Read this in print in Hangup Zine 11 here.
I’ve known Phillip Sangster aka Pip for about 7 or 8 years now - back then he was one of those ambi-dextrous little kids who could skate, scoot, BMX and everything in between. Having stuck with skateboarding, he’s turned into one of the addest skateboarders to come out of Coventry, with a ton of style, tricks done at breakneck speed, and creativity across all
terrain. When Hangup messaged me saying they wanted to find out more about what makes Pip tick, I understood why - he’s a chilled out dude who’s easy to get on with, and I am stoked that more people are hyped on what Pip is bringing to
skateboarding. With that in mind, I posed some questions to him to give you an insight into the world of Pip.
One Foot + Frontside Smith | Coventry | Photos: Ryan Bradley.
I’ve always thought of you as one of the Cov lads, but you’re moving out to London soon, right?
Yep.
London’s skate scene is absolutely massive, what areas of London skateboarding are you looking forward to getting involved with?
Well I’ll be I’ll be living in the south east, near New Cross. I’m gonna skate with the Esse London boys a lot. I skated with them quite a lot before, when I used to live in London.
London’s got some great skateparks as well, what are some of your favourites?
Crystal Palace is an amazing place. Probably one of the best skateparks I’ve ever been too. Stockwell’s good, too. I really like Mile End as well, so I’ll probably spend a lot of time there.
You’re always down for a trip - I know you’ve done some extensive bike trips and were out in Paris last year. What’s the gnarliest spot you’ve encountered on your travels?
Probably have to say this spot we went to in Barca in 2016, when I went out there with the Keegan twins. It was spot I hadn’t seen anyone skate before, and we went out for a wander in the evening, and just came across this crazy hill bomb. It was just so steep and there was no run off at the bottom, and it just went off into a main road, like a motorway or something. For some reason I decided to try and bomb the hill, and immediately it was way too fast to try and powerslide or anything. I got near the bottom and just got mad speed wobbles, bailed and slid about 10 feet and landed underneath a car.
Any big trips on the horizon?
None planned, but I’m definitely dying to get on one. I really wanna go to Copenhagen, because they have some crazy parks. Europe’s just poppin’ at the minute, loads of great parks around.
Growing up in Coventry you’re probably familiar with just about every spot in the city. What are your favourite places to skate in and around Cov?
As far as skateparks go, Holbrooks Bowl is the best, as everyone knows. I really like Memorial Park Skatepark, aka Covpark, although I’m probably the only one who can say that. Everyone else hates it. Whenever I suggest going there I just get shot down immediately. I think there’s a good vibe down there... it’s just the location, it’s in the sun all the time, really nice surroundings, in a good part of town, and it’s near the city centre
Frontside Ollie + No Comply Tailslide | Coventry | Photos: Ellian Lisica.
Any other places you like to skate in Cov?
As far as street spots go, Herbert (The Herbert Art Gallery) is obviously on the list, because that’s where 90% of the skaters in Cov go now. Natwest 5 is a good stair set, it’s just got an ideal run-up and landing.
Cov’s got an abundance of crazy bank spots as well I guess?
Of course, like Boy’s Club Banks and Madge’s Banks. Yeah they’re all good. Really provides if you want all of those different bank spots. You got Walsgrave Fountain as well for some street transition, but I’ve never really skated it properly.
You always seem to have a laugh involving multiple skateboards, or in some cases, combining extra props with skateboards like camping chairs or tyres. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done on a skateboard?
Ooof… The camping chair was pretty good. Definitely up there with the weirdest thing I’ve done with a skateboard. I mounted a camping chair on two skateboards and bombed down the Boys Club Banks on it. Tyres are also really good to skate as well, because the minute you ollie onto them you just bounce straight off, you don’t have to pop off them. I like to skate in ski stance a lot as well, just like riding down banks, trying to skate as fast as you can in ski stance, it’s all good.