Slam Skateboarding 231 Spring 2021

Where there’s a will there’s a way. With both New South Wales and Victoria heavily locked down over the past few months, the city-dwelling skateboarders of Sydney and Melbourne have had to make the most of their window of ‘daily exercise’. There is one upside to these harsh restrictions though – the typically bustling CBDs are virtually ghost cities, and many spots that have long been untouchable have suddenly opened up. In these circumstances, it takes a strategic approach to get results in the streets. Meeting your crew at the local plaza and pushing around the city searching for spots isn’t a viable option at the moment. It turns out that the safest option is skating alone, with only a filmer or photographer in tow. While it’s not a particularly organic…

When I was asked to write an article looking back at the Olympics, I considered just submitting the words “Keegan” and “Palmer” repeated 1000 times to fill a page and calling it a day. But if you’ve read this far, you’ll know that pitch didn’t quite hit the mark. Instead, here’s my second idea: There are five rings in the Olympic logo – three on top and two below – so let’s follow that format and unpack three highs and two lows of the spectacle we all witnessed when skateboarding premiered at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. HIGHS Goldy Gold Keegan. Fucking. Palmer. The phrase “made history” is thrown around far too loosely these days, but the Currumbin kid well and truly marked his name in the history books with his gold medal…

In March 2019, Perth skateboarder, filmer and friend to many, Blake Manning, was diagnosed with a form of cancer that attacks the body’s immune system: stage four Hodgkin’s lymphoma. At 27, Blake has been skating for almost 20 years, filming since he was in year nine, and is a dedicated disciple of the mighty VX1000. Now in remission for two years, Blake reflects on his battle with cancer, his trip to France midway through, his contact with the late Tully West, and his life post treatment. One Year Of Misdiagnosed Back Pain Initially, I thought I twisted something in my lower back. I couldn’t swing my right leg side to side without getting a sharp, pinching pain. Two nights later, I was introduced to back spasms, which lasted a full year until…

Hayley Wilson is one of Australia’s most well known female skateboarders. She is a 19-year-old street skater from Mansfield, in regional Victoria, and often skates in Melbourne with her homies on the Nike team. Hayley’s had footage in Gizmo, Welcome To Melbourne and the more recent Play New. She’s also been doing the rounds of the contest circuit for the past few years. In July, Hayley became the first woman ever to represent Australia in Olympic street skateboarding. She cracked the top 20 of world rankings to qualify and then took off to Tokyo for what was dubbed the strangest Olympics in history. With empty stadiums, and all sorts of COVID restrictions, she still managed to have a good time, making the most of an experience that will forever seem surreal. After…

Chima Ferguson grew up skateboarding in Sydney, and every weekend he would make the trek from Bankstown to skate the city. Pretty soon he was carving out a rep for himself, jumping down big sets, gaps and rails. A lot has changed for Chima since then. Now in his early-30s, he owns a house in Redfern where he lives with his fiancée Bianka, their daughter Holiday, and their dogs. After living in The States for a few years and proving himself as an international pro worth his weight, he came back to Sydney city, where his heart is. This set an example for other Aussie skaters, showing that it was possible to hold down an international pro skateboarding career without living in California. With jaw dropping parts in Let’s Live, Propeller…

For Keegan Palmer, the interviews and media appearances have all started to blur into one. It sounds exhausting, but that’s inevitably what happens after you become the first guy in history to win an Olympic gold medal for park skateboarding. At the Tokyo Games, Keegan scored a 95.83 in his final run, putting him way ahead of the next best-placed skaters, Pedro Barros and Cory Juneau. It was an insane 45-second succession of tricks, which included a kickflip body varial 540, earning him Australia’s first and only gold medal for Olympic skateboarding. It was an incredible feat, especially considering he’s only 18 years old. Keegan later found himself in a press conference alongside Pedro and Cory, where the Japanese media were asking the other two medallists how it felt getting beaten…