It’s incredible to think that it would have been John Lennon‘s 73rd birthday today. A man whose musical talent is undeniably one of the greatest of all time, whose ear for a song and fast moving production values changed music forever worldwide. He even managed to get a shred on back in 1965. Take in this photo shot by Henry Grossman in 1965 and all hail Lennon.
The best Beatle/Lennon related skate quotes win bragging rights.
We first met Rhino in Marseille at the Prado Bowl a few years back. We sank some beers, skated, laughed a lot, shot the shit, sank some more beers and got on like a house on fire – the rest is history. Fact is, Rhino here is one of the best in the business. He has time for people and with that, he also takes a pretty fucking good set of skate snaps because he is trusted. It was only natural that he shared some of his tales and pics from over the years on here so sit back and take it in from this month’s Exposed feature.
You‘ve been on the road for Thrasher now for what seems like a lifetime, how do you juggle snapping pics and life outside of skating?
Shooting photos pretty much takes up most of my time, usually shooting around San Diego, driving up to LA and also traveling. Basically just have to try and make some time for my personal life or else skateboarding just takes over.
Where’s was your latest trip?
King Of The Road 2013 just ended, I was with the Real Team and we got 2nd place. It was a fun trip, and it never matters what place you get, it’s always rad to be involved with it. The web videos should be out soon on Thrasher as well as the magazine articles.
What jams go down on your road trips these days?
A bit of Slayer, some High On Fire, Devo, Motorhead and Classic Rock stations on the radio.
What are your preferred rigs to shoot on at the moment?
A Nikon D3 camera, a Nikon D7000 for video and still back up and a Leica digital point and shoot for candid party and blog shots.
Do you shoot any film anymore?
No, I shot film for a while and it was rad but digital just took over. I sold my Hasselblad about 4 years ago and that was the last of my film cameras. Kind of wish I still had it but didn’t want it to sit around and get fucked up. I do miss shooting film but the convenience of shooting digital is really nice. No more anxiety going to pick up film and hoping you got the trick.
If there was a story to pull from the archives on the road what would it be?
King of the Road 2010 with Nike. 3 days left our van got stolen at the hotel in Arizona with just about everything in it. The book, lights, generator, skateboards, everything except camera gear and some backpacks that were in the hotel. Thought we were done, last place, humiliation, not even the KOTR book with all out tricks marked off. Then 2 hours later, the police found the van about ½ mile away. They stole a lot of stuff that was in the van, but not the book. We were back up and running and ended up winning that year.
What was the toughest photo you shot over the years?
Believe it or not it was a photo of Chet Childress slash grinding a concrete not made to skate transition. (above) It had about 3 feet transition and 3 feet of vert. Really steep, downhill run up, large crack at the bottom, he had to swerve in to hit it. The hardest part was the timing on a slash grind. You never really shoot slash grinds and he was only on there for a split second and it was at night. We had to keep looking at the video camera to see where the flash was because we were shooting film. So he ended up having to try it over and over again.
What was the toughest injury from a photo-shoot over the years?
A texas pipe trip with Chet Childress, Adam Alfaro and a few others when he got on Nike. Grant Shubert was the filmer with us. We drove 4 hours from Austin to skate a full pipe that we have been wanting to hit for a few years. Trespassing on Federal property, we had to raft in with all our equipment, concrete, beers, water, everything. Long story short, after shooting one photo of Adam Alfaro, Grant (filmer) wanted to get a few runs in. I went down to the edge to grab a beer and just heard a loud scream. Walked back up into the pipe and he broke his kneecap in 4 places. We had to pack up and start rafting everything back across, then manage to get him in the raft while he was in some serious pain. Four hour drive back to Austin and to the hospital, then Grant had to fly back to Los Angeles a few days later for surgery.
Come on then, Expose your ten…
1. Duane Peters, Chickens Pool.
Duane showed up for a Z-Flex reunion interview session at the Chickens house. Sounded like he hasn’t skated in a few weeks because of injuries. He was the first to pad up and go to the pool. Eyeing up an acid drop off the hip for sure.
2. Aaron Homoki, kickflip melon.
Jaws skated 2 other big things that day for a few hours, then all of a sudden he says he wanted to go to this gap. After about 6 attempts he landed this kickflip melon. His legs are built differently than most humans.
3. Al Partanen, front feeble.
The chick who lives at this pool sucks. She found out that she can get money off skaters to skate the pool, which is fine, but it supports her drug habit and she always comes up with stories about getting robbed, beaten, raped, etc… to try and get more money. Anyways, sometimes you got to pay to play.
4. Div Adam, alley oop backside air, Washington St Park.
Div is a maniac and killed this park all the time. This day he smashed his nose with his board frustrated skating a ditch. Then took it out on Washington St. Blasting big alley oop airs on the big wall. He is back in Scotland for a while and the sessions just aren’t the same under the bridge without him.
5. Peter Hewitt – Boneless.
This pool is about 2 hours outside of San Diego on the way to Arizona. The house is abandoned and it used to be used for smuggling drugs using airplanes across the border of Mexico in the 70’s. The pool is huge and a lot of the walls are different and transitions are steep. This one pocket is really mellow with a love seat. I bet the parties that went down here back in the day were off the charts!
6. Ben Raybourn, boardlside.
We found this rail while driving through Poland on a Bones trip. Ben jumped on it right away and got a board slide on it within 10 tries. The filmer didn’t have his camera set up and asked him to do another. Somehow he couldn’t make it again, then it started raining out. Photo no footage, that’s how it goes sometimes.
7. Pedro Barros, stale fish in Portugal.
This park is at the Quiksilver shop on the coast outside of Lisbon. Just got Pedro hyped up and watch him fly. He did a handful of tricks this high around the corner.
8. Willy Akers, Pivot fakie.
This weird drainage wash is not easy to skate. Really rough run up, ollie up and then a really elliptical transition where your nose scrapes on the way up and tail on the way down. Willy said he just learned pivot fakie’s recently and wanted to do one there.
9. Nyjah Huston, switch lipslide.
Nyjah’s first time to this rail and he did about 15 tricks just warming up. He is on a different level. Then he started hitting this switch and knocked out about 5 tricks. Spot killer for sure.
10. Omar Hassan, judo air.
This pool was really good. This dude Mike rented it out and decided to drain the pool to skate it. He pissed the owners off by doing so and got an eviction notice. So in the meantime sessions were on. Always a cooler full of Tecate’s, Slayer and lights if sessions were going into the nighttime. It had a good run, lasted about 2 months and it was over.
If you want more from Rhino read this article from back in 2006. Yep, it’s been a while. Look out for him out there on your travels and if you see him, buy him a cold beer.
Rob Harris’ latest Diamond Days video blog from the East Coast is live today. Press play for #70.
New York filmer Steve Marino has dropped a minutes worth of raw footage online overnight of Gino Iannucci, Kenny Anderson, Stefan Janoski, Eric Koston and Jered Bassett. The footage was filmed in the summer of 2012 and at a guest I would imagine that some of this was destined for Pretty Sweet but never made the cut.
Alec Majerus’ – Backside Flip – Arto Photo
More Flip Eurodyssey tour edits are live following the first installment. Watch the team skate Jena and Berlin in Germany in these new edits.
Remember Go Skateboarding Day this year in London with Lakai and Parlour? Sirus F Gahan had Sebo Walker, Danny Brady, Nick Jensen, Jesus Fernandez, Enrique Lorenzo Alex Barton, Mikey Patrick and Jason Cloete in tow for some street missions and has finally dropped this edit aptly titled Lakai Innit.
Press play for London treats that takes Skate Edit of the Week.
If you remember Ben Fisher’s intro to Stereo back in April then you will probably get more hyped on this new footage announcing his new wheel on Small Wheels. One to watch for 2014 for sure.
Get to know all about how the new Eleventh Hour film was formed in this new interview at Grey with filmer and editor Jacob Harris.
Ph: Finn Andres
San Jose hosted a get together for the Independent Trucks team and this went down with Cab, Koston, Raybourn, Gravette, Haslam, Grosso, Red, and many other legends.
‘Strap yourself down, staple your eyelids to your forehead and keep telling yourself “it’s only a skate video, it’s only a skate video”’ – so reads part of the blurb on the back of Heroin Skateboards’ new DVD. But y’all know by now that any Heroin video is going to be much more because after watching this, I pretty much defy you not to immediately go out and have a shred.
The write-up on the back of the video stays true to the ‘Video Nasty’ angle, as do the variety of wince-inducing slams dotted throughout the start of this DVD. Maybe that’s why so many skaters have such an affinity with those 80s gore drenched B-movies, Cannibal Holocaust has nothing on watching some poor bastard smack their head off the flat bottom of a 12ft bowl or a ballsack-to-handrail.
First section goes to recently recruited Tom Day who’s schooling on Manchester’s rugged street spots shines through in his varied trick bag and choice of haggard, unforgiving architecture. In a country with nothing but crusty spots Manchester must rank near the top on the ‘how the fuck do you skate that?!’ scale, which goes a way to explaining why there seems to be a constant stream of raw skaters appearing out of the scene.
Next up comes Stephen Malet (not a name I’d heard of before) who throws down a variety of stair and handrail hammers interspersed with some street lines which take the lesser chosen path; frontside wallie anyone? Check the feet/truck placement on the last trick as well, pure all-out danger! What follows is an all-too-brief chunk of Howard Cooke taking some London concrete to task. Howard footage is basically gold dust and even a short section like this is enough to get anyone amped to go out and skate as fast as humanly possible. This section closes with a lesson by Chet Childress in how to skate pools – another skater whose footage I can’t get enough of makes this part alone worth the video’s price!
Gou Miyagi is undoubtedly one to file under the video’s ‘opinion divider’ section. First coming to light a year or two back in some strange but interesting web footage, here he seems to have gone all out in developing what seems to be the bastard lovechild of street and freestyle skating spliced with free running and a healthy dose of rolling around on the floor. Like I said, it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I suppose it’s interesting to see somebody who approaches skateboarding in such an unusual manner. Overall Miyagi’s unique contribution to Heroin’s team brings some futuristic shit to this flick and most will find it hard not to hit the rewind button after watching it. His synchronised skating reminded me a bit of The Big Lebowski which is always sweet and never forgotten.
A flow section then brings proceedings happily back into my ‘raw street skating to garage punk’ comfort zone. This isn’t to damn anyone in the section with faint praise, rather these guys all kill it hard and it’s going to be interesting to see more footage in the future! Fos’ own section kicks in, replete with his usual keen eye for a weird and aesthetically pleasing spot/trick (just with more American blue skies and ditches amongst the dank, drizzle-soaked UK car park spots) and all set to Hard Skin’s ‘Whose That Boy?’ for extra radness.
Of course a Heroin video wouldn’t be complete without the Osaka Daggers upping the weirdness levels and they come through with a spinning, powersliding, no complying blast of a part. Adrian Adrid (who you may of seen lately in the Yardsale promo) and Daniel Shimizu follow this with a section of full steezing, in which Shimizu’s slappy frontside nosegrind on a bank to curb is a particular highlight. Craig Questions is another opinion divider, personally I’m always stoked on some 80s worshipping radness, fun and raw skating on transitions, walls, jersey barriers and electric boxes. Music from Discharge adds to the hype as does a full Rogie section. His three minutes of fast footed shredding reminds us why he’s now ‘Progie’ with an outright assault of all terrain lanky hammers. Massive props to him for stitching this DVD together; it’s pacey, in your face and shrieks fun at every angle.
Deer Man of Dark Woods section closes things by showing us the outer limits of what can be done on a jersey barrier, and while my tolerance for bad metal music and cheesy Satanic imagery is fairly low, the skating is still undeniably full bore and by the looks of things mostly impossible.
Once again Heroin have come up with the goods, putting together the perfect antidote to the impending winter blues in that after watching this you’ll probably want to go out and skate whatever the elements have to throw at you. Make sure you get this in your collection now, it’s one of the best flicks of 2013.
Available to download on i-Tunes or on DVD at a reputable skater owned shop near you now.
Jono Coote