a brief glance issue_53

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issue

Nothing in Between [ pag. 42 ] / A Japanese Visual Experience [ pag. 54 ] / Uè - NB Numeric in Naples [ pag. 70 ]

Year IX a brief glance skateboard mag / Fragments [ pag. 24] / Ollie Lock & Leo Sharp [ pag. 32]

©2018 Vans, Inc.

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Welcome

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www.abriefglance.com

JAKE HAYES | TRE FLIP

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Ale Benedetti / Fs ollie transfer Photo: Davide Biondani [Canon] Naples [Italy]

very time I skate at the Centro Direzionale I see these diamond pattern metal sheets propped against some cement blocks that are used like banks or kickers to ollie out of. They’re rough and rusty, heavy but very stylish.

They look cool in photographs. I’ve always wondered whether it would be possible to do a transfer from block to block. On the very last day of a eight days mission to Naples I asked Ale if he was down to try something at this spot… he covered the gap with a sick fs ollie that took me straight back to 1996. One secondo after shooting the photo I already knew it would have been on

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the cover of the mag. db

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BACKSIDE

WWW.CARHARTT-WIP.COM

LIPSLIDE

PICTURE : MAXIME VERRET

RÉMY

TAVEIRA

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CONTENTS

Fragments Ollie Lock & Leo Sharp Nothing in Between A Japanese Visual Experience Uè - NB Numeric in Naples [pag. 24]

[pag. 32]

[pag. 54]

a brief glance

[pag. 70]

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[pag. 42]

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EDITOR & CONCEPT_ Davide Biondani. {davide@abriefglance.com} ASSOCIATE EDITOR_ Guido Bendotti. {guido@abriefglance.com} ASSISTANT EDITOR_ Andrew Zolin.

TRANSLATIONS_ Jonathan Levin.

PHOTOGRAPHERS_ Leo Sharp, Dennis Scholz, Sebastiano Bartoloni, Alex Bernhart, Davide Biondani.

CONTRIBUTORS_ Francesco Paolo, Chielli, Mario Torre, Mark Baines, Fabio Montagner.

Issue 53

KEEP SKATEBOARDING UNCOOL

DESIGN_ M. Bod Ciceri {Question Mark, ink!#?} GET ALL THE INFO at: info@abriefglance.com

a brief glance skateboard mag is a bulletin published by Fake Donkey Skateboard asd.

No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of the publisher.

All rights reserved.

a brief glance

Thanks to Canon Italia for the support.

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Yes, from now on a brief glance skatebaoardmag will be (also) on paper and you’ll find it every two months at finest skateshops around Europe.

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Lucien Genand ..................................... Geneva Damian Engl ....................................... Tenerife Danny Galli ........................................... Verona Hugo Boserup ................................. Manchester

Lucien Genand

Fs crooks

Geneva

[ Switzerland ]

Photo

Sebba Bartoloni

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Photo Alex Bernhart

Alex Knoll / Wallride Tenerife, Spain

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Photo Davide Biondani [Canon]

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Danny Galli / Ollie transfer fs grab Verona, Italy

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Photo Reece Leung

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Hugo Boserup / Roof bash Manchester, UK

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Photography. Leo Sharp

The satisfying part for me was just making things for myself and doing it from my room and seeing the finished thing in front of me.

But obviously now it’s great if someone orders something or people like things I’ve made. It gives me more of a reason to do it if people have asked me for stuff and I enjoy doing it so it goes round in a nice circle.

How long does making something take?

Leo asking Ollie questions

It really depends on what frame of mind I am in when I get home and start. Sometimes if I am really focused and have a lot to do I can make 3 or 4 t-shirts in an hour, other times if I only have 1 thing to make I will spend a little longer on it and have some beers and make an evening out of it.

The actual embroidery process isn’t the long part, it is the prepping beforehand and the finishing touches that take the longest for me.

So where did your interest in embroidery come from?

I think it came from working in a shop, spending a lot of the time looking at clothing and products. I just became interested in how it was made: the process of making clothing and the different styles of embroidery. I looked into getting a machine that I could use at home. I found a good deal on Gumtree on a machine I had been researching for a while.

I could pick it up the next day, so I think I just convinced myself to at least give it a go.

I’m glad I did as now I use it as a nice way of relaxing, maybe after work or skating, by just sitting on my own for a while and turning my brain off. I like spending a few hours working on some bits by myself. It is satisfying when it’s all done and I feel like I’ve done something rather than just got home and wasted my evening.

Is the satisfying part to do with making something that people want?

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I didn’t start out thinking much about that.

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You mentioned earlier working in a shop, that shop being Fifty Fifty skate store. What is your current role in there?

Being a small shop there are only about 3 or 4 people that work there. In terms of actual roles, it is a bit of everything really. I do the website stuff and social media stuff usually, but along with that I will be on the shop floor too and running to the post office every now and then if I need to. That is what happens usually if you work in a small shop, your job on paper will be one thing but really you are going to be doing a bit of everything.

How do you define the importance of a local skate shop to a city?

A local skate shop should be as important to skateboarders as skateboarders are to the local skate shop. In most cities the skate shop is the epicentre of the scene. What goes on in the city always has something to do with the shop.

Whether it’s events or demos or small things like premieres, it is important that the support is coming from both sides in order to keep it moving around full circle.

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Bs nosegrind revert \

People can come and grip boards or hang out if the weather is bad, which you don’t get in other types of shops or business. It is one of the perks of being lucky enough to have a local skate shop in your city and supporting it by buying from there is what I think people should do in return.

With how the industry is changing now, I understand why people may be leaning towards buying their products online to save money or because it’s easier, but those bigger non-skateboarder owned companies don’t care about giving anything back to the scene after they take your money.

A lot of small independent shops are struggling to compete with big businesses these days, but despite struggling they will always still try and give back to the skateboarders that support them.

And then also College Green too, the main meet up spots are still the same and they have been since I first started skating.

They are all central and close to the shop so if anyone needs anything you are always nearby. Recently, everyone has started to skate a new spot that has been named ‘new spot’ or ‘centre spot’. It’s really well lit which is good as it’s winter now and gets dark really early so everyone has migrated over there to skate and hang out. In terms of the skateboarders from Bristol the main ones of recent times that have done things for Bristol and for the scene would be in my opinion Korahn (Gayle) and Mike (Arnold). They’ve both moved away now, but the skateboarding that they did whilst in Bristol, in the Skateboard Café video or Mike in his Lloyds part, is a good example of how Bristol is still a good scene and can produce quality things.

Korahn for example moved to London recently and when he was there put out that Grey part that was all filmed at night, and I think people already knew how good he was but that video was another level.

Do you see yourself skating and living anywhere else?

You’ve been skating in Bristol for roughly 10 years now, how have you seen the skateboard scene change over that time?

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In terms of spots, I have skated the same places for about 10 years, and so have most people that skate in Bristol. Like Lloyds for example, I have spent more time there than probably anywhere else in the world outside of my house.

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Yeah, I do. If I wasn’t from Bristol, I think I would have moved here because I think it suits me quite well. I sometimes enjoy being on my own or being somewhere quiet and that is easy to do here. At the same time there is always enough going on that it isn’t boring or too repetitive. I feel very comfortable at the moment and I’m not a big fan of change so it’s hard for me to commit to something like moving but I am going to. I think it would be good to be somewhere else for a while.

My girlfriend lives in London now and I would like to go and live with her soon, but I feel bad leaving my job without finding someone to take over from me. I have a feeling of guilt

towards a lot of things I do, especially in this case where Fifty Fifty has helped me with so much I feel like I need to do my best to help them out before I leave.

How did you first come to be a sponsored skateboarder?

Well again it is all thanks to Fifty Fifty for helping me out with that. I started out there when I did work experience at school so would have been 14 or 15 years old I think. Then from that I started doing a few shifts on and off when I was needed which gradually built up until I was working there a lot.

That sort of meant I was just put on the team by proxy. At that time things like being given a free t-shirt or being given discount on buying a board were a huge deal for me.

And then Mike Halls from Keen Dist. came to Bristol a few times to skate with Joe Haddock, who I skated with a lot, and he was nice enough to ask if I wanted to get some Polar boards. I think this was around the time the first Polar promo had come out and I was really into it and I had painted the happy sad face on my grip so obviously when he asked me I was ecstatic.

Mike is the best, he really helped me out a lot. I think that he is also the link that helped with me getting Converse shoes too. Polar and Converse naturally sit with each other, so when they asked if I wanted some shoes I was really hyped.

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More recently I started working more with Rich Smith, who runs Skateboard CafĂŠ. Most of the people I skated with also skated for them, so I just really started liking the idea of skating and filming with all my friends and working on things with them. It looked like a lot of fun and that is sort of the main reason I made the decision to skate for CafĂŠ. I wanted to go skating after work or on my days off and it be a laugh, but also I could be filming and working on things at the same time. I felt bad because Mike and Polar had helped me out so much, but I felt like being more involved in

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something is what I wanted to do.

Ok, so I want to go into the Patrick Swayze thing a bit, tell me about your obsession with Patrick Swayze and his films and also Elvis Presley? What’s that all about?

Ha ha. That is a tough one to answer. Honestly I am not sure, I just like the guy. I like the films he is in and the characters he plays and I guess that was enough for me to just want to make t-shirts featuring an image of him and have posters on my wall. Is that not what people do?

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My parents like Elvis a lot so naturally I lis-

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tened to his music a lot growing up and there is various Elvis paraphernalia around my house. I think that one makes more sense. But going back to the original question, other than just liking Patrick Swayze films, his face, his smile, his voice, his eyes, his clothing and pretty much everything else, I don’t really know where the Swayze thing came from.

Who is your favourite character of his?

Dalton, from ‘Road House’. Close second would be Bodhi in ‘Point Break’, but ‘Road House’ is my favourite film so I have to say

Sw drop in \

Dalton. He is very good in that film, he is brought in to try and clean up a bar called the ‘Double Deuce’.

He is the head bouncer or ‘Cooler’. But with all that going on, the town is being dictated to by a local man named Brad Wesley who is bad news. So ol’ Pat has a lot of work to do. It has some great quotes and fight scenes in it, which is always entertaining in a classic Patrick Swayze film.

Last thing, do you have anyone you’d like to say thanks to?

Wallie fs 360 \

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Thanks to anyone who has bought any thing from me, it really means a lot. Also thanks to Rich and Andy at Skateboard Café and Jerome for supporting me for a long time and Joseph at Carhartt too.

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Pop shove it \

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Ollie asking Leo questions

What do you think was the inspiration behind shooting the article the way we did?

The main inspiration comes from you being a creative person. Your experimentation with embroidery and art inspired me to work with Polaroid film again. Also, the way that we mutually decided that we wanted it to look a certain way. Our initial discussion transcended through shooting an image to a certain amount of evaluation and comparing it to our original ideas. It was this process that inspired me to continue experimentation in post-production.One of the most important things was deciding on a specific camera to use when shooting a certain trick. Also the particular type of film to use depending on the particular style or aesthetic we wanted.

Shooting it the way we did, were there any frustrating moments or mishaps during any of the missions?

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The pop-shov into the bank: the fact that we only had 3 Polaroids left. You tried it a couple of times and we kind of got a good one we both liked. I said, “I’ve got one left!” and you did a really, really good pop-shov, but the Polaroid came out blue!! So we will never know what that one looked like….

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Yeah, I think that was the main one.

Yeah, that happens sometimes with Polaroids, you never know what can happen. Sometimes it works perfectly and you get great results, and sometimes it just does what it wants.

It was quite an old pack wasn’t it?

I had that pack of Fuji FP100C 5x4 Polaroid for probably about 3 or 4 years. Because Fuji stopped making it and it has become so expensive to buy old stock of that particular kind, I had been really careful with what I used it for. When it came to the day you wanted to try the pop-shov, I thought: “It’s sunny and I know the colours will look good and it’s the perfect aesthetic we’re after”. I got stoked on how the first two were looking and I think it was just one of those things. It was Sod’s law that it didn’t work out on that last one. But I’m glad that we did get one we were both happy with anyway so it all worked out.

Switch bs 50/50 \

Out of all the techniques you used, do you have a personal favourite or one that you wish you could do more?

My personal favourite is the Polaroid bleaching, which was used for the pop shov-it. The particular process I used for that photo was Polaroid bleaching. So rather than using the actual print as the final image, it is the other part of the Polaroid that you are supposed to throw away. If you use household bleach and a cotton bud to bleach the back of the Polaroid, you can actually get a negative from it.

The pop-shov image is the scanned negative rather than the actual print itself.

Also the Polaroid lifts. Rather than scanning the print itself, if you put it in hot water the emulsion lifts off the top of the Polaroid print.

You then scan this, so it is the sort of clear emulsion that contains the actual picture. If you scan whilst it’s still wet you can still see the little air bubbles as well. It’s just a slightly different look and it looks like you’ve scanned a little bit of cling film with an image on it rather than an actual image.

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It’s a really long-winded and delicate process where you run the risk of ripping the original in half, but it’s worth the danger if it works out.

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THE MOTTO OF THE NOTHING IN BETWEEN PROJECT, “GO WITH THE TIDE”, COULD BE THE ANTITHESIS OF THE TOO OFT-MENTIONED “KEEP ON PUSHING.” IT IS THE FASCINATION WITH THE WHEELS’ SOUND ON THE ASPHALT IN A HYPOTHETICALLY INFINITE LINE, DEVOID OF INTERRUPTIONS. Jacopo Picozza & Alberto Chimenti Dezani

Photography & interviews Davide Biondani [Canon]

NOTHING IN BETWEEN IS THE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS OF A SKATEBOARDER AND OF HIS BOARD: ONE TRICK AFTER ANOTHER, AND NOTHING ELSE IN BETWEEN. / Alberto Chimenti Dezani

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Click Here to watch the video

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5-0 to switch crooks >>> Backward nosegrind

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Jacopo Picozza

How did you come up with the idea for “Nothing In Between”?

Skating lines without pushing comes natural to me, I love doing them, and during the last Vans tours I spontaneously filmed every line with Chime without ever pushing. We found this detail interesting artistically and aesthetically speaking for a video.

You were telling me that the spot selection was one of the most difficult aspects of the project…

It wasn’t easy to find spots where you can try two tricks in a row while the filmer shoots you from a distance of 3-4 meters with a long lens hoping nobody will pass in between us. We also selected the spots based on our aesthetic taste, trying to keep a certain image continuity throughout the video. To maximize our time during the missions and make sure that the spots chosen were suitable for the video, most of the time I skated them by myself first, and only after landing the line did we include it in the list. Ninety percent of the video was filmed following this modus operandi.

Which spot made you struggle the most and which one gave you the greatest satisfaction?

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Filming at Milano Centrale for this project on a Sunday was hell, too much time lost waiting for the spot to clear from the flux of people. At times, 4 or 5 minutes went by between tries, and there were a few moments where I damned our choice of not using a fisheye.

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The spot I had most fun at was definitely the square at Gratosoglio, also in Milan. I love that spot, in fact I broke the one-line-per-spot rule there.

Why did you keep the same outfit throughout the video? Did you trash that shirt after you finished filming?

Ha ha ha.

We wanted to give the video as much continuity as possible, trying to stick the clips together one after the other almost as if it were an infinite session between spots.

I bought a set of three identical shirts so it would look like I’m always wearing the same one in the vid, but I ended up getting so absorbed that I really did use only one shirt for the whole video! I didn’t throw it away either, it’s in the drawer, clean but destroyed. Ha ha ha.

How was working with Chime? I know you’ve done a few things with him, but this was your first “personal” project together…

Chime is professional as fuck, and that’s why I love to film with him, no bullshit, skateboarding only. It was an honor for me to film this video with him. Chime films, sweats, and eats dust all day long together with the skater in the most professional and accomodating way possible.

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We both don’t like wasting time on unorganized missions looking for spots or tricks that never materialize. So for this project we decided to plan everything together, bringing it to completion over 4 sweaty weekends with smiles on our faces.

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Jacopo

Picozza

Feeble grind

>>>

Bs kickflip

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photo

Davide

Biondani

Click Here to watch the video

[Canon]

How long and where did you film for this project?

Click Here to watch the video

Alberto Chimenti Dezani

“Nothing in Between” was filmed in 2018, from May to October. We took advantage of the hot season to make the fullest of our time. Jacopo and I do not exactly live close to one another, so we couldn’t risk going all the way for nothing. The edit is the result of exactly eight very long days spent shooting. The project began in Milan, at the time Jacopo was living there, then we filmed in Turin, my city, and in Latina, his city.

I noticed that you used the same equipment and lens, what did you use and why this choice?

Yes, we immediately decided to focus our attention on details such as the cut we wanted to give the images. We agreed not to use a fisheye, but a long lens instead, in order to give it a more cinematographic feel. In fact, the whole video was shot using only one setting: 4K at 24fps with a 50mm prime lens, mounted on a gimbal for fluid and precise camera movements.

Our purpose was to give “Nothing in Between” more of a short movie feel than a skateboard movie one: we didn’t concentrate on getting so-called “bangers,” but instead focused on the quality of the image, of the lines, and of the spots, to create a pleasant and original visual flow.

What were the greatest difficulties you encountered while working on “Nothing in Between” and what aspects did you appreciate the most? It is in itself a particular project…

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I’m pretty sure that while shooting, Jacopo must also have cursed the day we decided to put so many restrictions to make this video. The difficulties were neither few nor trivial. To begin with, I’d say the most complex thing was finding the right spots that were skateable to him and with enough space for me to be able to follow his line with a long lens. With the set-up I had I needed a lot of space and not all of the spots were feasible in this sense.

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Then the timing, at the beginning Jacopo was living in Milan and it was easy to meet up, then he moved back to Latina, where he works five days out of seven, so trying to work around our work commitments and the six-hour

long train ride dividing us definitely represented a big obstacle to overcome. It wasn’t easy, but in the same way and for these same exact reasons though, bringing home a result at the end of the day was incredibly satisfying, because not only could he not make mistakes, but neither could I! Ha ha.

As an experienced, long-time filmer, with the sheer quantity of footage coming out every day, what does a skate video require to attract your attention?

I would say that it depends very much on the video and the expectations that I place upon it; generally, what I appreciate in a video is the right balance between the attention given to the image, the rhythm of the edit, and the musical choice. I like it when at the foundation of a project there is an idea or a theme, whether it is graphic processing, a location, or a shooting technique, etc. A kind of leitmotiv, let’s

Kickflip >>> Nosebonk

say. I know that what I’m about to say may seem like heresy, but I would place the difficulty of the trick almost at the bottom of the list of important things, I prefer to be more “captivated” than “shocked,” and if there are some nice hammers in there, all the better!

You’ve filmed with Jacopo multiple times for numerous videos with Vans, among others. How was working with him on a project that was all your own? Plus, don’t you think he’s a loser for still wearing those tight pants in 2019?

up to make a video for Vans with complete freedom as to the idea behind it, so we decided to do it once and for all.

During these months I said various times that I could’ve worked on a project of this complexity only with him; apart from the tricks, Jacopo is a true professional under all points of view: from the constant exchange of ideas and sharing of all the smallest details of production, to his organizational precision, which is essential in a project with such limited time.

I mean… what other skater do you know that would send you a Powerpoint presentation with the concept of the video and the list of spots and tricks?

Oh, and about his tight pants, JP and I are on the same wavelength, so I can’t say anything! Ha ha.

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We’ve been traveling and filming together rather regularly for almost ten years, so I’d say that we know each other pretty well and we trust each other a lot. This is why we chose to work on this project together. The idea of a clip “without pushing” had been bouncing around in our minds for some time, to be honest we’d been talking about it for a couple of years already. Then an opportunity came

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Smith fs flip out >>> Switch crooks

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Click Here to watch the video

Bs lip X 3 >>> Kickflip out Click Here to watch the video

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Photography & artwork Dennis Scholz

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A Japanese Visual Experience

Experiencing a new culture is fascinating.

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The first cultural differences someone from Europe would encounter in Japan are language and letters, which are pretty much noticeable every moment you’re there. Since lettering is so characteristically present in Japan, it was a good reason for me to concentrate not only on shooting photos, but also on collecting pieces of writing that randomly fell into my hands everyday, and finally combine the two curiosities into one impression. Let the letters strengthen the tricks and the skateboarding enhance the cultural experience!

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Maxi Schaible | Roll On 50-50

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Alex Ullmann | Kickflip Wallride

ALEX ULLMANN: I was the first one to arrive in Japan, a few days earlier than the rest of our crew, to spend some time with my good friend Joachim, who let us sleep at his place, where he’s based with his wife and 3 kids. For the 2 weeks we stayed, we lived in a tiny house with 10 people in total, which of course was a little exhausting sometimes, but most of the time we had a lot of fun. I remember that one time, I lost my wallet on the train somewhere around Tokyo‘s main station. I had just retrieved 20.000 Yen (160€) from the ATM, not the best timing. After hours of talking with some ladies at the Info in the station, our host Jo got a call saying my wallet was found. I picked it up at Tokyo station, and there we go: all the money and all the cards were still inside.

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Talking about Japanese mentality…

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We didn’t really skate at night. Although you see nothing but night footage from Tokyo trips, skating during the day also works easily.

Of course you get kicked out here and there, but there’s so many spots to skate, and with a little luck nothing is impossible. All in all Tokyo was an interesting, funny experience with good people.

Compared to Germany, my everyday life there was an emotional rollercoaster!

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Alex Ullmann | Nosepick

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Alex Ullmann | Kickflip

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Jan Hoffmann | Fs Wallride

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JAN HOFFMANN: Japan is mostly a very conservative, high-pressure society. There is very clear separation between the stuff that must be taken seriously - work, family, social obligations and, on the other hand, the things you can do in your free time where there is a lot of tolerance.

Japanese people love fads and trends and group activities; nobody wants to be the one singled out, or stand out among the rest. I realised this numerous times throughout our stay in Tokyo, especially in the metros. Alex would be doing headstands, I’d be holding a beer and shouting something across the wagon to Maxi, and Domi would be showing loud rap videos on his phone to Dennis, but none of the Japanese would even slightly look up, laugh, or change their expression.

They stayed glued with their eyes to their cellphones, or kept their eyes closed, trying to get a short nap in before or after extended shifts. Throughout the trip, it felt hard to get close to Japanese locals without going to an Izakaya Bar with them and ordering them a pint. Many of the locals weren’t easy to really figure out, saying things like, “Oooh, I see….Aaaah!” and vigorously nodding their head as a mark of respect. Sometimes it felt like even though they disagreed, they wouldn’t explicitly tell you because they tried to avoid even the simplest of conflicts.

ちょっと

Don’t get me wrong, we had a great time with everybody there!

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MAXI SCHAIBLE: Japan seemed like a place of its very own and I loved it. From my first minute on public transport, I was curious as to whether people are always that quiet and withdrawn or whether it was just a first impression. I learned that situations on the train wouldn’t change and the cold attitude became more normal for me day after day, even though I never really got used to it throughout our trip.

While visiting Tokyo we learned that people are not as open and outgoing as we might see in the USA or in European cities, a quick chat on the train only happened once, with a foreigner. Everyone is more into their own thing, or actually more into their own smartphone screen.

Nevertheless, if you add an alcoholic drink to the mix, things get very interesting! We’d leave the streets and head into Japan’s Izakaya world, where all impressions would be turned upside down.

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Drunk businessmen would start conversations while smoking a pack of cigarettes, giggling all over the place and drinking one beer after another. It couldn’t be more extreme. I still find myself thinking about these situations, as this contrast was something I had not experienced before and couldn’t be more significant.

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Maxi Schaible | BS Overcrook Revert

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Jan Hoffmann | Boardslide Yank Out

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DOM SCHNEIDER: The travel to Tokyo started as a dark sketch in a group chat. And weeks later I find myself in Tokyo in the middle of the night searching for a way to get to the house where I will stay for the next two weeks together with a family I never met.

Add to that a massive language barrier, pouring rain, and a train network that seeks its equal. The idea of staying with a family of five and going on missions all day long was quite interesting to be honest. We wanted to spend as much time outside as possible and went out around 9:00 in the morning every single day, had breakfast at 7-Eleven, put together a spot route, skated the whole day, ate at the greatest ramen places you could imagine, got beers and snacks at a convenience store and got back to the house at night.

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Actually, we got thrown out of bed by the youngest member of the family who went nuts every morning. My patience got stepped up in these two weeks for real!

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Alex Ullmann | Ollie

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NB NUMERIC IN NAPLES

Photography & words [Canon]Davide Biondani

We spent three fantastic days pushing around the city, enjoying every single moment.

Monday came, when all my friends left and I waited for the NB guys who arrived in the afternoon. My tour-mode in the city was now on.

This was my second mission with the Italian NB Numeric squad within a few months.

They are all amazing skateboarders with different styles and approaches to skateboarding; some are into tech skating and spend hours filming lines, while others love to find original ways to skate every spot they encounter.

The bachelor party of our lovely associate editor Guido Bendotti was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated events of 2018, at least for us.

After considering a series of destinations, we opted to spend four days in Naples, the only guideline being bringing our skateboards, skating, eating and having a good time together with some of our best friends.

They are a good mix of talents. We shot the cover of this issue on the last day at the Centro Direzionale, Naples’ business district and main spot. Neapolitans speak with a very strong Southern Italian accent, which is very peculiar actually, and typical of that area. Italians can recognize it immediately.

When locals meet they say “Uè” instead of “ciao,” meaning “Hi” in Italian. So if you’re ever in Naples, be prepared to hear “Uè” very often.

I couldn’t believe that I could spend a long week-end out skating, bringing only my board and a small backpack. My fellow skateboard photographers know what I’m talking about.

But the day before the departure I got a call from the guys at New Balance Numeric asking me if I’d be down to go on tour with them the following week… in Naples of course.

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The dream was over already!

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The next day I found myself taking an early morning train with the classic set-up: four heavy bags full of photo gear, tripods, clothes, and my board. Once at the luxury apartment that also had a magical view of the volcano of Mount Vesuvius, we left all our stuff and went out skating.

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Lukas Kolasowski / Kickflip fs nose grind

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Ale Cesario / Switch kickflip nose manual

71

a brief glance

a brief glance

03

72

Davide Holzknecht / Fs bluntslide

74

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75

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76

a brief glance

While the crew was busy filming some lines at the manny spot, Raffo went in search of something interesting to skate. Only a few minutes later he was trying this hippie jump.

What’s incredible, is that a local started insulting us because we were ruining the ground of that godforsaken place. It was our chance to get rid of him by using fast-setting cement to fill the huge hole that had formed and that was preventing Raffaele from landing the trick. The bank is super tight and scary at the bottom!

Raffaele Pola / Hippie jump

a brief glance

04

77

a brief glance

78

05

Massimo Cristofoletti / No comply kickflip

Raffaele Pola Hurricane

a brief glance

06

79

80

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81

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a brief glance

08

Ale Cesario Crooks bonk

07

82

Guido Zanotto Kickflip

83

a brief glance

Raffaele Pola / Pop shove it transfer

NB NUMERIC IN NAPLES

09

Davide is not the type of skater who gets to a spot and you notice him right away, he’s always very relaxed. It almost seems like he observes the situation from a distance to find his comfort zone, a corner of the spot that inspires him.

a brief glance

10

Davide Holzknecht 360 flip crooks

After bursting into cheers for his perfect kickflip crooks, we thought the party was over, but we were wrong, because out of the blue he started trying this 360 flip crooks that he landed after about twenty minutes with that loose style we all envy him.

86

88

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NB NUMERIC IN NAPLES

89

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53

issue

Nothing in Between [ pag. 42 ] / A Japanese Visual Experience [ pag. 54 ] / Uè - NB Numeric in Naples [ pag. 70 ]

Year IX a brief glance skateboard mag / Fragments [ pag. 24] / Ollie Lock & Leo Sharp [ pag. 32]