PETE KING / SKATE

Hometown: London

Home spot: Corby skate park, St.Albans, or anywhere there's a sesh.

Years skateboarding: Creeping up on 20.

Sponsors: Quiksilver, Vans, Karma Skateboards, Independent trucks, Type S wheels.

Setup: Karma board, Indies, 60mm or 55mm depending what I'm skating. I'm like a golfer these days.

Hobbies: Skating, travelling, thinking, laughing, getting educated and partying.

Career highlights: 1st place vert and 1st place street at the first Urban Games. 4th in vert and 10th in street at the U.K champs 2008. But more importantly travelling the world and avoiding the treadmill trap.

Trick of choice: Changes all the time. Front side grinds and backside airs will always feel amazing

Heroes: People who devote their lives to something more meaningful than chasing earth units. On a skateboard I think we all have a lot to thank Tony Hawk for. He pathed the way for so many more kids to be able to skate professionally and I think that gets forgotten. Living legend and a down to earth dude it seems.

Music: All sorts. Anything from Stiff Little Fingers to Bob Marley.

Favorite piece of Quik gear: As we're enduring a harsh winter, I couldn't be doing without my Quiksilver puffer jacket. It's like being in bed while your out and about.

BIOGRAPHY: I got introduced to the good world of skateboarding when I was 12 years old, through a friend whose older brother skated.

I'd gone round my mate's house after school, and saw his brother and his mates skating on a rickety mini ramp in the garden. I was fascinated.

A few weeks later I went around my mate's house again hoping to see the older lads skating in the garden, and as they were, I went and asked if I could have a go. I left their house looking like Robinson Ceroso with rips all over my clothes but buzzing on my first session. I've been hooked on it ever since.

I'd been skating a few years around the streets in my and hills in my home town when some of the older lads I'd become friends with were heading to a skate comp in St.Albans. I went along with them and was blown away to see how many other kids were in to skating, as in my town there was only six of us. The atmosphere there felt electric to me, and I'd never felt anything like it. I meet some lads that day that I still skate with now, and winning my age group meant I won a brand new board which was a right result as I'd been riding cast offs from mates up until that point.   The comp at St Albans was my first taste of skateboarding giving me a reason to travel. I really got the travel bug from then on, and have always travelled to skate events to meet and skate with new people, and I enjoy doing that as much now as ever.

I was offered a sponsorship deal from Quiksilver at an event in London a good few years back, and that was a turning point for me as it meant that I could travel and skate full time instead of just most of the time.

I've been lucky enough to travel the world skating, and it's definitely opened my eyes which may otherwise have been blinkered, as the experiences I've had on my many jaunts have definitely shaped me.

Us humans are malleable creatures, and I think the positivity and openness in the skate scene really puts people on a good path, so I know I'm in this game for life to some capacity.