Leach: You started skating when you were really young.
Denman: Yeah. My older brother skated with my cousins a lot. I’d tag along with them. They kind of phased out of it but I kept at it. I started skating when I was five years old.

Leach: What year was that—when you started skating?
Denman: About ’84 or ’85.

Leach: Do you remember your first setup?
Denman: It was like a Costco Hosoi knockoff. But my first real board was a Caballero.

Leach: Huntington Beach High School was a real hotspot in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Did you get to skate there a lot?
Denman: Definitely. On the weekends my parents would take me and my friends to Huntington High and Mesa View. They’d drop us off and hangout in the area and then pick us up later. Getting to watch Ed Templeton haul ass and do massive noseblunts at Huntington High was pretty rad. I was there the day Guy Mariano did a manual to boardslide down the kinked rail at Huntington High.

Leach: That’s right! Video Days was actually the first video you were in. You strategically placed yourself in the background.
Denman: For sure. I’m the little kid skating away from him. Right when Mariano hits the rail, I turn around and you can see my red hair. I was totally trying to get background props with that one. When Video Days came out, I was pretty stoked.

Leach: Was Media Skateboards your first sponsor?
Denman: Media was my first sponsor. But I got on the team when it was still called Bike Skateboards. That was in 1995. In 1996, the company changed its name to Media.



Leach: It seemed like Tom Krauser was Media’s main guy.
Denman: The two guys who started Media—they were from Walnut. Tom was from Walnut too. Tom was the first guy on the team; they really did build the company around him. Tom is a nice guy and a great skateboarder.

Leach: Media was a company that never seemed to reach fruition. They hung around for a while, which is tough to do. You’d see print ads in Transworld, but Media never broke out.
Denman: Yeah. When Bike turned to Media, we had gotten some backing. Things were picking up. We were getting some ads. We were doing local CASL Contests (California Amateur Skateboard League); we went on a trip to Europe which was rad. I think Media never breaking out was attributable to a few things. The guys running it were just dudes who wanted to start a skate company. We didn’t necessarily have the greatest ideas or graphic designers. We were just trying to make something happen with what we had. Other than that, Media was great. There were a lot of cool people involved.

Leach: How long was your run with Media?
Denman: I ended up quitting in early ’99. So about four years

Leach: Media had a big lineup change around that time. They got Dave Duren and Jonas Wray on the team…
Denman: And Jake Stewart. I was still on Media then. But I started hanging out with different people. I started skating and filming with Heath Brinkley a lot. He was filming the Logic videos and we were working on my part—mostly filming in Los Angeles. The rest of the guys on Media were either in San Bernardino or spaced out. Heath and I were going to Dwindle Distribution—which was still World at the time. I was getting shoes from Axion which was why we were there. Media told me that they weren’t going to be able to pay me anymore. That was probably due to the new guys joining; they were pro and we weren’t. So basically my paycheck was strictly photo incentive. I asked Kareem Campbell if I could get some boards from him. He asked me why I wanted to quit Media. I told him that I didn’t really see much of a future for me there and that I’d like to ride for City Stars. He said, “Okay, I’ll give you boards.” I called Media and told them. They were cool with it.

Leach: Was City Stars going by All City at that time?
Denman: It was still All City. But City Stars was right around the corner.

Leach: Was Danny Garcia on the team when you joined?
Denman: Yeah. Danny was on the team. I was skating with him a lot. Danny helped me out; he introduced me to Joey Suriel. My first City Stars trip was to Tampa with Danny and Caine Gayle. Danny quit right after that trip. I was bumped up from flow to the AM team around that time.

Leach: City Stars was such an interesting company. It changed its name three times: Menace turned into All City; All City became City Stars. The lineup also shifted—in terms of demographics. The original team was a bunch of gnarly dudes from Los Angeles. Then it turned into a bunch of young kids from the Valley and Ventura County. You seemed to come in right at the transition period. Did you get to skate with the older dudes—like Fabian Alomar and Eric Pupecki?
Denman: A little bit. I hung out with Fabian once. He was still on the team when I joined. I did get to skate with Pupecki quite a few times. He’s awesome. I looked up to those dudes. 101 or Menace—those were the two teams I wanted to be on when I was a kid. Just being on City Stars was cool. Let me think of who else was on the team…

Leach: Billy Valdes would have been on.
Denman: Actually, Billy wasn’t on City Stars when I joined. I don’t know what happened with him. I never did get to meet Billy. Lee Smith and Javier Nunez were on the team. Obviously, Danny Garcia and Joey Suriel were too. I would skate with Joey everyday. We’d skate with Heath at USC and Venice. I was finishing my Logic part when all of this was going down. Heath was also filming Mike Taylor and Paul Rodriguez a lot. It got to the point where Caine, Joey, Heath and I would skate with Mike and Paul on a regular basis. Heath was really the only guy we were filming with then. It’s weird how that whole thing went down. The Logic videos really had a lot to do with Mike and Paul getting on City Stars. We were all connected through those videos.

Leach: Do you know why the Menace video never came out? Presumably it was supposed to drop sometime in ’96 or ’97. Trilogy has that now infamous phrase in it: “Menace Video Coming Soon.” When Street Cinema came out, it was like City Stars had forgotten that they were supposed to release a video before it, one with a radically different team from a generation earlier.
Denman: I actually do have an answer for that question. I’ve seen the footage that would’ve been used for the Menace video. It’s so rad. Regardless of what people think—the Menace team had footage. Those dudes (Fabian Alomar, Eric Pupecki, etc.) were skating and they were filming.

Leach: That’s the story: everyone thinks those dudes were just lazy. That’s why the video never came out.
Denman: And they weren’t lazy at all. But then Mouse came out. Kareem told me that he felt the Menace video wouldn’t have been up to par with Mouse. But then again, it was Mouse.

Leach: No video by anyone would have been up to par with Mouse at that time.
Denman: Exactly. Mariano’s part, Koston’s part—enough said. So the Menace video was shelved. And I think that bummed the guys out on the team quite a bit. It probably didn’t help their motivation afterwards. The Menace team had put a lot of work into that video and it was never released.

Leach: It’s a shame the Menace video never came out. I think a lot of younger skaters don’t realize how good those dudes were—especially Pupecki. He had great style. Pupecki was hardflipping and frontside flipping decent-sized gaps really early on—like ’93. And then he had that great Transworld photo of him frontside K-grinding the Venice hubba. He might not have pulled it, but, damn, he was locked in there.
Denman: I remember that photo. His truck was just mashed into that ledge. Getting to skate with Eric was incredible. He was on point. If you caught the “Roomies” section on 411, that captured Eric. He could do whatever he wanted on a skateboard. He was rad.

Leach: It seemed like you were kind of in no man’s land when you joined City Stars. You had joined at an awkward time. You were also older than the new guys like Mike Taylor and Justin Case, yet a lot younger than the original Menace guys.
Denman: It was kind of weird. There were a lot of guys in my age group who were really great skateboarders. But it seemed like all of the companies out there already had their dudes. They weren’t necessarily looking for anyone new. They already had their Daewon or Kareem. It was really tough to get a legit sponsor. By the time I got on City Stars, I had been around for a while. It wasn’t too long after I joined City Stars that companies started looking for kids who were willing to jump down anything. There was a grey area there where excellent skateboarders from my era maybe never got their shot. Or we just never saw what those dudes were fully capable of doing on a skateboard.

Leach: You had a Vancouver trip that was filmed for Logic. What was it like touring with City Stars? I know you were buddies with Caine Gayle.
Denman: I met Caine for the first time when I went to Tampa with him and Danny Garcia. I was the dude on flow, so I was kind of quiet. Caine and I both liked Hondas. So we had something in common there. Shortly after that trip to Tampa, it got to the point where Caine and I would skate together every weekend. I would either drive down to San Diego—to skate Dyrdek’s TF—or he’d come up to Los Angeles. Caine and I got along really well. Caine was a real motivator too. He’d get you to try your trick until you landed it. He was rad to be around. Caine showed me how to have fun on tour while still getting stuff done.



Leach: Your Street Cinema part came out and it was sick. But then we didn’t get to see much footage of you after that. You’ve mentioned your right knee being blown out. Can you talk about that?
Denman: First, thanks for the compliment. We were filming for Street Cinema. We had about four months to go before the deadline hit. I already had a lot of footage. But I was watching Mike and Paul skate and they were just so gnarly. When I was a kid, you tried a trick and if it took you all day, that’s fine. You were stoked you did it. Mike and Paul were just so consistent. They did great shit regularly. So I tried to step it up. I’d go to drops. I’d ollie a gap; 180 ollie it; and then kickflip it. It was like a training program. I was skating the Fullerton Skatepark one night. There’s this quarter pipe there that you can skate as a gap from the top; it’s about a five stair in length and height. It was about midnight. I went to nollie halfcab it. I felt like I was going to turn 270 so I kicked out at the last moment. Basically, I straight-legged the landing. And my knee shifted. It popped out of place and then popped back in. I fell and just sat there. I felt like I might have broken my leg. So I got up. I remember thinking, “We’ll clearly my leg is not broken if I can stand.” My knee, though, started getting really hot. I had to drive myself home with the opposite foot on the gas pedal and brake. So my Street Cinema part—it isn’t really a full part. I was training to get some last minute stuff and that’s how I hurt myself. The video comes out in September 2001. I go to this doctor. He gives me an MRI and says, “You’re fine. Just take a few weeks off and ice it.” I go to the gym, ride the exercise bike; I’m trying to get my knee back to full strength. There was a contest at Huntington Beach a few months later. My knee was feeling good so I decided to skate this contest. I went to do a nosegrind on a box and I stepped off. My knee buckled again. I was so fucking bummed. I went to another doctor. He did the same things the other doctor did and told me roughly the same stuff. He also informed me that my ACL wasn’t blown. I did more physical therapy. About a year after the initial injury at the Fullerton skatepark, I’m skating the double set in Reno. Caine is calling me out for not skating stairs in a while. So I go to ollie it. And I did that. It felt great because I hadn’t skated stairs in so long. I kicked out a couple of times and my knee felt fine too. I tried to inward heelflip the set next. I put it down first try. I was so hyped. I knew I was going to get it. But a couple of tries later I straight-legged the landing again and the same thing happened with my knee. There’s actually footage of this on Youtube. Mike Rafter filmed it. At that point I knew I was hearing bullshit from these doctors. Here it is a year later and my knee is still fucked. Joey Suriel had his shoulder done by a sports doctor in LA. He told me to visit him. I ended up going to this doctor’s partner who does knees—which ended up being better. I brought in the same MRI that the other two doctors had looked at and the nurse of this third doctor looked at it and said, “Oh, your ACL is torn. You’re going to need surgery. The doctor will be here in a minute.” This nurse knew more than the other two doctors. So I wasted a whole year. In a way, before I even started my career it was over. I had built some momentum with the Logic video and then my Street Cinema part. But I was never able to continue.

Leach: Exactly. It didn’t make sense. You were clearly building up to something and then you were out. Street Cinema was also such a heavy video. It’s not until you hear about your injury that the story comes together.
Denman: Yeah. So my knee is better now. But having blown it out four times, mentally it’s incredibly jarring. To go from hearing that my knee is okay to having it blown out again—that takes a toll on your confidence. I know my knee is legitimately good now. But I still don’t want to jump down shit. I don’t want to go through that scenario again. I actually went through surgery again for a chip I had in my knee and the doctor said my ACL was still in good shape. It’s been good since 2002. But again, it was a horrible experience. Just walking after that was scary at first. If you want to call it a career ender, that’s pretty much what that was.

Leach: Were you with City Stars till the end?
Denman: Yeah. Paul quit. We were going to make Mike our lead guy. Mike was stoked. But he hit a point where he thought that wasn’t where he wanted to be.

Leach: He told me that he felt a little insecure with that position.
Denman: Right. So Mike moved on. The guy who Kareem hired to run the day-to-day of City Stars put the company on hold after Mike left. He dropped the company from Kareem’s distribution. It made no sense—after all it was Kareem’s company run through his distribution network (Mastermind)—but whatever. So he made the decision to put City Stars on hold. He saw the young guys bailing and that prompted his decision. So the rest of us were left wondering what was going to happen next. Kareem said to give him two months to figure this out. Two months came and went. We were all still skating together; nothing had changed. I don’t know how true this is but I heard that Kareem had the intention of keeping some of the team together and adding some new kids to the roster. I don’t know if I was going to be apart of this new team. But anyway, Caine and Devine Calloway had quit in the meantime. I called Joey Suriel and quit. But I really quit a company that wasn’t in business. I mean, City Stars is back now, but it’s different from the City Stars we were on.

Leach: Yeah. You then went onto Monkey Skateboards. The only reason I remember that company was because of Enrique Lorenzo.
Denman: Right. I was trying to get back on my board and skate at 100 percent. I got a call from my friend Eric Lantto in Reno who was working at a skateshop out there. He told me the Monkey rep was looking for dudes to put on the team; some of their guys had left the company. I think that’s right when Enrique left. So he told me to give Monkey a video. They just happened to be a mile away from my house. So I did. I talked with them. They seemed cool. Caine was looking for a sponsor too; we both joined the team. Heath was filming us and he got some work through them. We put a few local dudes on there too—Jameson DeCew and Tony rode for Monkey. From day one, I had heard that Monkey was shady. That they had burned some riders in the past. I didn’t have much going on so I thought I’d give them a chance and the benefit of the doubt. It was cool for a while. I actually turned pro for them. I had some boards. And then paychecks became hard to get. I’d call the owner and he’d say, “Pickup a check tomorrow.” I’d call and he wouldn’t answer. So I had to work a side job to make ends meet. I was delivering TVs—ironic considering my knee was recovering at the time. We were supposed to go to Tampa to skate the 2005 contest and then do a little tour afterwards. I told the owner, “Cool. But you owe me some money and I can’t tour because I have rent to pay. The only way I can pay it is if I work at the TV store since you haven’t given me a check in a month and a half. If you can pay me the money you owe me tomorrow, then I’m there. If not, I have to stay and work.” He said, “Really? I haven’t paid you? Let me double check on that.” I told him, “Cool. Do that.” He called me back and kicked me off the team. I told him, “Okay. But you still owe me $1,500.00.” He again said he had to look into that. He ended up not paying me. He owed Caine and Jameson money. He ended up screwing all of us. That ended and he just disappeared. That was Monkey.

Leach: After Monkey, did you look at skating as something to do solely for fun?
Denman: Sort of. I was just trying to get my knee solid again. I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to skate anymore. I was just enjoying skating. I had so much pride riding for City Stars. After it fell apart, I didn’t really care anymore. I wasn’t skating as much as I should of. But I was always skating; I never stopped; I still skated with my local friends a lot. I started filming some more. I still wanted to be a part of skateboarding.

Leach: It seems like you still have a solid crew with Jameson, Heath and Pat Channita.
Denman: Yeah. I’ve known Pat since I was a kid. But I didn’t start skating with him until a couple of years ago.

Leach: It’s rad to see someone like Pat skate. He isn’t making a living off of skateboarding anymore, but that clearly hasn’t diminished his drive to get out there.
Denman: Yeah. He still jumps down shit. He still kills it. Pat and I are actually riding for a board company called Civilian. My buddy Jeff Dey started it. He was involved with Media and Bike back in the day. He called me up a year and a half ago. Jeff asked me to ride for this company he started. I told him, “Dude, you do not want me riding for your company. If anything, I don’t skate at the level you think I do and I don’t do it as much as you think I should. I would probably hurt your company.” He asked if I wanted boards, but that wasn’t an issue: I was getting boards through friends. A year later he hits me up. I had been skating a lot, getting stuff back, but I didn’t think I was up to pro standards. Jeff just asked, “Do you enjoy skating still?” I told him, “Of course.” He told me that was all he wanted from me. Jeff sort of talked me into it. I didn’t want to put myself out there to have people say I suck; that I’m done. But whatever. I try to help out with finding riders. I’m just skating and having fun. It’s no pressure.

Leach: You still break out. Let’s not forget that switch frontside noseslide you broke out recently on that Los Angeles bump to bar—the one Kenny Anderson 180 nosegrinded for the cover of Skateboarder. It was clean.
Denman: (laughs) Every once in a while I feel it. Mike (Taylor) had to push me for that one. It’s fun to skate with Mike again.

Leach: Justin Case has been sober and skating nearly everyday for the past two and a half months. How rad is it to be able to skate with him again?
Denman: Incredible. I’ve seen Justin around over the years. The last time I saw him was at Mike’s Etnies shoe release party over a year ago. He had just gotten out of prison; I think he went back in one more time afterwards. Every time I see Justin, I’m stoked. But inside I always hope he can pull it together. We got along pretty well for the small amount of time we hung out on City Stars. It was like Mariano—you wanted to see him comeback. And on a different level, that’s how it is with Justin. I saw you and Justin just a couple of weeks ago skating; Justin is getting it back. A month or two ago, he was kind of wobbly and winded—which you can’t blame him. But seeing him skate recently, he was solid—backside tailsliding the whole length of these long benches. So smooth. It’s rad and motivating to me. Justin and Mike are my good friends. Any of the City Stars dudes—whenever I see them, it’s like we’re right back to those good times. It makes me want to try harder.

Leach: Anyone you’d like to thank?
Denman: Just to start off, I’m so glad that I skateboard. It’s been such a major part of my life. I’d like to thank my mom and dad. They have always supported my skating. They’d even let me take a day off of school every once in a while to skate contests out of town, which they’d drive me to. My parents never looked down on skateboarding. They were always supportive of it. I’d also like to thank Dennis Dipietrantonio; Dennis actually got me on Bike Skateboards; Heath Brinkley, Joey Suriel, Caine Gayle, Eric Lantto and everyone from Reno; Jameson DeCew and the Mongo Madness Crew; my buddy Matt Rodriguez (not the Rasta Matt—another Matt). Thanks to everyone else who has helped me out. I’ve had friends who I’ve skated with for over 20 years. Skateboarding is pretty rad.