Bobby Puleo is opinionated. Between his views on spot rape, and his propensity for conspiracy theories and the esoteric, he seems like the type of guy that should have a manifesto. We transcribed a couple of his key philosophical insights from the latest Nine Club to create some bullet points that sum up Puleo’s ethos.
I’m a skateboarder. I have a rigid set of ideals. As we all do. And you’re also very much entitled to your own opinion. The great thing about skateboarding, and being a skateboarder, is you’re not necessarily just that. You’re also a consumer of the culture. That’s one of the fun things about skateboarding… There’s definitely something that bothers me if I see the culture being inflated and, stepped on is the wrong term, abused so to speak. When I see people not paying attention to the culture; it tends to bother me. (1:42:44)
I’m definitely not just skating down the street. I guess I took great care in the way that I presented stuff. I wouldn’t film everything. Watching Guy [Mariano] skate, I would always aspire—and I was never that style of skateboarder—but I always thought: “What would Guy do here?” I always thought that Guy had the best trick selection. (1:53:16)
I don’t consider myself a technically advanced… I’m not a trick person. I’m not a flip in flip out dude. What I was doing… it’s almost like a hip hop producer. Essentially, what you want to do is find a sample that no one has ever sampled before. And you want to put your mark on it. And if somebody bites your sample, they’re known as a sample biter, which is kind of a bad thing. You don’t want to be somebody that’s not producing original content. (2:12:57)
For more, view the entire three-hour interview above.