Photography and Interview: Matthew Law
I’m sitting here with Umar in Leyton, in Costa Coffee, after the final battle to get his Push done. So why don’t we start with a bit of background on you?
Well I’m 22, I was born in Leyton, round the corner from here funnily enough. It’s kind of nice that we came back to these spots because they’re literally around the corner from where I was born, on Walnut Road. My dad used to live in shared accommodation a lot, so I had this neighbour two buildings down that had Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and also Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground.
And you hadn’t skated before playing those?
Not until I saw the games (laughs). So we’d just be playing those on his PS2. I’d have been about five, then I started skating when I was six, because my friend had a little old plastic, rinky-dink No Fear kind of board. There was no griptape on the actual board because it had been outside for years in my friend’s back garden, but my dad was an upholsterer, so we got spray adhesive and some upholstery foam, and put that down as griptape (laughs). I was always trying to figure out how to ollie, tried early grabbing on the floor and stuff. I went to a school in Leytonstone that was called Cann Hall at the time, and I got a leaflet that said, ‘skate school starting at Cann Hall Park’, which was literally next to my school, so I was like, “Mum, this is what I’ve always wanted!”, going crazy. My dad found a skateboard deck in one of his shared accom basements; I’ve forgotten the brand name, but that was my first proper deck. I was six, then I started at the Cann Hall skate school. I’d skate either Cann Hall or Vicky Park, but when I was first starting out, me and my dad used to go to all the skateparks around the U.K., on holidays and stuff. We’d go Newquay like twice a year, back when Wooden Waves was there, so I’d have probably been between nine and 12. I dropped in on the vert there when I was about nine (laughs).
Tell us about that wild slam you took at the pop-up park in Shoreditch.
I literally worked around the corner, so I was trying to convince one of my colleagues who rollerblades to come, and he was like, “nah, I’d need to get all of my protective gear”. “I don’t wear protective gear”: I said that so confidently (laughs). Because I’ve watched the video back so many times, I’ve kind of relived that moment, but I don’t remember much more of that day. So there was this rollerskater guy who was at the park, and he kept landing on people, screaming, getting in the way, being very big. It was that kind of force where you just want to stay out of the way; you know you’re going to get hurt, because he can hold his own. Everyone was trying to avoid him. There were five, six minutes left of the session, and I’m trying to clear this gap. It’s probably a six-foot high quarter, then behind that there’s a three-foot quarter, and there’s two platforms between them. So I was trying to clear from the six-foot one into the three-foot one, and it would launch me like 13-feet in the air. I almost landed it, then they gave me five more minutes to do it, so I was hyped, pumped up. The one before I bailed, I go for it, and he started screaming, this rollerskater guy; no etiquette. I bail it, I had my AirPods in, so I take them out, like, “why is he screaming right when I’m going?” Then the next time, as soon as I go, he screams again. I air out, and I hear him scream, even when I’ve got music blaring, it’s throwing me off. I’m not trying to hang up the three foot quarter, so I boot my board out, but by then it’s too late. My heels land back on the board and I’m in a facing forwards, instead of landing sideways. Both of my heels land back on the board, I land, roll backwards, and whack the back of my head. Apparently I got up right after, and was crouched down, and six people ran over to me, like, “get back down! Get back down!” I can briefly remember seeing Liam’s (Courtney) face, and I’m like “what happened?”, and I’m talking fast in my head, but my words were coming out slow as hell. In my head it was a battle; my brain was talking faster than my mouth was, triple the speed, and I wasn’t making any sense.
Where’s that clip now?
It’s on the Karma Instagram. It got on Thrasher Hall of Meat, and it got 2.2 million views. So within a couple of weeks, people that I didn’t know were coming up to me in London, like, “you’re that Hall of Meat guy” (laughs).
Let’s talk a little about Karma Skateboards. How did that connection come about?
It came through Liam. I was just skating a lot with him, and he was on Karma, and I think the homies were like, “you should try getting Umar on Karma”. I got on flow, I was skating like crazy, we were going Barcelona twice a year, and I kept putting out clips and progressing more on street, then I got put on the team.
When you’re not skateboarding, what do you get up to?
At the moment, I like to do a little bit of modelling as well. It’s a finicky one, because with modelling you’ve got to show up, show your face, network, talk to so many different people… just like any industry, you’ve got to start at the very bottom and sell yourself, in a way.
And what are you doing work-wise?
I’m trying to get into tattooing right now. I’ve done a lot of graphic design, and I was sketching before I could walk, so I’m trying to get into tattooing. I spoke to a tattoo shop in Bristol recently, they said they need a portfolio then they could potentially take me on, so I’m just sketching as much as possible.
So let’s just say this tattoo shop got back to you, would you make a move there?
Well, I’ve got a wide beam canal boat that I’m actually doing up at the moment, that I bought last year in October. So I live on that in Clapton; it’s 75-foot by 13-foot wide.
Growing up I had friends who lived on boats around London. What’s the community like?
There are some people in my area that are cool, but on the Facebook group, it’s absolutely rancid (laughs). Sometimes it’s a community and they’ll give advice, but if someone has done something a little out line… It turns into Reddit (laughs). So yeah, I’d like to take the boat out to Bristol. There’s a lovely graffiti scene out there, modelling scene out there, skate scene out there. It’s a little bit like Barcelona. There’s good vintage shops… it’s a bit of me (laughs).
So who would you like to thank in skateboarding?
Josh Cox, he was the street teacher when I first started skate school at Cann Hall, then Andrew Hulburt who was the transition teacher that I learnt from. Ryan Howlett, my first sponsor. He had a skate and apparel shop called Dirty Rich. It’s gone under now but that was my first sponsor, then after that, Three Amigos; I was sponsored by them for three years. Liam Courtney has helped me a lot, opened my eyes to the skate scene and other ventures and avenues in the world. And obviously Karma.
What’s your feelings on skateboarding today? What’s your outlook?
It’s a very good thing to stimulate you, to motivate you, and to help you push through life, and push through certain circumstances. You’ve got a lot of things that you need to tackle in life that could be kind of difficult, but then skateboarding is like the outlet that forces you to see things from not only multiple different angles, but makes you have dedication, be relentless, throw yourself into the deep end. I feel like that’s a good thing to have in life. If you go through life like that with everything, there’s nothing you can’t do. One thing my dad really loved whenever we used to go to the skateparks, he would see how everyone would conduct themselves; it would be like a cultural pact between everyone. Everyone has a lot of etiquette, compassion, understanding, and everyone is trying to be better. That could be the person who just started yesterday, to the person who’s been skating for 15, 20 years. They’re all trying to learn something new, so everyone is on the same level morally, which is a good thing. And I feel like how it’s getting into the Olympics, it’s becoming more noticed by society, and it’s more mainstream. I went into Bershka the other day and they’ve got a ‘skate clothing’ area (laughs). I was like, “whoa, that’s interesting”. So the Olympics has brought in a lot more eyes, and a lot more companies are trying to bring the skateboarding style into streetwear and all of that. But at the same time, it’s good for us because it means there’ll be more opportunities for the people are trying to get in the streets and just skate. There’ll be more brand deals, more modelling deals, just more income being pushed into the skating community, and I think that’s a good thing.
Have you any final words to wrap this up?
I love the journey that I’ve been on so far and I’d love to keep on venturing further into the skate community and the culture. I want to see a lot more people not giving up and trying to propel themselves forwards and keep showing up, no matter how difficult it is. A lot of people find it difficult; as soon as they hit a road block, they don’t keep going. The saying that I like is, ‘don’t be afraid of walking slowly, be only afraid of standing still’. Progress is progress. You’ve got to keep moving, even if it’s just one step at a time, and that’s what skating is like. You’re not going to excel every time you skate, but ultimately it’s a sensational feeling if you keep moving, keep trying, and show up every day.
Follow Umar - @cheapskaterr
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