It’s not every day that a single video part recharges somebody’s career in skateboarding. But after years of dropping consistent coverage, it was Jack Curtin’s part in LRG’s Give Me My Money Chico that not only completely blew minds, it solidified Jack’s status as one of the rawest street skaters in the game.

CCS caught up with Jack while he was making some rounds at the golf course to talk a bit about DGK, skating Indonesia, the famous Give Me Money Chico part, his recruitment by Fallen and more.

Have you been hitting up Atlanta much to skate Da Playground? Yeah, I just got back last week. I was out there finishing up my part.

They released A Glimpse of Jack Curtin,  is there a longer part to follow? They’re pretty much still figuring out the format so it’s up in the air as to what they’re gonna do next. They definitely want to give full parts but we’re not sure yet what the format’s gonna be.

How did Da Playground come about? Did the DGK team help design the park? It was a collaboration between Stevie and Spencer Fujimoto [DGK TM] and Nick Lockman. I didn’t really have any imput, but it came out really good.

Is there a DGK full-length in the works? Yeah. I don’t know if it’s gonna be full-length but there’s definitely something coming. We’ve been siting on footage for years now, we’re just trying to figure out now when to release it, how powerful it’s gonna be and how to market it. They’ve been switching deadlines every month so….I don’t know when the new deadline is now. I hope they push it back so that everyone can put out solid parts.

You grew up in DC and then partially in Indonesia. Would you say both spots have a rugged, East Coast feel? Well, Indo was on a whole ‘nother level. It’s like a Third World country type of ruggedness. [laughs]

Did you have spots there? Yeah, we’d make due, man. There’s a huge financial district where they have office buildings and whatnot. There was a crew of Indonesian skaters and that’s where I actually started skating. They had this self-made little box and flatbar outside this soccer stadium. And I heard about it one day while I was at baseball practice. Right after baseball practice I went to go check it out and I was so hyped that they had this sh*t set up. So that’s when I started skating. I would go there every day and learn how to skate from the Indo guys. And I had some other homies that I went to high school with that skated, so there were a crew of three or four white dudes that were also American, because I went to an international high school…and a crew of Indo dudes.

Between DC & Indonesia, do you think growing up skating all these rugged-ass spots gave you an edge to be able to hit more harder-to-skate stuff? Yeah, I feel like I skate better on rugged spots. Sometimes Cali spots are just too smooth. I don’t know, I mean I like smooth but it just weirds me out when everything’s like brand new and fake and plastic looking. I really like ruggedness. That’s why I like SF a lot. All the spots out here are pretty grimy. Well not grimy, just harder to skate. They’re older and they have that old city vibe.

You’ve been getting coverage for years and been in the hotspot, but I feel like people really took notice of you when your Give Me My Money Chico LRG part dropped. What about the part really opened people’s eyes? That’s pretty much what I used that part for…for motivation to just get back on top of sh*t. Because I hadn’t had a shoe sponsor since the Reebok thing. I think Reebok put a lot of the DGK riders in a f%#*ed up position cause we lost all our shoe sponsors. And then other companies weren’t really trying to mess with us because we were already marketed by Reebok. And I think the entire industry was waiting to see what we were gonna do next. I was trying to get a shoe sponsor for like over two years, so I really used that part as my motivation to be like, All right I’m gonna get out here. That was just that part where I really went for it, hoping something would come out of it. And Jamie was supporting me through the whole thing. And when it all came together at the end with Fallen, it really worked out.

Were you on Fallen flow for a while during the filming of that video? Yeah, I was on Fallen flow just trying to figure out if it was gonna work. I hadn’t really chilled with the team, but Jamie was just down to hook me up and give me as much shoes as I needed to skate. When I was done with the video, I had more time to actually get out and travel and hang out with the [Fallen] dudes. Jamie’s not just going to throw someone on, he’s really into team unity and for everyone being down for each other. So it just took some time before I got to hang out with everyone and get the vibe going.

So you’ve chilled with the whole team at this point? Yeah, it was pretty intimidating. I’m mean, they’re all the gnarliest skaters ever.

There’s an obvious style difference between you and your Fallen teammates. Does it feel weird at all having someone like Slash as a teammate? I thought it would be weird but then I met all of the dudes and they’re all super chill, man. The dude I was most intimidated by was Chris Cole. But then I hung out with him and he’s like the nicest, goofiest dude. It was really cool. Slash is actually really chill. And I like all those dude’s skating. It’s cool because they all motivate me. They’ll skate big-ass sh*t and I might not skate that stuff but maybe if I see them jumping down something, I might get pumped up. And it helps that Tom [Asta] and Tommy and Billy are on LRG cause those guys are my teammates there.

Did that help out? For sure, man. We share the same sponsors and I’m going to be traveling with these dudes anyway so, that’s half the Fallen team almost [laughs].

What Fallen’s are you hyped on? I like Garrett Hill’s new shoe. It’s the first real mid-top that they’ve made and it looks like a Nike Blazer. Then Jamie’s Forte model is pretty tight. I like it because it’s so clean. It looks like a Vans Chukka but with more padding. And Tommy’s got a new shoe. LRG does a callobo with Fallen and it came out real tight.

So do you have a signature Fallen shoe in the works? Yeah, it should be coming out in 2012.

That’s when the world ends. I know! I’m like, All these cool things are happening right when the world ends! I have a Jamie Thomas personal colorway coming out. He has the Forte, which is the best selling shoe from Fallen. Jamie wanted to help me out by giving me royalties so the colorway will be out in the lo-top and the mid-top model and that sh*t should be coming out this summer or fall.

What do you like about riding DGK boards? Kayo has the best wood I think in the industry. I think a lot of kids like DGK because of the graphics but when they try the boards out they realized that they last a long time and have good pop.

All Photos Courtesy of LRG.

Photos: Switch Ollie & Switch Over Crooks by Kyle Camarillo. Switch Front Crooks by Bryan Uyeda.

Get the LRG, DGK & Fallen goods that Jack Curtin backs in the CCS Shop.