Will Harmon-Switch Backside Smith-Bangkok Photo by Henry Kingsford
Little did Will Harmon know when he visited London for the first time as an adult, that he would later be calling it home. We met Will on that trip which was 14 years ago and have been friends ever since. He has, over the last few years put in time as editor of Kingpin and is now keeping printed matter in our hands with Free Skateboard Magazine . Will is still as excited about skateboarding as his teenage self and that comes across with everything he does. We were pleased to get these photographs back from him which document some of his travels…
Swamps are common where I grew up in North Carolina. This one in particular is called Merchants Millpond in Gatesville, NC. My father designed a visitor centre there so one time my mum and I went out on a rowboat in the adjacent swamp. This is from a visit back to the States I made in 2009.
Back in 2009 Jin Shimizu, Henry Kingsford and I met up to skate the Oxford Street road gaps. Unluckily for Jin it started snowing, but he still gave a bs flip over the big gap a few more goes. I like the fact we skate year-round in London. It is cold, but just layer up!
In late October 2012 Chris Jones, Arthur Derrien, Henry Kingsford and myself flew over to Southeast Asia to meet Ali Drummond for a skate trip in Bangkok and Cambodia. We skated a lot Bangkok and then we took a bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Ali lost his passport the night before we left so he couldn’t make it. We visited Skateistan in Phnom Penh and there was a whole issue of Grey about our journey. Henry stayed in Phnom Penh an extra day to get more photos, but Arthur, Chris and I visited the temples in Angkor Wat. After that we went back to Bangkok for a few more days of skating. Even though the heat was hard to deal with, this was one of the best trips I’ve ever been on… Really want to do it again sometime!
My aunt and uncle live in Edisto, South Carolina. By Edisto is a place called Botany Bay. At some point the tide of the ocean swept in so fast it left a lot of trees surrounded by water. It’s a truly incredible place that reminds me of something out of a Tim Burton film. I try to go to Botany Bay every time I go see my aunt and uncle in Edisto. This photo is from an overcast day in July 2013.
Back in 2003 I was in Barcelona and met up with Lev, Rob, Toby, Joey and Yush. This is a pic of Yush, Lev and Joey Brzezinski at Macba. I don’t remember what everyone was laughing about. Time really flies… Yush is a dad now and living in Tokyo, Lev is the mastermind behind Palace Skateboards and Joey Brezinski is still Joey Brezinski.
I’m a sucker for sunsets. I remember my friends and I rushed down to the beach to check out the sunset in Carlsbad, California. I think this was 1996 or 97’. This was one of the best ones I’ve ever witnessed ever.
In 2001 I came to London for the first time for skateboarding. After just two days in the UK I accompanied Paul Shier, Vaughan Baker, Mark Baines, Joe Burlo, Niall Neeson and Wig Worland to Slovenia for a Blueprint trip. I remember banging my head trying to fakie ollie this gap just as it started to rain. It was the first time I bled from my head and everyone was really worried. I went to a Slovenian hospital and it turns out I was ok. They put a bandage on my head and told me not to skate the next day. This photo is from the night before that happened. We had a good night out in Ljubljana as you can see. Oh the days before you got hangovers!
In autumn 1997 I went on trip down south to Atlanta, Tennessee and Alabama for Transworld with Vinny Ponte, Steve Young, Toebee Pankhurst, Joey Pepper, Giovanni Reda and Ted Newsome. We were essentially trying to escape the cold of the Northeast. Vinny backside tailslid this ridiculously long ledge in Atlanta. The footage is in his Zoo York Mixtape part. Somehow Ted messed up the photo; he was almost considering using this point and shoot photo I shot in Transworld. Almost…
Oli Barton and Paul Shier, Barcelona, November 2001. I Met Oli and Paul in San Francisco in January 2001. They showed me Waiting for the World, Sidewalk, introduced me to Toby Shuall and basically schooled me on the British skate scene. We were all staying in the same flat in the Mission in SF and at the end of my stay they convinced me to come to London sometime and skate. I did that following July and then met these guys again in November in Barcelona. If it weren’t for these two I might have never skated in London and moved there a few years later. They really inspired me to use my dual-citizenship to its fullest. Thanks Paul and Oli!