Long drives, especially solo and with no music, can be pretty damn boring. I managed to catch Long Beach, California's Sierra Fellers on speakerphone under such circumstances, as he navigated between Kansas City and Oklahoma City in an ill-equipped rental.

The 23 year-old pro (who rides for C1RCA, Foundation, Venture, Bones wheels, FKD bearings, Dakine bags and CCS mail order) probably held the biggest knowledge-of-Canada advantage the CSOTB series has ever seen. He grew up just south of the Alberta/BC border in Whitefish, Montana, and has likely been to more places in Canada than many of its own citizens. On top of that, he lived in Vancouver for 3 months during summer '09. As for recent achievements, Sierra had a 10-page "Milestone" interview in the December '09 issue of The Skateboard Mag, and he got laced with his first pro shoe.

We had all kinds of technical difficulties doing this interview. First try, the reception was piss-poor since it seemed as if he was driving through a massive zone void of cell-towers. "Huh? What?...Sorry, you broke up with me," he said laughing during one of our muddled, glitchy attempts at an on-the-road Q&A. A few tries later, he was back with full bars:

How many times have you been to Canada?
I have a lot of friends in Canada, and I've been back and forth to visit a bunch of times. I've got friends in Calgary, Red Deer, Medicine Hat, Fernie, Kamloops, Cranbrook and Vancouver. I've been to Quebec City in '04 on a Zero/Mystery tour, and it is not Canada. It's more like France. I've also been to Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg.

Which Canadian cities are your favourites?
I like Vancouver a lot. The people are rad, but I hate driving there. It seems like the roads were made for bikes, not for cars [laughs]. I was only in Toronto for a couple days, but I liked it. Calgary is OK, but it's kinda redneck. I actually got choke-slammed by a security guard there while we were on a C1RCA tour. I wouldn't give him my board. He was a douche-bag. But I liked that old Source park there – the big indoor one.

360 flip to nosegrind. Jeff Landi sequence.

What are some differences and similarities between Vancouver and Long Beach?
The skate spots are rough, but there's way more spots in Vancouver compared to Long Beach. I have to drive at least 30 minutes out of Long Beach to go skate. The skateparks in Vancouver are way better. The plaza's great, I skated there most of the time. I also skated Bonsor – that pump section is really fun. I'd go swimming down at English Bay in Vancouver, but there's all kinds of weird floaties in the water. It's pretty gross. The ocean water quality is similar to Long Beach water, which has a break-wall off-shore. There's no waves or anything, so it's just filth sitting in the ocean. There's a lot more hippies in Vancouver, and a lot more people smoke weed out in the open there.

Isn't Snoop Dogg from Long Beach though?
Yeah...but that's just one person. I'm talking about everyone in Vancouver [laughs].

Nollie backside flip. Justin Ponce sequence.

Americans (and some Canadians for that matter) never get this question: Who is the Prime Minister of Canada?
I have no idea. I think I've heard his name before, but I'm drawing a blank. Ron Harper? If you even asked me about politics in the States I'd be clueless. I don't follow it at all.

Okay, do you know who the president of Norway is? [Sierra's wife Hanne is Norwegian.]
Well, they have a king. It's King Harald. I know that because King Harald's Gate is the name of the street my lady's parents' live on.

Having grown up so close to the Canadian border, do you still find there's a noticeable Canadian accent going on?
Yeah, definitely noticeable. It's pretty funny. It gets thicker the deeper you get into Canada it seems. It's mostly just certain words that stand oot [laughs]. I've met a few Newfies – that accent's a whole other world.

Can you name 3 Canadian bands or musicians?
Avril Lavigne, Celine Dion, and I know there's another one...I can name a bunch of actors: Jim Carrey, Mike Meyers, Seth Rogen, and almost the whole cast of Smallville because it's filmed in Vancouver. One more band...I wanna say Nickelback. When you think of Canada, think of Nickelback [laughs].

Can you name 3 Canadian sports teams?
I got this. There's the only remaining Canadian baseball team, the Toronto Blue Jays. There's the Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Vancouver Canucks, and the Montreal Canadiens. I played hockey for 4 years growing up in Montana. I was left wing, and Jaromir Jagr was my favourite player. When my family moved to Pentacle, Florida for 3 years when I was 12, ice-time was too expensive so I had to quit hockey. My parents bought me skateboards instead, and encouraged me to skate.

Frontside shuv to noseslide. Jeff Landi sequence.

What restaurant or specific food have you had that you regard as exclusively Canadian?
Poutine. I had no idea what it was until I had it for the first time at an A&W in Fernie, BC when I was about 16.

If you could bring specific Canadian restaurant home to Long Beach, what would it be?
De Dutch restaurant. It's so good. I lived on 16th and Oak in Vancouver, right above that restaurant. We'd eat there every morning, and I'd get the turkey-bacon with eggs and raisin toast. They've got really good dressing for their salads, too. I'd also say Tim Hortons, but they have those in the States.

If you're a Twitter-tweaker, hit this to follow Sierra.

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Related:
Sierra Fellers: C1RCA's "Talon"
The Canadian Side of the Brain with Mikey Taylor
The Canadian Side of the Brain with Derek Elemendorf

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