Keen Will’s daredevil-like approach to shredding street spots and transition brought his unique style and fearless approach to the attention of skaters in the UK and around the world.
His creative and gnarly skating has seen him nail lots of gnarly tricks all over the UK and whether he’s skating with his homies, at a hectic jam or just cruising his ramp or local park or street spot, when he’s really focused on getting bangers and lines, he’s always skating with speed and trying to land the sickest thing that he can do at the time and more often than not, he makes incredible tricks happen with style, despite the pressure and the gravity of situations he gets himself in.
So we were hyped he has joined The No Comply Network and stoked to have a long chat with him about some of the standout tricks we’ve seen him do in person and in footage over the years.
Discover how he first got on board and started travelling to Bristol to skate, the story behind his massive Frontside Grab attempts at Dean Lane, meeting Tidy Mike, filming for Forecast, his thoughts on the Bristol skate scene, the skaters whose footage that he can’t stop watching, why he gets so hyped skating at Jams, Fastlands, Marcus Palmer, his Livi Boneless transfer, building his own skatepark, how he found and ended up skating a satellite dish and his favourite skaters, styles, videos and spots of all-time and more.
Read it all below to find out for yourself.
Will, Roof Gap Kickflip: Shot by James Collins
Hey Will, where are you right now?
I’m in France, I’m in Brittany right now, close to Brest. It’s pretty nice. It’s a chill place. It’s where I’m from in England. So it’s cool when I come here, it’s just really chill.
Anything good to skate there?
A new skate park just opened, it’s actually pretty close to here so there’s quite a lot of good stuff to skate. It’s a pretty mad skate park. It’s banging, but I haven’t actually gone there since I’ve been here, I’ve just been chilling.
Why’s that?
I hurt myself. I went to Scotland for a jam not that long ago and in the practice before the actual jam, I just blew my knee out. So I’ve just been trying to just recover and just take it steady since that point. But yeah, I don’t know man. I feel cooked right now
You just need to recharge and come back to skating, you can still roll around though, right?
Yeah but I reckon I need to probably start doing some serious physio or something. I don’t know, it’s tough, injuries always suck. So it’s like trying to find other ways to sort of fill the time that I would have been skating right now. But, yeah, I’ve been having a good time in France and just come here to visit places and that sort of thing. Yeah, it’s been pretty chill so far!
What’s your full name?
My actual real name is Will Stradling, but yeah, everyone has just called me Keen Will for ages.
Will, Kickflip Melon Grab: Shot by James Collins
Why’s that?
Because when I was skating in Bristol a lot, I was always out and really stoked to be on a mission and just wanted to hang out with a bunch of people. I just wanted to skate all the time. basically. So I think that’s where that name sort of come from and yeah, I think that’s it really.
Where did you grow up?
So I grew up in Somerset, close to Glastonbury, so I was always seeing a lot of skaters from Bristol coming down, and then a lot of a lot of the time I’d see people skating Glastonbury Skate Park – the old skate park when it was wooden. I would see skaters like Will Ainley and Zak Pitter skating there as well. That was real sick, just being like what…these guys are so sick at skating. So that’s where I grew up skating I guess, but there was a lot less to skate than there is now.
There was just a few metal skate parks and pre-fabricated skate parks where they would just be like, okay, we’ll just drop a flatbank, quarterpipe and a driveway somewhere and that’s it. It was just those, but everywhere. So you had to get a crew together and find someone who’s going to drive you to go to different places, So I would be trying to hang out with older skaters to be able to do that, I guess.
Will, Backside Ollie: Shot by Ben Haizelden
What year did you start skating, 2000?
I used to skate a lot when I was young. My uncle always surfed, so we always had skateboards and surf stuff around. I guess I properly started skating when I was at college. I was okay, this is my thing, ok, I’m just skating now properly, but before that I was skating but then I got into football and stuff that. So, yeah, probably 2000,.
I can remember DC and Osiris were massive at that point I can’t lie, everyone was wanted a pair of D3s and do Switch Tre’s, skate tiny wheels, but I was really young as well, playing Tony Hawk’s. It’s when Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater had just come out.
Yeah, so that would be 2000,
Yeah, pretty much then.
I’ve been skating since 2001,. Man, I remember those days and it was this sick thing, that it was not big in this country at all. So you knew all the local skaters and you just know that somebody was a skater because of their shoes were fucked up or they dressed it had DVS or something, and you’re like, oh, what the fuck?
Yeah, for sure, you see someone with éS shoes. You’re like what, this guy must skate!
Was there a street spot you’d head to at that time?
There used to be a foundation spot…at that point, I was at college. I think that was more when I was actually, okay, I want to try and skate. There was more of a crew of skaters at that point. Tom Wicks and Bailey Marklew were around a lot, I would skate with him sometimes.
Bailey is one of my best mates for a long time. He was one of the people who, I know in my life that I could always go to and hit him up about anything, he’s a day one friend.
Bailey used to come over to there was another skate park that we used to go to quite a lot and he used to come there with his uncle and they used to skate together there.
Damien as well. I don’t actually know what his second name is, but yeah, he was always skating a lot and, they’ve, I don’t know, there’s so many skaters you know, like, Matt Treece, but I don’t know what he’s up to now. I think he’s in Barcelona. I’m not really sure there’s literally so many skaters. Then later on it’s probably skating with Ashton Launcherley.
Will, Backside Ollie: Shot by Tom Mangham
What was it like skating with Ashton?
When Ashton was skating, that was the main street spot that we would skate together. The Foundation spot that was in Wells. He was such a crazy good skater and amazing at anything that he did. It was real cool to see him do anything He could just be juggling five or six clubs, and then just put it down and do a Switch Heel Front Tail 270, out second or third go. He could do unfathomable stuff that it was just dream tricks, really effortlessly.
Who else from Bristol were you skating with at the time?
Rich Smith as well. Rich was a guy who was always skating and he actually come down quite a lot at that time to film and hang out with Ashton as well, so that’s the first sort of times I met him was with Ashton, Tom Gibbs was in that crew, Mark Pritchard was in that crew as well,
Sick
So yeah, we skated a lot of different places more, as far as we could get away from the house, basically and be able to come back and not really being able to stay away from home for too long.
I always associated you with the Bristol scene, what inspired you to move there?
I moved there when I was about 21. Just sort of going there all the time, really, just from that point of seeing everyone who’d lived in Bristol and then being right, ok, that’s where everyone is, that’s where there’s a scene of skaters, I just want to go and be around that.
But also just wanted to try and skate all the spots that I’d seen in Bristol videos, Little Lloyds, GWR, all those spots that Korahn Gayle skated. Basically I was just mad hyped on Korahn’s skating. I don’t know how you could Fakie Tre Flip down the London Life set. That was real crazy. That’s one trick that stands out. I mean there’s so there’s so much stuff that he did that was so ahead of everyone, so he’s a massive inspiration. Seeing him skate in real life at Lloyds was really crazy at that point in time.
Yeah Korahn and Layth both killed Lloyds at the time
Layth is such a sick skater to be fair. It’s just he’s been killing it as well for so long man.
I think he’s even better than he was.
It’s crazy it’s hard to constantly get better that. I feel you see a lot of skaters get good to a certain point and sort of plateau but he just constantly seems to be doing more stuff all the time and it’s just what, as if I remember him skating for Motive.
Yeah,
When he was on so was Barney Page. You know he skated sick as well, but he’s from Exeter, that’s a bit further south, but yeah, he was always skating sick. Barber – Paul Cooper – I went to university with Paul Cooper yeah, really sick, he Nollie Tre’d Lloyds as well.
In that early 2000s era, were you watching any particular skate videos a lot?
At that point I was hyped on Flip and their Sorry video.
I was hyped on World Industries, but World Industries when it was Daewon but that was because I didn’t really know anything about what was going on. Do you know what I mean? I didn’t know about internal skate politics. When I was that age, I was just like Daewon Song is sick, Rodney’s Mullen’s sick, that video, Rodney vs Daewon. Yeah, that one was sick.
Who was your favourite skater at that time?
Tom Penny was sick. That’s the obvious answer, you know.
When I first saw you skating, it was this Dean Lane footage of you and you’re just going for it, it was gnarly. You did an Early Grab 540, all these airs and tricks on the big quarter, skating the bowl section and stuff I was like who the fuck is this dude?
That was the same day as the Ben Raemers jam, I think. If it’s the video you’re talking about.
I was mad hyped on skating that day because I was like fuck, I’ve got all of this energy. I don’t know how to even describe it. It’s for them, you know, this one’s for Ben. I only met him a few times, and I just remember him being really cool. I was so hyped on a lot of the stuff that he’s done. It was incredible. I feel gutted I never really knew him well enough to ever be able to reach out. But, yeah, that was in my head. I was like fuck, I’m just skating with this energy for for him. Basically, then, in that moment, I was hyped on everything that he had done.
I was like I’m gonna do a 540 for Ben Raemers, and I felt like okay, if he’s here, he can see me doing this. I was like, okay, right now this one, and that’s when I think I landed it
But yeah, I think there’s a weird spiritual thing with skating. It’s more than it being a trick or something. When you skate, you have these connections with people, don’t you? All these different ways of doing a trick and you’re in this place with this person and you see someone else do this trick in that place and for some reason, a lot of times when I’m skating, it’s feeling that energy that you have from other people’s skating and taking that influence, and trying to channel that into my own skating in a way, I don’t know how to describe it.
It makes sense you’ve done some of the gnarliest tricks I’ve seen you do at jams
Watching other people skating, having that energy, the fired up session and and being hyped on the whole atmosphere of where you are and wanting to do the best thing you can, so you’ve done it. You know y’ve done that. I think that’s what I try to do.
It doesn’t matter how many times that you fall, as long as you keep getting back up to try it. Like, keep trying and if you can still walk, you can still try if you could, if you still got. I need to get that hype back in me. To be honest with you, I need to get that fire back in me. I need to do some serious physio, my body’s fried right now, but I can just about walk upstairs. I don’t know about skating.
Will, Backside Air: Shot by Charlie Ballet
As you get older, skating big things everyday gets a lot harder
I wish I could do that now. I wish I could just be the same energy as I had then now. Just permanent, health bar, video game regeneration, but you’ve only got one body. So you gotta try and make the most of what you’ve got. I reckon it toughens people up, if you skate big stuff more often, you get more hardened to it. But it’s gnarly now, isn’t it you get to a certain age, it gets a bit harder to like, try and keep trying, exactly it’s harder to bounce instead of break!
I love watching people put together lines and stuff that. That is probably one of my favourite types of skating. It’s like when you see tricks that go together, its really sick in a space where it’s not necessarily something that everyone would think of, but aesthetically it looks pleasing and the tricks work together. I think that’s really cool. When, you see that in a video or a skate part or something, it’s not harder…I don’t know, it’s just different, isn’t it?
Also the pressure, it’s just like you get to a certain point of fucking up a line and you’re like what? okay, reset
But when it comes to big tricks, your Frontside Grab out the quarter over the back fence to the flat at The Deaner…I’ve been there, I’ve looked at that and it’s never crossed my mind as something that was ever skateable. And when that footage came out and I saw you doing that. It broke my mind at the time and it was just anything is possible. What was it that made you think I want to do that?
That day I was skating with Theo from Bristol. So I was with Theo, Armand, Frankie and I’m pretty sure there were some other people around as well.
Harry Ogilvie was definitely there too. We we were all just skating what is now the slab at the top of the hill at The Deaner, but at that point it was just an abandoned basketball court with sketchy, stones at the top, where everyone used to have fires and stuff.
So we were just skating that part. We were just messing about. I think Harry might have said do you reckon you could go over the top of that? Do you reckon you could go over the handrail? I was I don’t know, maybe, So I was like, I will size it up and have a little look at it.
I jumped off the back of the handrail, to see what it felt first, and then after that I was like its not gonna be that much different if I’m a foot above that. So if I can jump off it in Vans just to flat and my heels are all right after that, it, it’s gonna be less painful if I try it onto a skateboard.
So yeah, after that I was just like right, I will give it a go and yeah, the clip of my attempt went a bit mad, and got sent about. But yeah, it was pretty scary, to be honest. That first one, I think I sent it a bit too hard over the handrail, I went pretty high over it. But then, after the first one, I was oh fuck, maybe I could do it, but I don’t know…
I think I went back to try it. Well, I went back to Deaner. You know, I’ve always hung out at Deaner because I sort of lived for quite a while l close to it so I’d always be there.
Will, Deaner Grab: Shot by Rags Gang
What motivated you to try it again?
Tidy Mike – Mike Pearson, was like I want to film you try it. So I was like OK, now I’ve got to try it again. Then we went back and I tried it with him a few times. I think there’s a limit to how many times you can really jump over that thing, because it is pretty tall and it gets sketchy after that because realistically, if you don’t land it within, the first five or six goes, I reckon its unlikely you’re going to roll away from it. So I tried it a few times with him then, but after that Leo Sharp came up from Cornwall.
Yeah, he he happened to have for some reason, a piece of wood in his car. I think he was making a box to skate. So he just happened to have a 8×4 piece of wood in his car. He was just look, I’ve got this wood in my van…do you want to just put it on the landing and see if we can try it again?
I was like, alright. I genuinely I think it’s possible, but I don’t know what you’ve got to do to land it. Do you know what I mean? I think there’s got to be some sort of cheat code to landing it. I might try it again at some point, but I’m not in any hurry to try it again because it’s pretty gnarly.
I think everybody recognised that you were the person who blew the doors off that part of the spot. I think everybody’s just accepted that’s your one for the taking.It’s like your version of Boulala stairs in Lyon. Even when Harry suggested it he was probably just joking, but after you started trying it, who’s gonna stop you?
I think that’s pretty much what it was really just joking about. But then it was you know…I reckon it is possible. I still reckon it’s possible. Oh, I’m not gonna sleep this night tonight just thinking about it.
I mean, the fact that you’ve tried it more than once is just props for life level, material, because I think, a lot of people have been there over the years, you know, tens of thousands of skaters and nobody’s even considered it.
It hurts so much. I think I remember being like I’m just done. Straight after the first one, I was just like, yeah, I can’t skate today, that’s it for today, it’s been a hard day at the office!
But then I saw that you nailed an Ollie off the slab into that flat bank as well, over the hill, from the side. Was it a spontaneous idea or did you think I want to try and Ollie into that bank?
I don’t really know how big that is, but, it’s fun going fast on a skateboard, skating into The Deaner. The place is full of cracks and you gotta think about how you’re going to do the trick so that you don’t end up skating into a crack as well. You’ve got to skate fast into it to get to the point where you can carve out of it. I think I genuinely think more tricks could go down into that bank that way.
Matty Owen skated not that part, but he skated into it at the jam. He skates gnarly. He’s definitely one to watch in Bristol right now. But, there’s so many good skaters in Bristol too.
Will, Backside Boardslide: Shot by Liam Furneaux
What’s the name of the skater who did the Powerslide Polejam Bigspin out?
Chandon Gallagher? Chandon’s sick, he’s a really cool guy as well. I think he just he just started working at Canvas skate park as well, he’s super into skating.
We’ve had a lot of conversations about skating and spaces for skating. I think he wrote his dissertation on skateboarding in the centre and how people use defensive architecture to make skatestoppers and how skaters then use them like doing crack Nollies off them, he’s got an interesting concept about how skate stoppers would make a space better for skateboarding.
He’s got a really good style, always down to chat to Chandon as well, if we’re not skating, it’s just always good to see him
I can’t really think of anything scarier than Powersliding into a pole…
Oh yeah for sure. There’s nothing that I can think of that puts more fear in my head than trying to Powerslide into a pole.
Are you sponsored by Gratitude now these days?
Yeah, I’ve been hyped on Ben Haizelden‘s ethos of skating, and we’ve known each other for a super long time. Stoked to be on Gratitude.
You said you built a skate park but don’t want to talk about where it is, why?
It’s just if, if people knew, maybe they’d try and find it and shit. But yeah I built a skate park in a barn opposite my parent’s house. It’s been empty for ages, filled with loads of random bits of furniture and building materials in there. But then in covid I was like fuck, I’m here for an undefined amount of time I might as well do something. Basically, I ended up coming to acquire a skate park for a very reasonable price. There was another skatepark that was closing down. They just had loads of ramps that were just, there. Yeah, it all needed dismantling and transporting.
But, in covid, that was already in the barn because I had the idea to do it a long time ago.
How did that come about?
I spent a lot of money to try to be able to acquire all this material, but at the rate they were going to give it to me, it was super reasonable. If I was to buy all of that timber now it would be upwards of £30,000 worth of timber, but it was at that point I had 2 500 savings. I was like, fuck, if I can buy this for 2 500, I don’t know…
Will, Backside Pivot: Shot by Ryan Price
You bought a whole skate park for 2 and a half grand…?
I was like, look, I’m gonna do this yeah, you want to get rid of it and because they’re trying to turn it into basketball courts, next week, they needed to get rid of it and I was like look, I’ll be able to take it away from you. I can sort out transport. I can get a trailer. I can figure out how I’m going to move it. I’ve got two and half grand. What do you reckon? Can we make something work? It took a little while but they got back to me and were not really sure. But then they were like we need to get rid basically, people are coming to fit out this place next week…do you want to just take it off us and we’ll take your money? I was like, take my money, let’s go but then trying to figure out how I was going to move all of it.
How did you end up moving it all?
So my dad had a van and then on that van there was a trailer and it was three or four trips of timber, it was gnarly, it was a gnarly amount of wood basically. I’ve always had an idea oh my god, imagine if this space was all a skate park, to then just being there with all these fucking huge ramps, just upended.
I was not sure how to put it together in the space yeah and I was at uni for a bit studying, I was thinking about it, but at the same time I was like I have to spend time studying at uni.
But when it was actually covid, it was I’ve already got the an idea of how the layout would work. Yeah, this would be cool. I don’t know if it would work, but I reckon I could make it work.
So then I spent loads of more time trying to get more wood because it wasn’t enough to do what I was wanting to do. So I was like, okay, if I’m gonna get wood, I gotta get secondhand wood that’s already been used for something…
So, I would go to a reclaimed timber yard in a sketchy barn. There was this old couple who ended up having loads of secondhand timber basically in their yard. So it’s like right, I need to try and get a good deal on this. I did but there were loads of nails in it sticking out everywhere.
Then basically a ridiculous amount of my time was spent taking nails out of these relatively good bits of wood, just covered in nails, not having a lot of money to spend on it, but just being like I’m going to put everything into this.
I sort of set a time limit, I’m gonna do this because I had a placement that I was supposed to do for Erasmus lined up. I was like, fuck, I’m just gonna try and do this all before I go to do that.
I managed to somehow do it and I remember the day that I’ve finished it. I was just what is this place….?
I woke up in the morning, just walk out there and when you see the light coming through the the end of the facade of the barn, and it’s just dots of light, onto this ramp. Bailey actually helped me quite a lot with that. He definitely put in some work for that.
Is that the spot in the barn with the hubba?
Yeah, that was one of the parts of the old park that we just kept together. There was a few like that. Tidy Mike made an edit of me skating it. It’s crazy because I don’t really skate it that much, for how much it cost and how much time I spent doing it. I don’t skate there that much. I’d quite like to go there more, but yeah, life just has other plans, I guess.
Definitely, you’ll get back on it. How did you meet Tidy Mike and what’s he like to film with?
I met Tidy Mke when I went to his screen print studio with a friend of mine. I think they wanted to get a t-shirt printed.
What’s his screen print studio called?
It’s called Simple Print. He’s been doing that ever since I’ve known him but he’s I think he’s got a pretty big client base because a lot of people come back to him pretty frequently. I think he’s one of the best people who do that in in Bristol. If he has any sort of idea about how to make any of those designs or something better for printing as well, he’ll just know how to do it, because he’s got that experience of having done it for so long, he’s the man at that..
I’ve just seen he’s filmed some of Danny Wainwright’s gnarliest tricks over the years!
Definitely he was skating with Danny Wainwright before I even knew what skateboarding was. He’s been skating everywhere. He’s got stories. If you think about the skaters you saw in mags and and stuff at a young age, he’s got stories about, trips with them from before I was even skating.
What’s your favourite thing about filming with Tidy Mike?
So it’s always cool to speak to him about his experiences in skating and it definitely hypes up everyone when he comes out to skate or to film.
He’s done a lot for me in terms of with Forecast. He’s put me on trips and helped me to experience different places. I wish he would come out more, because we love seeing him but it’s difficult to organise when everyone’s free to do stuff as everyone’s on their own missions, with what they’re trying to do.
For sure. Speaking of sick skate trips. How did your gnarly Boneless at Livi go down?
When I was real young, it was like damn, Stu Graham‘s the best skater. We were just always like Stu Graham is the best. There’s no one who skates like him. We were watching all the Creature videos and stuff that. So, that day it was like yeah, he’s here and he’s skating sick as well. I was just like damn after he gave me a board for doing that Boneless. I was like, oh my God, this is crazy. I couldn’t believe it. I had to message my friend at home. I was like, oh my God Stu Graham just give me a board? And he was like no way!
I remember seeing you skate at Fastlands in Birmingham. You did a lot of gnarly tricks, not just your double set Ollie attempts, where you got close, but the stuff that you did down the rail down the 9.
I did Front Lip. I tried Back Lip a few times, ate shit and I kept trying it until it was just like, I can’t really do this and then it was like now it’s the double set.
What was the gnarliest thing that you saw go down at Fastlands?
Marcus Palmer trying to Kickflip the double set. That was gnarly. He tried it a lot of times as well. I remember being like what, no way…I thought he was going to do it. To be honest with you, I genuinely reckon he could do it.
How did you find that satellite dish spot and what was it like to skate?
I don’t know how much I should really say about it, to be honest with you only because I’m not really sure about the legality it.
I mean, there’s a video of me skating it, so who cares do you know what I mean? Basically I had a friend who I would meet when I would come to France on vacation, because my family would go on holiday here most years. We would always come to the same sort of place and I had some friends here who skate as well.
So, whenever I was here, I just hang out with them and then one of them I got to talking on social media at some point when I was around 15. There was a picture of him in skating this place with a small crew, of three people and they all went there together quite a lot and I was like as if you can go in this space…
From that point, I’d always thought, I need to go to this place…I don’t know when it’s gonna happen, but I’m gonna go.
For a really long time I just didn’t ever go back to that part of the country for a few times on vacation or whatever. I was doing other sort of trips. But then, more recently, I started coming back to the place where I used to spend a lot of time.
So around that time, I was like, right, maybe I’ll go back, I’ve got a car, I can drive. I’m here, I can make whatever I want of my day, I can do anything, that’s what I felt like that day.
I really felt like going there that day was more for me to remember what it was like to hang out with, my friend. Unfortunately, he passed away.
Ah, that’s sad to hear
That was a long time ago now, but I still think about it. It’s that thing I was talking about before in terms of a thing – skateboarding is more than it just being a sport or something like that. That connection that you have with that person. It will stay with you for a really long time, it goes beyond it being a sport, and that day I was just I’m gonna go there for him.
I remember I was looking through the old messages of us speaking and sending skate videos to each other, being like, oh, this is sick, this is sick and then the picture of that spot popped up. I just remember being damn, I can go there. How far away is it? It’s not that far away. It’s a 40 minute drive, I’m getting in the car, see you later I’m going there now, basically, straight away.
Will, Satellite Dish Session
How did you get up there?
I had the location, I knew where it was, I sort of mapped out the surrounding area and there’s two ways to get to that place There’s a main gate which seemed to me to be a bit bait. Then there’s another way that you could go, which seems a bit more chill, right. It was a bit more of a operation. Do you know what I mean? It was a bit of a mission. You gotta climb a couple fences, to the ladder of that satellite dish, it. Yeah, there was some dodgy stuff going on with actually climbing up it, but then, after you get past the section where there was a part of the staircase missing and you got to climb over a 30 foot drop, it was pretty chill apart from the fact that it felt pretty illegal to be in a foreign country, just trespassing on some space equipment,
But pretty much yeah, I got inside it and it was as if, I’m in this place, again it was one of those things where I was feeling I was there with them, even though they weren’t necessarily there. Rest in peace, Max.
But yeah, I was more doing it because I was like damn, I need to reconnect with a lot of things I haven’t connected with in a long time and it was just a crazy place. It’s still the craziest place I’v ever skated. I want to go back, to be honest with you. I might go back soon, I don’t even know.
I’ve seen people skate basically every terrain, but I’ve never seen anybody skate inside a satellite dish and the Tre Flip’s pretty banging. But the whole little clip that you made as well, exudes the feelings of trespassing and danger and exploration, all these things come through. What’s the surface like to skate?
The surface is painted metal and it definitely felt sketchy to be skating on it, but not that sketchy that you really worry about it.
Okay so it wasn’t super slippy, to the point where you were like, oh, I could Powerslide and hit my head this isn’t super scary.
Nah, it felt like…imagine a vert ramp, but a super mellow vert ramp. I can’t describe it even. I never skated anything that felt it. It was the biggest transition I’ve ever skated. It’s almost like skating flatground because it’s just so mellow, like a huge flat bank but you end up going pretty fast. If you want to go fast, you can go pretty fast around that thing. To be in that space it just feels absolutely mental and looking over the side of it… I just remember being like, if I fall off that would just be the end of me, it’s scary. I like those sort of rushes. You know, when you feel you’re in an abstract space not meant for skating trying to skate something not made for it.
It just feels like, why is this thing here? I don’t know the answers to that, but skateboarding on it is definitely not the reason but this is a super fun thing to be doing, just exploring.
Exploring and skating, mixing those combination of the two, that’s the best feeling, exploring crazy spaces and skateboarding. That’s what gets me hyped to skate. That’s the best two things about it I reckon. trying to push your skating to different places. I can’t describe it. I don’t know.
It looks so sketchy.What are the chances of you falling through it or off the side?
I think the likelihood of that is pretty slim that you would actually go through it. The thing I was worried about was when you feel the structure of that satellite dish underneath your feet when you’re just skating. That was more scary than anything as you can actually feel the metal structure underneath you, the top sheet of metal is flexing over it, that feeling was sketchy, but once you know that it’s going to be alright to just carve around it, it was just like oh, this is rad!
What’s your favourite skate video of all-time and why?
That’s a hard question, probably Mindfield
Mindfield is so stacked. So many good parts in it. Who’s got your favourite part in Mindfield?
I think it’s just got so many sick skaters in it. Jake Johnson’s skating in that. I think that’s the part that I think stands out to me, that I’ve probably watched the most in that video. It’s probably, yeah, Jake Johnson’s part. He does a Wallride down that huge brick double set and it’s just like whoa that clip’s sick, yeah I like that video and the soundtrack as well.
Any other favourite videos?
Baker 3 but everyone’s gonna say that. Stay Gold as well.
Who’s got your favourite part in Stay Gold?
I think probably Jerry Hsu’s part when he’s just doing everything Switch and just raging. That was sick.
Any other favourite videos?
Also Krooked Khronicles. We always used to watch that. That was sick. There’s a quote in it I can’t remember what exactly. It’s Mark Gonzales. I just got into the bits where The Gonz isn’t even skating. Some of my favourite bits are him talking. He’s just a fucking comedian man.
He’s got a paper shredder and he’s speaking in this crazy voice. He’s like they shred all my bills. Now I have no way to hide all my problems. They took my paper shredder. I can’t remember it exactly, but it’s fuck, it’s just so funny.
Who’s your favourite skater of all-time?
My favourite skater to watch before I go skating, would be Grant Taylor. Just the way that he skates is sick. It’s like what, you’re going to do that air and that high, that chill! His part in Debacle. I remember he’s shredding that pool in his back garden. That hyped me up.
Also Tony Trujillo doing any sort of Boneless. I’m just gonna go through the whole Antihero team. Peter Hewitt, Frank Gerwer, I don’t know, they’re all sick.
Agreed. Where’s your favourite skate park in the UK and why?
I’m going to go with Dean Lane.
Will, Frontside 5-0: Shot by Charlie Ballet
What’s your favourite street spot in the UK?
Southbank’s sick to be fair. I stress out about going to London but my favourite skate spot is Southbank but I find it hard going to London because it’s so hectic. Do you know what I mean?
What’s your favourite skate spot in the world?
Burnside in Oregon, that DIY, that’s it. I would love to go there at any moment, or Marseille, either one of those two for sure.
Who has your favourite style on a skateboard?
Brent Atchley. We used to try and skate like him.
Also Glen Fox as well. Also Jeremy Jones, he’s also got one of the best styles out there, I reckon to be fair.
Jordan Thackeray, probably has one of my favourite styles. Leo Valls as well, really, really cool way of skating.
Obviously Antwuan Dixon. Keenan Milton and Julien Stranger.
Any upcoming projects or parts you want to announce?
If anyone wants me to help them build a skate park, I reckon I can probably be useful!
Do you have any shout outs you want to make or last words for people reading this?
Yeah, thanks to Forecast, thanks to Tidy Mike, thanks to all the homies I skate with, everywhere. Thank you skateboarding. Thank you Gratitude. Just go skate, have a good time. That’s it. Do what makes you happy and don’t worry too much. It will work out, have faith in the process, because it’ll be alright, and if it isn’t, it’ll get better.
