At 17-years-old, Foundation skateboards' newest am, Taylor Swift, I mean, Taylor Smith has already gapped the Mega Ramp with Danny Way and gotten flowed from some pretty major companies. Recently, he got promoted to full am status on Foundation and started getting hooked up by Vans. Now if he would just start spinning 540s again that'd be awesome.

RhinoTaylor Smith stands on a precarious backside bluntslide.

Did it make you sad when Kanye West pulled that stunt on you at the MTV Music Awards?
On me? Oh, yeah. I was bummed out for sure.

Do you think Beyonce should have won that award?
Nah, I should've took it, fo' sho.

What is your favorite Taylor Swift song?
I don't think I even know one of her songs. I wish I had one on the top of my head.

I think you're going to get a lot of Taylor Swift questions in your career and you might want to brush up on her songs.
Yeah, I'm probably blowing it for sure. But she's hot. She's killing the game, for sure.

RhinoTaylor Smith gaps out to grind a Smith named for another Smith of a different generation.

You hurt your ankle pretty bad at Phoenix Am. How's that feeling?
Yeah. I was just skating in the contest and messed up real quick and sprained it real bad. But it's all good. I was out for a month or so but I'm getting better now.

I'm told you launched the Mega Ramp gap when you were 11.
Yeah. That was a long time ago. I can hardly remember it to tell you the truth. It was pretty scary, I'm sure. Danny Way just took me up there when I was a little kid and asked me if I wanted to skate it with him. I guess I was down.

What? Danny Way asked you to ride the Mega Ramp with him?
Yeah, I used to skate with that dude a bunch. He used to live in Encinitas and I used to ride for DC a long time ago. It was right when he start getting the Mega Ramp going. He just asked me to cruise with him one day.

Damn. Can you spin 540s?
I used to be able to, yeah. But probably not anymore. I haven't tried to skate vert in a while. I moved from Encinitas to Carlsbad and I didn't really have a vert ramp around and I haven't been too into it after that.

You're close to Bucky Lasek's bowl, right? You skate that thing?
I'm kind of close, but I've actually never been over there. It looks tight, though.

How many tries do you think it would take you to land a 540 now?
Right now? I couldn't tell you. It would probably take me a while. Danny gave me the best advice for doing them. I remember watching him give John Cardiel the same advice in his "Epicly Later'd." He told him to alley-oop it in your head. Something about when he told me that, it clicked and it worked.

How did you get on Foundation? Where did you come from?
I was getting Plan B boards for a little bit and that just faded out. [Vans Team Manager] Jamie Hart asked me if there were any companies I was psyched on an I said Foundation and Mike Sinclair started hitting me up after that.

Do you think the Plan B guys were nervous around you because you look like Mr. Burns from The Simpsons?
Ha. I don't know. I haven't seen those guys in a while but we're all cool.

Who's your favorite dude on Foundation?
Abdias Rivera is pretty tight. Pretty much all the dudes are sick.

RhinoTaylor Smith locks into a frontside bluntslide on a long rail.

You're just flow trash for Foundation and Vans now, right?
Yeah, well Sinclair just gave me an ad for Foundation in the last Thrasher magazine. I'm psyched. So I guess I'm flow trash to the second power.

What have you got lined up for the rest of the year?
Hopefully finish my part for the Foundation video that is hopefully coming out soon. After that, keep skating and doing what I'm doing.

What did you do over the Mega gap?
Just melon grabbed it.

Will you have a back three over it in your Foundation part?
I don't know about that one. Maybe if I skated vert for a month or two I might start getting comfortable again but it's not looking too good right now.

Why don't you train and win the Big Air, Vert and Street contests at the X Games?
Yeah, that would be crazy. I don't think it's possible.

That's a lot of prize money.
Yeah, I don't really think about stuff like that. But if that happened I'd set myself up with a buttery house and hook up the family.