Civic R.I.P.

D.I.Y�

Air Sausages

Hell City Glamours

How to Live the Life

Canucks in Canberra

Issue i2009

Cover and inset: Beast Warren... 50-50 in Civic�� and prec��ision at Pambula

Skateboarding? Seriously? How old are you? You aren’t 15 anymore you know.� At your age you need to think about job security.� You can’t earn money if you’re injured.� What are you made of? Glass? Drink more milk.� You should give it up.� These are the sorts of things you hear when you manage to put yourself back onto crutches just ten weeks after getting off them.� In fact over the last ten months I have managed to cough blood, break my right arm, right ankle and left foot. Go figure. Not even on anything gnarly.� You do question yourself.� But not about giving it up.� More like, ‘am I retarded?’ The answer is most definately yes. I love it too much even if I do suck.� So, welcome to Half Arsed.� This rag is dedicated to all those that try and still suck.�

All images and text by Vagabond unless otherwise stated Thanks to contributors: Red Dawg, Peter Manley, Brow, Glenn Scott, Jim Fowlie, Brooks Fritz, Andy Peters, Tristan Still, Archie Yee, Stella-Rae Zelnik, Isaac Brown, Dave Pang, Johno Hardy.�

I N T R O D U C I N G

MIKE M

nahthe

otherone!

ANDREW CURRIE JIM FOWLIE RYAN BACZYNSKI JACK FARDELL

TODD BAKER DEAN PARSONS MATT CHENEY ...and MIKE MORRIS!

OPEN 7 DAYS UPSTAIRS

16 GAREMA PL CANBERRA CITY

PH: (02) 6262 9162

Switch Bigspin Heelflip

By Vagabond�� When I first moved to our bush capital some six years ago, the Civic mini had seen some heavy death match sessions already.� I’d seen the trophy with Fowlie’s name on it.� It would definitely have to be one of the best ever pre-fab mini ramps I have had the privilege to ride, hands down.� Six foot curve, twenty-four feet wide, bonza! The weird lines you could take into the vert wall took a bit of figuring, but once sorted you would be rewarded for your efforts.� It’s smooth tranny with crispy concrete lip was also one of the best I’ve ever touched and others will testify to that.� I recall that it would be one of the only other things I’ve ever seen Big Dan skate outside of Belco Bowl, and God help you if you were unfortunate enough to collide with him.� I’ve seen stacks of sick sh*t go down at Civic from dudes who didn’t do the same tricks elsewhere.� It must have been something to do with the perfect design of the transition or the session atmosphere.� I couldn’t be sure.� Greg Scott’s long back lippys to sugarcane grinds and his bro Lee’s air out to fenc eplant bs boneless in.� Mike D’s sweepers on the vert wall.� I remember a grind comp on the vert wall of who could grind the most empty beer cans.� As far as I know 12 was the record.� And the BBQ’s, hell yeah.�.�.�>

All photos

by Dave Pang!

Lee Steele owned Shifty’s at the time and would reverse his Chevy in, sometimes not so smoothly bump and grinding with the fence.� People used to say it was a sketchy park but I never saw any of that.� Maybe because I was always too busy skateboarding.� The skate parks’ original allocated area was somehow reclaimed by the carpark or encroached 10 metres more than it was meant to onto it, something like that.� So through an idea of sheer greatness, the plans were put onto the photocopier and the circumference of the skate park shrunk to fit. In essence only influencing the dimensions of length and width but not height.� That’s why the funbox was so steep.� Sad to see it gone, it was

an individual art piece knocked down for.�.�wait for it… a car park.� Good choice that one.� They could have at least relocated the perfect mini instead of the rot that is now at Lanyon.� Anyway, Enough of the gripe and more reminiscence! Long live Civic.

“It was an awesome place to

catch up with everyone,have a

longneck and a roll on Canberra’s

best mini.� Simple as that.�”

- Brow

By Jim Fowlie It was always easy to tell who the real locals at Civic Skate Park were.�They were the only ones who could actually do lines on the street course.� An out of towner would drop in the quarter pipe, roll over the dodgy pyramid and up the big flat bank and stop. They would stand at the top of the flat bank scratching their head while looking back at the super congested ‘street course’ and think ‘how the f*ck do I skate this thing?’ That’s why Civic Skate Park was so rad.� It was hard to skate! There was a different line for every person at Civic.� Some guys would carve out of the mini to hit the vert wall, some guys would carve from the street course, some guys even from parking lot.� If you couldn’t carve youdidn’t have much chance of skating the place, especially the infamous vert wall.� It got some serious playtime on more than one occasion.� I remember seeing Clint Bond do a perfect backside tailslide on it one day.� It blew me away! It probably wasn’t the best trick done on it, but the way he did it just shut the thing down in my eyes.� That was the same day we saw some junkies shooting up behind the mini ramp with their baby in the pram next to them.� I can’t remember who exactly, either Big Dan or Phil Dalton served ‘em pretty good and chased them out of there.� That day was Civic Skate Park in a nutshell, amazing skating, good mates and shady characters.� Shame they had to bulldoze it to make way for ten parking spaces.�

Returning home to Canberra in Christmas 2001, after 10 years traipsing round the countryside for work, I was temporarily accommodated at ‘James Court Apartments’ on the corner of Northbourne Ave and Lonsdale Street.� I had great views of the Summernats cars doing their evening parade.� More importantly we were no more than 200 metres from the concrete wonderland of ‘Civic Skatepark.�’ Apart from the occasional glimpse at Melbourne’s sail yards, Civic was the most modern park I’d seen.�

With all my gear being in storage I scavenged through my old skate belongings in my mother-in-laws den and put together what I thought was a decent set-up.� A G&S Blender mini, Gull Wing Phoenix trucks and K9 wheels.� Hey I’d been in the skate wilderness for 10 years and this set-up was no older than any others that I had! And so I began rolling Civics’ sweet curves.�

Now Civic was positioned in the back corner of an essentially forgotten and neglected part of Canberra’s CBD, any punter on their way between Gus’s coffee lounge and Lonsdale street would always pick-up their pace as they walked by the Griffin Centre and the car park that housed Civic skatepark.� Stories of Junkies using the nearby park benches and gardens, band posters littering the brick walls and the occasional smashed bottle etc added to this parks dark demeanour.� But that’s the mainstream viewpoint.� To myself Civic and its characters meant so much more! Civic represents my reconnect with Canberra’s great skate posse.�

Within days of arriving in Canberra, while walking through Garema Place the familiar sound of urethane on pavers echoed off the shop windows, “Hey Pangy!” I turn around….�.� a compact stocky, bald head greets me ….�.� “It’s Spud! Todd’s brother, how ya goin?” After not seeing him in over 10 years Spud greets me like a brother and invites me up to ‘IBS’ upstairs and hooks up a session at Civic.� From there I catch up with Matty Davis (who is living in Canberra at the time), Todd, Joel Webb, Jezza Butterworth and others.� Civic became my escape and temporary backyard.� After cutting my teeth on Kambah halfpipe and Woden bowl, I could not believe a concrete mini, vert wall and street course could be so smooth.� Watching the likes of Joel Webb, Dougie Hendry, Damien Geary, Jim Fowlie, Brow, Mick Donavan, Todd Webster, Aaron, Spud, and other locals tear the place apart, I became aware of how much skating had progressed while I was in one-horse towns that didn’t even know how to spell skateboarding! >

By Dave Pang

For two to three years more I was privileged to see the likes of Mike Vallely and the Anti-Hero crew tear Civic a new A@#$ H*&%, the occasional thrash band jam there and events like the Shifty’s ‘Texas Death Match’ occur.� I have skated there in the middle of Summer where we were near melting onto the bright baked concrete, I’ve stood on the mini ramp platform frozen stiff and going blue as I waited to snake a run.� I will never forget the intense and emotional sessions in late 2003 and early 2004 as Civics’ demise was being staged. Graffiti contributions around the park increased; there was always someone there to roll with.� Awesome vert wall sessions as dozers and diggers assembled in the neighbouring car park.�

Rocking up the weekend before Civics’ last day and witnessing Dougie Hendry and Jezza Butterworth’s insane last skate was awesome! Frontside rocks on the vert wall, backside tail-taps, berts on the street bank.�Then two days later I saw the jack hammer plunge into Civics’ sweet tranny, and to only have steel and rubble remaining was devastating.� RIP Civic.� You did us proud and kept CBRMY’s skaters on track.� Viva La Civic!

Cheerz!

Dougie

January 2004 CIVIC R.I.P.

When I met Tom Rees it was on my first trip to Melbourne some years back. I lived in Queensland at the time. Noah, Adair, Hmelnitski and I pulled up at the newly constructed Northcote bowl in the middle of a heated session.

Amongst the rabble I remember the likes of Junior, Chaka, Anton, Chirka, a chatterbox Don Tarr who didn’t even seem to have a board and a short stocky dude with a shaved head called Reesy. This guy was riding an old school board with big soft wheels, Ghost Whisperer I think we coined him. What I didn’t know is that Reesy had just come out of knee surgery and I

guess it was at that time that he learned the skills under discussion. There’s only a few I know. Reesy is one of them. Daniel Cardone is

definitely another. They have the skills that Flaza recently advised me is known as “The Air Sausage.” The unique ability to get in and out of all upside down intertwined situations gracefully swan diving sliding neatly to the bottom of the transition, slope or even across the flatground. Now I dunno about you,

but when I fall it’s usually the opposite of the “up” direction I was previously going in. That is down, not bloody sideways surfing neatly

down the concrete wave! A salute to you air sausages!

And to the newly named “Reethy” who’s air sausage ability somehow didn’t save him this time. Get well son.

Pics courtesy Glenn Scott, of the Reesy fundraiser day held for a new grill

Debacle Nike SB PremiereFeaturing: Daryl Angel, David Clark, Shane O’Neill, Theotis Beasley, Justin Brock and Grant Taylor.�

I didn’t like it when Nike decided to stuff their corporate fingers into the world of skateboarding. I thought the dunks were average, but given their massive following in other arenas Nike seemed to instantly do well. I considered some of the riders potential sell outs. To put it bluntly their last skate picture sucked. Now my thoughts have begun to change.I’ve seen the growth of Nike SB and some vulcanized soles on shoes that actually seem wearable. I see the value of smart sponsorship from a giant like Nike as an investment for pros given our global GFC. I liked the run of ads of Nike Ams shredding vehicles, backlipping ice cream trucks and smith grinding Cadillacs. Nike SB’s latest installment ‘Debacle’ showed around Australia on 19th June, and didn’t disappoint. Smashing glass is the new black. Short, sharp and sweet the show went for about 20 minutes which was just right. No dragged out weirdness like their first flick and each Am’s part was punchy and included various ‘accidental’ breaks like Brock’s board through bus stop glass - exciting stuff. Filmed entirely on HD and completed in just the last twelve months, this picture is a sign of things to come from the Nike SB team’s youngest members. Some Aussie spots were hit, Grant Taylor is the man to watch out for and Melbourne’s Shane O’Neill represented Aussie’s proud. Check it at: www.�nike.�com/nikeskateboarding/debacle Featured pic��s from Shifty’s Nike Premiere. Below: Nike flow teamrider Todd Baker gaps one out to Krooks

Zelnik

ZelnikZelnik

a recipe for destruction. Opening with their classic “One Night Only” the floor was jammed with keen moshers and appreciative grins. Bass wizard Jono stood out with his newly slicked back hair in contrast to the rest of the bands lovely long locks. I reckon Robbie can be honoured for 80’s pride, schralp sticks rhythmically keeping the Glamours on par. Mo looks somewhat akin to Slash in some ways, I reckon put a top hat on ‘im and he fits the bill! Oscar I dunno. You may have seen a little bad press recently with the album getting voted worst cover in some rag, any publicity is good publicity right! Well, in that photo Oscar has his belt done up nicely on top of his schlong. I’m serious. I dunno about you but that chafe would kill me! Boots are a standard although Jono still reps the skate shoes from time to time. Hell City have been putting in the hard yards for a good while now, touring late last year with the Angels amongst others. You could tell the band was having fun and I was disappointed there was no rail on the front on the stage for Oscar to tightrope >

Riffage at ANU Bar on Friday 19 June was sh*t hot. Nothing like some raw rockn good times to inject some fun into an evening. Stoked Hell City Glamours went back on their word of never doing a gig again in Canberra in winter, it was well worth it. Combine that with a bunch of stinky skaters already amped from the showing of a new vid and you’ve got

while crooning and flaring his classic guitar like in a previous Southside show. Birthday wishes were announced to one special lady. One particular goose who’s name we won’t mention managed to wow the crowd with daredevil acts of dickheadedness. I remember the lady’s comments,“I didn’t mind the fact that he stage dived onto me, it was the smell that offended me, man did he smell!” In between getting bumped by this goofballs repeated antics of climbing onstage Oscar quipped, “ “This guys been on stage seven times and still hasn’t gotten us a round of shots!” Which was a winner not because goose got them some shots, but cos Darcy had the courtesy to assist their wishes arranging a platter quick smart. That’s why I love the Glamours because they know how to have a good time! No false impressions of self absorbed glorification there. Heh heh, seriously tho, everyone had a fabulous time. I still have mixed feelings about the ANU, but really when you think about it what else is on offer? Transit bar is ok, but generally doesn’t have enough space if there’s more than a few crew, Green Room’s gone and Toast is toasted. Rev is Emo. Church bar...meh. The Basement is pretty good but isn’t in town... makes you wonder doesn’t it? Combine that with traveling acts always doing the Brisbane Sydney Melbourne leg, and Canberra often misses out. So that’s why we appreciate those bands that appreciate their fans and make the effort. I also noticed Hell City showed prior band Super Best Friends some support who being on a little earlier perhaps didn’t get as much was due because revelers were still drinking up at the bar. Johnny (SBF) told me that they hadn’t jammed as much lately, but nothing stood out to me as being too bad. Good kinsminship! After the show most of us migrated to Transit where hilariously goose immediately jumped on stage there. A DJ was playing and goose undertook the unmentionable of attempting to mess with his equipment. Needless to say, and quite humorously, ejection happened promptly after that. No offense dude, you were just in the black zone. Wish I had as much fun as you obviously did!

Flashbackthen

now

Russell SwanstonDavid Manley

Charnwood was the first skate park in Canberra. Here it is just as a snakerun circa 1979. With handpainted deck, gloves and super slides. A flyway helmet cost you two weeks wages, and took over three months to get to Australia from America. The rumour was because pretty much all the carbon fibre in the world was needed for air or space craft. Pics courtesy Peter Manley

added with its concrete lip, three foot to vert. Alan Peterson ollied out from the bowl and over the fence into the pathway a few years back. That pathway’s gone but if you ever go there you’ll realise how impossible that really was. Canberra’s own little gem. Watch out for Charny carnies!

Later the bowled end was

Cu pic: PetersAlan Young Reece

Darcy

Mike Morris

Cheney

www.myspace.com/superbestfriends

SIX NEW TRACKS & A NEW SOUND!

Breakdanceemail your breakdanc��e pic��s to:

luke@skateboard.c��om.au

Honour RollBAD BILLY HARRISON

TREV WARDTHE LOXIN

FASTER SHAUNY EATONJACOB “HAZY” HAYES

MYLES “KM’S” FLETCHERPETE POLLITO

PANGYCONZ

FLETCHTROY SLATER

BORISJUSTIN BAKAITIS

CHRIS DRURY MARTY

All inquiries call Jimmy 0439481488

Retail Support in Australia through Skateboard.com.au� Boardshop.com.au� and Hopkin.com.au�

Also OZ Agent for NINJA SPEED BEARINGS

Bad Billy Harrison

pic: Slater

Mike

Morris

www.kcaindustries.com

Steve Kelly

Dean Parsons - fs kickie

Matty Dillon - 360 shuvs, TuggeranongJason Heather Tailslide revert

Monkz

Jev

Todd Baker

Burman

Isaac

Indy MatRat Alan Young, Kambah

MondoDarcy

Above: Adam Gibson, Spence Back D Photos: Tristan Still www.tristanstill.com Below: Brow on the wall of doom

Chalk Pool was open for a week or two or three somewhere in sunny Qld about a year back. Easily one of the best pools I’ve ever had the privilege to come across in Australia. Top: Melinian, stairbound

Above: Dirty Dog Noah Right(s): Isaac Brown Below: Ben Newman

< Brooks Fritz is co-editor of Concussion magazine and resides in California. I got to meet the top notch bastard when I visited the states last year.I stole these pics off his Flikr cos he is so sh*t at replying to emails! Nah, you’re not too bad mate. www.concu�ssion.org

Dorfus! Inland Empire

Brooks - parenting

Jamie f*kn Weller frontal bluntal (I mean Nick Nolte...)

tailblock, driveway creation

Chucky Jones, Vista

Dingus, Oceanside

Cobra Kyle, San Bernadino

How to live the good Life whiLe you’re an invalid

The majority of skaters have spent a bit of time in medical centres, hospital waiting rooms and, if they’re really lucky, hospital beds for short or long periods of time. Whether it’s as little as a sprained ankle or as big as something that needs major surgery, we all know how sh*t it is to be taken off our skateboards while we recover. What do we do while our mates are out shredding the ‘crete or dropping hammers at the local 42 stair double set. Recently I snapped my ACL and had a knee reconstruction and thus managed to figure out a few ways to stay in the game and live the high life.

1) Live like a King at home - During the first couple of weeks after the injury or operation, you should be stuck on the couch and not be able to really to simple things like make a cuppa, cook some food or go to the pub. This is where you set up your life to be treated like a king. Get your girlfriend (or mum if you don’t have one) to do all yourgrocery shopping and make your meals. You can also get her to do all the washing and cleaning up after you. The next bonus is that you can make your mates visit you and bring you beer. If you organise this successfully, you will have only three places that you have to sit or lay down all day…..your bed, the couch and the toilet.

2) Mobility Scooter - Instead of being stuck at home watching Dr Phil and other daytime TV hits,or struggling down to the local take away to get lunch on a set of crutches, you can hire one of those 4 wheeled motor scooters that you normally see old people in. They are under $100 a week to hire which works out cheaper than catching a taxi everywhere or struggling on public transport with pricks who won’t give up their seat for you. They also have a basket at the front which fits a few longnecks, and a ghetto blaster will fit nicely under the seat.

3) Walking Stick - Once you get rid of the crutches and return the scooter, you need to get yourself a walking stick. You may be able to walk ok, but a walking stick is good for a couple of reasons. One, you may need it after being at the pub for a few hours. Two, you can sit at the skate park and everyone won’t constantly ask you why you’re not skating. Three, it can add a bit of pimp style to your get up and bitches will come runnin. I was lucky enough to have a mate who makes walking sticks and he gave me one of his finest, all natural sticks so I could limp in style.

l

by Red Dawg

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4) Bu�ild skate stu�ff - Have a think about some spots around town and some additions that can be made. You can then use all the time that you have, because you aren’t skating, to build them and create some masterpieces. The only crap thing about this is that you put in all the effort and then have to watch everyone else enjoy the fruits of your labour while you clean up all the mess made during the building process. Apart from these things that will make your life a little bit better, there are also a few obvious things you can do and that I probably don’t need to explain!

So, enjoy your time off, do all your physio exercises and don’t make the same mistake when you get back on the board. ...Kill tha Crete!!!

3) Tou�r de Beers - Riding a bike is really good for knee injury rehab. I decided to get a bike from my parent’s house that was rusted out and needed some repairs, but buying a bike from Kmart/Big W is probably the cheapest and easiest option. To add a bit of fun to bike riding, I zdecided to organise a Tour de Beers. Basically you organise a bike ride that includes a number of stops at mates houses where a couple of beers are drank at each house. If you want to add an extra edge, you can have a yellow jersey and whoever gets to the next house first gets to wear it for the next leg in the race. I know this isn’t as good as skating, but at least you’re drinking beer and doing something active with your mates.

• Get as much heavy duty medication as you can.

• Never drive. Even when you are better and can drive, just fake it and you can enjoy the perks of being a passenger. Falling asleep on long trips, not paying for petrol and drinking beer, which adds a nice party flavour to a boring road trip.

• Drop all your crap jobs at work. Just make excuses about your leg hurting whenever you are asked to do something you don’t want to do or fake physio appointments so that you can sleep in or leave early.

• Enjoy lazy sex. Just lie on your back, close your eyes and let the good times roll. It’s not your fault you can’t do more, you’re injured!

l

l

Go Faster

or get plastered

with shauny EatonShauny’s sk8 school. 50 bucks n’ hour or just bring lots of Haig.

D.I.YD.I.Y

There’s a stack of drains around here. Lots have a bit of water flowing thru and others don’t. But you can easily find something if you look. Making your own fun isn’t too hard with a tiny bit of know how.� Most of the time stuff seems to be knocked down by local government honchos because it potentially obstructs the water flow. Keep that in mind and it’s all good.� Grab a mate or two, pool your funds and scab some bricks for filla. Concrete only needs to be

Todd

Ethan

Isaac��

WowlieSpud

Darc��y

Ryan - Turdside R.I.P

D.I.YD.I.Y

pic��: Arc��hie

about 200mm thick to be strong if you support it well.� The biggest mistake is to mix too much sand with it.� If you’ve got enough bucks just buy straight bags of concrete and don’t mix them with anything.� Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to lay it and wait for it to go off.� You will need to caress it for an hour or two.� Keep screting it up and smoothing it out.� A mixing tub and a shovel from Bunnings will cost you less than 20 bucks, bags of crete cost about 5 bucks each.� Get a trowel and a screte for a few bucks more.� Maybe some gloves.� And a big container or lots of bottles for your water.� It needs to be tap water cos the chemicals in it make the crete set properly.� It doesn’t need to be perfect to be skateable.� In fact it’s the imperfections that add to the fun.� Do it, you might be pleasantly surprised.�

Reece Warren

www.omnisk8.com.au - 02 4455 6566

There’s a rad dude who was in Curtain called Tom who has a half Ozzy half Canadian accent.� Recently I think he was in the land of the moose (obviously).� Josh Darcy was there too.� I dunno what they did, but somehow they brought half of Canada back with them.� And these dudes shred.� And that’s rad cos our Canuck cousins are easy going and fun to shred with.� Keegan Sauder is a past prime example.� Anyhoo, some of these Canucks only had three month visas and most have gone back, but one particular mad man is staying for a year at least.� That’s Mike Mo.� Nah, the other one! Mike Morris anyway.� Keep your eyes out and don’t be shy to say G’day if you see him round the traps.� Cheers to Ethan, Justin, Kev, Jimmy and the other Mike too.�

Canucks in Canberra

Canucks in Canberra

Ethan, front bluntslide

Mike Morris above: sw front shuvsbelow: smithgrindKev

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Available at

Pic: Pang

Get on Em!

eh me too!