Reece Leung Leo Sharp James Griffiths Loic Benoit Jim Craven Will Linford Cameron Markin Marcello Guardigli Guy Jones Conor Charleson Daryl Dominguez Jason Brown Val Bauer George Smith Joe Howard
Hannah Martin Lola Paprocka Pani Paul Owen Godbert Ste Fletcher Martyn Hill Tom Abbiss Smith
Front Cover Photo: Andy Crayton - Ollie - Leo Sharp Back Cover Photo: Lola Paprocka & Pani Paul www.vaguemag.com vagueskatemag@gmail.com Instagram @vagueskatemag
Photo: Daniel Lawrence
It’s easy to be self immersed, I mean after all we are all ourselves (to a degree) and what else is there to perceive aside from our perceptions? Lots, but that is still absorbed in some round about social osmosis, but you know all this already (see title). It’s healthy to take 2 steps back or to leave the playground for a cemetery when appropriate. This is particularly advised to the arrogant folk who make up those despicable non-jobs that furthers you from the reality of actual people. But don’t worry you get paid an unnecessary amount to inflict your philistine views on misjudged demographics which get worse as your ignorance grows. You’re no better than a scumbag researching skateboarding for a SKY ident, or somebody interning for the Daily Mail. The money can only mask the lack of satisfaction for so long before it’s courterised by a smug scab that may never open again, and if it were you’d bandage the fucker rather than confronting the true way to heal it. Go for a walk in A & E, speak to somebody signing on, speak to a stranger on transport, learn about those less fortunate who have something to complain about but don’t. “Oh my God, they didn’t pack my bag again in the Co-op”, yeah well go fuck yourself, you work 10 different jobs and open your perspectives you philistine. Use comparison compassionately and politeness shouldn’t have to be demanded. Treading water on hypocrisy as per usual. Fuck those who don’t thank you for holding a door open for them as well! Oh and don’t make skateboarding smug, it’s not that cool, it’s a laugh and it’s new bourgeois aspects are causing us further to drift from reality. Stay dead Thatcher!
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Jake Collins - Frontside Wall Bash Grab Out Photo: Vincent Coupeau
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Budapest is one of those cities teeming with beautiful architecture, rich history (see Hungarian revolution of 1956) and dope locals (Whaddup Rios crew!). Combine these factors with the financial benefit of cheap flights, consumables and laughs and you’ve got yourself a winner! The Severn crew went to indulge in it’s fairly underexposed streets to offer this article and an accompanying edit from lens afficienado Sirus F Gahan. Anyway I wasn’t even there so I’ll shut the fuck up and pass the conch to someone more relevant to this excursion. Introduction by Guy Jones Words by Conor Charleson Photography by James Griffiths Artwork by Tom Abbiss Smith
Manny Lopez - Backside Lipslide Conor Charleson - Slappy 50-50, Ride In
We’d done weekend jaunts before, but this was the first real Severn family holiday, and it was a holiday. Tom ‘TM’ Mangham was given his first taste of responsibility; marshaling a group of skateboarders (largely regarded as one of society’s most useless demographics) to get from their hometowns all over the country to the airport on time. It all went smoothly, if you ignore the fact that a prostitute swiped Joe Coward’s bag off the coach between Bristol and London, which contained his passport and swimming trunks, and disappeared with it for 24 hours. A simple mistake, the result of coincidentally identical baggage, left Joe stuck in London with a bag full of condoms and lube and Tom fretting at the check-in desk, one hold-bag down. Ryan Air rinsed his bank account and left us minutes to leg it across Stanstead’s departure lounge, straight past Wetherspoons and onto the plane. Criminal. We arrived to a lengthy lecture off a portly Hungarian bloke, who was relieved to see we weren’t donning a set of matching shirts with ‘SEVERN STAG – LIFESTYLE HAMMERS ONLY’, printed unevenly across the back. The constant flow of smashed, uniformed Brits in and out of Budapest has left the locals wary and potentially a little resentful of our Manny Lopez - Crooked Grind
constant loud and ignorant presence in their otherwise tranquil metropolis. We went for a little roll about to get the lay of the land, and found ourselves smackbang in the centre of the city, on the Pest side, East of the river. We ‘discovered’ plenty of spots on the first night, planted pins on our mental maps and headed off to the bars for a swift half. Manny and Charlie, more keen to smoke than get on the steam, took the first opportunity to buy weed from the locals. I’d never seen a more suspect looking trio of dealers in my life and within two minutes of the transaction Manny and Charlie were gunning it down the road after them, hands full of mixed herbs. I’ve never really seen Manny angry before, but he ripped open the door of the cab the ‘dealers’ had clambered into and raged at them until they were forced out onto the street. Some feeble boss-based threats were made, but the fury continued until the locals resentfully handed over some real weed and the drug keen duo cooled off. Not the ideal first evening out on the town.
We spent the first day within about 500 meters of the apartment. There are squares packed with unusual spots adjacent to the river. Easily enough to keep everyone entertained. The Breakfast Plaza (‘ses’ as it came to be known) was adjacent to the apartment and set between an Aldi, a market and Amber’s coffee which does a mean cappuccino and provides some pacey Wi-Fi. We seriously underestimated the midday heat and spent hours baking in the sun, sweating profusely and reddening rapidly like only holidaying Brits can. As the first day came to a close and we were tucking into falafel and necking radlers, a flustered Joe Coward hopped out of the cab, reunited with his suitcase and comparatively lacking in prophylactics. We owe a remarkable amount of the trips success to the scene-dominant Rios crew. Benz and his Hungarian ensemble enlightened us to the lesser-known tricks of navigating Budapest and introduced us to areas we’d never have visited had we gone it alone. After our first collaborative day we visited our favourite drinkingruins for a few beers with Rios in tow. More than used to these scenes, they retired pretty quickly and took some of the smokier members of our party with them for a tour of Pest’s rooftop gardens. None of them lived in the buildings, but they knew the security codes needed to gain access to the wicked views. The rest of us stuck around at the bar, enjoying pints for less than two quid and dancing back-to-back with broad, sweaty, Irish lasses. A fortunate lack of catastrophes meant EHIC’s stayed in suitcases and insurance policy numbers remained unread. However the week was not without a
few undesirable incidents. My board was minced up and dragged a short distance by a passing tram, before being rescued by Captain Lifestyle, Luke Frisbee. I had to make do with a bendy back truck for the rest of the week, and to be honest, I’m still skating it. Following that a rapid kinked hubba sent giant Jim hurtling into a bin which, unfortunately seemed to have long blades protruding from its corners. He hit the ground with a tonally perfect Wilhelm Scream and was left with a giant, bruising blood blister reminiscent of a swollen T-Bone steak. Luckily this didn’t stop him from continuing to smash it for the rest of the week. The fleet of helpful locals continued to expand throughout the week. Torta of the Rios crew would suddenly appear wherever we were skating every evening. One night, the confectioner greeted us with a bag full of pastries and Sirus, used to the milk and butterless nature of the local delicacies, tucked right in. “How do you make them Torta?”, “Well they’re fried in pork fat and then...” The little colour in Sirus’ face drained away and he was briefly transparent. He’d broken his oath. We haven’t seen him since we arrived back in the UK. Summoned to Belgium by The Vegan High Council for punishment no doubt. Shattered morality aside, Sirus put more work in than anyone else over the week. The task of filming nine keen skateboarders for twelve hours a day in temperatures running up to thirty five degrees would be enough to put even an Arizonian cinematographer off. Not Sirus. Fuelled by demonically named, compressed cubes of oat protein and blocks of smoked soya, Sirus would tank Will Creswick - Frontside Shove It
Jimmy Silver - Wallie
about the city for hours, pointing his lens wherever it was required and still had the energy for pull ups and a couple of flatground wonders. On a mid-week morning our posse were sprawled out on the balcony, limbs in tatters. An unfortunate member of an opposing group of touring lads was blowing chunks all over the tiles on the floor below. After watching him attempt to wash it down with a few small bowls of water before giving up and stumbling back inside, we decided against having a drinking day off and instead headed to the famed thermal baths. A five-minute jaunt over the river and we were dunking our battered bods into pools ranging from four to forty degrees. We spent the day floating from room to room, lost in the aquatic maze, surrounded by Hungarian pensioners and not a babe in sight. When our hands started to resemble the regulars’, we got out, toweled off and with a new lease of life hit the streets until the early hours.
Charlie Munro - Kickflip,
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Not one inch of Hungarian masonry was safe from Manny and Charlie. Everybody got theirs throughout the week but those two were on a warpath. When the Rios crew saw how keen the duo were to throw themselves at literally anything they took great pleasure in introducing them to spots rarely touched by neither locals, nor international travellers. This regularly gave the rest of us an excuse to collapse into a sweaty pile on an adjacent patch of grass and crack open a rapidly warming can of DAB. The final day was a chance for the mortal members of our party to do a little catching up. Bar an encounter with the police that risked a last minute holiday cuffing in the middle of a gypsy ghetto, the rest of the day went smoothly. We rounded off with some celebratory beers with Benz and the crew at Brekkie Plaza before heading to the airport for an early morning flight. The only upside of travelling through the night, is that it gets you back into London in time to catch Wetherspoons’, delicious and highly competitive breakfast menu.
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Interview by Guy Jones Words by Paul ‘Splodge’ Rogers Photography by Jim Craven What provoked the collab and why a pale? A square called Sadlers Yard in Manchester got redeveloped a couple of years ago and turned out to be a rad new spot to skate and lurk. The Pilcrow Pub is on the square and they invited us to collab with them. NOTE turned 18 years old so we thought what better way to celebrate than with a beer and Oddie at Pilcrow linked us up with
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Paul at Beatnikz Republic. We wanted something refreshing to drink after a hard day at work or good skate and Paul came up with the recipe for a Pale Ale. Were you all pals before talks of cobrewing arose? We always liked drinking in the Pilcrow but presumed they would be gutted with pretty much the whole Manchester skateboard scene lurking right outside their pub. We thought they’d want us booted but instead they turned out to be super cool and wanted to work with us. We launched Worker Beer in The Pilcrow
at the premiere of the ‘Island’ video. Who designed the artwork for the label? Matthew Nevitt did the label. We use yellow a lot and we wanted something to pop out from behind the bar. He smashed it! Good work Nev. Do any of you brew yourself or have a particular interest in the craft beer community? Tom Day made some horrible wine once. Between us we’ve drunk loads of lager
but we didn’t know much about the craft beer community before this. Working with Beatnikz and Pilcrow taught us a lot and has definitely encouraged us to seek out and try new beers. The names and brands might be unfamiliar but we’ve found that there are much tastier and more interesting beers out there than all that big brewery mass produced stuff we were used to drinking. What’s the most Mancunian aspect of this tipple?
We made it here in Manchester. Joe Gavin, Jay Stone and Jim Craven rolled their sleeves up and helped Beatnikz produce this.
No plans as yet but we’d love to make ‘Lurker Beer’ in tinnies for street drinking.
Where is this limited edition beer available from and when? It’s been out since December. The Pilcrow, Common, Port Street Beer House, Ancoats General Store and Beer Traders might still have some.
Who’s the biggest craft beer wanker out of everyone affiliated with the shop? Kev Eley thinks he is but we reckon he hasn’t got a clue.
Will there be more of these in the future?
And the least? Keanu Robson hardly drinks and has never had a hangover.
It’s a reiterated point that will be made continuously throughout the lifespan of this mag but it’s always hard to do justice the honest appreciation of people you really admire that extends past their portfolios and into their personalities. Perhaps it’s the contrast of the stereotype of stuck up artists schmoozing their way into a new dimension of fickle smug behaviour. Maybe it’s just because Lola and Pani are so sound. Regardless you can make your own minds up, but I personally think that they are amazing individually and combined, well it’s really just another level. Force them into discussion at a bar, bump into them on transport, reach out and give them your money, they deserve it! Interview by Guy Jones Photography by Lola Paprocka & Pani Paul Exhibition Photography by Reece Leung
Working together on so many projects, sharing a studio and living space whilst combining on multiple projects, it’s pretty apparent that you can’t stand anyone else but each other, would this assumption be true? Productivity through distaste for everyone else? Haha, we just enjoy all the same things. We are basically the same person, we even wear each other’s clothes. Except Lola is way-way more productive. Is your studio space in Canary Wharf attached to your actual living space? If so
does it instill a professional outlook on everyday activities? For example, do you adjust the lighting to boil an egg? The studio is directly connected to our living space but we disguise it as a nice living room which can be easily converted into a shooting space when we need. We do actually cop a nice bit of daylight in the kitchen and are definitely guilty of taking pictures of dishes drying on the dish rack or socks on the radiator *Cough* It was Lola *Cough*. Does Canary Wharf remind you at all of
Logans Run? Going to our local Tesco or Waitrose is identical to Logan’s Run. Pani you’re from Australia and Lola you’re from Poland. Do you live in London because it’s a decent compromise? If you weren’t living here where would you like to inhabit and do you get back to your native countries often? LP We do visit our homelands quite frequently and there are always elements of nostalgia but after a short time back
you start to realise why you wanted to leave. We really have no idea where else we would want to live. We are in a good space at the moment and have worked really hard to get here so leaving now would be foolish. London is a great motivator. It’s just a matter of your personal fulfillment. PP When I am back in Australia I always think like “fuck these guys have got it made” Working a few days a week in a beautiful place just surfing and being healthy, What the fuck am I doing in London?” But then after a few weeks its bit like Groundhog Day and if your
ambitions kick in and you quickly realize that you can’t really progress unless you are in a bigger city. We recently discovered Lanzarote and shot loads of personal stuff so we could definitely split our time between here and there if we were rich. Do you feel it’s important to have London as your base? London is definitely a great place to be based working within photography. It’s challenging of course at times as anyone who lives in London knows but it’s super rewarding when you find a way to make it work for you. Working as a duo, how do you work out who’s doing what? Does it result in any fights? A lot of people ask us how it works. It’s pretty simple, we just have 2 cameras and we take turns shooting. One person shoots and the other helps to direct the subject or takes a step back and finds a different angle. We bounce ideas off each other all the time. We started shooting together when we were travelling. We would both see the same things and by the end of the trip, we didn’t know who had taken which picture so we just put both our names on it. We are both usually so stoked when we are shooting that we don’t argue. We also respect each other while the other person is shooting and wait for them to finish their film. Then we might swap. It creates a nice dynamic to be able to have mini breaks between rolls. Its also good practice for your ego. You shoot a lot of commercial work as well as an abundance of your own projects. To counteract formal jobs how do you neutralise your appreciation for the camera? Lola you mentioned that you find it calming shooting rocks? We do take on a lot of more commercial
commissions which we are super happy to have the opportunity of shooting. Of course, some jobs are less interesting than others but we just apply a different approach to them. It also gives us the opportunity to travel more and focus on our personal work, making books etc. We actually do mix still lifes of stones and plants with pictures of people, haha. One day someone will pay us to take pictures of stones! Tell us a little bit about Palm* Studios and the photography fairs you’re a part of. The line up of published work is belter! LP I started Palm* in 2015 - I wanted to run a platform that promotes photographers, curates exhibitions, makes books and get involved in book fairs, workshops, talks etc. I had no idea it would grow so quickly and that I would be working on books with amazing photographers so soon. I’m a self-taught photographer and publisher so I have a pretty DIY approach. I’m lucky that my brother is a great coder-wizard and has been helping since day one. Pani is also putting the hours in and since 2017 I have been working with an amazing art director, Brian Kanagaki. Are there any books to be released this year from yourselves or otherwise through Palm* Studios? LP Yes, Palm* is about to launch a new book this March. It’s Palm’s* largest title so far which includes the work of 6 different photographers. We have our own separate stories in there too (mine is mainly stones and water haha). The other photographers included are Brian Kanagaki, Jacob Lillis, Renato D’Augustin and Vittoria Gerarrdi. I’m also working on Brian’s Kanagaki’s solo book project and have another 4 books in the making (secret).
What’s your affiliation with 71a Gallery? It was the first place I experienced free beer in London for your joint exhibition with shots from Callum Paul and a few others also present. LP Yes! That show was in the pre Palm* era. I was always interested in curation, making zines and putting on shows. I just wanted to support people who’s work I liked. 71a has been amazingly supportive in helping out by giving us a platform for all these exhibitions. All the shows we have done there have had such a great response and it’s always a great night. We love them!
Any funny interns? Possibly doing something comically wrong, like using a flash stand to butter toast etc.? Haha not yet. But when Pani first started assisting he didn’t know the difference between Earl Grey and English Breakfast tea (He’s Australian so you can’t blame him). What were your first photography shows and when did you first combine forces? Also are there any exhibitions that bare particular significance to you? Lola has been exhibiting in group shows all over the world for many years but her first
major solo was her Blokovi: Novi Beograd book launch at 71a. Pani’s Mile End book launch was also his first and also at 71a! Each exhibition we do is special. We were super happy with the Ed Forbis Cowboy book launch at The Printspace. This was our first official duo project so it was nice to see so much support. The Ed Forbis project is one of my favourites from the both of you. Is it true you bumped into him buy chance at a Walmart, then he invited you back to his and his memorabilia indicated he was
once the poster boy for Marlboro cigs? We actually met him at the local shop at the Grand Canyon. We just thought he looked cool and asked him for a picture. He said yes so we took a few then went inside. After a few minutes, he came into the shop and asked us what we were up to and if we wanted to hang with him for the day and he could show us around. He worked for the national park taking care of the horses and mules. He took us to the residential area where he lived and invited us into his house, He had a lot of old Marlboro stuff laying around so we naturally asked
him what it was all about and he then told us how he used to be a stuntman for them in the 80’s. He was stoked to be in front of the camera again, so he saddled up his horse, grabbed a couple of cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon and took us on a little tour of his front yard which was the edge of the canyon. It was a mind-blowing experience haha. How do you get the balance between professional work and photography for fun? We shoot most of our fun stuff while we are travelling, When we are in London we are mainly just keeping our heads down trying to secure the commercial commissions so we can afford to travel and shoot personal stuff. How did the Mile End book and the Converse collab come about? PP I had been shooting down there for
a while, nothing too serious. I would just test out cameras and stuff. When Lola started Palm* she wanted a project to launch it so we worked really hard to put it together. It was kind of a debut title for Palm*. The Converse collab was totally random, I literally just got an email from them one day saying they loved the book and wanted to do something together. It was cool as we had no expectations that the project would lead towards something like that. Have you always been creative icons or did you have your fair share of ‘shit’ jobs? PP Haha dunno about “creative icons” We have definitely done our share of “shit” jobs. I’ve assisted other photographers for 7 years making them all kinds of incorrect teas. Surprised they kept employing me, to be honest. LP I came to London when I was 18
without speaking English and hustled the shit out of the place from cleaning rich people’s houses, working in an Irish pub in Camden, gross bars in central London, retail jobs to managing tattoo shops for many years before finally making photography my full-time job.
definitely inspirational. He really shows how you can take a picture of just about anything and make it beautiful and interesting. We also like Mark Borthwick, Jan Kampenaers, Karim Sadli, Mark Steinmetz, Torbjorn Rodland, Jamie Hawskworth to name a few.
What are your favourite cameras to use and how does the choice differ depending on different projects? We have a LOT of cameras but our favourites are the Pentax 67, Mamiya RZ and the Contax 645. The Pentax and Mamiya RZ have a larger negative but the Contax is little more automated and quite a lot faster.
Are there any eras of photography that particularly interests you and what are your thoughts on photography in the 21st century? Photography, like many other art forms, seems to be an ever-changing, evolving and self-imitating blob of energy. In a way, this is the most interesting era for photography as its almost completely democratic. There is a camera in basically everything. For a long time, photography was only accessible to wealthy people. Nowadays with the internet and digital cameras, everyone is exposed to and able to create so much imagery. Originality seems a little lost but its kind of just blown the lid off the idea of “originality”. Nas said “Ain’t nothing original under the sun, It’s never what you do but how it’s done” We are fans of anyone who really works hard on their craft and puts a lot of love into it. We are definitely believers in ‘Less is more’. Probably not the best philosophy in the era of mass consumption of imagery. I mean you guys are running a print publication in this era so I think we can both relate to that.
Do you use vegan developing fluid? We soak our films for 24 hours in activated Kombucha before dunking them into organic kale smoothies. Do you scout the models yourself for shoots? Are there specific traits that make you want to take someone’s portrait? A lot of the people we photograph for personal projects are our friends or people we know. Sometimes people are just cool or interesting to us. I guess we like to work with real characters but working with models is great too as they know what they’re doing. You both have an eye for texture, the sea image is beautiful and reminds me of Wolfgang Tilmans, is he an inspiration for you? Who else’s work do you dig? Lola used to be more into texture, patterns and landscapes. Pani has been focusing on portraiture but recently we started to mix it up. It’s nice that it’s two of us so we can learn from each other. Tilmans is a great artist and is
Thanks to Lola and Pani for putting hard work into their craft. Support these wonderful people: Visit - www.lolapanistudio.com Follow - @lola.pani And of course say hello and appreciate them in that there real life!
WHITBY WIDE Seagulls of snide, climb the Whitby wide As the oceans blanket, frays with the tide The wind, like smiling shards of glass shakes hands with your face And all cold is forgotten In sight of the abbey Slumping in its lacerated grace. Passers-by seek severance of sun Their clouded minds from ale Their hearts shoelaces undone A town of tumultuous bricks and happy Human wicks all learning A town of time, with an oceans spine It’s Yorkshire candle, Always burning.
WAVES I put a bit of me in the sea as I spat on the sand Then I continued to walk along the shore, Hoping anyone would speak to me, look at me – smile at me – frown at me – spit on me. The waves were enough for the last mile, They had to be.
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Artwork by Jason Brown
Ahh Daryl Dominguez, he’s kind of like a margarita, very approachable, nice looking, polite on the social palate but also bares the ability to get undeniably gnarly depending on the circumstance (skateboarding that is, I’ve yet to see him be a dickhead). Travelling seems pertinent to Daryl’s lifestyle and over the last year in particluar this true player has been making use of the planet by exploring a shit ton of it most would never get round to witnessing. There’s always something to admire about the people who do and don’t just say, so we thought we’d get him to give us an insight into some aspects of the international roam under key topics. The boy delivered and we’re honoured for him to grace the pages of this magazine. Keep paving your path Daryl, it’s looking dope! Introduction by Guy Jones Photography by Cameron Markin & Marcello Guardigli Illustrations by Martyn Hill
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at the desk to give me 5 minutes to run half way across the airport to go get it. Thankfully it was exactly where I left it. One time in the basque Jordan (Thackeray) couldn’t afford a sketch book so decided to use the blank pages of his passport as a canvas for his anime/ Carve Wicked/ triple swords artistry. French border control were far from hyped and nearly didn’t let him in the country. Transport
Passport I’m generally pretty good with passports. One time I left my passport on a seat in the airport, woke up from a nap realising my gate was nearly closing so got up and just started steam boating towards my gate. Get to the boarding gate and had to convince the woman
Ollie Photo: Markin
I don’t mind a sleeper bus, those things are quite a jam! You’ll have blankets and pillows so you can just put your headphones in and chill. If you have trouble sleeping theres always valium or xanax which can be purchased over the counter at most pharmacies across South East Asia for pennies, no hustling 4 for a tenner here. Riding a motorbike through Vietnam has got to be one of the best transport experiences ever, pure freedom. You don’t even need a licence.
Ride On 50-50 Grind Photo: Markin
Points of interest Theres always that bait shit you see travellers rocking, lets call it a ‘first time backpacker’ checklist: A shirt that says “same same but different”, a pair of elephant pants and way too many bracelets. I’m certainly not hating but its so easy to find funny. In Australia ‘shooies’ are a thing - its essentially pouring your pint into your shoe and downing it. Ozzy’s are fucking loose!! Cuisine Out in Asia I’ll predominantly live off local street food. Within South East Asia for example you can find a vendor at 3 in the morning down an alleyway selling Pad see Ew and Pad Thai for the equivalent of 80p. No waking up hungover in the morning with a belly full of £8 Kebab. Expenditure is significantly lower and way happier on the wallet. People make a humble living off of street vending, fruit is
everywhere and fresh. In major cities you can eat healthy for very very little. I’ve gotten the most savage food poisoning, not from food but from dodgy ice. Be super careful when you drink anything with ice in it. Some people freeze random street water as well as use rusty propellers when chopping Ice. Thats my 2 cents, careful of that shit or you’ll be spewing out of both ends for 3 days.
Climate I’ve been on trips to Vietnam and Thailand that were your typical pile into a van and travel up the country type trip, skating things along the way. Those were intense, skating in 35 degree heat and humidity in direct sun. My trips after have been based in the night time, hence the inception of ‘Nocturnup’. Locals The Skateboard community is an absolutely beautiful thing, its own language in many ways. An easy mutual outlet to make lasting friends and see a city or town with local knowledge passed on. I always try and interact with locals. I always swing by Bangkok when I’m in Asia, I have a sick group of homies there so there’s always heads to skate, party and
Frontisde Kickflip Photo: Marcello
get boozy with. When I go somewhere new I just hear names from people, literally just word of mouth, I’ll hit them up and most of the time it works out. You end up making a wealth of connections everywhere you go and skateboarding is at the root. Authority Security is hit or miss just like anywhere else. Some will be into it and some won’t, some are respectable and reasonable and some are gonna be dicks. The law is very strict out there concerning particular things, you gotta bun on the super down low, particularly in big cities. In Thailand or China for example its pretty next level, you can get arrested or even deported for having a little chronic on you (thats obviously if the police can be fucked with that). The boys picked up in Hong Kong
Hippy Jump Photo: Markin
and you had to call the guy and he would meet you at a specific time on the corner of a specific street, if you weren’t there when he pulled up that’s it, no deal. As covert as it could be. Budget South America and Asia are incredibly cheap places to travel. I’m no stranger to the low budget backpacker hostel life but I never really fuck with that rhythm for too long. All my lasting hook ups have come from skateboarders, that ever expanding family. You get a more culturally rich experience that way than just hanging out with other foreigners. Accommodation is free most of the time because it’s the love of skaters looking after
skaters. If you like a drink most of the beers in bars are dirt cheap which makes it easier to indulge which is obviously both a good and bad thing. It’s cheap to have a good time.
Frontside Ollie Photo: Marcello
F BY H O G U HE ES RU O T EY R H T
‘And Then There Was’ is part of an exciting new collaboration between SLOE Gallery and ‘Then There Was Us’, a Manchester based independent zine focusing on visual culture through the mediums of photography, graphic design and illustration. ‘Then There Was Us’ curate their second exhibition with ‘Through The Eyes OF Ruby’. Through The Eyes Of Ruby is a photographic journal by Owen Godbert & Ste Fletcher, documenting the current underground music scene in Britain. The images on display here were taken throughout 2017-18 & have been printed by Owen and Ste in the darkroom at Stills Gallery, Edinburgh. The project summed up so far - DIY, long trips on the Megabus, film processing in the kitchen, sneaking in gigs for free, evacuating venues, being thrown out of festivals, not having a clue what’s going on, pints of wine, The Kinks, avoiding security, beer soaked rolls of film, broken cameras and very hungover dark room days.
T Y R A ER L L GA
Mark Pritchard
Daniel Clarke
Seb Braun Jessica Ebsworth
Simon Peplow
Leo Macdonald Oulds
Nick Booton
N CH S O E Y D TH GOR BEA BO
Vans very own French athletes go swimming...First, to anticipate any of your possible interpretations regarding our destination choice, believe us, it was simply based on our will to avoid winter, while getting the chance to discover what this place on earth had to offer. We spent 10 days, staying in the Gordon beach area in Tel Aviv, escaping us for a day to Ashdod and another one to Jerusalem. The crew was composed of Joseph Biais, Quentin Boillon, Mika Germond, Johnny Purcell (Stolen from Canada, now residing in Paris) and myself. Also, after years yelling around, LoĂŻc Benoit was there and he seems to be our Team Manager and photographer still. And the icing on the cake: the weird lensman (Those guys are often weirdos in their own way anyway) Romain Batard who was recruited to make the Instafeed pop during the trip. Written by Val Bauer Photography by LoĂŻc Benoit
Quentin Boillon - No Comply Joseph Biais - Boardslide Grab In
Concerning the destination itself, I would definitely say that Israël has been good to us. Going to the beach for a swim every morning before skating on a trip is a serious gift. There’s something in Tel Aviv that I’ve noticed in the past, similar to discovering Berlin or Moscow for the first time. Without pretending to be a sociologist, it seems that the young generations, who have grown up under conflicted climates display a deep taste for living their life the way they want it to be. You can feel these winds of freedom there. Though, it was a good opportunity for us, to witness and learn more about what had been, is and might still remain one the biggest conflicts of our modern world. To be sincere, my vision of this conflict changed a little bit. I can’t help but wonder who would I have been if I were born there ? What would be my state of mind if I were Palestinian or Israeli ? I won’t write much more than this about the conflict, but I think it’s already an important point which we should think about.
Did you feel the conflict over there, and if yes, in which way? Joseph: Especially in the heart of the old city in Jerusalem. Seeing all those people sharing the same area, with the wailing wall really close to the mosque... It’s weird. Then you realize some streets are forbidden to non-muslims but also that a few blocks away you got shops that sell “Free Palestine” tees next to fully-equipped Israel defense forces soldiers. Of course you can feel electricity. I felt it while leaving the country too, at the airport, when they saw that I had been to Morocco, I had the chance to answer a few more questions. In these kind of cases, you can tell that the conflict is deeply rooted.
Mika Germond - Boneless Frontside Wallride Quentin Boillon - Hippy Jump Footplant
Val Bauer - Backside Smith Grind Johnny Purcell - Fronstide 50-50 Grind
Have you ever been to Israel before ? Has your experience been similar to the picture you had from this country? Mika: No, I haven’t been there before. I was expecting a bit of a destroyed country, searching for it’s balance and calm, mostly because of what I had heard about the conflict. But I ended up discovering a really clean, dynamic and welcoming city (Tel Aviv), especially the area where we stayed. People were multilingual and curious about the purpose of our trip. Jerusalem was more special, we were there during shabbat (Judaism’s day of rest) and we saw Jewish and Muslim people being in contact together. I can’t really tell if that was truly peaceful or only on the surface of it.
Val Bauer Backside Nosegrind Revert
What is your position regarding the IsraeliPalestinian conflict? Romain: I think that nothing is really manichean in this world. I wish they would find solutions and restore peace. I wish we would have visited Palestine, to meet people and learn about their vision from the other side of the border.
Joseph Biais - Ollie Up, Gap Ollie
What were the best parts and memories from the trip ? Johnny: There was one session on this bump to flat in Jerusalem. It was the last spot of the day then we were going back to Tel Aviv. I wasn’t skating anymore and there happened to be a bar across the street. So I just keep bringing drinks over to the session and playing music. A crowd of locals came and hung out with us too. You were trying a trick for a while, and once you got it everyone went nuts. It might have been the most celebrated pop shove it ever.
T P K U E E O C E H S KJA HID K C AC P A O L L B H B
Interview by Guy Jones Words by Tez Robinson Photography by Will Linford What provoked the collab and why a porter? It came down to our long term relationship and ex full-time employee/mate/pissed photographer legend/all round ‘Silent’ but deadly Will Linford. Will went part-time for us on the photography front at Black Sheep a couple years back now whilst he and his better half Jules started up Hop Hideout in their home town of Sheffield. From here we see Will on a weekly basis
as he treks over the Snakes Pass and around 3/4 months back in his casual manner, drops in that his missus is sorting out a collab beer for us with themselves and Blackjack Beers. With little to no more information provided by the ever known ‘Silent One’ we sat waiting patiently and confused for details to come our way. Roll on a few weeks and again Will casually informs me I need to meet him down the train arches on a soggy wet typical Manchester Monday morning as the Bru’ing is about to start. This is where I get to meet the whole friendly squad of well informed beer
makers along with Will and Jules for photography and bants. From this meeting and witnessing the bru take place the release and plan was set! So basically if you’ve read between the lines above, you’ll of sussed out we/me/Black Sheep got kindly gifted this collaboration with little to none of the graft provided by us. Seems a fitting time to say a massive thanks to the good folk at Blackjack Beers Manchester and Hop Hideout Sheffield for all their hard work and efforts making this one happen! Who designed the artwork for the label? Kindly provided by Manchester local illustrator and animator Stephen Bundy. He’s done a load of amazing work before for Blackjack, have a gander at more of his work via www.society6.com/twisteddredz Do any of you brew yourself or have a particular interest in the craft beer
community? Now this is a good one. Harry and myself at Black Sheep are renowned party poopers as we rarely get a minute to dabble in the young man’s game of alcohol. Not saying we individually didn’t put our time in back in our ‘younger days’ but with us both it’s down to families/store and a heavy work load, it’s not worth the risk of a hangover when you’re out of practice as us two. Yeah strange we did a beer collab but if you know of our ‘drinking team with a skateboarding problem’ then you’ll know we’re kept well informed with the affects of said beers. What’s the most Mancunian aspect of this tipple? The fact it’s brewed under the Manchester Victoria line, plus it’s location in a Coronation Street style railway arch and all manufactured by the Mancunian Beer rulers Blackjack Brewery! Along with the locally sourced ingredients some of which
were a part of the original bru produced by Blackjack themselves. Proper Manc through and through! Where is this limited edition beer available from and when? Currently available on tap, and served by the lovely duo Jules and Will at Hop Hideout. Also the bottles have landed for them ‘street lurking sessions’ and can be purchased via Hop Hideout in store/online. Will there be more of these in the future? No discussions as yet but never say never! With that said here at the Black Sheep Store we’re due to announce our ‘10 Year Anniversary’ in 2018, so with planned collabs and celebrations beer is bound to come into the party/picture. Keep an eye out on the ever active instagram profiles @blacksheepstore @hophideout @blackjackbeers for further developments. Who’s the biggest craft beer wanker out of everyone affiliated with the shop? Wouldn’t stretch to hipster craft beer wanker but the ‘Silent One Will’ certainly puts the effort into sample as many as possible on the daily! If this was a leading question to get the in-formidable Sexual Stu mentioned then as anyone who knows him will know he’s a straight up Stella kinda guy. Think he’d be bankrupt within the year if he ever did get into the craft varieties! And the least? As mentioned above it’d be Harry and myself being pretty much the responsible (some may boring) dad like figures. On the rare occasion I’ve been known to sample a PBR with some of the Black Sheep Family around the corner at Jimmy’s Bar, but Will and his craft beer knowledge will no doubt mock me for my liking of what’s formidably known as a watery cheap ‘Redneck’ beer Stateside.
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Faro Phiri - Switch Heelflip Photo: Leung
O T O Y H P LER L A G
Valentine Katz - Lamp Post Jam Photo: West Laurie O’Hara - Slappy Crooked Grind Photo: Leung
Dom Henry - Switch Kickflip Photo: Leung Jarne Verbruggen - Backside Air Photo: Périmony
Vaughan Jones - Ollie Photo: Leung
Charlie Birch - Frontside 50-50 Grind Pop Over Photo: Leung
T RE ’RE M S O E D N O U E H R S O E F W Y L IT
‘EY UP’ Pronunciation: Aayup Explanation: A jovial way of greeting similar to “Hi”.
Example: “Ey up pal, doing ‘owt?” ‘ARF BAKED’ ‘SPICE’
Pronunciation: Arf-Baked Explanation: A simpleton.
Pronunciation: Spice Explanation: Not the horrendous legal high, but actually a term for sweets.
Example: “Don’t let him look after yer dog he’s past arf baked.”
Example: “Me Grandad used to offer us spice when I were a kid.”
‘SUP WIER’
‘GINNEL’
Example: “Face on you, sup wier?”
Pronunciation: Gin-ell Explanation: The thin path between two houses acting as an alleyway.
‘THI SEN’
Example: “He’ll meet us in 10 minutes in’t ginnel.”
Pronunciation: Thy-sen Explanation: Yourself.
Pronunciation: Sup-wee-yer Explanation: ‘What is up with you? ’abbreviated to 3 syllables.
Example: “You can do what you like, thi sen’s off t’pub.” ‘BAHT’ Pronunciation: Baat Explanation: From the song ‘Upon Ilkley Moore baht at’ meaning ‘upon Ilkley moore without a hat’. Our lass still doesn’t understand it.
‘TOOTER’ Pronunciation: Too-ter Explanation: A nark, a grass, a snitch.
Example: “Never seen you at Hyde baht at before fella.”
Example: “Carefull what you say around ‘im, tooter last I heard.”
‘OW DO’
‘APPY CARRY’
Pronunciation: ‘Ow-do Explanation: Another term for how are you.
Pronunciation: Appy-carry Explanation: Somebody enjoying themselves.
Example: “Ow do, ain’t seen you down Brude in a while.”
Example: “He were well appy carry in’t Brude after that gobshite fucked off.” George Smith & Joe Howard int’ ginnel Photo - Leung
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