Mike Currier Interview

Tags: airborne, bcsd, ben weiss, daniel kinney, empire, forensic wheels, k2, mike currier, mike powell, oke clothing, orange, woodward

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Mike Currier, 24 and I've been skating for just over 9 years. I grew up in a suburb of Toledo called Rossford and I started skating with Jordan Ulmer and another friend, we all started literally on the same day, it was awesome.

Daniel Kinney : Lets start with the basics, name, age and how long you have been skating?

Mike Currier : Mike Currier, 24 and I've been skating for just over 9 years.

dk : Where did you grow up and start skating?

mc: I grew up in a suburb of Toledo called Rossford and I started skating with Jordan Ulmer and another friend, we all started literally on the same day, it was awesome.

Topmistral to Gap

dk : Where are you living right now and who are your current sponsors?

mc: I just recently moved back from Philidelphia to Toledo, OH. My current sponsors are OKE Clothing and Forensic Wheels. Plus I get hooked up with friendships from Empire. (Laughs)

dk: What does a normal day look like for you?

mc: Well, I just started a new job so my normal day has been completely changed. I hadn't had a job for like 3 months so my old normal day was waking up early and sitting around waiting for Bobby to get out of school so we could skate, then going out at night. Now I'm working 30 hours a week, so it's wake up, work then skate/go out to the bars.

dk: How did you originally get involved with K2?

mc: Basically just from skating at Airborne. I was at every contest/demo and I guess Ben Weis really liked my skating. He told me right away I was going to ride for them. Mike Powell had a different opinion though; he wanted kids who were already skating the skates. And at that time it was still the old boot and I couldn't skate it. So Mike said he would send me out a pair of Nemesis when they came out.

dk: What is the current situation with you and K2 and also the company in general?

mc: K2 is going through some rough times, they refused to listen to their riders input and that had a huge impact on the sales. Everyone wanted to do a boot only release to save money on the cost of frames and wheels, but K2 thought kids only wanted complete skates... Things like that. Sadly, rumors and negligent opinions have a huge impact on sales and K2 got a really bad reputation after the Nemesis came out bulky and heavy. It's a great skate though kids refuse to give it a fair shot. As far as my current situation with K2? There's not much there. They have no money to support a team and the general consensus was, if you can find something better, then you should take it. Right now I'm not skating for K2, there's no hard feelings there but it was just time for a change. I'm skating M12's now and I'm hoping to get a pair of Valo's super soon.

dk: Do you excel more at park or street? Which do you prefer to skate?

mc: I grew up skating street, all we had for park was a narrow 6 foot mini. So it's odd to me that I ended up skating a lot of park. As much as I'd like to say I'm a better street skater that's probably not the truth. (Laughs) I love park skating, I tend to see a lot of things that most people don't. It's so much fun for me to go into a skate park and look around thinking of ridiculous transfers and awkward set ups. My trick vocabulary is way larger in a skate park and when I do skate street I tend to take a lot of my park skating there. It really pays off though, for instance I knew I could do a 360, I can 360 anything, so it was easy for me to take that to a handrail and say "OK I can do a fishbrain and I can do a 360, so I definitely can do hurricane fish." And that works for me. I skate mostly street though, there's not really any good parks in my area. I love skating each just as much, I have fun skating anything

dk: For those that maybe aren't very familiar with your skating; what videos can they see you in and do you have any sections planned for the near future?

mc: I had tricks in Det'riot and the Detroit IMYTA 2 video a couple years back. I had like 6 clips in the Genre video, Damn I don't really know… I make spotty appearances in a bunch of videos though. Oh, there's going to be a skate park tour edit of Ross Anthony and myself in the new IT Cinema video ORANGE. We cover 6 parks in 5 days or something like that. It should be the best park edit in years... I'll go ahead and call it now. (Laughs) Plus I'll be in the Bitter Cold Showdown DVD… I hope, as long as I make the cut. Other than that nothing solid. There are always talks of sections but it's hard because no one has a camera out here and I'm too poor to travel...

dk: You have been part of the Woodward family for a very long time. What do you do currently at Woodward and what have you done up to this point?

Air

mc: Yeah, I love Woodward. I've been going there for 10 years now and I've been an employee there for 6. It's a huge part of my summers. I started off counseling and instructing then moved up to just instructing and last year I was the Fun Guy/Recreation director. It was pretty much the most amazing job ever. They paid me to make sure everyone had fun. I'm trying really hard to transfer that job over into the real world but it's not quite working out. As of right now though, I'll just be making random appearances at Woodward, I really can't afford to take out another summer and hang out there. But I'll be in and out for sure all summer.

dk: What do you think rollerblading needs more of right now?

mc: Erik Bailey... for real though that kid is amazing, he is so much fun to watch skate and that is exactly what we need. Once people realize how much fun our sport is to watch and participate in, we will get rid of a lot of our bad rep. It's the guys that can skate anything, Julio, Bailey, Feinberg, Aragon, Ross Anthony, those kids are the ones that people watch and say "Wow that was really cool." I love that I can go to a skate park and I have bikers and skateboarders saying, "You know, I normally hate rollerbladers but that was awesome." It's not the best compliment, but I'll take it. Everyone just needs to have fun with it and things will come full circle.

dk: If everything went your way, what would you be doing this time next year?

mc: In a perfect world, I'd be back in school at the University of Toledo. Living in my apartment with my car running well. It doesn't take much to make me a super happy kid. I just need my friends and skating and I'm set. Though, winning a bunch of contests and making tons of money wouldn't be bad either. Oh, and I'd be skating for Valo, yeah… that would be perfect.

dk: Anything else you want to add? Thank you's? Anything?

mc: I just want to say thanks to everyone on Be-Mag for looking at my pictures and reading this. If for nothing else I feel like a star on the message boards. (Laughs) Thank you DK for taking the time to do this for me. Octona Skate shop for always hooking my skates up! Oke for keeping me looking fly. Bobby for being the only other rollerblader in Toledo for the longest time. I think that's it, the kids from Detroit are coming down to skate so yeah… it's going to be a good day.

Photos: Mike's friend Bobby

Top: Topmistral to Gap
Middle: Launch to Fishy on the crane
Bottom: Air