Photos – Grant McLachlan, David Shiffman

„Ethan Cairns is somewhat crazy, in the best of ways. He’s gnarly on and off the board. He does his own thing. Ask him to do something and he might never complete the “task”, haha. Ethan’s like a magnet – he attracts everything he needs/wants. I sometimes wonder how the fuck he made it this far in life, hahaha. Much love for Ethan Cairns.“ (Alex Williams)

Barley grind / „It takes a few busts to want to call it a day, but Ethan always has one last spot in mind. The dude has been hitting Cape Town spots since he was 14, so ideas are constantly flowing. We decided to hit this 2 in 1 spot. A rail on a bank for the creative skater and a super sketchy handrail in a gateway right next to it. The run up starts around a building (so you can’t see where you are going), with tiles that do not link up and huge cracks right before you have to pop. There was no way to hit it without a plate, some kind of intuition and winging the run up for enough speed. Luckily, we had a plate in the car. I personally had never skated such a sketchy handrail before, because it’s very easy to get smoked. Everything is kind of against you. It never feels right ever, haha. I hesitated on my first try and slipped right out on the plate and Ethan was like: „Bra!! You can’t hesitate when you are skating on a plate, you’ll see your p***s, haha!“ Ethan battled the elements, until he had a small breakdown leading him to venture around the neighborhood and looking for real estate signs to aid the plate and to find the right pop for his trick. He was ripping every sign out that he found and came back with quite some different ones. We placed some sticks and stones to fill the cracks. Then, he eventually got that right pop, locked in that barley grind and rolled away into the sunset. The dogs were stoked and Black Sabbath was pumping as we rejoiced yet another successful summer’s day session.“ (Chennai Gwandure)

fs Feeble / „So we had a long day rolling around the city and hitting various spots. Ethan decides to save this rail for the end of the day. At first, he was all amped up and ready, but once he rolled up to the rail, he lost all motivation. The run-up is a tiled floor with a rubber grip on the top stair, and you land onto paving with cracks. First, we unscrewed the rubber from the top stair and swept all the broken glass away from the landing. He tried once, kicked out, and wasn’t amped. I managed to cut down an advertising sign for the landing. He started locking into them but still wasn’t stoked. Whenever Ethan starts giving up, I always bring out his kryptonite: a pack of cigarettes. He then proceeds to land it within two tries.“ (David Shiffman)

Nosebluntslide / „Don’t be mislead by this bin, we set it up as a joke and thought it would just be a fun little experiment. But it turned out being a real difficult bin hubba thingy. It dents inward and you have to approach it head on, no good angles for it! Noseblunt was definitely not an easy option! Ethan is a sick fuck!“ (Justus Kotze)

Taildrop 5050 / „This tail drop 50-50 was so wild to see in person. It’s a mechanic shop and the gate is only closed to skate off on the weekends. The angle of the tail drop is kinda wrong so it makes it that much scarier to commit. I tried it backside but my ass kept hitting the wall behind me. I looked at Ethan and was like “you’re goofy dude … you’re up “. It’s a high risk high reward kind of spot so Ethan took the reins and after a few close calls with the slam gods he rolled away with the biggest smile on his face. Ethan is always in beast mode and I love that beast.“ (Yann Horowitz)