Skateboarder Josh Kalis 4 of 7 - Epicly Later'd - VICE

JAMIE THOMAS: I lived in Pacific Beach at the time and
we just kind of lived in this weird
apartment in Pacific Beach.
Yeah, he stayed with me for almost a year.
At least it felt like a year.
Yeah, it was a Skate house and we lived right across the
street from the Alien Workshop house.
That's how those relationships started.
JOSH KALIS: Yeah, the Alien house was right across the
street and it was right up my alley.
I mean, it was like Clyde Singleton, Kelly Bird, Drake
Jones, Lenny Kirk, and Rob Dyrdek.
I mean, all those guys were there, and it was dominoes,
dice, 40s and weed.
And that's what I liked.
So I hung out with them all the time.
ROB DYRDEK: And we lived in the most psycho party house
that was like--
not only was it like the whole Alien team and [INAUDIBLE] and
Weese and just madness.
Like one of the craziest times in my entire life, where not
only the four of us lived there, but then we just--
it was just absolute mayhem every single night.
Like chicks and rolling dice every night.
It was like the most psycho skate house of all time.
JAMIE THOMAS: No, they had the party house and they had
chicks and stuff.
It was like, it was obvious, you know?
I never got it.
I never really--
I thought it was cool.
We were like skate homies.
And then he would go over and hang out at Alien house to get
into like, the party scene and whatever.
Smoking weed or cigarettes, whatever.
It was cool.
I'd go over there too sometimes, and I wouldn't stay
as long as Josh.
Josh would stay every night.
Like we lived like across the street, so he would just walk
back to my house at like 3:00 in the morning.
And then we'd go skate the next day.
And then after we were done skating at night, we'd get
some food together, and then he'd go over to the Alien
house and hang out.
And I would, like, I don't know.
I'd hang out with a girl or watch a movie or something I
had such a mellow lifestyle.
I was like, whatever.
Two totally different worlds.
So basically he lived with me for like six months to a year.
And we made the Heavy Metal video.
And he was killing it in the Heavy Metal zone.

And we were filming every day.
We were just doing random lines in California.
And it was sick.
And we had a really good time filming that part.
It was a lot of fun.
And he was skating so good.
He three-flipped a trash can off the
smallest bump in the world.
Like basically, it was like a little ripple
in the parking lot.
And he three-flipped it straight over a trash can.
At the time, it was like phenomenal.
Like, nobody had seen that.
I remember when that came out, people were tripping.
Just the way he did tricks, too.
It was so proper and so unique.

MIKE BLABAC: A few years later I moved to SF and he was there
with Jamie, right when they were filming for
a Toy Machine video.
And then I watched his part and I was tripping on how,
what an amazing skater he'd become from that skate rat
that I was chilling with, trying to figure out how to
shoot photos of three, four years earlier.
PATRICK O'DELL: Is that him?
MIKE BLABAC: Yeah.
That's his switch crook.
I remember he'd just filmed that a day or two prior in the
first Toy Machine.

JOSH KALIS: It was cool, but Jamie, Jamie was always real
cool and real nice.
But I mean, he's a work horse and he's got a different work
ethic than me.
I told you my work ethic is like, I need to be enjoying
what I do and having fun.
Then I'm a work horse.
Jamie wants to make sure he goes and gets
what he needs to get.
And I wasn't that dude.
I like to hang out and work.
And he liked to go to work.
And we just didn't click like that.
JAMIE THOMAS: Oh my god.
MALE SPEAKER: You all right, man?
MALE SPEAKER: You bumped your bill?
JAMIE THOMAS: Oh my god.
ROB DYRDEK: I mean, he lived with straight-edge, hardcore
Jamie Thomas at Jamie Thomas's rawest.
Living in a little apartment in PB, like grinding, like
just building what he would later become.
And you know, as much as Jamie had helped him and--
he just wasn't like that.
He just wasn't in that sort of mindset.

JOSH KALIS: He played too many practical jokes on me, you
know what mean?
Like, I was kind of a serious dude who was just getting out
of, like, being a tough guy.
I just couldn't get down with it.
I couldn't get down with Ed's crazy--
I couldn't eat hamburgers in the house, just because like
he's this crazy vegetarian and the smell bothered him.
So I had to eat outside all the time.
I just--
I just couldn't deal with it.
We were two completely different people.
Basically, he smoked, and I used to buy him food, but I
wouldn't buy him cigarettes because I was kind of like
straight-edge dude or whatever at that time.
And I just thought it was lame that, like, he had these
addictions that I had to support.
So I just refused to buy him cigarettes.
So I swear, he basically just would hustle me for
cigarettes.
He would like, he would ask me, like, dude, if I do this
trick in this many tries, will you get me a pack of
cigarettes?
[SCREAM]
So I would like bet him cigarettes for tricks.
I remember one time he won a carton off me and he was so,
so psyched.
I asked him to three-flip this flat gap.
I told him I'd give him a carton of cigarettes if he
made it next try or something.
And he made it.
It was pretty gnarly at the time.

JOSH KALIS: What's up, fool!
Ha-ha!
I want my cigarettes, boy.
JAMIE THOMAS: [LAUGHING]
How you gonna skate that good for cigarettes.

MALE SPEAKER: It's funny.
A lot of people would think that you wouldn't fit in with
the, like the Toy Machine vibe.
Like you know what I mean?
It's always almost trivia.
Like, Josh Kalis used to be on Toy Machine.
JOSH KALIS: Shit, I didn't fit in that.
That's why I quit, you know?
ANTHONY CLARAVALL: Even when I met him, he
was over Toy Machine.
I remember going to his apartment, and like, I
remember looking in his closet one time.
We were in his room and he looked in his closet and he
had, like, stacks of t-shirts, stacks of Toy Machine
t-shirts, in plastic.
Like brand new.
And I mean, to me that was a trip.
I mean, I was like, wow, man.
And he was like, yeah, man.
That's all garbage.
I ain't gonna ride for Toy Machine.
And I was just thinking like, damn, dude.
I kinda want a t-shirt, but I don't want to ask for one.
JOSH KALIS: I was now into going to San Francisco.
I stayed with Drake Jones all the time.
And he was actually working out a little thing for me to
get on Real.
And I was riding Real boards, and like, I was
going to ride for Real.
100%.
JAMIE THOMAS: I kind of saw it coming, though.
He moved to San Francisco and kind of just got a whole new
crew and stuff.
We started talking a little less and less.
He was still riding for Toy Machine, but he was wearing
different shoes every time I saw him.
He was on flow for three or four different shoe companies.

JOSH KALIS: Yeah.
JAMIE THOMAS: I think he felt like he fit in more at Real,
you know, I mean, like you said, Toy Machine was Ed, who
was kind of artsy and quirky, to himself, kind of about his
whole vegan vibe.
And I was hard-core skate-focused.
And I don't know, man.
I can imagine why.
I see the fit-in, you know?
He felt like he fit in.
And so the trade show came up.
And Drake Jones came down and he was like, yo, Thibault and
those guys, they're ready to do it, right now.
And I was like, that's what's up.
All right, I'm gonna go quit Toy Machine.
Right now.
Right this minute.
And he was like, all right.
So I'm walking down the ASR hallway and I make a right and
I just bump face-to-face with Dyrdek.
And Dyrdek was like, where you going right now?
I was like, I'm going to quit Toy Machine.
And he was like, for who?
And I was like--
before I could even say Real, he was like, we'll cut you a
check right now.
And I was like, oh shit.
Let's do it.
And that was it.
I went and met Chris Carter and he wrote me a check right
there, I think it was like $250 or some shit.
And he was like, boop.
ROB DYRDEK: It was really a mutual, like, I would love to
ride for Alien.
You know?
It would be so sick if I was on like Alien team.
Like you guys have so much fun.
That'd be sick.
And we're like, dude, you're on.
If you want to be on, you're on.
Like no, don't say, really though?
And we're like, yeah, you're on.
And that's really how it worked.
That's how he works.
He'll be like, oh, like say something, like that's sick.
And like, yep.
You're on
JOSH KALIS: Once I figured out that Alien was a
real option and I--
that's where I hung out with every day.
And I had to do it.
I was like, fuck, those are my homies.
Boom.
JAMIE THOMAS: Yeah, of course it was a bummer, man.
I mean, I'd--
I was--
you know, like any time when you like help somebody out and
you like help them out of whatever situation they're in,
I kind of was like the dude he leaned on for a long time, for
emotional and financial support, like in every aspect.
And when you give like that, I mean, it obviously feels good
to help somebody out.
But if they're able to just break it off at like a
moment's notice, it feels kind of gnarly, you know?
It's almost like you're in like a
relationship or something.
Not to sound too sappy, but it was pretty,
it was pretty heavy.
I remember being pretty bummed.
Like it rocked me for like a week or two, where I was just,
like, lump in your throat.
It sucks.
It was never really that weird between us.
I was a little bit butt-hurt for a while,
but I got over it.
And when I'd see him, I'd always act like it was cool,
even if I was a little bitter still.

It was all right, man.
I got over it.
We just moved on.
At any rate, I saw him like five years later.
I came through Philly and he like, sat me down.
We were away from the crew for a minute.
And he was just like man, I just want to tell you how much
I appreciate you helping me out back in the day.
If it weren't for you I wouldn't be in skating right
now, and I just kind of want you to know that.
And I was like, cool, man.
Thanks.
JOSH KALIS: Yeah, I got to--
I got to give way more credit to my dude Jamie Thomas, man.
Like that dude made all this shit possible for me.
When he gave me the opportunity to come out here,
and like paid for me for six, eight months or whatever, just
for me to like turn around and quit the company that I rode
for with him--
I mean, that dude pretty much paved the
whole way for me, man.
I guess if I owe anyone in this shit, it would be him.
You know what I mean?
He's a good dude.
PATRICK O'DELL: It would have been funny if you were in
Welcome to Hell.
JOSH KALIS: Yeah, I think I just missed that one.
I just missed Welcome to Hell.
You know, actually, it was probably a good thing I missed
Welcome to Hell, because I had already broken both ankles and
a foot by that time, and I just couldn't be a
stair-jumper or a rail-jumper anymore.
And I don't know what the hell I would have done if I would
have stayed and Jamie take me to the rail spots.
Like, oh my god.