I moved from Victoria to Sydney’s Northern Beaches (Avalon) around two years ago now, to take up full-time work at a dirt bike magazine. I was pretty amazed when I found out the local skatepark had lights on every night – it making friends outside of work hours wasn’t going to be an issue. I was even more amazed when, one year later, these friends decided to tell me that this place existed – and that it was literally a five-minute drive from where I was living. I’ll say it again – I was amazed. Amazed that my friends didn’t once think to mention in an entire year that I was living five minutes away from what has to be one of the best hand-made spots in Australia. Here’s Josh Warren sticking a can-jam on one of the sketchy quarters inside “Porters”.

When I first moved to Avalon, I left my bike at my parents’ house for a few weeks, so that I could concentrate on getting my job dialed in. That didn’t stop me from heading over to the local skatepark on a daily basis. The first time I saw BMX riders there (Chris Rawson, Ty Terlecky and Jesper Olesen) I rushed over and tried to trick them into becoming my buddies. I sounded like a creepy guy who was just pretending to be a BMX rider, saying, “Yeah, I own a bike. It’s in Victoria, I swear!” But they seemed to like me! A few weeks later I went back over to the skatepark with my bike, and Chris was there. He was a little shocked to find out that I actually owned a bike. Long story short, from there on in, we became best mates – we now live together. Before I rocked up, he couldn’t barspin or tailwhip. I’ll take full credit for teaching the guy both of those tricks in a short amount of time. Here’s Rawson throwing a B up one of the bumpers at Avalon skatepark – something I’m yet to attempt. The apprentice turned into the master…

Road trips are awesome. They’re even more awesome when you’re in Jason Cousins’ “Roadtripz” bus heading to Kempsey for the fifth annual Blake Butterfield Memorial Jam. I snapped this off while we were waiting for Jason to come and pick us Northern Beaches riders up from Chatswood skatepark. I guess you could say this captured the calm before the storm. Much Corona was consumed, and many kick-outs were performed. I’m sitting on a bunch of footage from that trip. I’ll edit it up into something wicked sometime soon, Brodie! Promise!

Alex Collins – the four-year-old trapped inside a 22-year-old carpenter’s body. I’ve met a lot of guys over the years that aren’t afraid of much, but Collins is different. He kind of just looks at stuff once or twice and gets on with it. All of those years riding a scooter turned him into a beast-like BMX rider, I suppose. Here’s him hopping over a rail at the nine-stair on Dee Why beach. Oh, did I mention that he’s only been riding bikes for just a little over one year? Yeah, now you’re impressed…

This is one of those photos that just worked by chance. I had my flashes set-up for the hip at Avalon skatepark, and Chris (Rawson) was blasting over it as the sun was setting. The light was pretty much gone and the skatepark lights hadn’t quite kicked over. I was looking through some of the photos we had shot that night when Chris yelled out, “Oi, shoot this!” Before I knew it, he and Jake (the skater) were one metre away from the ramp. I got the camera back into shooting mode and fired as quick as I could. Pretty happy with how this one turned out, considering it wasn’t planned at all.

This is Lachlan “Doolan” Jefferies. He rocked up at Avalon skatepark around a year ago, similar to the way I did, I guess. He was riding a bike that looked like a tiger, and he was attempting fly-out bike flips. He told us that he’d moved to the Northern Beaches from the Central Coast, but we let that slide (after hiding our wallets and valuable possessions, of course). Here’s a clean shot of the man pulling off a footjam tailwhip at Avalon skatepark.

I shot this during a trip us Northern Beaches riders went on last year, where we hit up all of the amazing skateparks Canberra has to offer. A group photo of us all drinking vodka and orange juice at Academy would more accurately sum up the trip, but you don’t want to see that… Instead, here’s one of the most stylish dudes I’ve ever met, Nathan “Sponno” Tyas blasting out of a quarter at Weston skatepark, hungover as hell.

Before I moved from Maryborough to Sydney, I lived in Ballarat for just over a year, attending Uni (studying graphic design and multimedia). Riding at night there sucked – the place is constantly cold, and there’s no light to help your eyes out. That never stopped Jack McIver from riding like it was a Saturday afternoon there, though. The guy’s talented. Here’s one of many shots I’ve taken with him over the past couple of years.

A BMX rider puts pegs on, and they learn to grind a flat ledge, right? From there, they probably want to hit up a small downrail at a skatepark before taking their new-found skills to the streets, yeah? Apparently, Michael Graham’s too cool for downrails at skateparks… We were on a roadtrip heading south towards Ulladulla, NSW, and we stopped off for a session at Helensburgh. Michael spotted this handrail next to the skatepark and started eyeing it up. I thought there was no way he was going to attempt it, as he’d never been down anything similar at a skatepark. One crash and one attempt later, he’d landed he’s first-ever downrail on a legit street set-up. Memorable, to say the least.

Ty Terlecky, one of the first dudes I met in Avalon, is one of those guys who still owns a bike that looks like it’s come straight out of 2006 – because it has. Key features include no female bolts, a triple-wall Odyssey rim and a single-cable rear brake. He’s got a wicked style and he’s got a nice bag of tricks inside his bag (I hope a few riders who started riding back in 2006 got that 2020 DVD reference). Here’s my shot of him doing a fufanu at Avalon. If you’ve ever rode Maryborough skatepark in Victoria, let it be known that Ty fuf’d the cage on the quarter pipe there… Crazy guy…

Who’s met Zac Balnaves from Eaglehawk, Victoria? You’d remember him clearly if you have. He’s a loud, rude, hilarious bastard, but he’s an incredibly talented rider. I shot a few photos with Zac for a Focalpoint issue a few years back – shooting everything was an easy task, as he went so big and made everything look so steezy. Here’s another snap we grabbed in 2011 of him fangin’ around at his local.

Lucky last, here’s a shot that I’m incredibly stoked on of Nathan Tyas tyre sliding the iconic yellow brick quarter pipe in Ballarat, Victoria. This happened last month when I took the Northern Beaches crew down to Melbourne for a week of riding (and to celebrate my 21^st birthday). We were on our way to ride Rampfest (Chris had never been there before and was super keen to get up there) and I decided to show these guys this spot on the way. Nathan started screaming when he saw the transition and within seconds his bike was out of the car and he was having the time of his life. It was definitely the highlight of his week in Victoria. He was stoked on riding, I was stoked on shooting, and Ruben Alcantara left a comment on my Instagram page leaving his opinion on how rad he thought it was. #INSTAFAMOUS

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