Neal and Kerry on "Drive" with Mike Vallely

If you skate, or have skated since the mid-ish to late 80's, you probably know who Mike Vallely is. If you have cable, you might have seen his show on Fuel TV called "Drive."
A while back Mike came down to Hammond. Kerry (owner of Small Time Skates) and me (webmaster of the very same shop) got a chance to talk about Hammond, our skate scene, and the impact of what a well made skatepark can do for a community. We also go into a little detail about our philosophy of skateboarding. It was a great day, Mike was super chill, and we appreciate the opportunity to share our scene with skaters everywhere. Come visit.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• small
• time
• skates
• hammond
• mike
• vallely
• skateboard
• drive
• fuel
• tv
• concrete
• dreamland
• louisiana

[mute88]

my band tristeza pops in this episode at about 2:40

what an honor it is to be a part of such a wonderful show that promotes a pro active lifestyle thru skateboarding! all of us grew up in small towns chilling and skating so this means alot ! do something. make stuff. create. skate.

[grimcity]

@mute88

Hell yeah!

[grant1432]

hey neal,

thats awsome u guys got to see and talk with mike-v and is he as nice as he seems in his interveiws or is he a beast like in his fight clips lol

[grimcity]

He was super nice... we actually spent the entire morning, day, and evening with him and his camera crew when he came down. Though it's not in the show, he basically did a one-man demo at our concrete park, and he must have signed a bajillion autographs. We still remain in touch, and he's very chill. I know he can go into beast mode, but I've never seen it in person! He was basically like he is on the show... he loves skating, and he had a great vibe. He's VERY approachable and a good guy.

[MrJowee]

You should have mentioned Hammonds population of 20,000 (tops) to New Orleans' 1.3 million (in 2000, pre-K).

[grimcity]

We didn't really need to... the episode that me and Kerry appeared in was actually in a "part two" of the south. Though the episode we were on covered three cities, part one was entirely dedicated to New Orleans. I don't have a copy of the episode, but Fuel repeats it pretty regularly.

[heffi1991]

thats so cool, i want to move to hammond, it seems so nice there and the scene looks real good there as well

[specop3351]

Yeah, they screwed up all the sets at the plaza. As soon as you hit it, you have to jump off cause you only have about 3 feet to roll away.

Holy Roller is pretty fun. I liked it back when it was called Interskate and they were at a different location. It was a waaay smaller building, but I thought it was more fun.

[grimcity]

I agree... I felt bad about the Shreveport Skate Plaza, since the city built it and messed it up. That little indoor park you guys have isn't so bad though... I think it's called Holy Rollers (used to be called Interskate). Fun mini over there.

[specop3351]

Dude. we need one here in Shreveport.

I can't stand the fact that I have to go to the next town to skate a park.

Plus, my community is full of old people that complain our boards make too much noise.