Fearlessly Durable The 306, Foy’s signature model, is built to take all the abuse that Jamie can throw at it. Featuring a rubber underlay that reinforces the upper, for a shoe that lasts a really, really, really long time*.
Outsole: Insole Cushioning:
Cupsole Vulcanized
Extras:
FULL LENGTH RUBBER TOE REINFOR CEMENT
Signature endorsee:
*A really, really, really long time is a subjective measurement of time. © 2020, New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc., Boston, MA 02135. All rights reserved.
COVER STORY 2010 — 2020
This page: Backside Lipslide — 2010 Cover: Kickflip frontside boardslide — 2020
Photo: Davide Biondani
In May 2010, Fabio Montagner appeared on the first cover of a brief glance performing a backside lipslide on a double-tube rail. So for the 10-year commemorative issue we thought of re-doing the cover of the first issue of the mag with the same skater, at the same spot, but with a different trick. The Covid-19 pandemic down, but as soon as the a bit, we headed straight is located in one of the Italy where the virus
slowed everything lockdown softened for the spot, which areas in Northern hit the hardest.
reasons for being around. Of course, shooting skateboarding wasn’t one of them. Let’s just say our mission was a bit borderline and we risked a heavy fine, but we went during lunch time when the place was relatively quiet. The handrail looked definitely scarier than I remembered. After a quick warm up and some tries Fabio started getting close to doing the trick. The moment he almost landed it, the priest appeared from the main door of the church and kicked us out.
It was one of the very first days when you were only partially permitted to move about within the various regions of Italy with a selfcertification stating one of the several allowed
None of us really spot, so as soon in, Fabio gave it the damn trick.
THE FISHERMAN
FABIO MONTAGNER
wanted to return to this as the priest went back another try and nailed We couldn’t believe it!
INTERVIEW PAG. 66
EDITOR & CONCEPT Davide Biondani. davide@abriefglance.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Guido Bendotti. guido@abriefglance.com
TRANSLATIONS Jonathan Levin.
PHOTOGRAPHERS Brian Gaberman Spike Jonze Leo Sharp DVL
DESIGN Matteo Sorlini.
ASSISTANT EDITOR Andrew Zolin.
Davide Biondani Craig Dodds Sergio Pontillo Jonathan Mehring
GET ALL THE INFO 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 rights reserved. 2020
SK ATE Anniversary
NIKESB.COM/SHOPS
#SUPPORTYOURLOCAL
Donovon Piscopo
PHOTO: BEN COLEN
carhartt-wip.com @carharttwip
Max Palmer Picture — Henry Kingsford
A BRIEF GLANCE
ISSUE 60
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
READY TO PLAY
ISSUE 01
2010
P. 16
SICILY THE LAND OF THE SUN
ISSUE 02
2010
P. 17
NIKE SB TEXTURE TOUR
ISSUE 07
2011
P. 18
MADNESS AND DETERMINATION
ISSUE 09
2011
P. 19
THE ORDER OF THINGS
ISSUE 10
2011
P. 20
BLAST! THE BORDER TOUR
ISSUE 10
2011
P. 21
TRIANGLES
ISSUE 13
2012
P. 22
BRIAN LOTTI
ISSUE 14
2012
P. 23
LONDON RIDE
ISSUE 14
2012
P. 24
THE BRIDGE
ISSUE 14
2012
P. 25
VENICE LIKE A CHARMING WOMAN
ISSUE 17
2013
P. 26
IN THE RAIN
ISSUE 18
2013
P. 27
JOHN CARDIEL
ISSUE 20
2013
P. 28
DC PUSHING TOGETHER
ISSUE 21
2013
P. 29
VANS IN CYPRUS
SPECIAL ISSUE
2014
P. 30
FIAT 500
ISSUE 24
2014
P. 31
BRIAN GABERMAN PHOTOGRAPHER
ISSUE 24
2014
P. 32
MUÒRICA
ISSUE 24
2014
P. 33
EXERCISES IN REVOLUTION – MAXXI
ISSUE 28
2014
P. 34
WHITE MARBLE
ISSUE 28
2014
P. 35
ELBA THE UNTOUCHED ISLAND
ISSUE 30
2015
P. 36
CHILDREN OF BELFAST
ISSUE 31
2015
P. 37
ISLE A SUNNY DAY
ISSUE 33
2015
P. 38
GINO IANNUCCI
ISSUE 34
2015
P. 39
CINECITTÀ ON WHEELS
ISSUE 35
2016
P. 40
VANS DUSTY LINES
SPECIAL ISSUE
2016
P. 41
SIMPLY SUPERLATIVE
ISSUE 35
2016
P. 42
TAKE ME TO THE MOON
ISSUE 37
2016
P. 43
BLAST! IN L’ AQUILA
ISSUE 38
2016
P. 44
FROM PARIS & NYC TO MILANO
ISSUE 38
2016
P. 45
A CONVERSATION WITH ALEX OLSON
ISSUE 38
2016
P. 46
THE SALMAN REISSUE PROJECT
ISSUE 40
2016
P. 47
THE MAKING OF BILLY
ISSUE 41
2017
P. 48
THE 90’S SUCKED
ISSUE 42
2017
P. 49
ISLE THE CINEMATOGRAPHER PROJECT
ISSUE 42
2017
P. 50
CARAMELLO
ISSUE 42
2017
P. 51
A CHAT WITH LEO ROMERO
ISSUE 43
2017
P. 52
A SECRET ESCAPE TO THE FIVE LANDS
ISSUE 44
2017
P. 53
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY
ISSUE 44
2017
P. 54
50
ISSUE 50
2018
P. 55
THE GREAT WAR
ISSUE 50
2018
P. 56
UE’
ISSUE 53
2019
P. 57
PANE, AMORE E...
ISSUE 54
2019
P. 58
PROMENADE
ISSUE 55
2019
P. 59
GET YOUR SHINE ON
ISSUE 56
2019
P. 60
UNDERDOG
ISSUE 57
2019
P. 61
ESCAPING CENTRALE
ISSUE 57
2019
P. 62
THE RED LIPS PROJECT
ISSUE 58
2019
P. 63
ASEPTIC COVID-19
ISSUE 59
2020
P. 64
AN EXPERIENCED MAN
ISSUE 59
2020
P. 65
FABIO MONTAGNER — TEN YEARS LATER
ISSUE 60
2020
P. 66
A BRIEF GLANCE
2010
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
READY TO PLAY JULIEN BACHELIER WALLRIDE NOLLIE OUT
PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI
The Antiz guys were in Milano to film for their “Hobo” video and we spent the whole week together skating, shooting photos, and filming. It was Samu Karvonen’s first trip with the boys. He is now a veteran of the Antiz team, and they’ve since put out an amazing amount of footage over the years. Time flies.
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ISSUE #01
ISSUE 60
2010
SICILY THE LAND OF THE SUN DANNY GALLI SWITCH CROOKS This was an independent mission to Sicily with Danny Galli, Luca Crestani, Davide Cattaneo, and Andrew Zolin to visit and skate with Mauro Caruso. It was winter and the volcano of Mount Etna was covered in snow. The trees were full of oranges and you could skate in short sleeves under a warm sun all day long. Danny’s switch crooks is one of the ten sick
ISSUE #02
PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI tricks that went down in less than 20 minutes on the flat rail at Fontane Bianche. I had to be super quick when changing the rolls of my Hasselblad to avoid missing some gems. This was by far one of the most productive weeks I’ve ever experienced while shooting skateboarding.
17
A BRIEF GLANCE
2011
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
NIKE SB TEXTURE TOUR MARCO LAMBERTUCCI FRONTSIDE KICKFLIP In 2011 we partnered with Nike SB for the introduction of their new Italian team by taking part in their “Texture Tour” project, which consisted of a series of tours to the respective rider’s cities. We visited their regions and skated their spots to find out more about where they grew up. The team consisted of Mauro Caruso, Jacopo Carozzi, Marco Lambertucci,
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI Luca Doneddu, and Luca Crestani. We went to Sicily first, then Milan, the Adriatic Coast, and Sardinia for the last mission. A Nike SB international rider was invited on every trip, so Jerome Campbell, Dani Lebron, Maxime Geronzi, and Korahn Gayle joined us at the different destinations. It was the first big project we worked on for the mag.
ISSUE #07
ISSUE 60
2011
MADNESS AND DETERMINATION GIORGIO ZATTONI FRONTSIDE NOSEGRIND TAILGRAB “Remember when you were a kid and you used to watch videos like Ban This or Hokus Pokus and would dream of doing the tricks the pros did with those huge 80’s boards? Today, using the boards and doing the tricks I used to see in those videos is like reliving that dream.” Giorgio Zattoni represents the essence of determination in skateboarding: at 15 years old he went to California by himself to pursue his dream of skating and becoming pro for Powell Peralta and Vans. He was the second person in the world to land the 900, at his own vert ramp in Italy in front of some friends, and he is still pushing his limits and progressing constantly. He does everything in his life so that he can keep skating. We shot photos for many, many years together, and spent 6 years unsuccessfully trying to shoot the 900.
ISSUE #09
PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI
When he finally landed it, it was like conquering a nightmare for him. It represented the achievement of a goal he had desired and fought for beyond all logic, and which he pursued with a motivation bordering madness. After that, we didn’t shoot a single photo for something like 7 years, until the day we shot a full interview in just a few hours. “Dave, I can’t skate, I’m too excited,” was what Giorgio told me when we met, and I can’t hide the fact that I too was too excited to shoot after all that time. In a way, those photos represent small fragments or tokens of absolute talent and dedication of an extraordinary athlete. They wrap up 22 years of skateboarding, passion, sweat, joy, pain, happiness, and determination, as well as 22 years of the lives of two people, two friends.
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A BRIEF GLANCE
2011
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
THE ORDER OF THINGS SIMONE BERTOZZI BONELESS We skated this famous water park in Italy thanks to the manager who accompanied us inside the place. There wasn’t much to skate there, and after walking around for half an hour the guy had to leave us for 5 minutes. We were lucky enough to spot this huge metal water slide and literally forced Simone to do a trick right there and then. There was no time to warm up,
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI so Simo blasted four bonelesses above the line and we literally got the shot one second before the guy came back. We didn’t tell him of course, and a few months later he saw the cover of the mag and got a bit upset since we were specifically not allowed to skate the water slide. But he liked the shot! One of our favorite covers of the mag.
ISSUE #10
ISSUE 60
2011
BLAST! THE BORDER TOUR LUCA CRESTANI KICKFLIP WALLRIDE Blast distribution used to organize “The Border” tour every year, consisting of one-week-long missions spent exploring and skating spots located along the Italian border. We went to Slovenia, France, and Switzerland over the years. They were always fun and very
ISSUE #10
PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI productive trips. The photo below was shot in Imperia, close to the Italo-French border, where we found this abandoned swimming pool that luckily, also happened to be empty! Luca Crestani showed us how to skate it.
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A BRIEF GLANCE
2012
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
TRIANGLES CHRIS JONES OLLIE Ever since the first issue, Leo Sharp has been contributing his amazing photography to our mag. One day, he sent over a series of random images. While we were trying to find an idea for an article
22
PHOTO LEO SHARP based on these shots, we accidentally noticed there was a triangle present in every one. So we decided to run the article with the title “Triangles” without any text. I still love this one after all these years. Thanks Leo.
ISSUE #13
ISSUE 60
2012
BRIAN LOTTI BRIAN LOTTI FRONTSIDE OLLIE I started skateboarding in 1988 and have always considered Brian Lotti one of the most stylish skateboarders in history. Twenty-four years later I published a photograph of him that had been shot by Spike Jonze in 1988, on the cover of a skateboard magazine. I was breathless. Thanks to Andy Jenkins, Spike, and Brian Lotti for that. “I got a call one day from Frank Atwater, a really sick pool and ditch skater who, like myself, also rode for Gullwing trucks. Frank told me to pick him up and that we should go to skate Henderson ditch because these guys from Homeboy mag were in town and wanted to shoot some skaters for an article they were making about skateboarding in Las Vegas. On the way to the ditch, Frank kept talking about some photographer named “Spike.” Frank and I skated the ditch with Andy Jenkins, Spike Jonze, and Mark Lewman, and Spike shot a bunch of photos. About two months later I got a big manilla envelope in the mail with
ISSUE #14
PHOTO SPIKE JONZE 2 copies of the Homeboy magazine with the Vegas article, and Andy Jenkins had also included a rad B&W print of a frontside ollie that wasn’t run. I remember being psyched to get that photo, and then a funny thing happened when I went to California a few months later and ran into Jenkins and the Homeboy guys. I was night skating with some friends outside the tradeshow in Long Beach, and was wearing the same Gullwing shirt, black pants, and Vision Street Wear shoes I had been wearing for the shoot at the Henderson Ditch. Jenkins popped out of the van, gave me a high five, then noticed I had the same exact kit on as the last time he had seen me. He looked at me, laughed out loud, then turned back to the van and said to the other guys, “Look, he’s wearing the exact same thing he wore last time!” and laughed again. He got back in the van and they sped off. The good kits were harder to come by back in the day, so if you found something that worked, you rocked it a lot for a while! (Brian Lotti).
23
A BRIEF GLANCE
2012
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
LONDON RIDE NEIL SMITH TRANSFER TO FRONTSIDE TAILSLIDE London has always been a cutting-edge city for everything, and is definitely one of the most important metropolises in the world under many aspects.
24
PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI
Twenty-twelve was the year of the Olympics and, as always happens on such occasions, external events provide extraordinary opportunities for the proliferation of new architecture. Innovation was a very important concept for London that year and was pretty evident in structures such as The Shard, the new Heron Tower, and the Orbit, for example. The idea behind the London Ride article was also strongly related to the concept of innovation, and we spent eight days visiting the city, skating its spots between one rain shower and another with the Italy and UK Nike SB teams. Special guests Wieger and Colin Kennedy were also present.
ISSUE #14
ISSUE 60
2012
THE BRIDGE PHIL ZWIJSEN OLLIE Bridges can offer interesting things to skate, such as banks, transitions, hips, or other strange obstacles, so we decided to run a full article with photos shot exclusively under or close to a bridge. We asked different photographers if they had shots that would fit the theme we had in mind.
ISSUE #14
PHOTO DVL We then checked our own archives, and started looking for locations and contacting skaters for different shooting missions. Our friend and great artist A. Roman. P drew the double spread opener of the article by hand. It was one of the funnest projects to work on.
25
A BRIEF GLANCE
2013
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
VENICE LIKE A CHARMING WOMAN ALVIN FRANCESCATO FRONTSIDE NOSEGRIND Venice is a city where opposites meet. It occupies a space between truth and falseness, beauty and ugliness, water and land, love and hate. Myth and reality merge in this place that is characterized by its islands, canals, bridges, narrow streets, boats, costumed characters, gondoliers, and pigeons. Venice can make you feel lost constantly, but at the same time, it can also make you feel like you are in a familiar place. It’s disorienting, stunning, and illusory… it’s like a charming woman. Shooting a skate article in Venice was surely very interesting, but it wasn’t easy to get things done during our missions. We’d leave early in the morning and return late
26
PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI at night, walking all day long and exploring every hidden corner of the city in search of something to skate. Our expectations were betrayed by the lack of skateable surfaces, but exploration is part of the fun and skateboarding is a generator of ideas, so little by little we found what we were looking for. On a side note, the idea was to shoot the article in the city’s classic, foggy winter weather. We went there four times, but instead found a blue sky and a bright sun on every mission, except on the day we shot the cover on the hubba with Alvin. (Andrew Zolin).
ISSUE #17
ISSUE 60
2013
IN THE RAIN NICO NOVALI OLLIE UP TO KICKFLIP After 3 weeks of non-stop rain and with more than 100 pages of a skateboard mag to fill with content, I was trying to find some ideas for a photo shoot, so I said to myself, “Fuck it, let’s go skate in the rain!” Some ideas came up quickly on how to work it out, but what I wasn’t so sure of was whether I would find someone foolish enough to follow me in this crazy idea. I started making some calls, explaining to my friends what I had in mind, and to my utter surprise, I received positive reactions and a willingness to participate
ISSUE #18
PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI by all the guys. We met up at a spot a few hours later and couldn’t believe my eyes when at least ten skaters showed up for the mission: from 16-year-old kids to 40-year-old dogs with children at home. Everyone was smiling and happy to skate in the rain and no one was worried of getting their board and socks wet or of falling into a puddle. One of the funnest and most memorable skate missions I have ever been on. I will definitely keep the board I skated with that day.
27
A BRIEF GLANCE
2013
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
JOHN CARDIEL PORTRAIT PARIS Cardiel is the living definition of skateboarding. He is one of the most energetic, positive, and incredible people I have ever met. Over the years I have heard and read about the energy he infuses, both when you see him skating in videos, as well as when you meet him in person, and I can totally confirm it’s true!! Cardiel has a positivity that he spreads enthusiastically.
28
PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI He loves skateboarding and life like few people I know, and when he speaks he expresses the excitement of somebody who feels lucky to just be here. Interviewing him for the first time during the Vans Downtown Showdown 2013 in Paris was one of the most intense experiences of my 30-year career as a skate journalist. All hail Cardiel!
ISSUE #20
ISSUE 60
2013
DC PUSHING TOGETHER NIKY TYLER HOWELLS BACKSIDE NOSEGRIND The DC Pushing Together tour was a joint collaboration between DC Italy, DC UK, and a brief glance that brought together the two teams to skate for a week in Italy and another week in the UK. After the first part of the tour to Italy, the second part was scheduled to take place in the UK, and when I saw the places we were going to visit I couldn’t believe it: Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham,
ISSUE #21
PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI Bristol, and Cardiff. Scotland, England, and Wales all in one week! Fantastic! What better chance to visit all those places in such a short time, and travel across the United Kingdom from north to south? It ended up being an incredible week, probably the least rainy week of the last 10 years in the UK. We skated a lot of spots, the company was great and we had lots of laughs. Seriously, what more could we ask for?
29
A BRIEF GLANCE
2014
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
VANS IN CYPRUS EDO MAULE OLLIE In 2014, Vans invited us to follow their tour to Cyprus with the Italian team plus two guests from the Euro team, namely Flo Marfaign and Kris Vile. It is an interesting destination when it comes to nature and its culture. It has dry weather and plenty of skate spots that perfectly satisfied our hunger for skateboarding, and is split in two politically: the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI of Northern Cyprus which is considered de facto an occupied territory by the international community. A United Nations buffer zone separates the two republics, with mine fields along the border and UN military forces surveilling it. A wall literally splits Nicosia, the main city, in two, making it the last city in the world divided by a wall. You need a passport to cross the border.
SPECIAL ISSUE
ISSUE 60
2014
FIAT 500 ALE MARTORIATI OLLIE On a Monday morning in the EUR district of southern Rome, we stopped the heavy traffic of three busy streets to shoot Ale Martoriati olleing his own vintage Fiat 500. As I was shooting, behind me there was a line of cars
ISSUE #24
PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI and at least three hundred people watching. It’s crazy that the place looks deserted in the shot. It was five of us in total, including Ale who was trying to land the ollie. This photo was on the cover of issue #24.
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A BRIEF GLANCE
2014
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
BRIAN GABERMAN PHOTOGRAPHER ALEX OLSON KICKFLIP If you ask ten skateboard photographers who their favorite colleagues are, eight out of ten will probably mention Brian Gaberman. For years I bought Skateboarder Mag just to look at his photos, and the moment I’d get home from the newsstand I would avidly flip through the pages looking for his articles and then absorb his images for hours. His photographs have a superior flavor and are extremely fascinating for their
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PHOTO BRIAN GABERMAN details and shades of color, and for the sharpness and quality of the black and white hand-printed images. They make you dream. Interviewing him for issue 24 and working on some of the iconic photos he’s shot over the years was a truly magical experience. Thanks Brian for your photographs and for your inspiration throughout the years.
ISSUE #24
ISSUE 60
2014
MUÒRICA MAURO CARUSO BACKSIDE SMITH GRIND Modica is a small town in the South of Sicily, an incredible place that captivates you with its labyrinth of tiny alleys and staircases winding up the steep hills teeming with small houses made of white rock, that close off the valley as if in a crude, but warm hug. “Modica is an unexpected wonder... It has a bizarre, unique effect on people, almost surreal, as if it is seen through the deforming prism of your dreams. It’s like an immense phantasmagorical edifice straight out of a fairytale, which instead of being made of floors, is made of layers of houses.”
ISSUE #24
PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI Also known as Muòrica in Sicilian dialect, it immediately struck us as an ideal setting in which to include skateboarding in such an ancient location. Truly astonishing. Mauro Caruso was the perfect dude for this project, because apart from being from Sicily and living there, he loves to skate strange things and isn’t intimidated by rough grounds. He’s curious, motivated, and always ready to travel and dive headfirst into crazy and interesting projects. He made it happen in the best way possible and the video by Giuliano Severini is a gem. It’s without a doubt one of the favorite projects we’ve worked on.
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A BRIEF GLANCE
2014
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
EXERCISES IN REVOLUTION – MAXXI SYLVAIN TOGNELLI PUPECKI GRIND As part of the “Open Museum Open City” exhibition at the MAXXI, Rome’s contemporary art museum, French skater and artist Raphael Zarka participated in October 2014 in a three-day performance project called “Exercises In Revolution.” It examined the theme of games and rules, and featured a wooden replica of Tony Smith’s sculpture from 1962 titled “Free Ride,” a very skateable piece of early Minimal Art. For the very first time the space in front of the MAXXI Museum was open to skateboarders who were allowed to skate the sculpture and thus became an active part
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI of the artistic performance. Definitely a “Free Ride” inside the museum. Carhartt fully supported Raphael’s project and invited two of its riders, Sylvain Tognelli and Bram De Cleem, to take part in the event. The MAXXI Museum is an amazing, almost alienlike place in the heart of the most historical city in the world. It was definitely a fascinating experience to see skateboarding inside a venue where it is normally forbidden and see skaters merging with the architecture of the museum, bringing a special energy to the event.
ISSUE #28
ISSUE 60
2014
WHITE MARBLE MATTEO FRANCESCHIN HALF CAB CROOKS When it comes to what a skate spot is made of, marble is every skater’s favorite material. The white marble from the quarries of Carrara, in Italy, is of premium quality and grinds and slides, is hard and smooth, and lasts forever. It’s definitely the most ideal material for skateboarding, and it is mostly on this material that
ISSUE #28
PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI Roman skateboarding was born and developed, from the 70’s up to the present day, when most of the marble spots built over 80 years ago are in excellent condition and still being shredded. We spent a few days in the Eternal City and shot an entire article at spots made of beautiful, white marble.
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A BRIEF GLANCE
2015
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
ELBA THE UNTOUCHED ISLAND ALVIN FRANCESCATO FRONTSIDE KICKFLIP Elba is a beautiful island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, across from Tuscany. It is a paradise where you can enjoy a vacation immersed in nature and revel in the beauty of a spectacular sea. It’s not exactly the first place that comes to mind when organizing a skateboard tour. The idea behind this trip was to explore the island in search of something to skate. Being untouched,
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI we didn’t exactly know what to expect, apart from a couple spots I had seen on vacation a few years earlier. For the most part, our trip was a complete incognito. Many thanks to Jacopo Picozza, Alvin Francescato, Pietro Bontà, and Andrew Zolin for having believed in this mission and for the hard work they put in.
ISSUE #30
ISSUE 60
2015
CHILDREN OF BELFAST HEROIN DEALERS
I’ve always been fascinated by Belfast for its history, roughness, underground skate scene, and taste. I don’t know why, but I’ve always wanted to publish an article about Belfast and Northern Ireland. In 2015, we got in touch with photographer Craig Dodds, who is from
ISSUE #31
PHOTO CRAIG DODDS Belfast, and we asked him to shoot the entire project. Within a few weeks he sent over both a series of sick images documenting the street life and skate scene, and a strong text that made “Children Of Belfast” one of our favorite articles published in the mag.
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A BRIEF GLANCE
2015
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
ISLE A SUNNY DAY NICK JENSEN BACKSIDE NOSEBLUNT SLIDE The idea of starting Isle Skateboards came about during a skate session at Kings Cross, London, and it was sunny that day. It’s probably not a coincidence that it was born that way: skateboarding, friendship, and good taste are three distinguishing characteristics of Isle. From its beginning the company has always maintained
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI a low profile, and in September of 2015 we spent a few days skating in Rome and Naples with Nick Jensen, Sylvain Tognelli, and Tom Knox during the very last days of filming for their first sick video, Vase. It’s always great to spend time with good friends.
ISSUE #33
ISSUE 60
2015
GINO IANNUCCI GINO PUSHING IN NYC There are very few people who have left an indelible, eternal mark in history. Among them, artists, painters, poets, and geniuses. The same thing holds true for our world: very few people have forever left their mark within it. There is only one thing that makes the difference in skateboarding, and it’s definitely not the number of stairs you can ollie or the number of tricks you can do. The difference lies in how you do things. We call it style, and when talking about style in skateboarding there are no objections, one of the very first names that comes to mind is Luigi Giovanni Marco Iannucci, better known as Gino.
ISSUE #34
PHOTO JONATHAN MEHRING The story behind Gino’s interview is pretty curious. One day we got an email from NYC-based photographer Jonathan Mehring asking us if we were interested in using a photo of Gino. Otherwise, he would have posted it on Instagram. A photo of Gino Iannucci? Are you kidding? Of course we were interested! We asked Jonathan if he also had a portrait and told him that it would be cool to ask Gino a few questions. He didn’t have one, but would try to ask him if he’d be down, although he didn’t hide his skepticism because of Gino’s notorious elusiveness. The next day, Jonathan told us that Gino was hyped for the interview and keen to shoot some portraits. Wow! The weather forecast for the following day was really bad, but we thought it would be sick to have some photos of Gino pushing around in the rain in NYC. Two days later we received a series of rad photos and 15 long answers. It all happened in just three days, and we couldn’t believe it. Thanks Gino, you are the best!
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A BRIEF GLANCE
2016
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
CINECITTÀ ON WHEELS NICO BROMO FRONTSIDE FEEBLE In the summer of 2016, our friends at Murder Skateboarding teamed up with a longtime friend who used to skate in the late 80’s and who now works as a director for the film industry. He produced a special project inside Cinecittà, the famous movie studios in Rome, also known as “The Dream Factory” where some of the most important films in history have been made, such as Gangs of New York, Mission Impossible II, and Once Upon a Time in America, just to name a few. Cinecittà on Wheels is a small journey
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI to a dimension located between reality and fantasy, where time and space blend, and gives back a completely different perspective of Cinecitta’ itself. This engaging project represents a marriage between film-making and skateboarding and was brilliantly produced. Definitely not something to be taken for granted considering the modus operandi and unwritten rules of the skateboarding world, that had to conform to the requirements and complexities of film-production.
ISSUE #35
ISSUE 60
2016
VANS DUSTY LINES SIMONE VERONA HURRICANE The idea behind the Vans Dusty Lines project was to travel around the country in search of abandoned places to explore and skate. With just a vague plan and no clear idea about what to expect, the Italian Vans team ventured into this new journey to six different magical places: a ghost town, a mental hospital a cement factory, an Olympic park, a manufactory,
SPECIAL ISSUE
PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI and a post office… All of them abandoned of course, and most of them destroyed and absolutely desolate. A sense of distress, a nonexistant flatground, bearings stuck with dust, the risk of falling into the void as almost happened at the cement factory, being crushed by a collapsing wall… or a constantly dirty griptape… are all things that made this trip unforgettable.
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2016
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
SIMPLY SUPERLATIVE ENIZ FAZLIOV CROOKS POP OVER What should I say about Eniz? I’m not sure there is much to say about him actually... I’ve known him for 7 years or more. He’s not really that interesting, he’s really quite boring in all reality. The thing that makes him so boring is that he really just skates, chills with friends, has a couple beers and that’s that.
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI He’s never trying to be something or someone he is not, which these days is rare, I would say. He’s so damn real he would rather say nothing than give a shit about all that pointless shit that’s going on. His skating speaks for itself and that’s all you need to know about him. Dallas Rockvam.
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TAKE ME TO THE MOON JACOPO CAROZZI FRONTSIDE KICKFLIP This giant monument is located in the city of Macerata, on the east coast of Italy; its surface is made of rough, irregular concrete and is almost impossible to roll in on with a skateboard. Luca Crestani showed me this place many, many years ago, when we shot a few random
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI photos there. I’ve always wanted to shoot an article on “The Moon.” So one day we went there with Jacopo Carozzi, Aref Koushesh, and of course Luca Crestani, and I shot one photo of each skater for the article. What a location!
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2016
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
BLAST! IN’ L’ AQUILA FILIPPO CILIA GAP TO FRONTSIDE SMITH On the night of April 6th, 2009, at 3:32am, the city of L’Aquila was hit by a 5.9-magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale that leveled the city center, including various neighborhoods and surrounding towns, causing 309 casualties. Seven years later, the city was still a construction site and its historic center was still largely uninhabited. The construction of a concrete skatepark gave new hope to the local skaters and became of primary importance for many young people. We spent seven days skating in L’Aquila with the Blast! squad.
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI “Even more absurd is still seeing nearby neighborhoods with collapsed buildings, seven years later. Rooms are still visible, exactly as they were when they were hastily abandoned, with everyday objects lying around, like clothes, or open closets, and even whole bedrooms. It’s kind of embarrassing, like sticking your nose into other peoples’ intimacy. It just shoves in your face the real scale of the tragedy, a feeling that no TV footage will ever be able to fully convey.”
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FROM PARIS & NYC TO MILANO SEAN PABLO BACKSIDE SMITH GRIND This trip to Milano with Cons was part of a larger project called “The Relay,� which took the team to Italy first and then to Germany. We had the pleasure of documenting the Italian leg of the tour for one week. There were 3 skaters from NYC present, Ben Kadow, Sage Elsesser, and Sean Pablo; 4 skaters from Paris, Kevin Rodrigues, Greg Cuadrado, Paul Grund, and Roman Gonzales; and last but not least Kenny Anderson from LA.
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI We spent most of the time in Milano Centrale, but on one rainy day we tried to find shelter and took the train from Milano to Brescia, exiting the train station from the rear and pushing to the spot where we were lucky enough to find the gates open, making it possible to skate. After a few hours, a pale sun started peeking through the clouds and Sean skated this rail, landing two or three backside smith grinds.
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2016
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
A CONVERSATION WITH ALEX OLSON PORTRAIT MILANO
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For the 917 x Nike SB collaboration launch Alex Olson was in Milano and we had a one and a half hour chat with him. A pleasant and interesting conversation about music, his great passion for DJing, what it’s like to live in New York City, and his 917 & Bianca Chandon projects.
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2016
THE SALMAN REISSUE PROJECT MATTIA TURCO SWITCH OLLIE FABIO MONTAGNER FRONTSIDE BLUNTSLIDE JACOPO PICOZZA OVER TO BACKSIDE TAILSLIDE
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI Hailing from San Jose, Salman Agah was one of the most influential skateboarders of the early 90’s. He was an undisputed pioneer of switch stance skateboarding. For its 50th anniversary, Vans released a limited edition reissue of his shoe. We decided to have them tested by three skaters who in 1994 were just born or barely able to tie their shoes. They redid some tricks exactly as they had appeared in some of Salman’s most famous 90’s ads. Style is timeless. Our graphic designer at the time, Massimo “Bod” Ciceri, did an amazing job.
A BRIEF GLANCE
2017
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
THE MAKING OF BILLY PIETRO BONTÀ OLLIE Filming three lines with your friends on a Saturday afternoon is super fun and very trendy, but filming a proper video part is completely different. It’s always an intense experience, marked by enthusiasm, dedication, and an infinite dose of patience on one hand, and by frustration, tears, and anger on the other. Pietro Bontà and Andrew Zolin spent a year and a half
PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI trying to work around their job commitments and responsibilities in order to meet up and film for “Billy,” their new video project. We followed them on some of their missions and near the end of the project, we sat down with them for a nice chat to find out about their experience of filming a whole video part together.
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2017
THE 90’S SUCKED JACOPO ALABISIO BACKSIDE LIPSLIDE Baggie pants, oversize t-shirts, and bleached hair. Even your grandma knows that the 90’s are hot right now! It’s cool to see people dressed like we were back in 1993, with the only difference that the same clothes that make you look so cool on Vogue today, back then made you seem ugly even in the eyes of your own mother. If you think that sporting huge pants, shitty hairstyles, and horrible sweatshirts is the newest thing in the world, then keep in mind that between 1991 and 1994 it was the standard in our beloved world
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI of 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, for the most part we can say that the 90’s, or the very early 90’s absolutely sucked! We were there, we can tell you. The article features 10 reasons why the 90’s sucked for us skateboarders!
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2017
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
THE CINEMATOGRAPHER PROJECT TOM KNOX OLLIE OVER BACKSIDE NOSEGRIND The Cinematographer Project is a series of video projects that Transworld hands over to the best filmers of the moment to create edits according to their personal vision of skateboarding. The first Cinematographer Project came out in 1997, the second one in 2012, and the third one came out in 2016. Our friends at Isle Skateboards invited us to follow them to Naples during the filming of their Cinematographer section for the 2016 edition. The line-up was special: Tom Knox, Chris Jones, Jon Nguyen, Sylvain Tognelli, Casper Brooker, and Nick Jensen. Jacob Harris is one of the most active and prolific filmers of the last years and his concept was really brilliant: to redo some tricks
PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI
that have already come out in the past in the boys’ respective video parts, at similar spots. That’s where the mirror theme as an ever-present element in the video comes from. It highlights the concept of specularity. It was so fun to go around the city, pushing with this huge, super dangerous mirror for seven days, ha ha. The craziest thing is that the mirror managed to survive intact until the end of the tour! At the end of the week everyone was sad that the trip was over. There were some very emotional goodbyes, which is something that doesn’t happen often on skateboard tours.
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CARAMELLO OLLIE LOCK GAP TO BACKSIDE LIPSLIDE The “Caramello” tour was a sort of “welcome to the Cons team” for Mauro Caruso and Pietro Bontà. It took place in the lovely city of Lecce, in the Puglia region, located at the very heel of the Italian boot. The crew was really mixed and it was fun to meet old and new friends coming from different countries, such as 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.
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI The idea behind this tour was to explore the city on our boards in search of interesting things to skate. So we pushed around Lecce from 10am to 7pm every day, and since the city is not exactly a modern metropolis with smooth sidewalks, but rather a historical city with hardly any skate-friendly ground, the 15 kilometers we covered every day really tested us physically (especially those of us with heavy photo bags!). But this also allowed us to discover interesting and original spots.
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2017
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
A CHAT WITH LEO ROMERO PORTRAIT NAPLES It’s a random Saturday morning, and you’re ready to go skate the classic weekend spot with your friends. While you’re driving down the highway, you receive a text message saying, “Hi, this is Leo Romero, I got your number from Davide, I’m in Naples, do you feel like meeting up to go skate?” You read the message twice and think it’s a joke, but it isn’t a joke, and an hour later you’re at the spot with one of your favorite pros.
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PHOTO SERGIO PONTILLO After a conversation with him over a slice of pizza and a beer, I discovered that his favorite video is Blueprint’s Lost and Found, and that he often watches it before going skating. So you realize that in the end there’s not so much of a difference between a top pro and a random guy like you... well... apart from the tricks, of course, ha ha ha. Leo is the best. (Mario Torre).
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A SECRET ESCAPE TO THE FIVE LANDS JACOPO PICOZZA PUSH The Five Lands, on the north-western coast of Italy, is an area made up of five small fishing towns that can only be reached by railway. A skate trip there is certainly very different from the classic tours where the landscape often consists of modern cities, parking lots, or abandoned industrial areas. We left not really knowing what to expect or whether we would be able to skate anything, but the mood was unequivocal:
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI if we didn’t find the perfect set of stairs, that meant we’d just go to the beach that day, or on a boat trip, or maybe to a wine bar to drink some Sciacchetrà or Vermentino. And if we couldn’t produce enough material... well, that would just be too bad, wouldn’t it?! But thanks to Jacopo Picozza though, we came back with some really good shots that were published in issue 44.
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2017
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY MATTIA TURCO FRONTSIDE WALLRIDE Mattia is part of the generation that exploded in Italy towards the early 2000’s. It was a strange period during which new talents were born that skated in an aggressive and complete manner. Mattia is the guy that comes to mind every time I think about “wasted talent” and it makes me mad. He knows this very well, because in my distorted view of the world, with a talent like his, there’s nothing else you should do but skate and earn a living from skateboarding. After seeing him on and off for a few years, during which he dedicated himself extensively to his art and to surviving in an expensive city like Milan,
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI Mattia started focusing on skateboarding again... and maybe this time he is finally fully expressing his potential, because the tricks you see here don’t follow any trends. He has always skated like this, spontaneously and without planning his tricks, just letting his imagination roam freely without limiting the potential of a spot by what’s currently considered cool, and especially by skating spots that aren’t even spots. His incredible pop and talent speak for themselves. Mattia is a skateboarding artist, and art can’t be tied down.
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2018
50 GIORGIO ZATTONI FLYING OVER SIMONE BERTOZZI When I started skateboarding, people over 30 were considered too old to be doing it. Simone Bertozzi and Giorgio Zattoni started skating at the same time more or less, in 1987 and 1988, respectively. They have never stopped skating since then, and in the meantime Giorgio has become one of the top professional skateboarders in the world, while Simone keeps skating for himself with his friends.
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI How many 40-plus-year-olds do you know that can shred a 6-meter vert ramp with a sick double like this one?! This shot couldn’t end up anywhere else but on the cover of our 50th issue. The fact that they are two of our best friends and also two of our favorite skateboarders makes us even happier. For the record, they were the only skaters that had already had another cover on a brief glance.
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2018
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
THE GREAT WAR FABIO MONTAGNER BACKSIDE KICKFLIP To commemorate the centennial of the end of the First World War, also known as “The Great War,� we visited some of the historical locations of the Italian front, where some of the fiercest and bloodiest battles took place. One hundred years later, what remained of this war are numerous constructions: forts, pillboxes, trenches, mule tracks, and roads, nearly all constructed in places surrounded by nature, where peace now reigns sovereign. A few years ago, as I strolled through some woods on a visit to an Italian fort, I noticed that on its roof there were some armored domes made
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI of rusted iron that once housed 149mm cannons. Having been restored in recent years, they looked very much like humps or speed bumps. Their shape was obviously very inviting in the eyes of any skater, and the setting in which this fort was set immediately caused me to fantasize about all the possible lines, photos and footage. So we started going on missions to places where the fighting had concentrated, in search of something to skate such as the Dolomites region, the Asiago Plateau, and the Karst region along the banks of the Isonzo River.
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2019
UE’ ALE BENEDETTI BANK TO BANK FRONTSIDE OLLIE TRANSFER Every time I skate at the Centro Direzionale I see these diamond-pattern metal sheets propped against some cement blocks that the locals use like banks or kickers. They are rough, rusty, and heavy, but very photogenic. I’ve always wondered whether it would be possible to do a transfer from block to block. On the very last day
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI of an eight-day trip to Naples, I asked Ale if he was down to try something at this spot… he cleared the gap with a sick frontside ollie that brought me straight back to 1996. Only one second after shooting this photo I already knew it would be the cover of the new issue.
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2019
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
PANE, AMORE E… EDOARDO OLIVETTI ROLL ON 5-0 GRIND “Pane, amore e…” is a film from 1955 that takes place in Sorrento. The Costiera Amalfitana and Sorrentina is an incredible place, with a series of small and large towns overlooking the sea, some of which are located right near the beach, while others still are perched up on vertical rock walls, above breathtakingly beautiful bays. Amalfi, Positano, and Sorrento are its most famous locations to which people travel to from all over the world, and from which they leave for the island of
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI Capri, situated just across the water. And what does the Costiera have to do with a skate tour? Absolutely nothing, ha ha! That was exactly the interesting part of the mission, searching for spots to skate without knowing what to expect in a place that you know has very little “friendly terrain” to offer. But we have never liked simple things. For the 15th anniversary of Plazaboards, Mario took the whole squad on this fantastic mission.
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PROMENADE DAVIDE HOLZKNECHT BACKSIDE SMITH GRIND When the New Balance Numeric boys asked me to go to the South of France for a tour I immediately replied affirmatively without hesitating. I could already imagine myself immersed in the “belle vie” of the incredible Côte d’Azur, sipping bottles of Jacques Selosse “Substance” Grand Cru champagne on the seafront of Saint Tropez, shopping in the most luxurious boutiques of Monte Carlo, or roaming up
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI and down the coast on a shiny Aquariva Super motorboat. The six days spent between Nice and Marseille with Ale Cesario, Massimo Cristofoletti, Jack Thompson, Davide Holzknecht, Mark Baines, Raffaele Pola, and Karl Salah had nothing to do with champagne and a luxury lifestyle, but everything to do with skateboarding and good fun with a bunch of friends.
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2019
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
GET YOUR SHINE ON CISE NOLLIE POP SHOVE–IT
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The purity of youth is beyond comparison; it’s an age which knows no filters, big egos, or ulterior motives. There’s just a pure love for skateboarding and the energy shining in youngsters’ eyes. This article featured six skateboarders under or around 20 years old with whom we spent a day each to shoot some photos and have a quick chat. Guys, the future is yours, so keep those smiles and positive vibes going forever. Get your shine on!
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UNDERDOG MATTIA TODERO 180 SWITCH 5-0 REVERT Toddy is a man who knows no half measures and who possesses a no-compromise attitude. He’s either white or black, pure or nothing. He builds perfect skate parks, but prefers to skate the roughest spots around. He’s capable of getting bloody hands trying a trick for hours, driving himself mad from anger and frustration, and then the next day is the students’ favorite teacher at the primary school where he works. He’s a man of funk who collects vinyl records and DJs at parties,
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI but who has never been to a nightclub in all his life. He’s an underdog in the true sense of the term. He’s pure, motivated, happy, pissed off, present, and standoffish. He’s all or nothing, with a very clear idea of what skateboarding means to him, and when necessary, he has no qualms about expressing his strong opinions. Aside from that, he’s also one of the best spot-hunters around.
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2019
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
ESCAPING CENTRALE VAL BAUER SMITH GRIND
PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI
In the winter of 2019, we spent five days in Milano with Marius Syvanen, Ale Cesario, Val Bauer, and Lilian Fev for a shooting mission for Levi’s Skateboarding. We also tried to escape the infamous Stazione Centrale spot, also known as “the Black Hole” of every skate trip to Milano.
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THE RED LIPS PROJECT PIETRO BONTÀ FRONTSIDE POP SHOVE–IT Rainy nights in the city; cold wind, pouring rain, fading lights… everything was so uncomfortable and adverse. Your red lips were gleaming in the darkness, giving us shelter and providing us with a familiar feeling that made the shred purer and safer. Red Lips is a special
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI project between Plazaboards and a brief glance that culminated in the release of a collaboration board for which we filmed and shot photos in Milan with the Plaza squad for three rainy nights last winter.
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2020
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
ASEPTIC COVID-19 LUKASZ KOLASOWSKI PUPECKI GRIND
PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI
The day before sending issue #59 to the printer and only 3 days before the lockdown in Italy due to the covid-19 pandemia, we met up with Lukasz Kolasowksi to shoot a covid-19-themed article. The lockdown lasted for three months and it was a chapter of modern human history that future generations will surely read about in history books.
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AN EXPERIENCED MAN ALE CESARIO BACKWARD NOSEGRIND If I were to define Alessandro with an adjective, it would be the word “confident.” The self-assurance he possesses does not stem from arrogance nor from a sense of superiority, but from living his life against the grain. A life full of dramatic events, which have caused him to pay for faults that were not his own, stupid decisions for which he has assumed all responsibility, daily struggles in order to survive, and of dark years where living was too difficult. He’s confident because he finally took the bull by the horns and decided to turn his life around, rolling up his sleeves and putting in the effort to save and better himself, and prove to himself first and foremost that he could overcome what life
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PHOTO DAVIDE BIONDANI had reserved for him. He is sure of his skateboarding, of what he wants to accomplish in skateboarding, and of the decisions he has made. He doesn’t hide his insecurities nor his victories, and he is not afraid of telling you to your face what he thinks, because life is already too complicated to complicate it even further with half-truths. He wanted a payback and he is winning a war. We have seen Ale grow from an adolescent into an adult and amazing skateboarder, and we were more than happy to run his interview in the first issue of 2020. It’s without a doubt one of the deepest ones we’ve ever published. Thanks Ale.
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TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
THE FISHERMAN FABIO MONTAGNER
TEN YEARS LATER Photography & interview Davide Biondani
Captions Fabio Montagner
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Frontside smith grind.
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We had been waiting for days to skate this rail that I had already 50-50ed in the winter of 2018. We still needed one photo to finish my interview, but the gate was always closed. Saturday, June 13th was my 33rd birthday and also marked my 20 years of skateboarding. At 10 am Dave called me to tell me that the gate was open and that he had put up some wooden barriers with a sign saying DO NOT PARK, MOVING FROM 11 AM to 1 PM to keep the run up clear, ha ha! Ten minutes later I left the house with my girlfriend Ila and drove for two hours. Once at the spot and after a quick warm up I started trying some 50-50s. As the place was the parking lot of a church, the priest obviously showed up after a few minutes, but he was kind enough to give us 10 more minutes before closing the gate. I don’t think I’ve ever skated a rail with such determination as I did that day. It took me only six tries to nail the trick.
This was also done after the quarantine in a rush to finish my video part, and we decided to go to Mestre. I had done some tricks years ago over this gap, but as soon as I saw it in person I started worrying because my old age caused me to perceive it longer than I remembered it to be. Apart from the fact that I also had chosen a trick that I don’t really know how to do. That day my girlfriend Ila was there too, to film me. It was the first time she used a fisheye lens and during every try I was paranoid that she wouldn’t film it properly, but I must say she did very well.
Backside heelflip.
A BRIEF GLANCE TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
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Gap to crooks.
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After years of thinking about going on a mission to Jesolo, I finally went there and found this rail. Always “well-equipped� as usual, we filmed and shot the trick with a phone, ha ha ha! I sent the video to Dave who is always super busy, and a year later, finally, he decided to dedicate some time to me, ha ha ha. As Giuseppe Cola and Benjamin Bucca were also in the area, we did the mission together, and it was really cool to skate this spot with them.
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
Frontside noseblunt.
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Boardslide to fakie. This rough concrete spot is along a very busy state route that I drive down often. I’ve seen it for the past ten years, but just never really stopped to check it out! One day, as I was passing by, I noticed that the ledge had been painted, so the following week I went back to film with Ruggi and almost landed a boardslide. That evening I immediately called Dave and during the next mission, we were more determined and brought home both the photo and the video of the trick.
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TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
SKATEBOARDING You’ve been skateboarding for twenty years. How does that make you feel? Twenty years!
Twenty years? Twenty years is nothing! It’s just the beginning! I only learned how to skate, I’m still learning tricks. Honestly, twenty years is a long time, but if I think back to when I started, and how I started, and all the tours, contests, and days spent on the streets… it seems like yesterday! So twenty years doesn’t have that much of an effect on me, it’s not like,“Shit, it’s been so long!” Yes, lots of time has gone by, but when you do something you like, time passes quickly.
This question is both easy and difficult: what does skateboarding mean to you?
I can easily say that skateboarding has been like a parent or a best friend to me. I started traveling around the world at 14 thanks to skateboarding, and ended up spending time with older people and touring. I’d never left home before, apart from vacations with my parents. All my life experiences and teachings, or a good share of them, are thanks to skateboarding. It literally raised me and it’s been a good life lesson as well as a continuous experience.
How has your vision of skateboarding changed over the years?
It’s changed a lot. For sure what has never diminished is my motivation to skate. Motivation must increase over time I think, because when you’re young you’re always in shape and everything comes easily. But when you grow up if you’re not motivated you don’t move forward. That’s the key to everything! My vision of skateboarding has evolved over the years; it’s changed from when I was 14 and was always traveling, going to contests, getting my first sponsors, and basically just having lots of fun. Then it became more like a “job” and I started making some money from skateboarding... with some ups and downs. I had to go for a photo shooting or film even when I wasn’t physically at my best, or I had to do demos in crappy skateparks. Definitely not the best thing, but after all I was always doing something I liked. Then the “golden years” came to an end and I started working. I got a real job, and in that precise moment I found true motivation. In the beginning it was hard, because going skating after eight hours of work wasn’t so easy, but then you get used to it. I skate less days a week but more focused and motivated. Cross-fit helped me a lot in keeping in good shape. I’ve found a good balance now between work and skateboarding. As long as I keep learning new tricks, I’ll be motivated! Ha ha ha ha.
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The type of skateboarding tied to your generation and to your way of skating was and is very oriented towards big obstacles, like rails, sets of stairs, and huge hubbas. It shows through your approach to skateboarding, where you try to constantly do more and more powerful things. Today’s skateboarding is very different in a sense. Have you ever thought, “Shit, I could’ve had a career without busting my ass,” or is it more like, “Damn, I’ve had the fortune of living an era where the level of skateboarding rose constantly” ?
Skateboarding has changed a lot over the last few years. The level has dropped significantly in my opinion. From a skateboarding point of view I’m proud and feel lucky to have started skating in the 2000’s. In the 90’s, skateboarding went through its first evolution. In the following decade skaters brought tricks to bigger rails and bigger sets of stairs. I still love that kind of skating. I really like skating handrails, I don’t know why, but it’s the kind of skateboarding that I prefer. I think that in those years skateboarding evolved a lot, and the bar was raised… through bigger stuff, or more tech tricks on big rails or stairs. Then came the “Game Of Skate” era with hyper-tech skating on ledges… it was a constant evolution. Then suddenly the technical evolution of tricks kind of stopped. Social networks and brands started placing more focus on the image of skaters than on the tricks they do. Taste is taste, and people can invest in whoever they want. But for me, the tricks that a skater does make all the difference. You can dress as fashion-conscious as you want, but if you don’t do tricks... Ok, let me ask you the same question, would you prefer to go out shooting with a skater that does tricks on walls, down rails, stairs, or on ledges; or with someone well-dressed that does stylish power slides all day long? Who would you go on tour with? I like many things of today’s trend in skateboarding, I’m not saying everything is bad, but I don’t like the fact that sometimes, nowadays, brands pay more attention to the image of skaters than to the level of their skateboarding.
Do you think that form of respect and those unwritten rules of skateboarding have been lost? For example, like not filming a trick already done by someone else at a spot?
I don’t know, I remember one unwritten rule in skateboarding which has always been not to use a song already used in another video part. That was a golden rule, same with not doing a trick already done by someone else at a famous spot. These golden rules have a different value today since skateboarding has changed so much. Nowadays, people film for Instagram and they don’t care whether someone else did the same trick in another video part 10 years or 3 weeks earlier. I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it. These “rules” are kind of dead because that skate culture no longer exists, with the videos and mags, and photos and interviews getting published.
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TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
MOTIVATION Where do you find your motivation? By that, I mean what inspires you, what pushes you to wake up at 4AM every morning, work till 1PM, get changed, drive for an hour and a half to skate a 20-meter rail in the dead of winter with a photographer and your girlfriend filming you for your new video part?
I simply love skateboarding. That’s the main motivation. Then I take the things I do professionally. I think if you have sponsors that support you, you have to give something back, like producing photos and videos, going to contests or to their own events. I do it willingly, I think it’s a fair thing to do, and I’m happy with it. That said, the video part I’m filming, I’m doing it for myself. I’ve invested money, time, blood and energy, just for myself, without asking anyone. I want to thank my friend Ruggi and my girlfriend Ila for filming me and everyone who’s helped in any way. It’s been a long time since my last real video part. It’s a goal I’ve set for myself, it’s something I want to do.
You built your career and for a certain period your “subsistence” by skating contests. You won the Italian Skateboarding Championship 9 times. Many skaters consider the term “contest skater” a swear word. What’s your take on it?
When I started skating I enjoyed going to contests. I grew up in a small town and going to contests was a good chance to travel, meet friends and get to know other skaters. I was doing good at contests and I had the chance to earn some money to keep traveling. They have never been important to me as a “competition.” I skated them because it was a way to get some extra money, and not being a rich kid, they helped me to keep skating. I’m lucky to do well in them, so I keep going to them when I have the chance. I’m not against contest skaters. To each his own. For example, look at Nyjah Huston, even if he’s not my favorite skater, it’s undeniable that the way he skates and does sick tricks in a line at contests is just amazing. Same for all the arguments about skateboarding going to the Olympics. If you’re against that and if you’re not interested, simply don’t watch it. Skateboarding will carry on in any case. In the end it means more visibility for skateboarding, and random people will start skating. Ok, whoever has believed in it forever, will keep skating, maybe most of the others will stop after a short time, but they will bring more money to the skateboard system, and maybe one day you’ll find the concrete public skatepark you’ve dreamt about for ages in your town and will you say that it’s because you’ve kept it real your whole life and went skating by yourself in the back street? No, it’s because skateboarding has become more popular and the municipality has finally built a skatepark instead of a playground.
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PROFESSIONALISM You are one of the few Italian skaters to have been “pro” without ever having to go abroad. When did you realize that this was no longer realistic and decided to get a job?
Everyone has always told me I was a jerk to not travel around the world to skate, but talking is easy. Actually doing so though wasn’t easy at all for me at the time. At 16, not being a rich child, my options were to find a job right out of school to get some extra money or to go skate contests, and that’s what I did. Later on, I was lucky enough to have some monetary support from my sponsors, but then I had to find a job. I’ve been financially independent from my family since the age of 16, and that’s something I’m proud of. At the time it wasn’t easy for me to get contracts outside of Italy, I have no regrets, skateboarding was all I wanted to do and that’s what I did and what I do now, and I’m happy with that.
PASSIONS Ever since I’ve known you, skateboarding has been a constant in your life, and growing up over the years, you’ve also cultivated other passions too, with brilliance and excellent results. I’m referring to photography, cycling, and fishing. Can you tell me more about these three worlds, how you got interested in them and what fascinates you about each of them?
I’ve always been fascinated by photography. I learnt from photographers when we were out shooting skate photos, by asking questions and observing, and then by experimenting by myself. I’ve tried to shoot skateboarding at times, but you need productive skaters to do so. My passion for cycling started after I had knee surgery. I started doing it as rehab. My father taught me that if you can do something by yourself, then do it instead of buying it. So I started assembling my own bikes. It was good fun. I cycle less now because it takes up a lot of my time and I’m trying to skate as much as I can. Fishing has also always fascinated me. I started thanks to a skateboarder whom I met at a fishing fair that I went to by chance. This friend taught me the basics of fishing and from then on it turned into a great passion. It’s fascinating to find the right spots for the different types of fish... plus all the different techniques and equipment needed. I bought a little boat and go fishing with artificial bait, which I make myself. Fishing will probably be the next thing after skateboarding for me, ha ha ha.
Kickflip backside 50-50.
A BRIEF GLANCE
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY
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On the same day as the gap to crooks in Jesolo, we found this other rail. I landed a few tricks kinda easily so I figured it would be perfect for a kickflip 50-50! I remember that I couldn’t do it because I kept landing on this little curb right at the bottom of the rail or slamming on the tiles! I did so many tries to land it that the next day I couldn’t even touch my muscles because they were aching so much!