Article: 2025 - A Thank You From CSC
2025 - A Thank You From CSC
New skateparks, fresh faces on the team and a whole load of good times, join us for a stroll down memory lane as we take a look back at some of our greatest hits from 2025 and give thanks to all of you for supporting us along the way.
Yep, it's that time again already. Christmas is done and dusted for this year and we hope you all had a sick day regardless of whether or not you celebrate. While we recover in this perineal period between Christmas and the New Year (which is a posh way of saying the festive gooch), we thought it'd be a good time to take a look back at what we've been up to in 2025, because it's all been a bit of a blur. While the year feels like it's flown by, some of the things we mention below feel like a lifetime ago so it's nice to have a little reminder of what actually went down. Time's a funny old thing, init?
Obviously being handed a load of free shit and consuming your bodyweight in chocolate, meat and beer is always gonna be dope, but they do say that Christmas is the time for giving thanks so we want to give a little shoutout to you guys, our beloved customers, for all your support. It doesn't matter if you're splashing out on a whole new fit or just stopping by for a natter, your support means the world to us and it always makes those lonely, hungover days sat in the shop all the more worth it. So, to everyone who's shopped with us, come to an event or just rolled through the shop to argue about who deserved SOTY, we see you and we appreciate you!
Without you guys we wouldn't, and couldn't, still be doing what we do - whether that's going on trips, supporting our favourite artists and brands, filming videos and putting on premieres or hooking up local legends. Much like Viggo Mortensen being driven by his love for his son in 'The Road', you guys are the reason we continue struggling onwards through the soon-to-be dystopia in which we live. You're our raison d'etre. We definitely ain't in it for the money and if we were then we'd be in the wrong industry.
Before we get into it though we do want to take a second to give a shoutout to two legends which we've tragically lost from the Cardiff skate scene this year: Rich Smith and Adam John. While we definitely miss seeing their faces around, especially Rich's bigspins at the Spit morning sessions, we're glad we get to see them live on through their family and friends. RIP Rich and Adam! Tell your friends you love 'em.
Parklife
Following on from last year's announcement of Cardiff Council's Skateboard Strategy, 2025 has seen the plans come to fruition with two incredible new parks being built. Obviously one of the most exciting developments has been the opening of the new Llanrumney skatepark which has seriously upped the standards with its Street League-esque plaza design. We're super hyped on how the park came out so once again shoutout to everyone who came to the consultations or filled out the surveys because it definitely could've turned out a lot worse without all your input.
As if that's not exciting enough, the Council almost instantly followed up on the success of Llanrumney skatepark with the equally bangin' Parc Coed y Nant skatepark in Pentwyn. While it's not quite on the same Olympic-level standard as Llanrumney, we're big fans of the more mellow vibe and we've been having lots of fun cruising round it. Safe to say having parks of this standard is gonna have a huge impact on the local scene and we're buzzing to see all the new talent which is surely gonna be coming out of Llanrumney and Pentwyn in years to come.
Jamming
As always we've also tried our best to keep you guys entertained while also reducing your already-excessive screentime with a wide range of fun-filled events. Of course we celebrated all the usual occasions, including what may be our last ever Go Skate Day Jam at Bute Square (which I'm sure we can all agree is probably for the best). In fact, we spent a record number of hours at Bute this year with not only our Go Skate Day event but our SkatePal fundraiser jam organised by Cal Jones as well as various other BBQs courtesy of King of the Grill, Oscar Sheppard, which definitely didn't do anything to help prevent the expansion of the gaffer's waistline.
It's not always just drinking beers in the sun though, we also did our best to come up with an event that would not only get you away from doomscrolling for a brief period but actually help bring some more lasting good to the local scene. This year we held our first ever Changing Curbs competition where we challenged you to get down and dirty by unlocking a new curb. It was sick to see so many people mucking in and liberating their local curbs and we hope they'll still be bringing you joy for many years to come. Of course we've also got to shoutout our well-deserved winner, Moose Valentino, who went well beyond the call of duty with his incredible Moose Knuckle - which you can find and try out for yourself via our Spot Guide.
We Are Family
Much like the gaffer's gut, the CSC Team has also grown larger and more powerful than ever through 2025 with some of our strongest acquisitions to date. Although we already sponsor the vast majority of South Wales' biggest legends, there's always been a couple that have escaped our clutches - until now that is. This year we finally welcomed the three that got away to the squad as Welsh Tommy, Ben Morris and Sam Pulley claimed their rightful place as Shop Dragons. Obviously, to mark these momentous occasions we had to give each of them their very own double page ad in Companion - all of which were of course lovingly designed by the GOAT, Nat Jones - as Bummo got some final licks in at the soon-to-be-demolished red banks and Tommy and Pulley laid down two very different styles of bluntslides. We've also picked up a new addition to the scene who you'll be seeing a lot more of in 2026... Not a bad transfer season for CSC!
It Takes Two
Once again, 2025 also saw us expand our ever-growing selection of shop clothing with designs from one of our most diverse selections of artists yet. We're all about keeping things local so on top of printing all our clobber right here in Cardiff (shoutout to Visible Art!) we also made sure to rope in a load of the finest local artists to supply the graphics. Alongside long-time CSC collaborator, Nat Jones, we also teamed up with a load of fresh faces, including Cardiff newcomer, Soph Baker; youth sensation, Noni Gordon; and even the progenitor of our very own coloured trouser enthusiast, Simon Rouse, all of whom added their own distinctive flavour into the mix. Big thank you to all the artists for their time and effort and of course shoutout all of you who showed them some love and grabbed a tee!
But it's not just local artists that we've teamed up with, 2025 also saw us joining forces with some truly legendary skate brands too. Most recently, we had the privilege of teaming up with the finest suppliers of urethane, Spitfire Wheels, for our very own collab wheel which was made even better by the Gaffer channeling his inner John Carpenter in the incredible (if we do say so ourselves) 'They Live' inspired clip. Likewise, we also had the honour of linking up with one of the UK's finest artists, Funeral French, and his brand Dungeon Gateway for a limited run of clobber, combining his love of all things gothic with some iconic Welsh mythology.
Boys On Film
Another one of our favourite things about running a skate shop is the fact that we get to round up the lads and head off on trips to make videos for you to enjoy, and we did a fair bit of that again this year. It probably goes without saying but we definitely wouldn't be able to go on the trips that we've been on if it wasn't for all your support so we hope you enjoy the videos that come out of them in return, and we reckon this year has seen some of our best yet.
After making the journey over to Malaysia to catch up with Don last year, we dropped our 'Not That Hot' edit (the spiritual successor to Don and Conor's 'Hot As Hell' edit) from the trip back in April this year. Showcasing the boys as they battle a load of the finest local spots and the 100% humidity, alongside some mandatory sightseeing and waterpark shenanigans for some brief respite from the constant sweat. We're still a long way off from any semblance of good weather so now's the perfect time to inject some virtual vitamin D into your festive period by giving this a rewatch. Big thank you to Don, Nizam, Johan and all the Malaysian homies for showing us round!
Keeping things a little closer to home, we also linked up with our Celtic brethren over at High Rollers, Dublin for our soon-to-be-released video, 'The Celtic Exchange'. Channeling the very finest of foreign exchanges, we both swapped cities with us heading over to Dublin and the Irish lads coming over to Cardiff for a double dose of Celtic carnage. We're gonna be hosting a premiere for this in the shop on the 3rd January at 7PM so make sure you come down and see it for yourself. Shoutout the High Rollers homies for the all the good times and Free Skate Mag for the support!
But it's not just us who've been delivering the goods, this year's been an absolutely incredible year for the Cardiff scene and we've gotta give a shoutout to some of the other legends who've been carrying the torch. After years of eager anticipation, we were finally treated to a new video from Fountain, 'The Fountain of Youth', as well as several bangin' scene videos from Osian Bowen-Thomson's Episode Ltd crew, including his incredible debut full-length, 'Pilot'. It's been a real pleasure seeing so many new faces getting out filming, especially from the younger generation and we're looking forward to seeing even more to come. Looks like the future's in safe hands!
That's more than enough chit-chat from us though. Thanks again to everyone who's supported us this year (and any other year), hopefully 2026 will be another banger!
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