{"id":321249,"date":"2023-09-12T10:45:58","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T10:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nocomplynetwork.com\/?p=321249"},"modified":"2023-10-06T08:17:45","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T08:17:45","slug":"darius-trabalza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nocomplynetwork.com\/darius-trabalza\/","title":{"rendered":"Darius Trabalza"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0Darius Trabalza is a skater and painter from London who’s sponsored by Slam City Skates and Adidas. His skating is flowing and stylish with a helping of next level tech thrown in whenever he wants to connect the dots on a series of his moves. His bag of tricks is sick and he knows how to take them down new paths.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Similar to his skating, his artwork reflects the complexities of the interiors of his own mind with a unique and rad style. It’s been interesting to see Darius grow as a skater and as an artist over the years. So we were stoked to chat to him about some of the standout tricks he’s nailed in London and abroad on trips, talk to him about how he has defined his style on his board and painting on his canvases and catch up with him about what he’s been up to and plans for the future.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We’re hyped Darius is now a member of The No Comply Network. Read his interview to find out how he started skating, got sponsored by Slam, his stories behind his parts, tricks and clips, his experiences of going on Atlantic Drift trips, the story behind that huge roll on 50-50 that he nailed in their latest Istanbul edit and his thoughts on his artwork, his favourites and his announcement of a new project that he has been working on that is on the way. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Check it below to discover all about it for yourself. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Frontside Bluntslide, Shot by Rafski<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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What\u2019s your full name?<\/h1>\n

Darius Cato Trabalza-Haynes<\/p>\n

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Where did you grow up Darius?<\/h1>\n

I lived in Bromley most of the time I grew up.<\/p>\n

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Where are you living at the moment?<\/h1>\n

I currently live in Waterloo.<\/p>\n

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When did you first start making art, what did it look like and what inspired you?<\/h1>\n

As far back as I can remember I\u2019ve always enjoyed making art it was always my favourite subject at school.<\/p>\n

When I was about 5 I was pretty into dinosaurs so I would just draw them with colouring pencils.<\/p>\n

I was into ancient Greek mythology around age 10 so I drew a lot of that with colouring pencils.<\/p>\n

I only really experimented once I studied at a GCSE level when I would draw with graphite and oil pastels.<\/p>\n

I also did some acrylic painting here and there. But they didn\u2019t have oil paints at my school so I didn\u2019t try that until much more recently.<\/p>\n

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When did you first see skateboarding and think I want to do that too?<\/h1>\n

When I was 8 or 9 me and my friends would go down this big hill on our estate on our bellies on our boards.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s my first real memory of skating but someone told my mum that I was doing that and we all got in trouble because it was dangerous with cars and stuff. It\u2019s a shame I didn\u2019t keep skating from then<\/p>\n

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What was your first setup and where did you get it?<\/h1>\n

My first proper setup I bought when I was 14.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t tell you what is was. The boy I paid \u00a320 to for it had spray painted the underneath yellow and I think the rest of it was unbranded.<\/p>\n

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Who was in your first skate crew and where did you go skate?<\/h1>\n

So my friend Nana skated for about a year before I did and then an Australian boy called Lewis moved to my class and we had to show him around. He skated a bit aswell so we all skated together.<\/p>\n

Then we met people in Bromley like Louie Levinson, Matt Anderson and Joe Davies and we would make videos together on Matt\u2019s camera.<\/p>\n

We would mostly skate the street in Bromley<\/a> which was basically a slope in front of the police station and some car parks.<\/p>\n

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Darius Trabalza, Switch 50-50 Grind, Shot by Chris Johnson<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Bromley has a big scene. What was it like skating there growing up? Did you go to the park a lot or skate street just as much?<\/h1>\n

Yeah the scene is pretty good. I lived at that skatepark pretty much. I loved it.<\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t much in the skatepark initially then every 2 or 3 years they\u2019d add something else so I learnt to skate each thing at a time.<\/p>\n

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Darius Trabalza, Frontside Feeble Stall, Shot by Chris Johnson<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Where was the first place you skated in Central London and what was that like?<\/h1>\n

We skated around St Paul’s sometimes trying to Ollie the 4 and the 5 set. And we\u2019d go to Southbank on the weekends a lot.<\/p>\n

There used to be no barriers at Waterloo so we didn\u2019t have to pay for train tickets there which was nice.<\/p>\n

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Darius, Kickflip, Shot for Adidas London<\/strong><\/p>\n

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In your City of Rats section you nailed a Tre Flip down the 10 at Bromley skatepark. Why did you want to do that trick and what was it like to make it\u00a0and roll away?<\/h1>\n

I mean I would’nt describe that rollaway as nailing it. It was pretty sloppy haha. But luckily I find a bit of mess interesting to watch.<\/p>\n

It was a really tough battle for that I think it was 2 sessions of close to 3 hours.<\/p>\n

After the first session, I remember sitting in Biology class the next day. My body was so destroyed, more than it had ever been. I really questioned my life choices for a minute there.<\/p>\n

To roll away at all was such a relief. I think I had done a Tre Flip down Southbank and it was feeling like my go to at the time so I thought I should just try at least.<\/p>\n

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