“My name is Mark Radden,
I pretty much skate mental,
I am of the species they call human,
I have a passion for all things and people skateboard related,
I am 23 years of age,
I have been skateboarding for about nine, nearly ten years now,
So far nothing’s faded me yet.”
Photos & Interview: Robert Galpin
Give us a quick run down of your home town for people that have never heard/been there?
It’s pretty haggard, I used to live in Waltham Cross (Wx) which is the southest tip of Hertfordshire, nearing on north London, always sketchy lurkers, a shit load of shit spots and noone skates. They once built us a skate park out of eliminated wood-like plastic because it was apparently fireproof, it lasted three weeks before it got burnt down… After the youth centre with the half pipe we built around the corner from my house closed down their skate night, Wx was pretty done so I moved to Essex to find new terrain to skate, meet some new people and mainly to keep on skating.
What do you do for a day job?
Unfortunately i’m not lucky enough to be on any kind of skateboarding payroll haha! Totally un-skate related occupation – for four days of the week I am the manager & dispensing optician of an independent optician. This basically means I sell glasses to people who can’t see and do my best to run the shop. It’s pretty cool because I get to help people everyday and make myself loads of bad ass sunglasses because I don’t wear normal glasses.
What else do you get up to when your not working or skating?
When I’m not skateboarding… I like a lot of art and drawing. I’m really into tattooing which I’ve been doing for a couple of years, I tattooed most of the homies. I like filming other people skate when stuff’s going down. When I get the time I like to spend time on my car, which is hardly ever at the minute, because I’ve been really busy… but I’m very enthusiastic about Japanese Motors. At the minute its all about EJ6 Civics ;D.
All photos: Robert Galpin
www.harlowskatepark.blogspot.com
Mark “Radman” Radden smashing out 10 at Harlow Skate Park
hi … what leanses you use ???
Good skater, just a shame his such an arrogant cunt.