Before I start this interview, what it [dot] be ®, and our new interviews section is geared toward rounding up deserving talent within our coasts. We like to showcase people who have injected themselves with living the lifestyle of an artist, and are talented. People who somehow make ends meet in order to satisfy ones own creative hunger. Hopefully within time it pays off, and it usually does with landing a new trick, taking a new photo, or painting a new picture. So with that said, take a time-out, get a brew, and read up on some dot shit. Let’s head about twelve hundred miles south of NYC, where a striving artist needs the love, cause let me tell you, where he resides at times, there’s nothing but cow shit.
So, who in the [dot] is David Perry?
Switch Backside Flip in Fort Lauderdale
— photo Jason Henry
Where you from?
I’m from Vero Beach, Florida.
How did you pick up skating?
Well, when I was about 11 years old a skateshop called the Core Store opened up a few miles from my house. I would be riding my bike around town, and i’d always see these older dudes skating. I thought it was so sick, way sicker than riding bikes. So one day I went into the Core Store to check out their boards and see how much they were. At the time we had a foreign exchange student living with us and that day she gave me a ride to the shop cause she wanted to check it out with me.
After a little bit she was over it, but I still wanted to hang out and lurk at the shop so she left and right away the owner Nathan was like “yo, you hook me up with your friend and you won’t have to worry about any skate product for as long as i’m open”. Imagine being 11 and having someone tell you that, haha. It was the best day of my life, I ran back to my house and hooked it up right away. They were dating within a week and I was chilling with mad product. It was so tight. After about a year or so the Core Store went out of business. Skateboarding in Vero quickly died off but then a few years later Lewis Arnold opened New Blood Skate Shop and if it weren’t for him I probably would not be skateboarding today.
Word, can you tell me a little bit about how you got wrecked in skateboarding… The story about the busted up teeth, mouth, and knee? Tell me about that shit.
Ok, so when I was about 16 or 17, I got into skating rails. That was the in thing back then. So i’m at the Ramada 12 rail in Orlando skating it. I got a back 50 and a crook then I wanted to do a back 5-0. I rolled up to it a few times and I was kind of sketched out but we were about to get kicked out and it was the last day in o-town. So I went for it and as i’m about to pop the trick , this fucking security guard jumps at me. Fucks all my shit up, instead of locking in on my back truck, I ollied over, and my toe got caught up on the rail. So yeah first thing to hit the ground was my face, bottom teeth went threw my lip, top teeth hit the ground. That’s why I have a blue tooth (no not the one you put in your ear) and I broke my nose. I also broke my arm at a 90-degree angle and had to get immediate surgery. I got a plate and a few screws in and I hit my knee so fucking hard on the ground that I fractured my femur all the way up. All I needed was one more inch on each side and I would of had to get surgery on my leg to. So that put me out for a little over a year and that’s when I decided never to skate a rail ever again. Rail skaters can save it. Anyways shits WACK.
David Perry's Racoons
From skateboarding you have been getting to travel throughout the United States. What was the illest spot that you have been able to travel to, and why?
I would have to say NYC. NYC is fucking crazy man, it’s like a big ass skate park. All you do is skate around Manhattan or Brooklyn and find new spots. It is one of the sickest things in the world, no car, just skating around and sometimes take the train. I like it because even if your not going out to skate and film your still using your board for transportation. So you still skate everyday and its good cause you don’t lose control of your board because your always on it, which is tight. But that’s not the only reason why I like NYC. I love NYC because there are sooooo many beautiful women everywhere it’s insane, I was really trying to find me a wifey for the winter but unfortunately that didn’t pan out. But if you go to NYC and you don’t get laid multiple times, there is really something wrong with you. Good spots and beautiful women!
David Perry
When in NYC, what are some of the top choices of cheap foods, eats to get at when the bank is broke?
Good old dollar slice, dollar falafel and dollar sushi. Pretty much anything you can think of to eat, you can get for a dollar somewhere in that city. You just got to know the spots. Its great for us skateboards, who are really hurting and on the grind.
With barely surviving in NYC, how did you make it all happen?
Haha, I really dont know. Man NYC was a blurrrrrrr. The homies is what made it all happen, if I didnt have them I wouldn’t of made it in NYC for a week. All the free open bars and the art openings help with keeping you refreshed and meeting new chicks too. hahaha
David Perry Heelflip in Miami — photo Jason Henry
Tell us about the Opera house? Can you show us the fort you built there?
Haha the Opera house. This is where I held it down most of the time. Its hella trife but there’s mad bitches to be slayed and it’s a good spot to chill at. They got a pool table, a ping pong table, and if your to lazy to walk to the store you can get a nice cold PBR from the vending machine. So for about 4 months after living in NYC I had to move out of Matt Cantor’s house. I just ended up grabing my bags and moving into the opera house for about a month. It was pretty funny there, I made an ill ass fort up near their attic. The ladies loved it, haha not really, but they thought it was cute. So it always worked out. You know sometimes you got to impress ladies with the finer things in life, like the ill ass fort I stayed in.
Tell me about a typical day in Vero Beach today for you?
Haha, Vero Beach. Well, I wake up around 12, make some coffee, smoke some cigs, then if i’m feeling like having a productive day I try and round up some change for a few beers. Then I skate over to the beach, I usually only have enough change to get a 4 rack of Busch, so that last about an hour on the beach, then I skate back to the crib and hope John my moms bf is down to hook it up with some beers too. Usually he’s chill and I end up chilling with them till about 10pm and around that time my homie Paris comes over and that means it’s spliffie time. After the spliff we try and figure out what’s good with Vero’s finest, but lately this towns gotten played out again. So I decided to dip again, towards the north west.
David Perry's plane
What about a day in the life at your new spot in the north west?
Well, i’ve only been here for a few weeks, but my days here consist of working on my airplane, shooting guns, helping my little brother work on his dirt bike, umm, maybe go skate the shitty skatepark down the street. Kick it with the homies, blaze some seattle super kronic, and drink some road sodas, haha. Then when the weekend comes i’m out to seattle to skate the streets…
David Perry Switch Crooks — photo Jason Henry
Now what is it about skateboarding today that is different?
I think everyone thats been doing it for good amount of time knows what’s different about skateboarding today. Things have changed so much even since I started. When I first got into skating, its wasn’t about going pro or making money, it was about having fun and doing what you want. There were no rules in skateboarding, there was no coach telling you what and how to do it. You had to figure everything out for yourself. Shit, now the only reason why kids start… is to be pro and make money. It’s not about having fun anymore, fuck man, what happened to doing shit cause you love to do it? I guess it’s just too corporate now adays to do it just for the love.
Do you feel people judge you and don’t even know you?
Haha… yeah, I have this reputation of being an asshole. I dont really know how it started but it grew on me. So now I kinda live up to it. Now you know i’m really an asshole, you just gotta know me. I have a different sense of humor.
So what’s some of your future plans? Break it down for us on what new project we can catch you working on and where you’re going be soon homie?
Well, I just moved to a small town about 30 minutes outside of seattle to get away for a little and try to get my shit together, maybe learn some new shit besides skateboarding. So i’m going to be on the low for a little, but right now i’m trying to film for the hype video coming 2010 keep a look out!
Any shout outs you’d like to give? List em’, send the love to ones that deserve it too… ha like the Opera house
My dope RACCOONs… john montesie, nick matlin, ej, jp, lp, john valentie, joe perrin, ian rosenberg, mike atwood, bd martin, matt cantor, lewis perez, johan stuckey, ryan o’conner, james colman, keverik evens, rob bryant, tj sparks, travis card, mike hisky from HYPE! Skateboards, shorty at cons, Westside skate shop, kelcy novak, mitch teed, jason henry, steve gonzales, sivan hoch, raspa, josh staab, mazur, lewis arnold, louie walach, jesse bracewell, eric searle for the good times, gabbi gannon, B nut, owen jones, nich kunz, cody mccoy, ant verdi, sardo grant yensura, harry chippas, pep, pang, buck and jackie, rayan hussey, curtis valentine, cody lucas, adam crew, andrew considine, max vanarnem, andy froberg, jordan sanchez, and my wonderfull mom, and anyone I forgot, especially the florida homies…
After all the jargon that goes on with skateboarding, what is it that keeps you still going?
The love at what it [dot] be, we feel like sharing the illness and just keeping it real. WHAT IT DOT BE… and we out.
