From Sidewalk 198 – March 2013

Photography by Andy Horsley
Text by Ryan Gray & Adam Stoddart

So then Jimmy, can you give us your basic statistics please?
– My name is Jimmy Hart, I’m 24 years old and I’m from Stockton-on-Tees. Big up the Northeast!

The Northeast has always had a strong scene – was skating something you came across at a young age?
– I always had a skateboard as a kid, like a fishtail board, but it all kicked off for me when some lad in the street next to ours had a board with two kicks and was doing ollies up curbs. I was amazed by this ollie and had to get a board with two kicks ASAP. A cheap Argos setup was purchased and I was set to go. Kids from my school started going to an indoor park in Thornaby so I got on that. Everybody quit after a month or two to play football or some other shit, but I kept going to the park and skating round my area, and that was it…hooked to this day!

During filming for ‘Sons of the North’, you became one of the regular faces of the Mischief crew – how did you first get involved with Bingo and his regular-as-clockwork Sunday footage missions?
– I had shopped at Mischief for years so I knew Bingo through buying product all the time, but we got to know each other properly when Prissick Plaza opened in Middlesbrough. Bing and his crew would come up on a weeknight, have a shred and film. Bing asked if I wanted to film a quick line and I was like “yeah man”.

I guess he liked the way I skated. We also got on well so he asked if a few of us were up for a street sesh on a Sunday in ‘Boro. Of course I said yes, and after that day we were pretty tight with each other and skated together all the time.

What are some of your best memories from those filming expeditions?
– Ahh, I have so many good memories from those filming missions but the one that stands out is when we were skating Bradford Law Courts. We were trying to skate the three set out front with a gap to manny pad thing going on, and Bing decided he would sit on a nearby wall while we warmed up. As he jumped to get his leg onto the wall, we all heard a massive tear. That was it; tears of laughter – Bing had ripped his cords from his crotch to his ankle.

We had to find a Primark or something for some cheap jeans, and the only ones that fitted were black ones so for the rest of the day he got ripped for not only splitting his jeans, but for being in all black, getting called a “big mosher” by Ollie continuously well into the night (laughs).

Whilst we’re on the subject, what’s your favourite Ollie Barnes quote or story?
– “Did that in ‘93”, and when he lands something dope, which is a lot of the time, he often says, “I used to be good”, which is also funny because he keeps us all on our toes when it comes to skateboarding! Ollie is ‘save the planet’ and all that shit, so when coming out of the supermarket for our dinner on a Sunday he has to balance all his loot on his head because he refuses to use plastic bags, which means a few berries or a peach get dropped along the way. That’s always funny to watch!

Jimmy gets level on the glorious sea front of Seaton Carew. Noseslide for the big and little horse. Photo: Horse

Living in Stockton, who’s the usual crew you’ll find yourself skating with these days?
– My usual crew these days is Connor, Stretch, Andy, Deano, Ad, and Matty and Tom, aka ‘The Twins’. It’s a Stockton/Boro collab. Sorry Ad, Hartlepool as well…

Outside of skating, what do you do with your days?
– Well I work part time in a cake factory at the moment, which has bullshit hours so that keeps me busy, and the rest of the time is spent with my girlfriend Laura going on missions and skating ‘cos she skates as well. Bonus!

How did your short part on ‘Perfect Blues’ come about?
– James Harris got in touch with my mate Matty – that’s ‘Twin 1’ – who films all of our little missions, and said he liked the vibe and skating on the SLDN edits we make and thought it would be cool to send some stuff over for his video. Stoked! Nice one James!

Will there ever be a day you go out skating without an item of Ralph Lauren clothing on?
– Ahh I knew this was coming, and no! That little horse gives me power.

What do you find more important – getting a good night’s sleep before a days skating, or staying up all night because its double XP weekend on COD?
– Now that’s tough because it’s not always a double XP weekend (laughs). But on a serious note, I do need sleep for skating so I have devised a plan – what I do is play COD half the night and sleep the other half. Genius, I know…

Why do you think you’re not interested in being sponsored? Is Ollie Barnes rubbing off on you?
– Any body who is friends with Ollie will know his personality rubs off! It’s not that I’m not interested, I guess I’m too focused on what I’m doing when I’m skating to think about that stuff. But whilst I’m here, any shoe or board hookups out there who are interested, holla at a brother (laughs)!

Anyone you’d like to thank?
– Yeah, big thanks to Ad, Rye, Horsley and Sidewalk for making this shit happen! Big thanks to Bingo at Mischief Skatestore – RIP brother, never forgotten. Jackie at Native, Danny and Ronny at Legacy for all the times you guys helped me out, huge respect yo! Shout out to my girl Laura. Shout out to the SLDN crew and anybody else I skate with. Biggest thanks to my mother for giving birth to me, that shit must have hurt – and anybody else I’ve forgotten. Peace.