Congratulations to the former Sunny Coast kid who is now a resident shredder of the streets of Melbourne – Reef Condon has taken out the New Gen of the Year award for 2025.

Picked from the selection of our four (up-and-coming) New Gen profiles of the previous year, Reef raised the bar by featuring in Hoddle's Still in the Grid, the Cons Australia Video, other montage videos, ads, and the almighty Bunt Jam win!

Thanks again to everyone who voted in this year’s Slam Skater of the Year awards.

Check out Reef’s full New Gen interview from Issue 241 below, March 2024.

REEF CONDON – NEW GEN INTERVIEW – AUTUMN EDITION, 2024

Interview and Captions by Josh Sabini
Photos by Bryce Golder

The first time I ever met Reef, he was 12 years old, wearing a pair of baby pink Vans and trying to back-three the three- block at Melbourne’s City Park. He was younger and so much better at skateboarding than me and all of my friends. He ended up destroying his ankle trying that back three, and I have memories of him sitting on the couch inside the shop waiting for his mum to pick him up.

That was almost 10 years ago now. Over the years, I would catch glimpses of him here and there, when he’d come down to Melbourne to see family, or from clips on his Instagram. I remember hearing he had quit skating and was shocked. Then, out of nowhere, he was back posting tricks on Instagram as if he never left.

For just over a year, he has been living in Melbourne. He has been unstoppable, getting on Hoddle and filming for the upcoming CONS Australia video that will probably be out soon after you read this. Reef is back and isn’t going anywhere.

Boardslide with some classic Dandenong double vision.

“Siri play ‘It’s So Easy’ by Guns N’ Roses”. Backside 360, Adelaide.

When you were super young, I remember hearing that Dustin Dollin called you about getting Baker boards. How did that go and what was that phone call like?
There never even ended up being a phone call. He sent me an Instagram message on Christmas Day. I was 13 and I was losing my mind, of course. He sent me a message like, “Hey, man. Merry Christmas, give me a call.” He sent his number and being a United States number, I wasn’t able to connect. So, there was never a call, just messages. I ultimately said no in the end. It was crazy.

Why did you say no?
I was on Element at the time and I liked where I was.

Do you ever wish you said yes to it?
Nah, because I wouldn’t be where I am today.

Did you try to get on after the Element Australian team folded?
Yeah, I messaged, and I got no response [laughs]. I think years later, I messaged him. I was skating and had no boards; it was tough times, and no response again [laughs]. The lesson is: say yes the first time if you want to ride for Baker.

You went to Woodward when you were young, didn’t you?
Yeah, my brother and I were lucky enough to go when I was 14. It was amazing.

Did someone try to get you boards while you were there?
Yeah, Chocolate. There are guest pros who come through over the summer. Stevie Perez and Chico Brenes were the guest pros the week we were there. They hadthis competition demo thing, and I skated. Then Chico asked if I was getting boards, and I told him I was on Element. Same excuse [laughs].

Damn, the childhood dream.
It was so sick. I had grown up watching the Camp Woodward show.

What was it like being that young and getting all that attention?
I never really saw it as anything crazy. I was just skating, and I met the right people. It somehow all fell into place in that sense.

You stopped skating for a bit, didn’t you?
Yeah, I did from when I was 14 or 15, to 17. I was burnt out from getting the train from the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane every Saturday and Sunday.

Yeah, that is a mission. Where on the Sunshine Coast did you live?
I lived on a beach called Wurtulla.

How was it growing up there?
Amazing. It was beautiful, but not so good for skating.

How old were you when you started skating?
Ten, but at that time, I was still scootering, which is what I had done from a young age. My dad always told my brother and me to start skating, but we never listened. Then we started bringing a skateboard with us to the skatepark, and at a point, we both ditched the scooter.

Did your dad skate?
Yeah, he did when he was young in New Zealand.

Geoff Campbell’s video Secky Presh came out in 2011, and the crew completely destroyed this spot. Thirteen years later, it’s still skateable, and Geoff filmed Reef back Smith the hell out of it, Melbourne.

Did he ever skate with you guys?
All the time when we started skating.

What did you get up to when you quit skating?
Lived the coastal life [laughs]. I surfed and hung out with my mates. Being in such a small and secluded place, we were partying, too. Not a whole lot.

You moved to Melbourne a year ago. What made you want to make the move?
I mean, I always wanted to. My mum’s side is from here originally, so I have all my extended family here, which is why I always came down on my school holidays when I was a kid and met all of you guys. If it weren’t for those early foundations and friendships, maybe I wouldn’t have moved so early, or so quickly, but I was so eager to leave Queensland as soon as I left school.

How old were you when you moved?
Originally, I was 17, but that was during Covid, and I was doing a snow season in Perisher, and I was stuck there. I had to move back to Brisbane where I lived for a year until I moved back here.

Oh, true. How was the snow season?
It was amazing. That was something that I’ve wanted to do since I was young.

Was that around the same time you got back into skating?
Yeah, I had just got back into skating, and then straight away, I broke my hands and ankles. I didn’t have a good run going back into things. Then, I wasn’t so determined to do anything. Moving to Melbourne has made me feel like doing more.

You’ve done so much since you’ve been in Melbourne. Have you been enjoying skating more since you moved?
Yeah, of course. The nature of it helps – everyone is skating, there are so many spots, there’s so much potential. I’m really enjoying it.

Now you’re on Hoddle. How did that come up?
Initially, I was at Jimmy Roche’s birthday at Fitzroy and Caeylen [Norris] was there. We were drinking, and I was doing tricks at the park, and Caeylen was like, “Do this trick, do that trick”, until he was like, “A board on this one”. I did it, then from that point, I got a board or two and then was asked if I wanted to come on a skate trip. It has continued from there. I’m hyped. It’s a dream come true.

Before you went to Europe, you were working as a fishmonger to save money. How on earth did you get that job?
I was working from job to job. I got work with Grassman laying turf, which was a job that a bunch of other skaters have filtered through over the years. They were in between jobs and told me there probably wasn’t going to be much more work. With Europe booked, I needed money, so I was just applying for everything and anything. The first people who got back to me were a fish factory in Collingwood and I obliged. I worked for like a month or so and couldn’t wait to leave. It was the craziest job of all time.

What did you do there?
I was packing fish orders for various restaurants around Melbourne, but there were many smaller jobs within that. I was gutting, scaling, boxing and icing fish – anything you can do with fish, I would do. It was crazy. It was in April, starting to get cold, and we were working in a fridge all day in hazmat suits. It wasn’t ideal.

That is so gnarly.
[Laughs] It was crazy. I’m glad that now I can look back and laugh at it.

How was the smell?
Horrible. After my month stint, it stayed with me even after I would leave and shower.

Fuck that.
Yeah, it was crazy. There were other things, too. Tuna has an enzyme on its skin that eats away at yours, so if you don’t wash your skin, it leaves horrible rashes or other symptoms, which I was exposed to. It was fucked.

What happened?
Just crazy red rashes all over my body, especially where the enzymes touched my skin.

Gap frontside nosegrind out the front of the dream home in Maribyrnong.

You were just in Europe for a few months. How was it?
It was amazing. It was such a good experience. I was there for three months in total.

What was the highlight of the trip?
I want to say spending that time in Paris. I spent a month in Paris with the best crew. It was a big group of people spread over a few Airbnbs – skating, hanging out, drinking, eating. It was so good. Pretty much everyone was from Melbourne, and there were a few Sydney lads, too.

Did you have a lowlight of the trip?
Yep, I want to say getting knocked out in Paris was definitely the lowlight of my trip.

Yeah, what happened there? LC [Ben Lawrie] wanted me to ask about that and him staunching them out for you.
[Laughs] I don’t want to say staunching. You’re always warned about Paris and the precautions you should take. The night that it happened, we were at the bar that is open the latest in the city. It closed at 4am. At times, gangs would wait outside and pick on drunk travellers, being us. We went outside, and Eli [Wulfe-Cheshire] was getting yelled at for peeing on a “statue”, but it was the gutter. He got pushed, and I was trying to separate it with LC, and they started pushing me. I started making a move on them and I didn’t see the group of 15 people that were behind a wall. Then I got hit from behind and got knocked out on the ground. I woke back up and LC was picking me up and we ran away. I think we were very lucky to get away like that.

Damn, that is so gnarly. Did they steal anything?
No, they didn’t, fortunately. We were with a French filmer, Romain Batard, and the whole way back to our place he was reinforcing that we were so lucky to come out of it how we did. Well, not so much me, having been punched. My mouth was bleeding, and I was drunk and dizzy. All in all, we survived, and nothing came of it. Now it’s pretty funny [laughs].

Before we wrap this up, can you tell the story about how Geoff Campbell bought you $100 worth of KFC?
He did. It’s the best money Geoff’s ever spent. There was a trick that I had tried a few times at that point, and we were back for the third time. It was a hotter day; we were all tired, and it was taking ages. Obviously when someone is taking that long, people start throwing things on the trick, one of those being Geoff’s $100 on KFC. When Geoff puts some money down, you put your life on it, and I’m sure that’s what I did. I landed it, and in the footage, I am pretty sure you can see how happy I was taking that from him [laughs]. The rest of the lads were hyped, too. We got wings, chips, and other KFC skud. It was beautiful. Thanks, Geoff.

Switch flip over the rail, caught to the absolute nines, Melbourne.