Congratulations to St Kilda’s gnarliest grom, Noah Bardas, who has taken out the New Gen of the Year award for 2023.

Picked from the pool of our four New Gen profiles of the previous year, Noah Bardas came out on top with a solid photo feature in the mag, plus footage in Brick and Mortar’s Autumn along with a highly productive Santa Cruz trip at the pointy end of 2022.

Thanks again to everyone who voted in this year’s Slam Skater of the Year awards, presented by Converse CONS.

Check out Noah’s full New Gen interview from Issue 235 below.

NOAH BARDAS NEW GEN 
AGE: 15
LIVES: Melbourne
RIDES FOR: Santa Cruz, Independent, Vans (flow), Brick and Mortar Supply

Photos and captions by Wade McLaughlin 

Hey, Noah. You’re on a 10-week school camp near Ballarat, right? Are you learning survival skills out there?
Yeah, I’m out on camp right now in Clunes, which is a sleepy little town outside of Ballarat. It’s pretty cool. The camp is all about nature and bush walks and looking after yourself. They’re teaching us life skills associated with being in a share house, like doing your dishes and being independent. It’s pretty funny. There are alarms on all the doors, so you can’t go out after 9pm, and they put timers on all phone calls. It’s fully like juvi aye [laughs]. It’s just a school camp, but they take it way too serious.

You grew up skating at St Kilda, right? What was that like?
Yeah, I’m from St Kilda way and I would head down to the park every arvo. I’d go down with my oversized pads and helmet as a grommy. I’d learn tricks nonstop and never stop chirping [laughs]. I was always heading out to Noble Park and Brunswick as well. I was mostly inspired by my older brother, Max. We were always pushing each other and competing and making edits. We all looked up to Louis Durand, too. I still love St Kilda skatepark, but I haven’t really been there for a couple of months. I’ve lived in St Kilda my whole life but moved into the city recently, around Southbank. Since then, I’ve just been having fun skating around Melbourne.

Were you living in The States at the start of this year?
Yeah, we were in Encinitas for a while, which was dope, and we got to travel around spots in LA and San Diego. I was with Jett Dehaan for part of it, one of my bruddas from Sydney. We did a road trip to San Fran for a couple days and went down that whole coast. It was the best time.

We went down to Geelong and Torquay one day with Noah, Marley Rae, Poppy Olsen and Nick Maughan. On the way to Torquay, we drove past this massive drop-in and everyone was eyeing it off. It looked pretty sketchy, but Noah said he was down to give it a go. He dropped it first go, and that’s really the only way to go with a spot like that.

What’s the most memorable story from your time in The States?
We pulled into this motel in Ventura when we were road tripping up the coast from LA to San Fran. Everyone had said that Ventura was this mellow Cali’ surf town, but it was more like a zombie apocalypse – the joint was infested with junkies. I dunno what was happening in the room next door, but they had these two massive rabid dogs and every time you walked past the window, they went fucking crazy at the window. I’m pretty sure those dogs would have killed someone if they got out. Who knows what was going on in that room?

Are your parents supportive of your skating?
Yeah, they love it, and they’ve supported it since day one. They’re pretty interested in skating. They love hearing about it. A couple of years ago, we did a trip around Australia, camping every night, and we probably got to hit most skateparks in Australia. They’re the best parents I could ever ask for. I’m so thankful.

Is your brother into snowboarding? Do you snowboard too?
Yeah, he’s also into skiing. He’s the illest. He was in America this winter in Oregon. He’s up at Mount Buller at the moment doing the season working, coaching some kids and just filming and skiing, which is so dope. He’s also dish piggin’ most nights, at the ’Roora [Kooroora Hotel] as his side hustle [laughs]. I snowboard as well but I just mess around. I mainly go up to the snow for the ladies [laughs].

This was the first photo Noah and I shot together. He was only 14 at the time. Noah was a little St Kilda skatepark grom and I could tell he was such a natural, so I took him to this spot and he bonked this nosegrind pretty quick. This is literally one of the first tricks that he’s ever done in the streets.

What do you think of eshays? Wade said you speak a bit of Piglatin.
[Laughs] they suck! Nah, I don’t know, they’re alright. They just do their own thing. The eshay trend is pretty lame, but Piglatin’s sick. I love to speak that shit. It’s hilarious.

What type of music do you get into?
I love Wu-Tang. That’s my main go-to, but also Nas and Busta Rhymes and that kind of stuff. I’ve been loving a bit of Metallica recently as well.

Are you down with Posse Shot?
For sure, you already know, lad. Get the money up!

Noah had one weekend off in the middle of his stint at “juvi”. I should say that he wasn’t actually locked up – juvi was his dad’s joke, referring to the 10-week school camp where he’s been learning life skills. Anyway, Noah came back to Melbourne and I hit him up to get another photo. Jeremy Corea had set up this super sketchy pole and we thought he might be able to jam it. Noah got the pole jam second go and after five more shots, he was rolling away from this pole jam late front shove-it.

Which trick did you work hardest for in this photo spread?
I don’t know, hey. I’m pretty happy with everything. I’m just stoked to get some photos. Big thank you to Wadeos for shooting them with me. Much love.

How do you find filming with Jezza and the Brick and Mortar crew?
It’s so sick. I love those boys so much. Having fun is the main thing and we’re all just trying to have a good time. They’ve inspired me so much and just gotten me stoked on skating at the moment. Jezza’s the man. He’s so creative and motivated and he fucking rips, too! Also, big ups to Breno [Brendan Parks]. He’s killing it at Brick and Mortar. Much love to him.

Are you filming for anything specific? And what’s on the horizon for you? More time overseas?
Nah, not really. I’m just having fun. I’m always out filming and stuff, but I would say that the next Brick vid will probably be the next thing. At the moment, I’m just skating and I’m going to stay put in Melbourne for the minute, I think. I would bloody love to go back overseas at one point, though. That would be pretty special.

This spot’s been here forever and seen by everyone. The reason it hasn’t been skated until now is that – apart from the fact that you have to gap in and out of it – you have to run through the reception of an office building foyer to get the run up. Leaf [Kalem Dallimore Beange] was holding the door open for Noah on the first two attempts, which he managed to lock in. Then some dude came out and started blowing up at us. It looked like it was all over at that point, but I somehow talked the guy into giving us one more shot. That was all it took for Noah to get his ender in the Brick and Mortar video.