FRONTSIDE FEEBLE
MELBOURNE, VICTORIA – 6:47PM
Here we are a week on from you dropping your ‘WELCOME TO HUF AUSTRALIA’ part – let me get this conversation started with asking you how you got involved with Huf in the first place…
I was skating for Vans at the time, but Huf had always been one of my favourite clothing brands since I was a kid, but because they were doing the footwear thing at the time, it was something I didn’t think was really possible. Then they obviously dropped the unfortunate news they were wrapping up the footwear side of things.
Which was not so unfortunate for you…
Yeah, I ended up talking to Al Wilson and he was like ‘Maybe we can make this happen’ he just wanted me to make sure Andrew Mapstone who was at Vans at the time was cool with it. He was cool with it and that’s how it all started and it’s been awesome ever since.
When did the ‘WELCOME TO…’ clip start brewing?
From day one, Al always had it in mind. He wanted to do a clip of each Huf Oz team rider. At the time I was at the tail end of filming for the Gooch Street 5 video, I finished up with that and after it premiered me and Tony (Woodward) were like, ‘OK, what now?’ and we were still going out pretty much every day and getting footage. That’s when we hit Al up and said ‘Let’s get this Huf part going!’. This would have been around mid-November 2019 – so it’s been about a year and obviously that was just before the whole lock down thing?
Did that bring productivity to a grinding halt?
It actually worked in our favour! When the 5km radius thing kicked in Tony was only living about 1km from my place so we basically had the same 5km radius. So that meant we could go out on all these little sessions, and of course he was just as keen to skate as I was during that time. I was working from home, same with him so we could always head out skating at the end of the day. I think the lockdown was one of the reasons we actually managed to get so much stuff done.
Tell me about how long you’ve known/been filming with Tony?
I reckon I’ve known him for 10 years and filming with him is the best. We like to skate the same sort of spots and he’s just the most positive dude; always keen to go on a mission, and you don’t even have to ask him to film something, he just knows what you’re doing and if you’re getting close and then just whips out his camera. He’s the man.
The guy can skate. Filmers that rip have a sixth sense…
Definitely. It’s hard to know who should be filming who sometimes.
Let’s talk about the premiere of the clip. Huf put it all on at Prahran skate park, beers, BBQ etc. How was it?
Oh, man, the premiere was definitely the best night of my life. Hands down! It went way too fast and it was kind of a blur, but it was amazing. The turnout alone, I couldn’t have asked for anything more than that. My friend spray-painted a TV on the side of the mini ramp that they projected the clip on to. My mum came down!
Mumsy was there? Nuff said!
It was just really cool. Easily the best night of my life to date. I’ve only ever been involved in the Gooch Street videos, where everyone is just juiced collectively as a crew, so to have all the attention on me was really weird – but it was nice for sure.
“I’ve only ever been involved in the Gooch Street videos, where everyone is just juiced collectively as a crew, so to have all the attention on me was really weird – but it was nice for sure.”
As far as the part itself, does a trick come to mind that you had to battle?
Oh, definately the boardy pop over to fakie…
The ender!
Yeah! We went there on at least four separate occasions. At that stage I was back at work and me and Tony would rush there after I’d knock off and I’d be trying to get it before it got too dark. One of the times I got heat stroke and was really not in a good way I was throwing up everywhere… Yeah, so that was a battle, if not a memorable moment. It’s also what I’d consider a true heritage listed Melbourne spot, so it was nice to get something on it that I was stoked on.
You share the intro with your dog. What’s ole mate’s name?
Dave, he’s an Australian Bulldog. He turns two soon and he’s a legend.
While being a legend are there any cons to Dave the dog?
He farts heaps, he drools a lot and he likes to get up on the bed but weighs about 40 kilos, so it’s like having to fit another person in there.
Well, enough about Al Wilson! Anyone you’d like to thank?
[Laughs] Well, Al for a start. There’s so many people I’d like to thank, but without Al, Tony and Wade Mclaughlin… Without any one of them, this wouldn’t have been doable.
