Portrait: David Read.
Rhys Campbell Talk Turkey Tuesday.
What’s your current age?
30
What’s your place of birth?
Auckland
Where do you reside?
Balmoral in Auckland.
Why are you there?
It’s out of the city but still pretty close to everything. Living in a pretty sweet place with my wife and son.
Who helps out?
My wife Hayley and son Cole. Irrom Dist, I’m not a team rider like people might think, just work here and stoked to rep the stuff we do. Dan K and Bill for filming, Dave and Mark for shooting pics. Dudes that have helped me out just to be cool. Family and friends for all the good times too.
Who are your favourite badgers?
Badgers, does that mean younger? If so Toby, Fahard, Tim Watson, Nico, Christian Low, Joe Whannga, Fred Shallcrass, Simon Gemmell, there’s heaps of dudes but I just don’t know their names. There were two young kids at the Nats down in Chch that were sick too, not sure of their names but they just skated the whole park and looked like they were having fun, one skated like Chris Senn. And the twins from Wanaka are sick too. Being a cool person is just as important as skills to me.
Who is your favourite New Zealand skater of all time?
Chey is for sure. He was (still is) killing it when I was young, just a rad style and shit. Hyped to see him in the mags and videos and then the first time seeing him in real life skating out west was sick. I didn’t really get in to the city much so never really got in to the Aotea Square scene where all the good dudes skated.
Frontside boardslide pop out. Photo: Mark Barber.
What’s your best piece of advice?
Chill out it’s just skateboarding. Don’t worry about getting sponsored and just have fun.
What is your favourite now defunct skate label?
Sheep Shoes. Ed Templeton is the fucking man. Cool shoes, cool ads, cool team, just an all round cool time in skateboarding.
In 10 years I’ll be?
Hopefully cashed up, chilling but the odds are against that. As long as my family and friends and all good and healthy, I’m still having fun skateboarding I couldn’t be happier
What’s your favourite New Zealand video part?
I can’t really pick one ah. Icons of Elegance was a fucking gnarly video. There was a skate video magazine thing called SQ (Skateboard Quarterly) I think only three or four were ever made around 1998-1999. They have some sick parts in ‘em too. It’s pretty embarrassing watching them now but if you haven’t seen ‘em you should try. There has been so many sick skaters and parts in NZ, I don’t think kids today are aware of what gnarly shit people have already done. Try track down some old vids. Chey, Morri, Dan Buckley, Secombe, Jdubs, Bernie Foo, Glenn Wignall, Andrew Haeata, James Wright, Bjorn Johnston, Nick Lister, Rodrigo Herring, Justin Keeley, Aaron Hatton, Gareth Stehr, Craig Bycroft, the list goes on. There has been so many fucking good video parts that have come out in the past. Back in that day before footage was just lost in the abyss of the internet.
What’s your all time favourite skate photo?
There is this one of Jamie Thomas kick flipping over a motor bike out of a curb cut. I think it was around ’95, ’96. I don’t know why but I have always had it on my wall in my bedrooms and now it’s on my wall at work. I think I was pretty hyped on it because it’s out of Welcome to Hell and that video just made me hyped to skate.
What’s your favourite warm-up spot?
Right now, Owairaka park, early in the morn when no one is there is best. It’s got a little of every thing to get ya warmed up. It takes awhile these days to get my joints working. Before I know it the suns going down and my joints are still hurting.
What’s your favourite place to travel to?
Going to the USA and seeing all the famous spots is always sick. But the best trips are just around NZ with my mates. Good times. Sleeping on the beach in the freezing cold, being cramped in the back of a station wagon, meeting new people from other town, it’s all character building. People should do it more often. NZ is a fucking cool place with heaps on unskated spots, it just takes a little effort.
Pole jam. Photo: Mark Barber.
Name your all time all star skate team
Pretty much the Spitfire team from any year. They always have all the killer dudes. You ever seen the “50 Ways to Burn” ads?
What’s your favourite YouTube clip?
Illuminati Project Part 21 to about Part 26. It about 911 and the Twin Towers etc. It’s a pretty interesting watch, not saying you have to believe it but just be aware of it. I don’t really check out much skating or anything on the tube
What’s your favourite song right now?
Judging by my play count on iTunes it Guns of Brixton by The Clash
Footage or photos, which is better and why?
I’ve always liked photos better. I think you can just take more in when you look at a photo rather
In your mind what’s the best skate park in New Zealand?
Christchurch or Queenstown. Just because I never get to skate them. So when I’m there is new and exciting. It’s a shame that there are loads of parks in NZ but only five or so are really good. We all know who’s is to blame for that. Cheers for wrecking the chances to get good parks in all the small towns. At least you got paid though, eh? Why am I bothering like he even looks at this Manual site or any skate site for that matter.
Who are you backing for 2010?
I’m backing what Andrew Reynolds said in that Stay Gold interview that’s on the web right now. About the whole ledge jumping around thing being over. Dudes like Grant Taylor, Wes Kremer etc being the new thing in skateboarding, that’s the way people are supposed to skate. Nothing against the “trend” skateboarding is in now, I can appreciate how hard all that stuff is to do but when there is a 20 shot sequence of a lip slide with the last two shot being a switch crooks or whatever it gets pretty old. It just seems in the last few years of skateboarding, style, speed and power have been pushed aside for how many times you can make your board flip or how many tricks you can fit in to one. Dudes that can kill it on everything is what I’m backing in 2010.
Backside smith stall. Photo: Mark Barber.
Morri guest question: Has having your new baby Cole made you have to prioritise your skateboarding and how?
Yeah, I just had a son in April, its fucking cool to be a dad by the way. I haven’t run in to too many problems just yet because it been pretty bad weather so I can’t really skate much anyway. When summer comes around it will be different though. I’ll want to skate but just won’t be able too. With having a kid you have to realise that it’s not just all about you anymore. Skateboarding is my life but looking after my son and giving my wife time to get out and about by herself is more important now. I have some skate parks pretty close so I can get out for an hour or two for a muck around skate and if I want to shoot a photo or something I just have to plan it. My wife Hayley is super cool and knows that I have to get out skating or I go mad. I’m glad we had Cole when we did, I felt that I’m mature enough to realise that skateboarding will still be there tomorrow or the next day so don’t stress if I can’t get the time to skate today. Shit my body hurts if I skate for more that two hours anyways.
Dave Read guest questions: What words of advice do you have to young skaters coming up who think they are worthy of being sponsored?
Like I said before just chill and do your own thing. If you are good people will find out about you. By all means, make some videos with your mates and send it to companies for them to check out. You gotta understand that there are a lot of good skaters in NZ and not everyone can get hooked up or even should get hooked up. Enter comps if that’s ya thing but just because you place well in a comp it doesn’t automatically mean you should get sponsored but people will just get to see ya skate outside of the usual dudes you skate with. Travel around while you are young, you’ll get to see other skaters around the country and get a fell of how good you really are. Getting hooked up isn’t the be all and end all of skateboarding, if that’s all you care about maybe skateboarding isn’t the thing for you. If you like a company try ride for them not just try and grab whatever is out there, it helps no one if you don’t like the stuff you ride. when it all boils down to it, you get sponsored to sell more product so if you don’t plan too or are too cool to wearing a tee, put a sticker on ya board, forget about it. Most of all don’t be a dick, no one wants to sponsor someone that is just a pain in the ass to deal with.
In your mind what are the positive and negative effects of the shop logo deck on skateboarding, in New Zealand or anywhere.
Skateboarding has a lot of layers that people buying boards wouldn’t see. Buying your local shop board is cool, you know, have some local pride, rep the shop, get a cheap deal, etc., but that’s pretty much where the buck stops. But for every shop board blank board out there that’s one more pro not getting paid, less money towards videos, demos and ads in mags. Not only in NZ but world wide. Without all these things skateboarding will just collapse. Should pro skaters not get paid for busting their asses to stoke you out, would you be happy never to watch a video or see a mag again? And don’t fool yourself, 90% of pros aren’t rich they live day to day. I don’t have a problem if the shops give back to skateboarding and carry a good selection of pro and price point boards etc, but I know not all do. I don’t get it, dudes will fork out a couple hundred bucks for some Jordan Nikes or something like that but don’t want to pay a skater to have his name on a board. Why is it sweet for pro skateboarders to be cut out of the equation more that any other sport that has pro stuff? Every time you buy something from a shop, pro or not you are taking a vote on the future of skateboarding. Do you really want it to become just another toy that has no meaning? If you like a skater support his ass and rep his shit. You have to look further than just yourself. I might sound like a hater, I know it’s hard to rep pro shit all the time but try do it as much as you can. I love skateboarding and don’t want to see it die. I just hope that all the kids I see skating today grow up and realise that pros deserve to get every buck they can for what they do.
Backside lipslide. Photo: Mark Barber.
Mark Barber guest question: Give everyone a little rundown the gears you used to rock when we were kids, namely the get-up you wore to that Lynnfield Bowl comp back in ’96. I think you placed 2nd and hadn’t been on a board in 3 years.
Shit, Barber eh? Back in high school I got in to the whole punk rock thing pretty hard. Mohawk, tartan pants, studded leather jacket, the works. For a few years I didn’t skate too much, just on and off. I was in this “band” with some mates from school, I sung and sucked at it but most of them went on to be in real bands, pretty cool they did, I’m still good mates with them today. At that comp I think I was getting back into skating more again. Chey, Morri, Secombe all the Boom dudes were there, my brother skated in the older division too. Pretty sick comp. If I recall right, I had some fake Chucks, tight ass pants and punk band tee or something on, still rocking the mohawk but not up. Some pretty funny shit but hell that’s what I did and no point regretting it. I still listen to the same music now.