Ezekiel Family/Blog/News

Derek Fukuhara | Interview




Derek, so to start off this interview bluntly, a lot of people are surprised you work a day job. Where do you work and what do you do, and what’s your response about not making tons of money off of skateboarding?

I work at United Boardshop in Anaheim. We have a skatepark in the back and I just hang out and try to come up with little events to throw at the park.

What kind of events do you throw at United?

Recently I just threw a few best trick contests for the local kids and community. I also work with Travis at DC on other events. We just had the Get Off Me premiere at the park too. I just want the local kids to have the opportunity to see demos, video premieres and contest, while having to opportunity to participate as well.

And Shred-Ed give me some more details on this, what exactly is it and who do you work with on it?

Shred-ED is this skate school me and Matt Dryer came up with. We’re basically trying to make it as legit as possible. So far its Matt, Pat Channita, my buddy Marshall Carter and myself. We do lessons and we’re getting envolved with city rec centers to host work shops. We just want to give the kids a push into skateboarding so they don’t get stuck with a video game controller jammed to their palms all day.

With the economic times being pretty rough, you did a fair amount of traveling on your own dime, where was the last trip you did, how was it and was it worth the money?

I try not to waste money on anything material, I always try to save it to buy a plane ticket somewhere. My girlfriend is from Florida so I flew out there and drove her from Orange County, Florida to Orange County, California. That was a great experience. I also saved up some change and booked a flight to Portugal with Ezekiel Europe skate team and Louie Barletta. Recently, I went to San Jose with Ryan and Scooter Decenzo, Cooper Wilt and Ricky Webb. We skated some Red Bull triple set contest and also went to the Tiltmode premiere. That was rad. I recommend traveling to anyone. There’s always new places to go with new people to meet. And it’s always worth the money.

If you could go somewhere with your own dime and pick out some friends/people who would they be? Man, if I won the lottery?

I always talk about this with my friends, I think I would go on a year long tour and rent a flat in a new city every other week. I’d fly my friends in and out of different cities. That way all of my friends would experience something and I’d get a different experience with a different friend everywhere I went. I’d work my way across the globe and settle in my favorite spot. Maybe I should buy a ticket this week.

When you were a lot younger, you might have been more negative outlook on life, and I have seen a bunch of change in the last couple years. Why were you like that, and what has changed in your life?

Growing up in Orange County or any suburbia are can rot your brain. I feel like suburban areas can sometimes breed closed minds. It’s no ones fault really, we are all victims of it. I think my outlook on life changed when I started traveling. It opened my mind and made me realize I don’t know it all, in fact, I probably know nothing. Time to learn.

I heard you’ve been getting into tons of books lately, what has been the last couple books you read, and which one did you really like and why?

I’ve read a few inspiring books like The Last Lecture and Tuesdays with Morey. I also read a few books that make you think outside of the box, Behold a Pale Horse and Farenheit 451 we good ones. Right now I’m reading this book called Permetheis Rising, it covers a lot of ground from why religion was created to circuits in your brain and why people act the way we do. It’s a tough one to get through, but I’ll let you know how it pans out.

What about this Get Off Me video, how did this thing start?

Get Off Me started back in 2001 or something. Me and some of my buddies were skating the Bell planters and my friend Andrew saw this crazy sticker that said GETOFFME. Then we noticed there was hundreds of them. Eight years and three videos later it’s still going. It’s just something that me and my homies did when we were kids, then we all went our own ways. But we wanna keep making them to showcase these new local kids that kill it.

Who is in this video, and who were you the most impressed to see?

Vince Duran Martinez, Taylor Mcclung and Miles Crum have parts. Taylors little brothers Trevor and Trent share a part. All the homies all in the montages, kinda like the SkateMafia video, but only half as G’d up. I love watching all those kids skate, so it was just cool to see them come through with some next level manuveurs.

What other things have been going on in your life? What lies ahead for you?

Now that Get Off Me is in the past, I’m just gonna film the last few tricks for the Digital video and work. Hopefully save up some money to travel. Maybe buy that winning lottery ticket!

Any last words?

Thanks people who hold it down for me in skating, with Shred-ED, and in life in general.




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