Hi, I’m Farran Golding.
I’m a freelance journalist who works across a range of media including feature writing, video editing and production, podcasting, graphic design, photography and events. My work is multimedia-focused, creating stories which reach audiences across several publications and platforms.
I teach journalism at university level and undertake speaking engagements and projects with creative organisations, academic institutions and corporate clients. I also have a background in community engagement, applying journalistic practices and marketing skills to projects with arts and civic institutions.
I’m a member of the National Union of Journalists (Manchester and Salford branch) and founder of Skate Bylines, a publisher of long-form journalism about skateboarding with an additional focus on the workings of skateboarding media.
Contact
farrangolding@hotmail.co.uk
Journalism
Senior correspondent, Quartersnacks (2019 – )
Founding editor and creative director, Skate Bylines (2024 – )
Associate editor, Closer Skateboarding (2022 – )
Editorial and content manager, Slam City Skates (2021 – 2022; contributing writer, 2019 – 2021)
Editor-at-large, Sidewalk Magazine (2013 – 2018)
Select publications and clients: GQ and GQ Sports, Nike, Converse, Vans, Red Bull, Rough Trade Books, Free Skate Mag, Huck Magazine, Northern Monk Brew Co., Hyde Park Picture House
Teaching
Associate lecturer in media and journalism — University Academy 92, Manchester (2023 – 2024)
Education
First Class Hons BA Multimedia Journalism — Manchester Metropolitan University (2016 – 2019)
Community engagement
Co-founder and editorial director, Civic Leeds (2022 — 2024)
Research roles
Regional surveyor for Yorkshire and Humberside, Goldsmiths University (June – September 2025)
Publications: design, creative direction and writing
Now and Then (co-authored with Ben Powell for Division 24 Skate Store, 2025)
Safety Net (self-published, 2024)
Piece To Camera (self-published, 2023)
AVE, photo: O’Meally (Vans, 2019)
Events, talks and screenings
2025
‘First Light’ (part of Skateboarding In The City) • Skate Nottingham • 26th September
2024
10 Years of Multimedia Journalism: Alumni Panel • Manchester Metropolitan University 200th Anniversary Celebration • 25th April (Panellist)
‘The Shining: A Visual And Cultural Haunting’ with Craig Oldham • Barnsley Libraries Book Festival, The Parkway Cinema and Rough Trade Books • Barnsley, 5th March (Host)
2023
Quartsnacks ‘Favorite Spot’ Screening and Talking ‘Grey Spaces’ with Paul O’Connor • Vladimir Film Festival • Croatia, 23rd September (Filmmaker)
‘The Shining: A Visual And Cultural Haunting’ with Craig Oldham • Hyde Park Picture House and Rough Trade Books • Leeds, 9th July (Host)
2022
Hyde Park Picure House presents ‘Favorite Spot’: A Quartersnacks Series • Leeds, 18th March 2022
2019 and 2018
In Conversation with Craig Oldham • Louder Than Words Festival • Manchester, 9th November 2019 (Host)
BUBBLEGUM Screening and Q&A • Louder Than Words Festival • Manchester, 8th November 2019 (Filmmaker and host)
BUBBLEGUM Premiere • Village Books, Leeds • 28th March 2019 (Filmmaker)
In Conversation with Gemma Cairney • Louder Than Words Festival • Manchester, 9th November 2018 (Co-host)
Press
Awards
Simple Magic: ‘Skateboarding Stories of The Year’
— 2024 for the Quartersnacks story ‘It Feels Like You’re Both Getting The Clip — A Reappraisal of Fisheye Cinematography’ and ‘Talking Interviews with Eric Swisher of The Chrome Ball Incident’ for Skate Bylines
— 2023 for the GQ articles ‘Alexis Sablone and Converse Have Made The Next Great Skate Shoe’ and ‘How Tyshawn Jones and William Strobeck Changed Skateboarding Forever’.
— 2022 for the Closer Skateboarding story ‘Kevin Spanky Long: Character Witness’
Academic citations
Various writings cited in ‘The Art of Skating Institutions: Incidental Positionality as an Artistic Strategy in Reappropriating Civic Space’ by Harry Meadley, PhD. (Leeds Beckett University, 2025)
Writing for Quartersnacks and community engagement through Civic Leeds cited in Skateboarding and the Senses: Skills, Surfaces and Spaces by Sander Hölsgens and Brian Glenney (Taylor Francis, 2024)
Podcasts
‘Farran Golding on Favorite Spots and Mark Suciu’ with Mostly Skateboarding Podcast (2021)
Beyond Boards Podcast (2023)
A couple of other kind remarks
“Authentic, eloquent and 100% invested in understanding the worlds of the individuals being platformed.” — Dr Indigo Willing, author of Skateboarding Power and Change; Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Sydney’s Social Sciences & Humanities Advanced Research Centre (2024)
“The internet’s busiest skate nerd.” — Cardiff Skateboard Club (2023)
Press for my ‘Favorite Spot’ series for Quartersnacks
‘Have You Heard About This Bench?’ — Curbed / New York Magazine (2021)
“Surely amongst the best of our new skate media, Farran Golding’s ‘Favorite Spot’ series blends archival video with the voices of skaters who know, and likely love, these places better than anyone. Golding’s curation is as thoughtful and effective as his silent role in these rich, ranging, and extremely fun conversations. As our lives are increasingly defined by learning how to ignore, each new ‘Favorite Spot’ is a cause for settling in, hunkering down, and opening all receptors.”
— Kyle Beachy, author of The Most Fun Thing: Dispatches From A Skateboard Life (2022)
“[‘Favorite Spot’] provides a remarkable reflection on how skateboarders connect with objects in urban space and end up making them their own. Here the bench is less of a sacred spot and much more of a magical item. It corresponds with people and place, serendipity and synchronicity.
— Paul O’Connor, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Exeter (2021)
“In another compelling “Favorite Spot” entry by Farran Golding for Quartersnacks, [Stu] Kirst narrates a half-decade of abject failure. […] Committing to such suffering is admirable in our intracultural masochism. In skateboarding, this level of failure in search of success is mythologized, baked into the DNA of the sport itself … As Kirst himself attests [sic] “The [spot] sucks. It’s a foot-and-a-half wide on top. It’s steep, and the ground sucks. It was cold when I did it, and it took me five years. That’s all there is to know about it. I don’t think I learned anything from it.” While that may seem bleak, there is a beauty to it; you just have to crane your neck to catch the right angle, to see the path down.”
— Cole Nowicki writing for Simple Magic (2023)
Social
Colleagues
As a freelancer, these people aren’t my formal “colleagues”. I have, however, had the pleasure of working, communicating and bouncing ideas around with them. I enjoy and respect their work and vouch for them wholeheartedly. So, if you’ve made it this far, you could do worse than checking them out too (maybe even hire them for a gig, if I don’t suit your needs).
Alex Coles journalist, video editor, animator and designer (USA)
Anthony Pappalardo journalist and copywriter (USA)
Cole Nowicki writer, author and publisher (Canada)
Greg Navarro videographer and editor (New York, USA)
Harry Meadley artist and educator (Leeds, UK)
Ian Browning journalist and copywriter (New York, USA)
Josh Sabini journalist and photographer (Melbourne, Australia)
Norma Ibarra photographer and marketer (Canada/worldwide)
Raisa Abal photographer and founder, Dolores Magazine (Barcelona, Spain)
Robin Kirkham print and digital designer and web developer; co-founder, An Endless Supply (Birmingham, UK)
F.G. 