SH*T!

Well, whatever. It's still my opinion that there should be a constant stream of Mike Anderson. I think Patrick O'Dell of Epicly Later'd fame once said in and interview, "…I guess when you are young everything is so major, and then you get older and it's hard to care about the new guys." I don't think this is a shot at anyone who's younger coming up, but a testament to the honing of the years. I mean, not many 26-year-olds and beyond are going to list a teen as their favorite skater. They may notice their skill, but that's about it.

However, other skaters stand out in the slew of come-uppin's. Off the top of my head, a few come to mind, like Grant Taylor, Brandon Westgate, Alex Olson and, off of what I've seen recently, Mike Anderson. There's something about all of these guys and others like them, that harkens back to another era. You can tell right away that they have the makings of timelessness if everything goes in the right direction.

Mike's general aversion to talking about skating in terms of careers or influences, led me to call on someone else—Mike's friend and co-worker, éS's online content manager, Skateboard Mag staff writer and effective team accompaniment, Rob Brink—to keep Mike Anderson day going, three days later. In one-and-a-half words, Rob described Mike with this: "F**K YEAAAA-!" It seems to be a mantra of simplicity, not too much thought involved, that came from an incident when, on the "You éS, Eh?" Tour, some tye-dye-wrapped burnout moaped in the door of a Virginian Chick-Fil-A and asked their whole crew for change.

"Some people grumble, 'Nah, man,'" Rob explained, which put a severe downer on this stoner's day, when Mike goes, "'Yeah man, I got change for a ten,' and starts counting out his cash…As he's handing it to the kid, the kid leans back a bit, like arches his back, then throws his head back and shouts to the ceiling, 'F******KKKK YEAHHHHHHH!' in this really high pitched voice." Now, sometimes the humor is lost in roadtrip stories, so imagine your funniest memory from a roadtrip you've taken with your friends and think about how the simplest things stuck in your mind as the most unforgettable and Mike's constant repetition of "F******KKKK YEAHHHHHHH!" in that high-pitched stoner's voice for the remainder of the trip, really starts to put a smile on your face.

He's that feel-good simple-minded ripper, and I don't mean it in a bad way. He's just uncomplicated by the distractions. "We pay him with Chick-Fil-A cards instead of money. This way, he doesn't feel like he's working too hard," Rob joked, when I asked him if he's figured out a euphemism for the word "career," when talking to Mike. It's a word Mike clearly tries to avoid.

In all instances, the stories about Mike come back to a smile or a laugh, like his unusual response to something as mindf**king as splitting your eyebrow open in a face-to-face collision with some kid while on tour, which only got a chuckle out of him as blood streamed down his face (check the last clip in the video compilation of Mike Anderson footage above to see the collision). "Some people take a long time to learn how to enjoy life," Rob adds, "but Mike isn't one of 'em.

When I asked Rob if éS is hoping to put their two really feel good, nonchalant Krooked riders Bobby Worrest and Mike Anderson up front and center in a company that has been through a lot of changes and characterized by serious technology and almost futuristic innovation, in terms of its shoes, Rob mocked, "Did someone leak the Excel document out to you? I have Gonz and Jim Thiebaud wiretapped so I can figure out the secret to their nonchalance. I also found a book on Amazon not too long ago called 'Nonchalance for Dummies.'" But, he added seriously, "I think any footage or coverage you see of either of those two gives off that vibe really effortlessly. I know I get warm fuzzies in my tummy every time I see those two skate."

"I think Mike is one of those rare breeds of people," Rob concluded, "whose skating shines because he is out there doing it for all the right reasons. There are people who love skateboarding…Well, we all do, right? But, then there are people on a level kinda higher than that…They love it, but it's like, they have tapped into something cosmic the rest of us don't know. It oozes out of them the minute they step on a board. Mike is one of those people."—Josh Brooks