Cheapness in digital art and life

This is a post that has been a long time considered, however it would be a mistake to assume that the longevity of it's consideration will lend it well crafted form or structure. Instead it is likely that in an effort to convey everything I wish to I shall end up writing constantly until a large block of text sounds "about right", at which point I will check for typos and let it fly wherever it pleases.

Hello.

I hope you have had an excellent saturday or if you are reading this on a day other than saturday, an excellent one of those.

This is a post about the importance of genuine effort, specifically relating to and using evidence from the field of digital art (mainly covering photo manipulation work), that I hope can also be applied to life itself.

(I just wrote a sentence that was utter shit and deleted it. Wahey!)

Digital art and what is wrong with it.

I love digital art. Now saying that is a bit funny because what qualifies a piece of work as "digital"? Does it require the presence of elements brought into existence solely in the digital realm? Does a scanned pencil sketch count? What about a painting that has been "adjusted" in photoshop and then booted out the door?

Really "digital art", like so many definitions in our world, will be understood differently by everybody considering it.

So to help I can say that digital art, to me, is a vision incorporating of a wide range of artistic media that is realised using a computer.

As an aside (skip this if you want a coherent-ish experience and don't if you are interested in me talking shit)

You will notice my definition contains definitions and you will note that it couldn't not. How do you define a "wide range of artistic media"? What is a "computer" to you?

We are expressing ourselves using sentences formed from words formed from letters formed from thoughts. A word is a collection of letters and this is the smallest unit of expression in that form of communication. Therefore the moment in which a thought is brought into the world in the spoken or written form is one in which it has already been blurred. In another form, such as an oil painting, feelings or ideas have been brought into the world as colours blended together. Colours that like words can be interpreted differently even if they are seen the same. And there is no guarantee of even that.

When we communicate it is like throwing photographs into the air hoping for them to be seen and thought about before they hit the ground. Some people can't take photos and some people can't throw, some people can't see very well or at all and some people like looking at photos they just don't like them being thrown at their faces.

Aside over (thank eff hey?)

Right.

So I have become disillusioned with digital art and those creating work within the field. However I have realised that I do not need to be disillusioned, because all can be well in the end.

The disillusionment came from seeing so many great pieces of work, fantastic images, brought into life in a way I was not expecting. A way of working which has become so widespread and accepted that it almost defines the entire field.

That is, the over reliance on stock imagery and downloaded photoshop brushes.

Stock imagery is that found online, typically that contained on databases which can be used free or for a fee within certain parameters.  Downloaded photoshop brushes are those customised by a third party usually beyond the scope of a simple shape from which to craft images.

Let me be clear that I do not think everybody using these techniques is being cheap. That would be hugely short sighted of me. You might download an average kind of image, or fairly simple brush, and work wonders with it.

However;

If a piece of work you have created is successful largely because one of it's key elements is a high resolution, superbly lit, brilliantly composed photograph by a photographer you have never met of a truly beautiful model you have never met, who has spent a long time having their clothing and makeup dialled just so then;

You are being cheap.

If you have added wings to a photograph of somebody, lets say a photo you have taken, and the wings are downloaded brushes so the majority of your interaction with them has been to click and perhaps edit a little, then guess what?

You are being cheap.

Now I'm saying "cheap" rather than "cheating" because I think saying cheap allows varying degrees of "cheapness" to be established.

You may say "well could you build the computer you work with from scratch"?

I couldn't.

But I think it is important when you are working to have integrity.

The above examples are done with such regularity and the final work uploaded as a creation rather than a remix.

If you want to progress you must ensure that you work to produce an image because the person who spends the time learning to create a wing, or learning how to take that perfect shot of somebody will have learned much more than the person who simply downloads and edits either.

At the end of the day you can do whatever the hell you want to do, but if you have fun creating images using all stuff you've grabbed online, tell people when you put the work out there. The magic will be explained to people and they will maybe be less awe struck and more understanding of how the thing was created, and they can have a more informed opinion of it and see how they could create something themselves, rather than just stare in wonder at "magic" that isn't really all that magical.

I hope this applies to life. Shortcuts may get you places but learning and trying will always get you further, even if you reach your destination later.

Have a nice whatever day it is for you now!

Will

uni and thinking

This is one of those posts that's written just to try and process some thoughts. If you object, fuck off.

So I left my course. My course was graphic design but the combination of course and place meant I didn't find it challenging or very inspiring and to continue to pay a lot of money for it wasn't the right thing. 

Hence I did do the right thing and left, leaving me here spending a lot of time creating work and spending even more time in an empty room. 

This is what I am struggling to process and I don't know how long it is going to take. I've always tried to work hard in the things that I do and I always try to be nice to everybody. You think that if you just try with things and try to make yourself into a good person, that you'll get somewhere. 

I find it difficult sometimes to get up when just sleeping all day would be the same for the world. Theres such a nothingness now outside of creating art or skateboarding. In moments of productivity or entertainment, you don't feel like there is nothing else because you're not looking at the empty space. It's when you might be too tired, you even might have just finished a piece of work and look up.

Still, I'm creating a lot of stuff. I'd be completely fucked if I didn't.

I just a lot of the time think-come on. It's rubbish but it's human just to be like-really, something good has to happen. I'm doing everything I can and maybe I just have to wait.

If you were flipping a coin and every time calling it wrong you'd start to think you'd never get it right.  That is barely possible but you're still going to think it, as a person.

What I'm doing now is trying again with the things I need to get right. I've applied to five universities. With that and some other things I think what I'm going to do is just what I've always been doing, be nice and just try.

I find the things that a lot of people find easy really difficult. I think that we always find ourselves wishing for the things that we don't have even though we know wishing won't get us them. 

I've applied to Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Winchester School of Art, Brighton and the University for the Arts London. My application had to be sorted after most of the open days had passed, although I managed to look into each of my choices. I've been to visit Portsmouth so far and I really liked the place and the course sounded good. I could see myself living quite happy down there.

Next up for me is checking out all of the other ones, getting a portfolio together, keep creating, keep learning, keep skating and keep trying even when sometimes I feel like it won't make a difference, because maybe it might some time.

I have just checked the clock thing here and it's christmas in two days. 

I think I'm going to be able to sleep alright now.

Here is my art page: https://www.facebook.com/ArtistPhotographerWillClare

If you're reading this and want to go and like it, it would be really awesome for me. You can also tweet at me if you're feeling like it any time, my thing is @downhillwill. It might make a small or big part of my day.

Have a good christmas.

Will.

3 years of skating down hills

Hello.

It is not long until Christmas! It is around this time that I write a bit about my year of skateboarding down hills, which I have now been doing for three years! Bloody hell!

I haven't really planned what I'm going to write, so this might read like the confused talkings of a massive, lifewasting fool. I haven't got any music on so I will sort that and be back in a moment. Of course for you, the reader, I am back NOW and you can continue reading. But for me I will be back in a moment.

I am back (irrelevant).

So, this year, what has happened in the world of downhill skateboarding?

• Saying "RAD TRAIN WOOT WOOT" at the end of every sentence became a thing.
• Caliber made some lazy/shit adverts. Meanwhile some truck companies sold trucks by making good trucks. 
• Adam Persson won the IDF tour after the massive prolonged debate about the IDF, the IGSA, transparency and cake. Many silly acronyms were made up and much offence was caused. 
• Vandem made all of their stickers transparent. This proved useful for fixing holes in windows caused by flying keyboards after helmet debates.
• Everyone forgot how they had ever skated down hills without a footstop and many different shaped ones came into existence.
• Lots of products emerged that many of us assumed were injokes but actually turned out to be quite popular with VERY UNIQUE PEOPLE (mostly from london)
• On the topic of london, the london longboards facebook page had a vintage year of providing us all with great entertainment.

It's been a good year for the scene I think ;)

Yeah I don't actually skate I just make dubious quality artwork and talk to people on the internet.

Skating down hills is fun. Skating down hills with a good bunch of people is very fun. When you are on the hill with a decent crew who you have been skating with for a while, you can be so much more relaxed than in other situations. If there is a corner, it will be spotted, and everyone will take an even share of it. Nobody is going to risk anything silly. Everyone is aware of where people are and what they are doing. Little needs saying, there is an understanding that to skate down hills, you've got to do it right.

Open road stuff is so much more enjoyable if you can relax and enjoy it. There has been a smallish group of us having some epic skates. You rock.

Setup.

The factor that has made a lot of difference to my experience of skating down hills this year has been getting a setup more dialled in to how I like it. Everybody likes a different kind of feeling in a setup depending on what they are doing. It's one of the main reasons I enjoy skateboarding. There's no one approach and there is all the room in the world to do what you want.

The setup I am enjoying for going fast at the moment is a Lush Sequel deck, with sabre 45's (green and purple barrels) and cult hurtlers or classics. I think adding some lower angle plates will be the next thing to progress it. 

I like that kind of a setup, for one because it suits my dimensions. I'm not overly tall but I usually feel really cramped going fast on a tiny topmount. Secondly the kind of feeling I get from a sequel with classics or hurtlers is very consistent, progressive and responsive, and these are the things you should look at when getting your setup dialled in.

That sounds like I'm talking shit doesn't it! I'm not! Here's an explanation.

Consistency can take a few forms.

Consistency of slide is important. Why is skating in patchy conditions worse than in the wet or in the dry? Consistency and expectation. The best skaters in the world are not psychic. If you go into a corner in fully wet or dry conditions, on any board, and you have got used to the hill, you have in your mind a fair idea for just what you can do, and push the boundaries of what is possible for you from there. 

On a setup you feel at home on, in wet or dry conditions, you're usually going to have a much better idea for what kind of cornering experience awaits you.

Also, if your board gives you a consistent feeling when you are in a tuck, you know it is less likely to twitch out and allow you to sample some poor u.k road surfacing through your face.

"So progressive bro! Check that responsiveness man woaahhh"

When I talk about a progressive and responsive feeling I'm mostly talking about grip. A really nice setup that is suited to your style of skating will allow you to feel more degrees of grip and to understand where you are. By where you are I mean knowing things like "if I put more weight on my hand and turn harder, will I better make the apex or will I lose traction, panic, cry, write letters of apology to myself in midair and generally die like eff?". 

A good setup, a setup you feel confident on, will provide feedback during a turn which will allow you to respond without thinking that much. 

DISCLAIMER:

Anyone that has seen me skate knows there is no WAY what I am doing is all that er...precise. So what I say here sounds all scientific as If I'm analysing stuff in forensic detail when I'm skating. I'm not, if I was I would generally not skate like a shaken up box of budget after-eight clones. 

What I'm saying is- skate a setup you feel happy on and you will be able to push the boundaries of your skating whilst being very smiley indeed.

HAVE FUN.

rawr

Anyway;

The two main bits of epic downhill action for me this year have come on closed roads.

I am talking about Crash and Burn the Third (and final...?) and Vandem II!

I'm reaaaaaaaly sad that Crash and Burn isn't likely to return. For those unaware, the event hill is one where the very fastest can achieve 50mph. There is one corner you have to slow down for. The challenge is simple. So is jumping over a car.

Also, it's only been skated officially closed on three occasions. We barely ever get to skate it without having many "tractor up!" occasions, often with said tractor depositing mud and water all over the hill. 

So, I rock up the evening before the first day, with a MASSIVE bag of things I might need (don't need) and many things I have forgotten but are there in spirit (who needs a pillow when you have a bumpy field to cradle your skull as you fail to sleep whilst Will Stephenson and Jack Penman make the noisiest return from the pub since The Iron Giant had that drunken fight with The Giant Mutant Magnet as it rained metal shrapnel from the sky?)

My tent is shit. More than shit. Some speculate it's a play tent. I speculate privately that I might just run into the road and have done with my life. It is that shit. I don't fit. I sleep little.

I spend most of my time whilst not skating hunched awkwardly in the doorway of it, before graduating to the chair and sci fi book combination.

Anyway in the morning I awaken soaking wet (IT HADN'T EVEN RAINED BUT WATER CAME THROUGH THE EFFING TOP) and stumble out. I'm up early and loiter in a sinister manner. When a few of us are up, I go over the road to the shop to enquire about the availability of baked goods. The lady in there seems unsure if I am human but gives a rough ETA. I return with fellow skateboarders and we dine like the genius-king-people we are (not).

We return to the campsite and begin to gather stuff for the hill. Most are rocking full leathers which is a good shout to save skin. I'm rocking a padded leather jacket with armour underneath, thick jeans and massive kneepads, which is probably marginally better for hitting stuff. It is also easier and more fun to skate in than non-custom leathers, but worse for going down the road. Compromise.

Last checks of gear done, the van turns up and we pile in the back.

Even typing now I can feel that sense of excitement. 

I can see there isn't that many people. I sign up with Norman and Liz at the desk and get a shirt. I love event shirts.

Anyway, I'm feeling kind of nervous, excited, a little scared and just want to get on the hill.

Photo by the most Oliver of Slaughter, Oliver Slaughter! This is the main corner at peep and it is damn fun.

We board the van. I can't remember if I'm sitting or standing or what.

We get to the top and there is the familiar "oh shit we're all at the top and it's the first run of the day and it's this hill" lurking that anyone who has attended one of the Crash and Burn events will smile knowingly about. I try and go late.

I push off. This is the first run, so I slide often. I'm shaking throughout, and this is our home hill!

Well, I make it to the bottom. A few more careful runs down and I'm ready to do what I only managed towards the end of my time at the freeride last time which is go all the way to the corner without braking. I manage it. Next up is railing the corner that comes after that. As I've mentioned before, it doesn't need braking for, but I didn't feel confident before to go into it. This time I do. 

After getting these two things, I'm fully into the amazing emotion I get when I'm on a hill and I'm happy. I feel energised, like talking more, just generally very, very happy.

There are many more runs. Every time the van gets to the top I've got my gear ready, and I want to skate.

Theres one time, when I'm ready to go, and I'm just waiting for the really fast dudes to go first, because that's what you do. And I'm waiting and Will on the startline suggests I go first. Pete and Zac.M wave me through and it feels so weird but before I know it I've hopped on my board and am tucking into the first corner. I can tuck the main straight at this event too. 

I'm thinking of my introduction to skating down hills, there, three years ago, when I was arriving and thought we were on the hill because the lane leading to it was steep enough for me! Or at the first crash and burn when I hear a Pete Connolly is tucking it ("from the top??") and it's just not a thing that I can comprehend doing. And I'm doing it, being given the first go down my favourite hill with a load of people I love skating with. Awesome doesn't nearly cover it.

Anyway the day is amazing. A smallish crew means many runs. I'm in every one apart from when the van went off whilst I wasn't paying attention...  Everyone has a good time and there are many smiles.

I decide that the day was so good I don't need to camp out for the forecast epic deluge of rain that is coming tomorrow. There was no skating on that second day, and some patchy riding on the third, so I got the call right this time ;)

This is a photo by Alex at http://www.newtons-shred.co.uk skate shop. He was always just able to get a shot without getting taken out. Much respect! This is the last corner, and it's another fun one.

I am going to get something to eat and return to talk about THE VANDEM FREERIDE.

I am now back from my food finding trip with a hot crossed bun and it is excellent.

VANDEM

Oh the Vandem freeride. I wasn't there for the first year's event. I was most certainly there for the second.

The Vandem freeride is held down in Exeter, by the people at Vandem (surprisingly.)

The freeride works because those who organise the event have very good relations with the people that live around the hill. It was a possibility that the location of the hill being online would mean it would be mobbed and blown, but skaters knew that firstly it was not in their interests to do this, since the event wouldn't happen, and secondly that Vandem probably have their address and postcode, along with a van that many of us assume is armed with nuclear weaponry (although having experienced it in Belgium, I didn't find any launch buttons but there was a drawer with useful kitchen utensils.)

I'm staying nearby which suits me (family holidays arranged around skate events-all manner of yes!). I get chucked out at the campsite on the morning of the first day. Harry and Mark and there who I haven't seen for ages, and we have a talk whilst other people extract themselves from their tents. Later on I see Oli and Aaron who I last saw at Crash and Burn.

The campsite is in a paintballing site within some woodland. The giant guard towers and pretend soldiers looking out from them add a surreal feeling.

Fast forward to The Talk.

"Take it easy on the first run!" says Rich. Don't be a knob is the overall message to everyone. (After some consideration everybody decides that being a knob isn't a good idea when theres lots of woodland to be buried in.)

They have posh coaches at this freeride! There's loads of people, some who I haven't skated with since Houyet however long ago, and some who I've never seen before in my life and nobody really knows.

I'm looking at one of the turns as we go to board the coaches and I'm thinking "That looks a bit tighter than in the videos". I think taking it easy is a good idea.

Anyway we get to the top and all get out. There's some standing around. I find Rob who's also rocking a Sequel. Anyway, there is a lot of hesitation with regards to the first run. Theres a lot of people,nobody really knows how fast anyone is, and many, like myself have never even seen the hill before in person.

I'm lurking fairly hard when I realise that the same Matt Elver and Robert Borek who just dropped the hill have made it all the way to the top again and are marching through the hordes of lurkers for another run. 

Right, time to go.

I get into a run and take it really chilled. It's how I like to skate, building up, not just diving in to the unknown and crashing or getting messed up. The top section is bumpy. As it get's into the bit under cover of trees the surface becomes nicer. The left hand corner near the campsite looms. I give a substantial footbrake and ease around it. Some dude who I recognise as a lush team rider blasts through the apex and it is most gnarly. I take the rest of the hill in a slow manner and shut down comfortably at the bottom.

I can tuck all of this.

So I do, more and more each run, until I'm pushing as hard as I can and just get into a tuck and just go. The lower section of the hill is something I've never really experienced before, railing a sequence of corners. It is most fun.

Anyway I'm having such a good time, and then in one run BLAM, Oli and Joe Baldwin come blasting through, and theres much smiling at the bottom of the hill about it. I've got faster, but you get reminded every now and then that the fast people haven't exactly been sitting around either! 

One run I'm greeted by Pete as he tucks by, another I get the jump on Rob as he's doing something with his gear at the top only to be passed before I get into the decent corners (I'm going to try and claim it's because he's got custom leathers and I don't). I see Mark Short, Will Edgecombe and George Vincent skating in a manner which is so weird because the control that you see when they are sliding stand up is so good you don't quite understand what you are seeing.

The day was amazing and there is another one right after. Yes.

Another shot from Newtons, this time at vandem. Notice the inability to skate not like an idiot. 

I rock up early. It was so funny wandering into the campsite. I'm there, fully geared up and ready to go, and it's like walking onto the set of a horror film. I go and sit on a tree stump and the Rich that emerges from the facilities seems a little shocked by the sudden appearance to say the least.

I'm ready to skate! 

Aaron looks like utter shit that morning but many other people also look like utter shit who don't just normally look like that.

It's as if they've all been heavily drinking but I know that can't be the case because there's skateboarding down hills to be done! ;)

Anyway, the second day is just as good as the first. So much fun is had. I remember saying to the right honourable Adam at some point about the feeling of just being so damn happy even sitting there between runs. Towards the end of the day serious determination is required to not allow ones legs to simply melt and send oneself crashing to his or her doom. 

The uplift coaches are awesome places to be. Just hearing people talk about that last run or some moment they had is great. And then you all bundle out of the van for another go. And another. 

Skate, smile, repeat.

After doubling up on epicness, that's the day and event done. Time to go home.

So;

Cheers to everybody I've shared this year of skating with. It has been the best yet and theres still so many more good times to have. The many occasions where skateboarding down hills takes place are only as good as they are because of the epic people that attend.

See you on the hill (or in a heap on the road.)

Will

where to be

Hello, tis sunday.

I went down to Portsmouth University yesterday for an open day and it added more to my ability to consider where I'm going to be next year.

The area was great. Soon after exiting the station you emerge onto a massive open courtyard thing with a ridiculously amazing piece of architecture right there in the form of a rather large building (the "guildhall" or something?) Like you know one of those sights where you attempt to force everything to imprint on your mind.

I take that and compare it to Durrington Tesco.

The uni is really nicely hooked up. It's a proper, proper uni ver si ty.

The buildings where you would go to class or lectures or what have you are nicely intermingled with at least 2 subway outlets, relaxed cafes, not shit coffee-shop-look-at-my-macbook-ooo-ahh places (although you will find those outlets and their inhabitants everywhere if you look).

We first hit up the "introduction to Portsmouth University" talk, and that was cool in the sense that the speaker was a normal person. There was no sense of "yeah well you should damn well be falling over each other to be here" like with some establishments you may find.

First we went to a subject talk on illustration and then graphic design. I also spoke to staff from both afterwards to ask some questions because I have a lot of those. I often wonder how much of what I say is understandable.

Anyway what I like doing would best be expressed if I write it down, so;

Creative retouching of photographs
Digital painting
General tablet stuff
combining photographs with each other and artwork of various media


and then at every university I've looked at, there is the course selection of

graphic design
illustration
photography

ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

Why?

An awareness of all makes you a better artist. I don't even think graphic design is art in all cases nowadays, some people make it so cold. Dead cold.

Also I'm sad because if I was into fashion photography, or book illustrations, or a recognised area such as these, then I could go and learn from an expert in the field, a rolemodel if you will, who I could imagine myself becoming similar to. The artists in this field of whatever it is, I'll call it creative retouching and digital art, are mostly young-ish people who you find on the internet.

And the standard is so high.

Also there is an attitude of "oh so it was made on a computer...ah well...thats nice but..."

because many people cannot see that a piece of art created with SLR's and tablets and computers can require the same degree of skill as the Sistine Chapel paintings, anything you'll find in a gallery or a sculpture from a well renowned and highly skilled genius.

It's not just being "tech savvy" and manipulating technology to create work for you (I get very much the sense this is what many artists imply), it's practicing a craft and putting years into a process of improvement.

I learn most things about digital art and improving my work from the internet but I think it would be a good thing to be able to go somewhere and learn from a real life master of it.

I really like Portsmouth and I may end up applying to the illustration course and really getting a lot out of it. I could progress a wide range of illustration skills and be able to incorporate these into the digital medium that I love. But I know I will definitely not find one of these masters of the "creative retouching and photomanipulation photography editing design graphic art illustration" thing down there, because they're all on the internet.

The halls were nice, like somebody had planted happy caravans next to buildings and they grew up as part of the family.


Will

things sir things

Hello!

Here's some things that I have made.

 Rabbit Carrot says, eat yo greens! not yo oranges!

I tried to make somebody who looked as if they were real and it kind of worked! a bit! kerpow! So I made this with photoshop brushes, digital painting, call it what you will. Only took one sitting which was pleasing.

I spent too long in close proximity to Cult's Hurtler wheels and it all got a bit funny after that.

On reflection this crop looks better than the reet shit rest of the design that I made. 

I thought "fucking hell it's going to be a rather arduous task to bring to life some wings that look vaguely real" and then I got started after looking at some pictures and it all went not too bad.

Those wings belong to this person. She also has a damn hench sword and a cool suit of armour and is going to take EFFFFF INGGGGG ages to bring into existence. But I have all the time in the world so it will happen.

Now lets draw a line under that

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

there

Anyway, other things.

I think it would be a good thing, and have started, to avoid sitting through adverts on telly and instead spend the time doing something else entirely, something productive or at least better. I think you can come up with a damn good advert that even upon repeated viewing retains it's ability to add amusement or whatever to the lives of the viewers, however, most are bloody shit. Lazy and shit. Lazy and shit and shit and lazy. And so (why do I remember something about it not being good to start sentences with "and"?)

and so (I do what I want!!!! hahaha)

AND SO,

I think that it is a good thing to listen to music, read something, learn something or even mute the damn thing and recline in ones seating arrangements and have a chill. I don't watch that much telly anyway but have recently got fully into the Big Bang Theory, at first merely to justify owning a "Bazinga" shirt and then because it's really rather good. It grows on you. 

Such advert break activities for me have included listening to my Ipod and trying to memorise camera things (yeah I know nothing but I'm learning).

(perhaps if I spent the advert breaks doing press ups or something I might not have the strength of a paper plate that's been somewhat neglected)

on the topic of television, I wonder when the next series of Utopia commences because tis a fine, fine program and furthermore you should all watch eeeeet.

ye.

au revoir, 

bonne nuit

asta manana

hasta luego

--------------------------------------------

me gustaria una tortuga!!!!

 (thats probably the longest line of any language I for some reason memorised. translate it, you might find it useful if ever you find yourself alone and bewildered in a spanish pet shop)

all teh vandems

Hello!

The Vandem Freeride went down! It brought all manner of excellent things. Here are a selection of them.

• Taking a first run and footbraking into everything before quickly learning I wouldn't have to do that any more.
• Having a speed trap with the board facing you to "incentivise" a vaguely aerodynamic tuck into weary legs
• Totally legitimately overtaking Oli/him giving it a large airbrake and waving me through
• Greetings from Pete as he zoomed by not 30 seconds off the push
• Being happy as hell
• Hearing music in your head whilst in your tuck/sequel office space from edits of the event you are skating at right now
• The Chris Vanstone-Richard Auden Early Morning Hungover Winch For Escorting Large Objects From Pretend Guard Towers Procedure (T.C.V.R.A.E.M.H.W.F.E.L.O.F.P.G.T.P)
• being happy as eff
• thinking that it would be nice to have an enjoyable job, habitable vehicle and be able to make it to these things everywhere
• Ready to skate sunday morning and seeing the residents of the campsite extract themselves from their alcohol fuelled stupors with varying degrees of success
• running for vans
• having traffic altercations in the uplift vehicles that were equally as entertaining as some of the questionable shenanigans being pulled on the hill
• bringing enough lunch on the second day
• Seeing and hearing how bloody happy everyone was
• hearing people talk about how epic their last run was
• having "cult wheels shred your mind" stickered on my leathers only for it to become "cult wheels shred" and hoping it wouldn't just become a shoddily cut up single gaffer taped on sticker
• people not walking around on the hill
• learning that one bend was called "The Wet Patch" but it wasn't actually wet
• making up for not being very quick by tucking everything in sight and apexinging the living hell out of anything even slightly resembling an apex
• being really fucking happy
• enjoying fast runs as much as slow ones
• putting in colemans to toesides in the shutdown zone and pretending to be Dom Kowalski
• Hopping over bits of hay like an overexuberant giraffe
• Bemoaning my tall but utterly made of nothing frame and decidedly tired tuck as I didn't get to the safety of the corners before the Borek caught up
• pushing like it was a race to escape the "freeriders" and their art of dragging shenanigans from the most mundane scenarios
• not getting overtaken by a grom
• being able to sort of "keep up" with the faster dudes
• being really, really effffff inngggggg happy

I think that's it for now. Thank you to everyone who made the thing happen and everyone who I shared the hill with. I love skating down hills and can't wait to do it all again soon.

Will

peep down, vandem to go

Bopeep was most excellent and wonderful. So many runs happened on the first day that I didn't mind (and felt myself quite lucky) that I decided to duck the torrential rain on the second day, since it meant there was no skating anyway.

The first run, I was fairly out of it. I like to take a bit of time to get into a skate, but that hill gives you little chance. Still, after 3 runs and some rather questionable slides I felt that I could go from the top to the main corner airbraking alone. I'd managed this last year but my slides into the corner had been awful. This year I felt much better and after some time was able to nail a decent slide each run.

For me, nailing the right hander after the main corner had felt quite a way off. I took some runs to "scout" it out as it were, feeling how fast I would be going and how confident I felt, and then went for it. It's very much how I like to skate, building to things in the most progressive way I can. I'm not one to just charge into things, I don't take much from "just going for it", taking too big a step and having a crash.

So by the end of the day it was a few pushes, tuck into the first corner, get out of that, sort my feet for the main corner and this meant using a different tuck for some of the straight. Start airbraking rather early, cruise through the kink and nail a slide where and how it felt right. Coming out of the last corner into a tuck felt quite good since the timing strips were there for a while, and it felt cool tucking over the line and feeling the little bump. The shutdown zone was like playing minesweeper. Nobody ate it too badly however.

I find so much happiness and confidence in skating down hills. It really makes me a better person to be and be around. The first run I properly tanked I couldn't stop laughing even as I was shutting down. It set me up so well for the day. When you're happy you feel like talking more, everything gets nicer and it's the zone I love to skate in, being so, so happy and relaxed. I need to work on getting that in wider circumstances than having a really epic skate.

My new wheels were just as I had hoped. If I don't relax enough and slide with really poor technique then they don't feel great, but for everything relaxed or with at least a trace of textbook they are really, really cool. In particular I like the transition from grip to slide. The feedback during a railed corner is superb. Balancing how hard you are cornering with the grip available becomes much easier when a wheel "speaks" to you in such a manner.

On that note, all wheels, even slide-a's, have degrees of grip that make up the characteristics of the wheel. But it feels like hurtlers have so many degrees. It goes without saying that as you spend more time skating down hills you are able to perceive more degrees of grip where before you were unable to do so, however these seem to give even one such as I much more feeling than other wheels I've skated.

The feeling of railing a corner on them is one of "if we crash, I told you all I could", in that you're unlikely to feel aggrieved at catching an edge, and If you run out of road they gave you all the opportunity possible to put in a quick drift, and not doing so would be down to you and your ability. This setup (sequel, sabre GC 45 190's, hurtlers) is fantastic in that it gives you every chance so it is very much down to you. There's nothing worse, and I've been there before, when the setup is off, and you simply cannot enjoy your skate. Such an example would be coming back for the last day of peep last year, and simply being unable to skate and get into any kind of a run.

Looking forward, I would like to get a touch more centre into the setup, as I have wanted to do for a little while. I'd like to be able to pop up and footbrake cleaner and at higher speeds, footbraking being an area of weakness for me. This obviously comes with experience as does the greater perception of degrees of grip available I explain above,  but like in the purchasing of some "friendlier" "race" wheels, getting hold of some "friendlier" baseplates could help give a step.

So next up should be the vandem freeride if we can find somebody to look after the cat. I don't have to camp in a horribly small uncomfortable tent that I don't fit in as well! The skate has been incorporated into a family break of sorts, so I'll be rocking up each day to skate. This suits me fine, I'm not a party person and I'm fine with that.

I'll just have to be damn careful rocking up early to the campsite.

Hangover ridden skateboarders are best approached with caution, trepidation and a considered escape route.

You all rock, I can't wait to get some runs in.

See you soon

Will

next up

We got our A Level results, I came out with an A* in my english lang/lit to go with the two A's for my Art Btec. I managed to 100% one of the units in english which is something cool.

And now it's on to the next thing, and that for me is a foundation degree in Graphic Design down at Northbrook, Worthing. A foundation degree is a two year course. You can leave at the end of the two years with the foundation degree, or stay a third year and make it a degree, or I believe hit up a top up course somewhere else. I don't see much point in not having the degree.

I had a bit of a wobble on it and having a think on why it's because I want to be sure I'm making some kind of step. As in, I'm hitting up a uni course run by a college. In terms of caring for opinion I try to do my own thing whilst paying attention to the thoughts of the right people. And to that end, I don't know how closely the thought is to that, but "people" (that way you express the thoughts you perceive in the vaguest possible way, I know), "people" have the idea you're not really "going" to University. And immune as I think I am to most negative thoughts that come my way (and most of the time all too caught up by the unhelpful thoughts of my own to pay any attention), the idea gets to me.

It gets to me because I want to be moving on to better things, because much of the time, particularly evenings such as this I don't feel so happy with myself, and I don't feel all that like a person of the world who does things and is part of much, even when I get something done I often struggle to recognise it and get the happiness from it. And if you are struggling to get the sense of achievement even when genuinely earned it's difficult to have a set of things you can look at and say "I do this so it's ok to not be cheerful now, because there are good things that I do and am". It's like perhaps why some people keep epic paintings on the wall, a comfort in that however they feel now, look at that! Look how good that is! That makes this ok.

It's funny in that I try to be independently minded with regards to so much but in terms of (vague term) "feeling like a real person", I can't help but look at what "everybody else" is doing and compare it to myself, and the comparison isn't favourable. The list of things that I've got usually ends up skating, riding my bike, and making art stuff. The art, drawings to photos and photoshop work is most often due to it being quite a nice escape from thought and place, not that I'm located anywhere particularly disagreeable to me, the disagreement coming from that being here reminds me that I am me, here, as now. I've been doing a lot of art lately, since I've needed a lot of escape and sense of productivity being on holiday. I'd rather have been at college instead, which says a lot for how I like the sense of being somewhere and doing something. I liked the sense of place, and I got to see people, and not being there certainly takes from that, not in itself, naturally, a good deal is down to me.

At college, I spent so many hours doing work to make myself feel better. When it came to looking at uni courses, I was predicted to come out with a B-C for art. My english was going to come out at a B unless I retook something. I spent a lot of time on my work, due to an absence of other things. Late on I spent a lot of time in the library instead of being on holiday, perhaps work and a sense of productivity in that way serves as company. Anyway, in art particularly I've sat for years and seen how good "everybody else" (yeah that vague term again) has been. I can appreciate so much what I see but my result almost doesn't quite feel real because I have this notion that I didn't really do anything but put the time in, and I put more time in than other people because I knew I wasn't out there doing the real person thing as they were, so I buried myself in work to try to give me something and forget how I was. I've spent so much time mostly as a distraction.

Anyway, whats next then? In a few weeks I'll be into my college at Northbrook. I'll hopefully be able to spend a lot of time on macs and in the place making stuff. I'll hopefully be learning things and moving on. I'd like to be taking the train to Brighton some evenings without planning it and sitting around on the beach before going home. I'd like to feel like going places and visiting people and going somewhere just to see something nice and have something to eat.  I'm going to learn everything I can about image manipulation and photography, graphic design, illustration, skateboarding, the world, people, places. A lot of my time is spent reading about things that I don't need to know but have a vague interest in and I'll keep doing that. I'd like to find more music and books, and I think it would be cool to make it out into the world a bit. A lot of the time I don't feel all that like a real person in the world and that's where perhaps a lot of the weirdness comes from. If anyone is here and is at this point I should say I appreciate anyone that sticks around and is cool.

Happy fridays.

will

the diary of I, 030813

Recently I've spent my time:

drawing things
painting things
making stuff on photoshop
balancing cutlery on my little finger
drinking tea
eating cake
skateboarding
riding my bicycle
listening to music in combination with most of the above.

I done a massive film night! (2 people came hahaha)

I got a job! And I left it. But I made £32.50 so that was nice. So that was this years objective really, I didn't think I could get a job. Most of my efforts are spent on trying to be a better person, most of my time is spent being weird. The job thing was about having something more than just making things and skating and stuff. I'm trying to fill my time with good stuff, be better, do better and that, be nice, keep trying.

I painted those, and there's half of our cat in shot. Butterflies fully rock, like flying paintings. Things that fly that aren't so good are the ones that try and eat me such as mosquitoes. I'm not going to kill anything just for doing it's thing but much time is spent catching them in my room at night and showing them the window. I seem to get eaten by everything. Mosquitoes are also bloody loud.

Have an excellent evening.

See you sometime


will

flying animal weather man

Imagine this-

animals

flying

aboard a chunk of rock,

suspended in a vast expanse of nothing much

(and everything at all)

eyes trained for a ball of fire,

ninety two millionish

miles away.

Who take the time to turn

(personally slighted)

to their weapons of hysteria.

And loudly proclaim;

"You

Mr Weather Man

with your instruments and your data

and your maps and your charts

and your wit and your cheer

and the little clicker we cannot see-

You

Sir

have deceived us"

Bopeep Photo Edits

Edits.

Latest batch of edits from photos taken at the peep. Going for making everything "more", without going too far or looking too cheap.

All pictures taken on my gangster little Fuji, JPEGS only to work with alas. All edits in my faithfully crashy Photoshop 6.0, somehow running not too bad on 64 bit windows seven-took a little work.

Spring Report- Bopeep

Spring has sprung all over the shop and conditions on the hills have been most excellent as of late. And by the hills, I almost exclusively mean THE PEEP.

Yes this most lairy of lanes situated in the heart of the beautiful english countryside has been the scene of some pleasant shredding as of late.

outside, apex, outside/outside,outside, oh fuck-SMASH

 The peep often makes everything a bit more scary. It's not the best for learning stuff on, due to the rate of acceleration from zero to warp speed being moderately steep, however it is bloody good fun with a tight crew. It's not about the number of miles per hour which you could travel if you had such time to spare and a long enough hill, but how fast it feels. This aint no hog hill, and nobody is throwing that slide into the corner for you.

The peep must be spotted, or you will eat shit. It is your right to do that if you want to, but please ensure it is at an isolated location minus some poor car driver to scare the shite out of or spot to screw over. It is best spotted with walkie talkies, and or the right calls and signals, plus a good dose of not being a bell. Persons found to be committing acts of gross bellendry shall be fed to the sheep, consider yourselves warned. (We have sheep now and they are amazing!!! Theres also cows down the road and they lick you.)

All however has been well as of late, because those new to skating the place have quickly got up to speed with the importance of having a solid system of spotting. Some of the most important details about the system of great genius are:

EFFING LOOK AT THE EFFING SHITEBAGGING SPOTTERS!!!!! Hearing spotters whilst at speed can be tres dificile, so bledy give em a look and pay attention! You don't have to constantly be looking into their eyes, especially if they are Toby, but a glance every now and then, particularly when you are coming up to an area that they can see and you cannot, will save you.

Car up means finish your run, NOW, and get out of the road.

If you are spotting, make sure to keep your attention on the road and the riders. Being the spotter nearest the bottom should make you feel pretty damn serious.

Try and remember to smile and wave at everybody and everything. An example based on fact- "OH look at those ruffians that be lurking their lurk all over the place- ohhh they just waved! How cute waving with their full protective gear and cute little glovvies awwwhhh"

Radios don't replace car calls, they merely add to them. Send a shout and a signal through the spotters on the hill, and then also give word through the radio to those at the top of the run.

Pretend horses are hooved dragons. AVOID and dont scare them, they will eat you, and then we will hurt you also.

Spot walkers, dogs, horses, bikes, motorbikes, everything. All of these things can be bad, and if somebody is unaware they will take their usual run and things could get dicey. Avoid diceyness please.

THANK YOU :)

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In other news, the standard of riding amongst the other riders has gone through the roof, sky, into space and through the moon with the clangers sitting there observing it. A combination of some good mini scenes about the place, some not bad hills if you can find them, and these slightly more epic group sessions has created the perfect environment for the riders to kill it all over the place, and they are doing so.

Watching those schooled in the art of stand up sliding shredding it is an awesome thing. The standard of riding is always increasing. Watching the epic stand up stuff made me want to have a go, and some light shenanigans went down on classics and a globe slide. But nowhere near touching what I see at every session. And the good attitude and hill awareness is there with the mind melting skateboarding. Excellent stuff all round. Inspires me to learn new things.

Heres some of the few shots I managed to get that came out ok. The skating makes them. Regular faces.

Dylan Styles styling it consistently like a tank

Charlie Gray (Not gay) giving it some to the power of power.

Will Mack goes faster than you.

Many good things have happened here this year.

Looking forward to seeing what happens next. If the rate of progress keeps up, what are this lot going to be hitting into the corner? Everything, probably.

See you on the hill,

Will