Session Magazine - Issue 75

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Issue 75

Dec 16 / Jan 17

VA NS.CO M

G eof f R ow l e y

GEOFF ROWLEY SIGNATURE FOOTWE A R A ND A P PA R E L

Kyle Trusky boosts a backside flip to the street in Claremont, Cape Town. Doing it for the homies. Photo - Grant Mclachlan

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CONTENTS

ISSUE 75- DEC 16|JAN 17 Skateistan 10

The Golden Mile - Converse on Tour 12 Vans - State of emergency Tour 22

MElissa Williams - Where is my mind? 36

Galleria 42

Tabo Lochelt 54 I am Chappies 62

Cover: Alex Williams crooked grinds a 15-stair beast in Cape Town. The kids are going for it and the future is looking bright.

Photo - Grant Mclachlan

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Photography: Zander Taketomo. © 2017 adidas AG

S W I T CH K I CK F L IP IN T HE MATCHCOU RT HIGH R X /// NE W YORK CIT Y

Redial

YOUNG GUNNERS

Words – luke Jackson Photos - Mike Chinner

fritz isaacks and Gordon scheepers, two young guns from namibia that Mike Chinner met during a recent visit to our neighbor up north. These guys hail from a place with virtually no scene, but they are on it! They are up there progressing in the desert. Just imagine what’s going to be coming out of africa in the years to come, as scenes build and people gain access to more resources. skateboarding in africa was documented more in 2016 than ever before. long may it continue to grow!

Gordon sceepers pressure flips down 9 in Windhoek. you don’t see that one every day.

EDITOR Luke Jackson info@sessionmag.co.za ADVERTISING Ockie Fourie info@sessionmag.co.za FOUNDER Brendan Body brendan@sessionmag.co.za

fritz isaacks polejams into the night.

PHOTO EDITOR Clint van der Schyf

CONTRIBUTORS 75 Brett Shaw

PHOTOGRAPHERS 75 Grant Mclachlan, Jansen van Staden, Quad Howes, Werner Lamprecht, Joubert van Staden, Gavin Scott, Leon Bester, Mike Chinner, Andre Visser, Martin Kotze.

PHYSICAL ADDRESS: 2nd Floor, Earlgo Building, cnr. Kloof & Park Rd, Gardens, Cape Town, 8001.

PRINTERS: Novus Print Solutions

SKATeBOArDer OWNeD AND OPerATeD SINCe 2002.

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 A POESKLAP!

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HEELFLIP | PHOTO: SAM MCGUIRE

BUILT BY SKATEBOARDING DAVID REYES MARANA OG

etnies.com

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@etniesskateboarding

skateistan S c h oo l s O ut !

Kyle Trusky crooked grinds over the A-Frame and pops in the other side.

The new Skateistan facility is located in the Maboneng Precinct on the east side of downtown Johannesburg. The concrete park and education centre are a pretty impressive site, with the park being the first of its kind in the inner city. The transition is perfect and the park has really good flow. It’s not open to the public, but it’s a give and take situation. If you lend some of your time to the program then you are rewarded with some time to skate in return. A good way of doing things I’d say. The kids are learning really quick! I was really hyped to see downtown locals charging the ramps, stairs

and even the rail. The inner city scene has unlimited potential with a decent park facility. We’re going to see a whole new generation of young rippers come out of the park. We spent a few hours rolling with the kids on the first day of the Converse tour and filmed a few clips before heading off to Durban the next day, but we’ll be back for sure!

Visit za.skateistan.org to see how you can contribute the program and help to make things happen for a bunch of stoked kids who don’t really have all that much else.

Words - Luke Jackson Photos - Grant Mclachlan

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If you grew up skateboarding in Johannesburg during the late 90s or early 2000s then Durban was the place to go on trips. A 6-hour drive down to the warm Indian Ocean and a city with a thriving skate scene, Durban was a welcome break from suburbia in the concrete jungle. In the early days guys would road trip down to the coast for the Winterslam contest at the old Military Museum on the beachfront and later parks like the massive Gateway facility, the Pavilion Mall park and the concrete park at Bay of Plenty meant you were spoilt for choice every day, compared to the lack of parks in JHB at the time.

Words - Luke Jackson Photos - Grant Mclachlan

A long-ass Luke nosemanual at Blue Lagoon.

We spotted this new ledge from the highway, it’s perfect, go out and charge it.

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Wynand Herholdt frontside 180 nosegrinds in Tzaneen, Limpopo.

Justus Kotze stretching his legs after the long drive from JHB with a crailslide at Indigo, deep in the Valley of 1000 hills. Dallas put the precise location up on your website, that place isn’t too easy to find haha.

I

n recent years it seems like not that many people are doing Durban trips very often anymore. But the city is still there and there are spots a plenty to hit up. For example the Cloudy Brothers crew are always making missions and posting updates on social networks, keeping us outsiders in the loop.

For the first local Converse crew tour I decided I wanted to go back and visit Durban. Since moving to Cape Town from JHB a few years ago, I no longer make several trips to Durban each year.

In fact in more recent times I’ve gone a year or two without making it there at all. It was time to make that iconic road trip down to the coast once again. I was hyped to have Kyle Trusky in the crew, one of the most talented skateboarders in the country right now and extremely underrated. Kyle had never been to JHB or DBN prior, or even on an airplane for that matter. His style, pop and techni-

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Suhail Kader mid-line frontside 5-0 at Moses Mabhida Stadium.

Suhail nollie flips into the AIDS monument banks outside The Workshop Centre, downtown.

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Justus 5-0s in the relentless rain at Gateway, on Wandile Msomi’s board. Thanks Wan!

cal ability is pretty mind-blowing to see in person. Alongside Kyle we had Justus Kotze, a long-time Cape Town killer who will catch you off guard at just about every spot. Justus is a tranny master but he can skate anything, he adapts to awkward spots instantly. We flew up to JHB and met up with Taylor Sturgess who is a downtown local who hails from the southern side of the city, he’s a super consistent crusty spot destroyer. He also has the most enviable backtail you’ll ever see in your life. Yet another underrated local skateboarder who should have way more opportunities.

The first stop of the tour was Skateistan in the downtown area of JHB. My first

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visit to the completed facility, so we joined the afternoon program to roll around the concrete park with all the young kids from the surrounding area, it was amazing to see how good some of them have become in such a short period. The potential for future skateboarders coming out of there is limitless.

We also donated 30 pairs of Cons to the facility, to help keep the kids rolling!

The next day we piled into the car and headed down the N3 towards the east coast. But before we reached The Golden Mile we stopped off at Indigo in the Valley of 1000 Hills. The old skate camp/ youth project still stands amongst rural huts in the hills of KZN. All the ramps are

currently being renovated but there is a bit of concrete to skate, the big pool of course, but also some banks and stairs.

The rain was threatening us all day, but we managed to roll for a good hour before getting back on the road into Durban.

We based ourselves at Tekweni backpackers in Morningside, a good location from which to make skate missions into the inner city and beachfront area.

Durban has gone through a strange transition in recent years, so much of the city has been moved up the north coast around Umhlanga and even further towards Ballito. Leaving behind the old city, as well as the classic old beachfront that is largely under construction at pres-

Kyle Trusky nollie heels the first drop and then sails off the second at a crusty one on Durban beachfront.

That thing is way more awkward than it looks.

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Taylor Sturgess powers into a slippery back tail downtown, in the rain, first to fakie and then he did back tail shove right after.

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It requires a large leap to skate the top of these SA picnic tables. Kyle switch crooks at the best spot in Durban when trying to avoid the rain.

Suhail banged this 50-50 outside House of Curries on Florida road early in the morning while Grant was grabbing breakfast in the nearby shop. Joubert got the clip, but then grabbed a photo for us too.

Sorry for the cropped hand, but Suhail banged it so good! In and out, avoiding the bust - quick, quick!

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Taylor ollies up to nose stall on the rail and then pulls over and heads down the bank, at a very rough spot in Morningside.

ent. It was dope to go back and skate the old downtown area, the beach and obviously the iconic Moses Mabhida Stadium, which is without a doubt one of the top 5 skate spots in the country.

Suhail Kader from the Cloudy Brothers crew was our Durban connection and a welcome addition to the squad. He knows all the spots and crushes them, he definitely has the optimistic approach required to tackle crusty SA street spots. Suhail killed it every day and alongside his homie Alessandro, they made sure that we always had a plan for the next spot during the mission, rain or shine. Hopefully we’ll be seeing a lot more of Suhail in the future.

Durban is famed for being the largest Indian city outside of India, due to the large population of Indian descent. So you know when you visit you’re bound to eat some curry. Well we took it to

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another level, the popular ‘House Of Curries’ restaurant was just a short walk from our accommodation so somehow we ended up there on 4 nights of our 5 night stay. We even ended up going there first thing in the morning for Suhail to 50-50 and tailslide a rail out front, in and out – quick, quick!

Ironically, The Golden Mile that is famed for sun, sand and sea was actually quite a ‘wash out’ for us. It rained every single day, but even so Durban has a way of catching you. When it’s not raining it’s humid as hell, and you’re getting sunburnt for sure! Everyone got caught off guard on our first morning at Moses Mabhida, leaving all the pale folk like myself looking lobster red for the next few days. Despite the rain we made it work, at times just skating in the wet, trying to find spots undercover or just holding out for it to dry wherever we could. We

weren’t going to let the weather hold us back. On a more positive note, our country certainly needs the rain right now.

Durban rules, and it was epic to be back skating in the city where I was born, on my birthday, 29 years down the line. If you live in Durban then go out and skate the city, and explore the streets, there are potential spots all over the place. And if you need a board then hit up eThekwini Skate Supply at 8 Morrison Street. In 5 rainy days we didn’t have time to hit as many spots as we’d like, but we’ll be back for sure!

Big thanks to Suhail and Alessandro for the expert guiding, Grant for shooting the pics and Joubert for filming. Thanks to Daniel and Mbali at Skateistan and also to Carmen at Converse for helping us make this all happen.

Justus Kotze caught us all off guard with a late evening switch front crooks on a tall one in the square outside Durban City Hall. sessionmag.co.za | 21

Ethiopia

Vans STATE OF EMERGENCY TOUR Words: Brett Shaw PHOTOS: JANSEN VAN STADEN

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I remember looking up at the sky, it was a hazy mixture of pollution and rain, and the sounds were an overwhelming muddle of hooting and shouting being carried by the wind. But the sound of our urethane wheels on a rough dusty road almost drained everything else out.

It felt like we were on another planet, skateboarding past angry military dudes with AK47s shouting at us in a language we didn’t want to understand, young homeless girls with 2 kids begging for food and a man with no legs dragging himself along the road with some kind of makeshift car tyre inner tube rubber tied to him, so that his hip didn’t get shredded. Fancy BMWs and nameless people of every shape and size, gridlocked traffic and the smell of sweat, this is the craziest city I have ever been in and I have been everywhere! Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is a mystical place of good and evil and somehow the skate Gods have sent us here to seek and destroy, we feel blessed.

Joubert van Staden does his signature backside flip off the curb cut and down the drop at Addis’ most famous skate spot, before the new park was built that is.

"It felt like we were on another planet, skateboarding past angry military dudes with AK47s shouting at us in a language we did not want to understand."

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Anton Roux successfully frontside lipslides during his second visit to this rail, after narrowly escaping arrest during his first. sessionmag.co.za | 25

Brett Shaw crailblocks the extension at the new Addis park.

The Vans skate team met up in Johannesburg because our journey started with an Air Kenya flight to Nairobi. We landed there at 10pm and our flight to Ethiopia was only at 7am the next morning, so we slept at the airport on those rock hard plastic chairs, I gave up and slept on the floor. Jansen almost lost his mind as they had 4 songs on repeat over the intercom system, which got under his skin, but fortunately his earphones saved him from the madness. Trae bailed on the tour 1 hour before we even left JHB, it turned out that he was puking up blood so he had to stay behind on doctor’s orders. But we never knew that at the time, we just got some cryptic message from his dad, which we thought was a joke. It wasn’t and we were a man down before

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we even started.

We also found out in Kenya that the President of Ethiopia had called for a state of emergency? We discussed it over a smoothie at Jomo Kenyatta International airport and nobody even batted an eyelid. Coming from South Africa that didn’t mean squat to us. Half my childhood was spent in a state of emergency so what’s one more roll of the dice?

Our only concern was that all the spots would have tons of security and we were right. Anton came so close to being arrested for hitting up an 8-stair handrail, we all had that sinking feeling in our stomachs because it felt like a hopeless situation. The cops were hell bent on jail time but this military dude asked for our

passports and by some miracle he told the cops to let us go. The only problem was that Anton didn’t get his front board, so we had a sleepless night then we went back early the next morning and risked imprisonment again, but he got a front board and a front lip in 3 minutes.

Anton set Ethiopia on fire with his fearless approach to life. He blew all the local skateboarders minds with his clinical approach to gnarly spots and everyone loved him.

We stayed across the road from The United Nations Africa headquarters in an Airbnb apartment. It’s way better when you all stay in one place, when you get divided up in hotel rooms everyone goes off on their own mission when you’re

"This is the craziest city I have ever been in and I have been everywhere! Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is a mystical place of good and evil and somehow the skate Gods have sent us here to seek and destroy." sessionmag.co.za | 27

not skateboarding. So we always try to get an apartment. Sirgut was our host and one night she made us a traditional Ethiopian dinner, it was insane. The chickpea curry was the best, wrapped up in this stuff called injera, which is a sourdough-risen flatbread that has this slightly spongy texture. We ate tons of injera, which made us fart like warriors, so everywhere we went it smelt of ass and someone was always smiling. Besides the local food we ate a lot of pizza, pasta and burgers because you get tired of the super spicy local food. No one got hit with Delhi belly, which was a bonus.

I guess it was because we played it safe by brushing our teeth with bottled water.

Our basic plan was to hit the good street spots really early at like at 6am. Part of the state of emergency rules were that you couldn’t do anything that would draw a crowd, so we needed to hit spots

Anton frontside 180s over and down.

"The cops were hell bent on jail time but this military dude asked for our passports and by some miracle he told the cops to let us go."

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T-Kay Modise with a tropical wallie in a tight corner. sessionmag.co.za | 29

quickly too. So the majority of the photos in this article were shot between 6 and 7am. The government shut down the Internet so we explored the streets old school, looking down alleys and over walls until about 11am, damn we walked about 20km a day. The majority of the roads are dirt and too rough to skate, so we had to walk a lot. You also have to watch out for pickpockets, there’s over a hundred thousand street kids in Addis and they swarm you so you need to be on guard at all times. Generally you can negotiate with security guards by bribing 30 | sessionmag.co.za

them at street spots, but it was a ‘no go’ in Ethiopia. One dude took a bribe but then kicked us out so we took our money back! There were also a few concerned citizens who were up for an Oscar, but the majority of people were just mesmerized by what was going on. At lunchtime we’d go catch a beat up blue and white taxi to Laphto mall, which is where the skatepark is.

Everyone knows about the Addis skatepark by now. We met up with the Ethiopia skate guys and some gnarly sessions

went down. The park is way better than anything we have in Cape Town. It has thoughtful lines and a mixture of small and big transition, some street stuff and a cool hip. You have to adapt quickly because there’s a lot going on and a lot of kids too. There are also a lot of sketchy characters lurking around the park waiting for an opportunity to steal your stuff.

Which is kind of lame because a lot of kids there don’t have boards so you’re not sure who you can lend your board to and who not to. Some drunk dude gave us trouble but Jansen shut him down with

A classic Dallas front D.

some firm words. The kids are already ripping up the park, which was cool to see.

Addis Ababa has incredible hills to bomb and we hit them all. Somehow we ended up hitting the highway one day, it was kind of by mistake because we all grabbed onto a mini van taxi and skitched a ride to the top of this one hill, then we bombed it into the city. It was the most fun we had the whole trip, at one stage all 6 of us made a human chain as we got towed up a hill by a bus, then flew down this smooth ass road for

"The majority of the roads are dirt and too rough to skate.."

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T-Kay Modise caveman nosegrind. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo - Jansen van Staden.

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about 5km into the city. It was good to see street Dallas flying down a hill. Dallas had a conference in Germany so he only met up with us 4 days into the trip. It was good to see a familiar face. He’s a good guy to have around when you explore the local markets buying traditional clothes, raw coffee beans and silver crosses, because Dallas is a serious trader and he almost broke the one dude down with his “better price, better price” claims.

The coffee was next level, you don’t just order a cup of coffee, there’s a whole ritual that goes with it. Your hostess boils water on one fire and incense on another fire. Then you taste different brews of mild to strong coffee while you chill for about 30 minutes. It felt good to catch a break from the wildness of the city for a minute. Even though there was chaos all around us we always felt safe, the people are really friendly and always willing

to help you. We had some incredible conversations with random people out on the streets. Jansen never stops taking photos and he shot some mind-blowing street scene moments. He went on a solo mission one night and ran into one of the packs of rabid dogs that roam the city. Every night when we got back to the apartment we’d go through all his photos and soak it all in. It’s rad having so many filmers and photographers on the team. Joubert and I shoot and edit, Dallas has a loyal cult following on Instagram and T-Kay works in the photography world.

Our 7-day trip felt like a lifetime because we did so much in such a short time. On the last afternoon we got to skate this perfect set of marble stairs for 40 minutes. Anton shut it down with a caballerial, but Joubert was right behind him with a back 180 over the rail.

This was T-Kay’s first Vans trip and in case you haven’t heard, he’s the new Vans team rider. Anybody who knows T-Kay will agree that he’s one of the coolest cats out there. His gnarly smooth style and positive attitude made it feel like he’d been on the team forever.

The one thing we learnt on this trip is that even if you have a little you still have a lot more than some people. Skateboarding is more than just the actual act of skateboarding, it’s about the places that it takes us and the experiences we share while we’re there. Thank you Warren at Vans, we love you dude.

Joubert was super focused on this trip and he did a lot of super gnarly stuff. It’s always a treat to see the Huishond doing his thing and it fired up Anton & T-Kay. Joubert leads by example, if he’s not filming you he’s ripping it up next to you and that’s why he has so much respect.

"The government shut down the Internet so we explored the streets old school, looking down alleys and over walls."

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Joubert takes a rough ride as he battles his way through a wallie boardslide. Classic Africa spot, you have to make it work. sessionmag.co.za | 35

Jansen van Staden

MElissa Williams where is my mind?

Melissa is skateboarding to the core. She’s always making something happen behind the scenes. Her motivation and DIY mentality has helped to build a scene for those around her. She isn’t special just because she can skate, she represents what skateboarding is all about. Our scene would be lucky to have a few more just like her.

Interview - Luke Jackson Photos - Jansen van Staden & Leon Bester

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Where did you grow up and how did you first get into skating?

I grew up in Panorama in Cape Town, it’s kind of the beginning of the Northern Suburbs. There was this old concrete snake run at a park in the next suburb, Welgelegen. I guess I got pretty lucky with it being right near my house. All the kids would always go hang out at the park after school and I would hang out with the boys in the snake run. It was inevitable that I would get a board of my own and that’s where it all started.

How many years have you been skateboarding for and have you always been based in Cape Town or have you spent time living and skating anywhere else?

I have been skating for 20 years now. I can’t even believe that I can say that, it’s just too crazy to me. I lived in London for 3 years and spent a lot of time skating all the incredible bowls, snake runs and parks that England has to offer. It was really so rad being able to skate spots like that all the time, when it wasn’t raining of course. I’ve been back for probably around 6 years now and I still think about those sessions all the time.

Skateboarding is obviously pretty male dominated, what motivated you to keep doing it?

I’ve never really thought about that.

I guess I just really liked it a lot, all the typical things; the freedom, the fun, the independence, all the rad music, videos, brands and culture that came with it. I guess in the beginning it was something that I could do without needing friends and through time I just connected with some incredible people through it and it formed some kind of love triangle that kept it all going.

I remember you had small feature in Blunt Magazine way back in the day, I can’t really think of another example of a feature on a local female skateboarder until now, why do you think there are so few female skateboarders in SA? I don’t know, I think maybe it comes down to a lack of role models really. If you don’t see other girls doing it, maybe you’re not inspired as easily yourself to try it, or maybe you don’t even consider it.

Probably the lack of safe local parks also has something to do with it. If you look at the other countries where there are lots of women skateboarding, like in America and Europe, they have bigger industries, more parks and have had all that stuff going for them for a lot longer than we have. People say that skateboarding is pretty aggressive and physical and that’s probably why more girls don’t skate, and that may be true, but in my opinion accessibility is a pretty big factor.

Recently there have been a ton of

females killing it overseas who are getting good coverage, do you keep up-to-date with any of them and do they inspire you at all?

Well, not really. I’ve always kind of thought that following girl skateboarders specifically is a bit cheesy, haha. I mean definitely Elissa Steamer back in the day, for me she was super rad and totally inspiring. These days it’s really incredible that so many girls are skateboarding and skating super good too. It’s really amazing to see, but they’re doing stuff that’s so far out of reach for me I don’t even consider it, though it is pretty cool to check out from time to time.

You surf a hell of a lot in your free time nowadays, how much time do you still actually get to go out and skate?

Ja, I’m hooked on surfing pretty bad right now, haha. I go skating pretty rarely,

"there is so much cool stuff to do in this life. I want to do it all." maybe only a couple of times per month.

I’ve always mostly skated mini ramps and bowls and for all the years that I’ve lived in Cape Town since I got back from London I always had a mini ramp literally right next to my office. When we moved back there was Pat’s mini ramp in the southern suburbs, we had the mini ramp at the Woodstock Industrial center and then of course the Pit ramp. I literally cry inside a little bit every day because I miss all of that transition skating so much. One day, we will have a ramp again, I swear it, but until then it’s cowabunga for me!

Tell us about your musical pursuits, you were in Black Lung, but now you’re in Bilderberg Motel, you play shows regularly and record, what is the dynamic like in your band?

I’ve played guitar since I was a kid, around the time I started skating actually.

When I got back from London I learnt to play drums and we started Black Lung. That was an amazing, crazy time.

Bilderberg Motel is super fun. Matt and Sean both surf a lot and Adrian skates so

I’m into the same things as them. We’re all relatively pretty chilled out and we’re just hanging out making the best music we can and trying to have a good time with it. Everyone has pretty demanding jobs and lives so the band is an opportunity to drink some beers, make some jams and hang out. Playing drums, writing songs and playing shows is something that I really love so I’m glad I’m able to do it with those guys.

Who are some of your biggest musical influences?

Damn, so much. I listen to so much music.

But specifically the bands that influence my style of playing the most, I would say are The Gories, Black Lips, Black Keys, Allah Las and The Meters. I listen to a shit ton of jazz these days and I think I see that creeping in a bit these days too.

Do you have any particular music aspirations with the band, or do you just sort of take it as it comes?

We all want to record new music and release it on vinyl as regularly as possible and continue to play shows. A lot of what happens just comes our way and then we do take it as it comes. I would love to be able to tour overseas and travel more locally, but that’s a tricky one.

Can you tell us a bit about what it is you do for a living on a daily basis?

I’m the Operations Manager at Clarke’s Bar and Dining Room, which is a restaurant and bar on Bree Street in Cape Town. What I’m basically doing is running the restaurant with the owner, Lyndall. We do a crap ton of stuff that I never even imagined goes on behind the scenes of a restaurant. I work a lot with managing the people there and making sure things are running well. We’re currently turning the area that used to be The Pit into a brand new restaurant and bar, and I’ve been doing a lot of work for that alongside Lyndall. It’s called Hail Pizza. I’ve worked at skate or music brands my whole life, so this new thing has been quite a change for me, but it’s been super good. All the people who work there are really rad.

You were working for RVCA SA for a bit, and were responsible for helping to make the whole SA tour with Thrasher go down, etc. What was your role there and what made you eventually decide to leave and focus on other pursuits?

I was the Marketing Manager, which was really an incredible dream job for me. I had followed the brand for years and everyone involved internationally in the Artist Network Program were really inspiring to me and so was their skate team. So yeah, that was incredible being able to work for them here, and they sent me to California to visit the head office where I met everyone there, including Ed Templeton, it was the greatest

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Mel 5-0s an old DIY diamond in the rough, in Cape Town’s northern suburbs. Photo - Leon Bester.

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Feeble on the Table Mountain barrier. Yes you’ve seen this spot before, it’s become iconic, but did you know that Mel was there at the beginning, making it happen. Photo - Jansen van Staden.

experience. Arno and Chio taught me so much! I was doing a lot of surf events, managing the surf, skate and art teams, etc. In the end a National Marketing Manager role across surfing, skating, music, art and fashion required a lot of traveling. The head office is in J-Bay, which is super cool, but also required a lot of traveling. In the end I just needed to be home more and wanted to do something smaller, on a local level.

You’ve worked on plenty of different skate-related endeavors over the years, can you tell us a little bit more about your long standing connection to the local skate scene?

Well it all started at Blunt Magazine, which was my first job out of high school.

I was doing a lot of the skate interviews around that time and also the marketing at skate events with the local brands.

After London I came back and worked with Clayton at Revolution where I was taking care of all the marketing and team management for all of his brands, local and international. We did 3 international pro tours in that time and a shit ton of super fun parties, events and projects. After that Lyndall and Jamie built a ramp at the back of Clarke’s and I ended up taking care of the skate nights there and putting together the annual Vans Pit Party and a bunch of other crazy parties and events. We also built a bowl back there and around that time started

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Your Mom’s wheels. That was about 3 years of super crazy fun. After that was the stuff I did with RVCA, managing the team and doing the tour here with the RVCA USA x Thrasher guys.

‘Your Mom’ was a local brand you started a few years ago, involving all sorts of DIY projects that became iconic in Cape Town, like the Table Mountain barrier, the Clifton pool and the bowl at Clarke’s. Can you tell us a bit more about working on all of those projects and what it was that motivated you to undertake all of that work?

Your Mom was pretty much the result of all the skaters like Joubert, Justus, Wong, Yann (the list goes on to include, basically everyone) hanging out at Clarke’s and The Pit all the time with Lyndall and I. I have always loved DIY skate stuff and even though Lyndall doesn’t skate, she was super interested in it and a real driving force that made it all possible.

The German guys from Anker Rampen coming down and building stuff with us, and all the ‘Your Mom’ team guys, there was just so much rad energy around, it felt like we had all the time in the world and that we could do anything. It was the summer of our lives and we did the most fun stuff.

So between skating, surfing, music and your day job, you seem to keep really busy, is there anything in particular that

you feel you still want to achieve but you still need the time to try and make it happen?

EVERYTHING! Damn, there is so much cool stuff to do in life. I want to do it all.

I think if there were one thing, it would be photography, to be able to do shows with local photographers or something along those lines. I love taking photos very much and there are so many friends of mine who take photos for fun in their spare time and there’s no real platform for them or for me. It would be cool to be able to do something like that.

If you could invite 5 skateboarders from anywhere in the world to jump in a van with you and hit the road to any place you like, who would you invite and where would go?

Okay, I would take Leon Bester, Pieter Retief, Louis Taubert, Justus Kotze and Adrian Day. I would do the same trip that I did a few years ago with Hannes from Anker Rampen and Louis, and that’s to go from Germany, through Denmark and to Sweden, to skate all the incredible concrete spots along the way.

Have you got any final words of wisdom to end this off?

Not really, just thank you guys for publishing the interview and I hope that everyone has a good time.

No-comply wallie at Thibault Square. Photo - Jansen van Staden sessionmag.co.za | 41

Alex Williams doesn’t just crooked grind big rails, he also 5050s awkward ones against walls. Photo - Grant Mclachlan.

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Ethan Cairns with a precarious lipslide on a panel of downtown Cape Town glass.

Stealthy avoiding some tight security, as if it wasn’t challenging enough already. Photo Grant Mclachlan.

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Khule Ngubane with a large crooks of his own, at UCT. Photo Grant Mclachlan. 44 | sessionmag.co.za

Damian Bramley clocking up some airtime at the Hartswater ditches in the Northern Cape, a real shame that there’s no more vert ramp in Kimberley. Photo - Martin Kotze.

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Kyle Stoffberg gaps out to the street, up north near PTA. Photo - Werner Lamprecht.

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Puddy Zwennis traversing the channel, yep he’s still charging up there at Menlyn Skatepark in PTA. He recently moved his backyard ramp over to the park, pay the old landmark a visit and check out all the new things they have on offer. Photo - Werner Lamprecht. sessionmag.co.za | 47

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Joshua Chisholm tackles a large one along the Garden Route, you can only imagine how loud he was after rolling away from this one. Photo - Quad Howes.

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Karl van Antwerp is the first to have successfully walked away from a battle with this new beast at UCT. Crews have been rolling up in there numbers after this new one just got put in. We’ve seen some heavy slams and close calls. Good on ya Karl. Photo - Grant Mclachlan.

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Jean-Marc Johannes hardflips in Cape Town, fresh off the back of a gold medal win at the FISE World AM Series in China. Photo - Grant Mclachlan.

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PHOTO GAVIN SCOTT

DYAMOND

Werner Lamprecht

tabo lochelt

Words – Luke Jackson The German rail destroyer with a South African name who showed up out of nowhere, joined the Veg Squad, won Midway Mayhem 2016 and then disappeared again. We hit up Tabo back in Germany to find out exactly what his story is and how he came to be an honorary South African for a year.

Where are you from in Germany and how did you end up living in South Africa?

I’m from a city located in the northwestern part of Germany, called Münster. After I finished school in June last year, I had to decide what’s next for me. I always wanted to travel and get to know another country and culture. That’s why I applied for a program that sends young people to South Africa to do some voluntary work there. I ended up working with children and teens in Johannesburg.

How long did you live here for and when did you move back to Germany?

I lived there for a whole year. I came to South Africa in August 2015 and moved back to Germany in August 2016.

How did you meet up with the whole Veg Squad and were those the guys you rolled with the most in JHB? That’s a funny story. When I was at the airport to catch my plane to SA, I posted a picture on Instagram saying that I’ll live in SA for a year.

Eventually Werries saw that and asked me if I’m keen to shoot something during that time.

So on a Saturday we met at Brightwater (RIP) to warm up and then skate some street spots.

He took me to Library Gardens and there I met all the Veg homies. That was a rad session; I even filmed a line with Levi that day. From then on I skated with them every weekend.

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Back smith in Pretoria. Photo - Werner Lamprecht.

“I didn’t expect the level of skateboarding to be so high in SA.” sessionmag.co.za | 55

Where would you skate mostly during your time here?

I stayed in the west of JHB, so I was skating the park at Key West during the week a lot.

It’s a fun little park and it’s even got lights for night sessions. Then on the weekends I used to just take a taxi to town and meet up with everyone at LBGs. Either we stayed there or we made missions to other spots around JHB. That’s where I skated most of the time, but in my holidays I also skated in Durban, Cape Town and Pretoria.

How would you compare skateboarding back home to here in SA? That’s a tough question! I didn’t expect the level of skateboarding to be so high in SA. But I would say in Germany there are more possibilities; in every city here there is at least one decent skatepark and a skateshop. That means there are also more skaters, but you get used to skating in perfect conditions. In SA everything is a bit rougher, you have to make the best out of what is there. You got to be creative, but you also learn to skate every terrain, which is good.

List your top 5 SA skateboarders to roll with?

All of the Veg and Wasted guys! But to name five, it is always fun to skate with Kanya, Dlamini, Jack, Levi and Daniel.

Does your name have any SA connection, or is that just pure coincidence?

Haha! I heard that question so many times in the past year; almost nobody believed me when I said my name is Tabo. My mother was born in SA, so she already knew the name as it is written here with the ‘h’. Then my parents found out that it’s also a German name, just written without the ‘h’. I think they just liked the name and that it exists in both countries, Germany and South Africa.

Are you planning to come back at any point, or what’s next for you?

Definitely! I miss SA and all the homies; I’ll come back for sure! But at the moment I’m a bit injured. I had surgery on my knee, but I’ll be back on my board soon! It’s winter this side anyways, the cold weather sucks. Apart from that, I started working at a skateshop in my city, that also supports me. Then next year I want to just skate and travel as much as possible!

Any shout outs for the homies over here?

Shout out to the Veg and Wasted squad for all the good sessions and showing me around JHB on and off the board. Shout out to all the homies skating at Key West and LBGs, keep shredding! And shout out to Werries, Mooki and Gavin for shooting pics with me. Much love!

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Front smith on Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. Photo - Gavin Scott.

“In SA everything is a bit rougher, you have to make the best out of what is there. You got to be creative, but you also learn to skate every terrain, which is good.� sessionmag.co.za | 57

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PREMIERE

Tertius vivier, frontside stalefish. Photo Grant Mclachlan

Photo Grant Mclachlan

Wez Coertzen, frontside feeble. Photo Grant Mclachlan

EMERICA MADE ChApTER 2 The emerica Made Chapter 2 sa Premiere went down recently at The shred skatepark in Cape Town. a new emerica quarter pipe was unveiled on the night, with a banging best trick jam going down. The new emerica video is heavy! figgy takes the curtains, and the cover of Thrasher to boot. spanky with his finest part in years, Jon Dickson comes out guns blazing to open the whole show and reynolds will always be ‘The boss’! Possibly our favourite to steal the show is Jerry hsu, his style and trick selection is the cherry on top! Go and grab the new video on iTunes, you won’t be disappointed.

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INDOOR SKATEPARK - CAPE TOWN

WISHING YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS 68 AUCKLAND STR. PAARDEN EILAND CHECK OUT THE ONLINE SKATE SHOP WWW.THESHRED.CO.ZA

Words Luke Jackson

Chappies rips! If you seen him skate anything, you’ll understand his ability instantly. Lookout for this guy, you’ll be seeing a lot more of him in the near future. Frontside tailslide. Photo Andre Visser.

Dope Industries “Caption This” Giveaway!

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