My Story..For Anyone That Cares!

I started into skateboarding because I got sick of team sports, I didn't like people telling me what to do. I never had any friends in school because I was always a smart ass. The 2 friends that I did have started to skate, and I did too. I started skating with a piece of wood that I got from woodshop and I nailed some rollerskates on the bottom of it. I started trying 360s out the front of my mum's house, and ever since then I fell in love with skateboarding. I saved up, bought a piece of crap from a sports store...long story short, four years later I decided I wanted to live in America and become a professional skateboarder. When I was 16 I told my parents that if they would support me & I could pull out school, that I would be a pro skateboarder within 6 months. I received my 1st contract about 8 months later, riding for Vision Streetwear in Australia for $166 every 3 months, which even then was an insult to the words "pro skateboarder", but it was still one of the happiest days of my life. At the end of that year I saved up enough money and sold my motorcycle that my father bought for me for Xmas the year before, for a ticket to America. So I went to America for the first time when I was seventeen. I instantly fell in love with California and America, I thought it was the greatest place in the world. I travelled around with one other friend from Australia who was 17 as well and skated all the ramps, slept under ramps, crashed on people's couches..it was the greatest 6 months of my life. I got some sponsors, some real ones from America, not Australia, and that was it.

I came back to Australia every 6 months to save money to go back again. The 3rd time I came back I turned professional for Planet Earth (which was owned by my idol, Chris Miller) after winning my last amateur contest in Linda Vista, CA. Vert skateboarding at the time was at such a low that when I turned professional I did not actually receive a paycheck. I lived at Chris Miller's house, he fed me, gave me a room to sleep in, drove me to the ramp, and gave me free boards. I returned to Australia as a professional skateboarder who didn't get paid (skateboarding as a whole took a bad turn and there was no money to be had). So to make ends meet I went to work for my Dad at his computer store as a currier, and I was the worst employee you would ever want to hire for your business. Thanks to my Dad for not firing me. I worked there off and on for 3 years, while still skateboarding in Australia. In the end I had no board sponsors, no truck sponsors, not even the local skate shop would give me free grip tape.

Vert skateboarding had it's second wave, I saved up enough money, and my Dad gave me some money too, because of how pathetic I was, to go again. So I came for the 4th time after a 3 year gap and got my first sponsor with a paycheck, which was Element Skateboards, who also gave me my first pro model with a graphic and everything. They paid me $500 a month, which was enough to sleep on someone's couch and live off a sack of potatoes for a year (you'd be surprised how many ways you can cook a potato!). I started doing pretty good in contests, and went to Vancouver to enter the Slam City Jam. On my return, customs tried to deport me back to Australia because I was on a holiday visa, which would have been the end of my skateboard career. So I ran out of the airport, called up my friends, the Red Dragon's, who gave me a place to stay. I actually lived in their locker room at the ramp for a year, in which time I quit Element Skateboards and got on Powell Skateboards. I receieved my first real paycheck off Powell, which was $2000 a month, which to me meant I was rich. They were the ones that got my work visa that allowed me to come back to America, which allowed me to tour the world, compete, etc. I rode for Powell for about 8 years, and in that time while I was travelling the world with my new athlete's visa, I got myself up to ranked 3rd in the world for a couple years-- at one point sitting in third just in front of Bucky Lasek who was in 4th...those were the days. In the last few years I rode for Powell I found that I was amusing on a microphone. At the Vans Triple Crown in Huntington Beach, the announcer was in the toilet as the contest started, so I grabbed the mic and helped him out, someone at ESPN thought that was funny, and asked me if I wanted a job. By the time I got that information I had already moved back to Australia to get married...the WORST time in my life. I moved to America to be a sports announcer at skateboard events for ESPN & a professional skateboarder, slowly becoming more of an announcer and becoming less of a professional skateboarder. Then came along the Tony Hawk Gigantic Skatepark Tour & the divorce...once again back to the GREATEST times of my life. The Tony Hawk Tours happened every year for 3 years straight, they were the greatest tours I've ever been on in my life. They got me on television a lot & helped me with my sponsors. From these tours I ended up getting a real sponsor which was DC Shoes & Clothes aka the greatest sponsor I've ever had or will have. I filmed a pilot for my own TV show which aired on ESPN 2, called "The Jason Ellis Show: My Job Sucks". I had Jason Richardson, a professional NBA player who won the slam dunk contest 2 years in a row, Danny Way, Pink, and Carey Hart. ESPN obviously didn't like it too much because they didn't pick it up. After that, I continued commentating for ESPN. I wasn't going in contests anymore, and I started skating with Danny Way who wasn't in contests either, so it worked out fine. Around that time is when Danny invented the mega ramp, and right when he invented it my ankle blew out so I wasn't really skating that much. I filmed the Red Dragon video part for the first RDS video, and then was pretty much a cripple doing an announcing gig for ESPN and other TV shows. I was drinking a lot, smoking a lot, all around being pretty lazy, a little bit depressed about not being able to skate all the time. Then a good opportunity came around...Tony Hawk offered to have me co-host his radio show with him on Sirius Radio. Then I turned 33, around the time I blacked out on Carey Hart's TV show, INKED, which was the last time I spoke to my Dad, because he died of a heart attack New Year's Day--which was the hardest thing I ever had to deal with, and hopefully will ever have to deal with for the rest of my life. I went back to Australia to the funeral with Andrea and Devin inside her tummy, there with my brothers, my mum, and my stepmum. I got my ankle surgery after I came back from Australia, because I decided to get off my ass and make some shit happen. I decided that before I die I wanted to do something good in skateboarding again. I started to realize how important it was to me, after my Dad dying...shortly after that Little Bean (Devin) popped out with red hair, same color hair as my Dad, so he lives on through her-- I couldn't be more proud. Right after that I got offered a job to DJ myself, the only bad thing about that was it entailed moving the whole family to L.A. But like I said before, you only live once, you only get one chance to do something special. When Devin was born I decided to shape things up a little bit, get a little healthier-- smoking and drinking became less of a priority, and being successful and being the best Jason that I could be became a priority for me and my family. I started doing the radio show and trainging my ass off for the X-Games (after Danny Way, and believe it or not Will Pendarvis' encouragement to get back in there). I might have started training a little too late, it's too hard to keep up with all the good guys that have been around while I was sitting on my ass. I didn't make the finals in the X-Games, which was a hard pill to swallow. But I've swallowed it and now I'm moving on, looking for a TV show and trying to make my radio show as good as I possibly can and as funny as possible. I'm skating my ass off all the time, driving down to SD, getting ready for the X-Games next year. I'm trying to get a skateboard company going, trying to make things happen, looking forward to one of these things working out. Worse comes to worse at least I have my family. From now on, all the things I do I dedicate to my Dad and Devin, I'm doing everything for both of them. I want to thank my brothers, Lee and Stevie, and my stepmum and of course my Mum who I love very much. I'd like to thank my new family too cause they've been real supportive-- I don't really have a family over here and they've been real nice to me. And most of all, Andrea, for helping me out and dealing with my emotional basketcase brain and helping me write this blog cause I can't spell.