Tom Haugen Interview Excerpts

ride4life1100

• January 27 2004
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Tom’s a man of many words, which is always beneficial for an interview because two sentence answers hardly ever tell the readers too much of anything.Although, in Tom’s case he said so much that we ran out space in the magazine, so we pulled a few of the answers from the pages of Ride and put them here for you to read.

You said you just rode flatland for the first couple of years; what made you branch out?
From the ages of 10 to 16 I spent all of my time just riding flatland. Then I got a driver’s license and some friends brought me to this dirt jump and instantly I wanted to learn how to do that as well. Flatland just wasn’t that much fun to me anymore; the learning curvefor flatland is so much slower and spending seven hours in a parking lot trying the same trick wasn’t that interesting anymore. Dirt jumping and street was new and exciting to me; a much welcomed change.

You were recently dropped from the Giant team; what was their reasoning and what’s your take on the whole situation?
To make a long story short, they didn’t think I was doing a good enoughjob representing them. They had a list of reasons; some were valid, some weren’t. I disagreed and thought I was doing a fine job. I made my points regarding myperformance representing them, but it wasn’t enough to sway their decision and they released me from my contract. There is so much I could say about it, but what’s done is done.

Do you ever get pigeonholed as a contest or show rider only?
Probably. But that’s fine, because I do ride a lot of contests and I do a lot of shows. Beinga pro rider entails both of those things and a lot more for me. Anyone who would make that assertion of me obviously doesn’t know me, so I wouldn’t put much stock in what they had to say.

What’s the most valuable lesson you ever learned while on the road?
Keep an eye on your belongings—people will steal anything and everything.

How often do you ride now and what do you ride the most?
I ride five to seven hours a day when I’m home. I divide my time between riding parks, flatland, street, and vert. Without a doubt most of my time revolves around riding parks, just because they offer the most variety.

You’ve spent a lot of time with the prankmaster Dave Brumlow. Do you have any good stories?
I could fill this magazine up with Brumlow antics, but if I had to narrow it down, it would be the time there were about ten of us eating at an Olive Garden after a contest. No doubts about it, our waiter was gay—stereotypically in both appearance and demeanor.While ordering drinks, everyone ordered a Cherry Coke and when it came to Brumlow he told our very effeminate waiter “I don’t want anything fruity, can I just get a STRAIGHT Coke”. The waiter’s response was “oh, as opposed to a gay Coke?”.

Who do you think are a few underrated riders today?
Everyone is so good now. There’s a kid in every city in the world that is amazing that no one knows about. A couple guys who I don’t think get the credit they deserve and who I’ve really enjoyed watching lately are Markus Wilke and Scott Wirch. Though they’reestablished pros, I don’t think most people realize how talented those guys truly are. Markus can do anything on any obstacle to fakie and make it look effortless. And beyond every variation you could possibly think of, Scott’s been doing opposite doubletruckdrivers better than most people do regular ones. One time I told Scott he should do a no-footed can-can 360-to-X-up and he went and did it first try.

Much thanks and appreciation to my family, Jeremy Fanberg and his family, The Green Family, Chris Anders, Jay Schlie, Kip Williamson, Jim Coleman, everyone at the ASA, Ron Bonner, GL and everyone at UGP, everyone at Osiris, Angelo Juras at Arsenal, MikeCollins and everyone at Snafu, Jason at To Die For, Todd Lentz and everyone at EVS, Jamie Delaney at Alliance, Dave Brumlow, Rob Nolli, Mike Parenti, Dave Voelker, Gabe Weed, Adam Booth and Ben Crockett at BMX Plus, Ricky Adam and Brian Tunney at Dig, Chris Woodage and everyone at RideUK, Mark Losey, Ryan Fudger, Jeff Z, Kevin McAvoy, Keith Mulligan, and everyone at Ride/TransWorld, Chris and Marco at Props, Steve Swoope, Paige Hussey and everyone at the HSA, Dennis McCoy and everyone at McCoy Productions, G-shock skatepark, Dave Friemuth, Joe Hurlbert, Jim Rienstra, Rick Thorne, Jonah Lidberg, Jon Agnew, Matt Wilhelm, and anyone who has in any way enriched my life.