Mike Vallely Visits The Nine Club For Latest ‘Stop And Chat’
Mike Vallely‘s Street Plant Skateboards, known for unique drops that reference the pro’s extensive and diverse career, has recently moved its operation out to Des Moines, Iowa. (The midwestern metropolis is the site of Lauridsen skatepark, the largest skateboarding facility in the United States, featured in last week’s Dew Tour.) The Nine Club caught up with this legend for this week’s episode of ‘Stop And Chat’, following on Vallely’s March 2019 in-studio interview. The crew talk about Des Moines; the longest and most talked about Nine Club episode (clocking in at over 5 hours); his process for coming up with Street Plant graphics; getting a talent agent; getting health insurance through Destructo Trucks; watching Mark Gonzales grind the first handrail; why he crossed out his Element tattoo; spray painting Paul Blart; why he ran through a Graveyard in Public Domain; and, as always, Vallely goes over some of his skate clips. Watch the interview, coming in at a pint-sized two hours and twenty-one minutes (just kidding, Mike), above!
We’ve had the pleasure of working with Vallely many times since the very beginning of The Berrics—his BATB 2 match versus future champ Chris Cole is a classic. When we moved to the new facility in 2012, he quickly marked his territory by blasting footplants off the five-foot quarterpipe wall and skating The Berrics like no one else. At one point, he took a bone-rattling slam that resulted in a hip-fracture, but he still kept going until he got the clip. Check out some of his projects, below:
