cut n’ paste on a rainy winter night.

IDLEWOOD ‘zine is done! some of the raddest ladies in Vancouver recently got together and made the ‘zine they’d been talking about making for about two years. There’s not much writing in there, except Natalie’s comprehensive history of female skateboarders, but there’s loads of photos and little snippets from the likes of Alana Patterson over in Copenhagen. We basically wanted to make the ‘zine that would’ve gotten us the most stoked when we were just getting in skating. There’s also a bunch of motopickle stuff in there – a trip to SF/Yosemite and a double-trouble roll to Montana.

We thought there would only be one issue, but we had the ‘zine release last night at Antisocial Skateboard Shop and people were really excited about getting involved in the next one. So, we’ll see. I’ll be going to Europe, Israel, Egypt and Lebanon this coming year with my fellow adventurer, Erika. I’m sure we can get some interesting content for Issue #2. Coming spring (?) 2010!

There are only 100 copies of Idlewood, but if you’re interested in getting one e-mail or visit Michelle at Antisocial.

Getting webby… and writing a lot!

I’ve been letting this slip because I’ve been busy, busy, busy.

I’m currently doing a temporary contract internship with local non-profit The Community Access Program (CAP). It gives funding for public computers/internet access to other non-profits around the Lower Mainland, such as centres for women, seniors and youth, and well as libraries and education centres. I’ve created the CAPYI Magazine Online for their Youth Internship program and have been documenting the people and places involved with CAP, many of which are located in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
 

 

Also, I did an essay-style article for Canadian Biker, this time on the Canadian Army Veterans motorcycle unit for the Oct/Nov issue. The article is called “Blood, Sweat and Tires” and you can still find the issue on news stands but eventually I will post it here.
 

 

Poof! Out of the Bloom! Here we all are.

I studied in the south of France for a semester in 2006. While there I took any chance I got to travel around with my skateboard, camera and some friends. The editor at Color Magazine mentioned that he’d heard rumours that Barcelona as the skateboard mecca was “over” and wondered if I felt this was true. I got to thinking about how traveling – whether it involves a two hour drive or a voyage around the world – has been so important to skateboarders. There something quite amazing about the flexibility of the act of skateboarding and its ongoing interaction with architecture and cities. The innumerable ways in which this interaction can play out with a given place, time, and individual is the really fascinating bit. Here’s a short piece that I wrote and co-photographed for Color while I was overseas.

EUROPE OR BUST
Out of the Bloom (Color 4.1 – Winter/Spring 2006)
by rhianon bader

What is it that makes us constantly search for the untouched, for the treasure chest that holds everything we could’ve ever imagined? The thing with skateboarding is that, like any passion, it cannot provide us with the same feelings of excitement, reward and adrenalin, always and forever. Skateboarding can continue to be the cause of some of the most enjoyable moments in our lives, but the longer we skate and the older we get the harder it is to thoroughly feel the same attachment that we felt in the beginning. I read in a National Geographic about how the ecstatic feelings we get from “being in love” with someone must end after a certain number of months simply because the chemicals our brain releases to give us that feeling will eventually diminish, basically for the sake of maintaining our sanity. The brain would be overloaded if it felt that good all the time. In the same way, the passions we have in life cannot keep the same hold on us as they did in the beginning. But if we are truly dedicated we find ways to make it work, to create “special moments” that reacquaint us with those initial butterflies… perhaps by simply reserving Sunday afternoons for beer/bowl sessions, using long-weekends to take short roadtrips to somewhere new, or skating around downtown solo late at night while the common folk of the world are sleeping. By circumstance and choice, some of us go further, less like lovers trying to keep the magic and more like an addict trying to relive that first high.

Article in August 2009 issue of Canadian Biker

I made some words and photos for Canadian Biker on those people with the loud, piece-of-junk motorbikes that keep you up at night.

ROLL THE NEW REBELS
(Canadian Biker – Aug.2009)
words by rhianon bader

It’s an overcast Sunday morning in April. Sprawled across the parking lot of the Duffin’s Donuts deli in East Vancouver are a dozen or so beat-up Japanese motorcycles from the 70s. Most of the bikes are done up in café racer style to some degree, with clip-on or clubman handlebars and flat, single seats. Though these oil and dirt-encrusted bikes may not fit into one’s typical idea of beauty, their eye-catching individual flair is undeniable. Yet, what truly sets these old Hondas and Yamahas apart from the rest are not even the bikes themselves, but the skateboards strapped onto them.

In the past 10 years Vancouver has seen the steady emergence of a tight-knit motorcycle scene comprised of skateboarders in their 20s and 30s, with the vast majority choosing vintage Japanese bikes for both practical and aesthetic reasons. Despite the evident pursuit of the cafe racer aesthetic, lack of financial abundance means that many of these bikes are becoming ‘rat bikes’ in the truest sense. The idea of keeping a bike on the road for the minimum cost possible certainly has its appeal to a group of artists, students and tradespeople that have yet to (and perhaps never will) rise above the poverty line.