Oakley In Residence: Sydney Old School

 Words by Jed Smith | All photos by Life Without Andy

I’m naturally skeptical of industry parties, usually because booze, beauty and ego are the focal points. The Oakley In Residence launch was a pleasant surprise. It had a different focal point. Sydney. My city.

“The city was once known as “sin city” due to its tolerance of organised crime, so it seems fitting that Sydney has produced some of the most interesting characters in skateboarding and continues to entice flocks of visitors from around the world,” explains local photog Andrew Peters.

Surrounded by world class waves in every direction, where proud skate, art, gangster, wharfie, islander, indigenous, and ethnic communities have freely (sometimes violently) interwoven, Sydney is a mecca.

Heroin, Blue Murder, the Bra Boys, pub brawls, Bondi United, Roger Rogerson, the Redfern All Blacks, Anthony Hines, Underbelly, Cheyne Horan, Dustin Dollin, the Suicide Towers, and the soft north shore yuppie brigade (Sydney’s version of the Hamptons), forms just part of the rich tapestry this city owns.

The Oakley In Residence pays appropriate respect. It’s taken over a space in Surry Hills for the next month, where it will offer a weekly schedule of workshops, exhibitions, panel discussions, art installations, athlete meet-ups, skate sessions, film screenings and more. Oh, did I mention Curren Caples was there?