Jabberwocky
Frumious Bandersnatch
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From world titles to snorting cocaine under the ramp: The rise and fall of the Pappas brothers - whose careers as Australia's most successful skateboarders ended in drug addiction and MURDER
A champion skateboarder who for years dominated the sport with his younger brother has revealed the hedonistic lifestyle which destroyed their careers and and led to one of their deaths.
Tas Pappas was 17 when he moved from Melbourne to the U.S. to pursue a professional skateboarding career in 1992, after becoming bewitched by its portrayal on MTV. He brought with him his younger brother Ben when he was just 12 and within years the pair were earning $10,000 a month and beating the best riders in the world.
Their success not only led to multiple sponsorship deals, but an endless stream of hedonistic parties and drug use while the pair were still teenagers.
In 2007, a decade after being named the World Number Two after his brother, Ben Pappas murdered his girlfriend and killed himself while battling a crippling addiction to ice, also known as methamphetamine, Xanax and heroin.
Now, nine years after returning to Australia, Tas, 41, has spoken of the chaos which gripped both brothers' lives.
Tas Pappas (above left in the 1990s) was crowned the world's best skateboarder in 1996. Here, he reveals how an endless stream of partying and drug use destroyed his fame and killed his brother Ben (right)
Reflecting on their downfall, the father-of-three, who now works as a high-rise window cleaner in Melbourne, said: 'I want to admit our wrongs and show what led to those mistakes, which was that ultimately, bad life choices seem to happen when you’re taking drugs.
'It was fun and games for a bit, but things have a price tag and we paid the price.'
Tas entered the competitive skateboarding first, dropping out of high school at 17 to move to Tampa, Florida, in the U.S.
Seduced by the opportunities for success - and recklessness - he brought younger brother, Ben, to the U.S when he was just 12 in 1992.
By 1996, the pair were ranked as the top two skateboarders in the world and Tas was nicknamed skateboarding's 'bionic man' for his seemingly limitless talent on the ramp.
The brothers quickly earned themselves a reputation as the sport's bad boys and became the antidote to the commercially suave American competitors such as Tony Hawke.
But their success was shadowed by a growing addiction to drugs. Between skateboarding competitions, Tas admits the pair 'racked up' cocaine beneath the ramp before conducting interviews.
'The partying was fun when you weren't skating. We were just addicted to it,' he said. 'I wasn’t exactly the best role model for kids and I get that. I understand that.
'I wouldn't want my son looking up to someone who was doing coke under the ramp and taking three chicks back to his hotel room.'
Tas married and had two children, Kaia and Ayden. He continued to compete, fuelling up on drugs to mask injuries that would have otherwise prevented him from taking part.
Ben slipped further into a reclusive lifestyle. In 1999 he was arrested trying to sneak cocaine in to Australia in his shoe and was never to travel to the U.S. again.
After the conviction, he flitted between the houses of friends and family in Melbourne and began using heroin.
Tas (above) was just 17 when he moved to the U.S. to pursue the sport after becoming mesmerised watching it as a teenager in Melbourne
Ben was arrested in Australia in 1999 trying to smuggle drugs in to country. Tas remained in the U.S. and continued to compete for cash to support his two young children. Above, he is seen in 2001 at the X-Games in Philadelphia
'I'm very sorry for Lynette's family, but her and Ben? It was the blind leading the blind. They fell in love with each other.
'Being the family member of the person who did the wrong, it's hard. It's almost like you're not allowed to grieve because you're friends with the evil one. I knew that wasn't Ben.
'Of course I felt like I had to tell the true story. I'm not condoning what he did. I have a daughter and if someone killed her ... but I do know that drugs will turn you into someone else.
'Most people, straight people, they don’t understand it because they’ve never done it. The deeper you get into getting messed up, it’s very easy to f*** up.'
While he dappled with the same drugs his brother died taking, Tas claims it was his hyperactive personality which prevented him from an all-consuming addiction.
I did all of it (but) I just got bored of (it). For me I just get bored of something and I can just stop. My brother wasn't as bonkers. I just, if I was getting smacked out for a while, I'd be like "oh this is boring, I just want to sleep all the time" so let's do some speed."
'And then once I get off the smack I can get off the speed and then I'll just go gym junkie. Then bam! I'm back on my skateboard and I'll be ping ponging around all these different worlds.
'Ben was softer, the more depressive type. Even as a child.'
At the time of his brother's death Tas was serving a jail sentence in the U.S. for assaulting his first wife, Colleen.
The pair had two children together, neither of whom he has seen since his first incarceration. After his brother's death he was caught attempting to smuggle drugs in to Australia from South America in the decks of his skateboard and was jailed for three years.
Upon his release he agreed to appear in 'All This Mayhem', a documentary about his life and that of his brother, by film maker Eddie Martin.
Ben (above) took part in friends' films about skateboarding after returning to Australia, flitting between the homes of family and his friends
Ben was convicted in 1999 of attempting to smuggle cocaine in to Australia in his sneakers. He is seen above (left) leaving court. In 2007 he killed girlfriend Lynette Phillips (right) before taking his own life
Dismissing speculation that the film was a jibe at Californian star Tony Hawke, with whom he endured a lengthy rivalry in the 1990s, he said the controversy surrounding who performed the first '900', a notorious skateboarding trick, was sensationalised.
'It got to a point that it was like: "Half my family's dead. Do you think I care about a 900?"
'There was a lot of negative press about it but it's like, f*** the 900. It's just a skateboard trick. Do you think I give a s*** about the 900? My brother's dead.'
Last year Tas took up acting and has hopes for a film career. He jokes that adopting fictional characters and playing out their lives allows him to feel normal.
'I find it therapeutic. They'll give me scripts in acting class and it's like normal people. They get along. I'm so used to hanging out with a bonkers crew.
'When I go to acting, I get to experience how the normal world interacts and gets along. One day I might be normal. I've lived through some serious situations, so these are things I can draw on in acting.'
Tas now lives in Melbourne with his partner Helen (above) and their five-year-old son Billy. He currently works as a high rise window cleaner but has revealed hopes for an acting career
Now living quietly in Melbourne with his partner Helen and their five-year-old son, Billy, Tas told Daily Mail Australia he had finally put the demons chasing he and his brother to rest.
'I feel blessed and I want to get on to the next chapter of my life. I’m hoping that this acting is something I can pursue. Maybe I’ll be able to help people out down the line if possible.'
Asked if he regretted leaving Australia to pursue the sport and lifestyle which destroyed his family, he sighed heavily.
'I’ve thought about that. In all honesty, I think I just would have found something else that was bonkers to do. I was always an Adrenalin junkie and Ben was too.
'I don’t think it would have mattered where we were, I think the outcome probably would have been the same. I can accept that now. I understand why I had to go through it – I’m not mad at God anymore, put it that way.'
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nded-drug-addiction-MURDER.html#ixzz47wdnLHhO
A champion skateboarder who for years dominated the sport with his younger brother has revealed the hedonistic lifestyle which destroyed their careers and and led to one of their deaths.
Tas Pappas was 17 when he moved from Melbourne to the U.S. to pursue a professional skateboarding career in 1992, after becoming bewitched by its portrayal on MTV. He brought with him his younger brother Ben when he was just 12 and within years the pair were earning $10,000 a month and beating the best riders in the world.
Their success not only led to multiple sponsorship deals, but an endless stream of hedonistic parties and drug use while the pair were still teenagers.
In 2007, a decade after being named the World Number Two after his brother, Ben Pappas murdered his girlfriend and killed himself while battling a crippling addiction to ice, also known as methamphetamine, Xanax and heroin.
Now, nine years after returning to Australia, Tas, 41, has spoken of the chaos which gripped both brothers' lives.
Tas Pappas (above left in the 1990s) was crowned the world's best skateboarder in 1996. Here, he reveals how an endless stream of partying and drug use destroyed his fame and killed his brother Ben (right)
Reflecting on their downfall, the father-of-three, who now works as a high-rise window cleaner in Melbourne, said: 'I want to admit our wrongs and show what led to those mistakes, which was that ultimately, bad life choices seem to happen when you’re taking drugs.
'It was fun and games for a bit, but things have a price tag and we paid the price.'
Tas entered the competitive skateboarding first, dropping out of high school at 17 to move to Tampa, Florida, in the U.S.
Seduced by the opportunities for success - and recklessness - he brought younger brother, Ben, to the U.S when he was just 12 in 1992.
By 1996, the pair were ranked as the top two skateboarders in the world and Tas was nicknamed skateboarding's 'bionic man' for his seemingly limitless talent on the ramp.
The brothers quickly earned themselves a reputation as the sport's bad boys and became the antidote to the commercially suave American competitors such as Tony Hawke.
But their success was shadowed by a growing addiction to drugs. Between skateboarding competitions, Tas admits the pair 'racked up' cocaine beneath the ramp before conducting interviews.
'The partying was fun when you weren't skating. We were just addicted to it,' he said. 'I wasn’t exactly the best role model for kids and I get that. I understand that.
'I wouldn't want my son looking up to someone who was doing coke under the ramp and taking three chicks back to his hotel room.'
Tas married and had two children, Kaia and Ayden. He continued to compete, fuelling up on drugs to mask injuries that would have otherwise prevented him from taking part.
Ben slipped further into a reclusive lifestyle. In 1999 he was arrested trying to sneak cocaine in to Australia in his shoe and was never to travel to the U.S. again.
After the conviction, he flitted between the houses of friends and family in Melbourne and began using heroin.
Tas (above) was just 17 when he moved to the U.S. to pursue the sport after becoming mesmerised watching it as a teenager in Melbourne
Ben was arrested in Australia in 1999 trying to smuggle drugs in to country. Tas remained in the U.S. and continued to compete for cash to support his two young children. Above, he is seen in 2001 at the X-Games in Philadelphia
'I'm very sorry for Lynette's family, but her and Ben? It was the blind leading the blind. They fell in love with each other.
'Being the family member of the person who did the wrong, it's hard. It's almost like you're not allowed to grieve because you're friends with the evil one. I knew that wasn't Ben.
'Of course I felt like I had to tell the true story. I'm not condoning what he did. I have a daughter and if someone killed her ... but I do know that drugs will turn you into someone else.
'Most people, straight people, they don’t understand it because they’ve never done it. The deeper you get into getting messed up, it’s very easy to f*** up.'
While he dappled with the same drugs his brother died taking, Tas claims it was his hyperactive personality which prevented him from an all-consuming addiction.
I did all of it (but) I just got bored of (it). For me I just get bored of something and I can just stop. My brother wasn't as bonkers. I just, if I was getting smacked out for a while, I'd be like "oh this is boring, I just want to sleep all the time" so let's do some speed."
'And then once I get off the smack I can get off the speed and then I'll just go gym junkie. Then bam! I'm back on my skateboard and I'll be ping ponging around all these different worlds.
'Ben was softer, the more depressive type. Even as a child.'
At the time of his brother's death Tas was serving a jail sentence in the U.S. for assaulting his first wife, Colleen.
The pair had two children together, neither of whom he has seen since his first incarceration. After his brother's death he was caught attempting to smuggle drugs in to Australia from South America in the decks of his skateboard and was jailed for three years.
Upon his release he agreed to appear in 'All This Mayhem', a documentary about his life and that of his brother, by film maker Eddie Martin.
Ben (above) took part in friends' films about skateboarding after returning to Australia, flitting between the homes of family and his friends
Ben was convicted in 1999 of attempting to smuggle cocaine in to Australia in his sneakers. He is seen above (left) leaving court. In 2007 he killed girlfriend Lynette Phillips (right) before taking his own life
Dismissing speculation that the film was a jibe at Californian star Tony Hawke, with whom he endured a lengthy rivalry in the 1990s, he said the controversy surrounding who performed the first '900', a notorious skateboarding trick, was sensationalised.
'It got to a point that it was like: "Half my family's dead. Do you think I care about a 900?"
'There was a lot of negative press about it but it's like, f*** the 900. It's just a skateboard trick. Do you think I give a s*** about the 900? My brother's dead.'
Last year Tas took up acting and has hopes for a film career. He jokes that adopting fictional characters and playing out their lives allows him to feel normal.
'I find it therapeutic. They'll give me scripts in acting class and it's like normal people. They get along. I'm so used to hanging out with a bonkers crew.
'When I go to acting, I get to experience how the normal world interacts and gets along. One day I might be normal. I've lived through some serious situations, so these are things I can draw on in acting.'
Tas now lives in Melbourne with his partner Helen (above) and their five-year-old son Billy. He currently works as a high rise window cleaner but has revealed hopes for an acting career
Now living quietly in Melbourne with his partner Helen and their five-year-old son, Billy, Tas told Daily Mail Australia he had finally put the demons chasing he and his brother to rest.
'I feel blessed and I want to get on to the next chapter of my life. I’m hoping that this acting is something I can pursue. Maybe I’ll be able to help people out down the line if possible.'
Asked if he regretted leaving Australia to pursue the sport and lifestyle which destroyed his family, he sighed heavily.
'I’ve thought about that. In all honesty, I think I just would have found something else that was bonkers to do. I was always an Adrenalin junkie and Ben was too.
'I don’t think it would have mattered where we were, I think the outcome probably would have been the same. I can accept that now. I understand why I had to go through it – I’m not mad at God anymore, put it that way.'
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nded-drug-addiction-MURDER.html#ixzz47wdnLHhO
