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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.

Check out his picks from 2011 below now, and get yourself some behind the scene styles knowledge about each shot whilst you’re at it….

Barney Page, Ollie out to frontside wallride, Barcelona.
Although technically shot in December of 2010, this photo appeared in the February issue this year as the contents page. Just before the Christmas of 2010, Rye (Gray) and myself headed over to Barca for a heavy filming and photo mission for the Sidewalk “In Progress” DVD. Our crew consisted of Ben Raemers, Nicky Howells, Manhead, Chris Jones, Tom Harrison, Barney Page, Barber and Harry Lintell, Kev Parrott on filming duties, with a few other UK stowaways popping in and out during the week. The trip came at the end of a pretty quiet few months for most of us in the UK, as the weather had been terrible. On our first day, we headed straight to Forum where the sun was shining and everyone was having a good time. Within about five minutes of being there, Barney had filmed a sick line and was already eying up this wall. With just about enough time to get a lens on the camera, he began popping out and testing the water; a handful of attempts later, one of which was popped so high he that it looked like he could have smith ground the top of the wall, Barney landed it.
For me the photo was such a welcomed break to the bleak snow grey skies of back home and it was a rad start to a super productive week. Check out “In Progress” for the footage of this and a host of other stuff from that week.

Harry Lintell, Sugarcane, Del Mar, California.
After one of the most productive and exciting trips around the UK with members of both the US and UK Volcom teams the previous year, Mr Volcom UK, Kev Parrott, organized a trip over to Volcoms’ American headquarters in California.
This past February, Harry Lintell, Nick Stansfield and Gav Coughlan headed over to Costa Mesa for a weeklong adventure to hook up with Ben Raemers, Geoff Rowelly and some of the other Volcom guys. The very first spot of the trip was a well-mediated high school rail somewhere in the Cali valleys. Within ten minutes of being there, Harry had nollie crooked it and moved straight onto a hurricane. To everyone’s horror, his wheel stuck in the vertical supports of the rail, which sent him flying backwards to the floor. Harry had wrecked his already suspect knee and was unable to walk particularly well let alone skate for the rest of the week.
This photo pretty much sums up the whole Cali feel with the cost line in the background, amazing sunshine, natural colours everywhere. After some serious pain killers which you won’t find in your local Tesco pharmacy, Harry was able to cruise on our last day for a short while so he could shoot this photo.

Jamie Thomas, Frontside Boardslide, Newquay Cornwall.
Back in May, Ben (Powell) and myself spent a long weekend with the US and newly appointed UK Fallen team. The trip was a whistle stop visit of the South Coast with an appearance at the Route One headquarters on the Friday, a demo at Mount Hawke on the Saturday and an open demo/meet and greet at Truro Plaza on the Sunday.
Obviously hyped on hooking up with guys of this international calibre, we were also really stoked to be joined by UK Fallen riders Kelley Dawson, Nick Roberts, Stu Titmus, with Derby Daz Pearcy (Rollersnakes Team Manager, Big Brother and life councilor) and Cornwall’s media machine, Matt Hunt on filming duties.
As the very nature of the tour was based around demos/signings and with only two and a half days with the team, I didn’t hold out too much hope of getting many street photos shot down in Newquay. But, Jamie Thomas and his crew are known for their professionalism and we managed to squeeze in a rail session on the Sunday afternoon after the demo.
With the rail session over and everyone pretty much done in after the heavy night before, jet lag and a day jumping down the big set at Truro Plaza, we were stoked when JT asked myself, Ben, Daz and Stu if we wanted to go try and shoot some photos. We dropped the rest of the team off at the costal view apartments and heading into Newquay town centre late on the Sunday night in search of anything, firstly skateable and secondly with any streetlights around it as it was pitch black.
The only thing we could find was this bench in the centre of town and with about half a pound of candle wax forced onto it, JT managed to get a front board through its’ rough curved backrest. Surprisingly enough, we didn’t get too much hassle from anyone in what is usually a riot zone for the mid season stag-do hoards!

Boo Johnson, Frontside Flip, Wednesfield Nr Wolverhampton.
Back in June, during the busy season as far as trying to document skateboarding in Britain goes, I had a pretty last minute email informing me that there was a Supra tour staring in a few days and that I needed to cancel my plans and get myself up to Edinburgh. ‘A week with Penny and Muska’, sounds pretty good to me!
The format of the trip was heavily built around key demos and signings from Scotland right down to London, which, with the sketchy on and off rain as a constant, left very little opportunity to try and shoot any street, although we managed to get the odd hour in whilst in Scotland and a quick session on some banks in Manchester.
With a few days remaining and faced with a memory card full of skatepark/demo sequences and a few snatched street photos of Muska and Mumford, I managed to convince the Supra team management department to take a diversion via the safe heaven that is the Wednesfield Sainsbury’s plaza.
Within five minutes of being there, Boo Johnson, Furby and Spencer Hamilton started destroying the big three with everything from a chest high warm up kickflip right through to a switch backside flip. This photo was a definitely a welcome break to the ever familiar clattering of nine frames per second during heavy demo sessions and for me, more of a testament of time than a well-orchestrated skate photo.

Nick Roberts, 5050, Belper Derbyshire.
This photo was shot back in the last few days of October. It was the final photo that Nick needed for his Haunts and being as it was freezing cold, raining on and off, a chest high kinked rail which had put A.V.E. through his paces a few months prior and there was a massive anti-climb fence around the school yard, I wasn’t 100% confident that our luck was going to be in with this one.
By now, most of you will have seen Nick’s “Haunts” in the December issue of Sidewalk and I’m sure like many others you weren’t expecting to see a street based interview being knocked out by the man who’s primarily known for his skills on transition.
There’s nothing better for me than driving around the UK to some of the most random and previously un-heard of (by myself) places such as Belper (the Derbyshire town where this photo was shot), with someone like Nick, who is probably regarded as somewhat of an underdog as far as street skating goes and being able to be part of the progressional process, the ups and downs and making it through to the other side.

Lee Rozee, Frontside Air, Leeds.
Roz tried to do this gap previously on Christmas Day 2010 whilst on a skate by himself. He nearly managing to clear it, he unfortunately didn’t manage to stick it. He told me he was sick twice due to trying the gap for so long that he wore himself down so much! Anyway, about a month or so later we were out skating and decided to get out of the trap that is Hyde Park and head out for a street mission with plenty of keen people. We ended up skating in the Uni and just after shooting a photo of Guy Jones doing backside wallride down a set, I remember Rozee saying something along the lines of “I could maybe try this trick on the banks, it’s nothing special but I’ve tried it before and got close, if you’re keen to shoot a photo of it?”.
I was hyped to see what he had in store and so was everyone else; anything that Roz does is usually raw as fuck and not usually something that anyone else will have attempted. Roz showed us the gap; we were all hyping him up to try it as he told us that he nearly did it back on Christmas Day. We watched him have a couple of attempts and every go he was going flat out towards it, I set my stuff up straight away because I knew he’d easily clear it. Roz continued to try it for about fifteen minutes almost landing into the bank perfectly but he just kept shooting out from the awkward landing. Roz managed to stick one, there was a big crew of us watching and everyone went mental. Probably one of the most gnar tricks I’ve seen go down in Leeds since being here, for sure!

Jason Brown, Blunt Backside Flip, Leeds.
When shooting Jase doing this blunt backside flip, I remember us trekking down to Needleside hungover and not really hyped for skating. Jase got down there and was just chilling while chain smoking in an attempt to nurse or his hangover, eventually trying to skate and pretty much going straight for the trick. After trying it for about half an hour Jase was pretty set for giving up, but we made him try a few more before and he ended up landing it out of the blue! After Jase landed it he went straight to a rollie to reward himself. Sick guy!

Guy Jones, Slappy Tailslide, Leeds.
Guy and me attempted to shoot this slappy front tail photo on a few occasions but every time we went there no matter what day it was, security always kicked us off. The next time we went down there it was the final spot of the day and when we arrived, I managed to set up quickly so that we could shoot the photo straight away. Guy gave it a handful of attempts only for the security team to show up. We pretended to pack away and leave and the security headed back into the main office so we made Guy give is a few more goes. We thought we were gonna be kicked off again but Guy gave it a few last attempts and rolled away from it luckily. Glad we don’t have to go back to that spot again, for a while at least! Also I can’t believe Guy actually wanted to attempt this, the drop on the one side is treach!

James ‘Foz’ Foster, Frontside Feeble Grind Backside 180, Leeds.
About a week before this I think Foz skated Tech Ten for the first time, landing a front board and ollieing over the rail to get a feel for it. A few days later he ambiguously said that he wanted to try a frontside feeble backside 180 out, so obviously I was keen to shoot it.
After the standard warm up session at Hyde, a bunch of us walked down to the rail and Foz wasted no time getting stuck in. After getting a front board fakie and front feeble down, he begun trying the backside 180 out.
He was trying it for a good half hour when he we realised we had picked one of the worst days there for moshers and a general overload of after work pavement traffic. So he managed to get a go once every five minutes, with the passing hoards watching it was freaking him right out so he’d have the odd war cry at them and tell them to stop watching, ha ha. After an hour of interruption from every idiot walking past and a couple of nasty slams, he decided to put a beanie on and block the crowds out which actually worked because he landed straight afterwards.

Brenna Harrap, Ollie to Backside Wallride, Leeds.
When I got told about Brenna attempting this ollie to wallride before. I thought I heard it wrongly. Leeds local Vince and myself were with Brenna and we managed to find a piece of metal for the sketchy run up. Brenna was getting into this trick surprisingly easy, it was just figuring a way of getting off the wall that was sticking out and then landing into the steep bank, oh, and then landing into a hill bomb straight after that was the next problem. He was giving it a good go for a while and Vince was pretty confident he could do it but Brenna wasn’t so hyped and was a bit over it. But every time he tried it, he’d end up almost landing it. He was on his last attempt when he managed to get off the wall and into the bank. Stoked, another Leeds NBD!

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Joe Gavin, Switch Backside 180, Manchester.
I’ve always been hyped on Percy Dean’s photo of Joe switch ollieing over this rail from an OG Big Push, needless to say I was even more hyped to shoot this. During a cold, damp evening skating at the Pumpcage there was nothing I wanted more than to get into my cosy living room. However, Joe managed to convince Dom and myself to have a little street mission in the wet. No sooner had we crossed the street did I find myself setting up, a perfect example of Joe’s ability to take a seemingly written-off day and make things happen! To be honest, I think that pushing up to this rail (especially switch) with the right speed and positioning is just as hard as jumping over it. Navigate!

John Bell, Backside 5-0 Frontside 180, Macclesfield.
For those who have never skated the Macc rails, they may look perfect but I can assure you they aren’t. The run-up is horribly narrow, the rails are super steep and chuck you into a sandpaper styled floor. John clearly likes to make things difficult for himself, judging by his choice of rail and trick combination. On our first attempt to shoot this when Phil Harvey was filming for ‘Keep Keen’, John broke three boards. With no more boards to snap, John had to go home battered and boardless.
A few days later we returned and John rode away within five attempts, breaking no boards this time. On both visits John’s warm-up involved ollieing over and backside 5-0ing the rail back to back, first go. “Keen” is an understatement! Who else would discharge themselves from hospital to go skating straight after being told that your leg needs urgent medical attention and surgery! Get ready for John’s full recovery early 2012, DEBRAH!

Mark Kendrick, Backside Flip, Braga, Portugal.
In the summer I joined Kendrick, Tony DaSilva, Dom Henry, Jed Coldwell and Tom Day in Braga where they were staying with Tony’s amazing Dad, Geraldo. At the same time as my arrival, Cricca Johnsson and Jesper Karlsson flew in from Stockholm to join the party. Tone and Jed picked us up in a black BMW and so began ten days of ‘crending’.
This photo took place on one of the first days, by which point we had a following of local skaters who were so hyped on having other skaters in their small town. They told us rumours (or myth) that someone had once upon a time ollied over this huge grid. Drinking our ‘Super Bocks’, we all soaked up the idea of ollieing it and I for one (probably influenced by the lethargy induced by beer and sun) was trying to get my head around why or how anybody would find the energy and effort necessary to clear this thing! Meanwhile, The Horse (Kendrick) was starting his trademark gallop towards the gap and myself. After almost trampling me, Kendrick fully committed to a backside flip. Why waste time and energy with an ollie? Whilst the rest of us drank and got excited, Kendrick repeatedly coated this religious floor with Horse sweat. If you haven’t already seen ‘Pusherman’, do it! Jesper’s expert filming allowed this trick to be an after black ender. This is definitely the cleanest/fastest/longest flip trick I’ve ever witnessed.

Tom Day, Ollie, Manchester.
Bored of sitting around the house one day, Tom Day and myself decided to explore the lesser-searched areas of Manchester’s eastern outskirts. After finding little to nothing and then being heckled out of a tiny ghetto skatepark by an eight year old – “Why are you skateboarding here? This isn’t Urbis!” – we decided to follow their logic and take our skateboards to the Man City ground.
Tom had had this idea for a while but I’d always put it off thinking it wasn’t possible, but then again, Tom can skate just about anything. These ‘banks’ are awkwardly curved, short and steep; you have to dodge a ledge on both the pop and the land. Oh, and the whole set up is surrounded by gravel. Tom was flying towards the channel full pelt and somehow maintaining control and speed after hitting the gravel run-up without slipping out. Nothing about this should have worked, but it did! Straight to Big Hands.

Tony Da Silva, Powerslide, Portugal.
I think of all the photos I shot for the Note/Braga article, this is the one I wanted in there the most. This was the one day we took the train to Porto from Braga; after meeting the infamous Nuno, skating a perfect ledge spot, drinking tiny bottles of fortified wine and getting sun-burnt, we decided it was time for some food and beers. We were sitting outside a restaurant just out of shot on the right when Jed initiated the drunken hill-bombing session. This hill gets gnarly as not only does it require you to dodge trams, but just as you’re mid-way through shitting yourself from speed-wobbles you have to navigate a sharp, blind corner into oncoming traffic! After a few near death misses with cars on his numerous trips down the hill, Jed hit the tram-track and took an involuntary flying lesson onto an already gruesome hipper. We caught the train soon after, on which Jed scared us all by passing out from pain and literally turning green. Over a week later, back in England, Jed found out he’d given himself a serious blood clot!

Engage your brain and eyes and get reading below to see what shots Smashers has picked out from the last twelve months, then head on back tomorrow for more!

Javier Mendizabal, backside ollie, Gateshead.
This was shot on Cliché’s “Bullseye” UK tour back in April. I remember some of the guys were trying to do some pretty tech stuff at a manny pad spot just down the road from these banks and we were kind of getting stuck there. It wasn’t long before Javier and Jeremie Daclin wanted to check something else out, so we just kind of snuck off to take a look at these banks. They’re located in the middle of pretty sketchy estate and it wasn’t long before we were getting stress from the residents nearby: “I work nights, I’m trying to sleep!” etc. Luckily when it comes to transition stuff Javier is one of the very best, no matter how tight or how gravelly the run up.

Chewy Cannon, 50-50 up, NYC.
This photo is from the first Palace trip to NYC at the end of last year and published in January. I think everyone else on the trip had got tired and headed back to Brooklyn for the evening leaving myself, Lev and Chewy to rat about the streets by ourselves. If you want to skate a lot of the spots in Manhattan, night time is often your only option. Even though New York is like Disneyland these days it still felt pretty sketchy hanging out in this super dark Lower East
Side park at midnight, luckily most of the lurkers passing through didn’t really pay us much attention, in fact the most dangerous thing about the spot was the cars trying to run Chewy over as he cut across the main road for run up. Besides all that, Chewy came through with a new line at a classic NYC spot, never an easy task. Oh, that’s the Empire State in the background there too.

Steve Malet, 50-50, Paris.
I remember it was freezing, but that did not in anyway influence me to shoot this from the warmth of the Cafe, I am an artist damn it. The run up for this thing is awful cobble that dips down at the top too; you kind of have to pop pretty early to avoid it. Steve’s definitely not lacking in the pop department so it wasn’t too long before he was getting up on this thing. He eventually landed one clean, but I think maybe he wanted to do another where he ground it further or something, I’m not sure, I was in the Cafe. Anyway next go, he got up on it but his board slipped off the other side leaving Steve to fall backwards onto his head/neck, pretty nasty. He was pretty shaken but just about OK. I don’t think he’ll be going back anytime soon though.

Korahn Gayle, switch ollie, Sicily.
I knew that Korahn was an absolute beast but even I was surprised how easily he did this switch ollie during a Nike SB trip to Sicily earlier in the year. What you can’t see to the right of me is an assortment of cars/scooters who had decided that they wanted to watch and simply stopped driving, blocking a couple of lanes on this busy Catania road at rush hour.

Ben Raemers, pivot fakie, Gran Canaria.
This was shot the end of a long day skating around Las Palmas looking for stuff to skate. These banks are a classic GC spot but far from easy to skate. I remember that the radios that trigger my flashes were getting some interference or something, they weren’t playing nice anyway. Luckily for me this took Ben a little while to do, not only giving me time to figure out how to make these fucking flashes fire, but also watch the daylight fall exactly where I wanted it.

Get reading below now to find out some behind the scenes style info from Lex, then check back Monday for another dose of photography tales…

Gonz, backside boneless, Bloblands, London.
Those five words need very little explanation in all honesty. Gonz aged forty-three plus backside plus boneless divided by Bloblands equals “once in a lifetime”. I took this whilst the Adidas global boys were giving it in Europe this past summer. When I was asked to go out with them I was pinching myself the entire time. I had never seen the Gonz skate in the flesh and I had read countless articles saying how amazing it is just to witness him even pushing. I always thought “ah whatever, cant be that good”. I couldn’t have been more wrong with that thought. It’s beyond a joke how next level he actually is.
I met everyone at the hotel and we did the usual waiting around game and then got in a small coach that looked like something from outer space that had been in Tim Westwood’s hands. Black and bright blue leather seats, TV screens etc. I felt sick just sitting in it.
So we arrived with our slightly baffled driver looking on and made our way along the path to where Bloblands is. It’s a funny place as it’s basically an old water park for kids, but it’s got Claims Direct written all over it so there is no water there anymore. I remember thinking as we walked down “I hope Mark does something amazing here”, even more so as it was my first time at Bloblands. It was really mellow skating there with everyone just having fun, Karim waiting for the wind to drop to ollie the gap over the steps, Chewy doing what he does best, Lucas doing mental manual combos with Kevin and then Nestor and Mark playing with the Boob. Then, as spontaneous as ever, Mark just started trying to backside boneless it and trying to deal with the pretty slippery surface due to the fire paint job which complimented his purdey trousers nicely. I think this will always be a favourite of mine because as it was at end of a really amazing week and the fact it’s such an iconic skateboarder at somewhere like Bloblands.

Chewy Cannon, backside lipslide, Docklands, London.
Hands down one of the best things I have ever seen on a skateboard. This was another spot in London that I had never been to and always wanted to after seeing countless video clips and photos of the wave ledges. It’s quite a bizarre place because it’s over the top for something that is quite hard to actually get to. I get it, it’s the Thames Barrier, but I can’t see many tourists making the trip to it. I remember getting down to the ledges and getting hyped ‘coz the light was good and it looked so rad.
The decking was pretty rickety and rotting in places, the ledges were really chipped with big chunks out of them, and then to top it off, some parts around the ledges were so bad they had fenced it off. I think it was Mark that suggested we lifted the fence over the ledge so it could be skated, which was fine but I thought “what the hell is anyone going to be able to do here?” as its so chipped you can’t grind them. Chewy was the only one who was really excited to skate it as I think everyone else just thought “sod that”.
After waxing it to oblivion, Chewy casually started trying backlips up over and down, and Skin, who was shooting the tour for Transworld, was egging him on with bets and bribery for beer. Chewy got super hyped and I remember he fell off backwards and missed scraping his back on the very end of it. At this point it was still beyond me how he was even getting to the ledge let alone sliding across it. Soon everyone was cheering and hyping Chewy to do it, he seemed so close but so far and then wallop, he did it. Still speechless to be honest, Chewy is on another level.

Benny Fairfax, ollie, Wolverhampton.
The Big push has taken me to many places in UK that I would never normally visit, one of which is Wolverhampton. However due to the wealth of skate spots that are there it has been a strong destination for the last few years. I have always thought it would be amazing for someone to ollie the channel, and maybe someone has before this. I was always quizzing people to ask if someone had, it looked do-able but it’s wide, steep, down hill and made of bricks; it’s gnarly!
Benny was filming his line ending with an ollie over the channel, everyone else was either skating around and having fun or sat in the middle on their iPhones watching clips on YouTube, I was curious why and that’s when our local tour man Brewer informed me there was free wifi. I couldn’t believe it! All week I had put off giving the Travellodge five pounds to use the internet – I still stand by the fact it should be free if you’re staying in a hotel. Benny was doing the line time after time but the ollie seemed to be getting the better of him. I was thinking I should shoot it whilst he is trying to film it but I couldn’t as he was doing it in a line, he came close and then the next go he made. I quickly put my lights in position as Benny said he really wanted to get a photo of it but his ankle was starting to seize up! Thanks for persevering Benny!

Lucien Clarke, backside 180, Normandy, France.
The trip to Normandy has to be the highlight of my year as the good times never stopped flowing. Lev was on top form, France was rad, staying on a farm in the middle of nowhere eating amazing food and taking the piss out the French and Germans. I knew this was going to be a good week when we turned up and Vivien said “f**k they’ve won already, look at them all in tracksuit bottoms”. The weather was good, the banter was good and the skating was even better.
It was the last full day of filming so needed to go to this double set to get the final hammers. We got there in the early afternoon and Lucien began trying this monster backside 180. He tried for a while but there is only so many times someone can jump down a set of steps that big before it catches up with them. It was decided that we would boy it off and go and find something else to skate and we found ourselves at the ledge spot where Chewy filmed the 5050 wallie to 5050. I don’t know if it was Lucien who suggested going back to the double set but we did. As he got closer to landing the backside ollie, the hype increased with everyone with their arms round each other like a football team jumping up and down screaming “Trill” at Lucien! He bashed out the backside 180 like he was yawning doing it on flat, a complete joke! All powerful Palace!

Rory Milanes, ollie, La Harve, France.
We found this spot by mistake whilst driving around La Harve. I was trying to find our way back to the main road to get out of the city when we turned down a street and drove past this ollie over the steps/wall. It’s a big old Ollie too, even to just run along and try and jump it, so to continuing the on going hype, everyone was gearing Rory up to do the ollie.
There was a really annoying signpost right in the middle of the photo which was loose and I managed to lift it out of the ground, so I said to Rory that he had to do it now. He pushed like a maniac at it and we were all cheering again. Anyway, this is a favourite of mine as he did it once and once only. I like a bit of “one go, one photo” action, why complicate things? I also love it because we found this rad spot by mistake. When we were done, we headed back to our country retreat and got stuff into the bread, wine and cheese; good times. Yeah Rory!

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Marc Churchill, boneless, Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Marc, like myself, has a love for Oregon and we have to go every year, it’s become a Concrete addiction. We got the Oregon bug like three years ago, which is when this was shot as we kinda started shooting for what turned out to be the interview he had earlier this year.
This photo was shot on the forth day of the trip, we had just started to shake off the jet lag and so we hit up Klamath Falls, deep in Cowboy Country. We rocked up to the skatepark literally foaming at the mouth to find one of the biggest concrete masses I’d ever seen. We all piled out of the van only to be hit by a wall of forty four degree heat, the air-con in the van had lead us into a false sense of security. Ha-ha.
Marc was melting like all of us but we had this amazing park to ourselves so we skated in what was like an oven for hours, and it was amazing.
Marc hoisted this Boneless well over head height and I was so hyped on it and stoked that it made it into his interview, this was my first solo interview published in the mag and it was with my best homie!
The best thing about this photo was what happened after we shot it. Later that evening, we hit up a Rodeo which was mental and then the after party, actual Cowboys – all six feet plus, the hats and full denim outfits – line dancing! It all got a bit weird when the music changed into R n’ B. Seeing massive Cowboys grinding to R n’ B is a bit wrong.

Denis Lynn, frontside noseslide, Belfast.
This was shot on the Shiner Ship Tour, where we headed over to Ireland with some of the riders to link up with skate friends and family. We Had Stu Graham, Manhead, Jake Collins, Nicky Howells and Conhuir Lynn met us over there. Conhuir asked if his younger brother Denis could jump in the van. I hadn’t seen his little brother since he was a little kid in Belfast years before, but Rye (Gray) was keen so he got the thumbs up from me.
Dude, I didn’t know what I let myself in for. Ha-ha! He’s the best dude ever, fully keeping me on my toes all the time, man I can watch him skate all day long! During one of the sessions, Stu taught him backside body jars and within a few minutes he was doing them like he had been doing them for years! He is what happens when a skate rat turns into a skate monster!
I had to hook him up straight after that, and I’m fully backing him all the way! The photo was shot during one of the few dry spells we had on the trip up in Belfast’s new Titanic Quarter. The spot is so good, just watch out for your board as Denis nearly lost his in the drink!

Stevie Thompson, Lovenskate Bowl Jam, London.
I Shot this at the Lovenskate/Carhartt “Alice in Wonderland” party that Stu from Lovenskate had put on to celebrate some collaborations between the brands. I’ve never met a dude so into what he’s doing as Stu, look at him (the Rabbit on the right), always smiling! He had this bowl made to fit into his themed event which is so rad.
To say this was tight is the biggest understatement, there was no flat bottom, tight as hell walls and really good fun. A host of shredders did stuff that you wouldn’t think possible in something like this – Ewen Bower and Sam Roberts to name a few – but it was Mr Stevie Thompson who killed it off! If you ever get a chance to skate with Stevie I strongly recommend it. He’s a rad guy, just straight up madness getting into and out of the weirdest and most amazing tricks you will ever see. Watch his sections in any of Andy Evans’ films for the proof.

Darren Navarette, layback tailblock, Leeds.
Earlier this year we had the Creature team hit the UK shores and I was at the helm as driver, photographer and general dogsbody but it kept me busy and it was one of the best tours I’ve ever been on!
I had met Navarette on a previous Indy tour and knew him a little, he’s been and done it all, he doesn’t need to lay it down at demos, plus by his own words it takes him forever to warm up and wake the Vertical Vampire!
He is mostly known for his vert and large transition skating, but when we rolled up to Needleside in Leeds, he got in the mix with the rest of the guys. Always mellow, Navs takes it all in and he’s not your typical Yank! There’s nothing like shooting with one of your favourite skaters that’s for sure!

Nicky Howells, nollie heel, Newcastle.
I had wanted Nicky on the Shiner Big Push, but until like a couple of weeks before it was touch and go if his knackered ankle would make it, but after hours of searching various websites we managed to get him the most tech ankle support going. It seemed to do the job as Nicky was killing it and getting a bunch of the challenges done! But what it didn’t seem to do is help with his mental state, like any skate trip when you have filmers, photographers and a big crew, you attract a great amount of attention from the general public. On this trip it seemed like we got more than our fare share of alco’s, crackheads and general busybodies, to add to it they seemed to come out when Nicky was about to break himself off. Nicky is one of the funniest characters in the UK scene, always making people laugh, just don’t let him put his iPod on, I cant get The Wanted out of my head even now!

Read on below now and check back tomorrow for another installment…

Daryl Dominguez, ollie, Holland.
Well this is a photo I shot in Holland on a little trip with Daryl Dominguez to get his “Haunts” done. However, it didn’t look like we were going to get anything done at all because it started to rain as soon as we got on the coach in Victoria and didn’t stop for three days.
The spot is just outside of a train station called Zoetermeer and we went there to go to the rail that Brandon Westgate had 360 flipped in his “Stay Gold” part, just so Daryl could kickflip over it, as you probably saw in his “Haunts”. After going to a couple more spots, we headed back to the station to get on the train and to have a bit of roll about on the metal waves. I had to get Daryl to do something on them as they look so rad, I’d would have been happy to shoot him rolling over them just because the colours and light were kinda cool, so when he said “I’ll try an ollie” I was stoked!

Moggins, Fullpipe, a swamp.
This is a photo from the Death summer tour and it is easily the most disgusting photo I’ve ever taken and not just because it’s a photo of Moggins. The fullpipe was knee high in mud and the only way to get to it was to walk straight through it. So a couple of the guys on the trip got to work on clearing it out and stopping the water whilst the other guys sat and watch Timmy Garbett recreate the DVD menu from the first Ravenous Skateboards video; disgusting!

Jamie Morley, kickflip, South Coast.
This photo was shot on the Witchcraft tour that I went on in the summer. It’s in a ship builders yard on a fibreglass mould for a hull of a very big boat. I know it’s not the best timed photo ever but as we were climbing into the ship yard the guy from the yard next door asked us what were doing and then told us the he was going to call the police. Before Jamie had even had five or six goes at a kickflip the police were already there and saying ‘last go’. It’s a really rad spot! I’d like to go back there at some point.

Helena Long, boardslide, London.
I hadn’t been to this rail before going there with Helena that day, and only knew about it because my good friend Josh Cox had drunkenly walked by it a couple weeks before on a night out, he couldn’t really remember if it was good or not, just that it was pretty smallish. So when we got there, I looked at it and thought it sucked, as it had five feet of run up and two big cracks just where you’d pop. Helena must have been thinking something completely different as before I could persuade her to join in with a game S.K.A.T.E. that we were having for a bit of a warm up, she was popping on to the rail! I set up as quick as I could, Helena stuck the boardslide and we got out of there before anyone asked us what we were doing shooting photos in a kids playground.

Boots, rock fakie, Archway, London.
There isn’t too much to this one really. It was something Boots and myself had talked about him doing for quite a while. I knew he could do the trick – he can rock fakie anything – but I didn’t think he could do this as well as he did. It’s a little hard to see in the photo but the nose of his board is fully hitting the fence at the back, pretty sick!

Have a browse below at some of Leo’s favourite kickflips and photos from the last twelve months, and read what he’s got to say about each of ‘em…

Danny Wainwright, Backside 5050, Barcelona.
During a DC sales conference in Barca, I hooked up with Danny Wainwright for the day. He skated, I shot photos and we both drank café con leche. The spot we actually had in mind to skate was a jersey barrier near his apartment but it turned out that a van was parked a little too close to get a decent line for the trick he wanted to do. Never mind because a quick scout of the surrounding streets provided a couple more ‘spots’. I say this a little tentatively because to most skaters a curb cut kicker to a 5 foot high ledge and this waist high bar far too close to a wall for comfort wouldn’t really have registered. Not a problem for ‘Drainpipe’ and his springy Dad legs though.

Dave Snaddon, Kickflip, South Wales.
The 2011 Big Push proved to be just as much of a laugh as previous years. This time team DC decided to head through South Wales and down to the South West of England in search of little documented terrain, we definitely veered off the beaten track. This perfect super smooth ledge into bank got a rinsing from the lads. Dave Snaddon thinks he does too many kickflips for photos. Yeah, whatever Snads – just make sure to pop them a bit higher in future.

Stu Titmus, Kickflip, Cornwall.
My old mate Stu Titmus got a long overdue interview in Sidewalk in 2011. He has been ripping up the streets and crusty old concrete of his beloved Kernow for many a year let me tell thee, and not a word of recognition! This school is in Cornwall somewhere, and everything about the spot really is utter dog butter! If I hadn’t of made a small comment on how photogenic it looked then Stu probably wouldn’t have spent two hours popping kebab flips and nearly credit carding himself. Sorry mate, it was worth it though. Wasn’t it?

Eddie Belvedere, Gap Crook, Shropshire.
Possibly topping the all time ‘Utter Beast’ list, Eddie ‘keen as a bean’ Belvedere (or Eddie Velvet-Ears, cheers Silent Will!) works at Central Skatepark in Manchester, rides for Superdead skateboards and bikes one hundred miles over the peak district every day. This gap to crooks was actually shot in 2010 whilst my missus was very close to dropping our first baby. We were living in Manchester at the time and she wasn’t keen on me going too far away. The rail is in Shropshire which is a couple of hours drive away from Manchester. Suffice to say that without the determination (and terrorists’ beard) of Velvet-Ears we would have been foiled by rain, security and lack of Fish and Chips. Plus I wouldn’t have been in my missus’ good books for getting back late. Nice one Ed.

Ben Grove, Kickflip, Stockport.
Benjamin ‘Champagne Supergrover’ Grove needs no introduction so I won’t bother with one. We all know he likes to take his top off and is in possession of a bloody good kickflip. Luckily it was a bit cold for ‘Terry Tough Tits’ on this grey day in Stockport, plus a fart stone in the wrong place and Terry’s tits would have copped some nasty road rash. A run and jump, throw down, gap flip to quick drop off is pretty difficult in itself without having to worry about falling into a load of needles! I can’t remember whether this trick is in Manchester videos ‘Keep Keen’ or ‘Pusherman’. Both have banging Ben Grove parts so I highly recommend you purchase said videos pronto. Cheers our kid!