Dougie George Interview
360 flip
Before this interview occurred, Quentin [Guthrie] told me that Dougie would be hyped if it could centre around his family, because they are extremely important to him and have been so supportive of his passion over the years. That passion, as you may have guessed, is skateboarding, and it runs deep in his family. So much so that the family dogs have been named Ollie and Indy. Also, Dougie shares a flat in Battersea with his two brothers who he skates with all the time, his mum has been known to comment “bolts!” on some of his Insta clips and Harrison Woolgar, one of Dougie’s best mates (whose Grey cover is pinned to the George family’s fridge) is DJing his parent’s upcoming 50th wedding anniversary. And I haven’t even mentioned Dougie’s grandmother yet… To hear about her, Dougie’s manual influences, skating in just his boxers at Shop Riot, his wild experience with Dan Magee in Istanbul filming for an Apple advert and more, continue reading our interview with one of skateboarding’s most humble and appreciative individuals.
— Will Harmon
Photography in London by Sam Ashley
Interview by Will Harmon & Quentin Guthrie
Will: Didn’t you grow up in Santa Cruz, California?
Dougie: I half grew up in Santa Cruz. When I was eight we moved as a family to California. We spent a year in Cupertino, which is like Silicon Valley. But none of us had the best time there, because the schools were pretty intense with all the people moving there for the tech jobs and stuff. And then after a year we were over it so we moved to Santa Cruz and loved it there.
Will: So your parents, why did they move out there?
Dougie: My parents started a Fair Trade company out there. We were there for eight years, from like eight to 16 for me, then we moved back to Surrey. So I like half grew up there, but they’re kind of like some of my formative years…
Will: Yeah, so you must have started skating there, right?
Dougie: My parents actually got me a board for my fifth birthday. And I used to just do like the Jay Adams spins.
But yeah, when I was eight in California I started getting into skateboarding more, for sure.
Will: Have you been back to visit much? Still have family and friends there?
Dougie: I don’t have family out there, but a lot of friends. So when I go over and visit, it’s just expensive, you know? Luckily through skateboarding I’m able to travel a bit more, so it’s enabled me to go back there and see people more often than I probably would have been able to otherwise.
Taildrop to 50-50
Quentin: Last year you moved back to London (from Surrey) to live with your two brothers. What’s that like? Can you explain the house dynamic?
Dougie: Yeah, I mean living with Luke and Loz is like the best living situation I could imagine for myself right now. It’s nice, it feels like home. I’ve done my time in skate houses and bouncing around sublets just trying to make it work in London, which has all been good, but it’s really nice to have a peaceful spot to come home to now. And I think it helps your mental state a lot in London, having a place of refuge and peace when you get home. And I know my brothers super well, they know me well, so there’s never any kind of uncomfortable situations, because we all know what we’re like.
Quentin: What’s it like shooting skate photos with your brother Luke?
Dougie: I mean, I love skating with Luke, with Loz as well, both my brothers. Shooting with Luke is so fun because it’s pretty easy. There’s never any pressure or anything. Not that there is loads (of pressure) with other photographers, but we know each other super well. He’s been shooting for maybe two or three years now, so it has been fun seeing him learning how to shoot skateboarding and stuff. Before we lived here, back in Surrey we’d just go to a skatepark and I could just do a bunch of tricks on a ledge and Luke could figure out shooting and angles and stuff, and then together we’d figure out how to shoot things. It’s super rewarding and amazing now that Luke is getting more involved with different mags, like Vague and others. Reece [Leung] has helped him out a lot, and it’s just sick to see him get involved with the scene in the same way I am with skating.
Quentin: Do you and Luke have normal conversations or is it just Playboi Carti lyrics?
Dougie: Mostly Playboi Carti lyrics, haha. But sometimes we have normal conversations I guess.
Quentin: Since becoming friends and staying with you in London, I noticed your family is very outdoors and fitness focused. Feels like every other day someone in your family is running a marathon, or a mellow 30km, haha! Do you think this emphasis on physical exercise has helped your skating?
Dougie: Probably. Everyone in my family is definitely super active and doing stuff. No one in my family knows how to chill, haha. They will just go fully at it, like my mum and my two brothers now are running the marathon. I’ll be chilling at home, and Loz and Luke come home from work, and then leave to go run a half marathon and come back, and I’m just like, “Damn, someone needs to chill out.” It definitely motivates me a lot, though, to work hard and try hard because they all do, but yeah, in different ways. I feel like I chill more than the rest of them. My dad especially is like, non-stop, always something to do, something to fix, always a job…
Feeble grind transfer
Quentin: Your mum is quite knowledgeable with skating, to the point where she has replied to my stories of you before with the exact trick name, haha! Does she watch skate videos?
Dougie: She definitely watches our videos, like anything I’m involved with, or Luke or Loz is doing, she’ll watch, but yeah, they’re all pretty interested, even my grandma. I don’t know if I’ve told you about my grandma, but when I was going to uni in Brighton, I posted a trick on Instagram once. It was a nose manual nollie backside flip. It was the first time I’d done that trick and I was hyped. And the next week I got a letter through the mail from my grandma saying, nice nose manual nollie backside flip! I was like, what? How do you know this? Obviously she’d reached out to Luke or someone, but yeah, they definitely care, and they’re pretty invested. Yeah, my grandma is pretty amazing… Santa Cruz is a big surf town, so everyone’s going surfing and stuff. And when we lived there, my grandma got to know so much about surfing and skating, because she really cares about what her grandkids are doing.
Will: You were surfing a lot when you lived there?
Dougie: Yeah, it was fun to grow up by the sea. Santa Cruz is a good place to surf. So yeah, surfing a lot with friends growing up there, but I kind of gravitated towards skating, thankfully, before we moved back. I was a bit more hyped on skating, as surfing can be kind of competitive. You have to compete for how many waves there are that day and everyone is trying to get a piece of it, and it becomes like a competitive thing, whether you want it to be or not. That’s how I felt anyway. I just wanted to have fun with friends, and skateboarding became what I was more hyped on, which I’m thankful for, because then we moved back and I wasn’t really able to surf as much.
Will: Going back to your mum, Al Hodgson says she knows all the slang and stuff. Like she’s texting you, “Did you clip up today?”
Dougie: Yeah, she’ll hit me up on a trip, being like, “Hope you guys get some NBDs!” [Everyone laughs] Or reply to a clip and just be like, “bolts!”
Quentin: We were filming in London the other day, and Aleka [Lang] was trying a trick, and your brother and mum stopped by to say hello, because she was in town for work. They stayed for most of the session, but then they had to leave. But then when Aleka landed it, they came running back, like running in the distance, celebrating with us. I just thought that was the sickest thing and something that’s quite rare.
Dougie: I think she appreciates knowing what we do. Because usually skateboarding, for your parents… Well they don’t really know exactly what you’re doing and what it takes to get a trick somewhere in the streets. There’s so many different factors and things. So I think she was hyped to be on a session and kind of see what’s going on.
Quentin: Yeah, it was cool. She saw the whole process: me fucking up filming the clip, and then Aleka having to do it again, haha, the classic…
Will: Ok here’s a quote from Al Hodgson, “Quinno is the darkness and I am the light when it comes to Dougie filming.” What do you think he means by that?
Dougie: Fuck, I don’t know how to quite elaborate on that. With Quentin we’re both kind of trying to get it as good as you can. I feel like Quentin really wants to film it like the best it can be, which is gonna be for the best product. And Al, I feel like is a bit more loose, goes with the flow, like the vibe of it… I don’t know. I feel like they both work out well, but I don’t know how to explain the darkness and the light. I feel like it’s not for me to explain that. That’s for Quinno and Al to argue about, I want to film with both of them.
Boardslide
Quentin: That question killed me….
Dougie: Quinno you definitely have a reputation.
Quentin: Yeah, it’s true, but I hope that I provide some light.
[Everyone laughs]
Will: I watched one of your older video parts, from 2018, and you do some manual tricks for sure, but not really on the level you do them now. I spoke to Harrison [Woolgar] and he said you perfected manuals skating on your own in lockdown in 2020. Did you unlock mannys in lockdown?
Dougie: I’ve always liked doing manuals. I feel like filming that one manny with Quentin at SB, the nose manny nollie backside flip, that was right after lockdown actually… That was one of the first things that me and Quentin ever filmed. And that trick kind of worked out that day for some reason, it wasn’t a huge battle or anything. And that made me, I don’t know… Maybe after that I wanted to do some more rotational flip manny situation things.
Will: I see.
Dougie: There was a time when I was living in Bow [London neighbourhood], it was winter, and they had just built the City Mill park. Quentin, you were in Australia, and I was filming with some other people, but just trying to skate and feel good. And I was going to City Mill on my own every day with a squeegee just trying to film as many different manny flip rotation things as I could.
Will: Ah I remember the epic gram from this time!
Dougie: I feel like that time really helped me a lot. I feel like I was better at mannys then than I am right now, because I was going and doing mannys a lot and in the state of just doing those tricks and feeling good. So I feel like I need to go back and do that more. Like when I did the switch manny switch backside flip at White City with Quinno, I had done that twice on that City Mill pad, because I was just there for hours on my own trying to do it.
Quentin: You’re kind of at the level where I can suggest some outlandish manual trick and I feel like there’s a real possibility of you doing it.
Dougie: Yeah, as long as you’re willing to stick about for how long it might take!
Quentin: I’m in it for the long haul. What’s your process for learning a new manny trick?
Dougie: Because we were talking about City Mill earlier, I just found in my notes (on my phone) from the 7th of July, 2023, which is when I must have been going there all the time, I wrote, “How to land a manual:” and I said, ”You got to figure out the angle going in. You’ve got to understand how your shoulders should move. You’ve got to understand where your feet need to be. And then you have to have the right speed.” So like, the carve, or whatever, the swing of your shoulders and so your feet and angle is going to work out, and then, “You’ve got to bend your knees.” And then I wrote, “Repetition, and then maybe you’ll get there.”
Will: Sick, that’s like a little motivational self-help guide for yourself.
Dougie: Yeah, and I have a bunch of mannys listed underneath that I was trying at that time. Only a few have check marks by them.
Backside 180 kickflip
Quentin: It’s funny that you mentioned those guidelines for doing a manny, because I felt like I saw that when we filmed the switch manny switch backside flip at White City. Like I could tell that you knew exactly what your body needed to do, and that each attempt was a process to it, and your shoulders would turn a little bit more, or they would stay in the stationary position, but then turn the last minute, and yeah, I could just see you make little adjustments.
Dougie: Yeah, it’s like I was doing everything right but if one little thing is off…
Will: I was there one of the days you were trying it and seeing you bending down while you’re switch manualing… That opened my eyes to that kind of technique. I had never thought about staying bent down like that, it never occurred to me.
Quentin: Yeah you’ve got strong thighs!
Dougie: I think the type of spot is a huge thing for mannys for sure. You’ve got to be able to get low and survive it.
Quentin: So what was harder, learning switch manny switch backside flip or beating the final boss on the DLC of Elden Ring?
Dougie: Shit, that’s a good question. Dude…
Quentin: What did you spend more time on?
Dougie: Well, the switch manny switch backside flip was like a 13-hour weekend with you to get that clip. But the one we used was the one I landed after like four hours. But then I had already put in like, two full days of work trying to figure it out at City Mill on my own. But then the Elden Ring DLC boss took me a week. So shit, I feel like they’re pretty close. Man, that’s why it feels so good to beat the boss on a video game. I went skating yesterday and I was like, “Oh, it’s just like a video game boss,” or something.
Quentin: It’s the same satisfaction, isn’t it? Especially with a manny that takes time.
Dougie: Yeah bro, the DLC boss was hard as fuck.
Quentin: What character do you play as on Fortnite and why?
Dougie: Me and Luke play as Ice Spice, because she’s a baddie, haha.
Frontside nosegrind
Quentin: Your brother Luke had a question for you, “I noticed you ripped your trousers off mid-run at the Vans Shop Riot last year. Do you like getting it all out for the people?”
Dougie: That was funny. I liked getting it out for the people at the Vans Shop Riot, for sure. They’re sick events because there’s so many people from skate shops around the country, so it’s so nice to be there and hang out and catch up with people you don’t get to see all the time. But I wasn’t super keen on skating the park for a contest to be honest. The Slam dudes are super nice, everyone’s cool, so it ended up being super fun. The funnest thing at Bay is the 50 along and down. I could do that all day. I might not land all of them, but it’s a lot of fun to do that. And so I got the idea to just rip my trousers off during the run. And I don’t know, it worked out well. I had to cut the trousers and sew them and put the snap buttons on them so you can rip them off. For the run you have two minutes, and I was like, “Fuck, the only thing I want to do is this.” And I wanted to do it at the end, but then I didn’t want to bail it and not do it successfully. So I was like, “I’ll try it at the start. If I don’t do it, I’ll just keep resetting until I do it.” And then I did it, right at the start.
Will: Haha, just boxers the rest of your run then…
Dougie: Yeah so I skated around aimlessly in my boxers for like, a minute and 30 seconds! I think I did like a finger flip on flat at one point, haha. That was fun though.
Will: I know you filmed with Quentin that backside double flip over a bollard as an homage to Rob Welsh, even wearing the same outfit as him. What were your favourite video parts/videos you’d watch growing up?
Dougie: Good question. I love that Rob Welsh Free Your Mind part, for sure, but I don’t think I discovered that when I was younger, it took me knowing skateboarding more and then knowing what’s out there. When I was a kid growing up I think Stay Gold was like the biggest video for me, in like realising what you can do with skateboarding. I was super hyped on Bryan Herman when I was younger. I had like three pairs of the G-codes. I do love all the Transworld videos and stuff like Sight Unseen, that Henry Sanchez part… I mean, I watch a lot of skateboarding. I watch most things that come out.
Quentin: Who are your manual influences?
Dougie: The GOAT is Jordan Queijo. He’s incredible. The stuff he’s done, you guys post most of his stuff on Free… He’s so fucked. He’s the best, I have to watch everything he does. And I met him when we did that Free x Vans trip to Switzerland, that was dope. Alex Hatfield is incredible. Manny GOATs, let’s see… Walker Ryan is low key one of the best at mannys. He did a really good switch manny switch backside flip, which I was watching a lot when I was trying to learn that trick. He does a very good one in one of his parts. And then maybe the best is Tyler Surrey, he might be the best mannyer. I think he can do anything he wants. He did a front three to nose manny and also frontside flip switch manny switch backside flip on a pad. He comes up with the craziest shit.
Backside nosegrind revert
Quentin: I feel like older TWS parts like Richard Angelides’ and Henry Sanchez’s you probably take influence from. I mean skating the pad at Pier 7…
Dougie: Yeah for sure. Daewon, back in the day he did like every manny. You’re right about Pier 7, like Henry Sanchez, his fakie heel manny at that spot. And like Mike York skating there, all that shit was super inspiring.
Will: Do you want to tell us about the Apple commercial you filmed with Dan Magee and others in Istanbul? Apparently it’s one of the highest performing Apple ads of all time with 70 million views.
Dougie: Yeah, that was insane. The first thing I heard about it was from a phone call randomly from Dan Magee. I think I’d texted with him before about some other thing, but never spoken to him or actually ever met him. So one day I hear my phone ringing and think, “What the fuck? Magee’s talking to me?” And he cut straight to the chase, and was asking me my ethnicity and my background. “I just got a quick question… What’s your ethnicity, what’s your background?” Like, I told him English, American, maybe a little bit of Swiss if you want to get into it. He was like, “All right, you’re white as fuck. Shit. Okay…” He’s like, “You still got the moustache?” And I was like, yeah. “You still got the long hair?” Yeah… He’s like, “Send me a photo of your face.” And then I did. Then he’s like, “I got a once in a lifetime opportunity for ya…”
Will: Haha, quick casting…
Dougie: Yeah, I hadn’t even met him. So then my first experience of Magee was in Turkey, in Istanbul for this Apple ad we’re shooting for like two and a half weeks, which was super intense, but it was actually a lot of fun. There were a lot of issues with the production, as I’m sure there are with productions of anything, like unplanned things that change and whatever, but we were skating inside the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. It was cool, they blocked it all off and we had to do night shifts from like 7pm to 7am because no one was there then. I had to skate for like 10 hours through the night to film this thing, like power sliding through extras and ducking under shit, but it was so much fun. I think having Magee there was a real nice barrier to the production world, because he has like one foot in, one foot out kinda… Me and him know about skating and stuff, and they wanted us to do some things that were kind of not possible. And so we were like, “Yeah, you can’t do that.”
Will: I heard you took a slam on the smith grind and everyone there was shook…
Dougie: That was so funny man… That was like the only real trick I had to do. I did some different flip tricks and whatever, like cruising and stuff, but then that was like the main trick. They built this out rail off
of a four-step, which was pretty good. I think we did it on the third night’s shoot. So I had kind of adjusted to being on a night shift at that point, and like this thing, it got built up, like, “Oh, on Wednesday you’re gonna do the big smith grind.”
Will: Haha…
Dougie: It was so funny. So we went there and it was the first thing we did that night. They built me a little flatbar to warm up on, so I was grinding the flatbar, getting used to it. There’s 150 people there, like 100 extras and 50 people working and they’re all waiting for me to be ready to front smith this rail, so I’m warming up and I’m like, “Cool, I’m ready. Let’s do it. Let’s get the shot.” And then it takes half an hour to tell each extra where they’ve got to stand, where they’ve got to walk from when they say “action” or whatever. So then it took so long for them to be like, “All right, now you can go.” And then, at that point, I was feeling nervous and had these jelly legs, and I was like, “Fuck, I’m not warmed up anymore. But fuck it, I know what I’m doing, I’m just gonna commit and it’ll work out.” And then the first one I just ollied directly onto my kingpin on the rail, flew forward, hit my thigh on the rail, then flipped and ended up hitting my chin on the floor.
Quentin: Whoa…
Dougie: Yeah, it wasn’t the worst, but it was definitely a solid slam, you know?
Will: Non-skaters would probably think it was horrible though, right?
Dougie: Yeah… So funny, because the stuff we’ve been filming before was like, bombing downhill, powerslides and then doing some spins and whatever. And like, I fell a few times, just trying to push it and do long powerslides with speed or whatever. But every time I did that, just slid out onto my arse, just to eject, people would be like, “Oh, are you okay? You okay?” Like really, making sure I’m all right, you know? Like a bunch of people, everyone just going: “Are you okay? Are you okay?” But then when I tried that smith grind, stuck and flew hitting my thigh and my chin hit the floor, it was just dead silence. It was like 150 people on set and it was just silent.
Will: Holy shit…
Dougie: I just got up immediately and was like, “I’m good, let’s go again.” Because no one else was gonna say anything. Everyone was just silent, like, “Fuck…” A lot of those people haven’t seen an actual slam before. You know that’d be a big deal. And then we started over and I did it a few times and it was fine; we got the shot. But that was so funny. I was so relieved to be done with that.
Frontside boardslide to fakie
Will: You must have got some pretty nice coin for doing that though, huh?
Dougie: It definitely helped me out a lot. Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I definitely started to get a little bit annoyed during the filming of it, when I realised the scale of the production and how much money had gone into it, and how much everything relied on me. And I was the one keeping it together at points. I became a bit pissed and I was like, “Fuck, I should be getting paid way more for this shit.” But that being said, I still got paid well. I’m still grateful for the opportunity, for sure. And it was fun to do… It was jokes man; I was cast as a Turkish man!
Will: You didn’t really get to go around and skate Istanbul, did you? You were just there for the shoot?
Dougie: Nah. They were pretty on me for not skating or anything. I did have one day of rest or whatever, and I walked around the city, it was super cool. I ran into a dude out there called Yusuf, who skates. There’s a sick crew there; it’s a great place to skate. It definitely made me want to go back there to skate properly. But
I actually did get to skate on the last day…
Will: Oh yeah? Ah because the shoot was done?
Dougie: Yeah it was done. And we were flying out at like 11am or something, so I ended up waking up at like 6:30 and going out skating on my own. I skated this 3-flat-3 underneath an arch, it’s kind of a famous spot in Istanbul.
Will: Ah yeah I think I know the one. Just skating a double set in the AM on your own then? Haha…
Dougie: Yeah it was hilarious, when I got the Uber to the airport later with Magee he was like, “Oh you went skating? You’re too keen mate, too keen.” Haha.
Ph. Luke George
Quentin: You’ve skated for a Butter for a few years now, and it feels like you’re an integral part of the team and the brand. Who is responsible for this significant relationship, and how much credit are you going to give them?
[Everyone laughs]
Dougie: I mean yeah, everything kind of came about by just skating with you (Quentin) in London, and then getting involved with Butter. I’d always loved Butter and what they do, and then being involved was super sick. We filmed that part together, which originally wasn’t going to be a Butter part, but then I think after two years of filming it, or whatever, it just ended up becoming a Butter thing and then helping the relationship more like that. Through that I felt more involved and then having opportunities to go on Butter trips and film other things and be productive… And then I guess because of that other brands have reached out… That’s kind of been… That’s my big break, if I was on The Bunt right now… I think just skating with Quinno, hanging out and filming that part, was really my big break.
Will: So how’s filming for your welcome to Chocolate part going then?
Dougie: It’s been going really well; things are coming together. Quentin has helped out loads with filming fisheye lines and stuff. And it’s been sick filming with the extreme with Quentin, because it’s his first time using it. So that’s been super dope. The twins (William and Michael Boardman) have also helped me out a lot in London, they’re just super keen to get out and be productive. So without those two and Quinno, it wouldn’t be possible. And then now shooting with Sam [Ashley] a lot, and that’s been really sick. Because we don’t get to hang out loads, like we’ll be on a skate trip together or something, but it’s been nice to kick it with Sam a lot and try and lock in and do some stuff, it’s been great. Also, since moving back to London and living here with my brothers, I have a fresh feeling with London again. I’m biking around and finding loads of spots. Also this part has been a good opportunity to do some things in London that I’ve wanted to do for a while. And shoot some things that I wanted to shoot as well, so, yeah, it’s been going well.
Will: And Quentin, how’s it been trying to film with the extreme?
Quentin: I really like it. I mean, it’s heavy as fuck, so it’s fucking annoying to film a line. So like my stamina with filming lines is way, way lower. But I came and stayed with Dougie for a couple weeks in January, and we just filmed a whole bunch of shit with it. And it was nice to film with him, because I was able to kind of learn how to use the lens at the same time. And he was down to work with me, like not knowing how to use it properly. But I feel like because I’ve been filming for so long, the instincts are kind of the same, and it’s almost easier to film with the extreme, because there’s less movement capability. So I’m pretty excited to keep using it and stuff. And I filmed a couple lines with Dougie that I’m super happy with and, yeah, I just want to use it more now to be honest.
Will: And Dougie you’ve been out to the States a few times to link with the Crailtap crew. How were those experiences and what did you learn from them?
Dougie: It’s been super fun man. The first time I went to LA was just me going out, trying to be involved, say what’s up… It’s always been super sick over there. But also it’s been hard in LA; it’s hard to go there and not have a car. I probably should have hired cars at points, but everything’s worked out pretty well. Also, I wanted to say, if I’m shouting out filmers like Quinno and the twins for this part, the homie out there Ritt [Pontepsiripong], filming with him was super fun. He’s helped me out a lot with just spots and driving and filming and being down…
Will: Oh sick, be nice to see your LA footage…
Dougie: Ritt’s dope, man, he’s doing bits, for sure. But yeah, it’s been sick man, going to Crail and talking to everyone in person and meeting everybody fully is a pretty cool experience. It’s pretty crazy talking to Rick [Howard] and Mike [Carroll] and hanging out and things being kind of normal, which doesn’t feel normal, but yeah, it’s been super nice. And everyone’s really lovely to me. So yeah, it’s a nice thing to be involved in.
Will: Must have been surreal…
Dougie: We did a Chunk of Chocolate trip to SF and an event at Atlas; that was fun. That was my first Chocolate thing where I was fully involved… But I actually went out to LA a week early because there was a Butter trip going on. And I was l filming for that and ended up classically rolling my ankle, touch wood, and then so I went on that Chocolate trip with a smoked ankle. So I was trying my best to skate and be useful.
Kickflip
Will: I didn’t realise you had a sprained ankle the whole time!
Dougie: That trip, I would have loved to skate more and do more. I felt a little bit, I don’t know… You know how you are when you’re a skater and you can’t fully skate, like you want to? You can’t use your body how you want to…
Will: Totally…
Dougie: It’s super frustrating, but I had the best time with everybody. Everyone was super cool, and I tried to skate and do my thing how I could with a bad ankle. So I was stoked that without me being able to skate to what I felt was the best and everyone was still keen and hyped on just me being there and hanging out, which is like the main thing, just like hanging out with people and being involved. And then the last time I went back we just did the 30 years anniversary of Chocolate event. It was pretty special to be there and see so many people and catch up, and see all the history of Chocolate in one place, and to see everybody involved, and like everybody that was there, just because Chocolate’s a big deal. It’s special to a lot of people, and seeing so much history in the exhibition was so cool. And then me and Reece [Leung] having a photo on the wall as well… My ad in Vague, from a couple years ago now; that was amazing.
Will: There’s another thing as well, Chocolate did a 30th anniversary t-shirt and it has your name on it, along with all the current and OG Chocolate riders.
Dougie: Yeah, that was a trip. I didn’t expect that. I didn’t expect the name on the shirt, or the photo on the wall, or anything. To be there and see that going on and for it to be so special to me, and then just like being a tiny little part of it was… I don’t know, a crazy feeling. I was tripping when I was there. It was really, really sick.
Frontside noseslide pop to the road
Will: Sick man. Well, yeah, I can’t wait for your new Chocolate part to come out…
Dougie: Thanks. It definitely motivated me a lot. I don’t know, I like to think I’m motivated and I try my hardest, but having opportunities like this really helps push you. And makes me super, super keen to just do everything I can. And having Sam out every day being like, “Oh, let’s go shoot something…” It helps motivate you loads. And just having the opportunity to go out and get stuff with Sam, or with Quinno, or with anybody for this project has really motivated me a lot and pushed me to do more, as well as it being a bit like, “Oh, fuck.” daunting at times, like, “Fuck, I gotta figure some shit out.” But that’s good to push me. So that’s kind of been this project for me, just really trying to do my best, because I care about it.
