PHOTO: DAVE CHAMI
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – 6:39pm
Billy, what’s happening? Hope I’m not interrupting you and the wife having dinner…
Nah mate, I’ve just put a Lasagne in the oven.
Your speciality by any chance?
[Laughs] Nah, it’s just one of those cheap ones from Woolies. The hungover special, with some extra cheese on top.
Extra cheese, a nice embellishment to make it your own…
That’s it, that’s it!
So, how long have you been working on this clip?
I think it’s been close to a year and a half, but I was injured during that time for 6 months as well. I just started filming with Ricky (Shaun Graham) and going out with him and (Sam) Coady a bunch. After a while I realised I had about a minute of footage and that made me think that maybe I should knuckle down, try and get something done.
Knuckling down obviously worked because you ended up with a damn fine clip – congratulations!
Thanks mate.
And last night was the official premiere at the Shakespeare Hotel – how’d that go?
It was good, it was really good – Just a really good night aye! I don’t think anyone’s done the prem on the projector outside before.
“After a while I realised I had about a minute of footage and that made me think that maybe I should knuckle down, try and get something done…”
What was the deal with that?
They have a projector that faces out of a window upstairs, and plays on to the wall of Mohr Fish, the fish shop across the road. They play the footy and stuff sometimes, but I haven’t seen them put skateboarding up there before.
I assume the Sydney homies showed up in force?
Well, heaps of people were away for Sammy’s (Winter) wedding, so I wasn’t really sure how many people would turn out, but it was packed! So many crew came through and made it such a good night.
A Sunday night too!
Yep, a school night.
A trap for beginners if ever there was one…
And me! [Laughs]
What time did you have to get up for the next work today?
The alarm went off at 5:30am – and that was it… I didn’t actually pull up that bad. I was home by 11:00pm, and I got on a pizza on the way, so you know, I behaved myself.
It’s not your first rodeo.
For sure.
You’re no stranger to an early start for work, but what’s the earliest you’ve gotten up to go and land a trick?
Town Hall stairs, twice now! [Laughs] I think first time I went there earlier, [varial heel] but for the tre flip, I think I was trying it by around 6:15am. I swear the first time was even earlier, and what’s crazy is that even at that time, security was straight on to us. That was weird.
You had an interview with us last issue, put this clip together and here we are looking at even more photos of you now. Unlike some unfortunate folks, 2020 was far from a write-off for you, right?
Yeah, it worked out alright for me. Gave me a chance to make a bunch of spots that weren’t usually skateable, skateable. During that whole time there was also just no one in the city, so in that sense it was actually a perfect time for skateboarding.
Aside from your good self, who was behind the scenes when it came to putting the clip together?
Ricky Bro [Shaun Graham] He did it all. He pretty much filmed the whole thing, other than maybe 3 tricks… Yeah, he edited the whole thing, he just put so much work in to it and he absolute killed it aye?
True that!
