Journal
Empowering Youth Through Skating
“I support Skateistan because I believe skateboarding can be a catalyst for positive change, especially among children." Tony Hawk, pro skateboarder Skateistan is an award-winning international non-profit organisation that provides programs combining skateboarding and education to children and youth aged 5-17 in Afghanistan, Cambodia and South Africa. Through the hook of skateboarding they engage children, especially girls and children from low income backgrounds, and provide them with access to safe spaces and education. Skateistan's innovative programs teach children valuable life skills that go beyond the skatepark and the classroom. Their core programs aim to keep children and youth involved in the Skateistan community for the long term. As students get older, they become role models to the younger children and the wider community. Join us in Donating Today The animation below, created by Berlin-based illustrator Maria Giemza and animator Dominik Grejc, tells the story of an Afghan girl empowered through skateboarding and education. Based on the real life of a Skateistan student in Kabul, Afghanistan, the animation showcases the impact Skateistan's programs have on the lives of children and how the charity works to empower children and youth around the world. Skateistan Students Over 1,800 children and youth are part of the programs worldwide. Skateistan believes that positive social change happens when children are educated on how to take care of themselves and their community. Skateistan addresses gender inequality by including as many girls as possible in their programs. Over 50% of registered students are female, and Afghanistan has the highest percentage of female skateboarders in the world. Skateistan offer girls-only sessions at all of their Skate Schools worldwide. Educational and recreational services for youth are often compromised in places of long-term conflict and concentrated poverty. Yet, when millions of youth miss out on experiences of playing and learning, they lose opportunities to develop essential life skills, to imagine a new world for themselves, to evolve into leaders, and to develop effective solutions for their communities. Skateboarding is accessible to children with physical and cognitive disabilities as it can be practiced in some form by virtually anyone. The ability to take part in sport and creative activities builds students' confidence, self-esteem, and provides a valuable platform for self-expression. For children of migration backgrounds there are many obstacles to accessing education. Skateistan works with internally displaced youth, nomadic communities, economic migrants and refugees. Q&A How do youth benefit from skateboarding?Skateistan’s model is founded on the belief that skateboarding is a great equaliser. With a safe space and staff trained in delivering quality programs, we develop community leaders and skateboarders who know how to safely fail and persevere through adversity. This new generation of role models is equipped to tackle complex problems in their own lives as well as in their local and global communities.What are the benefits of children being part of Skateistan’s programs?At Skateistan, children find a fun, safe community where they can play and learn, free from discrimination and violence. Within a diverse peer group they come to understand themselves as equal with others, while learning new skills and building friendships. As members of a thriving learning community, youth develop key life skills and increase their confidence. Youth set goals, stay in school, and become involved in civic engagement activities. Many become role models for their peers in the skatepark and classes. At 18, youth graduate from Skateistan and from high school with an expanded notion of community, and the tools to seek out further education and employment. Some become Skateistan volunteers and staff, and all join a global community of active, engaged citizens - promoting such values as equality, education, and inclusion.Was the community involved during construction of the skate schools?Yes. Involving the local community was important for consent; we put in the effort to operate in a culturally-sensitive and appropriate manner. It is common for local government, youth, parents, and community groups to work together to build safe, supervised, and youth-friendly facilities. Watch how the Skate School was made in Johannesburg.Can girls participate?More than 50% of students are girls! Getting girls on a skateboard has been a priority since Skateistan's beginning. However, we acknowledge that there are many obstacles to teaching girls — and that is why we hold the support of the parents, local community and government in such high regard. Half of our students are female, giving Afghanistan the highest rate of female participation in skateboarding in the world. They are taught on separate days at the park, by an all-female staff. In South Africa and Cambodia, Skateistan hopes to address the gender gap through their girls-only sessions. We run 14 of these girls-only sessions each week around the world.Can people with disabilities participate?Yes. A focus of ours is working with youth living with a disability. Students can take part in our Skate and Create program and we run Outreach sessions with partner organisations. Skateboarding is accessible to children with physical disabilities, as it can be practiced in some form by virtually anyone. The ability to take part in sport and creative activities builds students confidence, self-esteem, and provides a valuable platform for self-expression.Are the students safe?The Skate Schools are supervised and secure private facilities that are built and run with community consent. We are in regular communication with local safety organizations, as well as with government and local community leaders, so that we receive regular security updates and conduct activities safely. When skating all students must wear a helmet and safety pads.Are the programs free for children?Yes, this is essential, as most participants of Skateistan cannot afford to pay for lessons. There are absolutely no costs incurred by students for any activities, for example, all materials needed in the skatepark or the classroom are provided to students by Skateistan. Additionally, we arrange transport for girls in Afghanistan to make it easier and safer for them to attend. Images & words courtesy of @skateistan. Learn more at skateistan.org.
Best of the Month - Vol. 6
We're right in the midst of the summer heat, and are back with what's been keeping us intrigued and inspired across the internet over the past month. Here are our favourite things, accounts, tracks and community photos. Hit the go button on the blender for that frozen margarita mix and check out our favourite discoveries from this month. Best of the Web Director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Science of Sleep), shot this whimsical 10-min short film completely on the iPhone 7+. "The best camera is the one that's with you...". Watch Détour below. Riley, you're going places, kid... Apple's chief designer Jonathan Ive has revealed his feelings about the tech giant's new home, as his team prepares to move in, and photos of the building's interior emerge. Read more about Apple Park on Dezeen. Photographers Jessica Kobeissi & Brandon Woelfel teamed up to see what can be achieved with a $40 toy camera. The state-of-the-art point-and-shoot boasts a MASSIVE 2 megapixels and a 4x zoom, they set out to see what they could capture. Check out the results here. Japanese architect Hiroshi Sambuichi has staged an ambitious installation within a former underground water reservoir in Copenhagen. The monumental halls of the space, known as cisternerne or The Cisterns, have been transformed into a subterranean landscape, which forms sambuichi’s first major exhibition outside of japan. Foreignrap is a platform for international rap music in which sounds from across the world are shared for you to enjoy. Choose a country from the drop-down menu, or hit random to shuffle through the plethora of multi-lingual beats and lyricals from all over. Watch / listen here. Highsnobiety caught up with Australian pro-surfer Nikki van Dijk to discuss family, how she first became interested in the sport, along with her career highs. Watch the lo-fi short film below for an intimately nostalgic, beach-faded day-in-the-life tale. Finally, we wanted to share Frank Ocean's anti-discrimination tee he wore during his performance at NYC's Panorama Festival. "Why be racist, sexist, homopobhic or transphobic when you could just be quiet?" Tens Soundtrack Here are some of our office favourites, both new and old. Who else should we be checking out? Visit our profile on Spotify to check out our previous months' soundtracks. Who to Follow Here are some of our favourite accounts to follow on Instagram. If you know anybody that we should be following, let us know! This month we've got @watts.place, @tinycactus, @jannikestelling, @airlinersvintage & @tombobnyc. Best of #FilterYourWorld At Tens we put our community first, no matter what it is that we're up to. Here's where we share some of our favourite customer photos with Tens from the last month. We love seeing your tags with Tens, so be sure to tag us + #FilterYourWorld for your chance to be featured! Every month we will select our favourite photo, and gift a pair of Tens to you! Photos submitted (in order) by @humansafari, @ktlphotog, @victoriamouraphoto, @meghanekay & @_iamholt.~What things have you discovered this month? Are we missing anything? Message us on Facebook with suggestions!
Escape to Puglia
by Sam Smith We went to Italy for pizza, but little did we know seafood pasta was the cuisine of choice in this region of Italy... Jess and I grabbed an albeit delayed Ryanair flight to Bari, to escape the pretty abhorrent Summer London had served up for us. Looking for a few days chilling poolside, we rented a pretty mean hotel outside Torre Dell’Orso to chill and take in the scenery of the surrounding towns.Empty roads winding through overgrown fields filled with farmhouses and Fiats in every garage; mussels, Peroni, suncream, sun, turquoise coastline - this is Puglia.
Paint-Splashed Formentera
Amy Beasley’s abstract images add new depth to Ibiza's sister island London-based photographer Amy Beasley recently took a day trip from Ibiza to its sister island, Formentera. “You catch a 30-minute ferry to the small island and as soon as you get there, the tempo shifts,” says Beasley. “We hired bikes to explore the island and cycled along the coast to one of the beaches where the water is basically like the Caribbean.” Her photographs are all shot on film and then painted over with bold, sweeping brushstrokes. “I try not to overthink where or what I paint and just go with my instincts,” she says. From a father with his kid to passing ferries and from the hazy purple salt flats to the azure-coloured sea, Beasley’s photos are snapshots of idyllic summer holidays, but given a whole new dimension through brushstrokes. In an age of camera phones and Instagram, images have become somewhat disposable – and for Beasley adding the abstract painting changes our perception of an image. Beasley is inspired by the German artist Gerhard Richter’s over-painted photographs, and is trying to bring her photographs – and the moments they capture – to life. “The image has become one of the most important symbols of our generation, yet the images themselves have little longevity,” she says. “We are constantly bombarded with images in advertising or social media. They’re unavoidable. This is the predicament of the digital era, which is something I’m trying to address in my work.” Words by Iona Goulder for Amuse. View more of Amy's work on her website.
Best of the Month - Vol. 5
The brightest and longest summer's day has passed, but there's still plenty of tropical heat and ice-cold mojitos to consume. Whilst the world news has its ups and downs, we're here to share the things that have made our month ten times better. So here are our favourite things, accounts, tracks and community photos. So grab an appropriate hot / cold beverage and enjoy! Best of the Web Casey Neistat shares his 'First Day Of Summer' video, which captures his teenage fantasies and explores what summer is all about. Which, in his case involves sports cars, superyachts and helicopter rides. We're perfectly happy with poolside cocktails, though. French fashion brand Pigalle teamed up with Parisian creative agency ILL-STUDIO & Nike to give their Rue de Duperreé basketball court site a vibrant makeover. The walls feature hot gradients and hues of fuchsia, dark blue, canary yellow and burnt orange. Vox share this vibrantly fun video exploring the '80s design aesthetic. The 'Memphis Design' movement dominated the '80s with their crazy patterns and vibrant colors. Many designers and architects from all around the world contributed to the movement in order to escape from the strict rules of modernism. Jordan Griska‘s sculpture 'Wreck' - a non-functional model of a Mercedes Benz S550, made entirely from reflective stainless steel. The piece, which is composed of nearly 12,000 individual parts, is meant to highlight both luxury and mortality from a removed perspective. Ustwo Studios released the sequel to their incredibly beautiful, incredibly popular Monument Valley mobile game. The isometric MC Escher style draws you into its world with beautiful colour, and is the perfect train-journey accompaniment. You can download it here (iOS). Tens Soundtrack Early summer is always fantastic for music new and old. We've upped this playlist to 30 tracks, share on Twitter if you're feeling it. Be sure to follow & save your favourites as we update this every month. Who to Follow Here are some of our favourite accounts to follow on Instagram. If you know anybody that we should be following, let us know! This month we've got @bigntoasty, @mycameramyrules, @thatshitbuttery, @candyminimal & @aperturefnd. Best of #FilterYourWorld At Tens we put our community first, no matter what it is that we're up to. Here's where we share some of our favourite customer photos with Tens from the last month. We love seeing your tags with Tens, so be sure to tag us + #FilterYourWorld for your chance to be featured! Photos submitted (in order) by @alexanderjdunn, @jmow, @livography, @imagesbyiain, @jocopops, @geobell95, @wcatchpole13, @tomadamgreen & @beckie_finch.
Paris' Pigalle Basketball Court
Formerly cast in a bold, primary coloured scape, the Pigalle Duperreé basketball court has just been given a vibrant makeover. French fashion brand Pigalle teamed up with Parisian creative agency ILL-STUDIO & Nike to give the court site a vibrant makeover. The walls feature hot gradients and hues of fuchsia, dark blue, canary yellow and burnt orange. The court re-up came as part of a new collaboration between Pigalle & NikeLAB, and is sandwiched between two apartment blocks in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The colours match the '90s basketball aesthetic on which the collaboration is based upon. "The anatomy of the human body as well as its performances have had a lifelong relationship with art, since the legacy of greek and roman antiquity, sport is represented as a dominant idea within the beauty of an era. This never-ending quest for modernity has forged a strong bond between functionality and aesthetics over the decades. Through this new court, we wish to explore the relationship between sport, art and culture and its emergence as a powerful socio-cultural indicator of a period in time. We aim to establish visual parallels between the past, present and future of modernism from the ‘Avant Garde’ era of the beginning of the 20th century, to the ‘open source’ times we live in today, and our interpretation of the future aesthetics of basketball and sport in general." - ILL-STUDIO Images by Alex Penfornis & the court's set designer Sebastien Michelini.
Watch: A Tens USA Road Trip
"We drove for 90 hours across 3,392 miles to discover the States' finest views." Follow young Swiss filmmaker Kevin Ringli through west-USA with Tens. He brought with him a very talented crew who dreamed of capturing a new part of the world in a different light. After growing up and developing their skills in and around the Swiss alps, the golden light of the west was calling... Images by David Hubacher Follow the Crew @davidhubacher, @kevlevitate, @opticchina, @dom_nike & @kevin_mr Gear (video):Canon EOS 1DX MKIISigma 20mm f/1.4Sigma 35mm f/1.4Canon 100mm f/2.8Dji Ronin MDji Phantom 3 ProGear (photo):Canon 5D Mark IIICanon 16-35mm f/2.8Canon 35mm f/1.4Sigma 85mm f/1.4
Best of the Month - Vol. 4
It's finally sunglasses season, and as summer arrives we can already taste the cocktail of suncream & piña colada. However, before we hit the pool, here are our most-loved finds, photos, accounts & office tunes from the past 4 weeks. Enjoy, and share if you're feelin' them! Best of the Web Lorenzo Quinn’s ‘Support’ features two giant hands arising from the famous Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. The hands serve as a visual statement of the impact of climate change, and rising sea levels on the historic city. “I wanted to sculpt what is considered the hardest and most technically challenging part of the human body. The hand holds so much power – the power to love, to hate, to create, to destroy.” states Quinn. The sculpture celebrates this year’s Venice Biennale, and will be on display until November 26. The Shiki-Shima Train is a ten-car sightseeing train that was designed by Ken Okuyama - the former Pininfarina Design Director responsible for the Ferrari Enzo. The experience offers a host of delights for its passengers including a dining room serving cuisine from Eastern Japan, an airy lounge, two window-lined observation cars, and suites that combine traditional Japanese design with modern touches. 'The Infinite Now' is a piece by Armand Dijcks in which he brings the oceanscapes of photographer Ray Collins to life in the form of cinemagraphs. Each cinemagraph is created from one of Ray's stills, and sets it in infinite motion, making a unique moment in time last forever. These cinemagraphs inspired André Heuvelman from the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra to get together with pianist Jeroen van Vliet to record a very moving custom soundtrack, which I combined with a selection of the cinemagraphs. This hyper-realistic rendering by visualisation studio VER depict a board-marked concrete house with factory-like glazing, which Mexican architecture studio Lázaro is planning to build in the city of Uruapan. On the Bailang River bridge in the city of Weifang, in the Shandong province of China, stands a mighty installation that takes the title of ‘world’s largest spokeless ferris wheel.’ The ride, which goes by the name of the Bailang Bridge Ferris Wheel, measures a total height of 145 meters — already 10 meters taller than the world-famous London Eye. Tens Soundtrack It's been a great month for new music! Here are some of our office favourites. Who else should we be checking out? Who to Follow Here are some of our favourite accounts to follow on Instagram. If you know anybody that we should be following, let us know! This month we've got @lewismillerdesign, @msalisbu, @mattcrump, @geronimoballoons & @mpkelleydotcom. Best of #FilterYourWorld At Tens we put our community first, no matter what it is that we're up to. Here's where we share some of our favourite customer photos with Tens from the last month. We love seeing your tags with Tens, so be sure to tag us + #FilterYourWorld for your chance to be featured! Photos submitted (in order) by @twintheworld, @chloefinlayson, @campbell_ellie, @konradborzy, @hp_visuals & @_mrclark. ~ What things have you discovered this month? Are we missing anything? Message us on Facebook with suggestions!
Burma: To Stand & Stare
By Tom Welsh With a looming job in Singapore I persuaded production to book me an early flight out from London - the very next day. Facing a week on my own anywhere in South East Asia, I juggled the well-trodden destinations... but a couple of friends suggested Myanmar (Burma). Hours before my flight left London I submitted a visa, booked a flight from Singapore to Yangon and a couple of nights in a Hostel. I barely knew anything about the place and joyously had no time for Trip Advisor threads & information overload; I’d packed no digital video kit or laptop, just my Bolex & a backpack of 16mm stock. I dictated my movements each day on advice from locals & other travellers, trying to cover as much of the country as I could by train - travelling North through Bagan up to Mandalay, and further on to Gotiek. It’s a truly beautiful country with undoubtedly the warmest people I’ve met; and a place I spent whole afternoons without seeing another tourist or traveller. The verse is from ‘The Golden Gate’ - a book of British poetry for Burmese school children that I bought on the street on my final day. The poem felt closed my trip perfectly - I’d spent most of the week staring out of train windows feeling a million miles away from London. Soundtrack by the wonderful Leif Vollebekk. I had his record ‘Twin Solitude’ essentially on repeat for the whole of the trip. Shot on Kodak Vision 3 with my Bolex S16. Process & scan by Kodak London. Follow Tom Welsh on Instagram.
