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Xsjado is happy to announce a few new riders to the team, in the force of Blake Bird and Neil Ingall. Expect to see them shredding at the winterclash as well as any grimey street you can find in our capital.
Below is a photo i took of Neil on new years day. It’s been a while since i have taken a skate shot so my timing was off, even with Neil lacing it many times. However i have come to grow on the photo as it shows that he is spinning into it.
Once again for the tech geeks out there, this was shot on a
Canon eos 5d mark 2
15mm fisheye
iso 200
1/6 sec
f6.3
2 flashes, one which you can see and then one high up behind me to light Neils body up.
Neil Ingall, fakie to wallride 180 out, London, photo and text ‘the oracle’.
Whilst on a trip to Dublin in the summer shooting Albert Hooi and Dominic Sagona for BHC and the conference i came across a young 14 year old ripper named Dano Gorman. He would literally skate everything the older lads would skate and more than likely be the one nailing it first. Before i had even got out of the car Dano 180′d this before anyone could even look at it, so i set up hastily and he happily obliged to do it again for me. You may recognise this spot from the latest USD advert featuring Al 360 lui kang’ing it, well Dano was my light test for that shot. Keep an eye out for him as he’s our future.
For all the photo enthusiasts out there, this was shot with a Canon 5d with a shutter at 1/200 sec, sigma 15mm fisheye at F8. 3 flashes, one behind and above me directed on Dano, one to the left of me highlighting the landing/greenery then a final flash to the right of me for the steps.
Dano Gorman, 180 safety grab, Dublin. photo - The Oracle/Kola

Joe Atkinson - Kind grind deep in a Leeds estate
Sam Kew has been working hard shooting all over the UK in recent months. Check the latest from his lens, two of the UK’s brightest talents right now, Sam Tuffnell and Joe Atkinson.

Tuffnell hits a soul on top of the wallride at Jamie Stenner’s stag do session in Caterham.

Razors rider Dan Stirling hucks a rocket 3.
Brighton snapper, Ben Stenning just sent us these gems from the White Air Festival this weekend. Enjoy.

Blake Bird now rides for Rollerblade UK, congrats homey. Here he is with a flat 5.

I think that’s Alex Burston with a big ole 5 but I can’t be sure…

Jake Eley kept the crowd hyped with remarks like, ‘here’s Elliot Stevens, check out those cheekbones’
The last days of summer are here, Route One rider Paul Bates uses them up wisely with this TTS deep in Southend. Shot : Seamyus Rafferty AKA Hammond

Danny Ives - Rocketfish around the curve
Took a trip to Saffron Walden on Sunday 23rd August for a friendly mixed sports jam where we
hooked up with the likes of Danny Ive’s, Joe Harvey, Tim Parker and the rest of the Saffron boys. Atmosphere
was nice and chilled, with a BBQ and music all day, but the park was fairly packed so we took a trip to the
well known Landos ledges. After skating Landos and chilling in the sun we returned to Saffron where it had
quietened down and managed to snap up a few photos.
Words and Snaps - Sam Kew

Danny getting high in the corner

Jamie Stenner - Kindgrind at the most infamous curve in the UK
Ben Stenning just sent us some of his primo photos from the NASS event. Sit back, brew a cup and enjoy this enormous photo post.

Dan Stirling - Cork 7

Joey Egan - 720 transfer

Leon - Flat 3

the judging deck

VALO represent

Don’t fuck with Al

MC Eley

Who wants it?

Best trick line up

Winners

Shape cutting time

Alex Burston - Abstract 5

As if Baggy went for the double back

Rob Taylor - Ab5

Blake Bird - Method

Joey takes the Goliath win

Paul Bates - backroy through the wave. Shot : Angelo Ferrera
Back in April, Route One rider Paul Bates and Seamus Rafferty went out to the Eastcoast of America to skate for a couple of weeks. They first ventured out to Phillidelphia to visit some friends and spent a few days there skating with Rickay, JonJon, Alf, the Neglected Truth guys and the rest of the Philly locals. The rest of the trip was spent travelling between New Jersey and NYC. Angelo Ferrerar, Sal, Alex Nunez and some other NYC locals were kind enough to show them about the five boroughs of New York and took us to some of the best spots around the city. Here are a few snaps from the trip.

Seamus Rafferty. Top Misfit. Queens. NYC. Shot: Angelo Ferrerar

Paul Bates - Mute outside the famous Philladelphia Library. Shot : Seamus R

Loco Skates have just picked up a new rider in the shape of the T1000. Check their press release on the LOCO site.
Oli Short Remix from oliver short on Vimeo.
Check this remixed Oli Short section. I skate with this dude all the time and he continues to amaze me with some of the shit he does. Shot by Joe Spray, Billy Doyle, Ben Shelbourne and Harry Maynard.

Ben Shelbourne found this anchor on the streets of Antwerp after the Winterclash event. Roll to fishbrain, Shot - Goodman

Big Scott Hallows laces a fish somewhere in Cheadle. Shot - The Oracle

Here’s Sam Tuffnell lacing a back torque at the Winterlcash. Enjoy.

Ok, so I’ve learned to make GIFs. Mike Welland laces an alley top acid to top acid transfer at Brighton University.

Yesterday felt like the start of summer, Schoolboy celebrates with this lofty 3 at the Level in Brighton.

Oh yeh, and on Sunday we stopped off at this sick concrete park on the way out of Antwerp. Running into a session going down with heads from all over the south coast, I quickly grabbed some snaps.

Sam Crofts - fishbrain stall on the vert wall

T1000 - front noogs

Wow, so Winterclash has come and gone and we’re back in the UK with some sore heads and tired limbs. Check out some pix from Kingdom’s adventure to the Clash. Oh and Aragon won with the UK’s own Steve Swain coming in 2nd.

Jake Eley approves of the park at Area 51.

Setting up the booth only to have to take it down 20 minutes later and move it upstairs.

KDM designer Rupert Morgan stopped by the booth.

As did Julian Coulter…

and Stockwell and Justin from ONE…

Sam Butt holds the fort showing off some of the limited edition KDM T’s.

Loco represent!

Mr and Mrs Short

So we found this pic of Kola in a Spanish mag, we found it pretty amusing, note the media circus.

Lil Tom, Henders and Schoolboy had a great time

Jeff and Si are stoked…
Uk Photos 2007/2009 from Dale Travers on Vimeo.
Dale Travers is heading off around the US next week and has put together a slide show of pix from his time in the UK. It’s been great working with Dale and refreshing to see someone who is so motivated to push blading. We’ll miss you bro, safe travels!

Another gem from Adam Kola’s closet, here’s Neil Ingall lacing a sweaty with the aid of a piece of wood fashioned into a launch ramp. Chorlton.

Digging around in the archives, I came across this little beauty of Alex Broskow stalling in Saffron Walden on the 2007 Valo tour.
Shot - The Oracle

I first saw this little ripper at a Worthing jam about 4 years ago. Next thing I know he’s royaling ledges like this.
Sam Crofts - royale - Chichester
Pic - Chris Lanaway

Apparently someone got lucky at the Valo premiere in Manchester on Saturday. We received this from an anonymous supporter, go team.

Ian Hendrie, front noogs in California. Shot : Fintan West

Sim Warren styles out a back backslide somewhere in SoCal. Shot : Fintan West

Dale Travers is always on the hunt for new spots. Check out this spot check at Hackeny Bumps.
I found this spot on some skateboard websites. It’s one of the oldest concrete spots in the UK. Anyway hackney bumps is basically a large area of concrete with large bumps on it. None of which has any sort of kick or coping or launch..Jamie however tried as much speed as he could with the wet run-up to get a hit on the pole situated in the middle of the biggest bump.

Ended up a pretty sweet photo although I decided to change my angle to make him stand out from the backround a more. Here’s the final shot we decided was the best. I lost the cool view of the bumps I got in the other photo but this photo definitely show how high he was on the pole.

If your in the area, check it out. If not, don’t drive a long way to find this place, it’s not really worth it..
We’ve had some problems with our site over the past few days but we’re good to go now and to celebrate, check out this fine pic of Sam Currie souling through a kinky beast. Snap - Big Tony

Marat Subkhankulov lays down a fishy on the Cambridge city ledges. Thank to Kai Theriault for the pic.

Staff photographer Dale Travers sent us this pic of Sam Kew. Bank to soul to bank, Horsham.

Dales just posted a write up and pix from the Skatemeet yesterday. The park looks like a lot of fun and from all accounts, one of the best skatemeets to date. Check out the full story on Dales BLOG

Sharpey laces a full cab soul down a cheeky rail in a south coast estate.
Photo - Kewy
Jamie Stenner launches a 5 at Salisbury skatepark.
Photo - Kewy
Paul Bates laces a backslide from the roof at the Grays Gentlemans Club.
Shot : Joey Yeomans

Paul Bates - soul to bank
Shot: Joey Yeomans

Allyoop wallride over the channel gap.
Rampworx flew in Brian Aragon for this years Inline Clinic and along with Chaz, Jenna and Steve Swain, have been showing the next generation of rollerbladers how to blade. Check out these pix from staff photographer, Dale Travers.

Aragon floats a parallel 5 over the box

R1 rider and all round legend Keir lindsay has been out sessioning hard and making the most of the sun. Here’s a few photo’s courtesy of Stephen McCann.


OCC legend Tom Woodbridge was one of the many heads that came by the Kingdom booth to hangout during the NASS event.
Photo - Charles
Matt Chilvers shot so many pix for his interview in Issue 5 that some had to be left out. Check these from our London lensman, Will Turner.

True top porn - London

Sweaty - London town
Sam Tuffnell - Gap to SavannahRain, Rain, Rain was all I saw the whole way on the bus to Portsmouthfor Love Those Boots Jam. Just as we were approaching the city though,the sun shone through and it was surprisingly hot.The park was full of kids of all ages. Kids turned up from all the localtowns around Portsmouth and the weather was great. Sam Tuffnell, a localat the park was showing how much potential this park had bytransferring, grinding and spinning everything in sight. Luckily he wasone of the organisers with Sharpy and not competing or he would haveeasily won everything.
Kewy - Topsoulthe talent was of a high level. Sam Kew taking out most of the jamsections with a topsoul on the roof at the far end of the park and fakie360 disaster over the box to ally-oop topacid.It was really great day ofskating and set-up for the premier of Love-Those-Boots at a local pub.The premier went fine. Skaters packed the pub and the cheering could beheard from the street. Catching up with people for a drink was thehighlight of the night and of coarse the video premier. Check your localskateshop for a copy. It was a nice weekend down south and only for a2hr bus ride, it was a good skate and weekend.
Tuffers laces a fakie 3 alley oop soulShots and Text - Dale Travers
“Sometimes dreamers like me get to build their own dream and make it real. In my case what it takes is to give up normal life such as relationships and family. My rolling phycology issues are magnified by the fact that living the life style has cost me everything. It was only because Rob Glanville suggested I should not use the anger towards my personal life to be able to dare to skate big obstacles that I even tried to stop myself from skating in anything but an untainted mind set.”
Photo : Hueso
Azur went to Ibiza in search of different spots and escape.
“I ended up living a vagabond life style. Living on my own, in vans and what not and it was hard to take myself out of that unsteady mind set.’
Sometimes you have to take a step back. Stepping away from his rail vocabulary Azur started to look for lines in unexpected environments.
“I was stuck in Ibiza, I had no money and so had loads of time to look around for stuff to skate that was a little different. Finding a line here was chaos. It’s a wave break in Ibiza outside the port and there are hundreds of these blocks. We tried to find a shot with a high number in it.”
Roll to roll to roll to soul stall to roll to gap to roll.
Photo : Hueso
There are spots everywhere that we pass by everyday. This petrol tank lay hidden, boiling in the Balearic heat. Hot plastic and petrol fumes tend to exacerbate each other. Azur and Hueso were running out of air, crawling over to the little hole, catching their breath and then going back for more. “The thing is, being in there, you run out of oxygen eventually and the condensation and sweat makes you slip and it gets you get light headed at the same time.”
High mute on the super tight over vert while gasping for air through the fumes.
Photo : Walter
Traveling in cars you often see something epic in the wilderness. This spot is an overflow from a dam that runs down the side of a mountain in the middle of nowhere.
“We are so dependent on the varied range of obstacles in the over clogged megalopolis of the urban landscape, that we miss the peace that reigns on most of the surface of the globe; the country side. You could meditate next to this wonder of the skating world.”
The line was the small path on the right to carve back on your self and air, heading up the path again receiving a close shave from the wall. Don’t’ fall off the end.
Photo : Yuri
“Detachment from society allows the rollerblading nomad, often seen as a vagabond, to transcend his social class. With no one to judge who you are out there in the country side you are liberated from society. Finding something like this is like finding freedom.”
Photo : Hueso
Taking on the alien and succeeding is something every skater can associate with. It almost seems that our drive to be the masters of our environment is satisfied by the new.
By its very nature the new is progression. You could argue that every time you go through this you are pushing what we do and it is almost our responsibility to find these new experiences.
“Once you are willing to pay the price of giving over your life to rollerblading, there can only be rewards because you started from ground zero…
My journey has been about finding new things to roll and also finding more people willing to live the lifestyle regardless of its disadvantages. In the future, I see rollerblading communities working sidetracked from the system, symbiotic but apart from it. Unity will allow us to live this life and suffer the downsides and consequences in a less extreme manner.”
Julian Coulter killed the first round with tricks like soul to parachute drop on the wallride.
Shot : Travers

How did Aragon win? With tricks like this 360 topsoul.
Shot: Dale Travers

Ski floats a wallride in the first round.
Shot : Travers

Chaz flies high with a massive 360
Shot : Travers

Steve Swain hucks a luda cork 7 from the spine
Shot : Travers
BHC have just picked up a new rider in the shape of rolling icon, Dominic Sagona. Photo by our very own oracle, Adam Kola

Thanks to everyone who came down to Shoreditch on Saturday night to celebrate the launch of issue 5 shipping this week. DJ Bluemovies kept the party rocking all night and the free RedBull kept everyone buzzing. More pix to follow…

Each issue we hold a party to launch the occasion. It was Manchester that hosted Issue 4’s and a party it was withheads turning up from all over the country to rock out with their cocks out.
Lati Ri in Shoreditch, east London is thevenue for Issue 5’s shindig, peep the flyer in the EVENTS page.
All pix - Sam Butt

James Bower - Front Torque - City Thameslink

Jay Sims - Fishbrain - Russell Square

Congrats to Dom West on his recent addition to the UK Valo team. Here he is lacing a backslide in Wimbledon.
Shot: Sam Butt

With Issue 5 about to drop here’s a glance back at the Last Man Standing article with OG ripper, Jason Davies
Photography : MVA
Download the PDF here:
lastmanstandingjd3.pdf

Rich Barber is still ripping, here he is lacing a transfer from the 14.5ft vert into the spine at St Neots
Shot : David Robinson

Stockwell throws a stale over a Stoke hip on the Kingdomination tour.
Shot : The Oracle

Jamie Stenner - Fish round the curve
Seeing skateparks over the internet that are far away always set’s something off inside me. You see lines, coping, hips and ledges and im driving to check it out as soon as i can. Then i think, what if i could get a lot rollerbladers there too and get a sick session going.
Well i did..Skatemeet number 5 took place at Saffron Walden about 2 hrs north of London by train. Meeting up in the city early then trecking it all the way there with 6 skaters was like the old days when you’d get to a skatepark at sunrise and wait for it to dry and then skate it all day. This took a little more organising with cars meeting up with us in the small town where the skatepark is located. Good friends Jen and Sam picked us all up and then by the time we got the park we were greeted with a great view. Lots of rollerbladers!!!People came from all over. Jamie stenner and his crew drove for 3 hrs just for the session and they weren’t dissapointed. A huge turn out from the Cambridge crew included Dave Nevello,Tim Parker (Rolling Revival), Rupert Morgan, Dom Benatar Sam and Jen. Birmingham crew also made the effort to get there.
Sam Cooper - Full cab royale
Well, the skatepark consists of 3 major bowls surrounded by a small street coarse. Bowl 1 has tiled coping and one of the hardest bowls to find lines in. Bowl 2 has a small half cradel and then the mother of all bowls. Bowl 3 with a deep end of 11ft,8ft hip and 6 ft spine. Local kids Dan Ives and Joe Harvey already finding amazing lines and killing the coping with long grinds, transfers and carving skills to make the older guys sit back and watch. The street section was small and congested so the sessions moved from bowl to bowl with enough skaters there that all 3 bowls were getting skating most of the time.After some warm ups the local kids opened up the session on the big bowl and made it look easy. Joe ripping with long grinds on the vert side and everyone following suit and getting the coping warn in. Stenner stepping up and grinding the corner to perfection with fishbrains and ally-oop makio’s. Dan Ives, well you really need this kid skate, linking long grinds and throwing 540’s and 720’s 5 ft high in the middle of his bowl run.The street section was getting used mostly by Cambridge boy Sam Cooper with technical spins to grinds and stylish backslides. Dan again lacing a fullcab true-topside pornstar down the edge. Everyone is sorta moving the session around to hit everything and making use of the whole park.

Adrien Crasnault - Lui Kang to topsoul
The perfect weather and sunset ensured the sessions to continue as the lights came on and making the park look even more amazing. Thanks to everyone for making the effort and having an awesome day. Young kids pushing themselves in front of the older guys is always a pleasure to watch and really what skatemeets are all about. Products from Kingdom, Ignition and Be-mag is always a pleasure to give out to the young rippers and thanks for the sponsors who support it..Look out for the next one. Im trying to keep is one a month for this year.
Photos and Text - Dale Travers

Rob Glanville lofts a 450 over a Stoke hip on the Kindomination tour. Shot - JC

Leon Humphries manages to confuse this passer by with a top sunny in Vauxhall. Shot - Sam Butt
Have an awesome Christmas and New Years, see you in 2008 - KDM
Well i thought the weather would hold back alot poeple from turning up as it has turned very cold and windy here in London.Starting at East India ledges everyone starting coming and about an hour into it we had at least 40 skaters. Kids were ripping the marble apart and lines were going down everywhere.This place is great for hitting a number tricks in the same direction and the ledges slide like butter.Security gave us permission but sneakily called the police so after having a brief but very friendly disscussion with 2 police men we moved on to Blackwall.
<br>
This place offers a few things. A ledge roll to grind then gap to the ground was one thing Sunny Hodge picked up on lacing a nice back royal to 180 mute out(Sequence).Polish skater Artur Szymocha also killed it with a fishy to gap off. Next up was the double kink with pretty short flats and a bend in it. Most of the kids just sat around and gave moral support but it was little power house Luciano Moreira from Brazil who showed the kink who’s boss lacing back royal, topsoul and topacid. Artur was right behind with a backroyal also,then topsoul finishing with a nice kindgrind.The wind started to kick in so it was time to move onto the last spot.
This realy set the boys from the men out.17 stair metal drop ledge, high, fast and rounded on top.Artur walking straight up the stairs beginning with a warm up royal leaving the grommetts cheering. Other motivated skaters such as Sunny Hodge and Luciano Moreira headed up the top.
Checking it out then lacing thier own warm up tricks down this bad boy. The wind was getting colder but this only spurred the guys on. Luciano not wasting any time with a topsoul and topacid. He really put his body on the line and hurting himself alot but reaping the rewards with a really sick fishbrain landing to the cheer of everyone watching.
Not getting left out Artur was also stepping up with front noogins,royals,backslides and also pushing himself and doing Poland proud with a kindgrind on this nuts rounded drop ledge.That spelt the end of the day but not before handing out all the Ignition product Jojo sent me and of coarse all those lovely Be-mag’s to all the kids who made the effort and stuck it out in the cold.Thanks for everyone who came and look out for the first one in 2008.It realy makes me proud to be a rollerblader when i see sessions go down like this one and the support i get from the sponsers and the skaters who come. Sorry for some bad photo’s. Talk to any photographer about shooting sessions and they’ll tell you there a nightmare. Some weird angles and some flashes in shots happened but it was more of a session than a shoot. I was mearly trying to keep my finger on the trigger..Enjoy the pics and feel free to leave comments..
Words and Photo’s : Dale Travers
Dan Turner alley oop acids a London hubbas - Shot : Dale Travers 
Roll to gap - London town - Shot : Dale Travers

Andrew Bonter back royales to mute 180 in Bristol - shot JC
Skating earlier rather than later is always the best option this time of year in the UK as it’s gets dark and cold around 4pm. But as usual rollerbladers have a reputation of taking a long time to get out and start skating. Sunday was no exception. While driving around east London with Julien C navigating with his google earth spot check map, we were certain to come across this ledge at Brentwood. It’s an industrial estate, so security is a problem but we managed to get a nice session on this sick ledge. After a few hours of disappointing spots this really topped the day off.
Text and Images - Dale Travers

Blake Bird - Alley Oop Makio

Julian Coulter - Fishbrain
Ally Brightwell sweaties to gap in London town. Shot - Will Turner

Well, I haven’t experienced the English weather as much as the skaters I skate with in London have, so when the rain comes, I kinda think the session is done and it’s time to head home..Fortunately for me, the locals here love skating no matter what god throws at them so here’s a spot we hit near Old St that Blake Bird took us too. Perfect wet weather spot..Undercover, lines, creative spots and ledges everywhere. I suggest you find your own around your area cause quite frankly, the heavens open up in the UK ALOT..Check out the pics of our undercover session. Dale T
Dave Novaro - full cab fish
Blake Bird - wallride
Blake Bird - alleytopsoul
Remember Issue 1? It was released in October 06 and featured this cheeky alleytopsoul from Andy Spary. Shot - The Oracle<br>
Issue 1 featured a 9:2:5 with the one man wrecking ball, Frazer Watson. Peep his section in the upcoming BHC movie. Here he is with a 450 royale through the kink.shot : The Oracle
With the launch of our first print issue just around the corner we thought it would be appropriate to bring back some of the images from our first online issue. Here we have Si Cox lofting a mute 3 out of a royale shot by The Oracle.


Sean C & Joe Spray chilling in Palmeira

Stew Game, Stig & Joby Dick

Big Al, Joe C and Kola sweating it up

































