Former’s latest skateboarding edit, Plastic Bottle Service has landed.
Shot across Thailand and Portugal respectively and featuring riders Austyn Gillette, Jake Anderson, Myles Strampello and Gelek Gonzalez, Plastic Bottle Service is yet another immensely enjoyable addition to Former’s oeuvre.
We felt it fitting to jump on a quick call with Austyn to discuss the video process, living in Paris and the forehead benefits of salmon sperm….
WT: Hello?
AG: Hold on, hold on, podcast is playing in the background. Sorry. I just got off the phone with Eden talking about the whole rollout for this video and then straight into this. How are you?
Very well thank you.
Where the hell are you my friend?
Berlin. One of your favourites.
Yeah. Used to be. You still like it?
Yeah I’m just here for a month. Summer in Berlin is always good.
You’re working from there? Any playtime?
Yeah I was locked away working on edits all last week. Although I did get home at 8am on Sunday. Just a little welcome back to Berlin rave for old time’s sake.
I don’t think it’s fair that you get to go into all these new cities and be like, the new exciting guy, and then fucking leave. Is that your technique?
Always. Talking of new cities. How’s Paris treating you? How are you feeling living there now?
I feel great. A few friends came to town and we had dinner last night and it’s just easy. Being around people talking about the city and then you kind of realise that you live in this city, it starts to become more real and more apparent. Then they’re ordering in English and then you’re now trying to speak French. It’s just weird. Efforts are being made. It’s becoming more real. It’s only been four months but I’m loving it. I think I’m loving it. I mean fuck dude, after spending a week in Guéthary, I might just move there.
Yeah right
That’s such a nice way to live your life.
Yeah, the Basque country is pretty special. How was your trip to Marseille a few weeks back?
I wasn’t really feeling the city to tell you the truth.
It is a little bit rough around the edges.
It just felt murky, I don’t know. Something about it felt sketchy But then you meet the people there and they’re all really nice. I was really surprised by it all. The food was unreal.
You should come to Berlin next week for my birthday.
Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. Are you turning 26? Wait. How old are you?
I’m gonna be turning 38
No! What kind of eye serum do you use? Or do you just stay out until 8am? And it just keeps young?
Kiehls.
Oh yeah, yeah, I’ve seen that one
I’m a midnight recovery kinda guy. But the key is carrot juice.
Oh yeah? Beta carotene. Good for your eyes and skin.
100%. Can’t recommend it enough.
You know what? I heard a crazy one the other day. So there’s this new fad and this is a real thing. Is that women and men are injecting salmon sperm into their face. You can pay for this treatment.
Really? And what are the health benefits of that?
(Long pause) Immortality. And you get to look like a lizard. Which is kind of nice. I mean it doesn’t change if your breath smells, or if you have family issues or any of that. But it’ll change your forehead.
I feel we should move on and talk about this new Former video.
Yeah, that happened.
Why Thailand? Seems like a random spot and it works.
Yeah, it oddly worked. I was surprised too. I went there with the Habitat team when I was probably 18, so it would’ve been 13/14 years prior. And I felt it’s one of those places that’s kind of a one and done sort of thing. Unless you’re trying to do those motorcycle trips across Cambodia or Vietnam or something.
Like a Kenny Reed trip?
Something like that. But I think it was winter time. And we looked at South America and Argentina. But I heard that it was a little difficult to get around. Not that Thailand isn’t at all. But kind of looked everywhere in the southern hemisphere. We’d already done trips to Australia a couple times over the last decade and we’re a bit fatigued and I don’t know, we were kinda drawn to Asia. I feel like there’s a little bit of a pulse happening and it’s much more affordable and fresh to the eyes. It doesn’t look like China. It has crusty spots and texture and just something that maybe the video didn’t really have. I mean we did Portugal, which obviously is beautiful. But I like the contrast of going to a city that isn’t perfect mixed with a city that is perfect.
What were the biggest challenges out there?
Sitting in the van for, and I’m not exaggerating, most days, 8 to 10 hours. Sitting in traffic from spot to spot was probably an hour and a half between each one.
That’s rough.
Yeah it was really hard. But you know, even if you’re on mopeds moving around, which we weren’t doing because of boards and camera gear. I don’t know, it still would’ve been really hard and your body would’ve been done. At least we got to just sit in the van in the AC and then warm up again very quickly cause it’s so humid there. That was actually kind of nice. Like, when you’re in Miami or something, you don’t really have to warm up, which is kinda nice, but that’s why we chose Thailand, or that’s why I chose Thailand.
Makes sense.
I also like seeing Myles and Jake in those environments. Jake’s travelled quite a bit but Myles hasn’t travelled so much and I like the idea of like him being able to be on a company where he could travel to Asia and kind of, provide him with experiences that I was doing when I was that age. I like seeing it through his eyes, which he’s usually pretty fucking high most of the time, so I don’t know if he’s actually seeing anything.
I wanted to ask about Myles. A lot of people watching this might only be seeing him for the first time. How did you guys meet?
I met Myles probably three or four years o in New York. We were just skating In Albany and Upstate and I just saw him with his friends. He has this crew called Calmcorp. A lot of those guys live in New York and just to see those guys with a small brand and they all seem really passionate. But yeah, I just saw him skating and he’s just this tiny kid. He’s grown up a little bit more since then, But he was so good. I think he would’ve been 16 at the time and I wasn’t even head hunting for new kids to be on the team.
Yeah right and he’s just so good.
Yeah he surprises me every time that he skates. I’m just waiting for the world to recognise how good he is and he’ll be able to flourish.
How did the boxing match occur between you and Jake?
We were just at our at our house in Portugal. There was a Decathalon nearby. It’s pretty dangerous to do that on the skate trip because you get thirty minutes to go into the store and do something kind of normal. But you end up just playing around like kids in there and then you see like ellipticals and stretch bands and foam rollers and just stuff that you need on trips. And then everyone gets a little excited and everybody was putting on the boxing gloves and hitting the bag in there. So we just thought we’d bring it home. We didn’t think it would turn into a match. It’s kinda hard to punch somebody when you’re not allowed to hit them in the head, so you’re just going for the body. You only have a little surface area for the stomach. Although there was definitely some dick punching in there. There was some illegal stuff that was going down. But I don’t know who won that one to tell you the truth. It looks like Jake won but I got him in the pool. He almost drowned. I think that was my only chance.
What are you up to after just trying to enjoy your summer?
I think that’s the only thing to do. There’s a lot of projects that are coming out that we’ve been working on for the last six months. I have two trips next month, but they’re all pretty short, five day trips and then between that, kinda enjoy the summer here in Paris. Go to some island in Italy. I’m gonna try to do some more music stuff too. I play a show next week in London. Other than that. The usual. Skate. Deal with Former stuff.
Have you seen those boys recently?
I saw Dane a month ago. And I saw Craig a month and a half ago. They’re just finishing up a surf film that’s supposed to come out in September/October. I haven’t seen any of the footage, but apparently it’s gonna be really good. If they’re excited, which is very hard to get a read on. But yeah, Craig seems really psyched. Shaun Manners seems really psyched. It’s kinda rare to hear. I get hyped up about stuff, so I think it’s gonna be really good.
Sounds grand. You should come back down to Biarritz in September for Queen Classic.
Oh yeah, that’s Margaux’s surf thing.
Yep. Always good vibes.
I’ll see you there.
