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EDITORIAL a brief glance

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PHIL ZWIJSEN – OLLIE • PHOTO: GUILLAUME PÉRIMONY

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Fragments_ Caramello_Cons exploring Lecce {early} 90â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s SUCK ed Right in the night Behind the Cinematographer project_ ISLE Places / North Korea_

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a brief glance | year VII_nÂ° 42

EDITOR and CONCEPT_ Davide Biondani. {davide@abriefglance.com} ASSOCIATE EDITOR_ Guido Bendotti. {guido@abriefglance.com} ASSISTANT EDITOR_ Andrew Zolin. TRANSLATIONS_ Jonathan Levin. PHOTOGRAPHERS_ Leo Sharp, Jonathan Mehring, DVL, Craig Dodds, Brian Gaberman, Marcello Guardigli, Davide Biondani, Giulia Romano, Kirill Korobkov, Reece Leung, Alexey Lapin, Henry Kingsford, Sebastiano Bartoloni, Maxime Verret, Fed Mortagne, Joel Peck. CONTRIBUTORS_ Francesco Paolo Chielli, Mario Torre, Michele Antolini, Bruno Boffa, Fede Cavaggioni, Mark Baines. DESIGN_ M. Bod Ciceri {Question Mark, ink!#?} GET ALL THE INFOS at: info@abriefglance.com a brief glance skateboard mag is a bulletin published by Fake Donkey Skateboard asd. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of the publisher. All right reserved.

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[noun frag-muh nt; verb frag-muh nt, -ment, frag-ment] 1. a part broken off or detached: scattered fragments of the broken vase. 2. an isolated, unfinished, or incomplete part: She played a fragment of her latest composition. 3. an odd piece, bit, or scrap. verb (used without object) 4. to collapse or break into fragments; disintegrate: The chair fragmented under his weight. verb (used with object) 5. to break (something) into pieces or fragments; cause to disintegrate: Outside influences soon fragmented the Mayan culture. 6. to divide into fragments; disunify. 7. Computers. to split a file into smaller parts and store in non-contiguous sectors on a disk, resulting in fragmentation of both the file and available free space on the disk. 8. a brief glance photo gallery

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NicolĂ˛ Novali | Crooks

Photo_ Davide Biondani {Verona, Italy}

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Alen Young & Nick Maughan Double

Photo_Marcello Guardigli {Melbourne, Australia}

Sam Pulley Fs ollie tail grab

Photo_Craig Dodds {Barcelona, Spain}

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Kris Vile, Switch fs nosegrind revert

Photo_DVL {Berlin, Germany}

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Photography & words_ Davide Biondani

The crew was really mixed and it was fun to meet old and new friends coming from different countries: Jonas Hess from Germany, Felipe Bartolome from Spain, Ollie Lock, Jerome Campbell, and the filmer James Cruikshank from the UK, Luidgi and Remy Taveira from Paris, and obviously Mauro and Pietro. There are various skate spots dispersed around the whole area around Salento, as this part of the region is called, however, the idea for this tour was to

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Since this tour was a sort of â&#x20AC;&#x153;welcome to the Cons teamâ&#x20AC;? for Mauro Caruso and Pietro BontĂ , the original idea was to go to Sicily because it is an interesting place and also because Mauro lives down there. But Sicily has had its fair share of coverage over the last few years, so we opted for a similar destination, as interesting as Sicily, but not seen as much: Lecce.

explore the city on our boards in search of interesting things to skate. So we found ourselves pushing around Lecce from 10 in the morning till 7 in the evening, and since Lecce is not exactly a modern metropolis with smooth sidewalks, but rather a historical city with hardly any skate-friendly sidewalks, the 15 kilometers we covered every day tested us physically (especially those with heavy photo bags), but also allowed us to discover interesting and original spots.

Lecce is in the Puglia region, at the very heel of the Italian boot; it is a small city with a very charming historical center, enclosed by ancient walls and with small alleys that twist and turn between old buildings. The province is almost completely covered by endless olive tree cultivations that stretch all the way to the coast, which has some of the most beautiful beaches in Europe and a sea that has at least ten different hues of blue.

The first session actually began in a pretty scary way, and involved a guy that experienced a sudden illness while driving his smart car and crashed into the parked cars, nearly running us over. Jerome saw the accident happen and ran to the car. The guy was having an epilectic attack and foam was coming out of his mouth as we assisted him. Two female cops that had showed up to kick us out were paralyzed and terrorstricken, and we were sure he was going

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to die. Fortunately he calmed down after a few minutes and we left, pushing in the street. Good start! Luck had it that Mauro got hurt two days before the tour and Remy injured himself on the evening of the first day, but not before having landed two dope tricks! I can’t imagine what those two could’ve cooked up had they been in good shape. Since the team is composed of rippers, each with his personal style and an original approach to skateboarding, it was easy to bring home various tricks at each spot we found. Felipe literally killed all the gnarliest spots, Pietro surprised everyone with his creativity, consistency, and 200km/h lines, Jonas won the high ollie challenge by jumping over a very high street sign, while Ollie Lock delighted us with his powerful and creative skating in perfect UK style. Jerome also landed some sick tricks as did Remy and Mauro, who were able to land a couple bangers.

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The tour was intense and there was a positive vibe among the riders. Some of them had actually met for the first time, but they were all on the ball, and it was easy and fun to spend 8 days together. After skating all day, the evenings proceeded at one of the excellent restaurants in the center of the city, and then in some of the best cocktail bars in town, especially the “Quanto Basta” of our friend Diego, who, apart from being a local skateboarding legend, is also a well-known, top bartender. If you happen to pass by Lecce, definitely go to his bar! For the last three days we rented two cars, allowing us to travel south, first down the coast all the way to Otranto, where we shot at the famous spot at the seaport, where among the various tricks, Felipe did a fifty-fifty on a long, rough, curved hubba, which was voted

We had barely checked out the place when Felipe started testing the run up to the rail. After fifty-fiftying it a couple times and popping out of the trick halfway, and then grinding the whole rail to firecracker down the stairs another few times and falling on the last step, he tried it again but lost his board at the beginning of the rail and flew 3 meters below, landing on his head. â&#x20AC;&#x153;trick of the tour.â&#x20AC;? On one of the tries Felipe nearly lost his back-door virginity, making the trick worth at least twice as much! Ha ha ha, yeah Felipe!

A crazy slam and a big scare, we rushed him to the hospital and the mood of the tour went from 100 to 0 in three seconds flat.

On our journey back, we stopped at a small countryside town to find a spot, where we were immediately kicked out by the mayor himself, who unleashed a bitter policewoman to follow us around relentlessly and give us problems everywhere we went! That evening we told Diego what had happened and he burst into laughter, because the mayor is a dear friend of his, and he called him immediately to tell him that he had kicked out a team of famous skaters that wouldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve brought his town a lot of free publicity. The mayor found it funny, saying that Maria is a real tough cop that never gives up! Maria the policewoman! The last day we went to Gallipoli, on the west coast, where on the seafront we found a couple interesting spots, among which a big rail with a landing on a series of steps.

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Fortunately, after a few hours at the hospital and after the x-rays, they told us it was ok. In the meantime, Ollie, Jonas, and Pietro had landed some tricks before we all met up on the beach, where a beautiful sea and a shining sun suggested that the time had come to put our boards in the car and celebrate this fantastic tour by diving into the gelid waters of the Ionian Sea!

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Unfortunately, you got hurt on the very first day of the tour, what happened? Yeah, the first day I fucked up my heel in front of a church I was trying to skate... just after an old lady had wished me bad luck for 1 hour straight. Not being able to skate, you had a very special point of view on the trip; skatewise, who impressed you the most and why?

Remy, could you introduce yourself briefly?

Ciao ragazzi, I’m Remy Taveira, 25 years old, originally from the Parisian suburbs, now living in the capital. I think I started skateboarding at the age of 12, which is 13 years ago. What did you expect before leaving for this trip?

It’s funny because I never really get hurt so much on trips. I was pretty hyped on finding some spots for the boys and seeing them ripping. Felipe MVP for sure, I like the way he woke up to a gnarly slam on his head with no breakfast! Pietro was killing it as well, it’s good to see some new Italian blood! Favorite trick of the week? Pietro’s five-o one foot on a rainbow rail.

I expected good food, nice weather and small beach towns. You have already been to Italy, what struck you about the city of Lecce and the surrounding area? In Lecce I really felt like people were hiding from us all the time, maybe because it was not the right season to go to this pretty mellow region that is full of locals that can barely speak a word of English but can communicate with sign language!

Can you describe your new team mate Mauro? I met Mauro a few years back... I like his Sicilian vision of things and the way he takes everything not so seriously! Best memory of the trip? Probably when we skated in that small town and got kicked out by the mayor... he sent that “Maria” police woman who chased us from every little corner of the city.

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Ollie.

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Pietro, could you introduce yourself briefly?

My name is Pietro Bontà, I’m 23 years old and live in Milan. I’ve been skating for 11 or 12 years.

Shit! Felipe for sure! He’s a fucking ripper!!!

Converse Cons is new for you, how did this adventure begin?

Which was the best trick of the tour? And your best trick?

It all began more or less after the tour the Cons guys did last summer in Milan. We shot together a bit and then Luidgi contacted me.

The 50-50 drop by Felipe! It’s always him! Ha ha, it was a banger. I wouldn’t know, all tricks give you satisfaction when you land them, ha ha!

This was your first Cons tour, what were you expecting before leaving, and what impressed you the most about the team and the tour in general?

What differences did you notice between this tour and all the other tours you’ve been on before?

Well, I think the only thing one probably expects from a skate tour is to skate a lot and have fun, ha ha.

The fact that we went out skating like a group of friends, just friends and skating. Can you describe your team mate Jonas?

A tour unlike the usual, large, super organized ones. The guys love to skate, so that’s what we did, we skated like all normal people!

Ha ha ha, he is a really crazy person and his approach to skating is super cool!!!

Skate-wise, who impressed you the most?

Skating with friends without having to think about work and shit like that.

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Best memory of the tour?

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Crooked grind.

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Five-O.

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Wallride into the stairs.

Ollie, could you introduce yourself briefly?

I am 20 years old and I live in Bristol, England and have been skateboarding for roughly 8 years. Was this your first time in Italy? I had been to Italy once before on holiday with my family. We went to Rome a couple of years ago between Christmas and New Year’s, so it was a very short trip and we just packed as much tourist stuff as we could into the few days we stayed. This was the first skate trip I have been on to Italy. What did you expect before leaving for this trip and what did you like the most about Lecce and the places we went to? To be honest I didn’t really research that much about Lecce before we went, I wanted to get there and kind of be surprised by what’s there, and get more excited that way rather than arriving with a built-up image in my head. Getting cars and driving to nearby places was a plus too, some of the spots we found had actual screensaver-like backgrounds and you can see that in the footage and the photos everyone got. You told me you work at Fifty Fifty Skate Shop in Bristol, does working in a skate shop make you hate skateboarding sometimes? I guess that’s true. Despite how much you love something, too much exposure

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to it can start to make you dislike certain aspects of it. Not really to do with skateboarding but I sometimes dislike the customer service side of a shop, people coming in saying stupid things like, “You can get this somewhere else for cheaper,” or asking for a discount. Like an independent shop that does so much for the local skateboarding community can just afford to give away product to people just because they once had a friend that landed a kick flip or something like that. But now that

Personal fav trick of the week? On trips I love a good slam, not really sure why, but it seems like no matter what I try to film or shoot I end up taking an unnecessary one. So I guess my personal favourite trick would be something I didn’t really slam too much on. Probably the ride on slappy nosegrind, it was a fun one and I managed to get away without really hurting myself. Could you describe your team mate Remy? skateboarding is so sought after, you have to deal with people like that who don’t really understand, in order for a shop to thrive nowadays. Skate-wise, who impressed you the most on this trip? I would say Felipe. Some of the things I watched him do were probably the most impressive things I’ve ever seen done on a skateboard. We would all be standing there covering our eyes while he tried something, just smiling and laughing while doing it. He was always having fun and was the first to jump on something no matter what it was. Pietro also killed it. He was a machine at every spot we went to, sometimes he would get a trick on things that weren’t even really spots. Even after hurting himself I think he managed to somehow get more footage than he did when he wasn’t hurt, that was really good to watch.

On this trip Remy hurt himself on the first day he went out skating, and after a canceled flight which led to missing two full days, it wasn’t the best luck early on. On the one day he got of skating he managed to smash out two of the best clips of the trip with ease. And even when he was sidelined he still got everyone else around him hyped and kept that going for the remainder of the trip. Best memory of the tour? There were a lot, every day was as good as the previous. I obviously enjoyed the skating but then the meals we would go have in the evening as a big crew were great. At the end of a long day we could all sit down and chat shit or get hyped for the next day whilst eating some really good food, or asking Mauro, Pietro or Davide what the words ‘Another Large Beer’ are in Italian.

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Gap to bs lip.

Wallie.

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50-50 ollie out. a brief glance

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to Lecce for a week a couple years back, and fell in love with the whole area, maybe not too appropriate for how Cons is doing projects but it was also the first one, so I think it was ok to start from there and keep the bangers for later, once things are more settled.

Mauro, could you introduce yourself briefly?

Yes, why not. So my name is Mauro Caruso, 28 in July, I’m from this little medieval village called Motta S. Anastasia, 15 km from the main city, Catania. I have had a board under my feet for more than 15 years now and it sounds crazy to say 15 because it feels like so much less time! I was pretty much born and raised here in these areas, and since I was 15 or 16 I got to travel quite a lot around Italy, Europe and the US, so I got to see some really cool shit over these past years! Now I have been trying to get a life down here, my own place, my own things, it’s hard! A couple of months ago, my friends Ale, Luca, and I started this project called La Dolce Vita and we are just loving it! This was your first trip with Cons, what did you expect before leaving and how was the tour? I had good feelings, I had already been

I also had the chance to have some live chat both with Luidgi and Jerome, and that was good to understand a couple of things; I got hurt so I knew I wasn’t going to skate that much, and I actually ended up skating even less than what I had thought, my ankle just wasn’t working yet. The tour went well, I only knew Jerome, Felipe, Remy and Pietro. I got to meet the other guys and it was a cool week man! Good laughs, gnarly city pushing, good spots, sick tricks, amazing cocktails from the local boss Diego who owns this bar in the center called Quanto Basta. You just have to go if you happen to be there! Luidgi also brought me this Polaroid, the SX-70, and gave me 4 packs of film; shooting with that camera is sick, I loved it, I think I’m going to get into it more and more, for sure not just Polaroid, it’s expensive, but just shooting some film. I wanna shoot lots of portraits in the ghettos around here! But yes, Jerome and Luidgi were super cool, amazing dinners every night, everyone was chilling, no stress, I really liked the vibe! A big thanks and hug to everyone once again!

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Why did you choose Lecce as a destination? The guys had already done a big tour up in Northern Italy not too long ago, and the first idea they had for this one was to go to Sicily, but since it has been seen way too much over the past years, I suggested that we go to Lecce, which is still south. It has a vibe that is really similar to Sicily but has not been seen as much, and the food is really, really good! I hope everyone liked the places and had good times. We ate so much every night, midnight steaks were the best! Cons is a fresh thing for you, how did this new adventure begin? It actually started in a kind of funny way, I was out in this little town on the other side of the island a few months back to finish this clip. It’s 08.30 AM and I’m sitting on the toilet for that 30-minute morning sesh, still sleepy, when I get a phone call from this French number and it’s Luidgi, telling me we had already met a few months earlier at this party in Paris, and is asking me what’s up and if I would be down to help them out with Cons for Italy. I was like, “Wait what?!” At the time, things with Lakai were a bit too static, I wasn’t receiving much news or feedback, the guys in Europe didn’t know much. I mean, we can all see what’s up, so it’s not hard to imagine the situation, but this is a whole other discussion; since then we have

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been in touch trying to see what’s up, until we planned and went on this first mission! Things are still in the process but we should be officially starting soon! Pietro is the first guy we are putting on. They had already met him in Milan a few months back and skated with him and really liked him, so I didn’t have to think twice about it when they told me, I was stoked. Pietro is a sick guy with an amazing style and board control, I really hope we can push him the right way, him and whoever else we put on. He deserves it, he is putting a lot of work into it, he loves it and we definitely need to get him out of that kitchen he is working in! Unfortunately, you got hurt 2 days before the tour started and couldn’t skate a lot, so you had more time to watch the guys skating. Skate-wise, who impressed you the most? Yes, in these past years I have been having this thing with trips where I’m always hurt, it’s either a few days before or right on the first day of the trip… I’m so over it! Ha ha. This time I rolled my ankle in three different places falling down this long and low stair set; I had black fingers for a week. It happened 10 days before the trip and still today it’s blocked, I definitely need to go to an osteopath now. But yes man, for sure I was there watching everyone skating, I really like to watch people skating and what they do to get to

the trick. I love being there and watching the whole process and just taking notes in my head! People are so good nowadays, the control these guys have is next level!

He is still young and needs to learn a lot of things in his life for sure, but I really hope the best for him and I’m quite sure he is going to go far, muy far tio!

I grew up in the era where you would just throw yourself down something till you died to get the trick, gap, rail or whatever.

Best memory of the trip?

I still totally feel like that when these guys do everything almost first try! I really liked everyone’s skating, for sure it would have been good to see Remy kill it way more, but he also got hurt on the first day, barely the time for a sick line and a sick ollie and boom! Felipe’s 50-50 was fucked, so glad I was there! Pietro and Ollie have really good styles, Jonas is a really funny guy! He loves it, that fat ollie over the sign was gold and Jerome is a solid king! Great style crew! Can you describe your team mate Felipe? Felipe is pure fire, and nowadays I feel like it’s getting harder and harder to find guys like him; I have already been on two trips with him, this one and a previous one here in Sicily for a Carhartt project, and the way he skates and approaches any spot is insane. He is so good and one of those guys who would skate anything, and I don’t mean any spot, I mean any surface, it doesn’t matter how shitty or gnarly the spot is, if that feeling comes up in his head he needs to go for it and he will just make it through somehow... so good!

I don’t know if it’s the best memory, or rather the worst memory of the trip, but for sure the guy in the Smart car crashin’ on the side of the street just behind us because of an epileptic attack was quite epic. Jerome ran to the car and tried to block the guy while he was all shaking and spitting all over himself. I was right there, and we thought he was just going to die. Fortunately, everything turned out for the better, the guy kind of chilled down and was getting back to normal. Some useless cops were there in panic, but once the guy was better we just left and kept on skating, crazy! Or the free sushi dishes on fire, in exchange for some comments on the fb page of this Japanese resturant. The waiters were pressing us to write comments since it had recently opened, so funny! Ha ha. I took a 10-hour bus ride from my town to Lecce with these 3 transvestites just behind me all night long, who were so dirty and loud. I never really fell asleep and was scared! Ha ha ha, and yes Felipe’s 50-50 around the ledge was pretty epic.

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Fs heelflip.

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Felipe, could you introduce yourself briefly?

Felipe, 21, Madrid, skating for 9 years.   What did you expect before leaving for this mission and how was the tour? Everybody seemed to be hyped about the trip…   I guess I wrongly expected it all to be some kind of Mediterranean-looking nextto-the-beach place, since that’s what appears on google when you search for Brindisi, which is the airport we went to. But it wasn’t exactly like that, even though we had some of that too.   What struck you the most about the city of Lecce?   I guess I liked the center of the city a lot because it’s pretty old and the sketchy graffiti (mainly about football or love) in the city was also entertaining.   Who impressed you the most, skatewise?

I actually knew everyone but Pietro before going on the trip, so I guess that’s my go, ha ha. You can’t really choose between homies, but everyone killed it so it would be hard, anyway.   The trick you did that gave you the most satisfaction during the week?   For me it’s never one single thing. I guess I’d say that the best was skating plazas with the most amazing marble ledges and flatground ever.   You took a crazy slam on a big rail on the last day… what happened? How do you feel now?   Ha ha, yeah it was the classic 50-50 slam where you fall backwards and I landed straight on my head and shoulder, it looks pretty gnarly but it wasnt any more than a bruise.   Best memory of the tour? Night talks by the pool and street naps.

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Fs wallride.

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Ride in 50-50.

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Boardslide pull out.

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Fs 50-50 around the corner, all the way down.

Jonas, could you introduce yourself briefly?

Hey, my Name is Jonas Hess, I am 21 years of age, I live in Berlin and I’ve been skating for 2 years now. Was this your first time in Italy? Yes, it was. I had been to Italy before when I was a child and also on a school trip a couple of years earlier, but it was the first time I ever set my feet on a board in Bella Italia. What did you expect to find before leaving for this trip, and how did the mission go? It seemed like all the guys were hyped. Before this trip I was pretty hyped to see everybody again, and the food also caught my attention. Skate-wise I was a little afraid because I was injured for a couple of months and it was my first time filming and taking photos ever since I got hurt. How was pushing on rough surfaces for 5 days all around the city? I actually liked the streets a lot, in Berlin it’s not possible to push around the city be-

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cause the ground is mostly shit. So it was fine for me, but exhausting as well. Who impressed you the most, skatewise? I was really impressed by Remy, I’m a big fan. Sadly he got hurt on the first day, I would’ve loved to skate some more with him. Also Felipe goddamn killed it, that guy rips! But basically the whole team was ripping. James was the MVP for me, filming all the time is a really hard job and he manages it quite well. Shout out to James “the hammer of Thor” Cruickshank! Fav trick of the week? Felipe’s 50-50 around the curved hubba was fucking amazing! That one takes the crown for me, but there were loads of sick tricks going down.

Could you describe your team mate Ollie Lock? I would say he is a really friendly, modest and talented human being. I definitely enjoyed sharing some packs of camels with him and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m happy that I got to know him a little better on this trip. Cheers G!

Best memory of the trip? If I have to pick one, I think I will definitely look back to finally swimming in the sea on the last day, that was satisfying. And James asking for tiramisĂš in every restaurant was pretty good as well, ha ha.

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50-50 grind up.

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Ollie.

Bs nose grind.

^ Luca Basilico/ Bs Ollie.

Edo Paris/ Pressure Transfer >

All photos: Davide Biondani.

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Words:

Guido Bendotti, Davide Biondani, Luca Basilico, Jonathan Levin

Baggie pants, oversize t-shirts, and bleached hair. Even your grandma knows that the 90’s are so hot right now! It’s cool to see people dressed like we were back

in 1993, only that the same clothes that make you look so cool in the eyes of Vogue today, back then made us ugly even in the eyes of our mother. If you think that sporting huge pants,

skateboarding. If you regret not having been 17 years old in 1993, are desperate for not having lived the phantasmagorical “small wheels big pants” era, and your dream is to look as 90’s as

you can, keep in mind that if they were cool for some things (especially because we were 19 years old), for the most part we can say that the 90’s, the very early 90’s absolutely sucked!

shitty hairstyles, and horrible sweatshirts is the newest thing in the world, then keep in mind that 25 years ago, let’s say between 1991 and 1994, it was the standard in our beloved world of

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Jacopo Alabisio/ bs lipslide 1993 >

WE WERE THERE. HERE ARE

REASONS WHY THE 90â&#x20AC;&#x2122;S SUCKED FOR US SKATEBOARDERS!

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We skated standing still. Today one-footed ollies, wallies, and no complies going fast are the norm, maybe your older cousin never told you that if in the early 90’s you tried doing any one of the above tricks, you were labeled an “old fart” and ridiculed by the “cool” guys, and probably even pushed away. The only tricks that were allowed were things like pressure flip late flips, or triple kickflips on flatground, going super slow, with the board bouncing off the ground before landing, and after having tried it for at least three hours together with 10 other social misfits. The 38mm wheels practically prevented you from skating full speed unless your last name was Speyer, Senn, or Cardiel.

We dressed like shit. “Oversize” jeans and pants (yes my friends, fashion victims still hadn’t coined the term “baggie”) bought in shops for obese people, or for those who were a little richer, in the few skate shops there were but at incredibly high prices. Pants that were rigorously

yellow or diarrhea-green, giant t-shirts and ugly checkered shirts, or corduroy pants cut at calf-length with white socks pulled up to the knees. These were skateboarders’ trends at the time. Apart from your skate buddies, who also dressed like you, even your mom made fun of you, and mom is always mom. You can imagine how much other people made fun of you. If you dared to wear overalls, you’d probably get your ass kicked, not only by hooligans, but even by your skate homies. But for once, they were both right.

Everything sucks. Nowadays you go to a spot and everybody says hi (or at least they pretend to do so). At the time, when you got to a spot, the locals gave you bad looks. In the best case scenario, a skater from outside was made fun of and mobbed... In 1992, the EMB of San Francisco was the place to be of the places to be, but you couldn’t even get close unless you knew the locals or were an exceptional skater.

For example, Jamie Thomas was not welcome at EMB. The general attitude of “everything sucks” made the whole scene sectarian and hostile, with verbal and physical fights. No, your trick didn’t really count, what counted was how you were dressed, who you knew, what sponsors you had (if you had any), and at the first mistake you were automatically kicked out. I can assure you that 94.8% of you who love the 90’s so much would’ve been kicked out of the spot for even mentioning a body varial.

Video. Your dad’s camera with a duck-taped, makeshift fisheye lens, and editing videos with two VCR recorders on VHS tapes copied over and over. No, it’s not the Anti-Hero video! You know the Palace videos with grainy footage, wrong time and dates, and everything else that is so cool right now? Well, in 1992 that was the standard of the few “local” videos in circulation, but it wasn’t a stylistic choice, we simply did not know how to remove the time and date!!!

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Skateboarding was practically dead. Between 1992 and 1994, after the late 80’s and early 90’s boom, with magazines, TV programs on skateboarding, and contests with 200 participants, skateboarding suddenly died. Distributors closed down, contests had just 30 skaters and magazines disappeared. Transworld was really thin and Thrasher was ugly to look at. Depression reigned supreme in the scene.

The place to be. Today Paris, London, Barcelona, and Berlin are the coolest cities where you can meet pro skaters all year long and cool things are constantly happening. Well, in the 90’s they were barely even on the skateboarding map! If you wanted to be at the center of the global skateboarding scene you had to go to S.F., L.A., or San Diego (depending on whether you skated street or vert), save up money for 6 months, buy an expensive ticket, get a VISA, find a friend to come with you, convince yourself that you knew how to speak

a brief glance

English, and fly for 15 hours to go skate at EMB, Fort Miley, Brown Marble, or Lockwood. In Europe, American pro tours only happened every 2 years, and if you wanted to go to one of the rare Euro contests, you had to endure a 12-hour drive by car. No, low-cost flights didn’t exist yet in Europe.

Sequence nightmare. Shooting a sequence of a 540 bigspin to late backfoot flip from a two-stair (look for Mark Heintzman’s TWS interview from 1992) was not only expensive, but literally impossible due to the equipment available at the time. Solution? Film tricks with a hi-8 camera, find a friend with a 4-head video recorder that had a decent still image, and photograph the trick frame by frame directly from the TV screen. Can you imagine the quality? Once cameras started shooting 8 frames per second, photographers had to deal with wasting rolls and rolls of film, while the skaters were stressed because they had to land the trick within 10 tries. A nightmare!

Bowl skating was for old guys, and concrete parks as we know them today didn’t even exist, not even in the US. If you found a ditch or anything that even vaguely resembled a tranny, you would daydream for hours of being in a pool in Cali, grinding the coping like Salba, only to realize that it was better to go back to your shitty little ledge since the transition sucked and you didn’t know how to skate it anyway.

Shoes. The skate shoe industry between 1992 and 1994 was completely different from what it is today, big names didn’t exist, skate shoe adverts on magazines were rare, and few skaters had real shoe sponsors. So for a few years, non-skate shoes like Adidas Gazelles or Superstars, Puma Clydes, or other Converse or Reebok models were the trend. These were shoe models that were obviously rare in Europe, so everybody would look for them in shoe shops all around town, hoping to find leftover stocks.

Stocks you would almost never find. At the time, we used to repair shoes with ShoeGoo, that apart from looking horrible, also made the shoe totally non-grippy!

I got 99 problems but a bitch ain’t one. Nowadays, the coolest chick at school probably wears a Thrasher t-shirt and gives you sweet looks every time you walk into the classroom (or she sends you the photo of her titties via WhatsApp while you’re busy doing your homework), you can probably see skateboarding in Vogue, and being a skater “is cool.” In the 90’s, skateboarding was for scumbags; skaters were as respected as junkies sleeping at the main train station. At least junkies have the excuse of being “problematic” and thus evoke compassion. You were just an idiot who dressed like shit and did a completely useless activity (hey guys, it still is useless, that’s what’s so cool about it). Ninety-eight percent of hot chicks wouldn’t even look at you. In reality, we were cool, it’s just that it took us 30 years to make them understand it.

The 90’s trend is nothing new, 10 years ago everyone was fixated with the 80’s and Dogtown, in 8 years we’ll probably see the resurgence of big shoes and tight pants (let’s hope not) and you could be the one writing an article similar to this one!

a brief glance

Right in the Night

Gav Coughlan_bs lipslide Belfast, {Northern Ireland} Photo Craig Dodds.

a brief glance

When I was a child I always wondered what it would have felt like to stay awake after my parents put me to bed, right after dinner. I wanted to know what happens in the waking dimension after you go to sleep and start dreaming. It was a mystery to me. When you’re small, you sleep so deeply and dream so vividly that your awakening is really that: an Awakening! It’s like passing from one reality to another, but somehow connected and overlapping. I remember the morning I awoke and knew immediately that that was the day I was going to land the first kickflip of my life! And I did! Because the night before I had dreamed exactly how to do it. And it happened exactly as it had in the dream, it felt like reliving the same moment twice, it was so strange and so real, both times. Which one was the dream and which was reality if they felt the same?

a brief glance

Years later, I would wait for my mom to fall asleep around 11 PM to sneak out of the house and go skate till 2 or 3 AM by myself. That’s when I would learn the most tricks, tricks I could never replicate when I was out skating with my friends during the day. How weird, it was like I was so much better when skating by myself in the middle of the night. It was like I had a more intimate relationship with my board and myself; there’s nobody around, it’s silent, the electric lighting is still, as are the shadows it produces, it is as if time has stopped. You become one with your board and it’s precisely what living in the present moment feels like. Eternal. Everything feels possible. You are in full control of yourself. Dream it, imagine it, do it! I snuck out every night like this for years and

my mom never really noticed. My teachers at school did though. I could barely keep my eyes open during some classes and was always thinking about skateboarding. So now I was daydreaming about it too! Skateboarding was taking up all of my attention, all of my time. I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think about anything else but progressing and learning something new every day, and pushing myself by myself every night. Dreaming things I had never done, and doing things I had never dreamed of doing. Skateboarding thrives on curiosity and playfulness, it embodies the same energy that drives children. It allows you to create magic in a world that does not believe in magic. We are street magicians performing tricks and living in a dream of our creation. w [ Jonathan Levin ]