Skateboarding has always had a “here today, gone tomorrow” element to it. The list of pros that have come in with a bang only to quietly fade into the history books is substantially longer than the one of those that impacted the culture for decades. Kerry Getz helped define an era in the early aughts, and will always be associated with the glory days of Love Park, and the Sovereign Sect. One day, seemingly out of nowhere, he walked away from the limelight. He breaks down what lead up to the decision at the 1:13:00 mark of the latest episode of The Bunt.
Once the recession hit, everything just started going downhill. Every couple of months you get a phone call, “Oh, we gotta cut this.” Every four to five months, I felt like there was a change. [I was] going deeper and deeper into a whole. [I thought] within the next few years, I will be making no money on skateboarding. And I’m not going to be able to get any money to skateboard again. I saw it coming. But I wasn’t ready for it. So it gradually went down to almost nothing.
Habitat was like, “We want to have your name on a board forever.” I was cool with that; but it was one of those things… My homie here on the East Coast was starting a brand. He approached me to do a guest board. I said, “Look dude, I’m not really going to be skating much anymore. I’m so tied up with my kids and my life that I’m not really going to be able to skate or film a part anymore. So I’m just gonna walk away from Habitat; and I’ll ride for your brand. I’ll help you with whatever I can to get your name out there through me…”
I was kind of over it. And then, DVS was just gone. They were filing for bankruptcy. Everything was falling apart. So I kind of just walked away from everything. I said, “You know, I still want to skate. I skate when I can.” I just didn’t want to be involved in the industry anymore.
Listen to the entire interview above.