Baker have never portrayed themselves as clean-cut, nor do they succumb to trends as transparently as handfuls of other companies. While edits are appearing like wildfire implying that skateboarding is still experiencing a comedown from the overdose of HDMA (ever wondered why all that shit is in slow-motion?), Baker haven’t strayed from lo-fi lurker footage at parties and an IMPACT typeface. To put this in perspective, Impact is the font used on all those lolcat macros that dominated the internet for a while. Hardly Brooklyn-based fixie-riding designers flicking imported Lucky Strike ash on their Polaroid collection and doing polejams to Belle and Sebastian is it?
What it is, is fucking rad. Drew is called The Boss for a reason, and that reason is because he runs a tight ship that regularly throws out shitty (read: awesome) footage and crude (read: awesome) decks for beat-up sketchy (read: awesome) riders. I had the pleasure of riding Braydon Szafranski’s ‘Bad Guys’ deck this week and had a baller time doing so. The deck is a garish orange and the graphic is a flick lighter beaming away at you like only a waking baking and shaking hotel room trashing skateboarder can. A Baker design through and through that fits in perfectly with a brand that shoots their team portraits in a liquor store.
The board is an 8” so my clumsy feet aren’t at risk of flopping around like they tend to. There’s deep pockets of potential pop, the concave is shapely and while I’m not nailing full-cab flips down big stairs like Braydon let me just say that bitches don’t know about my slappy noseslides. Bangers bangers bangers.
Skate documentaries are – sadly – regularly overshadowed by the films that treat skateboarders as though they couldn’t begin to comprehend something as bold as a narrative. I’ve always been encouraging of skate flicks to have a little more talking and some more creative substance; despite the medium being able to stay afloat without them (I know when I was younger I was the sort to pick up magazines and just look at the pictures, I’m sure I wasn’t alone). Because when this is pulled off right (see Hot Chocolate or Under Wraps) they can reign among the best videos you’ve ever seen. Patrik Wallner’s visual journal of his trans-Siberian trip into some of the world’s most unique spots skated by some of the world’s most unique skaters not only achieves this, but its one of the best.
Running at 46 minutes, the film positions us first in Moscow, then proceeds to follow the troupe all the way to Hong Kong and not once does it tempt your attention to waver from it. The balance between commentary and pure skateboarding is perfect, and it’s not as if the stories are something every skater can’t relate to; it’s a film about getting out there and trying some new things after all. And it doesn’t exaggerate of romanticise anything like some sort of Wes Anderson film, even though the soundtrack isn’t far off one (no complaints, it’s perfect). This is fully gritty-gritty, you can feel every bump, the visuals themselves carry a sort of humidty, it’s rad.
The skateboarding alone is on a mesmerising tip, in which John Tanner really shines (his LINE on the Great Wall Of China is unfuckwithable), Michael Mackrodt kills it and Dan Cates does his thing on sketchy spots that no one else would dare touch. There are some slept-on skaters in there too; Stas Provotorov, Laurence Keefe, Lesha Naimushin, Danny Hochman and Dan Zvereff should cause a lot of you to start following them on their proverbial real-life Twitter account. Oh and Kenny Reed is in there, did you really doubt that a video that drifts through the barren landscapes of Mongolia and other washing-line riddled spots wouldn’t have his name written all over it? He steps in late and despite being plagued by illness and tropical injury he does the stuff he can do and no one else can. Big, stylish fakie tricks to introduce gliding lines; Kenny is one of my all-time favourite skaters to watch.
At certain moments, the documentary does what all documentaries try and rarely succeed in doing, prescribe the viewer with the feelings and emotions of those being documented. During the standing-class and sleeping-bus segments I felt crippled by claustrophobia. There is a strong sense of involvement in the group we’re following and the filmmaker should be applauded for this triumph, so don’t hesistate to pick this one up. It’s interesting, it’s full of spots you’ve never seen before, it’s great fun and it’s super sick.
Getting excited about reissues really shows one’s age, but the truth of matter is, anything that gets another shelf life opportunity usually means it was the dog’s testicles the first time round and therefore deserves this well overdue encore!
Element recently added Ray to their team of super humans and when they announced the re-release of the famous “stitchhead” graphic, Ray’s first ever pro board released in 1989 (artwork by Sean Cliver), not only did I shit myself with excitement about the graphic, I also came unannounced and endlessly when I learnt it would be pressed on a featherlight construction deck in my favourite shape (*14) and size, 8 x 31.75! The only downside to this was that ultimately, it meant I had to take it out the wrapper and skate it, but this was after all the initial intent of the original, so I guess mounting it on my wall was never an option.
This board cannot be faulted in any way, it’s flawless! The size, the press, the shape, the weight and obviously this ltd graphic is the best combination of plies I’ve ever had the privilege of kicking around and I cannot share my excitement enough, I love it. Element have introduced a number system for choosing the shape that suits your riding style best, this is by far the coolest thing introduced into skateboarding as far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing quite like finding familiarity under your feet when hitting a fresh pool, rail or ledge. Ray’s board is pressed in *14, check out Element’s site to find the shape that works for you.
Have I mentioned this is the best board I’ve ever ridden? Sorry, have I not? Well, it’s true, this board caters for my needs on every level possible, bowls, parks and street, this deck is the perfect all rounder. It’s super light too, which makes it snappy and responsive. Skateboarding…it’s a beautiful thing.
Cardiff-based Crayon Skateboards have been going from strength to strength over the last year picking up some of the UK’s most revered skateboarders. Korahn Gayle’s arrival made Crayon’s increasingly good rep outside of Cardiff soar above the clouds and what way to celebrate with a couple of gorgeous collaboration decks with Cardiff born-and-bred psychedelic design warlock, Pete Fowler.
You’ve almost certainly come across his work before in the form of all the visual pieces that accompany the already tripped out electro-fuzz rockers Super Furry Animals. His trippy characters and flowing colour translate perfectly into Crayon’s graphic identity; slick, perfectly-crafted colourful characters that ooze idiosyncracy and a couple interesting quirks. I couldn’t think of a better way to compliment the bunch of oddballs that ride the waxy kid’s art toy influenced plank. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve used actual crayons to wax up ledges as a substitute for wax every so often… ‘who’s wax is this crayon now boyo?’
Crayon use everyone’s favourite Deluxe wood (okay, a sweeping statement but I’ve never heard anything but instant gushing from any skater’s mouth at the mention of Deluxe) so you’re guaranteed a solid piece of wood beneath you feet. The deck itself is a joy to ride and it’s not at all difficult to comprehend why when you see someone skate through Cardiff, that 90% of the time, they’ll be riding a Crayon deck. If they keep producing decks like this, and throwing launch parties where the artist in question breaks their ankle in the club’s lav (fully legit! ‘ave it Fowler!) then I wouldn’t be surprised if those odds aren’t just exclusive to Cardiff, but spread across the UK. Keep it homegrown, keep it fresh. Fowler helps Crayon keep things both real and unreal, and I encourage everyone to get on board.
Head over to the Crayon website for an exclusive interview with Pete Fowler himself.
When he’s not networking with the metaphorical beasts and ogres of the interweb, Russell Cowling turns his creative eye to the viewfinder of a camera aimed directly at the gritty shores of the South-East. Though countless filmmakers have been influenced by the do-it-all-yourself approach to filming and editing that’s evident in the finer skate videos courtesy of French Fred, Greg Hunt et al, no one achieves it with such DIY honesty than the Essex lad himself. There’s no stock footage in sight. The Monster Network, seek to progress even further from the wonderful Never Forever and Into The Fall, combining creative skateboarding with artistic interpretations and observations from the eyes of those that walk the four-wheeled plank. In Between Days does just that…
After biting through a typically impressive visual introduction, the filling bursts through the crust in the form of ‘Gorgeous’ Dave Watson who’s been steadily on the up since silently killing it on the now-defunct Clown and having the raddest trick in Into The Fall half-way through the end credits. This section is effortless and his style speaks volumes that the dial on big-talkers doesn’t even turn to. While they’re blabbing away at 10, Dave is cruising away at 11. And that front-blunt on the unreal natural quarters in Basildon is completely off the scale. Essex Legend Simon Skipp – whose Romford ditch recently got some gnarly coverage in the new Blueprint flick – shares his section like he did in Never Forever and proves himself still worthy of being the undisputed king of Romford. There’s no bad-talking the way Skipp can attack Romford’s blue wall switch and still 360 flip like no other. Nigel Davies slips in a huge noseblunt before Dave sleeps through a killer ender to close this excellent opening section – that’s kindly been posted online to whet your appetite on the Monster Network site itself. Good stuff.
I’m gonna call out my own bias right now on the second section, because I grew up skating with Warren Greatrex, and I can only express my anger that he didn’t land such incredible shit when I was the one filming him. A lot has changed since secondary school and that huge gap he glides over wasn’t even in the shitty bike track we used to skate back then but Warren’s style has always been perfect. We could be seeing more from this kid if he keeps killing it like this. George Gough and Wil Thomson follow to the spectacular soundtrack going with some interesting ledge trickery and a couple quick-footed gems. That frontside shove…
What I’ve always enjoyed about Monster Network productions is that they’ve never been afraid to have lots of shared sections. For someone with Firefox-Generation-ADD (or FIGADDS! as I’ll call it), keeping it consistently fresh makes the skating flow down even more nicely, like a well-made mix tape made for a friend. For the next track we have new Channon King footage, and it’s like hearing the opening chords to a song you haven’t heard in a while but always loved. His style is unmistakable and still suits his off-beat trick selection on ridiculous spots, including what’s either the world’s worst designed bench or one that’s been victim to the world’s largest arse sitting on it.
The next treat is a meaty friends section full of some more familiar South-East heavy-hitters, culminating in some really piss-taking malarkey from Raemers, Veran Tull and Neil Smith. Nick Remon jams to a song you’ve all heard before but not in such raw context. Nick rips through impossible terrain and reps Switch Skatestore hard. This admirable local loyalty is kept up with the notorious smooth stylings of Jay Tate. This is a section so fresh and clean that even the haters-gonna-hate brigade that often dismiss natural style for sketchiness can’t talk shit on. Real pop, excellent catch and fluid, bolt perfect skating that’s never robotic, Jay Tate kills it. With the assistance of Adam Howe and Jay Minta (specifically that Kalis-as-fuck catch on the nollie frontside flip off the indoor kicker) this montage is my personal favourite in a video full of bangers.
Carl Wilson takes the end section and deserves the honour. Park skating in videos is something often contested and I disagree with those doing so, particularly if you can kill it like Carl, if you skate what you want and film what you want and be creative in your own way then you get a great video. And this is just that. Top work to all involved, 3,5,0,1,2,5 go!
Corey Adams and Alex Craig’s MACHOTAILDROP movie premiered in Leicester Square’s Prince Charles cinema last night to a full house hosted by éS and Slam City Skates.
The movie, based around a sponsorship hungry skater who finds a weird and wonderful world of professional skateboarding is a full length production featuring Rick McCrank, John Rattray, Fred Mortagne, Frank Gerwer, Steve Olson, all of whom play the most random roles in what has to be the only film that takes skateboarding closest to classic titles such as Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Monty Python and James Bond! Laughter is guaranteed throughout this comedy filled fable as Walter Rhum‘s dreams come true catapulting his 17 year old envy into pro skate heaven only to find out that..well, you will just have to watch it, no spoilers here.
One thing well worth mentioning though is that this is not a cheap film by any means- the film boasts epic costumes, Warriors and Daggers references with sublime stupidity within sets featuring stalactites, mines, amusement parks, mansions and a floating half-pipe! MACHOTAILDROP is hands down the most twisted skateboard movie made to date so look out for it.
Changing seasons equals news gear and our recommendation for new shoes this week comes from etnies, whose Jose Rojo Enjoi collab shoe seems to be going down a storm out there right now.
This is not the first collab The Barge shoe has seen, the Thunder collaboration from last year was a success in terms of comfort, style and general wear and tear- the latter benefiting from the sturdy one-piece toe wrap that protects your pinkys whilst your feet do the shredding.
If you like a padded tongue protecting your feet when you skate and opt for a wider shoe for street skating then you will probably enjoy these as they provide more protection than your average slim skate shoe with a vulcanized sole but are not on the heavy side either. Of course these come with the usual STI footbed for increased comfort and cushioning so they are a dream once on your feet and they look pretty dope all round.
Enjoi these at your local SOS this month as they have just been released.
If there was one thing that was unanimous in people’s expectations of the new Blueprint video was that this was not going to be simply Lost and Found 2. For some, this was the skate video equivalent of being dumped for a shitty reason, ‘you haven’t changed, but I have, sorry’ and of course would react in a similarly immature fashion. Yes, Lost and Found has proven itself to be a timeless watch and a quantum leap forward for the standards of both production and skating. Almost instantly, the high standards became disseminated throughout British productions and naturally, we turn our attention to Shier, Mr. Magee and their merry gang for that next jump. And you won’t be disappointed, unless you were hoping for LAF2, but then that wouldn’t be progression at all, would it?
Perpetual rain aside, things are immediately different; Magee as usual ignores the usual conventions of skate videos and throws the only, but not lonely ‘our mate’ section before the intro. Dave Mackey delivers a blink-and-miss-it minute of high-speed excellence, wallriding through your town like your neighbourhood spiderman. Before you can catch your breath again, the feature presentation begins with a tremendous cinematic introduction of the idiosyncratic Blueprint team. Eat up all the lovely esoteric references to the Birdhouse In Your Soul video and let the new generation Blueprint warm your life up. With some more global newcomers, t’print’s branding of the ‘cup of tea video’ is now replaced by a cup of whatever-the-fuck-you-like video. Rule Britannia is out of bounds, mate.
With no more interludes ahead (a winning decision too. How often do you get a 50 minute skate flick with uninterrupted skating?) Colin Kennedy gets the ball rolling with a stomping section of power, style and the best feeble grind you will have ever seen, no hyperbole. The music choices again are simply too perfect. It’s one thing finding a song that fits with a skater’s style and hoping that will carry it along, but here we have songs that infiltrate your mind, successfully re-contextualising each track as if it were written for that part. Paul Shier‘s trick selection and quick-footed style is a radical departure from Kennedy’s slow burning power moves but sharing that Procul Harum track simply works. And furthermore, this could be the best part from the trans-atlantic gent yet. Enders!
Back in Europe, Sylvain Tognelli proves himself to be a worthy addition to the team with a mixed bag of tricks and some very interesting lines. Danny Brady has sharpened his unique approach and crazy knees and serves up some amazing shit on some of the worst spots you can imagine. Not worst meaning worst but worst meaning best; Wave Of Mutilation has never sounded so great. This is followed swiftly by Marty Murawski who cements his reputation as an instant classic. No one skates like this guy, and no one could get away with trying to either. The same could be said with Tuukka Korhonen, who shares Marty’s section. His trick selection immediately makes him someone who is destined to be underrated, and this is a shame because Tuukka consistently kills it with finesse. Make friends with both of them.
Chewy Cannon maintains the pace from his incredible Diagonal section and doesn’t disappoint one bit – I challenge your jaw not to drop on that 5-0 grind. Once it does, don’t expect it to shut any time during the next section. Kevin Coakley, what the fuck? This is a serious competitor for my favourite section of the year, and let us not forget that this is 2010, where everyone skates with jokeshop skills and I would shell out three bucks for all of them. Coakley skates like he should have been in Lost and Found even though what he’s skating certainly wouldn’t have. If MFWTCB is Blueprint’s friend request to America then Coakley is the mutual friend that will make them choose not to ignore it. There’s no way you can hate on this. Proper spots, proper skating. Get some.
Jerome Campbell impressed me a lot. Not that I wasn’t expecting super style and quirky pop-outs, but this is a BIG section. He has the best arms in skateboarding, I’ll leave it at that. Neil Smith attacks everything and anything relentlessly; from the traditional Essex boy backflip off the swing to shutting down the hubba atop Southbank that was really open exclusively for him anyway, this section is a monster. The endgame is in sight and try not to jam to this track. Nick Jensen pokes his head in before the closer and chills his way through one of my favourite Portishead tracks. The section is typical of someone who’s well and truly blown minds recently and is now taking a well-earned smoke break, but it’s a real pleasure and one of the highlights for sure.
To conclude this mammoth piece of five years work well done, who else? Mark Baines earned this having pushed the envelope of British skateboarding for his entire career. Oddball moves, crazy style: Baines is that off-coloured U in the word colour that makes it that little more special. Sure, Blueprint have confirmed themselves as a global force, but this video achieves something more than being just a really, really good skate flick: It argues that it’s not where you’re from, nor where you’re at, but where you’re going, where you’ve been and all that bonkers shit you take with you. Ten out of ten. God Save/Bless T’Print.
I find myself three hours into a cross-Atlantic flight, mindlessly eating vacuum-packed sludge while I watch Drew’s section from This Is Skateboarding for the nine thousandth time and doing everything I can to avoid eye-contact with the strangely terrifying person I have had the misfortune of being sat next to.
It is at this moment I realise that the flight attendant is in fact Gok Wan, had he lived on Californian breakfast burritos throughout his entire life and actually didn’t know how to look good naked, at all. He even had that horrible accent. ‘Coffee Sir?’ I shudder to recall, even now. In terror, I mistakenly look at the person sitting next to me and discover what can only be Dibble’s long-lost twin brother. Shit the bed and sleep in it, no wonder I was scared (I kid, I kid). None the less, I named him Dobble. I couldn’t help but wonder though: Is this flight filled with doppelgangers a cryptic omen of what is to come? Well, kind of.
Wait, what? So here’s what this account is about. Our skateboarding brothers at Sole Tech (Etnies, éS, Emerica, Altamont) kindly invited us skateboarding media-types from around the globe to stop lurking in our respective countries and come and hang out at their labs in Orange County, CA to get an insight into the ever-progressing System G2 heel cushion and E-Suede, have a skate in the super Etnies Training Facility and get a sneak preview of some of the shoes dropping later this year. Sounds too good to be true, right?
For a while, as I looked over to Dobble to check if he was asleep so I could have a piss without talking to him, I thought it was. But after twenty-six hours of battling through snow, customs (are you SERIOUS, America?), terrible in-flight movies and vicious lookalikes I ended up in Pierre’s Marina Lofts ready for three days of non-stop skateboarding. Here’s how this epic sausage-fest went down.
Saturday
The Euros arrive first, before things really kick off (in more ways than one). Our wonderful host, James Appleby from Sole Tech Europe greets us with one of the countless cans of Blue Ribbon (imagine Coors Light, but lighter) and shows us around our home for the weekend. Pierre knows how to fucking LIVE. Yet despite these fairly spectacular distractions, it’s only a short amount of time before we all nerd out and start showing each other our magazines, scene videos and exchange some stories from where we’re all from. We are skateboarders after all; contrary to mainstream belief, we’re the friendliest neeks out there. Give us a beer and a laptop and there’s no stopping us.
The Euro-pad (unsurprisingly the smaller of the lofts, and even more unsurprisingly the cleaner of the two at the end of the trip) was shared by Fred Demard from France’s Soma Magazine, Angel Sanz from Uno reppin’ Barcelona, Holger Von Krosigk from Germany’s Place Magazine, the Italian Davide Biondani and the Dutch Love-Machine, Jeroen Smeets on behalf of Reload Magazine. Straight-up the raddest roommates an awkward Essex lad from Wales could ask for; and all as passionate about this ridiculous wooden thing on wheels that has dictated our entire lives, and brought us all together for this trip. Planes, delicious Blue Beet cuisine and early blogging don’t half take it out of you mind. Get the sleep in while you bloody well can.
Sunday
The day begins with James having fun pretending to be a photography tutor guiding us around Newport Beach while we all have fun pretending (badly) not to be tourists. Those cameras permanently attached to our faces weren’t fooling anyone, and there I was wearing nothing but a flimsy t-shirt during California’s ‘terrible weather’ period. James looks at me and grumbles, ‘you’re so obviously British‘. Outed!
Back at the lofts, it’s time for the arrival of the American press dudes. Without so much as a ‘Hey, what’s up?’, Etnies Marketing Head Honcho and part-time lunatic, Ashton Maxfield barges into Euro-Pad sporting nothing more than shades and a killer tache, picks up a chair and throws it out the window as if it had dissed said killer tache and spat in his face. The broken chair is then assembled into a pile and set alight; less than ten minutes later Holger runs outside and throws a mean frontside flip over the small inferno. The weekend has landed.
After geeking out over the staggering awesomeness of Mindfield for the rest of the afternoon, Pierre André and Don Brown, the masterminds behind Sole Tech and freestyle legends, introduce themselves and take us on a cruise in Newport Harbour. Meeting people of such status is often unnerving, but can of Blue Ribbon in hand and a ridiculous leather chair made of skateboards to laugh at, talking to the two is just like standing on a mini-ramp platform, chatting about nothing and happily sharing the unmatched atmosphere that is generated by skateboarding. If you want people to look after your feet when shralping, these are the guys are who you go for. Additionally, if you want people to throw a BBQ with an impromptu food-fight, these are also the dudes to see. Check out the footage courtesy of the Skateboard Mag’s three-trick extraordinaire and generally super-rad broseph, Paul ‘Animal’ Chan. Messy…
Monday
There are two perfect remedies for a monster Blue Ribbon hangover. Coffee, and -apparently- Bloody Marys. At least, this was what was on offer after shaking hands with The Boss and The Other Boss at the Sole Tech Institute. I’m not even kidding. Bloody Marys work a treat too! They go down damn fine with some tasty new shoes too, which is after all what we were all here to see this morning, after Don arrives fresh from the slammer that is. Pro tip: if you find yourself being accosted by the police who are yelling “What are you doing?! Do you want to be arrested?!” while drunkenly trying to drive some unknown dude’s boat down Newport Blvd at three in the morning, do not, whatever you do, reply with “HELL YEAH!”
All in the name – Don Brown is a Don.
First up are Etnies, and a cheeky look into the gorgeous Black Label collaboration that serves as Kyle Leeper’s new pro model. The Perro is a great shoe in itself, boasting the new Kevlar fabric addition to the System G2 Cushioning Gel. Kevlar is the same material used in bullet-proof vests, and protect your heels as if they were guarding the President through the not-so-blue states. On top of that, you have some gnarly Black Label graphic that keeps style looking tight, whilst obviously not slacking on substance. Be hyped because the shoe has dropped alongside the new Black Label video. Oh, there’s also a Thunder Collab to get hyped on – did I mention in the photoblog that the tag is a riser pad? Well, it is, and come on, how cool is that?
éS are next, and Bobby Worrest is summoned to the stage to speak a little about his debut shoe. The hangover may have got the better of him and Bobby’s conclusion on these bad boys is “yeah, they’re good. I like them.” Similar to Cardiff’s loveable Pirate Man, Bobby is an all-round nice guy, and has a soft-spot for Rambo. ‘First Blood‘ is the name of his shoe and you know what? They’re pretty damn good, and I bloody like them. A lot. I’m wearing them right now as I type this very sentence. Aesthetically simple, technologically awesome. The Sole Tech lab geeks are skaters too remember. They know what we want.
The Boss, coffee in hand, is up next and delivers a cool, calm and straight-to-the-point speech on why his new Cruiser shoes are boss, why Altamont’s Fall line-up is boss and why working for Soletech is boss. After a short video of Drew being Drew, he takes a sip of coffee and poignantly remarks how he ‘just wants to work with skaters’, with a nod towards Pierre and everyone in the room feeling some wonderful bromance. If it wasn’t for the upcoming visit to the TF, I’d have whacked my laptop out and posted in the Stoked thread on Sidewalk before BDF could say edit my post and imply that I am a gaylord. We all love the bromance.
Just before invading the mind-blowing awesomeness of the Etnies Training Facility (or Etnies TF if you want to abbreviate things and therefore resemble someone who is cool and abbreviates things) we had some more traditional Californian cuisine, courtesy of Mexico, that tastes delicious but does unspeakable things to a European stomach. In this interim, a couple of us now dicky-tummied Euros had the pleasure of speaking with Rob Carlos, a designer from Etnies Plus. Etnies Plus are already known for making some bad ass collabs with killer artists, and we were happy to hear of a future collaboration with So-Me of Ed Banger Records. I don’t know about you, but I’m hyped.
I won’t go into too much detail about the incredible TF, as any footage of the place speaks for itself. But let me just tell you that journalist types can shred too! Holger tore the place apart with style and the other French Fred got buck-wild on the mini. Animal Chan and I rinsed our three tricks for four hours and then sat back and happily watched as Malto, Bledsoe, Worrest and Mikey Taylor showed us all up. Check the brief interview I had with Mikey to hear his recollection on the GNARLIEST slam / collision I have ever seen. Ridiculous. Click here for an interview with him from this trip.
Before we hit the bars, we had an in-depth tour into the STI Lab (imagine what The Berrics might have looked like if it were designed by Steve Berra and Dexter; as in the loveable, animated, four-eyed, ginger genius, not the serial killer played by Michael Hall). Inside the labs were a lot of things, that a lot of us honestly had no understanding of whatsoever. Apart from ESPN’s Josh Brooks, who came out of his shell and revealed himself to be a secret physics nerd: so big ups to him, his knowledge of forces and his awesome RUN DMC style Obama tee. The tour itself was a fantastic insight into how these things we throw on our feet and slowly ruin are put together; just check out the pictures and peep the relentless testing each shoe is subjected to before it is deemed safe and worthy of making your feet look and feel a lot nicer.
And it was in that lab that I came to realise the significance of those doppelgangers that plagued my journey out here. It’s all to do with repetition and difference, something that Sole Tech has nailed. Steve Neale is a known bunty man (as anyone who has studied film will back me up on), but he did spearhead this particular theory on how things are constantly improved by repeating elements that work, and playing with them ever so slightly to make something new and great. Sole Tech are doing just that. System G2 was great, but adding the Kevlar and creating G2 Platinum is perfect evidence of making something great, well, greater. The same can be applied to E-Suede. Look at the comparison of suede and e-suede after 2500 rotations in the KICKFLIP MACHINE (!) to see what I’m getting at.
Unfortunately the same praise cannot be said about American Airlines, as I sit back in my chair on my flight back to London and continue to get offered disgusting coffee by an even shittier Gok Wan variation… all the while trying not to make eye-contact with what appears to be someone I will later name ‘Dubble’.
Did you know that when throwing yourself down the London Bridge ten, more often than not you exert around 18-times body weight straight onto your heel or toes?
Eternal props to all the dudes at Sole Tech for bringing us media-heads together and showing us all how these things on our feet and body we often take for granted is so generously made for us without asking for anything in return other than your support. Extra thanks to James for being a rad host, and all the safe-as-fuck dudes I had the pleasure of meeting out there. And big up skateboarding, for being the greatest fucking thing in the world.
If you enjoyed this feature, click here with an interview from back in February 2006 with Pierre André Senizergues.
Baker have never portrayed themselves as clean-cut, nor do they succumb to trends as transparently as handfuls of other companies. While edits are appearing like wildfire implying that skateboarding is still experiencing a comedown from the overdose of HDMA (ever wondered why all that shit is in slow-motion?), Baker haven’t strayed from lo-fi lurker footage at parties and an IMPACT typeface. To put this in perspective, Impact is the font used on all those lolcat macros that dominated the internet for a while. Hardly Brooklyn-based fixie-riding designers flicking imported Lucky Strike ash on their Polaroid collection and doing polejams to Belle and Sebastian is it?
Skate documentaries are – sadly – regularly overshadowed by the films that treat skateboarders as though they couldn’t begin to comprehend something as bold as a narrative. I’ve always been encouraging of skate flicks to have a little more talking and some more creative substance; despite the medium being able to stay afloat without them (I know when I was younger I was the sort to pick up magazines and just look at the pictures, I’m sure I wasn’t alone). Because when this is pulled off right (see Hot Chocolate or Under Wraps) they can reign among the best videos you’ve ever seen. Patrik Wallner’s visual journal of his trans-Siberian trip into some of the world’s most unique spots skated by some of the world’s most unique skaters not only achieves this, but its one of the best.
Getting excited about reissues really shows one’s age, but the truth of matter is, anything that gets another shelf life opportunity usually means it was the dog’s testicles the first time round and therefore deserves this well overdue encore!
Cardiff-based 
When he’s not networking with the metaphorical beasts and ogres of the interweb, Russell Cowling turns his creative eye to the viewfinder of a camera aimed directly at the gritty shores of the South-East. Though countless filmmakers have been influenced by the do-it-all-yourself approach to filming and editing that’s evident in the finer skate videos courtesy of French Fred, Greg Hunt et al, no one achieves it with such DIY honesty than the Essex lad himself. There’s no stock footage in sight. The Monster Network, seek to progress even further from the wonderful Never Forever and Into The Fall, combining creative skateboarding with artistic interpretations and observations from the eyes of those that walk the four-wheeled plank. In Between Days does just that…
Corey Adams and Alex Craig’s 
Changing seasons equals news gear and our recommendation for new shoes this week comes from 
If there was one thing that was unanimous in people’s expectations of the new 
Back in Europe, Sylvain Tognelli proves himself to be a worthy addition to the team with a mixed bag of tricks and some very interesting lines. Danny Brady has sharpened his unique approach and crazy knees and serves up some amazing shit on some of the worst spots you can imagine. Not worst meaning worst but worst meaning best; Wave Of Mutilation has never sounded so great. This is followed swiftly by Marty Murawski who cements his reputation as an instant classic. No one skates like this guy, and no one could get away with trying to either. The same could be said with Tuukka Korhonen, who shares Marty’s section. His trick selection immediately makes him someone who is destined to be underrated, and this is a shame because Tuukka consistently kills it with finesse. Make friends with both of them.
I find myself three hours into a cross-Atlantic flight, mindlessly eating vacuum-packed sludge while I watch Drew’s section from This Is Skateboarding for the nine thousandth time and doing everything I can to avoid eye-contact with the strangely terrifying person I have had the misfortune of being sat next to.
