Family and Fun.

On a recent trip to visit my family in Warragul, I somehow managed to balance a day of skateboarding and photographing with a family lunch that I had to attend. I don't know how I did it but managed to get more skate photos in one day than I have in my entire life.

We started the day at about 8.00am down at the skatepark, probably the earliest i've been to a park in about 4 years. Timmy D, a rad local ripper was my subject for the day. The previous night he'd been slashing out some beautiful backside smith grinds on the vert wall so that was the first trick of the day. We managed to get two nice shots without anyone's hands falling off due to the cold.











































After warming up at the skatepark we decided to hit some real spots. A 5 minute drive was all it took to get to a primary school with a long set of stairs and some colourful benches and tables. Strangely enough, the only thing we skated at the school was something that hadn't been skated before. I had seen these water tap trough's skated before and posed the idea to Timmy to see if he had any tricks he could have a whirl at.

He managed to throw down a nollie backside Tailslide and stomp a frontside crooked grind.


          

 I then had to head off for a family lunch, I knew I could expect to chow down on a gourmet fest of Coles brand sausage rolls and donuts as well as other delicacy's that my nana might have prepared.


As well as the delicious food, I could also expect to take part in some intellectual conversation, popular topics include 'the fucken footy aye' and 'my flatscreen is bigger than yours'.


This was all well and good, but after a hefty feed and a kiss on the cheek from Nan I made my way back out into the elements to continue on our mission to shred hard and take photos...good.

                                                                       

I met Timmy back at the park and after a quick post lunch roll it was decided that we would  drive to a small town called Drouin about 10 minutes away. On the way we would stop by Josh Backman's house, Backman is another local ripper with fancy tranny skills in his bag as well as the ability to get fucking gnarly when the opportunity arises.
We arrived in Drouin at Backman's old high school. Towards the back of the school there is a super sketchy bank gap to bank. Backman managed to ollie from the platform above, land and then weave his way between rocks, weeds and pavers that can only have been designed with 'no skateboarding' in mind.

The last spot was a 'we're running out of light so lets go to one last spot' kind of thing. We headed to Dahlsens gap, a gap between two car parks out in the building/hardware area of Warragul. The light was fading and no one was really feeling the good vibes that had been with us earlier in the day, but Timmy managed to get a Front Shuv down the gap before we packed up and scurried home for dinner.

         

   

The Underhanded

I first met the Underhanded at the Anglesea music festival two or three years ago, back then they were just 15 or 16 year old kids going crazy on stage and makin their music as loud and as raw as possible . I sure didn’t know what to expect when I walked into their tiny, barely soundproof practice shed.

 For a bunch of 18 year olds, not even out of high school, these guys really had their shit together. I found myself nodding and tapping along to music that I can only describe as what felt like a combination of Dead Meadow and Black Sabbath.

After a few songs, we moved outside to shoot some photos and conduct what I guess was an interview but was really me just reading some questions off a piece of paper and hoping the guys could come up with the hilarious responses that would make for good reading.  We’ll let you decide that.

Me: Okay guys, I’ve got a few questions as well, so…yeah.

*at this point the boys had just finished climbing a tree

The Underhanded: sounds cool, lets do it.

Me: Where did this band come from? You guys all go to school together right?
T U: Well Cory was playing a lot of guitar and wanted to get a band together, so it really went from there pretty much.
* One of the guys then proceeded to quote something that sound really deep and meaningful that turned out to be from ‘Gangster Gumby’

Me: So once you started the band what kinda inspirations did you have? What inspirations do you have now?

T U: Well, I think we all watch the promo video on youtube for the new Tame Impala album about 10 times a day and when we first started we were all about ALMACKNJACK, also King Gizz, they’re awesome, but we don’t sound like them at all, they’re just awesome and Dead Meadow, we had a moment with them at the Nash once, while Doolan was greening out in the toilet.

Me: Right, so you guys all have special powers right? What kinda powers are we talking here?
T U: Well Ian has laser vision, sometimes stoner vision. Cory has fingers of fire, for guitar play. Doolan has single child ability, otherwise known as barrel scrapin’ ability and Jarrah eats easy mac.

Me: Very interesting, these all seem like valid powers to become the world’s next superband, might even help you guys get a bigger couch.
*The couch was really quite small
T U: We really do need a bigger couch.

Me: Okay, so I gotta know, who is Walt and why do you want to fuck him?
T U: Walt is this fuck who moved to N.S.W to smoke weed and go to court, FUCK WALT.
*for all FUCK WALT related items please refer too http://fuckwalt.tumblr.com/

Me: Have you guys got a favourite gig or venue that you’ve played?
T U: Well, we really like the Brunswick hotel, we’re playing their soon and our favourite gig was probably the first Anglesea music festival we played, that was heaps of fun.
*I was shooting at that festival and can vouch for the fun-ness the boys are referring to here, by the end of their set the crowd had invaded the stage in some sort of coastal dancing orgy.

Me: So what can the general public expect from you guys in the near future? Gigs or ep releases?

T U: We’ve got a gig at the Brunswick hotel next Friday, so everyone should come to that, and we’re playing at the Fort on August 10^th but don’t go to that.

Me: Sounds dope, okay time to wrap this up, quick! What are you favourite things ever?

T U: Ian: Grand Theft Auto *Not sure if he meant the game or the crime
Doolan: Being a dick, it’s really fun
Jarrah: Masturbation
Cory: Fuck Walt.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Underhanded/325708695984

Note: This interview may or may not have ended with Jarrah having a small piece of tree stuck in his eye.