Getting Sober and ‘MADE Chapter Two’ with Kevin ‘Spanky’ Long

I hate to be so blunt but tell me about getting booted off Emerica by Heath Kirchart.

That was super expected so it didn’t seem traumatic at the time. What was more traumatic was the place I was in – slowly finding myself falling out of love with being a professional skateboarder.

I mean, at that time there was a level of shame with being around Heath in general because of where I was at with it all. It was more embarrassing to skate a demo with him, or in front of him, than to sit at Starbucks and Heath tell me that I can’t be on the team anymore.

Because I was already being super hard on myself, I was just like, “Yeah, it make perfect sense, I’m not in it anymore.” Not to say that it was my decision, because I would have way rather have been in a place where I could stick around, but I just wasn’t doing my job and for me – personally – it takes a lot of work to maintain a certain level of skating. I don’t have it so naturally where I can sit on my ass for a few weeks then step on my board and great stuff comes out. I have to be skating everyday and I was so far from being that person at that point.

There’s been other team changes with your sponsors over the last few years, like Braydon Szafranski and Antwaun Dixon also got let go at different points. Any thoughts on how those guys took it compared to yourself?

Everyone is so complex. It’s the same thing to get kicked off but everyone is in a different position. It could have been different for me as well but I was at a point where I really needed personal change. It’s a big ego blow to lose your sponsorship. I can’t really speak on how they were feeling, and how they handled it, because it’s a tough blow and it is hard.

It wasn’t an instant moment of realisation to get your shit together though, was it? In your Epicly Later’d, Neck Face says he was the first to say something to you then Jerry Hsu, Tino Razo and others jumped in. Did that situation turn into an accidental intervention?

Absolutely. It was a pretty soft intervention as we were having drinks together when it was going on. They were like, “Let’s go have drinks and talk about you drinking…”

But I’m so grateful it happened because I was on that verge and hearing it from my best friends inspired me to take the steps and make the change I really needed and wanted to. It was pretty fucking close to the forefront of my consciousness but when you’re caught up in things there’s never a ‘convenient’ time to make a big change because it’s always going to suck at first. It was that push that I needed to start things off and have that in me.

I’ve always had a big fear of disappointing people I respect so hearing them say, “You’ve got to pull your shit together” made me feel like, “Okay, let’s do it. Right now.” I’ll always be grateful to those dudes for doing that which must not have been fun.

MADE Ch. Two began during the time when you weren’t on Emerica and Baker. Did you say it was it through just heading out in the van that you fell back into properly skating? 

When I made those major lifestyle changes, like quitting drinking,  I had a lot of time and energy that I wanted to put into something, I just wanted to film a part of some sort and needed a project in order to focus, higher my expectations of myself and push myself.t The fact this project was already going on meant I had something to strive for and it really took a long time to up my expectations. I feel like I’m still on that same path where I’m trying to get to another level.

I’m never going to be back to whatever the standards of ‘gnarly’ skateboarding are now. My body just wont do it. But throughout this process your perception and your standards of what you can do change. Even now, when I look at my part, I’m really happy about the journey but feel my standards at this point have exceeded what is going on in this video part.

Was it a similar feeling to when you were first getting on Emerica? Hanging out, going on skate missions then that naturally turning into filming a video part?

Yeah, it felt a lot like that because I felt that gratitude to be around. Except there wasn’t the ease of getting tricks left and right [laughs]. I didn’t have that seventeen-year-old bag of tricks.

So if this is ‘Career 2.0’ has your mindset for MADE been more akin to filming for This Is Skateboarding rather than if it was just the next part after Stay Gold?

[Laughs] strangely it hasn’t been like either. With This Is Skateboarding I didn’t have to be intentional about anything. That video part just fell out of my ass because that’s how you are when you’re a teenager. It didn’t feel like Stay Gold – or any other part – because with those I was just trying to appease my sponsors. It was like doing a school project or something. It was such a fun time in my life but I never got super intentional about any of it.

Were you disappointed in your Stay Gold part at all? 

Yeah, there aren’t a lot of parts where I feel proud but Stay Gold is pretty hard for me to watch. At a certain point during this project I looked back at it for the first time in its entirety and I don’t like it much. At all [laughs]. That was a fun experience but it was also super stressful. It didn’t have that magic of what you love about skateboarding, about going blank and being overcome by the mission.

Jerry Hsu said that having to work around his age and past injuries gave him a different perspective on MADE. Reynolds has spoke about having to do something different too, rather than focusing on just what is ‘better’ for this video. Whereas Heath just bowed out gracefully after Mind Field and Stay Gold . Is figuring out your own longevity one of the hardest aspects of professional skateboarding?

Yeah, even though the changes in my lifestyle made me feel ‘young’ again, in some ways, that’s still super relative because there’s just no way around it. You can’t do what you used to be able to do with your body after twenty years of jumping down shit. You just can’t maintain that forever. As much as I like to think that I’m in the best shape of my life, I’m also 32 and can’t keep jumping as much as I would like to. So, yeah, it is always a struggle with what your body will actually let you do.

For yourself, Andrew and Jerry, I felt MADE was an interesting change of approach but didn’t feel foreign compared to your previous video parts. There’s an impression it was a scaled down in terms of the location too but that’s a good thing. Everything’s more local now and people enjoy it because it has a more grassroots feel.

Part of that is all of us getting older, having to adjust and try and do new things without having to go a stair higher. It’s funny because there is a lot of stuff from each one us – Jerry, Herman, Andrew, myself – where we were jumping down shit but maybe that will just be in the B-Sides. 

I think another part of it is the video’s filmed in L.A. The atmosphere is that we’re skating school yards. We aren’t travelling much and know we aren’t going to get the majority of our footage on a filming mission to China. It’s Jerry and I getting together, like, “What are we gonna hit his weekend?” and just skating the stuff we know, the L.A. spots that we think look sick.i

It’s hanging around at those spots we love which formed the video. I’m glad it looks that way to you, although I have to say it was very unconscious. It’s just doing what you can with your surroundings.

Emerica shines through as a more of a family. People are almost raised with the company rather than getting on at a certain point later in their career. You’re no exception and the same goes for Herman, Leo Romero and Brandon Westgate. On the other hand, Jon Dickson was welcomed to the team in MADE Ch. Two but that feels special because it’s a rare thing for riders to be welcomed within a full-length video nowadays. It represents the more ‘traditional’ side of skateboarding Emerica has helped carry the torch for throughout the years. Would you agree?

Absolutely and I don’t think that would have worked with anyone besides Dickson. He happened to be the perfect dude for that to happen to. All the circumstances just led up to that so it was a no-brainer even before seeing all the footage he already had. All of a sudden he was in the van. We hear he might get on the team and then the kind of shit he is doing we’re like, “God damn, of course.” With that, anyone who’s going to come on board is going to come on because they believe in the Emerica team, and the brand, and that still means a lot. They’re not gonna come on for a massive pay cheque like they would for another brand that can just afford to hook them up like that.

Best memory of Heath Kirchart as a fellow team rider?

My best memory of Heath is being on trips and betting on tricks. Whether you’re the one skating or if you’re off on the sidelines he got super into betting on whether somebody was going to make a trick. You would be trying a trick and suddenly everyone would be screaming if you mess up [laughs].

Best quote from Heath as a team manager?

Fuck, there wasn’t a lot.