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PHOTO. NAURIS PUTENIS, WILL SMITH, CRAIG ROBINSON INTERVIEW. THEO ACWORTH
FOR SOME PEOPLE, SNOWBOARDING ON THEIR HOME TURF IS NORMAL. IF YOU LIVE IN MINNESOTA, OR QUEBEC, YOU’RE PRETTY MUCH GUARANTEED TO GET SNOW ON THE GROUND. IF YOU LIVE IN THE UK, THAT’S FAR LESS LIKELY TO HAPPEN. IT’S PROBABLY GOT SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE PROXIMITY TO THE OCEAN, BUT I DIDN’T PAY ENOUGH ATTENTION IN SCHOOL TO FULLY UNDERSTAND WHY. WHATEVER THE REASON, IF YOU LIVE IN THE UK AND YOU WANT TO SNOWBOARD ON THE STREETS, YOU DON’T HAVE MUCH OF A CHOICE BUT TO TRAVEL FOR IT. FOR PEOPLE LIKE WILL SMITH, THIS IS BUSINESS AS USUAL. HE’S BEEN JUMPING ON PLANES AND PUTTING OUT HEAVY STREET PARTS FOR OVER TEN YEARS. HE’D PLANNED TO DO MORE OF THE SAME, THEN COVID HIT, AND NO ONE WAS ALLOWED OFF THE ISLAND. SOME COUNTRIES WERE MORE TOLERANT OF PEOPLE CROSSING BORDERS, BUT THE UK HAD IT BAD. LOCKDOWNS WERE LONG, RESTRICTIONS HEAVY, AND ACCESS TO TESTING WAS EXPENSIVE AND DIFFICULT. JANUARY CAME AROUND, AND THEY WERE BLESSED WITH THE RAREST OF THINGS, SNOWFALL ON THE STREETS. Ay up lad. When did you last leave the UK? About a year and a half ago, maybe longer. This is probably the longest I’ve been in England since I was fifteen, so for twelve years. I tried to go to Finland last winter, and because of fucking Brexit, my passport was invalid. It hadn’t expired, but the new regulations meant that you had to renew it earlier than usual. It took six weeks to get a new one, and in that time, all the rules in Finland changed and no one wanted to accept travellers from the UK. I think this break’s been good for me to be honest. I was feeling a bit burnt out. I’ve filmed so hard for so many years, it was actually nice to step away from snowboarding for a year. The passport thing was a blessing in disguise, really. If I’d gone to Finland, then I wouldn’t have got to snowboard and film street at home. When did it snow in the UK? It was January 9th. There was no snow at my house, but there was snow three miles up the road. It was bizarre. But it all melted by four or five in the afternoon. I thought, oh, ok, that’s the end of winter! Season done in under twelve hours. I was still hyped that we got one day. How early were you out and riding? Normally I wouldn’t be out too early, but I took my girlfriend Josie to work, and it was just dumping. I wouldn’t have even known about it unless I’d driven her. So I drove home, rang Albie [Edmonds] and Ian [Thrashmore] and asked if they were going snowboarding! It was sticky though. You’d go downhill and be slowing down, but it was still fun.
PHOTO. CRAIG ROBINSON
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