NB Numeric

Tim Guy reflects on the passion, trials and excitement of 20 years in the game. Change is constant, and the B-Town team are up for the challenge. Tim Guy at the College Hill Store My business partner, Dan McClean, was 18 when he started the shop. At the time, there were no skate shops in East Auckland — it was just a case of giving it a shot. Dan and a couple of friends (Matt and Jeremy) pulled what little money they had together to open the doors.

Most of us have driven past this spot and imagined skating it when whizzing by at 100 kph. It’s on what’s probably Aotearoa’s busiest section 
of motorway — they don’t call it Spaghetti Junction for nothing. Karl messaged me one day and said 
he was going to try to drop in on it at 
1 am the next morning. If I was free, we would meet at 11 pm and devise a plan. Tolo would be on the overbridge above where the western and northern motorways meet.

Interview first published in Manual Magazine, issue 71, April 2024. Four years ago, I met nine-year-old Jessica Ready at a Halloween Skate Jam I put on for skate school. She dressed up in this super rad outfit and was just learning how to ollie and drop in. She had this fire in her from the very first time I watched her skate, which has just evolved and grown as she’s gotten older. She was incredibly focused, and you could tell how much she genuinely enjoyed it all from such a young age.