I first stepped on a skateboard at the age of 15 inspired, like many of my generation, by the Back to the Future movie!  The next few years were spent skating at places like Rom, Southbank and Rampage Skatepark in Leigh on Sea.  Summer holidays were passed skating non-stop and traveling further afield round the UK and sometimes Europe when funds would allow.  It was always just a hobby, a laugh, an excuse to travel and the key to many great times, I never thought it would end up being my job.

After leaving university with a degree in Civil Engineering, I had a few years of enjoying the carefree life: skating everyday and traveling far and wide including living in Hong Kong and Australia.  Sometime around the age of 25 the real world caught up me and after a few courses at the London College of Printing I worked as a Graphic Designer – firstly in sign writing, then marketing and finally in the record industry.

Around the age of thirty I had itchy feet (or maybe a midlife crisis) and due to my long involvement in skateboarding I gradually felt myself being pulled towards the skateboard industry.  This started as a bit of repping, organising the odd comp and some judging and then almost out of necessity O.G. Distribution Ltd was born and run for 3 years.  Although not much of a financial success O.G. picked and reared some of the most talented skateboarders in the UK at the time and even managed to produce a DVD ‘never been loved’ on zero budget! Whilst I lived on 14p Value baked beans the company was respected and highly regarded throughout Europe.

Soon after the untimely demise of O.G. I worked as international team manger for Crème Skateboards, Organised marketing and events for Interact Skatepark in Burnley and The Works Skatepark in Leeds and started to get involved with judging running the skateboarding side of events like NASS and Boardmasters.  During this time new events now highly regarded in the sport like Concrete Carnival and War of the Roses were taking off, mostly as a backlash to the stiff corporate format that had been imposed on us throughout the late 90’s.  At some point in 2006 I also began getting more and more involved with the UKSA, firstly as a judge, then organising/running events, I’m currently the acting chairman.

In 2007 I was offered the role of Vans UK Skate Team Manager which as well as being a huge honour opened up a whole host of new opportunities to get various projects off the ground.  The same year I organised Indias first ever skateboard competition in Goa as well as masterminding the Vans ‘Are we there yet?’ UK tour.  I also found the time to be the UK sales agent for Cliché – Europes largest skateboard brand.  It was around this time I started getting calls out of the blue to help out with events and marketing and realised that I’d accidentally become one of the ‘go to’ guys that people called up when they wanted stuff doing, I took it as a real compliment and continue to do so.

2008 was again another hectic year and saw the first UKSA National Skateboard Championships get off the ground which was hailed as huge success and is now firmly part of the UK skate calender!  I was also hired as skateboard advisor/team manager to Relentless energy drinks late in the year – this lead to the new and improved ‘Ride with Us tour’ in 2009 as well as the The Relentless Goliath Ramp.

2009 was by far the busiest year of my life so far:  My Vans duties included a team trip to Cuba and the organisation of the Vans Shop Riot comp.  I was in charge of running the skateboard side of things at NASS and Boardmasters for the third year.  In additional to all the other annual events I became a partner in the new Vans Store Manchester as well as Progression Action Sports. I was also really proud to have been involved in the design process for the Wakefield Skatepark something which I really enjoyed and hope to do more of in the future.

And so we’re pretty much up to date, I’ve got a few things up my sleeve for 2010 but you’ll just have to wait and see about them!

Backroom Operations is a banner under which all these activities take place from marketing and PR to Graphic Design, Skatepark design and events.  If it involves skateboarding I can do it, or at least I’ll know a man who can!