May 12, 2023 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

Mild in the Streets 47. Old man yells at cloud

BLOGS NOT DEAD!

Good old blogs. The undisputed king of social media. Everything else is a dystopian dumpster fire. This version of the future sucks I wanted Bladerunner. I ended up with attention span ruining dancing for nefarious data mining spyware. Slow clap world.

So you know the drill by now, every year after 40 I try and struggle out a few skateboard photographs. I was fortunate enough this year to have the charming and always enthusiastic @r0b0p1x on duty. I tested his patience pretty good he is a resilient fellow. You should follow his insta. I am genuinely stoked with how they turned out.

Here’s the thing. 47 feels fine. Good even. I have had to put in the work physically. I eat well, I’m at the gym every other day, I stretch at the spot for ages to the confusion and occasional disgust from youths. It is my third birthday sober (who would have thought? Certainly not me!) However it is all worth it. I can keep getting pummelled into the concrete riding my childs toy about and that makes me happy. It stabilises the undiagnosed and unaddressed mental health issues I bury in the pit of my soul. Problem solved.

I keep chipping away at my architecture and skatepark career with the guidance and assistance from Playce, my wife is the best and continues to inspire, challenge and surprise me. I have rekindled the love of mountain biking and snowboarding and challenging myself as a driver in motorsport environments. It would be helpful if I didn’t partake in such expensive hobbies.

I have gone from having two or three carloads on the session to Nigel No Mates. Shoutout to them heads that hit me up on the regular (particularly Rodos) and for those that try and schedule sessions with our conflicting small windows of opportunity with our schedules. People leave town, people have to stop or just stop…I get it.

I still have that fire in my decreasing in girth belly to give it a nudge. This is all I got. Behold…Yeah sure.

All photographs by @r0b0p1x

Had to go fast into this to get on top. Got a couple of nice hippers. Slappy

Bank rock was excellent. Punk bands in a ditch. You should go to the next one. Backside boneless wallride

Another wallride photo. Obstacle was sketchy and you had to haul to get to it

Can do them bigger but whatever…I was not aware I was being photographed and I’m not going to ask someone to wait for me to land one! 360 flip. Fitzy rules.

Ollie up to ollie over. Angles are all weird to hit it and you are rolling cross ways along the beams. Thanks Isabel for the suggestion!

Skateboarding on cars is such a big thing for me. First videos always had cars at the comps, I used make sure the comps I hosted had a car. The owners of the car came out. I said it wasn’t going anywhere, they agreed and stayed to watch.

Here is the clip. Thank you for making it this far in your busy lives 🙂

August 22, 2019 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

Respect Where Due: Josh “Morph” Malthus

Over the many years I have known Morph he has always held the throttle wide open. Full speed, one hundred percent committed and head first. There is no hesitation of caution about his skateboarding, and he is not intimidated by brutal terrain. He will cop a beating on a trick that will make your eyes water, he won’t stop until he rolls away in his trademark crouched style.

All these photographs were taken over a couple of days on the road in the South Island of New Zealand. He was nursing an injury, I had seen him a couple of months before with a full cast on his ankle to his knee and a cane. That didn’t stop him rolling into Lynfield bowl!

He may look like a Warlock’s understudy, but he is a kind hearted, considered bloke and loyal to his friends.

Hope to roll with you again soon mate

Textbook boosted boneless

Then a 270 boneless one

Stalefish in Grom Boy’s front yard

A very loud layback smith

Layback five 0 on a brutal vert wall.

Flapped out frontside air

June 3, 2019 by joshuafeggans - 1 Comment

Respect Where Due Revisited: Tim “Cunnaz” Cunneen

I reckon it’s about time I did a few more of these. The last one on Cunnaz was 5 years ago. Has old mate slowed down? No chance. Sure, he has a spawn now, but fatherhood has not taken the fizz out of his Fanta fuelled veins. It is rad to see him embrace his new role as well.

The “Respect Where Due” articles were really about giving a nod to the underground rippers. Those skaters that everyone respects, that throw it down during the session, time after time. Most of these photographs are from our recent New Zealand trip you can check out here.

Cunnaz absolutely slayed it. Ten days on the road, ripping it up every single spot. Damn good road company too, keeping the yarns and vibes rolling along as we chalked up the kilometres.

I’ll let the images do the talking, and endeavour to keep these going.

This hip was a really harsh blend, old crusty west coast battered concrete. Steep as. Blasting after ten days straight.

Hucking a solid melon in Wanaka, before cooling off in the river. Les Hiddins attire.

It took me a million goes to chicken scratch here. Go there, it’s fucked. Back tail that would have to be an NBD

Back d’s on lock. How’s the serenity?

This think is jacked. No idea how he got into that bit. Pitted.

May 11, 2017 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

Mild in the streets: 41.

Since I turned the big four zero last year I thought a good way to motivate my self was to try and get a few skateboarding photographs every year. Now my age has clicked over it has come time to share a few.

So behold, bask in my underwhelming lameness. As time goes onwards these pissweak skateboarding feats will become progressively worse. It will be a timelapse where I slowly morph from a pirate into a wizard. So, unfortunately, this is as good as it is going to get.

Thank you to Duncan Ewington aka @ewingram for the photos. Us grown man grommets help each other to keep the stoke alive. You can call shotgun anytime mate.

A hazard plant on an overnighter to Kerang. Sleeping next to the park with a belly full of beer and BBQ is as good as it gets.

Lexi’s ramp is insane. Seeing him hit it is superhuman shit. The transition to vert ratio is wild.

This is just a go to trick. However, it’s on my backyard ramp and there is nuclear stuff coming out of my arse. Every time I look at my backyard I am reminded that I have awesome mates and that I am still a child. I think this white t shirt phase lasted a week max.

Bucket list stuff. Carving a cake in a backyard pool. This doesn’t look like much but I would say it took a good hour. The struggle is real.

My favourite ramp at Mat’s shed in Kyneton. Rare front feeble.

Slappies are the best. I have wanted to have a crack at this for ages. I’m sure a little bit of wee came out.

May 12, 2016 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

Well bugger me I’m 40: Mild in the streets

Why would you do a blog post on your own skateboarding? Well lets face it no one else is going to run these photos. There are vast grades of skateboarding that ranges from pissweak to mind blowing. I am under no illusion to which end of the scale my “skill” lies. But that is largely irrelevant.

Skateboarding is difficult. It doesn’t get easier as the teeth marks of time leave their scars. I have been finding myself staying in second gear a fair bit. I thought with the milestone of 40 hovering on the horizon I should try and get some photos together to push my skateboarding. Enough of second gear, every now and then you have to dump the clutch and sink the boot in.

Thank you to Duncan Ewington (@ewingram) for his patience and for all the photographs. It’s rad to have mates like you keeping the stoke alive.

Same goes for all my extended skate family, particularly the Grim Creepers and NSC crew. Y’all bring the juice to a session. I appreciate it immensely. Nothing better than to hit the road with you lot.

Shout out to my younger brother, and also mentor, Hugh. We share the same birthday. I’ll do a Respect Where Due on him when his broken wrist mends.

I have to thank my gorgeous wife Jo. As I rapidly accelerate through my mid life crisis into old age I couldn’t hope for a better person to share the experience with.

“Skateboarding doesn’t make you a skateboarder; not being able to stop skateboarding makes you a skateboarder.” Lance Mountain

No Comply in Collingwood

Dodging Friday night St Kilda pedestrains and an awful run up. Slappy

Pole schloop

Why do I look so terrified? Wall ride under the rail line

This bowl is very difficult. So much fun though! Slash at Bowlriders HQ

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

December 18, 2015 by joshuafeggans - 0 comments

NSC X GC Peninsular lurking

Trying to get ourselves sorted and organised for a skate weekend away is a nightmare in logistics. It’s like herding cats, but the cats in zero gravity and there are biscuits floating everywhere to distract them.

We finally got our shit together and made some loose plans, stocked up the chilly bins and leaned heavily on Bristol Nick to take care of our infrastructure and resources. He stepped up to the plate superbly.

We were all having such a great time that we didn’t take heaps of photos. Duncan (@ewigram) and Tom Peden (@tommypeden) and I pooled our photos. Make sure you follow them on insta if you don’t already. Tom was injured, hence why there are no handsome back tail photos.

I won’t babble on as there is a load of photos to get through.

First stop, the underrated Chelsea. Now with shade sails

Heaps of rad stuff happened, and my meh grind on the skinny extension. Photo @ewigram

Then we had a mellow session at Mt Eliza under lights, cooked up, drank up and camped next to the bowl.

After a 6:30am swim we had a leg stretcher. Mudguts barefoot barging

And a decent length backside lipslide into the hip

Heckle area warmed up before we moved on

The heckling continued

Pearcedale is so fun, yet snaps everyone off. Everytime. Jesse smiths

Mudguts got loose

Duncan lapped one. @tommypeden photo. Cracker of a shot!

@ewigram shot these next four bangers. Cunnaz Liened one as a gnarly transfer

Gez rocked @ewigram photo

Dan slid one through the tight corner. @ewigram photo

Mudguts rolled into the harshness @ewigram photo

We then hit a little park called Sommerton. Cunnaz always wants moar Slayer

Jesse has the best long as five-0 to fakies

And switch 5-0’s

Chris step off finger flip

Ducky worked super hard to clear this gap. He had it in him, but didn’t get it. So damn close!

He got retribution with this nosegrind pop out. @tommypeden photo

Mudguts played all weekend. Crail

Got the gap in his efforts to set a fire under Ducky. They amped each other up

We set off for the paradise that is Balnarring

The flat bank triangle is rad. Dan with a backside heelflip @tommypeden photo

Cunnaz with a kicky to fakie @tommypeden photo

I did a no-comply @tommypeden photo

and a tail block. @tommypeden photo

Chris lapped a front rock proper @ewigram photo

As did Bristol @tommypeden photo

Mudguts nosegrab. First and last man rolling for the 12+ hour day. @tommypeden photo

Duncan with a switch frontside shuv @tommypeden photo

Punkpete shut it down with this banger over the gap

And at the wee hours of the morning we polished off the last of the whiskey and hit the hay @tommypeden photo

Cheers for the great times gents!

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)