"Hearing faggot all the time, made me think at a young age, that it was really dangerous to talk about it." - Brian Anderson
Last week VICE Sports released a video titled; 'Brian Anderson on Being a Gay Professional Skateboarder', in the moments and days that followed my Instagram feed was awash of people posting screenshots and praising BA for coming out.  I'll be honest I had mixed feelings; not about Brian Anderson being gay, but more the reaction from the wider community of skateboarding.  

For a start, I thought we (skateboarding) already knew he was gay, if you watched Pretty Sweet from 2012; Mike Carroll's GAY! t-shirt in BA's section was at least a statement of sorts or at least a hint if you didn't already know.  Shit VICE originally wrote about it in 2009!  Whether people did or didn't know, my main issue was the fact that its 2016, is someone sexual preference really an issue?  It's 2016, do we really care?

When you look at statistics like the 5,597 hate crimes against gays and lesbians in 2014-15, a rise of 22 % on the previous year recorded by the police, even I can see my view is naive.  I choose to surround myself with like minded people who aren't prejudice, but cannot be blind to the fact that skateboarding has been full of homophobia:

"There's a lot of homophobia in skateboarding, there's a lot of homophobia in everything.  It's not just skateboarding, you know, it's the world." - Mike Carroll

I hope that Brian Anderson coming out, and the wider skate communities wholly positive reaction goes some way to help others feel confident to 'come out', and show others that the culture as a whole has moved on.  There isn't room for homophobia in skateboarding, as Jake Phelps says in the video it's about skateboarding, "who gives a fuck if you're gay!"

Set aside some time today and enjoy watching a show of unity and support from skateboarding, for the love of Brian Anderson, for change.


Check out more from https://sports.vice.com/
This was originally posted via http://matlloyd.com

I'm always stoked when someone takes the time to contact us direct.  And we (Ginge also mans the eMail) are normally pretty swift to respond.  Discipline has been going for nearly nine years and our boards have been sent all over the UK, also as far as France and Australia.  We are pretty honest and don't hide the fact that we are small, and UK based.

Since we started back in 2007 Discipline has sponsored a small number of riders and have always listed them on our website.  We've put out edits and promoted each riders individual projects; Ginge runs Gone Skating Studio, Simon is the drummer for Saving Sebastian and if you've ever spent time with Damian Todd I'm sure he'll tell you the story about that time he did Adele's video...

I suppose this is a round about way to point out that if you're thinking of asking for sponsorship, it's probably best to do your research.  I now work for VANS but previously I worked at DC, Ive seen plenty of sponsor me emails, letters and even a DV tape sent in the post.  I've seen people get flowed, get on the team and simply get sent a box full of product because the edit they sent showed potential. I've also seen people send one line emails saying 'Sponsor me', yep just that, no video links, or pictures or even reasons why you want to ride for 'insert company name here'.

Years ago when I went for my interview at VANS, what do you think I wore?  Yep VANS!  When I did my presentation to the management, do you think I slipped in a picture of me skating in VANS, damn straight!!!  Had I researched the company history despite having worn VANS for years, hell yes, the more info the better!!!

What I'm trying to say is, if you want to get sponsored, don't start your pitch with 'Do you sponsor?' what that says is; you know nothing about the company you want to represent.  In regards to Discipline it says, you haven't even checked out the website.

For me a good 'Sponsor Me' email includes videos/photos of the skater repping the brand they want to ride for, this shows that whether sponsored or not, you're really are into it.  Otherwise it just looks like a cut and paste from yet another person looking for free shit, rather than supporting the scene.

Check out Transworld Skateboarding 8 Steps to an airtight sponsor me video
For more tongue-in-cheek look at Sponsor Me tapes check out Jenkem

Mat Lloyd

Skate videos are like a good whisky, a fine wine, a good cheese, you can't rush them....Ok they're more like that urine sample your doctor asks for.  You know, you're busting for a pee and as soon as the Doctor hands you the plastic piss catcher you suddenly can't....

Ok I have no idea what that was all about, don't fret, we're just saying, all the great skate videos were delayed; Creature, Plan B, VANS...ok we're not comparing our up coming 'Home Made' video to any of those, hell no!  We're just saying, it's on the way...and currently we are only a year behind schedule, which in skateboarding, that's not bad!

Till then, here's the original teaser trailer, it's BANGIN!

We’ve been busy editing, designing, testing, and now we’re ready to print. 

After toying around with the idea of a locals only/baker tribute for ages, and with the recent demise of FALLEN we figured it was time.  When we release this graphic in a couple of months (in time for summer) there will be a run of t-shirts to go with it. Now as always we need to keep supporting our local skate scene and we can do that by supporting our local skate shops!!!

Go out, find your local skate shop, find your local skate brands, and show them some love. This isn’t about DISCIPLINE, this is about skateboarding!

Thame just got a new 925 square metre skate park, so a couple of the team had to go check it out. The dedicated crew at Wheelscape worked with the Thame Usergroup for over two years to design the park and it's fucking RAD!  We'll be posting videos/pics from the session on our Instagram.

 What's it got:

• Large Bowl with hips, rolled sections, jump ramp, spine, Wallride, varying height ramps from 1.3-2.3m 
• Split Street Course 
• Level Change with large 3 set of stairs, hubba ledge, step-up gap and handrail 
• Kicker to kicker/Flat Bank Hip Blend with Handrail 
• Various Flat Ledges/Rails/Ledge Combos 
• Quarter Pipe Channel Gap over Bank to Block 
• Large 4 Set with Slider Hubba 
• Slappy Kerb (yes you read that right)
• Large Handrail 
• 3 Way Pyramid Hip 

Address: Thame Skatepark, Meadow View Park, Tythrop Way (A4129) , OX9 3RN, Thame, Oxfordshire