How old are you, years skating, and where are you from?
D’on: I am 21 years old, Skating for 7 years, born in Austin Texas and raised in San Diego, baby! A Texafornian.
What got you into skateboarding to begin with?
I like it man I just fell in love with it, I didn’t picture myself as being a football player my entire life. I wanted to do something that I could make.. something I could work hard for.
Pop Shuv out
Whats your favorite shit to skate
I love skating everything, I guess if there was just one thing I love to skate I’d have to say probably Renette skatepark in El Cajon.
So If there was only one place you could skate for the rest of your life it would be renette?
Oh yeah dude I’d skate Renette park with all my homies! As long as my homies could be there everyday. Infinite brew.. love..ladies.. it’d be tight!
Where are your favorite places to travel on a skate trip?
Best times I’ve ever had dude, was when Broke went to Sacramento, that was beautiful dude. All the spots, UC Irving, Sac-town skatepark, that was epic. LA trips are infinite dude, we’ve taken so many LA trips.. out of control..
Arizona actually, man, I’m gonna have to say AZ. All the AZ trips I’ve been on have been really really great. This has to be said to never ever ever ever ever EVER take bud into Arizona- Do NOT do it! It’s the one thing they ALWAYS check, they always have check points, and they’ll always get you for it. The worst part is you have to go back to go to an Arizona court. Just get it when you’re there, fellas, for those who partake in that dirty dirty dirty great habbit. Just understand that you need to not bring it there or else you’re done for- easy $400 dollar ticket. But other than that AZ is sick, parks are sick, spots are sick, drive through liquor stores!!
Being a vegetarian how do you survive on a skate trip where everyone’s diet mainly consists of fast food and gas station snacks?
I’ll tell you what man, over the course of these 6 years as a vegetarian I’ve learned a lot. Cooking is my best skill. I love to cook when I’m at home, but out there on the streets, you gotta get on the nitty gritty- learn you’re vegetarian menu, alright?
I’ll Hook you up For all you hopeless veggies out there:
Jack in the box they have grilled cheese sandwiches they come on sourdough they’re delicious. Also get some hash browns and some jalapeno poppers filled with cheddar beautiful, that right there is only 3 or 4 dollars.
Taco bell has a buncha veggie stuff you just gotta ask em to make it and hope you’re in a legit enough taco bell where they wont make it all shitty.
Mcdonalds you’re the most fucked theres pretty much nothing just the mac fries.
#1 spot tho by far, surprisingly, is Burger King if you’re a vegetarian because they have Morning Star for BK veggie and it’s delicious. Morning star Farms has always been the best. Hopefully you put this on the internet so Morning Star sees it and they can sponsor me! Haha
Laser flip
What’s your top 5 favorite vegetarian custom things to make at Denali’s Pizza? (Next to Poway Skatepark)
Nice! Dude if we’re gonna do this I gotta say Claudio Venegas, Areseli Venegas, Ducky and Cookie, esta es mi familia! Those guys are so rad man I love em! Anyway 5 favorite things
1. Every day for breakfast, take the nachos, warm em up a little bit, fresh avocados, sourcream, olives, fresh feta cheese, a little parmesean sprinkled on top of it. All that surrounded by warm chips, I could eat that everyday, gives you all the nutrients you need.
2.Cheese Ravioli stuffed with olives, mushrooms, extra silantro, put that in a sub, add some sauce, parmesean and oregano put it in the oven till it gets a little brown on the top that’s number two for sure!
3. is Chile Quiles! Which is just tortilla chips, green sauce, onion, silantro, and jalapenos, throw it in the oven, its delicious!
4. Denaili’s cookies, those things are so delicious it’s a meal in one cus I try to eat three and end up eating the whole box everytime!
5. Straight up denali’s pizza, mushrooms, olives, spinach, jalapenos is beautiful! The spinach alfredo is beautiful, they can make a mean margarita, pesto tomato and basil, all that stuff. Thin crust pizza is the way to go its delicious.
All those things are low in transfat, that’s the whole thing about being a vegetarian. Sorry to the cows, but they’re gonna die anyway. People are really concerned with their health these days , and the only difference between being obese and 1000 pounds and shit and being one of those 90 year old dude who jogs everyday who everyone is jealous of is that you just have to try one day and start caring about yourself. Do a pushup or two in your lifetime!
You have been away from San Diego for a while, where have you been?
Yeah sorry if anyone was wondering about the mystery, it was kinda abrupt. What happened, dude, was I got into a gnarly car accident when I was a delivery driver for Denali’s Pizza. This crazy doctor dude hit me, I don’t know if I can get too into the whole lawsuit nonsense but anyways lost my car lost my job, so now here I am chillin in Texas. My dad gave me a place to stay and that’s way better than bein on the streets. I was like hell yeah, cus now I can spend time with my family and get to know them and work. It’s a lot better than just asking your parents for money, go and work for it. It’s tougher but you just gotta put your head down and do it, you know what I’m sayin? Right now that’s currently what I’m doin is tryin to film a new 'sponsor me' out here in Texas and work to save up money cus I’m gonna go back for a year’s worth of college in Cali.
I’ll be back in June or July man next summer for all my homies – Broke family, everybody, I love all you fools and I’ll definitely ‘BRB’ real soon. Wish I had a lady to shout out to haha but definitely my family all my homies, actually right now I wanna send out a shout out to my new niece or nephew who’s being born as we speak, how crazy is that?!
Backside Nosegrind
No way, being born right now?
Yeah man so If you’re wondering how I’m doin tonight I’m pretty awesome cus my new niece or nephew is being born!
Yeah so anyway I’m gonna be back for a year or so to go to school for solar technology, hopefully skating will work out and help me out. So hopefully I can do a mixture of skating/ solar something. It would be tight dude I will work with skate companies especially shops and try and give back. Skate shops are the ones you wanna give back to the most, they keep skateboarding real man
What are your views on contests and kids who are practically trained from birth to go out and skate them?
I have my opinions on em man, definitely not hating, cus people are all just gonna do their thing. I’ll tell you a story: Me and all my friends packed up in our car and drove ten hours all the way to Louisianna, after saving up all this money- I was working at thundercloud subs. I waited all this time and took the days off and drove down there, I ended up not even doing that well at all but that wasn’t what it was, it was that we put so much into just getting there, and then like one of the kids who ended up winning had his parents buy him an RV and a chauffeur so him and his friends could be driven there all luxurious status. That was my only concern, I mean, If you win a contest – you win a contest, if you’re a robot kid- you’re a robot kid. That is like a whole new terrain now man, that’s a whole different type of skating now, I’m sorry to say it but you can either get with it or you can lay back.
Dudes like Malto are good enough to the point where that’s just how they skate, they can win a contest just skating how they skate. But there are some skaters out there who aren’t like that. I like to skate everything so I’ll skate a contest, but there are kids who are out there like ‘I just have to skate this park! I just have to do this line! These four tricks!’ that is awesome more power to you, you will probably win a lot of money in your life skating, but how I feel about it is I just want you to be contributing and giving back to skating. Are you using any of that money to help out skating? Are you helping out with other parks? Are you donating any of that money that you won for doing those same 10 tricks that you do in the same line at every contest? What are ya doin here? Are you pushing skateboarding? You have to concern yourself with more than just winning money, but that’s what its comin down to. Dude if I could get paid for skating I would take it, I would love to not have to work at some sandwich shop in order to get by. I guess what I’m sayin is if you got it- flaunt it, if you can win a bunch of contests – tight, if people hate- fuck em, dude.. be happy. Skate be on the grind make a video part, earn it the tough way- more power to you. You guys know where I’ll be, but I’m definitely not hating on anybody
Tre Flip
You told me before that your parents have your back with you skating and all that, tell me about that
Well, my mom at first, she always really wanted me to be a football player. I'd be playin a football game and we’d be in a chunky soup commercial together.
The way skateboarding is going these days you could probably get sponsored by Campbelle’s and have that ad
Huh, dude, but I’m all about getting sponsored Morning star farms remember? Haha. But yeah man the minute my mom realized I wanted to be a skateboarder she’s always been real proud of me. She’s actually kept me goin man, whenever I’ll be bummed about what I’m doin, or not makin it, she let’s me know man, she tells me ‘well why’d you leave home? To be sad? No, you left home to try to be this pro skater, go be it!’. My pops was actually kind of a miriacle, cus I didn’t know him from when I was 12 to 19 we had a big separation, and then he typed in my name on google and my skateboarding video popped up. I guess actually just then I thought I was meant to be a skater ya know? If it wasn’t for skating he wouldn’t have found that video and I might not have been able to reunite with him. Now that we’ve re connected, man, he’s definitely all about it, he’s super hyped about it. He actually came out to the premier of Broke 2 in San Diego.
Was that the first time you came back together with him?
Yeah pretty much, well I flew out there immediately, and re connected with him 2 days before my birthday, and that was the first time I’d really gotten to hang out with him. As far as now hes giving me a place to live and letting me skate, he’s always down, he wants to know whats up, like whats the difference between me and P-Rod winning 100 thousand dollars. Its hard to explain, haha, ya know, theres a lot you gotta go through to get from where I am to P-Rod status haha. He’s definitely helped me keep my head up and being adamant about taking it as far ask I can go and being this skater for the rest of my life. Sounds awesome to me I’m down for it!
Older footy of D'on
You have a real make it or break it style on your skateboard, how did that come about? Have you always skated that way?
I’m pretty sure I’ve always been that way, if you ask my friends, I've always skated that way. Shit dude life is make it or break it, might as well shred man, it’s all a part of life. I just know that when I go skate the fastest way to being alright and not being in any pain is to land it! Rolling away feels amazing it’s the most beautiful feeling in the world landing a trick. You just gotta go from starting a trick to getting it, if you could land it first try that’s beautiful. Do it, film it, walk away. Shoot the photo? Even more awesome. Shits way rad. That’s definitely how I feel tho, life is make it or break it – do it or don’t.. and I’m tryin to do it. You cant say its too hot to skate, too cold to skate, the sets too big or too small. You just gotta see it for what it really is, man.
Front Shuv
Who’se hooking you up right now that you wanna shout out to?
World Industries flow, Broke hardware, Broke skateboards, Broke in general, Capital Skatepark is helpin me out as well, Black Wax skateshop just shut down I used to ride for them, but I wanna say I ride for Mike Paige he’s awesome he’s helped me out a lot in life, definitely sponsored by my parents Jacqueline Armstrong and Don Harris they help me out a lot.
Any other shout outs?
Shout out to my broke homies! I love all you guys! Bryan Skandunas, Ryan Strader, Short Bus, Flint Brewer, Allen Dehn, my parents, my entire family, all my other homies, Tyler Lee, little Johhny Nye, Brandon Nye, Dallas crew, Mikey showalter, Ryan Gonzales, Baby G, Gene the Crusher, Trenton,- R.I.P. Carmen Thomas, Mary Smith, Shane Cross, Van Wastell, and best of all the king of pop fool Micheal Jackson- I’d like to give a shout out to Call of Duty 4 and Call of Duty modern warfare, I’d like to give a shoutout to my girlfriend if it wasn’t for my girl miss Mary Jane I wouldn’t be alive. Anyone else who’s ever been there for me, anyone who’s ever had a dream- just do it dude!
