In the midst of struggling to trying to write a novel about skateboarding the author Kyle Beachy decided simply to write about a person he admired: Andrew Reynolds. He saw Reynolds as someone who possessed an uncanny cultural presence with the ability to unify skateboarding opinion not only through respect but, importantly, the acknowledgement than no-one would argue the frontside flip is not Andrew Reynolds’ trick. However, in the wake of Emerica’s ‘Stay Gold’, Beachy also saw Reynolds as as perfect model of an adult that a skateboarder could achieve. Adulthood being “A crisis that you also, if you persist long enough at this most fun thing, will have to confront,” writes Beachy in his essay, ‘A Very Large Puzzle: On Andrew Reynolds’. The piece published by Jenkem Magazine in 2012 would become a foundational text (and inform the title) of what became his second novel, ‘The Most Fun Thing: Dispatches From A Skateboard Life’. Published in 2020 by Grand Central, the book is a collection of Beachy’s writings on skateboarding spanning throughout the 2010s. On today’s show, Beachy discusses writing that formative essay on Andrew Reynolds and who The Boss is today.

Hosted, edited and produced by Farran Golding

Timestamps and show notes:

00:00 Introduction to the episode and Kyle Beachy
1:27 Kyle’s history with Andrew Reynolds
2:10 Kyle’s studies, journalism, career and first novel
3:20 Kyle’s second novel and early skate articles
3:50 ‘A Very Large Puzzle: On Andrew Reynolds’
5:00 Interlude: Stella Reynolds
5:15 Sports Writing vs Skate Writing
6:45 Reynolds of the 2010s
7:26 Kyle’s History with Emerica
8:15 Stay Gold
9:08 Being moved by skateboarding
9:47 Skateboarding journalism in the early 2010s
11:12 Writing the Reynolds essay
12:36 Age and thoughtfulness
14:55 Heath Kirchart
17:05 ‘The Most Fun Thing’
20:37 Rooting for Reynolds
22:21 Revisiting Reynolds
24:43 Baker Has A Wholesomeness
26:02 ‘BHADW2’ fundraiser
29:09 Outro