Proto Week Day # 3: Jackson Manzie Interview

Jackson Manzie is Proto Scooters newest rider and we couldn't be more pleased to have him be a part of the team. Jackson is one of the few Australians who approaches riding and filming with the street mentality and he fits right into Proto with the rest of the team. With the Proto Week underway, we thought it would be good to get Jackson's take on being a part of Proto, his injuries, and his upcoming plans coming out to America to film for Armageddon 2012. Interview by Kris Anacleto

You've been riding for Proto for over half a year now, but this  interview kind of marks the official announcement. How does it feel to be the first new rider added in the past few years and what's your overall take on being on the team now?

It feels good, obviously. I'm very grateful. My overall take would be that it's exactly where I want to be. The wheels are the best, the team is the best to ride with, I feel very lucky.


I know everyone else on the team is stoked to have you, and they're all stoked to ride with you when you're supposed to make your way here this summer for 2 months to film for the video. But last week injury seemed to hit you pretty hard, care to explain what's going on with that?

3 of my vertebrae are squashed, probably just from the many years of riding and bad posture. So the nerves inside those vertebrae are being squashed, making all the muscles in my back and chest tight. So right now I'm seeing a chiropractor 3 times a week and doing heavy stretching 3 times a day as well. So far it hasn't improved much so I'm pretty depressed. Can't really do anything physical at all.


That's some heavy stuff. I know Dylan Kasson is out staying with you in Australia right now, are you cruising out with him at all telling him trick ideas trying to live vicariously through him?

Uh nope, haha. Right now I'm pretty much his chauffeur, he just made a big list of spots he wants to go to and I'm just driving him around and filming him with the gang.


Just bring him to all the skate parks and say "Here, just film at these parks, that's how the Australians do it!"

No. Just no. Haha.


Fine, have it your way. With that being said, what made you and the Friendly crew gravitate to street riding and filming rather then the park stuff? I feel like it's a pretty obvious answer to a lot of people, but the park riding is just such a big part of the Australian scene.

Yeah, it is. And we're cool with that, after all that's where we all started. Someone asked us about this exact thing about a week ago. I think we got to a point where we were watching a lot of skating and wanted our videos to be like theirs. Their videos actually have a feel to them, you get a sense of that crews culture and their city from watching them ride street. I don't know. That's why I like it. We just got over hanging out at parks and decided to go explore more.

What skate videos get you specifically stoked the most? Do you think scooter videos will evolve and have that skate video feel some day, or do you think they will continue to have the feel they generally do nowadays?

For me i really like those really tight fast skate flicks like the Far East Skate Network and there's a great one from Ohio called Windows and Doorways. The filming is on point, all the lines are fast and they always come up with creative stuff. I'd love to see scootering become that but i think that's a while off.


Well put. Australia has one of the biggest scooter scenes compared to all the other countries, which means big scooter business is going on out there. You're managing one of the ScooterHut stores now correct?

Correct, it's nice. I get to sell what I know most about. I want to make it have the same vibe as a skate store. A place where you can actually come and relax, read a mag and hang while you look at parts.


When you aren't working at the shop or out riding, what's your week consist of?

Nothing right now, at the moment I'm driving Dylan around and working to get money for the states. Trying to get my back better I guess. Day to day, if I wasn't riding and if i wasn't injured I'd probably start the day sleeping in and watching the Simpsons re-runs with a huge cup of tea, then maybe see what my friends were doing and go fishing or something. Or hiking. I've been getting into that too.

Assuming you'll be better by the time you actually get here, what are you looking forward to the most while here for 2 months? Got any specific spots you're trying to get heavy on?

I'm just looking forward to drinking 5 watermelon arizona's a day, and going to wherever Tyler Wheeland wants to go. I'll spend a fair bit of time at the Proto shop too I guess. And we're hitting up the Chicago street jam so we're gonna have a nice road trip through the states to get there. Oh yeah and eating Mexican food until I die.

Proto intends to have all it's riders have signature parts at some point that reflect their way of riding, what are you looking to have signature wise? And are you gonna push that the most at ScooterHut or what!?

I haven't even thought of signature parts because I haven't been on the team that long. But some long black socks with green proto logos would be pretty dankkkk. Maybe a deck that was my favourite color and length. That'd be cool. I don't know, I think I'd have to discuss ideas with Andrew first. I'd probably want a wheel actually, with a cool design and colorway the most actually.  I guess if I was to have a part that reflected me, I'd want a long ass deck. Like really long. Probably 22' and 4.65 wide with an 83º headtube. That'd be perfect. I have size 11 feet and the only deck I've ridden that's long enough is Peasely's Addict so I'd go with something like that.

Anything you'd like to close with? Shout outs, thank yous, care to mention your favorite Australian park to do fly outs at?

Probably just all to Andrew for including me in an awesome company, for helping me get to America this year and to all the Hatgang for not giving one single fuck ever and being awesome.