Innehållsförteckning för 243 Spring 2024 från Slam Skateboarding

Early last year, a friend linked me to an episode of a podcast that featured Northern Beaches skater, Darren Kaehne. I'd followed Darren's career since the early ‘90s and eagerly connected my phone to the speakers at work. What followed was far more considered than the skate podcasts I was used to. It intertwined the usual skate chat with deeper aspects of humanity and discussed some pretty serious subjects. The podcast, Terrible Happy Talks, has featured skateboarding icons like Steve Caballero, Kris Markovich, Kieran Woolley, Poppy Olsen, John Gray and Chima Ferguson. Now, as a regular listener, I thought it was time to flip the script and put the show's creator, Shannon Farrugia, under the spotlight. This article mentions suicide. Support is available 24 hours a day through Lifeline – 13…

As an archivist and dedicated skateboard magazine collector, I get a little bit of sensory overload when I'm going through early issues of Slam to write these articles. There's so much rad stuff, and I'm particularly interested in the number of small companies that have come and gone over the years. In the early days of the mag, when no one had access to graphic design tools, many ads were hand-drawn, and the products themselves were still in experimental phases. For this edition, I thought I'd take it upon myself to look at some early advertisements rather than putting a single issue under the microscope. Cool, funny and outright bizarre – all these products are part of our collective lore. That is, the lore of Australian skateboarding. Skaters Only boardgame,…

Winter is a time marked by colder weather and shorter periods of daylight, which can sometimes lower people's moods and influence changes in their health, wellbeing and motivation to be with others. With the return of longer daylight hours in the spring comes fresh energy, which can inspire and uplift people in their thoughts, feelings and behaviour. This spring we take a push off from the winter and focus on positive mental health practices to start you off with your best foot forward. This article mentions suicide. Support is available 24 hours a day through Lifeline – 13 11 14. Mental health and skateboarding are very similar in that they both have the potential to thrive in the conscious presence of others. Connection with others plays a significant role in…

AGE: 21 LIVES: Margaret River, WA SPONSORS: New Balance [flow], Beyond Skate and Triple Six Clubhouse “Will is one of those lucky bastards who has been blessed with a magical kicky. Even when he was a little grom, his flick, finesse and casual control were well beyond his years. I could just tell he was going to be good. On top of all that, he's one of the most down-to-earth people you could ever meet.” – Ben Bowring “I grew up with Will, and we've been skating together our whole lives. A few months back, a bunch of homies and I did a Europe trip, and Will pulled up halfway through. He was killing it, doing tricks I've never seen him do. We had the homie Jack Morellini link up…

Melbourne skaters gathered to celebrate Rome Collyer's latest video part, Crosstown for Thunder Trucks at Fast Times Melbourne's city store. If you saw Rome's interview in the previous issue of Slam magazine, you would have seen the heavy photos, and the video part features everything in the magazine and much more. It includes a great soundtrack and with on-point camera work by Jonathan Fitzgerald and George Kousoulis. It's safe to say the video part is a winner.…

If you've never seen Tongue Biters, the seminal 1993 skate video from the long defunct skate shop, Snake Pit, check it out for a real history lesson. An original copy is even rarer than having a VHS player to watch it on. Luckily, Melbourne OG and founder of The Sure Store, Steele Saunders, has been nice enough to upload it to the internet. Tongue Biters helped launch the careers of Australian skateboarders like Al Boglio and the Pappas brothers. It featured skaters who already had coverage in magazines, but video parts cemented their place as the next big exports. The 335 Skate Supply Video, Parliament's Urns, and Boardworld's Plant the Bean were all in my recently watched list on YouTube when I finished revisiting Tongue Biters, which got me thinking…

Alongside his travel schedule, Brad's skateboarding has been maturing and progressing on a steady trajectory over the past few years. His most recent part, Bug's Life, came out at the end of 2023 and tastefully showcased some of his most accomplished footage yet. Cut to multiple hip-hop tracks, Brad can be seen breaking new ground in The States, Europe and Melbourne, the city where he spends most of his time. Read on for some of Brad's recent tales of trolling Mark Suciu, a stolen phone and the high-wire tré flip. “A GUY ON AN ELECTRIC BIKE SWIPED MY PHONE FROM MY HANDS WHILE I WAS TRYING TO SUSS MAPS TO GET HOME. I HAD TO GO FULL VINTAGE FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS.” Hey, Brad. What have you been up…

For the past 10 years, Digby has called Melbourne home. In that time, he has become one of the most productive skateboarders in the city, filming part after part, while also having footage in every video to come out of the city and many beyond – he has some great footage in Hoddle's LA clip, Hoddla – Free Dirt, by Tim Cobden, and in Tor Ström's New York clip, Hygge Abroad, from earlier in the year. He's been travelling basically non-stop, from London to LA and everywhere in between, truly living the life of a pro skater. I met up with Digby at Melbourne's State Library on a winter afternoon, a few days after he got back from the Pass~Port, Hoddle and Vans trip that went through Mount Isa and…

Tony Woodward and the Gooch Street gang return with G6. The full-length video premiered on a Saturday night at Moon Dog OG Brewery in Abbotsford. The room was packed out for the show, with good beers flowing all night, and a pizza van out the front had everyone sorted. For over a decade, Tony Woodward and his crew have been putting in the work in front of the VX1000 to bring us the Gooch Series of skate videos. Tony said that G6 is the final instalment of the Gooch Series… I heard after the G5 premiere in Saint Kilda years ago that there would not be any more from the Gooch Gang, and yet here we are, in 2024, with more. But, this is the end of it, for real, says…