Vaughan Baker has been one of our team riders for a very long time. We have been there to sort him out boards and whatever else he has needed to fill in the gaps. He has always been productive and keen to give back. His presence has helped shape many of the companies which built the UK scene and elevated it to the point it is at right now. While we were away in Berlin recently we caught up with Vaughan and even discussed his early vert career. Many of you won’t know that himself and Olly Todd were learning to fly out the top of a vert ramp while many of you were yet to set foot on a skateboard, maybe even a carpet. In short, Vaughan was and is an integral part of the UK scene. For a thorough reinforcement of this fact check out his recent Sidewalk Footage Feast. He is now EU skate marketing and Team manager for SUPRA & KR3W from a Barcelona base. We asked him to contribute to a 5000 Words feature and quickly received a steady grip of images which we have split into two parts. Here is part one with an intro from Vaughan…
Whilst going through my photos to pull this together it became apparent that most of what I have in my iphoto were from various trips/tours, that I’ve worked on with both the SUPRA and KR3W teams over the last 3 and a half years. With that in mind I wanted to dedicate this 5000 words to this period of my life, which would interest the skateboarders out there over photos of my home life. We’ve had some sick times out there in the field over this time! Thanks guys…
Lizard King. Prague, 2013.
Taken at an event we did with our distributor in Prague at the end of our 2012 EU tour at a local event there. The demo was more of a party with BBQ and endless amounts of free drinks, a very wavy looking Lizard who had over the duration of the evening acquired this baby crow along the way could be seen staggering around gathering the attention of all that were in attendance. The bird stayed with him for the duration of the evening sat on his shoulder (pictured) there was most certainly a connection between these two.
Terry Kennedy and Lucien Clarke. Toulouse, 2012.
This was the first tour that both Lucien and myself had ever travelled with the whole team, actually the first real tour I’d ever organized. I didn’t actually shoot this photo but it was in with the others and too good not to use.
Lucien Clarke and Tom Penny. Brussels, 2014.
Tom and Lucien always roll with the biggest bags of clothes on every trip, no fucking around when it comes to outfit choices with these two!
Mark Gonzales and Jim Greco. Berlin 2013.
We were in Berlin around the summer Bright show of 2013. Muska had been out skating around the city most evenings on his own hype trying to get a feel of the place and had bumped into the Gonz who was in town for pictured artshow. This news travelled through our group and when Jim caught wind that was it. All he wanted to do was meet the Gonz (he never had). Thinking he’d get lucky like Chad he took to scouring the city in the same manner every evening, hoping to have the same chance meeting… It never happened! He then heard about the show, that was the next thing, like “he’ll be there, YOU NEED TO GET ME A TICKET” all day everyday until I got him a pass. Anyway moral of the story is persistence is key if you try hard enough then eventually you get what you want out of life. Jim finally got to meet the Gonz and I got to shoot this photo of them, I think in the end I was more stoked than Jim!
Erik Ellington and Dee Ostrander. Stonehenge 2014.
The lack of trust in me getting everyone to Stonehenge this summer was real, I told you all I would get you there, I keep my word!. Out of everyone who wanted to go here Spencer Hamilton was the most excited. Given this apparent excitement, upon arrival to the stones Spencer immediately jumped the fence and ran into the middle of the cluster and was ejected from the site, all within 5 minutes of arriving. Hard!
Stevie Williams. Barcelona 2014.
Stevie is really at home in Barca, his daily routine is pretty set. Wake up around lunch, grab breakfast from the same spot everyday, hit MACBA, then UNI, then chill until late and hit his list of clubs for a dose of Red Carpet and Table Service. Here is a photo I shot of him at Ramblas Catalunya last year whilst he was out shooting for the commercial for his shoe “The Esteban.”
Alan Hannon and Jim Greco. Vienna 2013.
Jim came to Europe on this tour and absolutely killed it, he was up first up and last to bed every day, out skating throughout which ever city we were in, finding spots and going out on solo missions to get street footage logged. Here he is mid-demo shut down walking back up the bank between switch darkslide tries down the Hubba. (Check the grip on the underside of his tail, that’s the key!)
Oscar Candon, London 2013.
Oscar embraces the skate lifestyle to its fullest, constantly travelling and living life out of his bag etc… I’m not trying to be funny though mate you have a clothing and sock sponsor, you don’t need to put yourself through wearing the most ragged shit out there. Taking things a little too far here I think.
Javier Sarmiento and Tom Penny, Madrid 2014.
Pair of Goddamn G’s right here. These two can be found skating and hanging out together mostly “Blazing”.
Lucien Clarke,Barcelona 2014.
Another photo of one of the boys hanging out with a bird/s. Between missed flights, lost credit cards, being the last out of bed everyday and getting lost every time we visit Lyon, travelling with Lucien is funny as fuck. He has the most retarded sense of humour that kills us each time. King of lining up genius Instagram posts (reference the above photo). My DM box is full of treasures from him! .
Thanks to Vaughan for this first selection of photos. We will bring you part two very soon. Shop for SUPRA HERE and KR3W HERE.