NUGE INTERVIEWS ANTWUAN DIXON

“You gotta blow it to know it.”

Antwuan Dixon was a star that burned too brightly. The man with the most nonchalant style, Antwuan's rise in pro skateboarding was cut short by substance abuse and a trip to jail. Twuan was staying at a sober living facility and engaged in treatment for substance abuse at the time of our interview, turning it all around to the positive. Fellow legend Don 'Nuge' Nguyen sat down with Twuan in a South Central garage to talk about his past, his resurrection, and what his life-ender ender ender ender ender ender trick would look like. 

Nuge- This is my first interview, but I'm gonna do my best.
Twuan- You got this.
Nuge- Thanks. How old are you and where you from?
Twuan- Carson. I turned 29 two days ago.
N- Happy birthday! How was it at the park? [ed.: Antwuan had his birthday party at the North Hollywood skate park]
T- It was cool.
N- I was trying to come but we had a show.
T- Bunch of people came I hadn’t seen in a while.
N- I know you love movies, what’s your top four?
T- Devil’s Rejects, Big trouble in Little China, Talladega Nights, the new movie Girl Trip. 
N- Sick. If you could be any superhero, who would you be?
T- Captain Planet. He is cool.
N- What about any special powers?
T- Be able to transport. I can go to Australia. Boom. Be inside of a bank. Boom.
N- Who are your role models?
T- Andrew Reynolds because he had the whole getting wasted whatever whatever, and then he completely cleaned his act up, and now owns some of the best companies out there. I wanna do that in the future. Him and my brother, my brother is always going to be my number one role model. For sure.
N- Me too, my older brother was always my number one role model. He got me skating.
T- My brother is just a good dude.

N- How old were you when you started skating?
T- 12
N- Who got you skating?
T- My brothers beat up this dude at Anderson Park and brought a skateboard home. There it was.
N- Do you remember what your first real set up was?
T- My first board was a Powell board, an Angel Boy. It was board sliding from heaven to hell. I had like Grind King trucks, it was one of those CCS completes.
N- When you first came up, people were hooking you up with everything. Giving you money and everything. Was that good or bad for you?
T- It was good, but it was kinda bad for a young person to make that much money. I was spending it on stupid shit. My mom used to tell me. “You’ve made to much money not to have nothing to show for it.” But everytime I got it I would just spend it. The thing was, once I had it, everybody had it. It was cool in that aspect.
N- That’s exactly how I was. Shit comes and goes.
T- Yeah. It came, but it left just as fast.
N- What companies are supporting you right now?
T- Raw Dog and Straye
N- How’s Straye? New shoe company. Everybody cool up there?
T- Yeah, it’s like the new Supra type thing. The same people.

"My brothers beat up this dude at Anderson Park and brought a skateboard home. There it was."

N- How long you been clean?
T- Shit. A couple months. Since Father’s Day.
N- Cool. How’s it feel? Like, body-wise.
T- I feel good. I feel way better. I wake up and just feel good. Ain’t gotta worry about being hungover.
N- That’s the same for me. This is the first time I’ve ever been completely clean 100, and I’ve been waking up early every day. What were you like in school? Did you like school?
T- I liked school till I got to a certain age. I mean I liked school but I never went, so I would always fuck shit up with the attendance part. My teachers would trip, like, “All you do is smoke weed”, but I would go in there and smoke weed and she gave me a ‘B’ in her class. I’d go in there and do what I gotta do. And this is in Victorville, they’re serving donuts in the morning. I’d just buy some donuts and do what I gotta do. Get faded first ting in the morning.
N- What was your first tattoo?
T- First tattoo was the AD on my arm. I got it at the Spitfire booth.
N- At Agenda?
T- ASR. That’s back when it was called Action Sports Retailers.

N- What’s the most recent one?
T- I got this CC right here. I’m fixin to get one in my arm pit though.
N- Have you gotten one in your armpit yet?
T- No, it’s gonna hurt. I’m ready for it though. I’m gonna man up and take it. These are my first sober tattoos.
N- It’s the worst. I had a blank gun and I tried it everywhere to see what was the worst. Armpit was the gnarliest. Head was pretty bad, but the armpit was one second. But you got it. What’s the plan for the armpit?
T- It’s like Ghostbusters, like a red circle. It’s a logo the homie made but it’s called Kluxbusters. It’s got a red circle and inside is dude with a white thing like that.
N- Who discovered you on Baker? Was it the boss?
T- I gave my video to Beagle at a Christmas party, and he took it to Andrew and them. And again at an ASR, I was watching a little Baker teaser and they came out, like, “Are you Antwuan Dixon?” It was Andrew and Eric, asking if I was me. I was like ‘What the fuck???’ There it was.
N- When you skated the Wilshire 15, what was the warm-up trick?
T- Ollie.
N- What was after that? Just straight to it?
T- After that I just started flicking and kicking it out. It didn’t really take that long. You don’t want to be jumping down a 15 a bunch of times. But at the same time I was young, I could give it like 30-40 tries.
N- And still be good.
T- Nowadays it’d be like, what?!? 30 tries I’m down for a week.
N- What’s the highlight of your life? Best moment in life so far.

T- Highlight of my life is everything falling back into place the way that it is. Realizing what went wrong the first time, and I’m just not gonna make that mistake this time. I say it all the time, “You gotta blow it to know it”.
N- Oh straight up.

T- The money, people give me a car, free everything, this this, and then all that went by the wayside once I stated doing this, doing that. Getting arrested, you know. And now that I’ve been in this place, sober and clear-headed, and back out there skating, a lot of things are lining themselves up for me. Those mistakes I made in the past are not mistakes I need to make again, because not too many people get this chance to resurrect the way that I am. “You gotta blow it to know it”.
N- That’s fucking dope. Where did the name Big Candy come from?
T- Big Candy came from Angel. ‘Cause I was just a big ass young fool that ate a bunch of candy. I still eat a bunch of candy, but not right now I’m on a diet. I used to just eat candy all day. That’s probably why my teeth are so fucked, but those are in the process of getting fixed too, so it’s all good.
N- What’s the worst slam?
T- Probably when I nutted it at this demo in Florida, or, when I was skating this hubba. I don’t know where it’s at, but I tried to nollie back suski and I popped it and I stuck and I flew all the way to the edge. It was a curb you have to roll off, you skate the curb and then you roll off. I stuck and I flew all the way to the edge of the curb and I hit the curb with my chest. Knocked the wind out of me, that was the worst. It was probably Azusa? It has that really big 20 stair hubba.
N- Yeah Azusa. I know that one, with the curb at the end. That one’ll get you. When you get on a board for the first time of the day, what’s the go-to trick you try first?
T- Probably kick flip.
N- What do you think about Trump, and all this stuff that’s going on right now?
T- I don’t give a fuck. I ain’t got no control over it, I can’t do nothing. He is gonna do what he is gonna do, I can have whatever opinion I want and it won’t make any difference. I liked when Obama was president because my president was black. That’s history. Maybe as I become an older man I’ll care. I keep to myself.
N- What keeps you inspired skating right now?

T- When I go out there skating right now it’s fun again. Maybe it’s because I barely get a chance to do it, or because I’m at this place. Or before when I wasn’t doing it more because I was faded or drinking, and I’d end up in jail and think ‘coulda shoulda woulda’. It’s what makes me the happiest.
N- Do you have more energy now?
T- For sure. More energy, more stamina. I do Herbalife too now. I don’t eat all the bullshit they serve there. I go to jail and all you’re doing is eating all these soups and doing push ups and you get all big. It’s put me on this diet. You do a milkshake in the morning, eat your little healthy food throughout the day, milkshake at nighttime. You eat these little pills three times a day. Drink water and exercise. I’m either going to the gym or I’m skating. I’ve been consistent in the gym, sometimes twice a day. I’ll do whatever I can do till my curfew.
N- When’s curfew?
T- Eight o’clock. So I’ll get my things done early, then I’ll go out to the valley. Skate out there, I make sure I leave there by six, six-thirty because there might be a little traffic. I’m on the bus.
N- What happens if you’re late?
T- You get restriction.
N- What does that mean? You can’t leave the place then?
T- Can’t leave. I just got off restriction for fighting.
N- Who is your favorite member of the Addams family?
T- Wednesday. Of course, she’s just ruthless. I got a tattoo of Wednesday! Frankenstein, Freddy, Chucky, I got all that.
N- Who are some of you favorite skaters of the new kids?
T- Hakeem, Aramis, Ashad Ware, and Kevin Bradley. Black excellence killing it always. My all-time favorite is Galea Momolu.
N- What would you be doing if you never stepped on a board?
T- I probably woulda went down the wrong road or something. I’d probably be in jail for life right now or something.
N- Have you been riding the same board size or do you switch it up?
T- No I ride the same thing, 8.3” At first it was 8.19”, you know B1’s.
N- The Herman shape, huh?
T- Yeah.

N- Did you you get all that footage on Baker 3 with Beagle or was that before?
T- That was with Beagle. That was a couple months before they premiered the video. I remember that back in the day. Didn’t you guys have a copy of that at Hellrose or something?
N- Hell yeah.
T- I remember that. Motherfuckers get stranded at Hollywood High, skate all the way to Hellrose…
N- Baca and shit?
T- Mmmm hmmm.

"that’s the kind of person I am, nonchalant as fuck about everything."

N- You used to stay with Hami watching movies all day.
T- Me, Hami, Beale, Dylan Gardner, Brayden, Sammy Baptista lived there too. There was a couple folks. That’s where the Deathwish movie came from.
N- If you could use your special power to transport anywhere right now where would you go?
T- I’d go to heaven and see my mom.
N- Hard.
T- Or I’d go to my brother’s prison cell and, “Hey.” I’d grab him and get out of there.
N- Both y’all out?
T- Yeah.
N- Sick. What trick can you do every try no matter what?
T- Ollie.
N- That’s my favorite. People ask me my favorite trick and it’s always ollie. Your tre flips are the shit, you’ve got those every time.
T- Yeah I’m pretty consistent with tre flips.
N- You started the hands down thing, like no hands. You created that. You were the first person I saw and I was like, this motherfucker, his top half don’t move.
T- It’s like, that’s just my style. It just happened that way. I never really noticed it until people commented.
N- You were nollie heel flippin’ huge things with your arms by your side.
T- I don’t know why my style is so nonchalant. Maybe it’s just because that’s the kind of person I am, nonchalant as fuck about everything. I try to be.

N- Is there anything you’ve wanted to skate but haven’t tried yet?T- Nnnnnnnnnnnope. I mean, I’d like to skate Hollywood sixteen, I haven’t skated that since I was younger.
N- Did you ever hit the rail? The sixteen’s fucked.
T- No. The twelve I did. But, I don’t know. If I get like an ender ender ender ender ender ender trick? To my life? And I was just like fuck it this is it, this is it like Michael Jackson-type thing? I would just go fast as fuck fast as fuck, and try to nollie heel El Toro. And if it happened it happened. That’s a twenty stair. It could be done though. Maybe.
N- Only by you.
T- Maybe I have to do like a Ryan Sheckler, call it out till my video comes out. Nah that’s not gonna happen.But if it was my LAST SKATEBOARD TRICK ON EARTH? I’d make sure it was gonna be that. I’d make sure proper conditioning was in place before these attempts, keep skating stairs, skate a sixteen.
N- Who’s the first skater you ever saw that inspired you?
T- Galea Momolu, in the Logic video.
N- Everybody is asking, what did Rodney Mullen say to you?
T- I’ll just keep that between me and that guy.
N- It was some heavy shit? Life changing shit?
T- Pretty much. Probably made my style what it is today, just what he told me.
N- When did he tell you?
T- When I was trying to learn how to tre flip and Veterans Park skate park. It wasn’t even a skate park then, it was just a little two up two down at Veteran’s park.
N- He just walked up and said some shit?
T- I was asking him, I was like “I love you man”. I got his autograph and everything. I don’t know where it’s at but I got it. Yeah it was pretty monumental.

N- Did you know it was monumental when he said it?
T- When he said it, and a couple tries later I landed it, I just did that with everything. The one thing he told me I just did that with everything.
N- Damn! You got the secret from the master!!!!
T- That’s the dude that’s made up every trick.
N- Every trick.
T- I just applied that to everything I did.
N- Do you think he remembers what he said to you?
T- I’m pretty sure.
N- Did you ever ask him why he told you and not someone else?
T- No. maybe he just seen something special in me, I don’t know.
N- Man. I need to fucking learn the secret. That dude is a real genius. I’m not kidding you, he did a one man demo in Oklahoma where I was from, I was like ten years old. It was eighty eight, at this fucking mall. Then I seen him a couple years ago at the Bones Brigade premiere, and I said, “Hey man, I just want to say it’s sick. Thank you for, I seen you a long ass time ago at this mall..” and he goes, “Oh yeah, Crossroads Mall.” He knew the fucking name of the mall. From Eighty Eight. In Oklahoma. It blew my mind and I had to walk away.

Who did you write the most to when you were in jail?
T- Well, everybody who wrote to me I wrote the back. I probably wrote Cici the most. My brother too.
N- That’s awesome. I used to write my brother when he was in jail. I tried to send a picture of me and my homies when he was in jail, beer and stuff everywhere, and they took it. I had no idea.
Anyway that’s all I got. You want to say anything?
T- Buy some Raw Dog boards, buy some Straye shoes, follow my Instagram.