"GREENED OUT"
Dig into "Greened Out", a new video out of St. John's, NFLD, from Jared Hawco. Afterwards, scroll down for an interview with Jared and photos from the making of the video.
Interview by Joe Close
Photos by Robert Basha, Adam Lannon, and Ethan Murphy
Over what period of time was "Greened Out" filmed?
Greened Out was filmed between May, 2017 and November, 2018. It premiered in St. John's on May 25th, 2019. Summers are short here in Newfoundland, so we probably had about 12 months of decent weather to film for the video.
Who was involved?
The video features full parts from myself, Chris Gollop, Sam Linegar, Carson Thorne, Tyler Power, Curtis Barry and Mikey Weiher. Gollop is one of my oldest buddies that I've been skating with since I was 12 years old, whereas the rest of the guys are part of the younger generation of skaters to come up in St. John's. During my last few video projects, Sam had shown a genuine interest in learning about cameras and how to film, so he kinda became my go-to filmer until he moved to Toronto. My good homie, Darryl Denine, also put in a lot of time behind the lens for my section. Carson is one of those guys that is just naturally gifted on a skateboard and flows like water, he can do it all. For Tyler, Curtis and Mikey, "Greened Out" was their debut video part, so it was fun to work with some fresh guys that were hyped to put in work for a full length video. Last minute while I was editing I received a bunch of tapes from the Previously Loved crew (Ethan Murphy, Erik Fisher, Andre Aucoin and Andy Aylward) for their own section. Those guys have put out a bunch of videos over the last 7 years. Recently we had all been skating and filming together more often, so it was awesome to finally get them involved in my own video.
Where was it filmed?
The majority of the video was filmed here in St. John's. We have very few street spots so it can be tough to stay motivated to get new clips here at home, especially after filming so many video parts in the same place. But I love the unique look and vibe of this city and was excited to try and capture that on a VX1000 for the first time. A few of us managed to get in a last minute filming trip to Barcelona, so there is a bunch of footage from there as well.
What's the St. John's—and more overall NFLD scene, if you feel you can speak to it— like right now? Kids? Women? Old-timers?
The skate scene in St. John's and the province in general is pretty small, but it's tight. In terms of numbers I feel like it has been pretty flat since skating's boom in popularity during the late 90's and early 00's. There are only a handful of crews around the city and a lot of them do their own thing. But at the end of the day it's all love and I feel like there is a mutual respect within the scene. We just got a new skatepark in the Kenmount Terrace area that a bunch of us helped design. We attended design sessions with the city and skatepark designers and were able to give a lot of input which resulted in a park that everyone is stoked on! Since the park opened this spring we've been noticing a lot of new kids and women pick up skating which is awesome to see, we really need some proper facilities to foster growth in the scene. The city also installed a memorial at the new park for our homie, Justin Tobin, that passed away from cancer a few years back, so that makes it even more special.
What's the shop scene like out there right now? Who's doing it right?
For such a small skate scene there are actually a few shops operating right now. But I throw all of my support behind my good friend, Roger Cobb, and his local brand, Avalon Skateboards. He's been running that brand for a few years now out of The Side Shop, which is a part of the well-known Fogtown Barber Shop on Water Street downtown. Everyone knows how tough it is for a skate shop to stay financially viable, so Roger keeps it small with just core skate hardgoods and a few other apparel brands. Since Avalon Skateboards was created, Roger and Carson have been using the brand as a driving force for the local skate scene. All of the contests, Go Skate Day events, skate lessons, etc., are all organized by them and a few others behind the scenes. Every winter they manage to keep us all sane by finding an indoor facility for us to bring our obstacles and get a session in once or twice a week. I don't know where we would be without those two!
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
I just want to say thanks to yourself and King Skate Mag for giving the video some shine! I also wanna thank all of the homies that have contributed in any way to my videos over the past 10 years!
—