a brief glance_Vans Spring Classic 2015

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Photos_Davide Biondani_ Words_Guido Bendotti.

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EDITOR and CONCEPT Davide Biondani.

(davide@abriefglance.com) ASSOCIATE EDITOR Guido Bendotti.

ASSISTANT EDITOR Andrew Zolin.

TRANSLATIONS Jonathan Levin.

PHOTOGRAPHY Davide Biondani.

DESIGN

Fake Donkey Lab.

www.abriefglance.com

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COVER: Kalle Berglind // Invert_

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Grant Taylor_ fs air.

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Riccione_2015

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the Vans Spring Classic_2015 I remember a song that goes: “The kids are alright,” and this edition of the Vans Spring Classic was the perfect example of this.

Never before like during this edition was there a whole new generation of little big skateboarders

that are slowly taking transition skateboarding into their own hands with style, control, and an embarassing quantity of tricks.

Vans organized everything in a perfect manner, from the ramp, to the concerts, to the catering, all

with a sense of hospitality and organization that is truly incredible, and the skaters surely didn’t waste any time: they skated!! There was no time to act cool, these guys wanted to skate!

After the Ligurian coast and the Naples seaside, the Spring Classic changed venue and landed in one of the European vacation meccas: Riccione.

For those of you who don’t know, for decades Riccione has been the destination of choice to go on

vacation for Italians and Europeans, and despite a sea that is not so Hawaiian-looking, it has turned into a sort of a Disneyland for families, so you can find playing grounds with swimming pools, to discos open until 8 in the morning.

And then if Grant Taylor is also present...

Yeah, you read correctly, everybody’s favorite skater (including Andrew Reynold’s) skated both Saturday and Sunday trying to stay within the confines of the ramp. I had never seen him skate with my

own two eyes before, but I understood immediately that he skates on a whole other level. The speed, the power, the control, he pushes everything to the limit. And those tweaked bs airs... thanks Grant.

Ross McGouran_ fs lien air. a brief glance

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Aurelien Giraud_ fs air.

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Jacopo Carozzi_ fs stale fish.

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Is Jacopo Carozzi a street skater? No, he’s a skater that skates everything at the highest level, and

over the past few years he’s broadened his skills on trannies. In Riccione, before hurting himself, he showed everyody, with naturalness, what it means to have talent and imagination in skateboarding, practically only skating the highest trannies with an incredible quantity of tricks, mostly truck and

tail bashes, going higher than most and always with a smile on his face. Mine is just an assumption, but if he hadn’t hurt himself, I think he might have had a chance of winning. The winner, Aurelien

Giraud, skates better and better every year. He has an unbelievable power and control, and a perfect kickflip. For such a young kid to mix big airs and tech lip tricks is definitely good for the spirits.

Martino Cattaneo added dope new tricks to his runs, Robin Bollian has a power that makes no sense at all, but my favorite was Kalle Berglind, he is the future of skateboarding. He’s young, has a loose style, and interprets trannies in an absurd manner. His style is priceless: I don’t personally like ma-

donna to tails, you see too many of them these days, and done with little style. But Kalle does them how they’re supposed to be done, and he’s only like 16 years old. He was skating under the extreme heat as soon as the ramp opened.

Ivan Federico and Ale Mazzara (10 years old) just came back from the US where they skated the

Vans Combi Pool. You can count on Ivan when it comes to skateboarding, he has already traveled

all over the world to skate contests. Every year his style and trick list gets better and better. Ale is 10 years old and skates vert in such an incredible way not only for a kid his age... fakie 720 at 10 years old?!

Honor roll for Alex Halford that despite wearing a vest under a 40°C sun flaunted his style and unconventional tricks.

So these are the reasons why the Spring Classic actually works: build a perfect and diverse ramp on a beach with music, kids that are hyped and know how to skate, and you are guaranteed a real performance. There’s no need for fireworks.

SKATEBOARDING IS ENOUGH!!

Thanks Vans.

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Alex Hallford_ lien to tail.

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Ivan Federico_ Madonna to tail. a brief glance

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Ross McGouran // Vans Professional Skateboarder_

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We never interviewed you? Why is that?

Because Davide doesn’t love me any more, ha ha ha!

The first time you traveled outside of Europe, it was with Davide, right?

I was 17, and it was to Australia.

It’s been many years that you’ve been skating, and that we’ve been seeing you around, but you’re young!

I’m 27, and I feel like an old man, hahaha. It’s been ten years that I’ve been hanging out in the skateboard scene, and I usually always see the same people, so it seems like a long time!

But do you still have fun skating contests?

Skateboarding never feels like it’s a job. Jobs suck, skateboarding is more fun now than it’s ever been. I fuckin’ love it, and I like skating in contests, so it’s never like a job, really.

You skated at all the Spring Classic editions… that’s 7 editions, what do you think about the evolution of the event?

Before the Vans Spring Classic, I went to some contests in Ravenna, the Slam Trick in the mid 2000’s, and it was amazing! The Spring Classic has to be on the beach, so I enjoyed the Varazze editions... I didn’t really like Napoli, because there was no beach. We were on the seaside, but you couldn’t swim. This place is really cool, it’s a holiday spot, so it’s perfect!

Why do English guys skate so well on miniramps? They really know how to skate transitions!

The weather, you know. In England the weather sucks, so a lot of the time you find yourself indoors, skating some miniramp ‘cause it’s the best thing you can build if you have a

small place. I grew up skating miniramps, and I love skating transitions, and there’s a lot of people that love it in England, so there’s a good tradition of miniramp skaters up there.

I remember a session in Varazze, there were like 6 English skaters skating the miniramp at the same time, kind of aggressively, but you skated so well that it was spectacular!

It’s the English way man, we’re aggressive, hahaha! I was feeling comfortable even if I was skating a miniramp full speed with a lot of other guys. They know how to skate, so I was able to put down my tricks.

Are you still in London? I know you were in Barcelona for some time. Why did you move back?

The main reason why I moved to Barcelona is because

London is so fucking expensive if you just skate. Barcelona was the easiest option: cheap, good weather, good spots. The perfect place! But after a couple of years I needed to go back home. I prefer living in London, it’s my home.

You’re always on the road anyway!

Four or five months a year I’m on the road. It used to be more, but now I have to settle down... you know, I have a dog, hahaha.

Do you skate more on tour or when you’re at home?

This a tough one… well... at home I skate and chill with my friends. On tour I skate way more. On tour you find yourself skating for like 10 hours a day... at home you skate just a couple of hours, maybe at some easy spot, it’s more relaxed.

You’ve traveled all around the world...

My favorite place, the best place I’ve visited is New Zealand, absolutely! I loved it so much. Crazy place, good things to skate, good nature, good cities, incredible scenery, and very few people.

How do you see yourself 10 years down the road?

It’s easy. I’ll be in New Zealand, in the countryside with a pool to skate, growing some veggies, some sheep, and raising some kids.

It is hard to live from skateboarding, but have you ever had to do something else to get the money to live?

Hahaha, a lot of times you have to hustle to survive. To be honest with you, the way I make money for a living is by luck, but it’s far away from skateboarding. You know, it’s skateboarding but it’s different. I did two TV adverts with some skateboarding in it (as cheesy as it sounds), but it was good money. You sell stuff, you teach skateboarding to the kids, you do the skate-school, it’s good money. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.

Don’t you think you guys must make a Vans Europe video after Propeller?

ABSOFUCKINLUTELY! Tell Alexis and Danny to do it. I’m ready!!! Propeller was obviously focused on the USA team, but Vans has a big family all around Europe, Australia, South America and so on...

Do you feel proud to skate for Vans?

Yeah man, it’s the original brand, the original shoe. It’s super cool to ride for Vans, I don’t wanna ride for anyone else.

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_ gap to fs smith grind.

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_ gap to fs lip_

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Ross McGouran_ bs smith to pop over the volcano.

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Gummy_ fs ollie tailgrab with the right tee. a brief glance

Lucio Pergola // Marketing Manager at Vans Italy _

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After so many editions in Varazze, and another in Naples, why did you choose Riccione for this year’s edition?

Because both historically as a location and available spaces it is one of the most characteristic and most suitable cities to host an event of this magnitude in Italy.

Let me also add that we had a really good treatment by the municipality.

How many months of work are necessary to organize an event so big?

At least 5 or 6 months. What really took so long was dealing with the bureaucracy, organization, and the logistical/structural side of things, like building the ramp, the bleachers, the stage, etc... months of hard work for a three-day event, but it was definitely worth it.

You’ve been following the event for many years now, how have you seen it evolve?

I think it is an event that has its own scope and respectability, even at a European level. Fortunately, from 2009 onwards we were able to add something new every year to make it better. That’s what we aim at doing, make it better every year.

What are your stress levels like?

I’m here at the beach in Riccione under the sun... way better than being in my office in Milano!

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Ale Mazzara_ wrap around.

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Grant Taylor_ bs ollie.

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Martino Cattaneo // Vans rider & 2014’s winner_

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Last year you won the Spring Classic in Naples, do you feel the pressure on you this year?

Yeah, a little bit. It’s a perfect day and it’s gonna be a hot session.

Did you expect to win last year?

At first, not at all, then I qualified first place, so I started thinking that if I just stayed on my board I could get in the first three places because I felt in shape. When I got first place I swear I really didn’t expect it, even though after the qualifications I didn’t practice at all, I just skated my runs. That surely had its influence because the other guys were tired during the finals, while I still had a lot of energy.

Do you like the ramp this year?

It’s almost the same as last year, but there are more possible lines and it gets less congested during the jams. It works better, there’s more continuity.

How old are you?

I’m 21... I ain’t 20 no more... hahahaha!

You skate differently from everybody else, and apart from the classic tricks you do lots of original variations of handplants and footplants, like the fs boneless to invert. Did you see the guy with the board on his head?

Hahaha he got inspired by the Beers, Bowls, and Barneys video that came out years ago. In the final credits there’s this guy that does a boneless invert to header that inspired me a lot.

You’re capable of skating normally and doing simpler tricks and still skating well.

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Yeah, but that’s so boring. I’ve skated so many rails and ledges, and it’s always the same tricks. I get bored trying to do classic tricks. I tried to find a direction where I could progress and have fun without having to do the same tricks but on bigger obstacles.

The bowl in Lugano isn’t exactly perfect.

Okay, it’s good for lines, but the difficult thing is getting enough speed. I see it when people from out of town come to skate, it takes them a while to understand the lines and how to keep the speed constant. You do the first trick full speed and then you have to struggle for the other tricks. The Lugano workmen did a good job building the bowl, but obviously they had no idea about lines and continuity.

Does not having a perfect park help you at all in different situations? Do you adapt better to situations?

I notice it particularly so with airs. When I find a

quarter pipe that launches you perfectly, I do airs effortlessly because I learned them on transitions where you have to ollie to get air. So getting used to skating there, you get used to skating everything even though you do have some problems sometimes.

For example, the coping in Lugano is flat, so it is almost impossible to hang up, but if you try and do a disaster on a regular pool coping and don’t do it perfectly by pushing down on your nose you’ll practically kill yourself. I’d also like to skate larger ramps or that have more vert... in Lugano I skate this old cement vert with a destroyed coping and two holes you have to know really well otherwise you die.

_ handplant transfer. a brief glance

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_ nosegrind tailgrab . a brief glance

Is that vert ramp still there? I skated it like a thousand years ago.

Yes, and it can be deadly if you don’t know it well.

Last year you went to the US to skate?

I got put on Van Doren Invitational list, you know, if someone didn’t show up I could go. In the end I didn’t do the contest but I did skate during the practice and since I was there I skated some pools in California that I had never skated... that’s the kind of stuff I want to skate.

You’re young but you’re already working.

I finished working yesterday for my uncle as a warehouse worker, I saved up some money and now I plan on taking a whole year off just to be able to skate.

Are you able to make a living from skateboarding?

Well, it’s difficult. Let’s say I manage to get by if I do some jobs here and there and save up money to complement the little money I make from skateboarding, like contests and stuff. Switzerland is an expensive place so living just from skateboarding would be difficult in any case.

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If you really work hard, do you think you could live just from skateboarding?

That’s what I’m aiming at, hopefully. I don’t wanna make millions, I don’t care about becoming rich, but I would like to skate full-time and be able to live from that. Working and skating is difficult. If I work all day, all I really wanna do is lie down on the couch, and I don’t feel like stretching and going skating. Having had a couple injuries I have to keep in shape, I have to work on my body, I can’t just randomly go out and skate. So I go running, and swimming at the pool, you know, trying to keep my body elastic so I’m more self-confident when I skate.

If I work all day I don’t have the time to skate and keep in shape to be able to skate well.

How you doin’ with women?

Dude, we’re in Riccione!!

Are you gonna party tonight or are you more concentrated on the contest?

I’ll decide later on, hahaha. No, but seriously, I’m gonna party a little bit, then go to sleep because I do wanna skate tomorrow.

_ gap to smith grind transfer.

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Aaron Buzas_ stale fish.

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Pat McClain_ tail block.

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Luca Basilico // Judge _

How many Spring Classics have you judged?

Maybe... five??

And how have you seen the event evolve over the years?

Basically as the ramp gets bigger and bigger more lines are possible and there are more possibilities, the number of tricks also grows.

Is there anyone who impressed you?

The cool thing is that there are many skaters who have attended various editions, they started as kids and are now starting to do adult tricks, skating better and better. There are also always new skaters as well, like that Swedish kid, Svetzon something.

He arrived yesterday and is the guy who impressed me the most, and I’m sure he’ll end up in the finals (and he did).

Do you think an event like this can help skateboarding?

Obviously, even just for the fact that there are a lot of new Italian kids participating. These are not the old Italian tranny skaters, they are kids that kill it on transitions and possess an excellent level of skating.

For sure, confronting themselves with non-Italian skaters with a high level of skateboarding will help them better understand how to approach a ramp.

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Do you think a street contest is missing?

No way! There is no shortage of street contests in Italy or Europe.

Is it difficult to judge an event like this?

To tell you the truth: no. Judging a street contest is more mathematical, you go nuts trying to judge every single trick and there is less space to interpret how a skater really skates and approaches the course, how he does it, and whether he’s complete, etc. In this type of contest the individual tricks are much less important, and you can actually enjoy each individual skater, understand their personal view and how they interpret the ramp, their style, etc.It’s more relaxed.

How’s the new location: Riccione? You’ve been both to Varazze and Naples...

It was the logical evolution of things. There was nothing missing in Varazze, but here there is sufficient space to do things the best way possible, and host the event in one location. We are just outside the city of Riccione, so there are also many less problems of public order and peaceful coexistence with the local population.

You’re dressed terribly, did you know that?

Yes, I know.

Icaro Nardi_ bs smith grind. a brief glance

Ale Leoncini // Ignoramps, ramp builder_

You are from Varazze, where the Spring Classic was born, do you remember how the first edition came about?

One day, while talking with a guy who used to skate years earlier and now worked in the city council, he asked us if it was possible to organize something having to do with skateboarding. Branka and I went to a meeting with the council to better understand what their available resources and intentions were.

They wanted to organize a contest or demo in the parking lot of the local sports arena. We convinced them that if they wanted to promote the tourist resort the event would’ve had to take place as close as possible to the sea and not in some random parking lot. We immediately got things going with Pomo (Vans country manager for Italy at the time), and Momba (Vans marketing manager at the time) who were enthusiastic about the idea, and since we had already been organizing the Savona Slammah (historic street contest, of which two editions took place in Varazze in 2000 and 2001), we thought it was a good idea to organize a miniramp contest, something which was missing in Italy at the time, at least at a certain level. To us, the best period to organize such an event was the middle of May, first of all because we didn’t want to schedule it at the same time as other events, and secondly, to give the warm season a good kick-off. The name Spring Classic comes from the season in which it is held, and for the presence of one of the most famous surf spots in Italy, “La Secca”, which on epic days is called “Varazze Classic”, and also for the Vans “Classic” shoe model of course.

With the essential support from Vans (without

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which nothing would’ve ever been done), the Varazze Surf Shop, and the locals, we were able to organize the whole shebang!

Beginning with the first miniramp, how did it all evolve?

The first Spring Classic miniramp was pre-assembled with pre-curved boards and beams, it was 15 meters wide with an extension, a rail, and the legendary “Igno-fungo” (the wooden hydrant that has been present for so many years). We finished welding the last piece at 10 O’ clock the night before the event. We went to the then still empty parking lot where Lucio Pergola and Ale Foglia were waiting for us for the branding of the miniramp. I can’t explain the look on their faces when they realized that the ramp was not in the spot it was supposed to be! Twelve hours later it was completed just in time for the commission. It was very simple but fast and fun. The following year it grew to a width of 21 meters and two more extensions. From the third year onwards we moved from the parking lot to the Secca Beach so as to have room both for the ramp and the bleachers. At this point the ramp started twisting and turning, and hips and corners started appearing, so to speak. The fifth year we gave up on the preassembled ramp and decided to build it like a proper ramp should be built. This certainly made building it longer but gave us more freedom without being constrained by pre-assembled modules. We added the spine and from there all the variations that came later: the spine-polejam, double hip, and this year’s “boob.”

Kelle Berglind_ madonna.

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Rob Smith_crailtap.

How many people and months are necessary to build a ramp of this size, and what are the problems you had to face?

We began working on the ramp around mid-April, cutting the missing wooden ribs, preparing the corners, and the mushroom in front of the spine. At first it was two of us, Branka and I, and then Alex Cageggi joined us. Then Biondo and Machete gave us a hand for the final on-site construction.

There were problems as there always are when building such structures, but we always manage to solve them in some way.

What would you have done differently, and what would you like to add next year if you had complete carte blanche?

Actually we already have complete freedom to do

what we want. We are the ones to supply 3 or 4 different sketches that differ in shape and cost, and Vans then decides which is the most appropriate.

I already have lots of ideas for next year’s ramp, and I’m sure we’ll completely revolutionize it... stay tuned!

Of all the editions and all the tricks you’ve seen, what impressed you the most?

Seven editions are a lot! When Stefano Brancalion was forced to stop Jeff Grosso from skating the ramp due to the impending deadline; seeing skaters that were children the first time round they participated, growing in every sense of the word and even ending up winning the contest like Aurelien Giraud this year.

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Pstone & the Anti Hero team working on a private hippy jump sesh.

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Jacopo Carozzi_ fs kickflip to fs lip.

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Vincent Matheron_ kickflip to bs lip_

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Grant Taylor_ senseless fs ollie tailgrab.

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