Zach Chamberlin and Richard Hart interview

Interview by Aymeric Nocus
We are honored that Zach Chamberlin has chosen Vladimir Film Festival for a world premiere of his project “Push Periodical World Tour II” which he co-created with Richard Hart. As we are left speechless, Aymeric Nocus has prepared a short interview with Zach and Richard for the festival’s newspaper.
Q: Can you briefly describe the idea behind those Push Partial World Tours?
Z.C. I’m curious to see how splitting Richard and I up and interrogating will end up. Something along the lines of Richard and I being able to travel well together with groups of dudes, have fun, film some sprinkly clips and shoot photos for Push.
R.H. The idea of the Partial World Tour is completely unrealistic from a financial point of view but completely successful from a creative one. It would make way more sense to just do a generic “company” trip and have it all paid for and organized. However, I wanted to do away with any of that, and pick a crew of skaters that I am a fan of, want to support (and want to hang out with); who don’t necessarily have any sponsors in common. As for the locations, it seems to work well to have two contrasting places that look and feel different.

Q: A magazine organizing (and to an extent funding) skate trips as opposed to just covering them is not a common occurrence in skating. How did the idea first come up? Did you plan on really breaking certain standards be it in terms of organization and presentation?
Z.C. Meeting the scene in the cities we float to and getting to know the local crews is the main reason for the Partial World Tours. Skating cutty spots, rough shit, smooth plazas, beer ally’s, hash reports and street watching are a few of the other reasons. Portraying some narrative of city lives and the beautiful everyday life of somewhere new keeps it interesting for me. Mixing with Richard’s photos works great for this.
Q: The skateboarders involved in them are often bound to different brands in terms of sponsorship, do you think such an approach allows for a more organic take on the idea of a “skate trip”, where the skating really is what comes first, also maybe impacting the look and feel of the end results?
Z.C. Yeah you’re right. It’s totally open. There’s no gimmick or false vibe shit. I loved piss drunx as a kid for sure but we don’t have to live up to anything for the trip except try and have skateboarding in there. The last Partial World Twour (2) some homies had never met before. It worked out rad like you say mostly because the bottom line of skating breaks all barriers.
Q: The video being screened at vff 2017 documents the second ever Partial World Twour (hence Twour), the previous one took place the year before, how did the idea for that one come up? Are you planning on making it a yearly installment?
Z.C. I told Richard recently: “Once you start saying no to things they might stop coming around”. So whenever a possibility comes by to travel I try to grab it.
R.H. The first pwt was to Bristol and Budapest. That trip went really well and I wanted to do another one this year with a different crew and different cities. The only constant was filmer Zach Chamberlin who is one of my best friends and always up for an adventure. Obviously he’s one of the best filmers out there, and always stoked to film. Since these aren’t “company” trips, there’s no pressure for anyone, which keeps the vibes good.
Q: Who were the skaters involved on this one and where did you go?
Z.C. Lisboa Portugal and Antwerpen Belgium, Richard’s new home base, with Ryan Barlow, Roger Krebs, Bobby Worrest, John Baragwanath & Kevin Coakley.
R.H. We rounded up a rad crew to skate Antwerp and Lisbon. John Baragwanath is one of my favourite new skaters. We met on a Theories trip to Chicago (pp6), and he was the first person I asked to come. Kevin Coakley always finds unusual tricks to do at unusual spots. Bobby Worrest is one of the best ledge skaters out there. It’s amazing to watch him. Also a fun guy to have a beer with, or three. Roger Krebs joined us in Lisbon and was 100% full energy and power. Ryan Barlow is another of my favourite newer guys. Best style and crazy pop. For Ryan, John and Roger, this was their first trip to Europe, so it was rad to watch them get excited about exploring the world.
Skateboarding gives you such an amazing opportunity to do that. And I suppose that is the underlying idea with this whole project. Hopefully it will inspire people to do the same.
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The screening of Push Partial World Tour 2 was held on September 23rd at the Cvajner gallery in Pula.