PUSHING THROUGH MELBOURNE WITH EVISEN

When half of the Evisen team flew from Tokyo to Melbourne to spend a week getting clips in the streets, they set themselves the added challenge of doing it all without a rental car. That meant that there would be no trips to the outer ’burbs for hidden gems – they would have to get creative with the heavily-sessioned – and some might say blown out – spots in the gritty city. But it turned out that pushing around from their hotel at Southern Cross Station was a good formula for the Japanese crew. They were accustomed to the heavy kick-outs in Tokyo, so Melbourne seemed comparatively mellow when it came to security and cops. The spots also turned out to be quite accommodating to the Evisen style of cutty, technical and very Japanese street skateboarding.

The crew was made up of Kento Yoshioka, Kotora Mitani and Seimi Miyahara, along with filmer Shingo Ogura and Evisen “boss man” Katsumi Minami. Then there was a token Brit, now Tokyo-based Laurence Keefe. As well as being pro for Evisen, Laurence works for the company and is the TM for adidas in Japan. Since he’s bilingual, he was able to explain how he organised the trip to coincide with the Skate Copa Classics event, how skating in Melbourne compares to Tokyo, and the moment where he and Kento nearly had to fight their way out of a sketchy Melbourne alley. In the end, he thought pre-lockdown Melbourne was a paradise.

LAURENCE KEEFE

, but I’ve lived in Tokyo for the past 10 years. I’m not really sure how I ended up in Tokyo, to be honest. I was travelling a lot at that time,