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The Mike Milner Interview
Pics and Interview Jarrod Knoblauch with help from Jack Bridges and Raoul Jacques
----------------------------------
JK - Let’s start with clown school, I wanna hear about that.
JB – Ha ha
MM - I never went to clown school, but I did have some juggling lessons.
JK - You didn’t go to some kind of, well not clown school but like performing arts type deal?
MM – Na, no, did you Jack?
JB – No, well I went to like 2 cirkids.
MM – Oh, yeah, well I went to one session at cirkids, I did like an introduction session and you had like the 7 different things there, like juggling, that thing with the tube and then the board on top of it and you gotta like balance on it…
JB – and juggle on it.
MM – and juggle. So yeah I had some juggling lessons and one the one time at cirkids.
JK – So why are you like elastic then? Like every time you slam you can just stretch it out and your fine?
MM – Just hold down those stretches! On a daily basis! Well because I had some slight back problems as a youngster, a bit of scoliosis where I had like an S shaped spine, so the physio was always telling me to do stretches. Now I do a couple of yoga sessions with the girlfriend, you just kinda get into it on a daily basis and it’s easy. Just do a couple in the morning, keep it limber.
JK – Its like its your key to being such a good skater because you don’t seem to come down the park much or get the time to get out but when you do go skating you skate as good as all the guys who skate 4 times a week?
MM – It definitely helps with the warm up. You have to do less warm up because you have already sorta stretched out a bit, you know, from the last time you skated and your muscles are sore and until you kinda stretch them out they take so long to heal, especially your back. I mean you can ask any skater and they’ve always got sore muscles. I definitely don’t get to skate as much as I’d like to because of work, and I’ve had strange work hours and I work in catering, so that’s your weekend sometimes…
JK – So what I’m angling at is that sometimes it seems like you just have to schedule in your hammer for the week and do you think your able to do this due to the stretching…. and the clown school…
MM – Yeah
JB – and the unicycle riding…
MM – What!?
JB - Milner used to tear it up on the unicycle… and juggle while doing it.
MM – Well I just used to get amped on that shit. Before I was just skateboarding as much as I am now, for the last 12 years, I did get into a little bit of juggling, a bit of busking in the mall, Jack? A bit of yoho diablo, I’d be on the yoho diablo, Jack would be on the devil sticks.
SHUVIT HEEL
RJ – Haha, for what 3 bucks an hour?
MM – Our best? Out for an hour, 130 bucks!
RJ - Dude…
JB – Yeah, we killed it.
RJ – That’s a bit of serious deniro
MM – Actually it was like a bit of a con though, we had the devil sticks, diablo and then throw in a bit of b-boy breakdancing there to spice it up.
JB – We would do that. And then we’d have our little boom box occasionally.
JK – What was on the boom box?
JB - Gangstarr – Moment of truth. Yep, Gangstarr in year 7.
MM – Bit of Gangstarr, bit of The Roots.
JB – We’d just play hip-hop that we thought was sick at the time mixed with some outlandish circus/b-boy action.
JK – Haha, that’s dope.
MM – and going back to the not getting time to go out to skate much then being able to just have a good session, I think it just comes down to being optimistic. I’m slightly delusional in that I seem to always think of a trick and be like ‘oh yeah, that’ll be heaps easy’
JK – well it gets you through
MM – sometimes not though but if your going out just to skate and have a good time, it just works out well.
NOLLIE NOSEGRIND
JK – That’s it. So what about Streets Made Us, its gonna be your first solo part, you know, like your first proper part and you’ve been putting in work for it right?
MM – Yeah, for sure, I thinks it’s been almost 2 years in there now. I definitely wanna make it a good part, so I have gone out and like gone to do some stuff that’s a bit different and I’m always scoping out for spots when I’m driving in
the car or doing whatever, just sussing some stuff out.
JK – Just kinda working for it?
MM – Exactly and I like to put in a good effort when it comes to skateboarding. I like to, you know, get good tricks for my own benefit not just because I’m trying to portray some sort of image but just cause I like to get tricks and go skating.
JK – And I always like to shout out Evans, what’s it like filming with Evans, cause you know he’s…
MM – He’s a business man.
JK – That’s it, he’s straight to it right?
MM – Yeah, if I say I wanna go to a spot and do a trick, then he’s gonna amp me up just to go there and do that trick.
JK – He’s not there to fuck ducks.
SWITCH OLLIE
MM - Haha, exactly. Well you know when your getting someone else out, for your own skateboarding as well, so like your calling up Evs to film something, I feel like you need to, well I don’t wanna just send him home with no footage, so if I get something then he gets something as well.
JK - That’s it. So we got Jacky here right, Jacky’s been your homie for how long? How long have you guys known each
other?
MM – Ahh, since the start of high school, so 12 years, pretty much the whole time I’ve been skateboarding I have known Jack. I started skating 3 months before I met Jack and then we just took it from there. He was keen to skate.
JK – Well I’ve always known you two as like a little crew.
JB – We are a crew!
MM – That’s it, well that was our thing, we just liked going out skateboarding, school holidays, weekends.
JB – We used to take our boards to school and skate at the school at recess.
RJ – What were some of the skate influences? Like what videos did you watch?
MM – Well I always like watching Sorry when I was in school. That was a big one. But also some local Adelaide favourites, the Derph and Telescape videos, they were a big influence…
JK – Bryan Mason’s videos.
JB – then Menikmati and Yeah Right.
MM – Actually Jack did me up a video, a vhs and it was Menikmati, Yeah Right and some other one…
JB – Europe 2000 and it only had like half of it on there.
MM- Yeah, it was just a regular tape but I had like those brands stickers on there and yeah I’d just watch that one before school.
KINKED BOARDSLIDE
JK – So were you competitive between the two of you?
MM- Maybe not so much competitive but we just thrived off each other doing tricks, like if Jack was going and doing something I’d be like “fuck, I better go learn that now”
JB – Yeah, and then you would always be like the crash test dummy to begin with.
MM – Haha, yeah.
JB – I’d be like “you go first” and then, if was gnarly for you, I’d probably just be like “I’ll just chill” and if you made it look easy then I’d be like “it’s sweet”, so Milner pretty much just set the bar and I’d kinda just…
MM – Well you would just get me amped up to go skating and then if there were some stairs or something he’d be like “just do it, just give it a go”.
JB – It was the same for me but you were always just good at rails, you were the one who was always down to do rails.
MM – Actually, my rails skills go back to living up in the hills, winter time, raining with nothing much to skate, I’d set up in the shed, and set up my little rail off some hay bales, ply on hay bales, with a drop in at the top and I just used to session that.
JB – Yeah that was sick, shed sessions when it was just pouring down with rain, on an alpaca farm.
MM – On an alpaca farm haha!
JB – Sheds just filled with hay.
SWITCH BS 180 - photo Runciman
JK – Alright, what about Walker, tell us a good Walker story because you went to China with Walker, Smyth and Kat Williams. And you have been on Elan for pretty much… well how long have you
been on Elan?
MM – I’ve been on Elan for like 5 or 6 years, so since I was just finishing school, and Walkers the boss, he picks out people who are just putting in the effort to skate.
JK – Because he’s like super keen…
MM – He’s so supportive, with anything and I’ve never had to worry about boards cause Walker’s just like “yep, here you go”. I mean, if people are doing the right thing by Walker he’ll look after them.
JK – He just wants you to be like a skate rat pretty much.
MM – Well that’s how he is. He’s pretty much organised every other sponsor I’ve ever had, especially with Emerica, he was the one who sent them all the footage, who talked to Eck, you know, pretty much giving his word for me. So, he’s a legend.
JK – Walker’s a boss.
MM – And the poor guy losing his shit in China, that stuff getting left in the cab…
JK – Yeah, that would have cut deep…. So wrapping up, were gonna have Streets Made Us, that’ssupposed to be finished in the next few months.
MM- Yeah. We were supposed to stop filming in February but then I rolled my ankle and then bruised my arse so bad I couldn’t walk properly for a few weeks so I just wanna get a few more tricks and we’ll be done.
NOLLIE FS HEEL
JB – Then what’s next? What the next trip we’re going on?
MM – Then were gonna start filming for Elan, we’re going back to China.
JK – Like a proper Elan video right?
MM – That’s the plan.
JK – With Walker, Jay, Kat and Smyth…
MM – Smyth will just produce on the board, so will Jay, but yeah, Smyth’s the man, always skates so
good and he’s such a chiller. So good to watch skating.
JK – And such a good man.
MM - A guru.
JK – Well that’s it, wanna give any props?
MM – Thanks to Emerica, Thunder have been hooking me up lately as well, Elan of course, big Scotty
from Daily Grind, he’s always helping me out and not to mention Cheeky Essentials.
BS 5050
Milner is the most genuine and motivated skateboarder I know. Dope interview and pics Knobby!
good shit. i only saw this for the first time a week or so ago, 6:06 minutes in. cuntsfucked
That was an awesome read, rad photos to. It's always good to see new Milner footage
Milner's such a good dude! An amazing person and skater.
His footage in this clip was all filmed within the space of 3 weeks of random sessions between work and studying.
Log in to comment
MIKE MILNER INTERVIEW
Knobby 20:09 29/Apr/14
The Mike Milner Interview
Pics and Interview Jarrod Knoblauch with help from Jack Bridges and Raoul Jacques
----------------------------------
JK - Let’s start with clown school, I wanna hear about that.
JB – Ha ha
MM - I never went to clown school, but I did have some juggling lessons.
JK - You didn’t go to some kind of, well not clown school but like performing arts type deal?
MM – Na, no, did you Jack?
JB – No, well I went to like 2 cirkids.
MM – Oh, yeah, well I went to one session at cirkids, I did like an introduction session and you had like the 7 different things there, like juggling, that thing with the tube and then the board on top of it and you gotta like balance on it…
JB – and juggle on it.
MM – and juggle. So yeah I had some juggling lessons and one the one time at cirkids.
JK – So why are you like elastic then? Like every time you slam you can just stretch it out and your fine?
MM – Just hold down those stretches! On a daily basis! Well because I had some slight back problems as a youngster, a bit of scoliosis where I had like an S shaped spine, so the physio was always telling me to do stretches. Now I do a couple of yoga sessions with the girlfriend, you just kinda get into it on a daily basis and it’s easy. Just do a couple in the morning, keep it limber.
Knobby 20:09 29/Apr/14
JK – Its like its your key to being such a good skater because you don’t seem to come down the park much or get the time to get out but when you do go skating you skate as good as all the guys who skate 4 times a week?
MM – It definitely helps with the warm up. You have to do less warm up because you have already sorta stretched out a bit, you know, from the last time you skated and your muscles are sore and until you kinda stretch them out they take so long to heal, especially your back. I mean you can ask any skater and they’ve always got sore muscles. I definitely don’t get to skate as much as I’d like to because of work, and I’ve had strange work hours and I work in catering, so that’s your weekend sometimes…
JK – So what I’m angling at is that sometimes it seems like you just have to schedule in your hammer for the week and do you think your able to do this due to the stretching…. and the clown school…
MM – Yeah
JB – and the unicycle riding…
MM – What!?
JB - Milner used to tear it up on the unicycle… and juggle while doing it.
MM – Well I just used to get amped on that shit. Before I was just skateboarding as much as I am now, for the last 12 years, I did get into a little bit of juggling, a bit of busking in the mall, Jack? A bit of yoho diablo, I’d be on the yoho diablo, Jack would be on the devil sticks.
SHUVIT HEEL
Knobby 20:10 29/Apr/14
RJ – Haha, for what 3 bucks an hour?
MM – Our best? Out for an hour, 130 bucks!
RJ - Dude…
JB – Yeah, we killed it.
RJ – That’s a bit of serious deniro
MM – Actually it was like a bit of a con though, we had the devil sticks, diablo and then throw in a bit of b-boy breakdancing there to spice it up.
JB – We would do that. And then we’d have our little boom box occasionally.
JK – What was on the boom box?
JB - Gangstarr – Moment of truth. Yep, Gangstarr in year 7.
MM – Bit of Gangstarr, bit of The Roots.
JB – We’d just play hip-hop that we thought was sick at the time mixed with some outlandish circus/b-boy action.
JK – Haha, that’s dope.
MM – and going back to the not getting time to go out to skate much then being able to just have a good session, I think it just comes down to being optimistic. I’m slightly delusional in that I seem to always think of a trick and be like ‘oh yeah, that’ll be heaps easy’
JK – well it gets you through
MM – sometimes not though but if your going out just to skate and have a good time, it just works out well.
NOLLIE NOSEGRIND
Knobby 20:10 29/Apr/14
JK – That’s it. So what about Streets Made Us, its gonna be your first solo part, you know, like your first proper part and you’ve been putting in work for it right?
MM – Yeah, for sure, I thinks it’s been almost 2 years in there now. I definitely wanna make it a good part, so I have gone out and like gone to do some stuff that’s a bit different and I’m always scoping out for spots when I’m driving in
the car or doing whatever, just sussing some stuff out.
JK – Just kinda working for it?
MM – Exactly and I like to put in a good effort when it comes to skateboarding. I like to, you know, get good tricks for my own benefit not just because I’m trying to portray some sort of image but just cause I like to get tricks and go skating.
JK – And I always like to shout out Evans, what’s it like filming with Evans, cause you know he’s…
MM – He’s a business man.
JK – That’s it, he’s straight to it right?
MM – Yeah, if I say I wanna go to a spot and do a trick, then he’s gonna amp me up just to go there and do that trick.
JK – He’s not there to fuck ducks.
SWITCH OLLIE
Knobby 20:11 29/Apr/14
MM - Haha, exactly. Well you know when your getting someone else out, for your own skateboarding as well, so like your calling up Evs to film something, I feel like you need to, well I don’t wanna just send him home with no footage, so if I get something then he gets something as well.
JK - That’s it. So we got Jacky here right, Jacky’s been your homie for how long? How long have you guys known each
other?
MM – Ahh, since the start of high school, so 12 years, pretty much the whole time I’ve been skateboarding I have known Jack. I started skating 3 months before I met Jack and then we just took it from there. He was keen to skate.
JK – Well I’ve always known you two as like a little crew.
JB – We are a crew!
MM – That’s it, well that was our thing, we just liked going out skateboarding, school holidays, weekends.
JB – We used to take our boards to school and skate at the school at recess.
RJ – What were some of the skate influences? Like what videos did you watch?
MM – Well I always like watching Sorry when I was in school. That was a big one. But also some local Adelaide favourites, the Derph and Telescape videos, they were a big influence…
JK – Bryan Mason’s videos.
JB – then Menikmati and Yeah Right.
MM – Actually Jack did me up a video, a vhs and it was Menikmati, Yeah Right and some other one…
JB – Europe 2000 and it only had like half of it on there.
MM- Yeah, it was just a regular tape but I had like those brands stickers on there and yeah I’d just watch that one before school.
KINKED BOARDSLIDE
Knobby 20:11 29/Apr/14
JK – So were you competitive between the two of you?
MM- Maybe not so much competitive but we just thrived off each other doing tricks, like if Jack was going and doing something I’d be like “fuck, I better go learn that now”
JB – Yeah, and then you would always be like the crash test dummy to begin with.
MM – Haha, yeah.
JB – I’d be like “you go first” and then, if was gnarly for you, I’d probably just be like “I’ll just chill” and if you made it look easy then I’d be like “it’s sweet”, so Milner pretty much just set the bar and I’d kinda just…
MM – Well you would just get me amped up to go skating and then if there were some stairs or something he’d be like “just do it, just give it a go”.
JB – It was the same for me but you were always just good at rails, you were the one who was always down to do rails.
MM – Actually, my rails skills go back to living up in the hills, winter time, raining with nothing much to skate, I’d set up in the shed, and set up my little rail off some hay bales, ply on hay bales, with a drop in at the top and I just used to session that.
JB – Yeah that was sick, shed sessions when it was just pouring down with rain, on an alpaca farm.
MM – On an alpaca farm haha!
JB – Sheds just filled with hay.
SWITCH BS 180 - photo Runciman
Knobby 20:12 29/Apr/14
JK – Alright, what about Walker, tell us a good Walker story because you went to China with Walker, Smyth and Kat Williams. And you have been on Elan for pretty much… well how long have you
been on Elan?
MM – I’ve been on Elan for like 5 or 6 years, so since I was just finishing school, and Walkers the boss, he picks out people who are just putting in the effort to skate.
JK – Because he’s like super keen…
MM – He’s so supportive, with anything and I’ve never had to worry about boards cause Walker’s just like “yep, here you go”. I mean, if people are doing the right thing by Walker he’ll look after them.
JK – He just wants you to be like a skate rat pretty much.
MM – Well that’s how he is. He’s pretty much organised every other sponsor I’ve ever had, especially with Emerica, he was the one who sent them all the footage, who talked to Eck, you know, pretty much giving his word for me. So, he’s a legend.
JK – Walker’s a boss.
MM – And the poor guy losing his shit in China, that stuff getting left in the cab…
JK – Yeah, that would have cut deep…. So wrapping up, were gonna have Streets Made Us, that’ssupposed to be finished in the next few months.
MM- Yeah. We were supposed to stop filming in February but then I rolled my ankle and then bruised my arse so bad I couldn’t walk properly for a few weeks so I just wanna get a few more tricks and we’ll be done.
NOLLIE FS HEEL
Knobby 20:12 29/Apr/14
JB – Then what’s next? What the next trip we’re going on?
MM – Then were gonna start filming for Elan, we’re going back to China.
JK – Like a proper Elan video right?
MM – That’s the plan.
JK – With Walker, Jay, Kat and Smyth…
MM – Smyth will just produce on the board, so will Jay, but yeah, Smyth’s the man, always skates so
good and he’s such a chiller. So good to watch skating.
JK – And such a good man.
MM - A guru.
JK – Well that’s it, wanna give any props?
MM – Thanks to Emerica, Thunder have been hooking me up lately as well, Elan of course, big Scotty
from Daily Grind, he’s always helping me out and not to mention Cheeky Essentials.
BS 5050
Evanz 12:44 30/Apr/14
Milner is the most genuine and motivated skateboarder I know. Dope interview and pics Knobby!
cuntm8noworries 19:00 30/Apr/14
good shit. i only saw this for the first time a week or so ago, 6:06 minutes in. cuntsfucked
Sam Coady 16:59 01/May/14
That was an awesome read, rad photos to. It's always good to see new Milner footage
A.Walker 12:24 06/May/14
Milner's such a good dude! An amazing person and skater.
His footage in this clip was all filmed within the space of 3 weeks of random sessions between work and studying.
Log in to comment
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