Hop Podcast James Hopkin

This is one of two unreleased interviews from 2019. Huge apology to Khaba, I should have published this in 2019. In 2019 I saw on Facebook details of a downhill race in India. I tracked down who competed and found the first place Indian skater: Khaba Maimon. We chatted and I recorded an interview. Downhill skaters travel the world to find the biggest mountains, Khaba learned to skate on the world’s biggest mountains!

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This is a fun episode, Mike is an amazing guy with an incredible journey. He started in graphic design, which lead to moving to the USA with Adobe which lead him to the heart of Silicon Valley working for Boosted Boards.

At the time of this interview (Feb 2019) he was Director of Customer Experience. He has recently moved into the role of Director of Skate Product. Without a doubt, he has one of the best jobs in skate!

This episode is not just for the esk8 crew and Boosted fans, we have a wide ranging conversation. We discuss electric skateboard racing, product design, how Boosted takes that design to a new product. Does Boosted have a skate team or ambassadors? (spoiler alert: they have both...and more). We get into future products, and as a side note, at the time of recording the Boosted Scooter had not been released, you can hear me ask Mike if they are going to make a scooter...

My goal for this interview was to try and take a look behind the curtain at Boosted Boards. They are one of the most exciting companies in skate and a leader in the future of personal electric transportation.

Big thank you to Mike McHugh for giving me so much time out of his busy schedule.


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This might be my new favourite episode. I re-listened to this interview after I published the Kicked Out episode, and was immediately inspired. Danny is an amazing guy, his positive attitude is contagious, I forgot how much fun it was talking to him. It might be a crime against longboarding that I have not released this episode! I recorded this at the end of 2018. The 2019 range had not been released, we talk about a secret new pro model, which ended up being the Phoenix, Tristan Cardillo Pro model. Forgive the delay of this episode, it is still relevant, at the end I mention that we have not talked about any of the models and we will have to do part two to discuss the Rocket Longboard decks.

This episode is all about how Daniel got into board building, how he built Rocket, his business philosophy, his board building techniques and values.

If you have ever had the urge to build something, you will enjoy the story that unfolds in this episode.


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Reconciliation

This is the word that got me kicked out of longboarding.

That was the subject of an email I sent to an Australian distributor and the result was losing the Hopkin Skate reseller account.

This is not a sad or an angry podcast, it is an interesting one. I feel I need to tell this story to move on and give some context about why I stopped podcasting. This episode is not really about the distributor, it is about me and my opinion on the business of longboarding and how distribution works in Australia. More about the industry than the sport, if that is not your thing, wait a few days, I have an awesome Rocket Longboards interview I did last year. 

If you prefer to read, a full transcript of this podcast is on the Hopkin Skate blog.


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Rebecca De Unamuno on weekend ABC Radio (Australian National Broadcaster) interview Jackson Shapiera.

Jacko does a good job explaining the sport of downhill skateboarding to someone that knows nothing about the sport. He also talks about the upcoming World Roller Games (WRG), and his Facebook fund me campaign that is helping him complete at the Barcelona WRG. 


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I ask the 2018 guests of the podcast, what did they have for breakfast?

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