North Skateboard Magazine Issue 10 by Graham Tait

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ISSUE 10

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Cover: Jordan Coleman - FS Shove Photographer : Graham Tait

CONTENTS Jordan Coleman Film Gallery Lance Dawes

Cons One Star Pro

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Jordan Coleman Photography & Interview by Graham Tait

What’s the Glasgow skate scene like at the moment? It’s really good. As much as I like to complain about it, it’s sick having Kelvingrove there. It’s nice to have somewhere you can go any time of the day and there will be someone there to skate with. Also Pyramid skate shop opened last summer which has made a huge difference within the scene. You forget how good it is having somewhere for everyone to meet up (that isn’t Kelvingrove) whether it’s chilling there at lunchtime or before skating at night or whatever. It’s pretty good at the moment, yeah! You’re working in the city but not living there at the moment, where are you based? Based in Coatbridge, about 10 miles east of the city. Is that where you grew up? What’s the skate scene like there? Yeah, born and raised. I used to skate with a bunch of older guys around where I lived when I was like 12. The skate scene was cool there at the time, proper old school kid shit building kickers from crates and plywood and fucking around behind Tesco. Just looking for anything to skate. The only skatepark close to us at this point was Livingston which we’d go to like once a year. They slowly started to lose interest in skateboarding and I started going to a recently built skatepark a few miles from my house in Airdrie. Spent so much time there when I was younger, every night, every weekend. Was it a case of just showing up at the park and skate with whoever was there? At first yeah, then met a bunch of guys who skated there regularly and would skate with them everyday. It was a really tight-knit group at the time, before the days of Instagram and shit everyone was just getting hyped on what each other was doing. Met some mates for life up there!

FS Noseslide

You mentioned your old skate mates dropped off. What is there to do in Coatbridge? What would you be doing if you didn’t start skating? Haha! Not a lot. I don’t see much of them any more except the odd time they drive past in their shit cars. Not sure what I’d be doing to be honest, probably trying to play for PSG or Barcelona... Are you a big football fan? Yeah, I’ve always been a big football fan. Since I was old enough to play I did, all the way through primary school until I started skating. I was kind of getting to that age where you have to start taking it a little more seriously when I was like 12/13 and all I wanted to do was skate, showing up to training already limping and shit, haha! My parents were pissed at the time and didn’t get it at all. So when did you start going into the city of Glasgow to skate? I’m not sure when exactly, there was a little bit when I was like 18/19 where I spent a lot of time going out in Glasgow and getting into music and shit where I didn’t skate as much as I do now, like everyone when they hit that age and discover clubs and that. So after that kind of wore off I started skating at Kelvingrove and in the city regularly; probably like two or three years ago. Glasgow has some rad spots, how hard is it to get people out of Kelvingrove to go street skating? At times almost impossible! Don’t get me wrong, Kelvingrove is sick, but I wish people skated street more. Last summer when Simie was filming for his video (SS3) it was amazing, everyone skating the city every sunny night. I guess it’s a

FS Nosegrind Bonk

good motivator when something like that’s going on to get everyone out and about.

Was that your first video part? Yeah, it was the first time I’ve been involved with something like that really, which I was pretty hyped on. You’re used to filming clips for Instagram! Speaking of which, has your account been updated to the one minute video yet? Haha! Nah actually, still waiting for that! Not sure how I feel about it to be honest, I like the 15 second limit, but it’ll be interesting when it changes. It’s definitely a game changer. It’s a good way to get footage out there on a daily basis though. How many Instagram selfie clips do you think you’ve posted? Yeah, 100% game changer. Hahaha! What, you mean of me skating? Ha, yeah, I’ve been out with you when you’ve been propping your phone up to film yourself! Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do...

FS Boardslide Nollie Bigspin Out

We saw a heroin deal go down on the street the other week. Is that an everyday occurrence in the city centre? Yeah for sure, I’ve heard that the corner one block down from where we were skating that night is the heroin dealing capital of the UK Pretty fucked up stuff on your doorstep. You kind of get used to seeing that type of stuff in the city centre at night. You just start to ignore it and let them get on with it. Got myself in a pretty stupid situation that night, my bag got stolen and I was running around alleys checking every bin and ditch to see if someone had robbed my stuff and patched the empty bag somewhere. In the heat of the moment came face to face with two junkies in an alley about to get to business and I said without thinking, “I’m looking for a bag” and they kind of squinted and were like, “...you’re what?” Then realised what I just said and got to fuck out of there. Haha! Face palm moment, looking back. I think they generally keep to themselves anyway. Glasgow used to be the knife capital of Europe too. I actually saw someone get stabbed outside the old Focus shop there. Is knife crime still a problem? Again just kind of turn away from that, thankfully never been involved with anything like that directly. I think it’s still an issue but mostly with younger people, which is kind of fucked. Whose skating gets you hyped? Man, too much to mention, at the moment fully hyped on the Euro shit, follow a lot of the MACBA guys on Instagram and seeing that daily is sick. They always seem to be one step ahead on the tech shit which I can’t get enough of. Obviously Lucas Puig and the French side too. And always get hyped on footage from NY and the East Coast, it always looks full speed and rugged as, which is pretty similar to the skating

Noseslide Pop Out

in Glasgow.

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Have you travelled much for skating? Not too much, try to get to Barcelona at least once a year and had a few squad trips here and there. Went to Paris earlier this year with a bunch of the Pyramid boys, like ten of us in a five man gaff, it was really good man, yeah. I got to spend a little time in Cologne in Germany with work last summer and met a bunch of nice people whilst skating there on my days off. I was there for go skate day actually, and there was a big Nike SB thing where hundreds of people met up at their skate shop, Pivot, and skated across the city and to spots along the way. They had a little card thing that you signed at every stop and for every mile skated they donated some cash for a new spot to be made, which the locals seemed hyped on. I would love to get to some more places in Europe for sure. Toulouse and Marseille look sick. I follow some guys from Milan online too, they look like they have a sick scene over there. Also would like to check out that plaza in Prague, Stalin, I think it’s called? Definitely need to get some more trips organised. What have you got planned for the last of the year? I’ve not really thought about it to be honest, I usually have things relatively planned out but this year seems to have flown in so far. For this year I guess the main thing is finishing this part with yourself for North! Hopefully get some stuff organised and get away again, maybe back to Paris for a bit and definitely get back to Barca. Keep the Instagram stacked up! Also need to get my act together and get moved back into the city centre with my girlfriend. What’s up with the black eye in your portrait, you been fighting? Haha! Unfortunately for the story’s sake I’ve not, I hit myself in the face with a clothes rail at work. But for this interview

Kickflip

you can say I was rolling about an alley with a team of junkies if you like. Haha!

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Lance Dawes

Interview by Neil Macdonald Portrait by Rhino

You started Slap under High Speed when you were still working for

It’s not that good really. It’s like anywhere else, but colder and

Thrasher, is that right?

wetter.

I worked at Thrasher as a darkroom tech, developing film

Well, it’s easy for you to say because you live there. It’s like

and printing, because that’s how it was back then–no digi,

people saying they’d love to go to LA, but for me it’s old

no nothing. It was actually their idea to start a new magazine.

news. It would still be awesome to go and see Scotland. You

Kinda like if you’re Girl and you’re like, “Fuck it, let’s start

guys have got so much more history and architecture and

another company.” So they wanted to start another

everything, you know?

skateboard magazine and I think they realised that Thrasher was getting old and stale. By ‘91 they were still

I guess it could be alright in that way, yeah. Going back to what you

putting Christian and Ice T on the cover. No offence to

were saying about skating every day... In the intro to the

Christian, but they should have been putting Gonz and Jason

second issue of Slap you say, “We’re skaters first and magazine

Lee and Mike Carroll on the cover, but they weren’t. I was the

nerds second”. At some point that must have changed, right?

youngest dude that worked at Thrasher, and I rode for Dog Town, and I skated every single day–skated to work and I

It never did! I can only speak for myself, but I skated ten times

skated home from work–and I skated Embarcadero every day

more than anything I did with the mag. I missed so many

too, so they were like, “Let’s get Lance to do it”. That’s Slap in

photos because we’d go to spots and I would just be skating.

a nutshell. I didn’t even come up with the name, they already

That was just an excuse for me to skate everywhere around

had it. They were like, “Yeah, we’re gonna call it Slap.” Why?

the world. The magazine was obviously what paid for me to

“It’s the noise the tail makes when you do a Lien-to-tail...” I’m

do what I wanted to do, but I skated more than I designed,

like, “Don’t you think that defeats the purpose?! Taking a vert

wrote or even shot photos. I think as I get older, photography

trick, and vert is fucking dead right now. You want to start a

is my priority, because it’s what I do. I have kids, and I gotta

magazine that’s new and you’re naming it after the sound a

eat and pay the bills. I’m not a pro skater. Pretty much the

vert trick makes? It makes no sense”. Haha! It is what it is.

entire time I was at Slap, skating was the main thing, ahead of everything I did. I wouldn’t want to tell my bosses that,

It wasn’t always easy to walk around Glasgow with a shirt that says

because they would be like, “Fuck, you better do some

‘Slap’ on it. I mean, somebody’s going to slap you soon enough

work”, but I got my work done. My work was skating. We

for that.

shot, we skated, we talked about it. That’s what we did.

Haha! That’s England in a nutshell right there. Scotland, man! Oh, even better! My grandfather is from Edinburgh. My mom’s last name is McCallum. I’ve always wanted to go back, that’s one of the few countries I’ve not been to, I’ve never been to Scotland.

I think that shows in Slap more than any other magazine. Over

Slap did ‘non-skate’ covers (and covers with all four wheels on the

here, it was much easier to relate to East Coast skating, and

ground) quite a lot better than Thrasher. Was it a hard decision to

Slap–despite being firmly based in California–had such an East

start doing that? Did it matter to you (or High Speed) that people

Coast rawness to it. You grew up in Maryland, right?

might not immediately realise it was a skateboard magazine?

Yeah, Maryland and DC. I grew up skating in my basement

A great photo is a great photo, and there were never any

when it was snowing outside. Or digging the snow out of my

guidelines as to what made a cover. But it was always

driveway just so I could skate a five foot radius. Trust me, I’ve

something that caught my eye: who was in the photo,

been there, I know, you do whatever you gotta do. I think

colours, motion, what type of font I was into at the time, what

that’s most of the world though, other than California and

was on the other skate mags that month... I just wanted Slap

Australia. The rest of the world has to suffer through climate

covers to stand out from the rest.

changes and wet weather. I’m not saying it makes us better skaters, I don’t mean that at all, but I think it makes us a

How did the transition from film to digital affect what you do? Does

little more resilient. We probably don’t complain about stuff

it make a difference how many tries somebody gets before costing

as much. If we can just have it semi-dry and semi-warm,

the photographer loads of money?

we’re happy! Shooting film or digi has nothing to do with the skating! As for Was that a mentality you consciously brought to Slap, or did it just

me, we were scanning film in the mid ‘90s, turning film into

come through in it naturally?

digital files, no different than shooting digi. Sure, there’s an aesthetic difference between film and digi, but that’s a matter

Deliberate? I wouldn’t give myself that much credit to say I

of taste.

planned it. But I’m from the East Coast, so that’s the way I looked at everything. The first thing I thought about when I started Slap was like, “Rad, I get to go back to the East Coast and show all the rad skating that’s out there”, because Transworld and Thrasher never got it right. They never saw all the good stuff that came out of anywhere other than California. That was my take on it. I finally get to show how the rest of the world looks, other than California. The late eighties and the beginning of the nineties, that’s all you ever saw. You rarely saw anything from Europe unless it was from a contest. There would be an East Coast article every eight months, so I was like, “Let’s show the East Coast every issue.” Easier said than done though.

Harold Hunter

How big have the changes in skateboarding been for

I’m thinking about something like Jaws going to Lyon recently.

photographers over the last few years? Rather than going out to a

Like, that was the best 15 seconds on Instagram for a whole couple

session, photographers are flying off to meet one dude at one spot

of days, and then that’s it.

to do one trick. You know what’s funny, is that I have the original photo of I don’t think it’s good or bad, it’s just the evolution. The

when we stayed at that hotel. It was me, Reynolds, Boulala,

changing times. Back then, even though that makes me

Tosh... I don’t know, maybe Templeton was with us?

sound really old, we were all friends and we all skated - I just

Whatever, those were the Piss Drunx days and Boulala and

happened to be the skater with the camera. And there were

Reynolds were wacked out of their heads, naked in my hotel

no filmers! I had ten years of shooting photos and never had

room, jumping up and down watching Sex Pistols videos.

anyone with a video camera around me. Which is

I’m not even kidding, I walked in my room and Ali’s jumping

amazing, because everybody always asks me, “Dude,

up and down on my bed screaming “I need heroin!” and he

where’s the footage of that photo you shot?!” There is no

fucking darts out the room, naked, running down the

footage. There was no video camera. That’s what made

hallway of the hotel screaming “I need heroin!”, and then I get

photography so rad, because it was a mystery. All you saw

a phone call from Huf, in the States, telling me that Keenan

was a still. You didn’t know anything else around it. Now

just died. That was the day. July 5th, the day after

there’s footage of every single trick printed in a magazine. I

Independence Day. The next morning we went out, and just

don’t think it’s bad though, it’s just different. I mean skating

a couple blocks down is that weird double set Hubba, where

now is so fucking gnarly. Jeez man, skating now is incredible.

Andrew ollied the double set and I think Rowley ollied out to

I’m not really one to say, “Back in the day it was so good, and

grind the Hubba. So after that we went back to the hotel, and

today it’s totally different”. I mean yeah, today is different, but

that’s when Boulala found those stairs. I have photos from

not in a bad way.

up above, from the hotel, of him looking at those stairs for the very first time. I remember him saying, “I can ollie it”, and we’re all just looking at him like, “Dude, for one thing you’re high as a kite, and even if you weren’t, you’re not ollieing that, you’re gonna kill yourself”. But that was then, and nowadays, if I’d never seen those stairs and I went there with Jaws, I would be like, “Yeah, you can do it”. Because things change. Fucking Jaws, man! The kid’s made out of rubber. It’s incredible.

Ali Boulala

His wheel got ripped off! Ripped straight off the bearings! I mean,

There must be people who you’ve been obliged to shoot, who just

fuck, if that happens, you should probably be starting to worry.

stink.

He’s gonna be hurting when he gets older, man.

Well, yes and no. There’s been people who I’ve gone out of my way to shoot because someone asked me, but for the

What do you think about skateboard media being so temporary just

most part I’ve been pretty lucky, I’ve just shot the

now?

people that I wanted to shoot or I shot my friends. I don’t want to mention any names, because I don’t want any beef,

I think back then there were only a few places to see

but there are some people that I just fucking hate, and they’re

skating, so it was a little more precious. Now, there’s

just horrible-looking on a skateboard and have no reason to

probably more skating on Instagram in one day than there

be sponsored let alone pro. Style really does matter. That’s

were videos during the entire eighties and nineties. Think

the only thing that matters. I’d rather see Alex Olson do two

about that for a second! So I think, because we’re so

tricks because it looks right than see some other people do

inundated with it and there’s so much of it, we become a

a billion tricks.

little numb to all of it. It’s like the movie Star Wars, right? Star Wars was super hyped and everybody was waiting for

“I’d rather watch Gino push”.

it. It was amazing, the biggest-selling movie ever, but guess what? After eight months of hype, it was out for a few weeks

Yeah, Gino. I’d rather see Gino or Oster or Jason Lee push

they made their billions and now it’s gone. It’s the same with

than half the people out there. Or some fucking trog grind a

Jaws, or anybody–you see all these incredible things, but ten

pool. It’s just like, “Dude, you gotta stop. Pick up rollerblading

seconds later, there’s another incredible thing–I don’t think

or something. Don’t be a skateboarder. You’re insulting my

that’s a bad thing either. If I was 15 right now, I’d want to see

senses”. Hahaha!

all the skating that I could. Who is it hard to take a bad photograph of? Dill has always been my good luck charm. For years it seemed like every time we got together we always got a good photo that we could print. You can’t really shoot a bad photo of fuckin’ Kenny Anderson, can you? Has there ever been a bad photo of Gonz? Or Huf? Everything Huf does is super photogenic. It always just looks good. Alan Petersen. I shot a ton with Van Engelen and he always looks good on a board. Or Guy! Or Koston, or Carroll. There’s just some people that look good on a board. That’s what you’re supposed to look like on a skateboard. And there’s some people that are sohorrific to me, with the worst fucking style, who should never have touched a skateboard in their lives.

Greg Hunt & Keith Hufnagel

Is it harder now for the industry, or for a sponsor, to cover up who’s an asshole? In the past, something like Danny Gonzalez telling everybody that he’s the new Gonz, and... Well you know, the thing with Danny, he wasn’t necessarily an asshole, his ego just got in the way and he didn’t know how to keep his mouth shut. I wouldn’t say Danny was an asshole, he was just kind of naive. As the story goes, he was in FTC one day and Mark Gonzales walked in, and he’s like, “Hey, isn’t that funny - you’re the old Gonz and I’m the new Gonz”. For one, being a skateboarder’s about being humble. I don’t care what anybody says, especially today where everybody wants to brand themselves, but it’s about being humble. And two, there’s the god of street skating, quite possibly the greatest skateboarder ever, and you’re gonna say that you’re basically the new version of him and tell him that to his face and you don’t think there’s something wrong with that?! You’re nuts. You’re not an asshole, you’re just nuts. Hahaha! The funny thing is, Danny Gonzalez is an amazing skater. I mean holy shit, he is incredible.

Brad Staba

I think that we, as skateboarders, are just naturally against things

Fuck, I’d probably even wear Asphalt Yacht Club gear if it meant I

in general anyway. When we started, it was because we didn’t want

could do that. I heard Nyjah’s dad was trying to sell off a load of old

to play soccer, or go out looking for a fight or whatever. We were

footage of him. Like some footage he’s been holding hostage. Do

against things.

you know anything about that?

I think it’s still like that for most kids. But I think the other side

Yeah. We went to Australia with Element when he was a

is when people get into skateboarding to make money and

little kid, and his dad wouldn’t let the Element filmers film

be sponsored, but I think we see that these days, because

Nyjah.He filmed him, that way he could sell the footage to

people can actually do that. We’re conscious of thinking that

Element. Which is really crazy. But you can’t blame Nyjah for

kids get into it for the wrong reasons, but 90% of people that

that, Nyjah was just a little kid, he didn’t know. What are you

get into skating get into it for the same reasons that you and

gonna do, hate your dad when you’re a little kid? Nyjah got

me did. Because they found it, and it was fun, and it wasn’t

a bad rap because of all that, and it’s not his fault. Now he’s

playing soccer and it wasn’t just being a fucking dickhead

a grown man and he’s doing his own shit, and good for him.

and you could do it yourself. There’s always gonna be that. I love that about skating. Music’s the same too. When you get

While we’re on the subject of shit talking; Slap still very much

into music and you sit in your room with your buddies and

exists online. Do you spend much time looking at the forum?

you find your own things to listen to and it’s great. It’s the best thing ever.

I’ve looked at the forum maybe twice. I never look at it. It started back when I was already in LA, and I’m pretty tech

Yeah. We don’t all have Nyjah’s mum to coach us.

savvy–I mean I’ve been working with computers since ‘93– but I just never paid attention to it, but then it started getting

Nyjah’s mom was like the best part of Nyjah. His dad was

big, and everyone talking about it. Like Josh Kalis and Jamie

kind of a dickhead. In hindsight, I don’t know what to think

Thomas on the forum beefing with people, or Berra or

of Nyjah. I’ve known him since he was a kid, and he really

whatever, and I’d heard about it, but I don’t care. It just

is a good dude. He means well, and he had a really weird

sounded retarded to me. It’s amazing that it’s still up and

upbringing. His dad was the ultimate skate coach, ‘cause

running and that people love talking shit on it. That’s great, I

his dad grew up with Chris Senn and Cardiel, and he skated.

have have no problems with it, but that’s just not me. I don’t

Maybe because he didn’t make it, he pushed his kid, which

care about it.

seems really weird to us. But then again, look at Nyjah now! He’s fucking insane on a skateboard, and he’s actually a

Kalis is a good dude on it man, if he gets called out or whatever,

pretty good dude. He could be Danny Gonzalez, and he’s

he’ll step up to it.

not. He’s livin’ OK! I tell you what man, if I could skate like Nyjah, I would in a heartbeat. Imagine what it would feel like

Oh, Kalis is a great guy. He is a good dude.

to 5.0 grind a 90 stair handrail?! Holy fuck, that’d be great!

Baker Boys

Have you ever had cause to focus a camera?

Have you ever been held up for a camera? Mike Manzoori was robbed at gunpoint for a video camera once.

Oh yeah. I threw my camera into the San Francisco Bay once, because it jammed. I pulled it apart and ruined the roll

I heard that, yeah. I think Leo Romero and Ortiz got jumped

of film and I was just pissed and I threw my camera in the

too. I’ve been held up before, but not for my camera. There’s

Bay. I was over it. I drove over my camera once, by accident.

a gang in SF called the Norteños, this big Mexican gang. I

I was in Canada. I put my camera bag down, and I opened

was actually walking to a bar to meet Natas and Mark Oblow

the trunk, and I was talking, and I closed the trunk, and I got

and these two kids walked up on me and one kid pulled his

in the car and put it in reverse and I heard this noise. And I’d

shirt up, and he had a gun. He was like, “Gimme all your

forgot to put the bag in the trunk, so I drove over it. Hahaha!

money” and I told him, “I don’t have any money, I’ve got

Fucking destroyed it all. I’ve had three camera bags stolen.

nothing”. So I ran into the street, in front of a bus, and almost

Two in SF. One with Carl Shipman! We were skating, and I put

got hit, and I ran around the side of the bus and up to a red

my bag down–it was the holidays, it was Thanksgiving and

light. I pulled open the back door of some car that was at the

there wasn’t a person in sight–I skated maybe ten feet away

red light, and jumped in these people’s car, and the kid ran up

from it, turned around and it was gone. Me and Carl skated

behind me and opened the back door. He had his gun in his

around the block and we couldn’t find one person in a car,

hand, and he dropped his gun. Right as he dropped his gun

on a bike or anything. I had a rental car broken into parked

the car took off, and the girl driving the car was screaming at

right outside Supreme in New York. I went around the corner

me. I was just, “Get me out of here!”, and they drove me to

to get a slice at Ray’s Pizza and when I came back the trunk

the bar to meet the guys. Then the cops came, and they took

was jimmied open and they’d stolen my camera bag.

me down to the station to identify the kid, but I didn’t even look at his face. I just wanted out of there. The cop told me, “For the Norteños initiation, they have to hold somebody up and if they don’t get money they shoot them. So you’re really lucky”. That was in SF, at 25th and Mission, back in the day. I think there’s still gnarly parts of SF. I don’t live there anymore, it’s so yuppified, but 24th Street and Mission? That’s still pretty fuckin’ hard.

Leo Romero

Have you ever used your camera as a weapon? Hmm... my camera? No. I’ve hit people with my board before. Not with my camera. We were in Vancouver, me and the entire Girl team and whoever, skating a spot at night, and some dudes and their girlfriends were walking through where everyone was skating. I think Mike York maybe bumped into them, and the dude just turned round and sucker punched Mike. Mike came and got us, and he’s like, “Yo, these guys just punched me”, so we ran after them, and... Oh yeah. It was actually kinda gnarly. Both the dudes just got beat down. Jeez. I mean everybody was swinging boards at these guys. They were just on the ground in a pile of blood. I think one of the girls took a board to the face. That shit used to happen at Embarcadero all the time. There were tons of fights because people would just walk through and talk shit about the skaters, like Kelch and Shelby [Woods] and all those dudes, and they would just have no mercy. They’d walk up to people and just cold clock ‘em right out. That’s the impression of Embarcadero and the EMB that I had anyway. Don’t fuck with Kelch. Well you would and you wouldn’t. You know what though? I always thought James was the nicest of all of them. Like if you skated, and you went up and just said “Yo” to him, he was the nicest dude in the world and he had your back. It didn’t matter where you were from or what you looked like, he was the nicest of all of them. But, if you pissed everybody off, or you were a dick to another one of the guys, James would be the first to stand up for him. James would be the first to fight, and I think that’s why he got that rep, but James was a fuckin’ teddy bear. He was the nicest one of them all. Shit, that’s great to know. Yeah! He still is too. He’s fucking great.

Phil Shao

What was the best photo you didn’t get, either because you fucked up or your camera fucked up? When the Gulf War started, there were huge protests and riots in SF, and I was just in the middle of it with my camera. At this one intersection, all these people were sitting on the ground, surrounded by SWAT teams, and they started a fire, and they put an Amercian flag in the fire. It was burning, and a big chunk of the flag went up in the air, on fire. So you had this wall of cops, people on the ground, and then a big chunk of flag on fire floating through the air. And I’m watching all of this as I’m putting a new roll of film in my camera. As I watched it I said to myself, “There’s my Pulitzer...”, and it was gone. That was it. Remember Mathias Ringstrom? The Swedish Osiris vert guy. Yeah. So we’re at a ramp, I think it was me and Brian Howard and maybe Max Schaaf. I knew Mathias, but not very well, and he came up to me and was like, “I would like to shoot a photo. Would you like to shoot a photo of me?”. And of course, like I was saying before, we’re all pretty humble, so when that happens you’re just like, “Oh dude, fuck you...” And he was like “I am going to do a front foot impossible Lien grab on the vert ramp”. I’m like, “Yeah, OK. I’ll shoot it. Whatever”. So I picked a spot down on the ground, so I’m shooting upwards, and he tries the trick once and he bails, and he stares at me the whole time he’s bailing. He walks over to me and he’s like, “No. I really don’t think you’re shooting it at the right angle. I think you should shoot it over here”. I just looked at him, like, “You’re telling me how to shoot the photo?” “Yes. I think it would look better here.” So I went over there, and he did it maybe 15 times. Not once did I ever put film in the camera. It was like, “Yeah, go ahead and do it. Fuck you”. Hahahaha! Are you kidding? You’re going to tell me how to shoot? Max was just laughing because he knew it was torturing me.

LA Riots

What’s the story behind Mike Carroll’s Photoshopped-out FTC

Did Mike or Kent care when the mag came out?

sticker on the cover of Slap? They didn’t care. You think Mike pays attention to a sticker? Oh jeez. There’s no controversy. Look, we’re at FTC. We’re

He couldn’t care less. It was like two months later, and Kent

playing around, and Mike’s setting up a board. Kent

had forgotten all about it. Hahaha! It didn’t even become an

[Uyehara] says, “Put an FTC sticker on your board and I’ll give

issue until 15 years later when someone mentioned it. There’s

you photo incentive”. Right? I’m like, “Yo, Kent! If I get him

no conspiracy to it.

on the cover, and he’s got the sticker, I want some money”. Kent’s like “Yeah!”, but it was a joke. So we went out and shot

You were racing cars for a while. Are you still involved with Bean

the photo, and it wasn’t even for a cover. But a month later

Bandits?

I’m laying it out for the cover and I’m like, “I gotta take the sticker out, because if I don’t, it’s gonna look blatantly like I’m

Bean Bandits are the second oldest racing team in America,

being paid to put people on the cover”. There were always

started in ‘49 by a guy named Joaquin Arnett. He’s passed

rumours that Thrasher and Transworld did that, and I’m not

away, but they raced in Bonneville on the salt flats. They were

fucking doing that. That’s why I scraped it off in Photoshop.

drag racers too. It’s just a really old crew of racers, and it got

That story has been around forever, and people think it was

restarted by Julio Hernandez and Fabian Valdez about 10 or

on purpose, but that’s the story. And I never got a dime. I

15 years ago to kind of revive the tradition. It’s just really a

never took any money from anybody to put someone on the

crew of friends, and we all go work on cars and race.

cover. That’s all bullshit. I know a few times nowadays people have got paid to put people on the cover, but I think it’s just different now, with all the corporate sponsors and everything. Like if Red Bull says, “Put our guy on the cover and we’ll advertise for 12 months”, what are you gonna do? Say no? But back then, no. Rad. You actually took it out to be more moral, more real. Yeah. And the thing is, if we’d never had that conversation, I would have never taken it out, it would just be a sticker. Like I wouldn’t care what sticker he has on there. But it was the fact that if I didn’t take it out it would look like I was being paid to put him on the cover. And I can’t have that.

Andrew Reynolds

I wondered if it felt strange going through photos you’ve shot of

Are you going to do a book? Either of your own work, or some Big

friends who have since passed away, but I guess it must be pretty

Brother-style ‘best of’ the mag? Or, I dunno, a novel. Just any kind

good to know you’re keeping them alive and showing them to

of book.

another generation via your photographs. I don’t know if this is even a question, but I wanted to know how that is for you. Maybe

A Best of Slap book could be rad, but that’s out of my hands.

it’s nobody’s business.

I’m working on a project now that will be tons of my outtakes and never-before-seen photos. I have it narrowed down to

Photographs keep the dead alive.

2,000 images so I still have a ways to go in the editing stage. I’ll be sure to let you know when it’s done.

Who is harder to shoot? Skateboarders or A-list movie stars? Skateboard photographers are the greatest photographers in the world- whether they know it or not. I guarantee 90 percent of the photogs in the world would not be able to shoot skating. A-listers don’t get hurt or chased by cops to have their photos taken. How did the Huf x Slap collaboration come about? I had nothing to do with that. I think Keith wanted to do something with Slap, and got in touch with High Speed Productions, with Tony Vitello, and they worked out a deal. They told me they were going to do something, but I had no idea what they were doing until I saw it on Instagram like everybody else. Haha! But me and Keith are doing something that comes out soon; I have a couple photos on t-shirts. They just had a big party for the Slap/Huf thing last Thursday in New York and they included me with a bunch of photos. I guess people equate me with Slap, but Slap’s not just me. We’ve gotta mention Mark Whiteley and Joe Brook. Those guys were the second wave of Slap and they did as much, if not more, than I did. I’m thankful to Keith that they involved me in the party with Slap, but Slap was a whole bunch of us. I would never take credit alone for Slap- It was a lot of people.

Keenan Milton

GARRETT HILL

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Windbreakers coming soon.

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