By Sarah Sotoodeh
Pro skateboarder Joey Brezinski has been in the skateboarding arena for years and still going strong. Between skate sessions, Brezinski is not only busy running his own company, Andale Bearings, but also takes time to give back to the community. I recently caught up with him at DISC Sports & Spine Center in Marina del Rey to see what he’s up to.
Q: What brought you to the Soft Tissue Center?
Brezinski: I think the first time I came here was for an ankle issue and Red Bull sent me here. That was my first time here so basically an injury was how I found the place.
Q: How long have you been coming here?
Brezinski: Off and on for about three years now. I would see Dr. Dave (Velasquez) for most treatments and then I would get all my other stuff done next door in ortho clinic. I had fractured my tail bone, broken fingers, scaphoid, just a bunch of stuff so I’m back and forth and this is the rehabilitation part where I work out with Doc (Kreis). He gets me back on my feet and now I’m kind of on a regular routine now working out and seeing if it will give me some longevity.
Q: You’re working with Doc on strength and training. What types of exercise are you doing?
Brezinski: Right now we’re just testing different exercises to see what works for me and my profession so right now we’re doing a little bit of lifting, a lot of squat work, dumbbells.
Q: Are you feeling ok now?
Brezinski: Yeah, except for today. I have a crink in my neck and my foot and they are going to work on me.
Q: How did that happen?
Brezinski: I don’t know I was skating but I didn’t fall or anything. I think I just overdid it and stressed my body out. Today I’m hopefully going to get my foot and my neck worked on, so no working out today.
Q: What’s coming up these next few months for you?
Brezinski: Next few months…we’re doing this big video shoot in China I get to go on. It’s about a three week shoot and we’re traveling around China. It should be a three part series on the internet. That’s probably the next big thing I got going on.
Q: Where will you be going in the series?
Brezinski: I know we are going to go to a few skate parks; we’re probably going to end up giving away some product to some kids out there and skate with the kids. It’s going to be more of just a travel piece, where we’re going to see the Great Wall, hopefully do a lot of sightseeing and a lot of fun activities in between our skate sessions.
Q: You do a lot of giving back and charity. Why is it important to you?
Brezinski: I just like to do it and I’m able to. My sponsors are great.
Q: How do you pick where to go and who to give it to?
Well it depends where we’re at. If I go to skate camp every summer I’ll do it there. If I go out to the East Coast, I go hit a few skate parks in New York and do some giveaways there.
Q: Did you dress up like Santa this past Christmas?
Brezinski: I do it every year, this year I was an elf, I wasn’t Santa this year but the year before I was. We always try to do something around the holidays where we go around LA, hook up kids that are wanting new shoes, new skateboards, whatever they need. We try to go to lower income communities as well so especially those kids that are ripping in those areas get some gear for the holiday.
Q: What kinds of things do you do in your spare time besides skateboarding?
Brezinski: Right now, I’m doing a lot. I own my own company so I’m running that now. I’m doing that pretty much in the mornings and I skate after that. Everything I do pretty much revolves around skateboarding, I don’t really know what else I do.
Q: How do you spend a typical day?
Brezinski: Typical day is wake up, answer a bunch of emails, ship a bunch of orders out and then go skate and then come home and make dinner, go to sleep.
Q: You touched on the fact that you have a company, can you talk a little bit about that?
Brezinski: My company’s called Andale. It’s a bearing brand and those are what make wheels roll on your skateboard so their middle inserts that stick in your wheels. We make really good ones to go fast and kids seem to like them and that’s been my main focus now, just building the brand. Right now we’re growing pretty fast and I’m just trying to figure out which way I need to take it and which direction at this point.
Q: Why do you like skateboarding so much?
Brezinski: It’s all I know.
For more information on Joey Brezinski, visit AndaleBearings.com
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