“…civic engineers, confronted by a pristine natural environment, have designed their cities- their centres of commerce- for that most efficient of applications, non-usage.

These young urbanites have discovered uncharted activities within the sterile surroundings of the environment’s original design.” -Dr Eugene D.Mander, Public Domain, 1988

Milton Keynes is an English city designed from an urban planner’s desk in the 1960’s. Built as a vision of what planned living of the future might look like as viewed from that era of possibility, it is a place which says so much about modern Britain’s view of itself that it’s only a wonder New Order never made aconcept album about the place.

Created to draw population away from nearby London, consisting largely of right angles, and grey by design, the city is traversed by cycle lanes boundaried by low ledges and has by some distance more skateable terrain than any place of its size anywhere else on the islands here.

For that reason, it was a pivotally important city to the British skate scene of the 1990’s, as sprawling urban design and lack of private security meant that the nascent media were almost guaranteed to come away with some usable content from afternoons spent rolling around empty civic spaces. You could even say Milton Keynes helped shape the modalities of taste in British youth culture in some small way as a result. The council certainly recognises it as such, with a multi-media exhibition and book documenting the history of the skate scene here a couple of years back. So, there’s that.

Alex Decunha was born at the tail end of those same 1990’s and has seen generations of skaters come and go through here in his 20 years of skating these streets, man and boy.

In a sense he represents what has changed within British skateboarding in the time since, because he has negotiated his own way into the wider world of skating by creating his own constituency, sorting out his own sponsorship deals and taking advantage of the opportunities which being your own boss affords you. Skating has taken him more places, and opened more doors for him, than most of his generation in the UK today.

If it means sleeping on seats to be on a 06:40 Ryanair flight out of Stansted to Estonia for a contest, no problem.

In truth, that spirit harkens back to the 1980’s era of the UK’s small sponsored crew piling into vans to hit the contest circuit around Europe, from Antwerp to Munster and all points in between. Can’t knock that hustle then, or now.

We spent a day skating around Alex’s MK haunts with him and then heard what he had to say about all that.

All photos: Tom Quigley/ Skateboard GB

What was your first exposure to skateboarding?

The shopping centre at Milton Keynes has a big open space where they do random events, like seasonal things here and there…and one time they had a mini-ramp set up. Do you know the brand Eastpak? Well there was an Eastpak demo and there was this skater called Lee Blackwell doing all his Lee Blackwell-related activities, like where he flew out of the ramp over the back fence to flat. It’s marble floor there, so the noise he made when he landed echoed throughout the building and 6-year-old me was… I might have even been 5 at the time?… just, like, ‘Wow’.

And that was it, you were sold on it from that point?

Pretty much, yeah. My Dad got me one of those little skateboards just to mess around with and I guess he saw me actually trying to use it in the garden, so he took me to the local skateshop where I got an actual skateboard and I guess I just carried on from there. Dad took me everywhere throughout the years; forever grateful to him for getting me into skating.

How old are you now?

I’m 25 now…

So you’ve already been skating for almost 20 years?

…almost; 19. Most of my life has just been skateboarding.

Milton Keynes has got quite a long history with skateboarding; has it been an advantage, to grow up within a skateboarding scene?

Without a doubt. Milton Keynes, like… it’s marble city. I mean, you’ve seen it yourself today; marble edges everywhere. It is, like, the paradise for street spots in the UK, I think.

How does the scene today compare with how it has been over the last 20 years?

There isn’t really much of a skate scene here, anymore. I mean- there’s a bunch of local skaters that will be skating all the time, but back in the day, I remember, we used to have jams at the Buszy where people would come from all over the UK to skate. You’d go there on a Saturday and it would be absolutely packed, but it’s a shame that doesn’t really happen anymore.

Why do you think that is?

It’s hard to tell- I suppose with the skate scene generally growing so much you don’t really have to travel to go skate somewhere that there will be other skaters now, like you can just skate all over. It’s such a popular thing now that there will be skaters wherever you want to go. So maybe that plays a part…obviously there are so many skateparks now as well that you’re spoilt for choice, really.

Do you think social media has played a role in that?

That’s a good question; I guess with social media, all you have to get is an Instagram clip and you can blow up from that, so you only really have to film something in your local skatepark. You don’t necessarily have to go out on a street mission to get some crazy clip for your video part or something like that. It’s hard to tell, because there is, like, two sides to skateboarding- there is the ‘video part and nothing else’ kind-of-style, where you’re just living in the streets sort-of-thing, and then there’s a lot of skaters who just skate their local park and not much else; but I feel like they intertwine every now and then.

Do you ever get a sense that there’s some sort of tension in the dynamic within skateboarding whereby one of those is considered more ‘real’ than the other?

Oh, of course. Without a doubt on that one. Especially in the UK, it can be very cliquey. I’ve had friends from Europe who will come over and skate spots in London where they’re like ‘Damn, the vibes are a bit strange here’. It is what it is, people skate with their friends and make a little group or whatever. That’s a big thing toward contest skating as well, especially in the UK. We don’t really have contests over here, so now that Skateboard GB is a thing we are starting to have some here and there and I already see the progression in those skaters.

Not only are they doing them, but they are successful, as well.

Yeah- they are really good, it’s a really good turnout. You do get, then, people going ‘How did that guy win, this guy is so much better…’ but the guy they are talking about is someone who would never want to enter or be seen at a contest, so there you go.

There used to be a tradition in British skateboarding, particularly among the older Vert guys, of sponsored skaters going to European contests- the contests were better for having a British contingent there, and British skateboarding got better from them being able to see what the other Europeans were up to.These days, anywhere I go to an event in Europe it’s only ever a few of you guys from the UK that I see, anymore.

Yeah, so I mean… I’ve been skating contests for quite a few years now, so I’m used to sorting my own flights out and… I mean, my sponsors help me a lot- but I just do it all myself.

I’ll go to all these events and I’m near-enough always the only UK guy there- but there, everyone’s super-friendly, so I’ve made a bunch of new friends and I guess I can now fly to a contest and I’ll know everyone there.

I have some homies that have started coming with me, Tommy Corbridge, James White, a couple of guys who have been helped by Skateboard GB to get into the contest scene as well…

You guys represent a new wave in the sense that you have grown up in an era when conventional media was on a nosedive just as social media was coming up, and you were smart enough to understand that you could leverage social media to create your own opportunities rather than wait around for someone to give you permission.Why isn’t that celebrated?

It’s the whole cool-guy side of things, isn’t it? It’s not cool to try hard, I guess- I mean, I’ve always done my own thing, to be honest. Always done things my own way; always looked for my own sponsors…I don’t want to say I sort of try to stay out of the UK, but I’ve always looked ‘out there’ instead of limiting myself to the UK, might a better way to say it. I remember the first contest I went to in Rotterdam, I saw the standard there and I was blown away.

I’d never seen consistency or tricks like that and it opened my eyes to, like, ‘Damn, this is pretty intense’- but it pushed me to want to be like that, to learn to skate like that instead of…it’s really hard to put into words, but…I feel like sometimes in the UK scene, you can see some footage or pictures that get in the big magazines and people who are around it will see that and be, like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing, that’s, like, the highest standard…’ and you don’t really see outside of the UK too much…I remember back to that contest and to what an eye-opener that was as to how high the actual standard is out there. It pushes me to get out there.

Do you feel that the fact you are- as you say yourself- an unapologetic, motivated, self-starter has ever been held against you?

I mean, in a sense I can be a very controversial skater- I’ve definitely got a lot of hate throughout the years because of how I do things, but I always notice that the hate is always from the UK, which is an interesting thing. Luckily, I have pushed myself online to kind of create my own little thing, so I don’t have to…I mean, I don’t let the hate get to me. I know that if you don’t create a platform for yourself you have to be prepared to deal with the consequences that come with that. Some people see it like (rolls eyes) Instagram Skater…

But isn’t that the definition of punk? To go and do your own thing and not ask for permission?

I guess so, it’s more of a thing of ‘Do what you want to do’- if someone says you can’t do something, ask yourself ‘Why not?’…

The thing which you have done is to make the most of opportunities that have come your way- is that fair to say?

Yeah, you get so many opportunities- especially online. Once you’ve created a little platform for yourself online so many different jobs come through that. You can kind of get seen as a sell-out for doing adverts and stuff like that, but that’s what is paying the bills and means that I can skate and not worry about my income too much. It helps me get to all these comps, because I mean, like…especially in the UK, there’s not really money in skateboarding.

You can’t rely on your sponsors sending you here, there and everywhere…if you want something, whether you are sponsored or not, you’re going to have to sort it out for yourself.

Where has skateboarding taken you since lockdown?

Oh, goodness…where to even start with that one. I’ve been constantly travelling. Especially since all the Olympics stuff... I mean, I was doing lots of contests before, which had me travelling all the time, but they were mainly around Europe.

But now, with the Skateboard GB stuff… I remember the first ever contest was Brazil and I had never had any plans to be going to Brazil.

Obviously it’s an amazing place, but- it’s a long, expensive flight.

Through Skateboard GB, I went there three times in the same year, which was pretty amazing- I found myself knowing my way around there, at one point.

So all of that being said, what advice would you give to someone who was coming up in skateboarding in some small way as you were, say 12 years ago? What would you say to them based on your experience hitherto?

I guess that it’s definitely good to just do what you want to do and remember that there is a big world out there. Most of the time, if you want something done, you’re going to HAVE to do it yourself. It’s a lot of work to get it done, sometimes, but no-one is going to do it for you.

Although you are reaping the rewards of it, now?

Yeah, I mean- I’m enjoying myself! Still travelling about a bunch. Every contest feels like a little skate vacation- we skate practice, skate the contest and go skate the streets and hang out there…just go check it out, is my advice.

Contest skating isn’t for everyone, but if you get the opportunity, take it to get out into the world.

Contest skating is part of skateboarding’s culture. It’s not all of it, but it is part of it- people like Tom Penny and Mike Carroll also made part of their reputations at contests like Radlands and Back To The City.

For sure. There you go- I mean, a lot of the OG skateboarders will be judging them!

A lot of the European ones are judged by Pat Duffy. I’m homies with Pat Duffy: that’s always a weird one to think about.

It’s amazing the people you meet.

It really is incredible.