Photography by Reece Leung
What happened to your grand plan to retire from skateboarding after Welcome 2: Hell came out?
(Laughing) Right, to be clear with that, I was never going to step back from skateboarding. It was more that I’d just finished university, and I‘d got a full-time job working for a company called Costain. I’d been working for six months full-time, and in those six months, I realised the amount of time that I need to dedicate to skateboarding is pretty intense, to keep myself at the level I want to be at. Welcome 2: Hell came out as I finished uni, then New Balance showed me more support. They wanted to get me on more trips and get me on more projects, and I just thought, “at this moment in time, I may as well try and focus on that, and just skate as much as possible”. That lead me to going part-time at Costain, which I’m really thankful for, because without going part-time, there’s no way I’d be able to go on all of these trips, or skate as much as I do.
You’re the only member of staff at Costain that’s working part-time, and working from home, right?
Technically, yes.
So they’re making special allowances for you to be able to carry on being a proactive sponsored skateboarder?
Costain have definitely catered to my needs, big time, but they’re also interested in employing certain types of people who have interesting backgrounds, as they think it adds something to the company.
What is it that Costain does, and what’s your role for them?
Costain is a multimillion pound company; they do a lot of things across four different sectors. They have power, defence, nuclear and transportation, and the area that I’m in is consultancy.
So, for example, whenever there is a project with Network Rail or someone in the energy industry, they’ll consult out to Costain, and that’s when I’ll get involved. One project that I was involved with for Network Rail was developing a large area of York, doing a massive transformation, and my field there was issue management. So whenever a problem arose, I was the one who’d be managing it and trying to figure out solutions.
And Costain are stoked on you skating?
They are stoked on me skateboarding. They did a newsletter recently, and with me going part-time, they wanted me to do a little write up for them, so I wrote about what skateboarding means to me, and about how Costain allowing me to go part-time has facilitated me being able to pursue skateboarding more. The guy who was sorting out the newsletter, he said to me that we needed to think of a title for the article: “what do you think about, ‘He was a skater boy, he said see you later, boy… to full-time work’?” Honestly (laughs). I was like, “maybe we shouldn’t run with that one”.
Cometh the Glaswegian hour, cometh the Partick pivot bash to fakie.
Assets came out in March this year, so nine months after Welcome 2: Hell, and you had a solid amount of footage in there too Were you filming for both videos at the same time?
Assets came about in maybe the last year of filming for Welcome 2: Hell, so I was meeting up with Q (Quentin Guthrie), filming with him, then I’d come back home and be meeting up with Josh (Hallett). New Balance wanted to put out a video, and because I was in university, I had the free time to get involved. That was my first full project with New Balance, and was pretty much my first experience of going on trips and having my travel paid for. Before that, nine times out of 10, me and Josh would pay for it ourselves, to visit other cities.
What were your first impressions of filming with Q?
Q is very particular; I love Q, but when it comes to certain tricks, he wants them filmed in a certain way. The first thing that comes to mind is, we were trying a line at Millennium Square, the fakie ollie down the gap to fakie frontside flip the stairs that was in Assets, but initially that was supposed to be fakie ollie then fakie varial flip. I popped this one fakie varial flip really high, and when he saw that, Q was like, “that’s the standard that you need to be doing them at now”. The one that popped that way, it was an accident. If you lean back on a fakie varial flip too much, it pops higher but you’re nowhere near it, but in his eyes, he was like, “you could do that”. That turned into a battle, and I did do it, just not to the standard that Q wanted. He came back to Leeds and we tried it again, and for some reason, that day my shoulders were naturally turning fakie frontside, so fakie frontside flip just worked out better. Obviously he filmed it really well, coming across the spot, me turning but you still being able to see my face… I feel like that was a better clip in general than the fakie varial flip.
He’s not afraid of making you repeat the trick over and over again until it looks exactly how he’d imagined, and, in a way, that does make you a better skateboarder. But then there have been times where I’ve landed a trick once, and Q’s like, “yep, that’s it”. There have only been a handful of times where I’ve been made to do the trick more than… 10 times.
What’s the most amount of times you’ve had to redo a trick for Q?
Q’s going to hate this (laughs). 15, easily… possibly more. That was in Wakefield, when I did the front pivot to fakie on the steep bank. We went there to film that trick because I knew I could keep doing it over and over.
Do you approach skateboarding differently if you were going out with Q instead of Josh? Do you consider your tricks a bit more knowing that you might have to land something multiple times?
I definitely skate within a bubble when it comes to Q, just because I know that he wants things to look a certain way, and we’ll put the work in to make sure it’s done right. There’s been stuff with Josh that I’ve filmed that I will never do again, ever; certain ledge or manual tricks that have taken me hours. With tricks like that, if Q didn’t like the way I did them, I wouldn’t be sure I could do them twice. But that vision is why the projects Q works on look amazing. He knows what he’s doing, and I guess he sees it as his art, in a way. He wants every clip to be the best it can possibly be.
Welcome 2: Hell really put Leeds skateboarding on the map, I would say, and that’s credit to everyone that was in it, and credit to Josh, for making such a strong video
You’ve managed to put out so much coverage over the last 10 years without ever really needing to leave Leeds, or West Yorkshire, but you always seem to find new spots, or come up with a new way to skate old ones. How much of a nightmare is it for you now, trying to come up with things to shoot or film in and around Leeds?
We try and find new spots all of the time, but since Welcome 2: Hell came out, and I went down to London quite a bit for Assets, my friendship group has grown so much. So Dougie George, Dan Fisher, Dom Henry… all of those dudes now come up north, and it’s given me some fire, to see those guys skating the classic spots. The spots were all new to them, and they come up with tricks or ways of skating them that we’d never even thought of. Leeds is quite a small city; it is changing a lot, there are new spots popping up now and again, but mostly I’ll have to skate rugged spots that I’ve found on Google Earth. That’s where most of the new terrain comes from, and it’s only me who wants to skate it.
There must be so much stuff to skate still waiting to be discovered around the outskirts of Leeds. In Mush, Wappo (Paul Watson) and and Albie (Edmonds) were skating red brick mounds in front of peoples’ houses. They’ve obviously been stood there since the 1950s, but are only just starting to be skated now.
Definitely. There are several crews in Leeds as well, so everyone is always finding different stuff, but we all share spots; there’s a good dynamic. Some of the spots up here are way more unique than the spots in London as well. That quarterpipe spot in Hull, the one where there’s 15, 20 narrow quarterpipes... You rarely see a perfect quarterpipe in the streets, and there you have almost 20 of them. Aesthetically it looks pretty crazy. Whereas London is way more city orientated; ledges, stairs… architecturally, you know what you’re getting. There are spots up here where you’re like, “what the hell is that? Why is that even there?”
You have been venturing to London more this last year or so. What are your thoughts about skating in London, having spent a bit more time there?
Skateboarding in London is a different type of skateboarding; you just need to go there to be seen, in a way. I do enjoy skating in London, but at the same time, after Welcome 2: Hell came out, I feel like skaters from London turned around and saw that people were skating elsewhere in the country to a certain standard. Welcome 2: Hell really put Leeds skateboarding on the map, I would say, and that’s credit to everyone that was in it, and credit to Josh, for making such a strong video. I enjoy skating in London, and I would like to skate London a lot more. I’ve been in Leeds for so long that it’s starting to get to the point where I’ve skated the spots as much as I can.
360 flip into a bleak Leith monolith.
You were on flow for Enjoi when Welcome 2: Hell came out, right? How long had you been on Enjoi, leading up to that point?
It must have been coming up to four years.
Across that time, you did get to do some stuff with the team, didn’t you?
It was a weird one because it was only a distribution flow deal, but then they all came over and we went on a tour. We went to Nottingham, Newcastle, we went all over the place, and I felt like I got on with them pretty well. I skated the demos, skated with them and got to know them, then in 2018, I went to the States for this Dwindle Skatecation thing. That was a bizarre situation. There were flow riders for Dwindle brands from different counties, and then we were put in the pit, effectively, and had to fight to show who was the best (laughs). That vibe.
It sounds like Gladiator.
Kind of, yeah. We pulled up to Hollywood High 16 and it was like, “right, who’s going to do an NBD?” Luckily we got the boot from there (laughs). For me, I prefer to skate unique spots, ones that might not have been touched. I’d see certain things out of the van window, and I’d be like, “whoa, what’s that?” But they’d just keep driving. We stopped off at one spot, which was a bank, and I kickflipped into it, but that’s more of the way I want to skate. I don’t want to go to Hollywood High 16. What am I going to do there? Boardslide it at the most. What use is that to anyone? But yeah, I skated for Enjoi for four years, I tried to get on with them, I even sent them Welcome 2: Hell when that came out, because they were also putting me on their Instagram, so I thought, “there might be something here”, like it was leading somewhere. They got back to me saying, “yeah man, that’s cool, we’d like to skate with you more”. So I asked if there was anything that I could do to get further up their ladder, what could I do for them next to get more involved, and they pretty much aired it, so that’s when I left.
When you left Enjoi, did you go straight to Santa Cruz?
There was definitely a bit of a no man’s land between the two. Also, it was an opportunity for me to try some different brands, skate some different shapes and see what was out there. You know me, I’m very particular about what I want to skate, so I was testing out different things, different sizes, different wheelbases. Then I got hit up about Santa Cruz by (Alan) Glass, thanks to (Mark) Baines - he was the one who put in a good word for me - and I thought, “Santa Cruz, I’m into it, let’s see what happens”. Santa Cruz have a lot of crazy shapes, and I found one board that I liked skating.
Mark Baines: He is the pickiest skateboarder I have ever, ever come across.
You know how particular I am (laughs). I must’ve been on Santa Cruz two, three months. In that time I also went on a trip to Gran Canaria, skated with them all; that trip was great. I really enjoyed meeting Glass, skating and filming with him; it was a really good time. And they’re still doing the trips now, so I’m glad to see them out there skating and doing what they do. For me, I’d always wanted to ride for a U.K. brand where I can fully get involved, and I decided that I really wanted to try and make that happen, so I left Santa Cruz, and then things started to fall into place.
Huddersfield - best known for its cloth industry, Felix, Silvester, Endemic Skateshop (RIP), and this near-perfect hip. Frontsdie halfcab flip, with zero secky presh on the Starkie radar.
By the time this interview comes out, it will have been announced that you’re now riding for The National Skateboard Co. I’m guessing the Tom Brown and Welcome Skate Store connection helped bring that opportunity about?
I couldn’t believe how literally everybody took me saying I was retiring after Welcome 2: Hell. After I left Santa Cruz, Tom said to me, “oh, you’re still doing things, you seem to be filming a lot, and going on plenty of trips with New Balance. I thought you were winding things up?” So I told him, “I thought skateboarding would slow down for me after Welcome 2: Hell, but it seems to be on the up”, then he asked, “would you consider riding for The National?” Obviously, The National is near and dear to my heart; it started in Leeds, and a lot of the greats from Leeds have been involved - Manhead (Josh Young), Tom Harrison, Vaughan Jones, all of those dudes. I didn’t even have to think about my answer; I was down. That’s all I’d wanted for years, and with all the team and everybody that’s involved… I’ve never felt more a part of something as I do now. Obviously Dee (Collins) and Massimo (Cristofoletti) are coming on the trips with New Balance too, and every time we see each other, it just feels good.
Off the back of that, you’ve finally been able to develop your own board shapes.
When it comes to boards, I’m very particular, to the point where we’ve now developed two board shapes, from scratch. That is mad to think, because I never thought I’d be in a position where I could do that.
I don’t want to go to Hollywood High 16. What am I going to do there? Boardslide it at the most. What use is that to anyone?
Didn’t your fondness for skating shaped boards start when you were riding for Enjoi?
For me, being five foot two or whatever, being a short dude, I started skating shaped boards because they had shorter wheelbases. The one I liked on Enjoi, I believe it had a 14” wheelbase, and it was 31.8” long. That might not mean much to most, but that’s kind of a short board for how wide it is. It was 8.75” wide, but it tapered to 8” at the front and 8.25” at the back. For me, width isn’t really a thing any more, I’m more concerned about length, just because if you have a board that’s too long and you try to do a tre flip, it feels like the heaviest board ever; it feels like it doesn’t want to flip. There are certain things that I know that I like that make me feel confident in the trick that I’m trying. I like to look down at the board and think, “this is exactly what I like”. Then, if you can’t land your trick, you’re not blaming it on your board.
So how did those conversations start? Did Tom put you in direct contact with the factory?
Tom put me in contact with their factory, and the guy there is very much like Professor Schmitt; he understands the particulars of board construction, to the point where I’d say things like, “I need the wheelbase to be 5mm longer”, and he wouldn’t question it, just say, “yep, no problem”. Those tiny, tiny things, a few millimetres, they can completely change the way a board performs. For me, anyway (laughs).
You best have 96 Quite Bitter Beings running through your head whilst looking at this one. Roof drop in to hippy jump, Leeds.
Was there not one call where you were giving the staff in the factory a lesson about how wheelbases can vary depending on the trucks you’re using?
Yeah (laughs). So this was a FaceTime meeting, and we spoke about certain boards and how concave affects other elements on the board, then I said, “for example, if I had Ventures on this board, it would feel completely different”. And they were like, “what do you mean?” So I told them that wheelbase is actually from axel to axel, not from bolt hole to bolt hole. That’s how it’s measured in skateboarding, but you can’t list what the wheelbase is depending on what brand trucks you skate. All trucks sit differently. Compared to Indy, Ace Trucks sit further in, so if you have Ace Trucks on your board, the wheelbase will be shorter than if you had Indys; the turning circle will be smaller. Obviously the differences we’re talking about are millimetres, but in skateboarding millimetres might as well be inches. If I asked you to skate wheels that are 2mm bigger than the wheels you’re currently skating, you wouldn’t, because they would feel too big, even though the difference is only a millimetre on the the top and a millimetre on the bottom, so you’re only raising your setup off the ground by one additional millimetre, but that’s how important millimetres are in skateboarding.
After months of work and tweaking samples, you’ve finally got your finished shapes back, ready to skate. How happy are you with them?
When I look down at these boards that we’ve designed, it makes me happy, yep. I think half of the battle is, when you’re stood on a skateboard and you look down it, you want it to look how you imagine it should. I’ve stood on certain boards, for example the square shaped boards that are popular right now, I look down on them and they don’t look right to me, or when they have a really long nose… but when I stand on these ones, all of the worries disappear. They look right, they feel right, and they’re dimensionally correct.
That vision is why the projects Q works on look amazing. He knows what he’s doing, and I guess he sees it as his art, in a way. He wants every clip to be the best it can possibly be.
Dee Collins: How did you come up with the ideas for your shapes?
I’ve skated so many shapes of boards, and always thought, “this board would be good if…”, “this would be good if…”, then I’ve taken all of those ifs and shoved them all together into one mutant skateboard (laughs); I’ve taken elements from everywhere. There are two shapes, the popsicle shape and the pool shape, and I feel that they really offer something different.
Mark: I never knew there was so much difference between boards.
Me and you have sat down and spoke about this, about boards.
Mark: And I’m so confused about what I like now. I don’t know.
For me, I’m so particular that I think I’ve designed shapes that are good for me, but will also bring benefit to other people. I hope other people try them and realise that they do skate really well, and they work better for certain tricks. I’ve tried to make a product that’s a good all rounder, and that’s why we’ve had to develop two shapes, because you’ll never have one board that’s a good all rounder (laughs).
So looking forward to 2024, what are going to be your main focuses? As far as skateboarding goes, at least.
We’ve been going all over the place for the New Balance project with Josh. We’ve been to Madrid, Marseille, we’re going to Mallorca… loads of places beginning with ‘m’.
Mark: You’re going to Morecambe next.
That also gets me out of Leeds, and skating new spots, different spots. I’ve been really, really enjoying these trips. And that’s probably going to be my main focus, along with working on the next National project. The National promo should be out at Christmas, then we’ll be moving straight onto the next video. So whenever I’m not away with New Balance and Josh, I’ll be working on National stuff.
I'm not sure who convinced Dale that this was a good idea (probably no one), but Connie Gascoyne supports him through his decision regardless. Aided taildrop into a load of Leeds cobbles.
Just a few days ago, you came back from the Tom Knox shoe launch in London. How was that? It looked like a full on few days, with a packed out demo to skate as well.
That whole Knox shoe launch was an amazing experience. I’d done demos with Enjoi before, but the New Balance event was on a completely different level. Seb (Palmer) was there, all of the people who run New Balance were there… it was a wild experience. We got to the park early, skated for maybe 45 minutes, then it kind of naturally went into the demo. All of a sudden you heard Ben Powell on the mic, saying, “right, the demo has started”. I was like, “damn, I’ve already done all of the tricks I can do. I guess I’m going to do them all again” (laughs). The whole experience was surreal; skating with Knox, skating with Reynolds, doing the demo and signing on the Saturday, then I was back home Sunday, and back to nine to five work on the Monday, where people don’t have a clue what I’d just been doing on the weekend, and they wouldn’t understand it even if I tried to explain it.
Tell us about beating Andrew Reynolds in a game of SKATE.
Wow (laughs). So this was just after I fan boy’d over him at Pitt Street, basically; I took a photo with him and stuff like that. We spoke a bit. Then him and Justin Henry started having a game of SKATE on the mini, they were one trick in, so I asked, “can I get involved with this?” They were like, “yeah, yeah, get involved”. Reynolds set a front tail to fakie, Justin set back nosepick to disaster… all I remember is Reynolds being on T, I put my board in tailstall on the coping, looked him dead in the eyes and said, “don’t judge me for this”, dropped in, axel stalled on the other side then did tre flip rock to fakie (laughs).
Mark: That’s so bad.
I got out of the ramp, and he looked at me, gobsmacked.
Dee: He turned to me and said, “I’m not trying that”. I told him, “I don’t blame you”.
He flung the board twice at the coping, and said, “good game”. Maybe it was a bit harsh to do that to him, but that was it, that’s how I won. Not an honourable win (laughs), but a win nonetheless.
Mark: I’ll be getting an email: “Reynolds requesting Dale Starkie’s removal from New Balance”.
When the homie is on T and you do tre flip rock to fakie, everyone knows what your intentions are.
Follow Dale - @dalestarkie
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