Carve Wicked pro Stephen Fox (aka SOX ) has been on one recently, jet setting to skate locations across the globe with on point lensman Jack “Candyman” Thompson on hand to capture it all. SOX mooched everywhere from Marseilles to Vietnam and all within a month, losing VISA’s and encountering the…well lets just say some pretty rough bowl movement. After all that though he’s headed back home with four minutes of sick footage to celebrate his debut pro part and his board on Carve Wicked. Ave it Steven Fox!
Coming back from India to one of the freshest collaborations was definitely heart warming, it cut the holiday blues right in two and my excitement was yet again flowing in abundance. And in case you’ve been in hibernation due to the sudden weather change over the past week, the collaboration I am talking about is the infamous Black Sheep x New Balance Numeric 598 and 998 shoes. May I also add, New Balance Numeric have never ever joined forces with anyone before-hand. Obviously it may each and every member of the Black Sheep Family extremely proud, especially the top dogs and the guys who provide Manchester with an Independent skater owned store, Harry and Tez. None the less my experience with interviews and general writing is no where near the standard of Faran Golding, who by the way is a skateboarding expert. This is where I pass you on to him as he took the time to interview Harry and Tez and it can now be witnessed over on his blog. Hit the link below to see what was discussed and learn more about the collaboration itself….
Vans have put together footage from the Vans Shop Riot series from all the countries that have been involved so far, including a small selection of clips from our own UK qualifiers at Nottingham’s Flo Skatepark in which the Black Sheep boys Rob Smith, Jiri Bulin and Jordan Sharkey came through and claimed first place….again, good work lads! That means they join the winners from The Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Czech Republic, Germany/Austria, Russia and France at the finals over in Lisbon, Portugal at Cascais Skatepark from the 18th to 20th September. There are five countries who are still yet to host their series events so keep an eye out for them. From the edit below we can see that this year has been a real battlefield all over Europe with teams and individuals stepping up and taking the standard of skating to the next level. No doubt that Rob, Sharkey and Jiri will be well up for it in September but then again so will all the rest of the teams, there can only be one winner but I know who I’m putting my money on! More info and build up nearer the event via the blog and our social media outlets.
For those of you who didn’t know, Daniel ‘Snowy’ Kinloch was the reason Fos decided to start a small British company some thirteen years ago. Snowy didn’t really fit the whole Heroin vibe going on so Fos came up with the idea to create Landscape Skateboards. Through the years gone by Snowy has continually smashed it , travelling all over to log clips for videos like Portraits, Horizons and a number of other projects. It’s a real shame but Snowy has decided to hang up his pro boots and move on, Landscape are sending a ‘ good luck our kid’ remix edit of some of Snowy’s archive footage to remind you how hard he shreds. Looks like Landcape will be needing a new pro ?!?!?!
Sidewalk Redux 1 first dropped back in May 2016 and accompanying the 180 page book was a DVD. The footage on the DVD has now been kindly uploaded by Sidewalk onto the internet for all of those who don’t know what a DVD is! It has skating from all over the UK, featured (among many others) are Chewy Cannon, Josh Young, Charlie Birch, Andy Evans, Joe Gavin, Rooney, James Bush, Chris Oliver, Barney Page, Doug McLaughlan, Mark Baines, Gav Coughlan and Black Sheep representatives Nick ‘Stannerz’ Stansfield and Harry Lintell, keep those eyes peeled for their banging tricks.
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A few years ago, VICE published some episodes about Skateboarding in Europe. About the history of skateboarding in each of our countries, about the brands, main spots, magazines and the great skate scene we’ve had during the last 20 years. In case you missed it, here are the 2 small documentaries, to continue with the UK/ France connection. Sit back and enjoy the show…
Sunday 27th September saw the Emerica Wild In The Streets event take place in our fair city of Manchester, if you weren’t there where the hell were you ?!? It went off as we thought it would! Skateboarders from all over the country descended on a surprisingly sunny and quite warm Manchester! First spot of the day had to be Urbis as this was the meeting spot, the megaphone came out and everybody started getting on it. Rob Smith pulled off some massive lip slides on the bottom ledge whilst Sexual Stu delivered a textbook boardslide shove mid block. Harry Lintell was on fine form, delivering some flip back tail variations, switch front heel and nollie backside heel over one of the marble blocks from flat! After a while, well it was only a matter of time, before people started skating the big 3. Not many things have gone down these steps and its easy to see why. Eddie Belvedere smashed a kickflip from the top to the last step, not easy, and then a first try straight nollie to the bottom step! Big shout out to Robert Rooney Woodward who flung himself down the whole thing quite a few times, ollied it with ease and then getting his backside 180 after a few harsh slams!
Harry Lintell – Nolle BS Heelflip Photo – CJ
The next spot on the agenda was Bridgewater rail / stairs. One of the best sights of the weekend was the vast amount of wood and wheels all in unison on the streets en route to the spot! Oh and a quick nosegrind revert was thrown out by Eddie Belvedere himself! Fair play to all involved for being well mannered and polite to the sometimes bewildered public! The Bridgewater spot isn’t to forgiving on the feet but people rose to the occasion and hammers went down. Straight away Harry Lintell did a NBD early grab boardslide down the rail! Curtis Munton pulled off a steezy tre flip over the rail to finish off the session but not before Black Sheep new boy Sam Mason rolled away with a smith grind!
Sam Mason – FS Smith Grind Photo – CJ
That was it, next spot! Skating down Deansgate heading towards Granada bump, Lewis Threadgold stopped by Tesco for a quick caveman bluntslide on a rail that shouldn’t be skateable, with hardly any run up squashed next to a glass wall! In the end the session was taken to Castlefield arena where Mr Lintell did it again, this time taking a boardslide down the infamous rail – “ Woody’s rail “. Some of the wooden ramps had been brought down from the Pumpcage and wall ride madness proceeded thanks to Rob Smith, Eddie and Lewis!
Eddie Belvedere – FS Wallride Photo – CJ
The day lived up to its name, it deffo was a wild one! Big thanks to all of you who showed up and skated, repping the sheep and spreading the good vibes! Massive thanks to Woody and Claire, Emerica, Dickies and Landscape! Also thanks to CJ for shooting the rad photos throughout the day, you can read the full write up and see more of CJ’s snaps over on the Sidewalk website!
Have a gander at the edit below, and we’ll see you all same time, same place next year!
So Vans have finally announced the worldwide premiere dates for their long awaited, first full length video ‘Propeller‘. With a team including the likes of Geoff Rowley, Dustin Dollin, Chima Ferguson , Anthony Van Engelen, Gilbert Crockett and Jason Dill to name a few! You know that this is a video you are not going to want to miss! Well…you could be going to the UK Premiere at the Prince Charles Cinema in London ( There is no age restriction on entry to the premiere) on the 30th April! The prize is for two tickets so you can take whoever you want be it your brother, mother or a lover! Not only that, you will also be able to get your dancing shoes on at the after party at the House Of Vans! How you ask? The answer is simple! Simply treat yourself to a new pair (or pairs!) of shoes from the Vans Pro Skate line from us here at The Black Sheep. You will then receive some of the sought after golden tickets, on which is a strip that you will scratch off to see if your the lucky winner! But remember there’s only one winning ticket! The premiere is coming soon so don’t hang about! Make sure its you that’s going to be one of the first to see the new Vans video and not somebody else!
The clocks have gone forward an hour, its not dark when we get out of work, the sun is starting to shine and it seems like summer is eventually on its way! That could only mean one thing! Yes, its that time of year as we get ready for the Vans Shop Riot! Starting in the UK on the 25th – 26th April for two days of non stop action! This year sees Pioneer Skate Park in St.Albans hosting the event. £3000 prize money and an all expenses paid trip to the European finals is up for grabs! After the UK leg comes to a close on the 26th, the attention turns to Aalast, at the Flesh and Bones Skatepark, the scene of last years finals where Belgium’s own Rampaffairz skateshop just missed out on top spot to fellow countrymen Burnside so expect it to go off at this one! With as many as fifteen stops around Europe this year the series will be almost everywhere, from Portugal to Poland, Italy to Israel, before it all comes to a head in Spain for the final! Will the Black Sheep lads be there to take the top spot? ( My moneys on them! Come on lads!!! ) Keep your eyes peeled! More info such as a live stream will be up here on the blog at a later date obviously closer to the time!
Vans Shop Riot 2015 Events Listings
UK, 25th-26th April, Pioneer Skatepark, St Albans
Belgium, 26th April, Flesh & Bones Skatepark, Aalast
Germany/Austria, 9th-10th May, North Brigade Skatepark, Cologne
So this week it was confirmed by Factory Media that Sidewalk magazine (Also along with Kingpin, Whitelines and various other titles) will exist no more in its printed form. A sad day for UK skateboarding, a sad day for skateboarding in general. Nobody within skateboarding really wants to see a shop, a company or in this case a well respected magazine cease to exist. For the past twenty years Sidewalk magazine has informed and supported skateboarders.
It opened up the window into our amazing culture that is UK skateboarding. It was the highlight of the month, you waited for it to be dropped through your door by the postman, or you rushed to your local skate shop after school or work to get a copy. Wherever you were it kept us informed of what was happening, when it was happening, you knew where to go, when to go and in its own way kept the UK scene in sync with each other in all parts of the country.
Now that times have changed and technology advances, our appetite for media is moving more towards being instantly gratified, with the likes of Facebook, Instagram and twitter to name a few, anything and everything can put out there for the world to see in a matter of seconds.
With a constant stream of photos and video clips being published on the world wide web it seems hard to imagine a time when we needed to rely on the printed text that was in front of our eyes. Despite the great efforts of people like Ben Powell, Andy Horsley, Ryan Gray, Leo Sharpe and everyone else involved with Sidewalk, the inevitable had to happen.
For now, Sidewalk will continue to bring us all the great things they do solely on their website. The very last edition is out now so go and grab a copy, as we say farewell to one of the most important parts of UK skateboarding that we have ever known.
