“His Royal Highness – Smedley”

Who is on the NISE team at the moment?

Riders are at present: Richie Mann, Socks (Martin Maguire), Joshua Checkley, Phil Long and of course his Royal Highness, Craig Smedley.

Smedley has just gone Pro with NISE and his first Pro board. He’s obviously a legend in British skateboarding and still continues to kill it, how did you guys go about getting him on board?

Craig has been a legend in my mind since I first learned of him, but he is also a genuine guy. He has been involved with several electric NICE jams and has always supported us when he can.

Soon after the whispers appeared that all pro riders from Bomber were being dispersed of we called a meeting and asked Craig to join in, we took him along with us on a recent BCN trip and when we came back we had proudly got is a Pro rider… stoked. This guy can’t be stopped, a true legend.

Everyone wants to know – who came up with that Smedley graphic? (Amazing)

The team literally sat round and had an actual board meeting, several thousand cups of tea were drank and some amazing ideas were put down on paper, some of which will be going into production. However nothing was creating the spark we knew we had to create for Craig’s 20th pro board. We all know Craig loves to dance and that he is quite enthusiastic when it comes to the King of Pop.

After about 4 hours of debating Craig stood up and delivered his EUREKA moment, out came the I Phone and put in front of us was The Bad Album – “That’s the badger” proclaimed Craig, and from there we got to work

What does the future hold for NISE?

Lots more skate trips, as our riders live all over England and Scotland so we need to take advantage of that.

We are currently filming for our second release which should hopefully Drop around Christmas time. Having as much fun as possible and hoping Richie stops snapping boards! Continuing to grow both the business and schooling sides to Nise, and trying to envoke as many young people to the benefits of skateboarding as physically possible.

Thanks to the nice guys at NISE for taking the time to talk to us. Now, just need to get my hands on one of those Decks!