With Love Park and EMB taken out, Freedom Plaza is the last spot of it's kind in the United States. That being said, it's no big surprise that talented skaters continue to rise out of the Washington DC area. The new generation out of the Capital include big names like Jack Curtin, Bobby Worrest, Darren Harper, and Zach Lyons who are carrying on the tradition of people like Andy Stone, Pepe Martinez, John Igei, and all the other great skater skaters that came before them. Enter Daniel Kim, primed and ready to be the next big name out of DC. His explosive style and precision can't be denied and the Igei comparisons are obvious. With a spot like Pulaski and a crew like Darren Harper and Zach Lyons...Daniel's got everything he needs to blow. Daniel's coming, you've all been warned...

KJ - What up DK? You recently stepped your game up and turned 18, who's got your back sponsor wise right now?

DK - DC shoes flow, 10 DEEP Clothing, Venture Trucks, Elite Boardshop, and Catalyst Skateboards.

KJ - A lot of people first witnessed you skate in Darren Harper's part in "Get Familiar", how did you meet D-Streets?

DK - I met Darren by coming down to Pulaski awhile ago. I remember I would ride the metro up there and see Darren selling porn out of his trunk. He had like a mini porn shop. Now that I think about it, why did he have so much porn?

KJ - Was it “Brazilian Big Butt?” What’s it like skating with Darren?

DK - Skating with Darren is like skating with a sparring partner. We have constant games of SKATE going on like we're training. He gets me hyped to skate.

KJ - What is something most people wouldn't know about Darren?

DK - What most people don't know about Darren is he actually is a clean freak, not a dirty ghetto kid. He carries around hand sanitizer and some wet wipes, wow...

KJ - Talk to me about this trip you just went on with Zach Lyons.

DK - The trip I recently went on turned out to be really good. Me, Brad Rosado, and Zach went up the east coast for a week and on the way we met up with some of Zach's friends. We met up with Toebee Parkhurst aka Smokee One KaToebee but known as "The Kidd" in Springfield, Massachusetts, and he showed us around. After that we went to Boston and met up with Forrest Haggerman aka Shaun Gregoire. It rained most of the time we were there so we didn't really get to skate much. The trip at this point seemed like it was going to be the worst because the weather was crazy and the forecast was telling us it was going to rain for the next few days. Plus Brad's car had a flat tire in Boston. We ended up going back to Springfield, MA and skated at an indoor park. We played flat-ground skate, box skate, quarterpipe skate, manual skate...yeah...basically we had nothing to do. Once the weather cleared up we headed down to New York and met up with Billy in Brooklyn aka Bruce Reynolds. Typical, Zach was being negative and didn't want to go to New York so that kind of made the trip awkward, but I had a good time in New York.

KJ - Where else did y’all go?

DK - The last place we went to was Atlantic City. Atlantic City is supposed to only take about 1 and a half hours to get to from New York, but some how we managed to get lost 3 times and one of the times we ended up on a dead end road in a dead town with tall grass everywhere. Every time we asked somebody for directions, they couldn't really speak English or they were clearly telling us the wrong directions. Once we finally got there we saw these horse statues that had half there dicks sliced off. Why would you sculpt the dick and then cut it half way off? Anyways, we skated one spot and then went to one of the casinos. Me and Zach must of looked like kooks in that place because we had no idea how any of the machines worked.

KJ - Did you win anything?

DK - We were just looking for 25 cent slots because I came in with only 50 cents. Zach won $1.75 and was so psyched. We headed back home after that. By the way, I want to thank everyone who helped us out on that trip and for letting us stay at their houses.

KJ - Sounds like a crazy one, where else has skating taken you so far?

DK - I've only skated in East Coast cities like NYC, Philly, and Boston. I've never been to the West Coast, but I wouldn't mind going there. My favorite cities are DC and NYC though. Those are the two places I can really imagine myself living in.

KJ - Looking forward to Woodward this summer? How was it going up to Pennsylvania and skating there last time?

DK - Woodward was pretty crazy! The first time I went was last summer with the Catalyst team. It's basically a little kid's dream come true. They don't just have skate parks, they have swimming pools, arcades, go karts, paintballing, workout rooms, music studios, horseback riding, a petting zoo, and other shit. There's also this special ramp where you'll probably see Zach Lyons hiding behind twice a day...

KJ – What’s up with Chris Hall these days?

DK - Chris Hall aka dude who ties his shoes too tight, is real busy these days so he doesn’t come down as much, but when he does, he kills it. He also shows up at skate spots smoking stogies, on some Suge White shit.

KJ - Haha... One of the first places you popped up at was "Skate Night", what was the "Skate Church" all about in Virginia?

DK - Skate Night was the best thing that happened in Fairfax, Virginia. That place was real sick, a really good training facility. Skate Night was held in a gymnasium of a church. Opened only on Sunday nights, but if you knew Bart Damer, the head dude of Skate Night, he would have some private sessions. Skate Night had everything, I miss that place.

KJ - Yeah they had some big time pros and whatnot come through there, maybe one day a real skate park will open in DC huh? Now your shop sponsor, Elite, is just about to open their DC store, Palace 5, what's Elite all about?

DK - Elite Boardshop is a skate shop in Fairfax, Va. Greg Grammen is the owner of it. I see them as the most legit skateshop around the metropolitan area.  They're always on top with the new product, new shoes, new clothing. Check www.eliteboardshop.com and the new store Palace 5, on 14th and V Street NW, opens soon.

KJ - With Palace 5 opening and Kickballers already going looks like the scene will really pick up around here, don't you think? Where do you think Leatherfoot fits into all this?

DK - Leatherfoot was around during the O.G. days of Pulaski. He came down to Pulaski one day asking me "where little Darren at?" and "where Igei at?" I thought he was trippin, but then people started telling me about him and that’s when I knew what he was all about. Leatha is sick though. He came down to Pulaski with some fucked up boots doing switch tre flips with his hands in his pockets. He started coming down to Pulaski more often and I would see him doing nollie tre flips off the big white wall in some busted up shoes. He would go up to kids and ask them if he could skate their boards and would just mess around on it. As far as his rapping ability, he's nice. I heard some of his stuff and it's sick. Let's just say he's "juicin’ the game like Tropicana.”

KJ - Yeah, he's definitely nice. Anyway, to close, what are you up to this summer?

DK - My plans for this summer is to stay focused on my priorities, skateboarding is the main one.

KJ - I'm glad to hear it as your team manager haha, I'm sure people will look out for your part in Mr. Rosado's new video and your stuff in the "Diamond District Parks Tour" video we're filming this summer, 5000.