Willy was the first pro i ever met and he made such an impression on me...
My friends skated and I had just started getting into it, and I think one of his cousins or something was in the military and lived on the airbase that I grew up on (Kadena Air base, in Okinawa, Japan)...
being on an airbase before all the internet stuff and everything I had seen some mags and the only vid i'd ever seen was trilogy, but then when Willy came to visit he put on a little skate clinic, demo thing at the youth center and so many kids showed up.. it was crazy. All the other kids were just there for product I think but I got a couple minutes to talk to him and he was so down to earth and so cool... I was too scared to skate infront of him as I'd never seen anyone skate so damn good. I remember he was doing like kicky late shuvs on flat just messing around and I just couldn't comprehend that shit... and i remember he was trying some manual tricks and I was blown away but these little shits around me were complaining that he wasn't landing every trick every time...
Then he brought so much product for a proddy toss and the kids went nuts.. they just wanted everything he was wearing too from his shirts to his shoes.. willy gave everything he had and ended up leaving in only his pants and socks!
Earlier when we'd talked it was so cool and later on when the youth center wouldn't let him skate without a helmet, I gave him mine to skate. Later on during the product toss he was handing out his shoes, and I remember he saw me and he came straight into the crowd and handed me a shoe (which he signed).. still got the shoe (pro model on vans.. and such a sick shoe WTF VANS willy should be on vans for life) and still got a photo that i have of him with me...
He was seriously swamped with kids non stop just grabbing him and asking for more proddy.. dude was so calm and so nice to everyone and just such a fucking amazing skateboarder. I remember that as a distinct moment when I knew I wanted to do something with my life with skateboarding as I just fell inlove with it all so much more. Willy was and still is one of my all time favs... and I stuck with skating and even though I absolutely suck at it I still work in the industry in Australia, running a few skate shops, and being TM for Stussy skate and perhaps Adidas in the very near future... and I'd like to think Willy had a lot to do with that