Brofile — January: Zak Mclean

Zak Mclean » Kick­flip » Busyard gap, Christchurch

Wel­come the first post of Bro­file. Since we realised we were quickly run­ning out of poten­tial groms in Christchurch, we decided to change the name from Grom of the Month so we can con­tinue our shoot and rider pro­file to rid­ers of all ages and backgrounds.

To kick things off we caught up with local rip­per Zak Mclean and ven­tured around a few street spots in Christchurch. One thing I noted about Zak when he’s in front of the cam­era, he’s com­mit­ted — he doesn’t give up. If he doesn’t land some­thing, he keeps at it until it’s stomped, and stomped cleanly.

Here’s what Zak had to say for our quick­fire questions:

Name: Zak Mclean
Age? 16
Reg­u­lar or goofy? Reg­u­lar
Fav local spot/skatepark: Wash­ing­ton Skate Park
Fav trick? Gotta love them kick­flips
Street/Park/Bowl? — Why? Street, just love going to a spot and try­ing tricks nobody has done before.
Who hooks you up? Nobody
Fav all time skate­boarder? NYJAH HUESTON
Fav skate vid/ last one you watched? Nyjah Hue­ston — Rise & Shine
Lis­ten­ing to music while skat­ing? Hate it.
Tight or loose trucks? Loose
Worst skat­ing injury? Prob­a­bly chipped hip, or bro­ken foot.
Cur­rent setup? Skategear deck, Thun­der tita­nium lights, Bones STF wheels, Abec 7 black pan­thers.
A good skateboarder’s diet should always include? B.K. and Gatorade.
What are you going to be doing in 5 years? Hope­fully skat­ing.
Any final words? Ouuuutttttt.

Scroll on for some more sweet shots by Andy Brown…

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BroFile — November: Jayden Edmonds

Jay­den Edmonds » Ollie over the tabletop

I was on the scout for a young rip­per to shoot for November’s Grom of the Month, so headed down to Wash­ing­ton. Chill­ing over in the cor­ner I spot­ted Jay­den Edmonds, recalled a few good lines and tricks up his sleeve from our Skate Jams, and hit him up for a shoot.

There was no wait­ing, straight on the board and huck­ing ollies down the bank to the flat in a mat­ter of sec­onds. His energy and enthu­si­asm for skat­ing is huge (or he’s just had too much energy drink), if he didn’t land some­thing, or I missed the split sec­ond for get­ting the right shot, he was back drop­ping in before I could get my old hag­gard self back into position.

Here’s what Jay­den had to say for our quick­fire questions:

Name: Jay­den Edmonds
Age? 13
Reg­u­lar or goofy? Goofy
Fav local spot/skatepark: Wash
Fav trick? Kick­flip
Street/Park/Bowl? Park — Why? It’s just fun to do banks and stuff
Who hooks you up? n/a
Fav all time skate­boarder? Ryan Sheck­ler
Fav skate vid/ last one you watched? South in your mouth
Lis­ten­ing to music while skat­ing? naa
Tight or loose trucks? Loose
Worst skat­ing injury? Chipped my tooth
Cur­rent setup? Death­wish board, Bones STFs, Bones Reds, and Thun­ders
A good skateboarder’s diet should always include? Red Bull or Mon­ster
What are you going to be doing in 5 years? Don’t know…
Any final words? naa

Scroll on for more photos!

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Brofile — September: Dan Kelcher

Dan Kelcher » FS Smith Tailgrab

You’ve all been wait­ing for it — Dan Kelcher, the young rip­per who graced the front page of The Press a few months ago is now fea­tures in our Grom Of The Month for September.

Only recently click­ing over to 14 years old DK is bring­ing a strong revival to tran­si­tion skat­ing by use of his own cre­ative lines and out of the square tricks. We caught up with him at the bogan-infested Waltham bowl to shoot a few of those tricks and fire a few ques­tions his way. This is what he had to say…

Name: Dan Kelcher
Age? 14
Reg­u­lar or goofy? Reg­u­lar
Fav local spot/skatepark: T.P and Waltham Bowl.
Fav trick? Frontside grinds and Smiths.
Street/Park/Bowl? — Why? Bowl! It’s easy, fun, you can make up flow­ing lines and go real fast.
Who hooks you up? Dave North at Nel­son Creek Skate­boards and Cheap­skates.
Fav all time skate­boarder? Prob­a­bly Chris Miller but there’s way too many to list.
Fav skate vid/ last one you watched? Anti­Hero Skate­boards Tent City, it had some pretty good Hewitt footage.
Lis­ten­ing to music while skat­ing? — What tunes? To tell the truth I think it’s pretty dis­tract­ing, I lis­ten to some dub if I’m just cruis­ing round.
Tight or loose trucks? Loose so I can turn good and not fall off.
Worst skat­ing injury? Break­ing my arm.
Cur­rent setup? Nel­son Creek old school shape with the only trucks (149 Indys) and Flyns Bones SPFS.
A good skateboarder’s diet should always include? Coconut, pineap­ple, mango, fruit, meat, lots of water and bacon with onions.
What are you going to be doing in 5 years? Skat­ing bowls, pools, and hope­fully some vert, and just go surf­ing all the rest of the time
Any final words? Cheers!

Dan Kelcher » 5–0 Revert

Dan Kelcher » FS Boneless

A few grinds under the belt

BroFile — August: Vincent Bolt

August’s GOTM is the Grom everyone’s been wait­ing for, Vin­cent Bolt. As usual, he’s pulled a nice set of tricks out of the bag for us. At only 12 years old, Vincent’s already turn­ing heads down at the park/bowl. Keep an eye out for him.

Name: Vin­cent Bolt.
Age? 12
Reg­u­lar or goofy? Goofy
Fav local spot/skatepark: Wash & T.P.
Fav trick? Back Smith
Street/Park/Bowl? — Why? Bowl, it just seems the most fun for me
Who hooks you up? Vox shoes and my Dad always helps me out
Fav all time skate­boarder? John Cardiel
Fav skate vid/ last one you watched? Anti-Hero, Tent City
Lis­ten­ing to music while skat­ing? — What tunes? The Ramones, The Clash, The Smiths, Bad Brains
Tight or loose trucks? Loose
Worst skat­ing injury? Broke my tooth on the cop­ing at T.P. Got 7 stitches to get it out of my lip
Cur­rent setup? Anti-Hero deck, Indy trucks, Spit­fire wheels and bear­ings
A good skateboarder’s diet should always include? Milk and bread
What are you going to be doing in 5 years? Skat­ing the new bowl at Wash­ing­ton
Any final words? Nah

Vin­cent Bolt » Frontside Air

Vin­cent Bolt » Back­side Disasters

Vin­cent Bolt » 50/50 Transfer

Brofile — July: Saul Titheridge

After keep­ing an eye on this young dude over our sum­mer series and see­ing him absolutely rip around the parks at the mere age of nine, we decided to get him onboard for July’s Grom of the Month… Intro­duc­ing Saul Titheridge.

Saul is def­i­nitely one to watch with his 110% com­mit­ment and enthu­si­asm to skate­board­ing. He drops in, bails, gets back on the board and drops in again until he gets it. Awe­some to see. Could be inspi­ra­tion for some of us older skaters who get lazy and make up excuses… Scroll on for his quick­fire ques­tions and some pho­tos of him tear­ing up Washington.

Name: Saul Titheridge
Age? 9
Reg­u­lar or goofy? Reg­u­lar
Fav local spot/skatepark: Wash
Fav trick? Indy
Street/Park/Bowl? — Why? Park, Because there are more things to do.
Who hooks you up? No one (yet)
Fav all time skate­boarder? Bam Marg­era
Fav skate vid/ last one you watched? Thrasher, Hall of Meat
Lis­ten­ing to music while skat­ing? — What tunes? Nah, can’t (while skat­ing). Wu Tang and Dig­i­tal Under­ground
Tight or loose trucks? Medium
Worst skat­ing injury? Cracked head (hence the hel­met)
Cur­rent setup? SkateGear blank deck, Speed Demon trucks and ran­dom wheels
A good skateboarder’s diet should always include? Car­rots
What are you going to be doing in 5 years? Fully spon­sored under 16
Any final words? Nah

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Brofile — June: Jordan McStay

Jor­dan McStay » 5–0 Fakie

June’s Grom Of the Month is our comp reg­u­lar (and reg­u­lar board snap­per) Jor­dan McStay. We got him up early last Sat­ur­day for a shoot down at Thom­son Park, made him bail hard on his arse cause it was still wet, and hounded him on Face­book until he got his answers back! Cheers Jor­dan, you’ve got all the per­sis­tence and deter­mi­na­tion any good skater needs — below is an insight to Jor­dan, and a few pics from the ses­sion. Pho­tos by Andy Brown.

Name: Jor­dan McStay
Age? 15
Years skat­ing? 2–3
Reg­u­lar or goofy? Reg­u­lar
Fav local spot/skatepark: The Bean Hive
Fav trick? Salmon (360 flip)
Street/Park/Bowl? — Why? Street, because it’s bet­ter for film­ing
Who hooks you up? Don’t have any spon­sors
Fav all time skate­boarder? Shane O’neill
Fav skate vid/ last one you watched? Favourite’s Real since day one. That’s the last one I watched too
Lis­ten­ing to music while skat­ing? — What tunes? Wu tang or Big­gie
Tight or loose trucks? Medium
Worst skat­ing injury? Uh, I’ve had four con­cus­sions — that’s about all
Cur­rent setup? Nel­son Creek. Inde­pen­dents. Bone Reds. Spit­fires
A good skateboarder’s diet should always include? Sub­way
What are you going to be doing in 5 years? Skat­ing
Any final words? Nah

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BroFile — May: Liam Currie

Liam-Currie » Back­side Melon | Thom­son Park | Photo » Andy Brown

Grom of the Month is a new fea­ture on our blog, we’re going to be catch­ing up with a young rip­per each month fir­ing them a few ques­tions and snap­ping a few pics. A warm round of applause for our debut grom — Liam Currie.

Name: Liam Cur­rie
Age: 11 years old
Years rolling: 4
Stance: Goofy
Fav local spot/skatepark: Thom­son park
Fav Trick: 50 fakie
Street/Park/Bowl? — why? Street, coz its always fun look­ing for new spots to skate.
Who hooks ya up: Cheap­skates
Fav all time skate­boarder: Cur­ren Caples
Fav Skate vid/last one you watched: Favourite — Vol­com Lets Live , Last one I watched was Chicagof
Lis­te­nen­ing to music while skat­ing? — what tunes? When I do lis­ten to tunes while skat­ing its usu­ally roots/rock/reggae stuff, Kings of Leon too.
Tight or loose trucks: Loose
Worst skat­ing injury: Ripped my knee open at Methven skate park and needed 8 stitches.
Setup: Nel­son Creek 8″, Indy Trucks, Gold wheels and Cheap­skates Bearings.

Liam Cur­rie » Front Indy | Thom­son Park | Photo » Andy Brown