From Rock Bottom to Redemption | Derek Asher’s The Skateboarding Barber Journey

In this powerful episode of Panhandle Pulse, Derek Asher opens up about his raw journey from a troubled past in California—marked by jail time, addiction, and setbacks—to rebuilding his life through faith, resilience, and creativity. Now a barber and entrepreneur on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Derek shares how skateboarding shaped his mindset, how he turned a viral haircut into community impact, and what it takes to start over with purpose.

Discover how he built his brand as the “Skateboarding Barber,” navigated failures, and found meaning through giving back, mentoring youth, and creating authentic connections. This episode is packed with inspiration for anyone chasing growth, second chances, and a better future.

Derrick Asher Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theskateboardingbarber?igsh=MWlmNXRlM3FucTd6dQ==

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Pain Handle Pulse, the show that dives into real challenges and honest conversations shaping the Florida pain handle. I'm your host, Chuck Asbury. Each week we sit down with the people who make our community strong, sharing real issues, real conversations, and no filters.

SPEAKER_04 0:28

Hey guys, welcome back to Panama Plus. I got an amazing guest today, Derek Ashen. He's a barber, gator, entrepreneur, all around creative guy. Derek, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. I'm appreciated. Thanks so night. I found uh you on social media. My wife found uh this new Roadloadman barber shop here in Daspel. Yeah, I've been up with him for like two weeks now, the board and real bar, but I was like, you know, start doing some searching on there. And I've seen Derek is like, gotta reach out to him, and you were brave enough to be a guest. So for our listeners, tell us uh a little bit about your background. How did you get here? How did you go what's your growing up story?

SPEAKER_03 1:01

All right. So uh I'm from California originally. Uh I've been fetting hair for about six years now. So um, let's see, I grew up skateboarding my whole life, going on road trips, hanging out with the homies, skate lights. Shout out to Kevin. Uh yeah, just being a skate guy, hanging out at the skate park, not having anything, uh, not having any goals, put it that way, right? Skate and living life. And then uh I started customing. I started moving some weight, and I ended up getting caught. Uh I had to go to jail. I had to go to rehab. Yeah, I was in jail uh in county in Stockton, California, San Joaquin, Donner Farm. So I was in jail for 183 days, which was six months. And then uh I ended up getting my GPD while I was in there. So I was just school. Uh I took a typewriting class or a typing class that typed 54 words per minute. So I think I graduated that uh got my GED while I was in there. Um, I had to go to rehab is a part of the thing. So I was in a live in rehab for like a year and a half. I couldn't leave. Um it was a faith-based program called Victoria Outreach. That was after jail. That was before I was in jail. Okay, that's so right when I got arrested, I got caught settled me.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:13

Um, and I was bad drug dog. So it's not enough for me. But uh I got caught, went to I got arrested. Uh I was in jail for like two days. You know, they're asking me questions and stuff, and they released me, had me sign paperwork saying I'll come back to court. And when I got out, I started looking at my charges, and I was like, dude, I'm going to prison. I was like, no, I can't do it. I used to get it. So I was like, hey, I'll turn myself into rehab. Maybe the judge will be a little nicer, showing him, hey, I messed up, let me straighten myself out. So the judge was like, okay, you know what? You go to rehab, you don't have to go to jail, it'll be all good. Like, okay, cool. He's like, but if anything happens, you gotta go back to jail. I'm like, all right. Well, I was a year, I was in rehab for a year four months. And uh met this met this lady start staying at the house, doing things I shouldn't have been doing. And uh the home director of the rehab I was at wrote a letter to the judge, say, hey, he's messing up. So I had to go back to court. And the judge was like, All right, dude, you got a year now, you got a year in county, right? I'm like, oh man. So luckily, because I turned myself in, I got halftime. So did it a year and four months of Victory Outreach, the men's home, which definitely helped me. Um I I got clean, I got sober, grew in my faith. I got out, and then I was out, I was out in rehab for like eight months, and that's when the judge's like, you gotta go to jail now. I just did this whole thing for a year and a half. And in Victory Outreach, you can't watch TV. Okay. Um, you can't listen to the radio. You can, but the only thing you can listen to is Christians. That's your you have to read the Bible, you pray two hours a day, so an hour in the morning, an hour at night. We're doing Bible studies every day. So it's like it's like boot camp for church, like holy ghost boot camp, you know what I mean? Okay, so yeah, I was in rehab for a year and a half, out for eight months, and then straight to jail for six months. And then uh while I was in there, but uh after rehab, um, the woman I was talking to while I was in there, we ended up getting married. Okay. Um, so I was out of jail for a month. And the church we were going to, they were like, hey, you guys gotta get married, and if you're gonna get married, you gotta do it. Like, she's on the worship team, you can't be living together, you gotta do this and that. Okay, so we ended up getting married. Uh after we got married, we have my daughter, Daisy. And then after that, we had a house, we're living together. I started messing up again. Started going back to the party and we're doing my old knuckle headways. So she got sick of it and she ended up leaving. So she said, Hey, I'm leaving, I'm moving to Florida in three days. I'm like, No, you're not. You got our kids, right? She took off. I came home, baby. The U Haul was packed, and I was like, Oh no, it was live. Yeah, I was like, wait, you're kidding, right? She's like, no, like we're already leaving. So she took off with our daughter. Uh came out here to Florida. I didn't know nobody in Florida. Nobody out here, I'm still in California. I just graduated barber school too. So I started going barber school at that time. Uh my daughter was two, but almost three. She was two, though. Finished barber school. She left like a week after I finished barber school, but I still didn't take my state board test.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:17

So they're like, hey, yeah, you graduated in school, but now you gotta take your license test for the state. Like, okay, well, when? They're like, yeah, it was six months. I'm like, dude. So I ended up moving back with my mom because we lost the house, no more car. Like, my mom was living in a senior place, so I was sleeping on the couch and I had to be up before sunset or you know, sunrise. And yeah, like, because yeah, I think it was 55 and older can live there. So I had to be sneaky coming in and out, you know, I'd be doing things like me. Like we have Margaretaville down there at all. Yeah, so yeah, it's an older community. Yep. So I was doing that, and then sometimes I come home too late and the door would be locked, so I had to sleep on the porch. Um, but I started working at uh I think I was working at Vincent's Video Shoe Store. Uh so I saved up, saved up a little money. I was able to rent a brief with some older people. Um, and then I finally took my barber test. I passed. And then I worked at uh Vintage Barber Co. in Antigua, California for one year. I saved up seven grand. Um and then after I saved up some money, I went on Craigslist and Google Maps. I knew where my daughter was staying, I had her address. Right. So I look on Google Maps, okay, where is she at? I typed in barbershop in here. All this list of barbershop in the area of Fima. Yeah. So I'm like, all right, so I'm doing my homework. We're going down each each one, going to Facebook, Instagram, and I'm like, all right, which one has the most interaction, the best haircuts, the most slightly for it? Because I've only been cutting hair for a year at this time. So I'm not that good. Like I've had horrible reviews so far. I'm like, it's gonna take me. Like, I'm horrible. I don't like great clips back in the day or whatever. There's times where I was at that first barbershop, and I'm like, I think I'm just gonna go work at McDonald's because I can't cut hair. I'm ruining people, people are like talking bad about me, and they should because I'm doing horrible, I'm ruining people, bro. I uh I went on Google Maps, found where she was, found some barbershops nearby, had up a couple shops, and then one shop really stuck out to me, which was Clark's Barber Lounge in Four Bowl Beach. So I I messaged them and Joe, Joe Clark, he's the name. He uh responded and said, Hey Magic, I would love to have you come out. So I was like, all right, cool. So I found the barbershop to work at. Now I need to find a place to stay. So I went on Craigslist, I found us, I found a couple spots, and one of the guys actually messaged me back. He said, Yeah, I could pull the spot for you. I was like, I got two months' rent right in advance. I was like, I'll pay you two months up front. I won't be that for another month, but I'll pay you now so you can pull it. I said, sure. So I paid that, and then I got a rent a car. I didn't have enough car. I got a rental car for a month, and I drove from California all the way to Florida, and I I did a road trip where I hit all these different skate parks in the food spot. So I mapped it out before I went. I was like, okay, there's a skate park here, food spot here. Like I love the travel channel. I watched Andrew Zimmern and uh Anthony Bourdain. So I just looked, dynamics drivings and diamonds, I feed. Yeah, we'll be kind of loose.

SPEAKER_04 8:11

We were uh places, guys.

SPEAKER_03 8:13

It doesn't look anything like it was on the TV shows. It never does. But uh yeah, so I I've hit all these food spots, I hit all these skate parks, and met a bunch of cool people like crossing the states, and it I think it took me like a week and a half to drive them. I was in a I I got seven grand in my pocket. I already paid for the spot where I'm staying, I gotta rent a car, I paid for this time already. When I get there, I just gotta be on hustle mode so I'm gonna enjoy myself while I go. So I'm driving, people eating food. I end up getting here. I worked uh at Clark's for a while, and I was there for like probably two years, and then things just weren't going however it went, you know what I mean? Um my my I got distracted with other things, yeah. The the party scene, you know what I mean, to where it's like I moved here to be by my kid. Right. I would see her every now and then. Uh, but every time I hit up my daughter's mom, she was busy or she had to work. Something would always come right. So, you know, it went from seeing my daughter once a week to once every two weeks, once a month, once every couple months. And now I'm making a lot of money when I'm working, so I'm like, well, shoot, I might as well just go out. Right. So I would just get drunk and you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

Like just trying water. We have all the clubs. We have all the flags. Yeah, all the tourists and things to go do and music and drinking.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:27

So that's all I was doing. Blowing my money. You know, I was sending money every now and then, but I was just blowing my money being irresponsible. And uh, so I did that for a while, and then I ended up moving to Texas, and I was in Texas for about two and a half years. While I was in Texas, I made a lot of good friends. I was gonna go back to California, but all my family left California because of uh we can't say it on YouTube, uh, the virus up. Yeah, yeah. And I I know sometimes they'll they'll block it, you get demonetized. Yeah, I think we're good. So right when the virus happened, my family, you know, I got a bunch of nieces and nephews in California, and the schools try to make them all take the vaccine. My sister's like, no, dude. Like, you guys want to, that's cool, but we're not gonna do it.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

Right.

SPEAKER_03 10:08

So my whole family, I got my mom, my two older sisters, they got their families, they all packed up and they just left California and moved to Texas. So I'm like, well, I was gonna go to California, but I guess I'll go to Texas. So I moved to Texas, worked at some barbershops out there, went to Rick's barber shop. I was helping him run that one. Uh, we had a skating shop inside. Yeah, ended up making a lot of friends who skate. Houston has a great skate scene. Um, I started skating with uh uh one of my favorite pro skaters, Ben Rayborn. He's been one of my favorites since I was a kid, and then he became my friend, and I would go pick him up every weekend and we would go skate. That's pretty cool, dude. It was the coolest. I got to film him, and like he's like, I don't know what to do. And I'm like, I've watched all your parts, dude. Like, do this trick, do this trick. I was like, you sure people want to see that? I was like, oh yeah, I'm a fan, I know what I want. Right. I was like, anything you do is gonna be cool, just have fun, enjoy it. Yeah, so I'd go film him, hang out, and then uh I get a call from a barbershop out here, hey bro, if you come back, you can make two grand a week. I'm like, coming back to money. So I was living at the barber shop in Texas, like it was slow. You know, luckily, Rick's barber shop, Rick, my man, helped me out a lot. He allowed me to live in the back of the barbershop where you're a four-wheel beer chair, right? No, no. So when I was in Texas, oh okay, in Texas. My family's there, and I'm like, well, I gotta come out here, you know, be around people like because when I was here, I was by myself. I didn't have nobody. Okay. I was just partying all the time. So I'm in Texas around my family, but I I didn't have anywhere to stay. So I'm like, Eddie, I'm sleeping in my car. Who's like, oh, you crash with a shop? We got a shower in the back, you can stay here. So again, I had to uh I had whenever the shop would close at six or seven, I would close down with everybody and leave, go to a bar and have a couple drinks, and I'd have to sneak back in at night so nobody knew I was living that and wake up early at like five and leave before everybody shows up and then make it seem like I'm come back to work. You know, I'm having all my clothes in my car, just like struggling. Man, this is not steep enough. So I did that for a while. I get the call, come back to Fort Walton. You can make two grand a week. I'm like, all right, I'm here. Ended up coming out here. I was making$400 a week. And I'm like, dude, is that two grand? I don't know what happened. Like, bro. Oh, I was strumming out there. No, I'm back here strumming. I'm like, man, so I ended up leaving. Uh I went to a shop out. I left Fort Walton Beach, came to a shop in Destin, worked with one of my buddies for a while. Uh, but it it just wasn't good chemistry, it was just water and oil mixing. So I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna go try this spot over here. I've probably worked at like 10 different shops out here in the last couple years, you know what I mean? Just like because everywhere I go, it's it's not that I have a problem with people, it's just that the shops are too slow or we're not seeing eye to eye. Right, you know what I mean? But everybody I've worked for has been cool. It's just the time has come where I gotta go. Yeah. So I'm back here, I'm uh trying different shops out. Um, and recently I was at the boat barber shop in Florida Beach, and it has two pretty ladies in there, and they can cut hair again. So the thing with cutting hair, I'm sure you know, is you go anywhere, pretty girls aren't the best at cutting because they can get by just looking pretty. Any guy will go sit in there and chair, they don't care getting this a month. And a lot of the time, girls, not every time, but a lot of the time, the girls who are actually like kind of like ogre ish, they can cut hair really good. You know, they're not lookers, but they got talent. Well, the girls in Fort Walling Beach, they look pretty and they can cut hair really good. So it's two pretty girls who can cut good and me. I'm screwed, bro. It's like you want to go to the princesses or Shrek. So I'm sitting in the corner and these these girls are making like two grand each, you know, every week. I'm over there lucky if I make five or six hundred bucks. So I'm like, man, struggling out of nowhere. Hey, uh, from the rogueman, he was in Miramar at the time. He hit me up, sent me a message on Instagram. Hey, you know anybody, uh, any barbers you'd be interested in helping run a shop in Destin? I was like, Yeah, let's keep the shop. I'm down, bro. I need something new. Yeah. And uh so D's like, okay, yeah, I got a shop in Miramar, but I'm opening one at Destin. He's like, if you want, you can run the Miramar shop for about a week or so and buy the one you want. I'll do the Destin one. When we get Destin built up, you come over to Destin. I was like, Old and cool as to it. So I worked in Miramar for like a week and a half, and it was great. I was making money. I was like, finally, I can pay my bills, get caught up on stuff. And I'm like, I'm not stressing as much, so it's cool. And then um it's just a far drive. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Fort Wallet.

SPEAKER_03 14:34

Yeah, it's like in the mornings fine, but on the way home, you sit on the traffic, especially for break, like now, it's it's horrible. Yeah, it's horrible. Like even going home now, I'm like, I'm gonna go stop somewhere, get some food, and hopefully that traffic dies down. Yeah, I told him I said, Hey bro, I'd love it out here, but it's it's so far, it's like Clementestin then. So Kim and Destin, we've been at this location now for two weeks. It was not this Saturday. Yeah, not last Saturday, but Saturday before was the first day. Uh but it's been great. Like people have been coming in, everybody in here is uh that comes in is really nice and polite. I've been at a lot of other barbershops where I don't want to say they're cheaper, but it's not as pricey for the haircuts. Yeah. And you you attract a lot of clients. Um you know, money's tight. I get that. But when you when you're working with less money, you get a lot more attitude at nose. Right. When you're in a little more upscale places of business, people are kind of happy. You know, they're doing what they want to do, they're not pushing off their anger on you. Yeah. So since I've been here, it's been chill. Everybody's been super nice, super like calm. Haircuts here take an hour. You know, we can go faster if we want, but we give them an hour to do what we want to do.

SPEAKER_04 15:46

You're coming for the experience, you're coming for the quality of your haircut, you're not like, I mean, this is a cool looking place, and it will take some shots if we haven't post on social, but like it's the experiencing atmosphere that you're coming for.

SPEAKER_03 15:55

If you get a good quality hair or it helps the thing and total experience, it's the art. I mean, like these other shops, not all other shops I've been to, but I've been to a couple shops where they treat people like caddy. They're whipping me on the back. More people turn hurry up, hurry up, turn that share. You need more people, 14, 15, 20 people.

SPEAKER_04 16:11

Yeah, like a dinner restaurant, uh, you're trying to service through an art.

SPEAKER_03 16:15

You know, the owner got to make money, right? But at the same time, I'm an artist. Like, I'm not the best at everything, but I like cutting here and I enjoy it. And there's uh there's a certain art and way I like it to look. And because if at the end of the day, when you see that person smiling in the mirror who hasn't been smiling the whole time, acting hard and turning around for little kids, you know, they act all mad and they look in the mirror and they have a little grid, they crack a smile. Yeah, it's like, yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_04 16:37

I know that you look in your excited about it. They went through the whole thing, and it'll it they'll come back to another event. Like, yeah, and they experience to do it again versus just going in, spinning through a quick haircut, and maybe not get the same quality of your Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:50

I've I've flipped people before, bam, bam, get in and out, in and out. You don't talk to them or nothing. Just I'm trying to hurry up, sorry, you know what I mean. But here you talk to people, you get to learn who they are, they bring their kids in, you build a relationship with them, you know, their sons, and all of a sudden you've seen your sons grow up over time. And then, like, I just had a kid the other day, these five at the skateboards. That's cool. So the mom's like, Oh, we're gonna bring your main left. You're cool, and I'm like, all right, dude. So I'm telling the kid, I'm like, hey, bro, you land your first kickflip, I'll give you a free haircut. I was like, come in here, you can kick flip in here. Yeah, I'll give you a free haircut. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 17:20

And so he's gonna go home and keep practicing, try that. Yeah, like Danny's gonna be super excited when he does it.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

But yeah, hey Battle, I'm waiting. You know, it took me a couple years, Mom here, I got you. Free haircut. Right. Every now and then, too. I'll make a post on social media where it's like, hey, come play a game of skate. You know, it's like course for basketball with a skateboard. It's like I do a trick, you do a trick. You don't land it, you get an S. You have to still skate. But I've I've offered people, hey, if you come uh play me skate and you win, I'll give you free haircut, you know? That's pretty cool. Yeah, I'm just like, let's keep it excited, keep it fun. Yeah, tired of the same old, same old, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:52

So is that how you went from skateboarding has been a part of your life forever? Um, and you become the skateboarding barber.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

Yeah, literally, it's what I tried to do. I just combined them like I love skateboarding, I love cutting hair. Yeah. And I'm like, So it just fell out of the place.

SPEAKER_04 18:11

So you didn't even think about any of that, just joke.

SPEAKER_03 18:14

Yeah, yeah. So I I used to work for uh uh one of the biggest pommade companies in in the world, Russell. Okay, I was a scumbasser, educator for them. And uh the bloody butcher whose name's uh Rob one of the classes he was saying, on your guys' Instagram handle, you know, you you have to say something that speaks to people about shoes. Like that's the first thing they're gonna see. What do you want them to know about shoot? I'm like skateboarding barber? Yeah, yeah, that's cool. Let's do it. Yeah, it was available when you rent it too. I was like, bro, of course I give different people DM me. Hey, we got similar things. It's like because my thing is the skateboarding barber and no must be skateboarding barber or or barber skateboarding or so they could have exactly what you wanted. Yeah, yeah, secret. Like, I'll still probably skate.

SPEAKER_04 19:04

So where do you scan around here?

SPEAKER_03 19:05

So where is their so Pensacola? Okay, so that's yeah, they got they got all the homies. They got uh uh my buddy Pete Kelly, he is the creator of Coffee and Curbs, professional skateboarder. He's an artist, great guy. Uh thanks to him, I got into the Pensacola scene. But yeah, eats really cool uh burst cab, but you know, all the dudes in Pensacola shout out, yeah, coffee and curbs. Yeah, so Sunday mornings, all the older dudes go skate, Pensacola skate park, Lake Doyle, 9 a.m. 8, 9 a.m. every Sunday. So they have coffee, they skate a little curb, skate a cork wag, but it's all older dudes, bro. It's like ages 30 to 55. Yeah, everybody's out there to skate and hanging out. Just having a good time. Having fun. Yeah, no worries, just chilling. Everybody comes from different walks of life, but uh when you go skating, it's like everybody's a brother. Yep. Yeah, my place that's what I was wondering.

SPEAKER_04 19:55

Because uh my son skateboards a teeny bit, a little bit just into it. He's always tried everything athletic-wise or uh anything for and uh the man had uh Helen McCall.

SPEAKER_03 20:04

Yes, yeah, so I used to go there all the time when they first opened. It's a smaller little place, but I didn't know if uh there's any bigger places in here, but at least they have a little bit of skateboarding place. It's not good, it's better than four wall. Yeah, like I I used to drive to Hill and McCall all the time because my buddy Chris Ranson, he's a professional skateboarder. He's really big back in the 90s, but he lives in Sandalus Beach. I met him out there. Name used to be skateboards. Okay. We had the school of rad. That's cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So rad stands for resilient, adaptive, and determination device. No, is that off the movie Rad? You remember that? The BM Metch bike your movie? It's not, but yeah, that's very so I love that movie. Um no, so it's actually basically not only do we teach about skateboarding, but it's like skateboarding is taught both of us so much stuff growing up, where you learn resilience. Part of skateboarding is you have to fall. You keep messing up, and then how bad do you want to land it? So, you know, you you adapt to whatever circumstances there are and are you deterred in the resilient, army. So yeah, I've learned like, you know, obviously from the story of kept failing, kept failing, kept failing. So I don't care. I'm used to it, the skateboarding, but like I know I'm not gonna get it the first try, so might as well keep going, you know, try something different, see if it works or not.

SPEAKER_04 21:16

Yeah, I think it's an amazing part of uh, and that's one of the things we're gonna talk about is how you transition skateboarding into what you're doing now today. And I think you just explained that. Like you get the resilience out of it, you gotta keep getting up. It's not an easy deal. You weren't just scrolling down there doing that flips and whatever the tone of alcohol was worth, you know. But uh it built resilience to be able to get to where you are to how to overcome. I think that's huge and a freshman speaks to your character. The trials that you went through to where you are today, and state boarding was a whole realm and that that peaks.

SPEAKER_03 21:44

Dude, yeah, for sure. Especially like if you're going through it, like I grew up with a single man. And uh my sister, my sister raised me. I live with both my sisters. They raised me, Jennifer and Christine. They thought raised me. But uh, my dad was never around. Well, mom raised me a little bit, you know, she did her part, you know. Know we all have our daisies that we fought and stuff, so it but skateboarding has always been constant. My friends raised me at skateboard, you know what I mean? It's like I don't know about family time, but I know I got a family skateboard. So yeah, anytime I had troubles or anything like that, I'm going straight to the skateboard. Like, I'm not gonna deal with that, not just skate.

SPEAKER_04 22:18

Yeah, and go out, you know, reclear mind in something you enjoy in fashion. They're doing that now here by by teaching the younger generation and then showing other kids uh in here with free haircuts off tricks and that stuff. So that's great. So yeah, you think that's building you into your passion nowadays? Not only do you do skateboarding, but you do haircuts, and now you're getting to creative uh other avenues, photography and food, and yeah, you just have that all-out entrepreneur vibe going to try.

SPEAKER_03 22:46

Yeah, so that and I so like I just used to try so much different stuff all the time. And I've always done things to get myself stuff, you know what I mean? But now the last couple of years, um, I've looked at it as God has given me talents to do different stuff. It's it's like what it was last year. Uh I've had a kid come in to the barber shop in in Bogueyard and he was all excited to meet me. Can we get a photo? Me for what? His dad is all he thinks you're famous. I'm like, huh? It's like he sees your videos online. Yeah, that's cool. I'm like, hey, let's take a photo, dude. We're taking photos, he's sending to all his friends, and I'm like, dude, that's crazy, it made me tear up. So I'm like, man, and then I start thinking, okay, if I get like, you know, it's not a lot of followers, but if I get a decent amount of people who do follow me and care about what I'm doing, right, what am I leading them to? Yeah. Because I used to lead them into bad stuff, you know what I mean? Right. But I really believe that Jesus gave me medicinance. So like, all right, me, let me take all this energy instead of bringing people to me, let me point them to the cross and be like, okay, God give me these talents, these gifts, not for me, but for and for his word. So it it's also it keeps me humble in that way too, instead of getting my mind all big. Yeah, I'm like, okay, well, all these talents and gifts is not for myself. God was gracious enough to give me these talents and abilities to where I can share them with other people, help other people be happy. But at the end of the day, it's not for me. Right. You know what I mean? To where it's like a lot of my music now, like on any of my posts, usually it's Christians.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

Because it's a little seed that I can plant within people, you know what I mean? To where it's like I used to use any kind of music, it doesn't matter. Yeah, but now I have a conviction or I I can't listen to regular music like as bad as I want to, bro. I used to love Michael Jackson, and all of a sudden it doesn't sound the same. It's got a little different tone to it or very man, yeah. It's like because it's like everything that we do, we're supposed to do under the glory of God. Right. You know, and then when I hear regular songs talking about love and stuff, but if it's not glorifying the father, I can't do it to you. I want to. I used to love Michael Jackson, my baby. Michael Jackson, sublime, like all this stuff, being like can't do it no more because it's like the back of my mind, I'm like, man, it's God gave them a talent for his glory, but they're just doing it for themselves. Right. Which I'm guilty of doing myself sometimes, but that's definitely what keeps me grounded. I'm like, I can do a lot of different stuff, but it's not for my glory. Yeah. It's to show off and shine, but it's to point people with somebody. So like when that kid came up to me, and I was like, man, what am I leading people to?

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:17

That's what really made me the switch on social media where I'm like, okay, I need to start talking about God and Jesus more. It's like people don't want to listen to it. I don't care. They'll listen. There's thousands of people you can watch, right? They can change your channel and if you're gonna listen to me, I'm gonna tell you something.

SPEAKER_04 25:31

And you got a huge point that uh is me and for my life and the stuff that we've done in our past, also that is just like, yeah, seeing so or being able to find the scene with taller son, and our thing was you never know where that scene either, how that seed's gonna grow.

SPEAKER_03 25:44

Your job was just to play. Yeah, like I'm saying class, right? One person offers, one person sells, it has them when it comes to and you could do that one thing and change that a whole kid's life that you don't even know because you've seen that one aspect.

SPEAKER_04 25:56

And maybe that's the only person that you're supposed to. You don't have a million followers, but you touch that one person that changes, and then he touches a million people like that's it. Those are the aspects that you don't really think about. I think as Christians, we get to the point of like we've got to do all this stuff and follow all these uh dot or ts, dotter ons, and it's not gonna be successful, but it's not, it's not that. It's just our goal, our goal was to spread the gospel where it is us ourselves. Yeah, right to see it in the in the way that you are today because the experiences that you went through in your life, a lot of people have gone through it too, and I can see the difference.

SPEAKER_03 26:27

Yeah, and there's only some people that you can reach that I can't reach. There's people I can reach that you can't reach. But I'm like, all right, God, yeah, let it be for your glory. Like, my story is your story, you know? It's like his story now. Yeah, like with his sister. Yeah, that's great. So it's like, all right, God, I'm doing it for your glory. Like, I'll I'll tell everybody about my my trials and temptations and stuff now because I see where God's problems from. Where it's like, man, I used to hate myself, I hated my life. Now I'm like grateful where I still struggle now, but I I uh count it all joy, right? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 26:58

Yeah, it's hard to do too when you're going through this job, too.

SPEAKER_03 27:01

Listen, it's easy to to to thank God when you're when you're on top, right? But can you still worship and thank God when you're in the bottom?

SPEAKER_04 27:08

Yeah, that's the hardest part. Now you're always gonna have valleys and ice in your entire life. It's not gonna be a straight path, it just will have to be there.

SPEAKER_03 27:14

Got a abound in uh in lunch and in Lent's right, be content.

SPEAKER_04 27:19

It's it's hard to do, especially uh I don't know with everyone's different stories and backgrounds. Like some people go through a lot more trials and tribulations than uh others, and uh that's the hard part. Yeah, but uh you're doing great. Like being here, like I I looked on Instagram accounts with my crazy haircuts that you're doing around here is pretty cool. How do you get inspiration to do that? Like they come in and they say, like, just have your free will, the artist feels like so so are you talking about the box haircut?

SPEAKER_03 27:45

The Minecraft that's exactly what I was gonna say, but I didn't want to call it out. Yeah, no, no, so it's the Minecraft cat. So my buddy Damien uh came out here with his family, and that's his brother Gunner. They both skateboard, really good skaters. Well, uh, they every time they come out to Panama City, um, they come out on vacation, they live in Alabama in California. They come out here and they're like, hey, we need a haircut. I'm like, uh catch your hair and we'll go skate. Cool. Well, they came into the shop. The gunner's like, yeah, I just want a regular fade, but this kid had a white boy half a rose. I'm like, I could do a fade. I'm gonna try something. It's like, all right. So I'm cutting it in on my oh, you seen that movie House Party? Yeah, yeah. I tried to do okay. It's a 40 million view state. Yeah, I tried to do that round. Uh man, it's not doing it. Yeah, so you just started to cut the top off. Yeah, I said, I said, hmm, I've never seen a square haircut. Let me so I do it, and then when I got done, it was uh uh Damien, it was Damian's younger brother, not Gunner, but his younger brother Benji. Benji was all dude, tag Minecraft, you'll go viral. I was like, he's like, oh yeah. Yeah, like Minecraft movie just came out tag to watch. Tag Minecraft, and uh all of a sudden I got like one million, two million views in like three days, and I was like, oh my gosh, it went viral. I'm talking to my buddy on the phone, and I'm like, bro, how cool would it be if like Snoop Dogg reposted it or whatever, and whatever. I have my headphones in. So I'm like playing on my phone, talking moon, and I scroll and it says Snoop Dogg, and I see my picture, and I'm like, oh my god, Snoop Dogg just reposted. Hey, I'm cool. So Snoop Dogg reposted, I got like seven or eight million news on Snoop Dogg's page. A bunch of other people started taking me and reposting it, and people started sending me videos. Hey, they're posting your video. So I go comment, thanks for the credit, bro. Right. Uh my sister messaged me, hey, they're playing your video on the news in Canada. That's crazy. I was like, no way, sick. So you got to find the Canadian news clip? Yeah, yeah, I got it. Yeah, I'll send it to you. Okay. Yeah, so uh it was on the news in Canada, and I was like, okay, well, cool, it's blowing up now. Jack commented on it. Oh man, that's crazy. Right, he said the downfather spoke is, you know, and I'm like, cool, bro. Sick. Yeah, I was tripping. Man, this is crazy. So what I did is I thought, okay, well, how do we keep the hype up? But what can we do to keep it going? But what positivity stuff can we do from this makes something cool happen? So I ended up hitting up uh Paws, the Tan Candle Animal Wellness Society. Oh, that's great. We hit them up, and then we hit um I'm probably gonna butcher this. It's called Wounded Warriors. Yeah. Uh with the animals. Yep, they're in our year. Yes. So we did two separate events at one of the barbershops in Full Wan Beach to where it was two separate days. Um, it's like, hey, all the haircuts we need today, we're just gonna donate all this money to each animal shelter. So we had them bring the dogs in. People are hanging out, we're cutting it up, playing the dogs, we're standing out. Some of these pictures that's cool. Um, I got a picture of a dog in the chair, draped him up, acting up and giving us laptop. So that was cool. Yeah, it blew up. I got a lot of opportunities after that. Like a lot of people started sending me stuff to make videos, and it's been crazy.

SPEAKER_04 30:59

That's awesome. I seen it. I didn't even know it was Minecraft. I had to read the tag, and I looked at it before I came here for this interview, and I looked, and as soon as it I was like, that's all my wife was like, that's a Minecraft. Like, without even knowing a thing. And I was like, I'm not gonna say it's Minecraft, I'm gonna see if she tells me. But if I would have read the comments, I would have done it. But I was like, soonly, God, Minecraft. That's really cool that you did that.

SPEAKER_03 31:20

Total Minecraft, and it was the accident, dude. It was asked, and I was like, well, you know, I've never seen a scan of haircut. It was an accident, it wasn't supposed to be a God's thing, it was a mistake thing. It's like we think it was an accident. The guy's like, no, I had that like upside the head.

SPEAKER_04 31:31

I'm not playing for you. You're not doing it the uh house party eraser at the end.

SPEAKER_03 31:35

I know, I know. I it probably wouldn't have blown up if I did that. It's like, okay, you didn't quote aircut.

SPEAKER_04 31:40

That's awesome. I think one of the things that we always talk about with every guest of having this show, whether they're creators like you are, entrepreneurs, businesses, anyone in this area, living this little bubble that is totally different from the other part of the world. But everybody that I've had on here so far, I hope it continues, has always given back charities and community. It's just some kind of calling while they're here and like you did, and you reached out and said, Well, this thing is going viral, how do I impact others?

SPEAKER_03 32:06

Is I think one of the little blessings of bandhandle that we're in. Yeah, for sure. Because we overlooking all the other things, but in here we start complaining about the traffic or learning that. But there's so many good people on the screen we've got to give back. Dude, so many I met so many cool people out here who have helped me, who have given me chances and opportunities. And I probably split over a lot of them. Yeah. To be honest with you, I was I was dirt bad, you know what I mean? But thanks to Christ, I'm a nude, I'm a new creature. You know what I mean? I'm repenting for my sins. I've uh made amends with people, I've apologized, I've realized I've been wrong, right? You know, um, yeah. I don't hang out with people I used to hang out with. In fact, I'm usually by myself. Yeah. I'll go escape with people on Sundays that come to work, but I outside of that, I'm by myself. It's me and the Lord. That's it. Like I'm watching servants, I need my word, I won't hang out with anybody. I get lonely, you know what I mean? That's I'm like, ah, why what do you got me going through right now? Why am I not by myself? Yeah. It was like I'm bearing me. Right. Just to elevate your games, there's some different groups, different connections in there, and something else is coming. Exactly. He's like, he's like, I'm keeping you busy right now because you know what she did with now basically. All right, that's cool.

SPEAKER_04 33:16

So I mean, that's been great. I appreciate one of the show. One of the things I talked to about everyone in the area here that lives here is which you could there's problems everywhere. But if you can think of one big item issue or big issue that we could try to focus on or that means focus in the area that could help kids, who anything that you see um from just being in here in the area.

SPEAKER_03 33:36

A new skate park. That'd be good. That's a huge one. Um has what three or four skate parks right now? They built another one. Anima City has three or four, maybe five. They just built like three brand new ones in the last year or two.

SPEAKER_04 33:50

So where did they build those at?

SPEAKER_03 33:51

Uh so ones at the Publix uh sports complex. Okay, yeah. One about the baseball fields and everything are.

SPEAKER_01 33:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:58

And then they have a couple, they're all spread out.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

Right.

SPEAKER_03 34:01

Um, but I literally have to drive an hour that way, hour that way. Crestviews 30 minutes up the road, which I have a car. So no problem. I can have what about the kids in the area? Right. They're out here, they're you know, and I was a kid. If I didn't have a skate park, yeah, I I messed around in my my care share and bad stuff. But how much worse would it be if I didn't have a skate park? You know what I mean? Like it could have been horrible.

SPEAKER_02 34:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:22

And these kids out here don't have nothing to skate. They got the skate park, but the ground is like going into uh a parking lot. Like it's rough, there's cracks everywhere, the ramps are coming up, the screws are popping out, the sheets of metal are all messed up, it's hot. Yeah, um, it's it's just a rough park. Nobody wants to skate there. They have a bolt, that's good, but it's really it's for professions, right? It's not for beginnings, it's like really for uh new ones. Yes, yeah, like there's no spots for like you know, locally to skate. We all have to outsource you know skate places, but I think the new skate park uh is in need. And I talked to a bunch of people who in businesses out here and they said they'd be willing to donate some money towards it. Okay. Um, I wonder if there's something like today, there's a couple of different boys and girls clubs around here that always have because land's a high commodity around here versus putting the state park in or a house for tourism or something like that.

SPEAKER_04 35:11

But uh I know there's actually land for the boys and girls up in the Walton area and around with it.

SPEAKER_03 35:16

But you know, all the from what I've seen is all they're worried about is building pickleball ports, hotels, and storage units.

SPEAKER_04 35:23

Right. So we got we got that's it.

SPEAKER_03 35:25

Car wash and sorry. It's car washed every corner you go to. Yeah, they're either in desk Fort Walton Beach would be for it in Oklaosa Island. Yeah, it's a skate park, you know, because like the skate park, if it's built good, it doesn't even have to be huge, it just has to be built right something small. But then they sent you can get people from other towns coming here, spending money at local restaurants, investing, staying in hotels on skate, you can do events. People put money back in, like Venice Beach, they got a huge skate park on the beach, and people go from all over the world to go skate there, and it's like a tourist attraction now, right? You know what I mean? That could be the same thing here in Destin and Opaloosa Island and Fort Wallon Beach. Yeah, is the one Venom City big enough for that out there at the complex? Dude, it's hot. Okay, it is huge, it's a bad park, but it is so hot, there's no shade. Like I went out there, I almost got beach a couple times, but now I'm not skateing. Yeah, it's fun, but it's too big. Like, we don't need anything that big. Okay, we can do something like size in this room and be perfect. You know, we need a couple obstacles, but it just has to be set up limited. Go to the indoor one somewhere. That would be awesome. I was actually, I went to roller derby in Fort Walling Beach uh yesterday. They had a roller derby event, and I was talking to the lady who owns Vicious skates, uh, Nick Vicious, Nikki, I believe her name. Okay. Um, she was saying that they're actually trying to get skate ramps or something because it's a big in Fort Wall and beach, that's a big open area indoors where they're like, yeah, we're trying to do a skate park or something in the back. There's some ramps on my let me know. I gotta ramp it my house up now, but I put it in the back of my car. Small little wall ramp thing. Yeah, yeah. You can put it up against the wall and like do wall ride. But I made it just the perfect size, so I'm expecting the back of my truck so I can take it around. Take it wherever we can even go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:03

So that's it. That's something definitely to think about and look into for the area around this area. Yeah. Um, no, good. So you're big on social media. Um Instagram's where I found you. You you're doing some YouTube and food stuff now. How to give you a follower over and put I'll post all the links in here so we can. Okay, so I don't find it.

SPEAKER_03 37:21

McMandal's is the skateboarding barber. Okay. So Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, the skateboarding barber. My food show that I do local food reviews is called Beyond the Golf. It's a good name. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, you know, everybody comes here for like seafood, but it's beyond the golf. Yeah. So basically it's an adventure and good food. Um, I I go to all the mom and pop restaurants and I try stuff and you know, try to talk to people and see how it came to be. I ride for a shout out to Creature Skateboards. So I ride for Creature Skateboards now. Okay. Um, he's out of Minnesota, I believe. Um it's a Christian-based skateboard company. So he sends me boards, I make some videos for him. So creature skateboards, I cut hair. I'm on the uh floating for caliber beauty. I made clippers, shears, blow dryers. They're the ones who hooked me up with all my stuff. So I I'm cutting thanks to them. You know what I mean? I haven't had to spend money on clippers or anything in a while. Things are expensive now.

SPEAKER_04 38:24

They are the really good high-quality ones.

SPEAKER_03 38:26

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I was looking the other day at some trimmers just because I haven't done it in a while. They're like 150 clippers are like 250, 300, shears are like a thousand bucks. Yeah. I'm like, Thanks you, caliber. Thank you, Willie. Jay one, thank you, guys. I appreciate you. But uh yeah, yeah, shout out for Features Kateboards, Caliper. Shout out to Jay here at the Rogueman in Destin, Florida.

SPEAKER_04 38:49

Yeah, everyone's got definitely come check out this place afterward is uh a pretty cool little place.

SPEAKER_03 38:54

Yeah, and thank you for uh appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

Thanks for listening today's episode. If you liked it, be sure to follow and subscribe. I'll leave you with this what's the biggest issue you see in the pain handle right now? Join the conversation with me at Chuck Asberry IIX. I'd love to hear your thoughts.