Speaker 1: 0:11

Hey there, welcome to how Do you Skate, the ultimate destination for all skating enthusiasts. We cater to everyone, from beginners to pros. Whether you love inline and ice skating or prefer quads and skateboarding, we have it all covered, and we bring you exclusive interviews with professionals, talented amateurs and influencers in the industry. So sit back, relax and get ready for an exciting journey into the world of skating, the world of skating.

Speaker 2: 0:47

Welcome to episode two of how Do you Skate. I am your host, sean Egan, with my guest, not co-host guest today, dwight Palas Palas. Did I say it right?

Speaker 3: 1:00

Close enough.

Speaker 2: 1:01

All right From Beatdown Boards. He is my guest and we are talking about his company, Beatdown Boards, and his background in skateboarding. So now, how did you get into skateboarding, how old were you and where did it all begin for you?

Speaker 3: 1:19

I was definitely a youth, young youth, probably before teens, even Definitely a youth, young youth, probably before teens, even Son. I think a few of my uncles probably had them kicking around, you know old retro boards. But then I definitely got into street skating. Good friend of mine kind of took me under his wing and showed me the introductory. You know basics.

Speaker 2: 1:41

So did you ever get into ramps and stuff? Did it just kind of progress from there? I'm more of it just kind of progressed, I'm more of a street skater myself.

Speaker 3: 1:46

Uh, definitely more of a street skater, but I definitely respect vert as well and something you know I'd like to dive into a little bit more, but kind of nearing my middle age here, so I'm in my 50s and I'm doing speed skating now, so it's you're never too old, so absolutely absolutely so what I read a little bit on your website and everything so beat down boards came across, came about from the pandemic you guys got together yes, sir.

Speaker 3: 2:17

So, um, basically I'm a lifelong martial artist, which is part of where the name comes from as well, beat down boards, but uh, me and my sensei were both skateboarders and kind of found that temporarily shut down so we didn't have our martial arts outlet, found ourselves skateboarding in east hampton, massachusetts. Uh, developed a small community outdoors, kind of practicing social distancing with some respect, you know. Um, but uh, setting up some rails and little things and developed a little core group of skaters and eventually I kind of shot the idea around starting a team and had a few people on board and just kind of ran with it so it started with your love of martial arts.

Speaker 2: 2:59

What martial arts have you trained in?

Speaker 3: 3:02

uh, ishinryu karate is the back, the heading for uh, the original studio, but also jujitsu. Uh, now he's transitioned his school a little bit into more, so kickboxing and jujitsu okay, so do you compete at all in martial arts? Then too I I used to now just train a couple times a week okay, so what is your goal with like be down boards?

Speaker 2: 3:23

what's the whole story week, okay. So what is your goal with like be down boards? What's the whole story, not just but why?

Speaker 3: 3:32

why create your own team and why create your own board? Part of that is, you know, I feel, skateboarding itself. There is support and now it's kind of transitioning a little bit more mainstream. It's not not so underground, but there is always a need for a community, you know, a need for opportunity for skateboarders to find themselves, a team, find an outlet. And one thing I know is when I was young, I wasn't necessarily surrounded by the best individuals or making the absolute best decisions. So I'm trying to, you know, give kids a way to stay out of trouble nice so um, so um, with keeping them out of trouble.

Speaker 2: 4:08

Are you like coaching them with skating, then, or kind of guiding them, or what's going on with that side of things?

Speaker 3: 4:13

So my main skateboarder, my pro, uh, andrew Costa, he's amazing skateboarder, he does lessons, um, when I first started up, uh, my sensei was kind of doing some tutorials and helping kids in the area. He's transitioned back into full time to escape teaching martial arts. But so the goal is to eventually have a school skate shop of our own as well. But there's a lot of local skate shops and things, and where I'm from is East Hampton, massachusetts, and our goal there is open up a new skate park, because we had one growing up that was actually a memorial to a gentleman who passed away and unfortunately, for whatever reason, it was torn and uh, kind of given bits and pieces to other local skate parks. So we want to get another one built and continue the way forward of skateboarding okay, so you have no skate parks where you're at now, or you have we have some

Speaker 3: 5:10

area. Yeah, we have a couple in the area but they're uh. Another local skate team is theory skateboard and they're big about community as well and I'm kind of following in their footsteps of driving more community forward and we're trying to get some big skate parks built. I know there's one right now. I'm living in Westfield myself. There's a really nice skate park being built here Springfield, definitely a well-known city, definitely a lot of troubled youth that could use a good outlet, and they're looking at building probably the best skate park around besides going out towards Boston.

Speaker 2: 5:46

So was there any time as you were growing up skating that you just really wanted to give up because you couldn't land a trick or something or just had hard times with it, got frustrated.

Speaker 3: 5:57

I think we all hit that barrier. But that's part of what skateboarding is, you know it's like any sport in general it's for the love, you know, so you do it because you love it, and when you're young it's fun. As you get older, it becomes more of a you know a job to do. You have to really work for it, just like anything else. Yeah, but, um, honestly, no. It's something that I always had the passion for, and even when I don't land tricks, it just inspires me to work harder.

Speaker 2: 6:22

So now did you get a lot of support from your family on it?

Speaker 3: 6:27

That's a big bag. I'll be honest. My father's a creative guy, musician and artist and he definitely likes what I'm doing. And he definitely likes what I'm doing. My mother used to own a business of her own that didn't, unfortunately, work out for the long run, so I think she has her own doubts, but it's a passion project. So it's something, you know, I hope to retire to, but I'm happy to work a day job and do this in my free time. To you know, keep it alive.

Speaker 2: 6:54

I think that's where we're all at, especially with skating. It doesn't pay like the NFL or the NBA, absolutely so moving forward.

Speaker 3: 7:10

what's it look like for you with Beatdown Boards over the next several years? What's your plans? The goal is definitely to build up the skate team a little bit, add a few new members, release our first video that's on the horizon, probably another in succession and then skate shop. That's, that's the main goal, something that you know, a true business staple, something our flagship that we can grow and you know, land, our foundation.

Speaker 2: 7:31

Now, is it going to be a all skate, like carry, roller skates and inline skates, or are you just going to focus on skateboarding?

Speaker 3: 7:37

I mean, I'm predominantly a skateboarder, but I'm happy to see it all. Even my girlfriend she does roller skates and I love to see all the action sports alive and well.

Speaker 2: 7:48

Yeah, that's. One thing I feel is that skating is a giant community. It doesn't matter if you're quads, inline ice or even skateboarding. And I know back when I was growing up, if you inline skate, skateboarders didn't like you and if you, if you did roller skating, inline skaters didn't like them. So it was uh, it wasn't the community you have now. So, absolutely so. Do you ever run into any problems at the skate parks with people that are non-skateboarders?

Speaker 3: 8:17

no, I mean, I think there's a whole stigma around scooter kids, but uh, the reality is, if you see anybody pushing hard for their passion, you want to see them succeed and you know that's something we should all be. Pushing is for each other to be the best we can be at, whatever we're pursuing in life so, uh, with your girlfriend.

Speaker 2: 8:33

What kind of skating does she do? Quadsads or inlines.

Speaker 3: 8:36

I'm always curious, she's just for fun. She does roller skating Okay.

Speaker 2: 8:42

She learned the artistic, okay, the bike trails. So just going for distance and exercise then.

Speaker 3: 8:48

Absolutely Just for the fun of it, the love of it, so about how many days a week are you skateboarding now?

Speaker 2: 8:55

Are you still doing it or trying to?

Speaker 3: 8:57

I do skateboard, not as much as I personally should. Um, you know, it's one thing that always pushes me is when I get together with my team to film. We end up doing a free skate, warm-up, free skate afterwards for usually a couple hours, where we all just skate for the fun of it and kind of turn off the cameras. But uh, it's tough. You know, I'm not gonna lie. I personally work like 50 50 hour weeks and then train martial arts on top of that, and I have my other passions as well. Another that I want to incorporate into the art of beatdown boards as well is cars. I'm a lover of cars, especially Japanese cars. So that takes time and money as well.

Speaker 2: 9:35

Yeah, cars are not cheap and I'm going to have to disagree with you. I'm about American muscle, so I love American muscle too.

Speaker 3: 9:43

I respect all bills. Yeah, I'm just a 90s kid.

Speaker 2: 9:48

So how many kids or how many skateboarders do you have on your team now?

Speaker 3: 9:55

We've gone through some transitions so, unfortunately, one thing I've found that I wish to see a little bit of change is with more opportunity coming to life, more skate teams out there. I hope to see people who are truly passionate about it kind of stay with it and push to be successful in it, because there is a space for success and now it's becoming more commercialized. So there are ways to, you know, know, sell yourself in the industry in a way that you know you can gain sponsorships, skate teams bearings you name it or even clothing, do some modeling on the side, because it's kind of a couple of the street culture, um, or streetwear, I should say. But I mean, at our peak we had five. Right now we're at three. So you know, I definitely need to gain a new member or two moving forward, especially to finish this film part.

Speaker 2: 10:43

Nice. So then are you guys on the competition circuit now doing competitions?

Speaker 1: 10:49

at the moment we do some local Okay.

Speaker 3: 10:51

We do some local just skate events and stuff and that's another thing we're trying to push is hosting and co-hosting more skate events, even if it's just best trick competitions at some local skate parks or you know there's some really good indoor skate parks out of the way being New England you getting behind the skate competitions too.

Speaker 2: 11:20

I know when we were growing up skateboarding was even inline skating or rollerblading through different parking lots and stuff. And there's still signs. You see, no skateboarding or no. It seems like the community still has that stigma against us and doesn't want to see us doing stuff in public areas.

Speaker 3: 11:35

Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. I think that's a part of what this generation has to work towards to change Cause I mean, I myself aspire to. If I have to continue doing a day job, do something that serves the community, and I'm potentially, come October, might start studying for EMT and eventually work towards being a firefighter. And I think, you know, trying to couple things like that with the community, grow closer. And you know, trying to couple things like that with the community grow closer. And you know, really spread the roots out there and just try to get people together to do because there's other aspects of it too. That's not just skateboarding, you know. You have food drives, you have, you know, things that can serve the community and that can just be the pillar for this bridge towards peace, so to speak.

Speaker 2: 12:15

Yeah, I totally agree. So I'm going to have to ask what's one of your favorite skateboarding movies.

Speaker 3: 12:24

Oh man, that's tough. I mean honestly, top of the list is yeah, right, I have not seen that one, oh, really. So that's, yeah, that's a great video. I highly recommend it to anybody, anything. Daewon Song, rodney Mullen just I mean, they call them the skate gods, you know they inspire creativity in everybody that watches.

Speaker 2: 12:45

Yeah, I've seen some videos with Rodney Mullen. Of course, my favorite movies was Thrashing from 1985 with Josh Brolin, and you got to love that movie if you skateboard. I never really had a skateboard when I was younger and one fall and taking a huge chunk off my ankle. That was kind of it for me, so but definitely not forgiving.

Speaker 2: 13:07

But I also think that's part of what makes it beautiful, because it breeds, you know, the ability to overcome and continue to persevere against all your challenges yeah, so what is some advice that you have for kids wanting to learn skateboarding and coming up with skateboarding and trying to figure out their path in it?

Speaker 3: 13:29

That's a very good question. I would say first is learn your basics like anything. Start with a solid foundation. Just learn to ride good, you know, have fun Having fun is number one and then you know get your ollie down. Learn to kickflip things like that. Look at the long run of where you want to be and work towards that. Break it down into steps. Also, start to understand how the industry is commercialized. Look at things like Instagram and put yourself out there a little bit. If you want to grow into something within, you know the skateboarding community, potentially pursue a professional career, then you kind of got to sell yourself a little bit. Just, you know, figure out what your style is and also, um, it's easier now than ever, I would say, because with things like YouTube, there's so much information out there. You can learn tip tricks and really break it down and have somebody guide you.

Speaker 2: 14:22

And not only that get yourself exposed to other people too with your tricks, just filming yourself, even if you're a beginner.

Speaker 3: 14:29

Absolutely, and even with that will come advice. You know people will give you advice on what they see.

Speaker 2: 14:34

Yeah, and I mean a lot of things are going that way now I I've seen skate instructors that will do it online, where you film yourself and then they'll critique and then make adjustments that way, whether it's skateboarding, inline skating, roller skating, artistic skating or whatever you're doing. So we're kind of heading that way of the online coaching now.

Speaker 3: 14:55

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 14:56

So, and I know what your answer is going to be to the first question, but what is your board of of choice?

Speaker 3: 15:04

uh well, definitely a street board, so to speak.

Speaker 2: 15:07

Um, I, I ride an eight five right now and and you does beat down boards have an eight five yes, absolutely okay, so.

Speaker 3: 15:16

So beat down boards is your political uh, yeah, well, yes, of course, I mean, there's a lot of great boards out there. It's finding what you're happy with, and I think one thing that within the industry, people don't like to discuss is a lot of the wood comes from the same place, so a lot of these companies are supplying the same deck with a different design. So it's about you know, supporting a team that you believe in, supporting the images that you like, you know if there's a certain design that you find that resonates with you, and that's also amazing yeah, and so me not being super familiar with skateboards, uh what?

Speaker 2: 15:55

do they have different brands of trucks that you pick from, or is it just so, absolutely okay, so what's your truck of choice then?

Speaker 3: 16:05

So I'll say a few things with that question is definitely bearings are important. You know hardware can matter because there are different lengths which can allow you to add risers and things Like I will skate with risers. It prevents pressure cracks in the wood, allows you to take a bigger drop easier. A little bit more padding for the impact. Honestly, there's a lot of great brands out there for trucks themselves. Thunders were always a go-to for a lot of people. My top favorites personally are Destructos and Independence, Just kind of the highest quality I've found. And right now I'm actually skating some Tensor Maglites. They're the lightest trucks you can get on the market, so I'm kind of experimenting with that to see how durable they are and I have some ideas to potentially push some products forward in that line as well down the road. But my, uh, my pro, Andrew Costa he skates for bra skate trucks.

Speaker 3: 16:59

So, he's sponsored for skate trucks as well as bearings. He's got a bearing sponsorship.

Speaker 2: 17:05

What, what? I know what kind of bearings I like for my skates, but, like with skateboarding, what are some good bearing choices?

Speaker 3: 17:13

So bearing choices vary and that has to do with how you skate, honestly, because I mean the ABEC ratings from three to nine. You can look up the science behind it a little bit, but it's how, if you want speed, you're going to go with a higher ABEC ratings from three to nine. You can look at the science behind it a little bit, but it's how, if you want to, if you want speed, you're going to go with a higher ABEC rating, but it's not necessarily going to be the smoothest either. There's certain you know give and take and all that department. I myself like something that I can cruise with nice and quick. You know, especially cause, if and when I skate, I like half the time I'm filming, to be honest. So you know, one push, be able to kind of crouch on my board and hold the camera or not worry about it, um, so I tend to go with something like a Swiss ceramic, something that flows really smooth.

Speaker 2: 17:53

Um, now the main part, wheels. What kind of? What are some good choices for wheels, and what do you roll with?

Speaker 3: 18:01

The same thing, wheels all being urethane, um, you know it's, there's slight fluctuations. Um, I tend to rock like a 53, which is kind of a smaller wheel, but that's, I think, in line with my ability, because the higher up you are, the harder it is to land tricks.

Speaker 3: 18:19

So yeah, it's not a little closer to the ground's a little easier, but um, honestly, I haven't found too much variance in wheels, personally. Um, I know right now everybody's loving the palo peralta. They got the dragons that they came out with and those are, for whatever reason, everybody swears by them. I haven't tried them yet myself, but I look forward to it. I've really enjoyed oj's that one time. They seemed really smooth.

Speaker 2: 18:46

I know with me. I take care of my skates, I clean the bearings once a month and that kind of stuff. So what kind of maintenance comes along with skateboarding that you have to do on a regular basis?

Speaker 3: 18:57

So it depends on how you skate. A lot of pros, a board won't last more in a couple weeks, unless they're very lucky. Sometimes you'll get one that lasts a couple months, but if you're landing heavy tricks off of large drops they're gonna break. It's just gonna happen, especially when you're going for a banger that takes 50 tries, 100 tries. But, um, I mean you can use speed cream, things like that clean out the bearings. Um, most skaters won't, to be honest. Um, there are also grip tape aids like grip cleaners that you can use to keep your grip young and fresh. If you have a board last long enough, you can re-grip it. So I mean there's that trucks themselves. Bushings are important. I notice a lot of trucks I've gotten over the years. I end up upgrading the bushings because they do blow out, so I need some. I skate a tight truck, so the tighter you tighten it, the more pressures on that bushing yeah, so now, what kind of products can we get from your website?

Speaker 3: 19:55

uh, right now we offer we offer clothing skateboards like hats, shirts, um, things up that avenue. We have some good collaborations, like with Adidas, but also we do offer custom skateboards. So that's basically me taking the time to bring somebody else's skateboard vision to life.

Speaker 2: 20:14

Okay, and then it's a complete skateboard, not just the deck.

Speaker 3: 20:18

So we can work on that. That's definitely something we can offer, but obviously there's so much variance in the market and we don't offer our own bearings or anything at this time. That's something down the road we definitely look forward to doing. Um, definitely a high investment on those things, unfortunately. But um, you know, first I would start with the wood and, if need be, if I need to source everything, I'm happy to do it, Okay.

Speaker 2: 20:42

And now? How can our listeners find you on the internet? You're somewhere at wwwbeatdownboardscom.

Speaker 3: 20:51

We're on Instagram, we're on Facebook. We do have a couple of videos on YouTube which we will be expanding that library as well.

Speaker 2: 20:57

Okay, cool. Well, I want to thank you for coming on the show today and look forward to possibly having you back on or even doing some events with you.

Speaker 3: 21:08

Absolutely For sure, definitely down the road, definitely, thank you. Thank you so much and we look forward to getting out your way. Yeah, definitely you.