Dirty Boys Skating a Roof

I've been clearing up a bit and found some pictures I took a few months back that I've done nothing with.
They are from a day back in the early spring. Sam, Harley, Reece & I had already visited West Suffolk College to skate the new ledges & planters and had moved out to have a peek at the new skatepark which at the time was still under construction, just. We were turned away by a security guard posted by the council to keep those pesky kids from damaging the new turf laid around the park. We moved on and ended up walking through the open gates of a school and once we'd found that the new surface around some previously useable benches had rendered them useless for everything but sitting.
One of the others then piped up about a bank on a flat roof and off we went a'searching.
In reflection, the fact that the building we were climbing onto was right next to the caretaker's house made this a bust before we'd started. But up they climbed all the same.
Standing on a wall I was able to get a couple of shots, but they are not of great quality as I had little time to setup and neither of them are focused correctly. 

Harley Miller - blunt slide drop-off

Reece Bartlett   

Pretty much as soon as these two photos were taken the caretaker came over, struggling with a ladder and started ranting about a visit from the old bill so down we climbed and skated out the front gate. A short spell was spent at Harley's house to avoid any unwanted attention and off we went to the next spot.  

The Famous Clockwork Orange Spot

After a short break I find myself writing my second post in a week.    
On Monday I visited a roundabout in Wandsworth, south west London. Not a place for a bank holiday picnic, but quite good for a bit of skateboarding tomfoolery.
Pleasingly I was picked up at around midday by an already loaded car filled with Dan, Harley & Jasper.
From north East Anglia a trip to south west London by car is a bit of a mission. Especially with bank holiday traffic. But by 3 o'clock we were approaching the destination programmed into the satnav and as we drove the streets noticed that every vaguely green public space had a pony tethered on it. As we realised that we were not in fact in Wandsworth, but in Abbey Wood  although the place we visited was a location used in the filming of A Clockwork Orange it was a good 15 miles from the roundabout we were looking for in Wandsworth. So having recalculated our route we set off up the south bank of the Thames. 
Once well on the way to Peckham, we found out that Lee, a friend of Jasper now living in London who we had arranged to meet at the original location was now at the original location, looking at ponies. We turn round and sped off back to Abbey Wood to pick him up.
Finally reaching the Wandsworth roundabout at around 4 o'clock we all uncurled ourselves from the car and stretched.
As you reach the bottom of the ramp and enter the tunnel under the busy road to the centre of this huge roundabout you walk straight onto the set of the opening scene of the film that gave it's name to this famous spot. (A tramp is taunted by the gang before they beat him up in one of the tunnels connecting the centre of the roundabout with the rest of the world.)  Tramp scene 

Through the banked tunnel and into a now very weathered 1960s concrete construction long given way to nature. Huge banks of various angles rise from the paved paths between huge triangular central platforms to the inner edge of the road way above. And a large array of CCTV cameras attached to the top of a pole at the centre of it all.
Sam, another of the Milk Crew had visited the spot recently and reported that some electrics had been updated and the top of the most commonly skated bank now had a sort of coping on it. This turned out to be very unstable galvanised electrical conduit tubing loosely fixed to the top of the bank.
Harley fell to flat pretty early on and sat out for a bit having hit every pointy bit.
Jasper got on it as Lee and I set up flashes and such.
When I checked the spot on Google maps a couple of days earlier, I found a link to a blog post charting the history of this roundabout. Within it was a photo shot from one end of one of the tunnels looking straight at the bank. This would be my first shooting location. On arrival I positioned myself in the tunnel and continued to setup. 
This shot came off pretty early on and Jasper continued to try different things as I moved around the area looking for different angles.

Nothing I found quite compared to the compositional advantage of using the tunnel wall so I took a few more from the same place. I even got one of the boss. I'm not sure if Jasper's black & white shot was a make, but I like the shot. And I've told you, so it's ok. Right?

Dan Shervington - b/s 5-0

Jasper Pegg - switch crook

As we were packing up Harley brightened up a bit and got the VX out and got back on the wheelie plank for a bit. He found a wall at the top of a big bank and started jumping off it.
By the time I'd got the camera back out of the bag, I only managed to get one shot before he packed it in.
With no flash, this black & white version of the photo looks far better than full colour.

Harley Miller

After a sightseeing journey over London Bridge and into The City of London, we dropped Lee off near his home and set off back to Suffolk as night fell. With more tricks to be made at the spot we can now add it to the list of spots for weekend long filming missions planned for the near future. 

With the official opening jam at my local skatepark in Bury St. Edmunds on 11th May (this Sunday!), expect a post full of photos from the event very soon.     





#uk #london #skateboarding #aclockworkorange #clockworkorange #clockwork #orange #milkskateboards #milk #Wandsworth #spot #hardcorehobbies #dickies #voxfootwear #blackandwhite #concrete #loveahashtagme 

A New Concrete Playground

I haven't posted for a while. This can be easily explained by an event that I, and a lot of other skaters & riders have been looking forward to for over 5 years. The opening of the new concrete skatepark in our home town.

Bury St. Edmunds has had a council maintained skatepark for about 12 years now, but the old wooden ramps had rotted from the frames out and by 2012 had become quite dangerous, and not in a good way!

Plans to replace the ramps with a concrete park were hatched years before this and talks with the council resulted in further funding and support being promised. This willingness from the local authority has to be credited in part to the massive roll our local skate & BMX shop Hardcore Hobbies took in organising events, discouraging littering and squashing any antisocial behaviour at the park. A respect for our very spacious play area was apparent to me on my first visit when I moved to the town back in 2001 and is still very noticeable thirteen years later. And partly to our council youth officer Simon Pickering who has pushed for this  A huge amount of money has also been donated by various groups and organisations to add to the pot for a very well proportioned park for the size of the town.

The new design, built by Wheelscape seems to have been very well received over the past two weeks by both locals and visitors alike. It consist of a street park and separate bowl. For photos of the construction, visit my now closed blog.

Although the park has been skated for the last two weeks, the official opening jam is being held on Sunday 11th May. Postcode for the park: IP33 3SZ.

This is the only skate photo I've taken at the park to date as I've given myself some time to actually skate it, enjoy it and get comfortable in my new home. 

The wall ride was on the original plans but this brick wall was not. The builders were not able to give us the brick effect on the red bank down the stairs because the stencil wouldn't line up aesthetically, due to the angle of the banks. When I arrived for a site visit late in March I was amazed to find one of the crew laying bricks! They'd changed the finish from plain 'crete to real bricks. A master stroke.

Harley Miller - b/s 5-0

#skateboarding #uk #burystedmunds #concrete #skatepark #new #milkskateboards #hardcorehobbies #voxfootwear #dickies #skating #skate 

Skegness Spring Jam Sequences

Sunday saw a return to Skegness for the Spring Jam at Xcite Skatepark.
A pretty new park layout and sunshine over the outdoor plaza led to good times on a quiet indoor park.
I thought we had a had a long 2 1/2 hour drive but on arrival I was chatting to Nic Powley who had driven a van full from Margate, four and a half hours away!  
I found the actual jam to be a little lacking in sensation for photos so between the odd run on the mini which was as nice and slippery as usual, I shot from across the park and practiced some tight zoomed sequences without the aid of a flash. 
Jasper, Jordan, Fuller and a rare crossing of paths with Trevor Johnson became my focus. 
A good day meeting new and old friends and some skateboarding. 

Jordan Thackery - ollie up to f/s nose grind 

Trevor Johnson - b/s hip slide

Fuller - f/s 5-0 

Fuller - fakie f/s hip slide

Jasper Pegg - switch blunt slide f/s 180

#skateboarding #skating #skegness #xcite #skatepark #jam #uk

Empire Easter Skate Camp with Milk Skateboards & Friends

The second annual Easter skate camp was held at Empire Skatepark in Colchester last week and was completely sold out weeks before the event.
Held in the school holidays with all the Milk crew making an appearance at some point over the 3 days the young attendees get to hang out with the crew and learn basics and tricks in a safe and laid back environment with lunch and refreshments provided.
Unable to wangle the time off, I turned up for the final day to take some shots for Empire. The main event being a big air contest over the jump box with the usual stack of boards built up on top. 
This made for some really funny photos. As it makes some of the most experienced skaters uneasy, I decided to run without a flash for this as I didn't want to put any of the kids off  half way through a trick.   
Other fun stuff that went down on the last day included pass the parcel with stickers in every layer and some other goodies hidden within, a session on a DIY bank out back - the new concrete section wasn't ready unfortunately. And as it was someone's birthday, everyone got CAKE.
Earlier in the week all the kids received Milk Skateboards decks which all the crew signed and I even got to scribble on a couple!

Pass the parcel coming up!

The Mexican got stickers

Bossman Lewis - great with a stop button 

Winner!

Other stickers

More stickers!

A new set of Super Toxics!

CAKE!

"do you know what nemesis means?"

(intruding camera strap) f/s 50-50

Preparing for a whole lot of mayhem!

Nearly got hit by this one, I had no idea it was coming!

Shuvs

High fives for sackings!

Winners!

Megaphones - Megafun! 

I'd like to thank all at Empire Skatepark and the kids that attended the camp for putting up with me getting everyone's way. 
Also, thanks for using my photo of Harley Miller on the poster!

#skateboarding #skatepark #empireskatepark #empire #colchester #essex #milkskateboardco #milkskateboards #easter #skatecamp #supertoxic