Interview With a Skateboarder
Justin Cox, or Coxy to his mates, has been through a lot in his 40 something years. A fella of short stature from the northern suburbs of Sydney with a strong personality and an even stronger right hook, Coxy has lived through what many his age and otherwise would consider to be the golden age of skateboarding. Unfortunately, this golden age of boardriding was also rife with drug abuse and addiction. Heroin was sweeping through the surfing and skateboarding scenes of the time, and Coxy found himself caught up in the thick of it about as heavily as one could be.
His vices led to him ending up in multiple prisons after committing various crimes to support his habit. The unfortunate narrative of a life like this has become commonplace within the global skateboarding community, yet this is certainly not a story of a lost soul. In fact, through training in Muay-Thai and years of hard work to kick the opiates, Coxy has come out on the other side with a new lease on life and a maturity that can only be gained through such adversity.
4OE: So when you were growing up in the eighties, what was it exactly that drew you towards skateboarding?
COX: Mainly just seeing a lot of the older guys in my neighbourhood. Skating was pretty underground back then. I always grew up with a little plastic board, or whatever, I always used to carve it up, like from the age of say six or seven my step-dad got me a plastic board. But proper skating? The first time I saw a wide board, 'cause I grew up around the Telopea area, we a bit of a bowl there and a snake-run into a ditch that was concrete. You could grind it. Back in those days, say '88, there was heaps of cunts in my neighbourhood, so I was in like probably year seven or something. I dunno man. I used to play a lot of football and organised sports but didn't really gel with it. I saw skating as not only a sport but a lifestyle.
4: So what was the lifestyle like back then?
C: It wasn't like it is now. Not many people skated. It was a lot more underground. You used to get bashed for skating by hoodlums and shit. There was a period in the late eighties were you probably weren't coming home with your shoes or your board if you went to the wrong suburb - Strathfield or Redfern, or around the city. But skating was underground, but it was good 'cause I was around when all the tricks were coming out. You know? All the kickflips and everything were coming out. I went through all the stages of seeing different styles. I grew up skating street and ramp, so I love it all. I find it kind of similar to nowadays, which makes me want to skate again now. Around 2000-2004 I was a bit bummed out with all the ledges and handrail sort of shit, but now that concrete's back and it's just all around skating, a bit of speed and style, I feel like I want to roll.
4: Apart from the tricks and the progression of those days in that sense, what do you think are the main differences in the scene these days?
C: Nah, I don't really know. I reckon it's the same.
4: But don't you think that there was a lot more skaters, yourself included, were getting into hard drugs?
C: Well yeah. Probably the heroin scene from the late eighties, early nineties, that's not really around nowadays. Everyone from skaters and surfers to office workers got caught up in that shit, if they were dumb enough to get caught up in it, which I was.
4: Do you think that it was through skating and other skateboarders that you got into shooting up heroin?
C: A little. I used to experiment with acid, and I always smoked pot as a kid, but I think just generally being someone that liked drugs, that's what drew me to it. I can't say if it was skating or any other people, do you know what I mean? If anything, it was pretty foreign to skating and the to crew that I had. It was when I lost crew that I started doing drugs and, basically, you just don't have the will or the want to skate, you just want to get high.
4: So obviously, that lifestyle led you to getting locked up. Why'd you get sent to prison?
C: Basically, to support a heroin habit, you've got to sell the shit, or steal, and I got involved with both. So not only do I have a few bad theft and hold up charges, but I've got a few heroin possession charges too. It's nothing that I'm proud of, but, you know...
4: And those charges were solely to do with your addiction?
C: Yeah. I was a chronic junkie. My life totally revolved around heroin.
4: So what was prison like for you personally? Obviously you would've been going through withdrawals.
C: Sometimes it was pretty bad when I was coming down. I remember the first time I ever got locked up it was a bit of a freak out. But coming from Dundas, I was lucky because I got sent to Silverwater and Parramatta, they were the first two jails I went to, and pretty much the first time I walked out into the yard I heard about four or five “Coxy”'s, “Oi”, this and that. The only thing I couldn't deal with in jail was pretty much the food and the isolation. Sometimes you're by yourself for 48 hours on lockdown. And there was a few punch-ons and things like that. Back then I wasn't really a fighter or anything, so I didn't really have that staunchness. I'd still have a go but I wasn't the man I am now.
4: Did you get bashed in prison?
C: I got bashed once. I actually got canned. I was sitting there and I got hit with two baked-bean cans in a sock. I got the shit kicked out of me. That was over drugs. And then another fight I had in jail I actually just put my head down and threw helicopter punches. That sort of went alright.
4: That was obviously before you were a trained martial artist?
C: Yeah.
4: You're pretty highly trained, aren't you? You wear the Zen Do Kai cross on a chain around your neck. What's that all about?
C: It's a Bushido cross that comes from the Bob Jones Corporation. He's the man that invented Zen Do Kai and brought Muay-Thai to Australia. It's just a thing that's awarded to you when you reach a certain level. I actually got mine for bringing a disabled guy with no arms through to his black belt, or black singlet. In Thai boxing we don't have belts because you don't wear a gi. But I got mine awarded for that.
4: So how many years did it take for you to get your black singlet?
C: I trained with an old friend of mine, Marcelo, who got me into it. It took at least six or seven years to achieve that black singlet.
4: What's it like when you meet other people wearing that cross?
C: It's like a brotherood. There's a young Sydney skater called Jai Smith whose dad is actually Warren Smith who's a bit of a legend. He actually came up to me one day and said, “You're wearing a cross man?”, and he told me who his dad was, and I was like. “Fuck, yeah I know who that is!” So it's a kind of small world. I was pretty honored to get that, but at the end of the day, it's just a cross. It's a personal thing, and I love it, but at the end of the day there's plenty of people who don't wear the cross and still kick arse, you know?
4: What's your opinion on the recent rise in the amount of people training to fight in MMA gyms everywhere?
C: I think it's really good that everyone wants to train and fight for that fitness reason...
4: But with all these highly trained blokes out on the streets, it's kind of no wonder why we're seeing so many knock-outs and deaths up the cross these days.
C: Look, there's a lot of shit-cunt bouncers out there, but the average person who's doing those cheap shots in the cross aren't usually trained fighters. They're just fucking mugs who're on the piss and end up hitting someone from side on. One day they'll do it the wrong person and get bashed. They're just cheap shot motherfuckers. A lot of those guys probably watch UFC on Saturday nights down the pub or something, and get fired up, but at the end of the day none of those guys have two or three minutes in them, you know what I mean? I think the world in general has gotten a lot more violent with the media and music, and just they way people are. I think that's causing the violence we see in the cross and whatever. It's not that everyone's training. The average trainer, man, he just wants to fight in the ring. He doesn't want any trouble bro.
4: Did you start to train when you got out of prison?
C: No.
4: What was it that got you into training?
C: Well, I was going out with this fucking awful girl. We were in a really bad relationship. She was sort of on and off with me throughout jail and involved in the whole drug scene, just bad news. She was a fucking mole actually, I don't like to speak badly about women, but this chick was a fucking witch! Anyway, my good mate at the time, Marcelo, we aren't really talking at the moment but hopefully we'll patch things up one day, he just pulled me aside and said, “You've got to change you life”, because I was still pretty undisciplined. I was couch touring and not really moving anywhere. He just dragged my arse to training about three times a week. For the first six months I was known as Chuckie because every class I'd have a vomit, and I'd have to spar bigger guys. It wasn't until about a year that I started to really love it and through that I got a job, and ended up teaching kids through to adults. I've trained a few guys as personal students. One of them is now the Australian champion, whose name's Helmet. He used to skate. His name's Christian, but his nickname's Helmet. So in that sense I got myself a sort of a career and got my life back, and that really made me skate a lot more and a lot better.
4: Ever since you've started training, you've been off the gear...
C: Yeah, except for pot. I still smoke a bit of pot.
4: Sober?
C: Yeah. I can't say I haven't fucked up once or twice.
4: So how do you think that the training has affected your life?
C: The difference is I'm not really scared of anyone, whereas back in the day I had a lot of fear of people and situations. I didn't really know how to handle things, whereas now I have a level of calmness about me. And not only that, but it's taught me to respect other people. I don't look for trouble, but something I've been taught is that if someone crosses my zone, it's called a push-kick distance, I'm going to fuck you up. If you cross that zone intentionally with aggression, I'm going to punch you in the throat or kick you in the nuts or try and fucking elbow you in the head, or whatever happens. Just don't come in my fucking zone and we're cool, that's my only rule.
4: Like, don't dangle a mouse in front of a cats face.
C: Yeah. Mate, I don't stare at people, give dirty looks and stuff. I don't like fighting, but if it happens, I'm not going to walk away from it.
4: But obviously you do like fighting.
C: Dude, look. In the ring it's a sport and it's the best fun. I love it. And sometimes on the street, if you do well, it can be the best feeling as well. If you don't start the fight, it's fucking rad, you know?
4: How do you compare the adrenalin rush of fighting compared to skating?
C: For me, the rush is the same. It's all about style. You've got to make it look good. You've got to make your skating look good and you've got to make your fighting look good. The only difference is skating's not about winning. Skating's just about fun. You can still lose a fight, and still win, in a sense. It's probably better to lose a really hard fight than it is to win a really easy fight.
4: Finally, your life would have been quite different if you never got into drugs, that's obvious. But do you think that your skateboarding career would've gone differently.
C: Yeah, I would've gone to the states dude.
4: Being in prison would've been a set-back, but do you personally think that you could've cracked it?
C: I might've made a bit of an earn in the vert scene. My mate Jakey did. I dunno, we were all pretty even when we were young. He's like, doing all that megaramp shit – that's Jake Brown. But each to their own, you know. When I was little I wanted to be pro; all skaters do. I'm just happy I'm still skating.
24TH JULY 2013