Brendan Ryall

Brendan is one of the best skaters around. He has the best attitude and never gets riled (pardon the pun!) like most skaters when things don't go their way. Skateboarding is fun for him and he makes it look as easy like no other. He is a local London skater who has always come down to Crossfire Jams and supported what we do here so it gives me great pleasure to return the support in my own way. Brendan came into HQ in October to do this one face to face and this is what came of it.....

How are ya fella?

Yeah I'm great, all is good, just about to skate the park here at Bay Sixty6 for a Wednesday night sesh and looking fwd to it as ever.

Lets let people know who you are , where you from?

I grew up in South Africa my whole life and I have been here now for about 5 years now after my entire family moved here. There is more here to skate, better job opportunities, less hijacks etc

So are missing the high jacks?

Well, I managed to escape about 4 of those, being held at gun point and all that.

So what was the worst, if you managed to avoid 4, wanna share it!?

A friend of mine was driving through Johannesburg with his arm hanging out of the window and saw some mad guy running up behind us with a fireman's axe and he tried to hack of his arm with it to get his watch off him!

Fucking hey!

What else? Er. I opened my front door one day and was confronted by a man holding a gun to my head as he thought I was gonna call the police as he was trying to hang some guy in my front garden was going out one day!

Friendly neighbours huh?

Well, it goes on, we got away from 3 or 4 high jacks, they don't really want to hurt you, they just want your possessions, but life is worthless, they want your car, watches, cameras etc. Another friend of mine was in a coma when he was attacked by a man who smashed a 4 pound hammer into his head for his camera! So we moved here!

Not much filming goes down in Johannesburg then?

Yeah, but you don't film or take pics you need to go out with a crew of at least 7 guys to get stuff done. It's that simple. If you have a flash set up you have a guy standing there. Laughs.

What do you miss about it being here though?

I miss friends for sure, also the weather obviously, but there are also great skate spots like in Pretoria, it's like the capital, right next to Johannesburg and they have the best spots right there. I miss all of these.

There are loads of SA riders here; did you know many peeps when you arrived?

There is like a South African invasion in London, loads of people here now, but I think that Greg Finch from CIDE, was the first to make the step, he started it; I think he was the first to descend here! When I got over here I tried to find him and once I found him, I found everyone. I knew Greg from growing up back home and we used to skate contests from the age of 10 years old. He is amazing, the same style, and whatever he does he always looks good!

When did you start skating then if you were in contests at 10?

I was about 6 years old when I was bombing hills, and then I started learning to ollie when I saw er.'Thrashin'..haha!

(laughs!) Ok stop right there, that is a first for this website! "Thrashin"!?

Yeah, ha-ha, I saw the stunt double of Mike McGill in that movie when he ollied a car and rewound that scene so many times to try and work out how to Ollie! My first board was a Sergie Ventura, so I was stoked to see him at The Snickers Bowl, we had a few beers and a can of Heinz baked beans.

beans?

Yeah, he just pulled them out of his backpack and started eating them at this comp!

So beans aside, you must be about 27 years old now?

Nope, 28.

I was close...So you came over here and what happened?

Well, I was lazy when I first got here in November 99 and the weather shocked me at first so i did not skate for about 3 months, so basically I started to hook up with Greg and the legend Clint Van der Schyffe (Panic/Emerica) who is back in SA now. In fact he ripped, he used to do switch back lip down kinked handrails and stuff, and I got to know the guys at Slam as Greg was working there.

It took about a year before I really started getting into it as SA was full-on all the time as there was only about a handful of really good skaters out there and you would get kids following you all the time. It's more relaxed here. I'm no Danny Wainwright here, that is for sure!

So let's talk Ortega Skateboards, what was the hook up?

Well, due to the lovely weather I skated Meanwhile 2 at Royal Oak a lot and then Ricky noticed me skating, I sent him a tape before he set up the company and that is when he started it. He had not pressed any boards then.

So who else is on the team now?

John the Brickie aka Ivan Rodriguez just joined us, Tom Crowe has been there for a while, Trevor Beasley aka Ronaldo, Team Manager Jamie Harrison, Ramon Thackwell and Sam Bruce.

Crowe? Is he still on Ortega, did he not wobble in the summertime?

Yeah, but that is Tom isn't it!

Yeah, I suppose he flies and never comes down huh! Great skater and good mate..

Yep! That is a good way of putting it. Mike Sutcliffe was in there. Mike is like Willie Nelson man! He is there but nobody really knows what's going on. He just cruises around loves skateboarding and does not want to be associated with anything. He rode for Ortega for a while and decided he wanted to skate with no pressure. He still represents, he is one of the crew and he is an amazing skater.

Yep, I agree, we love Mike and I know he checks this site weekly so big up yo'self bad man! So back to you. I hear you have a pro board out now, are you proud to have your name on your board?

Yep, here it is right here. As for proud, it's very cool to be part of a company that you have input in. It would suck if Ricky phoned me up and said hey I wanna do a board and stick your name on it. That is bullshit. So it's cool to ride for a company where I can ask for concave, shape etc, not just a name on a piece of wood.

So the inevitable question is this. Why are there plug sockets and forks all over your board!?

Well, I stuck one into the other when I was quite small. I grew up in a farm back in SA and I was 2 years old, I watched my parents stick things into the sockets and I decided to plug my fork in there and from the current of the conductor, your muscles contract and was basically frying myself, the lights had dimmed etc and my Mum came flying in and obviously she knocked me away as she could not touch me otherwise she would have been stuck too.

So I went to hospital and I had fried my pigment cells that are connected to my nerve endings and because you nerve endings are under such tension when you have been fried like that it has to be released somewhere the same as when you have a car accident and they get a white patch, it's the same thing that happens from your body and I got left with a white eyebrow!

That is why you are known as White Lightning then?!(Laughs!)

Haha, Mark Brewster's a wanker! (laughs!)

Did Brewster make that one up then?

Yeah, it was the first Meanwhile Jam and he was on the mic which is always amusing and he did not have a clue who I was and I was skating quite fast and he saw the white eyebrow and called me that and then it stuck. After that it appeared in Sidewalk and it has gone on from there.

Did you design your own graphic on this board yeah?

Well, the thing with small skateboard companies is that nothing really happens that quickly and Ricky mentioned he wanted to do a pro board and I kept sending him these graphics going 'this is the one, this is the one' and time ran out and he said, right, it's time, which graphic do you want, and I was like, I have changed my mind, I have an idea of forks and plugs and he was like 'what?' so 6 months of stuff went waste and here it is. But there is a new series of boards just out for 2005 and they all look fresh.

Ricky is a bit of a legend really, he ripped Meanwhile with Crispin and American Steve and that crew, have you seen any of that footage?

Yeah for sure, I saw some classic footage with him skating with Boma from years ago once. Did you know he skated with Jamiriquai as well?

I didn't know that but Matt Sanchez told me Jamiroquai used to sell dope to other skaters back in the 80's. Small world huh?

What?!

So, talking of graphics, your love of art and the way things look through a camera is part of your everyday job right?

Yeah, I work freelance as a photographer and I also assist other bigger photographers cos that way I get to travel and see the world on other people's budgets. I got into photography through taking skate shots of local riders in SA. The mag at the time had crap photography in it and I though I could do a better job and soon became their senior photographer.

So when I moved here to the UK i decided enough of that and just skate. But I think that some people do not actually realize how much hard work it is. It's unbelievable how much work that goes into one photograph that gets printed.

So what are you working on at the moment?

I'm quite lucky right now. I have been shooting some semi-naked women for lingerie shoots.!!

Hey, do need some assistance with that!?

(laughs!) yeah maybe..it's fun, but it is a job that I can do for the rest of my life and as a skater, you cannot expect to be a pro skater for life. A lot of skaters think that and never think about anything else. I think it's important to have something to fall back on. You need a sideline. Only so many people can start up a new skate company, the market is saturated, and it's not the only thing in life.

Too true fella, let's start talking filth it's far more interesting! (laughs!)

Haha, yeah lingerie shoots are fun. Sometimes it's classy, sometimes not, it all depends on the client. I just assisted an Anne Summers shoot.

So you are like the Thierry Henry of the lingerie shoot world? He assists in every game! More than Van Nistelhorse!

Yeah, I'm like that! Arsenal are my team to. Not just since I came here either, I actually have supported them since I was about 12, one of my friends was a gooner and brought it back. So I moved to North London!

I agree, there is only one team in London..but let's talk tricks, you love annihilating a rail, what is you fave trick?

Difficult question..if it's a rail, currently my fave right now is backside overcrooks.

You love doing 2 tricks at a time as well down a rail huh? Ive seen you do feeble to 50-50's a lot..

Those are just party tricks! Ed Templeton taught me that trick. He came over with a team once and I was riding for a shop there. I had to do the tour with them and he was the founder of feebles to 50-50, and he showed me the basics and it was easy, all those tricks, feeble to back lip, feeble to front blunt and it's like riding a bike, you never forget them.

So what is the trick you love most, you love a frontside flip right?

Yeah, but I hate hardflips, they are the bane of my life! Yep, that trick drives me nuts. I suppose that any grinding trick is always good, I love to grind.

What about vert, ever got into that?

I like to warm up on a vert ramp but not to ride one any more. I had an experience where I hooked up once and my knee went sideways and that was the last time. I can do back lips on vert and stuff like that but I prefer street.

If you had to pick 3 spots in the world to skate for a day where would you go?

The first one would be The State Theatre in Preturia in SA and it has the best marble forecourt, that is so huge, in fact if you were to film a line you could include about 15 tricks. There are 9 marble ledges that are a little bit lower than vic benches and twice the length and the water fountain is quite wide, perfect marble, with a 4 set and rails. It's the best spot in the world for me. Secondly, England is weird, there are good spots but no great spots.I suppose anywhere in Milton Keynes, you can spots everywhere there. Not Southbank, it's a good spot but not great, in fact I would rather skate the water trough in Aldgate.

What about tunes? I have noticed that whenever I DJ at skate events you are always going through my boxes of records and CD's to see what I have on offer...

I have been into music my whole life; it's one of main driving things. I DJ'ed in a club, I played bass in a band that released 4 albums in SA and also go to bury the bass into a Nazi's head once!

What?!

The shows always had nazi punks beating up skaters and one day I was sick of it and I just took him out!

What kind of punk did you play?

Ska punk really. Operation Ivy crossed with Face to Face.

What was the band called?

Leek.

What, that is my surname!?

No way! That is funny! Yeah we used to play a lot and in front of good sized crowds too.

What was the last CD you bought?

Hmmn.I like to buy from i-tunes, not CD's, but the last thing I got was something like Led Zepellin b-sides record.

So what track would you use for your part if Ortega put a video out?

Hmnn.probably a track from a friends band who was in Leek, his band is called The Slash Dogs and I would definitely use a track from them. He calles it Monster Trucker Rock, like ska punk meets Motorhead! (laughs!). But I love vintage rock like ACDC, The Stones, I like a lot of Jazz, some hip hop like older Wu Tang, Public Enemy, not all these new MTV faux pas creations and I just appreciate good styles really.

So who is your regular skate session?

Depends on where we are going, but if it's demo's etc it's the OG lot and if it's a local session probably Irish Steve and Alan Christensen who you know well from his great contributions to this site, let me see... Mike Sutcliffe, the man that can ollie a beer can and look good!

Mike, i f you are reading this, i think you owe us beers! So what is coming up next Brendan, any plans?

I have been lucky. I have a good life and my whole life has revolved around skateboarding but I could never see a career in it.

You should blame Thrashin' for that mate!

haha!

Any last words.

Thank you for this interview, keep Crossfire rocking and big up to everyone i know and rock to Ortega!

I will do. Cheers