Getting By review

By Will Harmon.

Getting By, filmed and edited by Ross Lidgey, is the latest skate DVD to come out of the Big Smoke. Judging by the DVD cover photo which shows an assortment of pence, a hot wrap from Pret, a child travelecard half ripped for roach, a mobile from around 2004, and an open can of 79p White Ace – Getting By refers to the day to day grind of surviving and skateboarding in the expensive metropolis known as London, England.

The DVD features the talents of Ashley Skidmore, Luka Pinto, Aidan O’Regan, Greg Conroy, Dan Tomlinson and Arthur Kay. What first struck me about this video was how was a whole London video made and I’ve never seen these guys out filming it? Either I’m not hittin’ the streets enough, or these guys are seriously keepin’ it underground. I’d like to think it was the latter, but anyhow, Getting By clocks in at just less than twenty minutes of predominately London rippage with a few scattered clips from California.

Ross filming Ashley Skidmore. Photo Luc Lacey.

Ashley Skidmore starts things off and immediately you can tell this guy has been training up some serious ledge moves. Kickflip crooks, fakie flip fakie five-o’s and nollie-flip noseslides are just some the tricks in Ash’s repertoire. Equally amazing as his lines at Blackfriars Ledges are Skidmore’s outfit choices. Or perhaps I should say his outfit choice on one particular day at Parliament Square. At one point Skidmore almost disappears from the screen mid switch frontside crook due to his Urban camo hat, shorts and wife-beater ensemble.

The second part goes to Luka Pinto and I must say this part flows! I don’t know if it was the fresh looking Adidas he was wearing, the bangin’ Roy Ayers tune, or his backside flip switch manny, but I’m really feelin’ this dude’s part. Aidan O’Regan reminds us that Shoreditch Blocks aren’t dead with his speedy lines to head off the third part. Part four goes to Greg Conroy and Dan Tomlinson. A tight Raekwon song accompanies Greg’s rubber legs as he flows with tricks and lines around the capital. Highlights include a backside flip fakie manny and a kickflip back smith on London’s most-famous ledge off stairs. Science Skateboards rider Dan Tomlinson follows and reassures us why this ginger south Londoner deserves to get his boards for free. Tre-flip nose-wheelies, nose grinds on rails and his trademarked noseblunt slides round off Dan’s section.

Arthur Kay, Switch 180 Nosegrind. Photo Luc Lacey.

The curtains part goes to the often talked about, but not often seen Kiwi, Arthur Kay. Arthur probably has the most well rounded part as he skates stairs, ledges, manuals, gaps, banks and has a fair number of tech lines. Mixed day and night footage with lots of lines accompanied by a mid-nineties Big L track is the formula for a good video part. A clean frontside nollie 180 flip over a pole and a switch flip back 5-0 on Chalky stand out in my mind, but probably my favourite thing about Arthur’s part is a line done at the briefly liberated Victoria Benches which ends in a kicky-back tail as I would imagine Arthur to say. Or is it only Aussies who call a kickflip backside tailslide that? Who knows, but all in all, this is an enjoyable London video. One of the things that really surprised me was the amount of super-bust spots in there; loads of security-heavy Canary Wharf spots and also how did these guys get so long at the Home Office ledges?  Amazingly, no one had Southbank footage in their parts either; I commend Lidgey on not taking the easy route in making a London skate video. It’s good to see people still taking the time to make independent skate videos, they are important in documenting the scene and underground, non-commercial skateboarding. Job well done Ross Lidgey, well done.

Copies of Getting By are currently available at Slam City Skates and LCB Brick Lane. Watch the promo below.