Gongoozler's: A journey down the canals of Neil Ingall's mind

Tom: What inspired you to make a video based around the canals?

Neil: The canals and waterways were always a source of interest growing up skating in London. Not that I gave the canals, the canal boats, or the people much attention back then; we would drift from spot to spot and district to district. Since the waterways are intertwined with everything else, we would often wind up skating along them, jumping on and off the DLR at Docklands, Canary Wharf, or London Marina.

"I've lived in Hackney/Hackney Wick for nigh on twenty years... I started seeing all these weird, fairly unskateable spots along the canal."

It’s all an extension of the River Thames, and all the water runs back there one way or another.

There are a few parts of the canal that intersected with fairly well-known skate spots. There used to be some ledges near Camden Locks, Thames Basin on City Road near Old Street, and more recently, a whole new development called Coal Drops Yard behind King's Cross.

For the most part, it was just too difficult to skate along the canals. We were busy searching for more satisfying smooth floors and marble ledges. But I've always liked a challenging spot, or a "non-spot," which is becoming more of a focus in skating—skating the unthinkable and unskateable.

I've lived in Hackney/Hackney Wick for nigh on twenty years. I first started using the towpath on the canals to commute to Soho for a TV production job. That's when I started using sections of the canals I'd not used before. I started seeing all these weird, fairly unskateable spots along the canal. Occasionally, I’d find one or two things that were too good to miss, and I would try certain obstacles along the way or organize to go back with friends and they'd give them a go.

I took John Lee and Leon Humphries down to the canals, and some of that footage ended up in a section called "Violent Revolution" that Johnny made in 2017.

It was around 5 years of using the toe path, and potentially giving my skating some time to mature that I started thinking about doing a project solely on the canals. I was drawn the the uniquely aesthetic value the waterways hold, as this thing that really isn't meant to be skateable. 

This idea was rattling around my head for around 15 years. With my initial conversations with Tom Sharman about producing a project on the Canals as something we could make into some sort of film project but never found the time. 

I then met with Joe Spray on a chance encounter at Christopher Burnby’s leaving day skate in Hackney Wick DIY park. I hadn't realized how closely we lived; we were practically neighbors. Joe had similar ideas about the canals and had also been lamenting over the idea for some years. We both got super excited about this shared obsession and decided to give it a go.

He had this lovely idea of making a rule that we must see the canal either at the beginning or end of each shot, which I think we managed to do for the most part!

Tom: What is a Gongoozler, did you come across the word after the idea of skating the canals or was it already in the vocabulary? 

Neil: Joe Spray came across the word while we were shooting the film. We had been talking about a title for almost a year with some very silly options on the table like “Waterways Trust”... as in the Canals and Waterways Trust organization, perhaps doing a reboot of their logo.

"None of us owned canal boats, but we all seemed obsessed with the boat life!"

I believe he came across it after doing some research into canal-related memorabilia; he had visited the Museum of Waterways a few times during production for inspiration. It just seems so fitting as none of us owned canal boats, but we all seemed obsessed with the boat life!

Tom: Ollie’s poems, Joes filming, Tom pictures then canals and your skating all complimented each other, it felt staunchly English, verging on: if Monty Python made skate vids. How did this dream team come about?

Neil: I mean if it makes you think Monty Python in anyway shape or form then I can die a happy man! most of the times we met up did feel like an episode of Black Adder or something. 

We actually shot a whole introduction for the project that we didn't end up using, it definitely felt like a scene worthy of an episode of the Young Ones or Bottom! It involved a mad dash to the toilet and a dip in the canal.

"Most of the times we met up did feel like an episode of Black Adder or something."

In terms of the team, it happened quite organically after Joe and I had that initial eureka moment. Tom and I have worked on skate projects for a long, long time, and he's really passionate about 35mm photography; he's been taking candid shots along the canals for years now.

His images gave a framework for how a project might look and feel. He made time to be with us while out filming, and we've ended up with so many images I would have really liked to have released them in a book or zine of some sort. I will get around to doing that at some point!

Working with Joe is kind of an unbelievable experience, being such a fan boy of his. ‘The Rain’ was such a memorable phenomenon, it's a moment that meant so so much to me in the UK skate scene in it’s energy and output. Getting to work with Joe felt like a dream come true!

Wrapped up in that dream is Ollie Gomme’s latest artistic outlet of lyrical wordplay. Ollie’s section in "The Rain" has been a constant source of inspiration and has influenced my approach to skating ever since.

He had spent time living on the canals and owned a canal boat when Joe and I started filming. We had attempted to organize a meetup on the boat and go on some canal journeys. Joe and I had this vision of us all being sat on his boat with him reciting poetry about the waterways, which could form the centerpiece of the story.

Unfortunately, we could never find a moment for all of us to be there, and shortly after, Ollie's boat tragically sank in the waterways of Oxford and he decided not to return to the boat life. Ollie did, however, want to continue writing and painting along the waterways, and that became a way for us all to be together.

Ollie then sent the poem over a WhatsApp message. It was perfection hearing it for the first time, and Joe started thinking about how to include a poem in a skate edit, which isn't a usual thing to have in there. But what I think it does so well is set up the world and a story for life on the canals; it serves as a perfect introduction and one I would have never imagined working so well.

The project took us a long time, as some big life changes happened at the end of the first year, alongside me being a new dad and Joe having a second child. Joe and his family decided to shut up shop in London and move to France, which meant we had to make a decision over the project and how to keep shooting it.

Joe shoots with a Sony VX2100, which has an infinitely crispier sensor than the VX2000. We made the decision to match SD footage the best we could with whoever I could find to finish the project with. The only skaters I knew with a VX in London were Leon, Johnny, and Simon. Simon even lent me his camera for months at a time to get the odd session in, with Tom filming and shooting 35mm stills simultaneously!

Connor came and shot some bits; I really wanted to get something of him on the canals, but he was injured a lot while living in London. Over the next two years, I organized the odd session with them. I am indebted to them all for making the time to film and getting various formats sent over to Joe in France for transcoding. I really couldn’t have finished the project without them!

Tom: You found so many interesting spots, I’d say that was down to your openness to what constitutes an obstacle and your creativity. Was it a challenge to find places to skate or more like and open book?

Neil: Thank you! There are, in fact, a myriad of ways to approach the canal and the spots for different types of skating, albeit all a little unconventional. I do think my vision for skating has become about honing in on and finessing a couple of moves that I know I can do, and challenging myself on how I can incorporate those into the landscape. I'm looking for something that is scenic/cinematic, has texture and contrast, and is colorful.

London is an old city; parts of it are so ancient, and it’s constantly being built upon. This contrast has become a focus for me. I am looking for something that blends the old and the new together into something unintentionally skateable or unskateable, architecturally speaking. That is the challenge.

"I'm looking for something that blends the old and the new together into something unintentionally skateable or unskateable."

I honestly have found so much more to skate along the canals, and we didn't get to half of the spots I had mapped out for the project. I think the biggest restriction/challenge was time. Finding the time for Joe and me to meet—I think the average length of a session with Joe was maximum 2-3 hours—didn’t give us long to get a trick. This also meant we would have to come back and reshoot at locations; the true topsoul on the boat and the true top porn on the bridge were shot over several attempts.

There was a lot of skating around in circles to get warmed up for a trick and just going for it! That time pressure has its pros and cons. I work well under pressure and definitely welcome a hard deadline!

Tom: When you hopped on that boat during the intro, it looked like the bloke jumped out of his skin haha, I assume you didn’t know him? 

Neil: Aha! Two men were on that boat! One at the front who is slightly out of frame in the edit, and one at the back. I asked the man at the front if he would mind if I jumped aboard and came around the corner with them; he obliged!

The gentleman steering the boat at the rear did not feel the same way and told me to get the f*@k off his boat! We spoke about it afterwards and all was well. They did offer for me to take a trip down the canal with them after that with Joe, but I had to get back to work!

Tom: There was a picture of you and Joe with 5 police officers, what was the story? 

Neil: In fact, this photo looks like trouble, but unfortunately, it's merely pictorial. The officers were doing their rounds walking up and down the towpaths, checking in on the waterways' inhabitants. We were just warming up for a session on one of the boats.

We had arrived at the Waterways and Rivers Trust general detritus barge—essentially a massive floating bin. We were going for my first attempt at getting the true topsoul off the end of the boat. Luckily, we hadn't started filming yet; Joe was still setting up the camera and the officers asked us what we were doing. We said we were just filming some skating along the canals, and they buggered off after that. Shortly after, I fell off the boat and took my first dip in the canal!

Tom: I know one of the boats was abandoned, it looked like some had torpedoed it. What was the process for picking boats to skate, was it a case of, I can get a trick on that, let’s just go for it? 

Neil: So, I mentioned the Canals and Waterways Trust earlier. They have a fleet of old boats and barges for maintaining the waterways; there are service boats that run checks and filtration barges that do removal of waste. They are moored periodically along the towpath and often move from place to place.

We would see one tied up somewhere on our travels and that would create a sense of urgency because we didn’t know how long it would be moored there. The one I do the sweatstance on is a service boat and that is almost always moored there. The one I do the true topsoul on moves around periodically. And the sunken ship was just around the corner from Joe’s flat; both Tom and Joe saw it within days of each other.

Again, it just creates this sense of urgency and a moment that we need to go and try something on those before they are removed or moved to another location.

Tom: Skating around London, interactions with the public can go from dodgy to hilarious, sketchy to heartwarming. What was the general reaction to your skating and how were those canal interactions?

Neil: Honestly, the canal boat community is one of the warmest and most inviting groups in all of London. People made us cups of tea and invited us onboard their boats to film. In some circumstances, passers-by took some lovely films and photographs, which I ended up posting on my stories.

"The canal boat community is one of the warmest and most inviting groups in all of London."

It also is a very unusual way to live and attracts quite eccentric characters. I do have some amazing BTS stuff that I will start posting in response to this interview because I feel like it’s a disservice not to share those moments with the world!

Tom: Best public interaction?

Neil: I think the day we went to try the true topsoul on the boat... or was it the day I went back and landed it?! Maybe it’s a mix of both sessions… As we were getting ready, all the police rocked up and asked us what we were doing. I jumped on that bloke's boat and he told me off.

Shortly after that, this bloke pulled up in a car and asked Joe what he was doing; his response was so ridiculous! Shortly after that, this old "green grass" looking fella—a proper boaty—on a custom bike/trailer setup with a huge speaker in the trailer bumping drum and bass, stood at the top of this ramp down onto the path and got us to countdown before doing a hill bomb on his bike. Shortly after that, a barge was sailing past us blaring out jungle; they all looked completely mashed as if they’d just been floating around getting on it for days. Just an average afternoon on the river!

Tom: Most bizarre thing you witnessed?

Neil: When a section of the canal is drained of all its water and cleaned, you just stare into this undulating riverbed full of Lime bikes, trolleys, and all kinds of filth. With a team of people trudging along in waders lifting it all out, it’s pretty insane.

Tom: Which trick was the biggest battle?

Neil: The stair bash—it's a really crazy-looking set of stairs: super steep, uneven, and every step is a different height. I’d bruised my heel attempting it. My frame kept catching on the same step on each attempt. I was running out of time to land it before heading home. I couldn’t get my head in the right space; I should have shelved it at that point but kept going. The floor on the run-up was wet and I slipped a few times and ended up falling in the canal again. I had to go home empty-handed and very soggy.

Joe had left London and it took almost two years to organize the time to go back and try it again. It had built up and up in my head over that time, and I was super nervous going back there to try it. There is a big, steep set of stairs opposite the canal; I tried warming up some stair bashes down it and bruised my heel again.

Then we got shooting and I kept catching my frame on the same damn step each time. Eventually, we had run out of time again. I didn’t feel like it was "the one." I sent it to Joe and he said, "Ah, such a shame you didn't get it, mate," and I said, "I think I just have to take the best one!" which he obliged. The other problem was the ND filter had flicked on during the close-up shot, which meant it was super dark; we had a lot of work to do in post to get the grade to match.

Tom: Favourite trick? 

Neil: It could be the cruise over the bridge to forward air! It’s just such an epic wide shot Joe captured along the canal. It felt like a ski ramp; I love hill bombs!

Tom: You’ve made it seem like the canal have lots of potential, is it something you’d revisit?

Neil: Gongoozler’s 2 lets go! 

Tom: How many times did you end up in the soup. Had you prepared for that, as in spare clothes etc?

Neil: I fell twice. I never left home without packing my pair of Muzzle swim shorts, just in case! Thinking about it now, I should have really just filmed the whole thing in a pair of swim shorts.

"I never left home without packing my pair of Muzzle swim shorts, just in case!"

Tom: Have you ever considers doing a skate tour on a narrowboat? Maybe that’s the next step. 

Neil: We would have LOVED to have done this. We looked into rentals and timings, getting us all on a boat for a long weekend. It’s totally out of our budget and time restraints, but I will manifest this as something we will do at some point. I know there is a skateboard video that did something similar in London recently…

Tom: Have you seen them conference/beer bikes. We should make a vid where we can only travel from spot to spot on one of those.

Neil: Mate, this has legs! We could even do our own conference/corporate “beers and blades” tours of the city! Might finance us some trips away on that boat tour… Let's go!

Tom: Anyone you’d like to thank.

Neil: Thank you, Joe, for bringing Gongoozlers into the world and for putting up with me through the project. Thank you to Ollie for breathing life into the project, for spinning yarns, for telling enchanting stories, and for all the super supportive voice notes and words of encouragement.

Thank you to Tom for making the most beautiful cinematic memories on 35mm celluloid. Thanks to Simon Isles for supporting me so much and really focusing on getting the project finished on his camera. All the additional help filming from Leon, Johnny, and Connor, and to all the boaties who let us film on their boats and made cups of tea. Thankyou my brother Umberto for making the Paris trip so special. Thank you to Elnaz and Yuna for supporting me in making this. Thank you Danny for finishing the film and all the post wizardry. Thank you Cajm for turning up to my house the night before the deadline and making a dreamy melting soundscape. Thankyou Sam Currie for always supporting my half baked ideas and Tom Moyse for continues to support them! Thank you to all the people that smiled and clapped as they passed by. Thank you!