Rider: Billy Prendergast
Trick: Rail hop
Date: March 2009
Location: Brixton

We shot this during Billy’s interview for ride, which landed him on the cover and also in hospital after trying a legendary gap out of Stockwell skatepark. Billy had been wanting to do this hop for a long time but its hard as there’s always cars parked in the way and security can be tight. People are always coming in and out of that door too, so riding up to it can be a bit unnerving. In the end another access hop got used in the mag, but I think this one was actually the best.

Rider: Sean Burns
Date: June 2009
Location: Kortrijk, Belgium

During the bowl comp at the end of the Vans ‘Let it Ride’ Roadtrips i spotted Sean Burns wandering about. I had no idea why he was there, given that he doesn’t ride for Vans. I asked if i could get a shot of him for Ride, for a top 5’s or something and he was cool with it. Turns out he was over filming with Stu Johnson and Geoff Slattery for Anthem 2. Later that evening we ended up going to some really shitty bars in this boring town called Kortrijk. For the most part Burns was chilled and calm, but he did scare some young girls outside later in the evening. i don’t know why this didn’t get used in the end, I think he’d just had something similar in the mag a month before so the photo was shelved.

Rider: Ben Lewis
Trick: Curved wallride over
a pole
Date: April 2009
Location: Liverpool

This was shot during the few weeks when I was up in liverpool shooting for Ben’s interview. We’d been having a decent day and we already had a couple of shots in the bag. Ben said he’d been wanting to do this for a long time, telling me that Mike Tag once bottled it when he was in town. In retrospect, its a bit of a shitty photo, it dosen’t really do it justice. the run-ups tight because of the pavement, the walls wet and mossy and the post doesn’t look that intimidating. Still, I’m sure when Ben’s back on his bike he’ll probably go around it to 180.