Shane O’Neill is known for being a man of few words; so this three-hour interview with The Nine Club is unexpected to say the least. There’s tons of newsworthy bits in here including a new Nike SB part that’s in the works, and potentially a signature shoe. O’Neill also weighs in on skating for Australia in the 2020 Olympics, and says he plans on being there if he qualifies. But what grabbed our attention the most was his telling of how April came to be, and the fact that Diego Najera was a part of Shane’s original plan to do a company when he left Skate Mental in 2015.
I was going to potentially start a company at this point in time. I was talking with Paul [Rodriguez]; and we were maybe going to do it within Primitive. I had another skater who I was paying my own money, which was Diego [Najera]. With the Diego situation, Felix [Arguelles] had helped him a lot with getting his name out there. He was on Ammo and Famous… and everything was going there. But I think Diego just wanted a change, too. So I was friends with him, and talked to him; and we were basically going to do something. I was like, “Hey, I’m gonna figure this out. I’ll pay you monthly” It didn’t happen for long at all… It was going to be a board company. That didn’t work out. It made a lot more sense to ride for Primitive… My requests were: “I wanted to work with certain people; and you have to put Diego on as well.” [1:40:33]
O’Neill also alludes to something going wrong internally at Primitive, which is why April wasn’t created as its sister company.
I was almost going to do the company [April] with Primitive; and it didn’t work. I don’t know why. It didn’t work. [1:44:01]
Make of that what you will. For more, watch the full interview above.