You lived there, right?
Yeah, I lived here.
Just down the street there, just near Stockwell Tube Station, there's a little street that
comes off, called Lambsdown Way.
I lived there when I first moved to London and I used to work at SLAM.
I'd work like Monday to Friday, one week and then Monday, Saturday, next week and then
take a Wednesday off.
So on my Wednesdays, I'd come down here real early at 9 o'clock and skate for a couple
of hours on my own and just go round and round.
And what was good is you could almost, because there was nobody here, you could kind of skate
with, almost like with blinkers on, like almost like having headphones on but without having
headphones on.
And you could just skate and you could almost just get your eyes closed and know you weren't
going to bump into anyone or get in anyone's way and it would just, it sounds really kind
of like a bit hippie-ish I guess, but you could just like really feel it and it would
just, I don't know, it just always felt amazing.
Like every day when we were at SLAM, he'd go to skate at Southbank on his lunch break
and he worked out the exact time that it would take, leaving the door at SLAM, going, skating
down road, going across the bridge and going to Southbank, how long he could skate for,
I think he worked it out, he could skate for 35 minutes or something like that.
And it would take seven minutes to get down there and ten minutes to get back or whatever
it took, you know.
I would just get to about 11.30, I'd be like, guys, none of you guys are bothered, I'm
going to take the first lunch break and I'd just grab my board and occasionally put on
some headphones even though I used to wear headphones occasionally and just whiz across
the river.
It's like literally down the hill, down through some of the back lanes here and then down past
the Lion King, down whatever that is, Bow Street or whatever that is and then across
Waterloo Bridge to Southbank and it takes like six or seven minutes, you can really
hammer it.
He was saying about the shop and the seven minutes and the lunchtime skates at Southbank
and how he'd try and get everybody else to come and they'd want to be like nah, you know
what, nah.
Yeah, no, you're right, I was just going to see in Frank's another cheese sandwich.
Did you draw the map to the Southbank for the insoles of the Nike shoe?
Yes, I drew all those maps.
And it said hell?
Hell.
Hell was across the street there.
There was that kind of extreme mould?
Yeah, across the street from Slam.
There's a place called, it's called Thomas Neal Centre and basically it always had like
the worst kind of extreme gardeners where it had like a billabong store in there and
like all kinds of things.
Now it's got like a super dry store, like so it's obviously the most mainstream, kind
of blandest, like semi-middle class apparel that like everything's just cool.
I don't know if it used to be worse or better, it used to be more variations of worse back
in the day.
It used to call that hell and on that map it just says hell.
Have you seen that on that insole of that Nike dump?
I did that.
I think there was a map to Stockwell maybe on the other one.
So what was heroin like before Pullman started?
Oh man, it was amazing.
I had no idea what I was doing.
It was like this tiny thing and just me with like so much passion and just wanting to do
like something and I was like, well that guy's good, we'll get him on like Rough Mike, you
know, some kid who skates Stockwell and then Snowy didn't have a board sponsor and sort
of I talked to him about this thing I was going to do.
So we had like Snowy and Rough Mike and then I suppose me because like I had this video
camera that someone gave me and I was filming other people and then at the same time I'd
like get a clip with it.
So out of nowhere I kind of had this like weird video part.
So I guess that was like the first three people were like me, Snowy and Rough Mike.
And then we put the video out, good shit.
And then it was after that that like Pullman called me up and was like, listen, I kind
of like what you're doing with that company.
Like, is there any chance that I could ride for it?
Well, Pullman was on Foundation and he loved Foundation.
Loved it.
Pullman was just kind of like, he was just getting a bit bummed on just being like a
destructive deal or whatever.
In classic Pullman fashion he just fully focused in on like, I have a hero in it, it's amazing
and you know, and everything.
I think he missed Foundation but I think he was stoked to kind of like help Fawze, you
know, ride for Fawze's company and stuff like that.
So Fawze was like, you know, do you want to, I need a pro for this company, you know, it's
got to a point where it's a legitimate skateboard company, we need professionals, Chopper's
going to be pro.
You know, he said, do you want to kind of put yourself on the line here, like put yourself
out there as a professional skateboarder.
And I thought, well, I don't know if I weigh up against everybody else as a professional
skateboarder, but I'm down to put myself on the line and try and behave like a professional
skateboarder and fill parts and, you know, hopefully inspire someone out there to buy
a heroin board, which is, you know, the whole point being a pro skateboarder, I guess, you
know, to put your name on a board and someone will buy it because your name's on it.
And it, you know, I was quite self-deprecating about it.
I really didn't think anybody was going to buy a board with my name on it, but they sold
really well.
So that was really cool and a little bit, almost a little bit embarrassing, I was like, I don't
deserve this at all.
Like, you know, I really didn't think I deserved it, but.
And that was a big deal.
Like, turning Portland Pro was like a huge deal, we were both like, what are we doing?
Like, what is going on?
Like, is this going to work?
Like, you know, and sort of like, opening ourselves up for like loads of criticism, but
in the end of the day, like, who really cares, you know?
Remember going out the first day I got a heroin board, sprayed heroin, I was all proud of it,
sprayed heroin on the grip tape, went out with Wig Whirland to gas banks and shot this
pretty rad photo.
I don't really like this photo.
It's like an ollie over the little tight hip of gas banks.
Wig shot it through the railings.
Like, you've got like a heroin long sleeve on the head, like the slashed wrist screen
printed on it.
It was like, horrific.
So good.
And then I went out and shot that photo.
I was like, wow.
All of a sudden, I feel like part of something really legit, whereas I felt like I was part
of something good at Foundation, but all of a sudden I was like right at the forefront
of like a new company.
I still think people need to work for stuff.
And I felt what Paulman had, I felt like that he put video parts out and done interviews
and people knew who he was, but it was at a funny time.
It was at a time that everybody had to like, sort of, I don't know, had to prove themselves.
I mean, they do nowadays even, but it was just like, oh well, that guy's kicked foot down
that.
You can't do that.
That guy's done that.
You can't do that.
And that was really just first beginning to happen.
Thinking back, I suppose, to that time, Blueprint was, you know, it was everything in British
skating.
It was, you know, what Dan was doing with the videos and the graphics and stuff, obviously
what the team was doing skating wise.
Blueprint was, you know, it was bringing and showcasing high performance British skateboarding
at a time when it never really, it never had that.
So, you know, it was amazing at that point.
And Heroin was a kind of, it was almost like, you know, almost like Dan did this and that.
You know, not to dumb, it wasn't dumbing down skateboard because there was plenty of really
amazing stuff out there too.
And it wasn't dumbing it down or dumbing down the skill level.
It was just making him accessible for the kids who weren't going to be the best skateboarders
ever, you know, but who had a passion.
So the passion was stronger than the ability, you know.
Which suited me fine because that's got a lot more passion than ability.
It's that thing of, yeah, it's, you know, he's not like a high performer.
He wasn't like a high performance pro.
And I think there's always, it's around to have like, you know, like skaters or pro skaters
who their skating is like accessible to people, do you know what I mean?
And their skating is being showcased because they've got like, you know, like a round style
or their trick selection is super, you know, sort of different or whatever, you know.
I think Chris has got that, yeah.
In a time when skateboarding was quite elitist and there was a lot of emphasis on being really,
really good or filming things the best, which is great.
If you're a kid who isn't super good at skateboarding or you're just getting into filming,
then you need something a bit more inclusive, you know, a little bit more inviting.
And heroin is good.
Like a kid can watch a heroin video and be like, watch these guys dicking about,
like just, you know, kicking their board about and just doing silly stuff.
And you could go out that day and like, and try that trick and maybe learn a trick that day.
Like you saw some old farting in a video, you know.
Whereas if you watch it pretty sweet, like, I don't think there's a single trick in that video I can do now.
And I don't have a week to learn anything, you know.
So maybe that's just a more of a reflection of me, but...
This is my board came out, like, I don't know how the hell this ever happened.
And I went with Wig.
I just wanted to shoot this.
You can see this is a Chalky Ledges.
And I just said, let's go shoot this.
We were at me and Fawze were adamant that we shot the photo for the ad.
The photo for the ad would be riding the board at an advertised,
because you see so many adverts for like a board or a shoe where the guy isn't even wearing the shoe.
It's changed these days, but back in the day, it wouldn't even be like that.
So I was like, we said this board, this is like this first heroin graphic,
where the dude's like, stammering himself, hating on himself, a bit like me, I guess.
Went and shot this straight, no comply of this ledge.
That's quite cool when I shot that with Wig, I believe.
Yeah, it was Wig. Of course it was.
Do you think this place was like the spiritual home of heroin?
Yeah, sure.
Fawze pretty much lived here as far as skateboarding goes.
The first video like good shit is like lots and lots of guys dicking about here with like Simon True and Blind Olly
and Fawze and then footage of like Bama, Jarrah doing crazy stuff and Ruben
and all of the people that Fawze knew, like a lot of good dudes.
I think it was. I think Fawze must have spent so much time here before I was involved in heroin.
It just, yes, intrinsically part of heroin at the start.
And it always, every heroin video that's been out has referenced this place and rightly so, I guess.
Thanks for watching.
