Generation wise it’s probably:
Olly/Benny
Brady/Jensen
Raemers/Nordberg
Kyron/Lintell in last few years
Are we only allowed to put forward two guys at a time?
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Kyron is pro for numbers not that I follow them, and Harry’s fully on Real, Spitfire, Cons and volcom?
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Hector probably my favourite.
Who is Hector @hugo
Let’s just collectively forget nordberg exists
Such a bad trick selection. Hopefully he keeps these stunts out of the streets.
Consolidated.
Heitor
lol, thought he was from London.
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I said that Palace doesn’t count because it’s not like they’re a brand that just anyone can get on (as far as my perception of it is). Not saying other companies don’t have specific criteria or standards but how many people have Palace sponsored outside of their crew? Hardly any.
The chances of a good skater sending in a sponsor tape to Palace and getting put on, compared to sending in a tape* to say Death or Fabric or the National is pretty slim right?
*youtube link
No wonder he’s so good 
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I don’t know who Kyle Wilson is but if his footage is really anticipated the he’s not the sort of person I’m talking about. And surely I’m giving Palace more credit by saying not just anyone can get on their team?
I’m not having a go at Palace at all, there’s no need to defend them.
My point is, rightly or wrongly, that if some really good 17 year old kid wants to get a hook up on a UK board brand and step up from his local scene in order to pursue skateboarding, Palace are not going to be the first port of call when it comes to a potential board sponsor. That’s not dissing them at all, if anything it’s saying their too elite??
Harry Lintell is so good. Impeccable style, really wicked to see him fully on Real.
Jacob Harris has done a lot to rightly boost the international profile of the Vase/AD crew.
Also glad that Korahn has got some shine internationally thanks to his Blips part.
Good UK representation overall I reckon!
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Barney Page will go places
Already gone places.
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He worked at Mwadlands, along with Kyle Wilson, and got hooked up from there. You definitely have to be tight with Palace to ride for them. Heitor is the exception.
Some odd reading in here.
Palace doesn’t count? It’s one of the biggest board brands on the planet, isn’t it? And it is from the UK. That’s sick.
How the hell has Lintell come out of nowhere. Didn’t he have three or four Sidewalk covers as well as covers and interviews in Kingpin, Free, Vague, Grey…footage in tons of shit and probably ten full length parts.
Off the top of my head, full parts were in Sidewalk In Motion, Volcom Ten Minutes thing, Sidewalk Bonus Part, Cons Please Charge part, Volcom Holy Stokes (mini) part, Spiftire part, Real part, Blips part…hmm…Theres probably more. He’s always in those Arson Dept clips, too
.
Ten years of doing shit isn’t really “out of nowhere”
The Blueprint thing had nothing to do with Flip doing well in the US. At least, I don’t think so.
Flip was a US brand for a few years before BP even existed.
The brand just had a consistent image and well produced videos. The team never had “the best” riders coming out top to bottom; people like Wainwright, etc. were never on there for example. But the riders were marketed really fucking well. That made people from both the UK and later outside of the UK take note. People were aware of Blueprint overseas but it wasn’t until Lost & Found that BP really started to be seen beyond the UK in any numbers…The Royal Family/Fully Flared was no happy accident.
Theres a ton of names living all over the world who are originally from the UK and are “up there”.
Dudes from the UK who are fans of “pro skateboarding” or whatever the fuck that means who dont know who Kyle Wilson is need to get up to speed. He is being sent out to the US to jump into Nike filming trips with Ishod, FFS.
Speaking of Nike…Korahn, full team.
As is Casper who also had the opening part in the last Nike full length.
And Kyron.
Then theres Barney Page - a dude who will “go places”? lol. Come on…He was on the come up with Lintell a decade ago! He’s also had a bunch of parts including ones in US videos.
Obvs Raemers was mentioned. Pro for everyone…Three Thrasher covers.
Knox is a heavy hitter…Very Raemers like in that sense. Thrasher covers. Pro everything…
What about Sam Beckett? Was pro for Blind. Now pro for Madness.
Funny thing is; as far as I know, all these lot live outside of the US. So, “making it out to the USA” isn’t really the be all and end all in 2020…or for the past few years.
And no brand worth their weight are sponsoring “any old person”. At all.
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I think this is really interesting and we’ve seen a massive change since social media took over. A lot of the traditional markers of having made it or achieving recognition are no longer there. I feel like Instagram etc. has essentially made redundant the older gatekeepers like Sidewalk etc. And with that a lot of the sponsors’ money that helped do comps and helped give people a spotlight has ended. There’s not really a lot of rewards anymore. I think a lot of people recognise that and try to do things more on their own - start a small board brand with a local crew, make a video that will get some recognition, generate their own hype. But that sort of means there isn’t much of a British skate industry anymore - it’s really disparate, brands struggle to stay relevant (outside of Palace), skaters can’t have much of a career etc.
The situation mirrors the music industry kind of, and other creative industries. Rather than be purely a positive democratic force, that lets you get your name out to a wider audience, the internet has made things harder to actually make a living off of music/comedy/whatever. There’s more people competing to go viral, people are self-publishing more, smaller labels/companies are struggling whilst streaming services/social media platforms boom. It means skating/music has to become more of a passion project rather than something you can make loads of money off of (unless you’re really lucky).
He definitely didn’t come out of no-where but the legit Real hook up did to me.
Hmm…I dunno- maybe it just passed you by?
He was on that tour with them in 2014. That’s a long time ago now…then ads etc. started after. but even before that tour, he was shooting interviews while skating for them.
…and then his Sidewalk part (I think that was his first part) was 2011, so that’s 3 years of building before getting boards from a sponsor and then a couple more years before getting the “legit hook up” as you call it. All seems like a slow, steady build rather than something out of nowhere.