Darren Navarette Interview
[ photos by dominick ]
 As we enter into a new century, I find myself confused by skateboarding's image. So much has changed in the past 10 years, that I barely recognize its raw essence when I look at these starkly syndicated mega-contests and all the blazing billboards on the side of the highway showing crews of skaters in the midst of a group hug. If I were an outsider looking in, I'd think skating was some "new wave" peer group where everyone respects each other, no one drinks or smokes and only the dorks let loose. Where winning is all that matters. Winning and being on TV. But for me, growing up, that's not how it was. Kids fought, and spat and did drugs and drank beer and listened to heavy metal, not some punk version of the Backstreet Boys. Back then, contests were held in backyards and remote ramps and the only time skaters made it onto television is when they killed someone. Back then, all the skaters I was into partied like they were rock stars. But now, at a time when skaters really are as big as rock stars, the image is gone. Everyone's a puss, just in a different T-shirt. Everyone wants to be clean cut and wholesome. That's bullshit, and that's why skateboarding is lucky to have a guy like Darren Navarette. He's a real rock star. Smell his breath, you can tell.
What are you up to today?
Just kicking it around the house a little bit. Trying to get my car out of the shop. I had to get a new engine. I was just going too fast or something. I don't know. I broke it in and something broke in it. The frame cracked or some shit.
What kind of car is that?
Trans Am. It's an '85.
A nice car like that with a big engine and you don't know how to do the car repair?
Naw, there's too much computer shit in there. Fuck all that computer shit. I kinda want to sell it and get a 70s without all that shit.
So how did you get that car? You won it gambling or something?
No, my dad gave it to me. He collects Trans Ams and Cameros and shit. He's probably got a 78 Camero and that's about it. He's also got an 85 Camero.
He gave you a car for no reason?
Yeah, I'm the youngest one in the family and he gave cars out to everyone else ---like, earlier, when everyone turned 16 or 17. Everyone got a car except me. It took a long time, but I never asked him for any cars or nothing. Now, they're stoked on me for making money.
Do you do a lot of racing?
I like to street race. Pull up to another car is kind of fun.
What do you usually get beat by?
So far I haven't been beat by nothing. That's what I'm claiming.
You better watch out for those Mustang Fastbacks. Those things will take you off the line.
I don't know man, this thing is fucking fast. 350, V-8, full injection... It's actually two port injection and it's pretty fast dude.
You guys just went up to Burnside, how'd that go?
Yeah, did a little tour for 151. It's cool. Skated all the cement parks up in Oregon and stuff. Halloween was kill. It was a 10 plus on the hesh scale. Everything is kind of a blur, but I know the cops came a couple times and we all got out of that shit. We just pretty much kicked it around Burnside all night long with the radio. We had a little boombox blaring Van Halen all night, all the way until the sun came up. Walking around the street with a boombox. It was chill. We had a little gang going, we were like the "Warriors" fucking lurking the streets of Portland. I had some guns and shit. I was pretty much loaded, laughing at people's costumes.
I heard you have the inside connection on the death metal T-shirts.
Yup, I do have the inside connection to the death metal T-shirts. This guy I know owns a heavy metal shop in Minnianopolis and he likes Serial Killer shit, so I trade Serial Killer gear for death metal T-shirts. It's kill. I got like 25 and a bunch of other paraphernalia like flags, Motorhead flags.
Did you know that Lemmy was in a porno magazine not too long ago. He was with two naked bitches. I think one of them was sucking on his mole.
Yeah, I went to the music shop the other day and they were like, "You like Motorhead?" And they gave me this thing like, "This thing is like Motorhead's band before it was Motorhead." But, this other band called Hawk Wind which was his band before Motorhead, but this is before that and it's pure hippy shit though. I heard it and it's nothing but hippy shit. I was like, "What the fuck?" But he was probably like 20 when he did it.
Everybody makes mistakes.
Oh yeah, he was probably just experimenting with LSD at the time or something. No, but the funny thing is, on the CD, he actually has a voice. He's singing and it's like, "What? That ain't even Lemmy." Because, now he's all fucking a lot of cigarettes and fucking whiskey and shit.
 So Lemmy used to be a sissy, huh?
Oh, no way, definitely ain't saying that. Definitely ain't saying that. I'm just saying ... his early shit was kind of funny.
I didn't know that guy was a hippy. That constitutes being a sissy in my book.
Yeah, but he wasn't a hippy, he was a biker taking hella LSD and shit. He had long hair. It was a cross between Sabbath and The Doors. It starts out all heavy and then he starts singing and his voice... That was before he was singing "White Lines Forever."
When was the last time you did LSD?
Well, for Halloween we fucking went back to those days for a little bit. We took a bunch of mushrooms. It was kill. At one point I was on mushrooms and I had this little rifle and these two guns and shit. They were fake. They were cap guns. I was just walking around the streets and these cops came up and I was frying on mushrooms. And the cops were like, "Throw down your weapons!" I was like, "What? What?" I had a toy gun in my hand, a rifle, and a mushroom in my other hand. And they were like, "Throw down your guns!" I throw down the rifle and all these lights come on me... "Do you have any other weapons?" And I pull my jacket besides my two guns, so it looked like I was getting ready to draw and three or four cops all pull their guns on me... Flashlight. They were like, "Put your hands in the air!" And I had a mushroom in my hand. So, I'm trying to drop this mushroom right above my gun so it looks like I'm trying to get ready for a quick draw and then I finally got rid of it and I put my hands in the air and I was like, "It's Red Rider! It's Red Rider!" And then they checked my guns. They were all fake and shit, but I was fully frying on mushrooms at the time. They were like, "What the fuck are you doing carrying fake guns around like this?" I was like, "It's Halloween." But they were like, "You could get shot for this shit." I just went with it. Whatever happens, happens. I just go with it like, "Dude, man, I'm just loaded right now, whatever. Fucking skating around not doing any harm and shit."
Have you pretty much realized that you aren't gonna go too far in vert skating, because you're not a jock?
No, I'm not a jock. But I'm gonna go all the way. But I'm not a jock. Yeah, fuck that shit. Skateboarding is not about being a jock to me. Let's just all skate and whatever, but I'll go all the way. Fuck it.
I remember hearing about you and Danny Way back in '92 doing the 900. Why do you think people are making such a big deal about Tony Hawk now?
Yeah, I just kept my shit all stealth like that. But that's the way he likes it. That's his job. He takes it as a job, fuck that. I mean, if someone wants me to do a Sprite commercial, I'll do a fucking Sprite commercial. I'd do a Smith and Wessun commercial. And Jack Daniel's. Probably Camel's... and Budweiser.
Do you prefer Budweiser?
It's cheaper.
But you're a professional skateboarder, you can afford expensive beer now.
Yeah, but see I like to drink a lot. So Budweiser... quantity for the same price.
Do you find yourself getting a lot more girls now that you are a big time professional skateboarder?
Oh yeah, I'm definitely a rock star now. That's why I ride for Serial Killer now man, they got some porn stars in there. I'm supposed to do some sort of photo shoot and they're supposed to get up on the ramp. I want to do an invert. I want the girl to have her legs spread on the coping and do an invert and try to get my thumb right there or whatever. That would be dope. So you gotta be looking for that one. I just want them naked sitting on the platform. Sitting on the platform trying to figure out things like, "Hmm, let's see..." Or maybe standing up and I can do an invert or whatever. There can be some positions there to test out.
Get them bent over with their asses facing the coping and do like big airs and smack your tail down on their tail.
Ouuu! Yup, that can work.
Do you see yourself pursuing a career in porn when skateboarding is over?
Fuck, I hope so.
You're not gonna go back to school are you Darren?
Naw, I think it's too late for that. Besides, they say the end of the world is coming, so I'm just going with it. I haven't paid no taxes and I'm hoping this millennium bug, fucking wipes out my tax report or whatever. I've been getting paid since '96 and I haven't paid taxes yet. Yeah, so pretty soon it's either gonna come down on me or fuckin' I'm gonna go to Mexico. I wonder if I could leave the country and change my name. Change my name down in Mexico or something and just come back as another person.
All you have to do is find somebody who died at birth and take all their paperwork and social security.
Yeah, that's what my dad said. My dad was like, "If you ever need to change your name, just go to a graveyard and look at someone's name and shit. Get it like that."
It would be sick if you could come back as a different guy and have a whole new skate career.
Oh yeah, "Who's this guy?" "Oh, he's new man."
But you're not too big on these X-Games are you?
Well, they're fun. I go there. I can skate. I get loaded and skate. I don't know. I don't really care what happens at that shit. I skate a lot, but I like to skate with my friends with a radio. With some beers on the deck and shit.
They're always playing gay music at the X-Games.
Oh yeah, guaranteed. Nothing gets me motivated there. The best I could get was some KISS shit. It was alright. Detroit Rock City, and then whoever else, yeah they play some shitty music. See, a lot of people are like, "I don't care. Play whatever."
I hate that Long Beach punk scene bullshit. That new school punk shit.
All that shit sucks. Right now I'm into Venom and shit a lot. Collecting some Venom albums and shit. I got this 77 record player with eight-tracks, it's pretty sick. And you can get [Black] Sabbath, you can get AC/DC, [Led] Zepplin. You can get a lot of shit on eight-track too.
Do you find yourself dating more bleach blonde chicks down there in San Diego or Mexican chicks?
Mexican chicks. I prefer the brunettes.
I didn't think that they'd be messing with the white guy though?
I'm not that white. I got a little bit of Mexican in me. Mexican-American... My dad's dad is Mexican and my dad's mom is Mexican-Indian and then my mom is American, I don't even know.
Do you speak Spanish?
No, everyone in my family but me because I grew up in the Midwest, like Kansas City, Minnianapolis, Chicago, New Mexico for a little bit, but my dad always wanted us to be American. Because out there if you were Mexican at the time, they didn't like that shit. I'm bummed on it. I wish I could speak Spanish for sure. My brother couldn't speak it all either. He was the other one who couldn't speak it, but then he moved to Mexico for a little bit and he picked it up. He's marrying a little Mexican chick right now. She cooks for him and all that shit. That's what I need. I need a girl where I come home and she's fucking cooked up a T-bone steak for me.
Right, massage your feet and shit. You need a woman you can train.
See, I think those Mexican chicks, you can train them. See, the blonde and blue eyes I don't know.
 I'm telling you, the American chicks are spoiled is what it is. They're used to everybody riding their dicks, and they think they're supposed to get everything. You get someone who comes from a poorer background, you give them clothes, food, a house and that's all they really need. And they know to respect you for it. That's what's wrong with Americans. They're too fucking spoiled. You can't train them.
Yeah, you can train them, but...
It takes a little bit more money. And you know they always bitch and moan about where you're going, who's this girl calling you!
That's true. I don't want that.
You just want someone who shuts up, talks when you tell them to talk, makes your food and lays on their back when you tell them too.
Is that what you got going?
That's what I got going, but she's an American so go figure. But it took me a while to train her.
Damn. Yeah, cause see I had this other girl for awhile and I was trying to train her, but it wasn't working. It's hard man. I had to give up on it. But see, if I get a Mexican chick, maybe it will just happen. You don't have to go through all the motion.
See, that's why if this girl doesn't work out I'm gonna go on the Internet and get one of those mail-order brides, one of those Russian chicks . I think that's the way to go. It's like you pay for their green card and you marry them and then they owe you one.
Oh yeah, they owe you.
And usually, they don't speak the language anyway so you can just point and do a lot of hand gestures. It's easy. Because who wants someone to talk to when you're trying to watch skate videos? That's a lot of headache. You don't have to worry about that though, you're a man of the world and...
Oh yeah, I'm a rock star.
You have girls coming at you from every which way. Kids would be lucky to end up like you.
I don't know about that. I'm not saying I'm a good influence, that's for sure.
You seem like a good influence.
I pretend I am, but no. See, I also like the other part of it. I get paid for skateboarding, a lot of women, a lot of beer, cigarettes, drugs, whatever...
That sounds like somebody I would've looked up to when I was growing up.
Oh yeah, me too. But that was my problem. I looked up to Jason Jessee, Jeff Grosso, Salba, Alan Losi; LSD. You know, it was like, "I want to skate like this guy. What do I got to do?" But I'm looking at the other side. I'm looking at the X-Games side, they don't want that. That's not what they want on their TV. They don't want fucking, "Alright, this is Darren Navarette. He's in the corner and he looks like he's got a slight hangover today, but he's gonna go out there and give it his best."
That's the real deal. It's better than saying, "I've been training all week in the weight room. Now I'm gonna do big airs because that's how I get high!" That's gay, dude. They might as well join the football team if they're down for that.
Well, I just grew up with skateboarding, so... that's the way it was then. It wasn't like football, it wasn't like none of this fucking jocked out team shit. It was individual. You go out with your friends and you skate. Fucking rock and roll.
I'm of the belief that if you can make money some other way than going to school, then do it. If you make money skateboarding or selling drugs or making pornos, then screw school, because you know, quick money is going to take you further than knowledge any day.
The funny thing about it, all my friends who went to school, "What are you doing?" "Oh, I'm delivering pizzas still."
Fuck that, I don't want to live like that. Kids need to be rock stars. They need to be remembered and the only way they're gonna do it is live fast and die young.
That's right. Live fast and die young.
But if your career starts to go down the toilet is there anything you got planned for rejuvenating it? Are you gonna jump out of a 747 onto a mini-ramp?
Fuck dude, I don't know. I was thinking about that. I was like, "All right, let's see. Danny Way jumped out of a helicopter. Done the biggest air. Andy MacDonald, I heard did the longest jump ramp. Did you hear about that one? He got pulled by a motorcycle and did an Evil Knievel stunt.
Did he get high?
Yeah, he was getting high. Real high. But, I'm thinking maybe do the longest handrail. I got this fucking rail and get pulled by a train and go for it. From here to Portland on the rail. The longest handrail.
See, you need to do something like that because that whole killing your girlfriend and burying her thing, that's been done.
Well, let me see... What at the very end is gonna make me famous? But see, I have to get away with it. See Gator got away with it, but he freaked out.
He's an idiot for turning himself in. If I got away with something, I'd never mention it again.
Exactly, if I get away with something it's done.
I wonder if when he was cutting her up, he fucked her one more time.
Ouuu, I don't know. I heard he took her teeth out. He took her teeth out with pliers. He was pretty pro on it. He knew what he was doing. There were no traces. They wouldn't have been about to trace it. Yeah, that's the thing, he was going to sleep thinking, "Damn, I just pulled that lady's teeth out."
He was probably chucking them in the desert one by one. That's dope. Props to Gator he did a good job. A good, clean, professional guy.
Like I said, Gator, he's one of my favorites, but I didn't know him personally. I only knew his skateboarding.
I'm more psyched that he killed somebody, but then I got bummed when he turned himself in.
Weak.
Why didn't they ask you to be one of those guys who endorses the anti-drug campaign, like Andy MacDonald?
Ah, they see me at the ramp. I've been caught several times fucking smoking weed under the ramp and shit. They really don't like me at the ESPN shit. They know who I am. They know I'm fucking drinking and shit. I didn't even make it to the Gravity Games. I wasn't invited. Invites only.
So, what's going on out there in the streets today?
Well, the streets are getting hard to deal with, man. Every day I'm out there it's getting rougher and rougher, man. New kids are trying to come around and skate my areas and shit, it's getting rough. But it feels good right now... drinking beers, getting stoned. That's just it for me, I guess.
Would you advise kids to do that as well?
I do advise kids to do it. If they wanna have a lot of fun then they should start as soon as they can, I guess. I started when I was about 13, started traveling around, smoking pot, skating. It was fun.
When's the last time you saw a doctor?
Last time I seen a doctor was in France when I collided with this fucking French dude. Fucking broke my ribs, ripped my spleen open, was pissing blood for six days in the French hospital. But it was cool, it had some benefits. Had a little morphine hooked up to me, fucking got a sponge bath from some young ass nurses. It was alright.
Did you get any hand jobs from the nurses?
Kind of. They started sponging down my scrotum but I got kind of nervous and started pressing the morphine button.
 So what happened with Creature?
Well, we pretty much got over it. Like I thought it was getting stale. Everyone thought it was getting stale. They were putting people on the team I didn't think fit the fucking idea I had for Creature. It was supposed to be pretty scary and they were putting a bunch of pretty boys on the team and it just wasn't working.
Right, I remember the graphics, after awhile, were getting pretty gay.
Oh, they were getting lame. They were real fucking stale. I'd tell [Jeff] Kendall or whatever, "Let's put this guy on, he fucking kills it." "Naw, let's put this guy on." "That dude rode for ATM..." Dude, I don't know. I like tech skating... it wasn't fitting the image. And 151 is sick. It's nothing but a bunch of beer drinking, fucking gnarly skaters. Everyone likes to drink. We just went on our tour and no one had any problems, because everyone is always drunk. That's just the way we have it. It's kill. Everyone turns to whiskey. Everyone drinks whiskey. It's a good team. Everyone is fucking hyped. Yeah, we've been having some pretty good sessions lately at Escondito [YMCA]. Danny Way's been out there and Matt Dove was in town. They're all hyped on the sessions there because we bring out the boombox and shit. We smuggle beer in, but most of the vert skaters down there still not drinking beer. It's pretty much just me and the hesh crew, like Sam Hitz and Peter Hewitt. I don't know about on street, because sometimes I get drunk and can't skate street, but if you skate vert and then you start drinking while you're skating or even take some mushrooms while you're skating it will gradually set in and then the whole thing is like a trance or whatever. It starts to flow together. One time I was on mushrooms and I was skating vert and it was kill. Everything turned into sequences. Kickflips would be like: click, click, click... it was kill. See what I want to do is at the next X-Games or something, I want to get some space cakes or something and call them power bars. Give them to people like, "Hey, Thunderbird, Andy, everyone..." Everyone takes these space cakes and just fries and then we have the contest and see what happens. I think I would win the contest. Some of my friends were saying to get a little vial of liquid LSD and put it in their helmets. Like a little drop in their helmets. In the hole in the helmet like: click, click, click...
Have you ever won a contest before, Darren?
Ah yeah, Switzerland. I was the '97 Swiss champion of the world. It was alright. Two grand... I got laid that night because it was the rock star thing. I'm the winner, granted I'm the only American here, but fuck it.
So how do you usually do? Do you usually come in last?
Yeah, I've been getting last lately. It's been picking up. The last two contests seventh and eleventh. It's getting there. The top 10 in one of them.
I think you should always shoot for last.
I try to, but you know sometimes I need to make money. Like right now the Trans Am is in the shop. I need some money. Let's show these jocks really how to do it.
I think it would be dope to go down in the books, for your career: "Darren Navarette, other than one time world champion, last place all the time." I think that would be dope.
Well, that's pretty much what I got, but I'm not going for it.
I guess you're just getting lucky. How do you want to end this, Darren?
Live fast and die, I guess.
Comments
click
07 Sep 2008, 11:11
kill stuff :P
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