Connor Noll – Stumped
Skating and filming are by nature a young-person’s game. The energy, recovery-time, passion and most importantly free-time are essential elements to progressing and filming. So it’s always a potentially rocky transition when skaters move into adult life, with real responsibilities that limit their time on the board. When Connor Noll acquired his own photo lab business last year and immediately propelled directly into adulthood, the test was laid upon his feet to see just how dedicated he was to the game. But, somehow, while transitioning into big-boss status, Connor and filmer Ted Purtell have managed to film multiple strong video projects, including his new stand-alone part “Stumped” for Orchard Skate Shop. We caught up with both Connor and Ted to talk about filming and making Stumped while managing the growing responsibilities of adult life and the trials and tribulations of filming with not only one of your best friends, but also your roommate!
Photography by Matt Maydoney
Interview by Josh Stewart
Josh Stewart: So we’ve got you both together here, which works nicely since you’re actually roommates. So let me dive right in….You guys have been working together for a while but how did you first meet?
Connor: We both grew up in Connecticut, in different parts of the state – about 30 minutes apart. We were friends for a while and would run into each other at skateparks. Once we were able to drive we started filming together, we were probably 16.
Ted: Yea almost 10 years, haha.
How did the filming dynamic develop? Were you guys skating together at first and then the filming started later down the road?
Connor: Kind of… We were skating when we were younger. Once we could drive, Ted was already really into filming. I don’t remember the first thing we filmed together. Do you, Ted?
Ted: You smith grinded that terrible aluminium rail in West Haven, or was it that line at Criterion in New Haven where you did tailslide switch crook? I don’t really remember, it was pretty natural though.
Ollie up, ollie over.
Ted, was there a specific moment where you decided you were OK with giving up your personal skate time to start documenting your friends’ skating?
Ted: I just always loved the way skate videos made me feel so I naturally wanted to try to capture that same feeling with my friends. I really started doing it more seriously when I hurt my back and couldn’t skate for a year. I was 17, that was a rough time, I really missed skating. But filming gave me the opportunity to be around it just as much.
That might be the first time I’ve heard of someone getting into filming because they hurt their back! Usually, you STOP filming because the toll that filming takes on your back.
Ted: Yea I had a herniated disc and some crazy nerve pain I’m sure staying filming didn’t help the healing process.
I’m obviously biassed, but I don’t think that the skate industry has ever given enough credit to the importance of local filmers/videomakers. Connor, how important/critical is it to you and the Boston area to have a filmer like Ted, who’s down to sink his personal time into filming, editing and giving a voice to your scene?
Connor: We are so spoiled to have Ted, he’s out filming every day and he has his own vision. He’s not just pointing the camera and when that dynamic is present it makes it a lot easier to get invested into projects. I have friends who live in other places who don’t have a person that they film with regularly and you can tell it’s tough, I can’t even imagine because I’m so used to having Ted.
In a similar point, how critical has it been to Boston skateboarding to have Orchard in the scene?
Ted: In my opinion it’s super important for a scene to have a good shop. When I was growing up in the New Haven area we didn’t really have that. Since I moved to Boston, I’ve been grateful to have a flourishing shop. Orchard’s super down to support the local scene, whether it be events, hooking people up, or even supporting local projects and the people that run them. Armin at Orchard has been a huge help, he has helped provide the whole HD setup and is down to support me filming more often which has been sick. New Haven has Plush now, they hold it down heavily.
Connor: Personally, Orchard has given us an outlet to release these projects we’re working on, and brought us on amazing trips. It’s cool that Orchard’s support continues beyond team riders, helping local skaters in any way they can. Also, hosting events and premiers which is really important for bringing people together.
Boardslide pop-over
Agreed. And Orchard is like a global shop, with a lot of eyes on it, which is huge for a local skate scene. Can you list some of the edits & projects you guys have done together in the past?
Ted: When we first moved to Boston I made a video called Daisy and Connor had a full part. Then we made an HD project where Connor had another part. After that we slowly started filming for a video called Sucker but we paused that a few different times for other projects like the Theories Fourth Turning video and Connor’s welcome to Orchard part. During all that, we were randomly working on a part at JFK fountain.
Oh yeah, that fountain project was super sick… Do you guys think that being friends while also having a filming relationship can be complicated at times? Like, is it weird sometimes filming all day and then going back home to see Connor’s dirty dishes in the sink and thinking, “Bitch, I just filmed you for seven hours, I am NOT gonna wash your damn Sesame Street mug!”?
Connor: Hahaha, well first of all it would be the other way around! However, I consider myself lucky because Ted is one of my closest friends and he understands my emotions really well and vice versa. When I’m going through it, he’s there for me. Whether it’s skating related or not. After trying a trick for a really long time and not getting it, we’ll go home and be like, “dude that sucked so bad, but we tried.” We don’t really get upset with each other. Over skating at least haha.
Ted: It’s really only made things easier, we both care a lot about the stuff we make. We are also both always there for each other. Sometimes filming for a project can be stressful and if you’re close with the people you’re working on it with it helps a ton. It makes everything easier because we have such a good friendship.
Frontside 180 switch crooked grind transfer
Nice…Is it just the two of you and how do you guys handle chores?
Ted: We live with one other person, Nate Dugan, he’s also one of our best friends. He’s staring at me right now so I can’t talk shit on him. We all skate together and hang out all the time so it’s honestly a pretty ideal situation. Sometimes things get messy but we’re on each other when needed. I feel like all things considered we do a pretty good job of keeping each other in check.
Connor: Yeah it can be tough living with friends if you’re scared of confronting them. We all know each other so well we are just able to tell each other how it is. Sometimes there’s some beef over it but maybe for like five minutes. We’ve lived together for almost six years now so we’ve got it pretty figured out now.
So, how did this new project come about?
Connor: Honestly, we just always want to be working on something so before we had even finished our last project we had already talked to Armin over at Orchard and he was down to try and make something happen. We decided on a solo part so that we could work at our own pace.
Ted: I think we both hate not working on projects, haha.
Yeah, I can understand that. Is the look/feel/edit fully up to you guys or is Orchard chiming in and helping steer it as well?
Ted: Yea Armin’s really just down to let us do our thing which is dope, I don’t feel pressure to make it any sort of way.
Connor: All of the photos in this interview were shot by Matt Maydoney, our good friend and the manager at Orchard! This wouldn’t be happening without him.
I noticed that this one is gonna be HD! You guys have been VX-daddies so long, how has that affected the process? Has it taken some getting used to?
Connor: I definitely had to get a little used to being filmed with a valuable fisheye, but for me, not too much is different. Except the very first clip we filmed for this project was the line where I lipslide a handrail, turn down an alley, and then skate a bank to wall… On one of the first attempts, Ted hit something going down the hill and got pitched, full scorpion. He saved the camera with his body though. Boss mode. There’s an IPhone clip of the slam too, I’m definitely going to post it when the part comes out, haha
Ted: Yea that was rough, it bent something on the lens. Since then, getting the fisheye on has been a little weird, but it works. Switching to HD comes with a lot of challenges, but like I said earlier, I filmed with an HD setup once for another video. The main thing that’s different is how heavy the camera is. I use the HVX200 so it’s still got the tape deck which adds some weight, it’s rough, haha. Also getting used to the aspect ratio is tough. With the vx, I feel like sometimes it was easier to film certain spots or make something look bigger. With the HD aspect ratio, it can do the opposite I feel.
Wallride ollie out
Yeah, I feel like you almost have to re-learn how to film when moving from VX to HD. Or like re-tune your mind’s eye into reshaping into that shorter, yet, wider frame…Do you long for the VX again or do you feel like HD has its benefits?
Ted: It was pretty different at first, but naturally you start to learn it more. I’m somewhere in between, I enjoy using both cameras. Right now I’m starting to have more fun using the HD setup though.
Connor, is this your first project taken on since becoming a business owner? I would imagine that’s got to have had a big impact on your filming process?
Connor: It’s been really tough. A lot of long days. I honestly get to skate two, maybe three times a week. My lab is an hour from home with traffic so it’s even harder. Luckily, Ted knows how hard it can be and is very accommodating when he can be. Also, shoutout to Alexa, my business partner (and friend), for also working with me and stepping up when I had to take some time off to skate!
Your skating has always been very spot-based. Like, you not only find really obscure spots but you approach them in unique ways as well. Has the job and business made it tougher to dig up those kinds of spots? Is it hurting your game?
Connor: I can’t take full credit for all the spots. Ted and our boy Shawn Mac put in so much work, couldn’t do it without them. They’re both an encyclopaedia of spots – I’ll say, “I want to do this trick on something,” and odds are one of us has something that would be sick for it. Our text threads are insane, it’s just photos of spots and that’s pretty much it.
I’m imagining that meme that says, “Men only want one thing and it’s disgusting.” and then showing you guys’ text chains and it’s just a bunch of spot-porn…
Connor: We kind of have to be really organised and planned out, a lot of spots we go to are pretty far out of Boston. It’s good and productive but also very anxiety inducing. We also had a bunch of nights where we would go and get a spot going the night or day before we planned on skating it, which worked really well for us. Just more planning involved.
Ted: We all find stuff, it’s definitely an obsessive thing. I delivered flowers for almost three years in the Boston area so I got to see a lot of stuff. But Shawn Mac definitely put me onto the Massachusetts spots when I first moved here. When we feel spread thin there’s always more cities close by in New England or even New York. There’s somehow always more, until there’s not I guess. That’s a big part of what I like about filming and skating, just finding a new thing that you can complete a vision on.
Nosebluntslide
Yeah, I’m always thinking about how skate spots are a finite resource that’ll run out soon. But people keep digging up gems…..So, what other obstacles have gotten in the way of this project?
Connor: A bunch of stupid injuries. I destroyed my back at one point and I had two bulging discs, I’m still in PT for it but doing a lot better. I displaced my nail bed in my big toe and had to get it surgically removed. Most recently, I rolled my ankle while trying to get some final things.
Also, there was a point for like two weeks where every spot we went to there was a car parked in the way. One of them was literally an entire empty parking lot and there was a car in the one spot in the landing. It got to the point that it was just funny.
Sounds like MY kind of luck.
Ted: I got some pretty bad food poisoning in DC that kinda stunted our trip, that one sucked. It feels like there’s always something. The struggle’s all part of the fun though, haha.
Did you guys travel for this project? What other cities did you hit and what was your favourite? Anywhere that surprised you?
Connor: Yes, we went on a few trips: Baltimore, DC, Philly, St. Louis, and Atlanta. Vans threw us some money to help fund the project and Armin/Orchard has been really down to help make trips happen for us. Whether it’s the whole team or just us focused on this project. I really liked every city, but St. Louis was definitely my favourite. The spots are awesome, the people we met were awesome. I got food poisoning on that trip and it was still incredible.
Haha… Damn. Yeah, the St. Louis crew is awesome.
Ted: I loved every city to be honest. I really didn’t know what to expect when going to Atlanta but that place is so sick, there’s so much to skate and just a cool city in general. I really enjoyed every city we got to see though, they’re all super sick in their own way.
Do you guys do a lot of spot-fixing, rub-bricking, clear-coat, etc.? Or do you mostly keep it au-naturale?
Ted: I can’t imagine not having to do at least something to a spot to get it to work; most spots we pull up on have some weird thing going on with it. It’s never perfect, except for Eggs.
Connor: The last trick in the part was definitely the most annoying thing we’ve ever had to deal with. The spot is an hour from where we live with nothing else around it. We ended up having to take six different trips and trying five different techniques to try and get that thing to grind. I only got to try it four of those trips because a few times we had to let something dry overnight.
We had pretty much given up on the spot but two days before the premiere we were like let’s just try one more time. The spot is closer to my lab so I was going to go after work and coat it one more time. I ended up getting slammed and having to pull a 12-hour day. I was so bummed out and Ted stepped up and went on his own. He basically drove 2 hours to do that and the next day we met there and it ended up working that time, during the most beautiful sunset. Ted you #1 for that.
Frontside 50-50 gap out into the bank
Nice!… The opposite of that single car parking lot luck! Ted, this ledge sounds like it’s made out of kryptonite.
Ted: The ledge is so old and crusty and it’s all porous from salt water. It just wouldn’t go, no matter what we did, and this summers been so hot so the wax wouldn’t set in right. I spent like 15 minutes rubbing all the wax off with sandpaper and some ladies from the neighbourhood were on a walk and were like, “What’re you doing to the bench?” I was like, “I’m just prepping to put a protective sealant on the ledge,” and then once they left I proceeded to pour a half a gallon of lacquer on the thing, haha. It looked gross. But when we came back it was shiny and nice looking actually.
Haha… Nice! Speaking of “nice”, I would categorise you both as “nice guys” so does the spot-fixing/adjusting make you feel weird? Is it an inner struggle sometimes altering some private property just so you can skate it?
Ted: It’s the name of the game.
Connor: I try not to think about it. Sometimes I feel bad.
Would you guys have any advice for other close friend skater/filmer duos of how to keep things fun and maintain a strong/healthy relationship?
Ted: If you’re friends already it shouldn’t be too much of a force. Just keep it 100.
Connor: Be honest with each other. Don’t let everything revolve around skating. If skating doesn’t feel right at the moment, don’t force it on each other. Also, remember it’s a collaborative project.
With such a rich history of bringing attention to the Boston-area skate scene for all these years, what’s your favourite era of the shop and what Orchard team riders had the biggest influence on you?
Connor: For me, The Stone Soup Video: Kevin Coakley, Broderick Gumpright, and Lee Berman are some of my favourites. They always skated such cool spots and did great tricks for them. We still skate some of the same spots or we’ll at least stop and look at stuff they’ve skated just to admire. Coakley was one of the first skaters that made me realise how cool the spot aspect of skating and videos.
Also Shawn Mac, he’s had a huge impact on pushing us in the spot oriented direction. He also has shown us endless spots and is down for any mission.
Ted: I have to agree, Coakley and Lee have some of my favourite parts from back in the day. I think Broderick Gumpright’s part in Out of Body Experience is my favourite part, maybe of all time. He was working at Orchard when I got my first board and signed a poster for me because my dad asked him to and I have had it hanging on my wall since. It’s a legendary photo of him ollieing into a crazy skinny bank from a roof. I’ve been there since and still don’t understand it. Coakley’s Make Friends With The Color Blue part is also up there for me.
Ollie in
Now that this puppy is out in the wild and the world is soaking it in, where will you both now turn your focus? What’s next for the roomies?
Connor: A new skatepark just opened near my work, it’s so fun. I’m gonna post up there for a little bit.
Ted: I’ve got a bunch of projects I’m still working on with Orchard. So just gonna keep doing that. Connor and I still have projects in the works as well.
Connor, when are you gonna start processing Super 8 and 16mm film? I need a discount bro!
Connor: Haha dude, I looked into it briefly because I thought it would be a fun project to do with Ted but the super-8 developing tank for my machine is $1200, it’s so hard to justify when I wouldn’t plan on adding it as a service, right now anyway.
My homie just 3D printed me one for 110 film, which is a photographic film but it’s the same width as 16mm, but it’s a lot shorter. A roll of 16 wouldn’t fit on it, but I wonder if he could make one that would. Let me get back to you.
Damn… That would be so sick. With the crazy resurgence of film in skate videos lately, I think we may have just stumbled onto our Million-Dollar Idea. Let’s corner this market Connor!
Well, thanks for your time guys…is there anything else you’d like to say before we wrap this up?
Connor: Thanks for being down to do this interview and to Free for hosting it.
Ted: Thank you guys!
Connor Noll, 2024
