Skateboarding
The rookie pro from Ottawa eats well, skates better.
Hailing from Ottawa but residing in Vancouver—both cities are in Canada, ya’ll—Spencer Hamilton is that rare breed of skater who will both hold a sign in protest against Monsanto and take the fakie bigspin to new heights and grinds. A relatively new pro for Expedition, Hamilton has a three year plan for life and is sure of his convictions about food, though he doesn’t want to preach. He’s lived vegan and vegetarian, though has accepted the fact that if a friend orders a very proper steak at a restaurant, he’ll at least ask for a bite, if not order his own. “It’s more of a treat,” Hamilton says.
What you been up to lately, working on anything in particular? The big project is the new Expedition video. Then the shop that I ride for back in Ottawa, they’re doing a 20th Anniversary video that comes out August 29th.
What’s the name of that shop? Top of the World, and the video is called Aspect Ratio.
You’ve been pro for the whole of 2013 now, has that changed your life all that much? I mean, obviously there’s the addition of people coming up and congratulating you. Definitely like, an increase in finances, but not really. Then, obviously, just like my mentality, which will never sink in, but just a lifelong dream turned into an accomplishment.
That first pro model of yours made a statement about [the gigantic agriculture company] Monsanto. Do you think other pros should talk about stuff that they care about, be it on a pro model or when they’re doing an interview? Absolutely. I’m not saying it’s mandatory to involve yourself with any kind of cultural movement, even in your own community, but I think it’s pretty important.
Should you force it on pros? It should be their choice at the end of the day, but they should have more things to say. Skateboarders have so much free time…I really like that’s it’s more popular for people to play music in skateboarding, that’s pretty rad. You need an outlet outside of what you do all the time.
You pay attention to what you eat, try to eat local and as organic as possible… Yeah, it’s not about being perfect. Everyone’s got their little things that are important to them. There are easy things that you can do as far as food is concerned, that make a large impact on a whole lot of things.
Do you feel better, watching what you eat; does it help your skating at all? Oh, absolutely. Recovery time after skating, it’s a no-brainer, you know?
You travel plenty in your line of work, what place have you been that has the best food? To be honest, I’m not trying to knock any places…I would say somewhere like Vancouver or California. As far as I’m concerned, they have the best food I’ve ever had. On trips, it’s bread and cheese; they’re the most popular items.
Pro model deck is out, what are you trying to do next, like two or three years down the line? Eventually I’d like to have some sort of a café restaurant. Places that I want to go, places that I do go, I’d like to put all of those together. There’s coffee in the morning and lots of good fresh stuff. I’ll probably have it more my style, my kind of music, my kind of art on the walls. A taste of the Earth, more grounded, a bit of the city, a bit of the Earth. I was just downtown [Vancouver], skating through buildings and a ton of people, and now I’m walking on a ledge on a sea wall, looking at water and a bunch of trees in three seconds. I want a little restaurant that would embody all that.
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