I caught up with Josiah Gatlyn a couple of months back during a BUM RUSH THE SPOT skate contest/jam which takes place in Miami. While he was taking a break from skating we talked about what keeps him motivated and a couple of projects he has on the works. Enjoy our conversation and thank you for supporting wordintown.com. Word!

WIT: Whats your name? Jusiah Gatlyn. The name comes from an 8 year old king in the Bible. 

WIT: Are you from Florida? 

JG: I’m not from Florida. I’m from North Carolina. I was born and raised there. I moved to Missouri when I was like 16. Then I lived there every summer till I was 18. Then when I was 18 thats when I got on STEREO. I moved to LA for about 9 months then in January of 2010 is when I moved to South Florida so I’ve been here for a year or so…

WIT: What deck set-up do you skate? Has it changed since you started skating? 

JG: I used to ride for this board company called UNTITLED Skateboards. One day we had a demo, at the time I was riding 7.5. I was 16 years old. I left my board so I had to ride an 8.25 and that day I skated the best I had ever skated at the time… Since then I’ve been riding 8.25’s…

WIT: How long you’ve been with STEREO? JG: For about 2 years now. I got on May 2009 so almost 2 years…

WIT: Are you working on any big projects now? JG: Yeah, its been kind of tight right now! I just finished filming for a website called: ALREADY BEEN DONE a couple of months a go. All my footage went to that. Now, I’m working on an EP that STEREO has coming out which the deadline is the middle of the summer and I think it may come out on the fall or winter. I don’t know exactly when that’s coming out. I really have just a couple of months to film for that so I’ll probably be moving out to California next month. I’ll be out there grinding it out… 

WIT: South Florida is hot and humid, how do you stay motivated to skate? 

JG: I know this sounds weird but for some reason I get a lot more stuff done here. I’ve gotten more footage here than I’ve ever gotten in California. Just because the humidity is like a motivation to land a trick. 

I know it sounds crazy but it’s weird. I push my self to land a trick faster than I would in California were the weather is fine and you feel like just having fun….

WIT: One thing people don’t know about you?  

JG: Some people may not know, I’m a graphic designer. I’ve been doing it since I was 15. I’m pretty much the biggest skate nerd you’ll ever meet. I also edit videos. A lot of the video parts I’ve had out, I’ve actually edited my self.

That aspect I actually like it. I like editing because my two favorite things are: art and skateboarding. Editing allows me to combine the two in to one project. I’m actually working on an actually video magazine. It wont be just articles. I’ll be having a lot to do with it as far as art direction, editing, etc. I’m really stocked about that…

WIT: Where can people find you?

JG: twitter @gatlyngun   or facebook Josiah Gatlyn

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