Thrasher Magazine

Not just Dickies' top dog, Joe Face is a lifer who's crossed paths with an absurd cast of the world's most enigmatic figures. From Long Island legends to literal billionaires, he's got a story for 'em all. As seen in our November '24 mag.At 16, Gino was the first pro skater I ever saw. I was too shook to say hi, as he was (and still is) my favorite skater. A few years later he would be the first pro skater I ever filmed. I owe my career to him. They say don’t meet your heroes, but mine was cooler than I ever could have imagined. Thanks, Luigi.

Kevin told Antonio Durao he needed to practice smoking weed, so you can thank Kevin for the Antonio you see today.

When I first moved to LA, I was living with PJ and had some anger issues. He thought going to yoga might help. Well, it was Kundalini yoga, which involves singing, chanting and breathing exercises—all of which just made me angrier. Demi Moore was in the class, though, so I guess that was pretty cool.

Grosso was the only guy to ever call and introduce himself before asking for a box—and was also the only guy to ever call and say thank you afterwards. I thought that was cool as hell. Still do.

The first time I ever skated with Cairo I asked him if he could nollie hardflip a picnic table. He did one first try.

Adrian got so sick of Sam Muller and me that he moved to Hawaii for five years. He’s back now. He missed us.
Bob has a pet tennis ball named Alfred, a stolen-menu collection that he’s been amassing over the years, had a pet hamster named Throckmorton, once climbed a tree every day for a year, can skate better than most people and has a heart of gold. He’s truly one of a kind.

I once saw a very-drunk Chad beat up a guy at a strip club—twice. Once inside and once outside in the snow an hour later because the guy waited for him. Chad’s sober now and holds a Guinness World Record for skating across America in the fastest time (57 days!).

Has a habit of falling asleep on you mid-conversation.

His first winter in LA, I left Antonio at a house party with Sam Muller and Adrian Adrid. I was awoken that night with a text of him passed out in bags of garbage. We went filming the next day and he got five clips.

I was in a cab heading to our Airbnb in NYC when Tom called asking if I was going to be back soon. He was locked out and it was 4 AM—and raining. When I got there, I walked up to him with a big smile, smoking a cigarette and he said, “Mate, I shit my pants.” He had, in fact, shat himself.

Pete once told me, “It sucks I never had the last part in a video.” I had to remind/convince him that he closed out Bootleg 3000.



On one of our annual Dickies trips to NYC, we went to a fancy Chinese food restaurant, and the bill was a little too high for how many people were there. When I got questioned about it at work, I just replied, “Foy was hungry and wanted to try everything.” That smoothed it over. Funny thing was, he ordered a pizza that was on the menu for some reason. The food sucked, too.
Mike claims his first “non-party skate trip” to NYC was in 2022. He spent the entire trip dropping little Whip-It containers from his pockets. He did a few hundred in like seven days. He filmed his enders for Honeymoon on that trip as well as a bunch of other clips. Every trip since then has been Whip-It free and he’s been far less productive. Still love him, though.

Growing up, I always assumed Mike was Spanish, hence the nickname. It turns out he’s half Dominican and half Italian—he just never bothered to correct me. Italian Mike or Dominican Mike sounds kinda weird at this point, though.

Zack and I bought a plastic WWE championship belt. Whoever was the Super Smash Bros champ got to wear it. Zack’s had the belt for seven years. Don’t let him play as Donkey Kong.
While riding for Dickies, Jake once told me that Asphalt Yacht Club was interested in him. When I pried further he confessed, “Nah, I can’t lie to you. I just want a raise.” I’ve known Jake since we were 14; I gave him the raise.

Steve once asked me to work for the Berrics. I had to deal with their hiring manager who offered me a job/contract for “70% of my time.” I declined.

He shot the cover of Time Magazine and switch ollied a 15 stair.
I’ve only sang karaoke once and it was with Zack Wallin and Louie in a bowling alley in San Jose. I have footage of Louie double fisting microphones singing “Take on Me.”

Steve traded me a broken VX1000 for an old Zoo York board. I fixed the ribbon cable and started filming. This is all his fault.

Frank was trying to switch ollie over a bump to can to get his “XP up.” On one attempt he landed inside the can and slammed. I heard him mutter to himself on the floor, “See what happens when you believe in yourself, Frank?”
During the Woodward Riviera Maya grand opening, Tony was signing autographs after putting on a spectacle of a demo. Jake Johnson and I waited in line for over an hour so Jake could get his copy of One Step Beyond signed. The line got cut off a few people before us. Close call!

Glenn gave me my first job in skateboarding when I was 15 or 16 years old. I would hang around the Chapman skateboards office/skate shop every day before going to wash dishes at the restaurant next door. He eventually just asked me to work there, and those were some of my favorite years of my life. Thanks, Glenn.
I watched Jake break his foot and then try to go shoot a photo for a potential cover the next day. He kickflipped this really tall bump to bar in four tries, but then jumped over it another 40 times to try to get the perfect photo. His foot was completely purple for weeks after that.

Kelly and I are good friends, but we’re kind of like the odd couple—Laguna Beach’s bad boy and a guido from Long Island. Kelly drove across the country with me when I moved to LA, but he only drove 1.5 hours out of the whole trip. “Bro, I can’t keep my eyes open.” It was noon.
Lui was once a personal assistant for a porn star named Kristina Rose. He hooked me up with a job filming her make personal videos for her fans. I got paid 250 bucks for about 15 minutes of work. I watched her chug a Redbull so she could squirt on a photo of a guy’s abs. After, she told me she didn’t know how to squirt and had just pissed on her floor, which was carpet. That was the last time I worked for Lui’s boss.

I found out at a family reunion that Frank and I are distant cousins. Every year we try to figure out how exactly we’re related. We haven’t solved it yet.

Kevin drives 50 miles round trip for a weekly haircut.
Papke started going bald a few years ago and has since bitten my look and become my doppelgänger—a less attractive one, however. He went to a Vans’ event and Steve Van Doren came up to him and said, “Joe! It’s so nice to see you!” I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing yet.
Dylan told me the worst thing that’s ever happened to him was he rolled his ankle once. Down bad for good.

There was a brief stint where I didn’t do anything skate related for work, and I found myself at Geico as a customer-service agent. It was probably the worst 18 months of my life, and death sounded better than answering the phone for eight hours a day. Warren Buffett once visited the office to take pictures with all of the employee groups. He’s really tall and only likes to stand next to girls.
Stacey was my boss at Dickies for seven years, and on our first Dickies trip she insisted on being in the van and turning the beer tap off. But by the end of the trip she was buying beer for us at drive-through liquor stores. She helped fight for the skate program the whole time she was at Dickies and we wouldn’t be here without her.



I’m almost positive I got him fired from the Berrics. He later told me it was the best thing that ever happened to him.

When I first met Ronnie all he would talk about was the good old days and how much he missed them. He was 17.

The bar at the Pretty Sweet after party required you to give a credit card and an ID to start a tab. When I went to close out, the bartender realized he’d accidentally given my stuff away to someone else. I started losing it on the manager and made them tell the DJ, who happened to be Snoop Dogg, to ask if anybody had my ID and card. Hearing Snoop on the microphone saying, “If anyone has Joe Monteleone’s ID and credit card, please bring it to the bar,” is not something I ever imagined happening to me.

I have all the gen-Z slang down because of him. On God, bitch.

Frankie “accidentally” grabbed Stacey’s ass after dinner on her last night at Dickies. His excuse—he thought it was Sam. AGF strikes again.
He’s my best friend in the whole world. Cher tried to fuck him once.

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