(JP) This one came out 3 years ago almost to day, the 18th of October 2020
(WR) Crazy to think, it’s such a long time ago. This one I would say is the COVID video, I was working a lot during COVID so I wasn’t always able to make it on the sessions so there was some cam footage filmed by either Troy or Jake who sent me some of this footage. You and I were skating together a lot.
I knew I was going to come here to Italy so I was just skating everyday. We’re fortunate that where we were (in south west Australia) COVID restrictions were not really very strict it was probably one of the most chill places in the world during that period
For sure
Tom Catalano Bs blunt 270 shuv transfer
We kind of just did the same thing that we were doing before.
It opened up so many opportunities to get so many different spots that maybe we wouldn’t have before. During this video my camera was fucking up a lot, I think by the end it was just done, falling apart, I couldn’t film stuff so it was kind of like this video is nice the camera was done and this video was really happy with it. For starters, do you want to talk about the fisheye hit ?
Haha that was interesting. That was the first day we went to that spot by Bunbury cathedral, I think we went there three days in total which seems to be a thing because that clip I filmed with you at the Koombana ledges we also had to go back three times
That’s true it I hadn’t thought about that, that’s a really cool clip
I’m glad I came up with that one because it hasn’t really been skated like that. I don’t think it’s the best way to skate it but I think it’s better than just doing a kickflip up and then rolling back down.
I feel that there’s a lot to that line. It’s not just skating down the street from point A to point B.
A slide on the bank would have been good but at that point I was pretty happy when I did those tail stall reverts. Anyway, about the hit I put a lot of juice into the revert and on that try you got a little bit close, I went pretty hard and just smashed your fish eye off of the camera.
I was feeling very GX1000 with that clip you know skating down the hill thinking I need to get close to this one but it was fully my fault, I honestly did not see that happening at all.
Quickest possible swap from fisheye to long lens
I just remember just seeing the fisheye sliding lens down on the super rough concrete bank
It’s surprising how tough those fish eyes are because I’ve got that same fisheye now. I didn’t know what had happened until you were like oh my god no and I was thinking are you okay maybe you had rolled your ankle or something then I looked down and thought oh my god, I’d never had that happen before.
After that happened I looked on eBay to buy another camera but at the time I was filming heaps so I needed a camera right then, I couldn’t wait 2 weeks as there were heaps of people who had come back to Bunbury and everyone was skating. I think I saw one in the US for cheap but I didn’t want to wait for it to arrive as it was also COVID. So when you knocked it you had knocked the fish eye but also a piece of the camera snapped off where the fish eye screws in. So I glued the camera back together but I couldn’t take the fisheye off. This meant I filmed all of the long lens on a VX2000 so I was always carrying two cameras around.
And how did that go for you ?
It worked really well, the VX1000 doesn’t really zoom as well as the 2000 and I kind of knew my colour correction really well at that point so I could make the footage from both cameras look the same way.
I remember the second time we went back there there was a bunch of moisture in the camera so I had to do it again.
Yes, that was from the glue.
Was that weak little power slide really necessary ?
And then the third time I did it. Are there any other clips that really stand out to you or you want to talk about?
I haven’t watched this video for so long but in the first few minutes there are so many clips that I like. Jaco skates the rounded rail, he pole jams onto it going super fast and it ends at a wall when he pops out before the wall, then he comes back and he back fifties the rail.
Jaco speeding through the suburbs
Even though it’s a bail I really like this clip of Tom where he ollies over this little block and then tries to backside flip this really crunchy stair set and snaps his board. It’s really quick, I wish he landed at but it doesn’t always work out like that. At that point during covid it was really hard to get boards and I think in this clip he was skating a holiday board.
That’s right the boys were skating a lot of holiday boards
You would struggle to find anything and looking at this video now I can see he’s skating another holiday board on that beach spot he does like a front tail and then sort of three shoves out that was really cool.
Tom, religiously repping holiday skateboards
Also we were going up to Perth often during this video, were there any particular spots that you wanted to go to every time, because for me I was really surprised that day we went to the kicker up the stairs in Fremantle.
When I go up to Perth I’m not really trying to dictate the spot, I usually say ‘what do you guys want to skate ?’ That kicker up the stairs in Fremantle Jake lived close to and wanted to check it out. He kickflipped up and Jaco did the back 180. A lot of these spots were dictated by those guys that were living in the city and that were looking at the spots during the week and they were like when there is a camera here I’m going to try this. But I mean that’s just from my perspective I don’t think any spot I was the one saying let’s go here.
Do those kicker tiles look straight to you?
So can you tell me about the Koombana ledges section of the video ?
So during COVID when the skate parks were closed the Koombana ledges became kind of like a skate park. We filmed so many tricks on them because we were always there, I couldn’t stop people from filming there I didn’t want to say I’m not going to film this because I have too many tricks at Koombana but I think halfway through this video I said fuck it I’m just going to have to make a section where it’s just Koombana.
In my opinion I don’t think that you film too much there, it’s nice that you have like a home spot that you can meet up at but also film there.
I mean I’d still film the trick there tomorrow but I think that this video is kind of like how all videos are; just a moment in time and this is what we were doing and skating a lot at that time.
The ledge is lava
Are there any spots in here that you don’t want to go to again or you’ve really had enough of ?
BCC I feel like I really don’t want to film there anymore, I’ve maybe filmed every angle possible. If someone asks me I’m not going to say no but for me I really struggle to film the same thing in the same way every time as it gets boring, it’s got to be a little bit fun you know. There is the more simple side for me of just capturing a trick but you yourself want to try something else different while you’re filming it.
I think that there’s more potential for a line there, the long lens down the stairs and even photos are kind of boring. The colours going on aren’t nice, the red bricks the green grass the blue sky it just doesn’t look good.
Some places have grates to grind over, others have patches of grass. In Bunbury we have to shovel piles of sand.
Another aspect where things started to change was having you take photos. I feel like it makes people more excited because they get the best of both worlds. I’m really secretive about footage through those two videos. I would show people the clip once and then wouldn’t send it to them because I wanted the clip to be a surprise. Having a photo is kind of like a nice happy medium so that the skaters can see it looks cool now, they’ve got the photo to keep them hyped and are still hyped to see the video. It added an extra element like the stuff you see the pros doing you know you’d see they always have a photo, it made it more of like a complete thing.
Oh wait there’s here’s clip that I would like to talk about.
Jake doing a bs 5050 on a bench and then ollie and doing a crook bonk on this weird little mobile hand washing station. When COVID was at its peak we had these all over Bunbury where you could wash your hands wherever. The trick goes by really quick, where he ollies on the bench it’s like two board lengths. I should have slowed it down but I wanted to show how quick it is.
‘clean’ 50-50 crook bonk
What about Jake’s nollie back heel line, do you want to talk about that because that was a mission ?
Oh man I feel like a fucked up on that one, so we’re talking about a line where Jake is doing a switch back heel on flat pushes around the corner and then nollie back heelflips the 3 block. So originally he had just nollie back heeled the set and because he’s regular I filmed fisheye it with my back against the wall. When he popped my angle wasnt right so I completely cut off his body. I was like I’m sorry man but I think you’re going to have to do it again I can’t use this clip. You couldn’t even see his body, only the wheels and his board, a total botch. Obviously he was bummed about it which is understandable because if that was me I’d be like c’mon man you’ve been filming for how long ? But he was like you know what it’s okay because I’d like to do it in a line. He did the single trick pretty easily, he’s one of those guys that can just learn tricks at a spot which he did here. In total I think we went there six times.
I remember that day that he got it was the morning of the premiere right
Yes exactly so we got the clip, I went back home edited it and then went to James’s house for the premiere. Another thing I’m just remembering about this video now is that I had a really shit camera battery and it would last for not even an hour so any trick that was filmed fisheye was filmed in I want to say under 45 minutes. Everything had to be done super quick otherwise we had to go back. But yet with this trick Jake was really patient. There’d be times when we’d be trying it, lighting up the spot he’d stomp it and would get so close then the camera would die. You can see where he rolls away. There’s a shed with a powerpoint where I would bring my camera charger and charge it there for half an hour while he’d be there with his massage gun massaging his legs. It was insane.
You guys got it done in the end though.
It just goes to show how dedicated he is when he wants to do something he will do it. When he landed it we all felt like we had landed it. You were there for most of the sessions right ?
Yeah for at least three or four of them
We’d also been there days when it was raining but because it was slightly undercover we would skate and dry off the areas that were exposed to the rain and then he would try it.
I remember I was always keen to go there and watch but after one day of watching I brought my flat bar and skated in the meantime haha.
I remember that and he was about it, he liked having everyone there it was cool.
Jake nollie back heelflips outside of his old maths class
Another standout trick I would like to talk about before we forget is Corey’s carve around to 50/50 on that rail.
Oh yeah that’s maybe my favourite trick in the video
Me too, this is one clip I thought really needs a slow mo because there’s so much going on. Maybe you can correct me but this was done on maybe 2 hours of sleep maybe a Sunday after a big Saturday night
That’s right it was and he had done feeble before
Yes, he did a feeble transfer another weekend at the end of 2019 and something was wrong with the camera or it just didn’t look good but he said he wanted to go back and try the 50-50 anyway. Corey’s very understanding of things like that, similar to Jake in a way who’s like that’s all right I can do something else instead. We were all sort of tripping, kind of like as if this guy is going to try this, it’s crazy. However we all knew it was possible, you know this is within his limits.
Feeble transfer with hankering for KFC
It’s right next to another well known spot but I don’t think anyone had it skated before right ?
No I don’t think anyone had skated it before, I would love to hear someone from Perth’s opinion on this though. When you watch it it doesn’t even make sense. It’s this narrow curve onto a tiny rail and then he grabs it frontside and pulls out. I feel like Corey might be one of the only people with arms long enough to pull this trick off haha. While you’re pinched in a 50-50, who’s going to lean down and grab the board like that in prime sacking territory ?
Just as he was doing this it started raining too.
You can see it in the footage as he’s walking up the hill. Maybe the VX quality is a bit grainy but you’re wearing a rain jacket and then as we were leaving it was pouring down. I feel like it was a bit special as well because Payet was there.
He’d had an accident before and then that was one of the first times I went and picked him up from his house so it was one the first times after we could chill together properly like we always had
You had left the session right and then came back ?
Yeah, exactly
I think Corey’s one of those people like if he has something like that motivating him he can do anything. He probably would have still done it if Payet it wasn’t there but maybe not that day. I feel like him being there was just extra motivation for his friend that he hadn’t seen in a while, it was a really special moment.
So now do you have any other videos coming out or anything in the works ?
I think we’re going to have a joint premiere in Perth at a bar Ewen is organizing. It’s going to be the bellyful dudes, my video and then I think James has a little video too, but it’s always a bit awkward at a premiere because it feels like you should be watching an actual full length movie not just a 15 minute skate video. All of my other videos I’ve done I had already thought about how I was going to edit them and had songs picked out but this one I’m not really sure what I’m going to do. It’s going to be clips from Europe and clips from Perth and Bunbury. I think I’m going to combine them with a Europe section into one video for the premiere and then maybe on YouTube I’ll release them separately.
I really like the idea of having a Europe section in a longer video because you see what these guys are capable of at home and then you have a section where they’re out of their comfort zone. So when is the premiere ?
Hopefully December or January.
Okay thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me.
It was a pleasure, thank you.
