Leo Turner – Issue 51 Interview

With Zane Crowther dropping his video 2 Arms Can Truly Hold and Leo Turner absolutely crushing it in said visual feast we felt it appropriate to publish Leo’s interview as printed in Issue 51 conducted by Joe Gavin with photography by Reece Leung. Have a ganders below.

Photography by Reece Leung

Portrait by Louis Butler

Introduction & Interview by Joe Gavin

Leo is a beast; a quiet, chill, low key beast that lets his skating do the talking and whose talent and power has been a pleasure to watch unfold over the past few years. A new level of control on the board, mixed with the ability to stay calm while dropping from one round rail to another or grinding 15 feet around corners, is something I’m not fully used to seeing. This mixed with the whole low key, chill dude thing is kinda the perfect combination. So with this being said, I’m pretty sure this is one of many interviews you’re gonna be reading from this young Mancunian. He’s just getting started and we’re proud to see it happen!

I heard you used to do Irish dancing. Do you think that helped with skating? Why did you stop?

Haha yeah I did Irish dance for a few years, this was when I was much younger though. I was probably getting into skating around the same time I was over the Irish dancing, so I was about 8 or 9 years old. I just got super bored of it at some point, and realised I could just go skate instead. It will have definitely helped with skating for the whole balance side of things. I remember that clicking quite quick when I started skating. Then, when I was starting to learn to ollie, it maybe helped with the pop.

Yeah, maybe helped out skating Flatley too… sorry. So when did you first start going to the Cage, and who got you keen to skate?

So I actually went to the Cage when I was a lot younger with my older brother, on scooters, but at the time it was skateboards only. I think it might’ve been Lewis Threadgold that offered me and my brother his skateboard to have a mess around on in the park, and from there I got pretty hooked on it. Eventually the Cage started letting scooters and that in, so I started scootering again along with a bit of skating every now and then.

That’s sick, has Lewis reminded you of that recently?

Yeah he always reminds me of the scooter days. He’ll never let it go, but he was the one that got me back on the board so I’ll let him off.

You seem like one of those people that was sick at anything you tried, did you nearly go down another path? If so, what and when was the moment you sacked it off to skate?

My family are very sporty people so I grew up doing lots of sports. I feel like I’ve tried every sport over the years, football, rugby, gymnastics and many more, but skating was always the go to. Throughout high school I was playing rugby a lot while skating, but skating just took over. I had a couple of injuries playing rugby and decided to sack it off because I’d get so annoyed if I hurt myself playing rugby and wasn’t able to skate.

Can you do a backflip on flat? I always wanted that one, I feel like it unlocks some sort of next level.

Yeah I can, I haven’t done one for a while now though. Maybe I’ll have to get on it again, it’s definitely a different kind of buzz being upside down.

What was your earliest memory of skating in town?

Probably being out with all the Black Sheep lot, shout out to them. They looked after me a lot in the earlier years, took me out on my first street missions and forced me to jump down sets I definitely wasn’t capable of.

It must have been pretty intense getting out with Eddie, Harry, Jiri, Rob and that.

Yeah growing up skating street with those guys was pretty mental, I got to watch a lot of cool stuff go down as a kid. I’ve also seen a fair few big arguments/fights with security.

Manchester has a pretty dense skate history, with loads of scene videos and tricks that have been done in the city. Did you ever feel pressure to kind of leave the Cage and get cracking filming in the streets? If so, what was the spark that kinda made that happen? Vic’s video maybe?

Yeah, there was a time I definitely did my research on the Manchester skatescene to find out more about it. The first proper video I was a part of was the Black Sheep video when I was around 11 or 12. I managed to film a few clips for that and one of them made the final cut on the Thrasher edit, which was a big deal for me. Vic’s vid was definitely the first time I properly filmed towards a part.

It’s such a good vid, Vic definitely knew what he was doing with that one.

He definitely had specific ideas with what he wanted to do, and it turned out really sick.

Did you ever pay much attention to what’s been done and watch old edits, stuff like that?

Growing up at the Cage, all I could hear was people talking about what tricks people had done over the weekend and skate vids that were coming out. I still didn’t really have any idea what they were talking about, but was definitely interested and knew that’s what I wanted to do eventually.

It was amazing when we put you on Note officially, getting kings chaired by Jackass skater Jed and the full squad at Build a couple of years ago. Can you remember what you were thinking as you were being carried about?

That was funny, I had no idea that was going to happen and it caught me off guard. I can’t really remember what I was thinking to be honest, there were a few of my mates that got involved in throwing me about and trying to mess with me by pulling my pants down or giving me a wedgy, so I was probably thinking about that.

It would have been a chill time to get de-kegged. Fast forward a bit and now you’re on Nike, how did that come about?

That was pretty unexpected. I always wanted to get Nikes, I skated them a lot as a kid, but I never thought it would happen. It first came about at the same time as the whole Note Dunk that was coming out and I think Splodge was keen to try to sort it out for me as I was skating for the shop at that time.

That was the first time I’d been out with you filming and skating properly. It was pretty hard getting out in January. Did you think I was mental? I definitely pecked your head a bit.

Yeah that was a fun time, and definitely challenging with the Manchester weather and me having messed my ankle up pretty bad in November. We didn’t have much time or dry weather to film. Luckily we got a little dry spell towards the end of the deadline and managed to get it done just in time. You definitely had high hopes on the weather at times, even when it was pissing down.

Yeah, sorry about that. I feel like you had a pretty clear idea of what tricks you wanted in the edit. Find/fix the spots and get the job done, is that how you prefer to do it? I’m more of a ‘skate in this random direction for hours and make it happen somehow’.

I’ll usually have stuff planned in terms of what I want to do or trick ideas, but it’s quite hard to think of the spots in town these days, we’re lacking spots. It’s nice to fix up a spot then skate it, it makes it more satisfying when you get a clip on it.

You’ve been filming for Zane’s vid, how’s that going? Who’s the crew?

It’s been going good, it’s been very chilled. The video is called ‘2armscantrulyhold’ and it’s got me, Mani, Jish, Hassan and a few other people have got clips too.

Sounds sick. Who’s your favourite coming up in Manchester?

I’d say Jonah Staunton is definitely one to look for, the boy is getting good very quickly.

Yeah he’s on it for sure. You’re a super talented singer and guitarist too, how long have you been doing that? What are some of your musical influences? When’s the album dropping?

Growing up I was kind of always around music. My uncle is an Elvis tribute act haha, so I was always at his gigs as a kid, and my dad has always played guitar so I guess I picked up the guitar because of him. He taught me some basic chords, then I got pretty obsessed with music and started learning the piano too. You might be waiting a while for the album…

So with all this going on you also manage to get out hiking and climbing a bit too? What’s the next thing you want to get sick at? I feel like you would make a good paraglider, close proximity wingsuit flyer, black belt in jujitsu or literally anything pal. What’s on the list?

My friends from school are really into hiking and camping so I go with them a lot. It’s nice really to have something I can do with them, because they don’t skate. I’ve got family friends that do jujitsu and have talked about giving it a go one day. I would also like to be good at surfing, but it’s super hard. I’ve tried it a few times, it’s a struggle.

You ate only cheese sandwiches for years. When did the palate expand?

I definitely ate a fair few cheese sandwiches in the early days – what else was meant to fuel a day at the skatepark? To be fair it’s only been in the last four years, maybe through lockdown, when I started to eat a lot better. I realised I needed to eat better with everything that I was doing to recover and all of that stuff. Now I’ll eat anything. Not tomatoes or olives though, you couldn’t pay me to eat them.

Where do you think you’d be if you didn’t skate?

If I didn’t skate I reckon I’d be still playing rugby or football. I’m still interested and follow both sports. Also mountain biking, I loved getting out on the bike in high school and still do now.

What gets you hyped to skate?

I like it when there’s a new video out in the morning. I’ll usually watch that, then go into town straight away after it with some ideas for something to try to film.

How do you stay motivated to skate and have you ever burned out?

Since I started skating I’ve been obsessed with it and would just want to skate at any chance I got, and I don’t think I’m much different now at 21. I don’t think I’ve everburned out. There’s the odd day I’ve been out skating and been over it, but then the next day I’ll wake up keen to skate again.

How’s things with Drama Call? How did you get involved with Charlie and those guys, and is there anything in the works skate-wise?

Things are going really good, they’re smashing it right now. There are a couple of trips planned this year and it will be nice to go film some more stuff abroad. Charlie hit me up on Instagram four or five years ago now. I grew up skating around his brother, Jay Johnson, who’s pretty well known in the Manchester scene and a real sick photographer, so maybe he mentioned it to Charlie at some point, I’m not really sure.

Any shout outs?

Damn there’s too many to mention, but Mum and Dad have got to be the top ones for sure – thanks for putting up with my stinking attitude and my picky eating all these years. Also all my friends and sponsors, I couldn’t do it without them. Big luv xx