Checking In with Jackson Casey

Pyramid Country in ABQ

By Cole “Tuna” Park

After recently losing my other job, I decided to head out cross country on quarter life crisis camping trip. We typically have a few weeks between packing brands’ deliveries at the Locale Garage; and seeing as this lined up with the Pyramid Country Albuquerque trip, Dustin decided to give me homework on my vacation. We hit up Jackson to check in on the boys and learn about why none of their pros go on trips, how Aaron Goure can get a clip literally anywhere, who in the group is most likely to get abducted by aliens, and other bullshit.

Dustin: What’s good bro?

Jackson: I’m just fucking tryin to open my eyes and shit. I’m awake. Just lookin at stupid shit on my phone. I’m layin in bed with Aaron Goure here. He’s a good little bed buddy.

Cole: You guys going to collaborate on any tracks on this trip?

Haha yeah we’re makin a bunch. It’s fun but they’re pretty fried.

C: How’s the trip going so far?

The trip is great man. Everyday starts off with Aaron fuckin fartin in my face. But the trip is going good. We’ve had a bunch of different heads going in and out. It’s been dope.

C: Who’s on the trip with you right now?

I don’t fuckin know. There’s a lot man...we’ve got Aaron Goure, my homie Nicky Glazer he’s helpin film and he’s skating too. He kills it. John Pierce. (Kevin) Skutnik. My homie Chase...I don’t know fuckin lot of people....Eric Clark the Magnet Man.

C: Has it been difficult finding spots out there?

Dude, it’s mellow, they’re everywhere man. It’s like the best city to skate, ever. The ditches are unreal. You guys have seen the footage. It doesn’t look like it wasn’t built to skate. You know what I mean? And then the schools, it’s so hilly that there’s rails everywhere. The ditch spots are fucked. And then we’ve got our homie Jake Johnson (Not that Jake Johnson), he’s the king of ABQ.

C: He’s a filmer right?

Yeah. And he skates really gnarly. He actually got a couple clips, he was killin it.

D: Did you ask him if he thought about changing his name?

He goes by Jake Da Jeweler now.

D: Daamnn that’s hard!

C: Any of the bigger names there with you? Brockel, Kevin Braun, any of those guys?

Nah, they all bailed. Brockel is just being a pussy and Braun had to go to a wedding in Chicago and then is going to New York for a Santa Cruz trip after that. I feel like most of the dudes who are super hooked up are just booked all summer every summer.

D: The fuck?! Without Robbie there who’s going to piss in their own mouth?

(Laughs) Not in their mouth but Skutnik pissed in the dresser the first night we were here.

C: So all the pros have gone out to greener pastures?

Yeah....greener I’d say. Especially because we’re in ABQ. It’s pretty fuckin...It’s just bright. Blue (Heady) is here and he’s pro.

C: Oh there you go. Got one with ya.

D: What’s up with all these dudes going pro and then not going on PC trips?

Duudeee it’s the fuckin’ summer man.

D: They’re all pussies.

I mean Shawn (Hale) might show up. Oh, Ronnie (Kessner) is here, he’s on the fucking, April I don’t know if he’s pro or not.

C: They just turned Yuto pro to go along with that release.

Oh okay, I never asked Ronnie.

C: Seems like you guys have a pretty tight knit group with you. Everyone seems to get along.

Yeah the main rule of being a part of the squad is just getting along with everybody. The skating is pretty much implied for everyone on Earth nowadays.

C: What’s up with that new kid Ryan Clumechy? How’d you guys find him?

I don’t really remember.... He grew up skating with Braun. Braun and he were huck buddies when they were younger. And then Nicky grew up skating with him as well. I don’t know....Ryan, when I first met him, was one of the most annoying dudes I ever met. But then, he just kept saying the same shit over and over and it just got funny as fuck. He’s so god damn funny.

D: Didn’t JJ say he hated him for the first few months meeting him?

Yeah that’s a common theme. He’s really, really intense. It’s like certain songs you don’t like the first time but after four or five listens you’re like “This shit fuckin’ slaps”. That’s this dude.

D: He’s like Trap music.

Yeah, that’s him. He’s just the funniest guy ever. It’s amazing.

C: Is that usually how you get new people on the team? Via word of mouth or friends of friends? Or is your instagram inbox just loaded with DM’s and links to kid’s sponsor me tapes?

We get a bit of that but not usually from people who you’d want to hook up.

C: That probably ends up a bit better anyways. Already having someone put in a good word for them.

Yeah it feels a lot better too. Chase McIntyre, I met him because we went to college together. I didn’t know he skated until about two months after we met because we’d just get hammered together. I saw him do a fire three flip on flat and that was it.

C: Is anyone on the team difficult to deal with?

Skutnik

C: Skutnik’s a diva?

He always has to sit shotgun and listen to the songs he wants. He’s probably listening in on this right now I just saw him walk by the room. He did his first time rapping last night. He did good.

D: First time on the mic?

First time on the mic. Nobody’s really hard to deal with though. I mean, I might be hard to deal with I think maybe.

C: Anyone blowing it this trip?

Nobody’s blowing it at all...and...I haven’t done blow in a month, so I’m pretty hyped on that.

C: That’s probably good right?

It is good and I haven’t blown it on this trip because of that. A lot more effectiveness as a human.

C: Have you guys been partying much on this trip?

We went to a bar once. We haven’t really gone out. It’s fuckin expensive here, to get to the bars. Well just uber. I got this airbnb thirty minutes outside of downtown. So I got us ubers one night and it was fuckin eighty bucks.

D: You guys should just take a bus to the bar. Plan it out two hours ahead of time.

Yeah, for real.

D: Has it been sketchy at all out there? Noah from Filter was telling me you’re not supposed to go down alleyways at night.

Yeah we were skating in an alley and some dude came out with a hammer and jumped on a shopping cart and was pretending to skate on it. He asked us if we wanted to smoke some ice with him. We didn’t. But it wasn’t too sketchy it was just a tweaker. I guess if you’re alone that’s sketchy in most places but we have a caravan of four cars so it’s pretty chill. We keep an axe in the van.

C: You chop down any trees yet?

Not yet. Just choppin down the haters. It hasn’t been that sketchy though. We’re always kickin it in these remote locations in these ditches so it’s been pretty chill.

C: Have you guys spotted the Exeter on this trip?

Nah I think he’s in fuckin Alaska or some shit. Exeter comes and goes. There hasn’t been too much hijinx on this trip, we’re just skating and trying to be motivated this trip.

D: We were wondering if going to New Mexico was intentional considering everyone goes on “Summer Trip to New York” trips etc.

I came here because...it’s the best to skate here dude. I don’t really give a fuck to be following the trend.

C: And going to the same spot everyone skated in the edit that just came out, trying to one up them.

Yeah, Exactly. And I just drove to Michigan and back on my own. We drove to Houston which is 24 hours. We drove to Minneapolis which is like 40 hours. New Mexico is only 7 ½ hours. The weather is pretty mellow here, it’s 78 and overcast. New York is probably humid as dog shit and smells like urine. People out there don’t really fuck with us anyways.

C: Is it tough finding spots for Aaron to do those oddball tricks like boardslide cannonball hop back into boardslide or does he just come up with that on the fly?

Well we found this bunch of sticks out here and he put a couple wooden pallets up to this bump to bar and boardslid up it and feebled up it just the other day. He just kinda looks at shit, and then looks at other shit, then he puts it all together and next thing you know he’s doing something. He can find anything anywhere. He doesn’t necessarily need a real spot to get a clip. It’s more of a Frankenspot.

D: How much longer you guys have?

We’ve got until next monday.

D: Plenty of time to get some sketchiness in.

Hopefully not, I hate that shit man. I hate sketchy stuff.

C: You guys take part in any of New Mexico’s local delicacies?

Fuck yeah! The green chile is to die for. Just tastes yummy. It’s delicious. This place Frontier’s is a must. Dion’s is a must. I stole a tray from Dion’s to take home and roll weed on.

C: You have a frito pie?

No but I’ve been hearing about ‘em. You guys googlin Albuquerque or what? You been here?

C: Just googlin

I’ll try one today for you guys.

C: You ride in a hot air balloon yet?

No bro!

D: You’re blowin it!

That shit is scary.

D: You should get Aaron to get in one of the balloons and drop in on something.

That would be tight, some Bob Burnquist-esque shit. We might go in the Rio Grande. It looks like shit water though, just pure brown. No tubes or nothin either.

C: You guys going to visit Roswell since you’re in New Mexico?

I’ve done that before...Not that tight. Everything is just alien themed but not in a very tight way. Alien Burger, Alien gas.

C: They just put Alien in front of whatever they’re selling?

Yeah. Except there’s nothing alien about the stuff.

C: Who in the group would be most likely to get abducted by aliens?

Fuck probably Eric Clark. We leave him at spots all the time. I actually left Arizona on a trip without him once. We left him in three different places in Sacramento. He takes so long to eat. He’s just kinda quiet and when everyone goes out to smoke in the parking lot...and we were in LA too and we left him at a house party somewhere in Hollywood.

D: How many times in total have you left him somewhere?

Probably 7 or 8.

C: Tha’s alot! Are you subtly telling him he’s kicked off the team?

No he’s one of my favorites! He’s just quiet man. I’ve got to play shot caller on myself and make sure I remember him.

C: I heard there’s a full length in the works, what’s the timeline for that looking like?

New Years.

C: Are there any other trips you guys have planned for the near future? Any dream trips you want to go on?

I wanna go to Korea. I wanna go to Montreal. But I don’t know, we’ll probably end up in fuckin’ Vegas or somethin’. It’s fuckin hard to plan this shit.

D: Montreal would be super sick. Tell me more about the buddy pass shit you guys pull off for flights.

I’m actually trying to write an article and make a video all about that shit because there’s like four dudes that ride for the team that work for the airport. One of my buddies is a flight attendant. So each dude can put one person on as their guest and fly free, and each person has sixteen buddy passes which are mega discounted. I could fly to Barcelona and back for probably $300. But you fly standby so you could just get fucked over.

D: Alright we’re leave you with one last question. Fuck. Marry. Kill. DJ Thraxx (Aaron Goure), John Pierce, Tyler Franz

Dude...I mean...I can’t do it.

D: You have to dude.

I wouldn’t kill...well Doctor Thraxx kills it. Johnathan Pierce fucks shit up, and Tyler Franz is the merriest dude I’ve ever met.

D: Alright dude, well you guys have one more week, you’re only halfway through the trip…

Yup, fuck I need time off bro.

D: Are you gonna take a personal day?

No. Keep firin it up.

D: Alright dude well thanks for doing this.

Hopefully this comes out okay, I feel like I’m suckin at this.

D: It’s gonna go on a blog that nobody reads anyways.

Oh perfect. I’ll put in on my instagram story without a hyperlink.

C: Perfect. No link in bio.