CHECKIN' IN WITH TAYLOR KIRBY

Congrats man you definitely deserved it. That part was fucked up. Which trick took you the longest to film? What did you battle?

Fuck, I don't even know. I feel like it's all the basic stuff. It's like the little tricks in the beginning of the part that are the most torturous. All the big ones, you either do it in a couple tries or your dead. So I'd say the Enders were kind of the easiest. I battled the back 3 in Albuquerque for a little bit, on that bump over fence. That one I kept sticking and eating shit. I don't know. I've been getting lucky on a skateboard lately.

That's good to hear. What has been going on with C1RCA lately?

They got Neen and Cole Wilson on, which is nice to have some new guys. It's been pretty tight. We were just on a South America Trip for two weeks, which was just insane. So much fun down there, it's like another world.

Was that the first time you went to South America?

Yeah, pretty much the first time I left the country. Besides going to Montreal and Vancouver, but those don't really count. Definitely first time down there. It was awesome.

Was it pretty nuts culture-wise out there?

Yeah, it's just a different world. The driving is different, the language barrier is heavy, and the ground is terrible. Probably why you don't see too many articles in South America. The ground is complete shit. It's all torn apart, so the spots are rough. All the locals that showed us around were so nice; they were so stoked to have us. Everyday they had something lined up for us, whether it was a BBQ, some spot or a skate park. Something new everyday, it was bitchin'.

Anything crazy and out of hand happen while you were out there?

I mean...Cole was blacked out from the second we left to the second we dropped him off. That was pretty funny to watch. The demo in Lima, Peru - they had like a stadium set up and there was a couple thousand kids. Afterwards we were trying to sign autographs, but the cops were pulling us away saying we were going to start a riot if we didn't leave. After 15 minutes of trying to pull on us the cops finally pulled us away into this random room, which turned out to be the city hall where we met the mayor of Lima. We ended up just kicking it with him; he was opening beers up for us, taking pictures. It was unreal, like some Iron Maiden treatment. That's just one story I'm barely scratching the surface. It was chaos everyday down there.

I feel all the Shep Dawgs are turning pro. Who's going to be the next one to get a name on a board?

It better be AJ. He works so goddamn hard. He has a full time job now too, and every weekend he's out there hitting it, no joke. I guarantee when his Slave part comes out it's going to fuck people up. He's just the handrail master.

Do you still skate with him a lot?

As much as I can, you know we hit each other up to hit the skate park when he's off work. I mean every other weekend we will link up and go hit something. He films with other people sometimes and I'm up in LA sometimes. We're not always together, but yeah I see him all of the time. He was at my pro party the other day, which was fucking tight to see him there.

So you said in your Thrasher interview that you had enough footage leftover for a second part. When are we going to be able to lay our eyes on that? Are you going to come out swinging with a second part right off the bat?

I don't know. I mean I wish it worked like that. It took about a year to just put this part out. It's hard to put stuff out when there's not a company trying to put a video out. I have a shitload of footage but there's no reason to put it out. Companies kind of want a piece of it before you do put it out. I was kind of waiting for the mag to line up with other companies that wanted to put footage out for me. It just kind of kept getting pushed back and pushed back. I finally got this one out so I feel like it'd be kind of torturous to try and get another one out. I hope it's possible, I'd like too get more shit out this year. The Shep Dawgs video hopefully comes out at the end of summer. I got enough for two parts I'd say.

Have you guys been doing Shep Dawg trips for the video? I saw you guys did that RV tour.

Yeah that was fucked. We had like 15-16 dudes in the RV for two weeks. There were shows being played along the way for Riley's band. Just last weekend, Riley, Jacob myself and some other homies went out to Vegas, purely for the Shep Dawgs video. Got a bunch of shit, trying to hit up SF and Albuquerque next month too. Just trying to keep it going.

There was a rumor about a Deathwish promo coming out soon. Is that still in the works?

I hope so (laughs). I don't know, those dudes over at Deathwish are always so busy. They always got new things popping up. Every other team rider has something else going on. So it's really hard to coordinate something coming out. Shoot with Jamie Foy and Jake Hayes, those dudes are just machines. So I'm sure they'll be able to put out a promo no problem.

So you've got that ETN video tomorrow. How'd that come about?

My friend Erik Bragg runs the whole ETN thing. He hit me up to do one of those Facemelters and I picked two spots to do it at. He couldn't get permits for them. So that kid Milton Martinez, picked Staples Center hubba. I said fuck it I'll skate it with you. Just last week I got a text from Bragg, saying Milton got hurt and that I'm going to be skating it by myself. Now I got to skate it by myself, but I got a call from Lizard last night saying that he might want to skate it, so hopefully I have a partner. I mean shit the thing is huge man. I'm thinking just a smith grind. If that is easy, then something else but that thing is huge.

Yeah, that thing looks pretty gnarly, have you ever skated it before or is this the first time?

No! Never! I mean I've always kind of looked at it when you're in the zone. When you're in the area you kind of have to go check it out. It's perfect but it's just fucking huge.

The thing looks massive, so smith grind is going to be your go to?

I mean I hope! Everything else has kind of been done; the easy outs have all been done.

Are you nervous at all? It's kind of a crazy concept.

It is, yeah. I mean I'm a little nervous. They're paying me so; I don't really care what happens you know. Land or not, they're going to pay me a little bit so I'm stoked. Lizard and Slash are both going to be there, they're my tight bros. It will be pretty mellow. I've skated bigger stuff too before so I'm not too worried.

Who have you been skating with the most recently?

Riley and Jacob, our filmer. Riley was filming a lot for his Lakai deadline and he definitely got more than enough footage for it. So it really got the momentum going. We've pretty much been skating everyday down in San Diego. We've resparked it; we've been hitting it pretty hard.

Were you skating with Riley a lot during the filming of the Lakai video?

Yeah...but he's been hurt. He has had ankle problem after ankle problem. He would also go off to like Europe or something and I'm not skating with him then. All the San Diego and LA missions definitely though. We skate kind of similar spots, so it's been tight to feed off each other.

Is he going to have a pretty fucked up part in that video?

He is going to have the most fucked up part! People aren't even ready cause there hasn't been that much Riley hype for the past year since he's been hurt. But his part is fucked! Just the last 3-4 months for him have been fucking gnarly. He's been getting it.

What bands have you been listening too recently?

I've been pretty much listening to the same bands since I was little. The Judas Priest Painkiller album gets me pretty fired up. Jacob or Riley is usually DJing so I don't know just something fast that doesn't suck.

What's your current complete set up right now?

Sick, I love that. I'm obsessed with my setup. I feel like it's perfect for me. I ride the 8.475 Deathwish boards with some Shake Junt Grip, colored Spitfire conical wheels preferably 53s or 54s. Bronson Bearings. 159 Indys, and some Shake Junt bolts and size 10.5 C1RCAs. The Neens!

Who's your guilty pleasure skater? Who do you back that no one would expect?

Sheckler. Fuck, I grew up in the same town as him and I was never friends with him, just cause he was older than me and traveling the world. Then senior year in high school, he let me skate his park one day. Then after that pretty much everyday during the week I would come and skate his park after school. He's just the nicest dude ever. The last few months he's been all fired up to skate his park. My chick lives in San Clemente so every time I'm down there I just hit him up and go skate his park. The dude is so gnarly. He's so fucking good at skating and it's pretty entertaining. I try to skate with everyone in skateboarding, but he's just a good dude to skate with. No one would guess that I skate with him.

Any final words you want to send us off with?

Fuck, thanks for wanting to do this interview with me that kicks ass! Shout out to Shep Dawgs, Deathwish, and my family obviously. Yeah man good shit!