Ti’s first skate video project
For the second blog post, I’m introducing some of my skate history in motion picture format. Skateboard Hit, or SHit, as it was referred to by the crew at the time, is my first video production, from early 1993.
Skateboard Hit was filmed on my boss's video camera each weekend over about a month, and then edited with two VHS VCR's in my bedroom, which was challenging and frustrating to say the least! None of the crew had any idea of what we were doing, but we had fun doing it. Nothing was planned, and there was no intention for any particular tricks, we just went skating at our usual spots, pulled out the camera and shared it around while the others skated.
This is the cover for Ti Coleing’s VHS Skateboard Hit video from 1993, featuring a (badly) hand drawn Slayer logo rip!
This was a time long before the proliferation of mobile phones, for most regular people at least, and much longer before they contained camera’s that now have the ability to create publishable images & videos.
Unfortunately due to aged VHS tapes not fairing well with time and the necessary conversion to digital, combined with an extra dropping of quality with the upload to the web, the screen resolution is pretty poor, but if you can bare with it you’ll get a snapshot in time of some of the Eastern Suburbs Sydney crew, including the legendary Chris Holland (one of Australia's first McTwist'ers), Alex Smith, Scott Gibson, Regan Iremonger, Woody, Ti Coleing, plus Jake Brown, Michael Mulhall, Jamie Fletcher, and pro Melbournite Jason Ellis. Also with cameo's from Reze Bertram, Damien "Scooter" Spencer, Dave Slade, Adam Basser & Mike Luzar (how’s that double heel flip attempt!). Depending on your musical bent, the soundtrack isn’t too bad either, featuring Nirvana, Metallica, Slayer, Iron Maiden, The Ramones, Descendents, Ice Cube, Beastie Boys (RIP MCA aka Adam Yauch), which were some of the bands we were listening to and hyped on at the time.
Pre-empting the more widely available & known Juice Clothing video’s, I only dubbed about ten copies of this video, and considering I also had no idea about sales at this time, I just skated around the city with most of those copies and offered them to unsuspecting skaters that I saw for $10 each, and sold them off. Hence, this footage hasn’t been seen by many peeps at all.
A few years later I shot the “Juice Clothing Promo Video” in 1996, and then the majority of the second Juice video “V2” in 1998. I’ll upload these, among other things, in the not too distant future, and do some complementary blog posts for those also 🤓
A few of the crew in SHit also made appearances in the ensuing Juice video’s, including Jake Brown, Michael Mulhall, Chris Holland, Dave Slade, Jamie Fletcher, and myself. Jake & Michael went on to be prominent figures in the local & international skate scene.
Many of you may know of Jake for not only his phenomenal skating ability, but also his amazing & flowy style. You can see some of his finest work in Blind Skateboards 2005 “What If” video. He also has an epic part in Bill Weiss’s Digital video “Invasion” from 2002. Both of these parts would still hold up if released today. Jake also had the notorious slam on the Megaramp during competition at the X Games in 2007, which was quite possibly the hardest ever documented slam in skateboarding, so much so that Tony Hawk, who was commentating live, said “Oh man, that was the heaviest slam we’ve ever seen..”. More recently Jake has been working on a dice game called “Endzone”.
Michael Mulhall has been a stalwart in the Australian scene forever, doing countless demo’s, such as at all of the highly regarded and innovative Big Day Out music festivals, as well as placing highly in numerous competitions, including most recently the Master’s divisons at Bondi Bowlarama. Stemming from his innate skate mastery and articulate communication skills, he was commissioned to produce the first skate coaching guide for Skate Australia in the early 2000’s, and is still actively coaching.
Chris Holland, hailing from and still living in Bondi, was my first local inspiration, and it is still in contention as to who landed the first McTwist in Australia, whether it was himself, Danny Van, or Johnny McGrath from Melbourne. However, Chris had the first fully documented McTwist, which was shot at Manly’s Kierle Park vert ramp, by legendary skate/snow/lifestyle photographer Scott Needham. The sequence was published in the second issue of Skatin’ Life magazine, which was run by another more behind-the-scenes legend, John Fox, whom I ran many skate comps with as Bondi Skateriders Club. After McTwisting in the ‘80’s, Chris also ripped the street, and, to my knowledge, achieved the largest handrail done in Australia at the time 12 years later, which you’ll see in the upcoming Juice Video “V2”.
Dave Slade went on to become a prominent Sydney DJ, and was sponsored by Juice Clothing. Funny story: on a Juice tour to Perth, Dave was brought along to play tunes at the one major demo in Perth, and brought all of his equipment from Sydney, including turntables. The park was a ways from the city, and when we got there he set everything up, and then discovered that he forgot to put his records in the van! Guy Miller, Juice’s co-owner and photographer was not impressed!
Chris Holland with the first documented McTwist in Australia circa 1987, from Skatin’ Life magazine. Sequence by Scott Needham.
I hope you enjoy the video!
Article authored by Ti Coleing, lifelong skateboarder, industry guy, and head coach & fun-provider at Flow:Skate.
We offer coaching for all levels, however our main focus is intermediate to advanced skaters looking to take their skills & mental fortitude to the next level.
