Joey Pepper doesn’t do interviews often. So the new Chrome Ball post is a real treat. As usual, it does a fantastic job of recounting Joey’s career from the start until now. We’ve gotten to witness him live countless times over the years, and can say that he’s without a doubt one of the illest ever. But whatever you do, don’t call him underrated.

“Underrated” is another one I’ve heard used a lot to describe me. I don’t agree with that one at all.

Why not?

Because I have gotten out of skating exactly as much as I’ve put into it. Skating doesn’t owe me anything and I don’t feel like I owe it anything, either.

Whenever I hear the term “underrated”, I always wonder what they mean by that. Who’s rating me low? I guess I haven’t checked my ratings lately but what the fuck is that supposed to mean? Where are these “ratings” anyway? (laughs)

Is there anything that I wish I would’ve done differently? Yeah, there were a few periods where I probably could’ve taken skateboarding a little more seriously. But it’s hard to say that I’d want to go back and change anything. I don’t think that I’d want to change my trajectory at all.

Maybe taking more of an interest in the industry? Because I’ve never really cared about the industry as whole or even being a part of it, really. Maybe if I paid better attention and possibly built more relationships, that could’ve changed my path a little, but who knows. It might’ve changed things a little bit as I’ve gotten older, but honestly, I have no regrets whatsoever.

Skateboarding is like anything else in life — you get out of it just as much as you put into it. It’s really that simple.

Read the full interview here.

Image Via Chrome Ball Incident