On Hawk vs. Wolf Episode 100, Andrew Reynolds (a.k.a. The Boss) discusses his experiences managing a team, approaches to staying in shape, skaters that influenced him, and how he thinks about his career with Tony Hawk and Jason Ellis. Andrew’s experiences are rich with insights about choosing role models, risk management, discipline, and what it takes to keep skating well over a long period of time. Check out the full episode for more.
Fitness
“At 28, I was still had a lot of stuff I wanted to do, filming. And I was kind of achy. Like nothing was really hurt, it wasn’t an injury. ‘This aches.’ I went to this guy Dr. Eddy, that [Paul Rodriguez] goes to…. I told him my goals. ‘This is what I wanna do. I wanna skate big stuff for as long as I possibly can and feel good.’ I didn’t really know what to expect. I didn’t know if it was just gonna be the electricity stuff and massage stuff. And he was like, ‘Well,, we gotta work out.’ And I just started working out. And then, I’ve been doing it ever since, all different ways. It’s changed, but it’s always stayed in my life from that point on. Now I just do Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I work out.”
“I have Eddy. If I’m feeling really wrecked, I’ll go say, ‘What do I do?’ But I kind of–it’s like tricks; you learn tricks. I probably know like 25 workouts. Different things you can do with a band or a ball or weights with squats. And I ride an exercise bike. At home, I just got a sauna and cold plunge…. Sauna 20 minutes. Plunge 3 minutes. Sauna.”
– Andrew Reynolds
Role Models
“I was looking at Willy for one, and ocean, all their tricks were better than where I cam from…. I would always see [Willy] laughing at the same kind of humor…even as a young kid I saw that. It took me years later, up to now in my late 30’s and 40’s. He never said [how you are supposed to do it]. He sets an example by doing it. You don’t say it–you do it. Learn from watching. It sunk in. Examples like–I just lost a really amazing rider. It brought me back–I was thinking about me, and Tony was really cool, he supported it. Then a young guy left our team, and it was Tony. And Tony had that example from Stacy.”
– Andrew Reynolds
Andrew got started in the early days of street skating, watching guys like Mark Gonzalez and Natas Kaupas.
Discipline and Attitude
“We’re all still doing it…. There is no guarantee of financial success or accolades, but we’re all still doing it.”
– Tony Hawk
“What’s helped me…a lot of people I see, they can’t get over that they might not be as good as they once were…. Okay, what’s challenging today? Obviously it’s not going to be the same as what’s challenging at 24. And I’, completely cool. If today challenging is to relearn backtails on a quarter pipe, cool, I won and I had fun. Plus, I love making video parts…. That’s all I do. You’re gonna have some good ones, some weird ones, and hopefully some great ones in your career.”
– Andrew Reynolds
“That’s helpful when you have a directive. When you have one thing you’re focused on. These little challenges…. Yesterday I didn’t want to skate…but I told myself I’m going to the park. I’m gonna do the trick that I want to do on the weekend 20 times. I went there, I went in the park, stretched a little…I’m just procrastinating. Finally I did the 20 and I went home. Just the check that you went there and you did the 20–that built some kind of strength mentally.”
– Andrew Reynolds
Tony Hawk has a similar practice. Both of them, two great and iconic legends of skateboarding, still need a goalpost–something to focus on and make the most of the day.
Risk
“It’s a hard question because I really believe everything I’ve done has clearly been within a safe area for myself. I don’t skate like that…. There have been times where I’ve looked at stair sets and gaps and I’ve backed out…something about [the Davis gap] seemed safer…at first I threw a kickflip over it and knew I’m gonna put my front foot on the ground and I’m gonna kind of run down, cause it’s a dirt hill. If it would have been stairs I wouldn’t have been able to do that. So I kinda knew that and was like, ‘okay, that wasn’t so bad.’ Then I picked up the speed a little bit and then once I catching them, you could see, okay. At that point in time when I had really fine tuned doing a flip trick off a really big drop. You learn like anything you get really good at. I would be able to be half way down, flailing and bailing, and do a reset in my head of like, ‘now I’m gonna start preparing for the’–it was so long–‘now I’m gonna start preparing for the impact…and then try to really soak it up as light as possible.”
– Andrew Reynolds
“That’s not something you can teach though. That’s something from experience.”
– Tony Hawk
Source: Emerica’s Stay Gold (2010)
the Practical Skateboarder 
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