NORTH SKATEBOARD MAGAZINE
ISSUE 20
FRONTSIDE FLIP UP. YES, UP.
FEARLESSLY TECHNICAL
WWW.CARHARTT-WIP.COM ANDREW WILSON — OLLIE TO 50-50 • PHOTO — ALEXANDRE PIRES
Cover: Charlie Munro - FS Boardslide Pop Over Photographer: Graham Tait
Wig Worland
Still Shooting On Film
Charlie Munro
Charlie Munro, Backside Tailslide
Charlie Munro, Backside Tailslide Charlie Munro, Backside Tailslide
STRONG MADE STRONG STRONGER STRONG
STRONG MADE MADE MADE STRONGER STRONGER STRONGER
AVAILABLE AT SKATESHOPS WORLDWIDE @LEVISSKATEBOARDING
AVAILABLE AT SKATESHOPS WORLDWIDE
@LEVISSKATEBOARDING AVAILABLE AT SKATESHOPS WORLDWIDE @LEVISSKATEBOARDING AVAILABLE AT SKATESHOPS WORLDWIDE
Wig Worland Interview by Neil Macdonald @scienceversuslife Photography by Wig
1
Your first attempt to get published was met with a rejection
Maybe it would’ve been fine to keep going with them?
letter from Skateboard! magazine. Was that encouraging or not?
Anyway, the advertising manager from that publishing
Can you give us a timeline of what mags you worked for, and when?
company, Jim, Andy Horsley and I started Sidewalk Surfer magazine after they’d left RAD. At the same time Jim started
That letter from ‘Meany’ at Skateboard! kind of helped
a snow magazine and had plans for a surf magazine. He took
because it drove me onwards. The spirit of youth, eh? I have
all the chances with the loans and his own money so
a similar but much more dry letter from TLB that should really
ultimately it was all his. A very brave man trusting some
be in Read and Destroy book. I went on to work for
twenty-somethings to do the right thing for him. I’ve no idea
Skateboard!, Read and Destroy and Skate Action in the
what he thinks about it all now, though I don’t believe he has
early years. Then System magazine with Andy Horsley which
any issues with money any more.
turned into RAD with Andy again and then Sidewalk with Andy and Ben Powell in the UK until 2005. In the US, Grant
Did you read all the other magazines at the time? Keep an eye on
Brittain and Dave Swift from Transworld Skateboarding
what other people were shooting? Or was it just all obvious?
magazine were really supportive in the very early days. They use to send me film and were even happy for me to send
I read all the magazines at the time. That was fairly easy
the film back to them if I couldn’t afford to get it processed.
because I was turning up at skate shops and skateparks
Amazing people. Bryce Kanights offered me a job quite early
every day to meet skaters. That’s where magazines were
on as well when he was Photo Editor at Thrasher. It might
sold. This has been said before but do remember the mags
have been a passing comment but I still take it at face value.
and the emerging videos were the only place to see what was happening in the scene. There was the beginnings of the
Things seemed quite up in the air for a while, with the TLB version of RAD coming to an end, then Phat, and System, and with RAD being run by people who maybe didn’t really know what they were doing before you guys took it over. Were the politics ever in the way of what you were doing? Before Andy and I came along and took over at RAD there did seem to be some quite fundamental problems, pictures being printed sideways or upside down, certain things being captioned wrong. There were some dark days for the title for sure. During the time we were at the magazine there was a feeling that the people that owned the RAD title weren’t very good for the people who were doing the actual job of putting the magazine together. They published a monthly windsurfing magazine, and actually still do today...Thinking about it...
internet but there was no Instagram. Shock!
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I remember RAD saying something like, “Wig went to America
I was just a kid from the middle of nowhere who had
weeks ago and this is the only shot he’s sent”, or something. It
somehow turned up at Embarcadero right in the thick of the
was Donger’s hydrant kickflip, but what was that all about? Were
most tumultuous time in history of skateboarding. I didn’t
you full time at TWS for a while?
know what it all meant. On that same trip I was at a spot in a school in Northern California and Brian Chung turned up. He
Grant at TWS offered me a full time job shooting pictures and
was supposed to be meeting Thomas Campbell but the light
working in the darkroom at the mag in something like 1992.
was fading so we got the shot instead. When Thomas turned
At the time I was considered a bit of a wizard at black and
up he was also just so cool about it all. Amazing cool cats
white printing. With hindsight I don’t think they could very
all these guys, maybe it’s just my small taste of the California
easily recruit people for the TWS darkroom. It’s a bit of a
Dream.
weird job in that part of the world isn’t it? Spending all that time in the dark when you have that incredible light outside!? Grant was really good to me, let me stay at his house for a bit, drove me around a little, gave me pep talks and that’s the time I shot the Donger kickflip picture, while he was shooting a sequence of the same thing. However, it became apparent quite quickly that I just wasn’t cut out for life in Southern California. No Radio 4—at the time anyway, same weather every day, having to drive to get anywhere—even across the street... Quite quickly both Grant and Dave could see the issues I was having and they sent me up to San Francisco. They thought it would be more ‘European’ for me. I stayed with Justin Girard and Gorm Boberg at the Mad Circle house. While I was there I shot pictures with Drake Jones and Mike Cao and one time sat opposite Lennie Kirk at breakfast. If I’m honest I don’t think I could see how important it all was at the time and I can’t believe I didn’t shoot more. I do have a fun shot of Scott Johnston from that time though. Was there no territorialism? It seems like photographers often have their own patch. There wasn’t really a territorialsm back then, no. I guess there were so few people in the game and we all knew how hard it was. I met Gabe Morford for the first time at Brown Marble in DTSF and he was just so nice. So welcoming and kind.
You mentioned being a fan of British documentary photographers like Martin Parr in a previous interview, and how you like making your UK shots look noticeably British. Clouds and puddles aside, how do you like to do that? Of course the light, the weather and the locations in the UK played a big part but we also needed to show the action clearly and have most of the content in colour. That really was a thing that WH Smith [largest magazine supplier in Britain] stipulated in their agreements! Also, I wanted the photographs to be as good as anything coming out in the magazines in the US. It was really important to me to show the skaters around me in Britain as being just as important as their US counterparts. We/I had to make up an entirely new way of shooting film to fulfill our needs in the UK as, back then there wasn’t a good high speed film [above 100iso, whatever that means] of any kind. Quite a few skaters from the UK have had their time on the world stage and it was really important to me to show them in the best light. Really important. Time has proven me to be right; look around you on these pages. I’m sure you’ll recognise some names. The above dictated the aesthetic as far as I’m concerned. I’d love to be more romantic about it and claim this, that or the other. But we needed to produce attractive content in a very dull grey country. Well, that’s were I went with it anyway. The other thing that helps to create something different is is to put away the fisheye lens and shoot with regular lenses. Ollie Barton and I used to talk about this all the time. It seemed like lot of European photographers tended to shoot more flat-on and make a virtue of composition. It takes the aesthetic away from the in-your-face style of ‘wave and pool’ photography and gives you something quite different. People are still doing this of course, some of them very well. French Fred of course, Davide at A Brief Glance, Dave Van Laere, Deeli, Henry Kingsford, Clement Le Gall.... 4
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You had a fairly advanced set up quite early on. What kind of equipment were you carrying around over the years? I’ve tried a little bit of everything over the years. When I started out I had Canon manual focus stuff but then that all got stolen in one go from the boot of a car. Grant Brittain reached into his bottom drawer and pulled out a spare Canon auto focus body and a broken fish eye and sent that over to me. That brought me back into the mid-nineties with a bump and started me off again so I invested in that for a while. In the year 2000 I was at an auction of one of the big London camera dealers and they were selling the ex-rental stock. When the auctioneer held up a £4,000 fisheye for Hasselblad in its carry case and asked, “Who’ll give me £500 for this?”, I happened to know what it was so I put my hand up. It’s a bit silly really putting something of that value near a twisting, turning, quite often out-of-control skateboard-andhuman combination but I’m pleased to be able to say I did it and the pictures still stand out as truly incredible. I also feel like I single-handedly kept Lumedyne lighting going. Lumedyne is a small handheld studio light with quite amazing light coverage constructed out of parts from Radio Shack [or Maplin] in a Florida backstreet. They’re not pretty or sophisticated but they seem to work. I guess I was also one of the first to use ‘radio slaves’. These things are so ubiquitous these days that nobody calls them ‘radio slaves’ any more. Literally every photographer has them. They’re the thing that makes the remote flash go off when the camera takes the picture. No, its not done by magic. The first versions in the early nineties were just terrible, then a company called Pocket Wizard did something slightly better with them, and nowadays, “Pocket Wizards suck”, is the latest I hear.
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Why did you stop shooting skateboarding? This is difficult to answer, a number of things I guess... I wanted to have more control over the end result in the early 2000s so I started to shoot negative film and have hand prints made. This is a much more expensive process than shooting slide film as had been the case for almost everybody in the editorial photography industry—not just skate photographers—up until that point. I didn’t go to the money people at the magazine and ask permission. I just did it. Because of this extra cost and also because I was perhaps beginning to see my own value at the time and asking for that to be reflected in my pay and so on, I was probably costing Sidewalk magazine a lot of money, relatively speaking. I was actually treated quite badly at the end of my time at Sidewalk and, for the record, I didn’t own any shares in the company when it was sold to the ridiculous corporate behemoth that called itself ‘Factory’ Media back in 2007. I actually laughed out loud when I heard that name. I just thought that skateboarding and skateboarders would see through that straight away and go off and do there own subversive thing again. Just like always. It is truly amazing it lasted another eleven years to be honest. Also, I’d done fifteen years inside skateboarding. I felt like I’d done a lot. I’d seen some ups and I’d seen some downs. I’d grown really tired of the ‘already been done’ attitude that was taking hold in the early 2000s. For me it didn’t matter whether something had been done before but it mattered more how it looked. I guess I was into style when nobody else around me seemed interested in that. I guess it helps the progression aspect of skateboarding but it perhaps doesn’t make for the very best photograph that you can shoot at a particular place. I guess I wanted to move on and try something else. I floundered for a few years trying a few things out. Maybe I should have just jumped straight into shooting weddings like CJ and Leo have. I’d probably be a millionaire by now!
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You took a ‘studio approach’ to shooting street skating. Was it a
It’s all down to individuals and how they react to their own
relief to get back into a studio and shoot fashion? Were you paying
situation. Everybody has a different way of dealing with even
attention to skateboarding or to skateboard media when you shoot
small amounts of fame and attention. Some people feel like
commercially?
they have to earn their keep others do not. I never wanted to think about ‘the industry’ when I was out shooting
Not at all. Shooting skateboarding is really difficult and
photographs of the people that I thought mattered at the time
requires a particular skill set but because you’re dealing with
but it inevitably has an influence, for better or worse.
a subject moving through a space there are only so many spots you can place yourself or place the lighting. In these
Who has been the best and worst to shoot with? Who always gets
terms there is only so much you can do and it’s still being
three more tries?
done by truly brilliant people all over the world today. I can put my lights anywhere I like in the space these days and
So many names when it comes to the best and easiest to
surround them with whatever modifications I like. My work
shoot with. Mike Manzoori, Mark Channer, Colin Kennedy,
is obviously much more finished because of this and it’s a lot
Danny Wainwright, Frank Stevens, Harry, Mark Baines, Alan
simpler to be able to go home with the goods.
Rushbrooke, Ali Cairns and Dave Allen easily spring to mind but there are so many more. I wish I had more pictures of
What lead you to finally excavating your archive? The RAD book?
Geoff and Tom from back in the day but that’s all about timing I guess as they moved to the US just when I was
Yes, the Read and Destroy project finally gave me the
getting going. There were a few more difficult people in the
incentive to dig deep. Tim had been in contact with the main
scene but they’re really not with mentioning. It was and is so
contributors for a long time and they’ve been planning a
rare to find somebody truly difficult in skateboarding, we’re
book for many years. They got in touch with me to be able
like one big happy family aren’t we?
to bring the entire history of the title back into one place. There have been a few other projects in recent years where
Is there a shot you still regret missing? Or somebody you always
I’ve scratched the surface of the archive, like the Southbank
wanted to shoot with?
book, but with the RAD thing I’ve gone deep. I regret not shooting more. My best advice to anyone starting So it should still be happening, right?
out now would be to have at least two cameras with you at all times. One to shoot the action and one to shoot what’s
The RAD book is absolutely still happening. It’ll just take a bit
actually going on around you. That second camera may
more time and effort to put it together.
ultimately be the one that produces the pictures of real value. It seems this is what everybody does these days, of course.
How did you see the attitude of skateboarders change over the
Whenever I see Sam Ashley he has a camera with him all the
years, in terms of getting coverage? Did this affect the way you
time. The coverage in all the magazines is really complete. I
worked?
guess cameras are more ubiquitous these days because of cameras on phones anyway. It was all could do to afford one
Yes and no. It seems like a lot of skaters didn’t seem that bothered and they would still be showered with product from their sponsors no matter what.
camera in the early 90s!
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Is it harder getting skateboarders or models to do what you need? I don’t think I can answer that! Very different worlds with their own joys and frustrations. Favourite film and why? Can you explain the differences in film, please? Nobody uses transparency films any more like we used to the 90s. Do they? I just can’t imagine why you would. It’s terrible. Transparency film has a terrible dynamic range compared to negative film and is therefore very difficult to get the exposure right. The definition of a dark art. Colour negative, on the other hand is just a joy to use because you don’t need to worry about the exposure anywhere near as much and half the work comes at the printing stage. Which, when done well, makes the photograph. The whole process is expensive and convoluted though so is usually the reserve of high budget fashion brand shoots... and this magazine. What skate photographers do you like? All the OG guys of course; Mike O’Meally, Gabe Morford, Lance Dawes, ‘teebs, Dimitry, Kosick, Ollie Barton, Tobin Yelland and anyone I’ve missed! Love all the new UK guys as well; Rich West, Henry Kingsford, CJ, Reece Leung and Sam Ashley, and of course, the big man himself, Leo Sharp. Ever disgusted by the way one of your shots has been laid out? It was never too bad because the design department at Sidewalk were frightened of me. Also there is an unwritten rule in the skateboard magazine world that they wouldn’t crop anything. Skateboard media is one of the few places where the integrity of the photograph is paramount, it seems.
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What about seeing your stuff posted on Instagram and it’s all cropped and weird colours or whatever? Once the work is out there in the world there’s not much you can do. As long as my photographs aren’t being used to promote any form of business then I have no problem with people ‘re-publishing’ them and, fortunately, UK copyright law is in agreement with me on that front. It’s always nice to have credit on any work of mine, of course, but that just seems like common courtesy to me. Also, it seems perfectly sensible to me to want to link to as many people as you can on the internet anyway, right? Especially on ‘social’ media. If you’re not linking back to be people there you’re not being sociable. Is it a good thing that we can all see what happened almost straight away or does the disposable nature of IG diminish the impact? All photographers of any note spend time with their pictures to make sure what they have done is good. From the earliest days of photography people would have taken their negatives into the darkroom and transformed them into prints. This is just the same today as it ever was. Re-touching has a bad rep in certain circles because of the awful stuff you can do with it, but done well it’s just the same as producing a print in the darkroom. We can decide our intentions much more freely after the exposure had been made these days, but having an intention at all is half the job. Whether pictures are used on the internet or in print they still need finishing. I love the immediacy of Instagram but sometimes it might be better to savour the wait before the reveal. This is maybe something we are losing touch with these days and possibly why there’s a backlash against digital in favour of the ‘purity’ of analogue. The truth of course is a lot more complex, just as you can remaster for vinyl you can also retouch film. The lines are blurred as much as ever.
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Ever Photoshop a lurker in to or out of the background? Or move
You shot a lot at night in London; were there ever any sketchy
street furniture?
situations? You’ve got a lot of expensive gear sitting around some shady places sometimes.
Nah, we never had tricks like that during my time at Sidewalk. That’s all part of the vibe of the images right? I thought about
I can’t remember a situation when there was trouble like
retouching some extra people in once or twice to make a
that in London. I’ve had more trouble in provincial towns. I
shot better.
remember one difficult situation in Ilkeston in Derbyshire for example. I guess being 6’2” [and built like a brick shit house]
What photo took longest for whatever reason?
might have bearing on this but perhaps hanging around in groups may also have a something to do with the lack of
The Chris Oliver kickflip off the bus shelter into the bank to
trouble.
drop took a while but even that wasn’t too bad. I would have gone out with ten rolls of films and that would have been the
What’s next, skate-wise? Are you seeking out skate work?
budget for the day. I’m sure there is ‘skate work’ out there but last time I What’s your current camera/flash set up?
contributed to a magazine I wasn’t offered any payment. I think I was offered a t-shirt and a credit on Insta. I just don’t
I have a couple of digital camera bodies that I use for the
think earning money from shooting skateboarding is a viable
majority of the commercial work. Owning lots of expensive
option any more because of the reasons discussed above.
camera kit that you don’t use everyday isn’t good business
Literally everybody is a photographer now as well and the
sense so I tend to rent when I need something specific for a
youth need to document themselves.
job. That goes for basically all the flash kit that I use. Good studio flash costs a lot of money. You don’t want to own it and then have it sitting about doing nothing. Do you still have your Hasselblad gear, and have you thought about dusting it off and using it again? I do have a Hasselblad and a couple of lenses, yes. I use it when there is the chance to. I also have a Fuji GW690III that I use more often. I shot a couple of skateboard shots on it this summer. It’s a huge rangefinder camera and just so convenient to use compared to something from the 50s like a Hasselblad. Watch out for the shot, should be coming out soon...
Photographs Portrait by Leo Sharp 1. Danny Wainright 2. Chris Oliver 3. Donger 4. Scott Palmer 5. Cookie 6. Jagger 7. John Rattray 8. Mike Manzoori 9. James Hacker 10. Mark Channer 11. Frank Stephens 12. Tom Penny 13. Colin Kennedy 14. Paul Shier 15. Tom Penny 16. Lucien Clarke
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Charlie Munro Photography by Graham Tait Interview by Dan Magee
So Charlie, you’ve recently gone from country mouse to city
Skating is crazy. Like you can meet some random dude on the
mouse, tell us about your current living situation.
street, have one skate sesh with them then you’re living with them.
I live within an old army barracks in North East London.
Yeah I know it’s fucked, it’s crazy. He’s a producer of some kind, he keeps himself to himself about it but I know he’s
Who are you living with?
definitely made some banging tunes. I haven’t actually been home for a week and a half so I don’t know what his room is
Tristan [Rudman] and Mikey [Patrick], wait, not Mikey
saying now, but when I left to come back to Cambridge his
anymore, Froby. Mikey moved out about two weeks ago and
room was very very minimal like he wasn’t quite living there
Froby has just moved in.
yet. I’m hoping when I get back he’ll be there, I think he’s going to set up a studio.
It’s like a guardian angel thing right? Are you going to get in on it, Lil’ Pinch spitting fire! It’s a guardianship yeah, so technically we’re not tenants. We guard the building which means we pay cheap rent so I’m
Haha! I might. I said to him that I want to learn piano so
not complaining.
hopefully he can teach me.
What responsibilities do you have for doing that?
I looked him up online, he made a Sam Smith tune that was number one, or like top five worldwide.
None really. There’s like 20 odd people in the building so basically the company saves on security to stop squatters
It’s fucked up. I knew him for like six months before I had
getting in the building. As long as someone’s in the building
any idea he did that. That’s what I mean, he keeps himself to
at some point then I think it’s ok but I don’t think it matters
himself. I heard it from someone I worked with!
too much. That’s sick cause you know if he was a douche he’d be dropping How did you meet Froby, just from skating at Mile End?
that in every other day.
I met Froby through Shaun [Witherup], Juice [Justin Biddle]
Yeah exactly.
and Tristan and all them boys. I think the first time I properly met him was at Hackney double set, we both threw ourselves
How is London life compared to Cambridgeshire?
down it and ended the night with a bottle of champagne so we kinda bonded.
Pretty hectic but way more fun.
Yeah I’ve seen the Instagram stories.
You’re working on a full length video part now in London. Has that been different to how it’s been in the past? Like with the GL dudes.
Haha! Yeah London is sick. I spent a lot of my first six months partying all the time. I mean I guess it’s still not over with but
It’s a bit different, London’s better because you can skate so
I’d like to think that i’m not as involved in it but that’s probably
many different spots in one day, or at least a few
a lie. Give me a few more months. Haha!
different spots in one day. When we used to go up to Leicester it would be, “Right what spot are we going to skate
Do you get to skate more or less?
today? Alright what you gonna do?” And all that shit and that’s kinda not really the funnest way of doing it you know?
I get to skate every day now, it’s perfect. When I was in
I don’t try to plan it too much, it’s better to just see what
Cambridge I’d skate maybe one day in the week after work
happens on the day.
then skate at the weekend. Now it’s completely different, I get to skate every day, it’s great.
Have you always been like that?
What happened to your old crew that you used to skate with, are
Mmm yeah but then sometimes we need an idea before we
they stuck there?
drive two hours to a spot. You’ve got to be prepared if you’re going to go that far.
Yeah, but they come to London every now and again. I don’t get to see them as often as I’d like to but I’ve been hanging
Me and Kev have only gotten to know you from doing this project
out with them since I’ve been back in Cambridge this week
but it seems to me that you’ve been on a footage mission for the
which has been nice. We went skating the other day and
last few years. I mean how many videos did you do with Callun
actually fixed up this spot. They have so many blocks and
[Loomes] beforehand, like four?
there’s these little banks, but they took chunks out of it the whole way so the boys concreted it the night before and I
He’s had five and I think I was in the third, so I’ve done three
helped sand block it and make good the next day, it’s pretty
parts with him I think.
good man. That will probably be the new Cambridge local spot.
So you’ve had three parts of just trying to get footage, trying to get footage. Are you into that shit?
That’s the new skills you’ve learnt from [Kev] Parrott innit. From coming on the sessions with us.
What filming? Yeah of course. I’d rather go out and do something productive than just go to a skatepark. Most of
Exactly. Get to know all the tricks of the trade.
the tricks I’ve learnt I learned on a street spot I don’t really tend to learn them at a park. I’d much rather just go skate a street spot.
Crook
You know what, that’s the total opposite to what I assumed. I
What did your parents think of you skateboarding?
thought you were fucking metal skatepark kid. My mum’s always been so supportive of anything, of any shit Nah I wasn’t a skatepark kid.
we’ve wanted to do, she’d rather we were happy. My dad has warmed to it now but it took him a long time. In his mind
I just assumed that because you lived in Cambridge or whatever
I was just going out and hurting myself everyday for no
that you were skating some shitty metal skatepark five days a week
reason. I used to come back hurt all the time and he would
and you learned all your stuff and you were the local hero, you
say, “When you going to give up that skateboarding”.
met Callun and started filming Get Lesta stuff and took all your skatepark tricks to the street.
What did he want you to do?
There was never really a skatepark in Cambridge. When I was
I guess he wanted me to start motocross. He’s done it his
a kid growing up we had Jesus Green which was basically a
whole life and got me a motocross bike as a kid that I was
fun box in the middle with a bank one side, quarter pipe the
really into, but not as much as skateboarding.
other side, and a block. That was obviously fun in the summer, we’d warm up there then go skate some streets.
Do both, that Nyjah shit.
We’ve always just done that since I was about ten, I used to get the train to London when I was about ten too.
Nah fuck that... I mean one day when I’ve got the money for sure I’d get one.
Did you? Jesus Christ. Would you describe yourself as a family orientated dude? You’re Haha! Yeah, the first time I went I told my mum I was
back there seeing your family now?
going with my mates parents but it was just all skaters, some of them were like eighteen. It’s a bit weird really, imagine an
Yeah, emm, I dunno really. The heart grows fonder when
18 year old taking a ten year old with them to London! But
you’re away from them or whatever that saying is. So I think
they were all my homies and my older brother and stuff so it
that because I’ve been away from them all I want to do is
worked out well.
hang out with them, spend some time with them. I feel like since I’ve known you you’re a different person to what I had assumed. I thought you were a gnarly skate rat that was a little bit rough around the edges but it turns out you’re one of the more hard working dudes out there. Quite well managed, polite, quite well thought out. Thanks. That’s probably the nicest thing you’ve ever said Magee.
BS Nollie
Still down for the party, down for the mash up. Not saying 100% of the time but a lot of the time you can party then skate fairly soon afterwards and try some shit. Yeah I think I’ve somehow adapted that into my lifestyle and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing really. Has it always been that way for you. Hit it at the weekend and still go skating? Pretty much yeah. The amount of times I used to drive up north fucking hanging out my arse, on a comedown or whatever and still go skating. Best thing to do when you’re feeling shit is to sweat it out, within like an hour or two you’re fine. As long as you drink plenty of water, maybe some orange juice, you’re fine. Even when you weren’t living here you’d drive like two hours to London, park somewhere, get the train in, get a trick then drive home. Haha! Yeah, that was pretty hectic. I was so used to it from going up north. I loved skating in Cambridge with my mates but I’d rather explore or see what else there is you know? It’s good that you’re so motivated. I can’t see myself slowing down anytime soon. I have so much fun when I’m out filming with my mates, you never know what the day is going to give you either. There’s always something unexpected happening. Always memories you know. That’s why I’m still motivated to get out and try to get stuff done. It’s just rewarding as well, you feel good if you’ve done something that day or been a part of helping someone else get something. That’s what it’s about for me.
Heelflip
Who do you enjoy filming with out of our current crew? Who
Sometimes takes the edge off the mission of just trying to get
pushes you?
footage.
Korahn [Gayle] for sure just because he’s such a happy dude,
Yeah yeah.
he’s a positive guy to be around. I like all of the dudes, they all have their different qualities that you want to go skating with.
Do you think stuff’s happened a bit more for you while you’ve been
Carlos [Cardeñosa] is the safest dude ever, always positive
in London?
as well. Manny [Lopez] a good dude to go out with, he can be pretty intense but you need that sometimes, he’s definitely
Yeah for sure, I’ve definitely had better opportunities with
pushed me to do some gnarly shit that I probably wouldn’t do
sponsors and stuff. Just to get involved in events and all that
before. Harry [Lintell]is a legend, he’s always fun to be with.
kind of shit. There’s always something going on, you meet
Basically all the Blips guys.
so many people and suddenly you’re friends with them and you’re getting invites to do this and to do that. It’s good.
You’ve got a mellower crew that you skate with all the time too. The Canada Water crew, the people you live with, the South Africans.
You’re riding for New Balance now right?
It’s easy to get stuck with the crew you’re filming a project with, then move onto the next project and crew, but you’re annoyingly
Yeah, it’s been about ten months now. That’s gone quick!
bringing people to the session. Where were you getting shoes from before? Haha! Lakai through Form Distribution. But at the same time it can be good to break everyone out of their little bubble. It shows that you’ve not just blown out your old mates
Was that a tough switch up? It was U.K. flow but must’ve been
to hang out with a bunch of new mates.
pretty hard.
Nah no way, stick to your roots man. Never forget where you
I mean yeah it was difficult because Matt Anderson is such
come from at the end of the day. They’re my best mates.
a good friend of mine and he’s backed me for four years
There’s six of us, we’re like a family. That’s my London family
or something, a long time now. We’d speak all the time on
for sure. If they’re down to come out with us then I’d never
the phone so it was a pretty hard decision. That was a hard
say no. They definitely bring different dynamics to the day as
phone call telling him that I’m going, but at the same time if
well. they can definitely help. It’s always good to have a laugh
you get an offer where you can be more involved in
while you’re doing it.
something, you get to go on some trips then..... New Balance is fucking sick, I’m well into it. Lakai has kind of just been at a stand still for a long time, especially in the U.K. So I made the decision, it wasn’t easy but I’m glad I did.
Switch FS Crook Pop Over
It’s hard to kind of gauge where you are on some companies radar,
For people that might not know, just explain what the Nocturn Up
like if they know who you are or you’re just a random Euro flow
crew is. You’ve got you little Nocturn Up tattoo now right?
dude, or distributor flow dude. The people who are running New Balance definitely know who you are so it’s a good opportunity.
Yeah so we all got an owl tattoo, I got it on my ankle. It basically signifies going nocturnal for the time we were there.
Yeah for sure, plus Mackey is the fucking best dude ever
Hong Kong is one of the busiest cities in the world so we’d
which I’m sure everyone will agree with. Baines has been
skate all night and when the sun rises we’d go to bed, or try
killing it. If Mackey is too busy then Baines is always on point
to go to bed, sometimes it could be difficult. Then get up as
with sorting me out, he hooked me up a plane ticket within a
it’s getting dark and do the same thing again. But because of
day or two of asking, plus he’s just generally a top lad.
the time difference over there it almost felt like we were going to sleep at normal time.
You’ve been to Hong Kong, Budapest, a few different places. Has overseas travel just been the last couple of years or something
So you’re riding the jet lag the whole time there, that’s pretty crazy.
that you’ve always done? I wasn’t jet lagged till I got home to England. More so in the last couple of years. If I get an invite on a trip somewhere I’m going to try my hardest to make it
Was that your first time in Asia?
happen, that’s how I’ve become such good mates with so many people. When I went to Hong Kong I knew Nick
Yeah.
[Richards], [Jordan] Sharkey, Daryl [Dominguez], but didn’t know Seb Batty, Jasper and the rest of the boys.
How did you get on out there?
That’s for the Nocturn Up edits right?
It’s pretty weird, it was nice that I was the same height as most people. Haha!
Yeah. That was so much fun filming that trip. They’re actually going on another one, I think they might’ve even left
I love that shit, when you’re on a train you can actually reach the
yesterday or the day before. But I had other commitments.
things to hold onto. Haha! Yeah, you feel my pain. Where’s your favourite place you’ve skated? Oh man good question.
FS Bluntslide Transfer
Are you the type of dude that wants to move to Barcelona and just
Really?
skate ledges, perfect spots all day or would you rather be in the U.K. What’s you view on spots in general?
I was so small, I probably didn’t have enough power in my legs.
My outlook has definitely changed in the last couple of years I’d say. I’m not about the perfect spots, I’d rather skate
How old were you when you started, like ten?
something that’s a little bit rough and difficult to skate. You might not do as good a trick on it but I feel like that’s not
About eight I think.
really what it’s about anymore. London is probably one of my favourite places to skate if I’m honest.
Because you got good then gave up didn’t you?
Have you skated Scotland before?
Yeah. So I gave up for about five years when I was thirteen. That was pretty dumb really.
Nah I’ve never skated Scotland. I’ve been a few times, I used to go as a kid to see my great grandma, I’m a quarter
To do what?
Scottish. She made it to 100 how insane is that!? To be a little shit basically. The reason I quit was that all my Where did she live?
friends that I used to skate with they were all older than me, they left Cambridge to go to Uni and shit, so it was just me
Glasgow I believe. I was still pretty young. So actually, the first
and this one other guy. We’d still go skating, then eventually
place I ever rode a skateboard was in Scotland. My brother
not as much, then eventually we stopped. We just became
got a skateboard for his birthday, I think he was about ten
little shits getting ourselves into trouble, hanging out with girls
which would’ve made me about seven. I remember just
and all that sort of stuff. If there were more skaters around me
skating around the hotel car park and my dad - this is
at the time I probably would’ve stuck at it, that kinda sounds
probably what put my dad off me skating - so my dad was
lame as you don’t have to skate with people but I’m the last
like, “Let me have a go on that”. And as soon as he steps two
person to go to a skatepark on their own, I’d never do that.
feet on it wooshes back and he lands on his elbow and got the gnarliest swellbow, complained about it for god knows how long, so his first experience with a skateboard was not a good one! So I guess that’s why it’s probably hard for him to adapt to that’s what I do with all my time. I don’t remember being that good when I started though. It took me a long time to learn how to ollie.
Fakie Flip
How did you get back into it?
Paul Carter.
I wasn’t do much in my spare time, just hanging out with
Hot. Is he ginger though?
my girlfriend at the time, smoking weed all the time and just not being productive other than working. Obviously I thought
Joey Pulsifer.
about it all the time, would still watch skate videos regularly but I didn’t have a skateboard. Then one day I thought fuck it,
Who?
I’m going to go buy a board, I think about it all the time I may as well just go and do it. And from that day I haven’t stopped.
Joey Pulsifer.
So basically you stopped skating for weed and a girlfriend innit?
Who the hell is that?
No. Haha!
He used to be in 411s. Aiden Mackey.
Yeah it is dude.
Ehh, I’ll say he’s pretty hot. Yeah hot. Not my favourite though.
I didn’t smoke weed when I was thirteen did I? Actually I think
Chet Childress.
I might’ve done. Haha! My girlfriend at the time was part of the reason I started skating again. She’d say ,”Why are you
Fucking yes he’s sick.
always talking about it but you’re not doing it? Just go buy a fucking board”. I definitely have to thank her for kicking me
I feel like every ginger skater is good, but back in the day it might
up the arse a little bit.
have held them back a bit you know what I mean? Did you get any shit when you were younger for being ginger?
I bet she regretted that. Haha! Yeah of course. I mean if someone is going to say something We actually broke up because I was too involved with
to you then the first thing they say is ginger you know? But I
skating, I’m not even joking. I was only eighteen though.
was lucky, I never really got bullied, but that’s probably because of my older brother and I’d hang around with
Who’s your favourite ginger skater?
everyone who was older than me. It happened more with skating when I was younger, I wouldn’t say I was bullied
Ooft. Hmm, I mean my classic favourite ginger from years
though, more like people just taking the piss, there weren’t
ago is Wieger obviously, the fucking best.
that many skaters when I started so we were a minority. And people tend to pick on minorities. Nothing bad though, just
I’ll give you some ginger skaters and you tell me if they’re hot or
a little bit of abuse.
not ok? So Wieger Van Wageningen. Hot. Best Inward Heels in the game. BS 180 SW FS Crook
Are you surviving from skating right now?
Under what parameters would you take the Monster deal?
No. I get paid a little bit of money from some sponsors but
I’d figure it out with the offer they come with basically.
that only just covers my rent really. So anything else on top I need to go out and work for it. I actually do some work with
Say the offer was we’re going to give you £1,000 a month but you
Monster which is weird, but the job is so sick, it’s the easiest
have to wear a cap, wristband and stickers on the board would you
job I’ve had in my whole life. All we do is fill up the truck at
do it?
the warehouse with some sample drinks, drive into central London like Covent Garden or whatever and pass them out to random pedestrians on the street or go to a football game and give them out. It doesn’t take long, the main part of the job is driving, but if you’re sat there with your mate which I am as I work with Sam Murgatroyd and Joe Mclone, then it’s easy. The money is pretty good so that’s what’s keeping me afloat in London right now.
Nah, no fucking way. What about wristband, stickers but no cap? Haha! No way dude. Who wears wristbands!!! Mate I’d probably ride for them if it was minimal logo on my board and they come at me with some good money, fuck it why not.
So if Monster said to you dude, you are ripping right now, we want
I think that shit’s cool if it’s minimal and the end result is you’re
to hook you up, would you do it? You could skate everyday.
getting to go skating.
Ummm...
Of course, It would help me out a lot right now I guess but I’m still not going to lose who I am for the fucking money, no way. I mean you’re talking to me like you’ve not done some illegal shit in the past mate. I’ve seen those shorts and fedora! Haha! That fedora I wore for week and it was after a festival, but that was me fully blowing it I’m aware of that. A week! Yeah it was only a week. I just filmed so much in that week. The man from Del Monte says “illegal”.
BS Overcrook
MINI LOGO STAIN DECKS [ 7.5”/ 7.75”/ 8.0”/ 8.25”/ 8.5” ]
Thanks
Editor & Photographer Graham Tait
Mike @ Keen Dist Josh @ Theories A&M Imaging
Layout & Design Graham Tait
Wig Worland Charlie Munro Dan Magee
Feature Interviews Neil Macdonald [@scienceversuslife]
All the contributing photographers. adidas Skateboarding Carhartt
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