James Hopkin (Hop) is an entrepreneur, skateboarder, longboarder and a tragic fan of skateboard racing. Better known for his Hopkin skateshop and starting the Australian Skateboard Racing Association (ASRA), in this podcast he shares interviews and personal stories about longboarding, skateboarding and downhill skateboard racing from around the world.
#22 - Khaba Maimon - the beginning of Indian downhill
This is one of two unreleased interviews from 2019. Huge apology to Khaba, I should have published this in 2019. In 2019 I saw on Facebook details of a downhill race in India. I tracked down who competed and found the first place Indian skater: Khaba Maimon. We chatted and I recorded an interview. Downhill skaters travel the world to find the biggest mountains, Khaba learned to skate on the world’s biggest mountains!
2 Nov 2019
#21 - Mike McHugh from Boosted Boards
This is a fun episode, Mike is an amazing guy with an incredible journey. He started in graphic design, which lead to moving to the USA with Adobe which lead him to the heart of Silicon Valley working for Boosted Boards.
At the time of this interview (Feb 2019) he was Director of Customer Experience. He has recently moved into the role of Director of Skate Product. Without a doubt, he has one of the best jobs in skate!
This episode is not just for the esk8 crew and Boosted fans, we have a wide ranging conversation. We discuss electric skateboard racing, product design, how Boosted takes that design to a new product. Does Boosted have a skate team or ambassadors? (spoiler alert: they have both...and more). We get into future products, and as a side note, at the time of recording the Boosted Scooter had not been released, you can hear me ask Mike if they are going to make a scooter...
My goal for this interview was to try and take a look behind the curtain at Boosted Boards. They are one of the most exciting companies in skate and a leader in the future of personal electric transportation.
Big thank you to Mike McHugh for giving me so much time out of his busy schedule.
18 Oct 2019
#20 - Daniel Iseli the Rocket man
This might be my new favourite episode. I re-listened to this interview after I published the Kicked Out (https://hopkin.com.au/blogs/skate-blog/the-one-word-that-got-me-kicked-out-of-longboarding) episode, and was immediately inspired. Danny is an amazing guy, his positive attitude is contagious, I forgot how much fun it was talking to him. It might be a crime against longboarding that I have not released this episode! I recorded this at the end of 2018. The 2019 range had not been released, we talk about a secret new pro model, which ended up being the Phoenix (http://rocketlongboards.ch/product/phoenix/), Tristan Cardillo Pro model. Forgive the delay of this episode, it is still relevant, at the end I mention that we have not talked about any of the models and we will have to do part two to discuss the Rocket Longboard decks.
This episode is all about how Daniel got into board building, how he built Rocket, his business philosophy, his board building techniques and values.
If you have ever had the urge to build something, you will enjoy the story that unfolds in this episode.
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