Joey Bast’s name sits alongside Drake Jones, Mark Gonzales, and Keith Hufnagel’s as stars of Non Fiction-era Real. He had a successful pro skate career by ‘90s standards. Then, he dropped off the map completely sometime before the millennium. In the pre-internet era, the urban legend was that he became a golf pro in Colorado. That turned out to be true. Chrome Ball Incident gets the full story in Interview #143.

What ultimately did end up happening between you and FIT?

Well, the day after I was finally able to get those checks to clear and closed my account, the owner of FIT…

…It kills me that I can’t remember this guy’s name. Because he had a ringback. Remember those from when cell phones were just coming out? Where you’d call somebody and it would be play music back to you instead of just hearing the ring? This guy had one of those and it was fucking “We Built This City.”

Starship?

Yeah, man. Fucking Starship. This means that every time one of his checks bounced, which was every time, I’d have to listen to “We Built This City” in my ear while he didn’t answer my call. It drove me insane.

But on the day those checks cleared, he actually called me for once.

“What’s going on? You cashing those checks kinda puts me in a spot.”

“Fuck, man. Wrong number.” (laughs)

So, later that day, I end up getting a call from Kelch.

“Hey, bro… Yeah, you’re off the team, bro.”

“Alright, bro. See ya later.” (laughs)

And that’s a low point for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love Kelch… but when you’re getting kicked off the team by that guy, after all his shit over the years, where do you go from there?

But you were still marketable at this point, did you look around for another sponsor at all?

Unfortunately, I didn’t.

I honestly don’t know what happened. I just decided one day that I was going to move back to Colorado and that was it. As soon as I packed up my car and started driving back home, it was all over.

I didn’t think that I was burned out on skating at the time, but looking back on it, I definitely was. Because I didn’t even try to keep things going. Not a bit. I just moved back to Colorado and fucking hung out. Working odd jobs, like I was a valet for a while, but not really doing anything.

Were you still skating at all?

Occasionally.

It’s weird, because all of the people who I thought would recharge my skating if I moved back to Colorado, none of them skated anymore. They all played golf, which was shocking to me at the time.

“What the fuck is wrong with you guys? You’re seriously playing golf?”

And now you’re a golf pro?

Yep, for the last 15 years. (laughs)

Take a trip down memory lane here.

Image Via Pete Thompson / Chrome Ball Incident