Gav Drumm Interview

Royale

The Rebirth of Aussie Blading

Australia is once again proving that it has one of the most progressive blading scenes in the world and Melbourne’s Gav Drumm is one of country’s most exciting rising talents.

There was a time when Australia had one of the strongest rollerblading scenes in the world. You could not watch a video or open a magazine without seeing an Aussie face and the competition circuit was no different. Tom Fry, Cesar Mora and Scott Crawford were regular fixtures in the top ten at the vert event and the streets were owned by Dion Anthony, Josh Clarke and Sam Fogarty. Then there were the double threats, like Tim Ward and Matt Salerno, that were at home on either terrain and dominated the podium positions at NISS, ASA and X Games events for several years – then it all went quiet. All of the established Australian professionals seemed to retreat from the limelight and towards the turn of the millennium it was hard work to find a single blader from down under in any form of blading media. Melbourne’s Gav Drumm is the first to admit that the scene in his home country lost its way for a while.

“When blading dipped it dipped hard in Australia,” he says. “But people kept doing it. I guess there’s also a combination of the fact that we are so far away and that people were pretty content enjoying life and blading back home that had an effect on how much the rest of the world got to see what was going on down here.”

The breakdown of the rollerblading industry obviously had a massive impact on Australia. After all, the country is extremely isolated from the main competition circuits in Europe and the US and, with the lack of money in the sport, sponsors were obviously reluctant to spend large portions of their tight budgets on expensive flights in order to keep their skaters in the public eye. However, it seems that the last few years have witnessed the rebirth of Australian rollerblading. Dom West’s Vine St documented the incredible scene in Sydney and Craig Smith’s Seven Rats showed the world that the skaters in Melbourne also have a lot to offer. Plus, let’s not forget that the current WRS world number one is Sydney’s CJ Wellsmore. According to Drumm, it was simply a matter of rebuilding the community with grass roots events and online networks.

Backside Backslide

“So much time has passed and so many things have happened that it’s hard to recall but some major things, from my perspective, were getting snuck into clubs at 15 for premieres of Aussie videos that blew my mind. Getting taken under the wing of the older guys and shown the streets by Clarky (Josh Clarke) and the rest of the crew. Tim Ward starting up a website for Melbourne bladers that kicked off his idea of a monthly street session for everyone who could make it called Skatemeets that spread all across the country and had more and more people going every time.”

Over the past four years, several Australian bladers have created a massive following using online edits as a platform to display their blading skills. Rian Arnold has been making a name for himself with regular astounding online videos and Dom West’s CJ Wellsmore edit showed the world that the Remz rider is one of the most progressive all-round skaters the sport has ever seen. Drumm has also been doing his part to show the wealth of rollerblading talent that exists in Australia by releasing several online edits for previous skate sponsor USD and Sean Cullen’s INRI clothing company. Last year Drumm switched to Valo after he met Jon Julio while he was visiting the country with his team and the industry mogul was blown away by his fast, aggressive style and competency on both street and park.

“Jon (Julio) came over here with the crew in ’09,” he begins. “We got chatting and I showed him some blading. I was off the blades at the time due to a bad stack. I guess he heard I was back on the blades at some point because he hit me up with a message online soon after that just said: ‘Valo in 2010?’”

It must be an honour for any blader to get a personal message from a legendary street skating icon asking you to be on his team, but when you are a closet grommet like Drumm it is the ultimate compliment. Was Julio one of your childhood idols? “Of course, mate. It’s fuckin’ Julio! I have a photo of us and (Josh) Petty outside an old blade shop from years ago when he came through on a tour. I probably have an old, signed Daily Bread somewhere, too.”

Drumm first got into rollerblading in 1994 when someone on his street introduced him to a rather questionable action thriller featuring troubled teen actor Corey Haim and hooked him up with his first pair of rollerbladers. Take note: This is how you get a kid hooked on blading. “My next door neighbour showed me Prayer of the Rollerboys – a b grade ‘90s film set in the future about a drug dealing blade gang that gets busted up by shredder and all-round rad dude, Griffin. It also had that babe, Patricia Arquette, in it. He then put a pair of TRS Lightnings on my feet and we hit the streets.”

The 24-year-old graduated from university with a degree in fine art two years ago and has plans to complete a masters in the near future. However, he has put those plans on hold for a while in order to make the most of his youth and see how far he can push his rollerblading ability. After all, he realises that his body will only be able to endure the type of punishment that rollerblading hands out for so long and further education will always be there when his body has had enough. Any thoughts of a career after he is done with rollerblading have been pushed to the back of his mind for the time being. “I’m not really trying to focus on what the plan is once the dream is over – blade or die.”

Soul Down The Support

Pornstar to Truespin Darkside Pornstar

Words: Louis Flood         Photos: Hayden Golder