OWL Skateboards have dropped their latest visual offering 'NEW_SPEAK' in full, online for the first time. Shot in VX by videographer Stefan Darque, the video takes an"lo-fi approach, analog motif, and Orwellian undertones of a dystopian contemporary England", and features full sections from riders Jim Silver, Al Hodgson and James Griffiths amongst others. To commemorate the online release, OWL have also released a limited selection of their Parliament board series, as well as hard copies of the video which are available to buy on their online store. Be sure to check out the accompanying zine which is available to view HERE
At the start of September we had some familiar faces from the DC squad roll through to share some summer vibes and put on a biblical display of skateboarding. One of the highlights was without a doubt getting a chance to have a chat with former SOTY, Wes Kremer. Our friends over at Glazed were kind enough to close the doors and provide donuts and trees to christen the interview, that by the end of which we were all truly glazed & confused. With a positive attitude, hilarious sense of humour and the best Madars Apse impression we’ve ever heard, Wes is one of the funniest people we’ve ever had the pleasure of talking to. This is the Wes Kremer interview…
DC and your other sponsors seem to hook it up pretty good with all the places you’ve been to on trips. Where do you reckon the true Mecca of skateboarding is after everything you’ve seen?
There’s multiple man for sure. I guess people would say the Mecca of Europe would of course be Macba, Barcelona. People from all over the world go there.
Barca’s always a good trip!
Every time definitely! Spain’s one of my favourite places to go for sure. Barca’s one of the world Meccas. Of course there’s LA, New York, San Francisco; California in general for sure.
And where’s your favourite spot?
San Diego for sure! It’s a good time you should come out and visit. I’ll definitely greet you with a donut and a spliff to return the favour! [Laughs]
On a deeper note what do you think about skateboarding and the mainstream with the corporate giants dipping their fingers in skateboarding today?
I guess it’s just the way the world turns. Skating’s escalated to this point so it’s inevitable. I’m not a big fan of it because you’ve got the major corporations taking a lot of money from skating and that’s just pushing out the smaller brands. I guess we need to get more skaters against the corporations. It’s fucked because they have the money to get their shit out there and people who already recognise them from whatever previous sports just assume it’s the best shit you know? It’s gotta go back to the millennium era when people were like “Aw D3s they’re the best”. Somehow those went insanely mainstream you know what I mean? Es, Etnies, Osiris, Circa; they were all skate companies ruling the mainstream market for a while.
They used to drop some insane colourways back in the day.
Yeah the Muska’s dude! The Muska’s were goin’ off for sure!
Didn’t G-shock fly you and a pretty strong squad to Tokyo a few years back?
Yeah it was an epic experience; most insane contest I’ve ever been to. Skateboarding, BMX, BMX freestyle and breakdancing. There was pretty much this giant arena, all this crazy music; it was so fun.
Did you get a load of free G-shock shit?
Yeah I got 2 watches because they flew me out two years in a row!
Serious question though… Does wearing a G-shock make you better at skateboarding?
[Laughs] 100 percent man you’re never late! That was the one downside about the contest cause you had to wear a watch. You had to wear this fat G-shock while you skated. I definitely slammed on it a couple times n’ scratched it up.
Killed the wrist?
Oh wrist, Gone! [laughs]
You’ve made it clear in plenty of other interviews that you’re not huge on promoting yourself and your skating through social media. Beyond skateboarding what do you think about social media as a whole? Do you think it’s a good thing for people?
I guess with everything you’ve got to look at both sides. It’s good for certain things like if you wanna share a photo or something funny you’re stoked on with your friends; but now it’s past personal and onto popularity dude. It’s a popularity contest more or less. People are looking for followers, looking for likes. What turned me off of it was seeing all my friends fully engaged in their phone. Now as the years go by you see everyone in more or less most first world societies just on their phone. I was in South America last year cruisin’ around and I didn’t see anyone on their phone. They were just out in the streets kickin’ it, more down to talk n’ shit. Now you just see people walking into poles you know what I mean? [Laughs].
On a more chilled note. Most profound mushroom experience?
Oh Fuck. Pretty much any time with a good crew, some good music and a skateboard.
Just keeping it simple right?
For sure just getting some fresh air n’ cruisin’ around. Everytime I think of mushrooms my mind just gets all spacey [laughs].
Best Madars moment?
[Laughs] There’s too many man! Anytime you hang out with Madars it’s a new story.
Give us one?
Let’s see… Ok I’ve got a good one. So you guys know about Copenhagen?
For sure
Christiania’s like this hippy commune where you’re not allowed to take photos or film. We were there right when Madars first started filming for Mad World so he was just trying to get footage of everything [laughs]. We walk into Christiania [Laughs], fuckin’ Madars just boom pulls out his go pro, sticks out his arm just straight filming into the pushers street where all the weed and hash dens are. He went in full go pro like, “Hello!” [laughs]. This dude ran up on him telling him to stop, grabbed his camera saying he’d smash it. The homies were just trying to tell him to just take the memory card and luckily he just swooped the card n’ was out. It was one of those you know? Right when he pulled out the camera I was like, “Dude what’re you doing? Put that away”. Madarse was just like, “Nah come on man that shit’s ok!” [laughs]
How’d you take the news about Billy Chusta leaving DC for Nike?
Oh Billy Chust dude! Billy Chust gone! Billy Gone! [laughs]. It was inevitable for sure.
You got a good Billy Chust moment you can share with us?
We made a good rap about him [laughs]. I don’t know it’s kinda good to have him on trips because you know at night sometimes they’re trying to light stuff up to film when we weren’t skating; so he’d just go skate and we’d just smoke joints n’ talk shit more or less. It was sick [laughs]. But a good moment? Fuck I don’t know he’s a bum [laughs]. Probably just the fact that we made a rap about him and showed him.
Was he hating on it?
Yeah for sure. It was a good time [laughs].
Who in the mafia squad rolls the biggest warhead?
Let’s see… P kid rolls a proper banger, Surrey definitely manages many a banger, JP the stee holds it down. Xavier holds it down with the hash.
You’ve got all sides pretty covered then.
Yeah for sure.
Who’s the biggest Casanova you’ve ever been on a trip with?
Billy! Casanova like thinks they’re sick, ego blasts? Wait what’s a Casanova really? [laughs]
Like who’s the player on trips? In a good way!
Oh fuck! In a good way?! Miller’s a player, Kev’s a player. We’re all players! [laughs]
Who’s the mastermind behind the ‘Wes we can’ campaign?
Pretty much the art directors over at DC wanted to do a commercial for when I was coming out with the shoe so they wanted to go with the presidential campaign candidate shit.
Were you hyped on it?
Yeah for sure! They kind of did something similar with the last shoe with the ‘yes on Wes’. Was that it or? I can’t remember [laughs].
How do you find it skating over here?
Oh its’ fuckin’ good man. There’re some rugged spots but you guys hold it down tough as fuck. You’ve got a sick park here too, the Brighton park’s dope.
You’re a fan?
Hell yeah it’s super fun man! It’s big, spacious, everyone’s hangin’ out smokin’ tree! [laughs]
For more from the DC Special Delivery Tour II, head over to www.dcshoes-uk.co.uk
Al Hodgson is a seriously driven and rad dude. Having been in the Brighton scene his whole life he’s got some stellar knowledge about our often overlooked scene’s killers. Relocating to Bristol in the last couple of years hasn’t stopped him from being a pro-active figurehead in the scene, doing some amazing things on-board and behind-camera to push the envelope of what Brighton skating is all about. I don’t know how he juggles running OwlSkateboards and running Gripthumb simultaneously. Dude’s a machine or something. He approached me, with for-said knowledge in mind, saying that he had an idea to do an article with 5 of the best parts to come out of Brighton in the last 10 years. Of course I was down and without having to lift a lazy finger, he’d uploaded these following parts – with accompanying blurb – for us all to enjoy…
Mike Nicolls & Sam Blewett – ‘Brighten’
So this section is the first part of a ‘friends’ section in Brighten. However I always thought it was so sick purely because these guys showed how there were spots in Brighton when people constantly complained about there not being any. In the part they skate so many spots that had never been touched and proved that all you need is a fresh set of eyes in a city. Also, the Noseblunt Pop in is actually so so fucked…
Niall Birnie – ‘Like’
Niall has basically managed a part in pretty much every single major Brighton scene vid since 2007, and in this most recent one he put a hurting on a ton of old O.G Brighton spots. Plus the homage to our friend Felix at the end is really a beautiful way to cap it off.
Phil Russell & Dexter Daniels – ‘death aesthetic’ (Original Version)
Possibly the current most stylish pair in Brighton skateboarding. Phil and Dex shut it down. With the rad filming and piano score by Sirus. Also, Polejam late flip.
Dan Emmerson – ‘Like’
Dan is an absolutely powerhouse as anyone who’s ever seen him skate knows. He can Kickflip Backtail anything at Mach Ten and never seems to lose energy. His closing part in ‘Like’ to the Beastie Boys was perfect choice from Ed. Tre Flip ender is bonkers.
Joss Heierli – ‘Brighten’
Finally, my favourite Brighton part of all time, and he never even lived here. Joss was an amazing skater from Worthing who nobody in Brighton really knew, until his surprise penultimate part in ‘Brighten’. He stylishly killed the streets of Brighton and Hove with timeless style and finesse, slyly hitting spots you’d never even consider.
Slim also killed it was the editing and Animal Collective track with this one. This part showed Brighton how you approach true street skating in a city that has ‘no spots’.
Sirus has come through with his latest project dubbed “URL {un real life}” – a 2-piece Brighton skate video featuring familiar faces from the local scene and exploring a personal battle with life online…
“Having a laptop & an internet connection is at once a modern blessing & a perpetual dread. Probably a lot of people bothering to read this will somewhat understand the inordinate feeling of the saturating, (as i’m typing this i take a quick break to check a Facebook notification and edit a post) overflow of glowing blue-white information, that the internet and social media consistently hurl at our tired, red eyes. Creating videos for me is intended to be some form of physical, creative catharsis, and a well earned interruption from the digital realm. But inevitably each production i put together results in far more hours sat in front of the achromatic glow from my retina display, than it does sat in gutters & alleyways (Alfie Whatsapps me, and i check it but don’t reply. he proceeds to send 3 more messages, addressing my lack of acknowledgment. I reply) triple checking my focus, or blowing dust off my fisheye. ultimately it’s inescapable ??
This clip has two halves to it, the highly edited, ostentatious 1st half and the looser, raw 2nd part, you can probably guess at what they’re suppose to represent. It was put together to play as a loop, as an allusion to ur fave social media outlet’s endless scroll of colours and sounds. It’s just another internet skate vid”
Featuring: Ben Woodhouse, Harrison Woolgar, Rupert Antoine, Joe Coward, Dexter Daniels, Alex Barron, Sam Ibekwe, Tom (shakes) Delion, Alfie Williams, Dan Fisher Eustance, Parky Doodles, Zak Gilbert, Phil Russell & Rich West.
Towards the end of last year we were asked by Brighton based streetwear, menswear & lifestyle store KRUSOE to produce a short editorial for their Winter collections.
It’s been a hugely progressive year for the young store, who have managed to build on their humble beginnings and add some of the most exciting and respected brands in the market, something that is great to see in our native city. Now stocking the likes of Beinghunted, Satta, PRMTVO, Wig Wam socks and Born x Raised, which sit next to timeless brands such as Wood Wood and Dickies, the store definitely has a strong sense of direction and offers an alternative to the highly saturated shop fronts we find on the high street.
The aim of the visuals were to be relatable and to represent the general vibe around the store. We chose the relaxed surroundings of a minimal Brighton home to showcase key pieces from KRUSOE’s collections with model Ed McRae.
We are stoked to share with you the latest work from Sirus, a full length video dubbed “Death Aesthetic”, celebrating the people and the places that make up Brighton skateboarding…
“To me the video is based around London Road in Brighton. It is the dysfunctional hub of Brighton, an amalgamation of the dissatisfied elderly, Frosty Jacks, and the clinically insane. It’s the area that myself and a lot of the skaters that feature lived in during the majority of filming, and of course where The Level skatepark is located. Walking up and down London Road multiple times a day, you begin to observe the wanderers, the shoppers, the shouters, the drivers, the sleepers, the weepers etc and you start to harbour a curiosity for what it is that they’re all doing. I mean what are any of them actually doing? We’re not doing all that much; throwing our human chassis around at the mercy of gravity and friction, but what is it they’re doing? This wonderment extended to me following people around on the street, capturing brief moments of their daily lives on celluloid, so as to some extent understand, or at least examine them. Seeing the barren faces trapped in the silver particles conjures thoughts on mortality, for me at least. The clip is a juxtaposition of the occurrence of the marginal order and form of skateboarding, with the mundane entropy of the path of the passer by, concerted in the same space” – Sirus
Following the release of Death Aesthetic, we caught up with our guy Dexter, who appears in the video, to talk about growing up skateboarding in Brighton and also on his experiences when filming.
How were you first introduced to skateboarding?
My good friend Alex was already skating and I thought it was sick.. He got a board together out of all of his spare stuff and hooked me up!!! I pretty much stopped everything else I was doing..
Having been around the Brighton scene most of your life you must have seen a lot of change in the area, how has the new Level skate park impacted Brighton skateboarding?
The new park has changed the game! We’ve never had anything like it before, the level of skating is high and everyone seems to be progressing.. It’s also made it harder to get people out skating street and exploring. The spots are tough and the park is right in the middle of town; like a convenient vortex.
What skaters around Brighton do you rate highly?
I rate all my loafs representing the bread cult! Phil Russell is incredible and Sam Ibekwe is a wizard! (Also all the kids at the park are amazing now haha)
What it’s like to skate/film in Brighton?
I personally love skating street in Brighton. There really isn’t a lot of obvious spots here and there’s a lot of rough ground, so it’s a challenge. It challenges you to think creatively and encourages you to skate whatever you can find.
Do you feel an added pressure when filming with VX1000 over a HD Camera? Do you prefer using regressive technology when filming?
VX forever man, it’s the one! I think it’s a shame that so many videos are HD now. To me VX footage looks how skating feels.
What’s your best memory from filming Death Aesthetic?
Spending time with the master! Sirus f Gahan. And rolling with the crew 🙂
Enjoy the video in full above. To see more from the making of Death Aesthetic, be sure to check Sirus’ ‘Fakie Backflip’ zine HERE
The video features riders Al Hodgson, Dan Emmerson, Harry Coward, Joe Coward, Lue Gof, Reuben Toal-Gangar, (yung swiss) Phil Cron, Mitch Wheeler, Adrien Ahnnart, Sam (thunda) Ibekwe, Louis Antoine, Edi Pooley, Dexter Daniels, Chris Williams, Alfie Williams, Adam Martin, Tom (shakes) Delion, Alex Barron, Harrison Woolgar, Ben Woodhouse, Phil Russell, Rupert Antoine, Marc (sa) Carter, Richard West, Jesse James, Max Weeks and Wes Knowler.
As we continue to document the Brighton skate scene and celebrate the characters around it, our Neighbourhood series returns with a brand new clip featuring Mitch, a recent departure from the streets of Brighton who now resides in Norway. We were lucky enough to film the clip at the newly built Gamlebyen skatepark in East Oslo…
“I hit up Mitch to film this clip, because he’s a Brighton transplant in Oslo. Gamlebyen where he lives, has just had the first section of it’s skatepark completed, so ideas were fresh on the new concrete, but we grossly underestimated the struggles of filming any kind of skateboarding in winter in Norway. The park was always wet, even when it hadn’t rained for a week, then the frost and snow came and it seemed like we were never going to be able to finish filming. Luckily after a few evenings praying to Thor & Odin last week, there was somehow one mostly dry day and we got to get one last session in. Mitch is honestly one of the most fun people to skate with that I’ve ever met, so getting to film this was a total pleasure in spite of the Nordic weather. Love you Mitch !!” – Sirus
