Interview by Mike Anderson

Rick: Alright! Let’s go, interview me.

Mike: Being that you’re a former star of Machotaildrop and now a star of the show Abandoned, have you become a Scientology member yet?

No, I haven’t. I’m still an atheist. I’m not really a member of any groups.

Oh well. How would Scientology better your life?

How would it better my life? I’m sure they have a network of people that would help me out, you know what I mean? I see it as like a networking thing, where it’s like a bunch of people who help you make more money and they’ll make money off of you.

Okay it sounds great, doesn’t it?

Yeah. It sounds like sort of like a pyramid of leeching.

Well-

When you can just kind of do that stuff on your own. And then you don’t have to really believe or pretend you believe in other weird stories.

Then your shows can get so much bigger that way.

Probably, if you know the right people and you are in the club.

You guys have future plans? Show plans?

We’re about to start shooting a whole new show and I don’t really know how much I can say about it except that it’s pretty much all about skateboarding.

Sick!

Not the urban exploration part of the other series.

Which was pretty awesome.

Yeah it was cool, it was fun. We feel like we did it and we’re going to just move onto another project. Actually we’re going to do a couple of specials of Abandoned, but not a whole season.

Make it more … it’s less stressful to just do a couple of shows.

Like we have a couple of ideas. The one problem with doing 10 more episodes of that is it’s really hard to produce it because you need permission everywhere you go for TV and a lot of times when someone has sort of a massive failure, they don’t want you to go and film there. We had a lot of great ideas that we just couldn’t make because people wouldn’t let us shoot there.

Okay. Well you guys did good.

Thanks, man, we had a good time, we feel proud of our work.

Well on the next question, are you a vegetarian or a vegan?

I am a vegetarian, I’ve never been a vegan.

And why are you…

Why? Well I was 18 when I became a vegetarian. My girlfriend at the time was a vegetarian so that’s how we were eating. And then I got like a rash of food poisoning from bad meat and I just kind of went towards vegetarian eating, it just felt right. No political reasons, I’m sure there’s going to be studies about it being a really good environmental thing to do, because of the impact of livestock on the climate. But no, I just feel comfortable being a vegetarian. It’s kind of like just feels normal. I was considering eating meat recently though just because I thought my health needed it. But I got all kinds of tests and everything was normal in a good place so I was like cool, I don’t gotta eat no flesh.

Well your vitamin D was up and your B’s were up?

The B’s and D’s were up, the iron was good, which was crucial. And yeah no problems, I’m just- I think my only problem is I’m just getting old.

Ah, nah.

I don’t think any burger is going to fix that. I’ll tell you this though, there is a meat that I will eat. That’s being developed right now, it’s lab grown meat.

Oh I saw that.

I’m actually totally down to do that.

And then also there’s this burger coming out that has hemoglobin that they figured out how to get from plants so like a burger, you get it and it’s pink, then you cook it…

Oh, I think I heard about that and it has like an iron-y bloody taste to it that tastes like a burger.

There’s this one called the Beyond Burger that we get, they only sell it at freakin’ Whole Foods, but then there’s the Impossible Burger. We’re pretty much vegans in our household at this point.

Oh really? How long has that been going?

A little over a year. Or like I just recently over the last few months cut out fish and all that stuff.

Cool, yeah I never went vegan because cake, basically. Like and that’s not even a joke. Maybe it’s better these days, but whatever 23 years ago it was pretty sandy dessert for vegans.

And you don’t drink, so.

I gotta get my something.

Yeah you gotta have some kind of vice.

I guess so. I’m better with it though now, I don’t need as much sugar as I used to but god I love that stuff.

That’s good. All right well other than skateboarding, what’s your other favorite kind of boarding?

Oh snowboarding.

I figured.

Snowboarding, I really really enjoy snowboarding. I’ve kind of always done it since the 80s. I like being up in the mountains and catching fat air, bro.

Oh yeah.

I just really really enjoy it and I like… there was about 10 years where I didn’t really do it and then I kind of got back into it a couple of years ago.

Nice, I mean you live in the place for it.

The mountains around here are awesome. I think I was always hurt, like during the winter my ankle or my knee or something, so I didn’t ride. But I don’t know I just love it. Surfing is amazing too I just, I’m not so close to it. I feel like it takes maybe three to five hours to get to a surf spot from here.

Oh geez, yeah you got to be really dedicated. I can’t even drive five minutes to the beach and surf.

I would if I could though man, there’s good vibes surfing.

I’ve encountered the locals on a bad day.

I’ve seen that, I’ve encountered that.

How about what are the top five reasons to live in Vancouver?

Number one is just nature. You’re basically, you’re surrounded by raw nature which is amazing. Giant mountains, fuckin’ ocean, rivers, lakes, all that is right at your fingertips, that’s one. Two is the opposite, that’s like a fuckin’ whatever, like a booming cosmopolitan city so there’s always things going on. Three would definitely be the food, especially if you’re a vegetarian there’s just like abundant options. And if you’re not a vegetarian there’s amazing food everywhere. Four, I’m gonna say there’s a lot of skate parks and those are fun, because this is for skaters.

Mm-hmm

Street skating is not as good as it used to be, but let me see if I can think of a fifth. To live in Vancouver… political climate.

You got any good Sluggo stories?

Ooh, what’s a good Sluggo story? I don’t know, I can say some comments. If it’s dry he skates every single day and he rips. I see him at Hastings all the time.

Yeah?

What’s a good Sluggo story? I don’t know. His whole life is a good story. I don’t think I have any specific Sluggo stories. He’s always just been chill and we just skate. He’s always hyped.

Great. All right, my daughter wanted to ask, what’s your favorite color?

I’m colorblind, I don’t really have a favorite color, I like everything. But if I have pick one…

Yeah that’s the problem I can never answer that either. So would you say your favorite color is the rainbow?

Definitely. My favorite color is the rainbow.

What does Antisocial mean to you?

The store? It means community to me. That’s it’s main purpose.

That’s good. Yeah. I got one that little kids would like and grown-ups. What’s the most stairs you’ve ollied?

Fuck. I wish I knew. I could probably guess and say something like…fuck I don’t even know. Somewhere between like 15 and 20.

Wow. That’s big. 15 to 20 that’s way more than most of us.

I’m leaning towards the 15 though. Definitely 15.

You know you can say 20, same thing.

But I don’t know, I have like a thought of like an 18 in my mind but I have no idea. I could just be wrong.

I got a really interesting one. How do you let loose after a long week? How does Rick McCrank get wild and let loose?

Oh, I don’t think I’ve ever done that. I get pretty tightly wound. Yeah, “let loose,” interesting concept. I guess by skating.

Nice.

I mean that’s the release, it’s always been the… any vibe, good, bad, stress, just take it onto the board and release it.

I wish maybe more teenagers should try to do that, let loose on the board.

Yeah, I think so too.

And not do drugs.

There’s something to be said for clarity and reality, I think it’s pretty cool.

Yeah.

But I mean I don’t have any other experiences, so…

Well you’re good at, when I was younger and experimenting, you’d let me know that I was looking pretty silly doing them.

Are you high right now Michael? We have a demo in an hour.

Well on that note, do you have some reasons why kids shouldn’t do drugs?

Shouldn’t do drugs? Well you could become addicted to them and that sucks. That’s probably the only reason. In my older age I’ve become… I’ve never been super anti that stuff but now I’ve become a little more accepting of people experimenting.

Yeah.

It’s just hard to say. Like don’t even mess with the stuff that’s going to destroy your life and you know it will. Like just why? It’s kind of like I want to experiment with like murdering people, like you don’t want to do that either. So just stay off the meth and the heavy stuff.

Stay off the meth and killing people.

Yeah.

Serial murder spree.

Just be good-ish, that’s all.

I’m really good at doing this interview thing, it’s my first…

It’s really flowing. You’re good.

Yeah, really good.

You should take over my series.

I think yeah, I’m probably just going to start interviewing people on a regular basis. Okay.

You should try interviewing strangers on camera, it’s really fun.

Yeah. So, Mark Gonzalez. Do you like him and if you do, why?

I’ve heard of him, I’ve met him. I do like him. I like him because he likes fun and he’s not too serious about anything, not to say that you shouldn’t be serious about some things. But I like people that like fun and Mark is pretty much the boss of that.

Pretty much embodies fun in skateboarding?

Yeah.

Out of skateboarding as well.

In and out, whatever, it’s just like go with good vibes.

Yeah.

No malice, yeah. So this will go with the guest board?

Yeah which we’re all very excited to…

I’m very excited, I’m very honored. I heard that Mark just sent it in.

He just sent it like right before they released it.

No he… They told me that Mark sent in a board with a graphic with my name on it and they asked if I wanted to guest board.

Oh really?

That’s what he told me. He just kind of sent it in, like hey, do a Rick board! But yeah, so I was pretty honored. I had one a long time ago, I liked it.

That’s what I thought, I was actually going to ask you. I remembered you having one.

It was white with like a chopper drawing of a motorcycle.

Have you been… well not with the weather lately, but you still ride the motorcycles?

I haven’t in a while, but I actually just hauled my Norton to my house from my garage today, it’s sitting in the back of the truck and I might get that going, but I have like this Enduro bike that I’m gonna ride this year.

Nice.

But I might actually end up selling my Norton, which I never thought I would do, but they’re worth a lot of money so might as well get it on the road.

Yeah and if you’re not using it.

It’s literally been in my garage, like for 10 years.

Oh, shit.

Because I was riding on another bike and then it’s just sitting there. But I guess those things are worth, they get worth more every year, so it’s an investment. But looking at it right now I’m like, damn it’s so pretty. I want to ride it.

Just put it in the living room and have it as a little art piece for a while.

Yeah, we did that when we opened Antisocial, we had it like in the window for a while.

Can’t blame you.

Bikers!

Fucking bikers bro.

Yeah.

All right.

All right are we interviewed?

We’re interviewed.

I’m stoked, thanks Mike.