ASRA Ramps Up in Preparation
Jacko Spends a Week in Radelaide 4 Days of Pain
www.skateboardracing.org.au
Photo: Taz Charker Skater: Linden Brown
Welcome to the very first issue of Heelside, Australia’s own Longboarding and racing skate magazine. Our goal is to bring you everything Aussie skate related. We will be covering and higlighting events, local skaters and showcasing local photographers. The more local skater input the better, so if you want to submit some shots or write an article feel free to email us. Huge thanks to Kurt and the below contributors, super stoked to have everyone come together and get this off the ground in a ridiculously small amount of time. A special thanks goes out to David Pang, for suppling some brilliant photography with very, very short notice. Trav.
Editor in Chief: Trav Horsfall trav@heelsidemag.com Co-Editor: Kurt Nischel kurt@heelsidemag.com Contributors: - Jackson Shapiera Advertising: - media@heelsidemag.com Digital Media: www.issuu.com
www.heelsidemag.com
Š Heelside Skateboarding Australia All rights reserved. All due care is taken in compiling the contents but the publishers, staff and contributors cannot be held responsible for any effects arising therefrom. Reasonable care is taken when accepting advertisements but no responsibility can be taken for any resulting transactions. No responsibility is accepted for unsolicited materials.
Photo: Arvin Gacrama Skater: Trav Horsfall
From the Vault.................................................. Page 24 Collingrove Cup............................................... Page 26 Gear Review..................................................... Page 32
Newtons Nation 2010.................................Page 10
Canberra or Bust........................................ Page 16
CHC Slalom Season.................................. Page 20
Cover Shot by: David Pang Skater: Stephen Daddow
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Photos Courtesy of
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Well it’s that time of year again when the crew from ASRA drop off the radar and spend every spare waking moment of their lives to bring us Newtons Nation! Skaters are super excited to jump back into their leathers on a 35+ degree day to shoot down one of the IGSA’s most intense track, rubbing shoulders with the worlds best and eating some hay along the way (you know... for nutritional value). This is also the year for an IGSA world first triple tree format. It consists of just one boring individual qualifing run followed by 2 days of 4 man racing goodness. For those not leather inclined ASRA has enlisted the help of a promoter to create the noise around the main event. Over 14 bands and DJ’s will be pumping their tunes all over the mountain over the Friday and Saturday. To fill the extra space between the top of the mountain and the finish line, skaters that are bored with their race will be able to check out the DH mountain bikes, vert skate / bmx, flatland bmx, wakeboarding or parkour on their way down the hill. For the grommets in the tight shorts and loafers, not to worry Newton Nation has you covered also with some of the best scooter action you’ll see outside of toyworld. Watch the local boys take to the street course on possibly one of the worlds easiest contraptions to ride and bust out some semi interesting (but reasonably unimpressive) tricks. All in all it is leading up to be an epic weekend and surely the greatest leg of this years IGSA series. So kids, sew those leathers up, sticker over the cracks in your helmet and get yourself to Bathurst.
Photo(above): David Pang Skater: Alex at the Dipper
Photo(below): David Pang Skaters: Daddow stylishly enters the dipper
Check out www.skateboardracing. org.au for all the latest updates on the part of the festival that matters and for volunteering information. And remember next time you see Haggy, Colin, Robbo, Blackwood or anyone working overtime on bringing such and awesome event to our doorstep, thank them for their hard work and buy them a beer! (after the race).
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Luca Coleman shredding at Haggy’s Halloween Hustle
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CROSS Skater Rossco Photo: David Pang
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downhills that you can’t footbreak or turn on becasue you are sort of hovering over the roughness. I remember getting to Picton and saying to Haggy “That should be the roughest and most of the hills gone now”, how very wrong I was. Straight out of Picton was a 7km uphill climb to the next town. There was no flat parts; no little downhill sections; just rough, brutal, spirit crushing uphill around every corner. After our monsterous climb (so I thought at the time) we had some lunch and continued down the roughest road I had ever seen. There was a downhill section that we were pushing down, not even my 90mm fly’s could maintain a roll over it.
By Trav Horsfall No Doubt by now you have read about the adventure on ASRA as told by Haggy. I’d like to recap on the adventure from how I remembered it to hopefully shed some light on what it’s really like pushing for hours on end day after day, for anyone thats thinking about attempting such a thing. The Leadup: The whole trip spawned from the Long Distance Skate (LDS) thread on ASRA, when Haggy brought up pushing to Canberra to the next CHC round. I’ve always wanted to do something endurance-wise before so I quickly jumped on board with the idea and planning began. The first step was to go for a decent push to just to see how far we were capable of doing. On this occasion we skated on our standard drop through Fat Pigeon and Daddow boards. 40km and little under 3 hours later the magnatude of the task ahead became apparent. Straight after we went to the Hopshop to speak to its resident over-engineering genius. Robbo is known for his ultra low DH setups and as such Haggy was set up on his old DH deck, a delite Nemisis Dropped through with Kaha trucks and I had picked up a Kebbek Jim Z Flushcut with about 6 rubber risers and major cutouts just so the hangers would turn slightly. Our Second run on our new rigs, we decided to bang out 80kms. Cruising along the M7 bikepath here in Sydney which runs 40kms in length each way, we manage to do it in a bit over 5 hours. From this point we decided on planning for 80kms a day on our journey. Day 1: We set off from Simon’s place in Campbeltown to avoid Sydney’s morning hetic traffic and headed for the back country roads. It quickly became aparent that it was a terrible idea as we struck very busy rough roads with little / no shoulder. This meant looking behind you every 10 seconds and moving to the side for each car. Massively frustrating and slow going. Our first pitstop was Picton. On the way into Picton it was mostly uphills and very rough and sketchy downhills, the kind of
This went on for 3 hours until we hit an intersection. Either continue down the horribly rough old highway that passed through several towns or a slightly smoother back road that bypassed all the towns and lead straight to our destination. Drawn to the slightly smoother surface we opted for the back road, this started off as a good idea as the first 10minutes was all downhill. Sketchy downhill, but downhill none the less.
After the downhill I remember joking about this mini mountain in the distance that we’d have to cross. I shouldn’t have joked about it, it took us over an hour to walk up (too steep and rough to push up). At this stage we were approaching the 8 hour mark of our journey I had run out of water, it was getting dark and we could see rain approaching in the distance. The roads were getting very busy and dangerous when I realised this was the worst idea ever. Luckily our first stop Moss Vale was just on the other side of the mountain (an hour and a half later). That night we went to get food and I can remember barely being able to eat or drink anything from shear physical exhaustion. Day 2: 7am, Woke up feeling suprisingly okish. We sprung out of bed as limber as an 80 year old. After the hellish day one on country roads, we replanned to go out onto the main freeway to try our luck. To get there we had a couple of hours worth of skating 17
along a country highway. No shoulder and 100km/h cars grazed past us. Luckily the view was very pleasing, lots of dairy cattle and vineyards. Haggy’s knee had started to fail due to the first day skate from hell so the morning pace was slow. I was dealing with my own chafing issues which i quickly resolved with straping tape (getting that off was the worst part of the trip). We hit the highway and found that the wide but often rough shoulder was a lot less stressful = a lot easier going. Haggy’s knee really started hurting so we decided to make some paddles to push along with. We found some big long branches, some car tyre and duck taped it all together. Not a moment too soon as we hit a MASSIVE downhill section that was about 50km/h on a super rough shoulder that went for what felt like 10kms. Far too rough to footbreak, I had to drag the crap out of my stick along the ground just to keep my speed manageable. Haggy opted to dash out on the highway at any opportunity and footbreak on the hotmix, before jumping back onto the roungh stuff. We did make great time as we arrived in Goulburn with the sun setting. A few of the locals pointed at Haggy paddling into town, thinking it was some new craze rather than a survival technique. Day 3: Still hurting from day one’s misadventure we decided on only a 40km day to a small town at the start of Lake George called Collector. As such we got up a bit later, had some breakfast and coffee, relaxed a little bit and then were on our way. About 50/50 rough and smooth, this leg went pretty well as it was mostly flat / downhill; until we arrived in Collector at 2pm. The one and only place to stay there (the Pub) had shut down 2 weeks prior! Left with no choice we had to push on another 40km to get to Henry’s place in Sutton. Cruising along Lake George the paddles really came into play. We went km’s without our feet touching the ground, giving out legs some well earned rest. We made it to the top of the hill after Lake George as the sun was setting, happy as we thought Sutton was just ‘around the corner’...... it wasn’t... another 2 hours later we arrived at Henry’s in the pitch black. Day 4: Well rested and with only 20kms to go into Canberra we were in high spirits. The first part of the leg we came to what would be Haggy’s toughest decision on the whole trip. We came accross a fox roadkill with its tail perfectly unharmed. Haggy looked at the fox for a while and ponded whether to cut it off or to leave it. Deciding to leave it we skated on, only to stop again as Haggy was 18
forced to ask himself “should I go back and get that tail??”. A few minutes passed and he decided once more to leave it. The final hill into Canberra was a lot of fun. Nice smooth shoulder, a fun speed, not so busy road with a speed camera at the end. We had previously decided to finish the journey at Parliment house (I have also never been to Canberra or seen Parliment House). Flying along at an excited pace in the bike lane we were pulled over buy a leather pant wearing cop (no he wasn’t a motorbike cop either). After ‘discussing’ the laws with us that he assumed we knew nothing about, he told us to pick our boards up and walk on the footpath, as it was for walking only... Not long after we threw our boards down and started skating to finish this damn journey. The final hill up onto the front of Parliment house we were greeted by a bus full of super stoked Central Coast school kids, which we found out had past us on the freeway 2 days prior. After a quick demonstration from teacher Haggy and a few photos later our journey had come to an end. At this point I had physically and mentally held it together just enough to get there, I was definitely not sharing Haggy’s enthusiasm to sight see or visit the galleries in the same clothes I had been wearing for 4 days straight. All in all I am stoked that we did it, no matter how horrible it was. I think Haggy said it best in his write up “when you’re on the road you pack a lot of life into one day. It was a reminder of how life ought to be lived. And for that alone, the trip was well worth it.” - Haggy. If you are thinking about undertaking a LDS, here are some tips from what we learnt. Aim for 50km’s a day not 80km. You won’t destroy yourself @ 50km a day and will be able to do that for many many days on end. Bring camping equipment! We stayed at hotels in the towns, which meant we HAD to make it each day no matter what. If you camp you can simply pull over when you’ve had enough and camp. Low is the go; Don’t set a board up for pumping, once you hit any sort of rough surface you’re stuffed and the first muscle to hurt (a lot) is above the knee from the dipping motion from pushing. Wear underwear, don’t freeball in skins.... Its the worst idea at the 6 hour mark... Most importantly have fun while you do it! It’ s the reason we all got into skating and it should be the reason why you continue to skate. Keep on pushing, Trav.
Photos: Trav Horsfall, David Pang, Taz Charker & Andy Speirs
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Haggy Strom
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Nathan Paff
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Kurt Nischel
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Dave Robertson
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Paul Shaddock For full results visit: www.skateboardracing.org.au
1 . TS at Mt Stromolo - Canberra 2. Old Skool Richie - Anslie Ditch 3. Taz ready to roll - Kincumber Ditch 4. Kurt Vs Nathan - Mt Stromolo 5. Ben Halls - BMB GS Pump Station 6. PC - BMB GS Pump Station
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7. Millsey - Kincumber Dititch 8. Dave Robbo - Anslie Ditch 9. Bugs Vs Nathan - Mt Stromolo 10. Haggy - Anslie Ditch 11. Bommerdog - Kincumber Ditch 12. Cooper - Anslie Ditch
13. Anslie Ditch - Canberra 14 . Shaddow Vs Haggy - Mt Stromolo 15. Super Grom Chris - Anslie Ditch 16. Daddow - Kincumber 17. Henry - Anslie Ditch 18. Melbourne’s Mega Ditch
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Photos by Peter Bradford The last major skate event of the period was the Coles Wild Ramp demo / competition organised by Tony Bradford and the GFI team, that run across Moomba, Victoria in 1980. The ramp itself was a classic ‘70’s style demo half pipe – only 8 feet wide so it was trailerable, with no flat bottom. The wild card was that it had two 4 foot high, removable vert sections which could be craned into position to make a 14 foot high monster. The ramp’s narrowness and height made it feel pretty unsafe , but it was definitely a crowd pleaser, attracting skaters from New Zealand - Rodney Barnett, and the U.S. - John Waterman, who had been a pro team rider for Sims. Source: www.vicskatehistory.com
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Another Rad Week in Radelaide - By Jackson Shapiera
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Photo: Leigh Griffith Skaters: Stephen Daddow & Ben Hay
For those of you who don’t know, Adelaide is home to some of the raddest hills in Australia. The city itself is small, flat and quiet, but on the outskirts of the city it’s not hard to find some gnarly, fast, windy hills that are now attracting downhill skateboarders from all over the country. On the weekend of the 1st of October 2010, SAGRA (South Australian Gravity Racing Association) hosted the first sanctioned downhill race in South Australia. It was a two day event on Collingrove Hillclimb track and brought riders from Sydney, Queensland, and even as far as Western Australia. It was a great excuse for everyone to pack their skate bags and spend a few days ripping with Adelaide locals Michael Bowditch and Leigh Griffiths before racing against Australia’s best. On Tuesday the 28th of September, Luca Coleman and myself flew down to get the early bird sessions in before the rest of the crew showed up. We were met by our mates Leigh and Bow and they took us out to shred all afternoon. By the Thusday night Bow’s house was filled with crew from around the country ready to sample some gnar. We were joined by Queenslanders Ash Donaldson, Josh Evans, Steve Daddow, Jason Wright and fellow Sydney Shredders Gabe Gwynne, Ben Hay and Cam Kite. Needless to say it was one epic crew with the most maximum amount of shredding about to take place. 27
Spending a few days skating Adelaide hills improves rider skills greatly in such a short amount of time, and with the entire crew pushing the limits of their abilities and frothing on the level of riding it was apparent that everyone was really stepping it up and ready to kick some ass at the weekend’s race. \SAGRA had put a lot of effort into getting this race happening. The road we raced is a private hill climb road used for racing cars, so the steep drops and banked corners made it an epic race track for downhill. The schedule allowed warm up runs for all riders in the morning to get used to the gnarly little track before throwing riders into random race-to-qualify heats to sort out the starting brackets for the finals on the Sunday. There were plenty of spills and carnage as riders tried to negotiate the tight turns and steep sections of the track, and also trying to figure out how to race the hill proved to be difficult as the narrow track gave limited passing spots. The bottom corner of the track as also a do-or-die section, with a fast steep drop into a tight 90-degree right hand turn. What made this corner hard was the pavement in the breaking area - there were several pavement changes, rough areas, a huge slab of concrete and many haybales forcing a bottleneck into
the turn. Fast riders were coming in at around 60km/h, and at those speeds the track seemed a lot narrower than it was. There were a lot of different riding styles on the track and it was very interesting to see how each person attacked the hill, mixing it up with footbreaks, slides and checks. During the first day everyone was coming un-stuck on the last corner trying to hold it together, 28
The surface was uneven and slippery and caused a lot of mayhem. During one of the last race-to-qualify heats Ben Hay made a lot of heads turn in a race against Steve Daddow. They were pretty much rubbing shoulders the whole way down the track and swapping the lead, which forced both of them to hit the bottom corner faster than ever. Ben was in the lead and broke tuck to throw down a footbreak, but instead got a mega wobble and nearly ate it. Somehow he managed to get his foot back on the board and was forced to throw a slide to keep the speed in control.
Steve had no where to go and just had to punch on the brakes behind him, Ben pulled it back in and stuck the line, After watching that the crowd went nuts with excitement and made everyone want to push it harder and try to slide into the bottom corner. After a good rest that night everyone came back recharged and ready to
shred. Race tactics had been planned out and riders were ready to attack the hill at full pace. After a few practice runs we were back into the final rounds of qualifying before the finals. These heats showed a lot more progression from riders as heats started to become tighter with riders ripping through the track much faster than the previous day and much closer than before. With that finished it was time to move onto the elimination tree. Two-man heats with only one moving on. There were many upsets with riders eating it on the last corner with the person behind sneaking through, and there were many tight finishes that left only a wheel between 1st and 2nd. Most of the crashing was done at the final corner, and by far the worst one would be between Leigh and Kam. Kam had pushed out in front with Leigh following close behind. They battled hard down the track and Leigh popped out infront coming down the last striaght into the final corner. Kam was close behind and jammed on the brakes just as Leigh did, however Leigh hit a crack in the road and got spat off his board while Kam ploughed right into him and face planting right into the road, popping both his shoulders out. Somehow he managed to get up and stumble across the line with his board to move onto the next round. Thankfully Kam is a professional shoulder dislocator and is well trained in popping his own shoulders back in so he was not hurt, Leigh was a little shaken up but was also uninjured (minus a mega corked leg). After some heavy battles on the hill
there were 4 riders left racing for the 2 spots in the finals. It was myself vs Ben, and Bow vs Luca. I pushed out hard against Ben and made sure i stuck all my lines in the top section to get ample speed and distance in front of Ben coming into the last corner. As we both dropped down the last dip before the final bend i looked back and saw i had enough room to slide a bit more to take the corner safely. Luckily i didn’t blow it but cam damn close to clipping the bails during my slide, and managed to move onto the finals. Bow and Luca were mixing it up in their heat swapping the lead and riding tight, with Bow coming into the lead on the final corner. Unfortunately he did not slow down enough and slid out on the last corner with Luca charging through and securing the last spot in the Finals against me. It was an honor to be up against Luca in the finals, we skate together a lot at home and over the past few weeks i have seen some serious progression in Luca’s riding, and i was actually worried that i might not make it down the hill first. We had done some practice heats together and he was riding really tight and fast, so when it was go time for the race i pushed off as hard as i could to get good lines through the first section. However it did not match up to Luca’s powerful mongo push and he took the prime spot for the first corner. It then turned into a game of catch-up as i took my time drafting and building speed for the pass. As we dropped down the right hand sweeper into the wall-ride section it was time to put on the boost and leave Luca in the dust. I was able to pass with enough speed to come into the bottom section ahead enough to brake solidly and take it smooth through the corner. Luca was hauling ass behind me to try and catch up however he lost traction and slid into the hay. Both of us were super stoked, Ben had won the consi so Sydney riders had swept the podium. Tim hills had taken the podium in the Novice Class followed by Bentley
Anderson in 2nd and Lawrence Lombardi in 3rd. It was a great day, and it was epic to see how many riders had progressed over the course of the weekend. Everyone was stoked they got to race and everyone had a good time. The SAGRA crew
and Nick Duffield had put in so much effort to get this race happening for us, and big sponsors like Daily Grind and Cre8ive Sk8 threw down lots of goodies for the podium finishers. If it wasnt for people like them we wouldnt have such rad races like the Collingrove Cup. The party then moved back to the city, with a few people flying home and others celebrating an awesome weekend, but all around super stoked had filled the air at Bow’s pad as the trip was still not over for some. We all got a good sleep in and then were back out to the rad hills of Adelaide. Most of us were
tired from a full week of shredding but our stoke for the epic hills pushed us forward and we continued to shred the gnar for another two days. Corkscrew was on everyone’s mind and thats where we shredded. This hill has got to be one of the funnest roads in all of Australia, it’s not the longest road but has heaps of flow and you can take it at any pace you want - slow and steezy or fast and gnarly. Watching crew ripping the hill stand up styles and no hands was epic. Usually hills like this scare people from trying to pull fast stand up slides but the riders on the hill that day were comfortable with their skills and were shredding, also watching everyone ride in a group and steezing it up big time was enough to say it was one of the best sessions ive had in Oz. We were all sad to be leaving Adelaide after so much shredding but we were all so stoked to have spent time there with good mates and pushing the limits of downhill skateboarding on some of the best hills the country has to offer. Big thanks to Bow for letting us all crash at his house and another big thanks to Leadfoot and Judge K for driving shuttles for us. Once again it was an epic trip and i cant wait to get back there to shred the gnar! Photos by Nick Bart, Lea Shapiera, Leigh Griffith and Sanchez Gogh
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GEAR On a quest to Find a solution to the endless skateboard nosecone problem, I stumbled across a product while visiting our friends at www. skatefurther.com. The product is called Sugru. It is a hardened silicone that will bond to almost anything and provide adequate protection to the front (or rear) of your precious deck. This was great news to me as like most skaters I had grown tired of regluing a chunk of rubber onto the front of my deck numerous times. So I jumped straight onto Sugru.com and ordered my First batch. A pack of 6 little sachets set me back around $10 posted to Oz. Looking at the website you immediately get the feeling that a part of your life was missing and you didn’t realize it until now. The product is not only good at protecting things, but improving them and breathing new life into everyday items you would normally throw away. Custom hand grips on pocket knives, improving usability on kitchen items, custom Fitting earphones, creatively protecting mobile phones, making shoes more comfortable are just a few ways people have used Sugru. It even comes in bright colours for all those grommets out there with matching wheels, deck and griptape, not wanting to throw their skateboard’s Chi out of whack. A few days later a package 32
Photo: Trav Skater: Gabe Gwynne
REVIEW from the UK arrives and I couldn’t be more excited. I raced home and immediately started creating a long lasting nosecone. Sugru comes out of the packet similar to Playdo so it is super easy to work with and sets in 24hours (depending on thickness). Within 5 minutes my board has a new nosegaurd. Not stopping there I had a look around to anything else I could improve. I picked up my skate lid and a bike light that had a removable clip-on base and Sugru’d the shit out of them! Now I have a mount permanently attached to my lid that I can clip on and off a small bike light for those skates home in the dark or Bomb Squad nights. The only downside is that I didn’t order enough! To do a decent nosecone you will need 2 x sachets and it will never stop there. You will be looking around for other ways to improve your gear; maybe a comfortable handgrip rail for your toesides; maybe a phone mount onto your helmet so you can surf the ASRA site while skating! (not recommended). Check out Sugru.com for ideas and keep a close eye on your local skate store to supply your soon to be Sugru addiction. Trav
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Photo (far left) : Arvin (Below): Dave ‘Robtech’ Robertson (Centre): SCS Secret Spot (Bottom): Arvin & Tim
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.com.au
What is the Hop Shop? The premises that Hopkin Racing and Hopkin Skate operate out of is known as The Hop Shop. Why? Well, it could be because it is owned by Hop. What? Hop Shop is one part warehouse, one part skateshop, and a large glug of everything skateboarding. Where? Shop 3, 8 Northcote Street, St Leonards NSW 2065. Phone: 02 8060 1588 Is it open to the public? Yes, we are a real skateshop, not just an online PO Box like some others. So come in and have a chat to the guys about anything and everything skateboarding. Drop in and see the skate collection on the wall or all the new skate gear in the shop. Why buy from the HopShop? Because we support local manufacturers, distributors and suppliers. We sponsor many local events, national sporting associations, and young Australian riders. We live and breath skateboarding, we immerse ourselves in the community,we volunteer all our spare time to help young skaters, events and boardmakers to get a break. Did I mention we also have a RAD skate shop that provides one of the biggest collections of skateboard gear in the country. When we setup boards we only use quality parts and set them up like our own, we don’t substitute cheap china crap like some online shops do. We are a real skate shop run by real skaters with real brands and a real passion for everything skateboarding, not some ebay shop designed to rip money off Australian skaters and run your local skate shop out of business.
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