#skateboard guff

[terribleco]

Joe Fleming’s Worst Road Trip

In response to Monday’s blog post about the worst road trip in Terrible Company history, Joe Fleming had a story of his own...

“Haha this just reminded me: Chizel and I had a pretty fucked up road trip. It was all for a good cause, to raise money for a charity. We skated from Bedworth to the House of Vans in London. Skated down the A5, dodging lorries and puddles in potholes (it was raining) Got into Milton Keynes to find out we were the wrong side of an overflowed river, so we had to strip off to our boxers to wade through it. I was using a stick to test the depth of it. We could barely move the next day, and skated the rest of the way to find out it was BMW day at House of Vans...”

[indie-struggle]

When do you quit?

When do you quit? I'm not talking about stopping a project, or quitting writing on a script. I mean putting the pencil or keyboard away, forever.

This question was asked to me by a young writer, in his mid-twenties (which I assure you I told him was probably not an age to make that decision), that I gave thought about. A long, long thought about. It really bothered me, what can I say? When you sit there, going no place, watching others get everything they want without effort, or you're on the other side and you get what you worked for but come to a stall, you see people quitting or killed off. I mean, there are just too many factors to not be bothered by. Many great filmmakers have, or do, constantly talk about the legacy of film or its mortality, yet they fail, at least in my mind, to do what it takes to keep film alive, which is teach and hand knowledge down so it can live as long as our race does. This may seem irrelevant to the question, but it really isn't--it is support. I'll put that aside and tell you what bothered me. It made me think about when I was in my teens. I was confused, as most teens are, and I had a lot of problems: gangs, authority, family, etc the lists go on, and they're what makes me me, I get that. It isn't important for this other than that it reminded me that at that time I was playing baseball. I was poor, and it was free. That's how it worked. I played, and I was actually pretty damn good. I'm left handed, so I was a pitcher, and so that made me wanted by a lot of teams and coaches, and ice buckets in return. I loved baseball, or so I thought. I started young as most do, little league, then rose through the chain of command like everyone else. But, as I went, so did the world outside of that world. Baseball was a way to escape at first, but by the time I was 13, I was into other things: skateboarding, drawing, and film. My interests had broadened. I kept with baseball, sure, and I went to practice and games like a good sport for years. But, it soon dawned on me, that it was unusual to not have family members supporting what you're doing: not being there for you at games, driving you to and from, or even asking how you're doing with it. Around the age of seventeen, I had an epiphany. Here I was, in single A (which I believe is now called High-A(?)) ball, a pitcher with his gear and in uniform, sitting on a public bus as usual, alone, and taking the two hour stop-by-stop drive to some game at some park somewhere, with a whole lot of time to think. I realized, sitting there, that no one gives a shit whether I do good or do bad at this thing. No one supports my efforts in this, and, amongst everything else, was I even having fun doing it? Simply put, I wasn't. So, what the hell was I doing? None of it was fun anymore. It was guff from school, guff from gangsters, guff from family, guff from authority, just to turn around and get more of it from spectators, coaches, and players in a game I don't even know why I'm fucking playing. Bus driver, stop this shit please, so I can compare it to what I actually enjoy doing: skateboarding, drawing, and making films with friends. I quit. And you know what? No one even noticed, not one person. Oh, I think my mother might have asked in passing if I had anything going on, but other than that, bon voyage to baseball. I figured if I'm going to get the shaft at some point, better to get it doing something I love than something I hate. And the love of those things with my friends never faded, ever. I followed my heart and joy came out of it. Now, you should see the predicament of this young man's question. When a young kid asks me when they should throw in the towel, how can I, who threw in the towel on something he did since he was six years old, tell someone else what is in their heart? I knew when it was time for me to quit. All the signs were pointing there, I just didn't pay attention to them, but that was me. People always say, "Well, ya never know." But, you can never know until the end of time into your grave. I think you can make it your choice, though. At some point you have to make a decision, and I think that decision has to come with a culmination of a few things: experience, effort, reward, happiness, and your heart. They all must be unified in your decision. Otherwise, they will be replaced later with regret--much too late for a turn back, I might add. I do not, to this day, regret my decision to quit baseball. I do, however, regret not seeing the signs earlier, because that is all the more time taken away from what I really wanted to do. So, if all of those things are in sync for you (I implore any writer, young or old), you should base your decision off important factors like that--just yourself--and no one else's. If you need help, try asking yourself questions, like (not to be exact): * Have I been doing this long enough to give it its fair run? * Is it a wall I'm hitting, or is the wall hitting me? * Am I, or have I, tried as hard as I can to do this? * Am I having fun? * Do I really love this as much as I thought I did? * Is there something else I would rather be doing? Of course, everyone is different. But, no matter what, if you can find a positive in all of those, even with their negative sides, then my answer is no, do not quit. But, again, you don't have to listen to me. One of my heroes, Orson Welles, said: we're discovering new things that are great every day, but they weren't great hundreds of years ago when they existed. The question would be, does the thing matter to you? (paraphrased from cinematheque francaise 1982). This is vital, and no one can make that choice for you. As cliche as it sounds, it's your damn life, so live it. But, before you go throwing away your chains for freedom, I think you should weigh everything I said. We all have our ups and downs and crying and laughing, but you will find out, in your own time, over time (which is a non set amount), whether or not it is time for you to toss in that towel and take off the uniform. Everything will be in sync.

I hope that helps, because the only real advice I can give you to follow, is to remember not to let anyone else try to convince you of what you cannot accomplish.

[thedarkslideskateboards]

1988? Santa Cruz Jason Jessee Neptune Mermaid Tail 🧜‍♀️ 👑⚔ Brown Stain (looks almost purple) skateboard deck. There are no visual scuffs, this board is clean AF. --- We're selling for a client and did not set pricing. That being said please no guff over pricing or your comments will be deleted and possibly blocked --- Open to offers. Buyers is asking 4k OBO HMU with reasonable offers --- #skateboarding #skateboard #skate #oldschoolskateboards #oldschool #santacruzskateboards #santacruz #jasonjessee #neptune @santacruzskateboards @jasonjessee (at The Dark Slide) https://www.instagram.com/p/CSnOEKlnXnx/?utm_medium=tumblr

[matlloydpoet]

This episode of the @skateboarderand podcast we got to sit down with, well talk on the phone with, skateboarder, owner of Freestyle Skate Store, Rad Dad, Martial Arts face kicker, lead singer of the band Cruel Prank, Yeah Buddy Wax CEO, and stalwart of the welsh skate scene Mr. Darran 'Grim' Ward (aka @freestyleskatestore )!!! This ones a good’un!! We talk about the history of Freestyle Skate Store, getting skate parks built properly, motorbikes, first boards, transition skating, the Welsh scene, dogs, tattoos, Zero trucker hats, depression, Carve Wicked, skaters smelling wax, the coronavirus, business rates and all sorts of other random guff!!! Worth noting we recorded the episode before the government put outs its latest advice on the coronavirus, stay safe people. Stay up to date by following us on instagram @skateboarderand or by joining our Facebook page www.facebook.com/skateboarderandpodcast The podcast is hosted by Mat Lloyd @matlloydpoet on instagram, his latest book 'Short Poems' & any others are available via Amazon worldwide. All music is provided with permission by Mr. Brown @westaytrue and is from his album 'Beats for Days 2', available from all good record stores, iTunes, Amazon and direct via www.westaytrue.com (at Newport, Wales) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-AR7aXBHDS/?igshid=146rb8wphl3qy

[davidcrudd]

Elderly People on Skateboards Are the Coolest People on Earth - Rough Rider | Guff

[terribleco]

Ghost Town

Coventry has never been a skate mecca, but fun can definitely be had on a skateboard in the city of peace and reconciliation. With that being said, over the last couple of years, some of the great spots I, and many others, grew up skating have been removed by Coventry City Council. With no plans for a new skatepark from the council, it can feel like the skate scene is constantly being slapped in the face with the number of places to skate dwindling. I spoke to some of the Cov locals about some of their favourite long gone spots, in an attempt to understand why our dead spots, no matter how innocuous, are part of skateboarding history. 

Header photo by Ryan Bradley.

I grew up skating in Coventry in the early 2000's. By the time I had started skating, the spots had been skated for decades prior, but still had plenty of life left as the new boom of skaters entered the city. The spots have always had a rough and raw quality to them, but then again that was part of the charm. Banks, ledges, rails, stairs, even the odd street transition - but all of them had a common aesthetic of a city that had been rebuilt and reimagined through a brutalist lense after the second World War. The spots are decent enough to get the attention of Stereo's Carl Shipman, Darkstar's Joe Hinson, and the respective Get Lesta and Baghead crews: so it stands to reason that they are most certainly important in British skateboarding history. 

Andy Clare, one of the OG Cov Street skaters, is the owner and operator of Spray Station - a graffiti shop in Coventry’s Fargo Village. He's a lifelong skateboarder in the city, having seen new spots crop up again and again. He remembers many of the spots from the 90's era, many of which were still present when I started skating, and only recently were demolished:

"Brickies was great, I grew up skating those banks and loved it there despite the terrible floor and smell of piss. The balcony spot (aka Virgin Wall rides) was fun with good flat, grindy ledges and steep banks. The marble bank/wallride behind the west orchards escalators was great, and there used to be some big square wooden benches too."

P: Gaz Taylor boosts a melon out of Brickies for his “New Blood” article in Sidewalk.

Brickies, aka The Brickworks, was my favourite spot in the world. So much so, I wrote an obituary on this very blog when it got demolished last year. For many of us who grew up in Coventry, Brickies was endless fun: lip tricks, bank tricks, raw, unforgiving ground, and the openness of a skatepark made it the perfect challenge for anyone who enjoyed riding a skateboard. 

Gaz Taylor was part of the same generation of skaters as Andy, and has been skating in Coventry almost as long as I've been alive. Consistently adept at tackling the street spots in the city, he even got snapped doing a melon at Brickies in an issue of Sidewalk. Brickies wasn't his only favourite place to skate though:

"There was a flat bar outside the Belgrade theatre next to the fountain, about knee high.  Perfect for learning rail tricks on. I remember it used to shoot you off the end at speed as it was slightly down hill, that was really fun. Also, the old banks at Cov and Warwickshire Hospital were really good fun, that was a very long time ago though."

Ryan Stanway was one of the first skaters I met down the Memorial Park, before Terribleco was even a thing. Despite meeting at a skatepark, he is largely a street skater, and knows the spots of Coventry better than the back of his hand. He remembers one of the most infamous stair sets in Cov:

"Pigeon Shit has to be up high in the list of spots. It was the first decent sized set of stairs I landed tricks down when I was younger. There always used to be massive session there with 20 plus people all trying stuff." 

P: Moose throws a Varial Heel down at Pigeon Shit. Photo by Ryan Bradley

Pigeon Shit was a stairset in a "golden triangle" of spots in Coventry: an area surrounding the University where you couldn't walk for more than 10 seconds without encountering more skateable architecture. It was a long 4 set, merging into a 5 set as the landing was on a slight hill, and had a knee high ledge running along the right hand side. The ledge was battered from years of abuse at the hands of trucks and BMX pegs alike, but it didn't stop people like Kris Vile, Josh Walters, Ant Smith and others getting bangers on it. Josh's last trick in my vid "Batface" saw him getting a FS Tailslide Bigspin out on the ledge, and the same video saw Ralph Cooper close out his part with a switch hard flip down the stairs at Pigeon Shit. It was a proving ground for any half decent street skater in Coventry. 

Ryan Bradley, a regular contributor to this blog, lives out in the Warwickshire village of Cubbington, but his real home is at the street spots in the centre of Coventry. A regular of the scene for more than 15 years, Ryan's memory of street spots is pretty similar to my own. He remembers some of the more obscure spots and lesser remembered favourites:

"The pyramid spot at the old precinct entrance, next to New Look was so tight back in the day, and got so rinsed, especially by Tony Lui. The old blue fountain with transition at Belgrade was cool from what I remember, and was pretty fun to skate around in. The double death set, with the double rail that was right next to Brickies was great too. Obviously gotta mention Brickies itself, just because so much shit has gone down there for so long. There was a road gap on the hill in between the Boy's club and Gosford Street at the University library: I remember Duffman trying to conquer that, and I’m pretty sure they filled that in."

Some of the spots Ryan brings up were incredibly gnarly and were rarely skated. The double death rail didn't see many tricks go down on it, but Stan Byrne caveman boardslid it in the 2013 Terribleco video "Concrete Jungle". The road gap at the University library was like something straight out of San Francisco - a hill bomb spot with a gap over cobbles about the width of 1 and a half cars. The only person I know to have cleared it is Tony Lui. Finally, the old precinct pyramid spot was a small, whippy bank spot, which saw plenty of quick footed lip tricks go down from Tony Lui, Harry Myers, Kyle Smith and a wallie over the whole thing by Joxa. 

P: Tony Lui boosts a FS ollie out of the Pyramid Bank spot. Photo by Ryan Bradley

New spots (at the time) like the Herbert were popping up a lot, replacing old 1960's architecture. It was a reminder that the city had been evolving and changing long before some of us even considered standing on a skateboard, or even before we were born. Gaz Taylor remembers dozens of spots I had never even seen in my time skating:

"Manual pads in Whitefriar's car park were popular in the 90's. Barrack's car park had some rad free standing painted curbs, and some small banks shaped like half of a pyramid that we used to use to get air out of. There was a small rail outside the transport museum with no run up, that was good for cave man slides."

"In the late 80's there was a mini ramp in the woods in Canley next to Tesco, built by Phil Hunt. I remember it had bright orange coping on one side and bright green on the other side. The paint would stay on your trucks for a while after. Safeway's car park on Holyhead Road had some rad slick curbs and some mud gaps. That was one of the main hang out spots for skaters in the early 90's too. Grindable window ledges of the Coventry tax office building were very good fun."

P: An after dark session at the Virgin Wallrides. Photo by Ryan Bradley

This article was inspired by the demolition of the concrete benches at the Littern Tree spot - named after the pub nearby. Current skaters in the scene mourned the loss of the spot, but speaking to sources who have had an eye on the redevelopment a brand new hub of spots is planned. Old spots are great and we miss them when they're gone, but there's a lot to be said for the excitement of new architecture and the spots that are yet to be. 

Nostalgia and history are powerful things, and they definitely contribute heavily to skateboarding. The cyclical trends, the feeling of skating a park you haven't been to in 10 years, and the stories people tell of what trick was done at which spot. No matter what new spots are planned for Coventry, the old spots like Brickies, Virgin Wallrides, Littern Tree and Pigeon Shit will live on through what we remember about them, and of course the footage we got along the way. 

The Brooklyn Banks, Wallenberg, Hubba Hideout: These are all legendary, long gone spots that skateboarders talk about in hushed tones, but they don't compare to our own personal spots we grow up skating, and miss immensely when they are gone. I would give my left nut for the chance to skate Brickies again, without a shadow of a doubt. For every local spot that gets demolished, it takes fond memories of a whole skate scene with it. Everything is temporary, so skate your spots whilst you got 'em. 

[terribleco]

The “Worst” Road Trip

When you get some years under you as a skateboarder, you amass a whole bunch of stories about tricks, interfering weirdos, board setups and the absolute best times when riding a skateboard. As much as we try, not every session or trip turns out the way we expect. This is the story of My Big Fat Gypsy Road Trip.

Note: Please excuse the really bad video screencaps dotted throughout this article - the photos from this trip are lost to the sands of time.

Originally, after the successful "Sittin' On The Toilet" trip of 2010, I wanted to do it all again the next year. 2011's trip had been a write off though, as the potential for a road trip with a Cov crew and shredders Daryl Nobbs, Becky Jacques and Felix Parker had fallen through after some people got ill, and others had prior commitments they couldn't rearrange. The following year, in 2012, we finally managed to get some Cov heads who were keen to hit the road again for several days of camping, shredding and good times, so I got organised and readied myself for another camping trip. 

Like last time, we planned to hit up a good chunk of the south west, starting near Bristol and making our way down south to Cornwall. We booked ourselves in at the same campsite in Cheddar that we had stayed at for the first road trip, and got a tight crew of 8 people in 2 cars, with a plan to meet Joxa and Slasher Sam down in Bristol (they were living down there at the time). 

The roster driving down from Coventry was myself, my wife Emily, Ralph Cooper, Hannah Craig, Kyle "KB" Smith, Tom Illsley, Ryan "RB" Bradley and Alex "Moose" McGhie. Emily, Ralph, Hannah, KB and Joxa were returning members of the Sittin' On The Toilet gang, so I was pretty stoked for more awesome times with them, but also stoked on the people embarking on a trip with us for the first time. 

The trip would run across a long weekend, starting on a Friday, and ending on a Monday. It was April, a time of year when weather is unpredictable, but can sometimes turn out really nice. April 2012 was not one of those times. On the Friday morning of the road trip's start, it was chucking it down. The crew turned up at my house and we all looked at the BBC Weather website, and thought it looked like it might improve. Determined and overly optimistic, we got in our cars and hit the road, making a quick stop at the local Sainsbury's. 

Now, I've had some shit cars in my time. I once had a lowered Audi that would cut out whilst you were driving, and would only start again if you turned the ignition with the accelerator down (I had to do this whilst rolling, which was terrifying). I once had a Toyota Auris Sport that needed an entire clutch rebuild 3 months after I bought it. But the car I had on this road trip was a Toyota Corolla: the choice of grandads and Taxi Drivers everywhere. This car was reliable enough, but it was far too big for the engine size (it was a 1.4 litre) so was sluggish as fuck. It's one redeeming quality was it was very spacious, especially compared to the Peugeot 106 I took on "Sittin' On The Toilet", which had to have a roof box attached just to carry all of our camping gear. 

The Toyota Corolla didn't give me a whole lot of problems in the 2 and a half years I owned it, but on this particular occasion, embarking on a skate road trip with high expectations, it decided to conk out. After we had been to Sainsbury's, I got back in the car and turned the key. It turned over, and didn't start. I tried again. No start. I tried a few more times. The car turned over and refused to start. With no idea what to do I gave my Dad a ring and explained what was going on. I had flooded the engine. When I asked how we could fix it, my Dad simply said "You're just gonna have to wait". "How long???". "A couple of hours maybe?". My heart sank. 

After half an hour of sitting in the car watching skate videos and talking about how shit things had gone so far, I tried the ignition again. IT WAS ALIVE. The Toyota spluttered to life, and the engine was running. With not a second to spare, I gave Hannah the signal that we were hitting the road, and both cars rolled out of the Sainsbury's car park we had become far too acquainted with. 

As we barreled down the M5, the rain clouds began to shift, and suddenly: Blue skies! Things were looking up. The excitement was palpable and we all started to get hyped. As we rolled up to our first stop, Keynsham in Bristol, we were ready to shred. 

The session hit the ground running - after being stuck in our cars and thinking the day was a washout, everyone was so excited and shredding. Everyone landed a trick at the park: RB got the sickest Backside Heelflip over the hip, Tom shot a sick photo of me doing a Sweeper (lost to the sands of the internet), Emily monster trucked down some steps into a bank, and Ralph had his trademark fancy footwork on display. As the session was really getting into the swing of things… The heavens opened, and the rain came down. It was a washout. 

We sat in the cars and thought the rain might pass, but after 10 minutes it became obvious we were probably done here for now. Time was getting on a bit, so we decided to head on to the campsite, get set up, and chill out for the evening, with a fresh start the next day. Once we got to the campsite, we had a warm welcome, and the weather was looking fine once again. The evening camping antics were great, and everyone had a drink and a laugh. A few of the guys hotboxed a tent, so everyone was pretty mellow compared to the scrumpy based insanity of 2010's trip. We all settled in for the night in hopes of a good day's skate on Saturday. 

And then came the night. I don't think we get any hurricanes in the UK, but that night must have been the closest we've got to one. The wind was intense, and at times I thought our tent was coming down. Tom Illsley was in a pop up festival tent, and the evening before RB had made jokes that Tom would be sleeping in a tree by the time the morning came around. The more the night went on, the more I was convinced this would be the case. 

The morning came, and the sky was grey. Very grey. It was freezing, it was wet, it was not the ideal weather for skateboarding. I remember waking up a good hour before anyone else, and I went and sat in my car, put the heating on, and listened to the radio whilst I waited for some activity from the rest of the camp. As people stirred, the realisation of how shit the weather was settled in. We had planned to hit up Cheddar skatepark, but it looked less likely as the morning went on. 

We realised an indoor skatepark was probably going to be the only option. Bristol had the indoor Campus Skatepark, and was only a 30 minute drive away. We piled into our cars after some breakfast and headed to Bristol to meet Joxa and Sam. After an obligatory tea break at Joxa's , we made our way to the park. This was before the Campus Pool existed, and at the time Campus consisted of a room with a mini ramp, and a former school gym (before the current skatepark there existed) with some portable ramps and ledges dotted around. It wasn't perfect, but it was dry, and it was a skatepark. 

This session was pretty rad. Joe Habgood was there and was flying out of banks to wall ride everywhere. We all filmed some stuff, and generally just hung out and drank tea and skated. After a couple of hours, we stepped outside and realised it had dried up. We floated the idea of going to a skatepark, but Joxa had a better idea, and suggested a DIY spot called Daveside (which is still standing today, and is a super sick DIY skatepark). Back in 2012, it was just a quarter and a ledge. However, it was more than enough for us to get a session going. 

The skate was going well, and Emily had spotted a quirky little lump at the end of the quarter (built by Swampy) which she was determined to rock fakie. This thing wasn't a quarter or a bank, it was a weird lump with a little curb at the top to get your trucks onto. It was a challenge to skate, but it was super fun. Emily had a few goes at it, and was getting really close. Tom got the camera out to film Emily's trick on it, and first go, she went up and took a super gnarly slam, landing straight on her hip. It was one of the most horrible slams I've seen her take, but she just got straight back up - the next go she got it. 

After about 45 minutes of skating, the rain began again. Grateful to have got some time outside skating, we got back in the cars and said goodbye to Joxa and Sam, and headed back to the campsite. 

When we returned, it was like a bombsite. The horrendous storm-like weather had persisted through Saturday. Tom's tent was practically up in a tree. RB and Moose's tent had completely fallen down, soaking some of their bags. The big tent that Ralph, Hannah, Emily and myself were sharing was wavering, threatening to collapse. The only tent not on the verge of collapse was KB's pro fishing tent. 

The field we were camping in was boggy, and areas were becoming flooded. We made a decision to pack up, and head back to Coventry. If we could get a good night's sleep in a warm bed inside a dry house, we might be able to regroup and make new plans to head to an indoor park if this weather continued on Sunday. 

On the way out of the campsite, Hannah's Ford Fiesta got stuck in the boggy grass. She couldn't shift it, and no amount of pushing from others could free it. The Toyota had surprisingly gotten out of the field, so we tied a rope to the Fiesta and had to tow it out to rescue it. So far we had spent more time battling the elements than actually skateboarding! By the time we hit the road, the night time was drawing in. We stopped at a service station, where we skated some flat ground in wellies. Spirits were still high, somehow! 

To keep a sense of us being on a "camping" road trip, Tom, RB, KB and Moose stayed at mine and Emily's. Our house wasn't massive, so it was a bit like sardines in a tin. In the morning I woke everyone up with my Covpark Combat megaphone, which was tradition for anyone who slept at my house. 

The weather was still absolutely shit, so we thought about hitting an indoor park. Consensus landed on us going to The House in Sheffield, where we arranged to meet Alex Burrell. But when we checked social media we got a surprise. The House's Facebook page said the park was closed, but would open ASAP, due to an emergency. Ralph phoned up for more details, and found out the building next door had caught fire. We all felt like this trip was fucking cursed. 

The guys at The House encouraged us to drive up, saying by the time we arrived from Cov the fire engines would have gone. Ralph asked how busy the park would be, and we were told it wouldn't be too bad. With the session on, we headed up to Sheffield. When we arrived, we were gutted to find the place absolutely rammed with scooter kids. 

Dodging the scooter kids for this afternoon was an exercise in patience. Literally every time one of us would set up for a trick, there was a scooter kid there. For some of us it felt like we were never going to get a chance to even attempt the tricks we wanted. For a short stint we took over the micro room and got some footage there. We managed to get onto the street course a little bit, but the sheer congestion of the park, and the self entitled parents of the kids, just made it worse.

By this point I was flagging. I was genuinely so tired I couldn't think straight. When we were leaving, KB was trying a trick, and wanted to get it down before we hit the road. I was so tired, and I just didn't have the energy to wait around, so I got pissed off with it. In the car I ran my mouth and basically said some shit about Kyle that was unfair and moreso a reaction to me being so tired and bummed out about the trip than it was about Kyle wanting to land a trick. KB was understandably vexed with me, and everyone in the car was bummed out. 

At the services I tried to mend the bridges and was honest that I was just completely wiped out. I was at the end of my rope and reacted like a twat. It was honestly one of the most embarrassing moments I've had skating and I felt so shit for being an arsehole and bringing the vibe down. We all tried to enjoy some KFC and put it behind us. 

The next day, the weather was looking great. Things were finally turning around. Knowing that this was the last chance for this trip to turn out good, we plotted a course for Clifton Skatepark in Nottingham. I don't know what happened on this day, but we never got any footage from the park. It was the day with easily the best weather, and I'm pretty sure Tom filmed some stuff here, but the footage got corrupted or something.

I barely remember anything else about this day apart from Emily taking the actual worst slam she has ever taken, and landing on her already bruised hip so hard she thought she had dislocated it. The session at Clifton ended with us making a trip to A&E to get an X-ray for Emily. KB and Tom were trapped in Nottingham waiting for us to be done, and late in the evening we rolled on back to Coventry kinda glad the whole weekend was over. 

I've titled this "The Worst Road Trip", but I am fully aware many of you might have far worse experiences. So why am I detailing this? I saw a video of Craig Questions from about 5 years ago where he talks about skateboarders, and how we might have a terrible time on a skate trip like sleeping in a cold garage with 10 other people, and how we all just accept it, like it's no big deal. 

For anyone else, this kind of experience might be their idea of hell. The trip I described would be enough to put most normal people off going camping or even interacting with the people involved ever again. But for skateboarders, this kind of shit is part and parcel. It's who we are. Everyone has a road trip story like my one, where seemingly everything goes wrong. But the one thing that always, ALWAYS, makes it worth it? Riding your skateboard, with some good friends, and getting each other stoked on riding something new and different. 

Questions made a good point that a bunch of "Lads" on holiday in Ibiza would take sleeping in a garage on a cold concrete floor as a failure. They would take camping in a literal storm as a failure. They would call the trip completely over the minute someone's tent ended up in a tree. 

Skateboarders adapt. Skateboarders think about how they can still proceed, and still get to do this thing we all enjoy so much, even if the universe is repeatedly telling you to give up and sit at home doing nothing. This road trip didn't go to plan, but we stuck with the idea of 4 non stop days of skateboarding as a crew, and didn't give up on it. 

We made lemonade out of lemons. And that's what skateboarding is about, right? If you are expecting perfect weather, perfect terrain, and no hiccups, and not making the most of what you have, then that's not what skateboarders do - you get straight back out there and you figure out a way to get the session on! 

[terribleco]

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 Review

Skateboarding games are back. As mentioned previously on this blog, people are hungry for some virtual shred sledding and there are plenty of games coming to fill the void. The thing is, you can't have a revival of skateboarding games without the franchise that popularised it. With that in mind, it seemed only fitting that against all odds, a new Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game would arrive in 2020. 

Now, as the name suggests - this isn't exactly a new game. THPS 1&2 is a complete remake of the first two games, combined into a brand new package with a ton of extra content slapped on top. Every level is here, lovingly rebuilt in the Unreal Engine, running at 60 Frames Per Second. All of the pro skaters from the first two games are back, but updated to reflect their modern selves. They even managed to bring back a significant portion of the iconic soundtracks from the first two games! 

All of this wouldn't matter if the game played like garbage. Activision have tried to do a remake of these two games before, as well as sequels in the Pro Skater series, and they fell flat just because the controls didn’t feel right at all. As I've said before, THPS gets a lot of flack for being a goofy (no pun intended) arcade game where you can grind power lines, but the controls in the original games were so tight, so perfectly designed, and so addictive that it was an instant classic. 

I'm glad to say that THPS 1&2 finally gets the controls right again. This is not an accident: developers Vicarious Visions have a long history with the franchise, and used the original game's source code to ensure the feel of the game was spot on. This is a labour of love and it has paid off fantastically well. 

The developers have smartly included all legacy THPS moves from every game that came after THPS2 as well (e.g. Reverts, Spine Transfers, Wallplants). If your memory of THPS was a later game in the franchise, you won’t feel like the moves you are accustomed to are missing. Also, these new moves are now available on levels where you originally couldn’t do them. Having the full bag of THPS franchise moves at your fingertips on all of the levels from the original THPS makes these environments feel brand new again, offering new lines and combos that were previously impossible.

The controls set a firm foundation for a game as addictive, replayable and joyous as the original THPS. In the time since the last THPS game, people have been craving more realistic games - the culmination of this are games like Session, or the recently released SkaterXL. In comparison to these games, THPS 1&2 is a polar opposite. 

Personally I think this is a good thing - it's a slick, polished, tightly paced palette cleanser. It couldn't be more different than its competitors, and whilst that was a negative against THPS back in 2007 when Skate released, it proves to be an overwhelming strength here. 

THPS unsurprisingly knows it's a video game, and doesn't try to be a simulator. This is the thing I think will turn off many hardcore skateboarders, but for anyone who has spent the last 10 years playing Skate3, this kind of game, when it is done right, is a breath of fresh air. The gameplay loop is quick: you start a run, you rack up points, you complete the objectives of the level, and if you mess up, you restart instantly. 

The pace is blisteringly fast, and after playing any other skateboarding game it might be off-putting at first. For anyone who spent considerable time with the old THPS games though, muscle memory will quickly kick in, and you'll be knocking out combos of 200K points and upwards in no time. 

For old and new players alike, there is a ton of stuff to do here. As before, you choose a pro skater (or create your own character), and you complete all objectives in every level. This might sound a little simplistic and repetitive compared to modern games, but there is something very rewarding about maxing out your skater's stats and getting 100% completion in all of the levels. 

Vicarious Visions have doubled down on delivering a huge amount of content here as well: the roster of pro skaters here is almost doubled compared to the original game's with the addition of some modern day legends to join the original THPS cast. This is a wide and diverse list of modern day shredders: from 2018 Thrasher Skater Of The Year Tyshawn Jones, to Japanese X-Games wizard Aori Nishimura, and the world's first non-binary Pro Skater Leo Baker. 

These new additions are notable for very different reasons than the original roster, and show how wide reaching skateboarding, and the original games, have been over the last 20 years. Legends like Elissa Steamer no longer feel like "token" additions designed to tick a box. Next to the likes of Leticia Bufoni and Lizzie Armanto - they feel like they very much deserve to have the spotlight, and their influence becomes obvious. 

Each pro in the game has a set of bespoke challenges which allows you to unlock all of their boards, new tricks and alternate outfits. This gameplay is tailored to each pro's strengths and nicely bridges the gap between the stereotypical THPS super heroic combos, and the realistic tone of the game's pro skaters and locations. Some of these challenges are quite realistic in scope rather than asking for 50 trick combos (e.g. Earn 10,000 points from a lip trick and a revert only), which is a great way to use the THPS gameplay to appeal to those craving something a bit more grounded. It's keen to remind you that this is still a game about skateboarding, no matter how unrealistic and wacky that skateboarding may be at times. 

On top of these challenges there's a huge library of extra goals introducing an extra level of replayability - completing the base content in both games doesn't take a huge amount of time, so the addition of over 700 challenges to tick off extends the game's lifespan considerably. Some of these challenges are easy and take minutes, some will have you skating for hours. Vicarious Visions are incredibly respectful of the original games and what made them work, and rather than interfere with that core structure, their new challenge system bolts on incredibly well to modernise these games. 

All of this gameplay is set to a soundtrack mostly comprising of returning tracks from the first two games. These songs are iconic and, although maybe a tad dated now, are extremely nostalgic for skaters of my age. Skating around listening to Guerrilla Radio by RATM brings back instant memories of when I first started skating, and is a bit of a fountain of youth moment for anyone of a certain age. For anyone who wasn't alive when the first games came out - there are a bunch of new songs that feel on-brand and fit the gameplay extremely well that will doubt become iconic in years to come. 

The game's creation features improve upon the original games immensely - as previously mentioned, create-a-skater returns, but create-a-park is also included here. This is a robust level creation tool that lets you build all sorts of mad ramp combos, with the added ability to share them with your friends online. The developers have expanded and improved this feature immensely, allowing you to create huge, sprawling skateparks filled with all manner of crazy Frankenstein obstacles. Considering how impressive creation tools in games have become, these improvements are smart and people are already using Create-a-park to build some incredible monstrosities from replicas of their local parks to roller coasters. 

The game also boasts an awesome amount of multiplayer modes for players looking to session with others. Split screen returns from the original PS1 releases, but there is also a great online suite of options allowing you to play all of the classic THPS multiplayer modes with up to 7 other players. This wasn't present or possible in the original games, and they could have just kept parity with THPS2's feature set, but going the extra mile with awesome online features is a great touch and is appreciated. 

I honestly can't say enough good words about the phenomenal work Vicarious Visions has done here - I haven't been this excited about a THPS game since the first time I played THPS2. That game had such a long lasting effect on me that it began a long 20 year love affair with skateboarding. This game makes me so stoked to be a skateboarder, and in many ways this sums up all the fun and creativity I know skateboarding brings. It's a triumphant return to form from a video game franchise that inspired millions to start skateboarding, and you owe it to yourself to play it. 

[terribleco]

SkaterXL Review

This is it, folks. We're entering a bold new era of fresh skateboarding games. There are several new titles on the way, and the first out of the door as what can be considered a full, complete product is SkaterXL. Buckle up for the official Terrible Company review. 

SkaterXL launched on Xbox One and PS4 last week, on July 28th. The game's road to launch has been long, with an Early Access period on PC (where the game initially launched in December 2018). The game was put together by a very small team at Easy Day Studios, so given the complexity of this game, the long wait was to be expected. There were high expectations from the hungry community that surrounds skateboarding games, so it has a lot to live up to.

Reviewed on Xbox One and PC

First things first: we can't discuss SkaterXL without mentioning Session. There are so many similarities between both games. Both games claim to be skateboarding simulators. Both use the left and right sticks as left and right feet. Both use triggers to turn. Both aim to recreate a golden triangle of American spots from major cities (although from complete opposite coasts of the US). Both have drafted in real pros and brands to help bolster their authenticity. There is just no getting away from the comparisons here.

What I will say, is that my initial assessment of both games, which pegged Session as potentially being the better game, was wrong. I know it's too early to say, with Session still in early access and a far way off of Version 1.0 (which SkaterXL is obviously now at), but the directions of the two games, although similar, also offer many differences. SkaterXL's path, in context, plays, looks and feels better. 

SkaterXL is a much more forgiving and accessible experience all up. Developers Easy Day Studios aren't slaves to the super realistic control scheme, in the same way Session developers Crea-ture Studios are. The ability to steer your board with the left and right stick as a safety net for anyone with muscle memory stuck on Skate3 mode is a really nice touch.

SkaterXL is missing many tricks like late flips (which Session does have), no complies, darkslides, footplants and handplants - but the tricks on offer are designed to look and feel different every time you do them, and in many cases everyone will do them differently. It's the first game where you can truly have and own your style, which is an impressive feat. Easy Day are clearly building a foundation for what may become the most sophisticated skating simulation the world has ever seen. 

The game doesn't use canned animations, and relies more on real time physics, which is what makes every trick look unique to you. Grinds depend on the angle and position of your board, which means you can tweak and style certain grinds, or even accidentally land in tricks you didn't expect (which is realistic - you ever go for a Smith and end up in lipslide?). Compare this to Session, where you absolutely have to be doing the right combination of left and right stick movement to do a specific grind, and anything but perfect execution causes a slam. 

SkaterXL's slightly more lenient approach is it's saving grace here - if the game was any more punishing it would just be completely frustrating. It balances difficulty perfectly with teaching you just enough to peel away at the surface. Spending time with the game, you begin to figure out tricks that seemed completely impossible to you mere hours earlier.

The game boasts an impressive amount of content, having roped in various talented developers from the game's modding community to bulk out the game with great replicas of real locations, amazing fantasy spots, and a robust replay editor. A large portion of LA can be explored and shredded alongside the smaller levels. The locales are a little dead, with no traffic cars or NPC's walking around, and in a way I understand that this is intentional so you don't get hit by a bus or mess up a line because of a random person - but the levels just feel lifeless without them. 

You can play as a custom character, using boards and clothes from some rad, real life brands like Santa Cruz, Element, Lakai and Dickies. The character customisation isn't as expansive as I would like: you only have 4 preset characters to pick from for male and female body types, you can't add facial hair, and the boards and hardware are all the same size. Compared to Session, which has various board widths and board shapes (pool boards are so hot right now) as well as varied sizes of wheels, SkaterXL falls short in this department, and I hope they improve it post launch. 

You can play as one of 4 pro skaters - Evan Smith, Tom Asta, Tiago Lemos and Brandon Westgate. The skaters all look kinda dead and robotic when you're watching replays of them. Again, it would be great to see some improvements with facial animations here so the characters feel a little less like action figures. There is a distinct lack of transition rippers, which is kinda weird considering there is a whole map dedicated to transition skating. 

One of my major concerns playing the Early Access build was that the transition skating was kinda borked. It just didn't feel right in the first pass version I played. Everything felt way too difficult and odd, and the controls just didn't gel with how I feel skating transition should be in real life - it was frustrating just feeling like I had to put so much effort in for a simple scratch on the coping, and more often than not it didn't look or behave how it did in real life. 

I'm glad to say Easy Day really went all in on trying to get this part of skateboarding right for the full release. Although it could do with some more tutorialisation: The transition skating looks and feels better than Skate 3 when you know exactly what you are doing. The game is missing some footplant and handplant tricks, but it is a ton of fun: Transitions feel like transitions, rather than ledges disguised as ramps. 

They even added controls to drop in appropriately from basically any lip trick you can land in, which is a massive improvement over Skate3. Whilst they get lip tricks mostly right, the grabs are kinda difficult: Indy and melon grabs are easy, but you have to contort your hands around the controller in bizarre formations to do other grabs, which is baffling and disappointing. 

The other area of transition skating that feels a little poor is bowl skating. There's one proper bowl in the California Skatepark level, and it's a pretty standard clover bowl with pool coping. The pumping in this game is super hard to get right, and it's clear that (for the time being) it mostly works with mini ramps in mind, and not much else. Carving corners slows you down, pumping seems overly difficult to get right in this context, and once you roll in and do one lip trick you never seem able to hit the coping again. I hope they continue to improve this, as well as add more awesome transition parks and spots post launch, and maybe some footplant variants too (fingers crossed for the first video game Sweeper).

Past just skating around, there is a distinct lack of goals or objectives. The game has loose trick and line challenges for every level that you can burn through: frustratingly the game forces you to do these in Regular, so I had to do these in switch! A lot of this mode can be cheated by just doing the tricks required on the spot, rather than skating the obstacles the game wants you to, which is a shame.

Other than this, there is very little else in terms of campaign or progression. I know skateboarding is about finding your own fun, but in a video game, this lack of real goals can just feel like there is nothing to do. A video game where you "find your own fun" should give you more tools for hours of fun (e.g. Minecraft allows you to build practically thousands of things, hunt monsters, etc) - for SkaterXL to be the same kind of game, it would need a robust park editor, or allow you to modify in game spots. As it is the 8 levels are great, but lack any real substance other than "go skate". 

Skate, as a franchise, worked because it had these short, medium and long term goals to work toward, and a loose story to pull you through the game, and SkaterXL could benefit from something like this. The achievements offer a little something to work toward - for example there are cumulative goals such as total distance in grinds, as well as big, cool one off challenges like ollie a drop of 5 metres or more. 

It just isn't enough though: I would've liked more crafted challenges that make you think a bit more and allow you to get creative. Giving the player access to all levels, all gear, and all clothing from the outset, with no structure to what it is you're meant to do, might sit well with some hardcore skateboarders, but it doesn't make a great "video game". 

But still, even with this complaint, the gameplay is fun, accessible and a worthy successor to Skate 3. The best way to describe SkaterXL's approach is that it's a happy medium between Skate3 and Session - it's trying something new and maybe a little bit difficult to understand like Session, but it's doing so in combination with the best lessons learnt from Skate. 

As a simulator of technical street skateboarding, it excels expectation. As a video game, it doesn't yet quite hit the mark that will make it the cult classic Skate3 was, and suffers from some polish and User Experience issues you would never get in a similar game made by EA. My hope is in time they'll update and make this thing even better. Overall, though, at this moment it's an impressive package for anyone looking for a decent game about skateboarding.

[terribleco]

Listen, Skateboarding has rules now

… Or, at least, for the foreseeable future. 

To much rejoicing, skateparks in the UK are officially opening up again. Fencing and barrier tape coming down, ready for people to carve around on their useless wooden toys again. All of this comes with a caveat though: COVID-19 is still looming, and with our country having the most deaths in Europe, Skateboard England have set out guidelines for Skateboarding in the time of Coronavirus. The problem is, in real life, the guidelines don’t really work as intended.

Skateboard England's rules (which have literally been posted everywhere on social media) are as follows:

I don't think there is anything controversial or unreasonable in these guidelines and you can still have a rad session with 5 people. There are plenty of people who are sticking to these rules too, so in general I think most skateboarders are sensibly doing what is necessary to keep the shred going. We're used to not pissing people off to stop ourselves getting kicked off spots, so doing the same thing to preserve skatepark sessions comes naturally to us. The problem comes with people bending the rules or outright ignoring them, and as with most problems at skateparks, it's caused by people who don't skate. 

Skateparks, confusing as it is, were classed as playgrounds for ages. With that mindset, skateparks were closed off, like all other playgrounds. At the start of this pandemic, governments all over the world, even in California, did not understand the difference and dumped sand all over skateparks to curb sessions. It is with the guidance and help of orgs like Skateboard England that councils began to let skateparks open up again, whilst playgrounds remain closed. Now, parents desperate for something to do with their kids have flocked to skateparks on weekend mornings so Little Timmy can have a go on his plastic scooter. 

Clueless parents at skateparks have always been a problem. They are entitled, rude, and think they understand skateparks better than you. They take offense at the mere mention of anything that might make using the skatepark more harmonious or less dangerous for their child. As a father of a toddler, I honestly cannot understand the mindset of some of these people. I am constantly trying to make sure my kid isn't in the way or in danger. I totally understand just wanting a second of peace whilst your kid occupies themselves, but a big piece of concrete with full grown men whizzing around is not the place for that. 

With nowhere else to go, this attitude of entitlement and outright petty rudeness has increased. They think the skateparks have re-opened just for them, instead of realising that actual skateboarders sat down and did the work to sell these spaces as a safe place that you could use responsibly without catching a disease. 

I want my daughter to learn to skate, and I can’t wait to get her learning. But as an experienced skateboarder, I can’t in good conscience take her on a busy skatepark until she has at least learnt the basics of not only skateboarding, but spatial awareness - this is something a lot of parents just aren’t getting. Young kids should not be given full reign of the skatepark when they still lack confidence riding on flat ground, and definitely not when the park is busy with many other riders. Common sense should tell you (as it did for all of us when we started skateboarding) to learn the basics when the park is empty, or find a quiet area to get to grips with it. Most parents seem to just throw toddlers in at the deep end and think it’ll be alright.

A kid on a plastic scooter who could barely ride in a straight line fell from the top of a 6 ft quarter to the ground and busted his face open during one of my recent Sunday Morning sessions, and the parents were too busy nattering on the other side of the skatepark to notice straight away. Skateparks have re-opened with the expectation that children who do not know better will be properly managed by their parents: watching someone else’s kid faceplant in the worst possible way doesn’t fill me with confidence that these other parents understand what is being asked of them.

Skateboard England's rules are also written from an idealistic perspective where skateboarders who have used parks for years can use common sense and act sensibly. This isn't always the case in real life. Saying that "small skateparks" must only have 3 people on at a time, whilst "big skateparks" can have 10, sounds fine on paper, but realistically what constitutes a small or big skatepark? And I don't know anyone who would go down to their local park, see 10 people skating, and then say "Ah there are too many people, better go home!", even with the threat of an airborne virus that suffocates you to death. I didn’t even do that, and I suffer from panic attacks, and horrendous, crippling anxiety over life-threatening diseases.

My local park, in Leamington Spa, is that confusingly awkward middle ground between small and big - it takes up a lot of space by English skatepark standards, but it's layout definitely does not encourage large numbers. It is tight, and encourages quick reflexes, and funnels people into the middle of the park when there are many people riding. It is a perfect example of why Skateboard England specifies only one person should be riding a park at any time. The planning consent for the park was granted on the accordance that it is to be used by people aged 8 & over - so there should be no argument here, parents shouldn’t be letting toddlers onto the skatepark.

Having the knowledge to figure out whether one of these parks is safe to ride can only come from experience and actual skateboarding knowledge, and there is no way your average mum is going to know whether a skatepark is large enough to hold 10 riders at a time. I saw first hand, the busier the place got, the more parents strolled over, carrying a scooter adorned with cute, cartoon animals from CBeebies, followed by an excited 3 year old who has utterly no concept of social distancing or spatial awareness. And these same parents scowl at you as you ride around at top speed past their spawn on this concrete that “their taxes paid for” (it’s worth noting that in most cases, “their taxes” didn’t pay for it, skateboarders applied for grants from appropriate funding bodies to pay for it).

Why does this matter and why does it annoy me so much? Well, as stated, actual skateboarders worked hard to get these skateparks re-opened. Playgrounds are still shut. Not many places that people can use to stay active and healthy are open at all. The fact skateparks have re-opened has one of two outcomes: they become germ epicentres and spread the virus, or they are used responsibly and help forge a path for how we can still live remotely normal lives in this horrendously dark timeline. If people completely ignore the shit Skateboard England is telling them, and don’t apply common sense, then we veer closer to scenario A, and I don't think any skateboarder wants that. 

We are responsible for the parks we skate and for our wellbeing. We must do all we can to protect the spaces we feel comfortable in. Fair enough, we could all just go back to the streets or skate DIY parks, but if we all go into hiding what happens to the future skateboarders? If they have no place to go and skate, how do kids get to know how fun skateboarding can be? If we don't "lead by example" (in the words of Skateboard England) then how will our scenes grow and expand and evolve? There was a kid down the park the other day who was learning to skate, who we encouraged to learn new tricks and get better. If we aren’t there to provide guidance and encouragement to young kids like that, who only learn what skateboarding is about from actual skateboarders at skateparks, then we might as well admit we don’t care about skateboarding all up. 

There are so few things like skateboarding that can bring people of all walks of life together, and if people can just follow some simple rules for what is a blip in their entire lifetime, we can continue to have something positive to fuel us while we battle Coronavirus, Racism, Police Brutality, Tory Hypocrisy, Donald Trump and any other horrendous bullshit 2020 wants to throw at us.

[terribleco]

BLM

I've sat on the fence about whether to post anything about racism, as on one hand I thought "This is really important and I need to make my stance clear", and on the other I thought "Do people just want me to post about skateboarding, and will they get pissed off by this?". Ultimately I thought "Fuck it": anyone who takes issue with me posting about this probably sucks and I don't want them reading my blog anyway. If skateboarding is as progressive, open, inclusive and utopian as we all think it is, having the opinion that innocent people shouldn’t be murdered by the police shouldn’t be a controversial take.

I am an (admittedly pale) mixed race Black/British skateboarder, and there is a really horrible undercurrent of racism in the UK. As much as we like to think otherwise, it does often worm it’s way into skateboarding. I have either been silent or compliant in casually racist conversations, or actions from other skateboarders in the past. If there are any people out there I have personally offended with my actions or words in the past, I'm truly sorry. As someone from my background, you are also taught to shut up when these conversations happen - lest you become the butt of the next round of racist bullying. I chose self preservation instead of sticking up for fellow skateboarders, and it's something that makes me angry at myself to this day. 

Skateboarding can be utterly hypocritical when it comes to race. For years this lifestyle was the preserve of angry, white boys who just wanted to shred and get gnarly. Many years ago in Coventry, Black skateboarders were quite rare, and I remember one of the groms in the scene bemoaning the lack of influential skaters from a Black background in the city. And although, yes, I do come from a Black background, I did understand his point - Black skaters were rare in the city at the time. 

Knowing you ethnically differentiate from many of the other skateboarders in your city can be lonely, and I can also imagine this can be said for anyone who wasn’t a straight, white male at that time in skateboarding. But, being a Black skateboarder is important in inspiring others from the same background to pursue this activity, and become part of this community. Skaters like Jordan Thackeray, Shaun Currie and Korahn Gayle are all no doubt influential to younger Black British skaters who never thought this lifestyle was for them.

In the current climate, could you imagine skating street spots as a Black skateboarder and having to deal with police kicking you off of spots? If you were skating in the US, would you even make it home from the session alive? This is the shit white pro skaters never had to deal with - a ticket, a slap on the wrist, or maybe a board being confiscated at worst. We like to hold up the "Skateboarding makes everyone equal" card, but regardless of this we are all still different and experience social interaction differently based on who we are, what we look like, and how society perceives us. It isn't about erasing our differences, but embracing them and realising we are all awesome in different ways. 

It's been revealing to see the wave of apology posts coming out from board companies about specific bigoted incidents: Julien Stranger apologising for TMo's racist encounters on the Anti-hero insta, Kyle Walker apologising for spouting a racist slur whilst singing along to a rap song. I’d like to say I’m shocked and surprised, but skateboarding has had a problem with bigotry (and sweeping it under the rug) for a while: 

Danny Way’s involvement in being an accomplice to second degree murder of a gay man whilst Josh Swindell took the blame didn’t stop him getting featured as the face of the Skate video games.

A wave of shock washed over the skateboarding industry when Brian Anderson came out as gay (thus proving that gay skateboarders do exist, and yes, they fucking rule). But it took a legendary pro like Anderson to reveal his sexuality before skateboarders started to lay off on the homophobic in-jokes. 

Constant comments of "that's a dude" when insta accounts promoting female skateboarders post a clip of a trans skateboarder, which in turn raises the other issue of people only following these accounts to see hot girls riding skateboards (as opposed to, you know, just wanting to see some skateboarding). 

This community is not as inclusive and open as we like to believe, and the sooner we collectively accept that the sooner we can do better. It’s probably because skateboarders still skew toward mainly young boys, and comes with a bit of immaturity attached... But maybe that isn’t fair, as many young kids now are very conscious of being inclusive and trying to curb bigotry. In some cases kids are more accepting than adults twice their age. 

As a group largely consistently of straight men, we have accepted many male, Black skaters as “one of us” for a long time, but this doesn’t really mean a lot until we stick up for our fellow skateboarders, and use whatever privilege’s we have to prove that skateboarders stick up not only for their own, but anyone who is bullied and pushed down by society. 

How many unreasonable, shitty police officers have you dealt with when you are politely trying to leave a spot? I got stopped and fined for even carrying a skateboard in Coventry City Centre once, and the police made me feel like I'd been out there shooting people. I got “profiled” by police many times in my late teens because I “looked like” someone they were after - questioned about where I was going, where I lived, where I worked, because I looked a bit “ethnic” and was walking home near some nice houses. Only now do I question why I was stopped so many times, despite having no criminal record.

Years ago police in Coventry were throwing people in cells for the night if they were skating street. Young men get stopped and searched by police all the time in hopes of finding weapons, drugs or both - and this has happened to skateboarders in attempts to deter street skating. And here's the kicker: if they are doing that shit to white skaters, can you imagine the shit they're pulling on Black skateboarders? You can't champion Black skateboarding legends like Stevie Williams, Ray Barbee or Chris Pastras on one hand, and then sit there saying "All Lives Matter", or saying we must retain statues glorifying slave traders, or stick up for police brutality. 

Rather than just being silent and sticking to skateboarding, be loud and make some noise. 

As a start, you can donate to the following charities to help the cause:

BLM UK - https://www.gofundme.com/f/ukblm-fund

Stop Hate UK - http://www.stophateuk.org/donate-to-stop-hate-uk/

[terribleco]

Lockdown Game Of SKATE Update 4

Adrian aka Ellian Lisica aka Marco Ginelli aka Barca Moves aka Tech Wizard 2020 is our Lockdown Game Of SKATE Champion. His Nollie BS 360 Heelflip sealed the deal and stumped Ryans Bradley and Stanway, causing them to pick up their final letters. More breakdown and reflection of the overall game after the jump. 

This Game Of SKATE was an experiment born out of feeling trapped and desperate in a scary and uncertain time. I went in almost blind unsure if it was going to work, or if people would even see it through to the end. I gotta say I was pleasantly surprised: Once I got into the swing of things and the communication with the entrants was up and running it all just kinda fell into place. I don't think I'll run another one of these, because if I do it means we're in Lockdown again, and to be honest I would just like it if we never have to battle a global pandemic ever again. 

Post Game Stats:

20 tricks were set throughout the whole game. 

Apart from Adrian's final trick, Ryan Bradley’s Pressure Flip was the only set to get everyone in the game a letter.

Adrian, Ryan Bradley and Ryan Stanway were tied for the most sets during the game, with 3 each. 

Alex Walker, Tom Sly and Kelvin McGurk didn't even get to set at all. 

5 boneless/no comply tricks were set during the whole game. I think some people were concerned allowing these tricks would fill the game with silly tricks, but most of the tricks set were flip tricks. 

The only trick set in switch stance was Freddy Hackett's Switch Flip. 

Although too late to join the official competition: Ralph Cooper played along as an honorary guest (due to this was not allowed to set any tricks himself). He was knocked out by Jack Taylor's BS No Comply Bigspin. 

I wanna say a massive thank you to everyone who took part. Even to those who ducked out early - just showing interest and trying to connect with people during lockdown no matter how you do it has been incredibly important, so big up to all those involved.

To end, here is Adrian’s game ending Nollie Full Cab Heelflip!

[terribleco]

Lockdown Game Of SKATE: Update 3

Another week, another Game Of SKATE update - this update covers everything up until Wednesday this week. With the final 3 players heading into the endgame, things have slowed down a little as we wait for each of these gents to carve out some time to attempt each trick. They’ve hung around this long, so I think the least I can do is allow them some extra buffer time to have a proper 24 hour work through of each trick. With that said, here’s how we got here...

Week 3 Breakdown

Last Friday, Ryan Stanway (rjes), got a Fakie Varial Heelflip - with Josh Williams (townratjosh) and Charlie Kerr (mrmojorisin23) both on T, this trick was a red alert. Josh managed to cling on, basically learning this trick in a day, whilst Kerr was knocked out of the comp, after clawing on for so long.

Next up was Ryan Bradley (ryanbradley_1) - having been the only person to set a trick so far that no one was able to land, everyone was prepared for RB to set something difficult. He brought out an Inward Heeflip, giving Ryan Stanway a letter, and knocking Josh out of the comp completely. Adrian aka Ellian (ellian_ever_after) got this trick and stopped RB from getting another clean sweep. 

Jack Taylor (jack98taylor) surprised a few people by clinging on for so long, learning and re-learning a lot of the tricks that had been set. By the time he rolled around for his second set, he was ready for blood - and went straight for the no complies with a No Comply BS Bigspin. This is a tricky one, and Jack even admitted it gave him some trouble trying to set it. Surprising no-one, Adrian got this one pretty easily, and even self-proclaimed No Comply hater Ryan Stanway managed to bag it as well. Special effort prize goes to RB though, who had never even tried this trick before, and battled all day to get it.

After a fairly fun and quirky first set, Adrian came back with a more aggressive Nollie 360 Flip. This one knocked Jack out of the comp, bringing us down to our final 3. Stanway got this one (I knew this would be a trick he had in his bag!), but RB picked up a letter on this trick, after battling to land it. He got painfully close, and the land he sent over to me was a redo at best: it was a 90 degree Nollie Varial flip thing, and whilst I am a lenient judge, I had to call that out as not a land. Sorry!

Back around to Ryan Stanway, who was now trying to get strategic with his sets. Firing back after RB’s Inward Heel and Adrian’s Nollie Tre, he brought out a Nollie Double Flip - a trick that I was pretty sure only Ryan Stanway could do. The main casualty here was RB again, who couldn’t push it past 1 and a half rotations, despite a good effort, and picked up a T on this trick. Adrian managed to once again surprise everyone by somehow getting this trick.

The final trick covered in this update was RB’s Fakie Inward Heel. Utilising the same method by others who had set fakie variations of previously set tricks to force people to land their attempts rolling, this trick got Stanway a letter. By now he was starting to feel the burn and was suffering from what could be a foot injury - considering he already knew Inward Heels were a weakspot for him he strategically took a letter, saving his energy in hopes of getting round to setting a banger later on. It might not surprise you to learn that Adrian also landed this trick too, though.

Going into the end of this week, the current trick that has been set is Adrian’s Nollie BS Full Cab Heelflip. This is an incredibly technical and difficult trick, and could potentially finish the game. Despite this, speaking to Adrian he doesn’t want to celebrate too early, especially as this kind of trick is within the realm of possibility for both of the other entrants. Having said that, I think the next update for the comp with very likely be me announcing a winner! Stay tuned.

[terribleco]

I Built A Stupid Coronavirus Lockdown Ramp Out Of Scrap Wood In My Garden

If you're stuck in lockdown, and you really get an urge to skate, there's only one solution: You need to do what I did and build a stupid ramp out of scrap wood in your garden.

It's probably obvious, but I am not a professional ramp builder and I have very little experience building stuff like this from scratch. 

Now, a lot of people out there are skating parks or street spots, especially as the lockdown restrictions have been eased over the last couple of weeks. Personally I think this whole thing is super scary and I'm staying in as much as possible and protecting myself and my family. Having said that, I need to skate to take my mind off the situation. 

I suffer from anxiety, and the trigger is health and life threatening illnesses - so COVID-19 is kinda my worst nightmare. With that context, this is the reason why I didn't just go and skate a random empty spot, and built something kinda stupid that only I would end up skating. 

I previously had a 1 foot high concrete ditch/miniramp in the garden (image below), which I used a little, but ultimately not enough to warrant the space it took up. It was also really hard to skate, and the concrete mix in the transitions and flat bottom were terrible because my Dad thought he knew a better concrete mix for a skatepark than Daryl Nobbs (you know, the same Daryl Nobbs who works for Betongpark and builds parks every day). 

We had wanted to put in a veg patch for a while and because we were going to be spending so much time in the house, we just decided to fill the ramp in with compost and grow some veg. Last winter the ramp had gotten really mossy and slimy as well, so it just seemed like a good idea. 3 weeks into lockdown I got really desperate to skate something that wasn't my drive or the hills and paths near my house, so I took a bunch of scrap wood from various garden projects and got cracking with building… Something. 

The starting point was a wooden palette. At first I was going to build a curb thing, then I propped it up against the wall and realised I could probably make some weird street bank/kicker. I hacked up a bunch of wooden beams to create supports for the bank, and build some extra support for the transition at the bottom of the bank. 

Once the bank itself was supported, I covered the frame with some leftover flooring panels. These slotted together really well to create a super smooth riding surface. 

I tried to create a deck and add some extra weight to the back of the bank with some more cut offs from wooden beams. This purely came from the desire to do a Sweeper on this thing. 

The finished ramp was actually pretty good - one of the only downsides was that it was a bit slippy so Tailblocks are a bit of a struggle (I plan to fix this in the future with an electric sander). I did a few daft tricks on it, and it definitely works as a kicker too. 

In conclusion, maybe I'm over-reacting to COVID-19 by literally turning into a hermit who skates bad ramps in his drive, but the act of building a project like this really helped with my anxiety. It used up a bunch of scrap wood that was just taking up space in my garden, and I got to actually skate at the end of it all. I think the point of this blog post is bigger than "I built a shit ramp", though: I think that the point is, no matter how bad things get, we owe it to ourselves to find a way to connect with skateboarding, in any way we can. 

[terribleco]

Lockdown Game Of SKATE: Update 2

Week 2 of the Lockdown Game Of SKATE has come to a close, and things have heated up considerably. At the end of last week, most people were still in the game, with a fair few competitors sitting on S, or no letters whatsoever. What a difference a week makes: 9 people are gone, with only 6 remaining, and some serious bangers coming out of the woodwork to catch people out.

Week 2 Breakdown

Set number 7 came courtesy of Ryan Stanway (rjes), with a fairly reserved Fakie Kickflip. Ryan took the gentlemanly approach and set something reasonable after Freddy’s Switch Flip and Kerr’s FS Bigspin caused some serious upset.

If Stanway was trying to send a message to the other competitors to calm their shit down, Ryan Bradley (ryanbradley_1) wasn’t listening. He busted out the first and only clean sweep of the comp to date with a Pressure Flip. Needless to say, this caused the biggest shake-up of the comp, stopping Ryan Stanway and Ellian Lisica (ellian_ever_after) from finishing the comp with no letters, and knocking many others out of the comp for good. Quinn (q_la_skate) valiantly tried this trick all day despite having never landed it, and actually learnt to flip the thing - even though, Q was knocked out after this trick.

Next, Sam Crow (spirephotography_) dropped a Double Kickflip. Again, this caught a lot of people out, and was the point where betting man’s favourite Lucas Healey (lucashealey) started to crack. This one knocked Freddy Hackett (_megafred) out of the comp - he cited a bad back and being in his 30′s as the reason he couldn’t do the trick anymore.

Jack Taylor’s (jack98taylor) Nollie FS 360 in a school playground was so textbook that I thought the footage had dropped straight out of a Girl/Chocolate video. This was quite a leftfield set: it’s fairly reasonable for people to learn this in 24 hours, but it’s not an obvious trick. For those who know how to do it, it comes naturally, as proven by Ellian Lisica and his similarly textbook example.

After patiently waiting for literally everyone else to set, and clawing his way through a gruelling 11 tricks, Josh Williams (townratjosh) finally got his chance to set - with a Varial Heelflip. This was the trick that knocked Lucas Healey out of the comp, but at this point a lot of these tricks were seemingly aiming at the top of the leaderboard, as people grasped for sets that would give Ryan’s Bradley and Stanway, or Ellian, a letter.

The last person to set in our original line up was Ellian Lisica - who subverted expectation to set a No Comply FS 360. In general this was a tricky set designed to catch others at the top of the leaderboard out. Ryan Stanway and Ryan Bradley both picked up letters on this one (although Stanway got close with an attempt I called as a redo - he had tried it for ages with no luck so just forfeited). Similarly Josh also got close to this one, it was a trick that was just out of reach for a few people in the comp.

We wrapped back around to the start, with Charlie Kerr (mrmojorisin23) as the first person on the setlist who is still in. Final trick covered in this update is a Fakie FS Bigspin, with Kerr trying to catch people off guard again with yet another bigspin variation. Unfortunately it wasn't as effective as his regular variant, with every other competitor landing the trick this time!

Next trick is back to Ryan Stanway again, with a Fakie Varial Heelflip. With Kerr and Josh on the verge of going out, this could be a big upset. Similarly to when we had a Fakie Kickflip (also from Stanway), the regular version of this trick has already been set, and so the Fakie Varial Heel attempts must be rolling. This is a tactic which might catch some people out.

If the Fakie Varial Heel does some damage, we could be heading into the end game for this whole thing. It’s heating up now!

[terribleco]

Lockdown Game Of SKATE: Update 1

We’re one week in on the Lockdown Game Of SKATE, and above you can see the current standings. Here’s a breakdown of how the past week has played out.

The Rules

It’s probably worth saying this thing was going to play out very differently to your average game of SKATE. We’re not playing Berrics rules!

No Complies, Bonelesses and Pressure Flips are all allowed.

Tricks must be landed on film and sent within 24 hrs after being set.

Because of the nature of lockdown and everyone filming stuff, there is no way to ensure the trick is landed first try. For this reason, you can have as many goes at the tricks set as you want. As long as I see a clip of a land, you get a pass.

Week 1 Breakdown

The game started with Quinn (q_la_skate) taking full advantage of the “bonelesses allowed” rule to set a Beanplant Impossible. This took some people by surprise but everyone jumped in on it!

Next was Moose (bigmoose420) with a Kickflip. With Quinn’s set and the kickflip after, this set a precedent early on that the game was maybe going to be pretty relaxed. A few people picked up letters on the kickflip, but most got it.

Pro Marky (pro_marky) got creative with no complies and set a Nollie Comply. This one got people letters as they straight up didn’t even know where to start, and just forfeited. Shoutouts to RB and Lucas who legit popped this thing, getting it as close to Pro Marky’s version as they could.

Lucas Healey (lucashealey) surprised everyone by not doing a technical flip trick, and setting a Russian Boneless. Similar to the Nollie Comply, this one got people letters through forfeiting. Shoutout to Ellian who, like Lucas, landed this rolling on not so perfect ground.

If there was any indication that this game would stay gentlemanly, Freddy (_megafred) threw that out of the window when he set a Switch Kickflip. He well and truly laid the gauntlet down for this one, and a fair few people picked up letters, although shoutouts to Quinn and Charlie Kerr who gave it a good go at learning this trick from scratch - even sending through their progress and attempts.

The final trick covered here is a FS Bigspin from Charlie Kerr (mrmojorisin23). After the switch flip, it was clear the gloves were off. Kerr knocked some people out of the comp (although they had gone quiet long before), and others picked up letters or straight up forfeited. Those who did land it only just saved themselves a letter, hanging on with sketchy landings, but a land is a land and I am a lenient judge!

Next up is Ryan Stanway (rjes), who has set a Fakie Flip. Given that we’ve already had a kickflip set (and some people did this stationary), the fakie flip must be rolling, which I’m sure will catch some people out. The deadline for this trick is tonight, so rather than include that here, I’ll cover it in the next update. To see the sets as they come in, keep it locked to my stories on the insta.