Anthony van Engelen – Last Words

Last trick you learned?

I don’t do that anymore. [laughs]

Last trick you filmed?

I filmed a line a bit ago. So it is a lot of tricks in it.

Last App you downloaded?

Some fucking App to stream my phone into the hotel TV.

Last spot that blew your mind?

It was actually years ago. It was up in LA. This spot was so shitty and it was amazing. It ended up with a curb and a bump to a semi-blocked wall and it had all this other bumps and cracks on the sidewalk you could set shopping cards up and it was pretty sick. It only lasted for a few month. That was kinda like the last epic spot I grew up with and for LA skate spots are kinda a thing of the past. It’s more like „Oh let’s drive for an hour to skate this handrail“ – which sucks. So it was a real skate spot. We would hang out there all day and film and get tricks.

Last movie you watched?

I think it was „Rambo - First Blood“. I watched it a thousand times.

So you’re a Rambo fan?

Fuck Yeah! I lived in the 80s man. Rambo was the first movie I ever saw at home on a vhs player when I was like four.

Last time you wore a tie?

I don’t know if I’ve ever worn a tie. Maybe when I was little or something. I have two suits but I fucking wore them probably like three times in the past 20 years but I’ve never worn a tie.

Last time you worried about skateboarding and why?

I think most of my worries with skateboarding are just personally my stuff with it as I get older and I’m doing it and this is all I have ever fucking done. But as far as skateboarding in general… At my age now I’m just like „I don’t care…“. I used to maybe worry about the whole deal a lot more. I don’t really worry about it. I mean I have opinions about it but…

So skateboarding is doing fine you think?

I mean yeah. There is a lot of parts in it that are doing great but there is all that new crazy shit, too.

What was the last new kid that blew your mind?

There are so many fucking gnarly dudes right now. As far as our squad goes Tyshawn [Jones] is an incredible one of a kind talent that only comes along so often. So definitely him and then Rowan [Zorilla]. He got that thing, that almost Gonz like ability to just look good whatever he is doing.

Last time you partied?

My drinking ended well after the party so I don’t know but I know my last drink. My last drink was in a bar in Berlin eleven years ago. I was having dinner with a bunch of people and then I would say „I have to go to the bathroom“ and I would run down the street and take shots of Jack and then come back to the table because I wasn’t supposed to be drinking.

Last time you met Dill?

I skatet with Dill last week.

Last album you listened to?

Well I have a one and a half year old so I listen to a lot of „Sesame Street“ albums… I’m serious. She doesn’t allow playing anything else.

She is already into music?

Yeah she loves it. I couldn’t even get her to sleep for ever. The only things to put her to sleep was Waylon Jennings and Willy Nelson albums.

Willy Nelson? Nice.

She really likes that. Ever since she has discovered that Elmo has an album that’s the only thing we are listening to. I’m trying to get it of her again but she was like „Elmo! Elmo!“. She is only happy once I put the Elmo up.

What kind of music does Elmo make? Hip-Hop?

He makes everything. Everything from Hip-Hop to Blues.

Last time somebody was proud of you?

I don’t know. You have to ask my mom.

Last holiday you went to?

Fathers day. But we did it at home so I don’t have to go anywhere.

Last time you were perfectly relaxed?

Yesterday on that business class flight. It was pretty relaxing.

Last Christmas you got what gift?

I can’t even remember and I don’t need anymore shit. I think last year I actually told my mom that I don’t want stuff and then she ends up buying me some crap and I’m just like „Fuck, I gotta store this somewhere“. Just give 100 bucks to charity or whatever… Christmas sucks.

Last thing you fixed?

I gotta fix the fence at my house. I have a hundred years old house so I’m always fixing something but I can’t remember exactly. I think it was the water system that broke and I had to fix that. But I didn’t ended up doing it, I just hired someone else to do that… God, these 40 years old answers… „My water system, my fence“. [laughs]

Last tattoo you got?

I got my daughters name.

Last photo you took?

Last night off the balcony, sunset, I’m forty…

I’m getting forty in like a month…

What’s the age demographic for this? They’re all forty? [laughs]

Last time you went to Russia?

It was when I rode for DC and we were doing a tour. So I think it was like 2002. I lived in St. Petersburg for six months when I was 17 because my stepdad was over there.

St.Petersburg is nice.

Yeah, it was a cool city. But back then with 17, as a skater from California going there – it sucked. Like straight I don’t give a fuck „This place sucks.“ But yeah no fronts to the Russians.

Last good wave you catched?

I think it was in county line but I didn’t surf since my daughter was born. So it’s been a year and a half.

There is no time for surfing anymore?

No, not really. I live in LA and if you want to surf something that’s good you are 45 minutes away with traffic. You have to get up at 4:45 and get there when it’s good. My kid wakes up at six, so when I’m like: „Hey babe, I’m going surfing“, that doesn’t really work.

Last concert you went to?

Well I’m actually missing a fucking concert right now. I had tickets for…

Elmo?

Yeah. [laughs] No Judas Priest. I bought tickets and I’ve never seen them live and then this event happened. But I gifted them to John Fitzgerald. He just snapped his ACL when we were on this trip in Germany. He is a huge Priest fan so I was stoked to give him the tickets. They were good tickets, too. Right there on the stage. Yeah so he is psyched and me not so much. But they’re in good shape I might go watch them again.

What did the last text message say you received?

Chris Nieratko: „Anthony I know you’re in New York but wanted to see you Sunday. What time works?“ I didn’t even know we had plans.