Words: Eric Witmer
Photos: AJ Italiano
Generally speaking, I’m not very fond of watching tall and lanky skateboarders; for they look awkward and out of place. However, even though Matt is tall and lanky, I thoroughly enjoy watching him skateboard. He has a very relaxed style, he’s not really a clone of many other skateboarders, and he skates stuff that I like. He’s the only skateboarder I know that can casually bigspin frontboard 270 out on flatbars and his lipslide treflip is just so rad. He’s definitely coming up for sure and it was tight that I was able to be the first to interview him. Everyone should be on the look out for this kid, he’s gonna be in the spotlight soon for sure.
When I first got in contact with your friends to figure out some ideas for this interview, your buddy Giorgio fed me a bunch of good stuff. You ready for this?
Oh yeah, let’s do this haha.
Word, so what’s your full name, who do you ride for, how old are you and how long have you been skating?
My name’s Matt Militano, I ride for Think (Flow) and Bentelys Boards skateshop. I’m 18 years old and I’ve been skating for a little under 6 years
Are you hyped on Neff?
Hahahaha what a random question. I know Giorgio gave you this one. Nah I’m not backing Neff. They have an amazing team and all but its so wack? It didn’t start as a skateboard company so I don’t view it as a skateboarding company. I just think the company as a whole is lame haha.
On a side note, I heard you’re incapable of wearing jeans? Has the high water trend made a permanent mark on you?
That is defiantly true haha. Ever since I started wearing chinos/dickies, I can’t wear normal jeans. They just feel weird as hell. Everyone would always rip on me for my high pants even before I skated, but I guess you can say I’ve fell victim to the high water trend hahahahaha.
I also heard you have awful luck when you’re driving. How many times have you been pulled over and how many times have you misplaced your keys? Didn’t you’re parents have to drive all the way to Philly one night to drop off your keys because you lost them?
Dude I get pulled over so much haha. I think I just have terrible luck. I’ve only gotten two tickets so far, but I’ve been pulled over so many times. I lose my keys a lot too. Last week Neil Herrick locked my keys in my car. Thank god I have AAA! But yeah, one time we were skating that bench spot at Ben Franklin High in the city and a swarm of kids came out from a basketball game and snatched my keys.
Explain the Phoenix AM/ In and Out Burger incident.
It was actually at Volcom’s Wild in the Parks, but it was at the Phoenix AM park. Anyway it was weird as hell. After the contest we went out to eat at In-out-burger. It was me, Kevin Liedtke, Giorgio Villone, Seth Schiavo, and about ten other dudes from the contest. A group of like ten older dudes in their 30′s celebrating their win from an old man’s softball game came to In-n-out shortly after us. We were being pretty loud so some of the older dudes started yelling stuff over to us and we would yell back. Then It got insane. Some old dude threw a drink at Kevin, there was this one dude ready to hit a 16 year old. It was pretty wild haha.
In a more skate related topic. You were out in San Francisco earlier this year. What were you out there for?
I was there to skate with the Think team. I stayed at the Thrasher park. It was so fun. I love SF. The spots there are so sick and everyone I met was real nice.
Speaking of Think, what happened between you, them and Street Corner? Full story! Pretty much Streetcorner no longer exists. They are distributing Think, Lucky, and Hubba out of the Lowcard warehouse and Venture moved to DLX. But its called StrangeBird Distribution now. Theres a bunch of companies on it like HardTimes, Bloodwizard, Paradise wheels, etc. I wasn’t getting any boards because they were so busy with the switch. Since I hadn’t heard from anyone there I figured I was off but I just talked to the new TM a few days ago and I’m still gonna be getting boards from them. I’m hyped because Think is an amazing company.
It’s hard to believe that they didn’t seem hyped on you… I mean, you did do lipslide 360 flip out on 3 up 3 down in SF; probably one of the best tricks done on that spot. How long did that take you?
Spoiler Alert! Haha nah thanks though. It took me a little longer than an hour. I wasn’t even getting close then I randomly landed it. I’ve been seeing some pretty crazy stuff on that thing lately. Josh Matthews just did back blunt kickflip, that’s insane.
You’re a pretty productive person. There’s always new footage of you being put out in montages and such. What’s the key to staying motivated and productive?
Thanks! I’m not really sure. I just love skating, I skate every day. When you skate with your friends, it’s way easier to get footage.
Hurricane's on handrails are definitely crazy. Matt doesn't seem to have a problem with them though.
Are your skate friends a big influence on you? On a typical day of skating, who do you go out skating with?
Yeah they are for sure. On a normal day I’ll skate with dudes like Kevin Liedtke, Giorgio Villone, Ian Hawkinz, Leo Rawle, Mike Keaveney, Nick Veres, Sam Bass, Neil Herrick, Brett Ross, and Jack Gannon. But I’ve been skating NYC a lot lately and when I’m there I’ll skate with dudes like Cooper Winterson, Evan Dittig, Doug Cool, Dorian Tineo, and whoever else is around.
What brought you out to NYC this past weekend? Did you gather up some good footage?
Just a random trip haha. It was so fun. We filmed for two days, but then Cooper had to leave so we just skated parks the last two days. We went to the House of Vans and that was tight.
On a previous trip to NYC, I heard a bum tried to steal your sweatshirt in Harlem? How did that come about?
Yeah haha that sucked! We were in Harlem at this rail spot, it’s really hood. I put my hoodie down and was filming a line and the hoodie disappeared. About 20 minutes later we see a bum with my hoodie on and had to beg for it back. The dude wanted money for giving it back.
Are you filming for Jake Todd’s “Fully Flacid?”
Yeah for sure! I’ve got a good amount filmed with Jake for it. I’m pretty hyped on it. There’s a lot of kids having parts and Jake’s been working on a promo, it’s sick so far!
Any plans for the rest of 2011? Anything that you want to accomplish, skate related?
Keep skating as much as possible, film, travel, hopefully go to Tampa again, and Have fun!
Time to finish it up. Any last words or shout outs?
First of all my family of course, especially my parents! They have done everything for me. All the new dudes at Think, Nate at Bentelys, Cooper Winterson, Jake Todd, Neil Herrick, all of my homies, and Eric for doing the interview.