How many people were in your skate crew?

Me, my mate Martin Kennelly, who I run Slugger skate shop/Distribution with and another mate called Will.There were probably fifteen skaters in Chesterfield overall.

 

 
@paradeworld
 

 

When did you skate outside of Chesterfield?

I started skating with a few mates from a youth club and we all started skating together. Eventually they were like something’s going off in Sheffield; there’s something going off Nottingham. Then we all slowly started to go places. After that I never wanted to be in Chesterfield. I always wanted to travel about and skate new places.

 

 

 

How’d you get about?

Bus or train, nobody drove, nobody had a car.

 

 

 

Early 90s was tough, how’d you stay committed?

Only a real skater understands it when you start skating, that’s your thing. There would be Christmas skaters, who would get a setup for Christmas but then you would never see them again. But I think once you’re really into skating, you just keep on doing it.When you analyse it maybe it was travelling about, meeting new people. I was never into like sports or stuff like that but I was into skateboarding. But now skateboarding is called a sport!? Ha-ha but is it? I suppose it is for some people.

 

 

 

 

Did you ever go to any demos?

I went to Nottingham one year after Radlands comp with a bunch of pro’s. Kris Markovich was there, Kareem Campbell, Henry Sanchez, Joey Suriel, Mark Baines and Shipman, all the Sheffield lot. Everyone from that world-era. All of these people you’d only seen in videos. I wouldn’t say celebrities, I didn’t know what that meant back then; it was just these gods from these videos.

 

 

Sick

But none of the world know who they were just us ten skaters from Chesterfield. Jeremy Wray was there. I got his autograph. It was in that era when he was FS flipping down Carlsbad. He was cool as fuck. He was the nicest guy we met. He was polite and just like a normal geezer.

 

 

What was it like watching Kareem skate?

Seeing Kareem Campbell skate that was sick as fuck. You know the high benches people sit on? He Backside Ollied over one. We didn’t even know how it was possible we would be like Backside Ollieing up a curb. Watching him do it was amazing.

 

 

Did you ever skate in a Radlands comp?

I did do yeah, those old Radlands comps were the best ever. I remember speaking on the payphone at school to my mate who’d been the year Penny won. He was tripping, we couldn’t believe someone was that good!

 

 

What skate videos did you watch?

First video I used to rinse was H- Street’s Next Generation video. The music and everything else made you want to skate. Then, 411 videos came out and one of my mates always bought it and we’d always rinse those. So I’d watch them and old New Deal vids and Mad Circle stuff too.

 

 

Did you go to Sheffield a lot?

Yeah every weekend. The main spot in Sheffield was walking man. It was a little undercover spot, we’d go to Hallam, Crucible and a place called The Hump.

 

 

What’s The Hump?

It was a carpark of a banking building. It was a speed bump called the hump, like a driveway in a carpark, it was knocked down recently. I remember seeing Carl Shipman, he used to rock up there sometimes and do some amazing tricks. Carl was way ahead of his time.

 

 

Carl is from Worksop?

Yeah. Worksop is a little town outside of Sheffield like Chesterfield.

 

 

Where did you skate the most?

Street skating and carparks more than owt and then Wakefield Rehab skatepark opened, an indoor skatepark and we used to go there as much as we could.

 

 

How did you meet Carl Shipman?

Skating the streets of Sheffield. I just saw him and his mates skate by me, then I started seeing him at Wakefield and everywhere.

 

 

Was he the first sponsored skater you saw?

Yeah him and then Mark Baines, both from Worksop too. They were the first two.

 

 

Did you want to go pro?

I never wanted to be a pro skateboarder. That thought never entered my head. That first Danny way board, after I skated it, when there was nothing left of the graphic, I painted over it – Louis Slater Plan B – but I never really thought I’d be pro. But I liked the idea of being sponsored and getting free stuff.

 

 

Who was your first sponsor?

Sumo skate shop. Seb Palmer from Sumo sponsored me from a young age. I’d only been skating a few years. He’d seen my videos of me skating about and he was like do you want to be sponsored? Not how he worded it exactly but he said like you want to start getting cheap stuff or trade? He said never get a big head about it you know what I mean. So I think I always thought that. It’s good advice. Sumo was amazing for the Sheffield skate scene and it was the best shop. I wouldn’t be doing anything in skating without Sumo. I have a lot to thank Seb, Henry and everyone there.

 

 

 

 

Who else skated for Sumo?

Baines, Joel Curtis, Neil Chester, they were the main ones.In the first Sumo advert, it was me, Baines, Carl Shipman, and Joel Curtis. I think it was us four. It was just four headshots, a little quarter page in Sidewalk.

 

 

When did you first go Dev Green?

I went to the meetings with everyone from Sumo with the council people. Without Sumo I don’t think that park would have been built. It was originally an old 5 a-side football pitch, that area was quite run down at the time but then they went to meetings and got it built. That was 1999/2000. The park is 20 years old now.

 

 

Yeah, it’s iconic

Everybody always comes through it’s funny because there was all these real old street spots where people would meet but now we all meet in a concrete skatepark in the middle of the city centre. That was unheard of 20 years ago, there were no parks at the time, we’d all travel the length of the country just to go to one park.

 

 

Does Sheffield love skating?

There’s always been a new generation of skaters in Sheffield, so many independent scene videos.

 

 

Is there something special about Sheffield?

I guess but I don’t think it really matters where you are , it’s the people that are making the stuff happen.

 

 

 

 

What were you doing back in England?

Early days I was drinking, getting drunk and skating but then I started painting around 2003. I started drawing in America a lot; I had a little A4-sized sketchpad so I’d draw all the time. So I started to do that before I bought canvases.

 

 

At what point did you start up Slugger?

I went to America in 2008 I found out that Erik, Jim and Andrew were starting Deathwish Skateboards and Baker Boys distribution. Then Martin, my business partner at Slugger, got in touch with me and said, “lets start a distribution company for Baker and Deathwish in England”.Erik was down and it changed my life. I went back to England and we started Slugger.

 

 

Why’d you move to Sheffield?

We opened our first Slugger skate shop in Chesterfield in 2008 and then later we opened a shop in Sheffield, probably 3 years after that but after we moved the shop I thought fuck it! It’s time to move to Sheffield.

 

 

 

 

Best thing about being in America?

I think it was just the freedom. It wasn’t like growing up in Chesterfield. It was an amazing place to be in America. It was everything that I wanted. I wanted to skate; weather was nice, amazing people, friends. It was perfect. It was just a great place to be. Good times.

 

 

How old were you?

Yeah I was sixteen onwards, I was the youngest one, everyone looked after me

 

 

 

 

Who’s name was on the lease?

I stayed with Ali and Alex Moul when I first went , then the other house at Warner was Erik, Elissa, Shane Heyl, Scott Colperman; their names were on the lease. They were so cool, they let me stay there for however long I wanted and then when they moved to Hollywood and got another apartment and they let me stay there for three months. I would sleep on the settee or on the floor. Never no questions asked.

 

 

Where else did you go in America?

Erik was filming for This is Skateboarding, the Emerica video and he wanted to get something. There was an Emerica tour there. I couldn’t afford to go. He got loads of Baker boards sent like 20-30 boards, sold them. Got my ticket and so me, Erik and his wife Luci got a three-day train from LA to Philly.

 

 

 

 

How did that go down?

It was long and funny, I’m glad I did it but it was a bit torturous towards the end, but it was fun, well we thought it was going to be fun but a day into it we were like fucking hell! But it was a good experience, it was my 20th birthday while I was there too.

 

 

What else did you see in Philly?

I saw Brian Wenning nearly do a Switch Heel down Love Park!

 

 

What was that like?

We turned up and were like fucking hell, Brian Wenning is chucking himself down it. All I remember was that there was a massive crew of people there and he was just jumping down it. I had my camera on me and I thought right, I’ll film this, he got close, he even landed on it.

 

 

How much did you film?

I never thought I was a filmer but I always liked capturing stuff behind the scenes and always had a little camera on me. I’ve got a lot of footage from back then.
 

 

 

 

What about that train track Ollie in Sweden?

That was on a WESC trip with Mark Baines and Ali Boulala. Those train tracks were at the WESC offices.

 

 

The photographer, Horsley was like someone should Ollie over those tracks into the bank. We found these pieces of wood, Horsely sorted it and was ready with his camera. Felt like I had to have a crack at it.

 

 

What about Jim Greco?

Yeah Jim Greco and Boulala , they changed the way everyone dressed. Me and Jim used to skate the flat bar outside the apartment a lot.

 

 

Did they influence you much?

Yeah, definitely. When Ali started wearing tight jeans and leather jackets that was it.

 

 

He’s an amazing skater

Yeah, he was amazing, everyone knows that but it was more his personality, how he acted, which I liked almost as much as his skating. He just had it all Boulala.

 

 

 

 

Natural talent

He opened my eye to you know you don’t just have to be a skateboarder, it’s beyond skateboarding. If you want to wear skin tight jeans, a cut off top, if you want to wear skinny jeans, shirt with rips in it or spray paint your top, whatever you want to wear ,you can do. You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing, you can just do your own thing. I like that.

 

 

Yeah, his tricks were super unique.

There will never be another Ali Boulala. There’s nothing else to say.

 

 

What about that crook at Wilshire?

It’s in Baker 2G. I used to go down there with Jim Greco, we used to skate a flatbar in daytime, he had a flatbar at his house and would train the trick he wanted to try down the Wilshire rail that night. It was fun the missions with him and Jay Strickland filming . I 50-50’ed it then Jim said you should crook grind down it! I probably wouldn’t have tried it if he didn’t say I should do it. But he gave me the belief I could.

 

 

Was it a battle?

It was a bit of battle yeah. I’d 50-50ed down handrails but never a Crooked Grind. I don’t think I’ve done it down a handrail since.

 

 

What’s it like living in Warner Ave?

Warner and Newell, there were always people staying there, people who stayed on the settee and on the floor that weren’t living there. There were just as many permanent residents as temporary basically.

 

 

Did Penny come through?

Everyone in those houses idolised Penny. I know I did. Yeah, he’d just left before I got there. He’d left a massive impact and everyone talked about him, everyone would talk about when he’s gonna come back? What’s he doing ? He was just this big legend.

 

 

 

 

What was it like seeing Elissa Steamer killing it?

There weren’t any other girls killing it but I never thought about Elissa like that. It was never like whoa, check this girl doing this!? It was just like another one of your mates skating, the fact she is a girl makes no difference.

 

 

Did you miss England?

I never missed it, I always wanted to get out and get away from where I was from but I always enjoyed coming back you know what I mean. Nice to be home for a bit. I always stayed within the 90 day visa and made sure I came home before 90 days were up, everybody asked me to move but just never did.