Guy Jones Heywood Ward Chris Mann Gordo
Reece Leung James Griffiths Chris Mann Leo Sharp Joel Peck Veliko Balabanov Maxime Verret Chris Johnson Rob Galpin Rich West
Hannah Martin Jeremy Jones Rob Mathieson Oliver Macdonald Oulds Melissa Kitty Jarram Seb Braun Adrian Stafford Max Whetter Katie Trick Ricky Davidson Harry Whitelock
Front Cover Photo: Joe Gavin - Switch Frontside Noseslide - Reece Leung Artwork: Jeremy Jones www.vaguemag.com vagueskatemag@gmail.com Instagram @vagueskatemag
This issue's Preaching To The Converted wasn't intended to be this posthumous, well you hope it never is do you? There's been some terrible tragedies that have affected so many of us over the last 6 months, whether we've directly known the heroes who have left us physically or if they have made an impact on us intentionally or otherwise. In most recent events Ben Raemers chose to leave us and as with anything of this magnitude it pains us to know that anyone is suffering that much to take their own life. However the seed that those have planted in us makes them live through us and we owe it to them to make the most of our lives for us and those around us. The cover of this issue is a direct homage to Chris Barrett, another legend who unfortunately also chose to leave us. Chris bashed out an incredible smith grind on the same rail featured which inspired Joe Gavin to leave his mark on it with a Barrett board to boot. This in turn inspires us to live to the fullest, not just for ourselves but those who can no longer do so. Not only this but we must share, talk, progress and love each other more than ever and prove our collective strength in such a difficult time. Love you so fucking much Ben, Chris and everyone before, during and after. We cherish your impact and shall do you all proud!
Daryl Dominguez - Frontside Ollie Photo: James Griffiths
Based in Amman, Jordan, 7Hills is a non-profit organisation working to unite local and refugee youth through skateboarding philosophy. For the past 50 years, Jordan has been regarded as a safe haven for refugees from neighbouring countries. Today Jordan plays host to 57 nationalities and holds one of the top 10 largest refugee populations in the world. Despite over 70% of the Jordanian capital’s inhabitants being younger than 30, there is an immense lack of public spaces and free recreational outlets available for the city’s youth. In 2014, in a response to the scarcity of safe public spaces in Amman, the 7Hills team partnered with Make Life Skate Life to establish a community building project. After raising $20,000 in an online crowdfunding campaign, a group of international and local volunteers transformed an abandoned 650 m² area of downtown Amman into Jordan’s first skatepark. In 2016, 7Hills launched today’s skate programme for the local and refugee youth. Every week, the skatepark sees over 150 participants consisting of Jordanian locals as well as refugees from Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Palestine and Yemen. With skateboarding as a tool, the kids are uniting to break down social, political and cultural barriers. We sat down with 7Hills founder Mohamad Zakaria and Programme director Kas Wauters in Amman to talk more about skateboarding in Jordan, the 7Hills project and their plans for the future. Interview & Photography by Chris Mann
For those who aren’t familiar with Jordan’s geopolitical positioning, let’s kick off with explaining how the country is situated in relation to surrounding middle eastern nations and how this affects Jordan? (M) The geopolitical situation is very complex. Put simply, Jordan is surrounded by wars and conflict zones. We have Palestine and Israel to the west, Syria to the north, Iraq to the east and Saudi Arabia to the south. With its current borders, the country was established in 1928. I think it was of strategic interest for Britain back in the day. The country is landlocked with minimal natural resources, Jordan is actually one of the poorest countries in the world when it comes to drinking water. Today It seems as if the whole country is becoming a buffer zone for people migrating from conflicts.
run today didn’t come about until 2016. What was happening in those first 2 years and how did the current programme come about? Between 2014 and 2016 there was one class that was running but it wasn’t really sustainable. The project was led by Make Life Skate Life and they tried to implement a programme. Kas (Wauters) joined in 2016 and we started a legitimate skate programme which is still running today. (K) My initial start was through Make Life Skate Life. I was reaching out to different organisations that worked with skateboarding and Make Life Skate Life were like yeah, maybe there’s a need for a programme for 7Hills in Amman and that’s how it started.
As a result, the present population of the country is very diverse. You have original Jordanians and the Circassians who travelled here through the pilgrim line to Mecca and ended up settling in Jordan. Then you have the Palestinians who migrated to Jordan after 1948. More recently, as a result of neighbouring situations, you have Syrians and Iraqis, as well as large Sudanese, Yemeni, Somali and Libyan populations. With this influx of migrants and refugees you also have nongovernment organisations, charity workers and expats making up a fraction of Jordan’s population too. How does this neighbouring activity affect Amman specifically? (M) Amman holds most of the country’s population and takes most of the refugees that surrounding countries produce. There’s a lot of pressure on the city for development, with other cities being somewhat neglected by the government. Amman is seeing a lot of migration happening very rapidly and so the city is very reactive instead of planning ahead. The city lacks a lot of infrastructure including public spaces and public transportation, it’s very challenging. On the other hand, the social fabric of the city is changing rapidly. We have these different groups of people from everywhere bringing their own culture, enriching the city in a way. The city would rather provide more fundamental infrastructure such as water for the rising population as appose to public space and this is where 7Hills comes in. Small changes make big differences in Amman and we’re taking a community approach to fix the problem with public space. The 7Hills park was built in 2014 with the help of Make Life Skate Life. However, the programme you
You hear about so many great projects with skateparks being built in cities like Amman. However, maintaining and sustaining the scene and longevity of these parks is a bigger project altogether, right? (K) I think most charities responsible for building parks always try and bring a ton of boards and start a programme with the locals, however these charities are still completely voluntary organisations and often don’t have the capacity to really work on it as much as they’d like to. Sometimes it works in the hands of the local scenes, for example in Myanmar the local scene is managing the programme and the park works. In Iraq, they had a team who recently built a park with some of the guys staying on to start a programme after the building completion, it’s super important. We’re the only source of skateboards in the country and we want to give everyone the chance to skate regardless of their nationality and socioeconomic background. All the skate classes we run are free and anyone can use our boards. People that can afford it can donate to 7Hills in return for a board, which also helps keep our free classes running. For the kids that can’t afford to buy boards, we run a local youth leadership program. The idea is to basically teach these youth leaders to take care of the skatepark as well as teaching new kids how to skate. In
return they earn boards, depending on the number of classes they help out with. Given that these voluntary organisations often don’t have the capacity to sustain a programme, how does 7Hills survive financially? Who’s on board and how do you keep the programme alive? (K) Mostly through outreaching and crowdfunding for private donations, with most of these coming from individuals across the global skateboarding community. We also received a seed grant from the EED (European Endowment for Democracy). (M) Because Jordan as a country is very dependent on foreign donations, there are many NGO’s and charities working here and 7Hills falls into that bracket. The whole idea of the skatepark is that it’s a community orientated project. During the build, professional skatepark builders worked with the locals to teach them the craftsmanship of concrete skatepark construction. The money today is raised by the community and it’s run by the community, so we want to keep this vibe going. Our plan is to rely less and less on foreign donations or donations from big non-government organisations through more crowdfunding campaigns and working with local private
companies. Bigger donors are also more likely to dictate how we spend the money and we want to keep the project open to experimentation within the community. The skate charity movement is certainly not one size fits all. How does the 7Hills programme differentiate from similar charities such as neighbouring SkatePal? (M) At the core of it I think it’s kind of the same but because you can’t implement the same solution to all the problems you have, each place has it’s own set of rules and values you have to work with. I see the lack of public space in Amman not only as a challenge but also an opportunity for us. Because the park is situated in the middle of downtown it’s easily accessible from all parts of the city. The space we’re operating in is huge, it’s a 4000 square metre park with only 650 square metres currently being used for the skatepark. We see the park attract not only skateboarders but also other people who are interested in the public space. This in turn attracts even more people, resulting in other activities going on around the skatepark. It’s really important for us to showcase the value of this place to the city and show the municipal government why it’s so meaningful, hopefully pushing them to do more.
(K) With SkatePal for example, it’s so hard for people to move around in the area (due to the occupation of the land in the West Bank), that it makes the parks accessible only to the people within the villages. Because 7Hills is operating in the middle of a big city we want to make it accessible for everyone we can, including those who don’t have the money to travel to the park. The skatepark’s regulars are mostly urban refugees and locals from lower socioeconomic areas of the city. Our biggest expense is also organising buses to come to the park several times a week. These buses pick up kids from communities situated in east-Amman, on the outskirts of the city as well as the Gaza-camp in Jerash and Marka. Many skate charities and internationally renowned NGO’s rely solely on volunteers to teach and sustain their programmes. Can you explain how this is something you’re steering away from? (K) Our approach is for sure focused more on empowering and engaging the local kids and training them to teach the skate classes themselves. It’s cool for the kids to meet the international volunteers and for them to also teach, but volunteers can come and go at different rates. The current programme would die without volunteers but putting the programme in the hands of the kids makes them able to continue growing. Incentivising the kids by earning skateboards as I previously mentioned definitely encourages this. We’re also trying to create local role models in the park. For example, Sudanese people are unfortunately facing a lot of racism in Amman, however our Sudanese youth leaders are respected role models for the other kids in the park. The same happens with girls that are joining our youth leader program. It’s really important for us to show that a Sudanese girl wearing a Hijab can also be a skateboarding teacher. (M) If the programme isn’t in the hands of the locals it also increases it’s dependency on external support. Currently the park is regenerating itself. The skateboarding community built the park and now the park is sustaining and growing the local skateboarding community, hopefully paving the way for us to build more parks in the future. With that said, how important are the roles of volunteers and peers to influence the kids? (K) We rely on the volunteers as well as the international skateboarding community to see the project, spread the word and even to bring boards and product to Amman. It’s super inspiring for the kids to skate and build a
relationship with volunteers from all over the world, each from different countries with different scenes and styles. (M) We’re really trying to use it as a tool for bringing people together. Any skater would say that skateboarding has helped shape themselves and their personalities. Kas is from Belgium and he’s living in Jordan because of skateboarding, the volunteers that visit are here because of skateboarding. It’s like an extended family in a way and it’s nice to show the locals that they’re a part of this network. It’s also important to show the kids that skateboarding opens up many doors into other creative fields such as photography, filmmaking etc. It’s eye opening for them to see what the volunteers are doing off the board and get inspiration for other hobbies. The opportunity to build new networks and express themselves in new ways is super important as they develop and discover their own identities. In a part of the world often stigmatized with gender inequality, can you tell us more about the heavily attended girls only skate classes you hold and how these came about? (M) The segregation between boys and girls is super connected to the issue of public space. The only place
where boys and girls can actually interact is in public spaces. The lack of such spaces in Amman is obstructing this and the girls become almost alien to the boys as a result, it’s something I’ve experienced first-hand. We work with a local NGO to incorporate skateboarding into the activity programme they run for local and refugee girls. Skateboarding is the only activity from this programme where both girls and boys mix, even at school the two sexes don’t really interact. I think having the park in an accessible public space helps break down these gender barriers. (K) It’s for sure a new thing for the girls to interact with boys during activities. It’s super important for us to create a space where the locals can learn how to interact with each other, regardless of gender. Both the girls and the boys are now super comfortable with each other. But even some of the youth leaders who’re now teaching their own classes found it quite strange to hold hands with girls at the beginning. We had to educate the boys to share. For example, if the girls are skating, we’d make sure the boys know they have to wait to use a board. It’s essential for us to teach the boys that the girls have just as much right to use the park as them. As a result, the girls are using all of the space the park has to offer.
With the park now an established point of reference, the locals are also taking to the Jordanian streets. Given you can’t manage street skating in the way you can the skatepark, how do you get involved and nurture skating outside of the park? (K) This is one of my favourite aspects of the project. We organise and pay for transportation, encouraging the kids from the park to join us after classes and skate different areas of the city. At the same time the locals are sort of discovering it for themselves, it’s really cool to see. I recently went back to Belgium for a couple of months and when I came back the locals had taken it into their own hands and were street skating every day! (M) Street skating is redefining the locals’ relationship with the city, they’re seeing a challenge and opportunity in everyday objects and viewing the city in a completely different way. All skateboarders have a special relationship with their cities and because of this, they know a different city to everyone else. Currently doing the rounds across the Internet is a photo of Tony Hawk with his hands on a framed 7Hills photo! How did the birdman catch wind of the project? (M) There’s a film currently being made about 7Hills (@7hillsthefilm) and the director Jesse Locke has connections with Tony Hawk, I think he knows his wife
or something. He sat down and interviewed Tony Hawk about skateboarding, skateparks and projects like 7Hills. After the chat, they ended up getting a photo of Tony Hawk holding a framed photo of one of the local girls from the park. It did the rounds on the Internet and everyone here was super stoked! Projects like 7Hills grab a lot of people’s attention, partly because of their geopolitical context. Particularly they attract other skateboarders who pursue creative hobbies such as filmmaking and photography. How do the locals/kids respond to this kind of ‘media attention’? (K) It’s important for us to involve the locals in everything that’s happening in and around both the park and the programme. We push filmmakers and other creatives to involve the local guys in the production process of their projects. With the 7Hills film I just referred to, one of the local skaters was the translator, another local was helping shoot B-roll footage and they’re both being credited in the film as a result. We’re encouraging the locals to help out, gain experience and even get them some paid work out of these opportunities. Skateboarding in Amman seems to be well received by many different cultures as well as the parents and the community. What do you think makes skateboarding so accepted here? (K) The parents of many locals don’t really know what skateboarding is, it’s a new thing to many people and viewed more like play as opposed to a conventional and competitive sport. If we were pushing football I don’t think the parents would be as accepting, cooperative and supportive as they currently are. For the families, the park is a place to relax, socialise and have some time off from the kids whilst they skate. It’s a small aspect but it’s super important. The skatepark is also so welcoming in contrast to the other more discriminating spaces in the city. The
Sudanese refugees in particular were afraid to go to other public spaces because of racist comments etc. At the skatepark, the kids are identifying with each other not as ‘refugees’ or ‘locals’ but simply as fellow skateboarders. (M) At the end of the day I also think it’s down to the fact that skateboarding is just fun. Failing is a huge part of skateboarding, you fall, you accept it and you learn from it. This doesn’t change if you’re a boy or a girl, black or white. Everyone experiences the same thing. In organised sports failing isn’t as welcomed and it’s more like ‘oh, he’s a better player…’. Skateboarding is a humbling experience really. With the skateboarding scene continuously growing and community becoming ever more involved with the project, what does the future look like for 7Hills and what projects do you have coming up? (M) Our future focus is certainly on public spaces and using skateboarding as a tool to bring the community together. The big vision for us is to get involved in renovating more public spaces in Amman like we have at the skatepark. We’re constantly experimenting and learning as many lessons as we can, to implement skateboarding into other spaces and in other ways. We believe simple changes such as incorporating skateable architecture into existing public spaces will have ripple effect repercussions for both skateboarding and the general public. We’re also looking to develop the existing space around the park to further cater to the families of kids as well as encouraging other community activities and sports. Thanks to all the local kids, the international skateboarding community and all the volunteers. We’re always looking for new volunteers! It’s a cool way to travel and get involved with our upcoming projects. Drop us an email: volunteer@7hillspark.com Follow 7Hills on Instagram: @7hillspark
JZA Jones, the person who makes the word ‘style’ seem underdressed. We’ve been meaning to do this interview for a while, not only because we’re huge fans of the double J, but the man has so much to him that he will never brag about, despite being so rich in talent and personality. A face that you’re always stoked to see and someone we’re proud to grace these pages. Big up Jeremy Jones!
Interview by Guy Jones Photography by Reece Leung Artwork by Jeremy Jones
Pole Jam
Hippy Jump Milton Jones
plotting it’s escape. I’ve near enough had it shaved off now. It’s weird how caps are addictive to wear. Theobalds was a great time and it was a privilege to be a part of it. Big up Craig and all the gang.
Yes Jeremy, do you remember the first time we met at a house party in Surbiton? It seemed the more your friends complimented you, the more modest you became. Is this usually the balance or is it like a ‘Gremlins’ scenario where if you get complimented after midnight you become an egotistical maniac? Yes Guy, that night was well good. Reece was there too right? I’m sure it was after midnight by that point but my gremlin alter-ego lay dormant because I hadn’t been exposed to enough Polish lager. Reece was there yeah! I think it’s through being so sound that you simultaneously rode for and filmed with Piilgrim, Serious Adult and Theobalds (RIP). All fabulous companies but I always liked to imagine you going out skating then turning a corner and all three crews would be waiting to go skate with you. Did this ever happen or do you spread your time more efficiently than a shit sitcom where the lead organises three dates on the same night? Yeah that kind of situation would happen every now and then but the people involved in those companies are good pals so it would always work out. My work schedule can be quite random and change last minute so double booking would happen a bit. I bought a little diary for my skate dates at one point, didn’t last long before I drew all over it though. The easier option of course was to get sucked into the vortex of skating Southbank. Your loyalty to the brands is very admirable, as soon as Theobalds retired out of the game (and they should be very proud of what they achieved) you took the caps off to reveal probably the best hair cut in skateboarding. Did the lack of headwear provoke this or is it a chicken egg situation? (Laughs) I don’t know about “the best haircut in skateboarding” but yeah it was under the cap for a bit
Your artwork is rated very highly at the Vague camp, from the textures to the character references. Could you tell our darling audience your preferred medium and how you got into it if you’d be so kind? Thank you mate. My preferred mediums at the moment are spray paint and acrylic paint pens, usually on canvas. I like the way you can layer things on top of each other and keep building it up. I was into drawing from being young. Copying characters out of the Beano and stuff. Then later on in school, me and a couple of friends got into drawing graffiti pieces. When I was old enough to get the train up to Waterloo to skate Shell Centre and Southbank, I would be looking out the window looking at graff pieces which made me really want to try spray painting. I think it was that book “Concrete to Canvas” which had in it people like Vaughan Baker, Dave Dixon and Yakahead - that got me more inspired to work on canvas with paint pens. I was also doing loads of work on griptape. After a while it wrecks the nibs of the pens though. I do a lot of work digitally nowadays but I can’t stand looking at a screen for too long. I always try and even it out with working on canvas or paper. My mum is an illustrator so she has always been really encouraging. She can also be kind of critical at times which is really important too. It seems like there’s rich inspiration from decades of illustrated characters ranging from Top Cat to
Frontside Nosepick To Fakie
Hey Arnold, with a plethora of other iconic cartoons. Research must be the best for this one and as a fan I feel particularly smug if it’s a niche reference. Yeah finding new inspiration is fun. Often I just get lost watching the cartoons. Sometimes it takes ages to find something I want to paint. Other times I’ll see something and know more or less exactly where I’m going to go with it. Sometimes I “play it safe” with The Simpsons characters etc. and they usually sell quicker than others but then sometimes I’ll paint something more niche for my own sake - it’s those pieces that really don’t feel like “work” at all.
same time, planning it out a bit more carefully.
You incorporate these great illustrated figures in a more dark almost dystopian way, which is so fucking sick and seems to metaphor society in so many ways. Was this your intention and what’s your motivation behind it? I think the contrast is funny between the characters and the backgrounds. I also really like the nostalgia side of it - the friendly characters you know and love but seen in a different way. Some of them are more dark or melancholy than others. It’s kind of nice not to have bright, happy things shoved in your face all day sometimes. They started off as backgrounds and I would then choose a character to go on top of it. Sometimes for contrast and sometimes because I thought the colours and shapes were similar. Now, more often than not I will pick the character or scene from a cartoon and work on the whole painting at the
You’ve become more of a corporate sellout recently doing work for capitalists such as LLSB, Slam City Skates and Austin Bristow’s mum amongst other things. Do you enjoy commissioned work and is it something you’d like to do more of? I’ve actually done quite a bit of graphic design than the more corporate stuff over the years. There’s a lot of work that I don’t post, not because I’m not happy with it but because its a completely different style or it’s someone else’s idea and I’ve just put it together for them. I like doing these kind of jobs because it makes me try out a new style or it teaches me something new. However it can sap the fun out of it if you don’t have enough creative direction. Sometimes I’ll have to reset the balance by going and painting a big ugly face on a wall with a spray can.
In terms of exhibitions, have you any lined up and where have you showcased work before? Theres a couple of group exhibitions coming up that I’ll have work in. “Radiation Days” in Bristol mid July and “Still Board Shitless” in London in September. My favourite thing that I’ve had work in so far was probably the ‘Southbank Show’ that we did last year at Stolenspace Gallery. Raising money to open up the old space in the skate spot. It was amazing to have artwork alongside such a heavy lineup and the opening event was a blast.
Ollie Transfer
How did you feel about the Feedback TS art review? Pretty prestige and a lot of syllables to boot (“It’s really something: the graphic complexity of the Duchampian cubist traces and humor of the cartoon characters is perfectly balanced by your luscious and pitch-perfect color palette.”) (Laughs) yes. I was hyped when he wrote that. He’s a knowledgeable art historian and a funny satirist so it was cool to see what he thought of my work. Also, he can be pretty harsh when he reviews skate videos so it was a bit of a relief to see he had written something so nice. He’s backing it. You’ve also painted the interiors of various establishments as well which is tres dope. Have you ever hosted workshops before and what are your opinions between the legalities of skateboarding and graffiti as similar outlets with detrimental consequences by outdated laws? I’ve done a lot of odd jobs involving spray paint for sure. I’ve got Graffik Gallery in Notting Hill to thank for a chunk of that. I’ve been doing workshops and other work there for about 5 years. There we have the materials and outdoor space to teach the basics of spray painting and stencil cutting. Sometimes with clients like Google and Facebook or sometimes for a hen do or a kids party. I show my work in there sometimes too. It’s funny seeing it from an outsiders point of view. Same as with skating. I get the same cringe from someone calling it a “graffiti can” that I do from someone asking me “what’s your best trick?” Whilst mall-grabbing. The videos that you and Milton do are incredible! Do you choreograph it together and how do you decide on the location? The spots Milton has been to out
trump the locations the average skater has been to. Thanks mate (laughs). That came about a couple years ago when he did a charity gig which was sponsored by British Airways. The comedians were given two tickets to NYC for the weekend for doing the gig. Luckily for me, my siblings and mum were busy with work so it was me and my dad, lads on tour. We didn’t really know how we were going to spend our time when we got there and we weren’t bothered about doing much touristy stuff so I thought it could be funny to make a little video. A combination of stupid puns and spoofing whatever was going around in other insta clips, like the blindfolded board catching. It kind of evolved into this thing where I was skating around but my dad was showing me up by doing tricks in his own special way (laughs). The next year we were visiting my cousins in Cape Town so we thought we would do another one. I think we are going to do a London one soon. It’s cool because my dad understands street skating a bit more now and why people prefer it to comps or park skating. It’s a bit mad though, he shared the first one on his social media and I was getting friend requests from strangers with messages inviting us to their countries. Have you ever got the urge to get involved with Milton’s fabulous work (as you crack me up every time we meet) and have you inspired any of his pieces? I’ve watched him and other comedians and thought that it would be amazing to do what they do. Making people laugh on such a big scale. I’ve also seen the level of hard work that they put in and the ups and downs you have to go through. My dad still tries out his jokes at the family dinner table. My brother, my sister and I have apparently inspired a lot of his jokes. Probably more so when we were younger. I once gave him the joke - “Don’t you reckon the queen looks like a pound coin?” (sounds funnier when he
says it.) (Laughs) belter! From quick wit to quick footwork. What’s the secret to quick feet? Shaun Ryder’s reaction speed is super quick, presumably down to amphetamine use but we don’t really want to promote that if we’re honest. (Laughs) not sure mate, ask Glen Fox. Do you prefer the nickname JZA or Jeru the damaja? Did Luka Pinto come up with both and have you seen any of the originals in real life? People have been calling me those two nicknames since my first days down Kingston skatepark. Jeru actually introduced one of the Serious Adult video premieres at Parlour Skate Store (RIP) a couple of years ago. Did that actually happen or was it a lucid dream? Puka Linto only calls me by my full name: Jeremy Charles Hywel Jones.
You also ride for Landscape Skateboards and New Balance Numeric. I heard a rumour that you got on NB# because Mackey saw a silhouette of you tweaking an ollie, co-incidentally the same time there was an eclipse creating a sort of Batman-esque shadow in the moon. Is this true and what have you been working on with these sterling companies? Correct. Recently we did a little New Balance clip to coincide with the London marathon (called 26.2) which is on the Grey website. The Landscape video may just be out by the time people are reading this. FIlming for that was cool because I got to spend a bit more time skating Manchester spots and dodging rain with Joe Gavin and all the other legends up there. Thanks Jeremy! Support this splendid human by dropping him a line for some marvellous artwork at Jeremychjones@gmail.com.
It’s no secret that we reiterate the importance of community here at Vague and it always stokes us out when metaphorical transformers are created from 2 separate brands/friends/families uniting. The more we support each other the stronger we all are. In this case the mighty ShinDigger brewery and right honourable (and legendary) NOTE Shop have come together with a new brew to celebrate the ‘Double Decade’ milestone this fundamental shop has achieved. We caught up with George Grant from ShinDigger and Splodge from NOTE Shop to find out more.
Interview by Guy Jones Photography by Reece Leung Artwork by Joe Roberts & Matthew Nevitt
GEORGE FROM SHINDIGGER I feel there’s always been a DIY connection between skateboarding and brewing and the ShinDigger birth couldn’t be more DIY, from a home-brewing kit and selling brews at house parties to a professional space, did you think it would get to this? Also were there any problems brewing in this initial environment? I think we were always ambitious when we started, but we didn’t really have any idea of where that would take us. If you’d asked me at the time, would I like to be at this point after this amount of time, I’d have bitten your hand off. Although the current mindset is to never rest on our laurels. We are always looking towards the future and to progress to the next step. In terms of initial challenges of when we first started home-brewing in our student flat, we were extremely limited by the quality of the kit. We were using a basic all-grain kit with plastic vessels purchased for around £250. Brewing is as much about the process as it is ingredients, so poor kit with less control can really hold back the quality of what you can brew. Today our pilot kit is a £2,000 pilot kit imported from America with stainless conical fermentors and temperature controls where we can pretty accurately replicate the conditions of a commercial brewery. Where does the name ShinDigger come from? Also a very highly relatable thing for any skateboarder resulting in a mass decline in shorts over the decades. When we were setting up ShinDigger in 2013, we felt a lot of ales on the market had names that harked back to an older generation - think Bombardier, Spitfire, Old Speckled Hen. We believed that people our age (23 at the time) didn’t identify with these brands. We wanted our name to represent less about tradition, and more about the social element of beer. This led us to play on the word shindig, which to us means a little party of close friends. Our goal was to build a brand for the market demographic we are part of and that would feel natural to us. The identity of your brewery is very iconic and the artwork definitely reflects the extensive flavours of your output. Who handled the graphic design for this combined entity of radness? Most of our artwork is illustrated by Ben Lamb based in Chorlton who has worked on commissions for the likes of Levi’s and Nike. We have also worked with
other local artists such as Pomona, Will Berry (from AMFAS skateboards) and Kidmilk. The way we work is Paul (my business partner) and I will develop a concept, usually just through searching the Internet for stuff we like. Once we have settled on a concept, we create a brief for the illustrator to bring to life. The idea of session spaces where you can take product and combine forces with other creatives, be it artists or culinary dons, is a great one and cements a strong community aspect to the brand. What have been some of the highlights of this and has it provoked more uniting of talent? The highlight of this was no doubt our ‘ShinDigger Sessions’ at Red Bank last August where 1,000 people came down to party with us. The day played out perfectly as the sun was shining plus England beat Sweden in the quarter finals of the World Cup that day so the atmosphere was electric. We regularly get approached by different organisations asking to team up with us on events, however if I’m being honest it’s a big challenge to actually pull something off as finding spaces in the city centre suitable for day parties that fulfills all the licensing requirements is like finding a needle in a haystack. When will the NOTE x Vague x ShinDigger beer be available and where can people appreciate? The beer will be launching at the Note 20th birthday party at the Pilcrow Pub on 22nd June. We will be packaging the beer into both kegs and tallboys, so after the launch the beer will go into our local distribution which means you’ll catch it around bars and bottle shops across Manchester during July and August. SPLODGE FROM NOTE Yes mate, how’s it going? How did this collaboration come about and was it always an intention to make a celebratory brew to mark NOTE’s 20th anniversary / ‘Double Decade’? It’s going good cheers. It was Reece that hooked up this collaboration for us. We weren’t planning a brew but we are big fans of ShinDigger’s work and stoked to get this opportunity. This isn’t the first collab beer you’ve done, what was the maiden liquid and have you got an itch to brew your sen? We helped make the ‘Worker Beer’ with Beatnikz Republic when NOTE was 18 and it went down a treat. We’ll leave the brewing to the professionals and concentrate on consuming the stuff.
The flavouring of this tipple directly homages Manchester’s iconic worker beer and are my sources correct suggesting it’s got honey notes? It would have been a nice homage but the honey note idea didn’t work out. It’s more important we have a quality, delicious drink. There’s undoubtedly far too many to mention but could you give us some highlights of the last 2 decades smashing it? There’s been all the tours, premieres, parties and product launches we’ve had but the overall highlight for me is that we’ve been able to link generations of skateboarders and build this Manchester scene. Over the past 20 years we’ve gained a great group of friends from the worlds of skating, biking, art, music and fashion who have met through lurking in the shop and coming to our events.
Illustration by Joe Roberts & Design by Matthew Nevitt
Are you happy with the artwork of the label and how were Joe ‘JoRo’ Roberts and Matthew ‘Nev’ Nevitt at working together? Side note, who do you think would win in a fight? I love the label with the combo of JoRo’s illustration and Nev’s graphic design. Joe seemed completely chilling drawing our Thomas Street shop. Nev got pretty stressed with the computer stuff, he went with a pink design as we’ve got a history of having pink shops. It’s not easy to picture those two fighting. I think JoRo has been working out and he just did a 10k run so he’s probably the fitter of the two. Nev has a legendarily high pain threshold and knows how to manhandle a shoplifter. I reckon it would go 15 rounds and end in an emotional draw. The beer’s called ‘Double Decade’ as opposed to 20th anniversary which has a nice flow to say, why this alliteration as opposed to the big 2-0? I just thought it sounded cool and was a bit more subtle. I’m a bit over all this so many years of whatever on social media stuff and didn’t plan on making too much of a big deal about NOTE’s anniversary. Initially we were just going to release a new video by Joe Gavin called ‘Double Decade’ but it seems to be turning in to a bit of a party at the Pilcrow Pub now with premieres and a beer launch.
As you may have guessed from the imagery in this intro, Joel suffered some broken bones around the time this interview took place. Despite having numerous wrist breakages it’s almost less surprising that he did it off his board, as anyone who’s witnessed him shredding in the last 2 years know he’s on another level, with the rare combination of utmost modesty. You’ll see lots more of this absolute beast in the near future but all we can say is cheers Joel and stay sound as fuck! It’s defo working for you player!
Interview by Guy Jones Photography by Reece Leung Artwork by Jeremy Jones
Ollie In
Despite the downtime your productivity rate is insane! Is this because you hate talking to people and would rather skate or do the squad just get you hyped? Because I affiliate you with a range of filmers and photographers. Shit man I’m not sure about that, but the STOON boys definitely get me hyped to go skate the most. They are the crew from Kingston ways who I grew up skating with. Too many names to mention but they’re also bunch of lazy fuckers though, so I usually just hop on a train up to central and end up skating with whoever is keen. Now you’re in recovery mode, how have you been occupying yourself? I’ve definitely made an effort to try and stay as productive as I can. I feel like when you’re injured you gotta keep busy and try do shit you wouldn’t have done otherwise with your time. You gotta do something positive somehow. I’m doing as much physio as I can but I’m also getting real stoked on art again. I’ve been fucking around with some animation shit aswell. Just trying to teach myself some new things whilst I’m disabled. Yes Joel! I’m sure you’re sick of talking about it but could you tell us your current state and what happened? I definitely jumped on the Asahi free beer train as well and it seemed to almost destroy every skateboarder in South London. Yo dawg! So at the end of that night I couldn’t get back home to South West because there’s no trains as it was like 4:30 in the morning. I was on the phone, whilst skating down this road. I finished talking to my homie, whose house I arranged to stay at and that’s the last thing I remember. Next thing I know I’m lying curb side holding my leg, which is now at a 45 degree angle below the knee and dark red blood is seeping out my trousers. I can’t actually remember getting hit by the motorbike, because I hit my head pretty bad. I was knocked clean out, also managed to split my eyebrow open and chip some teeth in the process too. Luckily the guy who hit me called the ambulance and eventually it came. They gave me some pretty potent pain relief and that’s that. I can’t remember anything else, probably for the best. The next day I had a 6 hour operation and ended up staying in hospital for 7 days after. They gave me what’s called an ‘intramedullary rod’. So they pretty much put a big bolt through the inside of my tibia (shinbone) and it’s held in place by screws at the knee and ankle. Not the one.
Southbank has kind somewhat of a mecca for Kingston skaters like yourself, why is that and
Wallie Melon 180 Fakie Nosegrind Frontside Tail Stall
Frontside 5-0
was it encouraged by Jezza Jones? I guess it just works out because Kingston to Waterloo is only one train. I reckon that everyone ends up at SB so much because it’s a convenience more than anything else. But SB is SB. It’s a vortex, you get stuck there. It’s so hit and miss. Some of the people who hang out there and don’t skate suck. Also sometimes you feel like a zoo animal because of the people watching and taking pictures, but then it’s also my favourite place to skate, there’s such an endless amount of ways to skate it and how can you not get stoked there when you can watch someone like Jezza, Foxy (Tom Fox) or Twiggy (Cam Gooden) cruise that place all day. You know they’re all Kingston OG’s too. How did you and JZA Jones meet and was it through a shared admiration of cartoon funnymen and have you always been obsessed with young Bartholomew Simpson? I’ve known Jezza pretty much since I started skating, he was always the ginger guy with steeze from the older lot of Kingston heads, everyone tried to skate like him back in day. Man, Kingston has had so many gnarly skaters come and go through the years, Aaron Sweeney was the champ though. But yeah man it’s pretty hard to not love The Simpsons right? Not sure why I got stuck with Bart though, I think it’s because I used to look like the picture of Bart someone made into human form, if you know the one I’m talking about. (Laughs) yeah that’s sick! Southbank is as wild as it is eclectic and the gnarl range fluctuates on the regs. Have you got any good tales from the undercroft? A lot of shit goes down at SB on the regular, I remember one time I was trying to film a line, next thing I know a bunch of dons in balaclavas rolled in with knifes and robbed basically everyone for their phones, weed and money. Whilst all this was going down I just kept trying to get this clip and they didn’t even come near to us. But Austin (Bristow) had his bag with over £1000 worth of camera equipment right there and they didn’t even look twice at it. Dumb guys. I heard the reason you shave your head is because you used to have dreads back in the day, is there any truth to this? (Laughs). Man I wish there was truth to this, imagine me rocking dreads back in the day. I did used to have Illustration by Jeremy Jones
Heelflip
super long hair though.
but Tom Delion is the GOAT.
Didn’t you used to make pizzas at festivals for a while? There must have been some good stories from there? Ever put M-CAT as a topping? Working at those festivals is always chaos, because you’re in a van with a huge 500 degree pizza oven, every time you do a late night shift all these zombie looking people start to appear and slowly start gravitating towards the fire in the oven, usually gurning their faces off, it’s definitely a sight to see. Not sure about M-CAT though but definitely there have been some intoxicating pizzas made.
Have you ever met Fenton the dog star who chased the deer at Richmond Park? Yo, so many people claim to know that guy, unfortunately I don’t, but I feel like I’ve seen him though.
What is the funkiest thing about Kingston and is there a lot of pride regarding ‘The Good Life’ there due to it’s filming being in Surbiton? There’s no good life in Kingston. You got on the HUF UK team around a year and a bit ago and have been on a few missions around the UK, how has that been and who’s your secret best mate on the squad? Going on missions with big Jim and the HUF boys has been the best, shout out to ‘Out of Step’. Everyone is hilarious in their own way. Everyone kills it as well. When everyone gets together there’s such a large amount of stoke it’s so sick to watch. Such good times
When you got the cover for our fair magazine whilst filming for ‘Indecent Exposure’, was that your first published photo? Henry Kingsford’s first published photo was actually a Document front cover which is so rad. That’s so sick, I was so stoked, it was my first mag photo and that Vague event was so sick, I remember walking in and seeing Nelly and the first thing he said to me was, “Yo Joel why the fuck are you on the cover” I was mad confused (laughs). That same night when the ‘Indecent Exposure’ video ended Korahn got gassed and the table he was sitting on just exploded somehow. He must of took like 4 people down with him. You guys are the best. Love you more Joel! What’s in the pipeline my man?! Hopefully some more HUF stuff coming up around summer time, but right now I’m just tryna’ walk man...
Ollie
Melissa Kitty Jarram
Seb Braun
Adrian Stafford
Max Whetter
Katie Trick
Ricky Davidson
Harry Whitelock
Adrian Stafford
There’s something about certain individuals where you only have to mention their name to someone else then the emotions and aura of the reaction surpasses any words they respond with. To say Lois is one of these individuals is an understatement. It’s almost as if bastards and fascists exist because they didn’t want any positive traits, so she re-homed them, but we don’t blame her for bad people, rather the opposite. It’s not her fault she got the positive traits they lack. This only benefits those around her and anyone who has spent time with her so knows how truly special this person is. Love ya forever Lolo!
Interview by Guy Jones Photography by Reece Leung Artwork by Oliver Macdonald Oulds
Lien To Tail
Yes Lois! What you saying right now, are you in Morzine and would you say it’s the French equivalent of Bradford? Hullo! I’m coming to the end of 6 weeks back in England. Morzine is definitely nothing like Bradford. You seem to jump between there and West Yorkshire, what brings you back to Blighty and how important is it to have this balance? I work as a sports massage therapist in a mountain resort, so my client base is linked directly to tourism. During inter-season periods I have no work so I come home to catch up with people, dote on my dog, binge on music events and earn a few pennies grafting with my pops. I’d say it’s more disjointed than balanced though. You seem to utilise both areas for their terrain. Have you started climbing out there as well? Because skateboarding, snowboarding and yoga (amongst lots more) simply isn’t enough? Although I bet you did some less official climbing in Bradford in your youth no doubt? For sure, I love being in the great outdoorsand try make the most of it wherever I am. I have climbed on and off for about 5 years now, I’d do it every day if my body and location let me. It’s sorta similar to skateboarding in that it is super social and can be shared with all groups and
abilities, it’s physical yet also mentally challenging and it can be scary and dangerous. I love the fluidity of the movements, it feels almost meditative when aligned with breathing. I haven’t been able to push myself with skating, cycling or yoga for the past few years due defective hips but I’ve been trying to stay as active and mentally stable as I can by getting outside and hiking about. Taking it back, you grew up with 5 brothers right? I’m sure I remember you telling me a story about how you used to gel your hair like them as a kid which is so steeze! How was this? 4 lads 1 lass. My poor mother got cheated out of a ‘proper girl’. (Laughs) I’ll have to show you that photo! I was jealous my brothers got to use that brightly coloured, bubbly hair gel that came in big pots. You’d get to stuff your hand into the jar and scoop out great handfuls. I basically didn’t know there was a difference between girls and boys til I was about 10. I always wondered why I never got put on the ‘skins’ team at football training. Even now I refuse to acknowledge gender norms and this can be quite confusing for some people. Kids often ask me if I’m a boy or a girl and once I was landscaping with my dad and an old fella exclaimed, “That little boy works really hard!” How long from starting skating did you become part of LBP (Liverpool, Bradford, Preston super team)? I started skating when I was 15 and met the Bradford contingent of the LBP about 8 months later, I started jumping in the van to Rampworks every Wednesday night and there I got to skate with the Liverpool and Preston members. I was blown away by how gnarly and nice everyone was, I still am. The Night of the Living Dead events were a highlight of those days, I’d never seen anything like it! Pigs hearts, fireworks and cans of beer all thrown into the bowl whilst everyone tries to skate it at once! The first skate trip I ever went on was to Livi with Frosty, Icky, Dougy and Rich I guess you could count that as my inauguration into LBP. We stayed at Ben Leyden’s house and he passed me down one of his Kill City boards, I was buzzing!
Frontside Feeble Grind
Since you started until pretty much the last few years the exposure of skateboarding has finally started to level out away from predominantly just men (straight men at that) and whether you want to take responsibility for it or not, you’ve had a huge influence on this. Has it changed your approach and would you recommend events such as Pushing Borders? Things have changed massively in the 18 years since
I started skating. I was lucky enough to start skating when skating wasn’t cool therefore still more of a subculture and one that welcomed strays and oddballs. I never had any really negative experiences but I know not all individuals and minorities have had the same experiences and therefore it’s important to create safe spaces within skateboarding so that it’s accessible to everyone. We did have to work to ensure there would be female categories at contests and events and we had to work even harder to get any prize money, it was hard to promote the events we organised without a platform like Instagram for visibility. I’m proud of how much more of an inclusive space skateboarding is now. I’m happy to see more women enjoying the freedoms and fuck-you’s of skateboarding. Pushing Boarders blew my mind, it was so rad to have an academic conference on skateboarding, to have skateboarding subject to analysis and deconstructed through models applied other social constructs. It was crazy to sit there and listen to Elissa Steamer, Louisa Menke and Jamie Reyes and hear them relay narratives that were so similar to my own experiences.
Ride On 5-0 Grind
At first when I lost one of my teeth I was a bit worried but you inspired me to embrace it and I feel like it’s given this middle class white boy a punk edge. How did you lose yours and what’s the secret to making it look so stylish? (Laughs) punk is a state of mind Guy and you’ve always had that! I fell on my face skating the SoulBowl at Download festival when I was 20, in the end the tooth had to come out and I was given a denture to wear. I hated the denture it was always in and out, lost, thrown away, thrown up, laughed out... proper nightmare! I stopped wearing it and at first I was really self conscious about it but it actually works well as a bullshit filter, if someone is going to judge me for how I look then I don’t want to be pals with them anyways.
Where did the passion for cider stem from and is it always going to be above beer in your opinion? It’s not a choice, lord knows I’ve tried, but I just don’t like beer. Why would anyone choose cider over beer when skate events always have free beer not free cider!?
In the same ball park, your outfits are always on point! Where do you find these gems and do you benefit from travelling so much to find these rad garments? (Laughs) thanks! I do think that the way you choose
According to our extensive team of researchers you have a first degree in African studies, is this true and got any good knowledge to pass on? Ah yeeand done absolutely nowt with it. It was an interesting course and really interdisciplinary, which
to dress can be a nice way of expressing yourself but I am really against fast fashion. It is terrible for the environment and for workers in the garment industry, it perpetuates consumerism and an unhealthy obsession with appearances. I hardly spend any money on clothes, it’s all hand-me-downs, freebies, the odd eBay bargain and plenty of charity shop finds, when I do have to buy essentials I try to shop responsibly and to support friends brands and bands.
Backside Tailslide
was great at the time but made it really hard to decide where to go with it. Development was the most obvious direction to go in but I felt I didn’t know enough about the workings of the world and I didn’t want to be a ‘white saviour’ and try to ‘fix a problem’ and actually make things worse. Anyhow, after 4 years of college and 3 years of Uni I was ready to have a ‘break’ from studying and go skateboarding. I am stoked with all the skateboarding for development initiatives that are happening across the globe now though and I’m getting around to being involved in one. How long did the tattoo on your forearm take to get finished, the poor fella was missing an arm for about 4 years wasn’t it? (Laughs) Olé Guacamolé! Danger Mike started that when we lived in Greenwich 4ish years ago... I finally got his arm finished last summer. Swapped a tattoo for a massage, I love the trade and barter economy.
London. I was thoroughly dishevelled, odd shoes, dirty clothes and a stanky hangover. I was not in the mood to party but when I saw Ben’s cheeky face at the bar I was in. Every moment spent around Ben had me breathing in the air around him in the hope I might become a little more like him. We ended the night cycling Boris Bikes around East London wearing dressing gowns and chain-smoking fags. We are all going to miss you so bleeding much Ben. What are your plans for the near future Lolo? Make the most of summer back in France, try spend loads of nights out under the stars and try not kill myself doing downhill mountain biking before coming back to the UK in September to follow up getting surgery on my hips. Never not smashing it and we’ll see you here for your speedy recovery player!
You’re also a purveyor of the sports massage. When Caradog came back from his he just kept screaming that you were a legend with extensive hand gestures to emphasise said point. How long have you been doing this and do you only do them for friends? Ever had to turn anyone away? (Laughs)! I took a course 2 years ago and have been practicing since. It’s really demanding work and hard on your body especially when dealing with injuries but it’s enjoyable and rewarding. I’ve met loads of lovely people and it’s nice making people feel better. It’s a good skill to have if you want to travel, raise money for good causes or trade services. I’ve not had any sketchy moments or weirdos which is good. I have seen lots of lovely bottoms and once drank beers and chewed the fat with someone instead of massaging them and they tipped me 30 bucks. What do you feel is the most political skateboard trick and what are your thoughts on current affairs? Saran Wrap. Sex Change. Melancholy. Bag Lady. When it comes to current affairs I think we should think and act both locally and globally. We should acknowledge and use our relative privileges to speak out for those less fortunate. I think most of us need to be less apathetic and at least get involved with environmental and antifascist organisations. If we lose our rights and our environment we won’t get them back. After the sad loss of our friend and UK legend Ben Raemers, are there any stories you’d like to share? I remember coming back from a post-Glastonbury camping trip in Wales to a Volcom music event in
Illustration by Oliver Macdonald Oulds
Drugdealer recently embarked on a European tour passing through this scissored isle for a few performances and shreddery sessions along the way. Producing rad music with your mates whilst catching some skating with the locals in between? How fucking dope is that! Imagine if more people lived their life the way they wanted to, they’d probably end up with more charisma like this incredible crew of talented heads. Cheers for the inspo laa’s and props on reinventing the wheel Kenny.
Interview by Guy Jones Photography by Reece Leung
Firstly Kenny, how long have you been a Drugdealer and do the instrument cases come in handy for stashing the goods? I’ve been a Drugdealer for almost a year now. What I use to blow is in my case.
stage would typically be my worst nightmare so skating everyday relaxed me a lot. Seeing friends, skaters in the streets and at the shows did too. It was weird signing albums instead of boards. It almost felt like a skate trip and we were playing shows in between.
In all seriousness though you’ve just got back from a European tour to promote the album ‘Raw Honey’. How was this compared to a skate trip and any good stories from the venture? Yeah... It was a different way of travelling. Pretty much a different city/country every night and just traveling for music in general. We’re working on a Drugdealer skate video, so we went into this tour knowing we were going to skate as much as possible. We would try to skate before and after soundcheck. Sometimes we skated up to 15-30 minutes before our show. Playing up on
Taking it back to the start, how did you get involved with Drugdealer? The concept of it being a co-operative (almost like real street pushers) as opposed to a fixed formation is so dope and must have lots of benefits? I was skating with Mike one day and we went back to his house to hear a couple new songs that he was working on. He wanted a trumpet on one song and I told him that I used to play. We met up the next week to play music and now I’m here. All the guys trusted me enough and gave me the opportunity to play music again and
Mike Long - Fakie Crooked Grind
grow with them. I just dove right into something really special. Mike is a beautiful song writer and he’s really good at getting the right people to get the sounds that are in his head out properly. It’s pretty magical to be around. Do you all skate? It must make tours so much fun! 3 of us do. Mikey Long (lead guitar), Mike Collins (kingpin) and I. Shags (Bass Player) skated in the late 80’s. He’ll step on a board with his boots and do fingerflips and step hops. It’s amazing actually. He’s done a couple obscure NBD’s in my eyes. Ben Schwab (rhythm guitar/singer) was one of the best professional rollerbladers years ago. Sometimes we talk him into coming out with us. It’s always gnarly too. I love all those guys. Props on the new soft wheel ‘jacket’ for hard wheels creation. How long has this banging concept been in the works, did you have to beat anyone to the production finish line and will they be available for purchase soon? Thank you! It’s been in the works for over 5 years. A lot of factory issues and the sampling process takes a long time for that concept. It was Brian Brown’s idea and his friend Jake actually made a sample in his garage. We all have just been modifying the design, testing and figuring out the best way to put it out. They’ll be out soon....
Regarding your own musical history, have you always been attracted to the brass instruments and have you been in previous bands? I was raised around a family of musicians and instruments around the house. I was always messing with them all. I started playing trumpet when I was 10. My dad would play Jazz records growing up. I remember Chet Baker, Miles Davis and Louie Armstrong having the the most influence. I watched an interview with Miles Davis where he was just talking shit (laughs). For some reason that always stuck with me. I played in school bands for years
and after high school, I was in a jazz band for a little bit. We opened up for some ska bands but we played jazz standards. That’s when I was skating more and ended up moving out of Vegas and put the trumpet away. We know from the ‘Hot Chocolate’ that you’ve hung out with Bjork. Will we see a collaboration with her anytime soon? (Laughs) I’d love to play music with Bjork... but, it would probably be another dance party if anything. What’s the musical equivalent of full cab back powerslide whilst hooning it down a Catalonian hill? Holding one note softly. Seen any cyber goths since we last spoke? Every other corner. We’re all incredibly sad about the passing of Ben Raemers and it was good to see you at Viccy Park (Now Raemers Park) the Wednesday we all found out. Did you get any good 16mm footage and if it’s alright could you share a memory of Ben? I was so grateful to be out there and feel all of the love and energy surrounding him. He truly is one of the most
Kenny Anderson - Backside Tailslide To Switch Manual
beautiful souls I’ve ever connected with. Ben’s smile, our late night talks and the way he made me feel. The way he still makes us all feel. What’s on in the future for Ken? Being present, love and awareness.
Jordan Thackeray - Frontside Crail Grab Photo: Leo Sharp
Christian Hemmer - Switch Frontside Wallride Photo: Joel Peck Mark Suciu - Switch Backside Nosebluntslide Photo: Reece Leung
Paul Hill - Kickflip Photo: Reece Leung Eddie Belvedere & Lucy Adams - Backside Wallride Doubles Photo: Reece Leung
Kyron Davis - Backside 50-50 Grind Photo: Reece Leung Dylan Hughes - Frontside Nosegrind Pop Out Photo: James Griffiths
Marca Barbier - Switch Ollie Photo: Maxime Verret Lozyo Dimitrov - Frontside Rock N’ Roll Photo: Veliko Balabanov
Dylan Hughes - Backside 180 to Switch Frontside Crooked Grind Photo: Chris Johnson Dale Starkie - Drop In 50-50 Photo: Reece Leung
Nick Remon - Ollie Photo: Rob Galpin
Rikk Fields - Frontside Melon To Fakie Photo: Reece Leung
George Hill - One Foot Nosegrind Photo: James Griffiths Sean Malto - Ride On Frontside Crooked Grind Photo: Reece Leung
Taylor Jones - Frontside Smith Grind Photo: Rich West
‘CUSHTY’ Explanation: Good/everything is OK. Possibly Romani origin.
Example: “A’say we’re cushty bro, how are things your end?”
‘SPOKANFOUR’ Explanation: To describe someone’s availability, usually regarding relationship status (spoken for).
‘ENGINE OIL’ Explanation: Savoured alcoholic beverage, preferably a beer.
Example: “S’always wise t’keep a stock of engine oil for special occasions... like that IPA I drank when I found out Thatcher kicked t’bucket.” ‘ROZZERS’ Explanation: Used to describe law enforcement.
Example: “Am still tryna work out if that lass is spokanfour.” ‘JOBBI/FULL JOBBI’ Explanation: To push the boat out. The phrase ‘full jobbi’ emphasises this more so, meaning to live beyond ones means in a moment of madness.
Example: “Ah went t’carvery other night for a full jobbi!”
Example: “Watch thi sen mate, rozzers are only over there.” ‘S’RATE’ ‘BLUE’ Explanation: A greeting/sign of mutual respect, possibly originates from mill workers wearing blue overalls.
Explanation: Literally means ‘it’s right’. Used to agree with peers in almost any conversation taken place in Rotherham.
Example: “Alreet blue, how’s tha goin’?”
Example: “S’rate tho, he giz wi one hand and teks wit other.”
‘COP’
‘YON’
Explanation: To grab hold of something (can fluctuate depending on context).
Explanation: To describe something or someone a short distance away, usually within pointing distance (over yonder).
Example: “Not often someone wants to cop a feel of my arse.”
Example: “Not too sure about yon lad over thyer, like sorta person who gets aht bath t’take a piss.” ‘GERT’ Explanation: Girlfriend/Wife, the male equivalent is hubby.
Example: “The hubby and ah gurt seem to be getting along... Is this one of em swinging parties or what?” Gordo finding out who’s spokanfour whilst dodging the rozzers. Photo: Reece Leung