This “Backstory” article is with Quentin Guthrie, a continuation of the piece we put together with Josh Stewart where he selected some memorable missions from his last video. This one spans Quentin’s time out in the field, dipping into a selection plucked from different projects, going all the way back to a clip captured shortly after he made London his home…
Introduction by Jacob Sawyer. Quentin Guthrie coming up on Maga gold on a US trip. PH: Charlie Munro
It was a pleasure to speak to Quentin about working on this idea, and then to receive his thoughtful selection fully formulated. Below is a window into the process behind five completely different expeditions, their significance expanded on by one of the most talented lensmen to have put in the work in our capital and beyond. When Dan Magee, someone who devoted decades to contorted follow filming on London’s streets, applauds your work with a fisheye it’s clear that your technique with that coveted piece of glass is on point. We asked Magee to expand on the “best fisheye filmer in the world” quote. This “joke that’s not a joke” is a soundbite about Quentin which has reverberated around the internet. Dan explains, “There is no best fisheye filmer in the world as it’s all a question of preferred taste, but if you like closeup filming then he can get the closest and make it look good in a non-GoPro way”. This remains high praise from a seasoned VX-veteran with high standards who doesn’t consider himself a good filmer. Wielding over a pound of glass is a unique skill that comes with its own prohibitively expensive perils, a sobering reality Quentin speaks about below when discussing his first time filming with Davide Holzknecht for his last video Assets.
Alongside his first time filming with Davide is a Dougie George trick captured at Southbank which also took place before their powerful, and productive partnership had properly begun. Dougie remembers this as being an exciting time. Already a fan of Quentin’s videos, and keen as always to film with a VX, this marks a moment that got the ball rolling for both of them. As well as Dougie this story rightly contains other long-time collaborators Charlie Munro and Dom Henry. The Charlie Munro trick Quentin chose went down in his hometown of Perth at a spot he had already put a stamp on back in the day when he spent more time on the other side of the lens. Dom Henry has many lines in his body of work that have been blessed by Quentin’s craftsmanship, the one selected for this article is some flawless tech put down at Victoria Benches before the spot ceased to be. Rounding all of this out is a Jason Caines moment that went down a stone’s throw from our old Covent Garden shop, a road gap we all walked past many times that Jason made his own. We hope you enjoy this look back at the archives that Quentin has kindly curated for us. They are also joined by some insights from a few of the people involved…
Dom Henry – Victoria Benches 3 Piece (2017)
I met Dom when he moved to London in 2017. We immediately bonded over our shared sexual orientation and appreciation of the antipodean sense of humour. This line came about because Dom and I were fixated on the idea of filming a line at Viccy benches. I always loved the way the spot looked, and appreciated its significance in UK skate videos.
At the time a lot of people were skating the spot as the Palace video (Palasonic) had just dropped, so if you wanted to skate it uninterrupted you had to go early. I remember on the day of this line I slept through my alarm and arrived at the spot an hour late. I was always terrified of arriving late to meet Dom as he had a tendency to staunchly express his displeasure towards tardiness. But thankfully on this occasion he was quick to forgive. It also gave him some time to think up a no push line before I arrived.
I can’t remember how long exactly it took to film the line. It wasn’t a complete saga, but it was long enough for us to stop and think ‘fuck! are we actually going to get this’. After many attempts, Dom landed the line but after reviewing the footage we discovered he didn’t actually pop the half cab flip (not sure how I missed that). We were gutted because the first and second trick were perfect. Arthur showed up as we were reviewing the clip and arrived to see the faces of two very disappointed men.
“This line came about because Dom and I were fixated on the idea of filming a line at Viccy benches. I always loved the way the spot looked, and appreciated its significance in UK skate videos”
He immediately lifted our spirits and gave us the motivation to try it again. Dom landed the entire line (executed perfectly) the next go back-to-back. I was stoked on how it turned out. I’d never really seen anyone film at the spot ending a line with the camera placed slightly under the bench. It was also nice to see Dom flip out of a regular nosegrind as he is a known fakie manny/ nosegrind flip out abuser.
We filmed the line towards the end of making NEXT and it was a nice way to round off filming for the edit. Sometimes I wonder if Arthur hadn’t arrived (with his ‘been up all night partying’ energy) would we even have gotten the clip?
Here’s Dom’s account of the process behind this one…
I loved this period of time filming with Quentin for his video NEXT. He was so down to get out and about all around London purely out of dedication for the independent video he was making. I was super stoked to be a part of it, having met and became friends that year. We were getting out together all the time and having some big laughs on the regular. This was a memorable one to film in terms of sheer relief.
I have a bit of a curse with doing a crap version of whatever I’m trying fairly quickly, then taking forever to land a good one. I thought this was about to continue on this day at Viccy, as after a fair amount of effort I suddenly managed a version of the line where the first and last trick were clean, yet the half cab flip didn’t pop at all. At ALL. Technically clean, speed maintaining, but literally didn’t leave the ground, I somehow just twirled one round without hitting the tail, and then landed the nosegrind nollie flip. The classic case of cursing yourself for carrying on after doing part of the line badly. I immediately felt a sense of dread that it was going to be hard to do it again, and there was no lying to ourselves that it was a useable make. Yet somehow, the very next go, I landed the complete line again, this time with the decent flat ground trick. We couldn’t believe it – it felt criminal to have escaped what felt like an impending saga so lightly! I remember being delirious with relief. We seriously came up on some luck that day, to say the least.
Charlie MUnro – noseslide in perth (2022)
Charlie and I were lucky enough to travel to Western Australia to film for his Primitive Scrape part. This spot is in Perth hills, a 45-minute drive from the city, close to my parents’ house, the house I grew up in.
En route to visit my parents I stopped by one day to see if it was still there and thankfully it was. I did a boardslide on it when I was 19, about 13 years prior to taking Charlie there.
I showed Charlie a photo and we came up with the idea to film a noseslide, one of our favourite tricks (as mentioned in his Visuals interview). It was quite bizarre taking Charlie to spots I grew up skating and seeing him, my friend from Cambridge, in this yellow brick Australian bush setting.
I remember we were quite sketched out skating it because you have to jump a big fence to get into the netball court so if you take a heavy slam, you’re kinda fucked. Charlie managed to do this within a few goes. I texted my brother to come watch him skate it, he pulled up with his 3-year old daughter and they watched from the other side of the fence. Later that day Charlie filmed this switch heel (another favourite trick of mine) with my brother towing him in in his car while his daughter was in the backseat thinking we were playing some kind of fun driving game.
“It was quite bizarre taking Charlie to spots I grew up skating and seeing him, my friend from Cambridge, in this yellow brick Australian bush setting”
Later we all had dinner at my parents’ house and watched the sunset over the city while my mum told Charlie embarrassing childhood stories of myself. It was a very nice wholesome day.
Although Charlie noseslid it, I would still argue that boardslide is harder haha!
This is what Charlie had to say about this excursion…
Getting to visit where Quinno is from was a treat. We went to this rail he boardslid back in the day with the intention for me to try a noseslide. We had to hop this big fence to get to the spot and just before I started trying his brother and niece rocked up to say hello. It was a pretty strange but wholesome vibe. Luckily it worked out pretty quickly so I could properly introduce myself to them. Later that day I got to meet his parents and connect my mum with his mum on WhatsApp which is just at cute as it sounds. Big Dee regularly hits me up just to check in too.
Davide Holzknecht – Ride on switch nosegrind fakie flip (2023)
This clip was the first thing I ever filmed with Davide. It was also the opening trick in Assets, the edit I put out last year. Originally, I tried to film it fisheye however that didn’t go as planned. On the very first go, the first time I ever pressed record and pointed a camera at Davide, I misjudged the timing of the flip out and the lens got kicked and flew off the front of the camera onto the floor. It landed directly on the front element and subsequently scratched it beyond use.
I couldn’t believe our luck, what are the chances of this happening the very first time you hit record and point a camera at someone? Particularly because I am no stranger to lens hits, I cop one on nearly every single fisheye trick I try film.
We were absolutely devastated, mostly because at that time MK1s were extremely difficult to find and were selling on eBay at an average price of £2k. Davide said he felt responsible, for trying the flip out too early, but it’s one of those things where I also misjudged it so it’s difficult to say whose fault it is really. It is also the nature of the game when your filming gimmick is to place the lens an inch away from someone’s board as they try a trick.
“what are the chances of this happening the very first time you hit record and point a camera at someone?”
After 20 minutes of quiet anger and self-loathing, we decided to film it long lens, as was the only option available haha. It was difficult to shake off what had happened, but we managed to persevere and get the clip. It ended up being one of my favourite clips in the edit, I love how relaxed the flip out looks, almost as if it happened in slow-motion. The execution of the trick is the perfect representation of Davide’s relaxing nature and calm approach to skating. Without this energy on the session, I doubt I would’ve been able to continue filming after breaking my lens. I really admire Davide’s positivity and gentle nature, I genuinely think the world would be a better place if we were all more like him.
Jason Caines – Road Gap Ollie in Covent Garden (2016)
I met Jason shortly after moving to London in 2015. Watching him skate, I was immediately drawn to his confidence and energy.
It’s kind of hard to tell (because all road gaps look the same in footage) but the gap is very long and quite shit. A week prior Will (Harmon), Pani (Paul) and I laid a street sign post in the gap and grinded across it for a bit of fun. It felt appropriate to talk about this clip because it is on Endell Street, just across the road from the old Covent Garden Slam.
On the day of the ollie, we skated past Slam and I remembered there was a road gap. I showed it to Jason and true to form he was immediately down. I always wanted to film someone skate a road gap in London that I’d never seen anyone skate before.
The ollie was an absolute ‘my war’ for Jason for many reasons. The run up was shit, the street was very busy with civilian foot traffic, and the old lady that lived in the flat above the spot was not happy about the noise. I remember whoever was working in Slam at the time coming out between goes to cheer and hype Jason up.
“The run up was shit, the street was very busy with civilian foot traffic, and the old lady that lived in the flat above the spot was not happy about the noise”
Jason tried this for probably about 2-3 hours, which is quite mental considering how fast you have to push at it. He took some of the worst slams I’d ever seen because he was so determined to land it, committing to anything that was under his feet (despite if the board was upside down haha). Eventually he landed it, with only a few goes of light left. The roll away is so fucking sick, he desperately tries to stay on his board and somehow pulls it off.
One of my favourite things about Jason is he goes absolutely mental when he lands something, so the celebration is always so much fun (which is quite surprising because if you chat to him, he’s such a mellow dude). We ended the day with a beer at the pub and rewatched the clip on my phone about 30 times.
Here are some thoughts from Jason Caines to accompany Quentin’s…
I love skating over road gaps, nailing a long ollie from one road to another always hypes me up. Especially if it has those classic double yellow lines on either side, so you know it’s a legit full-sized road gap that a car could fit through. I’d always looked at that long road gap outside the old Slam City Skates shop on Endell St and rolled up to it, thinking of doing an ollie over it. The roll-up is smooth, the gap is long and it was across the road from Slam which made it even sicker. I thought it was possible if I skated fast enough at it.
So after years of thinking about it, I was out one day in Central London in 2016, filming with Quentin Guthrie, Arthur Derrien and Tristan Rudman. At some point, we realised that none of us had plans to try any specific tricks but Quentin asked me if I had an idea for a trick. I put the Endell Street road gap out there because I thought, it would be funny to try it and my attempts or slam would make for a good clip but after we got there and I tried it, I landed one over it in primo and realised I could maybe do it.
Everyone was hyping me up to land it. Quentin was filming it up close with his fish eye, from an angle that I had not seen anyone film a road gap ollie from before so I knew that land or slam, the footage would look dope. I decided on the next try to push my board out a bit to get a longer ollie, land it into a frontside powerslide and carve it out. So I put in few extra pushes, rolled up and popped the ollie but I was going so fast when I landed on the other side, I instantly went from doing a frontside powerslide into a backside powerslide. I drifted sideways on the roll out. I managed to keep my balance, by swerving out the slide, and I stayed on my board and somehow got the rollaway. So stoked, I’m still hyped on it.
I remember running into Blondey [McCoy] and Big Man [James Fry] 5 minutes after I did it and they said they hadn’t actually noticed the road gap was there or that you could ollie it. I was hyped for other skaters to eventually see the clip, and hopefully be surprised that an ollie over the gap was actually possible.
Dougie George – Nosewheelie – Nollie Backside Flip at Southbank (2020)
Dan [Fisher-Eustance] introduced me to Dougie whilst filming for his Free Skate Mag part in 2020. This was one of the first clips I ever filmed with Doug and subsequently the beginning of our established friendship/ filmer-skater relationship.
I remember ending up at Southbank one evening with Dan and Dougie after an unsuccessful day out filming. I didn’t really know Doug at this point, or his skating, as this was probably the second time we ever met. I watched him and Dan skate around casually killing it and out of nowhere he tried this trick and got shockingly close. I couldn’t tell if it was just a fluke, but I pulled my camera out and started filming him. SB was super busy, so it was difficult to get consistent goes. Brayden (Slezak) was there and helped us manage the chaos of trap stars and overly confident low-skilled skaters.
“Within about 20 minutes Dougie landed it flawlessly and I was absolutely astounded. It felt almost surreal to film such a monumental trick, executed that well, in such a short space of time”
Within about 20 minutes Dougie landed it flawlessly and I was absolutely astounded. It felt almost surreal to film such a monumental trick, executed that well, in such a short space of time. We were all buzzing for hours after this. I texted Dom (a seasoned manual connoisseur) after it went down and said, “you’ll never believe what I just filmed at SB”.
I put the clip in Dan’s part to go with the little SB section and it ended up appearing as number one in the Quartersnacks Top 10 for that week. I think it might’ve been the first time a guest clip had made it to number one. I can’t remember who, but someone said ‘Dan must be a great friend to let Dougie have the best clip in HIS part’ haha!
Dougie and I joke about how he baited me with this clip because a lot of things we filmed proceeding it did not come as easy haha! Having said that, we did film something equally as fucked at Oval space recently for the Asics Europe video which took him about 10 minutes.
I recently took on the role as TM for Butter Goods so I’m officially Dougie’s boss now. Dougie if you’re reading this.. As your boss I am expecting more clips from you to this standard.
We want to thank Quentin for this selection of clips and for sharing the reasons he chose them with us. You can watch the videos where all of these clips appear by perusing his Youtube channel. Also be sure to follow him on Instagram for updates. We recommend tuning in to Joel Curtis’ Skate Creative podcast for a recent episode dedicated to exploring Quentin and Josh Hallett’s work.
Previous Backstory Articles: Nick Jensen & Mike Arnold, Neil Smith, Conor Charleson, Josh Stewart
Related reading: Visuals: Charlie Munro, My Board: Dougie George, Isolation Station: Dom Henry