Exeter’s ginger Enjoi Skateboards connection, Etnies Europe rider and RVCA representative Barney Page added another cover to his constantly expanding portfolio of coverage, frontside hurricaning a European rail for your eyes on the front of June’s issue.
CJ got hold of the ever-traveling Mr Page and discussed his latest cover, amongst other things…
Back in June, the readers of Sidewalk were treated to our first handrail cover shot of the year. Did you know this photo was going to be used for the cover and where were you when you found out?
Wow, was it the first handrail cover of 2011? Hyped! Haha. I can’t really remember when I found out. Actually I don’t think I even heard it was gonna be a cover until it came out. I really can’t remember where I was at the time though.
This rail’s in Europe right? Where exactly is it and how come you were there?
Yeah that’s right, this rail is in Belgium. This was a trip for Axel Cruysberghs and Juergen Horrwarth’s “Tale of Two Cites’” clip. I was just tagging along for shits and gigs and to skate some good spots. It was really good to see what their hometowns were like.
I joined the trip halfway through, they were in Berlin first and then I met up with them in Belgium for a week. We were at this Skatepark down beside the river/canal and we just saw a load of people crowded round the bank on the other side of the river, we’re thinking “what’s going on?”. So it turns out that some real young kid, about 5, was riding alongside the river and had taken a tumble in and unfortunately died. It was really upsetting to see. It gave me a weird feeling inside! That day I actually had a pretty good skate though cause I was thinking that could have been myself, you know? Gnarly…
Not exactly a ‘go to’ trick for the masses, was this the first street rail you’d shot a Hurricane on?
This was actually the first street rail I had ever tried it on. I had been doing them in skateparks for a while, kind of waiting for the right rail to come along. So I guess this was the one, haha. This rail was real good! It’s funny, right when we got there, I was like “yeah I wanna get this hurricane”. I got it in a few tries but I had to do it a few more times for the photo and footage which was a bit of a pain. After the session had finished, fortunately with no fall, I’m rolling fakie to do a 360 flip on the floor and hit a stone. I ate so much shit, literally flew about five feet in the air right onto my elbow. Haha. After all that, you know?
Your journey from Exeter local to European sponsored skater with covers and video parts has taken place in a relatively short space of time. Does something like a cover seem kind of ‘the norm’ now, or are you still looking at things through the same aspirational eyes as when you were coming up?
I don’t know really. That’s kind of a hard one! I think it all still feels the same you know? You’re always going to be hyped when a new photo comes out or a bit of footage, especially a cover. I don’t know, maybe it feels a little different ’cause you kind of feel a bit more relaxed about the situation where as when your first photo comes out there’s nothing like it. Just fully stoked on it!
How was this year’s Big Push for you? You guys looked like you had a laugh and hit some decent spots up.
This year’s Big Push was dope! They changed the dates from the previous ones so the weather was real nice and hot the whole week, which made it better straight away. We skated some really good spots and had an amazing crew of skaters.
The first day of the Big Push we were at the Swedish kicker in Manchester. I was skating down to it switch, this was the first roll up I had, so I’m burning it down the road and all of a sudden something happened, like my trucks went weird or something, and I just swerved into the wall then flew forwards into a doorway, shoulder first into the corner of the wall! It felt like I’d broken my shoulder, I had the biggest bump on there and over the next couple of days it just went yellow. I’m glad I could actually skate after that one. It fucking hurt so much!
2011 has been super busy for you. Plenty of travel away from Exeter with Etnies, RVCA and Enjoi not to mention all the Sidewalk missions for “In Progress” around mainland Britain. What have been some of your favorite moments and are things likely to be as busy going into 2012?
Yeah it’s been such a busy year. It’s been amazing! I’ve seen so many places this year and met so many new friends it’s crazy! I think that’s the best thing about this whole thing. So many amazing moments with the new people and just getting to travel, relax and skate new stuff. Hopefully next year will be as good as this one.
Barney Page and Charles Collet’s “Tale Of Two Cities” for Etnies:
