Franky Villani is just the nicest guy, you can’t put it any other way. If you’ve met him and you don’t like him, there might be something wrong with you cause it can’t be his fault. He’s an easy-going, mellow guy. He’s carrying a stuffed animal in his pocket, catches rare Pokémon, and pumps “Don’t worry, be happy” on his boombox. He mumbles a few funny phrases, lies down to chill in the middle of a station forecourt, and all of a sudden, takes his board and attacks the biggest spots. He’s that guy whose name gets called when there is a spot that nobody else in the team dares to skate. But Franky has no problem with it. Even if he most of the times has to take some hard slams before landing the trick, he won’t lose his good mood and he’ll be even happier afterwards. As soon as he can skate, everything is good.
At Milwaukee, I think. We are passing by a bunch of places that sound the same like Minnesota and Minneapolis and stuff. I don’t know.
Yeah, I have. I am usually never really doing anything. But recently, I’ve been pretty busy. It’s cool though. I like having something to do!
Yeah!
I would like to move out. I like having privacy.
My older sister just moved out, but my younger brother and sister still live there.
My grandpa was Italian. That’s all I know. I didn’t look into it really.
I never really asked.
Not really. I don’t know. [laughs]
I have no idea! He died before I was born.
Yeah, I really liked it a lot! I love it there. I’d love to go back!
I have a bad memory. Milan, I think we went to. I don’t remember where else we went.
Yeah, that was super cool. I don’t remember what it was called though. [asking teammates about the name] Lake Como! So nice. It looks like Jurassic Park.
"Sometimes, I just get sad for no reason. But I kinda like it. You can’t be happy all the time."
I can remember random things. I don’t know. I really remember the train station spot. That spot was cool. There was that museum you can go inside that was like a mall. That was really weird. I’ve never seen that before. Everything blends together. That’s the thing. I kinda remember a lot, when we go to a lot of places at all it seems like the same places.
Skating.
It’s not that I have a lot of energy. It’s just like I get bored and antsy if I’m sitting down too long. I can’t sit still.
If I am at a spot – yeah! I cannot go to a skatepark and sit down the whole day.
Ah, I am not that happy. It’s not like I am not happy, but I am not feeling like I am the happiest person.
When I’m on trips, I am. We have a lot of fun the whole time.
Bennett Grind
Not landing tricks.
Sometimes, I just get sad for no reason. But I kinda like it. You can’t be happy all the time.
I love sad music.
My favorite song is “Boys Don’t Cry” by The Cure. I like ‘80s music. I like a lot of music. I am not too picky with music.
I like spaghetti. It’s my favorite food. [laughs]
Every kind! Any pastas...
I don’t know. I kinda stopped playing after that.
It’s just cause there’s regional Pokémon that you can only get in certain countries. And I just wanted to get these ones from Europe. And I got them. So good. It takes too much time. And it just killed my battery!
That’s the only time you sleep on a trip. Or you talk.
It’s random. Whatever is going on. Whatever is happening with everyone. But when we are on long drives, I just get a laptop and watch movies.
"I don’t really go for big spots unless they catch my attention."
They only talked about horror movies.
I like The Wedding Singer or Adam Sandler a lot.
Yeah, he’s funny.
Billy Madison. But The Wedding Singer, I think that’s my favorite movie. Happy Gilmore is very funny. All his movies are super funny.
Oh, watch it dude, I love this movie. A Night at the Roxbury also is really good. They have good music too. It’s like ‘80s music. You’ve seen A Night at the Roxbury?
Homie – you gotta watch it!
I’d probably be in The Breakfast Club. That movie is cool. Ghost World is cool too. It’s like kinda high-school vibes.
I don’t really know actors’ names. Hopefully someone cool!
If I take my time, I’ll get inside my head too much and I’ll freak myself out! I’d rather just go for it and then maybe land it or get smoked.
The longer you stare at a spot, it just gets scarier, you know.
I don’t really go for big spots unless they catch my attention. I think it looks really cool or it looks fun to me. I can’t just go skate random gnarly spots like that.
Oh yeah, those spots looked really cool to me – that’s why!
I mean, I take really hard slams every day. No matter what I am skating. Flatground – I am gonna go down. I’m like a magnet to the ground. I spend more time on the ground than on my board.
I just took a pretty bad slam on this trip. I rolled my ankle down eleven stairs. But I’m alright, I can walk.
If I fall on my body, I’ll be fine. I feel like I am pretty used to that. Actually, no. I don’t get hurt that much, I guess.
Transitions I kinda suck at a lot. I like skating tranny, but I’m not really good at it.
Noo, I’ll be in the hospital. And I’m scared of heights. I couldn’t do that!
Sometimes. But it’s different. Megaramps are several stories high. You’ll never gonna go anything higher than a story with skating.
Maybe a rail you could lock in and grind for a while. That’s always fun. Or a good ledge sometimes. It just depends on the mood.
I really liked the old enjoi team with Marc Johnson and Jerry Hsu, the whole team with Jose Rojo. All those dudes are so sick. But I like all kinds of skaters. I like Shane O’Neill, Wade DesArmo. I like a lot of skating.
I felt a little… I mean, I really liked the dudes over there. They’re all cool. I feel like that’s why I tried it out. Everyone there is super cool to hang out with.
"Dane Burman told me one day that Jamie Thomas is gonna call me and to not say no."
Dane [Burman] got me on. He told me one day that Jamie Thomas is gonna call me and to not say no. That’s kind of how I got on.
Dane picked me, I guess.
It was mellow.
I mean, he’s different. But he’s cool.
Not really. He’s busy. I usually skated with the other guys a lot.
For some people, for sure. If you are looking for it, he’s there for you. But I wasn’t really looking for any kind of mentorship. I like to learn things on my own.
I just didn’t feel like it was good for me at the time or anymore. I just was unhappy. It seems like it was just the same thing a lot. I like different things. I like to be able to switch it up some time, like not just the same graphic all the time. They kinda stick to their roots. But that’s cool too, you know?
Naah, not really. I’m enjoying my break from board sponsorship.
The spray-painted ones? I don’t do those. But the clear griptape stuff, I do that when I’m home bored.
I don’t like this plain black. I don’t like looking on my board and feeling like it’s boring. When I like how my boards look, I am more hyped to skate!
I can’t skate white wheels. I hate it! It’s so boring to me.
I think it’s just because when I grew up, I saw a clip with Chris Cole and he always had cool wheels. There was this one clip where he skated these bright pink wheels and I thought it was the coolest thing. Ever since then when I skate white wheels, I’d be kinda bummed.
That’s my friend.
Well, I think I stumbled upon his art or whatever early on and bought a shirt. At Tampa, some kid took a picture of me and sent it to him. He messaged me and we started talking and when I had that part, I asked him if he would be down to do some drawings for it. He did that and then, eventually, he came over here and we met up and hung out. He’s a cool guy!
It’s always random. If I’m on a trip, I’ll just go to a lot of random places. Maybe I’ll go to a shop and see something that I like and I’ll buy it. It’s always on trips where I find cool stuff.
Randomly, I went on a camping trip and Levi [Brown] was there and we became kind of homies after that. And then, randomly, he messaged me later on asking me if I got shoes from anyone. And I didn’t. He would just ask me if I would like some New Balance shoes and I said, “Yeah, thank you.” But I never thought I would get on the team, you know? I thought it was just like, “Oh cool, I get hooked up with some shoes.” I don’t even know how that happened, like being fully on.
"It seems so random that I have a shoe sponsor, but there’s so many people that are ripping and don’t have someone to hook ‘em up."
I think they were going to Spain and I was going to a lot of the events they had and they’re bringing me to some stuff. And I think they talked to me about Spain and then pretty much told me that I was on the team. It was cool.
I mean, it’s crazy. It seems so random that I have a shoe sponsor, but there’s so many people that are ripping and don’t have someone to hook ‘em up. It seems very crazy to me.
Thank you. It’s just like I’ll go up there and probably never go back there. I can’t not skate all the spots I see.
I don’t know. I wouldn’t be in control of that.
Yah!
As long as I keep having fun with my friends on trips, I’ll be cool!