This is the HQ of "Trabajando" skate video and skate spot-making supplies, accompanied by a series of skate videos that take us traveling to the metropolises of Barcelona, Paris, Chicago.

Every crew needs a video, and a street spots specific to them!  

Trabajando represents the endless search for new skate spots, countless tries taken to film tricks, learning new techniques from masters, and everything in between.

The word "Trabajando" means "working" in Spanish.

The Trabajando Story

Words by Corey Henderson

In January 2012, I embarked on my first flight to Barcelona, Spain, for a four month study abroad. The goal was to leave Barcelona with enough footage to make a full length video, and also pass school. I did not know one lick of Spanish, but I was mesmerized by the city and instantly fell in love with the street scene and overwhelming culture of Barcelona. In the center of Barcelona you can find all levels of hustle. You see stores like ZARA built from the ground up into a global empire, others hustling to sell beer and toys to tourists on the street.

Below is one of first videos I produced in Barcelona, a culture video assignment for my exchange program.

Below is an angle I filmed of Jeremy Rogers' ender in his Barcelona themed skate video "Mi Amor" for his company, Selfish Skateboards. The coolest part was that Rogers was cool with it and told me use the angle for fun because he thought it looked too slow.

A BARCELONA SKATE VIDEO

I found myself being late and sometime even ditching class to go skateboarding with some of the world's best known, and best unknown skateboarders. Looking back on this I feel like I was a kid!

Alongside witnessing the new levels of foreign hustling, were the locals, some of them Catalan Nationals but many of them are transplants who decided to permanently relocate to Barcelona due to its paradise-like vibes. Many of these people where not only willing to do whatever it took to stay and fully immerse themselves in Barcelona, some of these people had come from rough places and Barcelona was like a way out of hell via skateboard.

Meeting these people from all over the world and having this love for Barcelona and the willingness to do what it takes to be able to enjoy it is what inspired Trabajando.

Some of the best skateboarders I've ever met were struggling to stay where they were but it never affected the love and peace they emitted. One thing you will find when you go to Barcelona is that people are full of love in a way they are not in other places. Everyone was working hard but also enjoying.

The first trip to Barcelona was financed by a school budget, the subsequent trips came out of pocket. In order to keep this inspiration alive and to continue to live the dream of skateboarding in Barcelona, and re-connect with the newly formed friendships, I had to work my way there. Most of my work consists of freelance videography and video editing.

In 2014, I quit my marketing manager position at a farm equipment design firm and decided to go on a mission to film another full length in Barcelona after the premiere of 708 volume 2. 

TRABAJANDO 1

There was an invite to stay at a friends house for free and film a video with the locals.

After arriving in February, the first 2 weeks went fine until I had to leave to the place I was living and switch to an apartment that wasn't planned for. Moving unexpectedly is never fun, especially in a foreign country where you don't really know anybody.

Almost all Barcelona locals have endured some bit of turmoil when it comes to a place to live. Luckily, there were people nice enough to help find a place and with the move.

During this time I knew very little Spanish but was doing my best to learn and integrate myself into the Barcelona lifestyle.

Work is happening right in front of your eyes in ways unimaginable that one cannot help but be inspired from it and express it.

The time spent filming the first Trabajando is what laid the path for the future videos. It opened doors of interest in both Chicago and Barcelona as well as other cities.

People from Chicago got a first hand view how accessible Barcelona is for skateboarding even for somebody from Chicago who barely knows anyone or any Spanish.

In Barcelona, having someone who is down to film and send you the clips is not as common as one might think, so over time I began filming a lot of different people living and visiting Barcelona, creating the relationships that gave the video more life and more reason to continue.

The first Trabajando video is unique to the others because it has a perspective that only happens once.

Barcelona was still very new to me the second time going because living in a dorm and going to school tends to shelter you from a lot of experiences of the little things that are key to a more authentic experience of the city. This video attempts to express the feeling of arriving and living in a new, magical feeling place and presents it in a cinematic way. Interestingly enough, the video shows others experiencing Barcelona as new as well. A few heads from Uprise came for about a week including the infamous Graham Thoms AKA @looflord, someone who becomes very crucial to the Trabajando mission as the years went by.

TRABAJANDO 2

Fast forward to 2015, another trip to Barcelona was on the horizon, but this time with more Chicago homies. With the financial help of Character Skateboards and out of my pocket, Derek Acosta and D.J. Brown were about to make it to Barcelona and film parts for the would-be Trabajando 2. There was much time spent exploring remote areas of the city finding all kinds of spots.

It was important for the Midwest scene to see Barcelona video parts of their friends just appear out of what seemed like thin air. The fact that people they knew successfully went to Barcelona made the dream city seem tons more .accessible than ever before.

Derek's and D.J.'s parts, made it loud and clear that any skateboarder with some talent can become the best version of themselves on a skateboard in Barcelona.

 TRABAJANDO 3

Barcelona was becoming much familiar to me at this point, I knew the city fairly well, and my Spanish was even getting better thanks to the Brazilians. My body was in good shape most of the trip and I filmed one of the best parts I've ever filmed for this video. 2016 was an all around productive trip, Graham filmed a full part for the video, the Brazilians, Roger Silva and Adriano Farias filmed full parts as well. We even went on a few missions with the French legends Kevin Besset and Max Geronzi. Josh Ferro, Max Barker, and Ariel Ries also came in from Chicago and skated for a week. There was a huge Trabajando family happening.

People you enjoy being around is what makes a skate trip worthwhile. It was friends who demanded we finally create a logo. 

Skating in Barcelona actually inspired an increased appreciation for Chicago spots, so out of respect the video started off with a Chicago montage.

It could be a gateway for both scenes to see what they wouldn't normally see, and a great way to inspire travel. Chicago has more high quality skate spots than one may imagine, and fits with Barcelona in a lot of ways.