Innehållsförteckning för 239 Spring 2023 från Slam Skateboarding

This edition marks my 20th year working on Slam. I'm forever grateful to have played a part in putting 148 issues dedicated to Australian skateboarding to press. In September 2003, I started work parttime as an editorial assistant before being put on full-time as the assistant editor nine months later. Jake Frost had been editing Slam for a year or two, and the then-monthly mag was on a sharp trajectory to hit peak levels of popularity. We teamed up and smashed out Slams every month in the glory days of publishing – life before social media. We were young and poised to be pushed to our limits, meeting the always-looming monthly deadlines. My early days working at Morrison Media [Slam's original publisher] were the ultimate crash course in print media.…

I managed to get him on the phone for a chat while he was in Marseille on the first official international Hoddle trip, to get some updates on his past year living out of a suitcase. Shaun Paul is someone I always bring up when the conversation of favourite local skaters arises. I've been a fan ever since he moved to Melbourne and started trying to burn me when I was trying to do a noseslide nollie frontside flip on the long ledge at City Park. I did it first, so… Anyway, he hasn't been very local as of late. After moving out of his place in Melbourne mid-last year, he's been travelling the world from Alabama to Auckland and basically everywhere in between. Damn, dope. Is this the first…

It's 3.20 p.m. on a Wednesday and Cody Worrall just knocked off work tiling. He picks up the phone from his house in Tweed Heads, the most Northern town in NSW, and the birds are making a racket in the background. Cody is friendly and speaks quickly. He's a no-bullshit sort of fella, all too happy to explain how he achieved a lifelong dream of having his own backyard pool. It's six feet deep, but super tight and elliptical, meaning there's no flat bottom in it. Cody's mate, Matty Coaker, the builder who worked on the pool and owner of Cocanut Pools, explained, “It's a pretty gnarly pool. The thing doesn't even have any flat in it. If you have a good session there, you can hardly walk the next…

John Cruckshank, aka The Jonz, is a 40-year-old electrician from Mortdale, on the south side of Sydney. He's also a skateboarder and, at this point, a pretty well-known comedian. I first saw The Jonz perform in 2019, warming up the crowd before the premiere of Pass~Port's first full-length video, Kitsch, at the Sydney Opera House. He had the crowd in stitches and later graced the big screen with a guest trick and a celebratory champagne shower.. Since then, The Jonz has worked the mic on cruise ships, done the Melbourne and Sydney comedy festivals, performed at Splendour In The Grass twice and made a cult classic YouTube film, Redfern Electrical, with his friend Luke Smith. The Guardian has described him as “achingly funny” and “a genius”, and he was animated into…

Australia has been minting new pros like it's going out of fashion, and in mid-June, it was Rob Pace's turn to join the ranks over at Santa Cruz, becoming the first fully-fledged Aussie pro in the brand's 50-year history. I was lucky to be in Santa Cruz for the surprise, which went down under circumstances that defy most modern “PRO AF” conventions. There was no video part, no party, and no particularly elaborate ruse, just a classic, wholesome board presentation at the NHS offices with some of Rob's closest friends and family present. And even then, it almost didn't happen… The fact that Rob was soon turning pro was no secret – all of us, Rob included, knew he'd be getting a board sometime in 2023. With that in mind,…

New Balance Numeric riders have been travelling to my hometown of Newcastle to skate with Connor Reeve for a year or two now, and I often find myself tagging along to hang out and see what goes down. On their last visit, Cameron Sparkes and Sam Coady brought most of the Australian team to film and shoot photos for their new video project. We started at a double set that usually has a locked gate across the landing, but the cleaner was cool enough to let us skate while she worked inside the building with the gate unlocked. Unfortunately, her shift didn't last long, and just as Jett Stanton and Kai Shimakage were about to get the first clips of the trip, the cleaner apologised and locked up for the…

Issue 24 of Slam hit newsagency shelves at the beginning of 1994, and close to 30 years later, a better sourcebook of ‘90s Aussie skate culture couldn't exist. Alex Smith 360 flipped his way onto the cover and into the Martin Place Pit, as captured by the lens of Mike O'Meally. His Airwalk Ones, baggy Fuct chinos and glasses mean one thing: the street nerds have officially taken over. Ice Cube's eyes burn a hole through your face from above the masthead as you ogle the magazine's cover. This issue steps away from the DIY-zine influence of Issue 23. The cut-and-paste style inset photos are gone, and, under Andrew Currie's guidance, the mag is as slick as any major publication around the world. For those of you thinking, “That's not…

AGE: 17 LIVES: Heidelberg, Melbourne RIDES FOR: Nike SB, Evisen [flow] “Possibly one of the best things to come out of the Covid pandemic was this kid putting down the violin and picking up a skateboard. But get him to bring the violin on the next tour.” – Anthony Mapstone “It's hard to believe Dante is only 17 and has only been skating for four years. He's already an incredible skater and I'm super excited to see what the future holds for him.” – Ben Lawrie…