Renton Millar Interview
| How old are you? 24 years. Where are you from? I am from Melbourne, Australia. Who are your sponsors? I just started riding for “Think” about six months ago. I ride Indy Trucks, Core Technology Wheels, Globe Shoes, PSC Skate Shop, Split Clothing, Oakley Sunglasses. I am also doing stuff for an Internet Company that does tutorials for kids at school; I’m going to be doing instructional stuff for them. It’s called XSIQ.  You have been travelling a lot lately – Where have you been? I just got back from a trip to Brazil, New Zealand and America. At the moment I am enjoying skating all the parks at home. Which ones? I’ve been skating all the ones that are close to the city, near my house. It’s rad. Here you can skate for free, and there are about six parks that I can get to on my bike. There is a vert ramp at Globe (Hardcore) It’s probably the best in Australia. There are mad sessions there all the time What about Corio? Yeah Corio is sick. It’s one of my favorite places to skate. Waurn Ponds in Geelong too. It has a snake run with three rad hips. I stoke out when I am at home. There is so much stuff to skate here, and everyone skates for fun. I don’t have to reach for my wallet when I go skate a park either. Do you like contests? I have just started entering the big ones, and I’m starting to get used to them. I had a great time at Tampa. I think everyone takes them pretty seriously though. I just really like to have a bit of a laugh when I skate now. I like skating with Tas (Pappas) and Jake (Brown) at contests because they both have a laugh with me. What are the best places you have ever skated? Marseille was insane. I wish I could have skated it for more than one day. Rio Sul Kidney is great too. Woodward is good but no one skates the Titanic. It’s a shame ’cause that ramp is the ultimate. Just to do a line of basic tricks on that ramp takes a long time because of all the obstacles. Whistler Bowl in Canada is good. Fitzroy Bowl. I have too many favorite spots to list. Who do you like to skate with? I like skating with anyone who skates sheerly for the fun of it. All my friends from Melbourne. The Quikfist. Who have you been skating with lately? Yesterday I skated with Jaffa (Curtis) and some American guys who came out to do demos. I skated vert a couple of days ago with a bunch of people that work at Globe. Ben Pappas. He has been ripping lately. Garry Valentine had a roll. I got to skate with Lee Ralph a couple of months ago that was sick. I skated with the two guys who own Globe the other day Peter and Steven Hill. It’s rad that those guys still make time to have a skate. It stokes me out when I see friends that I grew up with skating, still loving the sport. Just about everyone I grew up skating with still skates at least every now and again.  Frontside Tailgrab, Prahran, Melbourne (left), Indy Air, Hardcore ramp (right). Who did you look up to when you were young? So many people. Jason Ellis, Garry Valentine, Chris Payne, Mark Greyson, Gregor Rankin, Adam Luxford, Lee Ralph, Bruce Fairlie. All those guys were older than me so I always looked up to them. The guys that were my age or younger were totally sick too. Brett Margaretis, Tas and Ben Pappas, Christian Biancardi, Dom Kekich. Dom was insane, Dom is insane. He was doing 720’s at 13 years old when Tony Hawk was the only guy that could do them. I saw Dom do seventeen back to back 540’s ten years ago. It’s funny, people think the skate media is the be all and end all of what is going on in skateboarding. There are so many people who could be pro that aren’t recognized by the skate mags or the industry. It’s rad. Underground shredcats skating for kicks. Who are some of these underground shredcats? Paul Carter from Bristol, Shane Wallace from New Zealand, Jeff Williams from Sydney, Nick Kilderry from Melbourne, Alex Chalmers was a bit of an underground head for a while. He’s one of my favorite skaters. For all we know there is some guy from Upper Volta, or some spunout place like that, doing 900’s into back flips. We’ll probably never get to see them because he loves where he lives, and never wants to leave. What is the best part about travelling? Number one is the people that you meet and the experiences that you have. Number two is the amount you learn, and number three is all the rad spots you get to skate. I love travelling, it’s a great experience. |