Free 16 by Free Skateboard Magazine

FREE 16

JAN FEB 2018

SAMMY MONTANO | THE LOS ANGERED II

Sammy noseblunt transfer wearing Globe Fall apparel and skating the Los Angered II. Fall apparel and footwear available in better shops now.

@globebrand | GLOBEBRAND.COM | est. Australia 1994

AL PARTANEN, CRAIL BLOCK

AVAILABLE AT SKATE SHOPS WORLDWIDE @LEVISSKATEBOARDING

Area Article

108

Gustav

TÃ¸nnesen

Cover Albert Nyberg, casper slide, Luxembourg. Ph. DVL

78 Tommy May

92 This is not another Grey

Contents Sebi Dorfer, ollie into the bank, Barcelona.

Ph. Gabriel Engelke

14 Chris Jones

32 Cooler and the Gang

Lev Tanju

64 Text about POLAR Japan tour

Trousers: Some Thoughts Pertaining to by James Jarvis

Trousers are a complicated business in these post-post-modern times. In previous decades, the semiotics of leg-wear were simpler and more transparent; from Jimmy’Z to Blind jeans, your sartorial statement was a clear product of its times. But in the clouded cultural miasma of the 21st century can trousers actually mean anything anymore? At the turn of the century it now looks like the swishy tech-pant was the last gasp of Modernism before skaters (so reactionary despite the dynamic nature of our physical pursuit) embraced the omnipresent polyester work pant and knitted hat. Where once we were progressive and fearless in looking forward, we now appropriate workwear in a last, desperate attempt to cling on to something real. Does tucking in your shirt really add meaning to your outfit? Are Gilbert Crockett’s ubiquitous, magisterial chinos a last cry for authenticity as we drown in the Society of the Spectacle? Or is any

meaning and power they might possess diluted or negated by that very phenomenon? Is the universal, democratic sweatpant a hope for the future, or is that particular garment’s lack of structure symptomatic of these empty times? It’s like you need a degree in philosophy to be able to make sense of it all. Where do we go from here? Pleating might perhaps add some structural interest to the chino, but it’s still a piece of clothing that originated in the mid-19th century. Those looking further afield into uncharted waters might consider the plus-fours or a pair of breeches. Perhaps a full set of bleu de travail offers the ultimate in working class realness, or perhaps you will just end up looking like Monty Don. I don’t have any easy answers. The magical power of skateboarding is its ability to transform and repurpose the world around us. Maybe we just need to do the same with our trousers.

FREE 16 Editor in Chief: Will Harmon Photo Editor: Sam Ashley Associate Editor: Arthur Derrien Layouts: Ben Weaver & Seb Howell Drawings: James Jarvis Printed Free is year by

in the UK published six times FSM Publishing Ltd.

freeskatemag.com @freeskatemag freeskatemag@gmail.com

DAEWON SONG / BLUNT HEELFLIP / JAPAN / 1:17 AM

DEALER IN ENQUIRIES: UK – STEVEN.CRAWFORD@DWINDLE.COM SPAIN – LUIGI.S@DWINDLE.COM

PHOTOS: TAKETOMO

Photography Sam Ashley

Interview Arthur Derrien

The hardest thing about interviewing pro skateboarders is that unless we ask them questions directly relating to kickflips and filming video parts, we often have a hard time getting much out of them. With Chris Jones we had the complete opposite ‘problem’: the boy wouldn’t shut up. No matter the topic. Ask him an innocent question about growing up ‘skating’ with a snakeboarder and before you know it he’s launched into a ten minute tangent about why the sport should actually be referred to as ‘street boarding’ and how ‘snakeboards’ are in fact just the first brand to popularise it... Which surprises him because so many people use them on ramps! Think that, times a two and half hour interview and you’ve got a nice little bit of editing on your hands. My theory is that this desire to launch into elaborate conversations about literally anything has a lot to do with his curiosity. If it’s out there

he wants to learn about it and discuss it. Which I guess is one of the things that makes his company so enjoyable. It’s probably also one of the reasons why he gets himself into some of the surreal situations he discusses in the following pages. This comes across in his skating as well. Whether it’s shooting half of his interview in a city he’s never skated or sanding down and waxing up hubbas that shouldn’t grind when he’s at home: he’s always up for the mission! Which is a pretty good way of keeping things exciting both for him and for us...

Can you start off by telling us a little bit about what it was like growing up skating in South Wales? Caradog (Emanuel) mentioned that for a while the crew you rolled with consisted of some BMXers and a snakeboarder. Chris Jones: I started skating with my brother and a couple of guys from around where I lived. There was a curb that was really waxed from the time when everyone rollerbladed so we’d just session that. Then when I got a bit older we started venturing out into the big village… What did you guys skate there? More curbs, ha ha. Oh yeah and a few drops, but that was about it really. Anyway eventually over probably the space of about two years my brother and the other guys I’d skate with quit.

Frontside London

5-0

grind

Kickflip Seoul

I guess there’s an age where people go through an ‘extreme sports’ phase but most people get over it… For some reason I really liked it though so I ended up being the only one that carried on skateboarding in my village. Fast forward a few years and some of those friends got into BMXing probably because of that Dave Mirra game and one of them got into snakeboarding… And that was your crew…

Yeah. Further down the line a skatepark opened in Bridgend and I slowly started skating with Caradog and Dylan (Hughes) just because I guess it’s just easier to skate with people that are actually skaters, ha ha. But my friend on the ‘street board’ (here’s when Chris explained why that’s the correct terminology for the sport), he was fucking gnarly. He’d jump onto 16-stair handrails and stuff so he’d get me hyped to jump on big stuff as well. It was really fun! I could never keep up with him though; he’d go in!

grind 50-50 backside Switch Seoul

photography course but it was really shit and I ended up quitting at the point when it was too late to start something else. And that was the time I was just getting flowed boards off East (Dave Mackey’s board company) and I had a few trips coming up that I could have gone on with Dykie (Mathew Ryan) so I was like ‘fuck it!’. So I signed on to this weird jobseekers thing. It wasn’t jobseekers allowance it was something for younger kids – teenagers who had just come out of education and were looking for career development. There was this place where I supposedly could go and develop skills and stuff but I’d literally just go and sign on and get out of there. You’d get paid a bit of money for it and it was enough to live off at the time. I bet your parents were very pleased about that… My dad was basically like ‘you need to go back to school you’re a fucking wasteman’. There would be days when I wouldn’t go out skating and he’d come home from work and find me sat in the living room watching snooker in my pants. ‘What the fuck are you doing?!’ He shouted and got pissed off and basically made me go back to college and do my A levels. Who would have thought you’d then go on to get a first in your history degree in Bristol… Ha ha. Well then I enjoyed college. I think it was just something about school; I just didn’t get along with my teachers. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that my brother was naughty. They were just like ‘your older brother is a piece of shit, so you’re gonna be a piece of shit’. And I remember my English teacher speaking to my mum on parents evening being like ‘oh there’s no hope for him Mrs Jones.’ And my mum would be like ‘What are you on about?’ ‘There’s just no helping him, he’s just like his brother.’ And my mum I heard you took a gap year right after just being like ‘fuck you’. My mum your GSCEs which is pretty rare… Was it just telling her to fuck off, ha ha! because you wanted to skate? Let’s fast forward to when you Basically I hated school. I don’t know why I decided to move to South London after just didn’t like it. I didn’t like the format maybe… uni. If I remember correctly one of Actually I do know, I was just going through that stage your first experiences of it wasn’t the of loving skating loads and that’s all I cared about. nicest, ha ha. And I didn’t have the kind of patience and discipline to Ah yes… Got beat up. Got knocked just sit in a class and really pay attention so I just out. Spilt Wotsits all over ended up fucking around and never really tried. I didn’t Bellenden Road. Wasn’t great, completely take a year out though, I started a no.

grind 5-0 frontside switch Roll-on London

and ran off. I must have just passed out because of how many times they’d hit me. I remember coming round and sitting on the curb confused with Wotsits everywhere. I had to go to hospital for a check; they’d chipped my tooth. It was grim, really grim. That was just before I moved here. Luckily it wasn’t enough to make you change your mind about moving… How did you meet Jake (Harris) and get tight with the whole Isle/Atlantic Drift crew? I met Jake on a Nike Big Push that he was filming. Actually Tom (Knox) was also on that Big Push but with Emerica so I met him at the end of that too… I think what happened is that while I was still in Bristol in my last year of uni he called me up and was like ‘hey I’m gonna film this edit’. It was the Grey video, which later became Eleventh Hour. He then invited me on a trip to Lyon, which is where I met you and I got to know the rest of that crew a bit better. I eventually moved here and as a result I became close to all of Jake’s friends, then Crayon Basically I was going back to my ex-girlfriend’s place pretty drunk… I stopped went under, Isle came into existence and now we’re off at the shop to pick up two packs of doing Atlantic Drifts! Wotsits. I was in the middle of eating them You’ve been on a lot of trips with Jake and as I was just coming up to the house and that crew… Any of them particularly stand some guy just appeared from behind the car out? I quite enjoy the stories from the Japan in front of me. I could tell he was gonna try G-Shock contest one… and do something. Before I had time to do That one was your doing, ha ha! (Editor’s anything another guy came up behind me and note: we got randomly contacted by organisers of a just punched me in the back of the head, then contest in Japan, asking us to pick the top three the guy in front of me punched me in the face dudes in the UK to represent the country in a skate and then they just fucking beat me up until I contest). Casper (Brooker), Jake and I got invited to was knocked out. I was wearing a Nike jacket take part in a G-Shock competition in Tokyo. It was and when I was on the floor I realised that’s just after we finished the Isle video. what they were trying to get off me so I just We’d worked hard and Jake was in the put my arms back and they took the jacket final stages of the editing and we were

again. And then we went on but I was still a bit nauseous and for some reason I spent practically the whole time trying to do a nollie bag lady on the quarter. Jake didn’t believe I could do them so I just wanted to prove to him I could. We had ten minutes of skating and I think the only person that landed a decent trick was Jake. He like back-smithed the hubba. And I just spent the whole ten minutes falling over trying this stupid bag lady on the quarter. Team Japan took us right out, ha ha. And that was it really. I just went into this weird zone where I had to do it. Couldn’t do it. Didn’t do it. Threw up after as well. Then we stuck around to watch the break dancing that was really entertaining. There was a guy rapping that kept repeating ‘pineapple jiz, pineapple jiz’. Maybe he’s like a famous Japanese rapper but I can’t remember his name. All I can remember quite vividly is that song because it was so bizarre. And everyone loved it, there was a big crowd going ‘pineapple jiz, pineapple jiz’ and we were just there like ‘what the fuck?’ And then yeah I probably threw up again, went out that evening and it pretty much carried on like that for the whole trip. How was it having Kyron (Davis) on the last trip (San Francisco)? Is he now a part of Atlantic Drift? Oh yeah he was a great asset, I’m so glad he came. When you spend time with him

Ollie London

going to have the premiere when we got back. So we were in pure celebration mode. I went there straight there from Palestine so I was also really excited to see both of them. Oh yeah and the hotel they got for us was super fancy! Anyway we skated this G-Shock competition, which basically felt like a kind of a trial run for the Olympics or something. It was as if the organisers were trying to show that they’d be capable of putting them on or something. They had our faces on this massive screen, flashing lights, a huge crowd, breakdancers, fireworks… It was insane. Of course they made us wear a G-Shock watch each, ha ha. And we had to stand behind this curtain and they’d introduce us on this megaphone: ‘From the UK, Jacob Hariiiiiis!’ Then this woman waving a Union Jack flag led us out. And none of us are really that patriotic so it felt quite weird and there was a cameraman with this big camera filming us… Now as I said earlier we were celebrating hard, so we’d been out the night before and had gotten steamin’ – in fact every night before that as well, ha ha. And I remember on the way to the competition we had to stop the taxi so I could throw up out the window, and from then on I couldn’t stop throwing up. I was doing it every half an hour all the way into the comp. I must have given myself alcohol poisoning or something. Definitely one of the top three athletes in the country right there… Ha ha. After we got introduced, we had to wait there until our comp runs, and obviously just before they called our names to go up and skate, I threw up

grind Philly Seoul kickflip to Firecracker London

you really get the most out of life. He’s in every bit of footage, either doing a trick, in the background, by the skater when they’re riding up or running in after someone that’s landed a trick to give them props… He was constantly hyping people up, going to the shop to get the beers in… So yes, he’s a part of Atlantic Drift now. Is Jake going to make it a brand? There’s definitely chat about turning it into a clothing brand and basically everyone having a share of the brand. Everyone puts a bit of money in to get it started and then everyone has some ownership over the brand. So it’s like a cooperative company in that sense and everyone can contribute ideas, everyone’s got access to the Instagram and everyone can design stuff if they want. It’s like everyone’s company, not just one person’s. We want it to properly represent the whole crew’s ideas, which is great really. You’ll probably get a real diverse range of stuff. It’s really early days though; I haven’t chatted to Jake too much about it… Most of us have a lot of free time so something like this would be great for us. And boy do some of you guys love clothes… Not me though, I hate clothes. If could get away with not wearing them I would. I’d be a nudist. In fact we should probably get nude for the rest of this

interview I think, ha ha. Me, Jake and Casper got nude together in South Korea recently in a Jjimjilbang, (traditional Korean public bathhouse) it was quite funny. Go on… So we all got nude and obviously people were a bit uncomfortable being nude together for the first time. Like Casper, I don’t think he likes it at all… He just sat in the mud bath the whole time. I remember getting out and going to the toilet and then coming back into the Jacuzzi or something and feeling like a little bit awkward. You always feel self-conscious about the size of your penis – it’s inevitable! So I kind of just waved my penis around a little bit in front of Jake and Casper singing ‘I wave my shlong up in the air sometimes’. Ha ha! I was just trying to break the ice! I guess I took it a bit too far… I very quickly jumped back in and immediately felt awkward again. It was quite funny though. I mean it’s not often you get naked in front of your mates! Or at least we don’t… All my Japanese friends on the other hand they get naked all the time, it’s like part of their humour. They just get naked in random restaurants and stuff, ha ha. Like Hiroki who rides for Traffic! When we went to Japan on that trip I mentioned earlier, he met us and showed us around a little bit and took us to some spots. At one point we all played a game

tailslide kickflip Fakie Seoul

went to SF for eight days to film an Atlantic Drift and then got back, we finished building the park, and once it was done I thought ‘why doesn’t Jake come out for a weekend so we can film a couple of things?’ Flights were quite cheap so he did! And how did that go? Ha ha. I met him on the Friday, and we went skating but I was feeling a little bit nauseous, but we skated and we filmed like two things and got loads of good 16mm stuff, so a great first day! And then on Saturday when I woke up I felt a bit lightheaded and weird. Probably because on the Friday we’d really pushed it. It was really hot and I was just skating in the boiling sun for like hours. I was also really achy because I hadn’t really been skating that much, I’d just been building the park. My body was battered from that, I hadn’t given myself time to recover and I also hadn’t really of S.K.A.T.E. together and when Hiroki got to skated properly in a while. There was this hubba that T he went ‘if I don’t land it now I’m taking my I saw down the road from our hotel, which was an second go naked’. This was about two hours 8-stair or something and then you land, there’s after he’d met Jake and Casper, ha ha. probably about like a metre and a half, then a head Obviously he fell on the trick, got butt naked high drop. I wanted to skate that. As I was on my way and took his last go with just his shoes and there (the first time) I felt so ill that I turned around socks left on. Which he bailed, naturally, ha and went back to the hotel to have a nap. It was like ha. It wasn’t even warm at the time, it was midday… Whilst I was there I threw up. Basically I like October or something. Then he just stood was having heat stroke and exhaustion. When I woke there naked, looking defeated, ha ha ha. up I of course still felt completely fucked, but since How did you choose the locations Jake was only there for the weekend and I really for the part you’re filming with Jake wanted to film stuff for the part in Palestine I was like to come out alongside this interview? ‘fuck man I need to go and at least try this hubba’. So The first destination other than I just forced myself out of bed and met him. I tried to London was Palestine. I was out there with warm up, but my legs felt like jelly. I had no energy. I SkatePal (Editor’s note: Skatepal is a charity remember carrying my board and it was feeling really that builds skateparks and offers skate heavy, like weighing my arm down. I tried but couldn’t classes in Palestine) for a month and a half get warmed up, fell on five kickflips and was just like and since we were on a bit of tight deadline I ‘fuck it, I’ve just got to try this’. It was was trying to squeeze in as much filming as I reckless and stupid but I was in such could. So in the middle of that Palestine trip I weird head-space that I felt like I had

kickflip bar

backside

180

the

ledge. So as I’d clean the wax off I’d drip blood over it and have to go back and wipe that off too. It really, really sucked. Once it was cleaned and they were happy I went back to the hotel, threw up, went to bed and woke up the next day feeling ten times worse. Just another horrible slam to add to the list… I mean my whole life I’ve been taking horrible slams. If you look through my ‘career’, I’ve spent most of it just slamming and you know what? I never learnt my lesson. I just keep slamming. That’s just a part of me; unfortunately, it’s just my curse. I’m cursed with bad slams. How did you first get involved with SkatePal? Did you develop an interest in the Arab-Israeli conflict during your history degree? Did you have friends that worked for the charity? No I didn’t study the Arab-Israeli conflict at all in university. Basically as I said before, as a skateboarder you have a lot of free time, even when you’re filming parts. I’d had full-time jobs alongside skating so I knew I was capable of juggling my time between that and other activities. So I thought like fuck it, why not do some volunteering? I started doing some volunteering work at a charity called Kids Company, which

Duck under London

to. Anyway when we get to the spot I’m fucking terrified. I thought I was gonna throw up or pass out at any second but started trying it anyway. Just forcing myself. Started grinding down it but just couldn’t properly commit because as soon as you commit, then you’re going down that head high drop I described earlier. Eventually a family (it was outside a house) came out and were like ‘you know you can’t do this here, you’ve gotta move on’. ‘Please, my friend’s come all the way from London to film me do this. Can you please just give me like a couple more goes?’ And they agreed. But after awhile they noticed that I was leaving marks on the ledge,‘these marks, they’re new, this isn’t good, you can’t do that!’ I begged them for one more saying I’d clean the wax off the hubba. Again ‘my friend’s only here once, please give me one more go and we’ll never come back’. They were really nice. They were like ‘okay, you have one more go and then you have to go’. So I had one more go and just went for it. I was completely off balance though. Definitely not the right 50-50 to commit to at all so I landed and just got wheel bite. I just flew off the hubba, off this head high drop whilst feeling so ill I thought I was going to faint and just fucking hit the ground. I was pretty lucky not to die basically. Or at least break an arm or something. But I was fine. And then it obviously hurt a lot. It really did me in. I was fucked. It wasn’t over though; I still needed to clean the wax off this ledge… I was bleeding loads, like actually dripping with blood as I was cleaning the

worked with inner city children and offered some therapeutic activities for them to participate in. It also did a lot of other stuff so I’ll leave it at that, as I’m probably not going to do it justice. Anyway, I was just doing little art classes and then started doing some skate workshops. I was really enjoying it but for reasons that are too long to get into here the charity went under. So anyway over the last year leading up to SkatePal I was doing that and when it ended a friend told me about his friend’s brother being involved in a charity that was giving skate classes in Palestine. I was kind of already aware of these charities as we’d been to Cambodia together (on a Grey trip) and saw what Skateistan were doing out there. In fact I think I even applied for Skateistan but nothing came of it… So I got in contact with Charlie (Davis) at Skatepal and he told me to come out there and volunteer. They were working

on the build of a concrete park in this town called Zebabdeh and a mini ramp in Ramallah. When I went out I actually didn’t really know too much about the conflict. I’d read up on it a bit so I had a very basic understanding of the situation there… So I went there in July 2014 and as I got there ‘Operation Protective Edge’, as Israel called it, had just started. Which meant that basically Gaza was getting bombed, Hamas was firing rockets into Israel and it was all really kicking off… And everyone thought that me going to Palestine meant that I was going straight into that. But I was going to the West Bank. Still a gnarly time to be in that part of the world… Yeah… My friend Martin O’Grady, who went there on the same trip as me, saw a rocket get shot down by the Iron Dome (the Iron Dome is an Israeli Air Defence system) as he was walking out of the airport in Tel Aviv… Imagine seeing a fucking rocket explode as you walk out of the airport! What’s the charity’s mission?

bank the into

the Israeli government restricts the work of the Palestinian Authority. And then there’s Area A that is under complete Palestinian Authority. They are still occupied obviously, it just means the PA are in charge of policing the area and that it’s a bit easier for them to build stuff, do stuff, and whatnot. So there are different levels of occupation but it affects every aspect of the Palestinians’ lives. In all of the different Palestinian areas the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) can just come in and insert fear into a town/city. That’s their whole tactic. They scare people, interrupt their day to day lives, get in the way of what they’re doing and antagonise them in the hope that they’d then end up doing something that’s arrestable or move away so they can build settlements. The occupation is so deep-rooted that it’s not always visible to the average visitor. Take the water for instance: the water resources are fully controlled by Israel. Meaning that Palestine has to buy its own water off Israel. Sometimes, Israel will take water from Palestine’s resources/lands and sell it back to them at an insane rate. It just shows how ingrained the occupation is now: it’s terrible. If you want to buy something in a shop you pay with Israeli Shekels. So it’s in the water, in the currency… Have you had any scary run-ins with the IDF? A few yeah… There was one time when we went to Bethlehem, we were teaching some kids, doing some classes and the IDF shot a tear gas canister over and it went off so all these kids started crying while we were trying to teach. We were just trying to skate. They’ve pulled us over in taxis a few times… I remember once I was coming back into Jerusalem and the IDF pulled over a bus and pointed a gun at me, which felt quite weird. But like usually, being a Westerner you’re kind of fine. They don’t really terrorise you that much. But I’ve seen and heard stories of the way they treat Palestinians and it’s terrible. Like you know people are getting shot and arrested for no reason. What’s tricky is that beyond Israel’s occupation of Palestine, there are two different Palestinian political powers that exist: Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank. Aside from the difference in their political ideology there’s debate between the two on how to best deal with the occupation. These parties also have their own problems. Whilst Hamas has been declared a terrorist organisation by various countries, I’ve also heard stories of Mohammad Abbas, the Fatah leader, being corrupt. Apparently, so I’ve been told, he pockets money that’s meant

Ollie over London

So basically at SkatePal we build skateparks in Palestine and we run skate classes. For a child in the West Bank there’s not really a lot of funding for extracurricular activities – stuff for kids to do after school… Especially in smaller towns. Which is why we tend to focus on them. We raise the money and we build parks. The idea is to offer a space for children to play and skateboarding is the medium that has been chosen for that because that’s what Charlie did and that’s what we have access to, but if they want to ride a bike or go on rollerblades we’re not going to stop them. We’re convinced ‘play’ is really important for a child’s development. Especially in an environment that’s as hostile as this. The fact that Palestine is under occupation means that a lot of these kids have to deal with terrible things on a day-today basis. Some of them have been through horrible traumatic incidents… So if we can provide a space where kids can enjoy themselves and blow off some steam in a positive way, that’s great. For me personally, after visiting Palestine for the first time, I really felt like I had been exposed to something I shouldn’t have seen. Especially in towns where the occupation is so visible like Hebron. Seeing and hearing about some of the atrocities that exist made it difficult for me to come home and forget what I’d seen and to carry on as I was. Knowing this, alongside how neglected Palestinians feel, has lead to me wanting to devote as much time as I can to a charity like Skatepal. Did you witness any of the violence first-hand? On my first trip out there one of my Palestinian friends went to a protest at Qalandyia checkpoint and got shot. We went to visit him in hospital… It being my first time in Palestine, I was a bit like ‘whoa this is fucked’. It’s just gnarly seeing the level of occupation, even in the West Bank. There are checkpoints everywhere. Basically it’s broken down into three different areas: A, B and C. Area C is basically complete occupation, where there’s Israeli settlements. It’s completely administered by Israelis. Area B is like where the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Israeli government in theory operate together but what happens is that

boardslide frontside to Gap out London

to be going into the West Bank and builds himself massive mansions…When I was there last, one of these mansions was in the process of being constructed just outside Ramallah. So basically there’s also a lot of political problems from within Palestine. The occupation is obviously the major problem, but the politics are so complicated that it’s hard for them to get anywhere and make progress. I read somewhere that Hamas has finally handed power over to the Palestinian Authority in Gaza and that reconciliation talks between the two parties have begun. Hopefully this can lead to some progress. I hope so because I think that it will be difficult to overcome occupation whilst there is no political unity between the West Bank and Gaza. Can you tell us a little bit about giving skate lessons to girls out there? One of the hurdles we’ve come across is making sure we have enough female volunteers to teach the girls. Most families are happy for the girls to learn alongside the boys but others prefer their daughters to be taught by a female volunteer. It’s one of those things where I don’t think it’s right to go over to a different culture and be like ‘mixed gender sessions is what is accepted in our culture, you lot should do the same thing’. So we respect the parents’ wishes and have their daughters be taught by a female volunteer and offer all girl classes. However, alongside this we promote mixed gender sessions to those that are happy for their daughters to skate alongside boys. As I mentioned before, there’s really not much for the youth to do after school and there’s even less for girls. That’s one of the reasons why we have a lot of female volunteers giving skate classes: we want to do everything we can to offer these opportunities to girls as well as boys. Skating is for everyone. What’s good for us is that as skateboarding is a completely new sport in the West Bank, it’s not seen as being gender specific in the same way other sports may be looked at in Palestine. They don’t put it in the ‘boys sport’ category because they’ve never seen either boys or girls do it before… Exactly. So we’ve introduced it as this thing that’s for everyone and it’s been accepted as that and it has been successful in reaching out to girls as well as boys. One of our volunteers recently did a head count of boys and girls for our busier weekend sessions… She found that around 40% of the children that used the park were girls, which is great. What are some of your fondest

memories from your trips to Palestine? So you know how I’m renowned for falling over a lot when I skate? Yeah… Well basically this one time we were skating some flat in Qalqilya, I was doing some fakie tres and I fell on one. Whatever, I didn’t think anything of it, got on with my day and then later when I was in SF, my friend sent me this video, of this Palestinian kid who happened to be on his balcony filming us skating that day and he had this sick footage of me trying a fakie tre and just slamming, in the middle of the street! It was just so bizarre that he came across it. This little kid just randomly had footage of me slamming and had kept it, ha ha. I know you sometimes worry about the idea of being a pro skater… What exactly is it that you question and what would you like to do further down the line? Maybe in the future I’d be interested in being a social worker but at the moment life’s decided that I should be a skateboarder. That’s the way things have worked out and I guess I’m going to do that for the time being. It used to stress me out quite a bit, thinking about what I’d do after skating… When you’re a ‘pro skater’ you always feel like you’re in quite a precarious position, which is why I’ve always tried to do other stuff alongside skating. But at the moment the volunteering work I do with SkatePal is enough to keep my brain occupied whilst leaving me plenty of time to focus on skating as much as I’d like. I’ve been given the opportunity to do this for a bit and now I’ve accepted that that’s what I’m going to do. I found out from my cousin the other day that it’s natural to have like a quarter life crisis. Which I think I had at the beginning of this year when I was feeling anxious and a bit down about all this. Luckily I’ve made it through to the other side!

JAAKKO OJANEN KICKFLIP - PHOTO BY ELEMENT ADVOCATE BRIAN GABERMAN ELEMENTBRAND.COM - @ELEMENTBRAND - #MADETOENDURE

Cooler

Vans in Luxembourg

and the Gang 2

Cooler Words Tom The

Photography DVL

Nick Bax tail drop

Hi, my name is Tom and I am the Vans European team’s official cooler/mascot. You might have heard of me and my antics since I met the gang. You might even be one of my followers on Instagram (@tomthecooler). How did I become the Vans crew’s official cooler? Well it all happened a few months ago when my owner pulled me out of the basement and dusted me off, before we headed out on a trip. This time around, I

didn’t hear the kids or my owner’s wife talking about what we were about to get into. There were no Capri-Suns, healthy sandwiches made with love or fresh fruits, which I usually get packed with when I head out with my family on day trips or weekend retreats. Everything was totally different this time and I was wondering what was going on! At the same time I was also really excited, because I could feel that I was in for an adventure.

Albert Nyberg switch crooked grind

A few hours into the ride, I caught on to a few things through the phone calls my owner was making during the drive, while I was peacefully lounging in the back seat by myself. No sticky or greasy kids’ hands fumbling on me, and no one stumping my cover on me. Just me and my owner and a few smooth jams, while the miles just flew by. I understood that we were on our way to Luxembourg, where the owners of the Olliewood Skateshop had sorted out two brand new Volkswagen Vans and a cosy apartment for this gang of skateboarders from all over Europe, so we could explore the skate spots of the tiny country. Once we got there I instantly realised

Kris Vile frontside ollie

that this wasn’t going to be anything like the trips I was used to. The apartment was packed with wild individuals, all in a splendid mood, drinking beers, smoking, assembling skateboards and reminiscing about previous trips they’d been on. I was placed in the corner of the living room where I could keep a close watch on everything and try to figure out what I was there for. Beer was their beverage of choice, which didn’t take me too long to figure out. No one seemed to notice me in the beginning until someone mentioned that the beer supply in the fridge was getting low. These guys didn’t seem to worry about too much, but as soon as the beer situation was

Chris Pfanner late backside bigspin

Jonathan Thijs crooked grind

mentioned, it seemed to catch everyone’s attention. It was in that moment, that Nick Bax, who would turn out to be the most loyal of all my companions, noticed me chilling in the corner. He quickly rushed over and popped my lid off to see if I was packing any iced cold brews. The gang quickly gathered the funds and I was dragged out to the nearest night shop, where I got filled with a bunch of Jupilers and some ice. By the time I had returned the beers in the refrigerator were all gone and the way I was welcomed back, almost made me shed a tear. Boy, were they happy to see me! They cheered so loud, high

fived each other and hugged me so warmly that I it felt like this friendship was going to last for all eternity. I wasn’t placed in the corner anymore, but directly in the epicentre of the action. This was my spot from then on. The mood was at an all time high. The room was filled with laughter, people were being tattooed, music was blasting really loud and every now and then, one of the gang would walk up to me, pat me, grab a brew out of me and give me a cheeky smile. I don’t think I’d ever been up that late or experienced that much love. The next morning, I got introduced to what would be my daily routine with the gang.

Joseph Biais ollie over the top of the rail to lipslide

Sebastiaan Vijverberg 360 flip hippie jump

I would skate to the nearest shop and get filled with cans of the gold liquid and some ice. Then we would head out to check out a few skate spots, stop for some food here and there, and just roam around and have a jolly good time. Once in a while, the jolly good times would get interrupted by some of the ‘normies’ who would complain about the noise the crew and their skateboards were making. A bunch of them who obviously were jealous because we were laughing and just couldn’t stand the fact that we were having way more fun than they were, would come up some nonsense like: ‘you are damaging the property I pay for with my hard-earned money’ or ‘I will call the police!’ Well ‘good luck with these maniacs’ is what I thought whenever I noticed anyone confronting them. These guys were way too

busy having fun to care. Plus they weren’t disrespecting anyone in any way, so they never paid too much attention to most of the grumpy individuals. The next thing they would request, was to speak with who was in charge. The first person that asked that question promptly got the answer: ‘Tom is our guy’, from Victor. At first I was confused and scared, because I didn’t know what the angry guy, who was yelling his soul out, was capable of and willing to do to me. But after yelling and trying to figure out, who amongst the 17 people was Tom, most of them would go quiet and almost had to laugh about themselves as soon as they noticed that they were yelling at a thing that didn’t talk back and could only supply you with a cold beer or some ice for your aches. I really felt proud because not only was I keeping my gang in a mellow

Daan Van Der Linden gap to frontside boardslide

mood with the brews, but that I also had their backs in hard situations. It made me feel like the leader of the pack, until the moment I was asked to present my identification. One of the ‘normies’ wasn’t having the fact that no one gave a shit about what he was so bitter about and promptly called the police. Before they could even ask for the one responsible, they got pointed in my direction and that made everything worse. The officer read the three thick black letters (TOM) on my friendly blue coloured shell and didn’t think it was funny in any way. Luckily my owner jumped in immediately to defuse the whole situation and get us out of there, without any tickets being issued or any of our weed being confiscated. After all the excitement and a close call with the law, the guys decided to call it a

day and opted for a BBQ in memory of one of their best friends, P-Stone, who had recently passed away and was really famous for his love of BBQs and cold ones. With all the supplies, we headed to the newly built skatepark of Luxembourg, which was in one of the most beautiful settings I’ve ever seen. It had every obstacle you could imagine and was well lit up until late into the night. Once again we found ourselves in a win-win situation and the spirits were at an all time high. Suddenly Kris Vile yelled: ‘shotgun for P-Stone’ and I didn’t know what was going on. While I was looking for the guy holding the shotgun, the guys almost emptied me and formed a circle around me. I felt so happy, because I thought the gang formed a circle to keep the guy with the shotgun away from me. They then proceeded to puncture their beer cans, so they could drink them

Sebastiaan Vijverberg pole jam gap to bank

Chris Pfanner gap to 5-0

even faster than they usually did. I had to laugh at myself for misunderstanding the term and being unnecessarily scared. Hey, but don’t judge me, the crew I usually travel with spray Capri-Sun out of their straws and don’t shotgun beers. The days seemed to rush by so quickly, because we were all having a fantastic time except for a few setbacks like Nick Bax’s injury and the police officers that rushed into our apartment at around four in the morning. All the little setbacks seemed

to be quickly forgotten, as long as I was nearby. I didn’t want this trip to end and I was definitely not looking forward to going back into the basement. Some of the guys left and I thought we were preparing to leave until I heard Dan the owner of the skate shop talking to my owner to see what we would need for the weekend of the contest. He jokingly requested 1,000 beers and some food for those that could still fit anything into their bellies. I thought I got a lot of attention

Kris Vile kickflip wallride

Yeelen Moens frontside nosegrind to fakie

during the whole week, but the weekend totally blew my mind and exceeded all my expectations! I rolled into the skatepark with my boys and everybody around knew that the gang had arrived. The beers that my owner had requested were kept cold in a fridge in a hidden area, which they called the VIP area. I got a bit worried and thought that I might get set in a corner and would have to watch that damn refrigerator steal my show. Once again, I underestimated the love of my gang and was proven wrong immediately. The fridge got raided and all the goods were packed into me for safe storage. We found a perfect spot in the centre of the skatepark where we could

pay close attention to the action and cheer on our crew members during their runs. It was also a perfect spot for a quick hydration stop during the one minute 30 second runs that seemed to last forever. Everyone suddenly wanted to hang out with the gang and me. Girls were standing on me to have their pictures taken, I caught a few lines in the bowl with Victor and those 1,000 beers that my owner requested didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even stand a chance against my crew. You donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe me? Just head to Luxembourg and ask anyone out there if they know about Tom the cooler.

Victor Pellegrin boardslide

WWW.SANTACRUZSKATEBOARDS.COM

SANTACRUZSKATEBOARDSEU

SANTACRUZSKATEBOARDS

and Palace’s success story is one that we’ve been dying to tell for a little while now. Beyond the fact that the dude went from selling random product at South Bank to running one of the most influential skate companies of all time, there’s something heartwarming about the way he took his whole crew with him. Especially when he humbly insists it’s the PWBC that got him to where he is today, and not the other way around. So why didn’t we do it earlier? I think we were probably a little scared of not doing it justice. But certain recent developments have basically forced us to get our shit together and give it a shot. The main one being Palace’s decision to build and pay rent on a FREE indoor skatepark in LONDON. When’s the last time an actual skateboard company did anything like that? Exactly, never. Arthur Derrien

Los Angeles, 2014. Ph. Mike O’Meally

Lev

Tanju

Lev Tanju

Arthur Derrien: Where and when did you first start skating? Lev Tanju: I started skating just by my mate’s house in Clapham around 1998. Then we started going to this skatepark in Hyde Park… (Nick) Jensen used to skate there when he was superyoung as well. Then it was Fairfields as it was close to my house. After that I started going to South Bank. AD: South Bank is where you met all the PWBC lot right? Yeah I met everyone at South Bank. That’s when I

properly started trying to skate all the time. Will Harmon: You guys lived in quite a few skate houses… Which one did you move into first? When I met you, you were living at the Brixton Palace right? I guess Snowy and me did basically live in the living room in that one. I was there like five nights a week, but I didn’t like pay rent. I didn’t have a job or anything… AD: So the first one you properly lived in was Waterloo? Yeah, that’s the first time I

paid rent. AD: Wasn’t the rent insanely cheap there? Yeah it was… When I first moved in it was £130 a month. It stayed like that for like five years or something. It went up a bit over the years but at the

Interview by Arthur Derrien & Will Harmon

nollie flip to fakie South Bank, London, 2007. Ph. Sam Ashley Lev Tanju,

end it was only still like £200 a month max. AD: That’s ridiculous. What were you doing for money at the time? Like how did you pay rent? I was on the dole or I’d get jobs in skate shops here and there… I was kind of doing just whatever to get money really. Then I started selling shit at South Bank… Like buying people’s boards and reselling them. WH: I remember that. AD: When Palace started did that completely stop or was there an overlap? Like were you still selling boards at SB after Palace had started? Yeah I was doing both for probably about a year. There was no money when it started. AD: What triggered the idea to start a brand? Were you just not stoked on what everyone else was doing at the time? Yeah pretty much. I was buying American boards all the time and I was a bit like: ‘Why am I buying American boards?’ I mean I love American skaters and shit but there was nothing really stoking me out. You know what I mean? WH: We should maybe talk about the MySkateOrDie blog you were doing before all that started. Yeah, I just bought a ‘build your own website in a box’ basically for like 20 quid to chat shit about skaters. Then I started making the Palace Wayward videos… And then it turned into PWBC. It was kind of just something to do really. I knew I was into skating so I was like ‘I’ll just do this’. I don’t even know why I did it. I was probably just bored… WH: So you were making PWBC videos way before Palace… Yeah but it was called Palace

Waywards though. We made like some weird little like skate team when I used to make iPhone – not iPhone, fucking like Nokia videos yeah. AD: And this was before the PWBC news clips right? Yeah that was like two years before that and then Palace Waywards kind of turned into PWBC. WH: Who came up with PWBC? Well we all came up with ‘The Palace’ obviously, then we met Stuart (Hammond) and he came up with Palace Waywards… We thought it was wicked and then he came up with Boys Choir so it became PWBC. Then Joey (Pressey) got it tattooed on him and we kind of just stuck with it. WH: What do you think about the Skateline thing? Seems like a bit of a bite… I don’t care for it. I don’t even watch it really. But I guess ripping off news programs ain’t my idea, you know what I mean? Everyone’s going to do it. But yeah… I like when it’s funny and that’s not funny. AD: I bet making those

PWBC news things was so time consuming. Yeah it took long man. And I used to film it off the screen and shit. I didn’t have the Internet either. Fifty episodes: no Internet. I used to go to the Internet café. Two pound all day pass! Ha ha, just sessioning the Internet, trying to find whatever. That for 5O episodes, ha ha. AD: Was the company always going to be called Palace? At first it was going to be called PWBC. But people weren’t into it because some of the guys from the crew rode for Blueprint and Landscape or whatever. So I was like all right, fuck it, I’ll change the name to Palace last minute. It was a blessing though because now I actually prefer Palace. But it’s good, it still holds true to what it’s about you know. And it is about the house and where we all came from, living together. It’s nice to be able to bring your friends with you and do all that shit together. Well actually they brought me here really. All this is from hanging out with them and filming them, you

Palace crew

Wandsworth, London, 2017. Ph. Mike Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Meally

frontside halfcab flip Wandsworth, London, 2017. Ph. Mike O’Meally Lucien Clarke,

know what I mean? It’s their skating. They’re just my favourite skaters. That’s all it is really. None of this would exist without them. AD: How did the VHS come into the picture? Basically I had a VX and it kept breaking and I couldn’t afford another one. It kept glitching all the time and I was like ‘fuck this shit man’. It was like 600 pound and I was like ‘I can’t afford to do this. I can’t buy another camera, what am I gonna do?’ So I just bought a shit one online. I was like I’ll try and film with that. So I went out and filmed Jensen to test it out and when I got home I watched it and Joey or whoever was in the room was like: ‘What?! Where’d you find this old footage of Jensen?’ ‘I literally filmed it like two hours ago!’ And instantly in my head I thought ‘man, I love how it looks’. And the way you can’t see… It gets rid of all the fucking things you just concentrate too much on when you watch skate videos. Like what shirt someone’s wearing or like what shoes they’ve got on. It just gets rid of all that and it makes it solely about people’s shapes. You know what I mean? And that’s why I love it. So that was it really, just from that. From then I started filming long lens loads and then I got my first filming job. It was a Carhartt trip yeah, and like they just linked me up with 1,000 pounds to film. I was like ‘fuck, are you mad? 1000 pounds? Yes!’ Like that’s a lot of money, you know what I mean? So I went there, and I was filming VHS long lens, then filming close up VX. And then two days into the trip, fucking Hjalte (Halberg) busted my lens off the camera. The camera broke in two and

skidded off down the floor. And he was like: (pronounced in a Hjalte voice) ‘haw haw, I can’t believe it broke so easily!’ And I was like ‘yeah man…. sick’. Like, not stoked on it at all, ha ha. I was like ‘fuck man, I’m getting paid £1000; I need to make this video work.’ It was a two day old fisheye… Anyway so I was like ‘fuck it’ and I just sellotaped it on, pretending like ‘yeah its cool man’ ha ha. So all the footage has scratches on it and shit. But I was like, straight away, ‘this looks banging!’. The lens just fitted perfectly onto the camera. WH: Is that how you guys have been doing it since? Just taping it on? Yep just I’d just gaffer tape it up every single time. Then if someone’s like ‘oh I wanna film it long lens’ you have to cut it off. Then tape it back on it on again. Razor blade cut it off, film it, tape it back on again, etc. Sometimes halfway through the line you’d have to re-fucking tape it even because it would be falling off. WH: Crazy that it actually looks clear… Like it’s not… Yeah it ain’t wobbling; it’s got fucking like ten layers of tape round it. AD: How many cameras do you think you guys went through? The weird thing is the first one lasted like three videos, like three years. And then after that, ones broke and then we started getting new ones. And now we must have gone through like 30-40 cameras, maybe 50. WH: Shit… Yeah they get fucked straight away now. They’re really temperamental. Like I buy new ones online now to capture shit and they’re broken straight away. But it’s weird that this one OG one just lasted forever. The microphone cover came off on that one so on all the old

footage the sound is really crusty. And I didn’t even realise that you have to have a microphone cover on it to stop the wind from blowing… Like all the footage changes throughout all of them, even though they’re all the same camera. But I love using them. I like the way different ones film differently and how different tapes look different, all that shit. Some things I record on a certain tape because you get a certain effect on it. WH: I noticed that some of the colours look different with some of them. Yeah that’s because it’s

filmed on different cameras but also because when I capture it, I’ll capture it on a certain tape. Like I’ve got this shit ‘Henry the VIII’ film and everything I film on top of that goes this weird green colour. So everything I want to make look a certain way I have to film over certain bits of the footage – same thing with like titles and graphics. Every time there’s a glitch or something, none of those things are fake or made. WH: So none of it is done with After Effects? Not one bit is After Effects. I’ve never used it before. All the graphics are made from filming off the TV.

WH: And then how would you guys edit it? Final Cut or something? All done on iMovie. Every single film. Still done on the same iMovie from 2005. AD: That’s so sick.

Palace mandem

It’s like Fisher Price you know what I mean? Every single film to this day was made like that. AD: Is it going stay that way or are you guys going to switch things up and start using different cameras, etc.? Nah I’m changing. Ideally I’m changing everything but I’m just looking into it now… ‘Cause it just gets rinsed man, everyone does it. It’s just like it’s the ‘cool’ thing to do now. But I’m done with it. We did Palasonic, that’s everything we filmed on VHS so it feels good; now it’s time to do something else. WH: Was the plan always to exclusively film it in London? Yes. WH: Did that get hard at times? Did people complain? That’s not my problem though is it? Ha ha. Yeah everyone had a go innit: ‘Why does he want it to only be filmed in London? It’s not possible…’ AD: It is pretty fucking difficult… It’s difficult but not really man. And they did it. It’s like why not? Why not skate Victoria benches? Why not go and skate the same gap? It just looks good. There’s not gonna be the perfect ledge spot but there’s all these spots that are important to me because of where I started skating. I wanted people to skate Parliament Square. I wanted people to skate Big Ben. You know what I mean? It’s the best spot ever. Like it looks the best. It’s got fucking Big Ben in the background and there’s a high ledge. Iconic spots. Its just personal preference, like that’s what I want to watch people skate. It’s the only way

Tottenham, 2016. Ph. Mike O’Meally

bigger than skating? That loads of people outside of skating were going to want to wear it? Different types of people were into it from the start really… When we ripped off Versace tees and stuff like that, people that didn’t skate also liked it. Which is cool because I’ve never been that guy who’s like ‘you can’t wear it because you don’t skate’, you know?’ It’s made for whoever wants to wear it. I’m not making Chanel t-shirts to just sell to fucking skaters you know what I mean? I just made Chanel t-shirts I’d be able to sit through all because we wanted to make that editing. And why Chanel t-shirts. Everything wouldn’t we film it in London? we put out is just stuff we We’re a London skate want to do, that’s it. If other company. people buy it, then they buy it. WH: Is there a lot of If a skater likes it, they like it. extra footage? I don’t care like what you like, So much shit. innit. If you don’t like it, lump WH: What are you gonna do it. That’s what my mum used with that? to say. It doesn’t matter. Buy I dunno man. Lucien had a some other shit. Or don’t! All like 37-minute timeline. He I care about is that the guys stopped drinking for a month that skate for Palace, my and had it out. friends like it. AD: That’s mad. AD: Is there anything you He knew what he had to do made that looking back on and I told him like: ‘Man you were like: ‘whoa, you’re gonna have the last that was pretty part; do gnarly shit!’. And he stinking’? did. Uh yeah I guess, but it’s kind WH: And was a lot of his of funny innit? Stinking shit’s stuff right towards the funny you know what I mean? end? I’m up for stinking shit. The last two bangers weren’t WH: ‘Let’s see if people but I reckon 20-30% of his buy this’, ha ha… part was filmed in six months, Nah never like that! We’d when he’s had six years of never do that. Some people footage. I just cut all that shit think we do though. out because all the new shit WH: Really? was just better. Like ‘fuck it, Of course they do! They’re and you’re getting better. So like ‘surely you’re not serious’ why would we use that when and I’m always like ‘yeah I’m we could use this?’ But yeah serious. I like fucking pink Lucien more so than anyone hats.’ Or whatever… You else did most of his shit know what I mean? I dress towards the end. I guess he’s weird. Everyone in the office gone into another level. wears dodgy shit. So we’re WH: Nominated for Skater gonna make dodgy shit of the Year… sometimes. Yeah, you know what I’m WH: Can you tell us a bit saying? That’s banging innit?! about Femi’s influence on AD: Was there a point the brand? when it became clear that Femi (Bukunola) influenced Palace was going to be me man. So I guess that’s

ollie up to backside 180 London Wall, London, 2016. Ph. Mike O’Meally Danny Brady,

going to have an effect on the brand. But you know I always loved Ralph shit. Femi used to always wear gnarly Ralph shit… And tracksuit bottoms with mad shoes on. I definitely took some shit out of that. WH: I mean you two are the first I ever saw wearing tracksuits with like penny loafers. Yeah he used to wear boots so I’d be like fuck it, I’ll wear my nice shoes with this shit. But yeah he dresses crazy you know. Femi would show up at South Bank with a massive Ralph (Lauren) bag with like 2000-pound boots in it. Like some weird next boots, they’d look like women’s boots or some shit like that. And I’m like: ‘What you saying?’ You know he’d get his mental health check and go straight to Ralph and drop two grand on a fucking moleskin pair of trousers or something. Like back in the day when two grand was fucking two grand! And we’d all be just laughing. He’d fucking like eat a bag of crisps a day but then buy some crazy garms. (Laughs)

He’d show up stinking of piss and I’d be like: ‘How have you got that?!’ ‘I get invited to the sample sale.’ ‘Invited to the sale?! Like I’ve been buying Ralph for so long and I’ve never been invited to that shit!’ You have to be spending like ten grand a month or something! It’s some special list. Like ‘oh, come to our sample sale’. He was living on the street half the time but he was on the invite list, so he’d turn up and drop thousands of pounds on some sketchy leather jacket with some moleskin shoes or whatever. And then run it at South Bank. Like borrow someone’s board and try and nollie flip in some like five grand duck boots or something, ha ha. You know what I mean? I was like ‘Yes! Banging.’ AD: Any other influences? I remember Nugget (Gabriel Pluckrose, one of the designers) once mentioning La Haine and how much he liked how they dressed in that. Yeah but that’s just one thing… It’s not like we sit and look at that shit. Nugget will be influenced by something and Gareth (Skewis) or me might be influenced by something else but we won’t sit down and specifically think about these things. It’s more like ‘aw that’s sick, lets do that’ or ‘lets do that.’ AD: It’s not like brainstorming

sessions about stuff… Nah man. It’s like totally normal. It’s not really a company; it’s just a load of mates making t-shirts, or a jacket or whatever. Or making something you see Femi wear. You know what I mean? We ain’t done that yet but that’s probably a good idea. WH: I can’t wait for the Femi capsule collection! AD: You guys are kind of notorious for treating your employees really well. Like when Tom Tanner fucked his knee up, he said that he got sick leave and he got the commission as if

he was still in the shop. Plus all the filmers that worked on the vid would get day rates to film… Nobody else in skating is doing that. Of course we’re gonna look after everybody in the end! AD: Absolutely. You just don’t hear of people in ‘skating’ treated like that very often. I mean maybe they don’t have the opportunity. I ain’t finding another Tom Tanner anyway. That’s important to me. I love

ollie Barbican, London, 2016. Ph. Mike O’Meally

to ride for Palace… Definitely. AD: Who hit you up then? Anyone we wouldn’t expect? It’s a long list man… Everyone hit me up. AD: Dill? Everyone… Like a gnarly amount of people. Like 30 or something. Actual pro skaters. I don’t wanna drop people in the shit though… But that included like three of my favourite skaters in the whole world… Like ever.

Blondey McCoy,

the fucking little scouser kid in the shop; he’s fucking hilarious. I don’t want to go in there and have to look at someone boring and not have a laugh with them. AD: That probably comes with just employing your mates as well. Like if they’re your mates you’re going to treat them like your mates. Exactly yeah. AD: When the brand first started growing I bet a lot of people hit you up

WH: And you turned them down? Yeah. WH: Even though they were you favourites? Yeah because they were my favourites then and this is now. Like would they be able to sit in a van with Chewy (Cannon) and not look like a bellend? I don’t want everyone else to be uncomfortable. It’s about the synergy man; it has to be nice. Everyone has to be happy and cool with each other and want to skate together. And to be fair, loads of my favourite skaters are now fucking knocking on 40. So it’s like, do you wanna sit in a van with Jamal (Smith) smoking weed? No? Then fuck off basically. I wanna look after what we have. I’m not trying to get someone to skate for Palace like just because I wanna sell boards in fucking wherever. WH: Of course, you want to have it so everyone’s cool with each other. That’s all it is really. And also those skaters, when I liked them it was a long time ago. Like when Alien Workshop was Alien Workshop. And now it’s different. People ain’t the same anymore. WH: Your favourite guys from your youth may not be the best for the team. Exactly. And they’re not necessarily my favourite skaters now. There was a time when they were, when I had posters of them on my wall. When I Idolised them, wanted to be like them, dress like them… But those were different times. WH: Do you guys have people you flow boards to? I mean if someone needs boards, I’ll just give them boards. There’s no official flow team, it’s like one way or the other. But I’m not scared of

Femi Bukunola

South Bank, London, 2006. Ph. Tom Richardson

sending someone 20 boards if they need skateboards. Even random people that I meet, if they skate sick, I’ll happily be like ‘yeah take some boards’. That’s what skating’s about innit. Well that’s what I think it’s about. So there’s no flow team really. Just because I don’t see the point. And you know what? The only reason people set up massive flow teams sometimes is to sell stuff in that area. You know what I mean? WH: And that’s something you don’t need to worry about… Not even that. I’d love to sell more things in certain places but I think it’s a bit snide when people sponsor people like that. American companies do it so much with English skaters. They lead them on, like ‘oh yeah you’re gonna ride for fucking Popwar or something’. Then they lead them on and lead them on and lead them on… ‘You’re on the flow team but we’re gonna do it, we’re gonna do it.’ So many American companies do that. WH: Then when the video comes out; their name’s nowhere to be seen. Exactly. Or they have one trick. Why are you gonna do that to someone? I don’t wanna give some kid boards and for him to think ‘maybe one day I’ll ride for Palace?’ When to be honest with you, you probably won’t unless like you live near London and you’re fucking hilarious and I love you. You know what I mean? If I don’t wanna hang out with you and all the skaters don’t wanna hang out with you, it’s never happening. WH: So are you not really bothered about trying to hook anyone else up? I’d love to man! Send me those sponsor me’s! No one sends them.

nollie heelflip MWADlands, London, 2017. Ph. Sam Ashley

out to be an amazing skater. I still remember the footage of this little kid doing frontside tailslide shove-its and all these sick little tricks. But he lived in LA and we were in London…. It’s weird that I replied to him innit. No one else, just one ever. He literally was like fucking 4ft high. Same height as you (Arthur)! AD: Oi! So how did the idea for MWADlands come about? Now that’s the shit I wanna talk about! I want to hype people up about the skatepark. We wanted to do it last year but couldn’t find a space. December, January, February, no one on the team has anywhere to skate in London. And I want them to get better at skating. So originally it was a little shitty space we were gonna do. With like a block and stuff. Then we found a bigger space and then we just thought to

Lucien Clarke,

WH: Really? To be fair I don’t check the email really. But you know what actually? You know that black kid that skates for Fucking Awesome? Massive pop… AD: Sage (Elsesser)? Sage yeah, when I met him in New York a year ago this is what he said to me: ‘Hey man. I sent you a sponsor me tape once!’ And I’m like: ‘What? Did you? Are you sure?’ And he was like: ‘You replied man! You sent a really nice message!’ And I was like: ‘Really? Saying what?’ I was like what the fuck? I was thinking about it like, I swear to god, I’ve only ever replied to one sponsor me tape, ever. And it turns out it was him when he was a little kid! And he was sick! The only one I ever replied to was that one. (Laughs) Mad that he turned

ourselves ‘why has there not been a skatepark in London since like for ever?’ Since London Bridge, (editor’s note: Ewer Street, it was only open for about 10 months, and that was in 1991) you know what I mean?! Gareth and me are fucking skaters; so we were just like ‘fuck it let’s make a skatepark’. It fucking cost an arm and a leg to make but like everyone has somewhere to skate. It’s good for kids that are skating. It’s like the dream innit? Like why wouldn’t you? Like anyone that has a skate company, I don’t understand why they wouldn’t do that, if they could. It’s my dream from when I was a kid. AD: It got me so hyped. That’s the point of it innit. Get people hyped and shit. We had a skate video coming out so I was like fuck it, let’s do the whole thing together. And I was always really into doing something that would give a nod to Radlands, like trying to redo it. It’s just nice to give something back. AD: How did it feel to watch Penny and Rowley skating it? It was the gnarliest day ever man. Before it opened we got all the team there skating. We got Rowley and Penny coming, and everyone’s in there smoking weed, getting mashup. And we’re just skating with Rowley and Penny – you know what I mean? It’s like a dream you know. Penny’s at the top of the ramp like talking to Brady like (Lev puts on a pretty good Tom Penny voice): ‘What are the ramps like? What’s the driveway like?’ He’s got boots on, classic, and he’s borrowed Rory’s board. Brady’s like ‘aw, it’s really hard to skate actually…’ and as he’s saying that, Penny drops in and does an early grab or some shit over the driveway first try. Everyone was like ‘ohhhh!’ Brady was like ‘fucking hell!’,

Palasonic VHS cam,

2016. Ph. Mike O’Meally

as he’s like trying to explain to him how hard it is to skate and Penny just boosted some shit over the driveway ha ha! He did all this other shit in the park as well, I’ve got all the footage – I haven’t put it out yet. I haven’t had time to do it but I’m gonna put it on the Internet soon. Imagine just skating with Rowley and Penny in your own skatepark! AD: How did you get them to come? We just rang ‘em up drunk. We’d been at the skatepark and me, Joel (O’Connor), Torey (Goodall) and Charlie (Young) were pissed out of our faces and Gareth was there and we were like ‘rah, let’s get Penny or Rowley to come’. Actually Penny was already coming, ‘let’s get Rowley, lets get Rowley!’ And Joel’s like ‘go on then, I’ll fucking give you his number, text him now. And Gareth’s steaming like texting Rowley like, ‘are you up for coming to our skatepark?’ Two minutes later he replied ‘yep yep I’m coming’. We booked him a flight in the pub. Comes over three days later. Fucking dream world innit. At the same time every single penny from that skatepark (donation box) goes into getting South Bank back to what it was. We’re not selling shit out there; we’re doing none of that. So when you tell Rowley that story, of course he wants to save South Bank, of course he wants kids to have somewhere to skate. It’s just skating innit. When you do something good for someone, they help you back. Rowley was instantly down. He came to the skatepark straight off the plane, like super jet-lagged. He just showed up, drank some Stellas and skated the park. It was banging. AD: Who came up with all the branding?

Ferg (Fergus Purcell) drew it all up. I said to Ferg I want the skatepark to look like Radlands did back in the day. So I sent him a few things, but then he went off the chart. Ferg is like the most talented person ever. Like I sent him the Workshop logo yeah, and we were pissing ourselves laughing ‘cause the guy on the right looks like Rory yeah. He’s got the long head and shit. And I think Ferg like traced it and clicked his hair blonde. And in the skatepark Rory was like ‘that’s me innit?’ and I was like ‘nah look at the actual original logo. It just looks like you mate.’ That’s just one, ha ha. WH: The Toy Machine one is too good. Toy Machine one is the one innit. I was so stoked on that and the Spitfire head. Everything really, he just went in on it. WH: Did any of those companies say anything about them? Everyone loves it. I was worried about Spitfire and all those people that actually still make money. AD: But it’s basically free advertising though… And it’s just a nod. Yeah it’s a nod innit. They could have been pissed off about it, but they sent such nice messages. Jim Thiebaud and all that lot being like ‘whoever did that is a genius,

thank you so much’. Like really nice about it. I remember being all hungover and seeing the email come through and think ‘fuck I hope it’s not a lawsuit from Spitfire’. Clicked it, and it’s just him being safe. It’s skating innit. WH: It’s not like you’re selling t-shirts… Exactly. Well actually a few through the back door… Ha ha, I’m joking. AD: How long are you gonna have it there for and what do you reckon could be done to have it for longer? It finishes in March. Fucking raise loads of money to pay the rent, it’s through the roof! But I wanna do something else further down the line, so it’s cool… AD: You going to try to do another one next year? I’d love to man. I wish the skatepark could be there forever but then I’m kind of like ‘fuck it’, it’ll go and then hopefully we’ll make another one, one day. But it’s shown us that it’s the sort of thing we should be doing. If you don’t get off your arse and do it, nothing happens. The community and the government should be helping us do these things though.

Lucien Clarke,

switch backside nosebluntslide Victoria Benches, London, 2017. Ph. Sam Ashley

VAUGHAN JONES / PHOTO BY REECE LEUNG

SALES@KEENDIST.CO.UK

Hello everyone, boys and girls. My name is Marimo Ohyama. Photographer living in Tokyo.

64 Text about POLAR Japan tour By Marimo

Sam and Arthur of Free Skate Mag gave me the opportunity to write text about this tour. I am honoured. But I am poor at English. I am challenging while using a translator now. I am sorry if it was bad English, but I want you to read it.

Today I am writing about the Polar Japan tour that took place in the autumn. I do not understand why they came to Japan because I cannot speak English. Perhaps because in the summer Japanese Shin Sanbongi was welcomed to Polar Team. I guess they came to the new family’s hood.

Polar guys and having touring Japan with Uru. Uru is a boss of Japan’s Polar distribution company ‘Kukunochi’. He is one of the amazing skateboarders in Japan. And the best nice guy in the world. He prepared a special bus and also got a special license to drive for this tour.

Shin Sanbongi, backside lipslide, Fuji, Shizuoka. Ph. Nobuo Iseki

66 Shin Sanbongi, backside smith grind, Yokohama. Ph: Marimo Ohyama

Polar is one of the most amazing skateboard companies in the world. Boss Pontus Alv’ s skateboarding is wonderful. The skate video he made is very cool. I think the video he made is very beautiful. And he is a gentleman who values communication with teammates even though he is busy with work.

I am very fortunate to have them invited as a photographer from them. I must thank for that fortune.

Oskar Rozenberg Hallberg, kickflip transfer, Tokyo. Ph: Marimo Ohyama

This trip started from Tokyo and headed north around the eastern side of Japan. We moved from town to town and demonstrated. When the demonstration was over, Polar guys talked with as many people as possible and took a picture together and shook hands and signed. They touched the kids like angels. Kids said ‘I want to get on the Polar board!’ I thought Polar guys’ action was super professional. They not only showed cool riding but also deepened the relationship with the Japanese. I became very happy when I saw it!

In the middle of the tour, we took the next Polar clip at the attendant spot. The photo was supported by ‘Nobuo Iseki’. Two of us took them together. Iseki is the best Japanese photographer. Enjoy their wonderful riding cuts posted in this article!

68 Oskar Rozenberg Hallberg, frontside air, Yokohama. Ph: Marimo Ohyama

When the demonstration and shooting are over, everyone bathed in traditional Japanese hot springs at night. The meals were prepared by very friendly local skaters and Uru. Polar guys liked sushi and ramen and ate it many times. And everyone drank Japanese sake. Everyone got drunk and listened to good house music and gangsta hip-hop in the bus. And sometimes Rap. Pontus was seeking a song by Smashing Pumpkins.

The highlight on this tour was that we all watched Japanese pornography on a moving bus monitor. That was a funny experience.

Hjalte Halberg, backside tailslide, Fuji. Ph. Nobuo Iseki

Oskar Rozenberg Hallberg, backside 50-50, Yokohama. Ph. Nobuo Iseki

72 Oskar Rozenberg Hallberg, backside tail stall to revert, Fuji, Shizuoka. Ph: Marimo Ohyama

I chilled a lot with them hanging out. I thought Polar was the best team with a great friendship. It was an impression they enjoyed time very much with their friends.

I had plenty of wonderful friends on this tour. I want them to come to Japan again. Next time I want to visit their local area. Thanks Pontus, Uru and Polar guys. And thanks for giving me the opportunity to write Sam and Arthur sentences! Big up Free Skate Mag.

74 With love from Tokyo, Marimo Hjalte Halberg, frontside 180 kickflip, Yokohama. Ph. Nobuo Iseki

EMPOWERING YOUTH T H R O U G H S K AT E B O A R D I N G A N D E D U C AT I O N

S K AT E I S TA N. O R G

Tommy May is a rather excitable character that I’m sure a few of you will have come across either in London, Barcelona or Helsinki. When he’s not bouncing off the walls (both metaphorically and literally depending on the context), a lot of his time is spent promoting ginger solidarity. To give you an idea of his devotion to the cause, the first time he came across Wieger in real life he couldn’t help but run over and welcome the confused comrade to what he calls the ‘the ginger mafia’. As you can imagine the whole operation showed ‘mixed’ results… Anyway he also happens to be one of the most proactive guys we know (at least when it comes to skating) and over the last year or so he’s managed to finish two full parts that should be playing on our site by the time you read this. With one filmed in London whilst he was out there skating with the Palace crew and the other in Helsinki where he’s now back lurking with Eniz, Simo and the gang, we thought it would be a good excuse to catch up!

so pissed off the other day when I realised I’d ‘forgotten’ to go skating for a week… It’s like there was a little person inside me shouting at me to go skate. Hello mate! Wait a sec, so you did five years Tommy May: Ha ha ha… without working? How have you been Yeah it’s been cold over here and my affording to live? heating fucked up (on the Facetime I inherited some money when I video I’m huddled up in bed with a was 18 and I made that last. hoodie pulled tightly over my head). I can see how going back to ‘normal’ At least now there’s an indoor life after all those years in Barca skatepark two minutes from my must have felt weird. You were house though… It’s been helping me probably a bit spoilt with skating, ha get me through the winter. ha. Yeah I saw that it was around Definitely. there. I know what you mean… So the idea for this little interview I’ve actually started enjoying was to have something to go the indoor skatepark as well alongside the two parts we’ll be now… I used to hate on it so releasing of you on the site: the one much but obviously here (in Trav Adams filmed in Helsinki and the Finland) you just don’t have a one Brooks filmed in London when choice. Eniz has been telling me you were out there skating with to treat it like a joke and it’s Chewy and that lot. kind of been working, ha ha. No way! I was wondering what was If you’ve got a full-time job and winter going to happen with that London mainly consists of pints and staring stuff. Last time I asked they at a laptop, you need that indoor wanted to hold onto it until skatepark to preserve your sanity. after the video came out so that Oh yeah. I haven’t had a job or it wouldn’t blow out the spots any kind of structure in about and stuff. five years so I’m definitely Were you worried it would never make feeling it now that I do. I got it out there? Not really, it’s not like Brooks would have deleted it or anything. Why did you end up leaving Barcelona and coming to London then? I was a bit sick and I needed to go to the dentist. It seemed way easier for me to do that sort of thing in the UK. I hadn’t been for eight years so obviously quite a lot of work needed to be done and there’s only so much numbing a mouth can take, so it ended up being quite a few sessions. That’s initially why I stuck around. And I guess I was a bit lost; I didn’t really know where I wanted to be… There was a point where you were getting boards from Palace and you’d be going out skating with that crew almost every day. Did you think you were properly going to get on? You know how Dallas (Rockvam) always bangs on about how Frank is going to be done and stuff? Well one time he sounded really serious about it. He also had

Interview Arthur Derrien

Switch backside wallride Helsinki Ph. Justus Hirvi

other stuff going on in his life and I was like fuck it, if this is actually making him depressed then there’s no point in carrying on. Anyway at that point Chewy (Cannon) sorted it out so that I could get boards. And yeah I’d always go skating with them but I didn’t think much more of it. It was just nice going skating with that crew. That’s one of the best things about skating in London; it’s so big that you get to hang out with loads of different crews. For sure. It feels like a bunch of different cities/scenes in one. Well yeah, it’s because a city like Helsinki’s got around 500,000 people in it whereas London has nine million. What triggered the move back to Helsinki then? I just can’t really handle London that much… I didn’t fully realise until I got back here just how stressful it is. I think I’m too much of a country boy, somehow. I used to feel like that a lot when I was a little kid. I remember finding

myself stuck in the middle of all these people on Oxford Street and just crying. It’s not as extreme now but I still get that feeling in London when I end up in the wrong place at the wrong time and everyone’s just pushing past me to get on the train when all I want is to get home… Why back to Finland though? The people… And I just like the way it is really. I’m not too sure why… It’s also really easy to live here. I’d ran out of money and was trying to figure out what I was going to do about getting a place and a realised that since I worked here for five months, five years ago, I’m still in their system, have a social security number and am entitled to benefits. The government practically pays my whole rent and gives me 500 Euros to live off… It’s pretty gnarly. Do you prefer skating there to skating in London? It must be nice to film parts in a city where not as many of the spots have been blown out… I never think about skating like that. If there’s a spot I skate it, that’s it. I think I got that from Dallas a little bit.

Switch pole jam Helsinki Ph. Justus Hirvi

Frontside heelflip to fakie London Ph. Mike O’Meally

German, half French, half Guatemalan and he’s lived all over the world… He’s a legend. Anyway him and his wife Lisa have a big bookshop that does tea/coffee, has a pool table and it’s where lots of the skaters chill. What exactly do you do there then? Make teas and coffees; take the dog out for walks, ha ha. I also draw and read a lot… What as part of your ‘work’? Yeah I guess they really encourage me to do that as they can tell it’s stuff I enjoy. They also put on lots of shows and have talks there so I help out with those as well… It’s perfect for winter. And I’d go there anyway to be honest; it’s a lovely place to hang out. Almost like a skate shop but with a slightly different crowd. Oh yeah and all skateboarders get a discount Plus London’s so big that even if that was a thing for me you there, ha ha. can easily find your own Samuel’s dad even has a SLP tattoo spots... But yeah when I was (SLP stands for there I just skated anything Smells Like Pussy, anyone took me to. Are you just going to stay in Helsinki it’s Eniz, Simo for a bit now? and others’ crew from Helsinki). Yeah I’m doing this thing through the job centre over here How come you ended at the moment… I’m not sure how up working on this part with Travis to describe it, as it almost Adams rather than doesn’t count as work… Do you that crew then? know that guy Samuel (Bourgeot) I still go out from the SLP crew? with that crew Yeah… loads but I just Well his dad Ian is like half

Fakie inward heelflip Helsinki Ph. Justus Hirvi

thought I’d do something a little bit different as I usually always film with Tobbe. It’s cool to do something HD for a change and Trav is really good at filming… Plus I managed to get him out even when it was freezing. Half of that footage was filmed when it was like one degrees Celsius outside, either right after the snow melted in March or right before winter properly kicked in. I don’t know why I love skating when it’s cold so much… Maybe it’s just that I like skating in a hoodie. Also what’s funny about that part is that the first trick and the last trick (down that indoor double set) are actually the first trick I filmed for it and the last one! Anything you’d like to add? I guess if you’re ever in Helsinki make sure you check out ArKadia International Bookshop!

Pol Catena, kickflip to

Casper Brooker, hippie jump, Seoul. Ph. Sam Ashley

Jarne Verbruggen, ollie, Detroit. Ph. Guillaume PÃ©rimony

Karsten Kleppan, frontside boardslide, Barcelona. Ph. Lars GartĂĽ

Olivier Durou, frontside noseslide pop-over, Bordeaux. Ph. ClĂŠment Le Gall

flat, Barcelona. Ph. Sem Rubio

WWW.CARHARTT-WIP.COM PHIL ZWIJSEN – OLLIE • PHOTO: GUILLAUME PÉRIMONY

Baczkowski Poskrobko, ollie Ph. Kuba Krzysztof Warsaw.

With Instagram videos and stand-alone video parts dominating skateboarding media in 2017 (and now 2018) it’s encouraging to know that some people still take the time to make full-length independent skate videos. One such person is Warsaw’s Kuba Kaczmarczyk. You might be familiar with Kuba’s last video Grey Area from 2012. As I write this Kuba and his editing partner Pawel Przybyl are working on the last finishing touches of This is not another Grey Area Video: Neverware. So why has Kuba spent the last 4-5 years making another new video? Here’s a hint: it’s not for the money. When you have a full-time job at Nike SB and a family to take care of, making a full-length video like this is done strictly for the love. The idea for this video came about in early 2013. Around that time Kuba was scheduled to attend a Nike sales meeting in Orlando, Florida. Kuba explained to me that a lot of the time when Nike sends him to interesting places for sales meetings, he and others ask to be flown in a few days early so they can take some holiday days and check out these places before the big meeting. Being

heavily influenced by Westside skate shop’s Dango videos, Joe Perrin’s The Last of the Mohicans, and MIA skate shop’s Welcome to MIA, Kuba knew he wanted to check out Miami. He thought that for this trip maybe it would be a good idea to link up with the local skaters, but he didn’t know any… So Kuba asked Nike head honcho Kaspar (Van Lierop) if he knew any skaters out there, he did, and he put Kuba in touch with local Danny Fuenzalida. So Kuba went, they met, Danny introduced him to the Miami scene, and of course Kuba had a great time. Kuba then arranged a Nike SB Poland trip to Miami the next year in 2014 with Chris Jones as a guest rider. Kuba went back a few more times on his own to skate with Danny and the locals (six Miami trips total). But immediately after his first visit Kuba already knew he wanted to have a Miami section in his next video. So knowing that the first Grey Area video was filmed primarily in Warsaw I really

Kris Poskrobko progress (he is a very good filmmaker) he still I’ve been filming skateboarding for about 20 managed to film a part for this. years. Kris became a part of my projects 15 years ago and had a part in every video afterwards. Obviously I couldn’t imagine this one without that guy as well… I’m so thankful that despite his own project being in

wondered how that would sync with palm tree laden skate footage of Miami. Kuba assured me not to worry, and that Miami and Warsaw were actually quite similar… When you’re in Europe and you want to visit America to skate, you usually think of going to New York, LA, or San Francisco… Miami is pretty far down the list. Similarly, when you’re in the States and you want to visit Europe to skate, Barcelona, Paris, London and Copenhagen are a must, not particularly Warsaw. It’s not to say these two cities are forgotten, just that they aren’t at the top of people’s lists for go-to skate destinations. Also Kuba says Warsaw and Miami both have really rough spots, and the approach to skating and life in general is similar for both sets of locals: laid back and chill. So the blend of Miami and Warsaw spots will no doubt be interesting; I guess we’ll just have to see if Kuba can pull this off. In addition to Danny Fuenzalida and the Miami locals having a part Kuba tells me there will be a Malmö section (like in his last video) featuring everyone’s favourite karaoke king: Danijel ‘Jugga’

Intro by Will Harmon

This Grey is Area not Article another

Captions by Kuba Kaczmarczyk

Stankovic. Kuba and Jugga have some type of special bond… Could it be that they both work for Nike SB? Skate sessions before and after the sales meetings? Two guys, both with families, both with full-time jobs and both with a passion to actually skate, not just talk about it. Well for whatever reason it is Jugga has linked up with Kuba a lot over the years and the pair make a great a combination. Besides Jugga and Fuenzalida, you will have definitely heard of Polish powerhouse and speed demon Michał Juras. Much to our delight he’s having a full part too. Kuba Brniak, Michał Zarzyck, Franek Kramarczyk are three names I’m not so familiar with, but they’re sharing a section. Kuba explained to me that he wanted to travel within Poland a little bit more for this video, and these aforementioned three from Krakow really caught his eye. And of course Warsaw locals Krzysztof (Kris) Poskrobko and Tomek (Tommy) Ziółkowski have full parts, but I’m going to let Kuba tell you a little more about these guys in the captions. This is not another Grey Area Video: Neverware will be premiering in early 2018, and by the looks of these photos shot during the filming process we are definitely in for a treat. Warsaw, Miami, Krakow, and Malmö – not your usual skate video destination line up, but bring it on I say. Looking forward to it Kuba!

Danijel ‘Jugga’ Stankovic, backside 180 kickflip, Malmö. Ph. Martin Hallberg

Danijel Stankovic they were lagging with it so we can use the I had a perfect story for this caption but the stuff I filmed with him in Holland and mix it second character of it would prefer to stay in with clips I got from Martin Hallberg (thanks the shadows so I cannot talk about it. Instead bud!). I’m gonna tell you that I was super close to not having Danijel’s part in the vid. After Grey Area where Mr Stankovic had a section he decided to put all his effort into filming for his board sponsor: The National. Luckily for me

Franek Kramarczyk, wallie backside crailslide, Warsaw. Ph. Kuba Baczkowski

This Grey is Area not another Article

Danny Fuenzalida

If you’ve read the intro, then you already know that I had a blind date with Danny… I knew his parts from several videos and the one from the Satori video is in my top ten for sure. While waiting for him at MIA skate shop I expected someone super serious, focused and barely speaking. That’s how I perceived him to be from viewing skate media. Guys, don’t ever let the skate videos fool you as much as they did me. The couple of minutes from his life I saw in the movies had nothing to do with Danny on a daily basis. Imagine me meeting a guy talking way too much, always changing topics and being proper ADHD. He doesn’t stop being like this until he tries filming a skate clip with me and it takes more than ten goes. Then Mr Hyde comes and Fuenz stops being Mr Cool Smiley Face. This is the Danny you would know from the videos… Regarding the photo: I am definitely not a fan of putting famous spots in my videos. This time I had to make an exception though. The triangle means Miami to me. I’ve

known this one since Elissa Steamer had her ender down here in Welcome to Hell. Believe me, this spot is no joke at all. When I saw it for the first time I literally felt the power of big American skateboarding. I still can’t believe that I’m saying this but that’s how I felt at that time. It wasn’t just the triangle but this whole area filled with other well-known spots that various rippers dropped their hammers at. I’m definitely stoked and proud of my man Fuenz that he had an NBD for that spot and it’s gonna end up in my video.

Danny Fuenzalida, switch frontside flip into the triangle, Miami. Ph. Matt Roy

Tomek Ziółkowski, pole jam to 5-0 grind, Warsaw. Ph. Kuba Baczkowski

Michał Juras

This guy skates fast and the spots he likes aren’t perfect. That’s the words that describe his attitude to skateboarding the most. Here’s the story about this double kinked rail: once we went on a trip to a tourist resort in Poland called Mazury. On the way to this ‘Land of a Hundred Lakes’ as we call it, we checked every little village. Even though Juras was super sceptical about this trip, in my opinion it was one of the funniest and most productive trips of the year.

Baczkowski Michał Juras, boardslide Pułtusk. Ph. Kuba

In one of those little towns on the way we found this beast located on a mellow downhill. Unfortunately the run up was cracked and the landing wasn’t perfect either. We knew we wanted to come back to fix it. A couple months later we were back equipped with cement. We filled the cracks with the very fast drying cement as we always do so we could have a session the same day. Unfortunately the weather this year was the worst ever and even though we waited for a couple of hours it didn’t dry out. Therefore we had to drive back there after another two weeks (it was raining almost every day in the meantime). When we got there again to skate it, it was indeed dry, but Juras wasn’t feeling it. It was cold, it seemed like it was going to start raining soon and the pressure was really low. He jumped on it though and went through the second kink and jumped off his board. He said he wasn’t feeling it afterwards… I uploaded the clip, sent it to him in the evening and his reply was: ‘I will do it next time.’ We had to wait another few days due to the rain and my job. Finally the sun came and I could take a day off but… It was a day before he was going on a Carhartt trip. He still was keen to drive to the rail and do it though. I thought it was gonna be easy for him. We brought some wood for the landing and Juras started approaching it. He slid the whole rail in five goes. ‘Indeed, it’s gonna be an easy one’ I thought. On his sixth try he landed on the wood and ran out on the wet and muddy grass and got pitched in the air looking like superman. Then the nightmare began: we realised that the wood was too short to have an easy landing. He had to land sideways to avoid getting stuck in the grass. After maybe 15 slams like that I was about to say he should leave it. Finally (I don’t know how as he could barely walk) he made it. Later he told me he couldn’t sleep for the whole night because of the pain and his back and shoulder hurt him for another two weeks. Of course he wasn’t able to skate 100% on the Carhartt tour. Sorry guys, this was all my fault.

100

50-50 Baczkowski Tomek Ziółkowski, frontside grind, Warsaw. Ph. Kuba

Tomek Ziółkowski

I still remember when I saw this little kid wearing track pants and XXL tees jumping down the 7-stair at Witos Plaza (the main spot in Warsaw) all day long. He looked like a proper ghetto kid, who was probably gonna stop skating soon and start shoplifting instead. Luckily his love for skating was too

big and didn’t let him do stupid things. Soon he was taken under the wings of the guys at Kamuflage skate shop (RIP now) and he benefited from this opportunity very well. Tommy comes from the streets of Warsaw and he knows how to make use of it. He knows how to behave in every situation and that’s why everybody loves this guy. He’s always high-fived by random people (from thugs to businessmen) while skating. He loves Warsaw and that’s why he knows thousands of stories about every spot you go to with him. His Insta feed is filled with skateboarding and photos of different sides of Warsaw – scary and beautiful; rough and modern.

Wojtek Szczot

Wojtek Szczot, 360 Warsaw. Ph.

101

flip Kuba

is from Gdynia, the city by the Baltic Sea up in the north of Poland. When he finished

Baczkowski

school he became a sailor and he is the only guy who really should have an anchor or ship tattoo. When he was over ships and sailing for months, he moved to Warsaw to pursue the skate dream. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s when I met him. The tre flip you see is really gnarly. The run up is short and narrow and you really wanna clear the gap while jumping. Wojtek made it in December during minus temperatures.

102

Roy Matt Manny Massens, kickflip Miami. Ph.

Manny Massens

In the middle of my first trip to Miami on one of the night sessions I realised that it wasn’t just Danny and I at the spot. I saw a kid with a big beard standing against a wall. He probably said ‘hi’ but he made it so quiet that none of us heard it and then he just kept standing against this wall until he was spotted. Danny introduced him as ‘local ripper Manny Mo’. Manny doesn’t speak too much but he can skate. And what is even more worth mentioning is he is the first guy to help you with something, first one offering you a ride from the airport, etc. – Manny is the man!

He is also a very talented carpenter. He does crazy furniture for a big chain of stores in America. The ship he made from broken decks still hangs on my wall! I would like to take this opportunity and mention one more guy from Miami… The dude who hosted me a couple of times in his crib, showed me Miami’s nightlife and was just the best company ever: Paul DeOliveira. Thanks Paul.

foot Baczkowski ollie one Kuba

MichaĹ&#x201A; Zarzycki

is part of this crew I call the Krakow kids. Lately Krakow has become the second

MichaĹ&#x201A; Zarzycki, Warsaw. Ph.

biggest scene in Poland. And while Warsaw skaters are sometimes too lazy or too cool to put more work in the session, these guys are completely the opposite. Michal is a perfect example of this reckless attitude. He prefers transitions but he managed to film a street part, which got me stoked.

Franek Kramarczyk, the bank, Warsaw.

gap ollie Ph. Kuba

into Baczkowski

Franek Kramarczyk

When Franek first got to Warsaw for a filming mission with me I showed him loads of spots. He didn’t like any of them until finally we went to Uniwersus. That’s a really

kickflip Baczkowski Michał Juras, backside 180 Warsaw. Ph. Kuba

105

hard one which some of you have seen in various big videos. It has very steep marble banks, a big hubba ledge, a very high rail, stairs, etc. It’s hard to come up with an NBD there since the spot has been there for years and has been visited by tons of rippers (Polish and foreigners). This spot offers you lots of options, but it’s even harder to find an obstacle that hasn’t been skated yet. However there was an obvious one: in front of the big hubba ledge there’s a 1.5 metre gap into a very steep bank. For years nobody dared to even start talking about trying it… That was until Franek came over, and without any hesitation, he did it in a couple of tries. Veni Vidi Vici.

GUS

1 0 8

Switch 360 flip, Barcelona. Ph. Sem Rubio

TAV TÃ&#x2DC;NNESEN 1 0 9

1 1 0

Have you heard the phrase: ‘your favourite skater’s favourite skater’ before? Well Gustav Tønnesen is just that… Pekka Løvås (Oslo’s critically acclaimed VX/HD videographer) told me that on a recent adidas trip Lucas Puig said that Gustav was his new favourite. Does Gustav know this? Did I ask him about this? Well I didn’t bring it up, but not because I didn’t want to know what he thought about it, but because I knew what his reply would be: ‘oh ok’. You may hear terms like ‘the wizard’ or ‘the magician’ to describe Gustav, but for me ‘humble’ is the word that best describes this Norwegian native. If any of you have met Gustav before you’ll know he’s a man of few words, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t hold strong opinions. Somehow he agreed to share his views with us, so hopefully this interview will shed a little light on this quiet Scandinavian virtuoso, or if nothing else, perhaps some of his humility will rub off on the rest of us. Ph. Sem Rubio

Interview by Will Harmon

Can you tell me about where you grew up and your early years of skating in Norway? Gustav Tønnesen: I grew up in a small city called Egersund, a one-hour drive from Stavanger. I was about 9-10 years old, rollerblading like all the kids in the neighbourhood… Then sometimes I would try people’s skateboards, after a short while I started liking that more, so I got a board and started skating. Egersund only had parking garages with pallets to skate in the winter. So after skating for two years or something, I started going to Stavanger every weekend. They had an indoor skatepark and a cool skate scene. I ended up moving to Stavanger

when I was 15… I stayed at my grandmother’s house and went to a carpenter school, and skated every day. I kind of liked building stuff when I was young… But the main reason I wanted to move there was so that I 1 1 1 could skate more. Pekka (Løvås) mentioned you moving to Oslo and skating for Shit skateboards or something and you working for them? I got sponsored by Shit skateboards in Stavanger, it was based there… I moved to Oslo when I was 17 I think. They opened a store there where I worked sometimes. I managed to survive on that and getting a bit of money for skating for Shit and Vox footwear. ‘Money for skating for Shit’, that sounds hilarious! So how did you then get on Sweet

Kickflip backside smith grind, Mallorca. Ph. Zander Taketomo

1 1 2

and move to Barca? I got a message from a guy that worked at Junkyard/Sweet in Norway, saying that Bjorn (Holmenäs) wanted to talk about me skating for them. I had seen some of the guys skating on video, and after talking to Bjorn I thought it was a cool thing to join. I was going to Barcelona with a Norwegian crew, and there I met up with Bjorn and some of the Switch kickflip, Buenos Aires. Ph. Sam Muller

guys… After a year of travelling with them, and spending some time in Barcelona, I decided I wanted to move there. Me, Nisse, Spengan and Lomar got an apartment together. Ah the infamous Locket skate house in Barcelona! The infamous Locket, ha ha… That’s

the apartment we first moved in to. Lots of good times – we skated and filmed pretty much every day. And went out drinking 2-3 times a week… When you first come to Barcelona the party scene is so much fun, but I kind of got tired of it. Now I just go to a bar like once a week. Who do you live with now? Now I live in an apartment with my girlfriend, and we have an extra room that friends stay in most of the time. Simon (Isaksson) was staying there a long time, also Nisse and Lomar for a bit… A couple years ago I had never heard of you filming and then all of a sudden you’d filmed a whole new Sour promo. How did you get into filming and how do you think you picked up the skills of filming so well, so quickly? It usually takes people years to perfect a proper filming technique… After Lomar made the video The Sour Solution, he wanted to start studying. So he sold me his VX1000 setup. Simon Isaksson

and I thought it would be fun to start filming. He had already filmed a bit before, but the Sour promo was basically the first six months of filming. 1 1 3 I guess I learned from being in front of the camera, working on things with filmers, and looking at videos. Then trying to figure out how to handle the camera. Angles, movements, timing… I’m still learning, but it’s looking better than in the beginning… So are you and Simon the main filmers for Sour now? Or does Simon just film you? Yes, more or less. Until now I have filmed almost everything, but I hope Simon will step in more. He has a good eye for filming! Why don’t you like being filmed in HD? Can you explain your love of the VX over HD? I’m so used to filming with the VX1000, so I get bummed pretty often on how boring it looks when I film a trick in HD. I just think the 4:3 format looks a lot better than 16:9. I also like the look of VX1000 footage, but most importantly the fact that you can be closer to the skater. It looks faster and has more action. I don’t understand how it makes sense to have more space on the sides, and less on top and

Switch backside 5-0 grind, Paris. Ph. Sem Rubio

1 1 4

bottom… A skater is taller than he is wide. I hope more people start doing it the way James Cruickshank does: HD 4:3. Can you tell us about the Sour video you are working on at the moment? Will everyone have Bennett grind transfer, Barcelona. Ph. Sem Rubio

parts? Will it be a ‘full length’? Will you have a full part? I think we are making a full length. We’ve made a good start; everybody has some cool stuff already! It’s kind of hard to

say right now, but I would guess that most of us will have parts. Maybe some shorter or some split parts. I know you and Simon have been all over Barcelona finding new spots. Do you use Google Street View or how do you explore? I have used Google Street View to find spots that I forgot exactly where they were… But we have just been going to places on train, metro and bikes, looking around. Sometimes we just end up going around looking all day, almost not skating. Which kind of sucks sometimes, he he… There are still a lot of areas that we haven’t been to.

I take it you’re more into finding and skating new spots when you’re out skating rather than training up at Sants or Macba all day… Absolutely. We go to a plaza and just skate sometimes as well, but I think it’s definitely more fun to skate different stuff and being in different places. Is it a conscious thing you guys think about with filming in Barcelona, like ‘ok let’s not really have Macba or Paral-lel footage in our next video’? Or is it not so strict like that? None of us like to skate Paral-lel that much anymore, we liked it more before they changed it. Kind of same thing with Sants… And Macba is too

Switch crooked grind, Barcelona. Ph. Gabriel Engelke

1 1 5

hectic for us. I still like to see footage from Macba; it’s a legendary spot… But it has to be something different or something really good to stand out from 1 1 6 all of it. Who’s always wins at games of S.K.A.T.E. between the Sour team? No comment. Ha ha, ok… A little while back you had an Instagram of yourself getting electro shocks into your heel to help your Plantar Fasciitis. Do your feet still bother you? I could not skate for five or six months because of that, and got pretty scared when I read stories about people that never really healed from it. Now it’s good… I still feel it sometimes, but I found a good way to handle it. When it stopped hurting a lot, I was biking in the mountains every day, to move my feet in a good way – then stretching after. I got some special made insoles the shape of my feet, that I put in every shoe I wear. When I’m not skating, even between spots and sessions, I use adidas Ultra Boost shoes; they are really soft and good for the feet. Are you a skate nerd? Do you watch all the new edits coming out? If so what have you been enjoying recently? I watch a lot of stuff coming out, and I would

Switch backside smith grind, Barcelona. Ph. Sem Rubio

say I’m kind of a skate nerd, he he… Mostly I’ll just see posts on Instagram for new parts or edits, and if it looks interesting I’ll watch it. What I’ve been most stoked on these last years is the GX1000 video and Spirit Quest. Especially Spirit Quest, the filming is so impressive. Colin Read is the best filmer of all time in my opinion. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you angry. Or do you just never get angry whilst skating? Or am I completely trippin’? No, I don’t get really angry that often. Once a while I’ll get really pissed, but I think it takes a lot. I don’t know what it takes for me to get really angry… Sometimes trying a trick for a long time, but sometimes I just accept that I’m not gonna make the trick and stop trying… What was it like shooting with Sem (Rubio) for this interview? Do you guys speak with each other in English or Spanish? Sem always has really nice photos, he’s one of my favourite photographers. So it’s been cool to get stuff with him! We talk in English. I understand a lot of Spanish, but I

1 1 7

mostly don’t know enough to have a real conversation… Also I’m interested in what language you speak with the Sour team... Is it Swedish/Norwegian, English or Spanish? Or depends on who is around? I pretty much speak Swedish with the Swedish guys, which might sound funny to them sometimes… But Norwegian and Swedish are pretty similar. And we speak in English with Barney and Oscar. All of us who lived here understand some/a lot of Spanish, but Erik, Spengan, Koffe and Bjorn are the ones who can speak it fluently. I’ve heard quite a few people tell me you are one of their favourite skaters. Who are your favourites? Who do you like to watch? There’s so many, so it’s hard to say… I’ll try to mention a few: Erik Pettersson,

Stefan Janoski, Rodrigo TX, Tom Penny and Tyler Surrey. You’ve been living in Barcelona for quite awhile now… What do you think of the whole Catalonian independence situation? I don’t really know enough about it to decide what I think… After that independence-voting day with Spanish riot police coming in to stop the voting with violence, I lost some respect for the Spanish politicians. I don’t see that Cataluña is ever gonna become it’s own country, but I think it’s good that they raise their voice, maybe to get the rest of Spain to be better. Again, I don’t really know… Have you thought of living anywhere else besides Barcelona? Or are you content with Barca for now? I thought about that before… I don’t think any city is better to live in than Barcelona. I don’t want to live somewhere that has a bad winter… Even Madrid is really cold in the winter, and super hot in summer.

Frontside nosegrind pop-out, Barcelona. Ph. Sem Rubio

1 1 8

I’m just really into the Barcelona skate scene, plus having Sour and the guys here. And outside of Europe is not really an option to me. You’ve been travelling a lot with adidas the past couple years with Away Days and Skate Copa. Was there anywhere you went where you thought ‘I need to come back to this place again sometime on my own and skate/explore more…’? I like London a lot. Even though I was there on two trips, ten days each time and I got to see a lot, I would like to go back there again – hopefully with the Sour guys, filming VX1000. All the VX1000 footage from London over the years looks sooo good. Like the Blueprint videos and everything Jacob Harris has made… I also liked Paris, Santiago in Chile, and Buenos Aires in Argentina… I liked the ghetto areas in South America, it looks like there are gonna be unique spots all over. But it might be risky for blonde Nordic guys to skate there, on somebody’s block… The last time we had a meeting with the marketing people at adidas they were chatting about that little clip we filmed of you at Skate Copa in London and they were like: ‘no more excuses, next year we’re getting him in Street League!’ Did this ever get back to you? Did they ever try to ‘force you’ to do Backside 50-50 pop-out, Nagoya. Ph. Sem Rubio

that? Would you ever do it? He he… They said something like that, but as a joke. I know, and I think they know that I would never skate Street League. I don’t even wanna talk about Street League and explain why… Fair enough. I know in an older interview you had you said you played a little guitar… What are your other interests outside of skateboarding? Not much, he he. Just hanging out with my girlfriend and the guys. Doing video and other stuff for Sour, which is kind of part of skateboarding… What other stuff do you do for Sour? Who works on the graphics? Do you all contribute ideas? We all come with ideas, and work on it with Jack Thompson You have a younger brother who skates as well right? Can you tell us about him? Yes, Tormod. He started skating some years after me, when he was six or something. I remember he kickflipped an 8-stair when he was eight, he he. Now he’s bigger than me and ripping! He’s living in Malmö, Sweden, where he went to

Bryggeriet, the skate school. Are your parents pretty supportive of what you guys do? Or did they ever pressure you or 1 1 9 your brother to go to university? They have always supported us with doing what we like. But also worrying a bit, of course… They want us to be able to live, he he. Have you ever thought about going to university yourself? Is that something you might want to do in the future? If so, what would you study? I have no idea of what to do after skating… Maybe get into photo/film/design or something. Hopefully within skateboarding. Pekka mentioned your obsession with minispots, tiny kickers. Why are you so into them? I find it fun to skate small stuff. Low impact. I think it’s great if you can make a trick look good on a small, weird and hard spot. Describe you ideal skate spot: That’s hard… I like all kinds of bumps, bump to ledge or rail or whatever – maybe a bump to ledge where you land in a bank going down from the ledge. Sour just put on its first French rider, Oscar Candon. I hear Sour has US distribution now too. Would you guys consider an American rider? Yes, Oscar is sick. Most of us knew him from before, and we thought it would be cool to have him on the team. It’s harder with Americans, because the few Americans we know are already on a board company. It would have to be someone that would fit

Switch crooked grind to ride in, London. Ph. Sam Ashley

1 2 0

1 2 1

Previous Ollie up ride on the narrow ledge to pop back in, Nagoya. Ph. Sem Rubio 1 2 2

in naturally with the crew, not just put on somebody that skates good. OK we spoke with the Sour guys to make some ‘would you rather questions’. Here they go: would you rather film an HD part for Red Bull or be locked inside a room with 15 spiders for 24 hours? That’s a hard question. We went to Stockholm and there were a lot of spiders in Nisse’s house. We just tried to get rid of them all. Umm… I guess I would film an HD part for Red Bull. (Laughs) OK! Or what, can I kill the spiders? Yeah you could try; you’re in the room. OK yeah then I’d kill the spiders. OK the next one is: would you rather give a 30-minute speech about Sour at a packed trade show venue or wear the Sweet x Helly Hansen gear exclusively for your next video part?

Switch Pupecki grind, Barcelona. Ph. Zander Taketomo

I’d speak about Sour. I wouldn’t like it, but I’d try. OK would you rather wear only medium t-shirts for a month or eat food that’s 24 hours expired for a month? (Laughs) Umm… I guess I would do the medium size… ‘Cause I know there’s some really big sized adidas ones. Would you rather produce a documentary about yourself, complete with voiceover, or be the next announcer for the next Barcelona Street League comp? (Laughs) It’s impossible to answer some of these, the ‘would you rathers’. I guess I would do the Street League one. Ha ha, ok cheers. Any last words, thanks? Family and friends. Adidas, Sour and Sessions Skateshop.

1 2 3

Backside nosebluntslide, Paris. Ph. Alex Pires

@NATIVESKATE

Mail order: 0191 261 22 29 Email: sales@nativeskatestore.co.uk Native Skatestore, 50 low Friar Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 5UE.

WWW.NATIVESKATESTORE.CO.UK

£59.99

£54.99

£59.99

£49.99

£39.99

£56.99

£59.99

£54.99

£59.99

£129.99

£59.99

£56.99

£34.99

£39.99

£54.99

OG Classic £29.99

Fink £29.99

Rasputin £29.99

Stenstrom £31.99

Lateral Worldwide £84.99

League Pipe £64.99

Ripper £59.99

Twenty Eyes £67.99

Gold Logo £74.99

Adi-Ease UK 6-12 £54.95

X MHAK UK 6-12 £64.99

Seeley UK 6-12 £59.99

Griffin UK 6-12 £74.99

Griffin UK 6-12 £59.99

Porter UK 6-12 £54.99

Sapien £37.99

Bong £41.99 Have a Nice Trip £79.99

TV Logo £22.99

£59.99

Train Banks £29.99

£63.99

Stroke Logo £24.99

£69.99

Chucky £25.99

£67.99

Workerman £29.99

£69.99

Redmond £23.99

£63.99

£59.99

UKs leading skatestore Orders over £50 in UK ship free We ship throughout Europe

ETNIES.COM | @ETNIESSKATEBOARDING

BUILT BY SKATEBOARDING CHRIS JOSLIN SKATING THE MARANA OG

POP SHUV INTO BANK

| PHOTO SAM MCGUIRE

THE SKATE SHOE FOR ANY PERSONALITY To introduce our newest model the 255, JORDAN TAYLOR chose the notso-subtle palette of Clear Sky and Laser Blue, with highlights of Solar Flare Orange, to reflect the unique set of characters that inhabit the far corners of his mind. Jordan finds the 255 is a go-to skate shoe thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ready to roll right out of the box, wherever the day may take him. Featuring an updated heel fit, tongue construction and redesigned foxing tape, the 255 retains the same dependable support, durability and grip from its predecessors. The 255 is reassuringly utilitarian for whichever role you want to assume.

“ L e as t am o un t o f w o r k t o m o v e ” WORN BY ISHOD

NIKESB.COM

TRUE TO FORM

DUNK DECONSTRUCTED