Flatlandia

5 minutes with Hibbs Arshad

Hibbs Arshad with a Protostyle freestyle skateboard — Protostyle founder Hibbs Arshad with his latest prototype freestyle skateboard (Dec 2024).

Why freestyle?

Back in school, at the end of the 80s, I used to skate street for a few years and watched Ban This (1989) on VHS everyday. My favourite part was Per Welinder doing a 50-50 handstand to pogo. It was mind-blowing compared to everything else on that video.

Gleaming the Cube (1989) was my next favourite. I loved all the freestyle bits and I didn’t even know it was Mullen until recently.

Fast forward to 2022. My wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I made her buy me a mini complete to fulfill my childhood wish in freestyle skateboarding. Broke an ankle bone doing it but it hasn’t stopped me since.

You’ve mentioned that flatground and freestyle skateboards are hard to find in Malaysia. Can you tell us more about this?

I’m quite picky with the surface I skate on. Wide and smooth flatgrounds around KL are either out of the way, too exposed to our hot and wet weather, or surrounded by ‘unfriendly’ security guards. I try to avoid skateparks at peak hours as well because I feel like I’m in the way of other skaters.

Even with the gaining popularity of skate varieties like longboard, surfskate and quad/inline skates in Malaysia, most skaters are still into street skateboarding. With proper skateparks available nowadays, younger skaters…prefer bigger setups. Parts suitable for freestyle are either uncommon or more expensive.

Azzam [Syafiq], an experienced local freestyle skater, also used street parts until just recently. There’s a veteran flatground skater here who modifies all his parts for his perfect setup.

Is this why you started Protostyle, your Malaysian freestyle brand?

Well I know shipping rates are crazy right now but I still do get stuff from abroad for my collection.

However I was obsessed with having a specific shape and measurements for my deck. I would buy used popsicles and have a guy reshape them and change the wheelbase to fit my specs.

Later on, I realised that doing so would compromise the durability of the decks. So I had proper samples made, loved them and thought it’d be cool to have the first freestyle brand in the country.

What particular shape were you wanting?

I dig the concept of a symmetrical popsicle and I was really comfortable with Witter Cheng’s Plague 1 nose shape. Let’s just say I wanted a deck with a twin nose.

The Protostyle Logo is based on the first shape I made.

Can you tell us about the graphic on the board (which is also the brand’s logo)?

I was hooked on setting up freestyle boards when I just started so that’s what the cog stands for – ‘setup’, just like the icon in our phones. And since I was making prototypes for freestyle decks, that’s where the name came from. It’s corny like that. There’s an actual meaning for the word though. Part of a snail anatomy, lol!

So, in your opinion, what tricks work best with this particular shape?

Fingerflips, footwork, rail tricks and bebops.

By the way, how does one design a freestyle board these days?

Freestyle shapes have been around for a long time and some tricks are easier to master depending on these shapes. Height and weight also play a role in getting the right measurements. But at the end of the day it boils down to preference.

So far the shapes we have are based on decks I’ve been comfortable with. And thanks to Marius Constantin’s kind contribution, we will be releasing a bigger shape that is standardised to suit most European skaters.

[In regards to the process,] I reshape decks using existing 8″ popsicles to get the shape I want…I [then] plot out the shape on PDF with the exact sizing for the woodshop to cut. Currently I use the most mellow mould available at the factory. Custom, flat moulds like the one Marius has will cost both my arms and legs. 😂 Then either silk-screen or UV-transfer the graphics. That’s pretty much the standard process. Unfortunately we don’t have local manufacturers yet so it’s mostly done abroad.

You have also released some single kicks as well. Can you tell us about the inspiration for those?

The 7.25″ deck is similar but less tapered than the double kick, with an illustration of Taming Sari which is the jagged dagger once owned by a legendary Malay warrior known as Laksamana Hang Tuah. The vein wrapping it is an exaggerated extension of our national flower, the hibiscus. Graphics by Finn Anuar.

Protostyle Skateboards' freestyle single kicks.

The 7.875″ deck is a pro model designed by Russian freestyle skater, Vlad Kanin. He wanted a single kick with the size of the standard 8″ popsicle that he’s so used to riding lately. It’s really unique. Suitable for caspers, truck-stand tricks, and really stable in rail. Great for cruising too!

Do you think you’ve learnt something during the process of designing, making and selling boards?

Oh yes. I learnt 3 important things:

Freestyle is all passion. There’s no profit.
Getting the perfect shape is a never-ending process.
Leave the graphics to the designers.

Ok, final question. If you were to design an Aussie skateboard graphic, what would be on it?

Golden wattle and boomerang patterns!

Australian wattle. — Photo by Oscar Rockr on Pexels.com

Connect: Hibbs Arshad is the founder of Malaysia’s first freestyle brand, Protostyle (IG: protostyle.skateboards). While visiting Australia in late 2024, he met up with the Melbourne freestyle crew and let them try his Protostyle Logo setup. If you are in Australia, Protostyle’s Logo, Taming Sari, and Vlad Kanin freestyle skateboards are now available to purchase online via the Flatlandia shop.

What I Have Learned As A Beginner Freestyler

I’m a beginner skater who bought a complete during Melbourne’s COVID-19 lockdowns. As expected, I wasn’t looking towards freestyle at the start. But like countless beginners, I struggled with ollies so I started looking into skating tricks that didn’t require this skill.

Over the years, I have picked up on a few things that I will now share with you.

Firstly, here are tips that are useful for any type of beginner skater:

Scout your local area for places to skate during both the day and night. This includes the obvious skateparks but can also be car parks, the typical parks, the front of libraries, basketball courts and other unexpected spots. All you really need is some flatground and maybe a nearby toilet or water fountain.

Basketball courts are good flatground options

A parking lot is sometimes all you need for skateboarding.

Have a skate tool on you. Nuts can come loose. The last thing you need is one of your wheels or trucks falling off. Also, you can loosen your trucks to learn how to carve or tighten your trucks when learning rail tricks.
Keep a water bottle and sunscreen handy for the warmer months.
Wear loose clothes for easier movement. Outside of shoes, I buy a size larger, getting jeans from thrift shops and buying band shirts at gigs or through Bandcamp. I have clothes I will and won’t wear for skating. You can expect me to wear my Moi Dix Mois shirt while out skating but not my Sex Messiah shirt; one is too big and loose for me but the other is form-fitting.
Set learning goals. Skating is a matter of learning a skill and building upon it.
Get back up. Skating is essentially failing/falling until you succeed. This can be incredibly off-putting for people but that is how you get better at skating.

And now some tips for the beginner freestyler:

If possible, learn from a skate instructor. It is worth pointing out that skate instructors can be fantastic in teaching basics. Most, however, aren’t guaranteed to know any freestyle tricks but those who do know some can be of great help in making progress. Sometimes park/street skaters have a few surprises up their sleeve and it’s how Gou Miyagi of all people ended up influencing how I approach freestyle.

My inspiration: Gou Miyagi

Skate with others. If your skate instructor can’t help you with freestyle tricks, your skate friends might be able to help you. It is much harder to find other freestylers to skate with and learn from though. Not only are they less likely to skate at a skatepark, they are also a rarity. If you do find other freestylers in your area, make the effort to keep in contact with them because they can give you advice on how to do tricks.
Do what you can to practice daily even if it’s just for five minutes. Sometimes there will be days where you can’t skate for one reason or another but that is how life goes at times.
Make use of music. I listen to metal and goth while attempting tricks. It makes for a more enjoyable experience while skating alone.
Film yourself. This typically serves two purposes. The first is that it allows you to post videos of yourself successfully doing a trick. The second is that you can watch it to analyse mistakes or share it and get feedback from other skaters in person or online. As local freestylers can be hard to come by, being able to go online to get advice is useful.
Research tricks. The difficulty lies in sifting through everything online. There are the typical places (YouTube, Instagram and Reddit) where people post freely about freestyle and you can use these for inspiration. For something more official, Waltz Skateboarding’s site and their YouTube channel are going to be the best places to go to as of writing this.

Waltz Skateboarding regularly posts trick tips on their YouTube Channel.

With the mention of Waltz Skateboarding, learning about freestyle skateboard setups can be a lot to take in at the start. If you are like me and started out with a street setup, it may be easier to do a hybrid setup that mixes street and freestyle or slowly transition to a purely freestyle setup. If you’re immediately jumping into freestyle, it will be easier to learn using a freestyle deck. At the end of the day, it’s about figuring out what works for you.

Pay attention to concrete. Rougher concrete is great for practising tricks as you’re less likely to fall and injure yourself but it is rougher on your skateboard. The smoother the concrete, the less stable it will be, but if you’re already skilled at the tricks you’re attempting, it won’t be an issue. Smoother concrete also makes certain tricks easier to perform.

All of this may be a lot to take in, but that’s both the blessing and curse of skating. It’s a long journey to become an incredibly skilled skater, so you have plenty of time to figure it out. At the end of the day, as long as you’re taking the time to make even a tiny bit of progress, you’re on the right track.

Editor’s note: you will also find Stuart Maca’Ghobhainn’s article published in his free zine, which is stocked at the Sticky Institute and appearing at various skateparks around Melbourne, Australia.

Freestyle contest advice – Part Five

Foreward

Earlier this year, I asked for help from the global freestyle community in regards to writing a post about freestyle contest advice, hoping to spur some hometown intermediate/advanced skaters into action. What I received was paragraphs, sometimes pages, on successes, regrets, and hard-earned wisdom and I quickly realised that the single post originally envisioned was not going to be enough space for this topic.

Four posts later, we’ve had:

While these first four parts of the series are relatable to freestylers everywhere, today’s fifth part addresses a very Australian issue when it comes to freestyle contests: distance.

Currently, there is no freestyle contest Down Under. If we want to compete, we need to get on a plane and then acclimatise to a different season and time zone.

It’s not an uniquely Australian problem though. Azzam Syafiq is a Malaysian freestyle skater who has attended contests outside of his home country, competing in China, Japan and Europe over the years. The tyranny of distance is something he’s experienced, so he has kindly written some advice for those of us who have to travel continents to compete. May you find his words insightful.

Hi Aussie freestylers,

While I’ve been to my fair share of overseas contests, I don’t think I have the best answer when it comes to handling jet-lag. There’s always a feeling of grogginess after I travel so far away and spend so many hours surviving in crowded trains, busy airports and stuffy airplanes, and that feeling lasts for a couple of days. Obviously, you can’t help it, especially when the time difference is wide. For example, Malaysia’s time zone is GMT+8 while Germany is GMT+2. That’s a 6-hour difference! And it will get even wider if I want to go to the Americas, which can reach a 12-hour difference. But, I guess I do have some tips that I have learnt over the years and I can share it here:

Make sure to have a good sleep before a long flight

If possible, please take a flight in the middle of the day. That way you can have a full night’s sleep during the night before, then you wake up fresh in the morning, and then you will be fully energised to face the challenges of long travel.

In other words, don’t make the same mistake I did this year. For your reference, my flight from Kuala Lumpur departed on Wednesday, 26 June 2024, at 2:55am. You want to know what I did? I worked for the whole day on Tuesday 25 June (I woke up at 7am, then left the office at 7pm), then I returned home before heading straight to the airport. This meant I didn’t have a proper sleep prior to my 18-hour flight. By the time I arrived in Brandenburg an der Havel, I was awake for close to 42 hours and that’s definitely not healthy.

Flight information — My 18-hour flight from KL to Berlin.

Now, I know this is hard to achieve because flights during the wee hours will be much cheaper than flights that take off during the middle of the day. But if you can, and for the sake of your health, consider spending more to take a flight that will not punish your body. And if you do need to take a 3:00am flight, maybe get a full day’s sleep before the flight and definitely don’t go to work! Maybe just do a half-day of work, if you still need to.

Don’t skate when you arrive!

I get it, you’ve finally landed at your destination, you’re stoked to meet your skate friends in the flesh for the first time or reunite after a long period, and you probably want to join them while they’re having a skate session.

Please, for the love of God, don’t skate after your long flight. That’s what I did this year. Right after I landed in Brandenburg, I joined a skate sesh with a handful of Europeans. I regretted that because the next day, even after a night’s sleep, I still felt fatigued. They might have been fine because the time difference for them was not that big, but for me? Coming all the way from Southeast Asia? Nah, I should have skipped this session and just watched them skate instead.

Skate jam in Brandenburg an der Havel — 😭 I skated with these 6 people after I arrived in Brandenburg.

Of course, you want to see your skate friends as soon as you can, I get that. But instead of skateboarding, maybe just watch them while you sit down, chill and talk. Don’t force your body too much. Remember, you’re there for a contest during the upcoming days!

Don’t forget to eat!

Okay I know this sounds silly. Who the hell forgets to eat?

Well, yours truly forgot to eat enough during the Thursday and Friday before competition. During these two days, I was surviving on simple pastries and snacks and I think it took a toll on me when it was my turn to compete on the Saturday.

World Freestyle 2024 Noticeboard — My qualifying round was on Saturday, while the finals was on Sunday.

Maybe I was just so stoked to see my friends again and I was too busy cheering for them to remember to eat. But also my thought process was, ‘Hey I’m not gonna compete on Thursday and Friday, why should I spend money on food during these 2 days? Plus I’m always looking for ways to save money when I’m traveling!’

Looking back, I think that was the wrong choice to make. I should have spent money on actual meals during those 2 days because it would have helped my body deal with the jet-lag. Skimping on money for food is okay if you’re traveling for leisure (that’s what I regularly do, haha) but for a sports contest that you’re competing in? You need to eat full meals, even during non-contest days.

And that’s all I have for you. I hope it is helpful.

Azzam

PS – I’m glad to report that on Sunday, during the World 2024 amateur finals, I skated the best run I’ve ever done in a contest and I’m sure it’s because my body had recovered (not fully, but enough) from the jet-lag after 3 full days in Brandenburg.

Denny Riordon Reissue: ‘The Honda Civic of Freestyle decks’

In the era of modern freestyle, we are spoilt for choice. There are countless companies and brands that are paving the way for innovation. Some of these include Waltz and MLM who take a more modern approach to their decks, often incorporating concave and cheeky things like a nose.

When I started out, the only brands that I could get were Powell-Peralta reissues of shotty prehistoric freestyle shapes and Moonshine decks that were keeping with ‘traditions’ but actually maintaining decent quality. My first deck was a single-kick Dan Garb ‘Scorpion’ pro model, and I loved that thing. So much so, I would continue skating it even once it was properly dead. Something about a single kick and its un-controllability made it exciting to skate. I’ve always had a soft spot for single kicks because that was what everyone in the eighties was using and I was hooked on that era of Freestyle .

Flash forward like six years and now the market is primarily double kicks with random names like ‘INVERTED NIPPLE CONCAVE’ or ‘FLAT-EARTH CONCAVE’. Don’t get me wrong, I love it. And yes, companies are still making retro-inspired single kicks but they always have a touch of modernism to them. I feel like the traditional feel and reactiveness of a single kick that’s flatter than a pancake is not really available.

Flash forward again to two months ago when I received two decks to review. One was a modern Moonshine deck and one was an interesting, arousing specimen, the Toxic reissue Single kick Denny Riordon Pro-model.

Toxic's Denny Riordon reissue in black from Decomposed Skateboards. — The Denny Riordon reissue with Seismic skids, Indy 109 trucks and Kryptonic wheels. Classic.

With dimensions like 7.3″ width, 27.75″ length, 13″ wheelbase, 5″ nose and 5.5″ tail, this deck is as classic as you can get. The pointy nose, the squarish tail and a concave that is non-existent…It’s chalk ‘n’ cheese, bangers and mash, chips and sauce…simple sh!t. To some it’s very unappealing, however, to me it’s what the young kids refer to as ‘SICK!’

While skating it, you can feel everything, making it easy to react and predict what the board may do. However, because of the flat concave it can sometimes feel like you are slipping off the deck which will be a deal-breaker for any new cats or modernist freestylers. I find that being more unstable on top of the deck is an opportunity for complex footwork such parabola flips and tailspin late shuvs. Through lots of work, the ‘negative’ concave can be used to unlock many tricks that are not possible on a modern freestyle deck.

It must also be mentioned that street-style flip tricks are very difficult to perform but not impossible. Ollie kickflips are interesting and really require a flick off the side. Heelflips are unfortunately off the menu with treflips working way too well. So, to all the ‘Yuzuki Kawasaki’ style skaters who may be scared by the spooky thought of no concave and no nose…you’ll be fine sweetie.

At the end of the day, the Toxic Denny Riordon reissue is a solid choice for any freestyle fiend who wants to experience classic freestyle nuances while avoiding crap shapes and poor quality (cough, cough, Powell, cough cough). There are more modern choices available that are easier to obtain, however, I believe it’s worth the effort tracking this one down. Yes there are slicker choices around but this is good too and is something familiar. Reliable, firm, solid shape with no frills…the Denny Riordon reissue is the Honda Civic of freestyle decks.

A Vintage Honda Civic. — Classic and reliable like a vintage Honda Civic. Photo credit: Eli King.

If you are interested in trying it, it is unfortunately not available in Australia but can be ordered from the US (Decomposed) or the UK (Offset). For anyone who cares about colour-coordinating their outfits to their decks, it comes in natural, orange, green, black, and blood red (not actually blood red, i just thought it sounded metal).

So, stop reading and go do some pogos or something.

Freestyle contest advice – Part Four

Lessons learnt one contest at a time*

2016: World Round-Up

I entered my first ever contest on the other side of the world despite not having any info about how to prep or having any fellow Aussies joining me. I was just a kid, fresh out of high school, with a dream and passion flowing through their veins.

‘Nervous’ was an understatement for how I felt. I told myself to ‘bring it on’ and reminded myself ‘it’s normal’ and ‘everyone feels the nerves’.

18-year-old Josh Dunstone at World Round-Up 2016

Contest nerves: I still battle with these to this day. Breathing exercises and awesome friends help turn the anxiety into adrenaline, which actually aids the energy I put out into run.*

Little did I know the incredible world I was about to roll into. Stepping foot inside that roller rink, meeting other freestylers for the first time was like reuniting with family you didn’t even know you had. You’re connected to people of all ages, races, religions, and genders, thanks to a piece of wood with wheels, and it keeps you at peace.

Although we were all competing against one another, that feeling of everyone wanting the best out of each other really helped push progression. I felt I placed well for my first contest—7th place in the AM division. I knew this was it.

2017: World Round-Up

When the dust settled, I had a 20-hour flight to reflect on everything I’d learnt. I started to plan for the next contest.

I had received some great advice from the likes of Tony Gale and Denham Hill on avoiding repetition and moving on after messing up. I learnt the structure of a routine, how important music is, the categories judges score points on, how important consistency is and what I had to do to improve for the next time.

The other really important thing I took from World Round-Up was how incredible the scene and the people in it are.

I started writing down a list of tricks I wanted in my run and worked on figuring out ways to connect them with footwork to create a sense of flow. During this time I would work on different footwork links while also improving, adding and learning those ‘banger tricks’.

I entered the Round-Up again and placed 8th in the same division. While I was a little disheartened that I dropped a place, I realised the competition was getting fierce. I needed to step things up.

2018: World Round-Up and King of Freestyle

I started to gain more confidence in my abilities and myself. I started engaging with the crowd, getting a clap going at the start of my run, and began with fast footwork to spark that initial interest. I placed 4th in the AMs, my highest placing at the time.

The difference between 2017’s and 2018’s contest prep came down to structure, training and style.

Structuring a run timed to music that flowed well and had some unique tricks wasn’t an easy task.

Marcio Torres’ run from World Round-Up 2018 showcases freestyle choreographed to music. He performed a synchronised run to ‘The Nutcracker’.

Visualisation helped with structure. Once I had my run written out on paper, I started to visualise how those tricks flowed into one another and how they flowed with the music.

Training then came down to breaking the whole run into different segments and practicing those segments individually, slowly linking them together.

Style came with time and mine started to develop the more I practised.

King of Freestyle Skateboard Contest 2018 — King of Freestyle 2018: (left to right) Yuzuki Kawasaki, Mike Osterman, Yuta Fuji, Josh Dunstone

I wanted to broaden my horizons and decided to compete in Japan. By this time I had a structured routine written out in an old notepad and treated it as gospel.

When performing my final trick in my first run, I botched a side flip from rail and smacked my head on the wooden floor. One of my favourite moments. I placed 3rd in the AM contest and surprised myself when I placed 4th for the King of Freestyle (Pro + Am). I had a new goal of turing pro.

2019: World Round-Up and Euro Freestyle

2019 was my final contest as an amateur. I placed 2nd at the Round-Up. My sponsor Maple Road Skateboards and I decided it was time to go pro. We created a board with my name on it—what a moment this was.

I went to Germany the same year to compete in my first pro contest. Things were getting serious…

Euros Freestyle 2019: going pro and having fun

…Seriously fun that is. Germany, 2019, so bright and alive.

At my first ever pro contest, I placed 4th, right behind the guys I looked up to and barely in front of the most talented skaters in the world.

Going ‘pro’ in the freestyle world is a badge of honour more than anything. You still need to earn it but you don’t get paid. As much as the freestyle scene has grown and is still growing, to the mainstream world and especially Down Under it is still thought of as quite niche.

2020: World Round-Up

Everything changed when COVID-19 hit. The world came to a halt but some pretty creative and awesome ideas came out of this murky situation.

For instance, the World Round-Up decided to hold their contest online for 2020/2021, which gave people the chance to save money on plane tickets and or compete for the first time.

There were a few new faces from Australia who were dipping their toes into freestyle. Flynn Baird is an awesome dude who grew up in the same area I did; thanks to his gymnastics background, he showed incredible skills from the get-go. Daniel Aubrey and Rohan Cowley were fellow Maple Road Skateboards teammates who had been quietly honing their freestyle skills. Veteran Aussie freestyler David Mock, a legend in his own right, joined in. All had the chance to compete without having to fork out thousands to get to the other side of the world. The online format was awesome and a super inviting way to get people involved in competing.

Preparing for an online contest isn’t much different to IRL-contest prep. Brainstorm tricks, piece how those tricks will get you flowing to the next, structure a run using those tricks, play around with what music fits best and skate your little heart out.

2022: World Round-Up

2022 came about. The past two years had been rough. Going through depression, a lot of personal/family/drug issues, and being in lockdown for half of it had me not in a great mental or physical state. Nevertheless I got a call asking if I wanted to go to the contest in Canada, with just three months to prepare and being in one of the worst states of my life. I said I’d be there.

Looking back I could have trained a hell of a lot harder than I did. My main focus at that time was the visualisation process and I didn’t pay enough attention to actually skateboarding.

The time came and I jumped on that plane $5000-out-of-pocket but still starry-eyed. This contest felt different—it had been 3 years since competing in front of a crowd and with my state of mind, lost luggage and a broken board, I folded. To me I embarrassed myself. Surprisingly I didn’t place dead last but placing didn’t matter to me. My goal with contest runs is to bring life to what I visualise and have fun doing it; I didn’t achieve that.

I plummeted after that, falling deeper into depression and out of love with skateboarding. Battling with whether I should keep going on with this skating journey, being sick of feeling sick, I finally decided to seek help. It took time and I still am climbing uphill but knowing we ain’t at the peak yet is what drives me now.

Lurking in the background, since moving out to Melbourne CBD in 2021, has been an incredible group of skaters known as the ‘Olliefans’. As much as I love a good solo sesh, having such an awesome crew of friends to skate and hang out with has made this climb so much more bearable. I may not show it enough but I will forever be grateful to them all.

My skate family: Olliefans celebrating the crew’s 3rd year together at Melbourne IMAX.

Present Day

It’s now October 2024. I have 7 months until the next contest, World Freestyle Championships 2025, held in Germany.

I decided I wanted to compete again and started preparations from January 2024. Like clockwork I went through old contest-run notes, watched past footage and started mapping out a run, breaking the whole run down into 5 different segments, then practicing the segments individually, then practicing two segments at a time until I could do the whole run.

I’m still learning a lot and doing the most learning and training I’ve ever done to prep for an upcoming contest. Here are a few things I’ve taken away so far:

Balance is key. Having a balance of training, visualising and rest helps keep a level head and prevents burnout, especially if you work full-time or have other responsibilities. Push yourself but don’t overdo it to the point of exhaustion and burnout, it only stop-starts the process.

Set little goals. Obviously the goal of any contest is to win and have fun doing it. For me it’s also about creating what I want to create. As big-picture goals, these are great to have, but having little goals help too. One of my little goals is to jump on my board every day; as long as my feet hit grip once a day, whether it’s for 5 minutes or 5 hours, mission accomplished.
Things take time and that’s okay. One of my favorite things to say (only because it rings so true) is ‘the more you do something, the better you become at it’. A little goal I set myself is to have my whole run on film by the end of September. I achieved that on October 2nd and was the happiest kid. Past me would’ve been bummed that I was two days late, now I’m just happy to be smelling the roses. Enjoy the process.

Skateboarding isn’t the only training. Something I never really paid attention to up until now is my diet and exercise routine outside of skating. Eating burgers and chips for dinner every night sounds lavish but it didn’t do me any favours. Paying attention to what I eat and working out on the side has helped the progress of training and prep more than I imagined.

Don’t be too hard on yourself. Outside factors will come into play that are out of your control. Don’t let yourself get too down on them. If you haven’t achieved what you wanted today, there’s always another chance to achieve them ten-fold.

Here concludes the fourth part of our series on freestyle contest advice. The fifth part, which will feature thoughts from Azzam Syafiq, will be posted on November 30, 2024.

*Editor’s note: Josh Dunstone’s World Round-Up photos were taken by Jim Goodrich.