It would probably take a few volumes to adequately describe the remarkable life that Jonny Miller has led thus far. A fixture at numerous sliding, downhill and slalom events, Jonny has a personality that is truly larger than life. In fact, it was Jonny Miller who inspired this piece. In a sense, Jonny is the poster child for keeping the skate stoke burning well past what “society” thinks is acceptable.
Jonny’s earliest skate memory began at the age of 4. “I recall receiving a Black Knight board in 1968 for Christmas,” he says. “But I never got to ride it!” His uncle borrowed it from Jonny and didn’t return it until about a year later. “I had a skate key and my mom warned me not to fool around with the wheels.” You can imagine what happened next. “I took one of the nuts off the truck and all these ball bearings fell onto the shag carpet.” Jonny says he managed to collect all the bearings but one. “Then my mom starting vacuuming. I can still recall hearing the sound of the vacuum cleaner sucking up that ball bearing. I never got to ride that Black Knight!”
Fortunately for Jonny, things turned out better in the 
1970s. He was living in Southern California and had an opportunity to skate a number of amazing parks, as well as his own terrain. “I built a ramp at my parents’ house that leaned up against a telephone pole,” he says. “It was insane.”
Although Jonny enjoyed skating, during his sophomore year in high school he found himself drifting to surfing. “My parents sent me to this private school, but eventually I returned to public school and slowly got back into skating in my junior year,” he says. “But once I got a car in my senior year, I went fully into surfing.”
It took almost 20 years, until 1999, before Jonny came back to skateboarding. His return was due to a traumatic experience. “My former wife left our family under some pretty heavy circumstances,” he says. “One night I was at the top of this hill. I was absolutely miserable and remembered the one thing that got me through things when I was younger. It was my Caster skateboard.”
Slowly but surely, Jonny started to connect with the local skate community on the Central California coast. He heard about people doing slalom racing and decided to check it out. “It was the old crew – people like Jack Smith and Gary Fluitt,” he says. “I went out and raced them all on this little surf skate and I got my butt whipped. But the vibe was so cool, and I realized this was something that I could do with my family.”
Jonny kept attending events and races and eventually wound up meeting Richy Carrasco, Dave Hackett and Steve Olson, legendary skaters who were a part of his youth, which fanned the flames of Jonny’s stoke for skateboarding. Besides slalom, Jonny also turned his attention to downhill and sliding.
“Skateboarding grounded me,” he says. “Whenever I would get depressed, I’d jump on my board and everything negative just left me. All I had was this feeling of pure stoke and this feeling of euphoric energy.”
Besides enjoying skateboarding, Jonny has spent years honing his skills as an artist. Eventually skating influenced his art, too. “When I first started, I created enormous pieces and never considered using skateboards,” he says. “I am really 
into recycling, and I decided to focus my efforts to use skateboard-related items into my art.”
Jonny is perhaps best known, however, for his creation of Toyland, an oasis of skateboarding on a dusty ranch near San Luis Obispo. Toyland’s multiple wooden ramps, DIY concrete and rustic location, along with Jonny’s infectious energy, gave it a vibe that just oozed soul, and the ranch hosted many an epic session and party. Sadly, Toyland was dismantled just over three years ago, but the memories live on.
At the age of 51, with over four and a half decades of riding, Jonny says he is blessed to be a pro skater. He rides for Abec 11, Jet Skateboards, Liquid Trucks, Black Leather Racing, Khiro, Riptide and Muir Skate. “I take a very professional approach,” he says. “I can be a mentor in ways that I could never have done before.” Jonny acknowledges that both old and young look up to him and considers it a big responsibility.
Since his return to skateboarding, Jonny has made a number of great friends that span a wide range of ages. “They live the same lifestyle that I do and all have the same passion,” he says. “I feel truly blessed to be able to connect and ride with people in their late teens and twenties. It definitely keeps me young.”
Jonny’s enthusiasm for skateboarding, and for life, is boundless: “When I get up in the morning, I may see the odd gray hair,” he says, “but thanks to skateboarding, I am as excited as I was back when I was a kid.”
Thankyou to Michael Brooke and Concrete Wave Magazine,
Issue No. 4 VL 14 Winter Issue