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 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!

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 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!

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

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