Paddy Jones part & interview

We are pleased to announce Paddy Jones’ new video part, released as a Slam City Skates Rat Signal and filmed and edited by Mark Jackson. Scroll down to read an interview with Paddy.

Portrait Lex Kembery

Interview Henry Kingsford and Jacob Sawyer

How did this part come about?

We all used to go out skating after work on a Tuesday and make little edits with Jackson, after a while we ended up just keeping the footage instead and making a longer one over the course of a few months.

Tell us about some of your interests outside of skateboarding.

At the moment I’m really into going to the theatre. Jake (Sawyer) has been working at Saddler’s Wells and hooking me up with tickets to the ballet. It’s the contemporary stuff mostly, not people dressed as swans and in tight white leggings, it’s actually more hip-hop inspired. Oh, and Matilda is a must-see!

Who has been your favourite co-worker at Slam City Skates, past or present?

Anyone who has worked there in the last ten years will say the same: Jake Sawyer.

Tell us about filming with Jackson. Does it make it easier working with someone you know so well?

To be honest, both of us are partial to a bit of midday gambling and a few cocktails, so it was pretty light-hearted most of the time.

You got your dad an interesting birthday present recently. Tell us about it.

Haha, it was my first skate photo blown up and framed! He did ask for it to hang in the house though, it wasn’t something that was my idea.

What’s your favourite skate section of all time?

Ed Templeton in Welcome To Hell. It was my first video, and I must have watched that part a hundred times. That or Steve Olson in the Shorty’s video (Fulfill the Dream).

Who inspires your skating?

Anyone who can have fun skating a bank to kerb and treat it like it’s a mini ramp! I’ve always just enjoyed simple tricks that are done really well. That’s not really changed over the years.

Who are your favourite people to skate with in London?

It’s a mixed bunch really: Jackson of course, the Slam crew: Charlie, Toddy and Dan, Carl (Magalit) and the Supreme lot, Nugget and Patrick, the South Bank lot. Whoever’s down for the bank to kerb!

Explain the differences between the immediacy of skateboarding now living in London and the pilgrimages to do so you took growing up in the countryside?

It’s massive really. Growing up, the road outside my house had grass growing in the middle, and there wasn’t a kerb for miles. My one local spot was a 12ft by 6ft bit of flat land! Getting to Oxford to skate was a three mile walk, followed by a short bus ride to the local town, then a 17 mile bus ride to Oxford. And then one more bus to the skatepark! Getting to Milton Keynes was a joke. Luckily the older you get, the more friends with cars you have.

Did you adopt a duck as a child?

If stealing is adopting then yes I did. I might do it again too, it’s a strong look. At school, when you can bring a pet in for the day, and everyone else has got mice, or stick insects, or lame hamsters, and you just bowl in with a massive duck under one arm instead…

Who were your older influences in Oxford and how have they helped shape who you are today?

The Beaumonts, Joe Sketch Hodock, Johnny Robo, and Phil Watts. All those guys helped me to figure out the right shoes and trousers to wear, rinsed me for skating too slowly and most of all stopped me from pushing mongo and wearing shin pads and a helmet!

Check out more edits from Mark Jackson here and browse Paddy’s brilliant illustrations here.