Interview with Steven Ince and Damian Ince
Steven remembers his first encounter with skateboarding in Springfield, where Paul Picket had a chicken board and was chased down the street. Both of their first experiences using a skateboard was when they went on holiday in Cornwall, where they hired skateboards from the skate park. The first professional skateboard Damian bought was from Jaime’s Cycles in Wolverton in 1988. He first started skating in Milton Keynes a year later because it was not far to travel from Northampton. Steven started earlier, around 1986, when his mother and father owned the One Stop café at the Bus Station.
Steven and Damian reminisce on the first competition held in 1992 where four to five hundred people came to the Bus Station. The competition was advertised in RAD Magazine. In the same year that Stevens parents opened the skate park at Radlands. They hired a ramp builder from America. They also reminisce on the different places they would skate in Milton Keynes, such as the ‘Beige’ (centre of the business district) and the Library Gap. Steven describes ’Burgundy’ a place they skated was a set of stairs with marble and hand railings.
Damian believes people came to skate in Milton Keynes because of the marble ledges. They remember Carl Shipman, a British skater who went to America and became a professional, who would skate in Milton Keynes. Steven explains that James Bush, Sean Smith and Rob Selley all skated in Milton Keynes and that they created a legacy of skateboarding in Milton Keynes, which continues to be an inspiration.
Damian describes skateboarding as a community as it brings people together. For Steven, skateboarding is a way of life, to him its also about friendships having a connection to a larger community. Steven hopes to encourage his two children to skateboard.
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