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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

Tim Prozorov’s DC Flow To Pro edit

timprozorov

Estonian tech head and Camden local Tim Prozorov has a new edit put together by Guy Longbottom for the DC Flow To Pro video comp. Vote for his skills here.

Tim Prozorov-DC Flow To Pro Entry from Guy on Vimeo.

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Skateboarding News

Hungerford Bridge skateboard graveyard discovered

Londonist.com has reported a sighting underneath the Hungerford Bridge this week that depicts a shot of many broken decks arranged in the shape of the number 1 from many sessions that have been ended abruptly underneath the Undercroft.

I found out last week that The Southbank’s skateboarding area is definitely destined to be erased in the not too distant future. Fortunately, a good friend is closely involved in the board up there from a conversation that came up only last week. I will bring whatever news I can as it comes to light over the coming months as we are sure that they will be looking to find a new area for skateboarders.

Photo: Alistair Leak

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Skateboarding News

Sam Taylor’s Ace Trucks welcome edit

Sam Taylor is ending the year with a bunch of footage. Here’s this week’s courtesy of Ace Trucks who welcome SPT to their team this week. watch a minute of Southbank ripping here.

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Skateboarding News

Luka Pinto drops 10 at Southbank

Luka Pinto kick starts the week of skate footage with a freshly squeezed ten tricks at London’s Southbank.

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Skateboarding News

Karim Bakhtaoui skates in new Nokia Push advert

pushnokiaThe Nokia Push project have released a new advert featuring skating from Southbank ‘s Karim Bakhtaoui and Akim Cherifis this week. It’s not the first time that Nokia have got behing skateboarding in the UK. Remember the Danny Brady advert that lit up the internet last September?

The technology takes the world of skate games away from the games console and back to the streets by allowing skaters’ boards to communicate with their N8 to score every single little move they make. Look out for 7 more films based on this technology to be released soon.

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Skateboarding News

Manuel Lopez Southbank edit

30 minutes after leaving the Crossfire office to finish off his Fresh Blood feature, Manuel Lopez went back to the Southbank to finish off some homework that he mentioned needed to be done.

Watch this edit fresh out of the box from this Tuesday filmed by Josh Clarke and look out for a new street edit and full interview with Manny next week.

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Skateboarding News

Karim Bakhtaoui Southbank footage

urbankreationKarim Bakhtaoui has a new edit online this morning for Urban Kreation with a bunch of tricks filmed at London’s Southbank.

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Features Skateboarding

Does skateboarding have a future at Southbank

Words by Henry Edwards-Wood

Photo’s courtesy of Dom Marley

Mark ‘Fos’ Foster one foots London’s most prestigious spot.

fosheroinskateboardssouthbankThis Wednesday (23rd February 2011) saw what will hopefully be the first of many Southbank user meetings at the Royal Festival Hall. The meeting was organised by the Southbank Centre and its aim was to open communications between themselves and the skateboarding community who use the Undercroft area.

Before the meeting I was fearful that we would be told that Southbank was going to be shut down or we were to be relocated to some crappy skate park somewhere else, a fear shared by my fellow SB locals and London skateboarders alike. However the other meeting attendees and I were pleasantly surprised. It seems as though Southbank is here to stay for the foreseeable future, and what’s more the SB authorities have said they will work closely with the skaters to improve the space.

It was established that BMX riders did not care about SB as there was not one present at the meeting. We spoke about the serious injury a BMXer caused a pedestrian last year and voiced how BMXers are dangerous and ignorant and should have no place in the Undercroft (as it used to be). The skateboarders were also quick to ask why graffiti had been allowed to take place in Southbank for the past four years. The organisers had no idea that we objected to the graffiti, in fact they thought we loved it as it was part of the “urban culture” that everyone so easily pigeon holes us into. The meeting organisers, Julia Sawyer and John Gray were very receptive to these revelations and have vowed to address the graffiti situation as well as to look at banning BMXers from riding at Southbank.

Other topics that were discussed were better lighting, replacing the original railings and adding barriers to separate the public, more bins, the temporary beach that will be opposite the Undercroft in the summer and CCTV that will be installed. They also said that they would provide us with squeegees and other equipment for us to dry the floor when it is wet down there, which is a result.

Andrew Brophy floats one of his legendary ollies high above the rubble.

AndrewBrophyolliesouthbankskateboarding

These meetings will now be held quarterly and there is talk of setting up a page on the Southbank Center website to allow for the skateboarding public to be kept up to date with the goings on in the Undercroft. Some changes will be almost instant, some will be more long term, but the bottom line is that Southbank isn’t going anywhere!

Overall this is a massive result and a good start to what will hopefully become a strong alliance with the Southbank Centre authorities. The notes from the meeting will be written up and emailed to the attendees so keep your ears peeled for more info on the changes to our beloved Undercroft.

Scroll down to comment on this first session or discuss it on our facebook page.