There is no such thing as an overnight success, although Cody Cepeda kind of looks like one. I met Cody probably 5 years ago at the Make A Wish event at Southside Skatepark in Houston, Tx. I think he was there for the Es Game of Skate finals, it also happened to be the same day I met Ross Capicchioni who also happened to be there with Cody. They grew up skating together, but that’s a different story. However, I do remember driving around Houston, lost, looking for the movie theater and talking with him and all of his friends from the TCMT crew about the skateboard industry, who runs it, who has a say in it, why some people don’t succeed and others do and everything else I could answer that they could ask. What I got from that conversation as well as having my own experience of being from the midwest was, is there hope in making it because around every corner back home there’s someone telling you there isn’t. My answer to them was yes, but it’s not easy and it’s not fast. More importantly, I wanted to instill in Cody that there was not only hope in someone from the Midwest making it, but that there was hope in him making it, and that he had the skills required to make this his life and not something that was just a small part of it at one time only to be reflected upon every so fondly when he was old and grey.
So, I kept an eye on him. We kept in touch. I followed him when every TCMT Mixtape came out, I saw the creation and destruction of his skate shop, TruClass, and I hosted him at my house a few times before the announcement of BATB 7, Pros vs. Joes. I knew he was a great candidate for it, but there was a process I had no real control over in order for him to make it in. He made it. Once he got in there was the process of him actually having to win battle after battle, something else I had no control over. But he did and not only did he make it to the finals, he won the whole thing, and became, what many would consider, an overnight success. However, I assure you it was anything but.
With a certain amount of success comes a certain amount of doubt, internally and externally. The next thing Cody needed, or felt like he needed to prove to justify this success and show people he was more than just a guy with a big bag of flatground tricks, was to film a part… in the streets. A part as good as anyone who shares that space up at the top of this skate pyramid and I thought that PUSH would be the perfect vehicle to showcase that and in my humble opinion, I think that’s what he’s achieved. So sit back, relax, click the play button and watch a recap of Cody’s journey towards making this part and finally, after all this time, his first official part in the streets. – sb
