Indholdsfortegnelse for 236 Summer 2022 i Slam Skateboarding

It was cool to get Cato Dobbs over here from Auckland to meet the Australian NB# team for the first time. He’s a well-known skater over there, and he’s exceedingly talented. I first caught wind of him via Ant Claravall [OG filmer and former NB# Asia TM]. He sent me clips of Cato and asked if I knew him, but Cato was very much a mythical entity to me at the time. I’d be like, “What the fuck? This kid’s incredible. He can do everything.” Watching him skate, you can see straight away that he’s very special. I’ve always had him in the back of my mind as someone I’d like to work with and have involved with what we’re doing over here. I reached out to the NB# honchos…

CONS ON THE ROAD A few days out from the Converse CONS Australia team trip through rural Victoria, one could be forgiven for not checking the radar. At this point, there was to be no deviation from the plan. We were locked in, flights booked, and all itching to get on the road. Of course, the forecast was a concern, only to be perpetuated by erratic weather. It was raining one minute and sunny the next. High-speed winds could pass, only to miraculously go still. Should we check the radar? Probably not. After all, it’s bad luck. Over the following seven days, Andrew Brophy, Nathan Jackson, Corey Young, Noah “Nogg” Smith, Jedd McKenzie, Sam Fairweather, Pat Roberts and Louie Dodd would pile into two supercharged Fords and embark on a…

The van was super high energy, always bumping Cardi B and whoever got the clip at the last spot got the “clip seat”, which was the most spacious in the van. I got smoked trying to feeble a skinny rail in Bexhill with a weird leg on it. I missed the lock-in and fell into boardslide, then my wheel got stuck in the leg, and I got pitched from the top of the rail to my back. I chilled for a few days and had to miss out on skating Troutopia, but I got a couple of clips in the last two days that I was stoked with. I’m still getting physio now, but I’m starting to skate again. Trout’s spot in Nimbin was one of the coolest places I’ve…

We travelled south from the Sunshine Coast through Brisbane, down to the Northern Rivers, back up to the Gold Coast and everywhere in between, and I mean everywhere! With Wade being a QUEEN-LANDA, he was the ultimate tour guide. He took us to amazing skate spots, pie shops, sick spots to swim, and we cleaned out every bottle-o along the way of Vodka Cruisers. With a lot of the crew being so young, I initially gravitated towards Beedawg from Perth and James James, but it didn’t take long before I was in the back of the van with the kids laughing like a little school boy as Noah would singe Jett’s arm hairs with a lighter. All in all, the squad is amazing. I broke my ribs on the trip.…

As we’re scoping this spot, a dude comes out from his house and says to me, “Are you trying to kill yourself?” I’m like, “Nah, that’s not the idea, aye.” He then went on to tell me about how a guy died bombing this hill, which I don’t doubt, because it’s fucking steep. But on the other hand, I heard Boyd Young bombed it at night with a sling on, so that was enough reassurance for Noz to give it a go. This was on the final moments of the trip, right after Ethan grinded the massive rail In Tweed Heads [cover], and right before we had to bail to the airport. We were cutting it fine. We sent the young lads down to man the intersection while I stayed…

Summer’s here, which means that the temperature is heating up here in Australia and it’s getting closer to the end - or beginning - of another calendar year. The way that we measure and work with time to engage with the events of our lives is a relatively interesting concept, which many of us have come to regard as normal and everyday. For some people, this time between the years can bring up emotions of anxiety and worry about what’s next and what awaits, while others might be challenged with feelings of “I don’t ever want to move on from that experience” or “What, another year has rolled by? Where has my time gone?” There’s the old saying that time flies when you’re having fun. Do you ever wonder how and…

When it comes to DIY skateparks, 13 years is an incredibly long run. The Tannery (formerly Uno DIY), in the Melbourne suburb of Preston, is perhaps the most prolific Australian DIY in recent memory. But on October 17,2022, the bulldozers rolled in without warning. Word has it that a couple of BMXers were able to convince the demolition crew to pause works for a day, allowing locals to get one final skate in, but The Tannery is no more. The Tannery was on private land and a tight knight crew of concreters say they had a good relationship with both the owners and the council, so the sudden demolition of this DIY came as a big shock. So, what happened? I got the City of Darebin’s Deputy Mayor, Trent McCarthy,…

Connor’s been involved with NB# for a few years now. He’s 21, so a bit younger than some of the other guys. He was on flow and then he started to excel as a skater. He flicked the switch about a year or two ago and he’s progressed fast. He’s been working on a video part with his shop sponsor, Laate Store in Newcastle, and Sam Coady and I agreed that it was time for him to be more involved with everything we’re doing. Connor doesn’t disappoint. He’s such a nice, well-mannered kid. He doesn’t drink or smoke weed or anything. He loves Cokes and junk food - that’s his vice. He was a pleasure to have on the trip. One night we were in Rundle Mall and this overly…

Ben Currie bounces back from another ankle surgery with a video part, a rescued bulldog and a general sense of gratitude for the life he’s built in Sydney. Hey, Ben! What’s happening? I’m just hanging at home in Sydney, waiting for this rain to clear, so I can hopefully run some skate lessons this afternoon. You moved from Melbourne to Sydney just before the pandemic hit. What spurred that move? Yeah, I moved up to Sydney in October 2019. I was living in Melbourne at the time, and I’d recently quit my job, broken up with my girlfriend, and I was ready for something new and a change of scenery. I’d been coming up to Sydney here and there to work with Totem Skate School [now called The Totem Collective]…

The trip started in my hometown on the Sunshine Coast, where it wasn’t very sunny, but we still managed to get some skating in by dodging the weather. We had such a sick Airbnb. It was three stories high with four bathrooms, a pool, and a short walk to the beach. From there, we headed down the coast to Brisbane, where the accommodation was quite different - we crammed into two rooms with one bathroom in each, and the grams were arguing about who had to share a bed, which was very entertaining. We hit some spots throughout the day, then had a rad barbecue at Paddington. After Brissy we got in the van again and headed down the coast to Lismore which was crazy to see after the flooding.…

AGE: 21 LIVES: Malvern East, Melbourne RIDES FOR: Croons Theatre, Independent, Brick and Mortar Supply Hey, George. Where are you from and how did you get into skateboarding? I was born in London and moved to Melbourne when I was two. I live at my parents’ house in Malvern East. I’ve pretty much lived in the same house my whole life, aside from a few stints living by myself when I could afford it. Somehow, when I was a kid there was always a toy skateboard around, since before I can remember, but I think it must have been my older cousins showing me what was up. My first video was the The Cinematographer Project, the Transworld vid with all the different filmers’ sections. What’s a typical day like for…

Brett Chan is a mysterious character. When I DM him about doing an interview, he replies with a friendly hello and then sends a photo of himself on a beach somewhere. He’s got long hair and a bushy black beard, wearing a red bandana and sunglasses. In the photo, he looks like he’s midway through some sort of yoga pose, stretching out over a large wooden stick of driftwood. Just behind him in the middle distance, a topless woman in a g-string with her back to the camera is midway through a cartwheel. Chan is a 46-year-old skateboarder, artist and filmmaker who has lived in Sydney for a solid chunk of the past 20 years. Originally from New Zealand, he’s had footage in videos like Forays, Handle the Jandal, Killself…

Sean killed it, as always. He’s really good at finding spots. The local heads took us to a bunch of great spots, but Sean would always go out on a reconnaissance mission and find some other stuff. Before the trip, he was on Google Earth scoping out spots. He’s always got a plan of what he wants to do at a particular spot. He’s got a well-orchestrated approach to skating, which is very helpful on a trip like this when you’ve only got seven days to get things done. He’s someone you can take to a classic spot in any city, and he’s got the ability to step it up and set the bar even higher. He seems to do that wherever he goes and defies logic with everything he…

Riley, how long were you in The States? I was there for just shy of three months. I didn’t want to get stuck with the visa shit, so I was out of there before my time was up. How was this trip compared to your last time in The States? It was a big change. This trip was chaos. On my first trip, I went to Disneyland and Vegas, and we went out for dinner at restaurants. It was a family holiday. On this trip, I ate takeaway food and slept on the floor [laughs]. Did you skate on your first trip? Yeah, I got my mum’s credit card and took an Uberto the Courthouse ledges. I saw Jason Dill and AVE there, but they weren’t skating. They were just…

Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to find myself in a position to put together an entire Santa Cruz Oz team. I wanted to put together a crew that represented the brand and showcased all types of skateboarding. Brendon Cross, aka Beedawg, is the OG who has been on since before my time team managing the NHS brands in Australia, and I’m so glad I inherited him. Then we’ve had Danno Woolley on flow for a minute, which made most of this click. He’s good homies with Noah Bardas, Ethan Copeland and Jett Dehaan, so that just fell into place. I love these young men. I also knew I wanted Sammy Owbridge and Taniah Meyers in the mix because they’re mad underdogs. They just happened to have crossed paths…

There was never a dull moment with the crew. My van buddy had to be my boy Nozza and shout out to Beedawg for being the most raw, without a doubt. One of the highlights of the trip was when we met the infamous Squeegee Steve at the Pizzey snag sizzle. Steve put his body on the line trying to squeegee the death bowl while it was pissing down with rain. He cracked his head pretty badly. Another highlight was skating the 15 Hubba with Noz up on the Sunshine Coast. Good times. Brisbane is my pick for a standout city because I’d never been there before, and it was awesome to check it out. When we went bush, the boys had me down for the most hopeless at setting…