AFFILIATES
MICK AKERS
Rare snapshot of Mick (far left) in front of the camera and deep in the media circus surrounding Floyd Mayweather Jr. during the Showtime All Access Media Day
I'm Real stoked about this collaboration, not only because Mick and I have known each other for MOST our lives and grew up skating the neighborhood together, but because he's a real example of doing your own thing and I couldn't think of a better person to be the first official affiliate.
Where are you at right now? Drinking an IPA?
Ha, I wish. It's 10 a.m., So I'm drinking Dunkin Donuts coffee sitting on the couch, being a lazy bum.
Are you a reporter or journalist? Hah! Whats the difference?
Eh, both I guess. Reporters report news. Journalists can also be a columnist or what have you, that take a hot topic and give their own take on the matter. All reporters are considered journos, though.
How did you get into writing and want to cover sports and news?
In school I could always BS an essay the night before and get an A, so I knew I could write. As far as making it my career, I actually started writing skate video reviews for my buddy Dan O'Sullivan's website several years ago. Everyone seemed like my stuff. Then my now wife encouraged me to take the next step and go to school for journalism.
So I did and was interested in sports coverage because it seemed like I would get be getting paid to write about stuff I all ready enjoyed.
I got an offer to be a news reporter as I was in one of my last semesters at school, so I took it and I actually enjoyed that as much as sports writing now. So much random stuff happens all the time, so it keeps it fun and interesting.
I feel like you made it pretty far in your career, was it a hustle to get to get there?
Definitely a hustle. I went through something like 10 unpaid internships over a two-year span where I would do that when I wasn't gong to school or at work and being a young family man, haha. So for that time I literally had no free time. But all those opportunities taught me something new that I use in my everyday world at work now, so I wouldn't of had it any other way to be honest.
Has being a skateboarder made you take a different approach to your work then most reporters?
I would say yes. Although news reporting has a set structure as far as writing goes, I try to think outside the box when I storm stories up or how I go about obtaining info from someone or tracking down someone that's hard to get a hold of.
Basically OCD. All skateboarders have it, even if they don't realize it. Where else are you going to try something over and over again, trying to make it perfect while your body takes a beating? So I take that "never give up attitude" and utilize it in my work. If there's a person needed for a story and others can't seem to catch a break and contacting him/her, I've found that usually, I am able to do so by being persistent and trying over and over and searching in very nook and cranny I can until I get ahold of that person
How did you break the news on the City of Las Vegas finalizing the Raiders stadium deal before ESPN?
That's where my skateboard OCD came in. I knew before every Southen Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Comitte meeting they had to post their agendas along with back up material. They usually did at an odd hour of the night. So I would check every so often starting a couple days before the meeting to see when they posted the agenda.
That day the stadium plans were released I was up checking and checking until 2 a.m. To no avail. So I set an alarm for 6 a.m. and sometime in the 6 o'clock hour, boom they posted. I didn't know they were going to release them that day, but I always tried to be first to tweet out the latest info on the stadium.
It just so happened that day they put out the renderings of the possible stadium. So I screen shot all the images and info, made each their own photo and tweeted them out, one by one.
Getting credit for breaking that info was like the rush of finally landing a trick on a skateboard after trying for hours. The rush was the same.
Got a wild or funny story you weren't able to go public with you could tell?
Not really a story, just some of the details you see in crime reports are insane. There are some real fucked up people out there is all I can say.
You used to have every new skate video growing up, how big did your collection get?
I had over 200 VHS tapes at one point. Those are all gone now, haha. I currently have over 100 skate video DVDs. I'm just a skate nerd at heart. I'd have to say my all-time favorite video is Alien Workshop's "Photosynthesis." To this day you can watch that video and appreciate the skating. It also still makes you want to get up and go skate after viewing it as well.
Whats up with "Micks Video Vice" or "the drunk video review blog"? Gonna bring it back in 2017?
Ha, that's the blog I spoke about earlier where I started really getting into writing. I would love to, but it's probably not going to happen.
I have been trying to get into the skateboard journalism world. I wrote something for Jenkem a few years back on Braydon Szafranski when he was let go from Baker. After that I haven't had much luck, as most skate media outlets seem to be hard to communicate with. They tend to not email back in a timely matter, haha.
I remember you were real good at flip tricks and the first to land most them in our crew, learn any new ones lately?
Not really. Since my ACL surgery, I can't do many flip tricks anymore. I stick to small ledges, flat bars and transition now. I still try to skate a few times a month, as long as my knee lets me.
What does this collaboration mean to you? Know any other reporters with a signature pen?
It's cool, man. Having a connection through skating that carries on this long and turns into a interesting opportunity is rad.
No, don't know of anyone with a signature pen, haha. I guess we're breaking new ground here!
Where can people find you on the social medias?
For work I only use Twitter, so follow me at @mickakers for my work and randomness that I tweet.
PRODUCT COLLABORATION INFO:
To meet Mick's fast -paced and demanding career, we customized a US made Fisher key chain pen. The slim profile quick-release carabiner is key when its time to take notes on a breaking news event and the pen is small enough to blend in with his keys when he's pushing the local park on a random night.
Durable? Hell yeah, Fisher Space Pens can write underwater, over grease, at any angle, upside down, in extreme temperatures ranging from -30°F to +250°F, in zero gravity and last 3-times longer than the average pen.
Check out Mick's signature jet black reporters pen here -