DAMAGE – BROTHERMAN
Photography by Adrian Rios
Words by Ben Powell
Given that the purpose of text in skateboard magazines is to offer narrative shape to what otherwise would merely be collections of photos of people in big trousers jumping onto things; it seems incumbent upon your humble author to endeavour to do just that. With the above in mind, it’s possible that, (after first joyously inhaling the unmistakable aroma of physical print media of course) you’ve just asked yourself the following question.
“Why am I looking at Spanish dudes repping a Madrid-based wavey garms company called Damage, 360 flipping through a tree in Japan?”
A fair query and one that will hopefully receive a snappy retort in good time but for now – vayan más despacio, hermanos y hermanas, por favor. Some background is needed first…
Juan “Jura” Algora, frontside noseslide, Kobe
If you pay attention to the wider skateboarding culture orbiting your existence, then you should already know what Damage is. For those who don’t, a shorthand explanation would be to say that it is a skater-owned and operated deal, manufacturing cut and sew skate gear with an emphasis on dope sportswear silhouettes.
Co-founder and current one-man clothing enterprise Juan “Jura” Algora explains the genesis of Damage in characteristically self-effacing terms.
“It all started about 12 years ago when my friend Felix and I went on a trip to Philly to visit Marcus (Waldron) who had just started Skate Jawn. Marcus had spent a year living in Madrid prior to this so we’d become good friends and as big fans of the Philly and East Coast skate scene in general we were inspired to try and do something ourselves back in Madrid. We had no fucking idea how to do anything at that point – I came up with the name and then we both went off and did some basic Photoshop and Web Design courses just to have the rudimentary knowledge and skills that we’d need to start a brand.”
Gabi Ferrero, kickflip transfer, Kobe
Asked as to whether there was a strategy from the outset, Jura laughs heartily, “We were pretty fried man; we started a brand without even knowing how to use any of the software we’d need so no, there was no strategy at all, but over time Damage kind of solidified into something. Ironically, I had a Nike contract at that point, which meant that I wasn’t even really allowed to wear other brands, so I focused on making hats to start with because I could get away with that. As time went on, we diversified into making tees and other items and then about six years ago I began taking it more seriously as we were getting repeat orders from shops and the brand seemed to be growing organically.”
Adrian Del Campo, nollie backside tailslide, Kobe
Around the same time, Damage began to solidify its identity through the release of several short video clips featuring the classically trained owner Jura and a host of other esteemed Spanish ledge technicians. When the dude running the brand solo (co-founder Felix having moved on to other projects) is fakie hardflipping into fakie crooks and popping out mid ledge, then you better believe that the sweatpant count is going to be higher than a nitty on bits.
Damage’s video output, and in particular 2022’s release Pentecostal (the nearest thing to a full-length yet) established a tone and aesthetic that nods towards progressive, dope plaza skating whilst mixing in footage of the kind of things you witness if you’re out on the streets on the regs: homeless guys huffing glue, dudes sleeping on mattresses in the middle of the street, bald Spanish Karens trying to fight people for no apparent reason – all that good shit.
Javi de Pedro, backside smith grind gap out, Kobe
Some of the cast of Pentecostal and the earlier videos reappear here in this article but Jura balks at the idea of calling them a ‘team’.
“I don’t even like the word team. It sounds weird to me, like old-fashioned or something. If you fuck with what I do and I fuck with you as well, then I will send you stuff because it makes me happy. And if you want to join the trips we go on, you are more than welcome.”
With that brief history of Damage out of the way, you’d be forgiven for wondering why this crew of Spanish plaza technicians ended up nollie back tailing waist-high metal boxes in Japan, right? Well, this is where Damage’s story takes an even more interesting turn. Back to Jura…
“Around six years ago this shop called Home in Wakayama (capital city of Wakayama Prefecture on the south-east of Honshu, Japan’s largest island) hit me up to carry some gear and put me in touch with a distributor (Shelter Dist)
in Kobe (north of Wakayama in the Kansai region). They started ordering bigger quantities to allow them to distribute Damage goods to some shops around Japan. That was a straight up dream to me because back then I used to hit up some shops in Europe and none of them were even responding, so the fact that somebody in Japan wanted my stuff was unreal.
After doing business with Masayuki (Shelter owner) for years and not even knowing what he looked like, whilst I was in South Korea in 2023 with my wife, we flew over to meet him in person and to spend a few days out there with the Shelter guys. This was one of the most special experiences of my life. The way they treated us, the sense of community out there and their hospitality was just next level. I was also injured when we went but just to see how much they fucked with Damage and how hyped everyone was on us being there was a huge motivation for me. Since that trip I promised that I was going to come back with the Damage guys for a skate trip. Next thing I know, I’m on a plane to Japan with 10 motherfuckers ready to give it all. The best decision I could’ve made – everybody had the best time ever.”
Victor Marin, ollie, Kobe
For a long time throughout the ‘90s, European and worldwide awareness of Japan’s amazing skate scene was limited to brief appearances from the likes of Soichiro Nakajima or Shin Okada In 411 or US videos. It took the cultural impact of Takahiro Morita and his FESN (Far Eastern Skate Network) releases; the ATV ripping of one-time Consolidated rider, Bridge skate shop owner and current Evisen pro Maru; or the inescapably influential Lenz video series and the connected Tightbooth crew to really inject contemporary Japanese skate culture into the global consciousness. Looked at from today’s perspective where Japanese skaters and brands are household names in both the Olympics and on the streets, it’s hard to appreciate just how difficult it was to access Japan’s skate scenes until recently. Despite this, those people with a thirst to see progression and singular approaches to street skating were already casting their eyes east in search of inspiration. As a younger skater in Madrid, Jura was already tuned into this (at the time) almost hidden frequency.
Gabi Ferrero, ollie in, Kobe
“It always seemed to me like Japanese people lived in their own world and they didn’t really need the direction or inspiration of Western culture. My sister had visited Japan around 20 years ago and brought me a Japanese Transworld mag and a DVD home to Spain, so I got a bit of exposure to the fact that they really had their own thing going on quite early. I was always watching this video called Chatty Chatty on YouTube and just burning Yoshi Toeda’s part every day. What shocked me the most was how gangster he dressed and his switch skills, because as a teenager, all the skateboarding I was consuming was from the US, and until seeing those videos, I had no idea that there were people skating at the same level in Asia. Now it’s totally different, you have new Japanese skaters blowing up globally every day and they are better than everybody in my opinion. Tightbooth and all those brands are super sick: they really have exquisite taste for everything they do. This really spoke to me – the skating, the spots, the fashion – all of it. It was like discovering this whole other world that few Western skaters knew existed until the ‘00s.”
Victor Marin, frontside shove-it, Kobe
Whether this openness and appreciation for Japanese skate culture influenced the direction that Jura’s brand would eventually take, or indeed whether other people’s perception of this assisted in Damage being palatable to the Japanese market is impossible to determine, but dope recognises dope and as such a connection through culture was established. For non-Japanese speakers, comprehending what it is that sets Japan apart from everywhere else is intangible, but everyone can feel it. As Jura puts it:
“I guess it’s a cultural thing that goes back years and years. Visiting Japan won’t leave anybody with a feeling of indifference and that really means something. You may hear different things if you ask this question to different people but once you get there and visit a few coffee spots, record stores, skate shops, vintage clothing shops, or any type of business, you realise that they are just built different.”
Onto the matter at hand: a crew of Spaniards exploring the southern Honsu-island cities of Kobe and Osaka with local knowledge and camaraderie driving the mission. Of the crew who visited, only Jura and Gabi Ferrero had visited Japan before, so the overall group vibe was wide-eyed and ready to imbibe. Much has been said in the skate media regarding the general public’s apparent dislike of street skating and the problems that this attitude and the reality of Japanese city’s 24-7 cycles create for filmers and photographers. A cursory glance at any of the Lenz videos will make this abundantly clear: run ins with security and the police are standard; business owners protect their spaces with a zeal unfamiliar to most mainland Europeans; and the inherently oppositional and rowdy spirit of street skating tends to be at odds with the unspoken but universally observed social contract in Japan, leading to confrontations with native and foreign skaters alike. With that said however, whilst Jura and Co’s experience in Kobe and Osaka did reflect some of this, their reception was much warmer than might’ve been expected.
Kohei “Kojunt” Miura, gap to 5-0, Kobe
“I was always hearing that you could only skate at night because every spot is a bust out there. But I think Kobe and Osaka are a lot more chill than maybe trying to do a trip like this in Tokyo would’ve been. Don’t get it twisted though, we were a big crew of eleven Spaniards plus the Japanese homies, so we had cops on us all the time. First day there I was skating this plaza with Adri Rios and there was this speaker next to us with a girl talking non-stop and telling us that we could not skate there (as we found out later). We had no idea because we thought that shit was just a radio show or something – 30 minutes later the cops came and asked for our passports.
Nobody had their passport on them so after another 30 minutes going back and forth trying to get away with it using Google Translate, I had to call my man Kojunt to come help us deal with them. He arrived sipping on a Sapporo and told us that they were going to escort us to our hotel to check the passports and that would be it. The police drove us there, we brought the passports down, they checked them, and we were ‘free’ two minutes later.
Whilst we did have about 100 interactions with police and security during this trip, all of them were super chill. They just come and they kick you out in the most ‘I’m sorry’ way. Plus, we were all trying to be the most respectful that we could be. I don’t like when foreign people take advantage of how nice they are and don’t take them seriously or act dumb. That’s just giving Japanese citizens a negative impression of foreigners in my opinion.”
Mañel Urbieta, switch backside tailslide, Kobe
Having connections with the local skate scene had many benefits relating both to skating and to apres-ski activities. Jura and Damage’s entanglement with Masayuki-san (Shelter shop and distro owner) ensured access to a plethora of varied and lesser seen spots and to an equally abundant array of post-skate entertainment opportunities.
“I think Masayuki is the biggest fucking legend I’ve ever met. I’m sure that all the guys can agree with that. Everybody out there had so much respect for him and treated him as though he was some sort of city mayor. Just the way he runs his business and how he treats everyone who visits Kobe is something special. We even saw some OG footage of him skating too that gave us the chills. There were just so many interesting people out there. Also, those guys can party and drink non-stop, and I mean ‘non-stop’. Only a few of our Spanish crew (not me, haha) could handle it.”
Gabi Ferrero, gap to 50-50, Kobe
The fruits of this connection are scattered across the pages in your hands and, as is hopefully clear, despite the inevitable cultural dislocation, the language barriers and the near constant late night drinking, the crew came through with maximum damage (pun intended) inflicted on Japanese architecture and minimum damage to the cross-cultural friendships established and strengthened by this trip.
It seems valid to finish with a back story on one of the photos in this article as it encapsulates both the vigour of the crew and the intensity of the mission involved in shooting this piece. Over to commander-in-chief Jura again.
“Javi de Pedro’s from Valencia and, when he’s not torturing himself to get skate photos, is a full-time vintage gear maniac and re-seller. The 360 flip through the tree photo doesn’t tell the whole story so I feel as though I ought to really. We’d come across that spot on this random island near Kobe called Port Island. The tree was next to this amazing plaza at the port and, at first, seemed like this fun distraction from the more ‘serious’ filming and photo potential of the plaza. I say ‘seemed like fun’ because after I started messing about trying to switch heel through it and slammed hard hitting my head and cutting my eye it became clear that any ‘fun’ wasn’t going to be that easy to access. Javi carried on regardless, hoping to quickly shoot a 360 flip through the V-shaped trunks of the tree.”
Javi de Pedro, 360 flip, Kobe
“Three hours later and he was still trying it. His board was hitting the tree nearly every try but every now and then he was clearing it and that glimpse of possibility made him keep going ’til his legs gave up. The next day he could barely walk and as it was a raining, we all went to Osaka to spend some money and visit some stores, but Javi didn’t come. He decided he was going to stay in Kobe and go analyse the tree and figure out how he could make it happen, because the 360 flip was everything he wanted for the whole trip. He got kind of obsessed basically.
After intense tree analysis, he went and bought a 7.75 deck instead of his regular 8.3 and a few days later he went back with just the filmer (Rob) and battled that shit for another three hours.
We were in a different spot with Santino (our other filmer) and Rob was sending updates to the group chat about the tree saga. When he finally got it, it felt surreal to see the actual landing after knowing how big of a nightmare it had been for him. I want to make a raw edit with the maybe thousand tries after the video comes out. I think that spot of the tree where it was getting hit every try is going take decades to recover. Respect to Javi and to nature though – it’s not every day that you get to drive yourself insane in Japan, is it?”
