Interview with Josh Lock
Josh was four when he moved from Luton to Milton Keynes in 1991. Josh always remembers having a skateboard and going down scaffolding planks in his parents’ garden on it. It was when he was eleven that he began to take it more seriously.
His first time skateboarding in Milton Keynes was after seeing skateboarding at a Planet Ice festival. Josh and his friends decided to go and see the skateboarding scene at the train station. They were ‘daunted’ by what they saw, even though they had seen tricks in magazines. Josh was part of the ‘Elder Gate Crew’, along with John Aldridge, Paul Norris, Carter Hewlett and Jay Bancroft. He would regularly purchase ’Sidewalk’-a British skateboarding magazine, especially when Milton Keynes was featured in it. He and his friends would read it together and were always excited when any of their friends were featured in it.
Josh reminisces on the first time he saw the drawings of what ’Buszy’ (the bus station) could look like. It was when Josh was fourteen or fifteen that ‘Buszy’ became known. Josh remembers feeling safe to learn at the bus station and to get feedback from other skateboarders. Josh and his friends saw skateboarding as a way of pushing boundaries. As a result, a lot of stigma became attached to skateboarding.
Josh became a Design Trainee for the council and was part of the team who created the honey pots – places for skateboarders to use across Milton Keynes. Josh thinks that other places would benefit from asking skateboarders what they want, as was the case in Milton Keynes. Josh says that skateboarding has given him lasting friendships.
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