Zack Ferguson AMBUSH

Article originally appeared in Kingshit Volume 8, Issue 2

Interview by Evan Rissi

Photography by Will Jivcoff

Alright, let’s get to it. The real reason we’re doing this interview is because I really want to find out about your illustrious competitive bowling career.

Ah, fuck. You talked to Griff, eh?

You know it. At what point were you all-Canadian amateur bowling champion?

Dude, never. I was one of those kids that was kind of just there. The rest of these kids had gnarly hockey-dad parents – but it was bowling. Can’t talk to anyone else, just have to go and win. It was fucked; none of those kids were over 12. Serious about some Five-Pin.

Five-Pin, though?

Yeah, I was way too small to lift those big ol’ 10 Pin balls.

But seriously, you were on a team and had your own ball?

I was actually one of the only kids that didn’t have his own ball. Definitely went to tournaments and shit like that though. It was the best, you see the sickest people in bowling alleys. Bowling alley folk are the best… the ultimate spots for people watching.

Oh yeah. But you had your own shirt with your name on it, right?

I did. Had tons of badges on it too. I was stoked. But then, I was like 12 or something, and just decided I wanted to watch cartoons on Saturday mornings instead.

There was no potential that you’d go pro?

I doubt it. Maybe if I had pursued it further, but I was over it. Was kind of over the whole competitiveness of it and the seriousness of all the parents. My parents never pushed me into it or anything; I just started doing it because my older brother did it first.

What was your best score?

Ah, fuck. I want to say like 250 or something like that.

Kenny Anderson once told me he bowled a 280. Grew up at the lanes in Vegas.

Damn. That’s crazy. That’s like almost the closest you can come to a perfect game. 300 is a perfect game – every throw a strike, then you can get three strikes to close it out. 13 strikes.

Turkey in the Tenth! Could you have made money bowling though?

I doubt it. I don’t know how much money there is in the Five-Pin bowling world.

Let’s be honest. All the money is in Ten-Pin.

Right? Should’ve just done that, and got gnar at those trick shot contests. Mad money.

Yeap. Get all your endorsement deals: pro ball, pro shoe, pro glove… Respect to Pete Weber, the G.O.A.T.

Yeah, shit. I might have to get back into it. Ten-Pin, step my fucking game up.

Plus, let’s be real… Five-Pin is the longboarding of bowling. No offense to you as a kid.

Pretty much, I fully understand. As an adult, if you’re ripping the Five-Pin still, your world is a joke.

People, if you’re reading this and still fucking with Five-Pin, you need to reevaluate your life.

Exactly.

Speaking of money, PLG once gave you some money as a child?

Yeah, super long time ago. I think it was the last West 49 Canadian Open in Hamilton. Basically there was this giant 35-foot Mega roll-in to a quarterpipe, and at the end everyone was just sliding down it. I’m not sure if he was bummed or something, but he said, “first person to actually drop in on this, I got 20 bucks on it.” I was maybe 12, threw on my helmet, and dropped in. For some reason I thought the 20 dollars was worth killing myself. In the flat I got crazy speed wobbles but held on, lost it up the quarterpipe, and shot my board 50 feet in the air. I basically did a backflip and landed facedown, sliding down the ramp. Fetched the 20 bucks from PLG, got him to sign it, and I’ve still got it in my room.

Classic PLG. A grown man pro pressuring a young boy into risking his life for 20 dollars.

I was really hyped at the time.

Let’s talk about your hashtag, #ZackFerguson. Why don’t you fuck with an Instagram account?

Fuck. At first, when it first started getting popular, I thought it was just Facebook with pictures, which was stupid to me already. Also, I had the shittiest phone ever for three years… Didn’t really work, would turn off in the middle of calls, or open up the Internet in my pocket and charge me a hundred dollars. So I didn’t really have a phone to make an Instagram anyway. Since then, I figured I don’t really post anything on Facebook anyway, so it’s whatever. I can see it being useful now for capturing hijinks and shit like that, and you could also use it for the shameless self-promotion that’s happening.

As the World turns.

It kinda fucking sucks. I see these gnarly tricks people are posting and not filming it for a part or anything, as if they just need the Internet to know they’re good at skateboarding. It’s a weird thing, for sure. Fucking stuff a little bit in terms of photography and filmers. It is what it is.

Will a day come when you download it?

Who knows, man. I might have to suck it up at one point and do it. Hopefully not in the immediate future.

Well shit dog, if you wanna go pro in skateboarding, you better get on that.

Fuck, I guess so. Hashtag my life away.

Hashtag Instapro, hashtag Skate365, hashtag Diamondlife.

Hashtag 420, hashtag fuuuckman.

In other news, are you aware that there’s a black Italian Disco singer from the 70s named Zack Ferguson?

Dude, I did know about that. Pretty fucking funny. What’s his most famous song called, “Skateboard Dancing”?

Skateboard Dancing, 1978. Zack Ferguson. Pump it.

Somebody brought that to my attention when I was 14 or 15, they searched my name online or something and that came up. It’s fucked. What a coincidence.

Coincidence? One could argue it was fate that brought you to do nollie double heelflips when you were 15.

(Laughs) Maybe the worst phase of my skateboarding. I guess I just did a lot of dumb tricks. I’ve learned that just because you can do them, doesn’t mean you have to.

Preach. List your helpers.

Emerica, Stance, Hammer Skateshop, Happy Hour, Bones, Black Label, Ripe Grip, and Skate Loft.