Johnny Layton Week: Exclusive Interview Part 2

Yesterday began Johnny Layton's Rider Week with Part 1 of his exclusive interview on how he started skating and got on Toy Machine. Today we continue with the 2nd part of his interview where we learn about how he got on Vans, his near baseball career, bumming out Brian Wenning and what it took to ollie the Pulaski Double Wall.

FYI, one by one, week by week, we’ll be focusing on all your favorite Vans riders. We’re working on Year’s Best Am Elijah Berle next and Gilbert Crockett after that. Who would you like to see? Hit us up @vansskate on Twitter and let us know.

JOHNNY LAYTON INTERVIEW PART 2

I’m told you could have had a pro baseball career.
Yeah, dude. I played baseball at the same time I was skating. 9th and 10th grade I was really involved in playing baseball at school and skating at the same. I was like, “I want to skate more than I want to play baseball.” That’s when my dad was like, “Pick one or the other because it’s going to be hard to do both. Do what you want.” So I was like, “I’m just going to keep skating.” I had the opportunity to go play baseball at some colleges. When I graduated I was filming and trying to figure out if I should go to college or should I keep working towards this and at the end of that summer is when I went on King of The Road and got on Toy, started going on trips and filming internationally and that got me super-hyped. I was still getting shoes from Emerica and I got a random phone call one day and it was Geoff Rowley. I was tripping like, “Why is this dude calling me?” Geoff has been my favorite skater since 411 Issue #30 where Geoff and Ed have a Day In The Life with Ed. I was like, this guy is awesome. Now Ed and Geoff are good friends and I wouldn’t be where I’m at without both of them. Without Ed putting me on Toy Machine and everyone accepting me and us as a family I wouldn’t have met Geoff and I wouldn’t have had that connection to get on Vans. I wouldn’t be here now,

Is that what Geoff was calling you for?
Yeah, he was like, “You should ride for Vans.” I was on flow for Emerica and I didn’t know what to do. I loved Emerica but it was Geoff and Vans; it was the best opportunity. I was 18 when I got on Vans and can’t believe I was able to make that decision so early on, to still be able to make a living and keep skating because I ride for the best shoe company you could ride for as a skateboarder.



You ever wonder what life would’ve been like if you became a pro baseball player?
I’d be making different moves.

It seems like the guy at the end of the bench that doesn’t play makes more money than most skateboarders.
Yeah, the pay is so much for baseball. It’s crazy. And it’s the most low impact sport. Football players make a shitload too but baseball players always make more. Look at Pujols! Pujols is 35 with a 10-year contract for $298 million or something crazy. He’s chilling for life. But it’s all in what you love and enjoy. I don’t think I’d be stoked making all that money as a baseball player because I’m a skateboarder. I get stoked to skate and travel and hang out with my friends and have all the time in the world to do whatever I want.

You still follow a bunch of mainstream sports, right?
Yeah, first and foremost basketball. When the lockout was going on I was definitely out doing a lot more shit than just watching games. Clippers stepped up big this season.

I know you’re a Lakers fan, did you make a switch?
I’ve been a fan of both for a while. I really started getting hyped on The Clippers when Blake Griffin got the first pick. I was like, “Damn, that is something they can build around.” That guy is the next LeBron if he can learn to shoot a ball better. His rookie season was crazy. Then this year they got Chris Paul and Caron Butler and Mo Williams off the bench, sixth man of the year. The Clippers are just more fun to watch now. The Lakers are looking like they need to start rebuilding. Kobe has some years left but it’s limited. Bynum could blow his knee out again. Pau seems like if they’re down he doesn’t give a fuck anymore, he showed that in the playoffs. They’re still going to be a good team and they’ll make the playoffs but there’s no way that they’re going t win a championship with the team they have in the first year with Mike Brown as the new coach.

Didn’t your dad used to run trucks in Iraq?
Yeah, he was a construction manager for Camp Victory for a couple years. He’d send me photos of spray painted whole sides of tanks with TOY MACHINE BLOODSUCKING COMPANY all big. Ed put it in one of my ads with a photo of my dad wearing a bullet proof vest with two guys with guns and out of my dads mouth Ed wrote “I’m building, not killing.” It was scary while he was over there. One time he had to drop to the floor in the shower because a mortar hit right outside. Shrapnel and rocks shot through the wall and there were holes everywhere, the wall next to him looked like Swiss cheese. Every time I’d talk to him he’d tell me some crazy shit. He’d be sleeping underground in some crazy bunkers. He’d fly on Blackhawks all the time. He was there when they raided Saddam’s palace. Crazy shit.


Didn’t some crazy shit happen while you two were playing ping pong at your house?
Yeah, he had a heart attack, he didn’t even know, drove himself to the hospital. I was like, “Where you going?” “Just going to the doctor to get checked out.” He calls me a little later like, “Yup, got to go into surgery tomorrow morning for a triple bypass, open heart.” I was like, “What the fuck??” He’s got a scar that goes all the way down his chest. Now he has to get a hip replacement on Monday.

What’s the secret to getting all your flip tricks waist high?
Fuck. I think it’s just leg muscle…

Didn’t your switch tre bum out a certain pro from New Jersey?
Dude. That’s so funny you say that. Wenning was high on something in Barcelona and I was there on a Vans trip and we’re chilling at MACBA and he wanted to have a switch tre-off. Neither of us even had our boards, we were all just drinking, hanging out. He was just so bummed that I did it. He was like, “You know I tried that shit, right?” I was like, “Sorry, I didn’t know anyone tried to switch tre it. And I don’t really care either.” I thought he was going to try and fight me or something. The vibe was super weird and then he’s like, “Alright, switch heel contest off the drop, right here, right now!” I was like, “Wouldn’t it be a switch tre contest?” He’s just crazy. That’s when he started falling off. That sucks. That dude could probably still skate amazing but when he said that stuff to me that day I was blown away. I didn’t even know it was him at first. I was like, “Is that Brian Wenning?”



How do you feel about your place in Washington DC skate history now that you’ve ollied the wall at Pulaski?
That was my first time to Pulaski and I was like, “This spot is sick.” Dill and Ave pointed it out and were like, “You should try and ollie that thing.” It looked kind of doable. I was skating the high ledge, just smith grinding it and Dill is like, “If you can get on top of that then you can go over the wall. Reese tried it, Tucci tried it,” just naming all these people that tried it and I’m like” “Ok, I’ll try it.” So I started trying ollieing over the side wall, just to the left. I was like, “There’s only one way to do this and that’s to go as fast as you can and try.” I just went super fast to make sure my body got over it. After the first one, Dill is like, “You could have ollied it first try! You should just do it!” So I set up and it took a little while but it was easier to get away with it, taking some slams, because the ground is so smooth, you just slide on your shoulder. I’d slide 30-feet on my shoulder or my back. The only thing that’s scary is there’s a corner ledge right where you go over the two walls and it looks like if you go straight you’re going to come close to hitting it. So I was ollieing at an angle over the walls but it was still scary because I’d bail my board and it would hit and pop back at me.

Were you getting your body over the wall each time?
Yeah. And then it just took one dedicated, committed try. I remember I’d have to sit and breath for a little bit because I was pushing so hard and going so fast. It was a mind fuck. I was starting at the complete other end of the plaza, I’d run, then push, push, push. I had to time the pushes right because if you clip that first wall you got to go back and start all over again. When I did it I was psyched but I was bummed because I rolled away and I was so freaked out that I rolled away that I was like, “Whooo,” and put my arms behind my back.

Like downhill skiing?
Yeah, exactly. I put my hands behind my back and then I rolled off the stairs. But I was psyched because I had the homies there like Lutheran and Gilbert Crockett, AVE and they were psyched. But I didn’t know that ollieng that thing was that big of a deal. After that, when I came back for Maloof, all these local skate legends were coming up to me like, “Dude! Fuck! Do you understand what you did?” I was like, “No…not really.” Everybody was thanking me for ollieing it, saying, “Somebody had to finally do it.” I wondered if they were bummed that someone from the West coast came and ollied something so historic like that on the East Coast.

No, man. Everyone had a lifetime to do it. People are just psyched somebody did it.
I still think someone can do something else over it. It would be sick if someone nose bonked it. You’d have to go so fast and gap out. I honestly think Pfanner could probably kickflip it just because he’s got the pop and the speed.

Maybe he could have kickflipped it that weekend he ate shit before Maloof.
Oh man. Holy shit. I can’t believe that happened. We were all out enjoying ourselves and rented little bikes to ride around DC and Pfanner slammed into the back of Jamie Hart’s tire and flipped. It was in the rain and lightening was going off. We were right by the Capital building and he slams and he was grabbing his back all weird and we’re like, “Damn! You ok?” He’s like, “Nah, something is wrong.” The next day he’s like, “I can’t move. I can’t do shit.” I think he broke his pelvis.

And that’s what took him out of this year’s King of The Road.
Yeah, I was already planning on going because Gilbert wasn’t going to go. Then once Chris got hurt Gilbert magically healed and went and got MVP. Gilbert is fucking damn good on a skateboard and a cool kid.



How’d you get the name Big Boy?
I don’t know.

But you’re running it. You were Big Boy for Halloween.
I had to do that. I think it was Nick T that started it undercover. Eventually Leo caught on and once it got exposed it took off. At first it did bum me out. At that time I just had ankle surgery and I thickened up. And then everybody started calling me Big Boy and I was like, “This kind of sucks.” Eventually I was like, “Fuck it, it’s all in good fun.” So when Halloween came along I knew what I was going to be. I had to skate this demo, I was going to Big Boy in front of everyone. So I just ran it and when I showed up everyone was stoked.

Did it make any sense to you Nick T leaving Toy Machine?
He didn’t have to leave. I saw him growing into his own and when he wanted to leave I could tell he just wanted to do his own thing so whatever his decision is, it is. I’d be so stoked if he was still on Toy but LE…I’m psyched for Nick and Pat to start that. I’m a fan of Nick T’s skating.

Last question, what do you have lined up for 2012?
Just preparing for the end of the world. I’m being serious. I’m getting supplies stocked up. I’m buying some guns. My dad already has some guns. I have a cabin in Big Bear that could be the fortress but at the same time we were saying we should buy 4 semi shipping containers and put them in the dessert as our bunker and live through the nuclear winter. In reality, we’re not going to do that. We’re just stocking up on some shit lately like water and canned foods because we get big earthquakes in California. Japan got hit with that big ass earthquake and that shit can happen here so just to be safe we have supplies that will last a little while. If some big shit happened people are going to run to the stores and we’re going to run to the mountains and already have our shit set.



So that’s your 2012 focus?
Nah, nah. Not even. I just want to skate with Cody Green and Greg Hunt and film this video part for Vans. That is my only focus, get some interviews and be 18 years old again. If I can do that, I’ll be psyched. I might try to get in Street League; seems like those dudes are just living it up over there. And there’s no Vans dudes in it so I’m down. I think there’s some thing at The Berricswhere you film a video part at the Berrics and kids vote on it and the top people get into Street League. So whatever I got to do, I’ll film a part at the Berrics to get kids psyched.