The Baghead crew started around 2010 and has been bringing the godly earth to its knees since then.
A massively talented group of skaters. Cruising along any kind of road that lay before them.
Bringing a heavy and spirited approach to tearing up the streets.
Based in the U.K. – their 2023 video ‘Satan’ was filmed shredding up and down the streets of the U.K. They are basically taking you through a private tour of all the best and hidden spots that can be found. Alongside any fish shops or pubs.
In 2024, the Baghead crew had a gnarly idea and they loaded up the caravan and headed out to the east coast in the good ol’ US of A to explore the skate culture and get some radical clips, tearing up and down the streets.
I talked to Forde and asked him about his upcoming video – slated to destroy any and all curbs in 2026.
Why did you pick the east coast to explore? Were there other areas you wanted to try or was this the main goal for the trip?
The east coast spots remind me a lot of U.K. spots. The terrain isn’t perfect and every spot you skate is a bit of a battle. The trip to the east coast comes from meeting Nick Murray at Fancy Lad.
The entire connection comes from our friend Jesse James. Years ago, Jesse rode for Wight Trash Skateboards and somehow became friends with the Fancy Lad dudes. I think Jesse had seen their first video way before anyone else in the U.K. had and he eventually put us onto them.
Fast forward a few years, Jesse went to visit the Fancy Lad crew with John Cattle (who owns Wight Trash), which eventually lead to Jesse skating for Fancy Lad and spending months on end in the USA.
Many years later, Nick Murray hit us up and mentioned that he’d be visiting the U.K., so we set up a session in Manchester along with Chris Avi Atherton and Will Sayer.
Shortly after that, Will and I headed out to Boston, Massachusetts to visit the Fancy Lad crew, and that’s how our connection with them begun.
Is the attitude (on and off the board) different in the U.K. verse the US? Did you meet with any complications dealing with people in the skate scene?
I didn’t meet any complications at all! All the dudes I met in Boston and the east coast as a whole were super welcoming. We even took a trip to New Jersey and Nick dropped Fred Gall a call and we had a pretty wet session in New Jersey with Uncle Freddy, it was incredible!
Did you have guides set up or did you just take off and see what you could find?
Some spots were planned as you guys seem to have no issue with driving hours for a spot haha. Other times, we’d just go skating and find things along the way or head out to spots around New England for the day and just filmed at spots that we found interesting.
Who has the better spots – the U.K. or the US? Who has the better skate parks?
America 100%. British parks are starting to catch up but they’re still not quite on the level of the skateparks that you guys have in the States. I’m sure you have cities and towns with utter dogshit parks, but overall, your parts are better.
Spot wise, we’ve got some great spots here. Some come and go in a matter of weeks, some stay forever. We’ve got a lot of spots where you can get two minutes on them before getting kicked out or you can score lucky and have no trouble at all.
Overall though, if you’re cool with security regardless of where you are, you’ll always be okay. Don’t be a cunt to those who are simply trying to make a living.
Will you be coming back to the US? Are there any west coast plans?
I’m coming back to Boston for sure. I visited New England 3 times within a year for a month or so at a time. Like Jonathan Richman said “I love New England” haha.
West Coast is also 100% on the cards. Got a spare room that I could set up camp in?
How easy was it to navigate filming and skating in new spots? Did you have plans for places you wanted to hit?
It’s always pretty easy I guess. Some spots require a little bit of thought but if you’re with the right person at the right spot, you’re usually guaranteed to come away with some decent footage and wonderful memories.
I wanted to visit Rhode Island cause there’s some pretty interesting spots there and we did, I think 3 or 4 times.
This is our first full length video that has a pretty heavy U.K. x USA connection. With us going there and some of the crew there, coming here!
Paul runs Give Praise Records and is the Editor at Shackle Magazine. Paul hangs out on Cape Cod in Massachusetts with his wife and son, Christopher. He also has been working at a offset print shop since 2003, and still tries to get out and skateboard on very small curbs.
