Photography by Filadelfo Luke Kroon
Interview by Tom Lock
What’s your name, your age, and where do you live?
My name is Sol Dhariwal-Bisset, I’m 31 years of age, and I live in Clapton, East London.
When and where did you start skating, and what got you into it?
I started skating when I was about five or six. My mum got me a Digimon board and I had matching Digimon pads (Laughs). I always skated here and there, and then I had a break from it for a while. I got really into martial arts, breakdancing and parkour. And then when Clissold Park got built, that was when I really got into skating, as it was right next to my mum’s house.
I made a lot of friends at Clissold and it brought a lot of people together from the skate community. There’s a guy who’s been going there since it opened, called Ed Hall. He would sometimes give me Lovenskate boards that he’d skated a bit. He was one of the first skaters I really looked up to; he has an awesome style. I met Stu (Smith) from Lovenskate there, and so many of of my closest friends, and also people who I’ve worked with. I met a skater called Steve there, and I ended up doing gardening for him. When I realised how diverse the skate community is at Clissold - like all the different ages, backgrounds and cultures - I felt like I really fitted in there.
That’s awesome. I was going to ask you, what kind of work do you do?
So yeah, it’s mix of gardening, working at the Lovenskate HQ, and graphic design.
Sounds like a good mix. What happens at the Lovenskate HQ?
I mostly work with Stu when there’s big drops, folding shirts and preparing all the merch to be sent out to the shops. There’s a mini ramp in the back of the studio, so we get to have sessions on our lunch break, which is fun. Dexter (Harrison) works there, he does a lot of the printing and I help with that too. I’ve also worked on some of my own designs there that Stu invited me to do for Lovenskate.
That’s cool. How did you get into doing graphics?
I’ve always been into drawing and I did it from a very young age. When I was a bit older I did a graphic design foundation at LCC. I really enjoyed that. Then I did a design for SkatePal. You have to do a fundraiser to raise the money for the flights to go [to Palestine], so I designed some t-shirts to sell. Theo (Krish) from SkatePal was really into the design, so they advertised the tees on their website, which I was super grateful for. Unfortunately COVID happened and I couldn’t go and volunteer, but I’d still really like to go one day. It’s obviously pretty complicated now, and a really terrible situation, but I’m glad I did the tees as all the money raised went to SkatePal.
Oh yeah, I remember the SkatePal graphic, that was a fun one. Did that then lead to other designs getting made?
Yeah. Stu saw that design and asked if I’d like to do a Lovenskate graphic. He gave me a fun brief inspired by the Beatles, which was ‘All You Need Is Lovenskate’. I did a Ganesh design, which was kind of to do with the fact that I’m half Indian, half English. It was a bit difficult at first because I’m not Hindu myself, but I’ve been to India and what I’ve learned is that part of the Hindu practice is to create images of the gods and the deities to worship them. So I thought, ‘what better than to put those deities on things that you actually use?’ Ganesh represents new beginnings and fortune, so I was really stoked to share that message.
I did another design for Lovenskate recently, called Curbasutra. It’s a basic play on the words Karma Sutra. I was worried it might sound sleazy, but when I looked up the meaning of Karma Sutra in Sanskrit, it translates to ‘sensual scripture’. So it translated to curb scripture. I’m stoked I managed to get the curb from Hackney Bumps in the design too.
Yeah, it works well in the design. That’s another place that you like to skate, right?
Bumps is probably my favourite place to skate out of everywhere.
Wow. Can you say a bit about why?
Before the old surface was made smooth, we used to skate there, and also The Gym [DIY] round the corner. The Bumps was a really interesting back then, as it really tested you. You had to put a lot of effort in to get any speed and when you fell, it was like your skin was just gone. And then around 2019 I went there and met Nick (Tombs) and Greg (King) who were the first people to start work on it. It was this amazing thing of, like, starting from the middle and getting further and further out. So you’d still be riding bits of it that were rough, you’d hit sections, and it would be like, wow, this is so smooth and so incredible. It was amazing to see it all get smoothed out and all the ledges and quarters get built. The community that came out of that was amazing. I also met one of my best friends who is also called Sol (Gregory Cundy). And then obviously all the events and the activities that have happened there. I recently did lessons there with kids from the community, people that have never skated before. That really resonated with me because I felt I was giving something back.
It sounds like community is really important to you, but I know you also like to skate on your own.
Yeah, it can be very therapeutic. I mainly do it for practicing if I want to get really into a trick.
But I’m also a bit introverted, so I’m not constantly attracted to situations where there’s lots of people and socialising. I remember skating this amazing park in Mazunte, in Mexico, on my own. That was a pretty crazy experience, like, with the sun coming up and all the sounds and smells. It overlooks the town which looks beautiful first thing in the morning.
Sick. It seems like travelling is also quite important to you.
Yeah, I always feel really stoked to be able to skate when I travel as it feels like I’m taking a piece of me wherever I’m going. Like I’d be taking things I’d learnt at my local spot to a new park in a new city and sharing that with new people. It makes me feel quite secure or something. Especially meeting new people, if I have my board with me and I’m going to an area where there’s other skaters, even if I don’t speak the language, there will be an understanding. I love feeling like this activity I’m doing is connecting me to a lot of different places and communities. Barcelona was the first place I went to with my board. That was incredible, seeing all the architecture and spots, and it’s like the skate Mecca. After that I did a longer trip, I went to L.A., San Francisco, San Jose, and then down to Mexico. I think the whole trip was about four months; that was amazing.
I love feeling like this activity I’m doing is connecting me to a lot of different places and communities.
It sounds it. You’ve got a really unique approach to skating. Can you say a bit about where you get inspiration from?
I really like people like Ben Koppl, Mark Gonzales, William Spencer, a lot of people that are doing stuff that’s a bit more artistic. People that use their bodies in interesting ways, almost like dance, or have an approach that is beyond the pattern of progression that people usually follow. I guess that’s kind of what my personality is like as well. I’ve always used skating as a creative outlet, rather than the opposite, which would be having a lot of boundaries to what you can do with it.
Ah yeah, that makes sense. I remember you saying Bruce Lee has been a big influence on you too.
Yeah, I’ve always been a fan of Bruce Lee. He learned all of the martial arts, then got really into all the different types of Kung Fu. But then he made his own version of Kung Fu, it’s like a combination of street boxing and traditional martial arts. It’s always really inspired me, as it showed me that you can create your own way of doing things, and it applies to skating really well. You can learn the basics, but then combine things, and there’s no real rules about how to do it.
That’s cool. Do you have any aspirations for your skating, graphics, and travelling?
With skating, it’s less about learning new tricks, but just getting more comfortable with the things I can already do, and then expanding on them. I’d like to get involved in some video projects and shoot more photos. I also want to get more into skating street. I mainly skate transition and park, but I love street transition and things like that.
I’m really excited to do another design for Lovenskate. That will be out at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. It’s really cool, because it will be the third board I’ve done for Lovenskate, so all three together will make a rad triptych. That will be another Hindu inspired mythological design. Then I’m also doing some graphics for Cow, which is a new skate shop in Hackney Wick.
I’ve got a big plan to go to Australia early next year. There’s a few friends to visit, one’s a DJ, and some skater mates. So it will be a mix of skating, going out and exploring the Aussie nature. Then from there, I plan to go to Japan. I actually went there when I was really young, five or six. My mum took me there, and it really resonated with me. They have Golden Age there, which is the distribution company that stocks Lovenskate, so they’ve be stocking boards with my designs on. I really want to visit them. There’s loads of people in Japan I’d love to skate with, and I just want to see as much of it as possible.
Sick, that sounds like an adventure. Is there anyone you want to thank?
Yeah, mainly my family, my mum, dad and my brother. They’ve been so supportive of my skating and helped me through my injuries. Stu from Lovenskate for having me involved in the LNS journey. Ryan from The Skateboarder’s Companion for asking me to do this interview and all the support in general. All my friends for creating the community we have; it’s really special to me. And skateboarding, I don’t know where I’d be without it.
Follow Sol - @sol.dhariwal
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