Issue 73 aug | sept 2016 free
FELIPE GUSTAVO COLOR-WAY
THE NEW JACK
WITH
Dealer enquiries : info@dcshoes.co.za
FELIPE GUSTAVO \ SWITCH FLIP \ BLABAC PHOTO
DCSHOES.COM
2 | sessionmag.co.za
Anton Roux squeezes a backside grind into a tight space, in the now famous Hartswater ditches, in rural Northern Cape. The Vans crew battled the elements all weekend long during the ‘Small Town Syndrome’ tour but Anton wasn’t going to let the rain keep him down. Find a dry spot and make it work! - Photo Jansen van Staden
Contents 08 Redial 12 vans tour 22 kyle trusky 28 wynand Herholdt 38 king’s beach Crew 46 Galleria 52 Lesotho 58 Closet envy 60 Payday 62 I am
Cover: Krige Venter takes a plunge deep in the bowels of Cape Town Harbour. Krige moved to Thailand recently and was only back in the country for a brief few weeks. He injured himself during this battle, but was soon back on a plane to south East Asia for some well earned R&R. - Photo Jansen van Staden
sessionmag.co.za | 3
LUCAS PUIG - FAKIE INWARD HEELFLIP Photography: Sem Rubio © 2016 adidas AG. adidas, the trefoil logo and the 3-Stripes mark are registered trademarks of the adidas Group.
EDITOR
Redial
outside the boX
Luke Jackson words: luke Jackson Photos: Samuel mcguire
it’s interesting to see the different approaches that various individuals have with regard to skating a city. you might think everything has been done, or new spots never come around, but maybe that just depends on your outlook and your attitude. Rather than thinking of what you want to do and struggling to find a place to do it, perhaps instead you need to look at your surroundings and ask yourself what you can do with them. you could roll past something every day of your life and not think to hit it, but suddenly somebody new visits your town and changes your perspective on it. or perhaps you see something in a video, and that then makes you realize that the thing you overlook could actually be skated in some new way. but it can go both ways, sometimes when people visit your town you give them a hundred ideas of what they could do, given the talent you know they possess, but they simply blow it off and don’t do much at all. Skateboarding is one of those things that doesn’t always just work on command, it has to feel right. walker Ryan is one of those individuals who can go anywhere and make something happen. when you have ability and you couple that with open-mindedness then you can make it work.
info@sessionmag.co.za FOUNDER | CREATIVE Brendan Body brendan@sessionmag.co.za ADVERTISING Ockie Fourie info@sessionmag.co.za PHOTO EDITOR Clint van der Schyf PHOTOGRAPHERS 73 Jansen van Staden, Andre Visser, Grant Mclachlan, Mike Chinner, Ryan Janssens, Werner Lamprecht, Sherwin Andrews, Ryan Claasen, Rousseau Loubser, Samuel McGuire, Quad Howes CONTRIBUTORS 73 Brett Shaw, Rieyaad Saban PHYSICAL ADDRESS: Session Magazine, 2nd Floor, Earlgo Building, cnr. Kloof & Park Rd, Gardens, Cape Town, 8001. PRINTERS: Novus Print Solutions
i’m pretty sure these are two Nbds in downtown Cape Town. ollie from the manual block over the handrail at Civic Centre and gap to crook outside the National library of South Africa. Civic has its rough ground challenges and the National library spot requires you to run up stairs, jump on your board and quickly gap out down the set on the other side. both were seemingly quite effortless and easy for walker. during what was possibly the most productive week i’ve experienced with a foreign crew skating in Cape Town. Street skating is an organic process and some can adapt in the moment better than others.
SKATEBOARDER OWNED AND OPERATED SINCE 2002.
SUPPORT INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING
MAIL US - info@sessionmag.co.za @sessionskaTemag
WWW.SESSIONMAG.CO.ZA SESSION SKATEBOARDING MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED INDEPENDENTLY 6 TIMES A YEAR. SESSION WILL WELCOME ALL LETTERS, E-MAILS AND PHOTOS. WE WILL REVIEW THE CONTRIBUTION AND ASSESS WHETHER OR NOT IT CAN BE USED AS PRINT OR ONLINE CONTENT. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS MAGAZINE ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE MAGAZINE, ITS OWNERS OR ITS MANAGEMENT. SESSION SKATEBOARDING MAGAZINE IS THE COPYRIGHT OF SESSION MAGAZINE CC. ANY DUPLICATION OF THIS MAGAZINE, FOR ANY MEDIA OR SALE ACTIVITY, WILL RESULT IN LEGAL ACTION AND BOD WILL USE YOUR BALLS FOR FISHING BAIT.
8 | sessionmag.co.za
etnies.com
|
@etniesskateboarding
Al Davis
Cons One Star Pro Mid
Made for skateboarding
vans
Small Town
Words: Brett Shaw Photos: Jansen van Staden
If you don’t go and have a look then you will never know. We would rather not find something than stay at home and skate the same spots day-in and day-out. The thing is, you always find something. You may be looking for a pool and you find a handrail, or you’re looking for a ledge and you find a nose bonk to a gap, who knows man, that’s why we skate right? When you’re out on the road the best feeling is when you get to draw first blood on an obscure spot in a town that nobody’s ever heard of. One of the Vans team’s missions this year is to explore as many small towns in Africa as we can, and this was our first #smalltownsyndrome tour. You may think your town sucks but when you have someone like Anton on the trip the un-thinkable becomes possible, the bizarre is normal and the rail that no-one’s ever touched gets manhandled in 5 minutes. Suddenly your town’s not so bad and that’s why we want to go there.
12 | sessionmag.co.za
Syndrome We had 14 eyeballs for most of this tour so no spot went unrolled. Eyeballs 13 and 14 belonged to our honorary guest Mr. Chinner AKA that dude who runs the park in Kimberley. Mike operates in the same headspace as us so everyone was psyched to have the captain of the Pike Dreamz ship on board. Mike’s long-term vision for skateboarding is awesome so it was exciting to be around such a visionary. Thank you Sir for letting us invade your space, use your t-shirts to dry spots and for letting us watch your epic collection of skate flicks. Oh yeah and for letting me share your spare bed with Dallas. We’re still looking for a tube of Bones speed cream for you.
The Cloudy Bros took a break from making web clips so that Nkosi could come on this trip and he brought the Durban rain with him to the desert! Getting rained out in the Karoo messes with your head because you want the rain to stop, but there’s been a serious drought so the rain is also welcome. We never leave home without a pool pump so we weren’t worried about the rain anyway. You just have to wait for dry gaps to skate, say goodbye to your rusted bearings and do the long drives in the heavy rain.
If it’s out there, Brett Shaw will find it, grind it and film it too!
sessionmag.co.za | 13
boom! it was on
After wrestling the Cape Town Beast pool for a few weeks we were amped to head out to find and drain some new pools. We found 7 pools on Google Earth but only 1 of them was kind of skateable, the others were as square as a Streetwise 2 box. The De Aar pool belonged to the Police Captain in town, which is no problem for a fine oiled crew. Dallas built the skate park there so his connections run deep. Jannie (Dallas’ Policeman friend) hooked up a meet with the Captain. It turns out that the Captain and 2 of his bros were separated from their wives so they were renting the house as a bachelor pad. Boom! it was on, so as soon as we got the thumbs up we fired up our pump, sucked it dry then we hit it at 7am. We had no right riding that pool, it was way too steep and tweaked 14 | sessionmag.co.za
but we’ve ridden way worse so we rolled the dice. Joubert ended up getting the best trick. A perfectly timed carve to face smash! His board flicked up into his face and almost cut his nose in half. It looked like he’d been in a car accident. Damn there was blood everywhere, good thing he was wearing a white t-shirt to soak it up with. Our recently appointed leader wasn’t fussed at all and he even wore the same shirt for the rest of the day. When the team manager is hard as nails the rest of the team will gladly follow him into battle. 4 weeks later Joubert randomly pulled a piece of griptape out of the laceration in his nose, gnarly! The board smashed his face so hard that some griptape came off in there and he didn’t realize. Damn!
Nkosi, the lesser-spotted Dlamini brother (unless you’re in Durban) floats one in De Aar.
Nkosi boosts a frontside flip over some rough SA paving in Kimberley.
sessionmag.co.za | 15
Anton drops off the wall and into the rough!
Blonde betties getting baked under a bridge, jou bliksem!
“our best find in the ditches 3 semi-hot blonde chicks get wasted on hard liquor and smo weed under a brid 16 | sessionmag.co.za
were tting oking dge.”
The lame pools freed up some days for us to go back and explore the Hartswater ditches and we found another epic virgin section which took hours to clean up, plus we had to dodge the rain so we ended up hitting 3 different sections of the ditch in between rain clouds. Huishond came up with a rad idea while it rained. We bought raw bread dough at the spar, made a fire under a bridge, then we wrapped the bread dough on sticks and we baked them on the braai, kamikaze style. I wrapped mine over a cheese griller. Fine dining if you will. The Murth gods were pleased with the maneuver that was landed in the new section of the ditch, even if it took 2 sessions to get. There is so much more to explore in Hartswater, it’s going to take a few years to look in all of the nooks and crannies. It’s just so rad driving inside the ditches, listening to
thrash metal and shouting every time you see something cool. Kind of like the game reserve for skaters. We drove past that wall that Rowan Zorilla rolled into on the Thrasher Skate Rock tour, damn it’s gigantic! However, our best find in the ditches were 3 semi-hot blonde chicks getting wasted on hard liquor and smoking weed under a bridge. They looked out of place surrounded by human turds, blackjacks and us. It’s always interesting to see how skateboarders can adapt to any situation, in this case to go from listening to Slayer full blast in the van and looking for spots to jumping out the van and slotting into Don Juan (the greatest lover in the world) mode. Needless to say they looked shocked when we bailed out of the van to see what the hell was going on. The Silver fox definitely put them on edge with his bold remarks and odd attire.
sessionmag.co.za | 17
D e AAR
Dallas pushes every shitty old pool to the limits. 18 | sessionmag.co.za
Our only single stallions were Anton and Nkosi, so I was flicking through my iPod songs to find Paul McCartney and Steve Wonder’s ‘Ebony and Ivory’ duo when I remembered that Anton was spoken for. It seems that his Vans Parallel part has rewarded him with a hot chick from Oudtshoorn, hell yeah. So I put on Willie Nelson’s ‘On the road again’ instead. I didn’t want to be the one phoning the Cloudy Brothers headquarters to tell Sparrow that one of their finest had been mauled by 3 stoned dolls just before sun down in a rough ditch. Somehow during the haze of narcotics and Smirnoff Spins our new friends had managed to lock their car keys in their Chevy spark. So we had to bounce their car up against the side of the ditches transition so that we could try and squeeze our van past it. They refused any help from us to get their car keys out, they insisted
that an imaginary boyfriend was on his way. So we threw them the shaka, and headed out with Catatonic blasting full ball! Damn the birds in Hartswater are hardcore. While we were in Kimberley we did try to go to church but due to poor communication and crossed wires we were unable to approach the altar…maybe next time? Maybe not? There seemed to be a lot of anger due to our failed timings. There was definitely no foul play on our part, our intentions were good. So hopefully we haven’t been excommunicated.
Anton nosebonks and gaps out.
sessionmag.co.za | 19
“4 weeks later Joubert ra pulled a piece of griptape out laceration in his nose, g
Every photo in this article has a story and that’s what makes travelling with your bros so fun. Bribing church pastors so that Anton could grind a handrail, dodging learner truck drivers to skate a shitty brick bank, standing knee deep in freezing water at 7am in the morning to drain a pool, drying ditches with unwanted t-shirts, going back to land a trick, leaving a town you may never go back to with an un-landed trick, that’s what we live for as skateboarders, but you have to leave 20 | sessionmag.co.za
home to get some. It’s all about turning something impossibly un-skateable into something, so that you can leave a benchmark for when the next crew rolls past the spot. All the documentation of these tours acts as an index, because the more we travel our country the more spots we will uncover. SESSION is like the yellow pages of spots in Africa, because you can go back and look through old issues to see what spots are in a certain town. Look how the skate world has been taking note. Tons of overseas pros have been hitting up South Africa in the last few years. So if you live in a 1-horsed town then we’ll see you soon. Thank you Warren and Pat @ Vans for always having our backs, we love you. Go Seek and Destroy, it’s the only way.
a n d o m ly of the n a r ly ! �
Nkosi tailslides in De Aar, where Dallas met his old platteland pals.
syndrome
Anton gaps out to 50-50, dude is as hard as nails.
Joubert bleeds skateboarding.
sessionmag.co.za | 21
KYLE TRUSKY EXPOSE “They have the potential to be anything in life. They just need positivity around them� Interview: Luke Jackson Photos: Andre Visser
Big ollie out to frontside boardslide.
22 | sessionmag.co.za
sessionmag.co.za | 23
Frontside bluntslide.
How old are you and where are you from? I’m 21 years old. I come from an area on the edge of Cape Town called Eersterivier. It’s like a small town. I grew up here and have been living here all my life. What was it like growing up in your area and what made you decide to get into skating? My area is pretty quiet; everyone knows each other and people are mostly friendly so it’s easy to make friends, especially when I wasn’t skating. I used to play soccer from the age of 9 to about 13 and I loved it. I had a lot of soccer friends in my road so we used to play everyday after school. I am very active and I cannot just sit still, I’ve got to do something. When people would throw their mattresses away on the field next to where I live, I used to join the other kids and shoot backflips on them. To think of it now, it was dirty, but I was a kid I did not care. I started taking skateboarding seriously when I was 13, it gave me such a different feeling to soccer. I left the soccer club in order to have more time to
24 | sessionmag.co.za
skate. I used to just skate in front of my house, I had a small homemade rail. I didn’t even know what the tricks were called, but then I met the other skaters a few blocks away from me, like Charl Jensel, Shane and my best friend Travis, we used to just skate all day long and not even eat, just having too much fun. At times it can be dangerous, gangsters from other areas will come into ours and cause trouble, such as the time I got robbed, at my favorite spot. I was waxing the curb and one guy came up to me, took my skateboard and ran! I was 13 or 14 years old, I ran after the guy but he was so fast. I was crying and swearing. But luckily someone showed me where this guy lived, I went to his place with the police and got my board back, I was so happy after that. The parks behind Table Mountain (in the cape flats area) aren’t talked about all that often, many people feel scared to visit them even. As someone who skates these places quite often, tell us what the scene is like there?
To be honest, it’s very dangerous in those areas, especially the first time a park got built, because gangsters would come and look for trouble, and they wouldn’t understand why we skate, and what a positive thing skating is in our lives. They would just rob skaters, but as the months and years went by, these parks aren’t as dangerous as they were. Valhalla, Kleinvlei and Scottsdene are where Indigo is operating and it brought change into these areas. Through Indigo a lot of kids started skating, there are daily skateboarding, arts & culture, photography, filming and life skills programs. As I see it, those areas are not as dangerous as they were, the communities and gangsters respect Indigo and skateboarding for the positive change it’s bringing into the peoples lives. At first I was so afraid to skate in these areas, but not anymore. Which park is your favourite and why? I think it’s Valhalla skatepark, because that park is so huge! It has rails, stairs, ledges, banks and everything I love.
“It can be dangerous, gangsters from other areas will come into ours and cause trouble”
I wish it was situated in the area where I live. You’ve just started working for Indigo Youth Movement quite recently, what is your role at present? Yes, it’s been 5 months now. I’m a facilitator and coach at Valhalla skatepark. There are 4 coaches, it’s Matthew, Keerin, Tyrone and I. Charl is our instructor, he helps us and gives us advice. If it weren’t for Charl we wouldn’t have improved so fast! We all have a good friendly relationship with one another so we can work great together, there is photography and filming, video days, life skills, arts & culture, fitness day and free skates. It all helps the kids to become better role models and skaters in their communities.
Are you seeing more kids taking part in the program, and is skateboarding growing in these areas? Yes I am seeing lots of kids taking part, guys who have never previously skated before, and now they are skating so well, I was shocked that some of them will skate anything in that park, they are fearless. Those kids have changed me, I’m learning from them! I try my best to be a good role model to them, cause I see that they have the potential to be anything in life. They just need positivity around them.
Precision crooked grind in Stellenbosch, Kyle has rails on lock!
sessionmag.co.za | 25
What are you into outside of skateboarding, I know you’re doing a photography course at present, can you tell us a bit more about that? I don’t have a lot of things going on outside of skateboarding at the moment. I don’t think anything can get me away from skateboarding. However, photography is one thing that I’m doing, the photography company is called ‘iwasshot’. iwasshot Foundation initiates community-based projects that focus on young people who might not otherwise have the opportunity to explore their creativity. It’s a competition of sorts, where we went through 4 rounds – where they roughly halved the group until we got down to 10 select students. In those 4 rounds you are judged based on the images you take. Luckily I made it through, I’m one of the 10 chosen students, now I have the opportunity to study photography for 2 years with iwasshot. You’re pretty motivated when it comes to using Facebook to upload clips and photos after every weekend and you really seem to get a lot of positive response from it. Who are you always rolling with that documents you and has your Facebook posting helped to get you any connections? Yes I love going out and getting clips, whether alone or with friends. I’m lucky Facebook is there, as it helps me get myself ‘out there’. I go with my friends Charl, Tyrone, Matthew Fransman, Matthew Johnson, Chappies, Enwin and Lindsey, but mostly Lindsey when it comes to street stuff. He is always down to go skate with me, so when he’s around then sometimes I’ll ask him to film me with my camera. Sometimes I’ll just film myself, put the camera down facing the obstacle I’m about to skate. I’ve been doing that for about 2 years. Now that I’m working at Valhalla my friend Matthew Johnson films me. Or even the kids that are part of the program, I’ll instruct them on how to film. Facebook helped me get connections, if it wasn’t for social media I wouldn’t have the sponsors that I have today. Who is hooking you up at the moment? Converse Cons has been hooking me up with shoes for a while now. It really helps me out because even though I have a job, it’s so expensive to buy proper shoes, I skate all the time so I go through shoes fast. I used to be on Cradlestar Skateboards, but now I’m on Technique Skateboards because Cradlestar’s manager has partnered up with Technique. I’m also sponsored by Certified Hustler Movement, which is my friend Julian Williams’ company. You went out with Andre Visser on a few missions to get the photos for this feature, can you tell us where you guys went and what you got up to in order to get these images? It was a mission getting the photos, but if it weren’t for Andre’s commitment then getting the photos would have taken much longer, so I want to thank him for all his effort and patience with me. There were a few busts, where we got kicked out of spots. The dumbest one was at Building 12 in Stellenbosch, I have been skating there for years now and it’s a local skate spot, I was there and about to skate this drop that had a huge gap in front of it, but then security came up to me with the owner of the building, they confronted me and told me that the building wasn’t built properly, and it will collapse if I skate there. But for years many of us have
“I don’t want blood to spill now” 26 | sessionmag.co.za
Banging varial heelflip at the beach.
been skating there, and there have been no problems, but Andre and I had to leave. There was one spot in Bellville we were at and I was trying crooked grind to nollie frontside heelflip out. I was so close to getting it, but then a few guys came up to the spot, we thought they wanted to rob us and Andre is obviously there with his camera. Andre got fed up because this one guy kept on bothering us and asking about his camera. Andre showed no fear and confronted the guy, all that was going on in my mind was, “I don’t want blood to spill now.” Andre was ready to knock this guy out, but then the guys just left. We left too, because it was just getting too sketchy. I would love to go back and get some other stuff, and I enjoyed every moment!
Any words of wisdom for us to finish off? Skate all day and have fun doing what you’re doing. Go skate with your friends, go on missions, go search for spots, it doesn’t matter what you find. Make the best of it, don’t take life so serious, just enjoy every moment and every step of the way. We’re all getting older so try those things you want to do so badly, now while you are still young.
27 | sessionmag.co.za
Quick nosemanual into nosegrind, in a tight corner.
28 | sessionmag.co.za
WYNAND Herholdt Where is my mind? Interview: Luke Jackson Photos: Jansen van Staden
Tell us about growing up with Justus Kotze in Fish Hoek? I’m actually from Noordhoek, but I went to school with Justus in Fish Hoek. We probably took skateboarding more seriously than a lot of other people in our area, but he only started about a year after me. We skated that park at the old Long Beach Mall quite a bit, where Tony Hawk did a demo back in the day. That rough old park was all we had. Tyler Murphy was there often and he showed me how to do kickflips, he was the best in my eyes, doing 360 flips, etc. Dylan Rooibokkie was the first guy I ever saw skating there, he killed the park on a skateboard and the next week he’d be killing it on rollerblades haha. Later there was a park at Waldorf in Constantia, well basically a court with random boxes and ramps. That’s where I first saw guys like Bubs, Christi, Donovan Winterburn, Craig Pike, etc. They were all early influences. You rode for a company called Playmate Skateboards at one point, can you tell us about that? This guy Richard Jones started it, one of the first guys I ever saw skating. A mal naai! He was one of my role models, a good person. He’s always been obsessed with skating. He liked how Justus and I skated, and a few other guys like MJ Johnson. He got his own boards pressed and hooked us up. He sold them in a few shops. This was in about 2006. He tried to make it work but just sold them out of his boot mainly. He had like 2 graphics and it lasted like a year and a half. He used to make a lot of stickers too, when he worked at a printing company.
“you can go out to the middle of nowhere and do whatever you want, go mal, go crazy!”
sessionmag.co.za | 29
If you’ve ever skated this crusty old paddle pool on the Atlantic coastline then you know how gnarly this picture perfect boneless is.
Tell us about your job in the film industry, you work these crazy long hours and go on location for extended periods, what’s that all about? Skateboarding got me into filming and making videos as a teenager, which then led to me getting into the film industry. I’m a focus-puller and I do camera operating, basically in charge of the whole camera department. We build everything in the camera up and set everything up. The main role is to keep all shots sharp, the depth of field, range in focus, etc. I physically focus the lens. I work directly with the DOP or camera operator. I went to AFDA for 3 years, majoring in cinematography. I started as a spark (a lighting guy), but you’re constantly busy running around, it’s a hectic job. I care more about the feel, I don’t like all the tech jargon, etc. So I originally chose the lighting route. In the beginning I was stressing about technology and keeping up with new cameras. But we have a gear check day before each job and all cameras basically do the same thing. You just need to figure out the buttons, etc. We work long hours, sometimes by choice. I prefer long period jobs, the crew becomes a family and you get to know everyone. The Longest period I’ve done is about 5-6 months for a feature film or series. You work 6 days a week for those long periods. I don’t like doing the soul-draining studio work so much, I prefer location jobs. Last year I spent 6 weeks in the Transkei, it was amazing. I love that it’s always something different. In the past 2 weeks I’ve said no to 4 jobs, I just don’t feel like it right now. They are all short turn around jobs. I just worked for 4 and half months straight so now I just need a little break. There is a long one coming up for about 3 and a half months, so I’m just taking time out before that. Camera work in general gives you a fucked back, everyone in our field has issues. I screwed mine up by doing lighting stuff, it can affect my skating too. But I know what to not
30 | sessionmag.co.za
try on a board that’ll end up hurting my back. The reason I enjoy focus-pulling is that it’s completely in the moment. You can’t prepare, you just have to be on it at that exact moment. I don’t go home and stress about the next day because the stress just comes in the moment. Everyone has trust in you that it’ll be on point. If anyone notices your work then you haven’t done a good job. It needs to be seamless. Can you tell us all about your trance party days? You were into that scene quite heavily, but you eventually left it behind and now you don’t even drink alcohol. What’s the whole story there, how did you get into it and what made you eventually leave it all behind? The most appealing part was being out in nature, doing whatever you wanted and being completely free for however many hours. The music was just there, it wasn’t like I was super into the music side of it. I only ever really listened to trance at a party. You can go out to the middle of nowhere and do whatever you want, go mal, go crazy! When I came back from England in 2007 I lived in Observatory and I met a lot of people in that scene. Obs is like a hippy area and people influence you there. The trance party scene is big in Cape Town. The DJs and producers are down here and the parties happen every weekend in summer, I would go to almost every one. But I haven’t been in about 2 years now. I went slightly off the rails and I kind of stopped skating. When I first started going I met a girl, apparently I tackled her in the mud, I can’t remember. We were together for a few years. I got a car, became independent and I just wanted to go and take over the world and go crazy. I over-indulged in the partying, but luckily I realised it eventually. It was taking over, affecting my work and skating.
Frontside 180 nosegrind (back to regular) on a tight bank-to-wall situated high up on the steep hillside of Kloof Nek road in Cape Town’s city bowl. The busy traffic and awkwardness of this spot make it near impossible to skate, but Wynand found a way. sessionmag.co.za | 31
Wynand Herholdt frontside nosegrind pop-out. Photo - Jansen van Staden 32 | sessionmag.co.za
sessionmag.co.za | 33
Switch wallie crooks.
34 | sessionmag.co.za
I still smoke but I don’t drink alcohol now, I know what it does to me. I tried to cut down but it doesn’t work. It’s easier for me to have none, rather than just one. I stayed in the same building as Jamie O’Brien, downstairs from him. I lived with a friend and introduced him to partying, and he went even harder than me. Jamie has a photo of me lying on the floor in the rain outside my door with my keys in my hand at five in the morning. I couldn’t make it into my own door. Another time I kicked my own window in because I didn’t realise that my keys were on me, Jamie and his girlfriend thought someone was breaking in, it caused a lot of drama and he was really pissed off. Weekend after weekend I did stupid things. I wasn’t aggressive, just self-destructive. The final turning point was the incident with Jamie, I realised how fucked I was getting. I chilled that day and watched a movie, Leaving Las Vegas, where Nicolas Cage drinks himself to death. I figured it was like a sign, since then I’ve done a complete turn around. You just need to keep yourself busy with something else, waking up in the morning is so much easier now. I lost 15kgs. I replaced it with skating, it’s like a release and I put my energy into that. I’m an introvert and drinking helped me hide it. Skating is a way of escaping, switching off negative thoughts and staying active.
“my foot broke so badly that it faced the wrong way. Justus heard it snap. I had to break it back” I want to ask you about your friend Taro Spies, his disappearance on Table Mountain made news headlines. Can you tell us about Taro, not a lot of people know that he’s a local skateboarder? You were involved in the search parties on Table Mountain, that must have been quite a gnarly experience. Can you tell us exactly what happened and have you heard anything more about Taro since the story went quiet in the news? I used to skate with Taro back in Fish Hoek before I skated with Justus. I met him at the Long Beach Mall park, he’s a couple years younger but we started at the same time and motivated each other. He stopped for a bit and we grew apart but he got back into it. He and my friend Marcel Terblanche were best friends. Taro and Marcel were like the younger version of Justus and I. Taro was fucking good! He struggled with shoes though because he’s huge, size 14! He left his car on Table Mountain road near the barrier spot, with his wallet and phone in the car. He’s a regular hiker and went all the time. We called him the mountain man. We thought he did a solo mission at first but after a couple days he hadn’t returned. A big 3-week long search party formed with volunteers, helicopters, etc. We hiked all over the mountain every single day, there were even sniffer dogs, we went on every trail and then off trails, we covered easily 80% of the entire land area. If he were up there then we would have found him. It’s still a huge mystery as to what happened to him. It was in the news at the time. We’ve heard nothing since then. His dad is my GP and I’ve known his family for years. The family has kind of accepted his decision now, whatever it is he went to do. There’s no closure there for them though.
sessionmag.co.za | 35
You used to roll around in your classic little bakkie but then it got totaled, tell us the crazy story about how that happened? It happened in about 2014 I think it was, two days before Christmas. I was on my way up the West Coast to Saldanha Bay where I was shooting some documentaries on oil rigs that were getting refurbished. I suddenly see something coming out of the bush while I’m cruising at high speed. It runs into the road right in front of me, but instinct told me not to swerve or hit the breaks because I would roll. It was a buck, but luckily it was on ground level as I hit it, if it was leaping into the air I would have been killed. The whole engine was fucked, the car was written off. My Nissan Champ bakkie was done for. The whole animal was still in one piece, with blood coming out of its mouth and ears. 30 minutes later I’m just waiting for a tow-truck when two guys stop in a little truck and reverse back. They don’t ask if I’m ok, but just asked if I’m going to take the buck. I said no and they jump out with bubble wrap, throw it in the back of their truck and head off. Nice tender meat for Christmas. How serious do you take skateboarding, is it just a release, or is there something more you hope to achieve? Skateboarding led me to 99.9% of the friends I have today. It’s an addiction. The first thing I think of when I wake up and last thing before I go to sleep at night. I’ll work in the film industry as a career but skating is my personal outlet. I never considered myself to be a contest skater or anything like that. We don’t have those spots, parks or TFs that you see in videos overseas. Skating street, searching for spots and finding something new, that’s something that inspires me. The spot is more than the trick. I used to go to my parents’ small house in Kleinmond every second weekend and just skate the whole town. That was the most fun. Just skating though town to see what I could find.
“don’t worry too much about the politics, there are no rules, if it feels good then do it!” I’d like to just carry on progressing in my own way. Find spots, shoot photos and maybe film. Filming sort of kills spontaneity though. You want to document it but it’s a different mindset to just going out and rolling. Joubert filmed stuff while getting the photos for this feature, so that’ll be in a video part of sorts too. Have you travelled and skated much? I did a gap year in England after school. I initially went up to Pretoria for a couple weeks and met those guys up there instead of doing Plett Rage like many Matrics. And then I ran into them again in London a while after that, we lived 2 stops apart. I did bar jobs initially. You could still get the 2-year working/holiday visa at that time. Work for a year and then travel for a year sort of thing. I didn’t like the bar stuff cause Brits are crazy! Then I started working at the British Museum. I saved and went to Barca and Amsterdam. I had that crook photo in the Plankie Euro article that was in Session. But I got injured in Barcelona too, torn ligaments in my foot. Talking of injuries, you’ve dealt with your fair share haven’t you? I’ve broken both my ankles before. The first time was at the Long Beach Mall park when I tried to 50-50 the rail. My foot broke so badly that it faced the wrong way. Justus heard it snap. I had to break it back, and that snapped another bone in my foot. After 6 months of no skating I’m 2 weeks back into it and tried to 50-50 a rail at the old Stadium on Main park in Claremont and I broke my other ankle. After not skating for so long, I was really bleak! I’ve never had surgery, even when my foot was facing backwards, the doctor told me that the way I broke it back was per-
36 | sessionmag.co.za
Frontside bluntslide to fakie.
fect, so they didn’t need to operate, it was set in the right position. My ankles are so fucked so that’s why I don’t do a lot of flip tricks. I can kickflip now, but if I try flips a lot then my feet will be fucked, they get really tender. Tell us about getting the 180-nosegrind photo, the homeowners came looking for you didn’t they, and what about any other battles for these photos? We first went there to hit the ledge just up from the bank-to-wall, but there was a car in the way. The bank-to-wall is really tricky with the angle you have to deal with and it’s a tight space. A guy across the road tells me the owner asked him to tell us to leave. We were like, “fuck it, the guy can come out and tell us himself.” The paint on the wall was old anyway, it was bub-
bling. As we’re leaving, we get down the hill and this guy pulls up in this van, screaming at us for skating his wall. Obviously he’s right, but we’re skaters and there was a spot so we couldn’t help it. He shouted at us saying that we were lucky he had his kids in the car with him, haha. I felt bad and I kind of wanted to go and paint it. But now the whole building has been repainted anyway, maybe we gave him the motivation haha. The front blunt photo was a fucking difficult bank to skate. Rough tar and the bank is super slippery. It’s at a school in Woodstock. It was like a full day battle to get it. I had to change up my wheels to make it possible to ride up that thing. The rough tar shredded my back too.
Where is your mind? If it’s not at work then it’s skating and if it isn’t skating then it’s at work. That’s pretty much all I do. Do you have any final words of wisdom for us? Don’t worry too much about the politics, there are no rules, if it feels good then do it! If you like doing benihanas then do them! Who cares! Thanks to Jansen and Joubert for shooting. Thanks to Vans for hooking me up with shoes and thanks to Revolution for helping me out. Thanks Session for the interview and to the guys at Baseline for letting me be a benchwarmer in the shop every day. Dankie vir my Ma en Pa! Finally, thanks to all the homies who skate with me.
sessionmag.co.za | 37
Liam Broek frontside wallrides at the local DIY Spot. - Photo Ryan Claasen
38 | sessionmag.co.za
King’s Beach S k a t e
C r e w
P E
Words: Rieyaad Saban
“Let’s go little Johnny; the big boys are skating now!” Pull in to King’s Beach Skatepark at 10am on any given Sunday & you’ll most likely be unpleasantly surprised. The place looks like a day-care centre and it seems all the kids were fed coffee and Bar One for breakfast. Yummy mummies and rad dads, oblivious to the fact that this is an actual skatepark, encourage their young spawn to drop the banks on little bikes with training wheels, only to realise, once their unprotected heads hit the concrete, that this probably wasn’t such a good idea. Skating the park before 4pm on a Sunday becomes an endless navigation through the multitude of plastic bikes, scooters and jay boards being aimlessly ridden around the park. Our solution? Rally all the skateboarders to cruise the park together, like bats out of hell, hitting every possible obstacle. The young run back to their mothers’ pouches and all is good in the concrete jungle again. The beachfront has always been the epicentre of Port Elizabeth skateboarding. After the neon coloured days of the 80s, the landscape changed just as much as the fashion, fads and styles that inherently come along with skateboarding. King’s Beach however, has remained skateboarding’s home in the Windy City. The latest development to the area seems to have made a great impact on the skate scene in PE and with the construction of the new park came the construction of a new crew. What started out as a Facebook page in 2013, morphed into a crew of friends and quite recently the King’s Beach Skate Crew (KBSC). Older skateboarders will tell you that skateboarding has its own metamorphosis, with regards to its popularity. To me, it seems that skateboarding as an activity, form of expression, pastime or sport, is here to stay and the only change which may still occur is that of individuals coming in and out of the scene.
sessionmag.co.za | 39
Dewald von Waltzleben frontside 50-50. - Photo Sherwin Andrews
40 | sessionmag.co.za
OG Rieyaad Saban throws the old bone with perfect form. - Photo Ryan Claasen
We’ve already seen this in our own crew but what we are left with are guys with talent, potential and a hunger to skate. They are the coolest, most chilled and entertaining group of guys to have around for a park or street session and it honestly feels like they’re family. The vibe at the park, when not overrun with kids and their socializing parents, is really awesome. The guys feed off one another’s energy and the positive atmosphere is contagious. Ledge sessions, tranny sessions, rail & hubba sessions and games of S.K.A.T.E can all go down in one day. Throw in a spontaneous little contest & everyone is smiling, especially Verdon, but then again he’s always smiling, he’s like the clown in this concrete circus and it doesn’t matter if there’s only one prize up for grabs - it’s all about good times with the homies.
Weekend street missions usually start out at the park, our meet-up & warmup spot. Whoever is there joins in on the mission. If you partied all night, woke up late in a strange house & couldn’t make it to the park, you’re missing out bro. The back of the Corsa bakkie gets packed pretty quickly once guys know we’re heading out. Everybody wants to join in but unfortunately, sometimes there is just not enough space. We need a minibus people! The city has quite a few well known spots, especially downtown, in Goven Mbeki Avenue, around City Hall & more often than not, it’s the first spot to hit up. The stair set outside the bus terminals has been on our spot list recently and although we don’t have many pictures, the guys managed to put down a few tricks for the KBSC “Outlands” video which is currently on the King’s Beach Skateboarding
YouTube channel. Check it out! Visitors like the teams from Technique, Element, adidas and most recently the guys from Transworld, have all shredded the spot on top of the bus terminals. There’s a couple of buttery granite benches to grind or slide, obstacles to wallie and a huge red polejam, which has featured in past Session photos, AV videos and now Transworld’s SA tour Video as well. It was on the day that Transworld were shooting in the city that I decided to take some time off work, if only for a few hours. I contacted Dewald and a few other guys to head out to the city centre eager to see what was going down. Yann Horowitz was out with a busted ankle and was the only guy we kind of knew there. However we hung around, trying our best to not get in the way or disturb them. We mostly just watched them film stuff. Until they headed down to Morgan Street, where this eleven stair handrail was. Brian Delatorre was going to hit it for sure.
sessionmag.co.za | 41
Ighsaan Murphy doing the lesser-seen Texas flip. - Photo Ryan Claasen
Verdon Ambraal, street grabs are hot right now! - Photo Ryan Claasen 42 | sessionmag.co.za
Dewald had personally been eyeing out this rail for a while now, but he hadn’t been encouraged enough to hit it yet. As he climbed up the stairs and stood at the top, today was the day he was going to try to 50-50 it. You could just see it in his eyes. Brian quickly rolled away with his warm-up 50-50 and it was on to a 5-0 for him. Dewald was still standing at the starting position, building up courage. He and Brian spoke for a bit, fist bumped and Dewald went for his first attempt on this gnarly rail. It’s intimidating to say the least! His first roll up was just that, a roll up. It took a couple of these (in between Brian’s attempts at his 5-0) until eventually he went for it, but unfortunately when he hit the rail he bailed. There were a series of slams to follow, but Dewald never gave up. The two continued to hit the rail together regardless of their status within the skateboarding community. Here I was filming and watching these two battle the rail together like long time buddies. It was awesome to witness. I was so proud
Mark Stoutjesdyk with a precarious noseblunt. - Photo Ryan Claasen
of Dewald, and at the very same time so nervous for him. After a couple more tries Brian nailed his 5-0 and as he walked back up the street he shouted out words of encouragement to Dewald. Then silence filled the air as Dewald jumped onto his board and flew towards the rail. His tail smacked the crusty concrete as he popped and the sound echoed through the alley, both his trucks hit the rail and metal on metal screeching followed. Everything was going so well until the dreaded snap of plywood was heard by all. The tail of his board had snapped from the impact of his landing. Instead of rolling away, Dewald flew forward and hit the tar road below. He had truly given it his all. This one act of courage inspired the entire crew to skate harder in the future. Dewald gained a huge amount of respect after this from the local guys and furthermore that of the visiting Transworld guys. So much so that Brian Delatorre personally gave him one of his own decks. That’s pretty cool right? However it didn’t
stop there, a couple of months later the SA Tour video hit the net and there Dewald was attempting the Morgan Street rail. It should be mentioned that Dewald has since conquered the 50-50 on that rail on numerous occasions thereafter. He is constantly pushing boundaries and has a few more tricks in the works for the infamous Morgan Street rail. The excitement of discovering a new spot is what drives any skateboarder to continuously explore the city. The search is a fundamental part of the KBS Crew. During the past couple of years we’ve managed to find a few fresh spots which include ditches, stair sets, gaps, banks, benches and ledges. Finding skate-able rails is an ongoing mission. Old, somewhat forgotten spots have received a new lease on their skatelife, they’ve been cleaned up and skated once again. One such spot in particular is the Sugar Spoon Bowl in the northern areas, which actually featured as the spot with Giovanni Votano’s back-
sessionmag.co.za | 43
Mark Stoutjesdyk oververt rock ‘n roll. - Photo Ryan Claasen
44 | sessionmag.co.za
Gerard Allie with a tall boardslide. - Photo Ryan Claasen
side flip cover shot by Sam Clark for Session Issue 60. It’s a difficult spot to skate, due to it being built for skateboarding in the 70s. Maintaining speed when hitting the massive boob is the challenge, but if you’re one of those guys with speed and power, it should be loads of fun. An abandoned building in town, known as “The Ghetto Spot” is a new find and has been a popular spot in recent weeks. It’s a dodgy place, near the main taxi rank in town, so not a place you want to go solo. One big drop and two smaller ones allow for guys with varying abilities of street skating to actually skate this spot. An old electric box stands on the pavement and is held upright by rocks and bricks. It’s sketchy, the run-up is crusty and the landing a bit rough. Verdon was the first dude to nail something on the box with the BS 50-50. Liam and Mark managed to bang a trick or two, with Liam eventually rolling away from a nosegrind, slightly torn up by the experience. Liam’s skating style seems to have changed in recent months; although he has the technical ability, he seems to have adopted a different outlook towards skating lately. He’s always looking
Liam Broek polejams to street grab. - Photo Ryan Claasen
for pole jams, wallies and wallrides, and it has led to Liam and his buddy Munro building a DIY spot, called GX69. Actually a stormwater run-off ditch, where the guys built a wallride transfer and bank-toslappy type of ledge. Liam is the current king of GX69, deservedly crowned as such at a contest we held there in December last year, very likely the first of its kind in PE. There were wallride variations a-plenty, from simple wallride fakies to ally-oop transfers, no-complies and wallies over the two old fire hydrant blocks. David Bakkes got best trick for dropping the six foot wall (to flat at first and then into the small tranny). It was a skate contest with a difference, old and young riding together. Whether it was your type of skating or not, everyone gave it a try and just spent the day riding, doing whatever they wanted, having a blast. It may have been through events such as these that KBS started developing into a crew. The guys started becoming friends, not just dudes skating the park together. Real friendships have been formed through the unity KBSC has somehow managed to generate. Whether it was the contests or events like our Halloween Jam, trips to KDC, cruising through the
streets on Go Skateboarding Day, filming videos for YouTube and Facebook or by simply printing a King’s Beach Skateboarding logo on a crappy T-Shirt, at some very recent unknown point in time, the guys started feeling that they were a part of something worthwhile. A sense of belonging came to the fore and the King’s Beach Skate Crew was born. Thanks to all the guys in the crew who made this feature possible, especially our new found amateur photographer, Ryan Claasen, without him this would never have happened. We have so much support and influence behind the scenes and those people know who they are, thank you! Session Magazine, thanks so much for this opportunity, an opportunity KBSC never thought we’d receive, we are truly grateful for the experience. Come visit King’s Beach sometime, let’s session!
sessionmag.co.za | 45
46 | sessionmag.co.za
g a l l e r i a
Calvin Davie flies over a large handrail on The Bluff in Durban. - Photo Ryan Janssens
sessionmag.co.za | 47
Troy O’Sullivan glides through a crusty corner in Westville, Durban and rolls away from this wallride. - Photo Ryan Janssens
Shaun Burger showing his 3 flip finesse over a large street kicker in Pretoria. - Photo Werner Lamprecht 48 | sessionmag.co.za
Joshua Chisholm draws first blood on this massive handrail in the heart of Hillbrow, Johannesburg. Onlookers report a crowd of ‘China spot’ magnitude gathered to witness his taming of this beast. - Photo Mike Chinner
sessionmag.co.za | 49
Marcel Maassen maintains enough speed on the old cobbles to skip across a canal in downtown Cape Town with a backside heelflip. Photo - Jansen van Staden 50 | sessionmag.co.za
Thaynan Costa switch pole jams in Milnerton, Cape Town. Photo - Samuel McGuire
Joubert van Staden boardslides on the Garden Route. Photo - Quade Howes 51 | sessionmag.co.za
Sebo Walker nollie heelflips into a dope looking bank spot in central Maseru.
L e s ot h o o n e day i n M A s e ru Just 160 KM east of Bloemfontein lies Maseru, the capital city of the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho. Often overlooked when contemplating a road trip across the South African landscape. Well not anymore, we finally have an official skate trip that has visited this small landlocked enclave. Lesotho has an estimated population of just over 2 million people, with much of the country situated in high mountain ranges. Maseru however is in the western lowlands, right near the Free State border.
52 | sessionmag.co.za
Walker Ryan orders one frontside bluntslide ‘to go’.
Wo r d s Lu K e JaC Ks o n / P h oto s s a M u e L M C G u i r e In December 2015 filmer Patrick Wallner (originally from Hungary) and photographer Samuel mcguire from the uSA led a Red bull skate expedition to the city. After spending a week skateboarding around Cape Town and with a week to come in Namibia, the crew had just a day and a bit to document maseru. but when your skate contingent is walker Ryan, Sebo walker, Jamie Tancowny and Thaynan Costa then that’s just enough time to make it happen.
sessionmag.co.za | 53
54 | sessionmag.co.za
Jamie Tancowny floats over a large gap, before he backside 180’d it too!
sessionmag.co.za | 55
L e s ot h o o n e day i n M a s e ru
The crew flew from Cape Town to Bloemfontein on a Saturday afternoon, hired a car and drove across the border. They pretty much had Sunday to first find spots and then to try and get enough clips to justify the journey. luckily maseru is quite a small city and with it being a Sunday they managed to avoid the challenge of large crowds that any capital city in Africa is likely to present you with on a busy week day.
Jamie Tancowny backside flip.
“lesotho was so amazing, i wish we spent more time there. there was some cool spots but man the people were so amazing! everyone was just beaming smiles and so cool and helpful, it was a really rad place. i wish we could have gotten out into the country but we hardly had enough time for the city!” – sam mcguire
Thaynan Costa wallies in an amphitheatre at Thaba Bosiu, which is just outside of Maseru. Thaba Bosiu is the location of a sacred sandstone plateau where the great Basotho king Moshoeshoe built his stronghold and from where he defended Lesotho from outside attackers.
Walker Ryan switch flips into the night. sessionmag.co.za | 57
CLOSET ENVY Threads for shred
element / Theory Shirt
element / Skate co
Adidas / Clima Pullover
element / barbee nerd Shirt
DC / Carlson cap
DC / twanger cap
Element / Knutsen Cap
element / seattle stripe
Adidas / club jersey
Element / Westgate Trucker
Adidas premiere Pack
ADIDAS / Lucas PREMIERE ADV
ADIDAS / Lucas PREMIERE ADV
Adidas / premiere jersey
58 | sessionmag.co.za
Adidas / premiere pants
Adidas / premiere windbreaker
Need more info on this product email info@sessionmag.co.za
CONVeRSe / mETRiC ClS
CONVeRSe / oNE STAR PRo mid
ADIDAS / buSENiTZ VulC
eTNIeS / SCouT
ADIDAS / mATCHCouRT
eTNIeS / lo-CuT
CONVeRSe / oNE STAR PRo
ADIDAS / mATCHCouRT
VANS / CHimA ESTATE PRo
CONVeRSe / SumNER
eTNIeS / mARANA SC
VANS / CHimA FERguSoN PRo
VANS / AV RAPidwEld PRo blACKouT
VANS / STylE 112
VANS / KylE wAlKER PRo
VANS / KylE wAlKER PRo
DC / lyNX VulC
DC / miKEy TAyloR
DC / TRASE
DC / wES KREmER
ThaYnan sUggesTs - dc eVan smiTh hi
THAYNAN COSTA’S FAVOURITe SKATe SHOe wallride nollie in windhoek. Photo - Samuel mcguire
59 | sessionmag.co.za
Payday
KDC skate for hope 2016 The 2016 Kimberley Diamond Cup ‘Skate For Hope’ road show has been clocking up serious mileage over the past few months, with a ton of stops still to come before the main event in October. Mike Chinner is at just about every stop and usually has a travel contingent alongside, finding and skating spots in every far-flung corner of the country. The recent Northern Cape leg took
Damian Bramley floats frontside in Upington, Northern Cape - Photo Mike Chinner
a KBY based posse all the way up to places like Springbok and Upington. The annual Buck Tour to George is another one on the local event calendar that many look forward to. Mike rolled up the coast from Cape Town with some 60 | sessionmag.co.za
Joshua Chisholm backsmiths in Bonnievale, Western Cape - Photo Mike Chinner
CT locals and managed to hit a few spots along the way, towns like Bonnievale and Mossel Bay were on the itinerary. Just two weeks after George and it was off to Durban. Keep a lookout for a stop near you.
This year there is now also a heap of KDC affiliated events going down across the continent as part of the 2016 African Skateboarding Championships, hopefully this may uncover a few hidden gems along the way. See you all in Kimberley!
Payday
Adidas X baseline - battle of the benches 2016
Photos: Rousseau Loubser
This year was the fifth annual Battle of the Benches event held on the streets of Cape Town. The format this time around was themed around the Amazing Race, in line with adidas’ new ‘Away Days’ skate film. Invited riders gathered at Baseline and were put into teams at random. Each team was given the first clue and it was on! Teams skated all the way to Sea Point to find their benches and then had to complete a series of challenges throughout the day, and be the first team back at the shop with their bench in order to win. Challenges included everything from getting tattoos, downing shots, street haircuts, devouring bunny chows and knocking off heavy trick lists at select locations. The highlight had to be the final challenge at the old Cape Town High School pool where one member from each team had to carve over a sticker placed way up high in the deep end. The only catch was that it was freezing cold and the deep was full of mucky water. Not to mention the hilarity of each team having a ‘lifeguard’ in the water on their own inflatable. Be sure to check out the video edit up on our website – www.sessionmag.co.za
Vans x Baseline – The Kyle Walker Pro Wear Test Vans organized a mini road trip in association with Baseline, to celebrate the release of the new Kyle Walker Pro model. Invited skaters arrived at the shop and were given a pair of their own to test out. Everyone hopped on a bus that was waiting outside and headed to Nantes skatepark in Athlone. The large crew spent the afternoon cruising the park and enjoying free pizza from Vans. Check out the wear test edit at www.sessionmag.co.za
Feeble grind in Stellenbosch
I AM RASHAAd dRAmAT PHoTo: gRANT mClACHlAN woRdS: luKE JACKSoN
Rashaad is 24 years old and hails from Cape Town. He rolls deep with the 20SK8 crew. This feeble grind on an infamous Stellenbosch rail was shot during one of the missions for the 20SK8 ggs article in our previous issue. That’s the thing about going on missions with a big crew, guys feed off of each other and you never know what might go down. Even if the purpose of a mission isn’t to get something yourself necessarily, tag along, you might just end up walking
away with the goods. That’s usually how a lot of guys get their first photos in a mag or their first clips. Go on missions, if you’re doing something worth documenting then the photographer or videographer lurking about would be stupid not to shoot it. Next thing you know they might just be hitting you up directly to go on missions. That’s what ‘i Am’ is all about, getting noticed and getting your name out there. Sometimes you just need that first spark to start the fire.
Dope Industries have collaborated with Alessandro from Siff Tape to do a line called “The unholy union”, it currently consists of tees, crews, hoodies and matching griptape. if it’s well received there will be more to come in the future (See the dope ad for a preview). Talking of dope, their HQ The Shred are running some new specials at the moment, on your birthday you skate for free, just bring your ID or birth certificate as proof! Ladies you get two for one, so motivate your mate and get down there! The next Cheap As Chips sale is planned for 26th of August, keep that in your diaries. don’t forget that Skate night goes down every wednesday from 5 - 9. 62 | sessionmag.co.za
© ZACH ZONOMESSIS
USTRIES ALESSANDRO WEARS THE DOPE IND X SIFF TAPE “UNHOLY UNION” COLLABORATION TEE. SEE THE ENTIRE RANGE AT DOPEIND.COM
FEAT U R I NG VA N S WA FF LE C U P â„¢ , UN R EAL S U P P O RT A ND B O A R D F E E L. VANS.COM
K Y L E WA L KER
98
B
L
PHOTO CLARK