Bank Rock 2023
Who would’ve thought that heading out to a ditch hidden behind a screen of prickly shrubbery, lost somewhere in the wilds of suburban Springvale would be so much fun!
The sounds of hard urethane sliding on rough-aged concrete heralded our arrival as skater after skater raced down a steep concrete path before dropping into the Springvale Drains and carving up the walls of this well-loved skate spot. Punk band, Fun Again provided the soundtrack that kicked off Bank Rock 2023 as the crowd gathered round to hear some good tunes and watch their friend’s skate this mad ditch. Skateboarders and roller skaters alike took on the make-shift wall ride and grind rails that had been added to the drains for the day. It was just freaking cool! We spoke to one of Bank Rock’s organisers, Noel Forsyth to get the low down on how the event came about and why it’s so special.
Tell us a bit about yourself and how Bank Rock got started – what was the inspiration behind it?
I started skateboarding when I was 12, just as the ‘urethane wheel era’ began. During that craze, Australia probably had more skaters than anywhere in the world. Skating was an obsession for me, and it pretty much put paid to any chance of success in High School. I dropped out and did a noisy, dirty apprenticeship welding, then travelled overseas to the USA in 1986. I skated some of the last iconic skateparks before they were bulldozed.
Then the late 80’s ‘Pro era’ hit, and I was lucky enough to virtually fall into a sales job with Hardcore (now Globe). I’ve spent almost my entire life in the skate industry, moving on to become National Sales Manager, then into footwear design. I managed the Globe Shoes design team for 15 years or more. I’m essentially retired, but still dabbling in footwear development, which looks set to get really interesting again.
The Bank Rock thing grew out of the timed bank slalom races which happened 3 – 4 times a year at Springy Ditch from 2005 – 2016. I loved the speed rush but was frustrated I’d only get half a dozen runs each time. We’d been running a generator and lights at skate sessions for over a decade, and I always wanted a great mix of ripping punker tunes to skate to. I daydreamed of how cool it would be to have a band playing in front of the drain and made a few enquiries. It took some work on my part, but was pretty straightforward to pull together. We did the first one in 2019 and it was hugely popular – and we only had 70 or 80 people there.
So, this ditch – apparently, it’s been skated for years – how did you first hear about it and why is it so good?
Springy ditch is part of a drainage system connected to ‘Blood Bath’ in Noble Park, where many of the old locals grew up skating. In Glen Waverley, we had much the same stuff happening, but were clueless about what was happening elsewhere. The thing with “ditch skating” is that it’s the essence of all modern skating. In 1975, the Dogtown guys were skating Californian drainage ditches and school banks. They were already famous before taking the next step to backyard pools and pipelines. Vertical ramps and skateparks followed soon after, and banks form the basis of every modern skatepark design.
Most drains are the same 30 degree opposing bank design. It’s pretty handy that this is exactly the sort of configuration needed to create speed
on a skateboard.
Springy ditch is different, because the slalom boys built large plywood run in ramps to generate extra speed for a much longer run. After the council tore these down several times, the fellas pooled resources, hired a concrete mixer, and poured a legit concrete roll in, which is still what we use today.
I think the story behind this is hilarious and even the mixer bloke was dumbfounded, asking: “you can’t be serious – this is council property, right?” But they slipped him another hundy and he happily dumped his load through a hole in the chain link fence.
You’ve been involved in some large events over the years as well these more grass roots style ones – which do you prefer and why?
Yeah, skating all the new parks which had been built in the early 2000’s was great, but it eventually got a bit repetitive. Around 2010, I came up with the idea of ‘Ride Your Stash’. We all had some retro skateboards from earlier eras, so the idea was we’d hit a couple of the older bowls and ride them on the vintage gear. It’s kind of fun trying to work out a set-up which would work, because the older boards are generally heavy and slow. Ride Your Stash became an annual bash down at my Sandy Point house for 10 years. We’d skate some South Gippsland bowls, then surf the Prom or just up the street, then barbecue and play pool way into the night.
In 2016, myself, Wedge Francis and a couple of others had run out of fund-raising ideas for our MOSS (Melbourne Old School Skaters) charity. A friend came up with the idea of an auction event for one-off artworks on blank skate decks. Everyone’s seen this now, but this was well before it had been done anywhere else. We’re in our 8th year of running the art show now, and have run parallel MOSS shows in Barcelona, Waikiki, Sydney and the Gold Coast. We must’ve raised close on half a million dollars by now, and this money funds our own construction team, which builds clean drinking water systems for poor and outlying villages in Southern Africa.
It’s not immediately obvious, but art and skating have a very strong link. Our MOSS shows have had contributions year on year from Wes Humpston, who almost singlehandedly created the ‘skate graphic’ with the Dogtown Cross in 1976. I think that is kind of incredible. He’s a crazy cat (I’m the polar opposite) but he’s stoked to be a part of our show.
Why do you love skating and why is it so important as a creative outlet?
In 2002/3, when I had young kids, I came as close as ever to actually stopping skating. Work was intense, I was tired, and I just couldn’t really find the time. My mates hounded me to come and roll at some of the new bowls, but it came as a bit of a shock that I wasn’t hacking it. My legs were mush and I’d been away from it long enough that I was pretty crap, but it’s in your blood somewhere though, and soon enough it all started to click again. As I got stronger, I realised it was something I’d really missed. The rush of high-speed bowl riding is kind of like what you get on a water slide maybe, except you’re in complete control. It’s addictive, much like surfing, but way more accessible for a Melbournite. Plus, my skate friends are just an amazing bunch of positive guys. We’d almost qualify as a sports club, but there’s no President, no weekly training, no rules.
Old man skate sessions aren’t all about ‘performance’ and really they can’t be. I’m into my 60’s now and I’ve busted a bunch of bones over the past 10 years. That sounds a bit ridiculous, but ‘the stoke’ is still pretty much unstoppable. After I broke my pelvis 3 years ago, my wife’s parents rolled their eyes again and said: “well, that’ll be that then, eh?” but I knew I’d be back skating because I’ve got no intention of stopping. It’s just too much fun and I dread the couch and getting old and ‘past it’.
These days I take a couple of runs to make sure I haven’t gone to shit, then take some photos because that’s more of a big thing for me now. The aesthetics of it are irresistible. The modern hotshots are the young kids – 10 to 12-year-old girls and boys who have the same obsessive need to roll as I did in the day. They’re great kids, too – energetic and driven but not snot noses.
You have some cool bands play the event every year – why do you think music is so intrinsic skating?
In the 1970’s skating quickly developed a harder edge sound track than surfing – bands like Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Sabbath. Then punk rock hit hard in the US after it had already burnt out in the UK. The Clash, The Damned, X-Ray Spex plus a bunch of pretty shitty Californian hardcore acts. The music clicked perfectly with a new breed of wannabe outlaw skaters, especially in Northern California. The same stuff got popular to skate to here, along with new wave acts like DEVO and the B 52s.
Some of my mates were right into the early Melbourne punk scene in 1980 – 81, seeing The Zorros or Corporate Body and Corpse Grinders for a few dollars at the Crystal Ballroom, Exford Hotel and the few other punk venues. For a while, it almost replaced the skating. By ‘82, skateboarding had kind of just shrivelled up but we did find some great skate spots hidden away like the Werribee and Sale pipes, even the Melbourne Underground tunnels when they were being built. Ghetto blasters meant that skating was always accompanied by rockin’ tunes, and these days it still is. I have a few excellent ‘older school’ punk play lists I love to skate to, but I’d embarrass myself trying to be the D.J.
Down in the ditch we’ve had Wiffo’s Sacramento Sweaters play, Hybernators were really good, and Lunatic just a couple of weeks back. It’s getting a bit of momentum, and I reckon the bands just can’t believe it. For an underground outfit, it’s almost tailor made for a video clip. The Stranglers sang Down in the Sewer, but I don’t reckon they actually played there like we do.
Find out more:
www.mosswater.org
facebook.com/MossFoundationSkaters/
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