sorry, i should've had this up sooner.
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Austyn Gillette
What was the highlight of making the new Habitat video?
This video we filmed with Marius and that was pretty cool because I was with him a lot. I traveled a lot with this video. I spent a lot of time in Europe, that was one of the main highlights. Filming is pretty hard sometimes so maybe just going to cool places was the highlight.
Get in any trouble in Europe?
Yes, yes, yes we did. We got kicked out of the apartment in Germany thanks to me. That was my fault. We were just making dinners for girls and it got loud and cops came. I can?t really say much more.
You were evicted for making a loud dinner?
Evicted! Exactly. That?s my story.
What?s your best Tim O?Conner story?
You love that guy, huh? I don?t know; he?s pretty normal lately. I don?t have any good ones. He?s on a leash now.
It?s the wife?s doing, huh?
I?m not going to say. I don?t know what he?s doing.
On the other end of the spectrum, What?s your best Fred Gall story?
Wow. We went to Macao and it?s basically like the Las Vegas of China. It?s an island that?s Fred Gall-Land. Anything bad you could get into, he got into. He kept us up for hours and we had a Fred-Over. We were up the entire trip. That was pretty cool. We?ve had wild times every trip.
Who has the best part?
Haven?t seen it. I?ve just been getting texts and emails from people that saw it. I?m kind of scared.
Being on Habitat, did you learn to play the guitar in 7 days?
It didn?t take that long. We had a four-day trial run. If you can strum a song you?re on.
And that kept you on the team?
No. Lasting trips with Fred and getting in physical fights with Brenan is what did it. It?s weird. I got tortured and I know Silas got harshed a good amount getting on the team from Renaud but the recent additions to the team didn?t have to do anything. Marius got on in one night. Daryl got on basically because Stefan and I don?t want to talk about that situation. No one is getting harshed to get on anymore. It?s easy nowadays.
At any point during filming, did you get so frustrated watching Silas skate that you wanted to pull a Tanya Harding?
I don?t skate with Silas. I don?t get along with him too well. He?s bitter and I?m not bitter and we don?t get along together. We really don?t work well together and we?ve both accepted it. I?ve seen him skate in person and it?s really annoying because he can do anything and he doesn?t look like that kind of person. He doesn?t look like someone who is even capable of pushing. He does the most incredible tricks I?ve ever seen in my life. He?s probably one of the best out there. He?s rad to watch in person.
Kerry Getz
How was making this video different than making previous Habitat videos?
It was way different for me because it wasn?t my main focus. It wasn?t announced that we needed full parts in the video; it was more like they needed 10-15 tricks from us because they were basing the whole video around the new guys that came on the team in the past 3 or 4 years. And we wanted to do like a documentary of Habitat over the past ten years. That was my take on it and then when it came out I was bummed that I didn?t have the time to put more effort in. I thought it was more for the ams and I got this other thing I?m working on real hard.
Can you talk about the other thing you?re working on?
I can?t. I?d like to but I don?t want to get it out there because I?m running into trademark issues already. I?m working on big stuff to launch this thing in the next year.
But next year we can expect to see a whole lot more Kerry Getz footage?
Yes, exactly.
What was the highlight of making this video?
The highlight was Guru. He?s such a rad dude and his footage was blowing my mind.
Who has the best part?
Absolutely Guru has the best part. Guru and Silas are right there; it?s about a tie.
I didn?t know Austin and Silas are far from being BFFs.
There?s a lot going on over there. I don?t know; that?s some West Coast stuff, man. I?m so far out of all that stuff like who is fighting with who, who hates who, who is talking about who. I just stay on my side of the campfire and shut up. I just recently heard that Austyn and Daryl don?t like each other and I never knew that. Now you?re telling me Austyn and Silas don?t like each other. Someone has issues over there; just keep me out of it. It?s high school games.
Last we spoke you were thinking about making the contest comeback but I haven?t seen you in any of these contest. What happened?
I tried, man. I gave it a shot. I entered Copenhagen and I did ok. All the traveling and the doing bad in them I was like, ?Why am I doing this?? I felt like I couldn?t keep up with any of those, especially guys with training facilities. I lost my training facility when Kalis and all those dudes moved out of Philly. I had nowhere to go to in the winter. And I like jam formats but after that 10-minute session I?m done. I can?t last the whole weekend. I realized why I stopped doing them. You realize when you shouldn?t be entering them anymore, when you?re getting shut out every time and not doing well. I felt like there was no reason for me to be there.
My last question is, how come Kyle Nicolson didn?t get on Habit and he ended up on Shellfish Skateboards?
I don?t know, man. Skateboarding is a critical thing and Habitat is a tough company to get on and they pick and choose. I don?t even want to talk about that?it sucks.
But we can agree that Kyle rips, right?
I agree that he should be on Habitat. He is one of the best East Coast skateboarders right now and in the entire world. He rips and he just turned 21 and he can outskate almost anybody I?ve ever seen. The kid is unbelievable. He can skate everything and kill it. I really wish that Habitat would have done something with him and gave him a chance to get out there.
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done. full and unedited. thanks for keeping it real Chris.
k