NocturnUp Hong Kong - Nick Richards
So Nick can you give us a bit of your skate background, where did you grow up, how did you discover the wonders of four wheels? I'm from between Newport and Cardiff in Wales, I got into skating through a German sponsored skater (Ralph Poschke) who moved to our school when I was about 12/13. Anyone you grew up skating with still rolling now? Anyone whoâs come through weâd know about or should know about? Lots of the people I grew up with still skate, as for fresh talent in South Wales, it seems like every time I go home there's a new ripper. That place breeds good skateboarders! When did you first get into filming? Was it through skating or outside interest? A few months into skating, after I caught the bug, I was at the newly opened CSP (Cardiff skatepark) having a roll about. A BMXer came flying at me so I tried to get out of his way by jumping up onto the block I was next to. This was before I could even properly ollie, but somehow the board came with my and I ended up on top of the block. I completely lost my balance and came backwards off it onto my straight arm, resulting in a break. Still wanting to hang out with my mates, despite the broken arm I begged my parents to pick me up digicam (with no audio) from Argos. After that I found myself studying skate videos from a filming perspective, probably moreso than skating. After that I slowly progressed to a VX1000 and stuck with that for a few years until the repair costs became too much of an issue and I realised I wanted a career outside just filming skateboarders. That's when I picked up a 5D mk2 and started to take it all a bit more seriously. Any backlog of edits/videos the reader could go hunt down? If you look at www.vimeo.com/nickrichards there are lot of skate videos that go back to 2008. Any further than that are still on VHS. Whatâs your personal favourite video/edits throughout your years? Whatâs the go to video for the hype skate? Siam Siam But Different in Thailand or The Far East Coast in Vietnam were incredible experiences. For hype though I'd have to say the new NocturnUP. Whoâs initial plan was it for the Hong Kong trip NocturnUp? We'd done one the year before in Bangkok which was initially Daryl's idea after he got back from his travels. The way that Asian cities caught his eye at night inspired the concept. Also many of them are too hot to skate during the day and overpopulated so it was a win win. Hong Kong came about because I was working with Isaac (Wilkinson) and he'd previously been night skating there. The idea was that it would be the two of us filming Hong Kong to share the workload but in the end Isaac couldn't make it. How did you know which riders would be into the mission? The rider selection was down to who we knew and wanted to go. There were a few other names we wanted to come but finances and prior obligations got in the way. In the end we had Charlie Munro, Jordan Sharkey, Seb Batty and also Jasper Dohrs (a Seattle transplant living in Bangkok) to join us too. It was just Daryl and Dylan Hughes the year before, with the Bangkok dudes and they smashed it so we were confident HK would work out too!
How long did you have over there?
We had 12 days there in total, which resulted in 10 full nights of filming and very little chilling.
Most memorable moment from the trip?
There was a lot of funny shit that happened throughout, but probably the most memorable thing was Daryl's battle on the last night. He took a slam, that I will not be able to unsee, then five minutes later came out victorious.
Were spots easy enough to find? Obviously Black Sheep family member Seb was on the trip as a guide, how did he come through for you?
If we didn't have Seb, Owen Yu and Piet Guilfoyle, we probably wouldn't have skated a lot of the hidden gems. Hong Kong city itself is actually quite small though and many nights we'd skate from one side of the city to the other and find things along the way. The boys always had our backs and were the ones to wake us up from our daylight slumber to seize the night haha. Luckily we didn't have any gnarly situations - as you occasionally do in foreign countries on skate trips - so we all just had a bloody great time!
Who was most productive on the trip? Stirring the pot with this one but who would also be the nightmare dude who stayed in bed longer than everyone else or generally was a nause, haha?
It's pretty safe to say Charlie Munro came away with the most footy, but none of these boys farted around getting tricks. I have to say it was the most productive trip I've personally ever been on, I'm very proud of all my boys! As for late risers I think we all had our moments, same goes for being nauses haha.
Any specific thanks to brands or anyone who helped out making NocturnUp a reality?
Vans helped with Daryl and Sharkey; Primitive with Charlie; New Balance with Jasper; and Seb and I paid for ourselves. Most of the boys only had flights covered though, so a lot of the stuff we did was out of our own pockets.
Any future skate/filming trips planned?
I should have some more soon with Charlie for New Balance, and Daryl is really keen to get NocturnUP happening more than once a year. The next call for that is Taipei which I've heard is incredible. I'm also off to South Africa with the legends on the Route One team - that'll be a dream trip. Other than that we'll have to see what the summer brings.
