If you pulled the pin on a grenade and forgot to throw it, there’s a chance you’d still be able to count the people who have been in a Thrasher video over 600 times on your charred fingers. Because there’s only one, and it’s not even a pro skateboarder.

If that leaves you scratching your head, don’t worry, you’re not alone. And if it leaves you wanting an explanation, don’t worry, we tried to get one.

It’s been almost two years since there was a Skateline episode. Is Skateline officially done?
Skateline isn’t over, we’re just not doing it right now. My bro I did it with, Joel [Jutagir], we did it every week for 12 years. We made that last episode, and we had a date for the show to come back [from a break], but stuff started happening for both of us.

I started doing my own projects, like my clothing company Ichpig, my griptape company Black Gold and my skate shop Everyday Skate Shop. I talk all this shit about how everybody else should do it, and I got to this point where people trust me, so I was like, “Let me try.” So I got busy.

So you wanted to try and make stuff instead of just criticizing or making fun of it?
Yeah, I realized that I wasn’t drawn to drama, you feel me? And skateboarding never really had that. We always had our insider drama or whatever, but we never had public drama. When you think of Big Brother and shit, back then we could laugh. When it became, “I can destroy your whole shit with a video,” or, “Fuck you, fuck this.” I was like, “Damn, this sucks.” I wanted to go into the industry and see what I can do to make it fun again. Being around Jake [Phelps] for so long, all I want to do is love skateboarding as much as that fucking crazy ass n**ga did.

“If I see some creepy, dangerous shit first hand, I’m going to handle it myself.”

Do you think there are some people who deserve to get their shit destroyed?
But that’s for certain people who’re in the field to do that. I don’t think it’s a skateboarder’s responsibility, a pedestrian or civilian responsibility. Those are legal matters. Obviously if people have insight they should speak about it to get legalities to pay attention to it, but that stuff is legal and I don’t want nothing to do with exposing people.

People without the knowledge, like people making assumptions, getting stories without 100% of the information, I’m not with that. If you’re a reporter and you report on something without actually seeing it yourself, I’m not with that. If I see some creepy, dangerous shit first hand, I’m going to handle it myself. Some people aren’t like me though, ready to handle things, so they have to use their platform to talk about it.

Was there an aspect of falling out of love with the show that played a role in its hiatus too?
Hell no. They [Thrasher] let us do what we wanted, bro. That’s the most enjoyable thing, especially today. Whether views were weird, it didn’t matter. We had our cult audience, you know what I’m saying? We had like a hundred thousand people that really wanted to see this every week. So I never once thought, “Why am I doing this?” I’ve just been doing it for so long, I wanted to try something else for a little bit.

That’s pretty rare. Many people who work in skating in any capacity after a couple years can get burnt out.
The thing that always picked me back up was somebody being like, “Bro, you had me cracking up this week. This was fire.” I felt like I offered something to so many skateboarders, keeping them updated and having a good time. Sometimes there were hard episodes where it was hard to be funny or hard to be on schedule, but we still made a good product. Joel would edit it and save it and make it sick. Even on the days that seemed like we weren’t doing that well we still had a good time.

“I called myself G Diddy putting baby oil on a ledge. I’m just being an idiot.”

Has your brain switched gears now that you’re not hunting for things to talk about on Skateline weekly?
Well, I still live that now, but it’s with my new character G Code. I’m still in search of clever lines about skating. It’s bringing back Skateline through a shorter rap song. Gary Rogers was the fake newscaster, even though it’s my name he’s the fake news parody guy, right? So this G Code character that I’m building now is a fake rap artist. I’m spitting that shit, and I’m just fucking around.

So you’re fucking around but taking the craft seriously?
That shit just comes to my mind because I think of it like Skateline jokes. I write these songs in like ten minutes. I did one where I called myself G Diddy putting baby oil on a ledge. I’m just being an idiot.

How does IRL Gary Rogers differ from Skateline Gary Rogers?
Definitely the energy. Obviously I have high energy moments, but that consistent energy is just the character. I’m not that serious outside of it, I’m a fucking goofball, but I’m a little more reserved than that n**ga. That n**ga’s crazy.

Are you less concerned about other people IRL too?
Yeah, bro. But the thing is, I was never really in anybody’s business. I only spoke about things that were out in the open. It has to be something everybody knows about for us to talk about it. We’d never do something investigational or in the background. No breaking news, unless it was something people were already talking about or it’s known knowledge. I’m not here to get into your life, I’m here to make a joke so that we can laugh together.

So you’ve never used insider information for breaking news?
One time I got an inside tip, about some [Stefan] Janoski shit, and we made an episode and it led to me and him having a bad falling out. Tim O’Connor helped me and Stefan squash our beef in Copenhagen like ten years later, but I remember I got close to him, and I dropped my board, and he was like, “Why are you looking at me like that?” and I was like, “Because I don’t like you.” He was like, “Wait, what?” He took his glasses off and we had a man to man.

But that’s a good ass dude. He’s one of the realest people out there. And I held that in for so many years. Like if anyone asked about people being mad about Skateline, I’d lie. There were so many pros and so many problems in the background that nobody will ever know because me and the person squashed it like men every time. Why do so many skateboarders love me? Because if someone goes, “When I see this guy, blah blah,” I will go to the event, go to the premier, to look them eye to eye like a man and squash it.

“I’ll never apologize for anything I said on Skateline.”

So if someone misunderstood or was bummed out, you’d try your best to seek them out and figure it out?
Hell yeah. But I’ll never apologize for anything I said on Skateline. The one time somebody got an apology from me was when I found out the homie had cancer. And it wasn’t an apology for what I said, because the joke wasn’t off, you feel me? I apologized because I didn’t know he had cancer.

What’s so bad about apologizing though?
Nothing. As a man, you’re supposed to apologize. If you’re wrong, apologize. But for me, Skateline was this bit of fun. Except for some of the shit I said about Nike [laughs].

The people personally though, I was always just playing. Sometimes playing around can be too much, but I’m not going to apologize for nothing on Skateline. There’s never been a like, “Oh, our shop closed down because of something you said.”

Do you believe in karma? Like do you think making a career of talking shit came back to bite you?
One hundred percent. First of all, I’m lucky that I’m even here. I’m not the best skateboarder on planet earth, I’m just a guy who wants to do shit. I talked a lot of shit and n**gas talked back, it is what it is [laughs]. But damn, I never set out to ruin motherfuckers. You dish out the energy of joking around, and I guess somebody can joke back at you and ruin your whole shit. I accept that shit tenfold. I love taking accountability. Who else am I supposed to blame?

Is that something you had to learn, taking accountability?
You not only have to learn it, you have to accept it. For years I thought I was so important to skateboarding. I thought I was doing this thing that nobody else was doing, but I’m not that important. If I don’t deliver a certain product, people don’t care about me. I accept all of that. I’m a grown ass man, I’m not salty, I’m not mad. I’m happy.

“Six n**gas are going to carry your casket and you’re worried about a hundred thousand likes?”

Do you do anything to keep that mindset intact?
I’m not on Instagram. I haven’t been on for I want to say eight years now. My team helps me do it. I try to think on my own as much as possible. There are kids that are destroyed right now because of what somebody said in the comments. Sally Nobody comments some negativity and it messes up their dopamine. But it doesn’t even matter what they said. Six n**gas are going to carry your casket and you’re worried about a hundred thousand likes? Damn.

And I’m not ignorant to the fact that likes will get you more business, but when you look at life and where you want to go, everyone famous is a piece of shit apparently. They all suck. I don’t want to hang out with none of them. I wanted to go to a P Diddy party my entire life, and then all the shit came out. Now I don’t [laughs]. That’s what put me off Instagram, it’s super weird and I just don’t care about it. We should all just be homies and live.

How often did you look at comments on YouTube?
The comments used to be popping, all these negative, “Monkey. Big lips.” You know how YouTube used to be. But I read them every week for Gary Responds. But I would just read ‘em, and go by ‘em until people were like, “Damn, he doesn’t even care.”

Does skateboarding in 2026 need a show like Skateline?
I think skateboarding has enough. I just need people to realize that we control skateboarding. If we’re saying it’s dead, we’re dead. If it’s not cool, we’re not cool. It’s all ours. If you have a platform and you go, “Oh, skateboarding is dead,” then you are a part of why it is dying.

I was part of the problem. We made fun of kids, and then they felt like they weren’t good enough. That they didn’t dress right. We did all these things that made skateboarding not tight. So we got to be like, hey, skateboarding is what you make of it. Do your shit. We wonder where the youth has gone, but we attacked the youth.

So you see your show as part of the problem of alienating new skaters now?
Hundred percent. Looking back, it was a part of the problem, talking about the corporate things, not liking contests, all these things that could make people money, all these things that could upgrade lives.
I think I got to a point where I was like, “What am I doing?” If something is wrong with skateboarding, go fix it. That’s what I’m living out now. I don’t like X, Y, Z, I’m gonna go do something. Since I want to talk all this shit, I’ll put my shit on the line and do it myself.

“I love all the kids people talk about. Jagger Eaton. Switch back smith Hollywood 16 for a part nobody saw [laughs].”

Does skateboarding need some shit talk though? Like when you see someone like Ginwoo [Onodera], does he need some tough love?
But that’s his look. Why does he have to fit in? We see him, and I see where you’re coming from and wanting to curate skateboarding in the right way, but he’s an individual. And he’s a little ass kid, so when people are talking crazy about these kids, I look at them like, “Y’all weird as fuck.” He’s doing his shit, happy. I love when he punches the air when he’s excited. It’s like, n**ga I’m raw. That’s what skateboarding is all about. I love all the kids people talk about. Jagger Eaton. Switch back smith Hollywood 16 for a part nobody saw [laughs]. You feel me? I fuck with that.

I think skateboarding lacks individuality now. That needs to come back to skateboarding. When we were coming up it was like music, everyone was different, now everyone has all black fits.

Didn’t you make fun of Ginwoo at first?
I said, imagine losing to him and that’s the fit. Look at those socks. I wasn’t saying, “Oh, look at him, he looks trash.” I like him as an individual. I like Burberry Erry. I like anybody that doesn’t look like anybody else and can skate their ass off.

So you’re saying the comment was more out of love?
Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. It’s out of actual love. I’m not trying to say I love something so I don’t look bad. Bro, you’re mad because someone doesn’t like what you like, everybody is different. I don’t eat fish [laughs] and there are hella pescatarians out there. Everyone lives a different life.

What do you think changed about the skate-commentary landscape over the years?
There are a bunch of people who do petty shit to try and get views. I’m not mad at them, they are just feeding their families, but sometimes real shit is happening behind the scenes, you know? It’s like damn, homie is in rehab. Homie is struggling. And it’s all happening in the background. The people online don’t even know what they just did. Then people move on like it’s nothing.

Can you tell me about the last Skateline episode?
I wore glasses, had the hair, you can connect the dots yourself. But it was like, this is what y’all like now. This is what YouTube and skateboarding likes now. That episode was just us laughing at that.

“I lowkey don’t talk as much shit as you think.”

People thought you were crashing out.
Not even close. We just wanted to get people talking. That was it. It was a parody on like longer form content, no profanity, or whatever the fuck. I’d never switch up and then tell y’all I’m switching up. I’m just going to just do it.

[laughs] Listen, Gifted Hater has this really good formula and it’s super impressive how he can keep people engaged for those 20, 30 minute episodes. When you think about skaters, those aren’t the type of people to sit there like that, so he did that. That’s crazy. Usually people would be like, “Wrap this shit up.”

You’re surprised that people like the long format?
How the fuck do skateboarders watch a 45 minute episode on people beefing. What the fuck? But it worked, and he found success. So we’re like, let’s make fun of that. We’re the three minute show, he’s the 45 minute show. There’s no real hatred or feeling that he took over. I know some people are like, “Damn, Gary couldn’t keep up.” But that ain’t my shit. I’m not going to be mad at anyone who’s winning in it. I’m not a hater ass motherfucker. And I know that for a long time people were like, “You talk so much shit.” But have y’all been listening? I lowkey don’t talk as much shit as you think. I’m trying to give advice, I’m trying to make sure people have fun.

What happened with your X-Games commentator gig you had? I heard a rumor you got fired, but I’m sure there’s more to the story than that?
Something happened at an X-Games with security and I didn’t like how they went about it, and a lot of things were changing as a business, so they went one way and I went the other. Shout out to them, I didn’t like how certain things went, and as things were changing everyone that I worked with internally had left, so I started working with new people, but after a while all the changes add up.

I experienced it, I was on television, people heard me and saw me. I’d rather have people think I got fired, that’s a nice touch. That’s way more viral, people thinking they were like, “You gone n**ga [laughs].”

[laughs] I thought you said something crazy and they were like, “Yo, take him off the air.”
Hell no, bro. Something happened late night after one of the events with a security guard. We didn’t see eye to eye and he was just like me, being a man, and some stuff happened. No physical altercation, it was just words. But people saw me acting in a way they’d never seen before. That security guard can’t just let you walk by because you got gold teeth. He’s just doing his job.

Did your ego got the best of you at the moment?
I’m pretty sure it did. I’m going to go with that. Take accountability and say in that moment with that security guard, my ego got the best of me. He didn’t know I was supposed to be in the fucking VIP section. Just because I’m with all the pros and y’all trying to walk in, he doesn’t know that. He’s here to work from six to ten o’clock and guard Wiz Khalifa. That’s it. Earlier that day I had stolen a golf cart from production and was riding around the whole stadium. They saw me take it, but again, they were like, “Why does he think he can just do whatever he wants here?” But bro, that’s my energy. That’s the useful shit. That’s what the kids like to see. It’s like if y’all don’t get that, I need to leave.

Did you make a full-time living off of Skateline when it was running?
Skateline was a good base point, working four times a month, and making a good salary. And every five years I upgraded in life. X-Games, Illegal Civ, Black Gold, Thrasher Boys, I’ve always been doing stuff to make a living because I have my name through Skateline. But it was weird, because all the movies and opportunities that I could have done, I didn’t because I wanted to make sure I was doing Skateline. It was never in the way, it was just there. When someone would be like, “This project takes six weeks.” I couldn’t do it.

“I don’t need to be the face of nothing.
I don’t need people walking up on me and trying to talk to me.”

Do you kick yourself because you feel like you missed some earlier opportunities for yourself?
Hell no. Because if I were to have taken those other opportunities I would have been this hella popular person who can’t just go to Target and shop. I love my life, bro. I did it right. I got blessed at every turn, you know what I’m saying? Even now, I’m working on this thing called the SBA right now, the Skateboard Association with these people. I’m getting all these opportunities to build myself. I don’t need to be some super famous person. I need to grow as a business so that I can fund ideas and give back to the youth.

Why not be famous?
What does that do for anybody? That shit ain’t worked for nobody yet. I mean I guess Steph Curry feels like he has a pretty good life right now. But I don’t know bruh, it just doesn’t work. I guess the best story is Frank Ocean. He made his money and then dipped. I’m on my dip off. I don’t need to be the face of nothing. I don’t need people walking up on me and trying to talk to me.

Did it become harder to joke about skaters as you became close friends with them?
Hell no. It became way easier. That was my favorite part. My thing was always, “If you know me, you know I’m playing.” So if you’re taking it seriously, then we were probably never really cool, like you lowkey didn’t like me already. Companies too, you feel me? I’ll make fun of anybody. I don’t care. It’s a joke, bro. If you did some goofy shit, I’m going to say some goofy shit.

Do you think you created a new lane in skateboarding with Skateline?
I love that we opened the door for people to speak about skateboarding in a way that other people wanted to watch for entertainment. There are people that did this shit before us, but we opened the door for people that may not be the best skateboarder in the world to get to be in the industry and give ideas. That is sick no matter what.

What’s your biggest learning from doing Skateline for 12 years?
Stay consistent. Keep going, make sure you give it your all while you can.

Interview by: Ian Michna
Intro and editorial assists: Ben Komins
Photos courtesy of: Admando Soria-Ortega
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