Oh Dear

I guess Bam was in Malta too, because i papped his car.

Kit Bag

The morning before leaving for Malta.

Mad Circle

Another old skateboardingis.com video I just uploaded is a very rare Mad Circle section from an old shop-only Giant Distribution video catalogue from 1998. I accidentally on purpose borrowed it when I was working in a skate shop. You know how it is. The rest of the video is whatever but Mad Circle was one of the best 90s companies...hard to beat a line up of stylers including Bobby Puleo, Scott Johnston, Rob Welsh, Karl Watson and a very young Cairo Foster. Cairo's first ever part? Possibly.

Jason Lee

I've been searching through the backups of old versions of my skateboardingis.com website and discovered a bunch of video parts and clips I had posted up back when i first launched it 4 or so years ago. This Jason Lee part is my favourite, it's from a rare Airwalk promo and was possibly some of his last footage before he retired from professional skateboarding. You can't beat the style, the tricks, the lines, the tennis dances and it all being shot on film. My friend Tambini and I used to do the tennis footwork when out drunk dancing back in Southsea, it is heartily recommended.

Handplant

Biebel gave me a reminder the other day...a look through the footage shoebox and hey presto, 1993 and I do a handplant. Surprised myself.





P.S. Wondering about the black borders? I had to rotate the footage 90 degrees, no idea why Pete filmed it on the wonk!

Local Lurkage

La Luna

Bits & Pieces

Chris Miller in Cardiff

This is back from a Planet Earth demo from 1991 at the old metal Rare Unit vert. Well, it was probably quite new back then. Miller kills it as does Buster Halterman. No idea if they went to The Philharmonic afterwards.

Skateboard, I Miss You

Beer From There To Here

Gorm bought me back some beers from Iceland (the place not the pikey frozen food hole). Good stuff.

Panoramic Aldeburgh

A collection of panoramic photos from one of my trips up to Aldeburgh last year, one of my favourite places on the east coast.

A Little Re-Discovery

The other week some friends did a bit of skateboarding re-discovery, they still had the skills. It seemed like they fell back in love with it again a little. Fingers crossed I can skate with these guys again sooner rather than later.

Lakai

Last night is still a bit of a blur. I think the video left a lot of people shell shocked and my OAP brain is still struggling to dissect the skating. A hangover doesn't help either. Oh well.

Todd Bratrud

Todd is an amazing artist and a heavy photo blogger over at The Skateboard Mag and his stuff is always worth keeping an eye on. Today he posted up these amazing photos of Appleyard adding a broken board to a tree of broken boards...thought I should share in case you don't already have his stuff in your bookmarks or RSS feeds.

Music Makes Me Cry

There. I said it. I don't watch the Brit awards on TV, not since that amazing one with thinger from Fleetwood Mac and Sam Fox. I mean, why not go out when it's the best it's ever going to be? Anyway, last year I had heard Prince was going to be playing a few songs so made the effort. At the end of my phone via text message was my friend Rob, likewise breaking the rule of watching the show just to catch the little purple one play live. Prince killed it. We were texting back and forth about how amazing he was. Kind of like we traditionally do with the first night of Big Brother. That's another story/post. I don't remember who had to play/sing after him but that had to be the worst job in the world right after great white shark teeth cleaner. I've loved Prince off and on since Jim leant me some tapes as a kid. Jim tended to do that a lot, open my eyes and ears to amazing music.

I can still watch this now and it raises the hair on my neck and brings a tear to the eye.

School Canvas

Probably the same for all skateboarders at school, what do you do when the teacher is droning on like an adult from a Charlie Brown & Snoopy cartoon? You draw skate logos on your school books! Well, that and piss takes of your school friends, of course.

These are a bunch of mine from 1986-1987.

Television

I remember being super excited about Ed Templeton and Mike Vallely starting their own board company back in 1992 called Television (if i remember right it was also called TV for a while too, T for Templeton and V for Vallely). I managed to hunt down a deck in a local shop, it was a Vallely and had a lovely early 90s shovel shape and just green paint on the bottom with an abstract lizard thing. Amazing. A little after Ed and Vallely fell out and Ed started Toy Machine and Vallely went back to Powell. It didn't last long but there was something about it I thought was pretty special and wanted to be a part of, in my own little way.



Here is a clip I found on YouTube from when the pair turned up at an American skatepark not long after they started the company. Sick stuff.

Southsea Faces

A collection of hand developed film photos of some friendly Southsea faces

Stevenage

In very early 2003 Jim took driving duties and drove Russ, LBD and I up to Stevenage to check out the ancient skatepark and a street spot or two. It was one of the last times Jim and I skated together as I soon after left to live in Cardiff. Even though it was raining off and on we skated around (and sometimes through) the puddles and when the skies really opened we sheltered undercover skating the local kids flatbar and steps to make the best of it. It was a classic Monster Network road trip with a bit of exploration, getting lost on ring-road roundabouts, skating, slams and piss takes.

Crisp Mornings

Cincinnati

A new Doug K video just came out of Cincinnati, i love these videos (when i get the chance to see them). Kinda remind me of early Monster Network videos, friends out skating and goofing off, zooming in on passing girls, crappy spots, etc. Good stuff. Jesse Gilner just shared a couple of parts including James Kelch...breakdancing in the road in the rain, the legend lives on. Looking forward to seeing the Kokomo Joe part, underground ripper!



Kelch


Robbie Ferguson and Ed Kennedy

Destinations Unknown

Winter Sun Arise

1986 - Eyes & Ears Open

Sometimes Hollywood's cheese cash-ins end up opening your eyes and ears to the underlying subject in a way that you wouldn't have been able to so by yourself. Back in 1986 one of the biggest film influences in my life came out, 'Back to the Future'. I'd been skateboarding for a while but it had been low key, just tootling around with my friend Jim. After the movie came out not only had it opened our eyes a lot more to the possibilities on the wooden stick but the huge boom in skating after that swept us up in to it like a wave probably has provided the momentum that means i'm still skating to this day.

In the same year a film called 'Crossroads' also came out. Staring the guy from 'The Karate Kid' and Joe Seneca as Willie Brown it focused on a kid isolated by his musical loves and subsequently going on a (film cliche aproaching...) voyage of discovery both mentally and physically as Willie Brown takes him down through Mississippi hunting for Robert Johnson's lost song and ultimately challenging the devil to win back Willie Brown's soul that he too traded at the crossroads. The film isn't the best but what it did do was open my ears up to Blues music. From that movie I started to not only seek out the music but it helped me appreciate the music I already loved at the time that stemmed from it, principally The Rolling Stones, Cream (who covered Robert Johnson's Crossroads) and loads of other blues based rock and roll. In the same way as Back to the Future the film triggered a love of something that still exists today.



Cream 'Crossroads' 1968

Holeshot

Back in 1987 there was a huge BMX and skate comp in London called Holeshot. Christian Hosoi, Jason Jessee, Mark Gonzales and Lance Mountain came over for it and it was probably the biggest skate event at the time (since the 70s). I was a huge fan of Jessee and The Gonz and wanted to go but wasn't allowed as my Mum and Dad thought i was too young to go without them. Fair enough I guess, I was only 14. To make up for it I saved up some money and ordered the video for the event from the back pages of RAD magazine. Back then it was the old "please give 28 days for delivery". I waited 3 months and wrote letters when it never arrived but it was all in vain, the video never did turn up. Part of me has always wondered what was in that video and luckily for me I got the chance as it was recently posted up on YouTube. Nice to finally see the skating from back then, looks like it would have been amazing to witness in the flesh!

Natural History Museum

Stereo & Chris Miller

Stereo have updated their website over at www.stereosoundagency.com, looking good! Stoked they have one of my all time favourites Chris Miller skating for them. 'Classic' is the word. I pinched this clip from his team member page:

Croydon Towers

Southsea Saturday

New Steed

Dissipating Trails

Dissipating vapour trails at 6am

Adrian Williams Turns Pro

One of my favourite Ams finally turns pro. Sadly it's for think. Get him on Organika ASAP!

Popills

Popills has been one of my favourite underground video makers for years. With a very quiet web presence their clips, when they randomly dropped periodically without fan fair, would always make a stir with their aesthetic qualities, filming skills and sick skating by some relative unknowns out of New Jersey.

Justin White is now working on a full length video called 'New Thirsty' and follows is the trailer recently shown between the new Chapman video and Static III at the Static III NYC premiere. Looking good! Check Popills and Quartersnacks for more details as and when.

Panda Bear/Pat O'Dell/Sam Salganik/Clark Hassler

A nice collaboration of styles with O'Dell's photographic eye via Gnar Gnar's Sam Salganik's collection of analogue video viewfinders with Clark Hassler in New York as the subject/hazy childhood memory.

Comment from the youtube page: "sounds like the Akira soundtrack meets the Beach Boys", pretty spot on.