I’m sure you’ve heard skaters bragging about how they know how to fall, but you know who does it even better than us?

To see Tasteful in full, head to Abi’s Youtube channel.

It seems like everyone in Brooklyn knows you somehow, is it because you’re at Blue Park every day?
Bruh I’m offended by that. The amount of people that call me a fucking “Blue Park Skater” is so annoying. I get that all the time. I didn’t think people knew me like that.

Blue’s vibes have been so trash recently I haven’t even had a good sesh there since the summer. I could just pull up there without hitting anyone up and see at least three homies. But now just a bunch of aggro dudes on demo mode wanna skate there and yell and throw their boards and shit. Please do not turn Blue into LES.

“Please do not turn Blue into LES”

What is one thing about filming in New York that people who don’t film in New York might not know about?
The ground, the traffic, the pedestrians, the weather, the spots, the security – there are so many factors that go into getting street clips and you need to have so much patience sometimes because it gets real hectic.

That just reminded me I forgot to add this clip into the video where someone throws water out the window at us while I was filming Carlos trying to noseblunt a two-step ledge. They didn’t even hit me or Carlos, just ended up getting the homie Lorenzo’s pants wet. Poor dude was just sitting eating some fries.

But yeah that spot is a good example. There’s too much foot traffic to skate down the sidewalk, and it’s a busy street so you have to wait for the traffic light to ollie up the sidewalk, and the angle of the ledge is weird so it’s easier to come in from the street. Then cars are parking in and out right in front. I think he got like 20 good tries in an hour.

Who are some skate filmmakers that inspire you?
Colin Read was my biggest inspiration for so long, he’s a wizard with the VX. Shane [Auckland] from sk8rats is a sick dude too. Obviously, Shari White since she was the first other non-male skate filmer I met and she’s insanely good too. I think she has the best HD setup in the game.

Cooper Winterson is actually my OG favorite New York filmer. I’ve been watching his videos since like 2013. He made me want to get orange wheels.

“The big corporate team videos are cool, but how often are you actually skating with someone you genuinely enjoy being around?”

Do you think homie full-length videos still have a place in skateboarding?
Yes absolutely. It’s like the coolest thing you can be a part of as a skateboarder. It can be so rewarding. Some of the best times in my whole life have been out in the streets with my friends working towards something big. The big corporate team videos are cool, but how often are you actually skating with someone you genuinely enjoy being around when you’re on a trip? That’s when it starts to feel more like a job and not a hobby.

Don’t get me wrong, filming for companies has been sick in my experience, but when you skate with people that you have watched progress and grow as a person and you get to see their process of landing a trick, it’s truly a beautiful thing. I’m like damn, I know they can land this shit and I can’t wait until they do so I can give them a big hug. It takes a lot of patience [laughs].

You also work at KCDC Skateshop and DJ, right? What’s it like working at a shop while trying to film for a full length and maintain DJ gigs?
Yeah, it was chill since I only work part-time. Towards the end, I was trying to get as many days off as possible because we were out filming every single day. But it was super chill when I needed to switch shifts with someone or get off because I didn’t need to make up some crazy excuse for why I couldn’t come into work. I just tell my boss I need to go get these clips! They understand.

Also, I didn’t even have the idea in mind to make a full length, that’s just how much footy I ended up stacking within the past year and a half. I just knew i wanted to make a video.

Do you think that Fidel being a stuntman is part of the reason he’s so good at skating?
Yo definitely. He knows how to fall and get himself out of dangerous situations. He’s also just built for eating shit I guess. He gets paid to sack on rails on purpose.

“He gets paid to sack on rails on purpose.”

I heard that almost every time you went out filming with Fidel you were eating jerk chicken. What’s with your obsession with jerk chicken?
[laughs] Well I’m Guyanese so Caribbean food is sacred to me. I think one day Fidel and I were out filming and he was in the mood for jerk chicken so that’s what we got, because I’m always down for that shit.

I think almost every time since then we just kept getting it because it’s the best food to eat after a good sesh. It became like a ritual for us. But if we don’t get clips we just starve ourselves and drive home in silence.

I heard a story about a dude who had a Fortnite set up in front of a gap Fidel 360 flipped… What happened with that?
Yo, that was weird. It was at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music). Fidel wanted to treflip the gap over the ramp by the Whole Foods but the kid had this wild outdoor video game setup right where Fidel was gonna go between the trees. I think he was still gonna go for it but it was such a tight run up he probably woulda hit him on his way up. So that’s why he just had to settle for the side closer to the ledge.

You’re in the background of this video where someone tries to suck on a wheel. Was that your wheel?
[laughs] That was not my wheel, first of all. Second of all, he did that on his own free will. The video that was recorded was actually the second time he did it because someone told him to do it again so they could record. He didn’t even hesitate, he’s insane. I would have bribed him to not do that.

Video by: Abi Teixiera
Q&A by: Larry Lanza
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