December 3, 2015 by joshuafeggans - 1 Comment

Respect where due: Duncan “The Baron” Ewington

Skateboarding is difficult.

As the teeth marks of time leave their scars it gets a little harder. Sometimes you need a grown man grommet to get you off the couch. You need a little encouragement to ditch your responsibilities and go for a roll. Someone who has that spark in their tone of voice when they are embelishing details of a new spot. A mate who is as stoked as their fifteen year old self when they set up a new board, taking a step back to look at it.

Duncan is that mate.

Photographer, tattooist, gardener, Musician, BBQ host and creator of The Cream. He wears many hats.

Above all else, he is a skateboarder.

On one of the many road trips in search of new terrain. Young skatepark is a ripper!

Howard grind at the Uno DIY

Joeless one at Deer Park

No comply after a sesh at Reservoir

Hazard plant at Bathurst

Frontside nose blunt slide at Brunswick, on his birthday yesterday

August 9, 2015 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

Friday at Noble Park II

I had a hell of a lot of commitments this week and a few small windows of opportunity. I headed out to the new Noble Park Skatepark on Wednesday and was subsequently rained out. I was really keen to hit it, and a bit starved for skateboarding in general due to the weather and free time not aligning.

Friday afternoon was looking sweet, and the weather was forgiving. I can’t fault this park, and had a great time. I’m in love with the snake run. With the big bowl and now Brunswick, I’ve got to bite the bullet and buy some pads! The big bowl is gnarly, and the veterans and new gen alike were giving the perfectly set coping a hiding. I literally got my camera out for 15 minutes at a three hour session. I’m sure the place is going to host a tonne of good times and heavy sessions.

Dan Rodwell was charging. You can see by the angles of that back foot and the angle of the trucks there was some punishment inflicted on the corner.

Smiths every shot through the corner, full speed

Young Jed McKenzie has a big future. Super consistent, style and blasting.

Text book Stale

Frontside nose grind tail grab. Pop in and pop out of the bonk

Channeling Chris Miller

Renton at 30%. Owning the place.

Styled out backside air

One of the best ollies in the game, ever.

Punk skateboarding royalty, Simon Sac Reynolds. Gettin’ some!

July 19, 2015 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

Spot Check:Deer Park (Vic)

Our crew like mix the terrain up a bit. Backyard mini this week, crusty old bowl the next followed by a session at a DIY. It takes us to some fun areas to lay a few skids. I thought I should do a few spot checks, to shine a light on some of the neglected gems out there.

I’m from a generation that would spend hours at a skatepark that most wouldn’t get out of the car for nowadays. You see, there just wasn’t many parks. Poor quality, limited options. We are so spoilt for choice, particularly in Melbourne. The flaws in some of the older parks are what make them so fun and challenging. The bark of neglected coping, as the rust is gouged back with Indy’s. The cracks to avoid, the lurkers to not make eye contact with and inevitable shittily drawn dicks. Deer Park has all of the above. It is a rad little bowl to get a session going at. Why not make a 3 park day of it with throwing Taylors Hill and Rosehill into the mix? Go check it out and let me know what you reckon.

Gould St, Deer Park, Melbourne, VIC (at the oval near the corner of Station Rd and Neale Rd)

The punk wall is a cool feature. You can transfer from the kickers behind it. Kane King schlooping into a long no-comply tallslide

Duncan Ewington with a Joeless One

Matt had the lines dialed. Back D on the tight line to the pool coping extension

Matt “Ole Mudguts” noisily feebling the pool coping

May 4, 2015 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

Friday at Noble Park

The weather has been horrid every day off I have had lately. Friday was superb, so it was time for some skids on the old skateboard. I went into work at 7:45 to tie up some loose ends, then to Doncaster to get my back aligned (is there nothing more satisfying?) and then met up with Duncs.

The CSP crew were kind enough to invite a few heads out for a roll at the nearly finished Noble Park behemoth. I couldn’t pass up on that, the place will be the best park in the state. The fences are still up and security present, so if you haven’t been invited just wait a few more weeks. The place is epic, snake run, bowl and street section are incredible. Hats off to the CSP crew on the tools Baseplate and Australian Legend Johnny McGrath.

Ghetto spot warm ups. Duncan with a pole jam 180

Nosegrab pollie

I screwed my thumb in the first 10 minutes but was keen to hit this bump. I’ll have to go back for what I wanted, school pickup was on and it was a nightmare! Bean plant, thanks Duncan for the photo

Then out to Noble Park in the shittiest of traffic. It is poured perfectly, what a park! I’m so keen for it to be open and finished

This is my favourite bit. It flows beautifully

Faster Seany was charging. Good to catch up. Fangin’

Simon was finding solid form in the intimidating bowl. Styling airs

Invert on the chunky coping

Grim Creeper/CSP ruler Shoota has been on the tools all week with a few broken ribs. Still blasted a perfect stalefish before sundown. Thanks Concrete Skateparks, next slab is on me

April 21, 2015 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

Beach Burrito+Pistonhead Bowl sessions

The Beach Burrito and Pistonhead bowl is now finished, and the restaraunt and bar is open. The service, food and vibes are awesome, drop in for a visit.

There was quite a while there where the bowl was finished, but due to some beuracracy they couldn’t pick up tools to finish the restaurant. Rj had a key and discretionary powers to have a few sneaky closed door sessions. I was fortunate to attend a few. I only got my camera out at one due to gear issues and wanting to roll myself.

It’s an intimidating bowl, super gnarly. The Team Pain crew have poured a beast fitting of their name. Some serious shredders struggled to drop in, and people got properly worked. There has been some whining from skaters thinking they are entitled to have a roll and critical of the owners selective policy. When you see the thing you will understand why. It’s a business, and a private pool. The owners shouldn’t be responsible for scraping out overconfident punters from the bottom of the bowl.

All I can say is I am grateful to have had the oppourtunity for these closed door sessions. The vibe was rad and the crew stepped up to the plate and got some. No one walked away without copping a hiding! Honourable mention to Nick “War Machine” Bright who takes care of business in this thing.

Everyone I have met and dealt with that is connected to the business is rad. I wish them well with their venture. If the opening is anything to go by I reckon it will go off.

Bisho rips this thing

Lexi is the wildest of wildcards. You can’t really ask him to re do a trick and you have to run around the bowl trying to predict what he will do next, which is impossible. Varial boneless from the step into the deep

Nollie into the shallow. He kickflipped and switch rolled in too! Landed in the vert on all

Ollie from the bar area step INTO the hip. Yep!

Matt feebs over the steps. Every line leads you into the steps, you can hear them laugh at you when they crunch you

Seany picking his nose where few will ever dare. The face tells the story

Shoota was mid chemotherapy at this session. You could see it was taking it’s toll, but he was skating like a man possessed. Full length, full speed.

He wouldn’t let this slob beat him, he really had to work for it. Absolutely blasted it

This is Rj’s bowl. This bloke and that dude will come and do this and that, but it’s his damn bowl. No one gets the speed and lines in there like him. Crailslide

Full noise lien to tails

All class on them smiths

Proper stalefish’s every time.

It’s open now, so go get some. Photo not mine. If you are fortunate enough to skate the pool, good luck!

March 16, 2015 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

Respect Where Due: Dr Anger

Dr Anger is a unique chap. A talented skateboarder, artist and casual nudist. Old mate can party. He will out party you. While you are passed out he will still be naked wrestling men in the street long into the night, with half ruined speed dealer sunnies and nothing else.

Don’t let the exterior fool you. Despite looking like he belongs in The Thunderdome brandishing a knife and a saxaphone he is a thoughtful and considered bloke. Truth be known, he is a bit of a softy, and would do anything for his mates.

So, respect where due, and vale Dr Anger

Love tonic

Back crail in his undies

Getting all fast plant

Seatbelt fastened at Meadow Heights

Backside boneless at The Ring of Fire. The Dr put a lot of the hard yards in on resurrecting this place

Nose pick a hefty log at Melton

March 13, 2015 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

Cuntry Fangin’ Part Two: Tamworth Cuntry Music Fest

I’m out at my favourite country pub, Healesville Hotel, enjoying a quiet beer by myself. It has been hectic, properly hectic, since I came back from Tamworth. I’ve started University whilst still working 50+ hour weeks, plus trying to buy a bush property and all the other crap that entails. On top of this I have been spending a bit of time trying to get the right man for the job to fix my beast, as Cunnaz, Trev, Duncan and I were caught in one hell of a hailstorm on the way to Tamworth.

So, in short, life gets in the way sometimes and you don’t have enough hours in the day to get blogging.

It’s bittersweet looking through the photos. I didn’t take any of Dad and Robyn and they looked after us so well, they need to be in here. We awoke to a breakfast cooked with ingredients fresh from the garden, which is awesome when you were spending every evening on the beers. It is bittersweet too as I need another holiday already, and I am so keen to hit the road and blow off all my responsibilities.

There is sweet fuck all chance of that happening for a while!

After Millthorpe we had a leg stretcher at Bathurst.

Cunnaz danced on the rainbow

Duncan hazard plant

Corner schloop. Thanks Duncs for the photo

We then arrived at my old home town, Tamworth. It is a backwards and disfunctional kind of place, but once a year they get their shit together and hold a Country Music Festival. There is an over abundance of soft rock style horrible Country, but if you get lucky you catch some great stuff. We saw a few great jug bands, hillbilly rock bands and rockabilly stuff. It is well worth the trip. We even caught Chad Morgan before he dropped off the perch! 84 and still as dirty as hell. We saw mini pig racing, lady Hummer pull (not as dirty as it sounds) and a tonne of really bad tattoos. Everyone wants a chat, which we got amongst. I’ll go again next year. We tried to hit the infamous ditch and full pipe, but there was major construction work with throw you in the lock up kind of security.

We drank a lot, and washed away our hangovers swimming in the river

Troy and his daughter Anaky live down the road and have a rad shed. We sweated it out in there! I’ve known Troy since I was in high school and it was really great to catch up

Troy is building an epic VW drag ute. Nope the Cosworth won’t be going in it, peripheral ported rotary

Anaky is rad, she heckled everyone hard out right from the get go!

Duncan was in his element

Texas door clanger

Duncan took these, boneless one

Pop shuv footplant

Troy fast plant

Sweepin’

Cunnaz always has got to end the session

We can’t gangsta

Then we hit the old skatepark. Man it needs a re do! We all got stuck in. I had a testicle related slam which took me out, I was really keen to have a roll with the homies. Another old mate Ricky came down with his family, it was cool to see all their kids hanging out at the park and having a roll.

This photo sums up the session really. Ricky was ripping. Damn good to catch up

Committed angles

Rad ones of these

Standups

Tailslides

He builds rad motorbikes and his ute is pretty damn sweet

Troy laid back

Long lislides

Sweeper

Fastplant

Cunnaz had to shoot off for the weekend to propose to his missus. You sure could tell it was the last skate he was going to get in for a while! He always kills it, but he absolutely ripped

Feebs to fakie

Chillin

Arty nose manny into the sunset

Ollie

Sugarcane

Backside noseblunt

Oillieng sweet into a frontside nose blunt

Frontside flip!

As always, has to throw the session ender. The worlds highest hubba on the gankiest funbox. Running out of light.

Thanks to Dad and Robyn for putting us up, and Troy, Ricky and their families for being awesome. Thanks to my darling wife Jo for making the long mish up.

January 29, 2015 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

Cuntry Fangin’ Part One: Millthorpe Bound

For some, chanting mantras brings their mind stillness. Being in the present, not troubling yourself with the future or the past. What is done is done and predicting the future is futile, yet the mind feebly churns over the details like it has relevance. The present, that fleeting moment where your mind is still and content with the task at hand, that my friends is what life is about.

Let’s not sugar coat it, chanting mantras is pretty bloody dull. I’m not alone in having a chuckle at the happy clappers in church getting lost in the evangelical trancendance of hymns. Hey no judgement here it’s just not for me. It’s all a means to an end, being lost in the present. The now. No more no less.

When you are on full boost exiting a corner in a high performance car, launching a motor bike, playing guitar on stage, sparring in boxing, painting or being moved by a musician…you are not thinking about when the gas bill is due. You are transfixed by the concentration of the enjoyable task at hand.

I am fortunate to surround myself with passionate people that grab life by the horns in a variety of ways. Sure, we all get caught in the mundane. Some would argue that physical pursuits are fleeting and temporary, and the consciousness itself should be nurtured. Yeah maybe, but I am no Yogi. I’m sure a full speed, just hanging on grind feels as good as it can get. That is my meditation.

Forgive me, I digress. It was time to escape the task of earning a living and hit the road. This should serve to light a fire under the arse of my skateboarding brethren to come along next time, we could have hit more spots with more crew. We had quality company and some Kms to slay, so we packed our gear and hit the road.

We had a burger and a leg stretch at the border. These drains looked promising, but no dice. Sick graff though

Duncan hit the whippy bits with a front rock

We then arrived at Wagga Wagga. Great chill park

Duncan got to work and embraced his inner Ed T

Duncan snapped a Front Feebs of me

Cunnaz manhandled the jersey

Wallie

Back smith

Old mate shut down the session with a thong clad banger. Huck and exhale!

We stocked the chilly bins and headed for the campsite. A bath in the river and a cook up. Light a fire and tell tall yarns

We awoke in a serene environment…I took old man photographs.

Could have done without the brutal calls of these dicks. Shit birds!

After some internet reconnaissance we headed for Young, which wasn’t even on our radar. Some single lane road fangin’ was had, we even got a little air at one point!

Filled up for gas and went here, it was pretty crap

And then found Young. Behold!

Duncan snagged a Howard grind on a cool obstacle

Feebs in the ripper of a bowl.

I gave the pocket a tickle. Thanks Duncan for the photo

The local solitary skater was stoked to have some crew in town!

Trev chilled

And of course, old mate Cunnaz slayed the joint.

Grind up to fiddy, this obstacle was no joke!

Fangin’ over the hip

Charging!

…and then on to my favourite bowl in NSW. Millthorpe. A tucked away great little food and wine town of about 800 people. The pump track is a hoot, and the bowl just works

Duncan shot these before I had too many beers. The cradle is tight with a waterfall, so fun.

No comply

Duncan got a couple of publishable photos of Cunnaz here, I missed the action and was happy to heckle

Back 180 up the step up

And Duncan snagged a blunt slide behind the cradle

And then it was time to cook up and set up camp for the evening, right next to the bowl. The lightning stayed on the horizon and all was good in the world.

December 18, 2014 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

Eaglehawk

I have been having a lack of inspiration with the old bail cannon lately, skating a lot, just not wanting to get the camera out. I thought I better get back in the mood as we have a heavy weekend of radical adventures ahead.

Five blokes one dog squeezed into a Forester and we hit the long, boring, straight road. I only got the camera out for about 20 minutes, this is a few of the manoeuvres that ensued.

Duncan krooks nose grizzle on a steep tight bank

It was Jesse’s welcome to Melbourne, so out of kindness we let him be designated driver. Lengthy 5-0 to fakie

Krooks to noseslide revert, gotta figure out the animated gifs

Full entension, full flight boneless

Tom was full of finesse, backside flip

Cunnaz ended up having a massive slam at the end of this roll, bounced back of course! Heavy back fiddy on the sub box

Grind from the steps to the drop

Pretty amped for the weekend!

December 8, 2014 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

Yosemite and Escape from LA

There has been a bit of a delay with me finishing off my USA blog. After a killer adventure of doing all the things I love with my beautiful wife I hit some hard times upon my return. I knew I was working for clueless cowboys all year, and after seamlessly running the finance for a whole dealership singlehandedly I was presented with some news that confirmed my opinion. It makes you reluctant to share your travels and generally awesome experiences when you have to deal with some stressful and unfair situations.

Not to dwell on the negative, I was pleased my reputation does me a good service and I had plenty of opportunities present themselves. I was fortunate to have some mentors and peers have my back. Things are back on track.

It’s kinda weird though. It took a toll on my photography, I didn’t feel like sharing my photos or even taking many. I usually take photographs everyday and post them for my mates to enjoy promptly, but this has not happened. Regardless, I’m back in the saddle and ready to fling my arms wildly in the hope I hit something, which is my take on photography. I think the literally hundreds of Hummingbird photographs emphasise this point.

After Oregon we changed our plans and hit the Sierra Nevada. It is a truly magical place

We drove deep into the forest to stay at this beautiful house.

I slept in the hammock, and woke to a strange noise. I didn’t know what it was until I saw these comical yet gorgeous creatures showing off.

We saw deer, and heaps of squirrels

I was mesmerised by this place, it was all closed and an elderly chap rocked up to meet the owner. He was checking on the progress of his build. I wanted to have all the half finished items, and a bunch of free time to tinker. I wanted to jump the boat too. It was soooo spring break it hurt

Back to LA

You gotta go to the Rainbow, to soak in the history and check the old rockers turn up in their Hot Rods to be Valet

I hit the new Team Pain creation, Peck Park. So damn amazing. I was the oldest there (not a new feeling!) and some of the latino gangsters wanted to have a word. Full face tatts and thugged out, I was a little intimidated. They wanted some pointers for their sons, who were still babies, in case they didn’t want to play team sports. They were absolute gentlemen and we had a great chat. The locals were ripping, and I got some as I knew it would be my last roll for this trip.

We spent the last day at several museums and the Tar Pits. It was an experience I would always recommend. These are poached from Jo’s insta