We are stoked to be hosting the Thrasher Vacation tour on Sunday 24th of August. It's been a while since a tour has hit town and this is going to be an amazing visit with Grant Taylor, Raven Tershy, Ben Raemers, Sam Beckett, Jack Curtin, Tommy Sandoval, Ronnie Sandoval, and Nassim Guammaz hitting the ramp along with the Phelper and P-Stone. There will be live music, a BBQ and beverages for all... The ramp will be open from 1pm and the tour hits town around 5pm. Pay us a visit and get some!

When did you leave Birmingham?
I left Birmingham in 2008 when I was 18 to study in London. I wanted the chance to meet lots of cool different people from over the world since London is such a major cultural hub. I left so I could go and skate rad London spots all the time and go to places like Southbank and skate the streets

What did you study and where?
I studied English at Goldsmiths and before I finished it, I applied for a Scriptwriting Masters, also at Goldsmiths and was offered a place on the course. I was only able to enrol on the MA due to receiving a scholarship from a creative arts trust in Birmingham which helped me to pay off my course fees and some living costs

How did you end up working for the Long Live Southbank campaign?
After I graduated, I went through the whole no work experience to unpaid internship to not enough experience to no job process that most graduates do. It sucked. 

After a month I started work in a posh cafe in Kensington where I could get as much free cake and food as I wanted, it was so good. One time after Jin and I ran into Dominic West, the guy who played McNulty in the Wire and on the off chance he  left his jacket on our table, we returned it to him and had a brief chat about The wire and his favourite Brummy metal music, he likes Napalam death, it was so funny. 

It all changed in early March 2013 when I saw an online ad looking for a uni graduate who knew about skateboarding and street architecture, so I applied and went to an interview with no idea of what to expect or what this ad was about. When I arrived, I was excited to discover  that this ad was actually posted by Hold Tight Henry on behalf of everyone at Southbank and that he and the rest of the SB locals were starting a campaign, called Long Live Southbank, to help save SB from redevelopment. I was instantly down to be a part of it and get stuck in.

I skate SB every week and it turned out a random online job application turned out to be an opportunity to work with all my mates and go skate, its so sick. LLSB has achieved unbelievable success in its 19 month history and I'm stoked to be a part of it.

What does your day to day work involve?
Working for Long Live Southbank is about as spontaneous as skating the place itself. At the peak of the campaign, I had days where I started by updating the FB and Twitter in the morning, then headed  to speak to local councillors with a suitcase packed with LLSB merchandise  and then off to a nightclub in Kingston, to sell T – Shirts and sign up members till 1am. 

However, an average day at the moment, is just spent maintaining the campaign by keeping in touch with people at the Undercroft everyday, with the legal team and also with the great deal of companies who want to do events and collaborations with us. There are now roughly 150,000 members so it has grown substantially, so the work load is shared between quite a few people now which is great and means we're doing a better job than ever. At one stage It was just Henry, I and a couple others so its brilliant its grown to be as huge as it is.

What does a space like Southbank mean to the skate scene of a city?
Southbank is a place where you can go and be yourself and there's not a lot of places like that left in London. Public space is consistently minimised here and young skaters must feel like the councils and institutions that are meant to provide them must fundamentally misunderstand what they want in London.

Southbank is the epicentre of the London skate community, its a meeting place and its own little village, with its characters, stories, history and ethos of just doing your own thing and not having to care about what other people think. Its a place you can express yourself and have the chance to be surrounded by others doing the same thing who want to encourage and inspire you. Its cool. 

What lessons could Birmingham Council take from the whole ordeal?
Birmingham Council are way behind in creating areas for kids to express themselves, there is no central skatepark in Birmingham city centre. I think they need to look at disregarded and unused spaces, such as the Fastlands Flyover which have the potential to become permanent skatespots and cultural areas.

Kids would be very stoked out and probably have more pride in the city which doesn't do much for young people except give them shopping malls like The Bullring. They should be attempting to build spaces where money is not necessary and where younger people can connect with each other without their fists.

Has Southbank been saved?
It's still in the process of being legally preserved as a village green. We're all working hard and we hope that we will succeed.

How do you feel about Boris Johnson's announcement, seemingly sparing The Undercroft from development?
Boris Johnson's office has the right of veto on any planning development, which means as long as he backs LLSB no building can take place on the Undercroft. I feel that Boris has listened to Londoners and the large international following Southbank has and to some extent has understood its massive cultural importance  and iconic status, it would have been foolish to ignore, so he's made a very wise decision.

What's next for Jason?
I'm still working for LLSB and in the next few weeks will be doing some events, panel discussions and giving a lecture to an architecture class at the London School of Economics about SB and its cultural significance.

I'll be writing skate articles for Kingpin & I'm also starting a skate column over at Vice, about skateboarding, art, music & film. Its about the creative energy of skateboarding and how it feeds into our lives on and off the boards, expect to see some of that soon.

Alongside this, I've been starting up a skate creative agency network called the No Comply Network. Its aim is to connect artists, musicians and filmmakers from within the skate community to help them network, collaborate and make rad stuff. 

Thanks for letting me do this interview for Ideal Tom.
Safe.

Jason Caines | Tre Flip, Birmingham | Photo: CJ

Banging London based edit for Kingpin Magazine featuring our very own Jason Caines.
Keep an eye on the blog for the fake double flipping legend later this week.

We've got a full quiver of Heroin boards ready and waiting after you've wrapped your goggles around this part!

We caught up with Luke McManus, Jamie Hewitt and Ryan Price to get a brief run down of what life was like in the "Athletes" Area at this years' Nass Festival.

So how was the skatepark area?

Luke: It was decent. It had no flow to it whatsoever which made it kinda fun and difficult to skate though.

Ryan: The park was fun, got a bowl corner and massive jump boxes, love it.

Did you get through?

Hewitt: Luke qualified in 9th, Ryan in 18th and someone robbed my board right before my heat so I didn't make it. Oh well NASS HYPE!

How were the camp vibes?

Ryan: The camping was fun. Everyone in a big circle of tents, a massive beer staff with a flag on the top right in the middle of us and everyone terrorising Luke - Rooney wrecked his tent and Jed switched his trucks the wrong way round. Everyone put food on his tent so the seagulls would attack it - it was so funny!

Luke, rumor has it you got a Supreme tent off Wavey Garmz?

Luke: Luckily not as my actual tent got flattened by Rooney from Endemic the little shit and covered in rubbish.

Any funny stories you can repeat?!

All: Yeah there's a few that can't be repeated

How bad were your hang overs?

Luke: I felt pretty fresh every morning - just my body wouldn't do what my brain told it too.
Hewitt: I had a two day Nass come down. Bit peak lollol sk8 hype .
Ryan: The worst ever! Skated the semi finals with no sleep and still tripping haha.

What was the most mosher thing you did?

Luke: There was nothing mosher about our weekend.
Hewitt: Probably everything im just a mosher 

Did you get out of the athletes area and see any music acts?

Luke: Yeah we saw Cypress Hill, Wilkinson, Boregore and a few others. They were all sick
Ryan: I think I was in the drum and bass warehouse more than I skated. Cypress Hill killed it!

Who was the best skater over the weekend?

Luke: KV and Ross McGouran killed it. 

What was the best thing that happened all weekend?

Hewitt: Tearing up the rave with the Ideal boys and just being at Nass. 

Andy Coleman for A Third Foot Skateboards

Jake Johnson takes the wallride game to another level with this mental part from Josh Stewart's latest film Static IV.
The ender is straight up suicidal! Enjoy.

Blow the Monday blues away with the "Crocodile Done Deal" Tour Video from the Four Star guys.
Corey Kennedy wins at life.

Crailtap always come through with the raddest adverts for their brands. This new one for MJ's new Lakai show is no exception.
We've got lots of Lakai for you to choose from. 

Rob looks happy with his angles whilst filming in Coventry. Photo: Peon

Hey Rob, how's it going mate?

Just swell thanks. I'm currently sitting in the garden doing some video editing and playing with the cats. Heaven.

So what's all this about a new video then? Why Bad Company and what's the idea behind it?

It just felt like the time was right to put a project together to be honest.

The name was something I was struggling with, as I didn't want anything pretentious, or irrelevant to skateboarding.
It had to say something about who we are or at least what we are doing.
Bad Company felt very fitting for us lot, especially to the outsiders perspective I should say.

The original style/idea behind the video derives from 80's films like 'Video Drome' and 'The Warriors'.
The music and poster artwork in those type of flicks are awesome. My friend Luke Thompson put together all the graphics for the film.
But now Bad Company has kinda taken on a life of it's own, like any good project should and looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Who are the stars of the show?

Four of my favourites. Adrian Jobson, James Jones a.k.a Nuge, J-Rock, Jellington, MallRat, Tom Gillespie and Ryan Price.
Oh and a friends montage filled with other cool dudes.

How did you end up filming with with these guys? They're all form different areas of the Midlands right?

It has all happened organically, from skating to hanging out to filming. I just got to a point when I realised
these dudes were starting to stack a bit more footage then everyone else, plus they have different styles;
Aid is a tech guy that also likes handrails and stairs. Nuge just wants to jump off the biggest thing he can find.
Tom loves carving up the streets and cutting down what gets in his path and Ryan goes hard at whatever you point him at,
especially if it's got transition.

We've noticed the large amount of media equipment have on your person.
What do you carry with you on a filming mission?

It all depends on the spot and what the skater has in mind. I try to get as much notice as possible on what we're planning
to shoot so that I can plan it all out before the day. comes That way I know what equipment I will need have an idea in my
mind how I want to shoot it all. But on an average day I'll have 1 to 3 HD cameras, along with 1-2 tripods, external microphone,
camera light and as many batteries I have room for.

Does it ever get difficult whilst filming with all that stuff in the city?

Fuck yeah!! But I love it at the same time, skating in the city is skateboarding. Plus the guys I film are always super nice
and offer to help out carrying stuff or helping film second angles when it's needed.

Any crazy/funny security/random happenings whilst on road?

Too many to mention, but I filmed it all so you will have to wait for the video to see it haha!

Busts aren't as fun now we're a little older though. Security don't tend to want to mess with a group of skateboards
who are in their mid-late 20's as much as younger kids! I do miss the thrill of the chase legging it out of schools away
from caretakers armed with only a broom and their broken police dreams.

When's the video due? We need to book the cinema for the premiere!

We're looking at the end of August for a release date and then early September for hard copies to be available.
We really want everyone who skates to be there!! Most importantly, the after party is being arranged now.
Hopefully Nuge and Ryan don't get all fighty this time haha.

Sounds like things are going well.. After this project, do you have any plans for a sequel?

Let's just get this outta the way with first. I am currently filming a couple other projects which are in the making.
One which lands around the same time as Bad Company - a George Rea's section to accompany
his recent First Light interview in Sidewalk.
Going to BCN to get his last bits later this month. I can't wait for that!

I'll let you get back to playing with your cats in the garden! Any last words?

Thankyou! Just that we will be releasing a teaser every few weeks from now to give people a feel for the vid and the guys
who are in it. I'm really looking forward to finishing up the Bad Company video which has been awesome so far.

Thanks for the interest in the project and me. I hope everyone can make the premiere and enjoys the video.

Ideal rocks! XxX

Cirencester has a brand new concrete skatepark that the Bad Company boys took full advantage of.

Props to Gaz from Decimal for the hard eight year slog to get this place built - well done mate, it was all worth it!

Filmed and edited by Rob Whiston, check out the video below.
Also, keep an eye on the blog for an upcoming interview with Rob regarding his Bad Company video project.