The ever wandering Grant Hazelton had been abruptly grounded down in Florida ever since the COVID-19 pandemic started but luckily for us, Grant was able to make his way back home up to Rochester New York and immediately went back to work on his new crispy new pair of Roces. We spoke with Grant about what he has been up to recently and picked his brain about what went into the filming process for “A Week on the Tides” and what made this particular piece so special for him.
“A Week on the Tides” was pretty much just that, technically it might have only been 6 days. I keep saying each new color of M12s is my favorite, but these might actually be my favorite and the cornstarch /plastic mix is a really cool step towards sustainability.
So, I’ve been in Florida since the beginning of the COVID stay at home orders, skating my box, keeping it low key and staying “safe.” I hadn’t been home to Rochester in about 6 months with holidays, Winterclash, Pow Wow and of course the COVID stuff. Western NY started to open back up mid-May which meant my boyfriend needed to be there for work. Considering airplane travel was still risky we jumped in the car with our dog and drove up to NY for about a week and a half and I went to work blading.
There was definitely something special about the energy of being home. Just being outside again, being able to blade with two of my closest friends Nate Hall and Tim Adams, revisiting spots none of us had really skated in a while, even the empty city felt like it pushed us forward. I don’t know, its hard to explain. I think given the state of the world it felt like a safe, familiar place to be, my friends in Rochester are like family, we work really well together, examining spots, coaching each other with ideas on trick selection and filming. It’s a small city and there’s so much within a 10-15 minute radius to skate, you just have to work at it a little to find the right trick for the spot or use the spot a new way (theres lots of history here with a huge blade scene in the early 2000s).
The night clips at the white ledges are a spot I’ve wanted to skate for 10+ years but always got the immediate boot and the sweatstance backside backslide line was an OG spot that hasn’t been skated since early 2000. The kink rail is around the corner from our infamous blade house (RIP), which for some reason we never even skated. And the ledges with the marble blocks are a spot we thought we exhausted but managed to pull something new out of. There’s a story for every day and every spot in this edit.
Everything just came together, the spots, the skating, the vibes, Nate and Tim did a great job filming for me. I’ve been slowly learning to edit over the years and I feel like this one really shows that I’ve learned something haha. It might seem silly or sentimental or small but I’m proud of this edit, it makes me happy, it makes me smile, it reminds me what I love about the city I call home and the friends that make it home and how important and uplifting skating can be.
Thank you Roces, Kaltik and Oak City for supporting me and Be-Mag for giving me a chance to add a little context to my skating.”
You’re welcome, Grant! The pleasure is all ours.
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