We Hung Out with NZ Skater Jarrad Carlin at Melbourne’s New Chinatown Ledge to Talk Crews and Adapting to Your Surroundings

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Skater Jarrad Carlin saw his limits in front of him, but made the decision to push further—expanding his skills and moulding his style, which blends his DIY background with technical execution. Stepping out of his comfort zone of Tauranga, New Zealand, Carlin recently moved moved to Melbourne and now skates with some of the city's best.

Feeding off a solid crew and adapting to his surroundings, he's focussed on creating his own path as he films for a new video part and plans a trip to America later this year.

After the recent closure of Melbourne skate spot Lincoln Square, VICE Sports caught up with Carlin at the new Chinatown ledge to chat about how being a product of your environment helps you grow and change on your own terms.

VICE Sports: Who have you grown up watching as core inspirational skaters? Who were the kind of crew that you would follow and have your influenced by?
The biggest influences have been since I've moved to Melbourne. Seeing locals like Bryce Golder, Kirksy (Jack Kirk) and Callum Paul skate so well around their city is amazing. Melbourne has also become a pretty popular city for Kiwi skaters to move to, so I end up seeing a few of New Zealand's best too: Geoff Campbell, Tom Snape, Max Couling, Arthur Kay, the list goes on. It's cool seeing skaters here be able to be internationally recognised in their own city. It's a lot harder to do that in New Zealand.

As in skating professionally?
Yeah, or more so being able to make a part or produce footage or photos that will be appreciated by the world.

How have you refined your skating since moving to Melbourne?
I've seen a much higher level of skating since I've been here, and I think in Melbourne there are so many really good skaters you can actually feed off. Seeing how talented some of my friends are makes me want to learn tricks they do. You adapt to your surroundings; if you see what's possible right in front of you then you're naturally going to be apart of it.

If you could add something to your as a skater, what would it be?
I'd love to be able to skate transition—ramps and stuff, bowls. It's like when you see skaters who grew up on transition and they're always so natural on the board. I reckon that's probably the coolest thing I can think of. I think it just helps with confidence in skating as well.

Sometimes I see bowl and transition skaters and I feel like they can skate until they're 80, because they can just cruise.
Well, there's not so much impact in transition skating. Depending on what you're doing, obviously.

You see older dudes just shred. Their confidence is awesome. They're basically surfing.
It's so good. I'd love to get into that at some point.

Is there anything in particular that you do when you're warming up for a skate, going out with the crew, or before filming for a part?
I probably just listen to the UE Boom for a while and skate around for a bit, feel it out. Usually me and my friends just feed off each other—that's what skateboarding is all about. A long ride to the spot with some trap playing is always good.

If you look at other sports there's a lot of data, analytics, and numbers. Is that creeping into skating and is that part of what you do?
I'd say it's definitely creeping into certain parts of skating, but nothing to do with where I'm at. It's more just related to street league, but that's the last thing I'm interested in. You can see it happening, but I try to stay away from it.

Do you do much comp stuff?
No, not at all. More just parts; parts and photos.

It's a lot easier that way, to just actually be a human.
Yeah, and not have to fit into a certain mould, which is a huge part of skating. It allows you to be you.

When did you start skating?
I started skating at the end of primary school. I had a really good friend that I skated with and then when I was in intermediate school more people started skating. There was a time, probably when I was 15 or 16, where there was quite a few people skating. Then typical small town New Zealand, everyone just got into cars. I think there's next to no one skating there now, which is sad. New Zealand has some really dope places to skate. The skate population gets divided off to cars or girls…

How do you stick it out or to get to that next level in skating? Is there much process in that?
Before I left New Zealand all my friends who ended up going to university were still there, and we all left at the same time. When I moved to Melbourne I was just skating all the time, so naturally I was drawn to people who have the same sort of mindset as me.

If you're around people who are on that higher level, again, you adapt and grow with them, right?
Yeah, and the skate scene is so good here, and everyone's actually really cool. It's not just hanging out with skaters because you're a skater, they're actually really cool people and they're so much fun.

Have you got any trips coming up or are you filming parts at the moment?
I'm filming a Nike part at the moment, which is supposed to come out later in the year sometime. I think I'll be going to the States in July at some point. I haven't been to New York before, so I'd love to go there.

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