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!

Get your reading glasses on and scroll below now, then check back tomorrow for more!

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!