It’s a Friday arvo when I catch Stevie Stipanovic on the phone and he’s in a pretty good mood. This morning, while he was driving to work at a building site in Western Sydney, his car overheated on the highway, which sounds like a total stitch-up. But Stevie doesn’t seem too worried about it. In fact, I think he was lowkey stoked. He took the day off and went skating with his mates instead. Tonight, he’s planning on a few beers at a friend’s photo exhibition at the Pass ~ Port Store and Gallery, but he insists that he won’t be going too hard because he’ll be skating this weekend. Between shooting photos for this interview and working on a new part, Stevie is staying productive.
After almost an hour on the phone, it’s also clear that Stevie has no trouble spinning a yarn. He talks candidly about everything from growing up in the Sutherland Shire to the time he and his mates went to jail in China. From his comeback part in 2018, to crying in bed after he saw himself on the cover of the last issue of Slam. From beefing with his older brother Nik to becoming the best of friends. Here it is, in his own words.
Hey, Stevie. What’s been happening?
I’m just out skating today. Chima [Ferguson] just got fuckin’ worked. He’s all right, but he just took a gnarly slam.
Oh, heavy. I thought you were supposed to be finishing work at this time?
Oh yeah, I was meant to be working today, but I was driving to work this morning and my fucking car overheated on the highway. I had to pull over and do a little fix job on the side of the highway. So I couldn’t go to work today. It worked out good [laughs].
What do you do for work?
I’m doing formwork – in construction. It’s all the work that goes in before the concrete pours. I do big skyrise buildings in the city and big building sites. We do the concrete formwork for big slabs and walls and the big lift shafts. I’m doing six days a week. It’s slowly killing me, mate [laughs].
I just can’t sit still. I cannot sit still to save my life.”
George Kousoulis mentioned that every new building you drive past in Sydney, you point it out
