There’s two ways to fall in skateboarding

So far I’ve discovered two ways to fall when skateboarding goes wrong.

The easy way, usually while going pretty slowly, sees me bounce up with little more than injured pride.

This is usually followed by awkward, did-anyone-see-that, grin.

Stick To Your Guns: From the first time I saw you I knew it was true

The last couple of hours I’ve had Stick To Your Guns on repeat, particularly The Suspend, the last track off their 2016 EP for Pure Noise Records, Better Ash Than Dust.

The Suspend packs an emotional punch that I think I’ll notice in their other tracks only in retrospect, and even sounds a little like AFI in places (which, in my book at least, is no bad thing).

House of Vans London reopens with new skatepark layout

The London House of Vans skatepark reopened last week with a brand new street layout (pictured above) and a mini stage that was christened by Black Honey – ahead of their Royal Blood tour support – on Friday.

The celebrations also saw appearances by Thrasher’s Skater of the Year, and Vans Pro, Kyle Walker and Vans European pro riders Chris Pfanner, Daan van Der Linden, Victor Pellegrini, Sam Partaix and Josh Young.

One week before House of Vans reopened Sidewalk magazine was among those present for a lock-in for the Vans UK team of Jordan Sharkey, Kris Vile, Stef Nurding, Ross McGouran, Jordan Thackeray, Sam Roberts and Rob Smith to show off their moves.

Close Minded: If it’s not punk rock I’m never going to like it

Before the likes of Spotify opened up a huge swathe of recorded music it seemed to be getting harder the older I got to find new, loud guitar music.

Discovering Epitaph’s Punk-O-Rama series was a key moment that opened up many bands that I’d heard of, but not heard (Bad Religon, NoFX and Rancid being the obvious ones), but also the entirely new (Beatsteaks, Undeclinable Ambuscade and I Against I).

To all intents and purposes my iTunes ‘punk rock’ genre (one of three punk genres I use, because at heart I’m a librarian) is anything that is, was, or sounds like it could be, on Epitaph.

Well, that escalated fast

In the last week I’ve gone from um-ing and ah-ing over what skateboard to buy, to taking the plunge and diving right in.

I’ve taken my new skateboard to two skateparks in London, local parks in Epsom, Leatherhead and Ashstead, acquired my first skateboarding bruises, practiced kick turns and rolling in (off the smaller ramps!) and had a go, albeit unsuccessfully, at rock n rolls.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

How to buy a skateboard?

I got my first, and only, skateboard when I was ten, which is… quite a few years ago.

It gets worse. It came from a toyshop (Hamley’s in Bath) and was florescent green and pink. What can I say – it was the late-1980s, and the colour scheme made sense at the time.

But, like a lot of things from 30 years ago, much has changed and buying a skateboard nowadays is a heap more complicated than merely avoiding colours that make your eyes bleed.

New music: Mastodon’s Emperor Of Sand

On my desk at work is a Post-It note with the names of four bands a metal-loving former colleague recommended after learning that my musical tastes took in the likes of Bad Brains, Minor Threat and more.

Alongside Baroness (a real favourite in the last couple of years), Torche (can’t decide) and Tides From Nebular (haven’t checked out yet) is written Mastodon, the Atlanta heavy metal band that has just released its seventh album.

I’m not quite as up to date with new music as I’d like – though perhaps this blog will help remedy that. In fact, it’s only in the last month that I bought a second-hand copy of Mastodon’s 2004 album Leviathan, which rocks in all the right places and is heavier than a lot of what I listen to.