Hangup Zine 13 Preview: Joxa Interview
Frequent contributor Ade Cottrell got in contact with a couple of interview ideas and when he raised Joxa as one of them we jumped at the chance! One of the most hectic skaters we’ve had the pleasure of seeing in person, regular attendee at The Ripped and rock fakie master - Here’s our preview!
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I met Joxa in 2006 when he first moved to Coventry. I knew of him through Cov OG Mark “Frocker” Hewitt, and had only really spoken to him on the Sidewalk forum. Shortly after meeting Joxa, we ended up living in a student house during uni - he had a never ending supply of tea and always cooked square sausages for breakfast, and we spent a lot of that time watching skate videos and awful kung fu films. Our paths have coincided on many occasions, not only through skateboarding and as housemates, but also as co-workers at the Odeon cinema, the place all Cov skateboarders seemed to end up working. He’s an amazing skateboarder, and one of the nicest people you could meet - I sat down with him to discuss how a boy from isolated Barrow In Furness ended up skateboarding in Japan.
Over the last 15 years you’ve moved from Barrow to Coventry, then to Bristol, back to Coventry, then to King’s Lynn, and back to Coventry again. What is it about Coventry that keeps pulling you back?
Necessity. And maybe my partner has something to do with it...
I think when we were housemates in uni, I got a really good idea of what your deal was. But, explain for me again, why did we have a dead pig’s head in our freezer?
Haha! Originally for a photo shoot that was deemed too offensive. Then I think I made stock or something out of it.
How did so many skateboarders in Coventry end up working at the same Odeon cinema, and why did we never skate the wallrides they have at the front of every screen?
Because you got everyone jobs there! I think we tried to skate them. I’m sure at one point I tried to drop in on one but carpet does not make a great skate surface.