It does what is says on the tin. Manny Lopez in Switzerland, throwing them tricks down for fun. Enjoy some raw footage filmed in Geneva of Fabric’s Manuel Lopez.
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Tag: fresh blood
Recently added to the VOX UK footwear team, Lovenskate’s Ewen Bower delivers another killer bunch of tricks from his all-round bag of fun, this time filmed at the new Bay66 park. Santiago Pilgrim delivers the footage.
Manny Lopez has a full section online this week for his new board sponsor, Fabric Skateboards. It’s everything you expect and a little bit more. If you desire more footage from Manny, then follow your nose.
Since Manny Lopez joined Fabric he’s gone nuts. Brother’s got to cool down. New shit incoming soon by the looks of it.
Manny Lopez – Section coming soon from fabricskate on Vimeo.
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New Tom Knox Destructo footage
It’s always a pleasure to see new footage of Blueprint’s Tom Knox. Destructo bring the goods in this new advert. Fine trucks.
8 minutes of off-cuts, bails & b-sides that didn’t make the final cut of Gnargore’s latest local scene release Kickflip & Friends have appeared online overnight. You can grab the full DVD at www.gnargore.bigcartel.com and watch Ryan Price‘s full section from the film if you scroll down the page innit.
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Jarne Verbruggen – Fresh Blood
Interview by Ralph Lloyd Davis
Photo’s: Davy Van Laere
10 tricks video by Ralf Goossens
Let’s start with the obvious. How long have you been skating and where did it all begin?
I’ve been skating for 9 years now and I started in Mechelen on a small mini ramp at the local swimming pool.
I have seen you at lots of skate events around Belgium, do you travel by yourself or move with a crew of friends?
Hmmmm. Usually with some friends who where down to go. Most of the time though it’s different people because not too many of my friends are into contest skating.
Who did you start skating with? Do you still skate with the same crew?
I started skating with people from my little hometown next to Mechelen, but after a while we kind of grew apart and I went skating with older guys from Mechelen. It was fun because they had a car already so I didn’t have to pay for shitty train journeys anymore, just the food. The first crew we had was pretty dope we had a realyl good time and made some videos too. It was me, Kristof (a.k.a. Den Dikke), Stefan (a.k.a. Ellington), Jente (a.k.a. Voorspoels) (laughs) and Robin Marien. We had the name ‘Lala Crew’. (laughs) Now two of them are skating again but they don’t have too much time with work and school which sucks because they skate super-good.
Ellington? I guess he’s a fan of Erik’s skating.
Yeah, he skates like Erik Ellington a lot!
Watch Jarne knock out 10 tricks for Muckefuck in the local concrete hole.
Who are your influences?
That’s hard to say but my first influence was probably the Flip ‘Sorry’ video. I watched it everyday but it didn’t really made sense too me because I didn’t know any tricks, it just motivated me too skate. These days I like to watch Wes Kremer, a lot of Skate Mafia stuff and as for others, I don’t know, any skaters who have fun!
Did you look up to any Belgian skaters? I know Hans Claessens us a a rad skater and skates everything. You seem to skate everything too. Is there a connection?
Oh yeah! We watched the Homemade videos (Local skate videos highlighting the Belgian scene filmed by resident pro Geoffrey Van Hove – Ed.) a lot too but we didn’t really look at the names so we didn’t know who was who. Only when we recognized somebody from Mechelen (laughs).
There are not many casual skateparks in Belgium, or not around where I live, so you can’t really skate the same stuff every day. You have to skate everything to skate a lot here, otherwise your always stay in the same place. Also, I like to skate shitty spots and that’s what we have here for sure. (laughs)
Haha! Yes, Belgium is no Barcelona that’s for sure.
What I wanted to say is that I get to skate more now with Hans and its really sick to see him back on his board like before. I have a lot of respect for him. It’s really motivating too.
I know you skate a lot of transition, does that help with street skating?
I don’t know. Maybe it helps you go faster or something, but it sure doesn’t help your pop. (laughs)
True true. Tell me how you got sponsored. Was it through skating contests or did you send sponsor-me tapes out? How did you get on Element?
A friend of mine started a clothing company and sponsored me for a while. The skate shop from Mechelen (Core – Ed.) helped me out a lot at the same time by talking to the Belgian distributor Transind. I also think Phil Zwijsen had filmed some internet clips and was so happy about it and showed it to them. (laughs) I filmed a lot with him that winter and he presented it to the team manager I think.
Phil rides for Element too and lives in Barcelona. Are you staying with him right now? Do you get to travel together a lot?
I saw him last week when I was in Barcelona, but just for a couple of days because he went to a contest in Austria. We usually skate together on Element trips but for the rest he’s always on tour or in Barca. When he’s in Belgium we skate together a lot.
Backside Crail on some seriously heavy metal. Ph: DvL
What’s Muckefuck? I saw you had a pro wheel with them.
Muckefuck is an Austrian brand that makes boards and wheels. I skate for the wheel part and everyone from the team got a pro model. It’s really sick. I saw some kids at the skatepark that bought my wheels and they are really good. I’m really happy about it.
Where have you traveled with skateboarding? What was your favourite town/country to visit?
Hmmm…I don’t know really. I went to the same countries a lot and it was always a little different. I went to Scotland a couple of years ago and I really liked it there. Man, it was pretty rough but there was a lot of nature too and a sick contest. Istanbul and Budapest are really sick too. I also like Spain a lot. There’s always good weather, good food, good spots.
Istanbul? I didn’t know that. Did you go to Livi in Scotland? It’s one of the oldest concrete skateparks in the country.
Yeah, Istanbul is a really hectic place but such good spots and weird food. I went to Livingston but it was raining, we just drove past it and checked it a little but it was just fun being there (laughs). It just sucked we couldn’t skate it!
It rains a lot in Scotland. You should try and get there this summer!
Yeah indeed! It rained there almost all the time we were there I think (laughs). It would be sick too go back.
Jarne spends his time skating the globe. Frontside ollie to ball anyone? Ph: DvL
You went on the Kingpin Drive trip, what was that like? Any good stories?
Yeah, that was a crazy trip man super sick! We went swimming in a super nice lake somewhere in Austria close to the cradle skatepark. where Rodrigo did the crazy Hugo Liard drop in. That was crazy because you had to aim between some rocks otherwise you were probably dead. Manuel Margreiter was doing front flips into it (laughs) but he’s a local you know, he’s been there before (laughs).
With all the traveling, how do you manage school? Do you still go to school? What do your parents think of your skating “career”?
Yeah, I still go to school. I almost quit just before because I was going on a lot of trips and it didn’t look like I was going to make it, but I got some free time so I can catch up while the others have lessons. I don’t know what you call it in English but its like lessons for starting your own business. It sucks that I’ll miss some lessons but it’s good to have the diploma at least. My parents are cool with it, my mother even said I could stop school and just skate, so that got me a bit confused so I carried on going anyway (laughs). Having a diploma is good though, and if I quit now I would have done all this slaving for nothing (laughs)…
Ha! Good luck with the diploma. School helps in the long term but skating and traveling can teach you life lessons. Your English is pretty good. Is this because of school or did skateboarding and traveling help? Was it difficult in the beginning?
Thanks! I hope I get it the diploma! I learned a lot of English from TV actually. I have older sisters and they always watched The Simpsons and Friends and stuff (laughs). So I learnt a lot of English from there and now when you travel you speak a lot of English too. I learned a lot of French on trips too but not enough to do interviews (laughs).
What are your plans for the future?
I don’t know, just skate, try make a bit of a living from it, move to Barcelona, work a bit and go on trips. I’ll see what happens. I just have to get a diploma first and then I’m free to go!
Is there anyone you would like to thank?
I would like to thank all my sponsors and everybody who helps me out right now, muchas gracias!
The Black Country skate scene has produced another local scene video from Gnargore, the collective that have just releases Kickflip and Friends featuring various skaters from Birmingham and beyond. Today we have unleashed Ryan Price’s full section from said film, so take in the hard work of Tom Gillespie and many others here and read Ryan’s Fresh Blood feature.
Pic: Tim Borrow
Some of the Drawing Boards team visited Horsham’s park for a recent session. Click for a little sesh with Jak Tonge, Potts and Isaac Miller whose new Fresh Blood interview features a Velodrome edit.
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Fresh Blood: Isaac Miller
Portrait: Ranny
The South Coast of England is spawning some great skateboarders right now but with its rich skate history etched into the books it’s hardly a surprise. The scene down in Brighton has never been tighter, the urethane is getting worn faster than ever and this vibrant coastal town keeps throwing up more talent than ever before.
One of Brighton’s lurkers who has always graced our Crossfire events is Isaac Miller. He sneaked a perfect switch flip into the unsponsored comp at last year’s Xmas Jam and took the dough until we released he repped for Drawing Boards, one of the UK’s most creative skater owned companies out there. This month we decided to visit Brighton to catch up with him and find out what makes him tick. Isaac Miller is this month’s Fresh Blood.
Thanks to AD, Ranny, Smay, Rich West and Ginge for their help to put this together plus the Level Army crew who are still fighting for as decent skate park down there. We’ve got your backs 100% here.
How is life treating you Isaac?
Life is good, as always! I’m just at college studying carpentry right now. I have been skating loads and filming for the forthcoming Drawing Boards video (Draw the Line) and Ed Hubert’s ‘Like’ video.
Before we get into a few questions, we see you have been at the Velodrome for a few tricks. Want to shine light on this little Olympic edit?
Well, we were on tour around the South Coast and Ed took us to the Velodrome cycle track so we just walked in! 10 tricks went down!
So, with Brighton being your home town, would you say you are you addicted to skating at the Level?
The Level is like a magnet so it’s hard to stay any distance too far from it! I have leaped a few years at the Level. I like skating there because it’s easier to skate without hassle and abuse from the general public. I started skating there when I was 12 and have been there and round a-bouts ever since. On a bad week I get there 5 out of 7 days. Haha!
What are your thoughts on the new plans for the park?
They keep promising a skate park with plans, meetings etc and have been for the past decade or so but nothing has happened as of yet. I’d love to see the new Level finished by the end of the year though like everyone else.
Who’s your favorite Level local of all time?
There are a lot of Levelers! Over the time I’ve spent down there everyone one and everything I have seen has been a real inspiration. So many tricks have been conquered at the Level is hard to underline any skater in particular.
Tell us 3 good things about Brighton.
La Vida (sandwich bar close to the Level), Skateboarding and that there’s loads of stuff to do, day and night.
Tell us 3 bad things about Brighton.
Level, Level and Level. Haha!
You were hooked up pretty young by Pasty and Pig City, is that correct?
Pig City was one of the first Brighton companies set up by Justin Ashby and a dude called Simon. It was really good going places with Pasty and getting to know as well as being inspired by the likes of Andy Scott, Josh Parr and Pete Dossett.
Who are your influences you in skating?
I like to taste the rainbow. Level Army! Sunshine, Transworld, Enjoi and Drawing Boards of course.
Do you watch skate videos?
Yeah, I’m into Transworld videos, Flip ‘Sorry’, Enjoi vids, Tilt Mode Army, 411 and stuff like that.
Switch gap ollie on a beach where Mods and Rockers once clashed. Photo: Rich West
What’s the best trick you’ve seen to date?
I saw Ben Raemers pull a boneless to noseblunt in the massive bowl at Penzance skate park in Cornwall once. That was pretty mental. Liam Teague eating concrete and Matt (Potter) Hill’s stepping up a ten flight first go. Haha! Ummm, Sam Beckett flying high on a vert ramp as well. Oh, and Black Thong (Jak Tonge) skating in odd shoes with a late night muffin!
What are your thoughts on Benihanas?
Don’t like ’em.
Then why do them?!
Cause they feel good at the time!
Aha, I’m sure Potter can relate to that feeling. So, you’ve been on a fair few trips with Drawing Boards including Barca, what was your favourite spot on that trip and spots in general?
The park in Clot, Besos, but no faves, just too many good spots. I like going on missions in Brighton to the schools and local spots on nice sunny days. Also the Beach front (West Pier) kickers and blocks.
A trip to the infamous Bloblands produces a large ollie fakie. Photo by Ranny
How’s your part coming along for the Drawing Boards DVD?
I’ve been filming for way over a year now, so should be about soon. There will be some surprises in there for sure so keep your clogs intact for this one! AD has been a real help. It’s so good not having to worry about the next board.
And the ‘Like’ video part?
The fact that it’s another Ed Hubert production means it will be rad. Ed’s a joker, Bill’s a piper, James is a juggler. It should be sick.
Who do you skate with down there?
Bare brehs, The Level Army, Drawing Boards and Brighton heads.
What do you do outside of skating?
Get paralytic, chill, run, walk, cycle, fish with my dad and go from A to B socialising. Mainly socialism and pushin’ woodism.
What direction do you see skateboarding going in?
Mate I don’t really know – left, right, anywhere and beyond.
Any shouts?
Shouts out to Mum, Dad and bro for all the support and all my mates from the Level. Fin is on (cloudnine), George, Connor, Dyllan, Cob, Amir, Pasty, Stevie, The Level Army. AD and all the Drawing Boards team. Black Thong you know who you are. No equal.
Enjoy this backside flip. Photo: Ranny
AD will leave you with his personal lowdown on Isaac:
“Isaac consumes more cheese and fish than any man I have ever met. Perhaps this is the secret to his boundless energy. Isaac is pretty much on fire right now. Filming 2 video parts as well as steadily destroying parks and street all over the shop. Although he is still young, in the big scheme of things he’s put some serious time into his skating. So when you see him floating round the Level and ask yourself “how the hell did he do that?!” The answer is simple, he put his mind to it. However mad he is off a skateboard, the second he steps on it he becomes fully focused (even at midnight after a trip to the boozer). Stoked to have Isaac repping Drawing Boards. So much more to come…”
Watch Isaac’s Royal Warm Up at Meanwhile 2 filmed by Ginge.