The Sammy Winter Interview

Interview by Chris Nieratko as it appears in Issue 41. Photos by Andrew Peters, Cameron Markin, Fred Mortagne and Mike O’Meally.

Skateboarders have always had an identity problem. For as long as I can recall skaters have dropped/switched/adopted new monikers on a whim.

I remember when out of the clear blue Mark ‘Gator’ Rogowski became Mark Anthony and later when Alex Parker transformed into Alex Olson. In more modern times, many skateboarders have stopped using their real names completely and have instead assumed stupid and awful nicknames like Furby and Lizard King and Willow and Jaws and Moose and countless other codenames that I refuse to speak aloud.

That said, I honestly thought Australian ripper Sammy Winters had changed his name back in April when Cliché announced they had turned Daniel Espinoza pro. I thought it a rather odd, ethnic-sounding and not very catchy name for Sammy to change to, but knowing the nature of skaters and their secret identities I wasn’t very surprised. That is until someone told me that Cliché had not turned Sammy pro, that Daniel Espinoza was in fact someone else entirely and not Sammy’s new name. That led me to ask A) who the fuck is Daniel Espinoza and B) how could anyone turn him pro before Sammy, who has been killing it for years? No one seemed to have an answer.

I asked Cliché’s brand manager, Al Boglio; he simply explained it away by saying Sammy was next. I asked Cliché pro Joey Brezinski; he couldn’t clarify it for me either. I even asked the real Daniel Espinoza and although he was very psyched and honored he to have been turned pro even he couldn’t explain to me how or why it happened.Finally I got the chance to interview ole Sammy and I thought surely he’ll be able to shed some light on the matter. But he didn’t. Nor did he really care. And I guess it doesn’t really matter—six months later Cliché have rightfully turned Sammy pro and all is right with the universe.

You texted me you’re all banged up. What happened? Got your ass kicked last night?

I kicked my own ass so it was all right. I had just a few too many.

Is that par for the course when staying with Chima Ferguson and Dustin Dollin in LA?

I’ve actually been staying with Mike [O’Meally] so it’s actually been pretty mellow.

What’s it like staying with O’Meally with the baby there? Does he have you babysit in exchange for a bed?

Actually O’Meally’s wife, Laura, and son Otis are still in Australia at the moment so it’s just been me and him hanging out.

Is he like Hank the Tank in Old School? Is Mike letting loose?

No, he’s not. He’s been really chill and just doing a lot of work.

Since the baby isn’t there you didn’t get the chance to try and breastfeed, huh?

No, I haven’t had the pleasure of that one yet. I was hanging with little Otis in Australia a couple weeks ago on the beach and I was making sandcastles for him and he was just thrashing them and kicking them over; he was loving it.

Are you good with kids? You’ve got a reputation as a roughian; do you beat up little kids?

No. Kids are awesome. I’m really good with kids. I grew up with lots of kids and all my friends are having kids now. It’s actually pretty weird that all my friends are reproducing.

Have you been bit by the baby bug, Sammy?

It’s getting to that time. Maybe. I would like to have a little baby Sammy running around. Not just yet though. I’m not really trying to have a kid right now. But I am good with kids. I don’t beat them up.

That’s good. Let me see if I have your story correct: you’re an Australian who rides for a French company who wants to be big in America with a porn star name.

Ha! My name is a porn star name? Sick. I’m psyched on that.

Do you think you could make it in porn?

I don’t think so, no. I’m not cut out for the porno thing.

Why? You hate filming?

Yeah, a little bit. I would think that as soon as the death lens comes out everything goes limp.

I don’t think they stick the death lens in front of cocks the way they do ledges.

Don’t they? I don’t know. I don’t watch much porn. I don’t get that creepy. Actually I do sometimes.

I think everybody does, they just don’t admit it. How did you end up an Australian on Cliché, a French skateboard company?

I guess the link is between Andrew Currie and Al Boglio. Currie had me on éS Footwear back in the day. He was the first one to notice my skating and he started doing things for me. I was just holding off for a board sponsor that I was actually psyched on. There were a few Aussie companies that were sending me boards but when Andrew and Al started talking about me it really came together and I started getting boxes of Cliché boards. Cliché was my first proper sponsor so I ain’t going nowhere.

Do you think Al Boglio was exercising some tall poppy syndrome when he turned Daniel Espinoza pro before you?

Yeah, he was fucking with me for sure. I don’t know about that manoeuvre but whatever is clever, I guess. My boards are out now and I’ve got a few different graphics out so it’s pretty cool. It’s exciting times. It is a bit weird riding a board with your name on it.

Do you ride your own board? Or is that frowned upon?

I have been because I just finished off this commercial for the board launch so there’s close-up shots of the graphics. I’ve been skating those.

I think it’s fine. I jerk off to myself in the mirror all the time.

Yeah, that’s totally kosher. Riding your board with your name on it is a bit different than jerking off in the mirror. Jerking off in the mirror is fine.

You’re posted in LA right now. Do you think LA is big enough for you and Daniel Espinoza?

Ha! He’s not from LA. He’s from someplace out there.

Just to tie that conversation up, what was the bullshit reason they gave you for Daniel going pro before you?

I think it was something to do with having another American pro on the team.

Is there even value in American pros anymore?

Ha! Yeah. But I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s cool. I’ve only been on the team for four or five years longer than him.’ Aren’t you supposed to have covers and shit before you turn pro?

Yeah. Or something. Or anything. I mentioned you’re a bit of a roughian. Did you threaten Al after they turned Espinoza pro first?

No, I didn’t threaten him. I probably sent a couple emails that were not so nice. But Al and I have a good relationship, we understand each other and he’s got a bit of fire in his blood so we’re on the same page on certain things. I don’t really give a fuck about that shit really.

But I give a fuck for you!

I didn’t try to beat up Boglio, that’s for sure.

Who would win? You or Al?

I don’t know.

He’s getting old. And slow.

I reckon it would be a good one.

But it would be you that won, right? You can say it.

No. I don’t like fighting, it just happens sometimes.

What causes it usually?

Probably ignorance and boatloads of booze.

I heard you have a whiskey temper.

Not really. I used to have a bit of a rum temper when I was younger and drank lots of rum. In Queensland, where I’m from, everyone drinks rum and coke. It tends to fire everyone up a bit and then you get someone saying the wrong thing and shit goes down. But I haven’t been in a fight for a while. It’s not really something I’m trying to do. I like to talk my way out of things these days.

Didn’t you beat up a filmer for getting you the wrong drink?

I didn’t beat him up! Goddamn it! We were morbidly intoxicated and… I didn’t even punch him! Maybe. Fuck… I don’t even really remember that night.

Who is the most famous person you’ve ever fought?

I wouldn’t really call it a fight because it was over pretty quick but I got in a little tussle with Tony Trujillo many years ago in Australia. Long story short, his wife threw a drink on me so I threw a drink on her and then he swung at me and I ducked it and I tackled him to the ground and security was all over us. Then there were fights breaking out everywhere; it was insane. I lost my shoes! That was a bit of a wild one. Everyone was on a lot of different substances that night so there were a lot of emotions and a lot of patriotism and a bit of America vs Australia going on. That was the week that Shane [Cross] passed away so it was a hectic week in my life. Seven years ago… fuck. But I was skating with Tony yesterday; it’s totally mellow with us. We’re good. We didn’t know each other at the time and it was just a load of drunken bullshit really.

It generally is. You mention Shane. Boglio was the one who broke the news to you. I lost a dear, dear friend ten years ago and dove to the bottom of a bottle to cope. How did you deal with it?

That was a very rugged morning when Al woke me up and told me. I was on my first proper skate trip with all the Cliché guys. I just got really quiet around that time and was in my own head, trying to think about all the good times we shared and there were plenty of those. But yeah, I tend to deal with my problems like you too, which is probably not the best thing to do but I guess everyone has their certain ways of dealing with things like that. When it’s someone that close to you, you just feel ripped off. Shane was so young and such a good-hearted dude who emitted positive energy always and 100% fun and he’s snatched away and you’re like, ‘Really???’ People talk about fate and things like that and you can’t make sense of it because he should still be here.

There are so many shitty people that should go first.

I know. There’re so many assholes out there that need to fuck off and then there’s the most awesome people that get outed too soon. It’s not cool. But that is life.

Absolutely. Anyone that talks about Shane speaks of him in the same positive light. You had tonnes of adventures with him. What’s your best Shane story?

There are definitely a lot but the one that always pops up is the time we went to this folk festival for New Year’s. We were trying to figure out what to do for New Year’s and Shane was like, ‘Fuck it! Let’s go to Woodford Folk Festival?’ I was like, ‘Fuck it! Let’s do it!’ But we were both broke as shit. I had $70 to my name and he had maybe $100 to his name but we went anyway. We borrowed his sister’s car, put some tents in the back, grabbed a bag of weed and drove there—no tickets, nothing. We get to the entrance and there are all these security people asking all the cars going into the camping grounds for their tickets. Shane was a very, very honest person and we had to barge in because there was no way we could afford the $300 ticket to get in. I said, ‘Shane. This is the story, okay? The car in front that just went in has our tickets.’ He’s stressing, like, ‘I don’t know if I can do this!’ I said, ‘You have to! This is how it’s going down. We’re going to have the most amazing New Year’s ever!’ So security comes over, he says it and she lets us in. But as we drive in we see there’s another checkpoint and just as that security person leans over to talk to us in the car Shane just floors it, past security and takes off. We have all these security people running after our car. We’re just hooning all the way through this campground. We hoon it, stop and empty the car, set the tents up in a minute flat and sit in our deck chairs like we’d been there the whole week. They never found us.

We’d go over the hill every night to sneak into the main arena and it was insane. On New Year’s night, ten minutes before midnight, we were pretty off our heads and we looked out into a sea of thousands of people and we see our homie Steve-o Extremo, an acid enthusiast, bowl skater and legend. Shane’s like, ‘Steve will have acid for sure!’ We cruise over and he’s got a vile of liquid acid. He put a drop on both of our hands and we pretty much fell through time that night and watched the hills move around. Three months after that Shane was gone. That was our last big hurrah together. Good times for sure.

You’re pro now, Sammy Winters. So now what? Permanent vacation?

No, no. I have heaps of shit planned for the next year. I have this new video coming out, I have this mixtape thing coming out and then I’m in LA for another five weeks, so I’ll just be trying to shoot photos for the mags and get as much shit done as I can while I’m out here and make the most of the time because I have to get back to Australia and get back to work.