Introduction and Photos | Sam Cooper | @Samcooperphoto
Skating and additional words | Ollie Jones | @rollollie53
Well known for being quite a large human (and having a more than healthy appetite for handrails of all shapes and sizes) Ollie Jones is a man from a city better known for horses, yet can’t seem to help catch tricks whatever the weather may be. He continues to shred in such a way that it almost makes up for those no-show fair weather skaters. Now in his dirty thirties, I thought it would be interesting to pick his brains on various subjects for this edition of Be-Mag’s ‘Top 5.’ I’ll let Ollie tell you more about it:
“This whole article seems to have come about by accident. We weren’t intending to shoot for anything in particular. The photos are not a complete set where you would normally include a variety of tricks and spots. Instead, this a more accurate representation of the kinds of locations Sam and I go out and skate on a regular basis. Some spots we planned for, others we stumbled across. After skating and playing this game for 23 years, I’m still not sure which I prefer!
When you’ve spent 70% of your life skating as much possible, it’s difficult to imagine filling it with anything else. Even as you get older, it supposedly gets harder to find the time. I still think that every time you’re out skating and you find something new, it’s exactly the same as the first time you went street skating with your friends as kids. Nothing has really changed, except now apparently it’s important to mention that my instagram is @rollollie53. See ya out there!“ — Ollie Jones
TOP 5 MOST PLAYED TUNES TO SKATE WITH
• Mobb Deep — Survival of the fittest
• Jedi Mind tricks — On the Eve of War
TOP 5 BEST THINGS ABOUT SKATING
• Finding new spots
• Coming up with new ideas for old spots
• Being warm when it’s cold
• Having a reason to be anywhere
• Travelling to new places
TOP 5 THINGS TO BRING WHEN SKATING
• Water
• Food
• Wax
• Clothing layer options
• GoPro
TOP 5 BEST RAILS YOU’VE SKATED
• New Inn
• Wooden rail
• Ulm skatepark rail
• Old racecourse rail
• Some rails in Eastleigh or Winchester
TOP 5 CITIES TO SKATE
• Bristol
• Stuttgart
• Plymouth
• Milan
• Strasbourg
TOP 5 BEST REASONS TO TRAVEL
• Skating new stuff
• Not being at work
• Usually better weather than home
• Seeing new scenery
• More people to skate with
TOP 5 WORST TRAVEL EXPERIENCES
• Flying from Gatwick to Gatwick for 20 minutes because the cabin smelled of fuel
• Missing the last train home from Bristol, having to go to Gloucester to get the night bus full of maniacs
• Any time you have to fly with a cold
• When they decide that redirecting a Bristol train to go via Cardiff is a reasonable idea
• Coming back from Glasgow after being snowed in for two days and doing 5 mph all the way to Carlisle
TOP 5 WAYS TO ANNOY YOU
• Wet weather on the weekend (it’s raining now)
• Being at work when the weather is perfect for skating
• Watching films during the daytime
• Really just doing anything indoors when the weather is nice
• Making me think about things that are annoying
TOP 5 WORST INJURIES
• Dislocated right shoulder 3+ times
• Dislocated left shoulder at least once
• Broken ribs from a wall roll to rail in Bristol
• Turning my right ankle into a crisp packet at Gloucester park
• Landing on my face at the worlds roughest skatepark in Cheltenham
TOP 5 SKATERS OF ALL TIME
• Chris Haffey
• Dustin Latimer
• Alex Broskow
• Brian Aragon
• Aaron Feinberg
TOP 5 RAIL SKATERS
• Iain McLeod
• Chaz Sands
• Nick Lomax
• Josiah Blee
• Eugen Enin
TOP 5 LONG LEGGED SKATERS
• Dan Loveless
• Matt Woods
• Lee Doig
• Rachard Johnson
• Demetrios George
TOP 5 TRICKS YOU’VE SEEN LANDED IN PERSON
• Ski: back fastslide race course drop rail
• Jeremy Suarez: 540 flatspin transfer at NASS 2011
• Nils: 540 ao topsoul at Winterclash
• Ski again: sweaty huge down ledge in Bromsgrove
• Everything Lomax and Montre did at Prague Real Street
TOP 5 SECTIONS OF ALL TIME
• Chris Haffey — Leading the Blind
• Alex Broskow — KFC2 (the longer section)
• Aaron Feinberg — Brain Fear Gone
• Dustin Latimer — Coup De Tat
• Brian Shima — Brain Fear Gone
TOP 5 ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE OF SKATING
• Exercise
• Hill walks
• Reading
• Look for more blading spots on Google
• Any sort of mental puzzle
TOP 5 PODCASTS
• Skeptics Guide to the Universe
• Radiolab
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