EVAN SMITH \ WALLIE STALEFISH \ BLABAC
FIND OUT WHAT’S IN EVAN’S SOLE AT DCSHOES.COM /EVANSMITH
THE
EVAN SMITH
S E A M L E S S LY F U S I N G B O A R D - F E E L + I M P A C T P R O T E C T I O N WITH
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featuring
I M PAC T- I ™ T E C H N O LO G Y f e a t u r e s i n v e r t e d c o n e s constructed of a lower durometer rubber to allow c o m p r e s s i o n o n l a n d i n g . I M PAC T- I ™ p r o t e c t s f r o m harsh impacts while maintaining board-feel.
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ISSUE 70
Contents out of africa 08
#onthemissionSA Cape Town 12 VANS - PARALLEL 22 RVCA Pumped and tanked 42 Adidas in Johannesburg 56 closet envy 58 I AM - Krige Venter 60 cover: Both Christi Wiehahn and Alan Marola (two of SA’s most gnarly skateboarders) have considered going for this huge hubba in the past, but both declined to attempt it. As a result, it’s maintained its virginity for the past 15 years. Knowing this definitely heightened Anton’s desire to try it, but the reality of standing up there was another thing altogether. He doesn’t usually get mind-fucked by a spot, but this almost had him in tears as he tried to psych himself up to pop that first attempt. After half an hour of rolling up to it he suddenly popped on, grinded the whole thing, landed and slipped out. Five goes later and he rolled away, clean as a whistle. The numerous bums hanging around were completely blown away, hailing him as a champion and declaring their undying love for him, even though they’d never see him again. This 50-50 is undoubtedly one for the SA skate history books. - AD Henderson
contents: This was the first day of The RVCA Tour, the first spot was Germiston Bowl and then we went to the Volcano spot. It was a sick day, that’s where I blew my shoulder out but right there the booze was still keeping it okay, haha. I got a lucky one, backside sugarcane. - Adrian Day
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PHOTO BY ELEMENT ADVOCATE: BRIAN GABERMAN
Out of AFRICA There are hundreds of millions of people in America and Europe, and our country is somewhat novel to most of them, this isolated land at the far tip of Africa. Our very existence is something unusual to most of the world. It makes you think, a lot of the time we yearn to visit them or be like them, but we are in fact more unique. We get to live and skate in Africa. That makes us special in a way. See South Africa through the eyes of a tourist, the natural beauty of our country and many of our spot locations are truly incredible. In December I travelled to our neighboring country of Lesotho. I was surprised to learn that the Chinese Government recently
funded a new tar road through the center of the rural mountain Kingdom. The road is amazingly smooth and stretches through incredibly beautiful mountain passes and valleys. I was fortunate to bomb some hills and encounter Basotho herders who live 3000 meters above sea level. People who live a simple life, disconnected from modernity. Skateboarding can take you places, but a lot of the most special places might just be under your nose or just around the corner. Luke
Rachel Kelly
Growing up as a skateboarder in South Africa you spend a lot of time looking overseas, longing to travel to places with supposedly better spots, bigger scenes and places with more ‘opportunity’. In the 90s everyone wanted to go to the USA, in the early 2000s everyone wanted to go to Barcelona. However, in recent years more and more international skateboarders have travelled to South Africa. Local skateboarders have been doing trips around the country, more than ever before, as well as trips to neighboring African countries like Mozambique and Namibia. Africa is opening up, spots are being discovered and people around the world are taking notice.
Bombing a hill past a group of Basotho herders, near Semonkong in Lesotho.
Editor
Photographers 70
Physical Address:
Luke Jackson
Session Magazine, 2nd Floor, Earlgo Building, cnr. Kloof & Park Rd, Gardens, Cape Town, 8001.
info@sessionmag.co.za
Sam Clark, Jansen van Staden, Andre Visser, Werner Lamprecht, Jonathan Pinkhard, Grant Mclachlan, Melissa Williams, Rachel Kelly
Photo EDITOR
CONTRIBUTORS 70
PRINTERS:
Melissa Williams, Brett Shaw, Adrian Henderson, Adrian Day, Dylan Vaughan
Paarl Media - Paarl
info@sessionmag.co.za ADVERTISING
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Clint van der Schyf FOUNDER / Creative
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Made by Zered Bassett
#OnTheMissionSA Cape Town
#OnTheMissionSA presented by Monster Energy hit Cape Town for a week in December. It was our final mission of 2015, following on from the Bloem, KZN and JHB missions which took place earlier in the year. Special guests for this mission were Monster’s Euro team riders Nassim Guammaz and Phil Zwijsen. The week also coincided with The Shred skatepark’s Xmas party and skate contest. Unfortunately, Phil rolled his ankle early in the week and didn’t get to skate very much. But Nassim tore up spots all week and was joined by a host of locals from around the country. Considering we only got some bangers with Nassim, AD Henderson decided to sit down and pick Phil’s brain about what he’s been up to lately. Interview: AD Henderson Photos: Sam Clark, Grant Mclachlan
Sam Clark built this little DIY creation. He was waiting for the right photo before anyone could see it. Joubert makes sure it’s put to good use with a picturesque crooked grind. 12 | sessionmag.co.za
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AD - Hey Phil, were you amped on the mention in a recent episode of SkateLine? Do you watch the show? Yeah, it was pretty funny what he said. I do watch it every once in a while. AD - Were you amped on your WWCF part? The video came out top notch. How long did you film for it? I’m stoked on the whole video and stoked on how Lucas (Fiederling) edited and filmed my part. The first trip I did for it was 3 years ago, in Cape Town. Time flies. AD - Do you still live in Belgium when you’re not on tour? Where have you been that made you feel like you could live there? I have moved to London now, but before that I lived in Belgium and a little bit in Barcelona. There are a lot of places actually… I like Cape Town a lot, so that would be a good one. But I always thought of moving to the UK, at least over the last few years, and I finally did it. Let’s see what it brings.
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AD - You’ve been in SA on a couple of occasions, what’s been one of the highlights so far? Yeah this is the third time now. I love it! The highlight for me is the people I have met. Everyone is really open-minded and welcoming, but there are a lot of things I love about South Africa. AD - You managed to get one photo before the ankle roll on this trip… How’d that happen? I just got off the flight and we went to check a few spots. I didn’t sleep that well on the plane and was sure I was not go-
“
Stuart Walker was in Cape Town for the mission, from Bloemfontein. With pop like his, a front board on the very tall Sea Point benches is a breeze.
Everyone is really open-minded and welcoming, but there are a lot of things I love about South Africa
�
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Phil and Nassim doing the double in Rondebosch.
There are some smooth spots and a lot of rough spots, but I like it. Spots don’t need to be perfect
”
ing to skate the first day because I felt so tired. We got to this downhill spot and I really liked how it looked and tried to skate it for a bit. I did this boneless on this bump. I asked Joubert if he was down to film it in a line and that’s when I rolled my ankle. It didn’t feel that bad but after a few minutes I felt like my week of skating in Cape Town was over - and it was. I didn’t skate the whole week, but I tried to be positive and really enjoyed my time with all the guys. AD - I hear injuries have been a struggle for you during the last little while. What’s been the worst of it? I had an ankle surgery last year and a toe surgery. I didn’t skate for 9 months. The worst has just been that I couldn’t skate and had nothing to get all my energy out. I went to the physio everyday but that didn’t feel like the relief of energy that skating gives you. AD - Are you still on the healthy living vibe? No smoking? I stopped for 6 months after the surgery and then have been back on it. Most of the time it’s a few months on, a few months off. It’s a battle that’s been going on for a long time. I will conquer it! AD - Have you been filming a lot on your VX since you can’t skate? How long have you had it? I’ve had it for a bit over a year. We used to use the one from the skate shop. Then I bought a HD camera and filmed with that for a few years. Now I’ve got this VX1000 that I used to film Jacky. So yeah definitely the last 9 months I’ve been using it quite a lot.
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Whether ‘Off the wall’ or really close to it, either way Nassim sales through a back smith with style. sessionmag.co.za | 17
Evan Binge was also in town, down from JHB. Evan backside flips from the ramp and over the wall, in Stellenbosch. Joubert is always nearby, stacking clips.
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AD - Are you planning to put out another video like Jacky? Yeah I’m kind of done with the next one but it going to be a short clip. And it’s only been filmed in Antwerp, the city I’m from. AD - Would you consider going into videography when you can’t push around so fast anymore? I would like to. I have got a lot of plans for afterwards actually, but I do really like videography. AD - How long have you known Nassim? Where did you guys meet? I met him like 8 or 9 years ago, a few times in Belgium and in Holland for some contests and events. Then we ended up skating for the same companies and we’ve been going on trips together for the last 5 years. AD - When did you first meet Sam Clark and what is your favourite nickname for him?
“
I don’t really have a nickname for him, I just call him Sam. But if I would give him one it would be Caveman
”
I don’t really have a nickname for him, I just call him Sam. But if I would give him one it would be Caveman. I met him a few years ago in Barcelona. He moved into Lucas’ place and I moved in that place at the same time. So we lived together for like two or three months. AD - How does the skate terrain available in SA compare to other countries? Or is the attraction really just the Cape Town beaches? I love the spots! I wish I could stay longer to skate them. I haven’t been to Joburg or any other cities so there’s a lot of new stuff I haven’t even seen. There are some smooth spots and a lot of rough spots, but I like it. Spots don’t need to be perfect. I think that’s the whole thing about skating street. Just skate anything in your path. Good, bad, smooth or rough. It’s hard to compare because some parts are like San Francisco or Belgium, and others are super rough.
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“justskateboarding full-speed creative ”
AD - What was the best spot you guys went to on the trip? I loved the one I was skating when I rolled my ankle. Downhill with a few bumps and gaps. Just going fast and doing some ollies. AD - What surprised you the most in SA this time? I forgot how hot it was. Last time I was here it didn’t feel that crazy. We went to the beach for 30 min and my shoulders were burnt. Also, how cold the water is. AD - Do you mostly speak German and does it help to communicate with Afrikaans people here? I speak Flemish. It’s 99% the same as Dutch. It was really funny for Nassim and I because we understand a lot. Joubert understood almost everything Nassim and I were saying. It sounded funny when Joubert was talking. I think he could learn Dutch real fast and the other way around too. AD - Where are you headed to from here? Any new parts you’re working on?
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I’m heading back to London from here. I’m working on something really different at the moment and it will be out in a few months. I hope people like it. It’s been a lot of work we’ve put into this. But it’s hard to explain without telling you what it is. I thought this project would be done pretty fast but it’s taking a lot of hard work! AD - Who was your personal ‘Skater Of The Year’? Probably Karsten Kleppan. He killed it last year and this year he had the last part in the Nike video (Chronicles 3). I love how he skates and he deserves it. But it’s hard to pick one, a lot of people really go for it. Ishod could have won it again for me. Same for Tiago Lemos, the king of pop! AVE definitely deserved it. It’s hard but if I could choose one person this year, nominated or not, it would be Karsten. AD - Thanks for your time Phil, lastly, what do you want to see more of in skateboarding in 2016? Danny Way dropping in from the Eiffel tower and Tony Hawk doing a 900 while Danny does the drop! Nah, just full-speed creative skateboarding.
Nassim powers a full-speed heelflip over a death drop in Stellenbosch. sessionmag.co.za | 21
VANS ON TOUR
PARA L L E L D.I.Y - Do it yourself, because nobody else will. The whole aim of this journey was for the team to do everything ourselves. Organise it, skate, film, shoot photos and edit it, and we can because we have that skill set. So we put on our party dresses and did a dance for the suits at Vans, and they gave us a solid budget to make a short documentary, which we have called the Vans PARALLEL tour. To be honest we were all pretty gob-smacked that they gave us the wings to do our thing, going solo, so thank you Warren for trusting us and letting us do it our way. I kind of unwillingly became the tour bitch / decision-maker, but hey, shit happens. Words: Brett Shaw Photos: Jansen van Staden
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Nosepick in Muizenberg. Photo - Bradley sessionmag.co.za | 23
After the crew worked hard to dam up the ditch, Trae kicks things off on the West Coast with a frontside blunt.
This was our first ever full-on Vans SA skateboard tour, gutter style. We’ve gone on a few tamer trips to hit some spots on the way to a contest or done some event tours, but never a ‘get in the van and smell each other’s sweat, watch each other bleed and skate 24 hours a day’ sort of tour. This is skateboarding and this is why we do what we do. The open road, endless possibilities, new spots, interesting people and the fire that burns inside us to travel. None of us work for ‘the man’, but it was still a mission to sync everyone’s schedules. It turned out that early November was the best time for everyone, so that’s when we headed out on our first adventure. So the last 3 months we have all been de-
stroying our bodies in the quest to make something that we can all be proud of, something we can look back at one day and go, “shit, that was fun!” Our first mission was to put 2 new guys on the team, so Joubert was our go-to guy because he’s always in the piss-infested gutters, gathering clips for AV. He knew straight away who we needed. It wasn’t easy to get them though. We had to put our party dresses back on so we could dance for Warren & Pat, and it worked because we got 2 first class human beings. Anton Roux and Trae Rice, they really brought some new fire to the van. They seriously kill it on their boards, but more importantly they are intelligent, free thinkers and amazing people to be around, we loved them like brothers right away.
“open road, endless possibilities, new spots, interesting people and the fire that burns inside” 24 | sessionmag.co.za
Anton’s beast mode 50-50 outside a church somewhere in the cape, dodging a chunk of crete to make the roll away.
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Dallas does Kakamas, in the far Northern Cape. Feeble in a picture perfect ditch, amongst the vineyards.
Anton with a front smith down a rail outside somebody’s house, near Edenvale in JHB. Apparently the guys gave the gardener a few bob so that this could go down. You do what you have to when you’re on the road. 26 | sessionmag.co.za
Trae with a big ol’ ollie down on the farm, Kakamas has got ditches for days. sessionmag.co.za | 27
DDD wall jams to fakie on the West Coast.
“Don’t get me wrong, sometimes we want to drown each other in a shallow pool of shark piss” It really is inspiring to be around everyone on the team, sometimes I look around and think, “holy shit this is a wild posse”, it’s an honour to be clocking up miles with these fools. Dallas and I have been skateboarding for 30 years, which is longer than Trae, Anton, Joubert & Jansen have been alive, so that is a trip too. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes we want to drown each other in a shallow pool of shark piss, but we always cheer when our bro lands his trick, 5 times louder than when we land our own tricks. This was my first road trip with Jansen and it felt like I’d known him my whole life. Often he would climb out of the bush, jump off a roof or magically appear with a smile on his face, and we all knew he got the shot he wanted or found a new aloe
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species. It’s also reassuring to have a photographer on the tour that is 10 times better than you, because you know he understands what it takes to get a picture you can be proud of. Plus he always has fresh fruit that he willingly gives away for free. We started getting so much footage that 1 tour turned into 2 tours, which turned into a full-on skateboard documentary that is going to be released at the end of February. 3 months is not a long time but everyone has come through with a full part, which is killer. That’s why we went to Durban & JHB, so that we could represent all the scenes and get some clips of our extended skate family.
Anton gaps out to noseslide outside another church, somewhere in the cape. Apparently this was fourth go, with an irate bystander shouting at him to leave. He bagged the goods and bolted. sessionmag.co.za | 29
Joubert feebles on Karoo crete. De Aar, hot as hell since 1902. 30 | sessionmag.co.za
“He quietly puts his camera in his bag, does some stretches, warms up a little and then lands the gnarliest thing you’ve ever seen” sessionmag.co.za | 31
Anton Roux, frontside wall jam in KZN - Photo Jansen van staden 32 | sessionmag.co.za
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Joubert is one of my favourite skateboarders. He quietly puts his camera in his bag, does some stretches, warms up a little and then lands the gnarliest thing you’ve ever seen. He then gets his camera back out the bag and starts filming again. ‘Huishond’ is our quality controller, he’s the first guy to ‘high 5’ you or help you up off the ground when it feels like your bum hole has fallen off. We all live in a similar headspace so it feels good to be around ‘tweakers’. When we went up north (Northern Cape) we took Steak with us, purely because I have known that cat for 20 years and you need to have solid sailors on board when you head out. He made some rad MP3 CD mix tapes that were like musical ‘lucky packets’, you never knew if your favourite song was coming next, and it usually was. Steak also lived in this hippy town as a chef for a few years, so we ate, drank and reminisced about the good old days when we skated everywhere, stole wood to build
“When Dallas (the original mad man) tells someone to take it easy, you know it’s gnarly” Dallas is a crafty character and handles an awkward rock n roll on one of his creations in KZN.
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Anton crooks at the crack of dawn, on the east side of JHB.
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Joubert switch frontside flips into a downtown JHB cheese grater.
“Anton’s approach to huge obstacles is one to live your life by - he looks at it, walks down it, looks at it again and then does it” renegade skate parks, all the forgotten faces from our childhoods and leaving on a whim to London. I am proud to call the man my friend and even though it’s hard to make much sense of the chaos when you travel, it was killer having Steak and everyone was psyched on him being there. Even though Steak wasn’t so stoked when Dallas stole his bed mat in the dead of the night. Oh yeah and we also did an article for Steak’s magazine ‘THE LAKE’ which I cant wait to see. DDD (Triple D) also came with us up north, he used to be called ‘Double Dave’ but then a Columbian swan changed all that and now he goes by DDD, ‘Dangerous Double Dave’ or Sk8Shades, a master craftsman and one of my favourite human beings on God’s (whatever god you believe) green Earth. Triple is a must
if you’re going to hit gnarly ditches, you can’t take a rinky dink skater into the unknown, you need somebody who is not afraid to stop their own bleeding with a stranger’s sweaty boxer shorts. Anton missed out on 5 days up north because he has a job installing air conditioners and he used up all his leave for the SESSION mission to Mozambique. Anton’s approach to huge obstacles is one to live your life by - he looks at it, walks down it, looks at it again and then does it. Mind blowing! When Dallas (the original mad man) tells someone to take it easy, you know it’s gnarly. Anton is one of the gnarliest skaters out there, and he brought his henchman AD ‘watch out I’m going to boneless it’ Henderson along too, and we fed off of their energy.
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“Trae is a part of the new breed of all terrain skaters, he will hit up anything� 38 | sessionmag.co.za
After hard graft from the whole crew to clear the run-up, Trae makes it count at some ditch that you’d love to skate but will probably never be able to find. sessionmag.co.za | 39
Anton takes the road less travelled at this infamous Durban handrail spot, in fact he tackles a whole different rail. The dude is straight up gnar! 40 | sessionmag.co.za
Brett Shaw with a mean frontside floater over the channel in a Durban backyard beaut. Don’t mess with him, he’s been banging these since before you were born.
On day 8 of a tour it feels like Martians have taken you to their space ship and filled your legs with lead. It gave me hope when Trae came up to me and asked if my legs were also sore, I looked at him and said, “dude are you kidding, I can barely walk!” Especially after a 10cm thorn went balls deep into my calf muscle at that Satan pool in Upington. At some stage it becomes about survival, there should be a manual for dudes who want to get sponsored, on how to survive a 10-day tour, because if you come out of the gates too fast then you’re going to burn out by day 7. Back to that pool in Upington, there’s some weird voodoo stuff going down there, we’ve been there twice and both times really weird stuff has gone down. The first time the whole fan and radiator fell out
of our rental car and the second time we got attacked by wasps, thank god Trae was there because he was the wasps’ favourite by far. Trae is a part of the new breed of all terrain skaters, he will hit up anything and he got the ender for the movie in the gnarliest ditch ever, in the dark! It doesn’t get better than that. Big rails, pools, ditches, stairs, Jersey barriers and even a mountain bike dirt track, we have all terrain covered, so we cant wait to share it with you. Everywhere we went our skate brothers embraced us and we loved it. We can’t wait to see you all at the premiere. Then it’s time to hit the road again! Thank you skateboarding for putting us on this path.
“At some stage it becomes about survival, there should be a manual for dudes who want to get sponsored, on how to survive a 10-day tour” sessionmag.co.za | 41
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PUMPED & TANKED The RVCA South Africa Tour Words: Melissa Williams Photos: Sam Clark It’s a perfect summer’s evening in Cape Town. It’s a Monday. The deadline for this article was last Friday. Everyone’s gone skating tonight and I would have gone too except Luke Jackson’s such a nice guy, there’s no way I can bail on him and miss the deadline again. The cursor has been blinking on my white screen for over an hour now, I know this because I’ve been pointlessly ‘Whatsapping’ people hoping that some spark of genius will strike me while I wait. Adrian Day suggests that I start where I’m at, and here we are… The RVCA South Africa Tour actually took place as far back as August 2015. The reason for the wait is that Thrasher had to release the article first, which they did. On the tour we spent about 10 days going through Joburg, Durban and Cape Town with Greyson Fletcher, Josh Harmony, Kevin “Spanky” Long, Julian Davidson and Aidan Campbell from the RVCA USA Team. Along with them was Team Manager, Austin Stephens, photographers Brandon Jensen (RVCA) and David Broach (Thrasher), as well as Thrasher filmer Dan Stolling. The local gang was Yann Horowitz, Khulu Dlamini, Adrian Day, Sam Clark and myself. It was a most excellent adventure. We did everything you could ever dream of in just those 10 days. We skated bowls and pools and rails and banks and ledges, alongside ghettos and oceans and mountains, with pros and bros and hookers and gangsters and kids and babies and hobos. We got threatened with a gun and we fed apples to elephants. Greyson broke a handrail with his back and Brandon broke a mugger’s face with his fist. We braaied in a volcano and drank beer everywhere. We got pumped, we got tanked and we listened to Kwaito and Slayer. Everyone got tattoos and we drove for many hours in a van. It was a great honour to show these incredible people our country and our culture, and a true inspiration to see them rip up our streets. Adrian Day and I went through the photos together and recalled what went down…
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“You definitely can’t hit that thing without a tow-in.” Adrian: So this is Aidan showing his transition skills at that Soweto Amphitheatre. Mel: Yeah this session was super ridiculous. Yann found a local dude with a motorbike as we got there and offered him some cash to tow everyone in. Adrian: You definitely can’t hit that thing without a tow-in. Greyson did a frontside ollie and I think he did a one-footer over it. Aidan did a back wallride with no grab and Yann fucked it up probably harder than anyone. I guess Thrasher has those photos and we’ll just have to wait and see what the story is. Mel: I don’t think a photo can really tell the story of what happened that day. I can’t wait to see the footage and see the speed and everything. Adrian: I’ve got the best clip of it actually, on my phone haha. Mel: So everyone can just Whatsapp Adrian for the clip haha. Adrian: Follow me on Insta!
Mel
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Adrian: So this is Aidan at Sandton City. This guy blew my mind actually. I wasn’t aware of how good he is and then he killed every spot. Then I looked at his video parts and they are fucking beyond good. Mel: He skated tranny and street super well. Adrian: Yeah, he kills everything. And he’s super down to earth and chilled, a super nice kid.
“I looked at his video parts and they are fucking beyond good” 46 | sessionmag.co.za
MEL: Right after Aidan smithed the ledge we took a drive up to the roof and Yann smashed this frontside 50-50 backside out.
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Mel
Mel: This for me was crazy. At this stage Spanky had like a serious migraine for like 3 days straight or longer and he was still skating super hard. Adrian: I’ve got a photo of the foot bruise he had too, which was insane. Mel: And he was the same as Josh Harmony, just didn’t give up. Like every single spot we went to he tried something and shredded. This one in particular, I remember every time he put this down he would just have to like lay down and hold his head because it was just pounding and then he would just get up and try it again. Adrian: Yeah man, Spanky is quite an inspiring dude actually. Just off the skateboard too I think. I mean he turned his shit around, his career was done and he’s back and he fuckin’ works it man. He’s just the coolest fuckin’ dude really. Mel: Totally. Adrian: Yeah that frontside air, I mean people go to that pool but it’s gnarly, it’s hard to skate. It’s super tight. And by the way he also frontside tailblocked in there. But that was just before that prick climbed over the wall and pointed a gun at us, haha. Mel: Haha, we all thought we were going to die.
“He’s just the coolest fuckin’ dude really”
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“No one really understands how gnarly this dude actually is”
Mel: What do you call that trick these days? Adrian: It’s just a frontside one-foot. Mel: Ollie North? Adrian: Ollie North is from fuckin’ TV games man, haha. That’s his signature I suppose, but god damn it you only need one trick if you can do it like that. Mel: There’s that clip on the extras of the latest AV, where he does that trick barefoot and just cruises. Adrian: If you watch the way he does frontside ollies there’s just a couple of dudes who can do them like that. This dude might not have the biggest bag of tricks but what he has he does better than anyone else and no one really understands how gnarly this dude actually is on the street as well. He might not be getting tech but that feeble to 50-50 he was trying on that rail in Durban, I’ve never seen something as gnarly as that in my whole life I don’t think. It’s a death rail, you could die!
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“a true inspiration to see them rip up our streets�
Mel: This spot in Durban was super fun because there were all these school kids there playing with their spinning tops and we all played football together, and they were pretty amazed at the skateboarding. A couple of them had boards but with like missing wheels and stuff, haha. Adrian: Yeah they were stoked. And Aidan also did a back smith, right after this backlip from Julian.
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Mel: So this was the other side of that wallride spot in Soweto, the same building. Adrian: Yeah it was a crazy spot. A whole bunch of shit went down here. Spanky’s back 360 into the bank, Julian’s kickflip and this insane back tail from Yann. 54 | sessionmag.co.za
“we did everything you could ever dream of in just those 10 days� sessionmag.co.za | 55
Pieter Retief, no-comply transfer.
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Adidas in Johannesburg Matchcourt
Photos: Jonathan Pinkhard
Yann Horowitz front board for the kids.
adidas Skateboarding releases the new Matchcourt, a fresh take on technical skateboarding footwear. A reimagined design inspired by the classic 1975 Nizza, the Matchcourt is a court-style silhouette redesigned and engineered for skateboarding. The original Nizza rubber-toe, high-top and low-profile design proved attractive to skateboarders searching for skateable shoes in the 70s. World-renowned artist and pro skateboarding icon Mark “Gonz” Gonzales, skated the Nizza in the 80s. Today, adidas Skateboarding athletes Na-Kel Smith and next generation skateboarders are picking up on the movement and classic styling of the Matchcourt sneaker. The new Matchcourt features adidas classic rubber-toe shoe design with updated details to improve comfort, grip and durability. The classic profile, vulcanized-sole and rubber-toe cap makes the Matchcourt an ideal addition to any sneaker collection including skateboarders and sneaker enthusiasts alike. In December, adidas RSA’s Yann Horowitz and Pieter Retief joined Young & Lazy’s Anees Petersen and Abduragmaan Fagodien on the streets of Johannesburg to try out the new Matchcourt.
57 | sessionmag.co.za
closet envY Threads for shred
DC / munCha hat
ELEmENT / Cap burgundy
ELEmENT
VANS / simiCh mountain edition
ELEmENT / SOCKS
ELEmENT
VANS / Loring sweat
ELEmENT / baCkpaCk
VANS / authentiC skate paCk
ELEmENT / GREYSON FLETCHER
ELEmENT/ Cargo shorts
VANS / CLassiC Logo fiLL
PRoduct Review
eTNieS mARANA Local Cape Town up-and-comer Christopher Walters received a pair of the Etnies Marana and took them out on the streets for a test run.
Christopher’s thoughts: The first thing that really stands out is the comfort of the Marana. They are well padded, particularly along the sides of your feet. They are also really durable. The toe cap gives it extra strength to prevent erosion. Comfort and durability, that’s what you want from skate shoes.
58 | sessionmag.co.za
Chris frontside noseslides in downtown Cape Town. Photo - Werner Lamprecht.
Need more info on this product email info@sessionmag.co.za
VANS / aV CLassiC hi
CONVeRSe / one star pro
DC / kaLis Lite
adidas / BUSENITZ PURE BOOST
ETNIES / MARANA XT
ES / saL
VANS / Chima pro
CONVeRSe / one star pro
DC / mikey tayLor
adidas / matChCourt
ETNIES / MARANA XT
ES / sesLa
VANS/ CroCkett pro
CONVeRSe / one star pro
DC / eVan smith
adidas / matChCourt
emeRiCA / reynoLds Low VuLC
ES / swift
VANS / STYLE 112
CONVeRSe / one star pro
DC / LYNX VULC MID
adidas / matChCourt
ES / aCCeL sLim
ES / aCCeL sQ
59 | sessionmag.co.za
I Am
krige Venter
seQuenCe: andre Visser words: dyLan Vaughan
Making a difficult spot look easy. Flip back tail in Stellenbosch.
There was a period last year when I would get home from work at nine o’clock most evenings, and I would find Krige sitting in my lounge, smoking a cigarette and telling me we need to go skate. Don’t get me wrong, we all need a friend like this. But this went on for a good month and then one night I had to just say no, because I was too tired. He was kind of bummed, put his board in his car and went for a half an hour jog on the beach.
60 | sessionmag.co.za
The man cannot sit still. And now that I have gotten used to his ridiculous routine, he is going to work in Shanghai, a month from now. What an asshole. But all jokes aside, watch out for Krige. He is on a mission to drop into your mom’s A-frame holiday house, and then drain her pool and rip it a new one. Good luck on your travels my friend, and you best be back soon!
SWITCH BACKSIDE HEELFLIP | PHOTO: OLIVER BARTON
BUILT BY SKATEBOARDING CHRIS JOSLIN MARANA XT
etnies.com
|
@etniesskateboarding
Jansen Van Staden LegionSessionAd 16-11-24.indd 2
2015/11/18 8:17 AM
Session is now more accessible than ever and it’s 100% FREE! Now online at www.sessionmag.co.za • Watch local and international skate videos • Read the current issue as it releases • View stockists • Read back issues
62 | sessionmag.co.za
DEALER ENQUIRIES: 021 709 0084 - Available at stockists nationwide
I NTROD U CI NG
STYLE 112 PRO ULTRACUSH™ HD IMPACT CUSHIONING W I T H D UR A CA P ™ D UR A B I LI T Y
V A N S .C OM /S KAT E