Skaters who still love a bit of Rip Grip and fluorescent copers will be delighted to know that Quiksilver have organised an 80s vert comp that will be hosted on January 7th in Florida.
The event will feature many legends of the scene such as Christian Hosoi, Tony Hawk, Kevin Staab, Mike McGill, Ben Schroeder, Rodney Mullen, Buck Smith, Mike Frazier, and more.
Look out for the footage online at Shred or Die once it’s ready.
Once we started interviewing Blueprint pro and UK legend Mark Baines we soon realised that there was no other way we could finish off 2010 than by publishing our conversation with the globe-trotting lad from Worksop who has had a pretty spectacular year to say the very least. Bouncing back from business fallouts and Blueprint’s distribution scare not so long ago, Baines has spent the year focussing hard on the positives in skateboarding and it paid off big. He had the amazing last section in what could be one of the last great DVDs of the new era, Make Friends With The Colour Blue, he’s been building street spots with Jerome Campbell in Sheffield and working on the UK WESC Camp with Benny Fairfax to list just a fraction of his very respectable 2010. Even Sheffield Wednesday have been on form for once.
Read on for an extensive look into one of our all-time favourites, the illustrious and inspirational Mark Baines, with pictures from none other than Oliver Whitehead Chris Haslam and Alex Foley.
Interview: Joe Moynihan
How’s it going Mr. Baines? What you got going on this week?
I’m good thanks. We’ve been snowed in here in Sheffield so it’s been tough to get anything going. Played some 5-aside yesterday, the back of the goals were filled with snow but it was good to get out and do something. Other than that keeping warm and shovelling snow.
Let’s get a feel for your environment, name three things within arms reach where you are right now.
A cup of tea, a TV remote and a curled up black cat.
As a cat expert, could you advise us on the raddest name to give a feline?
Sonny Luca.
Is it good to be back in the UK? I can imagine Berlin must have been a total killer in the winter…
It is nice to be back in the UK and Sheffield in particular for sure. Berlin is so amazing but in the winter it is so cold that there’s not much to do. I am hoping to move back there for a little while next year. I miss a lot about Berlin.
Berlin has a totally different atmosphere and vibe from most places I’ve been to. How did life there differ from life at home in Sheffield?
Berlin is mellow, you can do what you want but people respect this fact and don’t abuse it. Being able to skate everyday at different spots pretty much hassle free is amazing. There’s so much other stuff going on… art if you’re into that, nice bars, nice places to eat and generally loads of cool stuff to see, but it’s not pretentious; it’s just a place that naturally seems to have cool shit going on. Sheffield doesn’t really have that much going on when you compare the two. Berlin has everything you need for skating and the bonus is it has everything you would want outside of skating too.
When did you make the decision to live in Berlin and how did it come about?
Basically just from going out there a couple times on some Blueprint trips and then a DVS tour. We were there when the World Cup was going on in 2006; it was a good place to be for that. I got speaking to Mark Nickels who films out there and he thought it would be good for me to move out there for skating. I was dealing with a fall out with my business partners at Story and the whole Blueprint thing happened and I just wanted to get away and skate and try and forget all the negative stuff that was going on. It worked but you always have to come back and face that stuff which I did.
Baines pulls a switch frontside noseslide out of the ‘rarely seen’ bag. (Photo: Oliver Whitehead)
We’ll talk about the Story/Blueprint troubles a little later but tell us about Huntington Beach… That must have been a little bonkers compared with both Berlin and the good ol’ Steel City…
That place is the worst, but it was a good time to be out there when I was. I was pretty young when I went out there. We stayed with Dave Carney when we first got to LA. We were with Billy Pepper and Kenny Hughes for a week or so at first which was amazing. They took us to some spots to some parties and it was pretty cool hanging out with them; Kenny is massive and Billy is pretty small so they looked funny together.
I ended up staying with Alex Moul and Ali Boulala which was madness. A lot of drinking and partying but a lot of skating too. Seeing some of the stuff Reynolds was doing and how he was going about it was pretty crazy. Dustin too, he would just charge at stuff. Great times but I don’t think I could do that whole thing again now. Mouly was the best dude to spend my time with out there; he helped me out a lot so cheers Alex. Alex had this van he called ‘The Breather’. This massive van that sounded worse for wear to say the least. We would hit a lot of spots up every day, drive to Furnace to collect incentive money and go to the park to sell stuff. That van was amazing, and needed as you can’t walk anywhere out there.
Comparing that to Sheffield is impossible; for one some of the shit Greco was wearing back then wouldn’t have gone down too well around these parts haha…
In Sheffield I guess there are a lot of stories, my favourite times were when everyone still lived here before everyone went to London and other places, we all lived close to each other and everyone was tight, skating all the time going to parties and obviously Sumo was there too. I miss those days and those friends but time moves on. We all had a lot of fun though. S11 Crew.
Is there anywhere else in particular you’d love to live for a while?
I would like to live in Lyon maybe. I stayed there with Sylvain a lot and I like the place a lot. It’s pretty mellow and looks nice; the buildings, the rivers… and there’s a lot to skate. There seems to be a strong scene out there.
Directing your attention to frame 8… heelflip caught proper. (Seq: Chris Haslam)
You’ve had quite a busy couple of years but let’s start with Make Friends With The Colour Blue. Who has your favourite part in it?
I like Kevin’s part a lot. I also like Paul’s part a lot because so many people have talked shit on Paul and after the crook pop in I hope they all changed their minds, he put a lot into that part as well as all his other parts he has had. Kevin and Paul’s for sure but I like everyone’s stuff.
One thing that stood out for me was the video as a whole welcoming the two American riders into the Blueprint family, both Kevin and Marty seemed to belong on t’Print from the beginning. Are you stoked to have these guys involved and has the positive reaction to Blueprint worldwide been a surprise at all?
Kevin and Marty being on has been positive for sure. The thing is it’s not like we could just put any American skater on; we are not an American brand so we want to stay different from every other brand out there. Having one of the ‘hot’ up and coming skaters on isn’t really going to fit in with what we are about. Kevin and Marty are both really cool, they know about the history of Blueprint and they are down for the company and on top of that they’re both amazing skaters.
As for the positive reaction we have generally always had positivity from people. We have had some negative stuff but that as usually been from within the UK to be fair, which sucks because we all remember the days when convincing skaters it was ok to buy a British brand was very difficult. We took a lot of flack then but eventually people started to believe you could have a British company that could be as legit as an American brand. Generally I am stoked how people seem to be into Blueprint, it means a lot to all of us who are part of it.
I was so stoked on Mackey getting a section in before the intro. Tell us a story about our mate Mackey…
We were in China on a trip and Mackey was trying to ollie this gap. It was a bank to bank gap that was actually the roof of a building that came down to the ground. It was made from shitty tiles and Mackey pushed so fast to ollie it, then hung up at the bottom of the first bank and wedged himself on the edge of the other bank. I actually thought he might be dead it was so bad.
I have only ever seen a genuine look of caring for someone on Magee’s face once and that was then.
Are you proud of your section? You can see how much work was put in and I don’t think anyone can disagree that you fully deserved the last part…
I am proud, but it is weird because I never really know if I have put out good stuff or not. I go from being stoked to thinking my stuff is crap and I need to put something better out. I suppose am proud though because I did put a lot into this part and I had a lot of bullshit going on, people telling me I need to do something else because my knee will blow out or some other crap, just bullshit that wasn’t anything to do with being on a skateboard but for some reason part of skateboarding.
I basically looked at what I wanted to do for the video, set myself a goal if you like and almost reached it. I say almost because I don’t think you can ever be fully satisfied with your stuff, I’m not anyway.
Below: Switch Pop Shove It (Photo: Chris Haslam)
Do you think that the skate video can survive? For me Lost and Found was an embrace of DVD technology and it’s creative capabilities but even the DVD seems to have been a short-lived method of releasing videos.
I thought the skate video died after Mouse! Haha, no but seriously… it is so hard now to put something out people are going to be hyped on. There’s no saving your pocket money to buy the next board company’s dvd. I remember when Questionable came out it cost £30 and we had a premiere at the youth club in Worksop, that was one way everyone could see it together and get hyped on it. Now you just have to wait a day after it comes out and click a few buttons and sit in your room on your own and watch it on a small screen. There’s no fun in that and no reward either, it’s too easy to get hold of stuff now and too easy for people to put any old stuff out. It should be quality over quantity, like Gino, but it’s not, it has become more to do with internet presence and how much you are out there.
It’s insane how quickly it all turns around; one week a DVD is out the next week it’s forgotten. It’s the way it is I suppose and I can’t see that changing. I don’t watch all the clips online because there are too many; if there’s someone I want to watch I will watch them but everyone is putting throwaway edits online. There was talk of our video being free but that would have sucked; the money and effort that went into it to just give it away like it’s not worth anything, I don’t know, it just feels weird to do that. Not that we will make money fromt that video or even break even but still to just give it away is weird to me.
Skaters don’t think anything of spending a fiver on crap in Subway but a tenner for a video became expensive all of a sudden. Skaters buy a pack of smokes and a pint and it costs a tenner but a video for the same price is expensive. I just wish skaters realised they were putting money back into skateboarding so that pros can exist and cool companies who try to do the right think in skateboarding can exist. Why moan about spending money on a pro deck for example when you wouldn’t think twice about buying a pack of smokes when you know those tobacco companies don’t need it… Skate companies definitely need the support of skaters is all I am saying. I used to have kids come in the store moaning about the prices of decks or shoes and then see what they would spend there money on, like I’ve already said: Subway, cigs, a pair of Vans from a cool guy shop, it just makes no sense to me is all. If we all love skateboarding then support it. You may say it is easy for me to say this as I don’t pay for stuff but I will support where I can, if it’s buying independent vidoes like Pontus’ film or someone else I will do that because I know the work they are putting into it and I want to see more from them in the future. It’s like a band, if you are into what they put out you will buy it to support them.
The work put into MFWTCB by the entire team really shows. What trick gave you the most torture?
Oh man, the nollie switch crook rick flip out. We filmed it one day, it took me four goes but Percy was in the shot, Magee was saying it should be my last trick but it was filmed so badly so we tried to get it again weeks later and I couldn’t get it like before. Total pain but I don’t think it looks too bad when I see it.
You also knocked out a full section in the Rockers video ‘This Was Sketchy Man!’ which featured footage from all over the place. You must have only had a year or so to film that… how much time did you actually spend off the board in the last few years?
I spent hardly any time off my board; we were on trip after trip after trip. I would love to do that all the time but it costs money to do these things. I could do that though as it is the time I feel most productive, waking up early ready to go and coming home with some footage or just having had a good skate is the best feeling. I was stoked on the Rockers part, it came out ok and Thomas who owns it is fully down for skateboarding.
Get a chance to kick a ball around at all?
Yeah, twice a week at the minute. I always played with some friend in Sheffield who doesn’t skate every Wednesday evening. Now the skaters in Sheffield started playing so it’s cool and I get to play with them now. I always loved football and never understand why skaters hate on it; that is surely a jock mentality right there. My friend always says you can’t trust a guy who never played football, his reasoning being what were they doing then? Playing with dolls? I kind of agree but I am someone who thinks if something is positive and brings you joy then it doesn’t matter what it is, it can give you the same feeling as skating gives to us, it’s having the passion about something.
I saw your tweets on the 2018 world cup nightmare that happened the other week… what has the tendency to nark you off more: stupid shit happening in football or stupid shit happening in skateboarding?
When stupid shit happens in skating I hate it, although I have tried to distance myself from it all as I became really down about a lot to do with skating. I love skating and I want what is best for skating and when you see how people go about some things it gets to you because you question why they are doing what they’re doing. I try and stay out of things now because skaters seem to shaft skateboarding on a daily basis and everyone believes they’re doing the best thing. It’s what happens I guess when you have so many people who are passionate about something but have different views on how things should be, and it is obviously a good thing that there are different ways people do stuff in skateboarding.
The world cup thing sucks though, corruption for sure. I see how these things happen like that in the skate industry, obviously on a much smaller scale with less at stake, and have been on the receiving end, so when so much is at stake, financially especially, people will do whatever they need to do to get theirs. I would have been stoked to have the World Cup here. I can’t understand when people say otherwise. The money coming into the country, the jobs it creates and the Samba would all be amazing positives for the country. GUTTED. Hopefully it will be a good thing for the people in Russia though, the world will be watching so they will want to put on a good World Cup. I just hope I get to witness a World Cup in England one day.
On a more positive note, Sheffield Wednesday have been doing alright this season… are you on it all the time? Like what would come first… a skate session or a Wednesday game?
Well put it this way, Rye asked me if I wanted to go to the UKSA contest in Corby and it was on the same day I had planned to go to Hillsborough. I won’t tell you what I did but put it this way, I didn’t win any comp. I always check the scores and general football news, probably more so than skate news. I get to a few games at Hillsborough too but usually it wouldn’t interfere with my skating. Skating is my priority, most of the time anyway.
How do you feel about Beall being a Leeds fan?
There’s him and another guy Paul, they love Leeds. Scum. To be fair though Leeds are a big club and it could be worse he could support Sheffield United.
Baines opts to leave the K’nex dream spot the hard way. Straight Nollie. (Seq: Chris Haslam)
Back to the plank now, so one of the most controversial and interesting topics in UK skateboarding right now is the situation of how many new companies there are and how many skateboarders are being made pro. And because of recession and other financial restraints, many that deserve a pro deck can’t (Smithy is the first name that comes to mind). What are your views on this and can you see the situation changing any time soon?
My views will probably upset some people but like I said before I do love skateboarding and want to see it progress. There’s too many companies and too many undeserving pros in the UK, simple as that. I heard Barney Page turned down a board and Nicky Howells too… I was actually stoked to hear this. They are amazing skaters but they haven’t done nearly enough yet to warrant a pro board, and that is not having a go at all because I rate them both highly and I would say they have potential to be Pros, not just UK Pros, being Pro should mean something again, not just a given thing. The board company thing is a joke, look at the size of the UK and how many companies there are. It will get to the point soon where every shop as its own company and they wont buy from anyone else or there will be more companies than shops to stock them, then everyone loses out. It’s cool people are trying to do something but a lot of it is like those TV shows, Stars in their Eyes, talentless people believing they can do something and it’s so easy to make it happen nowadays and appear to be proper. I have an email in my inbox someone sent to a Chinese manafacturer saying they have UK riders on their board company who have had a Lakai shoe colourway, it’s so easy to get boards printed and make it look like you’re an established brand nowadays without actually having to do the hard work. The hardest thing is getting a website knocked together or a blog but even then you can just use Facebook or something. Imagine if it becomes so easy to produce shoes as it is boards, the industry would be screwed then.
Was Chewy’s move to Palace amicable?
Yeah for sure it was. Chewys is so talented, natural talent and he is a rad guy. It was harsh when I heard he had left for that company in particular and Chewy knows why I would say that but at the same time he has to do what he has to do. He needed to have a board out with his name on it. I think he is probably happier there so fair play to him. Personally I was gutted to see him go but to his credit he hit me up about it before hand and I really respect him doing that.
More and more skateparks are cropping up over the UK which comes equipped with just as many pros as it does cons… how do you feel about the new concrete parks?
A lot of them at first glance look amazing, but then you actually skate them and there’s things that aren’t as good as they look. The one in Cardiff looks amazing. There’s a few small ones near Sheffield that are fun. It’s positive in a lot of ways but I just hope street skating is still there. Nothing can beat street skating, I guess nowadays kids will grow up skating parks where as for me and people who grew up skating in the early 90’s it was car parks and whatever street spots your town or city, or even better you would go and find stuff to skate. To me that is part of the fun, finding new stuff, a skatepark never changes but when you’re out skating street looking for new stuff it’s always new stuff or different stuff.
I found it interesting how Magee put aside his aversion to skateparks when you guys hit up The Berrics last year. Did he need convincing from Shier at all?
Magee has an aversion to everything doesn’t he? I don’t think he had any choice, we were doing it regardless of Magees thought on the matter. He loved it as it turned out, he wasn’t used to someone else having control of the footage though, that was funny to see. But he enjoyed it all i think.
Seeing how much positive stuff came from that (deservedly, the edit was one of the best to ever come from The Berrics) and how well the MFWTCB UK tour went down at street spots could the UK be seeing more in the form of Blueprint demos/events/tours next year?
I would think so yes. We did the video tour this year and that was amazing. Kids seemed to enjoy the demos and responded well to us. I am sure we will be doing all that stuff this year.
Switch crooks as legit as they come. (Photo: Oliver Whitehead)
Tell us about the spots you’ve been building in Sheffield… who else is involved and when can we expect to see some footage? Will you be doing a Pontus at all?
Sheffield has limited spots. I don’t like skating the parks here so much as I find it a little boring so I thought about building some stuff. I started trying to find marble on ebay but then came up with another idea which worked perfectly for making blocks. Now we have two decent spots to skate that are legit street spots too. It took a week to make 3 legit things in one place. Me and Jerome with the help of a few other skaters just went at it and made it happen. So stoked but now we won’t get to skate them for a while but at least they are there and now we know how to work with cement and concreting so we will build some more stuff once the weather gets good again. It was inspried by Pontus for sure, his video in particular was very good I thought. Building stuff to skate is something we all did as kids so it rekindles some of that.
As you mentioned earlier, the rewarding feeling of finding spots (or making them) is lost if young skaters rely only on skate parks. The whole point of skating is getting creative with what you have in front of you… do you think that with creative/fun ideas like what you and Jerome have been upto that we could maybe instill those factors back into the kids that have just started skating in the last couple of years?
Hopefully kids will figure it out for themselves what’s fun in skating. Finding new stuff to skate is fun, skateparks are fun too but for me they aren’t the thing that keeps me going on my skateboard. Skating is about seeing new stuff.
If councils provide parks they have more ammo to ban street skating, keep skating to a designated area which takes away a big part of skating I think. I remember skating a car park one day and seeing the blue shoe box recycle things they have. I saw that as something to skate so we toppled it over, got a bit off wood up to it and had a good skate for an hour or two skating it as a kicker to ledge. Skateboarding is very creative and unfortunately not all the skateparks are creative so you could argue that they may take a lot of the creativity out of skating.
When metal is on sand you get creative. Nollie frontside 270 heelflip. (Seq: Alex Foley)
The Print Here Comp with Bored and Quiet Corners was hugely successful in getting skaters to think creatively and get involved with something positive and fun. What was your favourite photo from the comp?
This one. I don’t know who took it but it made me laugh.
Let’s have your best Shipman story…
We went to Holland for a contest when Carl was on Blueprint and within half hour of being there he had got a new outfit including a new watch from the distributor/shop. So funny, only Carl could get away with that.
He was the best skater to come out of the UK. Obviously I am biased but he never changed even when he had all those people kissing his arse. He was always true to himself and you have to respect that. He had and still has one of the best styles in skateboarding.
So what projects have you got on for 2011, what’s going down with DVS?
I will be filming something for the DVS site again next year, hopefully CPH again and maybe a tour around the same time. DVS have been so supportive and they’re good people over there. Much love.
Enlighten us a little on Camp WESC that you’re starting with Benny… what’s the plan?
Basically we are working on Camp WESC UK. We both have helped out with the Swedish skate camps for the last five years and I spoke to Benny about doing one in the UK so we’re hoping to make it happen in the summer of next year. WESC are super stoked on the idea and hopefully we will make it happen. There will be two five day camps and kids will get to skate everyday hang out with other skaters and we will have a bunch of pros helping us out. It’s going to be a lot of fun. Keep your eyes peeled for more soon, it will be limited how many skaters can attend but it’s something we want to do for years to come. WESC put a lot back into skating in Sweden that maybe other countries don’t get to see or hear about so hopefully skaters will get to see it in the UK.
It seems that you finished the year on more positives than negatives… this must be good for you after Story didn’t work out and all the Blueprint stress in the last few years. Are you stoked on how things have worked out now?
I know it seems like I should be stoked and in many ways I am but I had a hard time with both the things you mentioned. The day I found out about Blueprint my business partner at the time calls me up to tell me he is starting a board company and taking some of our riders. This was hard to take, I was so bummed on that and obviously made things difficult for me, it felt like the vultures were out ready to pounce; they did start a company but they didn’t get the riders they thought they would. Luckily the people they wanted stayed put with Blueprint so when I think about it like that I am stoked but the way these guys went about things seemed so lame. We all pretty much stuck together through a rough patch and put out a good video and a platform to build from and it’s comforting to know that these people were and are loyal. I think all the negative stuff I had going on over the last few years is finally done with now after all the paper work was signed to get me out of the business I was in so maybe now I will be stoked on the video and see the positives out there. I think it was just seeing people you thought were true but were not. That sucks but that’s life.
What lesson have you learnt in the past year that you will take on in 2011?
Loyalty is the most important thing without it things are very difficult. Don’t go into business with friends unless you are prepared to possibly lose that friendship at some point. Never write Sheffield Wednesday off.
The official Crossfire Xmas Jam 2010 edit by Alan Christensen. Filmed by Alan Christensen, Nick Richards and Joe Moynihan.
Words: Stanley
Photography: Tom Halliday and Dom Marley
Over the past eight years a lot has happened within the cozy sphere of living we call skateboarding. Shiny discs with easter eggs came in and locked VHS up in the junk room only to be touched by the boney skeletal finger of the digital grim reaper a couple years later, we lost a couple magazines, we gained a few new ones, scooters are selling more than skateboards for the first time ever and yet skate companies are being born as if an entire generation of UK skateboarders missed out on the business studies lesson where they covered contraception. It’s all a little confusing and unsettling to be honest. So, at the end of another confusing year we decided that there was only one thing we could possibly do. Invite you all to Bay 66 and go skateboarding. What else?
There really wasn’t any alternative; for a start we do it every year, and every year we love it more than ever. But more importantly, a jam is still one of the most positive things one can involve themselves in for skateboarding regardless of whatever the economical climate currently looks like. A jam provides UK skateboarders of all ages with a place to meet like-minded creatives and explore the myriad of ways in which one can get rad on their wheely-board, which sounds awesome enough, but on top of that you will always meet new friends, witness amazing talent and be reminded just how rewarding skateboarding is. We’re sure most of you know this already, but given the sad circumstances that surrounded the park in which we always – with great pleasure – hold all of our annual festive jams, it feels appropriate to point out just how effective these events are at giving the young people of the UK something postive to focus their attention on. So, in another attempt to remind the youth that there’s a lot more to life than drugs, disrespecting women and riding shitty little scooters we invited you all to London’s beloved sheltered park (hopefully not for the last time) and you all came and smashed it. As in, totally, totally smashed it. Good work.
After some trouble with the sound system which led to myself, Zac and Brewster twiddling knobs like Dickfingers does whenever he has nothing better to do, we finally had Brewster’s charming vocal stylings flooding into the ears of the London yoof. Good thing too, as it was high time for them to start throwing themselves over the little driveway for the chance of a fresh Blueprint deck and fifty quids worth of Slam City Skates vouchers. And throw themselves they did, in a kind of bizarre mature manner. Sure there was havoc, but maybe the 100 little Alfies that normally walk in the way and cock things up spent this winter with the snaking scooter crews in concrete parks throughout the country, meaning that the havoc was kind of controlled. Orderly queues were formed and boards were flying everywhere and we more stoked and impressed with the standards of the unsponsored jam than ever before.
We weren’t too stoked on the theft of Alex Diss’ tapes from the unsponsored jam though. Zorlac compensates his loss by being rad. (Photo: Tom Halliday)
Below: Darius Trabalza is sick. Watch out for him. (Photo: Tom Halliday)
We genuinely had to ask most of the winners if they were sponsored or not, especially considering how many pros and ams were sneaking in runs before their time. Daryl Dominguez got up early as if he intended to eat the driveway for breakfast, but it was the young and very smiley Darius Trabalsza who got the worm with a positively monstrous hardflip over the box to flat in a way that would impress Daryl himself. Huge catch and caught proper bolts. Brewster and I had little trouble awarding Darius with the prize, he really got the idea of a competition going and he fully earned his deck and should also earn your attention in the future. Look out for that smiley dude.
Before we followed the schedule to the next spot, a couple of unashamed moshers were trying their hand at the ski jump to such ridiculous results that we almost contemplated throwing the entire schedule out the window and have a gnarliest backflip competition on the launch ramp. One backflip later though and our mosher tendencies were more than satisfied, permitting us to stop kidding ourselves and return to where all the good stuff was happening: BaySixty6’s new hip with the long jersey quarter on top of it. A perfect setting for some Busenitz grind action and maybe even some Cory Kennedy hip flip trick ridiculousness. Things were kicking off straight away as the obstacle was given its first Xmas Jam treatment, with Felipe Dalcin going in hard for a mighty kickflip noseslide sadly nailing it just after the whistle. With Brewster in charge Crossfire minutes are just 60 seconds long I’m afraid; Spanky runs a tight ship that’s for sure. A shame for Felipe as it was an early contender for trick of the day, but Jason Cloete’s stream of smooth technical wizardry (landing bigger flips cleaner than Marc Johnson) set the consistency level for the rest of the unsponsored comp, if you’re gonna win you’re going to have be better than this kid. It’s remarkable that he hasn’t landed a proper sponsor yet, though that fact might have something to do with how much of a sleazy bastard he was at the after party (props though, standard). Whatever you’ve heard about Jason Cloete, what you need to know is the little shitbag kills it.
Below: Jason Cloete prior to all the sleaze (Photo: Tom Halliday)
Indeed, the Cloete show continued as the jam took it to BaySixty6’s newer, gnarlier, Amazonian waterfall of a Wembley/Euro/Step Up gap. Backside 360 kickflips, triple kickflips and more first try bedwetters, probably before people learnt to get out the way of the landing area too. When it did though, Baystation 666 was subjected to technical madness at its very raddest. Drawing Boards’ Isaac Miller took his opportunity to front 360 and backside heel as fluidly and nonchalantly as one would nollie over a crack in the pavement. We originally had some doubts at how many unsponsored kids could tackle the new Euro beast but in just 20 minutes we had our uncertainties handed to us on a plate as Jamal Breniss tore the gap a new backside (this kid can also stick a mean sticker around; the decorations you see in these pictures before you are courtesy of myself, Jerome, Jamal and a couple of other helpful gents… next time you see them around, high five them for braving the cold. Except for me, I’m a scumbag and probably deserved it.). It was Harry King who took the biscuit though who with his solo late-flip fueled demonstration that left even Cloete’s head spinning.
In a year where ADHD ran riot over the Firefox generation we felt it right to conclude the unsponsored jam on whatever obstacle they wanted to skate, providing it was on the big driveway and me and Brewster could see it. So as we strained our eyes over the fog of fried chicken in the spectators stand many of you took it to the rail, manual pad and hubba ledge and we realised that judging this one could be a little difficult. Luckily Jamie ‘Arghhh’ Morley was saving his game changers for the pro comp and the unsponsored crowd stuck mostly to the rail like slippery glue. Though a few sneaky sponsored sorts tried to blag themselves a Blueprint deck it was John Howlett who impressed us with his consistency and extensive bag of tricks; no matter how many great feeble grinds were on display, no one trick wonder was walking away with this particularly awesome Nick Jensen deck. Look out for Howlett leaping out of a taco in a Mile End near you.
Below: New moves, same ol’ Smithy. (Seq: Dom Marley)
After a short breather (Brewster went out for some fresh tobacco scented air while I stayed in getting high off the fumes from the fried chicken boxes) it was time for the sponsored jam. First up, back to the mini-driveway and as the guestlist continued getting checked off it was those that got in early that were obviously warmed up enough to smash it. Daryl Dominguez went straight in and hammering down all the tricks he has on lock – 360 flip, lateflips, hardflip, all perfect. Isaac Miller was busy snaking all the unsponsored kids on the Wembley gap but his lofty heelflip to flat literally came out of no where, then dusted off like it was nothing. 2011 will be his year for sure. Now, this paragraph cannot be complete without mentioning Gav Coughlan, who sped through the park and landed on a monster frontside flip too many times without rolling away. When he finally conquered the beast we had already moved onto the next obstacle after drill sergeant Brewster announced time was up, but big up Gav for sticking to it. We were stoked on what the Irish powerhouse brought to the event. This obstacle was Daryl’s from the beginning however, he sleepwalked his way to the first batch of Crossfire pounds dished out.
By the time we hit up the hip again our massive guestlist was more or less fully checked off apart from a few notable names (Korahn Gayle probably thought he was supposed to get on a plane or something and missed it) so things were about to take a turn for the awesome. The entire spot got attacked from all angles; Crayon’s Paul ‘Barber’ Cooper got things going on top with that frontsmith of his that’s one of the finest in this country, Witchcraft’s Jamie ‘Arghhh’ Morley took a different route and boardslid his way into the jersey quarter the hard way (the only way the pirate knows) and Smithy shutdown the actual hip with that nollie bigger spin heelflip he was stoked on in his Reflections. The hip got a thorough seeing to but a face-off emerged between Kill City’s Jake Collins and Blind’s Chris Oliver. Chroliver could have shut the day down with his balls-out backtail and mach-ten kickflip 5-0 across the entire ledge (and if you haven’t got off your arse and seen Chris skate in person yet then sort it out, it’ll change your life) but Jake just kept pulling out bangers that we had no choice but to give him the Crossfire pounds. Crooks to regular, ninja finger backsmith, backtail, backlip and a ‘proper’ mayday in under twenty minutes? This guy is amazing.
Below: Dan ‘270’ Wileman getting paper. (Photo: Tom Halliday)
Now, originally our schedule was intent on taking a Delorean back to the 90s with a recession-friendly best trick over the smashed up bin but given how many gnar-hunters were on the scene we had a little re-arranging session and decided to conclude the sponsored jam on the behemoth that is Bay 66’s famous vert wall. Firstly though, we took it back to the ADHD-encouraging driveway and let the sponsored heads run riot. The rail was tackled by the Blueprint crew with ease as Nick Jensen cruised around, Tom Knox summoned up a hurricane and Smithy boardslide-shoved his way into a few high fives. Daryl got tech on the rail with a ninja-catch flip frontboard but took one for the team while trying a trick front shove boardslide. I couldn’t sleep for days after watching that unfortunate credit card disaster. Yowzers. Good thing Jamie Morley and Dan Wileman were on the scene to remedy pain with gnar. Jamie took a break from photographing the dead animals near Portobello Road to catch a ridiculous kickflip out of a perfect 50-50 down the hubba ledge. They don’t call him ‘Kickflip’ for nothing kids. Dan Wileman doesn’t have a nickname yet but considering how many times I’ve seen him earn money from these variations I’m gonna start calling him ‘270’. No one does it better. £50 each, now on to the vert wall.
As we hoped, shit got REAL on the vert wall. Luke Jarvis was obviously waiting for this moment to arrive and we’re already taking bets on whether he has some sort of telekinetic speed device in that green hat of his… no one can move that fast naturally. Before we could even set up flashes he was there killing it and setting the bar high. As high as the Westway would allow anyway. Amidst dogpissers aplenty, Alex Lally got some training in for the following mini ramp jam, Ewan Bower got amongst it and Daryl fucking Dominguez confirmed his position as the undisputable ruler of BaySixty6. After playing around with what looked like a potentially groundbreaking hardflip he stomped down a kickflip fakie from the quarter (serving under the bloody reign of a severed pig’s head courtesy of Lee Dainton) and grafted away towards and elusive but eventually rewarding alley-oopbackside flip straight into the gullet of the beast. To quote the editor of the official Crossfire Xmas Jam edit Alan Christensen “best trick of the day hands down”. Like all the hammers, it was just outside of time, plus who else could have taken the vert wall monies but the young Sam Beckett. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, Sam is one of the best skaters in the UK right now and you should all recognise this. Floating a backside flip across the entire wall and not missing a single air in twenty minutes? Deny it if you can.
Daryl Dominguez shutting down BaySixty6’s vert wall. Utter madness. (Seq: Dom Marley)
Below: Nowick breaking the necks of observers. (Photo: Tom Halliday)
By this point and despite the cold we were all starting to get a little sweaty, so it could only mean one thing: time for one full hour of Slayer and bodies flying around in Baystation’s famous miniramp lovingly sponsored by Flip, Ricta and Mob Grip. And fly they did; an increasingly smashed Brewster called for high flyers and blunt 360 flips in, which combined resulted in a lot of smashed shins and tooth chippers. Or was that the product toss? Either way, shit was going down and the riffs were kicking off so there I was, standing on the corner with a notebook trying to make sense of what was going on while occasionally getting out the way of Jed Cullen’s nose-scratching airs. Judging by how illegible my notes are, it’s safe to say that everyone killed it.
Alex Lally got his post-Ben Nordberg miniramp moves on (bigspin back disasters, pop into sugarcane) and generally just ruled the liptricks, Sam Beckett continued his reign over all things transition, Barber got involved with some smooth operator lines and Kill City’s miniramp shredders Sam Pulley and Jake Collins more or less ran the ship for the first half hour with Jake getting the first ‘proper’ trick on the awkward extension (frontside disaster… mad!).
But once again, the miniramp jamp nearly turned into the Greg Nowick show, not that we’re complaining… that miniramp is absolutely his, but Jed Cullen avoided the snakes and and pulled some bonkers stuff out of his deep trick bag, all miles above the coping and so the MVP prize purse was split between the two. Best trick could only have gone to whoever first landed the elusive blunt 360 flip and since Daewon wasn’t around this took a little longer. Eventually Chris Coombs snuck a perfect one in between runs and walked away with £50. This year’s jam was the business!
Zac, Brewster and the miniramp rulers. (Photo: Tom Halliday)
Just gathering what I can recall from the day is getting the blood flowing again, what an absolutely terrific day for skateboarding in London. No matter how many kids were stuck inside playing Call of Duty or clogging up skatepark traffic on scooters the turnout for this year was nothing but skateboarders down for skateboarding and the atmosphere proved it. The good vibes flowed throughout the day and out of glasses at the unplanned and very messy afterparty. It was a great thing to be a part of. Big thanks to all of you that came down and had a good time with us, thanks to all the sponsors and support from the great companies that make this country so rad, all the riders they brought with them, Brewster for strong MCing, all the good folk at Bay 66, the friendly staff at Mau Mau’s, Tom Halliday and Dom Marley for capturing souls and Alan Christensen and Nick Richards for watching the entire event through a viewfinder. And of course, big thanks to Zac for not letting a gnarly spinal injury stop him throwing one of my favourite skate events of the year.
Try and spot the product they’re fighting over. (Photo: Tom Halliday)
Enjoy the rest of the photos not included above in the gallery below and stay tuned for the official edit coming VERY soon (little bit of technical trouble and logistical nightmares delviering it all thanks to that bitch Mother Nature). Oh, and if you thought you were safe after the night raids feature dropped last week, sorry, but Tom Halliday took a whole bunch more. Scroll further down for messiness and bring on Xmas 2011, but remember, if we don’t act now it might not be at Bay 66. Sign the petition here if you haven’t already and let’s keep our favourite park in London.
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Photos by Tom Halliday and Dom Marley. Double click to full-screen.
It’s hard to gage what’s Real and what’s not in these fast yet utter disposable times we live in. Misconception is humanity’s biggest downfall, much like the young aspiring gangster going the extra mile to hurt others for acceptance and rank status, so too does youth culture engage in drug and alcohol use to be seen as accepted and cool. Toby Morse (a.k.a. Toby 1), frontman of the hard-core punk band H20, devoted husband and loving father is living proof that a Positive Mental Attitude can get you much further in life than substances or weapons ever will!
Toby’s toured with numerous amazing bands, including Sum41, New Found Glory, Rancid, The Use, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Dropkick Murphys. Amongst a sponsorship from Nike and being head to toe covered in skin art, some find it hard to believe that this punk rocking legend has never touched alcohol or drugs in an industry where many find these attractions hard to escape!
Toby’s taken it upon himself to go out to schools across the U.S with the intention of educating the future leaders of our world by making them see that there’s more to life than being accepted, showing them that being a lifer is far more rewarding than being a knifer.
In aid of his quest for a better future, Real Skateboards produced a deck along with a few other skate goods which will see part of the proceeds go towards helping Toby reach more kids.
I’ve had the pleasure of riding this board for the past month, it’s a beautifully finished 8.25” bomber with standard concave, balanced nose and tail lift with a custom PMA graphic slapped on the bottom.
Not many people out there are interested in changing the world, but Toby is, don’t let his efforts go unnoticed, support Toby and help him help others by getting your mits on one of these boards. It’s Real board, so you know it’s gonna be a good ride, DLXSF is commited to skateboarding, so if you haven’t already done so, it’s time you give something back to those who give to you.
Alan Christensen
Christmas Day. Stay tuned. (Photo: Chris Haslam)
The Holiday Season is always packed full of great products to chose from so here’s our second round up of what we’re stoked on arriving in skater-owned-shops right now, including a few last minute gift ideas at the bottom (because we can’t be the only ones shopping for them on Christmas Eve). Click here to see part one of the Holiday 2010 Line Check.
Vincent Alvarez name came up quite frequently when asking others who their favourite skater of 2010 was. His pro model for Chocolate was approved by the masses, and the watercolour line is classic Chocolate aesthetics.
Unbelievable right? It’s true, Alien Workshop turned twenty years old this year and to celebrate, all their riders got some classic AWS iconography attached to their name on these rad decks.
It was a good year for rippers getting the deserved bump to pro status as Boots’ first pro model for Death came out this month. Cliché close up for the holidays leaving us with this little team model to get bamboozled over.
Theeve have reportedly the lightest, strongest, straight up best truck on the market. If you have a little extra Christmas pocket money this year maybe you should try a pair out. Thunder continue to bring the goods with Marc Johnson’s ‘special blend’.
Momentum keep rolling out amazing looking wheels for the stocking filler hill bomber market this Holiday season, this time employing the capable hands of Andrew Pommier to decorate their urethane.
OJ Wheels made a welcome return to the urethane spotlight this year. Click here for a review of the the Street Razors.
It’s definitely the time of year to stock up on these badboys. So be sure to keep your head warm this winter, but also rep skateboarding while you do it, and who better to rep than the good folk at Girl, Chocolate and Fourstar?
Lots of good stuff from the Soletech camps are entering UK skateshops right now. éS may be renowned for keeping your feet secure above the good wood you ride but they’re pretty rad at keeping you warm and not a flu-stricken wreck too while you’re off it.
Etnies take the tried, tested and massively approved classic approach with these awesomely plain and simple hoods.
Emerica unsurprisingly go a little leftfield with their winter warmers, fully repping the kind of grandpa festive sweater steeze that some of us here at Crossfire love a little more than the others. Make your own mind up on that one but we’re all down for Heath Kirchart being rad.
More goodies from éS who have already won us over with their amazing Bobby Worrest collection earlier this year.
Only one pair of trousers are on our Christmas wish list: these perfectly crafted cords from Altamont.
Nick Dompierre’s pro model for DC is hitting UK stores this month, alongside more boot throwback goodness from Supra’s Tom Penny.
Simple, effective and guaranteed to have perfect board feel; standard practice for Emerica.
Hsu’s are such a great shoe to skate and this camel colourway is an excellent move. It would be rude not to give the pro shoe to come from this year’s SOTY a mention too, Leo Romero’s purple model is dope.
Perhaps it was the little interview éS ran this week with team rider Kellen James, but we’re definitely super stoked on this SK8MAFIA collab on the Square Two.
John Rattray is simply the best around. Rep Scotland with these in 2011. It doesn’t matter if you’re not Scottish, John Rattray is and therefore you should start wishing you were.
Need some last minute gift ideas? You can trust the Crailtap camp to deliver the raddest stocking fillers this year.
And there’s no way we couldn’t include these… amazing holiday merch from the ever rad DEVO. Watch our interview with frontman Mark Mothersbaugh here…
The on-going fight to keep Bay 66 under the Westway has hit the airwaves as Gaby Roslin and Paul Ross interviewed Chris Bailey of the Westway Development Trust on Monday’s Breakfast Show on BBC London.
The interview is primarily concerned with the location of the park, which as the BBC reporter points out, appears to have already been decided by the Westway Development Trust looks set to change as office space and gardening centres are likely to be more profitable.
It’s good to see that both Gaby and Paul challenge Chris’ statements with both the social and cultural significance of the park’s current location, backing this up with words from a 9 year old local skateboarder called Alex. As we know, the current location of Baysixty6 is where thousands of young people across the UK are accustomed to going to on a regular basis throughout the year. To change the location of one of country’s most important skateparks would have gross consequences to the scene no matter what.
It remains up to us skateboarders to let our voices and opinions be heard and convince those planning on relocating or closing the park that it is in the best interest of the city of London to let this cultural institution stay where it is.
To listen to the show, follow this link and skip ahead to the 2:16:20 mark to get straight into the discussion.
For those of you who have been directed here by the radio show, please join the Save BaySixty6 Facebook page where you will find continually updated information and please sign the petition here.
Karma Skateboards have posted up a banging edit of Channon Wallace set in stark black and white and filled to the brim with interesting and technical trick choices on sketchy spots.
Get stuck in below. Channon is rad. Karma is rad. Black and white footage is rad. Rad.
I think it’s weird that the majority of Americans get their foreskins chopped off. There’s something very unmetal about the idea of circumcision. I’m sure the act of it is gnarly and all, but the premise… it’s just too… too hygienic. It’s like saying “Let’s cut off our eyelids to stop getting eye boogies” and probably looks just as stupid. And It always reminds me of Kraftwerk for some reason. I don’t know why.
But I bet everyone at Creature has whooping great big,dangly, elephant trunk foreskins. I bet they trip up on them and can double them up as sleeping bags which keep them snug as a bug. A bug wrapped in a luminous green foreskin. I mean look at this dude that Mr.Skinner’s drawn for their ‘High On Fire‘ Limited edition board; he’s frozen solid. Probably because he hasn’t got any foreskin. You’d be surprised at what a couple of inches of skin can do to raise your body temperature. I wonder if the guys in High on Fire have foreskins? Maybe that’s why Sir Skinner chose to draw a frozen Ice barbarian; a bit of a private joke perhaps? Maybe Skinner specialises in Circumcision, hence his pseudonym… It’s all making sense now.
I’ll admit I haven’t listened to High on Fire in a while. I think it was around about the time that I heard they were touring with Mastodon and Converge that I stopped listening to them. I thought they were quite good, but they can’t be that good if they’re sharing a stage with fags like Mastodon and Converge. I thought I best pay the band a revisit in light of this review and even resolved to buy their latest LP. Admittedly I didn’t have a clue what their latest LP was called, so I got Bertha out and surfed the intergalactic cyber spaces in search of metal knowledge. It turns out they’ve got a wikipedia page dedicated solely to their latest album and everything. They must be famous. The album is called ‘Snakes of the Divine‘. Sounds a bit too biblical for my liking, but I suppose snakes are evil and evil is pretty cool. According to the LP’s wikipedia page “The album cover art and track listing were revealed on the band’s Myspace page on January 6, 2010.” ?! I stopped reading there because they’ve obviously been hanging round with Converge and Mastodon for too long and have turned in to complete pussies.
At this point I was starting to get confused; why would Creature release a skateboard in conjunction with a band who have overly detailed wikipedia pages? I put it down to the fact that the brutes at Creature probably don’t even know what the internet is and so have no idea about how unmetal High on Fire have become. They’re probably way too busy painting everything snot green, destroying concrete coping and having sex with hot horror punk girls. And hopefully punching them in the face afterwards and poking them with broomhandles whilst telling them how stupid and worthless they are and making them cry by telling them that her Stepdad gets off smelling her used underwear. Proper metal.
The size of this deck is proper metal. It’s fookin huge. 8.8″! It’s the same shape as Stu Graham’s pro board and he’s definitely proper metal. And the graphic is metal. It even comes with a special pack of three Creature/High on Fire Dunlop guitar pleks; which is kind of metal, sort of. And is a limited edition of only 400 and each one comes individually numbered. Which isn’t metal at all. But it has all the right things you need in a skateboard; made of wood, has holes in the right places and everything. So I’d recommend going and buying it. No, maybe go buy Sam Hitz’s new Creature board because I know French drew it and he’s got foreskin and isn’t in an unmetal metal band with multiple wikipedia pages.
Zombie
Enjoy this video from The Harmony as it could be the last nugget of footage we see this side of 2011 from Jak Pietryga.
For the clip, Jak stopped lurking hard in London and spent a day at the Pump Cage with Joe Gavin on filming duties. Watch below for an example of someone who’s got the art of catching a fliptrick by the nads, then head over here for his end of year Reflections.