Bloody Merry made me declare bankruptcy – Issue 41 Article

Earlier today we uploaded a new video featuring the global adidas Skateboarding team in Manchester as part of their ‘BUILD’ project throughout Europe. We’ve decided to upload the accompanying article from Issue 41 for you to enjoy below. Featuring photos of Dan Fisher-Eustance, Jarrad Carlin, Christian Henry, Sam Narvaez, Vitória Mendonça, Nikolai Piombio and Gabriel Summers.

If you want to get a physical copy of the article you can here!

Words & Photography by: Reece Leung

The global adidas Skateboarding team made an appearance in the UK for a week as part of their ‘BUILD’ project, the culmination of which saw Manchester being blessed with a skate plaza. A rare alignment of the planets saw the sun beaming down on Cottonopolis all week, so of course everyone was in good spirits. Skate shop owners, employees and team riders from Manchester and beyond gathered for the opening of the event, which as expected went off, followed by an eventful afterparty in the city. 

Regardless of sore heads the morning after, everyone made their way to NOTE Shop to go skate. An underestimation of the actual distance of Denton Plaza from Manchester city centre may have played a part in people’s desperation to skate there, but eventually our convoy of vehicles made it there. As we arrived Nikolai, in his usual attire of big headphones, footy shirt, Busenitz and three quarter shorts, was trying a trick. A group of passing kids shouted, “Where you lot from?” with Nikolai’s reply of “LA” met with, “Why the fuck would you come from LA to Denton!?” as they walked away laughing. Everyone got bits at this unique plaza spot, surrounded by mini boozers and full of friendly Denton folk, despite the hangovers. 

I suggested we check this other ‘spot’ around the corner. A church with a peculiarly banked roof, I assumed everyone would laugh at my suggestion and sack it off but Jarrad was intrigued. He climbed onto the roof, tested the waters and was down to skate it, so I ran back to the plaza spot to get my bag while Jarrad hid on the roof. One stealthy, floated backside flip later, he jumped straight down and we got out of there, relieved we got away with skating it. We decided to finish the day at Noodle Alley, a Chinese restaurant which was closing its doors but grudgingly decided to accept our business. A request for extra chilli, though, was the metaphorical straw which broke more than a few customer service vertebrae and was unambiguously denied.

The next day dawned and the heat wasn’t letting up, Manchester rendered surreal, unclothed without its usual thick veil of rain. We hit a few spots around the Northern Quarter before Gabbers started eyeing up a handrail spot which hasn’t been touched since Ben Grove. There are two sides to the spot, Grove front boarded (with a hint of layback) the smaller side and Gabbers wanted to noseslide the bigger side, which I believe is untouched but where the run up is pretty minimal. He sourced some wood and placed it on the smaller stairs so he could ollie up the impromptu Wembley Gap then hit the noseslide down the 17-stair rail at full pelt. It was the first time I had met Gabbers and they say don’t meet your heroes but he fully backed it up, he’s an all round top fella. Unfortunately, after trying the noseslide whilst blagging security for a while, it was no dice. Tackling a 17-stair will take it out of you but Gabbers was keen to redeem himself after being robbed on this one. 

On our third day, still juggling the ‘BUILD’ events, I met everyone to hit some classic spots along Oxford Road. Everyone got productive, with Dan hitting the BBC Banks and then Vitória banging out a floaty frontside heelflip over the infamous grey bar (as seen on the cover), followed by a shapes front 3 by Dan. We ventured over to Lincoln Square to end the day and chill but Christian and Nikolai still wanted some, coming through with the last clips to square off a solid day followed by a much needed, Vitória-approved all-you-can-eat Brazilian restaurant. 

On day four Gabbers was back. His usual early morning routine consisted of hitting a bloody mary with his breakfast, warming up at Gooseside DIY with an unfortunately injured Tom Snape and then meeting us at NOTE when everyone else surfaced. Today there was a scent in the air, a feeling that Gabbers was going to do some fucked up shit. We went back to the 17-stair noseslide but security was having none of it. Fuck it, where next? MEN Rail? Yep, let’s go. Gabbers, Michael Boardman, Harry Lintell, Christian Henry and myself all headed to the rail, keeping it low key so we could get as much time as possible – you don’t get long at this spot, with security being hot. Gabbers claimed a pop shove-it fifty and he didn’t disappoint, he must have banged it out third or fourth try and then he was on it again instantly to try a kickflip fifty, which he claimed he’d never done down a handrail (not against a wall). Same again, he was rolling away from it within five goes. Not bad for learning a trick on the spot, eh? Everyone else got their tricks and we packed away just as security rolled up. Gabbers was hungry for more, so we headed to the rooftop hubba just off Oxford Road. He didn’t hold things up, sending a pop shove-it nosegrind down it in no time. He’d definitely earned multiple bloody marys (or “bloody merrys” as he’d spell it) after this onslaught. 

Our last day was focused on the last round of the ‘BUILD’ project, but we snuck in a little session at Stockport ledges first. The spot was awash with full on British summer vibes, with plenty of hostile locals in attendance staring us out, chucking bottles and placing their bikes in just the right place to block peoples’ lines. Nikolai squeezed himself through all this interference and behind a lamppost with a fakie 5-0 grind. 

As he put the finishing touches to the line, Benny Fairfax had been ringing Dan wondering where we were. The demo was getting dangerously close to starting, so the closure of both motorway and train tracks was not the most welcome news. 

After wandering around Stockport trying to figure out travel arrangements for a while we finally found a taxi driver who thought he knew a way around the disruption. Five minutes after we got in, we heard “Okay, that’s it – get out!” Not realising that our guy had been on the phone trying to work out our route, Nikolai had been playing his usual playlist in the back seat and the team’s laughter at the situation was not well received. Luckily we convinced him it was an accident, that we didn’t know and that our laughs weren’t at him. With both the taxi window and A/C broken, a traffic jam in 30 degree heat offered us a mobile sauna to soothe our aching muscles before the final session of the trip. At the final buzzer we peeled ourselves off of our taxi seats and slid out of our transport into the session.

 The ‘BUILD’ event consisted of adidas riders skating alongside NOTE shop heads and many other SOS shops from around the UK, followed by pizza for everyone. The week was topped off by NOTE celebrating their 25th birthday. Massive big ups to Splodge, Joe Gavin and the crew for holding it down for so many years, big thanks to adidas for having us, and keep an eye out for the video dropping soon (watch it in full below)!

adidas Skateboarding – ‘BUILD’ – Manchester

Vitória Mendonça – Frontside 180 Heelflip for Vague Issue 41’s Cover get a copy here or click the spread below!