We’re now two thirds into 2023, and so far this year I’ve spent a long time talking about the past 20 years of this blog. Funnily enough, it was the summer of 2003 when a group of friends gathered together, and started filming themselves doing daft skateboarding nonsense, that would somehow form what this blog is today. Fast forward ten years to 2013, at the blog’s tenth anniversary, and you’ll find that during the summer of that year I dropped a video online called “Concrete Jungle”. By this point I was making an effort to introduce and showcase a lot of the fresher faces on the scene. The video opened with a full part from Connor Lomas, better known locally as “Duffman”.
The truth is that long before 2013 Connor had been a firm staple of the Cov scene. His notorious “Duffman” t-shirt singled him out from every other young kid around the same age, as he would turn up to every event in the Midlands and continue to snake all of the sponsored guys and carve around doing backside nosegrab slash grinds everywhere. His easily recognisable uniform and his incredibly cheeky park etiquette endeared the older Cov skaters to him, and by the time I filmed a full part with him for Concrete Jungle he was becoming a real force of nature.
This is all to say that Connor would continue to shred long after his part in Concrete Jungle. Having returned to Terribleco’s video output a handful of times since (with a great ending part in “Sorcerers Of Shred” and a phenomenal part in last year’s “Ghostface”), he very quickly became one of those skaters, alongside Lucas Healey, Stan Byrne and Joxa, who defined what the modern day version of this blog is all about.
Humble beyond measure, with giant balls of steel, and always hyped on skateboarding: Connor is one of those guys who doesn’t quite realise just how rad he is, but utterly deserves all the recognition you can send his way. Even when we were talking about doing this interview, he asked about it in a way that indicated that I would possibly say “No” – when the truth is that I would never turn down an opportunity to highlight just how great Connor is. Without guys like Connor, this blog quite simply wouldn’t exist, so I simply cannot say enough nice words about Duffman.
To mark the 20th anniversary of the blog, then, I asked him a bunch of questions about his memories of The Terrible Company, Coventry Skateboarding, and cocktails.
How did you learn about Terribleco?
I learnt about it at Covpark Combat one year, when you gave me my infamous nickname. I have no idea what year that was, but I was hooked after that.
I can’t remember what year that was?
Gotta be 2009?
Yeah that sounds about right. It would have been the “peak megaphone banter era” for me to have been dishing out nicknames like “Duffman”.
Haha, for sure. You kept calling me “Duff kid”.
I had no idea I was the originator of your nickname – I swear it came from Joxa screaming “DUFFMAN” at you at the Boardroom comp that same year.
Fuck yeah! That was the “Nando’s Jam”.
How do you think skateboarding in the midlands has changed in the time you have been skating?
I feel skating has gotten way more heavy and diverse since I started. There’s way more kids doing it now than there was when I started, which is rad.
BS Boneless // Photo by Henry
What did you know about skateboarding in Coventry when you first got into it?
To be quite honest with you, not much! I grew up in Cornwall surfing with my step-brother.
The only thing I knew was there were a few skaters that lived near me. That turned out to be guys like you, Ralph Cooper, Ryan Krusts and the Aldersley brothers… that was it really. I also knew about Ride, and that was pretty much it, haha.
Who are some of your favourite skaters from the Coventry scene?
You, Jim the Skin, Lucas Healey, Joxa, Daryl Nobbs, Henry “Swampy” Moore, Joe Skin, and the Keegan brothers.
How would you describe skateboarding in Coventry?
Raw, and heavy, and fast.
Do you feel that the Terribleco videos you were involved with lived up to that?
Haha, I mean yeah man that’s one of the main reasons I’m the way I am: Original. You guys never preached to me to change my style. You kept me included with the history of the scene, and kept me on track with skating.
How do you think The Terrible Company fits into Coventry Skateboarding today?
I think it fits in really well. It keeps us all held right together. And we all stick together for the same reason: We all love skateboarding.
Handplant // Photo by Lucas Healey
Do you have a favourite Terribleco video?
My favourite is Batface. Or Ghostface.
What is it about those videos that’s so good?
The editing, the music, the creativity of parts, and seeing people I know skate.
I know for Ghostface we got really lucky with bringing back a lot of key people from the OG era of the blog like yourself, Chris Mander, Harry Myers and Joxa. Do you have a favourite part from the video from the newer guys?
Wait, what was the full line up on the new video. Oh my god. I gotta have a proper think about it, haha.
Zac’s part was super rad. I remember that one.
Do you still have any Duffman related clothing items like your original t-shirt that got you your nickname, or are you on a break from Simpsons related clothing?
I’m currently on Simpson’s break at the minute. I still have the original t-shirt though.
Do any of your colleagues in the bar trade know how fucking rad you are on a skateboard?
Yeah, quite a few actually! When the bar I work at, Passing Fancies, first opened, we took a trip out to Barcelona. Tommy, one the greatest bar tenders ever, and owner of the bar, is a skater, so we went skating out there. He’s really good!
If The Terrible Company was a cocktail, what would be in it?
Haha, that’s a hard one….
- Midori, which is a Japanese liquor
- Lime juice
- Rum
- Pineapple
- A tiny bit of sugar syrup
- Shaken up
Confession time: I’m teetotal. How would you make that as a mocktail?
Haha, I would make it with clarified pine cordial, melon syrup, ginger beer and lime. That’s a tasty beverage.
The Terrible Company has seen Coventry’s scene change a lot during its lifetime. What will Coventry Skateboarding look like in 20 years from now?
Fuck, that’s a good question.
Hmm, well I imagine the culture will be tighter, and skaters will care more for the community, and will take better care of health.
The Terrible Company 