I make skateboards and skateboard related art. I've been making skateboards since I was a kid in the early 80's or before I meet Skip Engblom at age 13. My first label was Baron Skateboards, the idea of Von Dutch aka Kenny Howard. He got me hooked on building airplane model kits and using my hands after a childhood accident. Kenny told me never to accept convention, always question the questions and never accept the answers.

A chance meeting with Skip Enblom at age 13 changed my life once again. Skip suggested I change the name, that Baron was cool but it didn't represent me now in my mid teens. I did as he suggested and one night while underage drinking I and John Rippy thought it would be funny to use XXX. Skip loved the new name, it's direction. It was punk rock, aviation infused surrealism and a heavy dose of corporate mockery. XXX would become more in-your-face and represent my love of art and represent my roots in graffiti, urban rebellion and drawing outside the lines. It was also a way for 3 poor kids from Hollywood to make their own boards because we couldn't afford store bought decks.

In 28+ years XXX has made waves but you'd not know it since I and my mates involved resisted interviews. We don't run ads because we just believe in skateboarding not ego. It's underground, it's real and it's not a pretend label that claims to be "street" or live off of bought 'cred". I don't stand on medicority yet I got to show my love for skateboarding and so here I will try to share what is XXX.

I started with a jigsaw, a wood rasp and a can of Krylon at age 11. I turned my friends on at age 13 to the idea we can do it ourselves. We didn't accept others flat decks. We pressed our own. We wanted 4.5" and deeper concave and the big corps wern't giving us wheat we wanted. So we did it ourselves. Making skteboards is a form of expression just as skateing one is. Skateboarding is thumb your nose at the world. It will always be. It's indavidualism, you don't need a team in fact you don't need a pro's name to sell decks but you need a quality deck. That is what I stand for and was impressed upon by my mentors. You make quality, craft, insperation and offer it to those that want a choice.

I took risks because skateboarding is about risks. In 1985 I took a bus to New York city to meet Keith Haring who I thought was pretty rad. Like my mentors before me I had to meet the man that was reshaping art and redefined what we think. Keith looked at my modest xeroxed folded from my back pocket portfolio and said my bold heavy lines needed bold heavy color. My art reflects that advice. Keith dug my lines introduced me to other artist and at age 16 my life changed to not accept what I thought art was or could be. In my stay I'd meet a slew of graph writers namely King, Devious, H and kick it with Jean Michel Basquiat and skateboarded all over New York getting into trouble. I'd jam with other artist, lift cans of Rusto and steal markers to draw on everything during my stay. it was never about "getting up" and being big it was like Keith told me; "You just do it because you have to."

To this day I will draw on everything from walls to table linens and subway cars. Like Skip, like Kenny Howard before it was Keith Haring that said go sideways, go the direction less traveled. Be an upstart, be loud mouthed and don't give a f&@k about what people say or think. Kenny Howard taught me that the "art" should stand on it's craft and Skip taught me to never accept the word "no" and Keith said make it bold, make it big and offer no explanation or apology. My biggest critic in my teen years was Aaron Seth Anderson, aka SK8ONE that changed the graffiti and is the godfather of street culture. He kept me on target and backed my plays in the distopic rotten world of Hollywood. I will always just be a poor kid that grew up rich with support and have something few ever had though most days I didn't eat, I would have freedom to be who I wanted as well make what I want.

Tp this day XXX makes what it wants. There is no design committee, no corporate culture that says this graphic, style will sell to this demographic or will exploit this niche. XXX survives by following it's heart. If you dig it, I will keep making it. If you don't dig it, will still make it just the same but it helps if you buy it. From there we just went forward....

XXX Ltd., and XXX Skateboards is about skateboarding, ripping it up, having fun and zero pretense.