Thrasher Magazine

If he could make it onto the illustrious REAL skateboards roster, we knew Simi Valley’s Gage Boyle would be Scramble ready. A mellow cat off the board, he turned all-biz when the spot called his name. Take his Spitfire part as a prime example: He smashes through massive rails and sends huge kickflips with authority. That’s what traveling with Ishod, Zion and K-Walks will do to you. Act quick before there’s nothing left!

Photos by Michael Burnett

Tailslide an aluminum shotgun, last night in Miami

Oh damn, you’re from Simi Valley? What was it like growing up skating there?
It’s really cool. When I was growing up, Skatelab was around for most of my life. I basically grew up there—I spent more than half of my life there. I would see people like Mike Mo, Torey Pudwill and P-Rod all the time. Dudes like that rolling through, which was really fuckin’ cool as a kid. When it was around I made a lot of friends there who are still my good friends today. 

So how are the spots out there? Are there a lot of rails? Is that why you’re a rail guy?
Absolutely not, at least not in Simi Valley itself. Simi Valley actually only has a handful of spots. But when it comes to rails and shit, that definitely didn’t come from Simi Valley.

Then where did the rails come from?
Honestly, I’ve just always been scared of them and one day I was just like, Fuck it, and started going to the parks and forcing myself to try to skate the flatbar. I got used to that and I would force myself to step it up to a down rail. Skatelab had everything when it was around—it had all different sizes of rails so I was able to work my way up instead of being like, I only have this one rail. So I was lucky enough to have all different sizes of rails to work with and that’s where it started. Then I’d skate other parks and eventually the streets and now it’s my favorite thing to skate. 



I can tell!
It’s fun. I mean, they still scare me. I’m still terrified of certain rails, but that’s what makes it fun when you push yourself and you get away with it. There’s honestly no greater feeling to me.

Are your parents pretty hyped on everything you’re doing in skating?
Yeah, they’ve always been supportive of me with anything I’ve done, especially skating because my dad was a skater. He’s the one who really got me into it because I would always see him and his brother skating all the time. I remember seeing my dad’s board when I was really young and wondering What the hell is this? He kinda showed me the ropes at an early age. 

More than a few steps ahead of dad, Gage gets a noseblunt you can't learn in a pool

That’s sick. I’ve always wished I had a family member who skated, but no such luck. Have you ever beaten your dad in SKATE?
I’ve never played my dad in skate because he’s always been a pool guy. I don’t think he’s ever kickflipped, to be honest. I’ve never even seen him ollie. He knows how to do airs over coping, but I’ve never see him snap his tail. It’s all good, though. 

So I know where your skating came from now, but what about fishing? I heard you’re really into it. 
That also kinda came from my dad. When I was growing up he would take me to the jetty and he taught me the ropes—he taught me how to tie knots and all that basic stuff. I’ve always been impatient, at least when I was younger, and waiting around for a fish to bite I would be over it. I’d wait ten minutes and then want to leave or do something else, but later on in high school I met a group of dudes who are my really good friends now and those dudes are the ones who really showed me specifically about bass fishing. Those dudes had been fishing all their lives and still do it to this day as a career. They’re the real deal and they’ve taught me basically everything I now know. That’s what really got me sparked on it—having a solid crew to go out with all the time.

Fishing is a pretty peaceful activity, but do you ever get mad and focus your rod?
There’s definitely been times where I hooked a big fish and then lost it. Whether it just comes off the hook or it breaks your line or something, that shit haunts you. It’s like battling a trick for hours and you don’t end up getting it and it’s all you can think about for the rest of the night and it’s so hard to get over. There’s definitely times like that.

When he’s not ripping lips, he’s ripping lips. Fishing reference

What were your thoughts when you first got invited on the Scramble?
I was extremely nervous but excited at the same time. I didn’t really know how to feel about it. Definitely more excited than nervous, but it was fun in the end. Once you meet everyone it’s easy from there. 

Describe the phenomenon that is Aaron Goure.
Dude, Aaron is the shit. I had never really skated with him before so him being on this trip and skating with him for that much time I really got to know him and see what kind of person and skater he is and he is a stunt man. He is a fuckin’ daredevil. It’s scary, but it’s fuckin’ sick because he handles his shit no matter how crazy it is or how sketchy it is—he just fuckin’ does it. And then shit like him bringing his portable studio with him to the hotels—he brought a full setup to the point where I was wondering how he fit all this shit in his bag.

I’m for sure looking forward to that Chick-fil-A video dropping. Did you spit any verses in that?
I did not. I left it up to Ish, Gio and Aaron. Those dudes nailed it already. 


How was Gio that first day? He got on the trip a day late and caught up real quick.
Fuckin’ first spot, doesn’t even really know what’s going on, we just show up to this massive rail and he grind shoves it all chill. I’ve never seen anything like that. Fresh off the plane, he was ready. I heard some of the dudes saying,“We should just fly home now. He could just take care of the whole video.” He blew our minds. That was a really heavy first day. He flew in late and just got hammer after hammer and couldn’t stop.

And I think he walked away with five or six clips that day.
The dude filmed half a part on the trip. He just couldn’t stop.

How about that day he front lipped that huge circle rail. He only got a few tries because security was so hot. He front lipped it and then Jack backed him up with that frontside grind and almost died.
That was really heavy. I’m not gonna lie, I was really nervous watching that whole sesh. Especially after Jack almost got hit by the car. It came out of nowhere and happened so quick, but I’m glad nobody got hurt.

I don’t think you can hurt that dude.
The car would’ve definitely been hurting. That dude can’t be stopped.

Bros touchin' toes, Myles helps Gage limber up for another heavy session

Was there anyone who surprised you as far as being cooler than you had expected? 
I’d never met Jack before and I’ve seen footage of him and just watching him skate it looks really mean and aggressive. But he ended up being insanely nice. He was a really fuckin’ good dude. 

What trick of another Scrambler would you love to have?
Myles was doing some inverts at Kona and I thought they were really fuckin’ sick. You don’t really see that many of them coming from a street skater like him. I feel like it would be cool to have that random one ’cause I feel like it’s the hardest trick of all time. Or Breezy’s impossibles. I can never do a proper impossible. Watching the way that she does them makes me want to try and learn that.

Is turning pro a personal goal for you at the moment?
Oh yeah, for sure. Definitely.

I know it takes a long time with Deluxe. Are you scared? 
No, I’m not scared at all. I know that I’m in good hands and I’m with some really good dudes and I trust them completely. It’s so much fun no matter what. Obviously that’s a big goal of mine but in the end I’m not worried about it because I’m having so much fun with these people that I tend to forget about it and not stress about it. Just let it happen naturally, you know? It’s not in my control so why am I gonna stress over it? 


It seems like you and Jack Olson give each other a lot of shit.
He’s definitely the dude out of the crew I talk the most shit to—just for fun. He and I just shit talk to each other day in and day out. We’re good friends and it’s all jokes in the end, but Jack Olson is the worst dude. We gave him the official title of “worst dude” on this Austin trip that we did with REAL. There was this video of him just being super drunk and asleep and someone wakes him up and with his raspy voice he says, “Worst dude,” so ever since then we’ve been calling him the worst dude. That’s just his title now.

Out of the whole squad, who do you think will turn pro first?
That’s a tough one to say, but I wanna say Myles.

Myles is pretty incredible to watch skate.
He is one of a kind, honestly. He could literally do anything. He could be messing around on a curb, a ledge, skating tranny or whatever. He could be doing absolutely anything and I just want to sit down and watch him because the way he skates, his style, his trick selection and everything, it’s just so different and so cool. I feel like his skating will never get old.

After Griffin broke the rail, we were all scared it would snap again. Not Gage, he practically trampolined off that thing with a front blunt into the street

What’s your preference: cigarettes or Juul?
I’d like to say neither.

Didn’t you have a Juul on the trip, though?
Yeah, here and there, but I definitely wish I didn’t. It’s a guilty pleasure but I’m proud to say I’ve quit since then. That shit is just not good at all.

They’re kind of the digital coke of cigs, as Sinclair might put it.
Yeah, they’re dangerous, for sure.

If you got to plan the next Am Scramble, who would you bring?
Can I just bring the same crew as the one we just went on?

Kickflip 50-50, late-night solo sesh while the crew gets Clawed AF. Well done, Gage, let's talk reunions later