I Roll NY Interviews Vinny Minton

In the month of February, I got in touch with Deshi Pro, Vinny Minton, who was spending some time in New York City. Unfortunately, due to scheduling issues and bad timing I didn’t have a chance to meet up with him or skate with the Aggressive Mall rider. Vinny, being the great guy he truly is was nice enough to stay in contact with me and blessed us here at I Roll NY with an online interview a week after his stay. This was not your typical interview, Vinny is such a chill guy that the interview we did simply ended up reading as a conversation amongst friends. We got to talk about his stay in New York City, his past experience with Salomon, an inside look in the Bay/Cali scene, upcoming projects Vinny is working on and his video production company he owns with Ivan Narez. We here at I Roll NY wanted to say thanks to Vinny Minton for being such a great and humble person and allowing us this opportunity. Check out our online interview below which features Vinny’s own pictures of his stay here in New York.

So what brought you to NYC?
Business, I had to shoot a conference/summit for http://www.alwayson.goingon.com with Ivan Narez. We got to stay at this ballin ass hotel, the Ritz-Carlton, in Manhattan.                              
What? That’s sick. Can you give us a little info on what you and Ivan are working on for that site?
We basically shot different panels of speakers. CEO’s of multi million dollar buisness. Talking about media and basically how to make money with advertising and what not.

Nice. So that’s how you got to stay at the Ritz Carlton?
Yeah, we were there for 3 days and then chilled at Billy O’Neils for 3 days.

Vinny’s view from one of the conference rooms.

Cool, so you and Ivan were here for six days in total?
Yup, basically. I forgot how cold it gets on the east coast! Aint used to that shit!

Ah man, you don’t even know about today. Up to 50mph winds and I was out trying to film and skate haha.
Damn! I would’ve been in the house all day.

I instantly regretted coming out as soon as I stepped out and got hit with the wind.
Ahaha I bet.

So did anything crazy go down in the hotel? Or at Fish’s? Any little stories or memorable moments?
Haha nothing crazy, just posted up for the most part. We were going to go out and get some cool scenery shots of the city but I was slacking. We got on the train and the batteries on my cam were dead, so Fish took us to Chinatown and we had some grub, chinese food, and walked to the Brooklyn Banks. It reminded me of Hubba Hideout in San Fransisco. They’re both legendary skate spots. One thing I will not forget is Fish’s roommate. I’m going to put him on blast. That dude was fucked up every time I saw his ass. Eating pills like they were skittles. Dude feel asleep in his breakfast and shit ahaha.

Putting work in at Fish’s (online, on the phone, and listening to music).

Haha, wow man. So how did you and Billy hook up? Was this your first time in NYC?
Nah, I used to live n NY when i was little. Billy’s my kuddy so I just hit him up before I flew out and let him know I was going to be in town.

Cool man I didn’t know you lived in New York. Where did you live when you were here?
Governors Island, at a military base across from the Statue of Liberty.

So how was experiencing NY on a military base? When did you move out of New york?
I was a youngster. I lived in NY from when I was 4 to 6. I remember getting into trouble at school. My kindergarten teacher hated me. I had too much energy to stay still. I also remember staring at a bum with red ass eyes digging in the trash and my mom telling me not to stare. I remember the fish smell from the brick/bumpy roads, looking out of our apartment window and seeing the city and the Statue of Liberty.

Vinny hanging out with Ms. Liberty.

Did any of those memories come back to you when you were here last weekend?
Yeah. When we walked over to ground zero, I remembered looking at those buildings from our apartment. It was pretty crazy!

So besides walking around the city, did you get to do any skating and experience some of the NYC skate spots?
Austin Paz came and picked us up and we hit up some spot in Manhattan off Water street. I think that’s the name. An old school spot kind of like a pyramid ledge. The floor was hella slippery though, and my knee wasn’t feeling right, so I just chilled. Then Free, from BET’s 106 and Park, came out talked to us. She wanted to do a little interview with some rollerbladers for her blog.

How was it skating New York City? How did our scene compare to your Cali scene?
It was cool even though I didn’t skate. I noticed there’s a ton of skaters out here though. Hella random kids just showed up. All youngsters too…the next generation.

Vinny’s amazing view from his stay at the Ritz Carlton.

Yeah I see a lot of new kids anytime I go into Manhattan. So there’s not too many youngsters out there in Cali on blades?
Bruh, I hardly see someone I don’t know that skates out here and anytime you hit a spot, the odds are you aren’t going to see a rollerblader.

So you guys pretty much all know each other and roll with the same bunch?
Basically, and everyone is older. 19 and up. We’ve got a Tuesday night skate session up here in the Bay and Black Mike is the youngest that be up there and he’s 19.

Ah, OK. So was there anything positive or negative that you saw or noticed about the NYC scene and the people skating?
Positive: Seeing kids skating!

Nothing negative?
Nah.

Vinny at Ground Zero.

Good news, good news. How was the plane ride here and back? What was the first and last thing you did during your visit here?
Good plane ride. Virgin Airlines is the best . The first thing we did when we got to NY was have a meeting and the last thing we did was hit up a park n NJ.

So besides talking about your stay in NYC would you mind answering some questions about your future plans and some questions about deshi?
No problem. I gotta dip soon but go head pimpin.

How did you hook up with Deshi? Did you contact them or they, you?
Rachard [Johnson] hooked me up. He said they were interested in putting me on.

You were on Salomon before getting on Deshi. Can you tell us about how the whole Salomon getting out of the rollerblading business went down?
Salomon was a corporate company, a branch off Addidas. When the money wasn’t coming in the way they wanted, they pulled the plug. And everyone knows there isn’t any money in skating. 9 out of 10 pros can’t actually make a living out of skating.

Ah man, yeah I remember hearing Arlo and Adam Johnson talking about that in Barely Dead.
Yeah if everyone who’s a pro blader was a pro snowboarder or skateboarder we’d be ballin hahaha.

Shit man, you guys would have your own commercials and TV shows by now.
haha right.

OK so last questions before you have to bounce. What can we expect to see from Vinny Minton in the future? Any Deshi news or Hyphy news? Anything you’d like to say or shout out?
Keep a look out for Connected, Ivan’s new video. I have a profile in there, it’s definitely going to be among the best of the skate videos to drop in ’09.

Nice, anything else? Any projects you’re personally working on?
For everyone that’s been wondering what Ive been up to I’ve started a videography business with Ivan Narez. So we’ve been on our hustle staying busy. Family is first though, gotta make money, pay bills and do the grown up shit. Skating gets in where it fits in for me. I’m going to give my knee a month or two before I skate again. It’s never been the same since I hurt it in 2004 and I have no health insurance like most pros ahaha. I’m going to bitter cold so you will see me with a camera. If you want me to film you, get nice. Get my attention..haha holla!

Hahah nice man. Anyone you want to shout out? Want to shout out your videography business so people can check it out?
Justin at Aggressive Mall, Fish, Ivan, Vic, Morcigs, BMike…you can check out our site at http://imperial-video.com shits hella old right now but were in the middle of updating it. We also started a blog at http://imperial-videoblog.com/ that you can check out.

Well thanks Vinny for taking the time out and answering our questions. We really appreciate it.
No problem pimpin! keep in touch fo sho.

      

Photos taken and provided by Vinny Minton.

Tags: aggressive mall, deshi, i roll ny, irollny, vinny minton