Emerica covers our shared team rider, Jon Dickson, going back to his hometown in Antioch, Illinois interviewing his closest family and friends. Watch parts 1 and 2 below!
FOCUS: Jon Dickson Part 1
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Jon: I spent my whole life here. This is it in all its glory.
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Jon:I don't-- probably like 13 or 14. I think I tried skating before that when I was younger and I broke my leg the first push I ever took on a skateboard. My parents wouldn't let me skate for a while. I did the splits, I went to push and then put my foot back on and just did the splits and broke my tibia and fibia.
Greg: I was home standing in the driveway and I see our neighbor bringing him down the driveway carrying him. When he got close to me I saw his leg going in a direction which it doesn't belong and I say, "Whoa, that's not good."
Chelsea: He was so bummed out. It was scary. [Laughter]
Kit: We called the rescue squad. They took us to the hospital and he had a cast from his hip down to his toe.
Jon: It's terrible. Had a walker in school, middle school, the walker. [chuckles] Kids were just giving me shit. I just felt like I was 80 years old or something.
Kit: I said, "No more, you're not allowed on those anymore." He said, "Okay," and he lied. [laughter]
Chelsea: At a swim meet he saw one of my friends skateboarding and wanted a skateboard. I actually hit him up and I gave him all my allowance, which was like 25 bucks. I got Jon his first deck that we didn't tell my parents about.
Greg: He was a really little kid and all of us, me and my friends I rode BMX, it was just like, "Hey we're going to the skate park." We'd show up at like 9:00 at night right before they close and ride until like 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning. He would just skate the whole time. No stopping, just power through it and just be filthy. We went to some buffet afterwards and they were just like, "No, we got to throw this food out. That kid fucking touched it." He was just covered head-to-toe and just skate park filth. It was the best.
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Jon: My dad's been cutting a bunch of stuff in here, it's a mess. I used to skate up here when it was cold like it is now, with lights. I used to just clear the shit out, this is the spot. I'd take a piece of wood or something and set it up against something so I have a bank. My dad's friend was working on his boat down below and I just tried to check if my foot broke through the floor. Pretty much my foot was just sticking through the floor right in front of my dad's friends face. He was just like, "What the fuck?" It was crazy. My dad was pissed.
Chelsea: "I wonder if I can have a skateboard." I think he's always been mentally into skateboarding and wanting to do that.
Jon: I believe this was Jamie Thomas. My brother had a VHS with Welcome to Hell, just taped over on it so I would just watch Welcome to Hell all the time. Skate-park opening soon. Sick fence. That motherfucker, I have no idea-- maybe that's the guy with all the money, yes?
[laughter]
Jon:Yes, dude. this was Tony Hawk Look at that, that's from the end. Look at that, "Oh, man he just did an air walk to a 900." That's my football picture, 92 pounds. Racing bikes. God damn it.
Greg: The concrete slab, that was very interesting because it was a very, very active area that was very loud. If you had something, if you wanted to sleep or concentrate on watching TV, it was impossible. It made for some interesting times for sure.
Jon: This is it. Well, it's probably like 50 feet or something. Is that about right? From here to there, it's just my spot. That ledge, too, little manual tricks. I tried to do fakie bluntslide bigspins, and then I'd try to pop it before the crack. Because I would creep up past the crack and then hit it right here, and then eventually started trying to hit it before the crack. It was just the best ledge. It was awesome to even have this.
[00:06:48] [END OF AUDIO]
FOCUS: Jon Dickson Part 2
Jon Dickson: This was my second rail, I think. It's so bad. Trying cricket grinds on it. Yes, it's sick, and it's still a go. This was the best skate spot. We would skate here a lot. These bricks used to not be on the ledge. It was just a big, flat ledge that we'd grind or no slide or something. We would just film each other. Just pass the camera around to whoever's skating, and yes, just had a blast here. Then look at this rail right here. My buddy sacked the rail somehow. Which is pretty incredible that he did that. Look at this fucking thing. [chuckles] This is one of the first front boards I did on a rail.
Slid so far probably. I slid so much of it. Just like dink. This is the Bears. My great grandpa played for the Bears. Yes, he owned a percentage of them as well. He ended up selling back to Halas for I think for like $40,000 back in the day. Kind of crazy, right? That this was what they were using for helmets. It's just leather, you know? That's our grandpa. Johnny Cakes. He was a wrestler. He collected over the years of traveling for wrestling and stuff. That is where your ears would get all banged up. Look at that bad ass. Seems pretty solid.
Speaker 2: Is that a lake?
Jon: It's a little pond, yes. We used to come ice skate out here. We should brush it off. We got to go get the ice skates. [chuckles] Well, it's all beat up and fucked up now, but yes, this is a goose blind. We got to fix it but. Yes, you sit down in there, and you put your decoys out there, and you just call for the geese with the geese calls or whatever, and then they fly over the top, and when they fly over, you flip this up and just fire at them. Then, yes. If you hit one or something, you just go out there and get it or you have your dog go get it or something.
I'm not really into killing animals or none of that. It bums me out. One guy blew his finger off. He shot his gun, and he didn't clean it, or the barrel was old or rusty or something, and when he went to fire it, the shot blew out the fucking barrel and fucking took his finger off somewhere here. I don't even think he found it. There's probably a finger out here somewhere. He would just run a muck in this motherfucker. Causing all types of mayhem. That's just a whole another world. Muskies
Speaker 3: He had a swivel on. He was fishing for something. He had a swivel on, and he broke his father's [unintelligible 00:04:32].You don't do a swivel to a jig.You just straight tie on for the action style or something.
Jon: Breaking my dad's heart. Large fat heads. Suckers. Come on. Get back in there. [chuckles] Whenever my dad has some time or whatever, and I'm home. Yes, I love going fishing with him. It's nice. Even if you don't catch anything, it's just fun being out there. Just catching up with pops. It's good time. People that always just have a bad attitude towards where they're from or something. Like, "Fuck that place. I want to get out there." There might be things that irritate you about it, but I've always missed home. I always wanted to see the world, but I always loved coming back here. It's just almost unexplainable. It's just home.
[00:05:45] [END OF AUDIO]
