Empire Skatepark MegaDriveway Jam

It's an easy concept to grasp. Tricks on any part of the driveway obstacle in the centre of the park get you prizes generously supplied by Triple Sword, Hardcore Hobbies, Stay Hard Dist, Lovenskate, Milk, Moonshine, Hoax and Navitas Outdoors. 
Be the best and gain ownership of some scratched up old nineties tech, plus games cartridges and two, yes TWO controllers. 
Just being gnarly got you some free clothes & accessories and chocolate eggs so when the comp was started by the usual loudhailer siren the tricks came thick and fast. And with the addition of sugary confectioneries soon became an onslaught difficult to predict with James Grindley, Joe Hinson, John Howlett, Lewis Fitzpatrick, Max Mewani and more going in hard from the off.
I had a number of near misses with Lew as he randomly shot out of the mini, down the big roll in and out of the jump box, over the hubba and landing on the far bank of the driveway. Without my wits my evasive manoeuvres could have put me directly in the path of other skaters on many more occasions than actually came to pass. This said, I did feel at risk of physical interference in more than one instance!

After a long two hours of running about trying to predict everyones movements, the siren sounded once again and the winner was announced.
A beaten up and bandaged Grindley took first, with Joe taking second place. 

Not long after this, I began to session the mini. With 10pm cold feet I cautiously warmed up while reminding myself that tentative skating gets you hurt.
Lewis joined me and by the time I realised I was warm, a King of Concrete run came from nowhere and I basked in my own glory on the platform for a sec.
Lewis then hurt himself pretty badly. Handplant on the extension, re-entred and by the time he came to a stop on his back on the flat his foot was pointing in a nauseating and undeniable unnatural direction.
I bolted for my phone and looked up at John on the mezzanine, who was already making his way to the casualty. I hadn't seen him shout instructions to Jack, so I took the stairs down to my bag for my phone. Completely unnecessarily. And by the time I realised, the Empire staff had the situation in hand.
Lewis exited attached to a back board two hours later. The board being more of an aid to getting poor Lew up onto the platform of the mini before passing him down the 5 foot quarter to an area with an easy route to the exit rather than a sign of back injury.
The timing and location of the incident - late Saturday night in Essex made Lew a low priority which frustrated many at the park as they could see he was in great pain and needed help. I think everyone understood the situation all the same and relief was not only felt by Lewis when the first Paramedic arrived with the gas and air! We learned through the usual channels the next morning of a dislocated ankle and fracture requiring screws and plates. Nothing wrong with a few scars.
I hope Lewis makes as fast and full recovery as he is expected to and is back on the four wheeled danger plank very soon.

Unknown 01 - b/s nose grind

Unknown 02 - f/s tail slide fake

Unknown 03 - f/s 180

Cerven keeping his eye on the game

James Grindley - b/s ollie to flat

John Howlett - f/s feeble

James Grindley - b/s biggy (?) to flat

Jed Jolly - b/s nose slide

Joe Hinson - flip b/s crook

James Grindley - f/s feeble b/s flip out

Unknown 04 - b/s board slide

Joe Hinson - flip f/s board slide

Lewis Fitzpatrick - stale transfer

James Grindley - 360 flip to flat

John Howlett - switch f/s 50-50

James Grindley - b/s flip to flat

Jed Jolly - 180 switch 5-0

John Howlett - b/s smith

Lewis Fitzpatrick - shov indie transfer

Max Melwani - f/s smith

John Howlett - f/s feeble

Joe Hinson - gap to f/s lip

James Grindley - late flip to flat

Jed Jolly

Jordan Thackeray receiving Navitas stickerage from Elliot mid air

Jordan Thackeray - f/s tail grab transfer

Andrew Houghton - texas?

Melliott Simmons

Grindle collects his winnings....TWO controllers!

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Another Skate Night At Empire

Andrew Houghton - slob fast plant

With sub zero temperatures over East Anglia on Wednesday night we all expected to work hard to keep warm and by the end of the public session, many were sweaty and spent and left soon after ten. 

I'd started shooting a little before closing as I'd seen Andrew throw a foot plant I'd not seen him do from the mini and asked him to repeat it. Once that one was in the bag, Harry locked the door behind Andrew and the after hours session began. 

Radman took to the rail following a pretty heavy session with Toby, Diss and Luke on the door gap. 

A few of the results have been saved for a project I'm currently working on, so these will be published once the project is completed. There are however a number of shots I've not chosen for this work and that is what you see below.

Alex Diss - f/s boneless. HYS!

Mark Radden - b/s disaster

Luke Jarvis - b/s ollie

Toby Gozzett - f/s feeble

Mark Radden - switch f/s 50-50

#pauljacksonphotography #fourwheelfools #uk #skateboarding #skatenight #empireskatepark #essex #colchester #new #blog #photos #skatephotos #skatelife #livingthedream #triplesword

Skate Night - After Hours

Harley Miller - f/s board slide

Empire Skate Night was a quiet affair this week. A handful of regulars were in attendance and skated hard, but the session petered out early and by ten, Jay & John were still putting the hours in on the mini and Toby, Harley and a few others were rolling around the park. Everyone else had gone.
The door was locked and as usual, Harley woke up late and began looking at the new kinked rail with Toby. This new creation won't last long however. The plan is to extend the rail further. So for a couple of weeks while the park finalises the design the rail currently has an 8 inch extension kinked upwards a few degrees. A new tweak, even an unfinished one makes for a great session with some crazy trick choices to suit the new yet familiar obstacle. 
I got down on the flat and shot these two working things out, turning occasionally to shoot Aaron, Reece and Reece skating the pyramid behind me. 
(15mm fish, set-top flashgun)

Reece Hall - ollie

Toby Gozzett - f/s feeble

Harley Miller - b/s tail slide 

Reece Bartlet - nose bonk biggy

Aaron Clapham

I played around with longer exposures which has resulted in some interesting effects. I discovered my love for this style of lighting shooting on Lords Of The Swords last year at Saffron Walden. One of my favourite shots from last year is in fact one of Jordan with a similar style of lighting.

Toby Gozzett - f/s board slide

Harley Miller - b/s board slide fake

After this outlay by everyone for a good hour, Harry went back to his phone to discover that Instagram had timed out and all the footage was lost.  I quickly changed flash batteries in the knowledge that it was entirely possible that everyone would want to do as many of the lost tricks as possible, again. While pondering the late finish I congratulated Toby on rolling away from a f/s lip heelflip out on the rail. He corrected me and said he hadn't.  I truly thought I'd seen him roll away from one earlier, but no. One to remind him about next time. He did however tell me that he had something else for me...

Toby Gozzett - ollie up to 5-0 and into the roll in

I understand that Toby was in fact attempting a wall ride. He was completely oblivious to the 5-0 to start with. Harry's reaction when I showed him the snapshot made my day!
I left with my tired fellow car occupants as Toby was going in for a rematch with his lost tricks. 





#pauljacksonphotography #fourwheelfools #empire #skatepark #skatenight #afterhours #uk #skateboarding #skatelife #livingthedream #essex #colchester #new #blog #empireskatepark #hardcorehobbies 

Urbside with Harry and Paul

After a great session with Jay, John and Nick (now known to their peers as Slasher, The Tugboat Captain and Nick 'The Glove') early on Sunday morning at Empire, Harry and I jumped in the car with a good supply of carrier bags and headed to Urbside, the under-bridge concrete creation deep in the rolling countryside of Essex. The carrier bags were put to good use covering Harry's shoes on the muddy walk from the car. I'd come prepared with a pair of boots, enabling me to venture into the thick undergrowth and at one point into the river Chelmer the bridge was originally designed to span. 
This was my first visit for many months so a few new bits and pieces have been finished. Including a bowled corner at the far left of the park connecting the pillar wall ride with the small quarter-pipe. It was wet. And a quarter-pipe on the top of the bank has been extended over the bank a little and topped with curb-stones.  
This, is where all the shots came from, but we both skated all the other dry stuff first after clearing the mud a bit. A motorbike rider had driven through the river and enjoyed cleaning his tyres covering the park with a continuous snaking line of thick, black mud. 
Up until this skate, I've never really liked skating at Ubside. I suppose I haven't found a line I'm happy with until now. I got a few bits, Harry got a few bits, we ate some lunch, takes about shots and chilled out. Then I set my lights up at the top of the bank as Harry warmed up.
After rolling away down the bank from four or five good looking f/s feebles Harry took the camera and got some good shots of me doing some bad looking tricks!

Harry Wilson - f/s feeble (into transition then bank) #1

Harry Wilson - f/s feeble (into transition then bank) #2

Harry Wilson - f/s feeble (into transition then bank) #3

Me - b/s feeble

Me - b/s rock & roll #1

Me - b/s rock & roll #2

#uk #skateboarding #urbside #essex #skatelife #pauljacksonphotography #fourwheelfools #harrywilson #thegaryoff #diy #diyskateboarding 

Sunday Early Doors at Empire

A text message from John on Thursday afternoon led to this early sunday morning start following a foul weekend weather forecast potentially rendering the local outdoor park useless. And an hours drive isn't that long for an early morning lock-in at Empire, the closest (and favourite) indoor park for both John and I.
I was introduced to John by Jason Mills at Hardcore Hobbies in Bury St. Edmunds earlier in the year.
I'd recently retreated from skating with some of the people that I used to hang with for various reasons, intentional and not in equal measures. I visited my local regularly, skating with my friends from Bury but I had lost the regular crew deep journeys to spots and all the other things that came with rolling with a large, recognised group with big plans. So meeting a new bunch of enthusiastic skaters through Jay relearning to skate and meeting up with old friends was a blessing which came shortly after my return from Australia. 
Currently, we get to the midweek Skate Night at Empire skatepark on mass and skate together wherever we can through the week. For the first time in a few years I get to go to parks that I want to skate. 
I have, since returning from my travels however, experienced a reduction in opportunities to shoot photos, good skate photos of great tricks in a varied range of terrain I mean. I still love to photograph my friends and I'm even getting a bit less cagy about having my picture taken. But the fact still remains. This needs to be sorted. Soon.

I picked up Simon outside The Greyhound at five to eight. Then on to John for eight and straight to Colchester, arriving at 9am as instructed by Harry earlier in the week with sausage roll and coffee in hand, rousing him and a big grin from the office as I knocked loudly on Empire's front door. 
The park was due to open at ten for scooter lessons until eleven when the open session began. But until then, the three of us had the run of the park! Thank you Harry!

Skating the mini for most of the time I found things coming quite easily. Pleased with results I got the camera out and got John to skate round me as I sat on the flat bottom. He's been putting the hours in and relearnt a few things which deserved a record.
John then offered to take a few of me, so those are below too.

#pauljacksonphotography #fourwheelfools #uk #skateboarding #skatelife #livingthedream #blog #new #empireskatepark #colchester #essex #hardcorehobbies

Charlie Munro - Lost And Filmed

Berlin 2014

Get Lesta have posted some footage of Charlie from the last couple of years that didn't make it to any other releases. 
Sidewalk Magazine also posted a short clip on their Facebook page of Munners on Sunday. Click the links below to see the videos.

Charlie Munro - Get Lesta Lost and Filmed 

Sidewalk Clip

Some of the footage was shot on a trip to Paris in 2014 which I was lucky enough to be invited on, so there's a couple of shots from there, a few from a Milk Skateboards trip to  Berlin in 2014 and one from the UK too. Most of which have been posted before, but the Paris ones are all new!

Mani flip out - Basildon 2014

f/s tail slide, flip out - Berlin 2014

Switch f/s biggy - Berlin 2014

f/s 50-50 - Berlin 2014

f/s 50-50 - Berlin 2015

b/s nose slide to switch f/s 5-0 - Berlin 2014

Switch f/s biggy - Paris 2014

Switch f/s biggy - Paris 2014

#pauljacksonphotography #fourwheelfools #charliemunro #sidewalk #getlesta #lakai #fourstar #skateboarding #uk #skatelife #livingthedream #blog #milkskateboards #skatepharmacy #paris #berlin #basildon #sidewalkmagazine #new #lostandfilmed