North Skateboard Magazine Issue 11 by Graham Tait

NORTH SKATEBOARD MAGAZINE

ISSUE 11

TYLER SURREY | FRONTSIDE FLIP

THE 868 ITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S A SKATE SHOE UNAPOLOGETICALLY TECHNICAL

JOSEPH BIAIS – FRONTSIDE BOARDSLIDE • PHOTO: MAXIME VERRET

Cover: Kyron Davis - FS Crook Photographer : Graham Tait

Welcome to issue 11 of North. Thanks to every single person who has picked up a copy of the mag, submitted a photo, or bought something from our webstore. Without you guys I wouldn’t be able to do this, so I really appreciate your support. A lot of work goes into planning/shooting/editing each issue, but there’s nothing I’d rather be doing. I can’t believe ten issues have been and gone already. Here’s to the next ten!

Graham Tait

CONTENTS

Sam Coady Chris Mulhern Kyron Davis

Paul Grund

Cons One Star Pro Mid

Made for skateboarding

Sam Coady

Interview by Morgan Campbell Portrait by Josh Heffernan

Where did you first witness the act of skateboarding? My neighbour, pushing up and down the street. He looked like he was having the time of his life so I thought I’d give it a go. What about photography? Do you remember the first time you saw someone taking a street photo? To be honest not really, although my parents have always taken photos every chance they got to preserve the family memories so it definitely would have been my parents that got me interested early on, even if I didn’t realise it at the time. Did it appear to be anything of importance at the time? Did you feel like these moments changed you at all? I’ve always been a collector and a hoarder so just the fact that we’ve always had albums of memories to look back on always seemed important to me. That’s part of the reason I enjoy shooting film, knowing that I’m always going to have those negatives to relate back to. How long have you been shooting seriously for? I’d say a good five or six years. What is it about the still image that resonated with you (rather than say the written word or moving image)? Sounds really corny and clichéd but I like that a photo can tell a story, whether it’s clear what is going on or not so clear, I’ve always enjoyed the fact that the person can make up their mind as to what they’re seeing and what happened before and after you shot that moment, especially in skating too, so many factors can come into play.

Jae Overton FS Flip

Were you around skateboarding (or photography) when it was dominated by film? No, I’m only 25 right now so I guess I’m kind of working backwards. Ha! I’m glad though, it’s definitely good having the digital available I think we can all agree on that. The quick in and out setups would get me, I like to take my time and set it up nice and slow. Haha! Have you ever had to shoot sequences on film? Luckily also no, it’s painful enough on the digital! Can you imagine how stressful this was for the skaters? Yeah, I certainly couldn’t handle it if it was me. I feel bad just shooting a still, “Hey, I’ve got twelve shots, don’t blow it”. Haha! Ha ha! It was stressful at times, I once had a photographer throwing wasted rolls of film across a skatepark every time I bailed. Don’t know how the tech guys handled it! So why do you still shoot so much film? To be honest, I do it because I find the whole process refreshing, I genuinely enjoy it. I’m the first to admit I get lazy shooting digital, I think everyone does. I like that you’ve really got to think about it and use your head because there’s so many things to factor in then you drop it at the lab and stress for a day or two if you really did put that flash in the right place, then you have a couple of beers while your scanning it in, and you actually feel like you’ve achieved something. The whole process reminds me of why I started shooting photos in the first place, along with the fact I like to test myself… And also relating back to that previous question, always having the negs to look back on when I’m old and boring!

Jamey Foxton FS Feeble

What do you think of when you think of ‘The North’? First things that come to my mind is cold, rough ground and a bunch of tough bastards. Haha! I noticed from the selection of photos that you submitted for North, that there is a lot of space in the photos and barely any people. For someone looking at them from overseas do you think that this is something that would be apparent? We sure do have a lot of space in Australia, but do you think that is also true about the locations we choose to skate? Is Australia a lonely place for a skateboarder? I’ve always liked photos that give me more than just the subject matter so I can try and put myself in that situation. I try to show the surroundings, especially in skating as much as I can, I enjoy trying to make the skating look like it doesn’t belong. That’s what I try to convey anyway, hopefully people like it. Sydney is known for pretty good weather, but do you think that bad weather can benefit a scene? I think Australia is lucky in general weather-wise all year round, therefore we are able to skate the whole year round so you could say we’re quite spoilt, and as for the bad weather, I guess if you’re only getting six or seven months of the year to skate, you’re going to be more productive in that time, right? Maybe we take it for granted down here? I’m not sure.

Jake Demos BS Disaster

There is nothing like a session in Scotland when the weather is good. The stoke is through the roof. They are lucky if they get a couple of good months of prime weather in a summer though. Have you ever been to the UK? Yeah, two times actually, I was young though. My parents are both English and the majority of my family lives in London. What occurs to you to be the main difference between skate scenes? To be honest I don’t really feel I can give you a good answer on that, I only know a handful of dudes that live there through skating and I haven’t actually skated there myself, hopefully one day though, a trip is definitely on the cards in the near future. Which three skate photographers caught your eye growing up in Australia? Steve Gourlay, hands down, I remember being young and tripping out on how he could make a photo look so good. Dave Chami and Andrew Mapstone also were big influences. Keeping it to three is so hard but between those dudes they have taken a lot of photos that have stuck with me over the years.

Daniel Basargin FS 50-50

Of these three, did any shoot a particular standout a piece? One you have memorised every line and every shadow from? It’s crazy to try and name one photo but off the top of my head, there’s a Gourlay photo that has always stuck with me of Jeremy Correa from The Skateboarder’s Journal, issue 16 - a back Smith in a backyard pool. In my eyes that’s the way a skateboard image should look! Haha! I’m probably going to think of a couple more after this but that image has helped me out a couple of times. Which four international skate photographers caught your eye whist you refined your skills? Oliver Barton is probably the single biggest influence and the reason why I picked up my Hasselblad in the first place. Getting my hands on those old Transworlds when I was younger with his and Mike O’Meally’s photos always got me so hyped. Those two definitely, I’ve also always enjoyed the way Sam Ashley shoots photos and I’m going to also say Allen Ying. Although once again it’s so hard to narrow it down to only four. Of these four did any shoot a particular standout a piece? Literally any Oliver Barton Transworld cover, but if I have to choose one I’ll go with the Lucas Puig cover, the switch front heel. Outside of skateboarding which photographers get you amped to keep shooting? Inspirational wise James Nachtwey, Don McCullin and Steve McCurry just to name three. There’s a whole lot more but those are the three I constantly find myself looking back over again and again at their work.

Trent Evans Pipe Ride

Any particular works from these that have stood with you over time? Any of James Nachtwey’s photos from either the Bosnian or Rwandan conflicts that he shot. Where are you living at the moment? I’m living just out of the Sydney city centre, in a suburb called Glebe. Explain this town to someone from Scotland. It’s a nice and quiet, away from the hustle and bustle of the city but close enough to everything. Good public transport, couple of things to skate, good bars and within fifteen minutes of all the spots to meet up with the boys! Haha! Yeah Glebe is rad, for all those Scots reading this it is a little like Glasgow’s West End with a sprinkling of Maryhill. So Sam, you make a living off shooting skating? No, there’s really only a small handful of people that I feel can do that. We only have two main magazines here in Oz, SLAM and The Skateboarder’s Journal and with them both only putting a couple of issues out a year, everyone’s trying to get in there.

Jamey Foxton BS Smith

How do you supplement your photography-based income? I work for Fairfax Media, a newspaper and print publishing company. I work nights so I have the option to go skate and shoot photos in the day, I’ve been doing that for about six years now and it somehow seems to work. With print drying up to a certain extent and social media smashing the net as we once knew it, what do you think is going to be future canvas for a young up and coming photographer? The Instagram canvas! Haha! I hate it, it’s something that can’t be avoided though, we all know that. Every day I check my feed and get overwhelmed by a ridiculous number of amazing photos that either can’t find a home in print or the dude just feels it’s way more convenient to chuck them up on Instagram, and most of the time it’s the latter option. To me it’s crazy, call me an idiot but I’d rather wait two, three or four months to get that one photo in print instead of having seven photos up on the web feature. But anyway I’m not saying anything new and things that you don’t already know but that’s just how I feel personally and I hope that we will always have people like Graham who keep holding it down with North and other mags alike.

Danny Gluskie FS Flip

Chris Mulhern Interview By Stephen Cox

Gallery by Zander Taketomo

How’s it going Chris? I’m good, it’s been really hot in Philadelphia recently. I’ve just been editing during the days and trying to get out at night to skate a little bit. What are you editing at the minute? I’m working on some of my own projects at the moment. I’m hoping to put out an independent video with some friends in Philly by February. It’ll probably be a little ten or fifteen minute web edit. And then I’m also working on a feature length LOVE Park documentary. It’s a huge project but I’m starting to track down people who were skating there during the ‘90s for interviews. I want the doc to be a complete history of the park, spanning the ‘80s all the way up to 2016. Tell me about where you’re from, your life growing up and how you started skating. I know you’re from somewhere outside Philly is that right? I grew up about forty minutes outside of Philadelphia and had a group of four or five friends that I would skate with every day. Back then skateboarding was not cool at all. I remember wearing Vans to school and people kind of heckling me and asking, “What are those!?” But I think that’s why I liked skating so much back then. It felt like it was my own little thing and no else had any idea how awesome it was. When I was around sixteen years old, my friends and I started taking the train into the city and discovered LOVE Park and City Hall. At the time we had no idea how significant those spots were, but I recognized them from videos and photos in magazines. It was crazy to see [Josh] Kalis trying to skate the bump to can in real life after you just watched him 360 flip it in Photosynthesis before getting on the train to head into Philly. I think today it’s pretty common to bump into Kevin Lowry MOntreal

pros at spots but back then it was something really special.

Jack Curtin

What was the culture like around LOVE at those times? One huge difference with LOVE in the late ‘90s as opposed to 2015 was the skate etiquette. In the later years at LOVE, there really was none. Back then it was a tough crowd and so intimidating to try and skate in front of Kalis, [Brian] Wenning, Pops, [Rob] Pluhowski. You learned right away that you can’t just wax up whatever you want, and you can’t get in the way. And you wouldn’t dare film. In my eyes, filming was reserved for a certain level of skating. There was no Instagram to post on and try to get attention. If you had a camera pointed at you in the late ‘90s at LOVE, it was for good reason. I remember Ricky Oyola talking to me, trying to explain the dos and don’ts. Obviously when you’re only sixteen you don’t really get it, but he tried to help me out. Later that day, my friends and I were sitting down at City Hall watching Ricky skate the long curved benches. He came up to us and said, “How you guys going to get any better just sitting around?” We all got up and started trying to skate flat ground not too far from his bench. After about ten minutes Ricky was screaming at us to get out of the way. But honestly that’s how you learn, and I think it helped all of us in the long run. Plaza spots like that have a flow, and it’s something you can easily disrupt as a naive kid. Danny Renaud was in Philly not too long ago and he had a great comment about the 2015 skate scene at LOVE Park. He said a local was going to 7/11 and asked him if he wanted a water, which is something that would have never happened in 1999. How do you feel about what’s happened to LOVE recently? It’s so sad to see the current state of LOVE. Right now the entire park is just dirt, with some granite slabs still remaining around what used to be the fountain. Not sure what’s happening with it next because no workers have been there for about a month now. For a while I was down there Kevin Lowry - Ollie Philadelphia

everyday filming the de-construction and I couldn’t believe how fast they were dismantling it. It’s hard to look at that footage.

Is the feature-length LOVE documentary something you had in the

The camerawork was on point just like the Transworld videos,

works before you knew it would eventually be gone?

but the mix of Super 8 and 16mm film throughout the skating made it stick out for me. Castrucci mixed in these weird

The LOVE documentary will be my own project and

visuals into everyone’s sections, and in a way it kind of gave

something I slowly piece together over time. I knew LOVE

you some insight into each skater’s background and their

was being demolished for a few years now, so I’ve been

personality. It felt as if I could identify with some of the guys in

documenting the newer generation that’s taken up residence

Photosynthesis for reasons other than just their skate tricks.

there since 2008. Just trying to capture all the behind the

That was lacking in skateboarding at the time that video came

scenes stuff and cool moments that have happened with the

out. And the fact that a majority of the video was filmed forty

new crew there. It’ll be an entire history from start to finish,

minutes away from me in Philadelphia was so inspiring. From

narrated by those who spent the most time in the plaza. The

that point on, my friends and I spent every weekend in the

goal is to have locals tell the story of LOVE Park, not just the

city filming and trying to work towards a project of our own.

pros. What was your first camera? The first camera I ever used was a Sony Hi8 Handycam with a clip on fisheye. I was probably fifteen years old when I began filming my friends. It wasn’t until I was nineteen that I finally saved up enough money to get the VX1000 and Century fisheye. I know Photosynthesis and [Joe] Castrucci really ignited things for you. Can you tell me about what in particular about the filming, editing and style of that video that struck you so much and pushed you? The first video I ever saw was Ravers by Birdhouse. That one was super raw, but at that age I had no interest in the filming or quality of video. From there I got into all the Transworld videos, like Feedback and Modus Operandi. The filming and editing in those was much cleaner, and I started to see the significance that had. It was something I began to try and emulate with my Hi8 camera. Then maybe a year later Photosynthesis came out, and that opened my eyes to a whole new world in terms of editing.

Photography by Kazuhiro Terauchi Interview by Graham Tait

Tyshawn Jones New york city

Is that insight into background and personality often lost on today’s videos? A lot of things I watch today seem very rushed. People feel pressure I think to get their footage out right away, rather than build on a part in terms of the skating and overall aesthetic. I still like to film for a couple years and slowly craft something that has meaning to both the skater and myself. Maybe that’s a backwards way of thinking in 2016, but it’s still the way I prefer to do it. In my eyes, that’s why videos like Photosynthesis and Mosaic have stood the test of time. Have you had any pressure to get an edit out sooner than you wanted? All the time. I’ve been working on a short independent video with some friends in Philly and they ask me all the time, “When’s it going to come out?” I see where they’re coming from, but at the same time we’ve only been filming for a little over a year. In my eyes, a clip that’s two years old is still relatively new to me. But some guys feel like the clip shouldn’t even be used at this point, like it has an expiration date or something? I think with the right trick and the right filming, the age of the clip really doesn’t matter. I suppose that’s true of the adidas web parts you’ve put out. The re-watchability is certainly there and that must be an important element of it for you too. Is a lot of good work getting missed in that sense? There is definitely some stuff I’ll go back and watch but I feel like I miss a lot these days. When I start watching an edit I kind of know right away what went into and how much time was taken. I watched that New Balance clip recently that James Messina did called NB Underground. That was really good. It was filmed in London, Paris and Lyon. Tyshawn Jones - varial heelflip miami

Klaus bohms barcelona

Klaus Bohms - FS smith 180 san francisco

How did you learn how to film? I know you went to film production

How much time did it take to feel like you really knew your craft?

school but didn’t rate it. I think with the VX, it all came much quicker. For the most Trial and error. When I first got the VX1000 I knew nothing

part, that camera is pretty easy to figure out and what you

about shutter speeds or aperture. I just turned that thing on

shoot is what you get. HD on the other hand has such a

and filmed day in and day out for a few weeks. I would put

learning curve. You have to shoot everything knowing exactly

the footage onto the computer and was always so

how you’re going to edit it on the computer. The VX never

disappointed with it. My footage never looked like [Bill]

had picture profiles or various color spaces, which I

Strobeck’s or Ty Evans’ stuff and I couldn’t figure out why.

actually miss nowadays. Sometimes having less options

Slowly I began tinkering with the camera and learned the ins

makes it all way less complicated. From the time I got my

and outs. Composition was another thing. So much of my

first HD camera, I’d say it was a full year before I really had a

early footage had the skater dead centre in that fisheye from

handle on the depth of field, the shutter speed depending on

roll up to roll out. Over time you learn to use the whole frame

what frame rate you’re shooting, and the ISO/noise

and how that allows you to utilize screen direction while

relationship. The fact that it always keeps changing with

editing. Honestly, using my VX1000 to film my friends

every camera really keeps you on your toes. I’m constantly

skateboard taught me way more than any film production

researching on the computer these days, trying to

class. Words in a classroom can’t teach you how light works

understand why certain settings give you specific results.

and how to best utilize it. What have you learnt from other skate videographers on a practical level? There have been a handful of filmmakers who really shaped my work and have led me to where I’m at today. I’ve always loved Dan Magee’s videos, the slogans and animations were done so well in all the Blueprint productions. Of course Castrucci was a huge influence, the music selection and 16mm in Mosaic. Dan Wolfe’s Hi8 footage is pure gold, the Sub Zero video and Eastern Exposure 3. And Josh Stewart’s Static series will always be some of my favorites. These guys tediously pieced together their videos and that really shows in the final product.

mark suciu mexico city

What cameras are you currently working with? Right now I’m using the Sony FS5. It’s a pretty compact HD camera and actually resembles the VX1000 in shape and size. Perfect to keep in a backpack and cruise around downtown with. I use the Sony A7S too because of how good it is in low light. Camera light footage is my favorite thing, and with that little Sony I can capture more than what the human eye is able to see at night. Is it time to move away from VX? I like that people still use the VX. I miss it sometimes, especially the fisheye and how good just about every spot looked with it. With HD, it’s a little harder to compose certain shots and make the ledge or rail bend properly within the frame. But I got to a point where I had done all I could with the VX1000. When I first heard about the 5D mkII and what it was capable of at night, I bought it for that reason alone. To be able to film at night and capture a downtown environment with that clarity was something I always dreamed of. In my eyes, the sacrifice in fisheye was well worth it. Filming in HD is also a lot harder to figure out than a VX. When you shoot HD, you have to understand picture profiles and how they’ll work when editing your final project. And it gave me a choice to utilize depth of field in my work which I love. HD lets me achieve a polished look while still portraying some of that rawness that skateboarding is based on. Is there a point where skate video production goes too far? For sure. While I appreciate drone footage, I’m not a fan of it in skateboarding. I think what originally made skating so special in my eyes was the rawness, and the lack of direction that came with it. All the aerial shots I see these days feels so contrived and planned. Of course the fisheye has been done mark suciu - Nollie BS Heelflip mexico city

to death, but there’s a reason for that. It’s a classic look that should always have a place in skating.

A lot of photographers speak about the decline of print. How does

You mean the place itself?

something like Instagram affect your craft of videography? Yeah, I love how Philly looks. That’s what makes me want to I like it but I always keep it as a medium based around my

go out every weekend and film. I always want to do things

phone. I like to post videos on there because I don’t have to

for myself outside of work. I told them how I was feeling and

be critical about the filming, it’s something to put out in the

they let me move home and continue working for The Berrics

moment. Normally I’m really anal about my work so it’s a nice

full-time, which was awesome. That’s when I did the piece on

break sometimes. I try not to take it too seriously but I guess

Joe Castrucci. I went to Cincinnati and did the whole history

it does take away from the bigger projects. More people are

on Alien and Habitat. It was great, they let me pick projects I

going to see something you post on Instagram, than

was interested in and pursue them. I guess over time as the

something you post on YouTube today. There’s not much you

Internet grew, they wanted more and more. I just felt like I

can do, other then try to make the best of it.

couldn’t keep the quality up and keep doing more. Around that same time, I was filming with Mark Suciu a lot. He was in Philly for two months during the fall of 2012 and I think we

You used to do a bit of work for The Berrics too right? How did

skated almost every day. That footage turned into his

that start up?

welcome clip for adidas. Matt Irving from Juice Design reach out to me and we started putting the edit together. At that

I had just bought my first HD camera and made a clip with

point I sort of moved into a freelance role at The Berrics and

a friend named Walt Wolfe themed around the Philadelphia

started taking on more adidas stuff. It was crazy though, in

winters. We filmed it in parking garages and covered spots

those two months Suciu filmed that adidas welcome part,

around the city, anywhere that was dry basically in January.

everything that was in my Philadelphia Experiment video and

I released that and then ended up getting a call from Colin

he filmed that Sabotage 3 part. I’ve never seen anything like

Kennedy a few days later. He had just started working for The

it.

Berrics at the time and he asked what I was currently doing for work. At that time, I was filming weddings to make a living and it was pretty harsh to be honest. It was usually a twelve-hour day of shooting and not what I wanted to do. He asked if I was willing to move out to LA, and so I decided to give it a shot. For the most part I did all the documentary style things, like pieces on photographers or filmers and stuff like that. After about eight months in LA, I really started questioning whether or not I saw myself out there for good. It was such a change from where I grew from and I just had no motivation to shoot things outside of my job. On the weekends I wouldn’t want to film because that east coast aesthetic wasn’t there. Alec majerus Buffalo NY

That’s crazy. What sort of process do you have going on with him when you’re out there? It’s good because he lets you have some input but also has lots of ideas too. I feel like a lot of the time when I go out filming I need to have a spot in mind or a trick idea. I don’t know how that became the filmer’s role but it has. Mark usually has ideas and he’s really particular about what the spot looks like on camera. Another thing he’s managed to do is avoid too much trick repetition, which has got to be really hard. If he’s had too many switch backside tailslides, he’ll purposefully try to limit them. Or maybe add a flip in or shuv out. There was one day in Philly where he switch back tailed that rail out front of the Municipal building in Habitat’s Search The Horizon video. At that point no one had done a regular back tail on it. Later that night he did the quick ollie up, then gap to back lip on the Fred Gall rail at LOVE. To do both of those tricks in the same day? I don’t understand how it’s possible. There are a lot of guys on the credit list for Away Days. What was your role exactly and how did it start up? There were three filmers: me, Justin Albert who was in SF and Torsten Frank in Germany. Each of us would go with seven or eight adidas guys to a city and film for about two weeks. I feel like we did that for two years without really knowing what we were putting together. We knew there was going to be a full-length and whoever had enough footage would get a part. It really wasn’t that structured and for the most part pretty spontaneous. I thought it was a good way to do the video and kept the pressure from ever becoming too much for the skaters to handle.

alec majerus - fs feeble buffalo ny

That’s where the name came of the video from then. Yeah that was a big part of it. I’m not familiar with it but I hear it’s a term football fans use when they follow their team around to away matches. I think it had a little to do with that as well. The three of us filmed the majority of the video and then towards the end we all split up the parts to edit. I did Rodrigo [TX], Nestor [Judkins], Lucas [Puig], Silas [Baxter-Neal], [Kevin] Lowry and Günes [Özdogan]. Then we worked with Pierre Minhondo at Juice to string the parts together as one cohesive video. How did you find working on such a collaborative project? Did you guys get together and talk about what way you wanted the video to look? It’s tough because everyone has a different way of doing things and a different aesthetic but there are just so many guys on the team that one person couldn’t have done it. I would have just been away for two and a half years straight. I already feel like I spent about a year of my life on these trips. One person would have gone crazy taking on this project by themselves. There are definitely compromises and you have to work as a team and just make the best of it. I’m sure it was a learning experience in itself. For sure. It’s crazy to see how each skater works too. Every guy goes about the filming process so differently. To film with [Dennis] Busenitz, oh man. He will never say to you that he’s ready to film a trick. You just have to take the camera out and watch as he starts getting close to something, then you film it. He never tells you. You have to be ready or you’ll miss it.

Mark gonzales miami

He’s just there to skate? Yeah, he doesn’t care about filming at all. He would never be the guy who would want his part to look a certain way or have a trick filmed in a particular style. I honestly don’t think Dennis has considered that before, which is really cool. He just looks at it all from a different perspective. I’m sure all of his parts have been like that. You just have to follow him. But you learn the routines of each skater. It’s a good group and everyone has a different approach to filming. Did you have input when it came to music? Yeah, we all put together playlists with tracks that could work, but getting the rights for certain songs was really difficult. Sometimes it ended up being a skater’s third choice, which is hard because the music is so important to a video part. I think overall everyone was happy with what was in there. Josh Stewart told me he likes to let the footage pile up and leave it a long time before reviewing any of it. Is that something you were able to do on Away Days? I’d say it was a similar process. We would make a little preview after every trip and send those in for people to get a look at, but no parts were laid out until six months before the video came out. We did a review in January 2016, where everyone’s footage was strung together and we started thinking about what each guy needed in their part. Honestly we could have tweaked and adjusted the final edit forever, but that’s just how it goes when people really care about what they’re working on.

mark gonzales - fs tail stall miami

You mentioned being responsible for Rodrigo’s part earlier. He

The amount of Gonz footage went down well with everyone too.

doesn’t seem to have slowed down at all. What’s your relationship

How is it working with him?

like with him? It’s always such a fun experience. You can tell Gonz he has I hadn’t met him until I took on the adidas role but he’s

so much fun every time he goes skating. And if it’s not fun

awesome. He’s really critical of himself and is careful about

that day, he’ll go home and I think that’s a really pure way of

what he films. When he wants to do something, he just flips

looking at skateboarding. It’s never been work for Mark.

a switch and does it which is crazy to see in person. Usually

Filming with him is really unpredictable because I think he

it comes really fast. He’s the same age as me. I was probably

doesn’t even know what he’s going to try half the time. Like

sixteen when Menikmati came out and I remember watching

with Dennis, you just have to have the camera out but it’s

his part with my friends. It’s so weird to think that now I’m

even harder with Gonz because he just goes. It’s funny, he

filming him and putting together video parts with him.

always comes out with a different board. You can tell what he’s going to do by what board he has. If he’s got a normal

There was also the Marc Johnson and Daewon Song shock too

board, he’s trying to skate that day. But I saw him in New York

with Away Days. Their inclusion in the video seemed to be last

a few weeks ago and he had this board, it was like a two by

minute. What happened there?

four with trucks on it. He did some tricks with it though, I was surprised. He loves to get the other guys to compete with

I didn’t know they were getting on the team until the very end,

him, get a little race going to see who can land their trick first.

probably a month or so before the video was going to be finished. I’m pretty sure Marc Johnson filmed his two tricks

Did you meet Snoop?

the weekend before the first premiere in LA. Same with Daewon too actually. I think that got the biggest reaction at

[Haha]. Just on stage in LA for a second. That was a crazy

a lot of the premieres. When the section in the schoolyard

night. I don’t like to be in the spotlight or amongst the

came on and people saw Daewon in there, they just went

glamour but it was a trip that night to see the theatre filled. All

nuts. I thought that was really cool.

the guys were so excited, especially after spending so much time on the video.

miles silvas New York city

Do you feel like a career in skateboarding videography can bring you a comfortable living? How do you advise people who ask? I started because I loved it. Even if it wasn’t a job, I would still do it. I have a lot of kids messaging me on Instagram asking how to get a job or who to send edits to. If you’re coming right out of the gate thinking that way, it’s never going to work out. You have to do it because you love it. Today you have to put out independent projects that are on par with what big companies are doing to really get noticed. That’s tough, but you need to create a style and an aesthetic for yourself. You can’t look at filming skateboarding as a real job, it’s such a fleeting thing. You can’t put in a job application for it, but that’s what makes it so unique. I suppose you need to be filming the right people too. That’s true for sure. When I moved to Philly and went to school at Temple, Jimmy McDonald ended up going there too. He was one of the first guys I saw skating in person where I was just like, “Holy shit”. It was a level of skating that I had not seen before. This was around the same time that I had gotten my first VX1000 and we just started filming all the time. We became really good friends through the whole filming process too, and still are today. But yeah, you have to pick the right people to include in these projects. After seeing Jimmy skate in person, I knew we would be able to create something special with his footage.

miles silvas - SW Bs tailslide New York city

Which videographers today are inspiring you at the moment? I don’t watch a lot of new stuff. For some reason I always find myself going back to older videos because I feel like so much more time went into producing them. A few recent edits I’ve watched more than once were by Benny Maglinao. His stuff is so good, and I can spot his style straight away. I watch the Alien Workshop section he did in The Cinematographer Project all the time. Anything that Greg Hunt puts out is always great. Seeing his early HD stuff really motivated me to move past the VX1 and explore something new. I loved all of Dan Magee’s stuff, Lost and Found is one of my favourites. The song is so important to me in edits and I’m definitely into older styles of music. Psychedelic stuff, like in Mosaic. It seems like kids aren’t into that genre these days. I’m in a weird spot where I’m older now and it’s hard for me to relate to some edits I watch today. Lucas picked that Pet Shop Boys song for his Away Days part and I was so psyched. It worked so well and I knew it would be really unexpected for him. But I think a lot of kids were like, “Why was that in there?” I get the impression skating has exploded in popularity over in The States, more so than ever. Do you feel like it has? It is massive. It’s crazy how many people even in Philly skate. It’s good though but I think when kids start, the first thing they watch really shapes how they perceive skateboarding. I feel like as long as they see something that’s solid or well done in the beginning, then they’ll be alright. But then there are kids who see a contest right out of the gate and think skateboarding is about winning. Maybe it’s going to be about that in ten years, but when I started that was the last thing it was about. It’s a different time now but you just have to make the best of it and hope kids go in the right direction. dennis busenitz miami

I saw some of your commercial work. How do you find it? Will you always stick to shooting skating? Yeah I’ve done some commercial stuff. I do a lot of stuff with Zander [Taketomo]. It’s kind of fun and challenging doing something where you’re out of your element. You get to use different equipment and try out different stuff. At the end of the day I prefer skating, it’s what I’ve known for so long. As long as it stays fun I’ll keep doing it. What’s skateboarding done for you and what would you be doing without it? It’s taught me to use a camera. College couldn’t teach me that. I think using a camera day in and day out, you learn so much more than the average person would. It made me love videography. I look at skateboarding differently because of my camera and where I’m from has a lot to do with it too. It made me find something I love to do and I see a lot of people that don’t get that in life and who hate what they’re doing. Skating can start you off in one direction but then also show you an entirely different path. Thanks for this Chris. Are you voting for Hillary or Trump? Oh, man. I’ve never voted. I get so much shit for it. I don’t believe it has any impact or even matters in this country anymore.

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Could you explain the situation you had when you ordered a take away but were locked in the house, please? Fuck, okay... You know when you’ve been out the night before and the next day you feel really lazy and hungover? It was one of those days. I must have fallen asleep and everyone in my house had gone out, double locking the front door. Of course I didn’t have my keys, classic Ky, and I think I ordered from Deliveroo, or Just Eat. I was feeling fancy, you see. I got a Caribbean and this real Jamaican yardie came to the door. I couldn’t get out to get it so I ran to the first floor to shout out the window, “Yeah mate I’m locked in.” He just started laughing saying he’s never had this happen to him before, this is crazy, and what should we do. I told him to just leave the food by the bins... “Fuck it, I’ll figure a way to get it!” I didn’t want to waste his time, he didn’t want to waste mine, you know? My girlfriend at the time came back from the Tiger pub and she didn’t have keys either. She had to get an Uber from Peckham back to the pub in Camberwell to get keys, then an Uber back to let herself in and bring me my take away, it was so stressful.

BS 50-50

Did you get to eat in the end? Yeah for sure, I yammed that straight away! On the subject of takeaways, there’s an iconic photo of you eating a chicken burger after getting beaten up that was used for Will Miles’ video poster for Tallboy. What was the situation there? Is the takeaway purely to make you feel better after the violence? Comfort eating? Oh yeah, for sure! What else is going to make you feel better? You’re either going to cry or get a takeaway. I had a cry first then the food. I just got really pissed at Lucas Brammel’s house in Oval, and I went out to get some fresh air and got locked out. This was one of those gated community areas. I couldn’t get back in and my phone was back in the house, so I started walking from Oval to Camberwell, lost my way a bit and ended up in a park. I think I must have asked some lads for a cigarette or something and it all led from there. One of the dudes came from nowhere and punched me in the face a few times. I was that drunk I didn’t realise until I was out of the park when my face started to hurt, “Oh man I’ve just been beaten up!

FS Flip

Bump To Bar Ollie

It seems like the classic situation of you inadvertently getting in the shit, like you leaving your phone somewhere or it running out of battery and the consequences being dire. We become generally worried for you. For years I genuinely thought my family had been cursed with voodoo magic, because we have the worst luck, but recently I realised, no, it’s probably just because of me being a bit of a dickhead sometimes. You’re doing better now though aren’t you? I’ve got a card, no, two bank cards, a wallet that cost £2.99, it’s not real leather but it looks legit. I’ve got a new phone on a contract, 24 months, insured. Life’s looking good. What are some of the other losing possessions repercussions? Last Friday I was skating Jazz Square in tracksuit bottoms I think, at least this is what I’ve concluded in my head. We were racing to get to the station and basically I lost my bank card and my phone from just skating down the street. It’s actually really outrageous because I had just got that bank card a week before and had to lie on the phone to the bank that I’d been beaten up and had it nicked, just so I didn’t have to buy a new one. I had to pay £5 for a bank statement the other day, it was so bad. Well fuck the bank anyway, they know how to get you.

SW BS Tailslide

You’ve been called a wasteman by your mates for the last few years, does it bother you? Haha! There’s been times when it’s got to me but on the whole, not really. Without any routine whatsoever and a lot of free time on your hands it’s easy to get a little bit lost. I’ve got more of a routine now and it’s helped me out with pretty much everything. These Nike edits are cool because you have something to work on. Jake Harris is also filming a couple of edits for Thrasher, so I’ll be trying to get out with him as much as possible, and Will is doing these Grey edits. It’s good to stay busy. It keeps us in check! The first of those Nike SB London edits just dropped, what’s the deal with those? Yes! It dropped. Everyone killed it. So from what I know Nike and Grey mag are releasing edits every three months. There’s a bit more to it than that, but that’s all I know for now That backside tailslide you shot in London for the Nike SB ad campaign was pretty nuts. How did that come about? Thanks! Nike did a project called ‘Inspired by Koston’. They had a few European dudes go to a spot that Koston skates and do a trick. It was fun. I had to go back to it like four times. Was pretty stressful but it worked out! What’s your view on skating other places in the UK besides London? It just seems well smaller. The first place outside of London skating was a trip with Daryl to Leeds and we drove around the whole city so quick. I obviously knew London was a capital city and expected to be bigger than most cities but I thought everywhere would be a lot larger. I mean Manchester footie teams are massive so you expect the city to be massive.

Slappy 50-50 to Tailslide

FS Nosegrind Pop In

You had trials for footie didn’t you? Yeah, for Chelsea, but it’s more of a claim to fame really. My dad’s mate worked at Chelsea and said to come along and play, but I didn’t like it. There was too much pressure. Let’s mention the Tallboy video, what trips did you go on for that? I didn’t go on any Tallboy trips apart from the Lyon one recently, that was so sick. Matt Hay was killing it. Dan West smashed it too, all the boys did! We kept it mellow, cooking in the evenings, playing pool not really going out partying, just keeping it mellow. It was a really good trip. You going on a trip next week? I’m going to New York to do a shoot with Nike, then I’m going to skate with Jake Harris, Caspar Brooker and Chris Jones. It’ll be sick, hanging out with a few of the boys from London. You shot stuff in New York for this interview didn’t you? Yeah, Will and me walked past Graham with all the 5boro dudes in NY, Will said, “I think that was Graham from North Mag we just walked past”. So when we got back to Sean’s Colello’s house in Queens Will it him up and we shot a few photos out there. In fact, big up to Graham for making a magazine from film, you never know if the photos turned out well until they’re developed. Everything he shot in London was so clean though. What were you doing in New York? I was in New York with Will filming for the Free skate mag part. It was cool being out there, it was my first time.

Ollie Into The Bank

Nollie

Your first time in the Big Apple! How did you find it? It didn’t feel too different to skating in London. We did the same things we do in London. Just skate around looking for spots. When it gets dark, skate into the city. Everything felt way bigger and better. Pretty much every spot was incredible. The people seemed way more friendly. Like, more willing to have a conversation. I heard you had some problems with the VX footage from the trip... Haha! Yes we did. On the first day we were filming a line and Will hit a crack and bumped the camera off the floor. We didn’t have a capture cam so we didn’t even know if the camera still worked. I think we lost about thirty percent of the footage, but it’s all good. Where’s your favourite place you’ve been to film? That’s a hard question. You know what, Brazil for sure, the spots are the one. We went to Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro over like 14 days. It was so different to anything I’m used to but felt so homely at the same time. I could relate to the spots, the attitude towards skateboarding and how everyone was so happy and lively. I’ve had mates come over to London for a bit and just being like, “What the fuck why are Londoners so cold here, what’s wrong with everyone?” and I felt a bit like that growing up. Maybe it’s not true but that’s what a lot of people from outside London who visit tell me. Who’s your favourite skater? It’s weird because a lot of my influences didn’t come from pro skaters, it’s the people around me who get me most amped. Particularly at the moment Dan West, coming back from a broken ankle and just full on smashing it!

FS Boardslide Pop Out

BS 180 Nosegrind Revert

Name some underrated UK skaters. Josh Cox, obviously. I’m not just saying that because he’s my mate either, he’s just the best. There’s loads everywhere, lots of the Scottish dudes; the Harvest and Focus boys, Colin and Div Adam both obviously smash it. What was it that Chet Childress said to you the first time you met? I think it was a Cliché exhibition somewhere in London and he was there hanging with them, he’d done some artwork in the show. I saw Chet from across the room and was like, “Fuck, that’s Chet Childress”, you know how it is meeting skateboarders at these events, you bump into everyone. One of the first things he said was just, “Do you bruuuuh, just do you”. Chatting all this shit, good shit though and I really listened to what he had to say at the time, which is why I’m in the position I am in now [looks down slightly unhappily] because I listened to Chet Childress. Then he asked if I had Indy trucks, “Yeah I’ve got Indy trucks”, I said. He then went to punch me but stopped super close to my face showing this Indy tattoo on his knuckles. “Yeah dude, Indy for life.” He gave me a spud, stoked and relieved. Classic Chet. Is it easy to stay in the loop with the Cliche dudes? Do you get out to Lyon much? Not really. I’ve been Lyon so many times and all the Cliche guys are my guys! It’s a shame I can’t go a little more, but yeah those guys are sick. I think it’s Clichè’s twenty year anniversary next year, they may be trying to do a video so watch out for Mad Max, he’s going to smash it! Shout out to the yardsale guys, all of them smash it. Also the Mile End lads are the best. Shout out to my little brother Keanan who smashes it at life. And big up my other brother

SW FS Bluntslide Pop Out

Kaedon, he’s only 8 but he’s already ripping!

FS Heelflip

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