Slam Skateboarding 221

You’re holding in your hands a little piece of history – the 30 Year Anniversary Edition of Slam Skateboarding Magazine. Three decades have passed since the former publisher, Morrison Media, took a risk on a new magazine in a competitive market; three or four other skate mags were already on the Australian newsstands. Peter Morrison briefed Slam’s original editor, Mike Perry: “I don’t care if this loses money for the entire first year. Just go for it and kick their arses.” Mike was a surfer from California who started skating in 1959. He grew up just a stone’s throw from Venice Beach, rolling through the steel-wheel era, on to clay and eventually witnessing the ultimate upgrade to urethane, which his roommate, Frank Nasworthy, invented! Mike was 42-years-old when he took on…

At the close of 1988, the first issue of Slam hit the shelves of newsagents around Australia. To give you an idea of the times, Crocodile Dundee 2 was playing in cinemas, Bob Hawke was our beer-swilling Prime Minister and it would be another decade before people really even started using the Internet. Since 1988, Slam has published 221 issues, plus around a dozen Photo Annuals. Chima Ferguson and Jake Duncombe have earned the cover spot seven times each and Dane Burman has had eight of the bastards. Six men have taken the helm at Slam for various periods: Mike Perry, Andrew Currie (twice), Mike O’Meally, Dave Adair, Jake Frost and Trent Fahey, who’s been the editor since 2011. In looking back on the past 30 years of print, we picked…

The back yard pool is ever alluring and ever elusive. How many times have you been at someone’s house and just drooled at the thought of emptying their swimming pool and grinding the fuck out of the virgin tiles with your back truck? If you’re anything like me, then it’s all the time. So here’s a little tale about how you can make your dry-pool wet dreams come true. Apparently one in 12 Australian homes has a swimming pool. This staggering statistic means that even on your street, right outside your window, right at this very moment, there are up to five potential concrete bowls just sitting there, wasting their lives away being full of pissy water and leaves. How many pools have you skated this year? Or in the past…

Happy 30th birthday for earlier this year. What did you do to celebrate? I had a bunch of close mates come skate Tugun skatepark and then had some drinks at the Tugun footy club. A bunch of fellas flew up from Melbourne for it, so it was good. Nothing too hectic. So, the question most Australian skateboarders would want to know, is where have you been? Not long after your cover of our December issue in 2013, you slipped out of the limelight. What made you pull away from the scene? “I LIKE TO DRINK, AND I LIKE TO PARTY, BUT AT THE START, I THINK IT WAS A BIT NUMBING TO DEAL WITH SHANE [CROSS] AND MY MUM’S DEATHS.” I didn’t mean to pull away from the scene. I got dirty on skateboarding…

As you look upon the photos throughout this feature, you’ll notice a combination of distinguished legends and young trailblazers. These young men took a nine-day coastal trip from Sydney to Brisbane, which consisted of raw skateboarding and constant shit talk, inevitably muddled with some good old-fashioned “male bonding” over a couple of beers (just for good measure). So why would these people, in particular, be chosen to collectively represent this brand? And would it even work? To give you some insight and provide the method to my madness, I encourage you to read on as I introduce you to my newest creation for RVCA Australia and explain why our recent maiden voyage has given me hope for things to come. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the centrepiece of…

“While it’s impossible to pinpoint the exact moment that street skateboarding began its boom, for many, the journey began with Hensley and Shackle Me Not in 1988.” It was 30 years ago that Matt Hensley, armed with a bag of no-complies and a pair of knackered Converse, began an assault on the sidewalks of Southern California. Street skateboarding existed, sure – Gonz and Natas and Vallely were big names already, if only recently – but Hensley’s opening section in Shackle Me Not injected a human element to street skating seldom seen at the time. While Mike V’s escapades were captured by fancy film cameras and shot all over the US, Hensley was followed down local streets by the kind of rickety, heavily-vignetted fisheye you might have attached to a camera found…