Photography by Joseph 'Ginge' Piggott
Interview by Tom Jackson
What’s up? Good morning. So what’s your name? How old are you? Where are you from?
My name is Tom Rosedale, I’m 20, and I was born and bred in Bath.
Lovely stuff. You’re soon to be moving to a new house in Bristol. Are you excited?
Yeah, of course. I’m moving in with four friends that I’ve been skating with for the last year. We’re all skaters and are doing various courses around Bristol. It should be really fun, and it’s exciting to have a first place of our own.
You’ve done a year of Uni and have skated a lot in Bristol; how’s that been?
Yeah, it’s been amazing. I did hanging by a thread with Joe Poulter. This was a real highlight for me, and a memorable moment was the premiere. This was massive. We had the video on the big screen, which looked amazing. Since being in Bristol, I have met loads of friends to skate with. I’m enjoying being out in the streets; we’re park rats in Bath, so it’s good to be more productive. Two skaters I really enjoy skating with are Pat (Coghlan) and Will (Riley). Will blows my mind because he has the techiest tricks.
What’s the gnarliest thing you’ve seen Will do?
I was skating with him yesterday and he did a shove tailgrab down a pretty big set. Pretty cool. After, I went to spot near where I used to work, at the top of Whiteladies Road, to get a photo of a back three with Ginge, and ended up with a black eye, so I’ve had that to enjoy the last few days!
When I met you, you rocked soft wheels religiously. Can you tell me about those old days?
Aha. I did, and they were smooth. At first it was some old rollerskate wheels, and then I got longboard ones. I did it originally because I skated my road and down the hills to the skatepark, which was rough, but I guess I just got locked in and couldn’t go without them.
You think the soft wheels helped with impacts? Is that what made you want to throw yourself down bigger stuff?
Nah, I definitely don’t recommend them for tricks or gaps; I think that’s just what I tried doing because it’s what I enjoyed. I recommend them if you want to just skate fast and do nothing.
Tell us a little bit about the ski map you made.
I made a map of the hills in Bath; it’s colour-coded, like a ski map, with blue, red, black [routes]. I had just got back from my ski season and I was craving more snowboarding, and this was the next best thing. You can see all the routes I’d take into town. It’s essentially a spot map, but a fair few skaters skate down the hills and have done so over the years. There’s actually a clip of Hayden bombing a black run right in the middle of the map, which is in (James) Whitlock’s video Sulis. Check it out.
Bristol map coming soon?
It’s not the same as Bath, but maybe...
We just went with Whitlock to Barcelona; how did you find that?
Well, yeah, we had a sick time. Whitlock is one of the best VX filmers so it felt good to get some clips. Shame you were injured, TJ; I think we’re all cursed by the classic sprained ankle from time to time. We went with some of the older guys from Vicky Park… They’re still young, to clarify! We were like a little family. I think it’s nice that people of all ages and backgrounds come together through skating.
Is that important to you?
Yes. When we were travelling I don’t think we would have coped without meeting skaters who gave us advice and helped us out with jobs and stuff. I have talked with my grandpa, who is a vicar, about the power of community in the skating world. I think our community relates to religion in terms of our communal love of skating, and the support and friendship that comes with it. So I think of our local park, Vicky, as a kind of church.
So you just finished uni for the summer, right? What have you been up to?
I’ve been labouring for a friend and also building a DIY park with my mates Zach (Smith) and Joe (Wareham); it’s on a cycle path under a bridge, and it’s actually becoming quite a nice area. It’s pretty chill; we’ve got four features now, and maybe a bigger project on the way. It’s fun to skate, and the local people seem to love it.
What is your favourite obstacle you’ve made so far?
My favourite is a ride-on ledge; it’s in the shape of an upside down V. Zach calls it the Camel’s Hump, but I prefer just calling it the V ledge.
Felix fell off that yesterday, backwards and fell into the brambles and rolled down the hill.
Oh no, Felix. Maybe it’s not the safest place to skate!
Now before Bristol, you were on the other side of the globe, basically as far away from home as you can possibly get. Where were you? How long were you out there, and what did you get up to?
Well, we started our journey with a short stay in KL, Malaysia, and the airline lost my bag. Big thanks to Jonathan (Wareham) for getting it back, eventually. That was wild, especially with the dodgy mopeds we hired. I think we got stuck on the motorways once or twice. Then we went to New Zealand for 11 months. We all stuck together for, I think, seven months, travelling in our truck and Ford Fiesta across the country. It was a challenge at times with not much money, but we got by with cheap food and festival tents. In difficult times the skaters and local people helped us out with food or a place to stay, and almost always some homegrown weed. We stopped in Mount Manganui and Christchurch for a couple months to work, but other than that we lived on the road, just exploring. When the winter came we then settled in Queenstown for a ski season.
What song reflects your travels?
The How High soundtrack. That CD must have been played hundreds of time in the little car. Also, Jack Johnson comes to mind, just because it was played in every supermarket. (Laughing) We barely ever wore shoes; dogs out always in the supermarket.
What would be the perfect day out in New Zealand for you?
I must say Christchurch. I could have stayed there forever, to be honest. It was work in the day, labouring or odd jobs for a jobs agency, and then finishing up by surfing, or trying to surf! We ended up on the beach around sunset time pretty much every day; it was kind of perfect.
And favourite spot you camped?
For me, I think it would be The Ninety Mile beach. We camped on a beach that is 90 miles long. To get off the beach we had to drive up a river. I was so scared, but a man called Moose showed us the route to drive. We had to accelerate through the river to gain speed to make it over a dune at the end. It felt like flying. We had beers with Moose and he sent us on our way; our truck was then called Moose.
Another good camping spot was up the coast in Mount Monuri; we met some characters there. Other than that, we definitely camped in some crazy places, like by some waterfalls. You remember that massive waterfall? The absolutely huge one where we camped, you walked and walked past the trees, and it’s there’s just, like this absolute, ridiculously massive waterfall; you wouldn’t expect to see it.
If you had to eat a sticky toffee apple off of the floor of either of our cars, one or the other, which one would it be, and why?
The truck was messy, the little car was mouldy. I’d rather a sticky toffee apple off the floor of a messy car than a mouldy car.
You ended up you extended your trip to do a ski season. How was it?
To me, snowboarding is up-market skateboarding. When I got the chance to do it in NZ, I couldn’t say no. It wasn’t easy to get set up in Queenstown, but we managed it through other travellers and skaters we met. Before the season started we skated with Zach from Seattle; he was visually impaired but still skated really well. I think we were all inspired by him as well as Josh Stewart, who was a Wanaka local, and we all put a little video together; Joe did all the filming for it. But we then met lots of snowboarders through this, who we boarded with throughout the season. Thanks to Dylan for driving us up the mountain so many times. Josh is about to release a part from across the whole of NZ; it should be insane.
You had a cool shaped board. What was it like? Was that one of yours?
I worked in Queenstown, fitting ski boots, and had access to rental boards, so I got to try every kind of snowboard. My favourite brand is Salomon; I just think they feel the best. My board is a Salomon Dancehaul. It’s short and wide so really playful, which is what I enjoyed.
Going back, the Bristol street is notorious for being old in a lot of areas. Some of the spots go back to the 90s, early 2000s, and are pretty crusty now. How is it skating there compared to other cities?
It is crust, definitely not smooth; the same as Bath to me. I think Bristol just has more to offer in terms of street spots. It took me some time to get used to it, but it’s been really fun. Having skated there a bit, I’ve adapted to it for sure, finding gaps to skate, but also I like the janky street transition you find around Bristol, like the wall for the back three.
Is that footage out yet?
Nah, Josh Penning filmed it for the new Vanity video, which is coming soon.
Yeah, plug that. Any other final shout outs?
Thanks to Lakai for sending me shoes, they’re good to skate. Other than that, little Zach Smith, sexy Will Smithson, Ginge, Joe Poulter and Pat Cog are all people that inspire me. Also, you and our NZ brothers, Joe Wareham, Tom Cantwell and Tommy Tetely, that we’ll be friends with forever.
Follow Tom - @trosesale
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