Interview by Robert Delaney
Photography by Matt ‘Monkeyglove’ Robson
Yes Kai! Let’s start this off then. Whereabouts are you originally from?
Well I grew up in a place called Thundersley in Essex, near Leigh-on-Sea. When I was 18 my family moved over to Leigh-on-Sea, but I spent most of my time either there or Rayleigh anyway, because of the skateparks.
Essex born and bred! That nicely moves us to the next thing I wanted to talk about. I’ve seen loads of sick clips from the younger skaters out on the Essex coast; what’s the scene like there?
It’s f*cking crazy! It’s always been really good. We always say that when you drive an hour away from Essex, everyone’s ten years behind in everything. Outside of Essex, the scenes seem really weird; everyone’s drinking energy drinks, and they’ve all got weird steez. I think the scene in Leigh-on-Sea is so good because of the older guys there. The olders have always been sick, and they’ve always shown the way. When I was little I was friends with a lot of the older skaters, and they were all cool as f*ck; they’d show everyone what was sick and what wasn’t. The scene there is also so good because of the quality of the skateparks, too. The skateparks were good; they weren’t the best, but you could always make something out of them.
So would you say the older guys had an influence on not only how you skate, but also how you are as a person?
The olders would bully us (laughs). When you grow up skating a skatepark, sometimes you need someone to keep you in check, if you catch my drift. You’d be thinking to yourself, “oh my God, the older guy just said something to me”, and then the next thing you know, they’d put you up a tree. But then the next time you go down to the skatepark, you’d be able to sit with them and chill, and you’d realise that you’ve become friends with real skateboarders, not just other 12 year-olds.
Of course, man; it’s all part of the process. A rite of passage into skateboarding. So where are you living now?
I moved to Shoreditch about three weeks ago. I live just opposite the Ace Hotel, over near Shoreditch High Street station. It’s really cool living here.
The blue wave of Romford gets treated to a 'dipped as you like' back smith.
Before you started skating, did you do much else? I know all of us have different origin stories, but were you skating since day one?
I’ve always been obsessed with stuff. I would always have an ongoing obsession, whether it be Ben Ten, Pokémon, SpongeBob, Harry Potter and all that other sh*t. As soon as I found skating, I was like, “right, I’m done with all that stuff now”. I never had another obsession after that. This was when I was around 10 years old; there was no real going back.
Who was your first sponsor and how did that come about?
I don’t really know, to be honest. The first time I got free stuff was from from Kevin (Parrott); it was pretty crazy. He messaged me saying, “do you want to come down to the skatepark?” I said “yes”, even though I didn’t really know who he was. I was thinking to myself, “why’s this middle-aged man asking me to come down to the skatepark?” (laughs). I skated with him for a bit, and thought he was a safe guy, he then said to me, “we want to start sending you shoes; do you want some Etnies?” I asked him if I could have shoes from Emerica instead. I’ve always been really gassed on Emerica, since I was a little kid. My old Instagram handle was @emericaetheridge for years. So Kev sorted that out, which was kind of like a sponsorship…I guess I was on flow.
So what about your sponsorship from Clown Skateboards? How did that come about?
That was a cool one, too. One day I was at home with my girlfriend in Leigh-on-Sea, and (Simon) Skipp asked to call me. A mate of mine, Dave (Watson), who works at our local skateshop, the June Store, used to skate for Clown back in the day. I think he must’ve put a word in for me because Simon told me that he was trying to get a team together, and he asked me to be a part of it. I said, “sure, why not!”
Delside has served the Essex skate scene well over the years, and Kai repays it by floating a huge ollie over the hip.
I’ve seen that you’re also a keen snowboarder too; how did that happen?
When I was a little kid, every year my family would go on a skiing holiday because my mum and dad love skiing. I used to ski too when I was younger, but I hated it. I would cry about it, and my mum would have to buy me toys and stuff to get me to ski. My mum eventually said that when I was around 13 or something, I could start snowboarding instead. As soon as I started snowboarding I thought it was sick. I snowboarded for a few years, did an instructor course, and I moved to Japan for a year to do just that.
Did you skate much during your time in Japan?
No, actually I didn’t skate for nearly the whole time I was there. I took my board, but it didn’t really stop snowing. Once though, we went to this random bar, I had my board with me, and inside we saw a mini ramp and strip club poles. It was a weird set-up, but I was super gassed because I had a mini ramp to skate. I skated the sh*t out of that mini (laughs).
My old Instagram handle was @emericaetheridge for years.
Sounds like a laugh! So in terms of the future for you, is there anything big coming up?
I’m just trying to have fun, I suppose. We’ve been filming a June Store video with literally all the homies, so I’ve been getting clips for that. Shout out to the June Store! Besides that, I’m just trying to skate as much as possible. I really want to go on a trip soon, though (laughs).
Talking of the June Store video, is there anyone else from Essex that’s coming up who you think we should keep an eye out for?
Isaac (Gale), my best friend. He’s the greatest skater ever; he has the best steez and he’s the soundest guy. There are so many kids at the skatepark in Leigh that are good. A kid called Joe Cross; he’s so small, he’s always been that small, but he still kills it. My friends Hayden (Klein) and Jacob (Heley), too; they’re always killing it down at the skatepark. Hayden’s Instagram is filled with the littlest, sh*tty quality clips, but when you see how he skates in person, he’s like a classical musician or something (laughs). He is insane!
Follow Kai - @kefr0