Josh Kalis has lived in many places throughout his career. His name is synonymous with skateboarding in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Chicago. His roots lie in Texas and Michigan. And he’s spent a good deal of time in San Diego as well. He had been living in the latter for nearly a decade before recently deciding to return to Grand Rapids. He explains the reason behind the move in his latest interview with Skate Jawn.

It was a number of things. I’d say one was living in California, it gave me a false sense of security, you know? I felt like being out there I would be closer to companies and I just felt like it’d make everything feel easier. And maybe I felt a little more important cause I was out there going to meetings, doing all these things, which was cool but the reality is that’s not necessarily where I need to be. Inside companies people change positions, and my position doesn’t change, so sometimes being in California would be beneficial, sometimes it’s less beneficial, and then I just remember how I built my skate career without living in California. So I found myself thinking I’d be traveling less, but the reality is I needed to travel more, and then the housing prices went up way high by me, so I knew I could sell my house and make a bunch of money. I wanted to be back closer to Chicago, Philly, and New York, you know this resurgence on East Coast, this ’90s comeback and all that kind of stuff. So I said fuck it, just move back to Michigan where we’re from…

For more from Josh, head over to the Skate Jawn site.

Photo Via Mike Blabac