INTERVIEWS

Slam City Unearths Mike Manzoori’s ‘Sound & Vision’ Video From 1993

Published

4 years ago

November 23, 2018

Mike Manzoori has been making skate films for 25 years now. His first was an indie from London titled Sound & Vision. It features many UK pioneers including: Tom Penny, Simon Evans, Danny Wainwright, Carl Shipman, Alex Moul, Andy Scott, and more. There’s also cameos from visiting pros of the era such as Mike Frazier, Jeremy Wray, Pat Duffy, Mike Crum, and Danny Way to name a few. And the vintage footage of Radlands and Southbank contained in this classic edit are absolutely priceless. In honor of this first-ever online release, Slam City also published an interview with Manzoori in which he gives some interesting insight into these early days of the London scene.

Was Southbank sketchy at that point in time?

Oh yeah, it was still pretty sketchy as South London still hadn’t been gentrified in the mid 90’s. It was a regular thing to have big groups of rude boys coming in and robbing the skaters. Then you had the bit that led from the 7-stair through the dark bit around to where the curbs were out the back, that section was full of homeless people back then. Some of the dudes were cool, some weren’t but there was generally always people there skating so you kind of imagined that someone had your back if things went bad, but generally, you were on your own: I was always disappointed by that to be honest. But then saying that, I never had any trouble at Southbank really, despite going there thousands of times and yet I got robbed by an actual child in Birmingham, (laughing).

Watch Sound & Vision above, and head over to the Slam City site to read the full interview with Manzoori.

INTERVIEWS

‘Good Work’ Episode Features Lisa Whitaker and Meow Skateboards

Published

2 months ago

September 23, 2022

Skate Newswire

Skater Lisa Whitaker narrated how she started Meow Skateboards in this episode of “Good Work”.

She also related how she got introduced to skateboarding and how she founded Girls Skate Network in 2003.

Whitaker started her skateboard company in 2012. Now, Meow has more than a dozen talents including Vanessa Torres, Mariah Duran and Kristin Ebeling.

“Lisa has always been the catalyst for women skateboarding”, says Torres who was one of the first skaters to join Meow’s roster.

Produced by Red Bull, the Good Work series features skater-owned and operated businesses.

INTERVIEWS

Monster Energy’s Aspire-Inspire Episode Features Mami Tezuka

Published

3 months ago

August 31, 2022

Skate Newswire

Get to know more about Mami Tezuka in this episode of Aspire-Inspire by Monster Energy.

Surrounded by skaters growing up, Mami showed interest in skateboarding at around the age of three.

She started participating in competitions abroad in 2017. In 2021, she won silver in the X Games Women’s Skateboarding part. She landed third place in X Games Chiba 2022.

Fellow Monster Energy rider and friend Lizzie Armanto describes Mami as easy-going, fun to be around, and inspiring. “When I’m around her, I want to push myself better,”

Tezuka admits that she enjoys filming video parts more enjoyable than participating in contests.

“Competition is kind of stressful for me”, Mami said. But added that she does enjoy seeing everyone at contests.

“Filming part is more fun for me…it doesn’t to be hard, tricky trick, but you can see the style and progress of the skating”, explained Mami.

I want to inspire girl skaters and young people. Do what you love and then don’t be afraid to be yourself.
Mami tezuka

Aspire-Inspire is a mini-documentary series by Monster Energy. Previous episodes featured Aurelien Giraud, Kelvin Hoefler, Rune Glifberg, Ayumu Hirano, Nyjah Huston, and Matt Berger.

INTERVIEWS

The Nine Club Features Elliot Sloan

Published

3 months ago

August 24, 2022

Skate Newswire

Elliot Sloan narrated how he injured his neck while doing a 900 and his other worst slams on the ramp in this episode of The Nine Club podcast.

He also talked about getting into vert and then mega ramp, building his own vert and mini mega ramp in his own backyard, and hosting the X Games in his backyard among other things in the two-hour podcast.

Sloan is a four-time X Games Big Air gold medalist. In the recent X Games held in his backyard, he landed second place in the debut of the Mega Ramp category and first in the Skateboard Vert Best Trick.