Read on…

College Green.

It is just flatground, but sometimes we would bring a box or flatbar and just skate all day long in the sun, and chill on the grass with our friends. The best tricks at College Green were anything that Paul and Steve Alexander did there. They had the best styles and Wainwright level pop!

The First Light Rail.

The First Light Rail was named that because quite a few of us had First Light’s in Sidewalk there. My favourite trick at the First Light Rail would have to be Layth’s frontside flip over it. I always loved his frontside flips and that one was “gurt luuush”!

Victoria Rooms.

I remember skating the little three sets when I was 13 years old and learning tricks there. Now people skate it in so many different ways. My favourite trick has to be Dan Wileman’s gap to noseblunt. I didn’t spot that you could skate the ledge like that before I saw him do that, and now I have I still won’t touch it with a barge pole!

The Fifty Fifty miniramp.

I think it is still there but it has been neglected. It’s another spot that reminds me of the good old days!
Finishing work in the shop and going down to skate it with Louis Marshall, Boyo, Lil’ Chris, Syd, Danny and whoever else was about, and just learning tricks and watching everyone killing it.
My favourite tricks were Danny’s switch and regular front foot impossible nose stalls, and Habgood grinding up the pole on the side!

Lloyds.

Good old Lloyds! The best trick I have seen at Lloyds could quite easily be Layth’s switch tre, Nicky Howell’s bigspin flip, Boyo’s switch flip, Barber’s nollie tre (all down the Big 3), but my favourite trick really has to be Terry Shiimi’s nosegrab. Sadly he has passed away but he’s never forgotten and every time I see that trick it makes me feel like he is still with us. RIP Terry.

Don’t forget you can win yourself a day out in London skating with Korahn thanks to the folks at Red Bull – click here to find out more info or check the clip below!

Engage your eyes and brain and have a scroll below now…

For the most part, trying to shoot photos and work on interviews in the cold, damp winter of our domestic setting can definitely have its limitations; the terrible weather and the fact that it gets dark in the mid to late afternoon being the main ones. Back in January, Kris Vile, who can usually be found somewhere in Europe, on a tour or filming a video part, called me up to tell me that he was back in his hometown of Birmingham for a few days and wanted to shoot some photos. Faced with either sitting in a pub pretending that I’m interested in football or taking one the best skaters in Europe to some of the lesser seen spots that the Midlands has to offer, I obviously opted for the latter.

The reason that this photo stands out as one of my favorites from this year is as much to do with the setting and circumstances around it and what it went on to kick start just as much as the fact that it’s a switch front board down a total bust of a rail on a freezing Sunday morning. Kris shot this and six other photos before the sun went down in the late afternoon, and that day was the beginning of what turned into a gnarly interview and a solid video part.

Friends of mine who used to skate have in the past asked me if, as a skateboard photographer, there’s a small aspect of living vicariously through the people in front of the lens. I do know that there is a certain level of coaching, sometimes manipulating, that goes on behind the scenes and I guess there’s a side of you that wants somebody to do what you were never able to.

I’ve been lucky enough over the years to meet and shoot photos of some of my favorite skaters whom span most of the incarnations of popular skateboarding and this has been a great privilege. But, there’s something about shooting locally with someone who’s just breaking out into the wider skate world that’s unique. Also, you get to take someone to all the spots you were too much of a pussy to skate and help to make stuff happen. So yeah, in answer to the initial question, I guess there is some level of self-fulfillment at times.

I’ve seen Luke around for over ten years but he seemed to just do his own thing and from time to time you’d hear via word of mouth that he’d jumped onto some rail or other. Having spent a week on the road with A Third Foot earlier in the year and seeing what he was now up for throwing himself at, I was more than keen to get him over to check out the one of the larger rails in Coventry.

Luke is not someone who’s going to spend hours slow-moing the latest video part or worrying too much about the brand of his jeans. He’s just a fucking lunatic whose blatant disregard for his own wellbeing is what gets him to the other side. I guess the fact that he still watches a worn out bootlegged compilation video of the gnarliest sections from ‘Welcome To Hell’and ‘Fulfill The Dream’ before going out skating may have a hand in it as well.

With just a few kickflips on the flat and with dragging some plywood to the top of the stairs to cover the blind bumps as his warm up, a backside 5050 was put down within a few tries. At that point I began to head back over all stoked to show him the photo. Before I’d even got halfway he jumped straight onto a back lip giving me just about enough time to get back to my vantage point before he was rolling one away fourth try.

Whilst the rest of the UK skateboard industry crammed themselves into various hired vehicles and headed all over the country fulfilling Big Push duties, Gav and myself spent the week concentrating on wrapping up his interview. Having been given a rental car with a questionable top speed and limited seating or boot space following an incident on route to the Flip Demo the week before, we tried to fit as many bodies in the car as possible in an attempt to keep the already injured Irishman ticking over.

After five days in the blistering sun and the steady diet of Haribo and fizzy pop that he’s now famous for, my good friend Gav was lookin’ a bit worse for wear. With elasticated supports just about holding him together at the seams, we hit up a last minute spot before he made his way down to London and I headed off to Downtown Showdown. Gav seemed optimistic but after a warm up ollie over the stairs he looked to have given himself a hernia. At one point Gav couldn’t even bend down to pop his board let alone clear the awkwardly narrow gap to rail. With threats of the caretaker turning up, he battled through, managing the gap to 5-0 before collapsing in a heap by the car.

For anyone into skateboarding and growing up in the 1980’s like myself, there’s pretty much no real need to explain the significance of this photo on both a personal and profession level. To be honest, for anyone who’s had any real interest in skateboarding as a whole for the past thirty odd years, there’s again no real need to explain it.

Back in July, a cross section of the Flip team headed over to the UK as part of their European tour. With the weather being typically terrible during The XC demo and having gone to bed thinking “don’t rain’ don’t rain, please stop raining now and don’t rain tomorrow”, we were all pretty stoked to wake up to one of the only scorchers of this past summer.

With the rain forecast once again for the afternoon, we wasted no time, gathered everyone into the vans and headed over to Romford. This was a special occasion for everyone involved as Romford is definitely one of our longest standing proving grounds and with Lance and Rune as well as the new generation including Greyson Fletcher and Curren Caples, we were all in for a treat. This visit proved to be even more special for Lance as the last time he was at Romford was thirty three years ago in 1979 and he was reunited with Seth Gittians who he’d skated with all those years ago.

With the remaining residue from the down-pour of the previous day hindering the session slightly, the pool was kindly pumped out by Romford legend Dion. Having shot a backside crail block and an invert within five minutes of the pool being dry enough to skate, Lance began trying to get the line for a frontside air. I managed to get four or five photos of this whilst he was trying to get the line to go higher and before too long he reached terminal velocity with this particular frame. F*cking stoked – a Lance Mountain photo and it made its way onto the cover of the Buyer’s Guide a few months later.

First off, that’s a waist high bench with a typically British tarmac run up. Secondly, that’s a Pop shuvit. And thirdly, that could be one of the cast of Made In Chelsea in the background.

Anyway, one of the rad sides to being a skate photographer in Britain is that it’s pretty unplanned and you can never really predict the outcome of your travels until they unfold. Despite only being a few hours away and one of the easier places to get to by car within our motorway network, I never seem to get into London as much as I’d like.

I headed down to London for a few days with Kris Vile in order to wrap up his WORD interview away from our home setting of the West Midlands. Our time spent in London was pretty much centered around handrails and stair sets but after a pretty heavy day of watching Kris and others throw themselves down various drops, we decided to go take in a spot across town that Karim wanted to skate. Although we’d met before, I’d never really seen Karim skate in person let alone shot any photos with him. I’d heard the rumors and seen the footage but f*cking hell this dude has got serious pop!

Like I said earlier, you can never really predict the outcome of your travels as there are so many chance meetings along the way. A trip down to London with Mr. Vile opened up the door for me to shoot one of my favorite photos from the past year with one of the raddest people I’ve met along the way.

Read on – more Photographers Stories coming your way soon…

I’m sure that every person who knows Tony will agree that he’s one of the most friendly, smiley and stylish skateboarders out there. With this comes modesty, a modesty that can sometimes merge, just slightly, into the negative depths of “I’m too old” or “I’m past it”. Judge for yourselves. Tony might be past thirty but that’s not stopping him from turning pro or effortlessly finding a new trick to battle up one of the countries most skated ledges. Keep your eyes peeled for lots of fresh Tony footage in two Manchester videos that are brewing; Joe Gavin’s ‘Snake Eyes Die’and Mark Kendrick’s ‘SHADS’.

Something that sticks in your mind the most about a skate trip or tour is the actual mode of transport and the journeys themselves. On this particular tour with The Harmony, Adam Mondon had made sure to hook us up with the absolute finest (free) Monster energy ‘van’, and good on him. We spent a week or so in various Twister positions in the back of the van envious of whoever was riding shotgun, although maybe not because then you had to deal with Mondon’s dancing and singing to the insane Bangra CD that had been found inside the stereo. We had our ups and downs with the van but it came through in this instance; Mondon floored it towards this road gap with no mercy for Jak who was hanging onto the side to carry out this textbook 360 flip.

Not much needs to be said here. I met Joe one morning to check out a spot relatively near his house before heading into town. The so-called spot was this waist high electricity box with a crusty run up. I’m always game to try and find different stuff but this wasn’t doing it for me! My feelings we irrelevant though because Joe wasted no time in hoisting himself up there. With no prior warm up, no video camera and in no more than ten minutes, Joe had rolled away from this. Easy! (Hyped on the postman BGP’s).

This ledge is situated deep within Manchester’s suave district and the run up happens to be the entrance to a Jamie Oliver restaurant. This was shot on one of the opening nights of the restaurant and the scene was brilliant; flocks of overdressed couples were arriving to be seen by other overdressed couples and eat overpriced, undersized meals. To their horror a big group of noisy skateboarders had unknowingly sabotaged their grand entrances. Amongst all the taxis, buses, pedestrians and resulting quarrels, I was trying to light the ledge up. Thanks to Kendrick for balancing on the wall up above Nick to be a human lightstand and bounce some light on him. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t like heights and he wanted to film this. No problem for Nick though, he had this basically every go; a perfectly styled and extended switch crook coming back out to fakie.

What needs to be said here? Frank’s been one of my skateboard heroes since I can remember and I’m most definitely not alone in this. ‘Headcleaner’, ‘First Broadcast’ & ‘In Motion’ were all such influential and inspiring videos and Frank had stand out parts in all three. Long story short I was more than excited to have the chance to skate with him, I was just disappointed there was little to no photo potential at this random wasteland he’d brought us to.
“Oh wait, Frank’s found a tree and he happens to have a saw to get rid of protruding branches.”
I couldn’t have asked for more.

Read on below then keep an eye out for more Photographers Stories coming soon…

I’ve wanted to get a photo of Dainton in the mag since I first moved to Newport all those years ago. On this trip to The States I thought it wasn’t going to happen, what with Daint being on fulltime filming duties (with at least four cameras going at once, and that was when we were just driving from spot to spot) and the fact that his ankle was purple and balloon like. With a bit of bullying, Daint came through with this pivot fakie on one of the tightest, lumpiest quarters out there.

The Novelty Boards shoot for Sidewalk was one of those shoots that I left until the very last minute and rushed through, as I was busy with work obligations as per usual. I called Beanhead as I was shooting with a Creature board and I knew he’s be down. Beanhead is definitely a trooper and came swooping into action as smashed cars, with the help of a forklift, were towering above him. I love this photo as it’s a reason to take skateboarding out of its natural environment.

Eric is one of those skate legends that I’ve always looked up to, and meeting him was so amazing as he’s the nicest dude ever. Working as a full time tattooist in Los Angeles, Eric still manages to travel a fair amount and has a solid history within Britain on past excursions over to this side of the globe. Eric once again got to witness the best of British with a session at an indoor concrete park in freezing conditions and followed up with a curry and a belly dance. I’m just stoked I got to hang out with him and shoot something. Come back soon Eric.

I have been harping on how good Orcas Island is to Jake for years as it is basically the best skatepark in the world. After our recent visit, I’m sure Jake will now agree. We spent all day just bombing about the snake run until the sun went down. This back tail just shows you some of the brilliant curves and lines within the park, so if you like skating transition and ever get a chance to go there you will not be disappointed.

It wouldn’t be a Jerome photo wrap up without a photo of this mug. Marc on previous years has always managed to hurt himself in the first couple of days of our annual trip to Oregon. Managing to break the pattern of the past few visits, Marc avoided getting himself written off and smashed it this time. Tigard has always been on the list to visit. Again, the sun was out so I was hiding in the shade as always, but I managed to get this rad tucknee of Marc before we headed off in search of another concrete wonderland.

There’s more to follow yet – stay tuned…

Joe Marks, 360 nollie, Paris.

This nollie 360 might not hit the standards of kids expectations today but I couldn’t care less as it got me a small amount of cash in my wallet to help pay the electric bill. More importantly, it’s of one of my favorite people; Joe Marks. Anyway, this was shot whilst I was having one of my small panic attacks worrying about whether my camera or bag was going to get stolen thanks to my paranoia of being in foreign territories. Although we were skating the ramp to a disabled school whilst being told to f*ck off in French many times and been at risk of getting a bag of piss thrown at us from above, Joe still landed the nollie cab and went on to handle more business in Paris that week.

Ben Devine, frontside carve, Marseille.

I’m going to be negative about this because it’s obvious unless you’re just being nice to me by not saying it. Yes, he does get lost in the photo but what the hell could I do in a place that was covered in graffiti that I don’t appreciate. I like doing this trick myself mainly because it looks like I’m confident at skating vert when I’m actually too shit scared to hit the coping. I took the photo not realising how good it actually was, I just thought it might look nice and I’ve always wanted to shoot one somehow. I think this is what prompted the Ben Devine and the Heathen “Kickturn Formula” wheel.
This was shot after getting a lift to and then hiking up a mountain somewhere in Marseille on the hottest day ever. Whilst out on the booze the night before, we had met some locals who’d told us of this place in the hills. Pretty much up to the point where we actually saw the spot, we spent a few hours in transit and wondering whether we were going to get to a skate spot or be mutilated by the seemingly sketchy locals…

Eric Thomas, nosegrind, Derby.

I love and hate Eric. This nosegrind was a pisstake. I personally love this photo and was so hyped that I actually took a photo I was stoked on for once. But the only problem was that he wouldn’t even land on the board so it couldn’t get used. We went back three times for him to finally just do it so I could put it to rest, but he kept grinding it and not landing on his board because he was being an absolute pussy. To be fair, the spot is horrible and everything is wrong with it but it looks rad. Anyway, the third time we went back after him stressing out and leaving the spot in absolute denial that he was being a wuss and hating myself for comforting him, he finally did it.
Nice one Eric.

Joshua “Manhead” Young, 180 fakie 5-0, Derby.

The Big Push was amazing. I finally got to go on one after so many years of being envious as a youngster. Only thing was my f*cking equipment wasn’t working. So gutted, I spent half of the trip being depressed and disappointed not understanding why all my photos looked shit, then half way through we got to Derby and I realised that my LCD brightness was turned down loads and that I just needed to change some settings around. Once it was sorted I was so happy with all the photos I got, like this one of Josh. I’ve wanted to shoot something with him for a while and I don’t normally get to be a bit different with how I shoot photos. This time I could get that much sort after “from above” angle and get something I was stoked on and which stood out from the standard angle at those banks.

Will Golding, frontside crooks, Nottinghamshire.

Sometimes Will decides that the time is right and he’ll get an amazing trick on a handrail. Here it was for his ender for his explosive Get Lesta part. Earlier in the day we had been in another part of Nottingham shooting Kell’s video part ender and everyone was hyped after that so we headed over to this rail. Will knew that it was now or never as far as the last few tricks for his part were concerned. He was straight on the rail with no messing around. With some serious hype and abuse from our crew it wasn’t long before he rode the perfect one away. It’s shot long and I know that kind of shortens the rail but it was the best way to show off the steez element to the trick. Really stoked on this Will, let’s see some more rail antics in the future.

Lee Rozee, frontside noseslide, Leeds.

During a one-off sunny weekday in the early spring, Lee Rozee, Vince Orr and myself met up and decided to go for a dedicated spot search around Leeds in a quest for something new. We ended up trekking through the sketchy back streets of Hyde, climbing into abandoned schools and eyeing up potential spots where you would get your head kicked in if you attempted to skate it. We continued into Burley Park but again couldn’t find anything. The fun part about it was the cruising around between unskateable spots. We eventually found this grim ledge near the city centre, which we’d never seen so we thought we’d skate it instead of hitting up the same old spots in town.

It was a perfect Rozee spot; untouched, rough and would make a rad photo. He then caked it in wax and we finally got the first skate of the day started. Roz got a few front noseslides on it and I managed to shoot one where it had some Roz steez and a shit load of traffic in the background to make the spot look more rad. I was hyped we got something on a non-rinsed spot and it was a photo I was stoked on. Yes Roz!

Jerome Campbell, 360 flip, Sheffield.

Myself and the Jones Brothers (Guy and Vaughan) decided to go through to Sheffield one day and hook up with Baines, Beall, Jerome and Burrell. I hadn’t been through to Sheffield many times so I had no idea where we were going. We went passed the spot in the car and it looked sick but when we got up close we realised how awkward and short the run up was. You had to run down a steep grassy hill and then instantly throwing your board down onto a small bit of flat before hitting the bank. Another problem was the staff from the nearby car dealership who aren’t the most understanding people. They didn’t want us to skate the spot so they decided to threaten us by driving a 4X4 towards my flashes and stopping a few inches in front of them. Yeah, nice one…but anyway, their issues got resolved and we ended up getting everything we needed. Jerome managed to effortlessly land this 360 flip over the gap and roll away as buttery as you like. The photo was used for a contents page and I was fully stoked on it.

Tom Harrison, backside 50-50, Leeds.

Myself and Tom were on a deadline to get as many photos for his Yin-Yang interview as we could. We had about a week left and the weather had been a nuisance along with work hours getting in the way. One Sunday we were both free and it looked like it could be dry somewhere in Leeds.

We live in opposite ends of town so it was going to be hard to meet up quickly as the light was fading, so Tom suggested getting a taxi to the spot we wanted to skate as neither of us had cars. Thankfully the spot was just about dry enough to skate.

After about ten minutes of warming up, the inevitable happened and it started raining. Tom kept at it and managed to stick it in the rain. On the attempt he landed, two crazy dudes showed up and they were stoked. They wouldn’t stop talking to us, so we ended up just walking off, I managed to get out of most of the conversation by packing up my equipment which was somehow OK even though it was drenched. In the end the risky trip worked out somehow and it shows that the expensive taxi was worthwhile.

Dave Snaddon, 50-50 up, Dublin.

This was shot during my first time on the Big Push with DC Shoes. The week was going well except for the weather, which was frustrating everyone because we were competing against every other team at the same time. I know the weather looks banging in the photo but this was one small glimpse of sun which we had during that whole week. More annoyingly, we kept checking on weather updates which showed amazing weather for everywhere in UK except for Ireland.

On the last day we were all hoping for some freak weather so we could just smash it and get as much stuff as we could. One of the first spots we hit was looking good and then surprise surprise the rain hit once again. After an hour of waiting in a coffee shop the sun came back out and we hit a few more spots. Snaddon was keen and starting trying to session a spot that we’d seen earlier in the week and he ended up getting this rad 50-50 up it. I was stoked when he was trying it ’cause I knew it would make a sick photo. This was a rad trip and was great to meet everyone on it and along the way. Despite the terrible weather we managed to get what we went to Ireland for. Cheers DC.

Neil Smith, wallride, Basildon.

Later in the summer I was invited to go on a trip to photograph Neil Smith on his very own Big Push. We met in London and went in search of dry spots from there. This time I thought the weather wouldn’t be as annoying as it was in Ireland but I was wrong. When we were in London it would rain just as we’d arrive at a spot so we were stoked to get out to Southend where the sun was blazing. On our way out of Southend we hit a spot Basildon, Essex. This hip looks rad but the run-up isn’t the greatest but that didn’t slow Smithy down. He sessioned it like a normal hip whilst having to ignore kids performing backflips right next to him, then he stepped it up and got this gnarly backside wallride. The Smithy Big Push was so rad and we got to hit up loads on spots I’d never been to before, even if we were constantly fighting the weather conditions as things continued to worsen after Southend…

Read on below – more stories soon…

Benson, frontside grind, Nottingham.

This is from the 2012 Adidas Big Push. We’d met up with Horse in Nottingham and he’d taken us to that new plaza place. It’s a really good spot and everyone loved it, everyone except for Benson, it’s not really his thing. Anyway, as is usual for those kind of spots, we got stuck there for a while. I knew that if we went to another ledge type spot after the Plaza, Benson would start going mental.

I’d last been Maple Street a few years ago, I remembered the vert wall being pretty crazy but maybe Benson could do something there. I asked Andy to lead the way. Pretty much as soon as we got into the park Benson was flying up this thing, we all knew it was on.

From a photography point of view it was a bit of a nightmare:Lots of deep shadow but also little areas lit by full sunshine. The quarter is so big that you can’t really put lights where you want them, you’d need a 15-foot lightstand or something, you just have to compromise in these situations. All the foreground stuff in the way was kind of limiting my options too (I got lucky that his arm and body cleared that leaf).

Before I’d had much chance to ponder or stress over these environmental concerns Benson had worked his way up to a legit grind on the rounded lip (no one was even sure whether it was even grindable) and was surfing all the way back down the transition again. Whoa!

Nick Jensen, frontside blunt, London.

Nick and myself had been to the top of St. Paul’s a few years ago; I think I was shooting some cityscapes for Nick so he could use them for reference in his paintings. Of course as soon as we got outside the first thing we checked out was how cool Chalky Ledges looked from up there… We made tentative plans to return at some point so I could shoot Nick skating the ledges from the same viewpoint. As is often the case with the best laid plans they often take a while to implement, and this one was no exception.

Anyway we finally returned on the last day of deadline for Nick’s ‘Word’ interview. I paid my £15 and then once again climbed the stairs to the top; it’s actually quite a lot of steps, especially if you’re carrying a load of camera gear. Mark Jackson actually helped a lot on this, not only manning the mobile phone link with Nick, but also donating his shirt so Nick would stand out better against the flowerbed. I had Nick do loads and loads of these, I was just waiting to get some interesting things going on with all the people walking in and out of the frame. As soon as I saw this one I knew we had it.

Download Nick’s frontside blunt as a Wallpaper here.

Torey Goodall, heelflip, Copenhagen.

This was shot on the Palace and Polar trip to Scandinavia earlier in the year. I remember it took him ages to land it and I was deeply regretting my “lie down on the floor” angle as the temperature slowly dropped. Not too much to say about this one, I think I like it because it’s kind of retro – all fisheye, flashes, and heelflips.

Jerome Campbell, backside tailslide, Cyprus.

This was Jerome’s last trip for Blueprint as he left for Polar not long after this was taken. I was actually pretty surprised (and stoked) that this made it into the article. The spot is pretty amazing; a perfect concrete wedge thing in front of an epic rock face with caves and stuff. You’d have to be a pretty shit photographer to not come out with something cool from this one. I hid in a bush (I had to, Ches was pissed I’d made him and his 6 camera angles move) and Jerome skidded full speed back tails across this thing. I really like how that bit of rock has the same outline as his leg.

Joshua ‘Manhead’ Young, ollie, Malta.

This was a beacon of light on a pretty hellish trip to Malta. Josh had already fucked his ankle by this point and we’d had more than our fair share of non-existent spots and shitty weather. We’d passed this a few times in the van and we weren’t really sure if was doable, I was really surprised when Josh just started jumping over it straight away, especially considering the crappy run up at the top. I was stoked on those pillars with the faces, the white wall behind him and the writing on the hill:  ”I saw the greatest minds of my generation destroyed by madness”.

Have a read below to see what Ryan made of his last visit to the UK, what tour life with Barney Page is like, whose board he would snap given the chance and more!

Back in 2009, you spent a good week in the UK on Etnies’ “Recognition Tour”. When thinking back to the that mission, what memories instantly spring to mind? Any comedy stories/amusing tales to report?
It was fun to skate the Leeds park, I can’t pinpoint any funny things right now, but the tours are always funny when Willow’s on them.

Talking of the UK, I hear you’ve been spending a fair amount of time with Exeter’s ginger ball of enthusiasm Barney Page – what’s the best thing about having Barney in the van when you’re on a trip?
Yeah I’ve been on three trips with Barney. He’s got energy and he skates everything so it’s good to jump out the van at a spot and have him jumping with me.

As I’m sure you’re also aware, Barney’s enthusiasm knows no bounds, which means he’s also no stranger to the occasionaL bout of daftness. With that in mind, what’s the stupidest thing you’ve seen him do on a trip? Be honest…
Yeah Barney…a few times while trying big tricks he will start talking to someone and forget he’s skating, and the filmers are waiting on him and we would have a flight to catch.

Tell us a little bit about your new Etnies pro model, The Marana. How did the design come about, and where did you draw influence for the shoe from?
We wanted the shoe to have the classic Etnies cupsole, put that together with insane heel support and comfort.

Obviously everybody is waiting out for the Plan B video which seems to have been in the works for some time now. How’s that all looking? Are you happy with your footage for it so far, and when should we be expecting an announcement regarding its release?
It’s coming along very well we are actually just about to leave for China this week. We’ve been filming a bunch and footage is coming along, I’m gonna have a full part. It’s looking like sometime next year it should be out, it’s gonna be amazing.

For the sake of comedy, and without fear of reprisal – if you could focus anybody’s board in front of them, who would you pick and why?
Probably Barney’s, just to hear him say “Oh mate.”

Ryan, back smith.

What have been the top three highlights of 2012 so far for you? Either skate related or otherwise…
Filming for the Plan B video, the etnies Marana keeps me skating, and skydiving in Hawaii.

Ending on an obvious one – what have you got in store for 2013 then? And when are you next hoping to return to the UK?
Filming for the Plan B video part, and hopefully I’ll be back soon.

Don’t forget, you can win yourself two pairs of the Marana and a gift card for the Etnies online store by clicking here!

Read on below then check back at around 6pm tonight to catch the premiere of his section…

Having being sponsored for the best part of five years now, how on earth have you managed to escape filming a proper video part? In this day and age most people are banging out at least one a year, how come you’ve managed to slip through the net?
Good question (laughs). I broke my leg really badly which probably took almost a year to recover from properly, since then I would either film with Russell Houghten or Ewan (Bowman), and occasionally Greg Hunt. I figured that I probably had enough footage to put a part together and that’s how it came about.

Since you started skating, how many videos have you actually managed to get parts in, up until now? You’ve put in brief appearances on quite a few UK videos over the years haven’t you, that I guess people outside of the UK probably haven’t seen?
I was in one when I was about 15 which I didn’t know I was going to be in, then since then its just been a lot of web clips mainly. I’m stoked to finally be putting out a part.

How did getting this new Flip part come about then? Is it something you went out with a clear aim to produce, or did you just start stockpiling footage from trips and it took shape that way?
Nah it just kind of happened. I had footage with a few different filmers, we just got it all in one place and it turned out that there was enough for a part.

Ben Nordberg - Backside 180 nosegrind. Photo: Horse.

What was the first trick you filmed that made it into the part?
I honestly have no idea. Because it was a recent decision to do this it’s hard to determine what the first trick I did for it was.

What about the last?
Same thing, I want to say something from a Gravis trip we went on in Belgium, though I’ve filmed a few bits at Arto’s recently too.

Out of all the tricks in the section, which one are you the most stoked on, and why?
I think the last trick (description removed for obviously spoiler purposes). That thing is pretty scary to commit to!

Give us an amusing tale that happened whilst out filming for the part that most people reading this wouldn’t know. You must have found yourself in some sketchy scenarios trying to session those mental looking ditch spots…
Recently in Australia I was rolling up to a set of stairs, and there was this random dude walking along with his family about 5 feet behind him. I was kind of close to hitting him but didn’t think anything of it, next thing i know he knee’s me in the stomach and starts going off about how I almost hit his kids. There were so many of us at the spot that the situation was diffused pretty quickly and we made him look like an asshole.

Ben Nordberg - Backside ollie. Photo: Ryan Allan.

Tell us a bit about the editing – James Gardner put the clip together right? How did that come about?
I’ve worked with James before on a Short Story we did for Relentless, I was thinking of someone who could edit it and he was the first person that came to mind. He’s really professional and has a good eye for editing and is fun to be around.

Did you have much of a say in the edit, or did you just trust James’ judgement?
We worked on it together. He put a rough edit together and then me and him sat down and went through it, and just messed with it until we were both happy.

Now that this part is finally wrapped up, what’s next for you then? You working on any more video parts, interviews or anything?
Yeah, I’m just going to keep filming and start working towards another part, maybe for Gravis…that would be rad. We also have a few cool projects coming up so keep an eye out for them.

Ben Nordberg - Backside noseblunt. Photo: ARTOFOTO

Is there another full length Flip video in the works? Or is that still a close guarded secret?
Not sure, I couldn’t possibly say.

Moving on, you’ve been living at Arto’s lately haven’t you? His pool seems to be getting quite a heavy old sessioning these days – what’s the most surreal session there that you’ve found yourself in the middle of?
Yeah there is always people coming through to skate his bowl because it’s so good. The best session I’ve seen is when I woke up one morning and walked outside and Cardiel was skating the bowl. It was amazing to see him skating.

Tell us a bit about the Gravis tour you just went on to Australia. Was that your first time there? How was it compared to what you were expecting? And was it a complete washout, or was that just what your Instagramming lead us to believe?
Yeah we just got back from an 11 day trip in Sydney. It was my first time there, I was so hyped to go because everyone I had talked to had told me such great things, but yeah it was a complete washout. We skated maybe 3 days out of the 11, I still had a great time, big thanks to Sparks for making it so fun.

Ben Nordberg - Switch backside disaster. Photo: Horse.

The last time you DJ’d in the van you were dropping everything from Slayer to Wacka Flocka Flame – what are your go to hype tunes at the moment? Are you still keeping it mosher?
Yeah, pretty much still mosh! A lot of Metallica, although I’ve developed a weird obsession with Lana Del Ray lately, I can’t figure out why but I really dig her music.

When are you next planning on being back in the UK then? Can we be expecting “The Hangover – Part 2” this year or are you hoping to be avoiding the British Isles for a while?
Yeah I’ll be back in the summer for a little bit, I have some stuff going on in Europe so I wont be in the UK too much, but when I am I’ll be sure to get drunk and attempt to skate the next day.

And lastly, how good is your ratio on Instagram? Better than Manhead’s?
(Laughs) He knows the answer to that.

Ben Nordberg - Three-sixty flip. Photo: Horse.

Palace ambassador Karim Bakhtaoui missed the deadline to get his interview in the article, so we decided to bring it to you via the website this morning instead. Read on below to see what Karim made of filming for the project, tales from the streets of London, his plans for future filming and more…

Photography by Lex Kembery.

If popular wisdom is to be believed, then “City of Rats” is your first proper video part. Is this true? If so, how have you managed to slip under the video part radar for so long?

Yeah man, first full length video part! So stoked! Well, it was more a case of never really been given the opportunity to film for a full length ting. I always tried to have footage in most of the projects that go on, whether it be in London, France, Spain or The States, but never a full length part. The closest thing I kinda had to one was my remix section in Hold Tight 12, which I shared with Joe Sivell. But apart from that, mostly jus’ had clips in UK vids, friends parts, in online edits, made “Rat Signals” for Slam or had clips in London sections in vids from abroad. I’m really stoked to have been given the opportunity for “City of Rats” to film a full length part! Gave me a chance to show more than just a couple of clips here and there.

So whilst working on “City of Rats” you’ve also been filming for the upcoming Palace video, right? How have you split your time between the two videos? Did you get to the point where you would keep specific tricks for the Slam video over the Palace video, or did you just go out and film whatever trick with whoever was out filming?

Nah, not really. The tricks that I filmed for the Slam vid were mostly thought out, some of the tricks were spur of the moment hype too! But they were mostly things I’d thought about doing for a longtime as are a lot of the tricks that I’ve been filming for Palace.
It is difficult in some instances to spread the footage over multiple projects. I just make it so that when I think of something I wanna film I also think of who I wanna film it with and try and construct my part like that. Avoids conflicts and makes the footage have a lot more variety!
More towards the end of filmin’ for the Slam vid it was imperative to split footage and spots that I wanna film tricks at, whether it was for Palace or the Slam vid. Executive decisions had to be made. I was a lot more  specific with who I went out to filming with, for footage purposes. So yeah, I guess I was a lot more picky, mission wise!

Is there any comedy/sketchy scenario that automatically comes to mind when thinking back to filming missions for the video? Spending most of your days filming in and around inner-city London you must have had your fair share of run ins with bellends and dodgy characters…

A couple but they mustn’t have been that memorable ‘coz I don’t really remember them. Haha! Mostly I was on the mission in the evenings and weekends so I didn’t get given too much grief! There was a couple of times when I went to film the tre-flip over the rail for one of my enders and got turfed by this one security guard over and over and over again, until we kinda just told him one day that we were just gonna keep comin’ back until we get it so he might as well just let us do it! Still didn’t let us though. It’s the thrill of the chase though! All part of the game! Went back anyways and merked dat!!!!!

How much of the video did you get to see prior to the Prince Charles premiere? Did Henry let you see the project as it was coming together, or did he keep the whole thing close to his chest until it was ready to premiere?

It was all a bit up in the air with footage ‘coz of always being on the mission; if I wasn’t out with Henry then I would be out filmin’ with Morph or Lev. When I did get a chance to watch footage or my part coming together, I wouldn’t so much focus on watching it as the finished version, ‘coz when you’re actually filming you don’t really watch it as a finished product ‘coz you’re still out every day trying to get clips. I’d watch it more to see what spots I still wanted to hit up, what enders I was down to film, if I needed more lines…mostly stuff like that. Prior to the premiere I got to see my part but it got changed before the premiere ‘coz it was quite different to what I remembered it being when I saw it at the premiere. No hip-hop but it’s cool, I was stoked on it though! Holla!
And much love goes out Femi for my intro! Shouts to all the true SB heads, don’t even need to name names! You know who you are!

Whose section were you the most shocked by when you finally saw the finished video?

Personally I was mad stoked on Snowy’s part ‘coz its so Trill! So steezy! Raw! Real street skatin’! Was mad stoked on Tanner’s lines, fully Polo’d up – was a pleasure to watch!
Jake Sawyer fakie hard mid line – straight Gully!
My homie Kurt Winter’s tricks are just off the chain!
I was stoked on Casper’s part! Smiffy and Jerome was hella dope, Jerome’s backside lipslide frozen in time pose, so banging! Smiffy doin’ his geezer push at the end of they’re part was probably the funniest thing ever!
Lucien and Rory! Trill! Trill! TRILLLLL! Palace HYPE!!!!
Morph’s ollie was probably the Trillest shit in the whole vid! Dun know!! Committing bare nuisances!!!!

Now that “City of Rats” is done with, what’s next for you? Are you on a strict Palace filming mission, or have you got any other sections lined up?

Well the main focus for the time being is Palace vid for sure. Been trying to work hard on my part for that! I want it to definitely be better than my Slam part! Havin’ a video part come out has given me a whole new lease on skating! New hunger to feed off of. Got a few things in the pipeline apart from Palace vid which I’m not really at liberty to discuss at this present point in time. But all should be revealed in due time! Jus’ wanna end this by sayin’ much love to everyone who was involved in “City of Rats”, was a long time in the making, from all the freezing cold winter nighttime missions to the laid back steady chillin’ rays of the summertime sun. Mad hardwork and dedication from all the mandem involved! Big up Slam crew. Past, present and future.
Big up Clapton Castle!!!
Holla!

Karim’s “City of Rats” trailer: