Josh Rounding Interview | Hangup Zine 14
I met Josh in the summer of 2012 at Boardmasters festival in the delightful seaside town he calls home. My first thought was ‘who let a stag-do builder onto the miniramp?’
This article originally appeared in Hangup Zine 14.
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Intro + Questions: Dave Morgan.
Photos: Danny Parker.
I met Josh in the summer of 2012 at Boardmasters festival in the delightful seaside town he calls home. My first thought was ‘who let a stag-do builder onto the miniramp?’
Built like a brick shithouse with a jaw that could plaster a wall, I was quite baffled by the fella at first. It was only after he noticed my Division 24 t-shirt and came over, announcing in a very non-Yorkshire accent that he too originated in God’s own county, that I realised what a lovely bloke (and a big softy) he truly is.
Raised on the weathered ply of Wooden Waves, Josh’s skating takes the form of someone fighting in mid-air. Forever Mach-10 and normally lofting a frontside air over your head, it’s quite apparent that this guy favors transition skating. With the now not-so-recent update of Newquay’s park, I’ve seen Josh’s skating improve tenfold. This became even more obvious last summer, when I spontaneously decided to move to his little town of Newquay, ending up staying at his parents’ house and skating every minute we could.
When Josh isn’t grafting on the building site or smashing it around Concrete Waves, he’s found in the sauce. It fully blew my mind when he took me out surfing, and it was evident his skating and surfing crossed over in both style & inspiration. His ability to catch pretty much any wave & attack it with such aggression makes for a joyous spectacle.
So Mr Roundhead, What came first, skating or surfing?
Definitely surfing, and then had a friend move opposite me when i was eleven or twelve who skated and he had ramps, so we’d skate in the street together. (At this point, Josh’s dad bursts into the room, not realising we were doing this interview and started asking if we were ‘live on the youtube’ haha.) So yeah, skating ended up taking over at one point and I kinda stopped surfing for a while.
You originate from Leeds, yet reside in Newquay, how’d that come about?
My mum and dad used to come down on holiday all the time and I guess they liked it that much that they decided to move down from Leeds, so me and my sister were pretty much raised down here from the age of seven or eight.
Backside Boneless | Hawke Plaza
I remember a few years ago, you randomly rocked up at Welcome’s fifth birthday celebration and ripped Hyde Park a new one. Was it an intentional trip up for that, or were you simply in town by chance? Do you also get stoked on northern skating, and does it differ from the scene down in the Kern?
My friend Craig who lives down here is from up Harrogate way originally, so he asked if I wanted to drive up for the birthday jam. Luckily I’d already met Chris Parsons, Liam Hobson and a few of the Harrogate / Leeds lads through him, so it made it a bit easier.
I recall it being the first time I’d skated with you outside of Boardmasters, which was a few weeks previous to the Welcome jam too. It was definitely good to see you in a slightly less chaotic environment than Fistral beach, that’s for sure.
There is always a real good energy when you go skate hyde park too, like the park is what it is you know? But the people there make every session electric. Folk like John sykes & Doug McLaughlan always made for a good skate - especially meeting Doug for the first time shortly after his accident, and he was skating round The Works with a bandage on his head. That was pretty surreal. I always remembered watching him in Baghead Flats, so it was sick to see him skating in real life, even if he was a little worse for wear at the time.
It’s kinda the same down here, especially now we’ve had the park rebuilt. It’s real good to see everyone ripping, even the real young kids are killing it now - they’re really progressing fast.
Most obviously learn to skate after surfing, you kinda just get brought up within that scene down here which is pretty special.
Nosegrind Tailgrab | Playing Place
You clearly take a lot of inspiration from the Anti-Hero guys and their approach to skating, who gets you most stoked these days?
Yeah, always liked that on-edge speed, not giving a fuck and just going for it.
Definitely guys like Grant Taylor. I love the whole Blokes crew, Snelling and co - it’s gnarly, but it’s also real funny, which is pretty vital in skateboarding. You can’t take shit too seriously.
Would you rather quit skating or surfing?
That’s a horrible question! I guess if my knees give out I’d have to pack in skating, but I don't plan on quitting either. Surfing doesn’t impact the knees as much really, so i guess in the long run you’re better off surfing. Basically as long as i can still do both, I’ll do both. Simple.
Front Blunt | Newlyn East
Being a massive Stone Roses fan, and a massive hard bastard, do you reckon you could win a fight against Ian brown?
Ian brown all the way, apparently I’ve heard a rumour that he’s some sort of karate master. I heard he threatened to knock some TV presenter out once, ripped the mic off him and walked off stage haha. That was hilarious. Yeah he’s definitely hard.
Your dad John got you into surfing, is he stoked on your skating too?
Yeah he’s definitely stoked on skating. He prefers to watch me surfing, as he got me into it, but yeah he’s stoked on coming down to the park on his Lambretta and watching me which is cool. He likes handplants - they’re his favourite trick.
Stalefish | Concrete Waves
You need to get learning handplants then son.
Yeah, I need to watch more Grosso footage, RIP!
You ride for Flavour skate shop, and to be honest I’m surprised you’re not getting hooked up by more folk with how you go about your skating - have you ever filmed a part or anything?
Yeah me and Danny Parker are actually working on something - we’ve kinda been filming off and on for the last two years, but as Danny’s had a baby since we started and stuff, things have taken a bit longer than expected. But yeah, basically mainly a park part, around Newquay and a few other bowls and such. To be honest though, I’m not really the kinda guy to go filming, I always bail as soon as the camera comes out.
Frontside Heelflip | Hawke Plaza
You’re pretty spoiled for good photographers down in Cornwall having both Leo Sharp and Danny Parker, what’s your favourite photo you’ve got, or one taken down that way that you’ve always loved?
Always loved this one by Danny of, I think, Christian Watts ollieing between two skinny walls & the background is the sea, it’s just always stuck with me.
Another one of Remick Thomas bombing the hill to the beach, and you can see the whole bay. I think it was used in the Flavour promo vid.
Yeah having Leo sharp down here is really amazing, like he doesn’t just want to shoot the well known dudes- he’s really good at getting the underdogs out there, which is pretty special. He’s always messaging us trying to get us out, and not just shooting the same guy that’s already been in every mag, even if that guy is killing it.
Thanks to Danny and you guys for sorting this out!
And cheers to Flavour for keeping me going!
...Was that good?
That was grand mate! I hope we can skate again soon whenever I get back across the channel, or vice versa, big love Josh - Keep on keepin’ on brother.
Backside Tailslide | Concrete Waves
This article originally appeared in Hangup Zine 14.
Become a paid subscriber to receive every issue of our zine as part of your subscription.