February 14, 2016 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

Country Creepin’ part three : Tamworth Country Music

The weather was going to shite, so there was no point camping another night in the Blue Mountains. After studying the forecasts and the radar I thought I could boot through to Tamworth and miss it. Last time I headed to Tamworth I got caught in one hell of a hailstorm. I wasn’t keen to end up in the same predicament. It wasn’t easy convincing my insurer that the matte black finish on my car was factory and I didn’t want to roll that dice again.

The Putty Road is epic. Hairpin corners, 100km/h limited and beautiful Dapto forest. It is in the top ten roads in the country. There are a bunch of car graveyards in peoples front yards so it a photographers dream. I didn’t have much luck, and the storm hit a few hours earlier than forecast. It was pretty severe! A road that was meant to be a highlight was a bit of a nightmare. Putty Road has it’s own memorial site, it is a stretch of tarmac to be respected.

The storm front. I had to head right up the guts of it.

I pulled in here and had a rest. It was well played, I dodged the hailstorm front by fifteen minutes.

I ended up making it to Tamworth after a very stressful drive. It was where I was raised, it is always a bit nostalgic. Country Music Week sees the town double in size. I reckon the council and hoteliers have become a bit greedy. They are price gouging for accommodation and stalls. The buskers have to pay to audition, then pay if they pass the audition to busk. The crap buskers are part of the appeal and there was hardly any buskers at all. If the main clientelle of the event are grey nomads on a pension, then price hikes will have a detrimental impact.

Anyhow, we saw some great bands. I always go and see Uncle Bob’s Jug Band. Hillbilly AC>DC covers and the like.

People drank out of a leg, and I had a beer with a one armed bloke named Wingy

Murphy’s Pigs were my favourite.

I can’t believe a didn’t get a photo of my old man. Blowing it. I took a photo of Cam though

It is always a pleasure to catch up with my old mates Troy and Ricky. I’ve known them since I was in early high school. They are fortunate to have great families and it is great to see them. I was chuffed that they made the effort to throw a BBQ and we had a rad afternoon.

After the temperature dropped below 40 we got stuck in. Anaky has got the fire for it and has improved heaps since last year. Shredding!

Troy was ripping. Sweeper

Texas plants

Getting the speed for the sketchy extension was really hard!

Ricky manhandled the thing

His boneless ones into the extension were rad

Then the fire came out!

I’ve been fortunate to shoot some incredible skaters doing some heavy moves in my time. I reckon this is one of my favourite photos though. Ricky’s daughter Mat challenging herself and overcoming her fears!

Thanks to Dad, Robin, Troy, Ricky, Tina, Maire, Anaky, Mat and Joey. See you next time!

February 2, 2016 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

Country Creepin’ part two: The Blue Mountains

I pointed the trusty WRX at the Kiama mountain pass and fanged it toward Katoomba. I lived in Katoomba for a year. I was at a real crisis point in my life, and I was kinda loosing it. Katoomba let me retreat and rebuild myself. It was a very dark period and a healing period at the same time. Healing? Mainly healing from my own stupidity and shithouse choices if I’m honest.

I perhaps needed to spend more time there to properly asses the place. It is always captivating and beautiful, however it had lost a little of its bohemian charm. The ice age had hit the place, and burnt out hippies and shabby lad dickheads gronked up the vibe. Again, I needed to spend more time in the place, and take my nose out of my book or glass of wine and get to know the current locals better. I’ll reserve my judgement at this point.

Terrain? Oh hell yeah! There is so much stuff to skate. Weird, fun and challenging stuff.

Lawson is my favourite. I would love to hit here with the crew. I had a fun dork around on my lonesome

The best warm up spot ever? Katoomba mini bowl thingie

Katoomba park was always pretty crappy. The DIY style makeover is total fun

I set up camp at Ingar Billabong

The road in got quite challenging at times

The food is always spectacular. The bush is the highlight though. I awoke at dawn to have the mountains to myself. Aboriginal people from far and wide brought their sick here to heal. The eucalypt trees fill the air with an invigorating scent, intensified by the mist.

The mist rolled in through the valleys

The rocks opals as the sun hits

The stairs

And the blue

And the Eucalyptus

January 31, 2016 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

Country Creepin’ part one: Jugiong and Wollongong

Am I an angry fellow? I think not. With the weight of making small talk with people I don’t know, or care to learn about, I get a little feisty. I spend a lot of hours a week doing this. It’s a part of my life I am rectifying mind you. I’m not about to unleash and start beating people about the head, but internally the scenario does play out.

I’m ok…Really I am.

It is remedied by hitting the road. Once the car is packed I exhale, feel a little lighter. I turn over the ignition and head north. I’ve got 3000kms of well chosen back roads and destinations in a capable beast. It is always a lonesome feeling kissing the wife goodbye, but she isn’t fond of spending the days at skateparks and then sleeping by the river. I sure am. Solitude is good for the conciousness anyhow.

I booted through to Jugiong, to camp by the Murrumbidgee.

I met Col, and he showed my his travelling companion. He has owned this vehicle for 35 years. It was no show car, but i couldn’t see a ding or imperfection.

I drifted off to sleep due to a mixture of Hank Williams and good shiraz. Swags are the way to travel. You can still see the stars before you drift off.

I headed towards Wollongong via the Macquarie Pass

I caught up with one of my oldest and best mates Tim. We first rode skateboards together in an abandoned metal halfpipe made for industrial forming of concrete. We were 12. We turn 40 this year. It’s always so good to heckle each other and have a schralp. We meet up at Berkley

It is a fun park, but overrun by ratty scooter kids. I ended up having a run in with a bogan mum after trying to teach her kid some etiquette. It is killing skateparks, the culture has outlived them and is under threat. It ruined our skate a little, but we still had fun. Tim on the trigger

Front feebs

It was so hard to get four wheels on this thing. Tim got some

Tim’s wife Clem cooked up great food for us and I lurked the beach. We then hit Helensburg. It was a early 2000’s park, super fun lines. There ended up being quite the session. The Witchcraft team rocked up and destroyed it. So much stuff went down on the big vert wall to bank, I wasn’t going to poach photos

I got a tail block before the rain on the steep roll in.

And this chap did effortless textbook front rocks. I’ll find out who he is! He was from Spain

January 7, 2016 by joshuafeggans - 1 Comment

Respect where due: Mudguts

Mudguts is a man of few words. Carefully chosen, but few. He will be the last one rolling the spot, trying to get that last trick. Long after everyone else has decided it is time to take a seat and heckle. On our recent camping trip he skated for a solid 12 hours…Yep 12. He might look life a ruff nut, but the truth is he is a cat loving softy. Nothing wrong with that! Mind you he will fire up if provoked in true ginger form.

It’s pretty hard to take a shite photo of Muddy. Everything is done clean and with speed. If you follow The Grim Creepers he gets a fair few photos featured. Stoked for more sessions in 2016

Mudguts, ladys man

A noisy, lenghty feeble at The Ring Of Fire

Smith at the cruel but fair Pearcedale

Crail at Sommerton on the same day

Back D at Deer Park

Frontside feeble through the corner at Lara

Slappy gap out yesterday at Citypark

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

October 19, 2014 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

Portland, keeping it weird

I was stoked to spend a few extra days in Portland, Oregon. It is a skateboarders paradise, I could have spent a month here and rolled a different park each day. This is largely to do with Dreamland Skateparks and their passionate approach to terrain. The owners roots are firmly planted in the building of Burnside, the most famous DIY skatepark in the world. Dreamland have built parks all through the state. They do it by sleeping on site and so forth, putting almost all the funds for the project into the park itself. The terrain is gnarly, fast and flowy. Eugene has shown how far this crew have come, with it being arguably the best park in Oregon. The street sections are on point now too.

Portland itself is rad, arty little cafe’s, bars and restaurants everywhere. It is like Fitzroy or Newtown in the 90’s, everyone embracing the fair trade tofu vibe. It’s apparent when driving. There will be four cars at a crossroad all stationary as they are too polite and passive to venture forth. I’m not exaggerating!

However it is not all man cardigans and crafternoons. Every summer there is a rising homeless rate. According to the numbers, almost a third of people on the streets have only been in Portland for two years or less and 60 percent of that group was homeless when they came to Portland. There is evidence that some cities are providing their homeless with one-way bus tickets to Portland. You can set up a tent in the main park of town or anywhere and not be moved on, it is more likely you will be given a smoothie and a blanket.

Ice is massive, sketched out tweakers are everywhere and they hussle aggressively. Behind Burnside I saw a group of fifteen or so twenty somethings that sleep there in a massive brawl. It was gnarly. I would hit up Burnside early to avoid the crowds and get a feel for the joint. Humbling is an understatement.

There is going to be a multi level carpark built next door. The locals have negotiated a flat concrete wall opposite this bit that they can crete up to.

These are the flowy bits you don’t see, that you get spat out into and have to deal with

I had to take a big long line into these to get the speed, it’s rough and haggard in parts. Photo by Jo. This is me ticking off my bucket list

Our former Melbourne based mates that we caught up with in LA put us in touch with Vicky, who was our awesome guide. We had a great time and checked out some cool art shows and bars. I hope she comes and visits us so we can return the hospitality. Nabbing Jo’s insta photos

She took us out to Astoria to show Jo the Goonies house. Stoke levels were high

There were smelly seals there. Jo photo

And rad micro breweries. I think Portland hipsters invented the jar glass resurgence.

The neighbourhoods are largely like this

No issue closing off the main street for ping pong

We hit the road and went to Hood River for some foresty sight seeing and a roll together. Found a rad little cafe for breakfast

These photos are about 20% of the whole joint. So fun

This thing was a beast! You had to hit both shallow pockets to get the speed for the pit

Pooping myself

Rolling in. Both these photos by Jo

Got drunk, bowled badly

I met Charlie, he was out of action due to injury. He BBQ’d up a feast for us and is welcome to come stay in Melbourne anytime. Coincidently, the day before this my mate Sean hit up one of the skate nerd forums I lurk asking around to try and get his first board for the wall. He had only one, but flowed the deck on the right for Sean. What a champ, I think he was quite chuffed about the request.

Food trucks are everywhere

Got me some limited editions!

Bingen is super fun. So well planned, you can hit every obstacle and the bowl without one push. Rad jerseys and little hits on the bowl platform with well placed noping.