Adam Bertolet is the champion of the world.

He really is.  If you have ever heard me, or anyone of my friends saying someone is the champion of the world it's usually mean't to be an insult (especially when I say it to David).  But in this case, he really is.  The story of calling someone "the champion of the world" is a tangent I really don't feel like going down at the moment.  Someday I will though.

There are not a lot of people that I personally consider "a really good friend," and I don't know if that's particularly a good thing, but it doesn't matter when you have friends like Adam around.  There aren't many that I willingly call on the regular to want to hang out, skating, chill, party with...but Adam is on the list.  I remember the first time that I met Adam I was at Santa Barbara park skating with Moose and a few friends when I saw some dude cruising around doing really cool tricks without putting much effort into them.  I'm sure that whenever most people go to skate a park their "good radar" is flipped on and scanning for shredders.  My "good radar" was peaking in the red zone when I saw this fucker riding around.  Adam nollie heelflipped the mini 99 cent dock at the park super clean and I had to give him props and then started talking to him.  We skated about, talked and then eventually exchanged numbers to go skate street at some point.  Big Daddy Perks (aka Aaron Perko) and I were skating and hanging out at lot at that time (while I lived in Ventura) and the next time BDP came over to go night skating he brought Adam...and it's been on ever since!  I didn't even know that they knew each other and then here this dude was standing in my livingroom ready to go skate.  Perks told me he was rolling down from SB with a few friends, but I would have never thought Adam would have been one of them.  This was like a month after our initial meeting at SB park so I was super stoked to finally see this dude again and see what he had for the streets.  I remember it all like it was yesterday.


I quickly introduced Adam to Dan Roberts and they hit it off super good, and just like that Adam is part of the crew.  My circle of friends became his circle of friends.  I've known the guy for 3 years now, and as soon as I saw just how good Adam was as a skateboarder, and how cool of a person he was I quickly wanted him to be a part of Skate Movie (before the video even had a name or theme!).  Adam is one of those guys that everyone likes.  Plain and simple.  It's not easy to be that guy, I'll tell you that right now.  But I have never ever heard anyone say anything bad about Adam, he is honestly on the Theotis Beasley level.  I know Thee-Thee.  I know how nice he is, and how every likes him...Adam's seriously on that tip.  Ask anyone who knows him.

And this may seem kind of strange, but when I think about Adam the movie Fight Club comes to mind.  Not because he likes to fight though.  Adam is a valet driver at a nice, upscale hotel in downtown Santa Barbara.  Like most skateboarders, he gets pretty scraped up and bloodied from the streets.  Hey, it's natural for US right.  Well it's not so natural for most people in the world.  I always wonder what it must be like for Adam to be at work with stigmata's on his hands from skating and having to deal with people and grab keys from random, stupid rich fucks.  People must see how bruised, and battered he is and wonder just what their valet guy gets into in his spare time.  I bet they would never imagine that the guy goes out and skates huge gaps, handrails, front blunts Hubba Hideout and kickflips out of smith grinds.


And that is where the whole Fight Club thing comes to mind because of the fact that Adam works as a freakin' valet driver and all the people that he interacts with have NOOOO idea how gnarly of a guy they are dealing with. They don't know shit.  He is a beast.  So undercover, and nonchalant about it.  But don't put it his mellow demeanor past him because his skill always catches people off guard.  No one see's it coming and when they do they realize they've got a real, hard ass skateboarder on their hands.  Josiah Gatyln was caught off guard, I'll say that much. Ben Cabreana also works at a hotel and is a crazy, skateboarding maniac (who happens to play drums just like Adam...can you say twins?).


People like this is one of the things that I love about skateboarding the most.  That there are people all over this world skating their hearts out just for the fun of it, with no sponsors (or those with flow but that are relatively unknown), skating because they love it and can't live without it.  These people live among us.  They park our cars at hotels, cook our food, make our coffee, ring us up at stores, and are out there working their jobs just waiting for work to end so they can go skate.  I can't remember how many times I've been out in public and see someone and just instantly think "this guy skateboards."  Maybe you've seen him at a spot or park but aren't sure, maybe his Emerica's look a little too beat up (on the left and right foot), or maybe you just sense it.  Like it is an energy of some sort that gets transmitted between two people who may not know each other, but share a common love for something.  You may not always ask the person if they skate, or ever even find out, but you know inside when you encounter a real skateboarder.  A person who knows what it is like to have a genuine love for skateboarding and all that encompasses it.  A person who doesn't just buy the clothes, the shoes, and acts like they relate and know what skating is about.  You come across these moron's a lot more these days.  I hate them, I'll say it.  I don't care.  The dudes that say "skate or die" or drop the name of a trick like they know what's up when you come across them.  FUCK YOU.  Go drink an energy drink, have your bro (lamest word ever), grab the nearest blunt object, and have him smash your stupid face in until all thats left is a pile of mush and bone/tooth fragments.  Reduced to a paste that requires high tech scientific tools to figure out which douche bag you once were and what family blood line of idiots you belonged to.  Alright...I don't hate all the fake, ass wanna be skaters that much...buuuut ;)


I could go on about how I am glad to have a friend like Adam in my life, but I won't because he knows that he's my friend till death already.  If you ever see the guy out and about introduce yourself, talk to him, and find out for yourself why people just can't help but like the dude.  Ask him his views on girls with 80's butt...that would be a great ice breaker, or just buy the man a Coor's light because he loves those cold activated Rocky Mountains.  And with that I give you Adam Bertolet's part in Skate Movie:

PS today's "Best Text" comes via Adam himself when I told him I was doing a write up on him and it goes
a little something like this:

"I hope you mention how I'm a prestigious diamond collector, and also discuss my extensive and
numerous accomplishments in the field of marijuana studies...j/k"

His accomplishments in that field of study are intimidating to say the least.