issue / 13
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EDITORIAL / 13
talk is cheap.
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COVER: Luca Crestani, wallride pivot to fakie. Photo Davide Biondani. a brief glance
GASTON PHOTO
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DC EUROPE PRESENTS
FIRST FULL LENGTH DC EUROPE VIDEO
BRUNO ABALLAY + MADARS APSE + THAYNAN COSTA JOSEF SCOTT JATTA + MICHAEL SOMMER + JODY SMITH MANUEL MARGREITER + JAVIER PAREDES RUBEN GARCIA AND ANTONY LOPEZ
FRIDAY 1 STJUNE AT DCSHOES.COM DCSHOES.COM/SKATEBOARDING
ISSUE / 13
CONTENTS
FRAGMENTS
TRIANGLES
ideal breakfast / LUCA CRESTANI PLACES 13 / NAMIBIA
feeling good / DC Italy ON TOUR ART NOW! / A. RMN. P.
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EDITOR and CONCEPT Davide Biondani. (davide@abriefglance.com) ASSOCIATE EDITOR Guido Bendotti. PHOTOGRAPHERS Leo Sharp, Eric Mirbach, Kévin Métallier, Friedjof Feye, Marcel Veldman, Garric Ray, Alex Irvine, Fabio Montagner, Chiara Tiso, Marcello Guardigli, Eric Antoine, Alan Maag, Chiara Terraneo, Bertrand Trichet, Alex Berger, Benjamin Deberdt, Mark Whitley, Natascia Torre, Davide Biondani. CONTRIBUTORS Andrew Zolin, Francesco Paolo Chielli, Jonathan Levin, Leo Sharp, Oli Buergin, Mauro Caruso, Jerome Campbell, Luca Basilico, Ale Martoriati, Holger von Krosigk, Jeroen Smeets, Simone Bertozzi. DESIGN Fake Donkey Lab. www.abriefglance.com
GET ALL THE INFOS at:
info@abriefglance.com abrief glance skateboard mag is a bulletin published by fake donkey skateboard asd. No part of this pubblication may be reproduced without the permission of the publisher. All right reserved.
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www.abriefglance.com
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GUY MARIANO F S L I PSL I D E
INTRODUCING THE
MARIANO MORE INFO AT LAKAI.COM
LAKAI L I MI T E D F OOT W E A R T HE S HOE S W E S K AT E BIEBEL / JOHNSON / MARIANO / CARROLL / HOWARD / WELSH / ALVAREZ / GILLET / BRADY / JENSEN FERNANDEZ / TERSHY / ESPINOZA / HAWK / WALKER / PEREZ / photo by Colen / ad #157 / lakai.com + crailtap.com
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www.abriefglance.com fake donkey lab
davide biondani photo.
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JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
A DOCUMENTARY FILM BY FALLEN FOOTWEAR
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F FRAGMENTS Oliver Kofler, Kickflip over. Photo: Alex Berger. Italy. a brief glance
FRAGMENTS a brief glance
Bastien Merlin, Wallride. Photo: KĂŠvin MĂŠtallier.. France.
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FRAGMENTS a brief glance
FRAGMENTS
Will Hine, Danger. Photo: Marcello Guardigli. Melbourne.
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Laith Sami, Varial Heelflip. Photo: Kévin Métallier. Roma.
FRAGMENTS
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TRIAN Photos: Leo Sharp.
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NGLES The triangle symbolizes the spirit, mind and body. Three random points forming a unique triangle ... The skater, the photographer and the spot form an understanding and unique composition.
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“In Euclidean geometry any three points determine a unique triangle."
“A triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or vertices and three sides or edges which are line segments.”
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"As a three-sided polygon, the triangle represents the number three, which is meaningful to many groups. As such, triangles and other symbols made of three parts may be used to present such concepts as past, present, and future or spirit, mind and body."
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Triangle. Equilateral.
CHRIS JONES. OLLIE.
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CHRIS PFANNER. OLLIE.
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SEAN SMITH. SWITCH BS T.
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CHRIS JONES. KICKFLIP IN.
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DAVE SNADDON. KICKFLIP OVER.
Triangle. Isosceles.
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BEN GROVE. OLLIE IN.
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Triangle. Scalene.
BEN NORDBERG. SWITCH BS SMITH.
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DAVE DAVIES. KICKFLIP IN.
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TOM HARRISON.TWEAKER.
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ideal breakfast
luca crestani Luca Crestani is a good guy. You can’t talk shit about him, and that’s something that usually bored me to death in interviews. We’ve tried asking him some controversial questions, and he answered as he skates: plain, simple, polite and positive. You can’t take the smile off his face in any way. How he always stays so positive about everything is a mystery to me, but I fuckin’ love him for this. Positive energy, positive points of view, and he’s always happy to skate, no matter what or where. Put him in the most obscure spots, with the worst grounds or the sketchiest ledges, and usually everything ends with a minute of footage and a couple of photos and tons of smiles. How can you hate him ??? G.B.
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Words: Guido Bendotti. Photos: Davide Biondani. a brief glance
kickflip bs lipslide between the two knobs. a brief glance
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fs wallride.
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gap to 50 50 grind.
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Why did you tattoo your “ideal breakfast” on your leg? Let’s just say I’m marking my body with things that are important to me and that may be ridiculous to other people. But I love being stupidly light-hearted. Breakfast for me is a ritual. Something essential I take my time to do to start off the day as best I can. These tattoos are the result my ideas that are then drawn and reinterpreted by my wife Betties Kler. We are both fascinated by unusual subjects for our tattoos and her drawing style reflects what I love most. You have had various sponsors you’ve been faithful to… A couple times I’ve changed sponsor to follow up on some interesting offers, but always after having talked it out with my old sponsor in order to remain on good terms with them. I’ve always honoured my commitment and believed in being straightforward about the things I didn’t agree upon and why I needed to change. You’ve been skateboarding at an absurd level for nearly twenty years, continuously producing new footage, photos and constantly on tour. Are you trying to live from skateboarding in an industry where no money is being spent? Where do you get the motivation? I held down various jobs over the years, and a few years ago I decided to quit and try and live (survive) from everything I could get out of skateboarding. Unfortunately in Italy things always go differently than in other countries, the most shrewd are always at the top and many serious situations are treated with superficiality and little or no professionalism. Unfortunately I’ve often felt underpaid and taken advantage of as a professional. I’ve collaborated with public authorities in my area to build some skateparks and was successful despite the many problems, and I teach skateboarding courses for the younger kids. There is never a constant cash flow, so it is extremely difficult to live just from skateboarding, at least in Italy.
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Have you made many sacrifices to be able to live from skateboarding? Yeah, I’ve made many sacrifices, first of all I’ve changed homes many times…and I’m just about to move again in the next few days! Heeeelp!!! Gipsy style. I took pleasure in making all these sacrifices over the years because skateboarding has directly influenced all my life decisions. I consider myself lucky because thanks to skateboarding I’ve been able to live incredible experiences that have enriched me over all these years. Have you ever felt robbed by Skateboarding? I consider myself a humble, sincere person, and have often felt cheated by careerist people because I’m too nice and often give too much importance to friendship in interpersonal relations. Disappointment after disappointment from people I considered friends, I eventually understood that when you talk about work, your interpersonal relations must not influence your decisions. Practice makes perfect…Nowadays I’m very careful if I decide to collaborate with someone, and try to give my trust to people that show they care about me both as a person and as a professional. What is it like being both a team manager and a team rider at the same time? It takes a lot of patience to mediate between the requests of a large company like Nike, that always aims at innovative projects and satisfying the needs of the riders, that also happen to be friends. It is difficult, sometimes impossible because certain circumstances don’t depend on the will of the people involved but on the everyday dynamics of a team. I’ve often asked myself: “Why the hell am I doing this?”. I’ve sacrificed myself many times in order to give opportunities to people I thought were deserving, and unfortunately I ended up being wrong. But that’s life and these are the inevitable consequences when you decide to take risks.
What do you think about sponsorships? Pertaining to the reality concerning us, there is always this tendency that is “typically Italian” to do things without any real devotion and without striving for quality. I believe that a sponsorship is like a work contract. If a company calls me to represent their product I take it very seriously, trying to give my best both in terms of skateboarding and public relations, because doing tricks alone is not enough. You must know how to behave professionally even when you’re not skateboarding. On the other hand a sponsor must reward a rider when he deserves it, help him to grow by allowing him to travel and rewarding him adequately if he produces good photo and video material over the course of the year. That’s how things should go, but it is rarely the way they do go. How can you skate anytime and in any condition? Let me begin by saying that I have fun skateboarding as if I were still a little kid. If I’m on tour and have the chance to skate spots I’ve never seen before I get even more hyped!! Coming from a small town where there was never much to skate I’ve always appreciated every new spot I found, trying to find an original way to skate it. The cool thing about skateboarding is that it never bores you, the combinations and possibilities are practically infinite. Hey Crest there’s a demo at the top of a mountain in a terrible skatepark and you’ll be paid with beers and sausages, are you down? Hey Guido, you know I could never say no to you. At what time? Ha ha ha.
Luca is supported by: Nike SB, Blueprint, Quiksilver, Electric, Big Air skateshop and Blast! dist.
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wallie to crail grab.
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nosebonk. a brief glance
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bs ollie to fakie 5-0 grind fs out.
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fs smith grind up to ollie off.
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fs nosegrind overcrooks.
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PLACES / 13
Namibia
Photos: Natascia Torre.
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PLACES / 13
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Namibia
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DC ITALY ON TOUR.
Feeling good Words and photos: Davide Biondani.
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The real reason for this tour was to welcome Fabio Colombo who recently joined the DC team. So what better occasion than to go to his hometown to skate his spots, visit his homeland and spend a full week with the whole team? The mission actually started out with a few problems since the day before leaving one of the riders announced he wasn’t able to come. So we tried to convince Ale Morandi to come, but besides just getting over a bad injury he was super busy at work and was impossible for him to free himself at the last minute. The funny thing is that the morning of the departure Danny received a text message from another team rider who informed him he also couldn’t come on tour due to illness. At this point the mission was likely to be compromised, so at 7 in the morning Danny called Ale’s boss, who luckily owns a skateshop, convincing him to let Ale come with us. So a few hours later we were sitting in the van with Fabio Colombo, Andy Lopes, Luca Collu, Ale Morandi and Danny Galli driving south for a new adventure. The destination was the city of Salerno, in southern Italy, close to the beautiful and famous Costiera Amalfitana, Fabio’s hometown. The rules set by team manager Danny for each DC tour is that everyone should feel comfortable, serene and have a fun week skating and producing footage. And as every DC tour so it was: seven days with good friends and amazing skateboarders, skating the different spots of the area shooting photos and eating good food in the evening. A plain, simple and perfect skateboard tour. I personally had the “fortune” of experiencing an eye infection that kept me in bed for an entire day and with an eye patch for the following 48 hours. We got good tricks on new never seen before spots. We had the chance to visit part of the famous Costiera Amalfitana which appeared very beautiful although it was a rainy day.
Ale Morandi, who was still hurt and should not have even been on tour did more tricks than anybody, while Andy won the award for the best slam of the trip. Thanks Fabio for you hospitality and welcome to the DC team.
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FABIO COLOMBO / bs nosegrind.
This ledge is behind a 5-star hotel. When we got there, there were 20 chefs sitting on a bench having a break before work. When they saw us observing the ledge with great interest, they looked at us in a strange way‌ wondering what we found so interesting in a black ledge. Since we didn't have our boards with us, how could we blame them? Fabio explained the reason for such interest in an apparently futile black ledge to them with a perfect bs nosegrind landed first try.
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ALE MORANDI / fs tailslide.
Ale thought that having come so far to get to this spot and going home with only one trick landed in a few minutes would be a pity so he decided to bring home a nice fs tailside before going to get something to eat at the pizzeria behind the corner. a brief glance
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DANNY GALLI / fs varial heelflip.
Danny conceived, organized and coordinated this tour from all points of view; he drove the van at all times and was always concerned that everything worked the best and that, basically, everyone was well and happy. In the middle of all this he also found the time to skate and land a fs varial heel down 4 blocks.
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FABIO COLOMBO / nollie kickflip.
It had been almost one year since Fabio had come home, so he was super happy to see his family and friends. Walking down the streets, every 10 steps we met someone who stopped to greet him. This says something about him. Fabio was very proud and excited to show us his spots and this 4-block was one of his favorite.
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LUCA COLLU / heelflip over.
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We found this spot by accident pushing through the streets of a nice village on the coast. This being a supermarket, we had to wait until the cars of the employees and customers had left, and after a couple of warm up ollies Luca landed this heelflip over the rail at full speed. a brief glance
ALE MORANDI / fakie ollie switch crooks.
Feeling good
DC ITALY ON TOUR.
Ale surprised me with this trick, not because I don't believe in him, but because during the first attempts he did not feel very comfortable with the ledge. But when he told me he would land it in the next few tries I had no doubt. And so it was. Good job mate.
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Why waste time getting comfortable with a spot trying basic tricks? Why waste energy on useless things? Better go straight for the trick you want to do without too much thinking. True Andy?
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ANDY LOPES / bluntslide.
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Feeling good
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Feeling good
DC ITALY ON TOUR.
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The excuse to skate this gap was also a chance to visit a friend who lives in a village out of the city where they produce the best mozzarella di bufala in the world. Unfortunately it was Sunday and all the companies were closed so we had no way to shop. This is another good reason to return there.
FABIO COLOMBO / kickflip.
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Pop shove-its are considered a basic trick, and for one reason or another few people do them over gaps. It's a strange trick, but always stylish and very powerful if done well. When Ale proposed a pop shove-it for the photo the answer was: "Yes"!
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ALE MORANDI / pop shove.it. a brief glance
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ANDY LOPES / crooks pop in. Is it true that ghosts have the power to walk through walls? Andy became a ghost that day to get enough speed to jump on this rail. Crooks pop into the bank. a brief glance
ALE MORANDI / fs ollie over.
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After Andy tried to grind this rail and slammed his head on the ground hard everyone stopped skating until we were sure he was ok. Ale was on fire on this tour, he was supposed to stay home since he had spent the last 8 months recovering from a knee surgery. Luckily he was on a mission always making everyone laugh and landing tricks every day in every spot we went to. a brief glance
ART NOW!
A. RMN. P.
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*digital paintings
(a series of )
“abg.� a brief glance
“Among all the difficult challenges I’ve dealt with in my life there is one in particular that seems to be the hardest, so hard that after many years I still can’t overcome it: growing up. Growing up in every sense, responsibility, relationships, work, style, etc...Society harshly suggests to grow up anyways, I’ve tried screaming to the whole world that the toys I kept in my room were in reality a philosophy of life, and that skateboarding was a lifestyle, but it was useless. The masses seem to ignore those without a really solid position and background. I must have been the only remaining thirty year-old “teenager”, so I quickly said goodbye to the robots on the shelf and headed towards the “tunnel” of growth. A few steps down the road I realized I was not completely alone, and turning around I had a surprise: It was my whole generation. “
www.andreaprosciutti.com
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“modern man.”
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“adult organization.”
“desire of power.”
A. RMN. P.
“I didn't want to gave the Barbie's car away.” a brief glance
ART NOW!
“I shouldn't had left the Greyskull castle so early.”
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“a new vision of myself.”
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photo davide biondani
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issue / 13