Neighbourhood
Issue 2
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Neighbourhood Skateboard Magazine Issue 2, June 2018 Editor/Photographer Nathan Stripp Design Editor Kalyn Murray Copy Editor Ashley Greene Contributers Jeff Comber, Craig Dodds, Sam Fidlin, Alex Hann, Ryan Lebel, Gerard Riera, Tony Zhang
300 copies printed Contact
neighbourhoodskatemag@gmail.com All rights reserved
@NEIGHBOURHOODSKATEMAG
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Cody Beaudry, Backside Smith . Mississauga. Nathan Stripp
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Contents 8 10 12 22 30 38
Introduction No such thing as a stupid question Video In Progress w/ Evan Perkins Across The Pond: Ireland’s Finest Spots Andrew Norton’s Personal Best Focus
Here: Drew McGraw, Switch Crook. Montreal. Ryan Lebel Cover: Dylan Timmins, Kickflip into a short bank. Victoria. Nathan Stripp
Introduction
You know when you think about something for too long and it starts to feel a bit weird? That’s kind of where I found myself when I was in the process of creating this issue. Not to say that I’m unhappy with the final outcome - because it’s quite the opposite. It just took way longer than I originally planned. I guess that is the process with anything new, questioning yourself constantly wondering if you can trust your own judgement. In the end, I have realized that for me it all comes down to the feeling I get. Does this feel right? If it doesn’t, that means I am off track. It’s so easy to get trapped in our state of mind. It has taught me that efficiency is key. I would like to say a huge thank-you to everyone who worked on the magazine behind the scenes, all of the contributors and the advertisers who made it possible to bring this to life in physical form. Without their support this would have never been possible. -Nathan Stripp
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“No such thing as a stupid question” By Alex Hann
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Across The Pond: Ireland’s Finest Spots By Craig Dodds
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To begin, let’s clear the air on what some of you out there may be already thinking. As an Irish person who’s spent extensive time travelling to different countries, the first question I’m often greeted with is: “Do you guys even have electricity in Ireland?” Yes we do, I can clear this up once and for all as I write to you from my stone cottage by dwindling candle light with my ink and quill. From Newfoundland, Canada and 1,998 miles across the blue blanket that is the North Atlantic Ocean lays your first encounter of European life situated on a small green island known as Ireland. An often forgotten glowing gem in the skateboarding industry it feels to a lot of us here, but like almost everywhere has held an affluent history of inconceivable style and unforgettably talented skateboarders who’ve paved the way for decades to future genera-
tions. Some may have faded into the YouTube search engine history books, but others whom are out there painting their own path, whether it is comfortably in their home towns or across Europe, America, Asia and beyond, proudly keep our covert existence from the shores of oblivion. Being a skateboarder, when Europe springs to mind you usually find yourself picturing all the glistening marble spots, picturesque sunsets and the orgasmic varieties of food to fill your gut. Ireland sadly is lacking in almost all of these, well, unless you’re a fan chicken rolls, we’ve got that part sussed. Unfortunately, Ireland apart from being blessed with Guinness and the ability to make the best fry-ups known to mankind, it is somewhat punished in return with its unforgivable precipitation and rugged walkways- just to add insult to injury. Obviously not everywhere falls under these harsh condi-
Marc Beggan - BS Flip Belfast, Northern Ireland
tions, but the spots that are designed as a skateboarder’s wet dream in mind are harder to get into than the General’s daughter on most occasions. Ireland is pretty behind on the architecture front of things but we are slowly and more recently seeing an abundance of more inhabitable areas for us to carry out our wooden stick shenanigans. So if you enjoy shit weather and even shitter places to skate Irelands pretty much got this covered. Get that flight cancelled of Air Canada ASAP. I’m kidding of course. The truth is Ireland is a great place for skateboarding and an even greater place to meet skateboarders, I can promise you that. You just have to be a bit more creative when it comes to skating sometimes. Travelling out of the city to the arse end of nowhere to get your hopes and dreams shattered by some angry security guard juiced up on Red Bull is usually a pretty good start. There are plenty of spots out there to hit, just some can be a challenge to get to if no one is about play chauffeur for the day. But we are always open and so stoked to seeing fresh faces in our local cities,
whether you’re from down the road or across the pond, hint hint,. You’ll have a bed for the night, a pot to piss in and a beer to drown your sorrows over. You’re sure to be treated like one of the lads. So maybe log back onto that Air Canada site.
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Gav Coughlan, Kickflip. Dublin, Ireland
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Gerry Keane - Wallie Belfast, Northern Ireland17
Keith Brown - Ollie into Roof 18Cullybackey, Northern Ireland
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Video in Progress w/ Evan Perkins By Nathan Stripp
Tell me about the video Project you are working on. It’s roughly 4 years of accumulated footage of guys from Port Credit that I’m trying to piece together and make something out of. What have been your biggest challenges throughout the process? Definitely time. With an 8 to 4 job, alot of overtime and my 2 year old daughter, logging all the footage and skating late into the night to waking up early can be rough. You mention logging tapes. Do you think it would be easier if you had gone HD? I use both so I can definitely say logging the HD footage takes half the time. Why not just stick to one format if SD is so time consuming? I really like the look of the second angles and filler footage being from a second type of camera, whether it be 8mm or HD. I mean why not just go all HD. I really like the VX. The colours and the way the mark 2 lens fills the 4:3 ration makes the skating
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look faster. I also want to finish whatever this project ends up being in the same style I started it in. Who will be featured in the video? I’m hoping these guys are still down this summer to finish filming but right now it’s Cody, Sando, Mitch, Stephan and yourself (Nathan). Hows it coming together so far? I stopped editing a few weeks back. After I finally logged all the tapes and started putting it together it was a huge eye opener to how much footage you need to make a full video. I think I wa just focused on the tricks and it takes alot more than that to blend it all together. I think as a viewer you take for granted how much work goes into a video. It’s not until you make one yourself and see what’s actually involved. Yeah, I actually stopped stealing books off the internet because I have an appreciation for the work of authors through all this. I still steal the odd song though.This winter has done exactly that.
The one upside of winter is when you are forced in to an extended break you get to collect your thoughts and see what’s working/not working. Haha. Can’t imagine what it’s like for California guys who have the constant summer footage coming in every day. I assume most filmers don’t have a child to take care of AND a full time job when they get into making their first full length so I’m sure all that extra free time makes it a lot easier....But being forced into a 5 month hiatus definitely gives you a good chance to reflect. Yeah and refresh. Since I started filming with you guys alot more I usually take the winter to do other things and come back motivated. What’s been the highlight for you through the whole process up to now? Finding all the new spots and seeing the progression of the guys over time. I remember steph barely doing flat ground kickflips and now he’s hitting wall rails. I think stehphen has always had his flat game on point. It’s been amazing to see him build the confidence to commit to the big stuff though.
Haha. Like driving to Montreal? That was definitely a pivotal moment for him. I spoke to him on the phone the first night and he was in Toronto saying he wanted to come but sounding very unsure of himself. The next morning I wake up to a call from him at 830 saying he drove all night and he’s downstairs in front of the building we were staying at. I still can’t believe it. Seeing his car on the way back parked on the side of the highway was good too. I went home thinking he was dead. And of course his phone isn’t working. Classic Stephen. I think he ended up getting the best clips out of the whole group that weekend. And photos... You have said you are trying to piece together footage and make something. It sounds like the video is almost an afterthought. Do you have a vision of what you are trying to achieve with the final product? I have the idea of taking 3 different styes of videos that had a big impact on me and making it into one. With that said, once you put 100 tapes on your computer sometimes the sections just make themselves.
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22Cody Beaudry, Boardslide. Mississauga.
“I’m gonna film as much as I can this summer and edit as I go along so that when the season is over I can finish and move on to other ideas.�
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“Seeing his car on the way back parked on the side of the highway was good too. I went home thinking he was dead.” Mitchell Coward, Wallie. Toronto.
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Right: Stephen Gharghoury, Heelflip. Montreal.
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Mitchell Coward, Ollie. Mississauga.
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28 Cody Beaudry, Frontside Bluntslide. Toronto.
For sure. So you have about 100 tapes so far? 110 but the first 20 don’t have much that will be used.
If you were skating those spots you wouldn’t be the filmer... Lol. Very true.
I can imagine there is a noticeable progression in the skating and the filming as the tapes get more recent. Moving forward do you have a game plan to wrap everything up? I’m gonna film as much as I can this summer and edit as I go along so that when the season is over I can finish and move on to other ideas.
Everyone in the video has a completely different style of skating. How has it been trying to get footage of everyone? Cody’s a machine so it’s a full time job to keep up with him, but the rest of the guys go in waves. I try not to put pressure on them but I know how amazing the final product could be so I show them clips along the way to get hyped.... As far as mapping out the day, the best ones are when we go out to new areas to find spots and just go with the flow, but it is definitely nice when people know exactly what they wanna do and where since I dont always have the most time.
Will there be any clips of yourself in the video? Yeah, I have some footage that will be in there, but hopefully this summer I can get more. We are both in the same boat. I know I don’t have anything near a full part with my footy. The older you get the more you really gotta find the right spot to get something worth using. I’m not a quick warm up guy either so it’s hard to jump on a rail or off a gap after i’ve been sitting and filming for a few hours. As far as the spot I definitely can’t step to the ones that Cody is skating.
I think somewhere in the middle is best. Have an idea of a spot or two you want to check out but be open to where the day goes naturally. Haha. Like LCBO runs and picking up someone’s girlfriend? Nothing ruins a session like bringing a girlfriend.
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Andrew Norton’s Personal Best I’ve always been a big fan of Andrew Norton’s work. Before I ever thought to pick up a camera I would look at skateboard magazines mainly for the tricks.... I didn’t pay much attention to how they were shot or who shot them, but Andrew’s photos always stuck out to me and often provoked wonder about how they were taken. Years later I acuired a camera of my own and began learning how to actually shoot, and again I was drawn to Andrew’s work, but this time
it was in the form of repeatedly watching his “The Photographer Series” videos (interviews with some of the top photogs in the skate industry). These days he works with CBC and creates a cool podcast titled “Personal Best”. For this feature Andrew dug into his archives of skate photos and pulled out some favorites, or “personal best” you could say (bad pun), along side a bit of the history behind the images. Thanks for the years of inspiration Andrew! - Nathan Stripp
John Cardiel, Portrait. Toronto. 2012 Cardiel was in Toronto for a night or two doing - I want to say a DJ set at a Vans store in a mall? Anyways I was able to get a bit of time with him to do a video interview and shoot a portrait. Just found a window and boom. I used to think a good photographer can make anything look good. But it’s just so much easier when you just shoot something that’s genuinely cool to begin with. And Cardiel is very cool. So yeah, that makes for a cool lookin photo.
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Andrew McNeil, BS smith. Waterdown, ON. 2009 You know those postcards you aways see where there’s a full moon right above a city? Before photoshop photographers used to do that by making a double exposure. They shoot the skyline, don’t advance the film, slap on another lens and shoot the moon and boom - big-ass moon. So I did that with this photo. Had to wait for a full moon, make sure it was cloudy, rent a big lens and try for a double exposure. I remember I got this developed on my birthday then went to the Spaghetti Factory. Alright!
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Phil McKnight, Feeble. Toronto. 2008 I think Jesse Landen and Thomas Morrison were the first to de-knob this long, mellow rail and get footage on it. I hadn’t seen anyone skate it since they did so I took a few people here. Phil battled on this Feeble Grind. He’s awesome. The nicest guy ever and great ability to eat shit and keep going. I moved a nearby mailbox and stood on top of it for a photo. I promised an old lady who was passing by I’d move it back when I was done. Pretty sure I did.
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Jeff Folgmann, Push. 2007 Folgmann is a legend. Sort of funny that Folg is the gnarliest dude I’ve ever crossed paths with and he gets the push photo. It is fitting though because I took this on the roof of an industrial building in Oakville. And Jeff now has an instagram account that revolves primarily around his industrial roofing career. Full circle, man.
Lee Yankou, Nosebluntslide. SF 2012 I shot this on my honeymoon. Sort of an extended honeymoon. My wife and I spent some time in San Francisco and while we were there I went skating with Lee and we ended up at these quasi-famous benches. That photo has the Bay Bridge in the Background - but the way I had to shoot this trick you get nothing cool in the background of the photo. I used to dig skate photos shot tight and vertical with a telephoto - and this is back when digital cameras just became full frame - so you could really throw the background out of focus. So I tried to do that here and this was the only frame I shot vertically I think. Plus one of my flashes didn’t go off. Turned out sick though mainly cause Lee rips. Then a few months later it was on the cover. And I’m still married.
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Brandon Del Bianco, Nollie Flip. Atlanta. 2009 This spot is at an old, abandoned office complex in Atlanta. I went the year before with the dudes from Blue Tile and when I first saw this gap I thought it would be perfect for a cover. There’s cool shit to look at. It’s got like a real urban explorer vibe which is a plus. A big gap, but no stairs to count. You get to see the sky. On our first trip I wanted to go back the last day with Morgan and shoot something for a cover but it ended up raining. So next year when we came out Brandon dusted off his reliable Nollie Flip for a photo. I shot this on my Hasselblad and it might be one of the only covers I shot with a medium format fisheye. So it’s extra crispy and cool looking.
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nual Cover was shot and we were off to the Spaghetti Factory.
Cory Wilson, Backside Kickflip. Toronto. 2009 When the Ashbridges Bay skatepark opened here in Toronto, I went by one day to shoot some photos for an SBC web article. Adam McLoughlan was doing backside ollies on this slab right when the sun was setting. As I was shooting - through some stroke of coincidental planetary alignment I noticed the sun set directly behind it. So, like an early astronomer first observing a rare interstellar phenomenon, I stood in awe wondering how I could capture such a magical occurrence. I was actually laying chest first on the concrete at the time, not standing, but you get it. Through another fortunate coincidence, famed “good Kickflip guy� Cory Wilson happened to be in town the next week for the opening of the park. He obliged me for a couple of ripping Kickflips. The sun set, a Photo Annual Cover was shot and we were off to the Spaghetti Factory.
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F O C U S
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Jay Brown,Backside 180 Nosegrind. Toronto. Jeff Comber
Photos by Nathan Stripp
FOCUS
Brandon Del Bianco, Switch BS Flip
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Steven Burke, Tailslide. Vancouver. Sam Fidlin
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Alex Hann, Ollie Into Bank. Port Credit. Nathan Stripp
Dane Burman, Switch Heelflip. Barcelona. Gerard Riera
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Evan Smith, Kickflip over the rail. Barcelona. Gerard Riera
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Justin Fabus, Nollie Backside flip. Toronto. Nathan Stripp
Conor Martin, Frontside Bluntslide. Aukland, New Zealand. Tony Zhang
Thomas Fitzpatrick. Berkeley, California. Tony Zhang
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Tyler Pearson-Mallin, Switch Wallie. Toronto. Nathan Stripp
Cody Cormier, 5.0. Montreal. Ryan Lebel
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Glencoe Hogle, Ollie to fakie. Mississauga. Nathan Stripp
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Steve Graham, Nosegrind. Calgary. Liam Glass
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Above: Carlos Neira, 5050 indy. Barcelona. Gerard Riera Below: Ben Skrzypek, Backside Tailslide. Barcelona. Gerard Riera
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Cam Trahan, Backside Noseblunt. Dundas. Nathan Stripp
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Riley Cronin, 5050. Etobicoke. Nathan Stripp
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Charles Dechamps, Halfcab. Montreal. Ryan Label
Stephen Gharghoury, Frontside Bluntslide. Port Credit. Nathan Stripp
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Charles Dechamps. Montreal. Ryan Label