know? We are all our own worst enemies. So the tre flip tail grab, I don’t know if it was a grab, it might have been a tail tap? And then also a switch front shuv, a switch front shuv down those three stairs, I think. Nobody was doing that at that time, so. I was stoked.

The filming process has just always been a tricky one, you know, because it was hard to be stoked on what you just filmed, because it didn’t feel right. It felt cocky to feel stoked on what you had just filmed. We’re just all up in our heads. But now that we’re talking about this, I think there’s just a moment. There was a one-foot back smith on the handrail at San Francisco State. Yes, that one, and there’s a noseblunt slide, I believe, across the whole block at Embarcadero that I was really stoked on secretly inside. I kept my game face on, though, I didn’t want people to catch me being excited or happy with my skating. I had to still pretend that I think I suck.

First trick from the SF days that comes to mind as one that got away?

Skating hills, straight up. The last time we tried, we went up there, or not the last time we went up there, but the last time we went to skate down Twin Peaks. I had done that many times in my life, but I could not get into the groove of it. It was just foreign to me. I was like, fuck man, this is disappointing. It made me want to go live up there for a couple of months and just get that back. I’m not saying bombing the hills, I’m just saying comfortably going down some good hills. It was just like second nature when you lived there, but then I became a little bitch after I moved to LA.  

 

“Here, let’s just get this real quick”

 

Ledge frustration led to this first try nollie flip down the big three

 

A trick I never landed but wish I had was a fakie tre to frontside noseslide at Embarcadero. I was filming with Jake Rosenberg, and I was trying the fakie tre frontside noseslide for a long time. I never got it, and then I was pissed off, and I was like, “Here, let’s just get this real quick,” and that was the day I nollie flipped the big three. I accidentally nollie flipped the big three first try. I was stoked, days like that don’t ever happen.

First trick you dialled at Embarcadero that has never left?

I think backside tailslides. Yeah, for sure backside tailslides. I learned them, and that was one that I couldn’t do; it didn’t make sense to me. Then there’s actually a photo taken on probably the day I learned it. I learned them on the trash can off of the little three. There’s the trash can, but without the top on it, and it helped me learn because the way I learned backside lipslides, I would scoop into them. So I didn’t know how to pop into backside tailside, you know?  The way the garbage can was set up, I could come from behind it, you know?  Kind of over the corner in a frontside, bluntslide kind of idea.  So I learned back tails on that. And then from there, I learned back tails on the ledges at Embarcadero. I was very excited recently that I was doing back tails, so I can say that I have still got them. 

The Embarcadero trash can that opened up backside tailslides. PH: Luke Ogden

 

First trick that has left that you would like to have back for the day?

You know what? Ollies on mini ramps like I used to do them. They were normal, second nature, and I don’t know what happened.  Maybe I just don’t skate mini ramps or quarter pipes enough to just try it and just get used to the feeling and re-understand how to do it instead of just trying it one day randomly, and being tripped out that I just cannot do them. I miss ollies, it used to be second nature. Not like Tony Trujillo’s second nature, but second nature for me. I would just love to feel that again, because even posing them doesn’t feel right. I’ll just mess around with them low, and even low I can do them, but they just feel so uncomfortable. I used to be able to do them and just play with them, like land with your front wheels at the coping, and kind of nose-dive, and not hang up.

 

Ollies on lock. Some Shrewsbury mini ramp footage from the Plan B Euro tour in 1992. Watch the full demo here courtesy of Andy Evans

 

First piece of long-gone skate memorabilia you would like to be reunited with as a keepsake?

Two trophies from the exact same contest. It was the Back To The City contest. I got second place, and Tommy Guerrero got first place.  I don’t know if [John] Cardiel got third, but I remember thinking Cardiel ripped, and thinking like he was probably gonna win. And then, Tommy [Guerrero], after he won, gave me his first-place trophy, and I was just so tripped out.  And I then gave it to Cardiel, and I don’t know what Cardiel did with it. We were young at that time, so who knows? I’ve lost a lot of trophies. But yeah, my second-place trophy from that contest I don’t have either. That was a really cool contest, especially when you’re in contests with your heroes, and your hero gives you his trophy. 

First brush with the law, skating in SF?

There are two different ones I can think of. The first brush with the law in SF would probably be at Embarcadero. At Embarcadero, the undercovers would come, and then they’d take you to the station. They’d detain you, and you would be handcuffed to the bench at the station that’s kind of close to Embarcadero. And then there’s also another one, we were skating the library. There were a few of us. And again, some civilians were walking by, and they were pretty drunk, older, like adults. I wish I could remember the names of everyone who was there. I feel like Brad Staba was there, but anyway, the people started talking shit about us skating there, and everyone there was trying to de-escalate the situation. Everyone there was just like, all right, you’re drunk, you know, whatever, blah, blah, blah. And then, I’m pretty sure the dude nudged me or something. Maybe I said something smart, but we were always trying to de-escalate it. Then I think after the dude nudged me or something like that, maybe he shoulder checked me, I can’t remember, but then everyone just pounced on that dude, and he got his ass whooped. And I don’t know if anyone else in his group got their ass whooped, they were with what I’m assuming was their wives.  

He got his ass whooped so bad that I can’t remember if we took off right away, but I think they called the cops, and I feel like we even heard sirens. So we just bolted and got out of there. I think we saw cops coming, and there was a liquor store on the corner of Market Street, like really close to the library, so we ducked in there, and then the next thing you know, the cops just charge in. I think their guns were drawn, and we had to get on the floor, like “down on the ground!” Yeah, so that was super gnarly and scary. But once we got detained and taken to the station, we explained to them what had happened. And it was obvious to the cops that the dude was wasted, and he kept trying to talk shit about us. But they let us go. It was pretty gnarly, but it was self-defense. I would have been like 14 years old. I got taken to the station a few times. I think we all did.

First European skater who comes to mind as someone who could have had a shot on Girl or Chocolate in the 90s?

I’m gonna say Arto [Saari]. Arto was the first one. I mean, you appreciated all the other skaters, but maybe at that time you were younger and competitive and maybe just didn’t try to appreciate those skaters, but Arto is definitely one of the ones. This contest is always talked about, but when he showed up for the first time, the first time anyone ever saw him, he was just like some little kid, and I don’t know, there was something about him. I mean, obviously, he was fucking killing it, rad style, and he seemed like he was cool. Like a good person. And you didn’t really get that vibe from a lot of people; a lot of people seemed, especially at contests, people would be cockier. But yeah, instantly it would have been Arto. 

First image you were surprised to see in the new Jacob Rosenberg book?

That’s a hard one, I mean, all of them, you know, because I’d been seeing the videos that he’s posted. So I just forgot that he was a photographer at first. First and foremost, he was a photographer, so I think all of them for sure. There wasn’t one specific photo that surprised me. It was just the whole package of the book and the attention to detail that was super awesome. Just how it was put together, the two different books. The one thing that I think that was really cool was having what I guess you would call the blueprint of Embarcadero. Maybe it would be called the CAD, kind of like a upper view, but from the architect. That was really cool to see. The whole packaging I thought was really cool, it’s awesome, super thoughtful.

 

Mike Carroll’s front shuv at Embarcadero from 1991 is one of many amazing images in Jacob Rosenberg’s new book Epicenter

 

The round table conversation we had that’s in one of the books was super awesome. It was me, Rick Ibaseta, James Kelch, and Jake [Rosenberg], and it was just a trip to go down memory lane, all of our different memories going as far back as when people weren’t skating there as locals. All of our memories and perspectives, and just tripping out on someone bringing up something you had not thought about or remembered. I see Rick [Ibaseta] here and there, so we get to talk. I saw James [Kelch] for the first time in the summer when we were on the GIRL Neverywhere tour. We stopped in Cincinnati and got to hang out with him and talk. Getting to talk to him on that round table a couple months later was really cool. Especially just getting his perspective on things because he was down there pretty much from the beginning. I think there was a little crew that was down there before him but he quickly became the local. I mentioned in one of the answers that this was a time where everyone was learning how to ollie, everyone was trying to do them higher and higher. James was ollieing up the stage back then, he ollied up to backside axle stall on the stage, which was insane. It was amazing getting his perspective on things.

 

 

Jake [Rosenberg] had a video that he just showed me. I don’t know if it was playing there, but I’ve talked about it before. We were filming for Virtual Reality, and I was trying to film a line. It was a little teeny tiny ollie down the three stairs, frontside flip up the block, and then switch frontside flip off the block. Then I forget what I did after that, but I think I’ve talked about it recently, that in the middle of filming that line, while I was just doing my little tiny ollie down the three stairs, I was just in the zone and then I made it down the three stairs, and I was going up towards the block to frontside flip up but I was fakie! I was going fakie, and I was like, “What the fuck just happened?” I had just frontside flipped down the little three, and I didn’t even realise it. I had never frontside flipped downstairs before, but I was just in a blackout moment. So I remembered it happening, but I didn’t know that footage existed. I thought I had asked him [Jacob Rosenberg], and I thought he told me recently that it did not. So I don’t know if he said it did not exist because he wanted to surprise me. But yeah, it’s just tripped out. I was just so stoked at least that it was documented, you know? It was just a really weird moment, a frontside flip, and I couldn’t frontside flip down three stairs at that time.

First trick you remember watching go down at EMB that represented a real shift in progression?

The first trick was definitely Henry Sanchez’s bigspin down the seven. It was at the end of the summer when I had just gotten back from living at the H-Street house in San Diego, and it was kind of the beginning of EMB, you know? We had been skating Embarcadero for years off and on, but I think Henry started going there a lot, and everyone started going there a lot. And when I got back from San Diego, I remember my brother left me a note on the refrigerator saying…Meet us at, or I’m going to EMB, meet us there, something like that. And I was like… EMB? But I kind of understood what that meant. But yeah, Henry Sanchez’s bigspin down the seven was just it because that was right when Henry just started getting really good out of nowhere. I remember before I left for San Diego, he was good, but he was just trying the craziest tricks, but not landing all of them. Then, a couple of months later, I got back, and he was consistent as fuck, doing the raddest tricks. His bigspin down the seven was insane.

First thing [Andrew] Brophy did that caught your attention?

His frontside ollie up the stairs at Southbank. Yeah, we were there, I forget what tour it was, but that definitely grabbed my attention, I think it grabbed all of our attention. Best.  

First place and specific time you would relive for the day, given a 24-hour Delorean window?

Maybe the day that Tommy [Guerrero] gave me his trophy. Yeah, I would go back there and appreciate him giving me that trophy, and keeping it, even though I thought [John] Cardiel should have won. So saving it, and having my second-place trophy, and obviously, probably giving back Tommy’s trophy later when I met him.

First life-changing music moment?

I had an older brother, so he was up on listening to heavy metal and stuff, and I was a lot younger, so I think just that. I don’t know if it was Mötley Crüe that really grabbed my attention, but once I got introduced to heavy metal, I was obsessed. And then there was the newspaper, it was the San Francisco Chronicle, it was the Sunday paper, and they had what they called the pink section. And in that pink section, I believe it was entertainment. So every Sunday, I would open that thing up and look for what concerts were gonna be happening. So I was, I don’t know, maybe just an obsessive person. I’d say from probably eight years old, we were going to heavy metal concerts.  

Mötley Crüe might have been the first concert we were going to go to, but then something happened with my mom’s boyfriend, and we ran away from home, and we got grounded when we finally did get home. So we didn’t get to go to that concert. Then, after that, the best concert probably would have been a concert called Day on the Green. I think Scorpions headlined it, Metallica played when Cliff Burton was still alive, Ratt, a group called Victory, and Yngwie Malmsteen. It was at the Oakland Coliseum, so it was outdoors. It was one of those big, crazy, insane, surreal moments. But yeah, I went to so many concerts. Also, my first hip hop show was in Oakland. I had a friend who didn’t skate, and his uncle or dad, I can’t remember, was taking him to a concert in Oakland, and he invited me. It was Too Short, Eric B & Rakim, LL Cool J.  Shit, who else?  Damn, I wish I could remember. There was a girl group, too. But yeah, that was really cool because before that it was just straight up heavy metal concerts like Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Ozzy, Dio. So yeah, I got to see a lot of rad metal groups.

 

“[Paul] Shier was sending us shoes from England before that, so I knew they were there, and I was so excited to get some”

 

Noseslide to fakie nosegrind on a Rick Howard slick in Pumas from the other side of the pond. Mike’s January 1993 RAD cover. PH: Franco

 

First trip to England? 

My first trip to England, the moment we got there, we were going to the baggage claim, and someone, an older person, an adult, said, “Your knickers are showing!”, and I had no idea what that meant. Your knickers are showing? No idea what they meant. I don’t think I found out until a couple of days later, maybe later that day when we met up with our tour guide or distributor. But yeah, that was the Plan B tour. One thing that stood out about the UK was that they had all the shoes that weren’t in the US that we could get. We were getting all the Adidas that were hard to get. Adidas and Pumas were just what we were looking for, and we got them. So that’s what really stood out about the UK for me because I was just so stoked that they were available. [Paul] Shier was sending us shoes from England before that, so I knew they were there, and I was so excited to get some. Shier was sending shoes when I still lived in SF, and Rick [Howard] was in LA, so we would call up Rick and he would send him a box from World, it was a pretty sick little system. The first time I ever drank was also on that trip. It was on my 17th birthday with Colin McKay. He got me 13 shots of Southern Comfort in some little cottage that we were staying in, like a bed and breakfast, cottage-type place. 

 

Mike Carroll on English soil either side of the millenium. Switch heelflip at Radlands shot by Rick Kosick, a Big Brother appearance from 1994. Frontside bluntslide at Lloyd’s in Bristol for Atiba Jefferson’s lens, a TWS appearance from 2002

 

Last trick you learned or re-learned?

Maybe nollie backside tailslides, or fakie varial flips? Should I be saying flip tricks down three stairs? There was the nollie backside heel up the Euro gap. I wasn’t expecting that. The straight nollie flip at Embarcadero I was surprised by because I ended up doing that first try, and I didn’t think it was going to be. It was hard to set up because of the cracks before it. 

Last video that hit your feed that you really enjoyed?

Simon Bannerot, his Raw Dawg 2025 footage.

Last person from the EMB days you reconnected with after a long time?

There was a dude there, not from the EMB days, but from way before that at the Epicenter event, who was kind of in a little rival group from before we were sponsored, and we just got to talk. It was really rad to just trip off the rival groups, and just being competitive, and kind of hating on each other but still respecting each other deep down inside, you know?  And not as people but as groups, you know what I mean? So it was just rad talking to him about that, this dude Abner.

Last person you saw skate in real life who blew you away?

Simon Bannerot.

Last trick you consciously retired?

You know, unfortunately, I’ve done that a lot because I thought I did something too much, and I’ll just say switch crooked grinds. I thought I was doing them too much, so I stopped doing them. I made a conscious effort to stop doing them but then I haven’t been able to get them back. I can do them, but they’re not second nature anymore.

 

Switch crooked grind when they were second nature in 1997. PH: Mike Blabac

 

Last album you listened to?

OutKast Aquemini, I’ve actually been on an OutKast tip right now, so I’ve done all three, I mean the first three, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, Aquemini, and ATLiens. Stankonia too, there are a couple of skips in that one, but the first three are easily listenable and have been on front to back in the last couple of weeks. 

Last GIRL graphic you were really stoked on?

Little Dre’s, I’m stoked on that, “Your GIRL loves my swag”. I love shit like that. I know some people probably won’t if they try to take it too serious, it’s kind of like a play on a graphic that I had, and it was “Tell your GIRL to stop paging me”. The new Mouse graphics are actually really sick. The illustrated one on the scooter, I like that one a lot.

Last shoe you have sessioned as a free agent that felt like home? 

It’s interesting that before we spoke, you mentioned the green sole adidas I was skating in, those were Lucas [Puig]’s shoe. I have been skating and trying out shoes for a while, but it was that shoe that reminded me of home, and felt like how the Lakais felt. And also Tiago [Lemos]’s 1010 shoe. Those were the first two shoes, but the first one was the Lucas, and then I tried out the Tiagos. It’s interesting because Scott Johnston worked at Adidas and Jeff Mikut works at New Balance, so I don’t know if they designed those? Maybe they did, and maybe that’s why they felt like home. It’s been rad to just wear anything and everything, before you’d see shoes that you appreciated and you thought were sick. But since almost every shoe company is in skateboarding, you couldn’t wear a competitor. So even chill shoes became hard to wear because then there would be rumours.

 

 

What shoe was released while you weren’t a free agent that you wish you could have skated in?

I remember thinking Eric [Koston]’s first Nike shoe was pretty sick. I thought it was really cool. You can tell as a skater, that he’s very hands-on; it was clean but tech at the same time. 

Last thing you implemented that has improved skateboarding for you?

Having a rule of skating, even if it’s only gonna be for five minutes, because there’d be a time I wouldn’t skate for a long time, just because I didn’t have that hour or two to skate. So because of that, I didn’t skate. So I decided even if it’s for five minutes, I’m doing this.

Last thing you had a hand in designing that you’re proud of?

We did this hardware called long necks, mounting hardware, because I noticed that my base plate holes were ovaling out. Then your truck would end up kind of sliding from side to side.  And so because all hardware has a thread all the way down to the tip, where you would either put your Allen key or the Phillips, I was just like, let’s get rid of this thread, we don’t need it. Then we won’t have our base plate holes ovaling out and have this issue. So I was really stoked that we did that and the idea actually worked out, you know what I mean? Because I have all kinds of ideas that just sort of end up being dumb. 

Then I had a pant that we did for HUF, and it was Fourstar x HUF collaboration. I had an idea for a pant, and then we did that. Then we brought those pants over to my last shoe sponsor, but unfortunately, I got a different pair of pants right when we put those out, and I realised that my pants weren’t baggy enough for me so I couldn’t wear them. Given the opportunity, I would redesign those with a little bit more bagginess based on our Chocolate chinos right now. They weren’t groundbreaking but I was stoked on them, and they were something other people were stoked on too.

Last trick?

I guess people have brought up the bluntslide kickflip recently, so that’s fresh on my mind because they were saying, or someone said that it didn’t seem like it should have been the ender, and I agree. But what I’m stoked on about that clip was that I didn’t go there to that spot and set out to do that trick. We were just driving by and noticed an empty parking lot, and then we pulled over to check it out. Everyone was kind of over it, so I just started messing with it by myself and then got Ty [Evans] to come back down. I was just going to bluntslide it, but then it ended up flipping. So it happened a little bit easier than I would have thought. Not easier, but quicker, so I’ll say that one. But the Yeah Right one, I was kind of stoked on because we flew up to Sacramento to film that. I had filmed a feeble back tail on this other flat bar, and it just didn’t seem right, it wasn’t long enough, so the back tail wasn’t that great. And then there was a cool flat bar up in Sacramento, so we just got to fly up and skate with [Brandon [Biebel], and it was rad.

 

An empty parking lot plays host to Mike’s ender from “Fully Flared” (2007) filmed by Ty Evans

 

Last purchase that improved your life?

I got this little Gyro Ball last year. It’s something that exercises your hand because my hands have been hurting. It’s something you spin around, and you have to keep spinning it and spinning it to keep it going, and then it creates pressure. I just asked Chat GPT for something that exercises because my hands have been hurting; I guess they’re super arthritic. I made it a point to just do that thing the whole drive to GIRL, and the whole drive from GIRL to home, and then I started seeing improvement. Because of that, that’s when I started to think I’m going to skate, even if it’s just for five minutes. It was just something about that, just a little bit of improvement, or a little bit of effort, means that over time it will be helpful. It was definitely that one random thing that kind of triggered a whole different thought process on a lot of other stuff. 

I have this weird theory that the pain is because when I was a little kid, I fractured my thumb trying to do a wallride, stalefish grab. Then, a couple of weeks later, I sprained my other thumb, and then I started learning how to play video games on a console. I think it was Nintendo or whatever it was back then in ’88, and I would play with my fingers and not with my thumbs. Everyone used to make fun of me. I just think I never rehabbed it enough, and I didn’t care because I didn’t need my hands for anything. Then after having my daughter, you know, I have got to hold her, to pick her up. That was when the pain started happening. Hardcore, falling sucks, breaking your fall is not easy. It’s excruciating pain for like five minutes but then it’ll go away.

 

Mike figures out some Milton Keynes curves with a backside lipslide in 2004. PH: Leo Sharp

 

Last thing you thought would ever make a resurgence in our small world that is having another moment in the sun?

Big wheels. I always wondered, because you see things come and go, and then come back. I always wondered if big wheels would ever come back in, and they have. It makes sense as far as function, I can’t do it but it makes sense to me.

Last person from back in the day who posted new footage and inspired you to go skating?

Clyde Singleton, Kelly Byrd, Paul Shier, and Chico [Brenes] always. I feel like there’s someone else I’m forgetting, Kris Markovich. It’s inspiring in so many different ways. They just do it for fun. And if they’re inspiring me, why can’t I just do it for fun? And if that does something for someone else, then cool, but I need to get out of my own way. They’re all inspiring to get out of your own way, get out of your fucking head. You know that skaters are all up in their heads, and so it’s been cool to see.

 

Mega blaster ollie on Fulton Street in San Francisco in 1995. PH: Bryce Kanights

 

Last place you visited, you would like to spend more time?

San Francisco.

Last good skate you had?

It was at Embarcadero.

Last time Rick Howard surprised you on or off his skateboard?

That’s a tough one. This one’s corny, but I told him that I was proud of him the other day because we had a meeting, and it was a meeting with people that we didn’t know. He just spoke super well, answered all the questions, and gave information. I was just like, “Damn, you go, Rick!” We do get to skate with each other at the park. We skated with each other on the “Neverywhere” tour. There have been a few sessions that were really fun. Usually when we skate together, we both try the same thing. What trick are you trying up the euro? Okay, let’s try that together. His knee has been bothering him lately, he recently just got a cortisone shot. he’s just starting to skate right now.

Last moment that made you consider the impact the Crailtap family have had?

I think the GIRL and Chocolate 30 years celebrations. It was something to take in. Then I think about another thing, and it’s not about the impact that we’ve had, but filming the skit for the Little Dre announcement just felt rad. I hadn’t done that in a while, so it helped me. It brought me to a moment of acknowledging that this is rad that we’re doing what we do, so that was really cool. Also, being at the shop when I was out there in the UK, there were some really kind words from people that I appreciated. And it’s been a long time to learn how to take a compliment, to take it in and appreciate it because you’re always self-deprecating. Definitely being out there at the Slam shop, it was really nice.

Last thing skateboarding brought to the table, you think the world needs more of these days?

I think open-mindedness. There’s a togetherness, skateboarding always brings so many people, you meet so many different people from so many different cultures, there are so many different attitudes, and just so many different personalities.  I feel like skateboarding is unique in that way, in that most people are getting along and supporting each other. I think the world needs more of everyone getting along and supporting each other, as opposed to whatever else is going on.

Last words?

Even though you’re probably reading this or listening to this on your phone, try to put down your phone as much as possible, and appreciate the world around you, and the people around you, and that human interaction. I think the more we are aware of that, the better this world will get. Skateboarding fucking rules!

 

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We want to thank Mike for his time, for the visit to our store in the summer, and for entertaining these questions. Follow him on Instagram and GIRL for further updates. Shop with us for the latest products from GIRL and Chocolate.

We also want to thank Neil Macdonald [Science Vs. Life] for the mag scans and Tom Smith and Matt Anderson at Form Distribution for their help. Thanks to Mike Blabac for sending photos. You can own prints of some of the incredible images Mike has shot by visiting Mike Blabac’s Shop. We want to thank Leo Sharp for sending photos, and shooting the portrait of Mike when he came to see us. Thanks also to Thrasher Magazine for the Embarcadero back tail photo shot by Luke Ogden taken from Aaron Meza’s People I’ve Known.

Special thanks to Jacob Rosenberg for the Epicenter photos. The second edition of his book will be out soon. You can find out more about the exhibition and the whole project.

Recent Mike Carroll interviews worth checking out: The Bunt , Beyond Boards.

Previous First & Last interviews: Guy Mariano , Jack O’Grady , Sirus F Gahan , Andrew Brophy , Nick Boserio , Jarrad Carlin , Colin Kennedy , Henry Sanchez , Mike York , Amanda Perez , Mark Gonzales , Lance Mountain , Brian Anderson , Danny Brady , Wade DesArmo