Watch: Lightning Minds
Skateboarders and beer, a tale as old as time.
Now as many of us are putting down the bottle and looking towards lives without hangovers, non-alcoholic beer has become a more desirable option than ever before.
After quitting drinking in 2020, Michael Payne, saw how beneficial it could be having a can of something non-alcoholic that looked like a beer in your hand when with family and friends and decided to create an alternate option. In 2022 he launched Lightning Minds, a non-alcoholic beer company with the mission of creating a positive balance. Since then they’ve seen some big wins being stocked in over 350 venues around Australia and being one of the only dedicated Non-Alcoholic beer brands nominated for the 2024 GABS Hottest 100, Australia’s largest craft beer poll.
Growing up in the skateboarding and arts scenes, Lighting Minds has an appreciation for their roots, wanting to support those communities through unique collaborations and activations – which is why we are here today. Lightning Minds present their new short film, starring Michael Payne, himself and one of Australia’s most mind-blowingly technical skateboarders, Sean Parker. Inspired by the likeness between the Lightning Minds cartons and a ledge, the idea grew to build a life-sized skateable Lightning Minds carton and bring in Sean Parker to show how it’s done. Striking that positive balance with the crew of Western Australian greats involved, from the sign painter Luke O’Donoghue who painted the ledge to perfection, filmmaker Harry Blyth who directed the film, photographer and filmmaker Tom Elliott who filmed the skateboarding, to the most recent inductee to the Australian Skateboarding Hall of Fame, Brett Margaritis who built the ledge and in 1998, Z-Boy and vert skateboarding pioneer, Tony Alva said was one of his favourite skateboarders, a level of praise still worth noting today.
Photo: Tom Elliot
With the great crew in tow, the film came together smoothly paying homage to the skits in Spike Jonze and Girl Skateboards’ iconic 1996 video, Mouse. Shot on location in Fremantle, a nod to the area which over the past three decades has been the heart of WA skateboarding, with Woolstores being the focal point and it only made sense for the legendary spot to be the focal point of the film. Recently, Woolstores has been under threat of being taken away due to redevelopments on the building, thankfully, the skateboarders of WA were able to come together to set up the Woolstores Forever campaign to save the spot and with all their hard work they’ve been able to keep it alive and skateable for future generations. The spot’s fame goes beyond the WA scene, becoming one of Australia’s most infamous spots, and funnily enough the ledges were showcased to the rest of the world for one of the first times in Lakai’s 2007 video Fully Flared, a later film from the Girl Skateboards family.
As April hits and Australian summer comes to a close, there’s no better time to pick up a non-alcoholic beer. Try Lightning Minds, even if it’s not confirmed you’ll be able to nollie flip noseslide on command like Sean Parker.