Floyd Scott’s Happy Mediums
Images by Reece Newnham
It was an absolute delight when Reece Newnham hit me up and said “I’ve got all these photos of Floydos and wanted to see if we could do an interview on Monster Children.”
I fuk’n love Floyd and his skating. To top it off all the photos Reece sent through were fucking awesome. What a lovely little surprise.
They wanted to shoot another photo or two and I told them we are in no rush but in the meantime I jumped on a call with Floyd to catch up. I just transcribed that interview and I said “it should be out in a week or so” but I just looked at the calendar and it’s taken over a month, whoops!
We hit the 30 minute mark on our interview and I remarked “oh shit, we’ve got so much stuff, I’ll be able to cut this down and pull an interview out of here easy” but now that I finally listened to the interview, it was mostly about what we can’t remember cause we were too torched at Chima’s wedding last year or how shit we are at golf and how much we love it. I’ve spared you those details, making for a nice and short piece about skateboarding, concreting, relocating to the Sunshine Coast and of course, a little golf.
Sorry for any delay on the interview none of us saw coming… busy hittin’ bogies.
G’day mate how’s it going it’s been a while?
Yeah since Chima’s wedding but that was a bit of a cook off.
Yeah I don’t really remember too much after the speech so let’s jump right back in. What are you doing for work?
I’ve been concreting. A couple of mates up here do it, so I’ve just been going back and forth between them.
Wait where are you?
I’m up the Sunny Coast.
Oh, I don’t think I knew that or I definitely forgot.
We moved up here 2 years ago now. Around the start of the pandemic. Makala lost her job because of it and we just wanted a change and to get out of Canberra. Heaps of mates up here. Jackson, Reece..
Wait, not Reece Warren?
No, Reece Newnham.
Oh of course. His photos are sick.
Yeah he fuckin nails ‘em aye. I love shooting with him, he’s the funniest cunt man, fuck. He’s been shooting for a while. He opened that Parliament shop with Jesse.
So you’re just concreting and skating up there?
I’ve been fishing heaps and surfing. Everything you can do on the coast I’m into.
Are you making skateparks?
I’ve given the lads that do it a hand but that’s real hard work. We just stick to driveways, pool surrounds and patio’s. Heaps of small shit and nothing too draining. I’d never really thought of myself doing concreting, but once I came up here and started, you get pretty into it. I’m at home right now building a little concrete coffee table. I’ve been trying to sell ‘em.
You’re on your Kevin Terpening shit.
Someone sent me that the other day aye. His stuff is so good, polished, honed, they look so nice.
What were you up to in Canberra before you got concreting?
I was doing Air Conditioning. I was doing that for fuckin’ ages and I just got over it aye. Pretty repetitive work, working at the same place all the time. Once Makala got made redundant I really wanted to make a change too.
What were you shooting all these photos for? Are you working on a part or something?
I dunno. Me and Jimmy got an urge. We filmed a couple of things and then thought maybe we should work on something. I think that’s the plan. Hopefully by the end of the year I’ve got a part. We’ll see whats going around at the time, if someone wants footage. Everyone’s been skating again.
All you need is a filmer that’s motivated and you can get a whole scene going if you have that right little dynamic. It takes one or two people.
Jacko (Pilz) did his ACL in the middle of last year but he’s sorta back skating again now. That’s extra good to have him around to skate with. It’s like he never left. He’s that good at skating.
Any travel coming up or just keeping your head down up there?
I’ve been thinking about going down south once it warms up again but I don’t know. I’d love to go back to Melbourne soon, but it’s freezing down there, I’m climatized up here. I’m wearing two jumpers right now and it’s like 16 C.
What’s one thing you miss about Canberra?
I guess all the spots. Heaps of people that skate there, I miss them. All the food actually, fuck me. That place is so good for eating out. There’s nothing up here that’s good. There’s mental restaurants in Canberra. Heaps of good Japanese and Korean bbq.
And the food’s shit house in the Sunny Coast?
Sorta where we live. We’re in Coolum and there’s fuckin nothin’ around. There’s good cafe’s but then it’s just take away and Thai food. Standard.
Queensland, it’s gettin’ better. Where’s you number one travel destination at the moment?
I’d love to go back to Japan, I fuckin’ froth it there.
For skating?
Not really skating. Just cruising. Going around the streets is so nice, it’s such a beautiful place. The food’s amazing, beers are everywhere.
Did you go with your girl?
Yeah we went for like 3 and a half weeks, doing all the touristy shit. I’d love to go back to skate cause I didn’t even take a board with me.
It’s really hard to skate there. There’s so much security and you don’t want to be a dickhead.
The people are so nice. I can’t even think of another place to go, I haven’t really been thinking about it. Somewhere with a sick golf course.
Ohhhhh have you been playing golf?
Oh bro, me and Jacko played yesterday, we’ve been playing twice a week.
Mate, me and Josh Pall have been playing like four times a week, it’s a bit ridiculous. We’ve got a membership down the street. First game a year ago, but I’ve been playing so much since.
I think I’ve found the happy medium. Two days a week and you’re pretty stoked but if you play every day you get frustrated as fuck and start getting real shit. Are you shooting under 100?
Yeah me and Josh hit a big 18 the other day, he hit an 86 and I hit a 91. His short game is real strong, we still suck though.
We’ve got a crew of skaters up here that play golf every Sunday and then me and Jacko will try sneak one in during the week. Been absolutely frothing on it, it’s so fun.
It’s wild how many skaters are playing here.
Well, I reckon in a way it’s real similar to skating. You know how to do it, but you just can’t do it. You’ve got it in your head but you just can’t work it out. You’re going shot for shot, you know exactly what to do but you can’t pull it together every time. Or you nail it.
And you’re hanging out with your mates in a big park. Someone does something sick and you’re like “fuck yeah” and then someone eats shit and you’re drinking beers.
Drinking beers the whole time.
It’s the next skating for us.
I reckon too aye. Once everyone’s done and over 40 I think that’s going to be the back up plan.
We played this tournament the other day for Hype Golf and it was so sick. We got the sickest goodie bags. With skating, you get free shit, which is cool. But with golf the free shit is way sicker. We all got new phones, new Samsung Galaxy golf watches, new Bang Olufsen speakers, all these little nick nacks. Golf events are way sicker than skate events. It ain’t a product toss at a demo. Half the dudes there were skaters. I’m so stoked this interview is just turning to golf.
Me too aye.
What sort of clubs have you got?
I just got a mix match. There’s a local shop called Drum and Golf and I’ve been buying second hand clubs. I’ve got a Taylor Made driver and 3 wood. Couple of Calloway wedges. Bunch of different stuff.
Who’s the best golfer in your group?
Our mate Ian Callahan. Older skater from the coast, he’s real good. He’s shoots easy 80’s every round. It’s cool to go out with someone like that cause you sorta learn how they play.
Do you wanna do any shout outs?
Umm, I’ll just leave it at that aye. Oh, my dog Benji, I’m staring at him right now.
Has he been around for a while?
He just turned 2. The first month we were up here we got him.
Damn, you’re Sunny Coast for life now.
Yeah, pretty much. At the start I thought about whether I’d be skating at all cause everyone has families but it’s really sick, it works. We’re always out skating, every arvo and the weekends we’re filming.
Alright, too much skate talk, gonna have to end it here.