union press #3

jordan hangojason vawter

charlie crumlish

editor: brad hill

associate editor: prashant gopal

contributors: lee dennis, jason vawter, charlie crumlish, harley haskett, jeremy deme, kean fougere, trent barker, zackery macrae, leanne yeadon

thanks: trevor oleniuk, sue @ web news printing, jamie & darcy @ ten pack / macneil, bernie @ 1664, mike @ twisted sticker, cory @ verde

bmxfu.comyosickzine.blogspot.com

winter 2013

charlie crumlish

editor: brad hill

winter 2013

charlie crumlish

editor: brad hill

winter 2013

je� “jetty” evans switch pegs hardjeremy deme

SMOOTHER

one handed icepick: kevin salmonpegs: dillon lloydprashant gopal

bar� ip

Well I can’t start to tell you about Smoother with-out stating that he is the most comfortable person I’ve ever met. He’s so comfortable that the � rst time I really encountered him eight years ago, he was walking around a BMX premier in a horse cock thong. Since then, the good old “Smoother get naked” trick hasn’t slowed down. In fact, it’s so common that even his local pub has timed him just to see how quickly he can disrobe. But don’t worry everyone, in his ‘older’ age he thinks he might slowly start growing out of it.

If you’re ever riding down the street and a black Chevy SS 454 peals out right up to you and shouts, “How you like dem bacon strips?” you know that it’s Smooth. Fuckin’ Smooth. Every-thing the guy does has you laughing on your ass. Once he jumped a twenty foot bridge gap in his Camero near the skatepark. I guess the dude who was driving behind him said he saw the underside of his car.

Actually when I think it about, I drank my � rst beer at his house for the premier of QEW Con-nection, the Niagara scene video that preceded the whole BMXFU thing. It was sick. It was one of my � rst experiences with the whole ‘real’

party environment, not the pop and chips kind. Smoother was doing his thing while everyone else was smoking, drinking, and laughing. I think it was his friend Jamie that brought out the vacuum and starting sucking up people’s crabs. Di� er-ent, right? I just remember being blown away. I wasn’t even really all that young – I had just never seen anything like it before because I never hung around an older crew. � ank you Smooth and Big Rich for a hell of a night.

Taking this photo might have been the � rst time I’ve seen Smooth in an uncomfortable position. It could have been a couple things and I wasn’t real-ly all too sure what to do either. I had never shot a � atland photo before and never really knew what part of the trick to show. To make it a little harder, the cement pad is probably only twenty square feet and a good hike through the woods to get to. Nevertheless, as Smooth never disappoints, I managed to get a good photo of the last � atlander in the Niagara region at the bottom of the Gorge at Niagara Falls. I had never seen the Gorge be-fore and I still don’t know why that pad is there, but I’m stoked that we had the chance to show part of our hometown in a good looking way – it’s good when things just kind of come together.

garrett hoogerhydetrent barker

words and photos by brad hill

je� “jetty” evans switch pegs hardjeremy deme

SMOOTHER

one handed icepick: kevin salmonpegs: dillon lloydprashant gopal

bar� ip

Well I can’t start to tell you about Smoother with-out stating that he is the most comfortable person I’ve ever met. He’s so comfortable that the � rst time I really encountered him eight years ago, he was walking around a BMX premier in a horse cock thong. Since then, the good old “Smoother get naked” trick hasn’t slowed down. In fact, it’s so common that even his local pub has timed him just to see how quickly he can disrobe. But don’t worry everyone, in his ‘older’ age he thinks he might slowly start growing out of it.

If you’re ever riding down the street and a black Chevy SS 454 peals out right up to you and shouts, “How you like dem bacon strips?” you know that it’s Smooth. Fuckin’ Smooth. Every-thing the guy does has you laughing on your ass. Once he jumped a twenty foot bridge gap in his Camero near the skatepark. I guess the dude who was driving behind him said he saw the underside of his car.

Actually when I think it about, I drank my � rst beer at his house for the premier of QEW Con-nection, the Niagara scene video that preceded the whole BMXFU thing. It was sick. It was one of my � rst experiences with the whole ‘real’

party environment, not the pop and chips kind. Smoother was doing his thing while everyone else was smoking, drinking, and laughing. I think it was his friend Jamie that brought out the vacuum and starting sucking up people’s crabs. Di� er-ent, right? I just remember being blown away. I wasn’t even really all that young – I had just never seen anything like it before because I never hung around an older crew. � ank you Smooth and Big Rich for a hell of a night.

Taking this photo might have been the � rst time I’ve seen Smooth in an uncomfortable position. It could have been a couple things and I wasn’t real-ly all too sure what to do either. I had never shot a � atland photo before and never really knew what part of the trick to show. To make it a little harder, the cement pad is probably only twenty square feet and a good hike through the woods to get to. Nevertheless, as Smooth never disappoints, I managed to get a good photo of the last � atlander in the Niagara region at the bottom of the Gorge at Niagara Falls. I had never seen the Gorge be-fore and I still don’t know why that pad is there, but I’m stoked that we had the chance to show part of our hometown in a good looking way – it’s good when things just kind of come together.

garrett hoogerhydetrent barker

words and photos by brad hill

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Full name, age, and where are you from?

Kean Fougere, 28 from St.Peters, Nova Scotia, but Halifax is home now.

How long have you been building skateparks?

I’ve been doing it full time for three years but I helped on a couple skate-parks prior to working with Newline. One was Halifax Commons and Chester, both in Nova Scotia. � ose two were built by local companies who won the bid.

How far around the country has this job taken you?

I’ve been to every province in Canada but Saskatchewan. I’ve been to Denmark and Sweden also, helped a pretty rad park in Helsingor, Den-mark. Google it if you get a chance.

Do you come from a construction or masonry background before this, or was it just bikes that drew you to the job?

I took a carpentry trade and graduated in 2004. I did that for a year, building houses and doing renovations and quickly realized I hated it. I moved to Halifax knowing the new skatepark was going to be built the next spring, and my good friend and fellow BMX rider Steve Hare gave me the heads up. I didn’t know him well at the time but he knew I took a trade and would probably like to get in on the job. A local company had won the bid and he got on the crew being as he had already had experi-ence with building parks with Grindline. I really have him to thank for the past six years of work whether it was skateparks or other concrete work. I never thought I’d enjoy concrete work because all I’ve ever done was foundations and that’s not very fun. But later on as I got more expe-rience I really enjoyed it. Hand shaping bowls and quarter pipes is the best part of the job, for me. I did regular concrete work with the same company that did the Halifax skatepark for two years a� er, doing curbs and sidewalks and I actually enjoy that too. � en Steve o� ered me a job to work fulltime. I was stoked.

From what you’ve said, and the photos I’ve seen, you’re mostly shaping transitions. Is that your primary role, or does everyone move around and cover di� erent jobs all the time?

My role mostly is ‘concrete � nisher’ but for most parks � nishing con-crete is probably 20% or less of the work that goes in to it. � e prep work is what takes the longest so we all do that until its time for con-crete. So yeah, we all do a bit of it all.

What’s the hardest job on a building site? Like, what’s the one task that everyone doesn’t want to end up working?

� e hardest part for me is hand � nishing on hot days. If by chance there’s another park builder or concrete � nisher reading this you’ll know what I mean. � at being said it’s still my favorite. We all have things we try to avoid but we always end up having to do it anyway.

To date, how many di� erent parks have you had a hand in creating?

Oh man, I did a count with my good friend Al and it’s 18.

How do you cope with being away from home and on the road for so much of the year?

Being away so much is kind of a bummer but then again you are travel-ing and building skateparks all over Canada so I can only complain so much. For me it’s kind of a dream job.

How is it being the sole bike rider at times on a crew of skateboarders building a park?

Well I’ve been pretty lucky. Like I said, Steve Hare got to pick his own crew and picked some friends of his who had construction experience and hired them. All BMXers and I worked with those three dudes for over two years and right now we have I think seven to eight BMXers working with the company. Only this past year the company changed things up and mixed up crews a bit and I ended up working on crews with just skaters for a few months on and o� . It wasn’t bad at all really. 95% of those guys are rad and we all get along really well. It’s kind of funny showing up to a park with a crew of � ve or six hardcore skaters and them being for the most part stoked on your riding.

Do they give you a hard time or bad vibes, or is all that a myth and thrown out the window when you’re working together and for the same cause?

� e guys don’t give me a hard time. � ey joke around and poke fun sometimes, but I give it right back. But yeah, I mean we’re in it to work hard, do quality work and make money of course. As long as you have a good head on your shoulders and do good work they give you a lot of respect. Sometimes when you show up at park and the older skaters � nd out you build parks for a living they chat for a bit and they don’t hassle you. It’s pretty neat that way.

When you guys can’t ride or skate, what do you do to pass the time out-side of work usually?

Hah, good question. When we can’ ride or skate we usually just hang out and � nd stu� to do. We do a bit of exploring being as we’re always somewhere new. Half the time the company has a house rented so we just make ourselves at home

So having been all over the country with this gig, you’ve ridden your fair share of di� erent parks. Which province do you � nd has the best parks in the country, and what’s your favourite park to ride?

Well, I know BC has a ton of good parks but I haven’t been to too many, so to me I’d have to say Manitoba. Winnipeg has the best parks I’ve ever been to. Komenda, � e Forks, Skatepark West, etc. � e list goes on but I’d have to say � e Forks Bowl is the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Our hotel was a block away from it for two months and I was there ev-eryday. All the riders and all the skaters I’ve met there were all awesome people. Really good vibe there.

What about your favourite park that you helped build?

My favourite park, that’s a hard one. I’d have to say the Commons in Halifax would have to be on top, but I’d have to say the most chill and fun job would have to have been Mount Pearl, Newfoundland.

Have you ever faced a situation where you have built a park that is desig-nated ‘no bikes’, and legally cannot enjoy what you helped build?

Luckily I haven’t been put in that situation yet, but it probably wouldn’t stop me from riding it anyway. Most parks I go to now there are more riders then skaters. We’ve actually built two ‘bike parks’ this year. � ey were both in the Maritimes, so I was pretty stoked on that.

With 18 parks under your belt, what’s been the most memorable experi-ence building so far?

� e most memorable thing would just be the friends I have made through work. It might sound cheesy, but it’s true. I’ve made a lot of good friends. You spend from March until December living and working with these guys everyday, and we’ve been lucky because we all get along very well, and I know that doesn’t happen in a lot of cases with other people. It’s a fun group of people and we all like to joke around and have fun. � e traveling is cool too, getting to see every province and most times we’re in di� erent towns in each province. Getting to ride a lot of parks you never ever thought you’d get to ride is pretty awesome too. I can’t complain.

Any advice for people looking to getting in to skatepark building, or masonry in general?

Well if you want to build skateparks, it’s lots of traveling and hotel life. It’s fun work but also the hardest work I’ve ever done. Building concrete parks might sound like all fun and games but it’s not easy. If you’re a skater or rider with carpentry/concrete experience and think it would be rad to build parks I’d say go for it, it’s de� nitely a cool thing to be a part of.

What’s next for Kean?

Good question.

BUILD AND CREATE:KEAN FOUGERE

� e role of a BMX team manager has been compared to that of a professional baby-sitter and I’ll be honest, it’s not that far o� . � e main di� erences are that there isn’t a stocked refrigerator to raid at night and that the people you’re ‘baby-sitting’ aren’t small children, they’re grown-ass men (although at times that’s de� nitely debatable). � is is what my sum-mers have mainly consisted of over the last few years and even though it’s hard as hell at times, every trip is worth remembering for one reason or another.

� e trip that remains the most memorable is the East coast tour that went down 2011. It was one of the longest trips I’ve ever done, the most expen-sive, and the most amazing start to � nish. As anyone in BMX knows, hitting the road with a bunch of your friends is a recipe for good times; having Greg Flag, Sam Lowe, Andy Roode, Phil Bartlett and Sean Cooke along for the ride was perfect. All of these dudes grew up on the East coast so the whole trip was basically a homecoming for them, which obviously meant a lot of loose nights with old friends every step of the way. We started in Hali-fax for the � rst while and the tone for the trip was set pretty quickly: every-one gets trashed and wild at night, parties somewhere, somehow everyone gets up in the morning, breakfast, spots, clips. Everyone was so stoked to be on the trip so motivating the crew wasn’t an issue, which can, at times, be a daunting task.

� e worst part of the trip happened within the � rst few days of us being in town. Sam Lowe was on a mission to conquer all of the spots he le� untouched when he moved to Vancou-ver from Nova Scotia. In particular, he was a� er a wild rail to rail set up. Sam is one of the gnarliest dudes on a bike and seeing him go down as hard as he did was pretty brutal. Just like that, he was done for the rest of the trip but was still there getting everyone stoked to shred day a� er day and get loose at night. What a beast. A� er a while in Halifax we headed to PEI for a bit and were greeted with more East coast hospitality. Sean Cooke’s family hooked up a dope BBQ and some beers for everyone before we proceeded to party in an abandoned knife store with a keg of beer (I know, right?). For some reason the � re department showed up, which could have been the result of the hand-fuls of light bulbs that were microwaved. A� er being kicked out of that spot, we took the keg to the local skatepark to � nish o� the night with all of the locals. To top it all o� , one of the local bike shops put us up for the night in an apartment and woke us up in the morning with fresh salmon that they’d just caught an hour or two before. Ain’t bad.

� e rest of the trip starts to get a bit blurry from that point on. We drove back to Halifax, hung out there for a few more days and nights of riding and partying before taking a long drive to the coast to catch a 14 hour ferry ride to Newfoundland. Somewhere in there we got a chance to stop in Truro, NS for a night to hang out with Andy Roode’s dad and to see the origins of the Roode. He’ll give you a bit of a history lesson complete with year books, trophies and more if you give him the chance.

If being on a huge boat for 14 hours in the middle of the ocean sounds rough, all you need is a bottle of tequila, a bottle of rum and a carton of smokes from Sam Lowe’s dad (thanks again!). Long before we boarded the boat, Phil Bartlett was swimming in the freezing Atlantic, singing random Newf tunes at the top of his lungs and attracting a lot of attention from the locals of North Sydney, NS who were all taking in an outdoor folk concert right next to us. � e majority of the boat ride consisted of: Phil sleeping in various hallways; Sam the dog whisperer wanting to rescue all of the dogs from the storage room and also sleeping in random places; all of the booze being consumed in far less time than it should have been; our cabin stinking like you would not believe within 30 minutes of us being inside; and myself and Sean Cooke waking up hung over in the morning on the communal couches while a country band played and a bunch of unimpressed people stared at us. All in all, it was the best 14 hour ferry ride I barely remember.

Once we landed in Newfoundland we were greeted by Rob from Turndown, one of the best shops in the country. We loaded up and started the two-hour drive to St. John’s, which still remains one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been. We didn’t get a chance to spend a great deal of time in Newfoundland but while we were there, we had a blast.

We sessioned the park at Turndown; had a BBQ courtesy of Dave Scott’s dad; and got to experience the madness that is George Street at night. Sam Lowe was ‘screeched in,’ Phil disappeared several times, dance � oors were conquered and the entire city seemed to open up itself to us and say “hey, you guys, let’s have a really good time.” I’ve never really experi-enced anything like it before, especially in North America. � e Newfs seriously know how to party.

� is trip was one that everyone was sad to see come to an end but it had de� nitely run its course. I never expected to see Newfoundland at any point in my life and was de� nitely glad to experience it and the entire East coast with a group of righteous dudes all thanks to these little kid bikes. Even though planning and executing a big trip can be nerve-wracking, it all pays o� in the end when everyone on the trip and all those you met keep recounting how awesome it all was.

TM TALES: BEST TRIP EVER

“Phil Bartlett was swimming in the freezing Atlantic,

singing random Newf tunes at the top of his

lungs...”

words and photos by harley haskett

Let me start by stating that I’ve never met Kean Fougere. Over the years I had heard his name through mutual friends, from my brother’s stories about ‘this guy’ that he did BMX demos with in the Mari-times, and other places. It wasn’t until my friend Zack (a skateboarder) mentioned that he was work-ing for a company building skateparks around the country with a rider named Kean that I put it all together. A light went o� when I realized that I heard that name. Even though our paths had not yet crossed it turned out that he too knew my mine.

My assumption that he was one of a few riders on these building crews made my fascination grow. In fact, it hadn’t even occurred to me that throughout the skatepark boom in Canada over the last 5-7 years that the companies building these parks would be hiring skilled workers so actively involved in BMX or skateboarding. When I think about a park getting built I immediately think of all the work that goes in to the early stages and dealing with governmental red tape and city council meetings. � e building stage hadn’t even crossed my mind. But someone has to be building these parks, and Kean is one of those hardworking people. I started to wonder about the scope of the job, what kind of back-ground you need, the traveling, the hard work, if being a BMX rider on a work team of skaters a� ects any of it, and more. I got hold of Kean and spoke to him about all of these things, so read below to learn a little more.

words by prashant gopal

zackery macrae

leanne yeadon