Goddamn Early

For this issue, we were originally going to travel to South Wales, but things went the-way-of-the-pear and we ended up having to postpone the trip at the eleventh hour.

So, in the interests of continuity (we couldn’t not do a town scene piece) and saving money, we decided to shoot what was local – and why not?

As I mentioned earlier this particular part of the UK is largely ignored as a potential breeding ground for skate talent – which is surprising when you consider the sheer quantity and quality of rippers around these here parts of the deep-south.

Pompey is home to literally hundreds of skaters, so it’s a bit disappointing that only a few of the 4-wheeled fanatics are featured in the following pages. Bear in mind that this feature does not in any way represent the whole Portsmouth area skate-scene – it doesn’t even begin to think about scratching the surface. However it does, arguably, present some of it’s finest exponents.

The first shooting session was an early one. And I mean goddamn early.

I left home at about 5:45am and headed into Portsmouth with two of the Herbal Skateboards team – Marcus Payne and Murray Cross. I’ve known this loveable pair of Hayling Island scoundrels for some time now, they totally rip it up, and are always great value on a session.

To be honest though, I had my doubts this dawn-patrol mish would be a success – purely down to the fact that we were up so early, and were all looking a tad rough around the edges. In our favour was the weather – beautiful bright blue skies, and a warm spring sun – as we drove over the bridge to the mainland, we were all starting to feel slightly better about skating, and life in general.