This season he swept the LG Tour stops and took podium spots at every other event he participated in before taking the World Championship Title in Skateboard Vert to close the season.
RUN TINGS caught up with PL shortly before he took the crown at the LG World Championships in Dallas.
My name is
Pierre Luc Gagnon, PLG, from Montreal Canada originally. Now I live in
Carlsbad, California since 2000 and I'm a skateboarder.
When did you first start skating? What got you started?
I
started skating in Montreal, Canada originally. Back then in '88 vert
was real big, a lot bigger than street skating. It was all about vert.
The big stars were like Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi, Lance and all those
guys. I was real inspired by them and started skating vert. After that
there was a new wave of skaters that came through like Danny Way and
Colin McKay, that's from Canada so I was very inspired by them to keep
skating vert. Vert skating kinda died down, you know, in the early
nineties, but I stuck to it and it made a major comeback in around,
like '96.
You mentioned some of the older cats like Lance Mountain, Bones Brigade...
You know they're still around!
No Doubt! -so do you guys get to interact with them very much? What's your relationship like, the new pros with the older guys?
Whenever
I get to skate with them it's all good. It's a real honor for me to
skate with guys I grew up looking up to. I'm very good friends with
Danny Way and Colin McKay. They're only a few years older than me, but
I grew up looking up to them so now I get to hang out with them and go
to dinner, so that's pretty cool, yunno? Makes me realize I came a long
way.
Did you have regular jobs before going pro?
I worked at
the skatepark and building ramps and things but never really had a real
job before professional skateboarding.
The World Championships have been here in Dallas the last couple of years. You guys get a chance to check out the city at all?
Not
really, actually. Been pretty busy, I've just been kickin' it all day,
stayin' in the room, stretchin' out, and then like during the whole
evening here, just skating. We were in here 'til like midnight
listening to Kanye and got back to the hotel and ate. Woke up late
today, stretched out. I've been kinda laid back, just tryin' to stay
fokused on the event.
What's the vibe like goin' into contests, particularly something as large as the X-Games or the LG?
There's
big crowds out there, so it definitely hypes you up to go and do your
best. I've been workin' on this for a while. I've been on a pretty good
roll the past couple of contests. I'm feelin' really solid, pretty
confident. I know what I gotta do. Pretty much know what I gotta do to
be in top position.
Let's talk about music and how it affects your skating.
Some music really annoys me so it
makes it really hard to fokus and skate to. Some music will really
motivate me to skate and put me in a good mood and flow well with my
skating. It's definitely a big factor.
What's your weapon of choice these days?
A
little bit of Hip-Hop a little bit of electronic music like Daft Punk
and stuff like that, but mostly Hip-Hop. Lil Wayne. Kanye for sure.
Also my man, Prodigal Sunn, who I know really well and is coming out
with an album soon. Jay-Z, that new American Gangster album.
As far
as electronic music, Daft Punk a lot of Ed Banger stuff like Justice
and all that. I love this band from Montreal, Chromeo. They have a very
unique sound. Actually, I was skating to one of their songs yesterday.
It was pretty cool, yesterday in the first run I was skating to Kanye
and he played the show right after the contest, so I was like "Damn.
That's kind of weird." I'm not trying to kiss ass or anything 'cause
I've been skating to that song all year!
-so how did you like the show?
It
was amazing. It was pretty cool 'cause I got to hang out with DJ
A-Trak, Kanye's DJ that's originally from Montreal, Canada. He came to
the ramp and hung out with us after the show.
It's a real
international field of skaters, yourself from Canada, several from
Brazil... but there's a real intense brotherhood back there.
I
mean, we all travel together and it's probably like 15 of those events
every year where we do shows, we travel, we practice together, so most
of us, we're like family. There's always a few guys that don't get
along but, for the most part, we're all family. Even, when it comes
contest time, if during that couple of hours that we're competing
against each other, as soon as that's done, we're all friends. There's
no hard feelings.
You know, when you're skating it's not like you're
trying to take the other guy out, you're skating to skate as good as
you can personally and do better than you did last time and do as good
as you can do. Basically you're skating against yourself... and there's
nothing you can do to affect the way the other guy's gonna skate.
Talk a bit about the fokus that it takes to prepare for contest.
Some
people get nervous. Some people don't. I try to use that energy to get
hyped up and skate harder and better. You gotta be in your zone,
definitely. You have to be fokused. You have to be in the zone. You
can't be second guessin' yourself, you know what I mean? You have to be
goin' for it and thinkin' positive. A lot of people are having a hard
time and they're not too successful, but they're doubtin' themselves
and they second guess and if you're thinkin' about negative stuff too
much it's really hard to be successful. You definitely gotta balance it
out. You can't just be delusional like, "I'm gonna make all this." and
it's impossible. You know, what you feel solid on you gotta be
confident.
What about the rough periods? How do you overcome struggle?
Work
Harder and Practice. You know what I mean? Basically my philosophy is,
"Whatever I can't do during practice, I shouldn't be able to do it in
contest." It might happen. You know, there's a slight chance. I might
be able to pull it under pressure, in front of a crowd, like a trick
that I usually can't do. -but if I can do everything that I'm doing
here every day of the week then it's gonna be easy when I come to the
contest. You know? Nothing different, like a regular day at the ramp. I
try to work real hard when I practice. I skate real hard and have
everything down so it's easy when I come to the contests.
How would you compare the LG to the Dew Tour or the X-Games or any of the other events out there?
LG's
pretty cool. For most events they fly you out there and pay for your
hotel room so it's very good for a up-and-coming guys that don't have
major sponsors, a travel budget, and all that. That's very good. I wish
every contest would do this. Fly us to the event. At least pay for a
hotel so if you screw up and get last place you don't go home broke.
Some events you get $1000 for last place, so if you count your flight
plus your hotel and you get last place you're going home like minus a
couple hundred bucks.
More and more they're building the
skateparks, but some skaters are still struggling with the police and
other authority figures. How do you feel about the way cities view
skateboarding? -or families even in some instances?
Skateboarding's
starting to be more and more accepted. Cities are starting to realize
that it's something good and positive for kids. If you're out there
skating it keeps you out of trouble. Keeps you out of gangs. -and now
they're trying to build more and more skateparks to try to keep them
out of the streets. That's pretty good, 'cause now tranny skating's
coming back as they build more and more parks.
Any closing words for the young kids comin' up?
Have fun skating and be original. Enjoy what you're doing and skate everything.
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Pierre-Luc Gagnon is at the top of his game.
What's your weapon of choice these days?
