Hi, I’m Farran Golding
I’m a journalist who specialises in feature writing, audio and video editing, editorial design and managing publications. I work for magazines and online platforms and global brands, as well as with arts, civic and grassroots organisations on events focused on skateboarding, media, and accessibility to journalism and creative industries.
From time to time, I work in higher education, most recently having taught on Manchester Metropolitan University’s BA Multimedia Journalism course and acted as a researcher for Goldsmiths, University of London.
I’m the founding editor of Skate Bylines, a publication and organisation focused on long-form journalism about skateboarding culture and its global media industry, and I’m a member of the National Union of Journalists (Manchester and Salford branch) and University and Colleges Union.
Contact
farrangolding@hotmail.co.uk
Journalism
Freelance journalist — feature writing, video and audio, design and events (2013 – present)
Select publications and clients: GQ and GQ Sports, British Film Institute, Bloomsbury Publishing, Rough Trade Books, Hyde Park Picture House, Simple Magic, Vladimir Film Festival, Vans, Red Bull, Huck Magazine, Free Skate Mag
Senior correspondent and multimedia features editor — Quartersnacks (2019—present)
Founding editor and creative director — Skate Bylines (2024—present)
Associate editor — Closer Skateboarding (2022—present)
Editorial and content manager — Slam City Skates (2021—2022, contributing writer, 2019—2021)
Editor-at-large — Sidewalk Magazine (2013—2018)
Higher education
Tutor in multimedia journalism — Manchester Metropolitan University (2025—2026)
Researcher — Goldsmiths, University of London and Betong Park (commissioned by Skateboard GB and funded by Sport England) (2025)
Associate lecturer in journalism — University Academy 92, Manchester (2023—2024)
PhD research assistant for Dr Harry Meadley — Leeds Beckett University (2022—2024)
Personal education
BA with First Class Hons in Multimedia Journalism — Manchester Metropolitan University (2016—2019)
In conversation with Craig Oldham for ‘The Shining: A Visual and Cultural Haunting’. Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds, 2023. Photo: Ollie Jenkins 
Presenting at Slow Impact: ‘Prose Spotlight: Who Makes Skateboarding Media?’. Tempe, Arizona, 2026. Photo: Greg Navarro 
‘First Light: Creative Culture and Media Making’ panel during Skateboarding in the City III. From right to left: Farran Golding, Sam Ashley — photo editor and co founder, Free Skate Mag, Lizzie Heath — artist and illustrator, Alexis Lewis — owner, PETICOAT Skateboarding, Joe Allen — videographer. The People’s Hall, Nottingham, 2025. Photo: Tom Quigley / Skate Nottingham
Events, talks and screenings
2026
British Film Institute: In Conversation with Spike Jonze
Part of ‘PUSH PLAY’
BFI Southbank, London, UK
21nd June 2026
Slow Impact: ‘Prose Spotlight — Who Makes Skateboarding Media?’
Presented during the ‘Paper Sessions’ hosted by the College Skateboarding Educational Foundation (CSEF)
Tempe, Arizona, USA
28th February 2026
2025
Wakefield Civic Society: ‘Skateboarding in Wakefield: Past, Present and Future?’
Lead speaker (with Dr Harry Meadley and Kelly Devonport)
Wakefield Town Hall, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, UK
20th November 2025
Skate Nottingham: ‘First Light: Creative Culture and Media Making’ (part of Skateboarding In The City III)
Development and panel chair
The People’s Hall, Nottingham, UK
26th September 2025
2024
Manchester Metropolitan University: ’10 Years of Multimedia Journalism’ (part of MMU’s 200th anniversary programme)
Panelist and course alumni
Grosvener East Building, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
April 25th 2024
Rough Trade Books and Barnsley Libraries Book Festival: ‘The Shining: A Visual And Cultural Haunting’ with Craig Oldham
Host and interviewer
The Parkway Cinema, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK
March 5th 2024
2023
Vladimir Film Festival: Quartersnacks ‘Favorite Spot’ Screening and in conversation with Dr Paul O’Connor discussing ‘Grey Spaces of Polluted Leisure’
Filmmaker
Kino Valle, Pula, Croatia
September 23rd 2023
Rough Trade Books: ‘The Shining: A Visual And Cultural Haunting’ with Craig Oldham
Host and interviewer
Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK
July 23rd 2023
2022
Hyde Park Picure House presents ‘Favorite Spot’: A Quartersnacks Series
Filmmaker and event organiser
Northern Monk Refectory, Leeds (part of HPPH’s ‘On the Road’ programme)
March 18th 2022
2019 and 2018
Louder Than Words Festival: In Conversation with Craig Oldham
Host and interviewer
The Palace Hotel, Manchester, UK
9th November 2019
Louder Than Words Festival: BUBBLEGUM Screening and Q&A
Filmaker
The Palace Hotel, Manchester, UK
8th November 2019
BUBBLEGUM: Exploring John Carptenter’s ‘They Live’ premiere
Filmmaker
Village Books, Leeds, UK
28th March 2019
Louder Than Words Festival: In Conversation with Gemma Cairney
Co-host
The Palace Hotel, Manchester, UK
Manchester, 9th November 2018
Publications
Now and Then: A History of Skateboarding in Wakefield, West Yorkshire (co-authored with Ben Powell)
Writing, design, creative direction, marketing, production and sales
2025
Safety Net
Photography, design, production
Self-published, 2024
Piece To Camera / Troubleshooting
Photography, design, production
Self-published, 2023
AVE, photo: O’Meally
Writing, design, creative direction, production, marketing
Vans, 2019
Press
Simple Magic: ‘Skateboarding Stories of The Year’
My work for GQ, Quartersnacks, Skate Bylines and Closer Skateboarding has featured in consecutive editions of this annual highlight of standout reporting on skateboarding.
• 2025 for the Skate Bylines story ‘In Dreams — Nick Jensen on the Isle Skateboards Curtain Call’
• 2024 for the Quartersnacks story ‘It Feels Like You’re Both Getting The Clip — A Reappraisal of Fisheye Cinematography’
• 2023 for the GQ story ‘Alexis Sablone and Converse Have Made The Next Great Skate Shoe’
• 2022 for the Closer Skateboarding story ‘Kevin Spanky Long: Character Witness’
Mostly Skateboarding podcast: ‘Magazine Covers and Skate Bylines with Farran Golding’ (2026)
Simple Magic: “I’ve been standing up here my entire life” (2024)
Beyond Boards podcast (2023)
Village Psychic: ‘Farran Golding in TROUBLESHOOTING‘ (2023)
Journals and academic citations
UK Skateable Spaces Audit 2025 (Skateboard GB, funded by Sport England, 2026)
Dr Esther Sayers and George Nichols of Goldsmiths, University of London) and Stuart Maclure of Betongpark
Regional researcher for Yorkshire and Humberside in the first national survey of the UK’s skateboarding facilities
The Art of Skating Institutions: Incidental Positionality as an Artistic Strategy in Reappropriating Civic Space (Leeds Beckett University, 2025)
Dr Harry Meadley
I was research assistant during, and is journalism cited throughout, this PhD thesis which focuses on using skateboarding as a form of socially-engaged arts to foster progressive and gender-inclusive public spaces in Leeds, West Yorkshire
Gender-equity programs, urban play and safe spaces for women and nontraditional skateboarders by (Winston Churchill Trust, 2025)
Dr Indigo Willing
Featured and interviewed in the chapter “Leadership, Agitating and Change-Making”, examining my work in skateboarding media primarily as the founder of Skate Bylines
Skateboarding and the Senses: Skills, Surfaces and Spaces (Routledge, 2024)
Dr Sander Hölsgens & Brian Glenney
My journalism for Quartersnacks and community engagement with Civic Leeds is cited throughout this book in the ‘Routledge Focus on Sport, Culture and Society’ series
Kind remarks and testimonials
“Authentic, eloquent and 100% invested in understanding the worlds of the individuals being platformed.” — Dr Indigo Willing, co-author of Skateboarding Power and Change; visiting research fellow at the University of Sydney’s Social Sciences & Humanities Advanced Research Centre (2024)
“Farran is a great person to work with academically and as a journalist. His coverage in the world of skateboarding brings stories to life. The more students see that stories can be found anywhere, even ones they haven’t been invested in their whole lives, it makes them better. His work sets a standard that I want my students to see and work to.” — Dr Taylor Umland, Programme Leader in Sports Journalism at the University of Salford, organiser and founder of the Sports Media Education Association
“The internet’s busiest skate nerd.” — Cardiff Skateboard Club (2023)
Press for Skate Bylines
“The absolute best example of independent media being executed with love, care and effortless expertise.” — Matt Barr, founder of All Conditions Media and host of Looking Sideways Podcast
“[A] fabulous hub for skateboarding journalism.” — Natalie Porter, founder of Womxn Skate History and author of Girl Gangs, Zines, and Powerslides: A History of Badass Women Skateboarders (ECW Press)
“A real prestige vehicle for skateboarding.” — Paul O’Connor, author of Skateboarding and Religion (Palgrave Macmillan) and senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Exeter
Press for my Quartersnacks ‘Favorite Spot’ series
Curbed / New York Magazine: ‘Have You Heard About This Bench?’ (2021)
Mostly Skateboarding Podcast: ‘Farran Golding on Favorite Spots and Mark Suciu’ (2021)
“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.” — 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)
Colleagues
I’ve had the pleasure of working, communicating and bouncing ideas around with the following people. None of them are my formal “colleagues”, so to speak, but 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. (Even hire them for a gig, maybe?)
Alex Coles
journalist, video editor and motion designer (USA)
Anthony Pappalardo
journalist and copywriter (USA)
Cole Nowicki
writer, author, publisher and founder, Simple Magic (Canada)
Chris Lawton
writer, educator, community engagement and founder, Skate Nottingham (Nottingham, UK)
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)
Natalie Porter
author, archivist and founder, Womxn Skateboard History (Canada)
Norma Ibarra
photographer and marketer (Canada/worldwide)
Raisa Abal
photographer and founder, Dolores Magazine (Barcelona, Spain)
Robin Kirkham
graphic designer and co-founder, An Endless Supply (Birmingham, UK)
FG 