What is a Worble? - Dave Mull Interview

Interview : What is a Worble?

As per our previous statement on Worble, it was the next mentally-viable step to take by reaching out to Worble to find out the details, intricacies and delve into its mind by going underneath the skin of Dave Mull.

Semi-cannibalistic metaphors aside Dave pulled through via the internet to chat to us about the past, present and future of Worble.

Read everything below and get all your Worblest needs in-store and online here!

Photography - Joe Hammeke

Interview - Fraser Doughty

Hi Dave, how are you? 

Sorry this took so long it's been a whirlwind, all the adult life stuff has been happening. I’m just trying to keep on track for the next Worble video which we are touring with. I snapped my arm and my cat is undergoing chemo, it's been a tough start to the year.

So the broken arm was the easy bit?

Pretty much, I was working 3 jobs to finally save money in LA and it was a 'nope sorry' from the universe, it's the name of the game right haha i’ll figure it out.

We’ve made no qualms about bigging up Worble and how much we wanted to stock you guys, is Worble's planning to expand?

Yeah we were all dealing with Worble from out of our house, so rooms became shipping areas and we couldn’t spend our time on the stuff we wanted to do, because we all work full-time jobs on the side. We moved and it allowed the brand to get bigger being based in LA.

Full-time job on the side seems like the perfect tagline for Worble.

It definitely is, especially when the ‘side-thing’ takes up just as much work as the job to keep Worble going haha

Who holds the CEO title of Worble now you’ve moved out of Vermont?

Tom has fallen pretty naturally into that side of it, it worked out that way because he spends more time behind the camera and editing. He always filmed more due to his illness, when we were growing up he would have to stop quicker than us but still be on the session filming. He helps direct the agenda for the day for filming so it made sense for him to direct Worble in the right way as well as getting our friends together, pulling artwork and working out the promotional stuff too. President Tom.

Steve I guess is the CFO, he's figuring out our budget and the crazy ups and downs with seasons, shops and everything money wise. 

Did anyone say this was a bad idea? 

Oh man, I feel like we got more encouragement than discouragement when starting a board brand because people saw that we were bringing something different as a crew, not as much competing with other brands too. We weren't the gnarliest or even whackiest but the most inclusive, when people watch a Worble video they can feel like they are a part of it I hope. The skill levels are all over the place, it's all about fun and just being in the moment. We can fit all the gnarly and creative stuff together, all styles of skating were out there having a blast.

The brother dynamic really helps too, we fuck with each other and push each other, there’s something in Worble that anyone can tap into. It's a place where people can come and reach out to us and collaborate. The future of skateboarding is headed towards everything bigger, gnarlier and teacher. We like all of that but to also foster this positive community and whilst asking the question 'How does that feel?'.

If the word Worble was defined in a dictionary what would it say, is there a “pull a homer” to a Worble?

To us, ‘grubby worm-like organism' is the worble, nobody knows though, it became a new thing. Everyone asks twice what you said, ‘Worble, can you say that again?’ Once someone gets it though they follow it. Even so, we didn’t know the true definition when we chose it. It sounded great even when it’s spelt W-A-R-B-L-E, warbling and rambling like birds spontaneously. It's how we skate and the playfulness of just going out and skateboarding. Worble connects to that. 

What's the most worblest thing you've seen?

I never heard anyone say that, “Wobrlest” haha. 

Can something be too worble?

We had a grand opening at El Sereno skatepark which was very Worble. We showed up and ran a best trick / fun skate jam, it was a demo but 'with you' I guess. It wasn’t showing off more just skating with our community. We had Manramp show up and the whole public skated with/on him. It made it feel like this is about all of us. He couldn't take too much though haha every kid slamming into you 100 hundred times for a session. There’s only so much the human body can take! 

We ended up finishing it off with a Dodgeball game adjacent to the park, anyone and everyone joined in. The violent fun let us take out any anger we had, the Worbledome went off.

Maybe print Worble dogeballs?

We’d have to inflate them all and hire someone with a big lung capacity.

Now that Worble is going legit you could hire an intern who would eventually take you all down from the inside?

Woah we could, just dangle the carrot enough and get stabbed in the back haha, it would be very Peaky Blinders, could I hire Tommy Shelby? I’m rewatching it at the moment. 

Would you say Worble has a ‘team’ or is it more a crew?

We do, it's always growing. When you see Worble 3 and Worble 4 coming out that will give you an idea of the team but again it will have the friends clips in there too and those people could still be worblers. The official team helps us navigate where we want to go, you need the core group to go out there and skate, get to know each other and get along, they end up defining the identity but they are more like the heart and soul. Now that we can get boards produced more regularly we’ll be able to start flowing people too. That was hard to do. We want there to be a defined team but they’ll show everyone where the soul is. 

 "THERE'S ONLY SO MUCH THE HUMAN BODY CAN TAKE!"

Was there a point when Worble hit that next level? 

I think there was. I had a personal epiphany. It became something bigger than it would ever be for me when Cobraman played straight after the New Driveway video, that's how prems should go. Skate video soundtracks have those connotations which help you resonate with a  video more and you return to it. CobraMan is that for us, their music is part of the video then you get to listen to the live. You can see the whole crew, hang out and see the band all in one night. Once they played the first song and the whole soundtrack I thought, ‘this was so fun, it's surreal and it's becoming something else’.

The aim of the tour this summer is to do the same thing for everyone. One big night all over. 

A full tour? It's been a long time since someone has done that.

We have a whole bunch of friends in LA. We have so many creative people around who are willing to help us whether that's filmmaking, photography and even the engineering world. It was big for Worble moving to LA, there were things we just couldn't have done in Vermont. It's a huge advantage being here and making friends in a new place. So, were going on a full US tour, poster and everything.

As a board brand are you guys worried about the intricacies of board shapes?

Everyone is different. We tried all the concave wheelbases and shapes but we found a great middle ground for the team and led a few minimal older shapes. Personally a versatile board is best with a shorter wheelbase. It helps you move quicker and put spots together quickly with a quicker swerve, instead of the wider move and base.

Do you get a crazy amount of sponsor me messages?

Not many people do!  They just reach out and spread the love and talk about the worble videos, we love getting that and responding, I’ll take the time here to thank anyone who has watched our videos and taken their time to message us which makes them skate after.

We’re still open to new warblers. We are still growing so it's tough to figure out and to appease our team riders too, but, please send them. We look way bigger than we really are, it's a small group of people doing what they love day-to-day, a whole lot of people get the wrong idea, me and Cookie being pro doesn’t mean we are making a living as sponsored professional skateboarders. Cookie has multiple avenues and he works his ass off. I'm getting paid a little but that's due to my work with the brand and I understand Worble is going to go somewhere if I work on it. We’re distributing more than we’re making just to meet more shops and make new friends. So we will all still work full-time to support the brand.

If that's how it is now, where do you see your skateboarding going?

I’m going to work on everything outside of skating just as much as my skateboarding, I plan to do that my whole life. Skateboarding can’t be the only thing, you’ve got to have other interests.  As a skateboarder you’ve got to have something else going on! 

So what's the ultimate non-skate activity?

One of the biggest ones now, me and my partner would go on hikes and wonder about the identification of birds, so we downloaded ID guides and field guides, it's so fun. You can go to a location which you would have already hit up for a walk and go birding. You could see a peak or summit and now one of my things is to check every bird popping out and the little nuances that come with them. It's something special, it doesn't have to be the peak of the hike anymore it's what could be on the way. It's a lot like when you go out skating and end up finding new spots and the coolest or most desirable ones to yourself will be on the way. It's all about going out and seeing what you could find, skating and birding except for the birding has less physical risk haha.  

Unless a bird of prey takes you away?

Ha it is possible! I’ve been dive bombed a bunch of times around nests but that's their way of getting you to back off. 

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