Sidewalk Magazine – Issue 135 – December 2007
Photography by Will Linford (2007) and Rob Whiston (2021)
What year did you move to Sheffield from Edgeware?
I’d just turned 16, so 2005. I’ve been here a long time.
Who would your crew have been when you first arrived in the city?
It would have been Timmy (Garbett), Henry (Stables), Dave (Adlington), Paul O’Hara, Dan Beall…there were definitely more, but now I’m being put on the spot, I’m not sure (laughs).
When I think of you in that era, I definitely think of Devonshire Green, where we’re currently sat. Was this one of the first places in Sheffield you would have skated?
It would have been. At first I was living in the Broomhall flats. You know where the steep bank is in the underpass? I lived in one of the flats there. I came here to skate because it was so close.
I know you were filming for Henry Edwards-Wood’s video Concrete Poets: Writer’s Block when you moved here. How did you and Henry first meet?
I think that would have been at Southbank. Jeremy Jones was just in Sheffield at the weekend, and he reminded me about how I knew him before I met Henry, because we used to skate BaySixty6 together. But I met Jeremy through Jin (Shimizu), then we started going to Southbank, and that’s where I met Henry. His crew was Greg Conroy, David Yap, Scott Howes…Henry’s memory is so much better than mine, though; he’ll probably straight up tell me that I’ve remembered that wrong (laughs). Those guys came up once or twice after I’d moved here. The video came out in 2007, and that was a Story Guild release; Henry released it through (Mark) Baines’ shop.
So your first appearance in a mag was a sequence of a frontside pivot to fakie, shot during The House Skatepark comp in 2007.
Look at the concentration! I would have been so stoked to get that, bro; I won’t even lie.
Everyone who was at that comp remembers it because it was the year Gustav Tønneson won, when he was pretty much unknown and riding for Sh*t Skateboards. Looking back at it now, that was all pretty random.
I brought this up on the adidas Instagram recently. I left a comment on a clip of Gustav, saying, “I remember seeing him when he was a little kid; he used to ride for a board company called Sh*t”, and some random guys tagged me, saying, “what is this? Show me proof!”
What can you tell everyone about Sh*t Skateboards?
All I know about Sh*t Skateboards is that there was a massive banner for them in The House.
Moggins: That was because Rob (Bannister – owner of The House) was distributing it. That’s why they did a tour over here and everything.
I remember being mind blown looking at Gustav, thinking, “who is that?” It was pretty shocking, man; I hadn’t seen anything like that before. You can tell from how he skates now, but when he was doing all of those crazy tricks, he didn’t really move his body; his skating was tech, but his body was really calm.
Moggins: Gustav came to Sheff, crooked down the subway 12 rail, which is f*cked because it’s so steep, then went and won The House comp easy. Easy.
I thought it was unfair that he was even there. It was obvious he was going to win.
I wanted to be like Jerome (Campbell); I was pretending I was sponsored by Nike. I know for a fact that those are Jerome’s old shoes (laughs). Most of that outfit is from him, actually.
According to the results in the article, Gustav won, (Craig) Smedley came second, but if you look at the ‘12 and under’ category, Jay Bex was first, with Matlok (Bennett-Jones) in second.
As if Matlok was even about! 12 and under? That is insane! He must have been nine, maybe 10.
Your sequence was shot by Silent Will (Linford) who I believe moved to Sheff around the same sort of time as you. When did you two first cross paths?
I remember the first time I tried to take a photo with Will when I didn’t know him that well. I tried to do the same trick, a 5-0 fakie, on a slabbed bank in Crosspool. It’s in the first Ravenous video; (Martin) Kennelly filmed it. Will was lying on the bottom of the bank, I came out of the pivot at an angle and my board hit him in the face. The quick movement he made as the board hit him…I thought he was really hurt. I didn’t even say anything; I was stood in silence for ages. He wanted me to carry on, but I felt so bad, bro. I was shook with him anyway, like, “this guy is a legit photographer; why is he even here trying to take a photo of me?”
Well I’m glad to see you got your pivot fakie redemption at The House a little while later.
This is it. That bank was so fun, man; you could move it about. There was a wall on the opposite side of the park that had a ledge where a window used to be. The bank was always against that and I’d do 5-0 fakies on it, but the day of the comp, the bank had been moved, so I thought, “I’ll hit that part of the park up instead”. Look at the Nike SBs! I wanted to be like Jerome (Campbell); I was pretending I was sponsored by Nike. I know for a fact that those are Jerome’s old shoes (laughs). Most of that outfit is from him, actually. This must have been a bit before I properly got on Vans.
Do you remember when this issue of Sidewalk was released?
Yeah, I do. It was my first photo in a magazine, so I was pretty stoked, I won’t lie. I got it from WH Smith; I know which one. I used to buy Sidewalk from the same WH Smith, not too far from City Hall; I always got it from there. I think I might have a copy of this at home somewhere, now that I’ve seen the cover. It’s not in as nice a condition as this. This looks like you’ve literally just bought it.
I’m sure your First Light interview came out a couple of months after this, too.
It did; I’ve definitely got a copy of that at home. That was a flip noseslide on the bank in Chesterfield, where the run up is narrow at the top of the bank, and you go over the kerb and slide another kerb. It felt like I was just flip nosesliding a kerb, but the drop off the bank made it so legit. Those were sequence days…you still get sequences in mags now, but not as much.
Wasn’t the other First Light photo a shove-it heelflip down the seven set at St James?
Yeah, and I was so stoked on that. Then in Brass Monkey (2011 Sheffield scene video by James Cruickshank) I did line with a tre flip down the three, then front shove the seven. That was such a big deal for me, because I don’t tre flip down anything. I know it’s just a three set, but the angle to it is so stinking. I did that at night as well, with a generator lighting up the spot. I think the generator got me hyped; it made me feel like I was a U.S. pro on a mission (laughs). They were good times for sure.
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