Interview by Kirk Gaitskell-Kendrick
Photography by Leo Sharp
All right, Teo Palfreyman-Gaze. Shark on land or bear in water?
If you’re talking about fighting one of them, I’m taking shark on land for sure. But I’d rather be hanging out with a bear in water, it would be so cute.
Your family name has some heritage in skateboarding. Your dad's a skater, right?
Yeah, my dad still skates; he's got a pretty mean Japan on him. He got a cover for RAD Magazine in the 80s or something. It's super sick, he does the most tweaked out method air. Check it out, I don’t think many people have seen it. He’s still got steez too. I really appreciate still being able to go skating with him when I’m back home. Main influence on my skating for sure.
Harry Haddon: Do you feel any pressure having a dad that skates?
No (laughs), he’s exactly opposite of a traditional skate dad. He always took me skating when I was younger, and was supportive, but never forced me to do anything, he just let me figure it out myself. It has always been just a fun thing to do, never once has he forced me down a stair set or something. I think it super weird when you see parents training up their kids; they always look sad (laughs).
Tell us about the early days of your skating. I want to hear about the backyard ramp, Mount Hawke, and trips abroad with the family.
Some proper Teo lore. So me and my dad built this little quarterpipe for my driveway. It was the mellowest quarter, pretty much a flat bank. One night we went and, I guess, ‘sourced’ loads of plywood and scaff poles from a building site next to my house to build it. It had shopping trolley wheels on the side to move it n’ all. It was active; I miss that ramp. There is some ancient footage of me doing every stall I could think of on it somewhere…
I was never that good at Mount Hawke, too many ramps. I just stuck to plaza since the start. I was lucky when I was younger, my parents always wanted to go on holiday so they would save their money to take me and my brother away most summers. My dad and I always found a skatepark where we were staying.
Got to dig that out for sure. So people first sort of saw your name in SYNTH SYNTH for Synth Stuff. How did that project come about?
Yeah, I guess so. That came from just when me Billy (Munden), Jay (Lentern) and Toby Miller would skate the plaza every weekend. We thought it would be nice to film a little bit more of a proper video, I guess inspiration came from seeing all the dope vids come out of London. Street skating in Cornwall is pretty much non-existent, so we were like, ‘let's make a skatepark edit and not post it on Instagram’. That’s the best we could do, maybe we were just lazy though (laughs). I had a VX set up at the time, and we filmed it all on that.
You used the Cocteau Twins song [Heaven or Las Vegas] pretty early on, before they got used by a bunch of other people. It's pretty dope.
We pre-empted the hype, I swear.
Harry: Do you miss the plaza much?
Yeah, I miss the plaza heyday for sure, just when skating the plaza with everyone on the weekend was the most exciting thing. I miss that wallie block too. Only skating there for so long has cursed me; plaza obstacles are so weird and unique, I struggle to skate any other park now. Me and Billy are always reminiscing.
And you skated a lot with Billy. I understand that you guys have sort of moved to London together. Or at a similar time. How's that been, moving up here with with a friend like that?
Yeah that’s the best friend! it's perfect when you don't get separated when you go to uni; I wouldn’t be able to recover from that break-up for real. Grace, his girlfriend, lives two streets away, so he always comes knocking on my door. So, we've got even closer than when we were in Cornwall. Perfect.
In general, moving to London was definitely the right decision. I’ve made so many friends here and can hang out with them all the time, through skating and outside. There’s so many different types of people to meet, makes you realise how isolated Cornwall is. Being able to go skate so easy is the best, like Queens Road kerbs being a five minute skate away. No more hour long bus to Truro.
Stereotypical but I do the miss the beach; Peckham isn’t quite the same. And I miss my mum.
Harry: Who’s winning at pool between you and Billy?
Damn, give us ten frames and a level table. We'll figure that out.
Harry: Is that call out?
That's a call out. Zach Smith’s slyly beating everyone though.
Borrowed board no-comply, surrounded by Marble Arch.
Since you've moved to London, you've been pretty productive. I feel like you've had a load of footage out since you've got her.
I've tried to be productive. It’s the classic thing of I wishing I had better footage out, rather than more. I don’t get bangers. We go out skating every weekend with our skate group I guess, which is so fun; everyone always getting clipped up. Thanks to Kirk for being patient with me. Yeah, I had a couple bits in Grant’s (Dawson) new video [3am], which I was really hyped to be a part of. Always thought his vids were the best; it’s so surreal to be involved. Had a bunch of footage out last year with you Kirk [in let down], which I was really happy with. In London everyone's always about it, it's easy to film stuff. I mean easy if I've not had a big fight with my ankle.
What do you mean by that? You've had you've had some ankle issues?
I rolled my ankle consistently every couple of months after fracturing my tibia two years ago. Physio is blessing me right now though, the future’s looking kind of bright. It's been a bit bleak not being able to skate much, and being in a constant relearn stage.
I saw a comment, I can't remember where, but someone said it looked like you were skating with one of those house arrest ankle lock things on. Can you confirm or deny if you were on house arrest, or was that just something for your ankle?
I wish I could claim house arrest, that would be way more steez. I’m not that crazy, unfortunately.
So I feel like you've also made a load of friends with people who just come over here visiting. Who have been some of the different international crews that you like, run into, and become super close with?
Well last year, the VIVID skaters from LA came over, but it was annoying when they were over I was injured so I couldn't actually skate with them. I was just on the bench. Still, it was fun showing them about. They’re all stupid dope and significantly better at skating than me (laughs). I was happy to just sit and watch. Will See is the goat. Also, Aidan (Chung) from Switzerland came and stayed the other week; we hung out everyday. He’s a big shredder, watch out Paris.
Yeah, what do we kept saying? We kept saying the US tax was crazy. Yeah, so those VIVID guys, they put out a really dope video [time kills all things by Jacob Ortega]. What were your thoughts on that?
Yeah, US skill tax is crazy, they’re playing on hardcore mode. Video was so fresh to see, I rate Jacob’s vision so much. He presented a skate video in a new form, which is pretty difficult thing to do nowadays. He’s so creative; I love it.
So moving away from skating, when you're not bunting or getting a clip, what do you do?
I'll be bunting the whole time. Right now, trying to find some good UGG Boots. And the rest of the time, there's been plenty of good parties, and London’s music scene is so good right now. That’s what me and my friends’ weekends consist of. Skate in the day, then big party. We are all super into the same music; it’s exciting to get nerdy about something outside of skating. We are going to a Genysys event on the weekend; looking forward to hearing 020BABY’s set. It’s gonna be a movie, as CP (Connor Parker) would say. I study at uni too, and try and do creative things for myself.
We be partying pretty hard for sure. What about the modelling stuff? I've seen you about for a couple of things here and there.
We don't talk about that. I joke, yeah it’s fun, and it pays the rent. It’s a super weird world but it’s a new world where I get to meet cool people and wear nice clothes. Free haircuts are lit too.
Wintertime frontside lipslide, close to Kernow home.
So what does the future sort of hold for you? Like the near future, and then maybe like a year from now?
A year from now… well, I probably need to become more of an adult (laughs), and get a proper job. I’ll probably still be delivering sandwiches. It terms of skating, hopefully we film this Life is Unfair vid, and then try be productive with Grant too. I always just want to travel round some European cities, skating with my friends. I feel like I haven’t made the most of the transport links in London yet.
Your bike’s looking pretty pristine right now. I didn't care about your skateboard setup, tell me about your bike setup.
Thanks Kirk. We are running a lo pro eight bar track frame and Mavic Ellipse wheel set. I’ll stop here otherwise we will be here all day. Pretty much it’s a stupid brakeless fixed gear setup. I’ve maybe built up the most uncomfortable bike; it’s so fast to get around the city on though.
That's about it. You had any near-death experiences since cycling in London? It's pretty gnarly.
For sure, it always gets weird cycling; a combination of bad drivers and cycling dangerously on purpose never ends well. I got run over in Rotherhithe Tunnel in summer. Well, my arm did.
You still have the scar now, don't you?
Yeah, it's almost healed now; I got super lucky. Definitely a wake up call. I’m scared to cross the road now. I had a runway show two days after and they were so confused what had happened to my arm. It was well embarrassing telling a fashion designer what happened; being hit by car isn’t too cool I guess.
A crater on your own arm, like the moon. I heard rumours about a certain team welcoming you on as well recently.
Shout out Bones Wheels (laughs), the only sponsor.
Follow Teo - @tteopalfreymangaze
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