United By Fate Episode 5—featuring North Delta, BC's Ryan Decenzo—is nothing short of amazing, much like every video in Globe's free episodic web series. #5 is the third UBF episode that features a Metro Vancouver skater (see Paul Machnau in Episode 1 and Chris Haslam in Episode 2).

I managed to get Ryan on the phone while he was on the road back to Huntington Beach, California from a 4-day skate jaunt in San Jose. He currently resides in Huntington with his brother Scott, and Adam Dyet. While Ryan and I were talking, someone in the van yells, "Keep it going, keep it going!" subsequently leading to an eruption of laughter.

"Someone's spinning a basketball on their finger, it's amazing," Ryan explains with a slight dose of dry sarcasm. "Long van hours."

Our chat took place 2 days before the initial June 17th, ‘09 web premiere of his UBF episode on the Transworld site, featuring a live web chat with both Ryan and Mark Appleyard. The Canadian premiere of the episode took place at The Baitshop in Toronto on June 26th, '09.

"I've got a few of my tricks in there, and a few more I managed to pull off," Ryan says. "I hope that people are stoked on watching it and maybe want to watch it more than once..."

The following is An Inside Look at United By Fate #5 from Ryan's perspective:

Were you originally supposed to be next in line for a Globe UBF video?
I guess it was kind of a surprise. Globe was like, "You've got a lot of footage. We can give you a part; that's what we wanna do," and I was like, "Alright..." [laughs]. I thought that Luan [De Oliveira] and Louie [Lopez] were going to have a part with me, but it didn't end up working out that way. They had to use their footy for the Flip video or something. But they have some clips in there [UBF #5]. 

As things progress, has your role on the Globe team changed?
Chet Thomas is really close, and he's the Globe TM now. He's hookin' it up for me and we're gettin' it sorted out, you know? I'm just doing my same thing, man. I've just been collecting a lot of footy because I knew Globe was gonna have an AM thing coming out, and there was a Darkstar video that was coming out, but it got a little postponed. I was stacking a lot of footy for those two things, so I gave some of my best sh*t to this United by Fate video. There's clips from the rest of the team; we all went and skated this indoor park—we got some shreddin' done.

How long have you been filming for this and what were your goals for it?
There was a couple tricks I wanted to get before this part came out. I went out and got some sh*t...I didn't get everything I wanted, but I can't ask for too much. Most of it was filmed more recently, but the part overall is from filming for maybe a year-and-a-half.

Did you travel a lot to film for it?
Yeah, there's footy from all over the place in there. Eastern and western Canada, a bunch of Cali spots, Arizona, Barcelona...there's a pretty big mix. Every place where I was logging a good clip went into this video. I was pretty busy the whole time I was filming for this part; I was learning tricks at demos, and trying to take them to the streets the next day. I was all over the place. You also get injured, and that takes up time, you know? When you go out and skate 8 hours-a-day, all the time, you get rolled ankles and sh*t just randomly. It's bound to happen, it's just odds. So I'd get hurt and go up to Vancouver or Montreal and chill out, because it's a better lifestyle up there. When I was feeling better, I'd skate some mellower spots in Canada, then I'd go back to Cali and skate some more there.

How do you feel about this Globe video series being a web-only release?
It doesn't matter, the web is taking over these days. Eventually, Globe's going to put out all the United By Fate stuff on a DVD and make a final video of everybody's parts. That's the whole plan.

Are you happy with the outcome? Who did the editing and filming?
I like the way it's edited and stuff, and I'm down with Soc [Socrates Leal]—he's like the Yoda of Dwindle. He's the sickest guy ever, and he's always doing the editing, capturing, and brainstorming. Him and Joe G [Guglielmino] are pretty much the guys behind it. I filmed a lot with Hoops [Plan B filmer], and my homie Antwan is really good and filmed a bunch of stuff. Some people from French Canadia [laughs] filmed, like Jeremy Elkin. I'm sure Jordan Mayfield from Vancouver filmed some stuff, and a bunch more people.

United By Fate, Episode 5 featuring Ryan Decenzo

Best of Globe's United By Fate, Episodes 1-4

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Related:
On The Horn with Ryan Decenzo
Ryan Decenzo: Unauthorized Facebook Interview
The Beaver Has Landed (photo gallery)