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Skateboarding News

Henry Edwards-Wood discusses Southbank

Henry Edwards-Woods discusses the Southbank relocation issue with Huck following plans made by the Southbank Centre to move skateboarders to underneath the Hungerford Bridge in 2014.

Visit www.longlivesouthbank.com for more info.

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Skateboarding News

Spacial Dependents – Undercroft edit

Hold Tight Henry has released another Spacial Dependents edit featuring footage at the Southbank during the filming sessions with Mekka for the Slam video, City of Rats.

“Determined to give as accurate a snapshot of the scene as possible, the inclusion of such staple figures in London’s skate community was a must. I met him down there late and chilled for a few hour, bunning and reminiscing about the golden years of Shell Center (look out for some bloggage on that front soon) until the place was quiet enough and he set about his work. Mekka is not someone you would fuck with on road; tough and experienced in the most shady of situations, he aproaches his skating much like I imagine he does the rest of his life – by not fucking about.

“He was trying a line ending on a powerful frontside nollie down the bank to flat, a path rarely taken when the infamous 7 set sits right beside it waiting for the lemmings to fall. He landed on every attempt, either buckling under the impact of his epic pop technique or hitting one of the many elevated slabs that litter the roll out. At one point I’m pretty sure he broke or fractured his arm, having already crippled his shoulder and snapped his board. Either way he did not skate after this night for a good month or so after getting a cast on it. But before that he just drank some beer, smoked a joint and ploughed through the pain until he rode out a few goes later, the results are one of my favourite clips from the video.”

Spatial Dependents – Mekka – The Undercroft from HOLD TIGHT LONDON on Vimeo.

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Skateboarding News

Hold Tight’s Archives – The Getalong Gang, 2006

Mr Edward-Woods has been clearing the old hard drives out and discovering footage at Bloblands, Southbank and more London street spots.

“Found this low res clip of Rory, Lucien and Steph on my itunes. The footage was filmed around August 2006, some made it into my first DVD, “Writer’s Block” the rest end up it the first few installments of Hold Tight London. This edit never found its way to the internet, I just made it to hype up the mans to get more footy.”

Hold Tight’s Archives – The Getalong Gang, 2006 from HOLD TIGHT LONDON on Vimeo.

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Skateboarding News

Spacial Dependents – excerpts from a life in the gutter

stephmorganHenry Edwards-Wood has rolled out a new blog this morning titled Spacial Dependents highlighting the wonderfully bizarre situations he finds himself in to film specific tricks at various spots. His first entry delves into the High Holborn piss spot gap depicting the mission of Steph Morgan.

In his own words:

“Filming skating is a funny old game, in a way you feel like your trying the trick yourself, willing your subject to succeed whilst perfecting the choreography of your own slightly altered path. The rewards are a few seconds of raw kinnetic connectivity between man, wood and his surroundings, immortalised in twenty five frames per second. It always seems so simple when you watch the make, but it is the process that feeds the elation.”

Keep your eyes on this one.

Spatial Dependents – Steph Morgan – High Holborn from HOLD TIGHT LONDON on Vimeo.

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Skateboarding News

Watch Darius Trabalza’s edit from City of Rats

DariustrabalzaSlam City Skates have unlocked Darius Trabalza‘s footage from the City of Rats DVD for the DC Flow to Pro edit comp overnight. Get some here.

DC Flow to Pro – Darius Trabalza – City of Rats from Slam City Skates on Vimeo.

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Skateboarding News

Watch Brady and Jensen’s new Lakai advert

lakai-the-shoes-we-skate-commercialDanny Brady and Nick Jensen both feature in Lakai’s latest Lakai advert cut by Henry Edwards Wood skating around London streets on ‘The Shoes We Skate’.

If you are craving a brand new pair of shoes right now, the new Guy Mariano pro shoes on Lakai are up for grabs in this month’s competition. Follow your nose to grab them with a signed Girl deck by Guy himself here.

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DVD Reviews

Slam City Skates City of Rats DVD

A film by Henry Edwards-Wood

What is there to be said that hasn’t been said already about this milestone of British – or more importantly London skate heritage? City of Rats is the first full length video from Slam City Skates in 25 years of business and the man hired to carry the camera bag and shoot the team of heavy hitters was none other than Henry Edwards-Wood a.k.a. Hold Tight Henry.

The featured skaters picked from the Big Smoke list include Nick Jensen, Snowy, Lucien Clarke, Steph Morgan, Joey Pressey, Jin Shimizu, Casper Brooker, Rory Milanes, Karim Bakhtoui, Olly Todd, Neil Smith, John Tanner, Darius Trabalza, Rob Mathieson, Scott Howes and Danny Brady. If that wasn’t enough, there are all the affiliates and shop staff to include in the mix. There is something good to say about everyone I just mentioned, but it would take the equivalent of the running time (60 minutes) to cover everything, so I’ll stick to the few things that have stuck out in my mind following the numerous viewings I made.

First and foremost: the spots. London is one of the world’s biggest metro poles and it looks like Henry and the boys have searched far and wide to unearth new terrain and unique features of the city. Next is the quality of the filming and editing. Henry has really set the standard pretty high for himself and future productions that look to portray street skating in the city. Blending HD tricks with elements of every day life in such a bustling place really helps solidify the origins and roots of the Slam City squad. The generation game might serve as a clever phrase to describe the next thing I enjoyed about City of Rats. Whether it’s the older generation like Chris Pullman or the young upstarts like Darius Trabala on screen, everyone gets their shine. The wide variety of age and experience also provides the viewer with a wide spectrum of spot selection and styles. A clear example of maturity is the shared Lucien Clarke and Steph Morgan section where these best friends forever paint a picture of their city like a couple of mature artists, or you can also pick up on the good times shared that come from Neil Smith and Jerome Campbell’s joint shop section (Lost Art/Slam) who have both brought some amazing skateboarding to the table as a result of friendship from having shop sponsors there to bring people together.

Finally, the music: Paramount to a film’s effect as it sets the pace and mood for every scene, Henry has weighed the scales correctly to merge old skool London rap music with relaxed folk beats. As a whole, the soundtrack helps pace the video – calming at times whilst hyped at others. An example is Henry choosing not to use stereotypical grime artists as the chorus to Karim’s street assault.

As a skateshop video, City of Rats goes above and beyond anything else in this category. As a standard skate video, City of Rats sits firmly among the best of them too. It took 25 years for Slam to finally commission a testimony of their dedication and support of London skateboarders and the team has done the shop and their city an honour. Commit No Nuisance.

Enjoy an exclusive treat from Henry today and witness Neil Smith and Jerome Campbell’s joint section yourself, aired for the very first time on the web below. Grab your copy of this fine DVD from Slam City today to keep some heritage and raise a glass to another 25 years of service.

Ralph Lloyd-Davis

If you would like to share this video on Facebook, just copy and paste this into your status http://bcove.me/vt6todbf

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Skateboarding News

‘Off Season’, the Emerica UK team skate Alicante

emericaukEmerica‘s UK team riders headed to Alicante on the Costa Blanca in Spain for some sessions and returned after a full week of skating with this new edit put together by Hold Tight Henry.

Press play for Edit of the Week featuring Tom Knox, Casper Brooker, Chris Ault and Kyron Davis.

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Skateboarding News

Rob Maatman Emerica Europe edit

Dutchman Rob Maatman takes Edit of the Week with this amazing footage for Emerica Europe edited by Henry Edward-Woods. Enjoy this!

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Skateboarding News

City of Rats premiere March 4th in London

The Slam City Skates video premiere of City of Rats will be taking place early evening on Sunday 4th March 2012 at the Prince Charles cinema in London. Tickets for the premiere are now available and can be found online from this Monday here for both 6pm and 7:15pm showings.Tickets are £4 per person and come with a free Slam City Enamel Pin Badge while stocks last. You can also buy tickets from the Covent Garden store from this weekend.

The Prince Charles cinema can be found at 7 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BY. Get yourself sorted before these tickets all go.