Here are a few pics which helped to piece together my night…somewhat. Keep an eye out for his Element part which should be dropping in a few days. Heavy!

Bjorn’s fair name will now be adorning some fine Element skateboard decks. To celebrate Element are throwing a bash at Ambush Gallery in Waterloo, Sydney where they’ll be screening his full length video part. Head along and give Bjorn a high five if you’re in the area.

Photo: Mark Barber.

Jase Morice, Ben “Puff” Morice and I sat down with Bjorn Johnston and had a quick talk about changing sponsors and getting his name on a board. I think by the time it got to questions the three of us had worked our way through some VB’s but Bjorn was patient enough to answer our self indulgent questions.

Jase Morice: It’s Wednesday 18th of January 2012.
Mark Barber: At 10 past 8.
Bjorn Johnston: In the back yard.
JM: Of Bjorn’s house.
BJ: Everyone has a longneck except me.
MB: You want one?
BJ: Nah I’m good, ha!

Ben Morice: So yeah, let’s kick it off. Whats the deal with KR3W/SUPRA? What’s the vibe there?
BJ: It was time for a change, I’d been with my other sponsors for a long long time but an opportunity came up that was too good to turn down. KR3W/SUPRA were starting up again in Australia, with Brad Plamus (Substance Distribution) who’s a good friend of mine running it. Dennis Martin who’s the skate marketing director and TM in the states (for KR3W/SUPRA) who I also filmed a digital part with, was down to get something happening too.

JM: Was it Get Tricks or Die Trying?
BJ: Yeah that’s the one.

BM: We’re all glad you didn’t die trying. We’re happy about that.
MB: So you’ve left DC and RVCA as well?
BJ: Yeah, it was pretty hard but they were cool about it. RVCA understood, they’d just had a big change up and the split with DC was amicable. It was cool.

JM: Amicably?
BJ: Is that how you say it?
JM: I dunno.

Wallie. Photo: Barber.

BM: So they were cool with that?
BJ: Yeah they were sweet.

BM: So what’s the actual deal? Because you’re team manager as well?
BJ: Yeah I’m looking after the Australian team as well as being a team rider. It’s pretty cool, still get to skate everyday.

BM: Officially who’s on the Australian team right now?
BJ: It’s me, Ben James, Gabriel Summers (Gabbers) and Dean Parsons.

JM: Can you talk about the tour coming up?
BJ: Not really, but I can say it’s happening in Australia and New Zealand in late February.

BM: All the big American names?
BJ: Can’t really disclose that right now.

MB: How long are we talking about in New Zealand? Because they always seems to get the butt end of the tours.
JM: We don’t care about New Zealand, we live in Sydney hahaha.
BJ: Nah, every stop is going to get the same amount of time.

MB: So New Zealand will see a few days at least?
JM: Look out Owairaka!
MB: Maybe the new bathtub they built on Bond St?
(Everyone whistles)
JM: Simon Thorp posted up a pic of it. SIMON THORP. That’s a name drop by the way.

BM: So wait, you’re supposed to organise this trip, skate on it and get tricks too?
BJ: Yup.
BM: Jeeeeesus. You’re so gnarly, what the fuck.
BJ: Sometimes I bite off more than I can chew. I organized one with RVCA a while back but this is gonna be double the size. I’ve got some help though, Dennis (Martin) is gonna be out here too so it’s not all on me.

Frontside smith grind. Photo: Barber.

JM: You skated with Leo Romero on the RVCA trip right? He’s a mate of yours?
BJ: Best dude to skate with if you wanna get pumped up. He just charges.
JM: He goes up everything now. He goes the wrong way right?
(Everyone agrees)

MB: Let’s talk about your board coming out. You originally had a board back on ABC which was tight.
BJ: Yeah that’s right.
MB: Yeah Chey gave me one, I skated it and I now wish I hadn’t. Would’ve been dope to have your first board. Anyway, you’ve now got a board coming out on Element. Is that just going to be in Australasia or is it available further afield?
BJ: Yeah, I’m not sure. If it’s included in the catalog it’ll be available worldwide. Who knows. It’ll definitely be out in New Zealand and Australia.

MB: What’s the graphic?
BJ: It’ll be the welcome to the family graphic, like everyone gets. The sideways one.

MB: Like the one Appleyard got? You’ve got a more personal graphic coming out too right? Tell us what it is?
BJ: Haha nah, you’ll just have to wait and see. The release party is in two weeks.
BM/JM: Oh man, we’re gonna be in New Zealand.

BM: I’m keen to dive into some ‘Naki history shit.
BJ: Oh yeah?

BM: Okay, growing up skating in the ‘Naki. Good or Bad?
BJ: It was awesome. I liked it, yeah. It was…
BM: Be honest.
BJ: I’m being honest! Everyone for the most part got along! We had talented skaters and filmers coming out of there. The park was fun, (it) was one of the first street orientated parks in NZ.
JM: A park designed by your Dad.
BJ: With input from the New Plymouth skate community as well!

Frontside nosegrind. Photo: Barber.

BM: Nah, lets go back a bit further than that now. I’m talking before the skatepark, when we had no spots.
JM: When we had the Library and skate nights.
BJ: Oh yeah, skate nights. Holy shit I forgot about that. The rollerskating rink that you could skate in, with the really slippery floor!
BM: Pretty sure your dad built all the obstacles.
JM: Remember the fight that went down between the skaters and the skinhead roller-skaters?
BM/BJ: What?! No!
JM: Yeah and you started it!
BM: This must have been after our bedtime.
BJ: Haha skinhead roller-skaters VS skateboarders!

MB: So who were the guys you skated with back in the ‘Naki?
BM: Yeah, this is MANUAL, so let’s name drop.
BJ/BM/JM: Nick and Ben Jeffries. Dwayne Waipapa was real sick, Phil Jones, Sam Ike, Greg Roebuck!

JM: This is going way back. How long you been skating for again?
BJ: 17 years. Since I was 10.
JM: Over half of your life!
MB: And that’s because of your Dad right?
BJ: Nah nah, we started off surfing. I started surfing when I was 8. Then when I was 10 I started skating. Had a surfing relapse a few years later but got so angry because I wasn’t skating.
JM: You got all salty.
MB: You got salty?
JM: Yeah he was all tanned and long hair.
BJ: I couldn’t do any tricks after surfing all the time and not skating. I’d be at a spot and be all “fuck this!” and wanna go home and focus my surfboard.

MB: Talking about getting salty, Sparkesy (Cameron Sparkes) couldn’t be here tonight because he went up to the Goldy (Gold Coast), but he prepared a few quick questions, maybe we could wrap up on those?
BJ: Oh no.

Cameron Sparkes: Opinions regarding Australian Sprouters (hot girls)?
BJ: Read the New Zealand Skateboarder article on Australia I did with Puff and Jase a few years ago, that tells you everything you need to know.

Nollie shuvit nose manual nollie flip. Photo: Barber.

CS: Level of skateboarding in Australia? Better than NZ?
BJ: Yeah it’s better, of course it’s better, but you’ve got to remember there are a million good spots and 22 million people.

CS: Next Kiwi to come up internationally?
BJ: Kayle Lawson and Deen Rakich are good as.

CS: Did you really used to tell people you were Australian when you went to the U.S (This is true)?
BJ: Haha, no it’s not true. Chris Wood used to, but only because he said it was easier than explaining to Americans he was from New Zealand when he was travelling with Aussies.

CS: How many Drop bears and Hoop snakes have you seen? Any close encounters?
BJ: Too many to count. I’ve got a spike on my motorcycle helmet now.

CS: Favourite place in Australia?
BJ: Sydney.

CS: Is Bondi all it’s cracked up to be?
BJ: Yeah it’s sick if you like nice water and a million people.

CS: Why doesn’t Mark Barber go in the water?
BJ: Haha, Sharks.

Frontside 50-50. Photo: Barber.

CS: Best city to skate in Australia?
BJ: Sydney of course.

CS: Melbourne or Sydney? Why is Melbourne so chat(shit)? Is it because the guys are hot and the girls are ugly?
BJ: Haha!

CS: If you had to tell a Kiwi a place to live in Australia where would it be?
BJ: Sydney.

CS: Are the Ozzie crew fairly accepting of fresh off the boat Kiwis?
BJ: Yeah man, of course!

Keep an eye out for the exact dates of the KR3W tour in New Zealand and Australia and drop by your local skate store to pick up Bjorn’s new Element deck when it’s out in a few weeks. Support one of the homies and make sure you support the local skate store, don’t buy online!

Head over to Skateboard.com.au to check out this rad little interview with one of New Zealand’s finer exports Leigh Bolton (of Chop Club video fame). There’s also a funny one with the talented Mr Bjorn Johnston too.

Skate photographers dream of shooting covers. 9 times out of 10, you don’t go out with the intention of shooting a magazine cover. It’s more than likely you won’t know you got the cover till that shit is sitting on the shelves. This year I’ve been lucky enough to shoot three with Australasia’s three top mags.

Manual made my image of Bjorn Johnston’s nollie heelflip in Pyrmont, Sydney their cover of the February Issue. I was super stoked as it was my first with Manual and because I’d only been in Sydney a week when we shot it.

MANUAL 41, Bjorn Johnston, nollie heelflip.

Slam used a shot I took of Beau Reid as their cover in the middle of the year. It wasn’t an image I’d thought would be in the running for cover, but when I saw it in print I was hyped with how it came out. I shot it like something you would see in a mid nineties Transworld; nighttime, all trailing lights and close up fisheye.

Slam 183, Beau Reid, backside 180 nosegrind.

Just this week I found out i got the cover of The Skateboarder’s Journal. I nearly lost my mind when Sean Holland rang me.
I’d worked at Burton in Sydney’s northern beaches for six months after I arrived, packing boxes, driving a forklift, eating loads of noodles and toast for lunch and taking orders from a feisty little Austrian. Living the dream. I drove past this out of control ramp over handrail on my way to work every day. I’d been thinking about what somebody could do over it for ages.
When listing Sydney spots to skate at the beginning of a recent Analog trip I remembered it, and we tripped over the bridge from the city to see if Analog team rider Jimmy Roche had something for it. Jimmy took a run at it and this is the result.

Skateboarder's Journal #22, Jimmy Roche, kickflip.

I’m so psyched to have ended my year on a cover. I’ve no idea what is gonna happen in 2012, but if it’s anything like this year, I’m looking forward to it.

Take it easy over the holidays!!

Barbs.

Here’s a new video from ex pat Kiwi filmer Leigh Bolton from his Chup 2 Europe. The video features the skills of Bjorn Johnston, Marty Girotto, Jack Crook and Anthony Mapstone. Click the pic to view the video over at Skateboard.com.au. They’ve set up a PayPal donation link where you send Leigh some moolah to show your appreciation too. Be a GC and pledge some funds to one of our finer exports. We all know filmers work their asses off for very little reward (other than glory), so there’s no doubt that he deserves it.

I want start off by sharing a few of my favourite pics of late, along with a few words about what went down.

Chima Ferguson, frontside boardslide to fakie, Parramatta.

If you ask any skate photog at any level they’ll tell you that all they wanna do is shoot pros. I’ve been blessed to fall in with a sick crew in Sydney and it just so happens one of my mates here is Chima. We went out on Parramatta road to skate some spots a few months back and Chima was keen to front board this flat rail in an old car yard. He took that shit to fakie on the third try. I knew I had the shot immediately but he was keen to put another one down so I could try another angle. Chima pitched backwards on the next one and landed flat on his back. Probably the gnarliest slam I’ve ever witnessed. This image was published in issue #20 of The Skateboarder’s Journal.

Leigh Bolton, Newcastle.

I love this shot of Leigh Bolton. I snapped this as he filmed Ryan Wilson on some upturned pools near Newcastle on NSW’s Central Coast. Leigh is killing it in Australia. If you wanna be a skate filmer in New Zealand, study Leigh’s shit. He knows what’s up.

Glenn Wignall, Sydney.

I’ve become kinda obsessed with what happens off the board recently. Here’s Glenn Wignall’s dance stance after bailing the second trick in what eventually was a sick line at the Red Bull HQ in Sydney.

Ryan Wilson & Camerson Sparkes, Sydney.

I met Cameron Sparkes in August of last year. We were skating a park in Redfern together when Bjorn Johnston introduced us. We became immediate friends. When I moved to Sydney this guy went in to bat for me like no other. As the team manager for DNA, Gravis and Analog he’s hooked me up with more contacts in skateboarding than I know what to do with. Here he is getting down with Rhino on a late night sesh. Rhino hates this photo, so I’m glad I’ve got the opportunity to share it with you.

Bjorn Johnston, Maroubra.

I’ve shot a lot with Bjorn since I’ve been here. He’s a machine. I have never met anyone that can get down like Bjorn can. He’s probably gonna hate me for sharing this pic, but I kinda like it. He took a gnarly slam on an out ledge in Maroubra a week or so back and went out cold. I had to call an ambulance for obvious reasons but couldn’t even remember what number to dial.

RVCA invade Australia in part one of the recent tour.

Solid montage featuring some familiar faces.

Head over to Slam and check out part one of DC‘s Western Australia tour video. Featuring Marty Girotto, Yuta Tanaka, Bugs Fardell, Bjorn Johnston and Kieran Reilly.

We catch up with Chris Wood, Bjorn Johnston, Tommy Fynn and Sean Cupples at the Billabong City Squared in Auckland.

The mag is finally here, albeit a few weeks late… short story is (click read more for the long story) that it got delayed a few times on the way to us resulting, unfortunately, in the newsstand copies reaching the shops before our loyal subscribers got theirs. Which we never want to happen (again), but it was unavoidable due to a muck up that was out of our hands.

Anyway, to the point: Manual Magazine #41 featuring a Bjorn Johnston interview (and his third Manual cover), Element Melbourne trip and much more. Out today/soon. Subscribe now and you’ll receive a free copy of the Lakai Footwear 2010 Video Collection DVD. (All subscribers get a free Lakai DVD.)

So, a month or so ago we were preparing the latest edition which you are about to hold in your hands (or are holding in your hands). This was to be our first edition that we printed fully in China, a move which we had been working towards for a year or so. The aim being that our fine mag would be able to reach more people, around New Zealand and Australia (and the rest of the world). And that we would be able to keep the page count up thus providing more awesomeness with each issue. We crammed and got the mag finished in time for a seemingly unrealistic deadline. We’d done it though and the mag arrived at the dock in China a couple of days before the scheduled boat was to leave. We were patting ourselves on the back, then customs decided to do a random check of our shipment, which resulted in us missing the intended boat. Normally this would be OK, but that boat was the last before Chinese New Year, a holiday in which the whole country shuts down. Bugger. So that’s the reason why the mag is a few weeks late. Then, when the mag arrived in NZ, with us very eager to get it out to our readers, we were promised delivery on a particular day, we scheduled the newsstand release, with what we thought was enough room to play, but then got informed (after it was too late to change our newsstand release date) that subscriber copies would not make it to us when we were told they would. This final event meant that subscriber and selected skate store copies would be delivered after the newsstand copies, when it’s supposed to be the other way around. We appreciate your patience, and apologise for the drawn out release of this mag. We hope you enjoy it.

Element Australia have welcomed the Bjizza to the family. Check out his intro video at elementaustralia.com

More NZ content, this time from VIC clothing, some hearty throwaways.