Nick Trapasso has been a fan favorite since his amazing part in Toy Machine's "Suffer The Joy" video and an underground sensation for anyone who saw him skate in the Bootleg skateboards days. In a very short time he has made some power moves (getting a shoe on Cons, winning the X Games Real Street contest in 2010). Trapasso has also ruffled some feathers (getting kicked off Volcom, quitting Vans.). Trapasso's recent move came as a bit of a shock to everyone in skateboarding: he quit Toy Machine, the team that made him famous, to start his own board brand, Life Extension. I caught up with Nick to get the story.

What happened? You quit or got kicked off Toy Machine?
I quit like a week ago. I just called Mike Sinclair and said I was gone and then I called Ed [Templeton, Toy Machine's founding pro] and said I was gone. I said thanks to Ed and that was all. It was pretty normal.

And everyone was cool with it?
Yeah, I've seen all the guys already just around Long Beach and everything is cool.

What's your game plan now?
We're trying to meet up with some people and see if we want to do this board brand, Life Extension, ourselves or do it with someone else who is down to help us out with it. Me and Pat Pasquale are going to do it ourselves fo sho but we're trying to see if we want to get it distributed by somebody or just do it out of our garage.

What wood are you using?
We want to use the same stuff that Deathwish uses; Bareback. But I guess it's hard to get boards from them right now.

There's been speculation that you might ride for Deathwish. Are you definitely doing your own board brand?
Oh yeah, for sure. I'm definitely not going to ride for anyone else. We're starting L.E.

Have you considered having it distributed by Baker Boys Distribution [home of Deathwish, Shake Junt, etc.]?
We're down for that but we're just trying to figure out what we want to do.

How soon do you think you'll have boards out?
By December we want to have a trailer and the first catalog come out.

You have tricks in Pat's part in the upcoming Shake Junt DVD. Is that like the first L.E. promo?
Kind of, for sure. I'm going to have like three or four tricks in it. I just have to give them to Shane [Heyl, founder of Shake Junt]. They'll be in Pat's part so that will be tight. When the boards come out we're trying to have a 10 or 15-minute video to have in them.

Have you been stocking footage?
Hell yeah! Pat's got a bunch of stuff and I have enough for a nice, little trailer.

What was the main reason you wanted to leave Toy Machine and go off on your own?
I like the crew that I skate with and I think me and Pat could do our own stuff. We've been thinking about it for a while but now we're definitely down to make it happen. We've just been thinking about how tight trips would be with all the homies.

Was there any problems internally you had with Toy Machine?
No, I just wanted to do my own thing. If I'm going to do it I might as well do it before I get old. There needs to be some new stuff in skating; it's been a while. We're down. It's going to be tight.

You think it's a good time to start a board company? It's a rough economy right now.
Hell yeah. It's seems like it's coming back up. Not the economy, I mean skating. I'm down either way just so I can do my own stuff for at least one company: make my own videos and graphics and have who I want on the team. It's gonna be tight. It's just me and Pat for starters and then we're going to put some other fools on.