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Halloween at the Bombshelter

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“I’m building a mini ramp in an arch that’ll be ready for Halloween.” The words that sealed the deal. Tom Wilk’s DIY project in South London grew stronger every week. Nail by nail, sheet by sheet, the build was completed bang on time on the day of the party. The Bombshelter, born and open for NBDs.

This BYOB shindig went into the early hours, everyone was mash up. We’re thankful that we could take a year off to enjoy someone else’s chaos for once and were not disappointed. Thanks Tom.

Noteable observations:

1. Kev Firth’s Satan Cruz surf stunt took the entrance of the night. Lad paddled into the line up like a don.

2. Character of the night was Colin Uout, the Hackney council rep who busted everyone, all night long, with a selection of superbly written official paperwork. Nobody was safe around his durastrictions, especially if you were seen parking on the coping. Pay the fine bitch.

3. Chroliver won Man of the Match. Frontside shuv, first wall rides. Yes fam.

Look out for footage from this session soon. Until next time…

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A video posted by Crossfire (@crossfirezine) on

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Sketching the irony with Henry Jones

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The observer who lurks behind the counter of your local skate shop generally picks up on traits in everyone who visits the store. Aside from providing you with the best freshly glossed pieces of maple and urethane to suit your steez, their other natural game is to be aware of the characteristics of their clientele, by clocking the dominant, the followers, the thinkers, the slackers, the fearless, the jokers, the thieves…. and so on. It’s not set in a rule book, it’s just human behaviour.

Within these observations comes banter and Henry Jones likes to dish out a lot of it, in illustrative form. His satirical sketches, derived from his experiences, have become insta and tumblr favourites, bringing a smile, a thought, a chuckle and a share, generally in that exact order. So long as irony presents itself on a plate, Henry’s fingers will never get bored.

Find his world on instagram.

How’s it going out there Henry?

Good man, just hanging at the shop all day working on stuff.

Fairman’s right? Isn’t that one of the oldest skate shops in the US?

Yeah man, one of the oldest, if not the oldest on the East Coast. Some people just came in but they are just riding around on Penny boards so I can answer your questions now. Haha!

Let’s start at the beginning as this is straight off the bat with no notes…

Originally I’m from Downingtown, Pennsylvania, which is just short but outside of West Chester where I’ve been living and working for the last few years.

How did skateboarding take over your life?

When I was younger we only had like one other family living close to us, two of their sons who were a little older than me skated and I thought it was the coolest thing. We also didn’t have a paved driveway either so if I wanted to skate I had to go over to their house or just skate flat on a 4×8′ piece of plywood. A few other people in the area started skating and eventually the local hunting and fishing store started to sell skate stuff since the owners’ sons both skated.

Result, at least you had some access. So what era was this and what decks were on the wall at the fishing store?

This was like early 2000’s, I started skating in ’99. I remember the first pro deck I bought was a Blind ‘Switchblade’. Their wall was usually filled up with classic Shorty’s logo boards; they had Maple, all the old AWS decks too. That was when everyone still screen-printed a lot of their boards so I can still remember how the place smelled of freshly screened boards. Haha!

What a memorable waft…

Right?! The nostalgia is really seeping in right now.

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I guess you were watching the likes of Welcome To Hell, Mouse, Menikmati, Misled Youth etc. Board graphics would have been starting to get gnarly in that era…

Yeah mostly stuff like that, I had a lot of the Logic and 411VM’s.

They were skateboarding’s Holy Grail back then before the internet watered it all down…

Exactly! I’d watch the same ones over and over just to make sure I’d be up to date on everything. Now I don’t know shit about anything going on in skating cause it seems like there’s just too much happening too fast.

What video was your most wanted? I see one of your sketches references Flip’s Sorry vid.

Sorry was and will always be a favorite of mine. I think the video that I really enjoyed the most though was Maple Skateboards’ Black Cat video. I remember all the intro’s to everyone’s parts had really sick animations and some of them had like cartoon titties and shit, so I though that was ‘cool’.

Nothing like seeing cartoon titties to get you in the mood. Were you one of those kids at school who would sneakily draw dicks on people’s school books then?

That was the least of it. I used to draw some pretty fucked up stuff in grade school. Haha! Mostly for shock value but yes, that was definitely me in the simplest of terms.

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Were any family members caught up in the artistic world or did you just pick it up yourself?

Yes, both of my parents are phenomenal artists, graphic designers, carpenters etc, so I’ve always drawn from a very early age. I think skating actually kept me from drawing as much as I did before I discovered skating. I consider my Mom) a real “artist”. She does amazing oil portraits and things like that. She actually started a sign shop on their property that my Dad pretty much took over since he is very talented with graphic design as well.

What about sarcasm, did they manage to pass a heavy dose of that on you too?

I’d say that’s mostly me. They always managed to stay pretty wholesome when I was growing up. They actually made me go to a Christian school until middle school and I would always get into trouble for my drawings being too “obscene” or “demonic”.

Ah, so it’s the old rebellion uprising from being around religious nuts that fuels this party then originally, good call. What offended people most in your initial offerings?

I used to draw like knights, dragons and shit like that – people getting their heads chopped off etc. Some of it got pretty gruesome.

I also had a friend whose Mum and Dad were priests and he turned into the gnarliest skater / crack head you ever met…

Ha! I could definitely see that happening! Thankfully my parents never tried to jam anything down my throat and respect my beliefs, or lack thereof.

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What about irony, at what time in your life decide to rip the piss out of traits that skateboarders can’t help but drag around with them?

Well I’ve worked at Fairman’s skate shop for almost five years now and in those first few years I was really exposed to all ends of the skateboarder spectrum. The material just seemed to walk in a present itself to me. Also being in a relatively busy hub like West Chester I get a lot of opinions about skateboarding from people that haven’t the slightest clue about it.

We also run skate camps so I’ve taught private lessons in the past, and let me tell you…holy shit, it seems now that every parent expects their kid to be a pro skater ’cause they saw it on fucking ESPN2 or some shit. I could go on and on about that. Yeah man, just the fact that we are in downtown West Chester means that we have so many weird lurkers and shit, the inspiration seems endless sometimes. Haha!

Skate shops are built for lurkers though, (thankfully) especially when it rains, I guess the doodles just flood out from every scenario…

I think that I spend so much time either working in the shop or just lurking there that so I get so much inspiration I don’t even know of. Fairman’s is like right in downtown West Chester, which is a college town 75% of the year so we have our fair share of longboard douches, penny douches, segway thing douches, etc. We have a wall with a bunch of old boards that the original owner, Dave Fairman, pressed and shaped himself and every fucking Friday night some drunk middle-age dude wanders in to convince me that he “had that exact same board with the roller skate wheels” when he was a kid. That traditionally then leads into their life story and how “kids these days”…..yadda yadda yadda. Oh man, I could go on and on. I don’t wanna seem like too much of a hater. Haha!

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The old “I skated with Tony Hawk once and have a lock of his hair” scenario…?

Exactly. I’ve heard it all. We also get a lot of Bam Margera fans coming in looking for him because they think it’s his shop. In fact we still get fan mail for him every week! The shop has sponsored him since he was a kid so he’s always been associated with us, but yeah, he’s nice enough to usually give the shop guys the code to his gate so we can skate his park.

Ah, Castle Bam….

Yep, it’s like ten minutes or so outside of town. It can get pretty crazy over there but I usually steer clear. Haha!

Is he still painting his old man’s kitchen white and slamming axes through his front door or has he chilled out a bit now? Is there a local legendary story?

His kitchen is currently paint splattered with a multitude of colors for reasons I don’t know. The craziest local Bam story would probably be the time he got too drunk in town, started a verbal dispute with a local resident, that ended with her knocking him out with a baseball bat. Ha! Or when he burned down his mega ramp. As the intro to ‘Viva La Bam’ states: He does “whatever the fuck he wants”. In all seriousness though I have no idea, I’m sure I could make assumptions but I’ll leave it at that. Long forgotten, he’s a fruit cake.

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The 90s had so many characters, I see your art reflects all sorts of responses debates from skaters that their generation were better than the current scene. Knowing your skateboarding history often helps with progression though.

Yeah, I like to draw stuff like that because I think it’s so easily forgotten. Like it’s weird for me when someone comes into the shop and has never seen ‘Sorry’ or ‘Photosynthesis’, or any skate videos like that. I’m biased because that’s when I started skating but it will always hold a special place in my heart.

The old “My era will always better than yours” debate will go on forever. Your ‘2015 trends’ carrot chasing sketch really captures an image of exactly what’s going on…

I think that drawing can translate to every era, 2015 was just appropriate at the time. People are always chasing the trends trying to stay ‘cool’ and make sure no one has a reason to hate on them (that’s where I come in) that they almost seem to end up losing their own sense of style just to look like everyone else. It’s kind of depressing if you ask me.

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Does ‘cool’ even exist in skateboarding? Everyone will always have their own opinions on what they believe it is. Sheep culture seems to have kicked in more than ever right now, at least when Bam was at his peak, he dressed like a pirate and didn’t give a fuck. Isn’t that what skateboarding was supposed to be about originally?

That’s exactly what skating is supposed to be, but on the other hand if you really want to dress a certain way or skate a certain way, fuck it. No one’s hurting me. I will make lighthearted jabs at you however. I try to poke fun at everyone; we all have our flaws that can be exploited via pen and paper.

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That’s true. Who do you think has got away with it the most?

Today all people get away with it most. I think recently it has got to the point where I almost expect a skateboarder to be dressed a certain way. I call it the skate uniform. Skateboarders are so connected now that once something is ‘cool’ everyone knows and everyone is doing it.

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Sheep mentality is unfortunately herding skateboarding towards the Olympics. Core brands have always resisted involvement in the past but sports brands have moved that theory into skating ten fold to sell more product globally. There’s no doubt that the sheep who think they are ‘cool’ will all complain when the Olympics arrives, but forget that the shoes they have worn played a huge part in it. Typical skateboard irony.

I think we are defining ourselves too much. When it gets to the point that you can televise it and make it that sort of competition, when one can say, “that person is a skateboarder because they do that like everyone else”, I think that’s bad.

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Is that what skateboarders really want in the long term though? Do they realise by backing big corperate sports brands not owned by skateboarders that vacuums money out of the core industry, they are funding the movement towards the complete opposite of ‘cool’? The hashtag skate every day thing means skate more, wear out our shoes and buy more of them please kids. You can picture the sales graph and the marketing people around that boardroom table if you shut your eyes.

I don’t think most people think of it on that level unfortunately. Skateboarders started out as the misfits, now when I see the generation of skateboarders they just remind me of jocks.

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There was a moment in the early 2000’s where all the supposed ‘cool’ kids started working for sports brands who hated on skate parks. It was street or nothing, with turned up noses to the internet, skate jams and fun comps. Now we see those same people talking about parks and repping skate events because the corperate brands they front own them. It’s just one of the sad, ironic situations that has made a lot of people laugh worldwide. It’s even harder not to laugh at those individuals who shouted skater owned to the hills and finally gave in, jumped ship and took the money.

Yeah, I do think that’s pretty unfortunate, but you could also look at from a different perspective. I also think it’s great that more people are able to actually make a decent living off of skateboarding since so many more people are willing to endorse skateboarders. It’s a double-edged sword. Do you want to stay ‘core’ or do you want to be able to lay a foundation for a future family, housing, retirement even?

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That’s an obvious point, but if the industry backed skater-owned shoe companies, like the majority used to, and skaters fucked off the sports brands, the skate industry would actually have sales to fund those same jobs for those who needed them keeping ownership of their own scene. It worked for everyone before those brands came along just fine. How is your own brand Corposkate going to cope with demand when it launches?

Haha! Corposkate will never be an actual entity; it’s merely just a manifestation of all the different pros and cons of big business in skateboarding. But yes, if skateboarders did actually back skater owned companies that would be possible, but unfortunately Janoski’s are just so darn ‘cool’. There’s that word again.

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If Corposkate was real, who would you have on the team?

Hmm that’s a tough one; I’m assuming I’d have a corporation sized budget right?!

Well of course, everyone else’s mum, dad and cousin would be funding it as a tax write off in their jogging wear and hackey sack lycra shorts.

Bobby Worrest would be up there, the hometown hero. Also if I could actually get the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater line-up on my team I think that would be pretty legendary.

Pushing those buttons…

Up down left C, man.

Ha! Pass that blunt.

We might not win too many contests with that lineup however.

That’s fine though because if you ran your own branded contests your own team riders would win anyway. Isn’t that how it works?

That is how it works! When your own skater wins your contest it’s just like paying yourself for advertising.

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Exactly, small world problems then. How do you run away from your own problems in this life?

I can usually only run away from my problems for a few hours when I skate before I’m dragged back to reality. It’s getting tough to find the time these days.

How much time goes into the drawings, do you bust them out super quick?

I can usually bust ‘em out pretty quick and the actual concept or idea takes the longest. I do everything with just a black pen then colour them with markers.

So no computers needed, that’s rad.

Nope, I’m sure I could do them on a tablet or something but when I scan them, the actual drawings have a certain grittiness to them that would be impossible to mimic on a computer. I like that, it keeps it alive and very real.

Have you ever tried to roll them into comic strip form?

I’ve thought about it. I really like the idea of single panels though, short and sweet. I suppose if an idea required me to do multiple panels it wouldn’t be out of the question, I’ve just never felt the need to yet.

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If ‘likes’ are a means of measuring what’s most popular which drawing takes the #1 spot? The pills?

I think that one would probably be up there if I posted it now, more recent ones have more though. Like the “sorry mom” one and a few others have a considerable amount more than the others.

Do many people send requests?

All the time! A lot of time though it will be for a personal thing like a tattoo or something so I try to help out if I have the time.

What’s the most ridiculous?

Hmmn…Nothing too ridiculous. More likely than not it’s simple stuff, like people ask me to doodle their dog or something. They just want it done they way I do it I guess.

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Did you laugh when you first saw your art tattooed on someone’s skin?

At first yes, because the first tattoos I saw of my art were people getting them thinking it was Gonz artwork. After a while more and more people started to get them knowing it was me, which really amazed me.

I will let you get back to counter duty, I’m sure that Penny boarder will need some new sports shoes and weed socks, but let’s have your final words on whether you see yourself as a skater or an artist…

I fancy myself a skateboarder rather than an artist for sure.

Nice one, keep up the splendid work.

Find Henry Jones’ wonderful work on instagram.

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Smoking Coping – the making of the Sk8 80’s book

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The 1980s skate scene in the UK was a blast, fueled by countless comps, parties and shredding going down weekly all over the country. These raucous gatherings formed lifelong friendships and pushed skateboarding forwards from each session, all leaving a trail of destruction, smeared graphics on the coping, and many memories in their wake that paved the way for what we have today.

The influx of American riders throughout those times played a big influence in how quickly the scene progressed, which has been covered extensively in the new Sk8 80’s book just released. It’s been a long time coming but Trawler and Paul Duffy, the duo behind the 212 page coffee table must-have, have delved into the archives to bring us what makes up this rad new book looking back on the entire era with unseen photos and plenty of stories from their travels. It would have been rude of us not to find out how it all came together and who made the cut, so we asked Mark ‘Trawler’ Lawer to fill us in.

Easy Trawler, it looks like you’ve been busy mate, care to tell us about how this book came to fruition?

Well it was an idea we had back in 2005, but we sat on it for another ten years while the photos matured. Between 1987 to 1991 I worked with Paul Duffy on articles for Skateboard! Magazine, (the exclamation mark in the title is important!) together we covered mainly Southern England and sometimes further afield, driving everywhere together in my Vauxhall Nova to cover mad weekends at contests and doing interviews and scene reports for the mag.

How did you and Paul meet originally?

Paul came to Plymouth to study photography at our art college. We’d met a few times earlier when I’d visited Liverpool and Warrington to skate but he was a bit of a fish out of water at first in Plymouth, a scally in a strange town. So I helped him out and we became good friends and travel companions. I reckoned I could write for a publication if asked and the magazine was looking for skate correspondents at the time. I jumped at the chance and soon we were off on many a wild ride.

Ph: Bod Boyle gets straight legged in a Morfa sesh.

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Tell us about the 1980’s skate scene and your memories of Southsea, as that park was definitely a mecca in that era.

I don’t remember too much, it was a bit like our version of what they say about the sixties. If you remember it, you weren’t there! There was a lot of pot smoking about and most of the skaters I knew were burning through tons of the stuff. The skatehouse in Southsea was owned by Mr Tracy Weller, it was a small terrace in Liss Road and every weekend there would be skaters turning up from all over the UK, and then Europe, and then the world. It was carnage most of the time, stumbling back from the countless drinking sessions in Southsea’s pubs. Some of us went on to Peggy Sues, a sticky dive nightclub on the seafront for more debauchery, then it was usually all back to Liss Road for more drinking and smoking. People lying around in all corners. Parties, skate videos on loop, skaters being sick in the sink and on the dishes, carpet skating, stair diving contests, Butthole Surfers blaring out at 2am, huffing on poppers just for a laugh: “here try this!” Generally we all acted the asshole! Tracy’s neighbours must of hated him. Looking back it surprises me how anybody rode skateboards the next day, especially the Sunday afternoon sessions at the skatepark, they were hard going!

There were a few other hotspots with vert ramps and parks that were just as popular for a roadtrip back then too, right?

Yeah. When we travelled to other places it was just as bad. Morfa in Wales with the big red vert ramp and the other ramps they had before the huge one, was always an epic trip too. Getting drunk in Langland and Mumbles – I barely recollect getting on the helter skelter ride on the seafront late at night and going up and back down about twenty times!

Brighton and the Pig City Level ramp was just as mental, we would always get invited back to someone’s flat for a pow-wow. One time we shared the room with a massive cage and a huge python. I remember some random Brighton skater sat in the pen with it, blowing smoke in the snakes face! Throughout these times we had to try and come away with some rad, non-blurry skate photos and enough memories to write a clean story on the events of the weekend!

Ph: Danny Webster’s crail slides traveled round the world.

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There are quite a few pages of American visitors in the book from that period…

Yeah, we have about 80 pages of American riders in there, mostly anyone who was anyone came through the Southsea park because it was the place to skate back then. They all loved Harrow and Rom too, those parks have that quaint old English feel about them, even more so now. To an American skater, I guess Rom is like a cobbled street or Stonehenge or something!

When we first took Craig Johnson out for a beer in Southsea he had just got off the plane from Texas. We handed him his first English pint and he thought it was a pitcher of beer to share! By the end of the night the six foot four, dreadlocked Texan was slurring and stumbling back to the skatehouse shouting AGUA -AQUA! at the top of his voice, I guess he needed some water to dilute it down! I Interviewed him for the magazine and he was cool and had a lot to say.

I interviewed Rob Mertz too, he was cool but different to most I met back then. Mertz is a straightedge East coast punk with a ‘sober till I die” outlook with X’s drawn on the back of his hands. I had never heard of the straightedge lifestyle before and I was in awe of the guy and his skating was off the hook, he is still amazing now. I also sat down with Allen Losi for an interview, he won the Shut Up and Skate vert contest here and he did the same at the same contest in Houston. He could go for trick filled rides of about 25 walls, a minute and a half of sick skateboarding per ride, so much stamina and so underrated before he got here.

Southsea always reminds me of the late Steve Schneer (RIP) from a comp I went down there to watch once, his stamina was next levs..

He said he surprised himself at how well he skated over here. He was such an entertainer with the Ho-Ho plant and he dropped in a big makeshift plywood extension twenty feet off the ground at that Southsea contest that went down in history. He became legend and folklore that day! Sadly Steve is no longer with us and our book ends with a RIP section to the ‘fallen heroes’ if you like – those skaters who we met and photographed and got to know but are sadly now gone.

Ph: Steve Douglas’ lip tricks were far classier than his choice of football team.

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It must have been a trip going through so much nostalgia, remembering so many stories on the road and discovering old photos…

Yes it was a pleasure for me to do and rekindle my friendship with Duffy over last winter. We went through boxes of slides, hundreds of them. We both shared constant neck ache from holding them up to the light. Some had aged and were damaged, some had caught damp and were irretrievable. Luckily our local photo lab had a process called ICE which cleaned the back spots and mould off the final J-Pegs so we went from super anxious to super stoked when we saw the discs full of our 220 cleaned up shots. When it came to writing the captions I was just honest and matter-of-fact about the skaters on the page, to try to give the reader an insight into what the subject is up to now in their lives. I seem to be in touch with everyone who was a British “Pro” through social media, so that helped a lot. There are some pretty cool people in skateboarding then and now, most of us go on to have great lives with lots of achievement despite being the mad idiots we were back then.

Ph: Scott Stanton brings hench Zorlac plant steez to Southsea’s infamous blue vert.

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How many books did you get printed?

We are on our second print run of the book now this year, the first 330 sold out in two weeks so we have another 20 dozen made for now up until Christmas. A bunch of those are on pre-order and sold now too.

It must be a buzz knowing that people have supported it after all the hard work.

It has been an amazing experience and the feedback we get is very gratifying. People send us photos of themselves reading it and holding it up from all over the world.

Would you do it all again?

Hell yes! We are already planning a follow up book called REBATE! – The black and whites and more. That one should be out by mid 2016 if all goes well.

Sk8-80’s Book is available now whilst stocks last from sk880s.bigcartel.com.

Jeff Hedges – 360 Varial Handplant.

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Lexus Hoverboard interview with Ross McGouran

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Let’s kick this off by stating that the future pretty much delivered jack shit. If you were a kid growing up in the 70s and 80s where space colonisation, extra-terrestrials, UFO sightings and Metal Mickey were predicted to become part of family life, then you will know how much we were ripped off. The most exciting recent discovery that comes close to all of those technological promises is an image that looked like a lunar three-spurt dick etched into the dusty floor of Pluto. Twas one way of getting a few more ‘likes’ on your Facebook page last month for those who count the digits.

There wasn’t a need for this self aggrandising malarkey that social networking brings back in 1985. Nobody really gave a toss about getting themselves 15 minutes of fame, we were too busy sniffing glue, break dancing and prizing Mercedes badges off the front of cars with screwdrivers – until the Back To The Future film was released. That summer spawned thousands of skateboarders worldwide, mimicking Michael J. Fox’s balancing skills as he held his own on a hoverboard to impress girls and avoid a beating. Once that was aired, every kid in our area wanted one.

Nobody imagined that we would have to wait 30 years to even get a sniff of the liquid nitrogen smoke that pumps out of the Lexus Hoverboard though. Nobody would also have guessed it would be our mate Ross McGouran who would be the chosen one to take it for its first cruise either. Thankfully Ross was skating past our office the day after that hoverboard edit hit the interweb so we asked him to spill some beans on how it all came together.

This was filmed off the cuff in 10 minutes with just an iPhone with a broken screen to hand but should give you a bit of inside info on the shoot that took place. Thanks to Dan Joyce who kindly edited my awful filming.

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10 Dope Tricks Done Sideways

amA few weeks ago we were admiring Amandus Mortensen‘s backslide powercracker down a set of stairs on repeat. The result led to thoughts of others who can huck out steez sideways, all those fellow burners of urethane and the ones who are always thinking a little more creatively than the rest.

It’s not a “Best” tricks list, or indeed some lame attempt to turn over advertising, just my personal favourites from those that make me want to go out and skate.

If you think we’ve missed some classics, leave a link to a gif or footage in the comments atthe foot of the page. Big shout out to all the filmers who shot the footage, hosted on our Tumblr page daily.

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1 – Harley Miller – Milk Skateboards in Lisbon
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Milk Skateboards have been rising throughout the UK scene for the past few years now but back in 2014 they flew to Lisbon, Portugal and came home with this banging edit. Harley Miller took a classic on this mosaic bank, bonking over the top and powersliding his way down through to fakie. Sick trick.

 

 

2- Richie Jackson – TWS “And Now”
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Richie has handfuls of tricks to choose from, although this one is what sparked my initial hook on skateboarding so I may be slightly biased. Seeing Richie perform this as part of a three piece line in the first skate flick I owned – Death Skateboards’ Escape from Boredom, and then again in this TWS video makes it even more rad that the erratic Aussie chose to go back and fry my brain on two separate occasions. If there were a Banana slide hall of fame, this would be first on the wall.

3 – Madars Apse – Future Nature

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Element released Future Nature back in 2013 containing Madars Apse’s sick part which blew us all away. This gap to backside powerslide coming initially after a fs smith flip out in his opening line was a keeper. His level of unpredictability accompanied by absolute precision is held throughout the whole piece.


 

4 – Rémy Taveira – Antiz Skateboards: Out of the Blue

Remy Taveira - antiz

When Antiz announced the completion of their newest full length, Out of the Blue, everybody was buzzed. This beautiful moment from the quickfire feet of Rémy Taveira sure lived up to the name. His steezy backside powerslide moves gracefully across a drained, but still glistening pool into a bs tailside. Out of the Blue indeed.

 

 

5 – Hadrien Haverland – Cosy Ride Skate Shop

Hadrien Haverland for Cosyride Skate shop Hadrien rips up the Parisian pavement throughout this part with many tricks you certainly don’t see every day. The internet allows us to view countless video parts but the wait to find someone pop out of a powerslide into a lip trick has evaded me…until now.

 

 

6 – Hisasi Nakamura – (Instagram)

Hisasi Nakamura

 

Hitting the manny pad at full charge Hisasi Nakamura loses no speed jamming his wheels into a powerslide momentarily before popping into a nose manual, as seen on our morning instagram feed.

 

 

 

 

7 – Patrick Melcher – Death Skateboards: Better Than Life

Patrick Melcher - Better than Life

Melcher is typically known for his unorthodox approach to skateboarding, making everything look incredibly fun whilst maintaining a level of difficulty that makes you ponder your own game. This time, lurking the car parks at night, he’s spotted slipping across the tar, jamming up the poles into a sweet banana slide. Whether a spot like this is pure coincidence or a little bit of ingenuity we do not know.

 

 

8 – Louie Barletta

Louie Barletta

Louie consistently pulls through with some of the most entertaining video parts known to man and this is only part of the reason why. He shows you exactly how these hideous pieces of street architecture should be used – with all four wheels, that’s how. Total ruler of the quirky trick bag.

 

 

 

9 – Albert Nyberg – The Sour Solution

Albert Nyberg in Sour Solution

The Sour Solution video is heavy hitting and comes with an entire catalog of NBD’s that will blow your brain apart. Albert Nyberg is one of those who you simply have no clue what he’s going to do next; whether he’s hoisting himself over a handrail or skating something as simple as this. This flick had so many tricks to choose from but the fast feet and sheer fluidity of this whole move is to be commended. Everything is done smoothly although it looks like it took no thought at all.

10 – Phil Zwijsen – Hydroplane

Phil Zwijsen

This list would be incomplete without the inclusion of Phil Zwijsen who skates anything in sight whatever the weather. Taking full advantage of the slip and eat your teeth conditions, this clip quickly took the internet by storm. If you haven’t seen this before then just take a look and let this one speak for itself.

Written by Henry Calvert.

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Features Skateboarding

We Can’t Stop Here, This is Bat Country

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It’s become customary to refer to skateboarding in the 1990s as a time of outlaws and risk-takers – a barely-supervised playground far from the judgmental glare of the mainstream. The golden age for connoisseurs of that raw shit. Strobeck says as much in a recent interview with Vice, and he seems to know what he’s on about.

From the vantage point of the mid-2000s, those times looked crazier than a Bundy-and-Hitler themed children’s party. By 2006ish, you could buy more or less the same skate brands from chain stores as you could from skater-owned shops, and the Swoosh kept those bro-stores open through exclusive local SB contracts. For a price. Identikit boutique-style points-of-sale, look-a-like teams, sound-a-like interview discipline, and increasingly samey videos with 90 minute plus running times.

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But look at our world now. Faster than I can clumsily type, UK tech-gnar trailblazer, Death pro skater and celebrity Welshman Matt Pritchard has literally pissed all over the Universal Soldier (Dolph Lundgren to his mam) whilst drunk out of his mind on the way to the Las Vegas start of the Gumball 3000 car race; Pontus and Jacob Ovgren lead the charge of indie brands forcing cartoon violence onto the eyeballs of skate-consuming youngsters; Scumco & Sons deliberately manufacture decks that smell of shit; and the VHS video Svengalis behind ‘Bum Fights’ go on the run having been caught with a suitcase full of human body parts in a Bangkok airport.

Do the 90s seem so rad because the 2000s were so dull? It was certainly both a lot smaller and younger back then, and virtually unsupervised by bonafide adults. When Welcome to Hell came out in 1996, Ed Templeton was the weird old boss man, whilst still in his early twenties and just 2-4 years older than the then-young bucks JT, Maldonado, BA, Barley, Satva and Elissa. The sportswear giants didn’t give a sustained shit, dipping their toes in and out of the pool, hardly disturbing the anarchy that went on beneath the surface.

In that isolated Wild West town of Lonesome Skatesville, bad craziness went down that would seem unbelievable to a mid-2000s publishing exec looking to buy beloved UK and European skate magazines only to dead them a decade later. Nor would you have had many catwalk fashion models agreeing to cavort half naked in the background of Moody Dreamboat Dylan Rieder’s shoe ad, especially if said ad had been for Duffs, shot on a $50 shoe-string, and involving adult-film performers, a dwarf, some guy puking, and a couple of homeless dudes fighting. Through the 90s, all these things actually happened.

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Early in the decade, Steve Rocco and his posse rode into town in a cloud of prairie dust. The terrified townsfolk bolted their shutters and hunkered down with a bottle and a shotgun, muttering to their faithful hound that the madness would soon pass. And it did. Manic energy all spent up by the turn of the century, with Rocco retiring to a beach house and leaving his legacy to whither into ever diminishing versions of Flame Boy and Reaper Man.

But our little world got changed something crazy in such a short time. Noble gun slingers like Rick Howard and Carroll fled the poor taste and borderline criminality, and founded their own settlement, just beyond the ridge. A settlement that, twenty-years later, still flourishes – long after Rocco Town became nothing but tumbleweed. But when World and its affiliates burned, they burned so brightly. The original Gonz-steered incarnation of Blind, Natas’ 101, Kareem’s Menace (the spiritual progenitor of DGK and Palace both), not to mention World Industries itself. They brought us Dill, Gino and the McBride brothers, Rodney versus Daewon, the untouchable Europeans Enrique and JB, and the certifiable madness that was Big Brother magazine. Rocco stole riders and picked fights, face-to-face and through print adverts, with established companies and upstart indie brands alike, with a mixture of cruelty and humour that still seem unbelievable in today – where everybody’s ‘nice’ and all/most pro skateboarders carefully watch their mouths lest Red Bull or Nike cut their salaries.

Rocco’s vision laid the foundations for how skating would commercialise over the next decade – retaining for a time something of the anarachy and dumb-fuckery he encouraged. What’s exciting now is that we’re seeing a bunch of guys who at the time were teenagers (or younger) reviving something of that frontier spirit. Dill and AVE’s Fucking Awesome and Hockey. Gilbert Crockett, Tyler Bledsoe and Jake Johnson’s Mother. Both putting their faith in small, adaptive independence as they race away from the spent carcass of Alien Workshop. Lev Tanju and Pontus Alv don’t hesitate to talk shit about what they don’t like and enthuse about what they do, whilst nice guys like Jahmal Williams or Brian Anderson choose to captain their own ships, and continue to fucking kill it on their skateboards, rather than fade into some late career obscurity.

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But are we really seeing a comparable level of madness right now? For those of you too young, or not born at the time, a quick summary. Big Brother magazine started in 1992 within Rocco’s World Industries then jumped to pornographer Larry Flynt’s publishing house. It thrived on drink, drugs, sex and controversy – gleefully skirting well beyond acceptability with tongue-in-butt-cheek jokes on race, gender, religion and disability, regarded by Rocco as “power statements”. If he could piss people off, within and outside the skate industry, AND get away with it, it demonstrated that he reigned unchallenged. Big Brother’s videos ‘Shit’, ‘Number Two’, ‘Boob’ and ‘Crap’ introduced the world to the antics of Johnny Knoxville and an expanding cast who would go on to produce Jackass. In the UK, this inspired today’s hero Matt Pritchard, and buddies to create Dirty Sanchez, another prank and gross-out themed venture that revolved around the stuff skateboarders seemed to find uniquely funny. If grown men becoming very wealthy from jumping off bridges in shopping trolleys whilst dressed as gorillas seemed ridiculous, the idea that they could one day piss on a Hollywood action star and more or less get away with it seemed absolutely absurd.

Before we get all bleary eyed and mutter about how “shit got safe” whilst slurping our craft beers, it’s worth remembering that we weren’t just surrounded by media of the risqué quality of Big Brother. ‘Bum Fights’ left Big Brother’s poor taste as a speck on the horizon as it ventured far into the territory of moral unpleasantness. Ryen McPherson and friends took the occasional altercation with drunks and rough sleepers that most street skaters encounter to a whole n’other level. The result was the ‘Bum Fights’ video series, where vulnerable people with mental health and addiction issues were given money by white, middle class fellas to fight each other, perform Jackass-style stunts, and self-harm. And for some time, many skateboarders’ moral compasses were so out of whack from ten years of deliberately provocative “power statements” that Bum Fights managed to be a kind of sub-cultural phenomenon. Mr McPherson and co-conspirator Daniel Tanner are currently on the run (rumoured to be in Cambodia) having been arrested in Thailand for trying to smuggle several parcels full of body parts, including a baby’s head and a “sheet of skin”, into the US.

bumfightsBut a big change that occurred through the otherwise dull 2000s, that laid the foundations for the way people have reacted to Pritchard’s mile-high antics, is that this sort of stuff started to be funny to a lot more people than just skateboarders. Now with social media (particularly YouTube), any guffawing private school idiot can film their derivative, skater-lite antics and sit back as it goes viral via UniLad for the LOLs of millions of even bigger douchebags.

Was our culture so Gonzo, in a good and sometimes bad way, that Rocco’s vision effectively corrupted all the squares out there beyond the prairie – so now ‘they’ laugh at the same things we used to? Would the media have worked itself into moral uproar if Bum Fights had happened now, rather than in the early 2000s? There are 10s of 1,000s of videos on YouTube of street and bar brawls, of kids inciting the homeless to freak out at them. Young dudes have become internet famous and real-world rich for harassing (and sometimes assaulting) women in public. Normal folk are laughing at and sharing clips that even the most weed-fried skateboarder would have balked at in the 90s. Maybe the shit-heads and punks of Kids-era skateboarding have become the nice guys in comparison to everyone else.

dan_joyce_dirty_sanchezSkateboarding was always the context. It gets us out in the street where the craziness happens, inspires us to talk shit about the stuff we don’t like, within a world we otherwise care so passionately about. Without skateboarding, the genius of Big Brother quickly morphs into crass re-runs of privileged kids making fun of the vulnerable. It’s a thin line, but it’s a line that’s clearly scratched on black Jessops grip-tape. When looking back at the crazy level of celebrity attained by Bam Margera, there is something rather sad about a guy so very, very skilled at something as beautiful as skateboarding being better known for slapping his dad whilst he tries to take a dump.

That’s why skateboarding as it is today, albeit without institutions like Big Brother, is so darn rad – because the context and the act of skating itself is so healthy. Without that, we’re pissing on the shoes of any old chump, and not Dolph motherfucking Lundgren.

Written by Chris Lawton.
Illustration by George Yarnton.

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Talking About Money with Mike O’Shea

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“Mikey, my big butt brotha, an authentic individual with a rotund rumpus. A man with the weight of a moon on his back. Posterior monthly’s rear of the year. Yes it’s true that Mike can do really cool doodles, but it’s unfortunate that his raw talent should be so overshadowed by his bell shaped buttocks! Such is the luck of the draw (get it…draw?) in the birth lottery that his undeniable gift as an artist barely gets a look in because of his undeniably god given curves. But he doesn’t believe in God, because he thinks he’s a bit of a berk, not just Christian God either..all of them! What sort of God would gift Mike with a trouser-bursting hump like his and deny the same privilege to his two identical triplet brothers! A God of war! Or a God of phwooaar! Zing!

Anyway, enough butt jokes, Mikey is a breath of fresh air in a sea of pretentious try-hards, he has an in-built default setting for always calling things as he seems them (whether you like it or not) and I believe his authentic approach to life really shines through in his art. Plus it looks fun, like Mike, a fun dude who has a mean bs 360 to boot. I feel honored to have him as a friend and to be able to piggy back on his talent..and he can croon like you wouldn’t believe…plus he can dance. MIKE IS ART! Mike is his butt! Like Totally! Yeah buddy!” – Phil Evans

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Our cartoon correspondent and all round dope doodle cheese Jon Horner talks wonga with this week’s guest…Mike O’Shea.

Let’s start with Lightbox. A lot of how you made the animations is covered in the behind the scenes video, but I was wondering whether you had ideas for scenes you wanted to do before you started working on it, or whether you were reacting to the footage once you saw it?

There were no set plans beforehand, I just knew I wanted to do some sections where one frame animated into the next frame. Other than that I just made it up as I went along. Phil would send me rough edits and ask if I could add stuff in certain parts and I’d just try stuff and send it back to him and go from there. I was getting bits sent to me all the time and we would talk about ideas for it and stuff, but most of the time I didn’t know what it was going to turn out like until I had finished that section. Long story short, it was all about reacting to the footage when I got it.

When did you know what the music was going to be? Everything fit together so perfectly, it’s pretty impressive that there wasn’t some massively elaborate master plan beforehand.

Haha, Maybe Phil had a plan all along and didn’t tell us! It just kind of grew organically I think. Me and Phil are on a similar wavelength so it just kind of worked. It was so easy working with him, he pretty much liked everything I gave him and we seemed to have a very similar view of what we thought worked and what didn’t. I didn’t know what music he was using until he sent me a rough edit for me to work from. Like I said before I couldn’t really do much until I saw the rough edit, I responded to the footage and the music at the same time. I really like Gibbo’s music and I think it fit really well with the whole vibe and that definitely helped when i was drawing my silly pictures. I got super amped on the tunes and it made me want to do some trippy stuff that would work with them smooth beats, ha!

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Have you and Phil worked together before?

Yeah, we have worked on getting a dance floor pumping with our sweet moves but we have never worked on a video project before. Phil got me involved with a group exhibition he was apart of a few years ago, so we kind of worked on stuff together before but not really. We both had work up in the same show but that’s about it until now. We clicked pretty quick and I always really liked his video work and he seemed to like my drawings so it was only a matter of time before we did something like this together, I think he was just waiting for the right project to bring me in on. We had talked about doing something like this for a while and this seemed like the right time to give it a go. I hope we get to team up again in the future, just like they do in the Avengers.

Ha! Which one of the Avengers are you? Which one is Phil?

Hhhmm, good question. Which one keeps them all together? I guess that would be Captain America. Phil is that guy, the nerdy dork that no one likes but without him it would fall apart. I think I would be Ironman because I’m super smart, witty as hell and I have loads of money and sex appeal. Yeah, that sounds about right.

Good choice. And you make things that almost destroy the world.

Haha, hell yeah. That’s me. The key word there is ‘almost’, I also save everyone’s asses. People reading this who don’t know the Avengers aren’t gunna follow this, ah well screw em, those jocks.

It is pretty odd that a huge amount of people now do know who the Avengers are. Ten years ago I don’t think anyone would have seen that coming.

Yeah for sure. Anyway Jon, back to me and my drawings. Jeez. it’s not all about you and your dorky comic book heroes. Why did you bring that up? (I know I brought it up but I thought some tension would be good for the readers, ha!)

Hahaha! Did you read comics much growing up?

I read Spider-man a bit for sure but that’s about it for the American stuff I think. I always liked that guy. I read a lot of the Beano and some Dandy also. Can’t remember too much of it now, but I used to have a stack. Me and my brothers would try and come up with new super heroes all the time. We would all draw a bunch and try and out do each other with the coolest heroes.

You make comics yourself, right?

Not too much, I have dabbled. I did a couple for Eyeball Comix and some small ones for Vice. I want to do some more for sure, I think its fun to mix up what I do. I get bored if I just stick to one way of working. I like to paint, illustrate, animate, make comics, clay sculptures and whatever else I can play around with. This week I have been playing with clay. It’s fun to use your hands and experiment a bit with the stuff rather than just drawing all the time. It’s cool to think in a different way sometimes.

Yeah, I totally know what you mean! It seems like a lot of how you work is really tactile, like you keep computer stuff to a minimum. Is that true? And is it a choice or just how you like to work?

I wish I could keep it even more minimal on the computer front. I’d love it if I never had to use a computer again to create anything but that’s not going to happen. It is very useful and of course it is great for a lot of things, I just don’t like staring at the screen all day.

lizard_charles_mike_oshea_art_skate_cool_crossfire

Did you go to art school or anything like that?

Yeah man, did all that jazz. Got into debt and learned a little bit, ha. It was good actually but I’m not sure I would go now with all the rises in fees. It’s way to expensive for what you actually get out of it, you spend most of the year off with half terms and summer holidays.

When did you start Highbrow? What made you make the plunge into small business ownership?

Haha, to be honest I’m not sure when I started it, it kind of happened slowly and is now moving even slower! I just wanted to make a bunch of stuff and put it all in the same world, the world of Highbrow. I was starting to make videos and I wanted to make some board graphics that I didn’t think fit anywhere else so i made them for my own thing instead.

So what’s up with it now, is it on a Roger-style hiatus? Got anything planned?

Haha, yeah kind of I guess. I just moved to London so I’m trying to still find my feet here. Once I am settled I think I’ll start doing some more with it. It’s not going to be a proper board company or anything, it’s more of a fun side project I can work on from time to time, you know, put out limited edition boards and shirts and stuff. I am about halfway through filming a new video. Now I’m in the big smoke I hope to get the ball rolling on that a bit more. I’m sure I’ll have something else to go along with that when the video is done.

Also, starting cool, independent, underground board companies is so last week.

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What prompted the move to London? You were in Bristol before, right?

I had enough of the white crusties with dreadlocks and bare feet! I was there for 9 years and one by one a lot of my friends moved to London. I came up to stay with Chris Jones a bunch (yeah I just name dropped, big deal) and he pretty much convinced me it would be a good idea to move here. I don’t think he has many friends, so I have to hang out with him now to make sure he has company, I mean, who likes that guy? Well apart from everyone. Only playing. I luv ya C.J. Now go finish filming your Isle section.

I love London right now, I mean, it’s the honeymoon period so of course I’m loving it. I’m lucky that I have a good crew of friends that live close to me so I don’t have to travel for 2 hours to visit anyone. There’s also really cool stuff happening all the time. It’s hard to stay in and draw when there are exhibitions, book and zine fairs and stuff like that to go to. Also there are loads of new spots for me to skate.

Rad. You’ve done board graphics for the 3 Js (Joe Gavin, Jak Pietryga and Chris Jones), got any more coming soon? Anyone you’d particularly like to work with?

I don’t have anything lined up at the moment. I think it’s time I do one for the double J, Jake Johnson. How cool would that be? Ha. There aren’t too many that I’d like to work with to be honest. It would be cool to do a board for Polar maybe, or Magenta, but I’m not sure if my stuff would fit. Where do you think my vibe would work best? Which company would my drawings fit on?

Maybe enjoi?

Yeah, I think I could maybe do something for them if they were down for it. I like Drehobl’s new series that just came out. Oh and a Krooked guest board would be awesome.

Have you got any other projects in the works?

I don’t have any projects lined up at the moment. I’m just about settled into my new life in London and I’m now in a position where I can start thinking and working towards new things. I am pretty much just doing things for myself at the moment. If anyone is interested in working with me give me a holler, I’m well down for doing some cool stuff.

Do you have a day job then?

Yeah, I have a day job which takes up a fair amount of my time at the moment, but you’ve got to work to pay the bills and London ain’t cheap. I work in a coffee shop in Camberwell called Daily Goods. Most peeps who work there draw and skate including the badass boss ‘Carter’, so I’m in good hands. Pop down for a coffee if you’re ever in the area.

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Do you collect boards or art or anything like that?

Yeah, I have a few boards that I have kept hold of and not skated. I have a Roger deck that I really like, it’s called the Bowl Troll. I also have the first Skate Wizard Polar deck, which Jakke said was the first graphic he drew for them, so that make it even more special for me. Jacob is my boy.

Oh and I have Chris Jones’ first pro board for Crayon. I don’t really like the graphic if I’m honest but when your mate gets his name and face on a board that’s kinda a big deal. Most of them are sentimental I guess. Oh, and I’ve kept one of each graphic I’ve designed in the past.

I collect art and zines from my friends too. We normally do swaps. I give them something and they give me something in return. It’s good to support friends. I have some stuff from Kyle Platts, a few paintings from Jacob Ovgren, Paul Arsecott, Tim Ryan and a bunch of other friends that make cool shit.

Who else’s stuff are you into at them moment? In skateboarding and outside?

Hhhmmm, well to be honest i have not been looking at much artwork at the moment. I find I get too influenced by other people’s work so I’m making a conscious effort to stay away, ha! I want to focus on developing my own stuff and not get side tracked with what other people are doing. Also, I think I’m more inspired by people’s attitudes towards working then their actual work. Like, somewhere who loves to make things and is honest and pure in what they do and just does it because they have to. People’s positive energy for life and creating get me hyped, I’m hoping some of it will rub off on me. All that aside, I really like that cartoon Rick and Morty. Have you seen it? It’s so interesting and goes to some deep places at times but is still just a funny cartoon. It would be pretty damn cool to work on that show I reckon.

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What medium that you’ve never tried would you like to have a go at?

Stand up comedy, that’s an art form right?

Yeah, definitely! How come?

Because I think I’m funny. Ha, well normally when I’m drunk. Oh and I like the attention. A room full of people watching me makes me feel good inside. I’m a bit of an attention seeker sometimes.

No, but I really like stand up comedy and I think it could be an interesting thing to try, or maybe do sketches and weird videos and just put them on YouTube, ha. I mean, I use humour a lot in my artwork and I always wondered if I could translate that to something else other than drawings. But these are just thoughts, I’m in no position to actually try it out. I’m too scared.

Me and Phil Evans send each other little weird videos of us trying to act and stuff from time to time, mostly to make each other laugh. We have talked about trying to make something for the public also, but maybe they are just funny to us. Inside jokes and the like.

Last words…

Try not to be to self conscious about what others might think. Do what makes you happy and enjoy yourself. You don’t have long on this planet so have some fun. Oh, and go dancing in a club, field, bus stop or whenever it doesn’t matter, as long as you are dancing its all good. GO DANCING RIGHT NOW.

Check out Mike’s dancing skills at his site, buy some of his rad shit on his shop and follow his doodles on Insta. Phil Evans’ Lightbox project can be found here.

Now get those teas on mate…

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Features Home Skateboarding

Gilbert Crockett interview

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One of the best parts of being involved in skateboarding is appreciating someone else’s natural ability to ride one, especially when they are straight-forward rolling like Gilbert Crockett. The Virginian may have been left in Alien Workshop limbo with the rest of the team exactly a year ago, but it didn’t slow down his ability to progress whatsoever. He just pushed faster.

With a killer new part under his wing in the new Vans Propeller movie and launching a new skate company, Mother Collective, he’s had his work cut out, but Crockett’s attitude on and off a board comes across as nothing but refreshing. Chris Pulman spoke with him the week before Propeller hit screens to speak about the good things that have gone down of late:

Looks like you have a busy year ahead. You must be pretty excited?

Yes, I am. I can’t wait to see this video.

I guess filming for the Vans video is pretty much wrapped up by now. Are you happy with what you have for it?

Yeah, we’re all done. I am happy with what I have, it’s been a long time coming.

It’s gonna be pretty epic purely from the list of riders Vans has. Is there anyone in particular you’re looking forward to seeing a part from?

I’m really looking forward to AVE’s and Daniel’s parts, but also just the whole thing. I can’t wait to see what Greg does.

Greg Hunt has some formidable projects under his belt and a real ability for communicating skateboarding in a genuine way. Do you get any direction from him? Do you have a strong vision of how you’d like to be portrayed or is more a case of ‘just get on with it’ and do what you do as best and as interestingly as you can?

I think Greg and I see eye to eye on a lot of things, and I think what you said is true about him doing things in a genuine way, and that is definitely a goal of mine when trying to put something together. So, I think I’m definitely just inspired by Greg, and working with him motivates me because I feel like we have a mutual respect about both of us wanting to do our job well and be happy with what we make.

The feeling I get from watching the Cellout and Bust Crew videos is that you use your talent to skate everything you come across. There’s a real genuine excitement from the act of skateboarding that comes across from these. It reminds me of being younger and street skating and trying to do everything on anything. Do you still get that excitement of real challenges in real surroundings?

Yes of course. Skateboarding for me at this point is sort of an intimate, emotional thing for me. If I’m skating the shittiest ledge you’ve ever seen with my friends and everyone is excited and having fun and trying to do whatever we can on it, I’m going to skate better than when I’m on a more serious session and I can feel everything around me like, “Wow, I called this session out and I’m wasting everyone’s time if I don’t get this”. But even then, I want to try to get a clip or a photo that my friends will be siked on.

Do you think that’s a reflection of growing up in Virginia? I’ve never been there, but I’m guessing, like a lot of us that didn’t grow up in major cities, you have to make do with the architecture that’s directly in front of you.

Yeah. It definitely has to do with that, and also, I think getting older and after you’ve been skating for 10-15 years, you start to want to just fuck around with spots that you’ve driven by your whole life, and just learn how to skate different shit, or shittier shit.

At a time when a lot of media is digested in disposable web-clips and instagram posts, what do you feel is the purpose of a full-length skate film?

I think the full length video is just the real deal. It’s just doing it, really doing it. And when you do it right, it’s unmistakable. You can’t just pump these things out like you can a fucking web edit, they take YEARS to make, and you can see it. Videos that are made like this have an impact for a reason; they live in real skate shops and on skateboarders’ bookshelves — they’re not just taking up space.

Apart from the easily accessible nature of instagram clips, I also think that they’re inherently genuine. In a world where kids are hammered by a lot of shallow marketing, do you think that this genuineness is what really appeals to the skaters?

I don’t know, everything is so clouded. It’s hard to tell who is keeping it real anymore. But I try really hard to not hate and just pay attention to the people I like.

gilbert_crockett_switchflipI’ve heard that you’re very details-orientated when it comes to footwear especially. Do you have any reasons for this that you’d like to share or do you suffer from the same level of OCD that most skateboarders have when it comes to their gear?

I mean, I can’t just wear whatever. It’s got to be tested and approved to be a part of “the uniform” which is what AVE calls it. A lot of skateboarders work like this: you find a pair of jeans, a couple shirts, and usually some sort of hat that works for you, and you just run it into the ground until it falls apart or until you have your next gear crisis.

I’ve also heard that you like to look at authentic things and processes, be it footwear or tattoos. Personally, I love to know how everything works from making skateboards, footwear construction, leather-working and carpentry. Do you have any other skills or interests that you pursue as doggedly?

Yeah, I definitely pay a lot of attention to detail and how things are made. I paint flash and have messed around with making some clothes recently, but I don’t really pursue any of it. Hopefully one day.

Ph: Anthony Acosta / Vans

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Your first Vans pro shoe is looking great. The Wafflecup seems like a perfect way to bring a little more consistency to a vulc-style shoe without losing any of the qualities that make that construction perfect for skateboarding. Have you had a lot of say in the development of that construction? There look to have been some subtle developments since the earlier Vans Stage IV shoes.

Yeah, it’s great. I really love it. My shoe is just the next generation of the waffle cup sole, we just found ways to improve it. I can’t say enough good things about the shoe and about Vans for letting me design a shoe that I love.

You’ve also included a mid-top version, which looks to be based on one of Vans’ longest running shoes, the Half Cab, do you wear either style in preference for any kind of terrain or do they both feel equally as good to you?

I usually skate the lows, but I always get into a mid phase like once a year or so where I’ll wear them for a while. I love both.

Ph: Greg Hunt / Vans

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Now that Mother Collective has launched, it must be a relief to end all the speculation after the AWS sabbatical. Is that how it feels?

What happened with Workshop was inevitable. AVE and Dill knew that, but here we are, and I’m happy that it did.

Lastly, I spied your Vans team page quickly before I started these questions and noticed that you mention ‘The Four Agreements’ by Don Miguel Ruiz. It’s a good philosophy for making the most of one’s lifetime. Is philosophy something that interests you a lot?

I don’t really pay much attention to it, but I do love that book, a lot of things inspire me, that was one of them.

Any philosophy on skateboarding that you’d like to end this with?

Have fun with your friends, stay up late and eat pie.

Interview by Chris Pulman.
Illustration by George Yarnton.
Gifs by Henry Calvert.
Download Vans’ Propeller skate video here.

Follow @crossfirezine on FB, Insta, Twitter and Tumblr for daily skate shit: *SINCE 2001*

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Joe Howard interview

Joe Howard, Melon to Rock, Stockwell, 2014

Joe Howard is one of those people whose skateboarding makes you sit up and take notice. An angry and powerful style which makes everything he does look like he is acting out a personal vendetta against coping; grinds as long as you like, and any air to truck or tail smack at will.

Joe specializes in skateboarding that looks like a bar fight!

Coming from someone as chilled out as he is just makes it seem even gnarlier (ignoring the time he tried to fight the whole of Hastings town centre, that’s another story), and his brand of transition destruction is fuelled as much by roots reggae and dancehall as it is by hardcore punk.

Jono Coote caught up with Joe to talk about The Ripped, Yorkshire, Copenhagen and badly timed ankle injuries but before you get stuck in, enjoy his fast-as-fuck footage put together by Ross Brunton shot down at the HOV and Brixton Beach.

Ph above: Melon to rock at Stockwell’s crack house. All photos courtesy of Paul Graham.

When did you start skating, and what was your first set up?

Coming up to 10 years strong I reckon now. As far as I remember I got my first board from the local car boot – some fishtail biscuit with pink rails. I remember learning my first trick on that number, dead stop shuv-it’s in the pub car park because it wouldn’t roll right! Good you know it had probably been melting away in some bloke’s damp cellar since 1989. After that short lived introduction to the useless wooden toy I can’t really remember being stoked on a particular set up for a long time. I had a few no branders for a while, you know, I couldn’t afford a ‘pro’ deck for a long time, I was just happy to be skating. I guess I just used to buy what was cheapest at the time, saving up all my paper round money and heading over to Wisdom skate shop at the time; usually something British like Blueprint, Death or Heroin – mostly Death. They had the best team growing up. I think the first video I bought was Escape from Boredom, that got me hyped.

I first met you skating the legendary Ripped skatepark (RIP) in Dewsbury – explain that spot for those who didn’t manage to get to skate there?

It was the real crust, heart and soul of northern skateboarding growing up for me and my pals. Situated on the outskirts of one of West Yorkshire’s finest shite’ole towns, Dewsbury. The ‘crete coping was loud, Sex Pistols played on repeat, the bonfires were high and the death matches went all night! Everything that was edible was deep fat fried, no one knew who paid in and all nine cats that lived there were addicted to cali. Skinnyman played there once wearing nowt but denim, rapping away in the middle of the park, that was pretty raw. You would leave sleepless with graffiti in your lungs covered in cat shit but they were always nights to remember, hands down, every time. Snoz is the business!

Fakie thruster in Tottenham’s scum hole.

Joe Howard, Fakie Thruster, Tottenham, 2014

Do you have any good stories from those times? The Listerine moonshine night always stands out for me…

The moonshine was gnarly. Instant headache gear and you aren’t tasting shit for days, that stuff was battery acid for sure. I remember when place first opened, it was a right dust fest. The transition was a real slip n’ slide, so Mad Snoz decided to mix up a portion of paint and sand giving the ramps a real good seeing to! You can only imagine the scabby aftermath.

It seems like once the Ripped closed and all you guys got older, most people moved to Leeds – who still skates in the area now?

I think I’m the last man standing to be honest, I’ve been a lone rider for some time in this town now. But like you said, most of the fam live in Leeds now so I spend a lot of time over there. You know it’s pretty sweet to know there’s always a couch to crash on when you’re rolling with the boys, holla for the hospitality fellas!

I spent the last 3 years traveling up and down from London too, as my piece of fluff moved there for uni. It would be rad to move to London or some city with a strong scene one day but got too much love for Yorkshire still. RWTB!

If in doubt just throw yourself at it…

Throw on Wallride, Gateshead, 2015

As someone who appreciates a good transition, give us a top 5 list of skate parks you’ve been too?

1) Brixton Beach, (Stockwell) UK
2) Faelledparken, the Hullet, Christiana bowl: can’t beat Copenhagen turf.
3) La Cantera, Bilbao
4) Mechelen DIY, Belgium
5) Tottenham DIY, UK

How about the top five destinations you’d like to visit to skate?

1) SF
2) Oregon
3) Scotland
4) West Indies
5) Germany

Staying with the travel hype, you’ve done Copenhagen a few times now – how would you describe it for those who haven’t been?

A comfortable hell ride every time. Everyone should go there and get a slice.

You’ve recently got hooked up with Anti-Hero, Independent and Spitfire through Shiner..

Yeah, I feel blessed to be getting flowed my all-time favourite companies off them, so stoked! 18 has been my fuel since I was younger watching all the old videos round Lee Rozee’s house, there ain’t no other company that emits so much energy and never will be.

You can add this photo to that Tumblr of skaters not wearing Nike’s.

joe fs wallride

Did you manage to skate at all after fucking your ankle on the first day of the most recent trip?

The Indy trip was a total wipe out for me on the first stop. I was just getting into the session and I just chicken footed down the tranny and my trotter bust; you know I snapped it before when I was young, so it’s real weak and that. It’s been a few months now tip-toeing about. Luckily I didn’t break it this time, just messed up the ligaments real good and that, but I am back on my board now. Besides from that shit all the guys smashed it! Seeing Colin Adam skate up there was rad. I remember seeing him do eggs in Faelledparken deep a few years ago all pissed up, they don’t call him a cannibal for nothing!

I know you’re into vinyl, especially reggae and dancehall, have you picked up anything good recently or is there any good shit you want posted up with this interview?

Yer for sure. I get bits now and again but wax is expensive especially with riddim there’s not that many record shops around west Yorkshire for that kind of stuff. I like to go rooting in London sometimes and I guess a lot of the new stuff is digital nowadays but you can’t beat that reggae turntable sound. I like lots of music, it all depends what mood I’m in to what I buy or listen to like I’m sure most folk do. At the moment I’ve been digging this new album my good friend Sam Barrett just brought out. Check it! These are my homies and my inspiration.

How did you get into reggae? I know Huddersfield has a legendary background in reggae sound systems, but you’re also into punk music which is what got me into reggae?

Yeah I guess when I was younger I used to listen to a lot of old British punk which got me well into the roots and early skinhead stuff, like all the Trojan releases and that which got me hyped. I guess everything I’ve listened to stems from rooting through my dad’s music pulling stuff out like Killing Joke, Bauhaus, Yellowman and even N.W.A when I was younger lived through all the genres. I remember him telling me to get hold of a Burning Spear album when he knew I was into that stuff telling that reggae don’t get better than that so I guess he has always introduced good music to me growing up. Huddersfield still has a little reggae scene going on, I used to go to the carnival there as a young whipper snapper to stand as close as I could get to the sound systems until my bones rattled and my ear drums burst.

Let’s sign this off with your top five Yorkshire skaters?

Let’s have a couple extra:

-Lee Rozee
-Doug Mclaughlan
-Lois Pendlebury
-Paul Graham
-Jordan Kaye
-Ben Lister (AKA Bruce)
-Felix Owuso-Kwarteng

Joe rides the lightning for Anti Hero, Spitfire, Independent, Hoax MFG and Rip Ride Skateshop.

He loves Madonna too… to fakie.

Joe - Madonna Fakie

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Features Skateboarding

Vans Propeller London premiere

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Let’s kick this off by saying that the hype surrounding this film before it aired at the Prince Charles cinema in London was completely justified. It’s an incredible production that has zero filler and parts that will leave your jaw on the floor. Greg Hunt obviously worked his socks off to get this completed at the highest level and left no stones unturned. It’s so damn good that it feels like everyone has the ender.

At the world premiere, Geoff Rowley mentioned that Propeller “is a raw video, like one you grew up with” and he’s spot on. Doused in fast moving rock n’roll, each section is peppered with incredible skateboarding, packing gnar and tech from a crew who broke bones to make it special. Let’s hope that those skaters who grow up with Propeller see full length production as the norm, and bring back the full length as a priority over web clips in the future. It’s night’s like these where you wished the internet never existed.

The premiere itself was packed to the gills and over subscribed with people who had travelled from all over the UK. There were no seats for us, so we were asked to watch it upstairs where we joined Sidewalk’s Horse, Henry from Grey Mag and about 10 others and watched it with a Rob Smith introduction instead of the full cast. I’m sure the atmosphere downstairs was electric though, as each part just takes the piss. No spoilers of course as you will have to downnload it and watch it on iTunes on May 5th when it drops worldwide, but it’s a ridiculously impressive skateboard video and one to keep.

Plenty of booze was consumed at the House of Vans afterwards, where Steve Van Doren made burgers for everyone and was joined by Lutheran, Zorilla, Hunt, Rowley, Trujillo and more of the pro team. At 1am, Steve Caballero and Christian Hosoi decided it was time for a bowl sesh. Enjoy this drunk cam footage and snaps from the phone. Go get Propeller as soon as you can.

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