Neil Smith. Portrait by Alex Pires
We have been lucky enough to be friends with Smithy and have him as a team rider for a long time now. He is a seasoned professional as the time line on these photos shows. His nonexistent fear filter always makes for some hilarity and amazing skateboarding. I will never forget him nosesliding a 30 stair hubba while taking off his cap, passing it through his legs and shouting “Rose Mac Gorry Goyne” before riding away. We are stoked he had time to put this 5000 Words together for us, it’s a #Classic…
Here we have a young Snowy, an even younger Korahn Gayle and myself standing on Ramsey Street in front of none other than Harold Bishops house (maybe). Its not often when you’re on tour that you get to do much tourist stuff. When we were in Melbourne, one thing we all wanted to do was see where they filmed the classic television program “Neighbours”.
Dan Magee repping the ghetto gown in Miami. We went to skate some spot just off the side of the motorway. It was on the outskirts of the city in some retail park where there were some shops like a TK Maxx kinda thing where you could buy these “ghetto gowns” for 5 dollars. We all had to get one just cause you never get this stuff at home. I have still got mine tucked away somewhere, you never know when you might need it.
Here is Jacob Sawyer with a gun to his head at a monument of WW2 troops of Croatia in Zagreb. We were on a 2 week trip across Croatia, Bulgaria and Switzerland for Carhartt way back in 2006. Next to this monument was a skate park with a perfect little vert ramp. The park was covered in Nick Jensen Lost and Found posters ready for a premiere that week.
This photo might look straight out of a war zone in the 70’s but in fact this was the hotel we were staying at in Croatia on the same Carhartt trip in 2006 as the one above. We went out to grab some breakfast one morning and on returning we were told to get our stuff as we were being moved to another hotel. It turned out the whole back half of the hotel had collapsed that morning. I don’t think anyone was hurt, hope not anyway.
A young Danny Brady getting molested on stage on our 2005 Blueprint, Lost And Found premiere in Moscow at the after party. Danny and myself were asked to get on stage while the host then asked if any of the girls in the crowd wanted to come on stage and do sexy dances on and around us. A bunch of lovely ladies did, and this was the result.
Paul Shier and Chewy Cannon fresh off the overnight train from St. Petersburg to Moscow in 2006. We had gone to St. Petersburg for some shop signing. No one was going out to Russia at this point in time, so us being there was a big deal for the locals. We were asked to do a signing in a shopping mall. As we made our way to the shop we were mobbed by hundreds of skateboarding mad Russian kids. We got rushed out the side door by security guards and escorted back to the van. We never made it to the shop or did the signing because it was that hectic.
Dane “Morph” Crook and Dan Magee unsuccessful on one of Mallorca’s hills. Which year it was, I have no idea as we travelled here every winter for about ten years. We were on a mission to find some spots when we came across this hill bomb. Everyone jumped out the car and just went for it, even Dan and Morph on their filmer boards. It was like in slow motion, Dan was at the front tanking it, then speed wobbles hit and bang! down he goes, skidding on his hands and chin for what felt like 100 meters. I turned round to watch Morph do the exact same thing while I laughed my way passed Dan to the bottom of the hill successfully.
Just a normal day out skating South London with my boy Jak Pietryga. His whole finger nail came clean off trying some line. He ran off with a tear in his eye to the nearest Tesco where he asked a security guard for a first aid kit.
Back in 2011 Jake Harris, Tom Knox, Kevin Lowry and I were asked to be in a Coca-Cola advert skating along side the kid out of “This is England” for the build up to the Olympics. It’s funny doing this kind of work, as they are after a skater that looks like a skater. But then they dress you up like a complete tit and chuck make up on you, then just film your feet for 2 seconds while you waste a full day standing about for really shitty pay. Even so, Jake Harris really enjoyed his pampering session before the shoot.
Dennis Lynn and Tom Harrison jumping in on these poor girls fashion photo shoot in Poland a couple of years ago. Dennis was hungover, unwashed and generally smelling like shit. He was demanding that the girl shoot the photos while the other girl held up the reflection thingy on him in his thick Irish accent, while he growled at her. I bet the girl got some great shots and an A+ on her fashion course.
Smithy rides for The National Skateboard Co and Nike SB