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Toxic City Mikey Brunner Öctagon 65 California Dreamin’ Hermann Stene Absurd in Abkhazia Keeping the fish in the bowl Cover: Evan Smith frontside smith grind Alella, Spain Ph. Alexander Olivera Contents: Pontus Alv ollie from bank into wedge TBS, Malmö, Sweden Ph. Sam Ashley

Gap to backside 50- 50 grind

Ollie Lock on

Bodmin, Cornwall

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Ph. Leo Sharp

Ignacio Echeverría

Ph — Hugo Moreno Pascual

May 25, 1978 — June 3, 2017

Ignacio Echeverría, or Abo, which all of his friends called him due to his lawyer skills, ( abogado means lawyer in Spanish) was the nicest and most down to earth person I have ever met. He was the type of human that wouldn’t even kill an insect after being bit by it. A local of Jardinillos, you could see him skating hard and having the best time at the plaza, where I had the pleasure of meeting him. Despite being the oldest of the squad, he would enjoy every session more than anyone. He was a special person, a young kid but way older than all of us. Abo would pick the homies up and drive them to the skateparks in the suburbs of Madrid. For me it was really sick because those were my beginnings and I felt like we were on skate missions. He would play Delinquent Habits and he never let us eat our snacks or pastries in his car. Abo never followed any trend; he always did his thing. He was just a hard worker. We all grew up a bit more and Jardinillos got knobbed. The scene there slowly disappeared and everyone took a different path. Some of the homies stopped skating just like in every plaza. Abo wasn’t one of them. After years studying hard he got a serious job in downtown Madrid. By that time I became a local of Plaza de Colon and I remember seeing him walking by, wearing a suit. ‘I’m on my lunch break, so I came to see people skating real quick before I get back to work.’ No matter how many years

passed, he was still there, impossibles on lock and always happy to share a session with his friends. He ended up moving to London a few years ago for work. I could still see him posting clips on social media. I could imagine him coming back from work, taking the suit off, putting on some comfortable clothes and going out to do what he loved the most. Somebody recently asked if I was surprised that he got involved in defending that person on the bridge that day. So I told that person something that happened to him in a skatepark years ago: some bad ass kids were spitting at and harassing a young girl, Abo didn’t think twice and went to defend this girl. The next thing that happened was that two cars pulled up in the skatepark full of rats and Abo got jumped and sent to the hospital. That says a lot about him. A noble person who was making this world a better place. So I’m 100% sure that he would do it again and again. Sometimes we don’t know how to react to an extreme situation, and I am sure that most of us would run away, but Ignacio didn’t. He jumped off his bike and used his board to help save a life. He never pretended to be a hero; he was just doing the right thing. This tragedy is probably going to change the way people look at us (skateboarders), at least for a bit of time. Thanks Ignacio, for all the years you spent with us, for being real, pure and brave. Skate in Heaven. — Juan ‘Jura’ Algora

T oxic

C From experience taking skateboarders to the pub and buying the first round has always been the most effective way of getting the good stories out of them. The less formal the setting, the more natural they come across: seems obvious. The problem is that when you apply this to guys that even dead sober have basically no filter you put yourself at risk of it getting a little out of hand. I think I can safely say that’s what happened when I met Korahn Gayle, Kyron Davis, Will Miles and Casper Brooker at Peckham Wetherspoons to chat about their recent trip to LA. About a pint and a half in I went from being the guy that was steering the conversation to the guy giggling in a corner like an imbecile as they chatted to each other about throwing up because of Joel Peck’s farts and System Of A Down. Maybe this time we actually should have ‘let the skating speak for itself…’

Nike SB

Interview Photography

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Arthur Derrien Joel Peck

Casper Brooker 50-50

Arthur: Okay Will, start by telling me how you ended up buying Korahn 48 beers in the space of a few hours?

Will Miles: He’s a fucking pool shark man! It was the day he was trying to fakie flip over one of those classic LA curb cut to fire hydrants spots. He wasn’t getting anywhere near it and kept saying it was because he couldn’t commit so I bet him a full crate of beers on the next attempt just so that he’d start properly going for it… In my head I was thinking ‘if he does end up fakie flipping this thing it’s going to at least take him a while…’ And of course he fucking did it! I couldn’t believe it… He wasn’t even close! Korahn Gayle: Standard though innit. If beer is on the line I will do it. WM: Ugh… Anyway as if that wasn’t enough he’d done it so quickly that Joel hadn’t had a chance to set up. He tries for another 5-10 minutes and again he’s clipping it every go, barely clearing it… It just doesn’t look like it’s going to happen again. So I take him up on a ‘double or nothing’ thinking: ‘he’s good but he’s not that good, he can’t just turn it on’ and he fucking does it again. KG: Of course he did! What did you expect? Haha…

How long did it take you to get through them?

Casper Brooker: Not very long… We drank a lot of beers on that trip. WM: Yeah Kyron bought a cooler for the van on the first day.

Kyron Davis: Bethany! [They all start singing that Giggs ‘Lock Doh’ song that goes ‘Stephanie, Beverly and Bethany’.] WM: Bethany’s in good hands though, we left her to Koston.

And the name-dropping begins…

WM: What?! It’s just our boy Eric!

Did drinking out there not feel sketchy at all?

WM: At the time no… CB: But in retrospect drinking in the car definitely was a bad idea. WM: Yeah we probably shouldn’t have put up those videos of Korahn drinking whilst driving… KD: What are you talking about there was no beer in that can! KG: Absolutely. I was an amazing TM and in fact I didn’t drink any beer or let anyone drink beers in the car. No further comment.

Who ate the most tacos? a day…

Everyone: Will. He ate 50. Almost four

WM: I was trying to find a better taco spot than that Taco Queen place they have here in Peckham!

And did you?

WM: Nah man I like those white boy tacos they make here. I can’t handle the real deal.

How did Ky lose a day?

[They all burst out laughing.] KG: One day?! He claims it was one day but it was definitely more than one day. The day after that he was horrible. I’m sorry Ky

but you were a horrible person haha. You were trying as hard as you could to pretend you were chill but when anyone said anything you’d snap their head off.

All right what happened?

KD: Nothing crazy man, I just went out to a party.

What kind of party?

KD: Uh okay it turned out to be some mad S&M afterparty with boys and girls getting whipped all over the place in a warehouse. WM: Basically he went out, his Uber wasn’t working on his phone so he had stay out until the girls he was partying with decided

to go home.

‘Had to stay out’ haha…

WM: Yeah, ‘forced to stay out partying’ haha. So he comes in at 8:30 in the morning, I’m the only one in the house because everyone had gone out to get breakfast. KD: Yo stop baiting me out for real! WM: So he gets in stinking of beer. In fact still drinking a beer and gets on my bed and starts asking me (puts on a slurry voice): ‘Will… Will… Where are we going skating man? I’m keen.’ And I was like ‘you ain’t coming out skating’ to which he replied ‘Nah man I’m just going to have a quick 20-minute nap and

I’m good’. KG: Being the great TM that I am I wanted to force him to come out. When he fell asleep on the couch I was ready to just take him and chuck him in the van. CB: That would have been a terrible idea. WM: Yeah that would’ve been like leaving a dog in a hot van with no air. He would have died in no time. Especially given that he slept for 12 hours, woke up, had one slice of pizza and slept for another twelve. KG: This is him the day after that 24-hour night. The day he claims he was ‘fine’. [Korahn pulls out a video of a passed out very pink Kyron burning up in the van with reggae going off.] KD: Okay, okay… But I stacked them clips though no? [Everyone bursts out laughing.] WM: If you ever tell Ky he’s been on too much of a bender he’ll say ‘Okay… Okay… But can I still switch tre?’ [Again everyone cracks up.] KG: What other funny shit happened?

Korahn Gayle backside 180 kickflip

Kyron Davis wallie one-foot

[By this point they’ve basically just taken the interview into their own hands.] CB: Joel Peck happened! WM: Joel is the greatest! CB: Reserved but… [They all laugh.] KG: He lost it on me a couple of times. WM: Basically Korahn pushed him to the edge. KG: What happened was I was designated amazing TM driver. I’d put Joel on the car papers as well just in case but I pretty much did all the driving. Now before I continue what you need to know is Joel’s been driving almost ten years and has never had a single crash, claim or anything. Anyway so the one day I get him to drive, after he’s driven let’s say a nice seven hours he just happens

to clip the wing mirror juuuuuuust a tiny bit. It was really unlucky haha. So after that he didn’t drive again apart from on the very last day (in an attempt to redeem himself). So from then on we started making little jokes like saying ‘ooof maybe let’s not let Joel drive this time’ in front of him and stuff. You know, little digs, nothing too harmful. But it went on and on and on… Until one day we went to – watch out I’m about to name drop – to the Welcome office. CB: That was the WKND office haha. KG: Whatever some yank skate brand. WM: None of them were on Red Bull so he didn’t know who they were. KG: Deep… Really trying to think of I comeback but I can’t. So anyway I’m in there and they are like (puts on a ridiculous

Kyron Davis frontside shove-it to backside nosebluntslide

Casper Brooker gap to tailslide

American accent): ‘Hey dude so are you like the TM dude killing it with the driving and shit?’ KG: ‘Yeah man although this one time…’ [They all burst out laughing.] KG: ‘This one time Joel drove but he won’t be doing that because he crashed’. It was just a joke but it was one joke too many and it was in front of all these guys. We’d said it about thirty times at that point. So as we’re walking out he walks up to me and is like: ‘I’m sick of being the butt of that joke, I almost lost it in there, if I hear it one more time…’

WM: ‘I’m fucking you up Korahn!’ KG: Haha… Obviously I said I was sorry and didn’t make that joke again… I guess we did take it a bit far… WM: One thing Joel did was fart right next to Kyron and the smell was so strong that Ky actually puked. KG: It wasn’t just the smell though; it was also that Joel was talking about how he enjoyed his own brand (the smell of his own farts). KD: Yeah I tried to rush out of the room but at that exact moment Casper got out of the toilet as well. I was caught between

the two and I guess it was just too much for my senses to handle. CB: But yeah Joel’s amazing... Pure lej.

KG: Not to mention our boy Frosty! WM: Seriously though Koston was really helpful. Every time we didn’t know where a spot was I’d send him a photo on WhatsApp and Yeah. He killed it with the photos on this one... He’s within 5-10 minutes he’d reply with all the supposed to be sick at skating too right? info including the best place to park and KG: Yeah really good skater. Shame he stuff. couldn’t ollie a picnic bench. CB: Also there were a couple of times KD: Noooooo you can’t put that in where Kyron blew it and took us to the wrong there! spot. [Again laughter from all.] Kyron, Will and Korahn: What are you What that he couldn’t ollie a picnic table? What’s talking about?! You did that! wrong with that?! I doubt I could. CB: Oh shit yeah that was me, haha. KG: I guess it became a big deal. He WM: Of course it was! It happened really wanted it and he clearly could have twice! One of the first times when we were done it but he just couldn’t bring himself to like ‘alright guys we’re going to meet ERIC try. KOSTON today’. Casper said ‘cool Shier gave me WM: That’s right Joel. I ollied a bench the address to this spot so tell him to meet and you didn’t. us there.’ We’re driving to this spot up these How did you guys find out where all the spots were massive hills, all starting to doubt that and stuff? we’re going the right way but Casper keeps WM: On the first day Casper found about saying ‘no, no that’s where Shier said it 70 spots he wanted to skate so I guess that was…’ We pull around the corner only to was a starting point… discover the spot is a completely different KG: And being the great TM that I am I one. ‘Uh hey Mr Eric Koston, we’re somehow got us there with the Sat Nav… actually on the complete other side of LA WM: Shier really helped out… now…’

well…

KD: I did one of those to Koston as

WM: Yeah we were cool guying him a lot. Koston was basically chasing us around LA.

When you guys did actually meet up with him was it not weird or intimidating at all? KG: What with the Frostman? Frosty? Why? Obviously when he first showed up I was a bit like ‘fucking hell here’s Eric Koston’ but after about a minute and a half I realised he was just the biggest skate nerd. He’s talking about the trick, he’s talking about the spot, he’s talking about how maybe the one up the road is better because the bank’s slightly higher and the gap is slightly further, etc. He’s just a skate rat. KD: Some of us had skated with him before though so it wasn’t really a thing…

Oh yeah sorry I always forget that you and Koston go way back.

KD: Yeah man I was ‘inspired by Eric Koston’; did you not see the clip? Haha. [Google ‘Inspired by Koston: Kyron Davis’.] CB: You clearly haven’t seen the South Bank clip where he talks about MY skating haha. WM: To be honest five minutes in he was asking me ‘Am I coming out too close to the edge of this ledge?’ on some switch boardslide which made me be a bit like ‘What do you mean? You’re Eric Koston! You’re meant to have all the answers! Why are you asking me?!’. KG: Yeah he’s definitely a talker. Which is fine, I know I’m a talker. WM: Yeah Korahn’s the kind of guy that mid-air jumping down some stairs will say out loud: ‘damn I think I think I flicked this one wrong or something’. Koston’s exactly the same. In fact have you not seen his Yeah Right intro? ‘All he does is talk, talk, talk.’

What was the jet lag situation like? Did you guys manage to beat it?

Casper and Will: Definitely not haha. KD: What? I conquered it for sure! I was asleep by ten and woke up 7am every day! WM: Uh yeah that’s called being jet lagged. That’s why we’d be fall asleep at the bar before midnight with half of our first pint in our hand, haha.

So you guys didn’t really go out?

KD: Not really other than that weird night I mentioned earlier with the dudes that really enjoyed getting whipped.

That thing sounded scary.

WM: I’ll tell you what was scary… Somehow Chelo was there. [Chelo is a girl whose incredibly piercing high pitched laugh seems to make its way to every house party in south London.] I just remember being really tired

Kyron Davis ollie to backside wallride

somewhere and just hearing that laugh and thinking ‘No! No! It can’t be what I think it is’ haha. CB: Man! I was asleep on the couch one evening and she just came back to our place with Kyron and one of her mates, helped herself to my laptop. She typed in ‘y’ and started giggling ‘oh my god look at all these porn sites hehehehe.’ Aaaaaaaargh I was so pissed off! Who does that?

Why do people love your laptop so much?

[Everyone laughs. Casper recently came

home from a night out and found a skater he hadn’t invited butt naked in his bed watching SAW 3 on his laptop.] KD: Haha Looking at someone’s Internet history is deep man. WM: I wouldn’t even look at my own girlfriend’s history! What she does on that thing is up to her… Whatever gets her through the night man.

I love how we’re just moving further and further away from the skating haha. KD: Well, sometimes the skating just

speaks for itself you know. What needs to be said though is that Korahn is the best person ever to have on a skate trip. He’s like my dad. He’ll make everything okay. KG: I guess that’s what I was there for. You didn’t go to prison, you didn’t get beaten up and you got clips. CB: It was honestly one of the best skate trips I’ve ever been on. KG: It all comes down to that great TMing… WM: And how mad is it that we didn’t get kicked out of a single spot? Two weeks in Los Angeles and not a single security guard spoke to us.

Korahn Gayle nollie

That’s fucked.

KG: We haven’t spoken about the press-ups! WM: A few days in we realised that no matter what we’d say to each other there would always be someone to reply ‘fair play’. It was getting out of hand so to stop people from saying it every two minutes we decided that it would be ten press-ups for every time you said it and that they would have to be done where the words were pronounced. KG: Kyron said ‘fair play’ in the car, had to get out of the car at a red light, bang out the ten press-ups and quickly jump into the car. Then when he got back in I said

‘damn… Fair play… Fair play. Fair play. Fair play,’ haha. WM: After a week we’d all completely managed to quit saying it and Korahn still couldn’t help himself. He racked up 420 (press-ups) out of anger one time and did them all in one day. WM: What about Casper’s trou? KG: Oh my god I think we went trouser shopping for Casper at least 13 times. And that’s not even a Will Miles exaggeration. KD: Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Wal-Mart, WalMart, Kmart, Target, Wal-Mart… CB: On the first morning I told them ‘look guys can we basically go and do this now

or I’m just not going to shut up about this’. We did but I still didn’t shut up about it.

I don’t think I’ve even seen you wear any special trousers from LA since you got back.

CB: Oh you will have it’s just that they’re all just plain black ones. [Everyone laughs.] WM: I bought so many useless items of clothing out of boredom because of that guy. KG: I think we also need to tell the Kyron hill bomb story. So we tried to go to that spot at the top of the gnarly hill Casper accidentally took us to at the beginning of the trip (the one we mentioned earlier). And at this point nothing had happened that day

Casper Brooker slappy backside tailslide

Kyron Davis wallride to frontside crooked grind

and Kyron had drunken about 10 beers before midday. WM: He’d also become naked because each beer he drank he had to take off a layer of clothing. KG: Oh yeah he’d been naked in the van before we’d even gotten to any spots. So later on he’s drunk at the back of the van and being the good TM that I am I tell him that he should definitely bomb the hill.

And Ky being the lej that he is accepts…

KG: Yep. He’s tanking it down this massive hill and at one point the ground goes from great to ‘oh shit you can’t powerslide’. We tell him to jump off; he waits a little then goes for it. He starts running but he’s going so fast that his legs crumble under him. He slams then skids on the worst possible concrete for like the length of this room. The footage is in the edit and you can actually hear Casper and me go ‘oh god’ at the second powerslide… It was so fucked. WM: By the time he was slamming the ground is basically gravel.

Is this what led to the ‘oh that was pain man’ line he says in the Numbers clip?

Everyone: Yeah! KG: Anyway the best part about the whole thing was that earlier that day we’d just had this whole long conversation about how you can’t blame another person for the decisions you take with your own life and he’d agreed. So when I got out of the car to check that he’s all right and Will goes ‘great TMing mate!’ I’m like ‘wait a second… Didn’t we all just agree that as grown men we are entirely

responsible for our actions?’. All this while Ky is just in pain on the floor, haha. KD: You guys are making me sound like such a wasteman! WM: But at the end of the day you came through! We got lots of good stuff throughout the trip but when we desperately needed that ender, that statement piece, that fade to black, you were there! His arm and his hip were completely fucked from this slam we just mentioned, he’d filmed loads of shit with the Numbers dudes the day before and he still charged and made it happen.

Okay I think that’s more than enough I’m ending this now.

CB: Wait! We need to talk about System Of A Down! [Now they’re really starting to lose it.] KG: Basically at about five o’clock everyday we’d need a boost of energy so we’d listen to the greatest song of all time: ‘Toxicity’ by System Of A Down. WM: Or Toxic City if you’re Kyron. KG: Either way that’s one of the things that made being in the van so good.

Huh? Everyone I’ve ever spoken to about going on a trip to LA whined about the amount of time spent in the van. place.

KD: Not us man. The van was my happy

KG: Yeah we loved being in the van so much that sometimes when we’d get to a skate spot we’d drive around in circles in the car park just so that we could get more van time. Toxicityyyyyyy!

On the top bar on WhatsApp there’s the little circle with the picture. Click… It shows two heads: the smile of a stunningly beautiful young lady and a guy with a red cap doing somewhat of a funny face. The name on the bar says Michael Brunner. Doesn’t really fit. Michael Brunner is about as much a Swiss name as one can have. Like the guy standing with a bucket of milk next to his passively chewing cow, Matterhorn and the red white flag in the background and all. And on top of that the phone info says he’s from Kölliken in the Kanton Aargau. That’s basically the prototype of the no future village next to the freeway. Combine all this and you’re bound to imagine that 20-year-old Michael Brunner is probably a chubby gamer, hanging around the local gas station on the weekends, all into tuning his ten-year-old Subaru. BUT! This Michael Brunner is more of a Mikey. A Mikey B. Mikey B – The fresh Prince from K-Town – half Swiss, half Madagascan. Hi-tech to deep down roots! Mountain peeks and Mama Africa – the best of both. Live and uncut! Sporting the freshness, hyping his homies. Feeling it. The kind of dude you’re just into when you see him skate.

Sort of voodoo style, uncanny, yet on point. Catching those switch backside flips with the tweaky legs, if you know what I mean! The type of skater known as The Styler… He skates with a crew based in Aarau, a town not far from Zurich and closely affiliated with the scene there. Colour Group, they call themselves, ‘cause they’re reppin’ quite a few nations. They’re Albanian, Brazilian, Korean, American, Italian, Serbian, Czech, Croatian, Swiss, and in this case, Madagascan. They drop one or two vids every year, produce their own clothing line and one of the few proper remaining skate shops has their back. It’s the positive, the tight, the light, which makes skateboarding so great, that they bring along. That ‘thing’ you can feel the fire in, the stuff you live off, the stories you’ll remember as the good old days. It’s the substance our culture is made of. And Mikey is a driving force within this positiveness. So you can imagine how hyped he was when I wrote him back in November that Free would give us the chance to get something together... Since I must have deleted all the previous messages due to chronic storage problems it said:

M i k e y B r u n n Int

w e i er v

o ot

h ap

g a a

M n a l A

Mikey, Free Mag wants to do an interview after all – now that it’s cold.... Whuat! Those bastards! Have you seen the temperatures?

We have the Wallride Hurricane and Switch K from Tokyo. And they like the Flip Wallride. Any other ideas? Yeah, a bunch. Are you coming to the premiere of Tell It Like It Is this Saturday? I’ll try. We can talk then. Well, that was it until December 3rd. A month later, you can guess, it got cold and rainy. But on that halfway sunny December weekend I got to see another side of Mikey. On those winter days we had solo missions. Despite all his homies staying inside he was down to get something done and to sweat and freeze his toes off at the same time. And that’s the thing that separates the dedicated from the rest. To go out alone, temperatures just above zero, to get those tricks in, that’s something few skaters do. But it’s that little sign that one is willing to go the extra mile in life – the last 10%. If you have been shooting with so many skaters you get to learn that such behaviour is a sign of character, which will make those people successful throughout their lives. They get things done.

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Otherwise the chat mainly consisted of temperature info and winter depressions. It kept on raining and with a few exceptions we didn’t get much time to try and shoot more. That was until March 3rd, when a deadline came in. We decided to go to his area. If you ever happen to be near Aarau, check it out. It’s a little city, which is perfect for a day trip, because there are around ten good spots all really close to each other in the city centre… Anyway, suddenly things went fast, especially since he hurt himself and had a few weeks out and also the question of what should be asked in an interview came up – which makes the insight into the chat a bit more interesting. Let’s check around the end of March.

Mikey, we have two weeks for a text, what do you want to talk about? Mikey Brunner: Uh, I’m bad at that. But you are an academic. You just did your Bachelor’s in Biology. An academic who somehow snuck through all tests, yes, hahaha. Are there interesting parts in your studies? It depends on the results you get within the tasks. To show why they make sense is interesting, but bringing it all to paper, comparing data, etc. is tiresome. Give us a positive example. Studying how a cancer cell uses the mechanism of a human body to reproduce is quite heavy and super interesting. You call that positive? Why? Is there good and bad cancer? Well, actually all cancer is bad. We just call cancer that won’t spread into the whole body ‘good’, because it allows us to extract it where it is and if all cells are removed it should theoretically not come back. But if it’s ‘bad’ it has already begun to spread and reproduce and the cells will eventually end up in the bloodstream. So you want to do cancer research? No, that was just an interesting example. I’d rather do something with animals. Ah, the animal doctor who gets all the chicks. Hehe. Evolution is fun, isn’t it? Scientific Marine research would be the heavy shit, but I’d have to go abroad for that. So I guess it will be Zoology. Animal behaviour is highly interesting. Why don’t you want to go abroad? My lady, my friends, my family... I can’t imagine leaving them behind! But let’s see… After my civil service I’ll go travelling for a few months. Maybe Japan again, that would be sick. Our trip there was so cool, but I haven’t seen anything of the countryside yet. Maybe I’ll get the taste of it when I discover something else for longer. Is all your family from Madagascar? No, just my mother. My dad is Swiss. Tell me about your mother. She’s funny, loud, beautiful and kind. She’s working a lot, a smart-phone addict and she just discovered YouTube. And always on the phone with a headset, haha... She writes incomprehensible text messages and keeps on talking French with me and others although we don’t understand... Besides her work she has her projects in Mada’; building a house and a restaurant at the airport, where my relatives are working. She’s trying to help them wherever possible. What is your relation to Madagascar? I’ve been there a few times and have a good relation with my relatives. Unfortunately I don’t have as much contact as I wish because of the language barrier. I just speak the language a tiny bit. But I have to go back soon to visit my grandparents. There’s always a big feast and they slaughter a cow

when we come! The country is stable, right? Well, the president and his staff bathe in money, whereas the people really need help. But there’s no war. There are even a few skaters down there! They definitely have some special traditions too. Do they have Voodoo? They have their own beliefs. You should Google them! Like the burial tradition, which is a huge celebration of life. There is no mourning, but a party! They dance on the streets, brass bands are playing and they drink their Madagascan rum. Within a big clan easily 500 people can come together from all over the island to celebrate the meeting of the dead and the living. They touch the

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corpse to say goodbye. I must say it was a bit weird at first to say goodbye to my granddad in this way, but it was comforting after all. Wow, seems like your family down there leaves an impression. Any other stories? Haha, yeah, I remember when we were there last time my uncle was insisting in having one of my painkillers. I didn’t get why, ‘cause he seemed to be fine but I gave him one anyway.... Turned out that he believed it would make him immune to alcohol ‘cause he had seen me taking the pill. But our half Swiss bodies can absorb more… You can imagine how that mix of painkiller and a false assumption turned out, hahaha... At this point the interview broke off again and it

i lr

p li f ck Ki rau Aa took us a few weeks before deadline pressure kicked in again. It was difficult to get back into such an interesting topic, so I decided to just roll things up from behind and see where it would take us. That was mid-April. Mikey, we need to finish this! Who would you like to say thank you to? Is the interview over? No. But I don’t have a better question at the moment. Thanks to my family, for allowing me to have such a carefree life and backing me in all my decisions. They have always had trust in me, supported my skateboarding in every case and gave me all the space I needed. Thank you. My lady is just as supportive and lets me skate as much as I want,

haha. She’s such a wonderful person and always takes care of me. Then the whole CG crew for all the good times on and off a skateboard. For all the healthy laughs I had because of those guys. They are all so different from one another but miraculously form such a tight crew. I’ll have to mention Skipi (Shqipron Bobaj) especially. With his dedication and endless hours of filming he keeps on pushing and pushing us forward. We would be nowhere without him. And you, Alan, the most relaxed photographer with that great eye for the special details. I’m so happy that we did this together. Without your motivation it wouldn’t have turned out as good as it is now. I owe you a six-pack. Then Kölliken, the village I come from and the city of Aarau for being such wonderful places. Not to forget all my other friends who bring such joy into my life. And my sponsors: Huf Switzerland, Quasi Skateboards, John at Bridgecity Dist., Brütsch at Home Street Home Skateshop, the Colour Group and of course Chance GF for the friendly support from Japan. That’s about it. And what are you thankful for?

i ts n o Fr rich Zu

c lf

i sl

r th

e id s ck Ba rich Zu

l kf

Well, for being a healthy human being who has free will over how I can live my life and choose where I want to go to. I’m thankful for never having been forced to do something I did not want to do. I have always been supported and met so many wonderful people through skateboarding. Are you ever unthankful? Hmmm… I don’t think so. But maybe we take certain things just for granted. Like food or clothing, for which we should be more than thankful. I guess I don’t value everything as much as I should. The little things, you know. If you value the little things, life is more enjoyable. Yeah, we tend to forget those ‘cause we’re all a little bit in love with ourselves, aren’t we? I guess we are, yes. Especially with skating you have to be a tiny bit narcissistic. At least I’m that way. If

e id r ll Wa kyo To

a ic

I don’t feel my style, what I wear, then I don’t feel comfortable and can’t focus on skateboarding. You have to be a bit vain, because you can only show your skating to the world without having a problem if you’re happy with yourself. How do you mean that? Well, you get filmed and pictures are taken of you, so you show your personality through skating. And everybody reflects on how they might look. Just like in art. So you’d compare skateboarding to art: it can be regarded as beautiful and aesthetic without having the claim of being better then something else? Absolutely. Every one of us considers how something could look, but regardless of who likes it and who doesn’t, you should just follow your own taste and vision. So therefore competition is counterproductive? Yes. To compare skateboarding is weird, no? Alone the question of who is better just can’t be answered if you ask me. But people do it all the time. I’m sure you have certain aspects of skateboarding you don’t like. Yes and no. Everybody should skate how he or she feels like. Me not liking skating contests ‘cause I don’t feel like I can show my way of skating there doesn’t mean that others shouldn’t go for the contest hype. Do you know what I mean? The last thing skateboarding should do is to constrain

e id s ck Ba rau Aa

i sl

o /n

i sl

people. Everybody should drop what he wants to drop. Yeah. Being modest allows us to understand that different façades mostly have positive backgrounds. I always have to think how people would say that varial flips are wack. How sad is that? Who knows how crazy my varial flips would look like if I hadn’t listened to those morons as a kid! Hahaha, that’s almost like religion; we are aaaaall soooo tolerant and spread love – as long as it’s not a fucking scooter kid. Hahaha… Yes man, that’s it. We should be less hypocritical and skate more.

Drop in

Everything was

Ã&#x2013;

the only chance.

Ph. Loic Benoit

Val Bauer

darkness to my mind. Speed was

backside 180 kickflip

moving really quick, getting close to me, bringing

Drop in

Ph. Loic Benoit

The system was

Phil Zwijsen

expanding higher and higher. Space Double-sided 50-50

had no limits anymore. At this Ph. Maxime Verret

Edouard Depaz

point, escaping became

a lifelong commitment.

The rebels were still free. Even the system war effort throughout the Surveyör and Meta battles couldn’t stop them. The Öctagon still needed to expand in order to prevent them from opening a path out of the controlled space. Weakened by a lack of non-artificial obedient working force, the mother system started developing selfsufficient bots. Those were keeping the concrete jail automatically growing by itself, without ever stopping. The rebels had to reset their whole vision and reading of the systemic environment to avoid giving their mind to the Öctagon. They were under threat of losing their free will.

Ph. Maxime Verret

RĂŠmy Taveira

Ollie into the bank

Ph. Maxime Verret

Fences, barriers, walls. Concrete

Edouard Depaz

Switch backside smith pole jam

Boardslide pop-over

Phil Zwijsen

was flowing, and every corner

becoming a potential trap. Ph. Loic Benoit

50-50 grind

The threat of being

sucked up into a Ph. Maxime Verret

RÃ©my Taveira

Roll-in

Ph. Loic Benoit

Phil Zwijsen

dimensional flaw was ubiquitous.

United against the totalitarian Switch wallride

Ph. Maxime Verret

Joseph Biais

power, we were still feeling

Yeelen Moens

Frontside nosegrind pop-over

wiped out by its expansiveness. Ph. Thomas Wieringa

Val Bauer

Ph. Maxime Verret

180 no-comply

The ground seemed to be

vanishing; the banks

were the only safe terrain.

Ph. Thomas Wieringa

Switch frontside crooked grind

Bram De Cleen

I was trying to keep focusing on escaping but couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stop asking myself why. Why

Joseph Biais

Ph. Loic Benoit

Kickflip

would they just stand there? How

could they not see the truth?

Jahmal Williams and his myth SCIENCE ORCHESTRA (fifty fifty to back tail)

photo: stewart

insta: @theoriesbrand info: mike@theoriesofatlantis.com

California

Dreaminâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Pontus Alv interview by Will Harmon

David Stenstrรถm, wallride 66

After the success of Trocadero Days and Manhattan Days Pontus Alv and the Cons/Polar boys decided to head out west for some California dreamin’. Los Angeles is the home of red curbs, palm trees, hydrants, school yards and a lot of skateboard

Why did you decide on Los Angeles this time for this Cons/Polar collaboration?

Pontus Alv: Well basically the inspiration came from this weird music video I found called ‘Malibu Sunrise’ by Lueur Verte. It’s a dope, classic eighties video that did a collage with this whole Venice Beach vibe. I just really liked the video and in it they had this classic fibreglass quarter pipe. It was just a dream I had as a kid… You know we all grew up in Europe watching Natas (Kaupas) and people in general skating red curbs or Jef Hartsel skating Venice Beach or like that whole Rubbish Heap lifestyle. So as a kid you are always dreaming about California, I mean everyone from the eighties and nineties we all wanted to go to California for whatever reasons. Just like to ollie off a curb cut,

history so Pontus thought it would be the perfect place for his next Polar and Converse collaborative piece. We talked to the man himself about the as of yet untitled project that will be hitting your screens sometime later this year.

skate a red curb or ollie a hydrant with a blue skies and palm trees vibe. And I just thought that whole vibe kind of fit well with the Jack Purcell thing and also for LA, being the heart of skateboarding, where all the big brands in skateboarding are, I thought it would be a challenge to go there and film a Super-8 clip and maybe have a different vibe and approach to the city.

I see.

It was the whole vibe of basically an old Natas part. ‘Oh he lives right there by the Venice curbs. He went down to the curbs, he pushed around Venice, he had a couple school yards in the neighbourhood and then that was the video part.’ That was the challenge of an old Santa Cruz video part and trying to recreate that dream and try and spread that to

Dane Brady, wallie

68 new generations. Because people see California today and it’s a lot of jumping down stairs and rails and I wanted to just bring some fun back to LA.

Yeah I can tell the whole thing was inspired a lot by Natas.

Yeah definitely and still to this day Natas pops up on Manolo’s mixtapes and you still watch his video parts or any remixed footage from him and it still feels so fresh. He has

the style, the aesthetics, the vibe and a lot of this skating still to this day is super hard and super sick to do. I mean all the stuff he did on the double-sided curbs at Venice… Super long hurricanes and popping off 180s and whatnot…

And you guys saw the Natas hydrant right? I saw a photo of everyone’s feet on it.

Yeah it’s a classic one. I mean the guys tried to mess around with it a bit and do the spin…

Jonas Skrøder, backside 360 ollie

It’s not easy! I mean it’s possible to ollie up and spin, but the way Natas did it was so fluid. That’s the whole thing: he just cruised around the corner and Vrhhh (Pontus makes a twirling/spinning noise)… He did it with style and finesse.

And so did the younger guys (on the team) know about Natas and his old parts or did you have to have a screening for them?

Well most of the guys on the team knew of Natas and these kinds of video parts but of course before the trip I sent a bunch of links. Like I really like this video Sick Boys and the trailer for that video I really like so I sent that video to them. Then I sent old Jef Hartsel parts, Natas parts, Jesse Martinez parts and even like old Jovontae (Turner) double-sided curb Planet Earth parts. Then I

sent a PDF of old jump ramp photos, parking lot vibes and beach vibes. I think the hardest thing to do in the project… Doing these kinds of things you film or you do a commercial for a shoe or whatever you want to call it, it’s creating… Just like Manhattan Days and Trocadero Days it’s a bit of like skating together, group skating and doubles and I’m not saying acting, because it’s not acting, but definitely more of ‘alright guys can you do that?’.

You’re more of a director on these things than a normal skate video…

Yeah and that’s sometimes really hard for some of the guys to understand the vibe. ‘Ok I’m coming around the corner, I’m boardsliding here, alright this guy’s coming right there, he’s coming here flying off the jump ramp…’

Paul Grund, backside 50-50 grind

that’s the shot. And you know planning those things is kind of a mess. I mean skaters today they aren’t really used to things like this. It’s the hardest thing to get the guys to get into it. And I don’t blame them; I mean I started in ’87 and I grew up with that stuff so I really feel strongly for it, but maybe they don’t get it as much as I do. It works for a guy like Dane (Brady); maybe it fits better for his kind of vibe than for a guy like Aaron (Herrington) for example.

Yeah I feel like Dane has done a lot of research into those older eras (of skateboarding).

Yeah he likes all that kind of stuff. I think it’s great… I think skateboarding is in a time where it has so much history where we can basically be researching and going into history and finding so much inspiration in the past. You know, bringing it to now and mixing

and matching it all… It’s cool to see kids getting hyped on old stuff. Like ‘ah I just saw this old Sean Sheffey part and it got me so hyped!’ and you’re like ‘sick’. And then you send over some links like ‘check out this dude and check this guy and this video’ and they’re like ‘whoa, sick!’ and it’s cool. And David (Stenström) is watching a lot of old Neil Blender stuff and being hyped on that and it’s sick.

So hanging around Venice, did you meet a lot of interesting people and see a lot of crazy stuff?

I mean we had those huge ramps with us so it was definitely fun, well not fun but actually really hard. It was definitely interesting putting that big ramp next to the boardwalk and to get the crowd going and the locals and the people there hyped. And skateboarding there is a pretty big part of the beach

Paul Grund, boardslide

David Stenstrรถm, frontside tailgrab

72 community and Venice has its share of characters. I mean nothing crazy, mostly hippies, some junkies, some crackheads whatever, but they’re all friendly people; they are nice. The only people that are not cool in America are the cops; they are always going to hassle you. We had those big ramps and we put them on the boardwalk and they were like ‘of course you can’t skate on the boardwalk’ then we put it on the side of the boardwalk and the police let it fly for a minute. And it was actually quite nice as we had the ramps in a parking lot and the sheriff came and he was cool with it. So it was surprisingly nice how mellow it was around the Venice area. We went to other parts of town like Manhattan Beach and there it was really strict and we were hassled. It depends on the neighbourhood and it depends on the vibe but definitely LA is a hard place to just pull off this kind of thing. New York was really easy as far as getting busted, but in LA they just follow you around in those cop cars.

So was the whole project mostly shot around the same area in LA?

The idea was basically just to follow Natas or the old path of those times. We tried to track down the old school yards and the classic beach spots. We didn’t really have a set plan, we just had shots in mind that we really wanted to have like palm trees, the ocean, the beach, a backyard pool, red curbs a parking lot, etc. We had a van with all the guys and another truck following behind with the ramps, but stuff wasn’t easy. Driving around LA and finding a location that we could actually set down the things was tough. We knew that the school yards we could only skate on the weekends so in the

Jonas Skrøder, backside 5-0 to 270 in

David Stenstrรถm, boneless 73

end it was a real pain in the ass. For a while we were worried it wasn’t going to come together.

Oh really? So you were worried…

Yeah it was not going well. The ramps were late; the guys building them were delayed by three days… So we were just kind of standing around shooting some street stuff here and there and then the ramps were finally ready. And then the ramps were super big and not easy to move around. And then also driving around the van with the boys you get tired, it’s hot, there’s traffic, cops… You get to a location and ‘alright let’s get this session going!’ and then you get everything set up and ‘ah the cops are here. We gotta pack it up.’ And then so before you know it half a

day is just gone doing nothing. It was not a smooth operation at all.

So did you guys ever think to try and reach out to Natas himself and have him show you guys around?

Yeah he lives right by the Venice curbs you know. His mom has a house there and I guess inside by the house there’s another small house and he lives there. We were there basically every day around that zone and one day Chris from Dear Skating, he was our guide, he showed us all the local connections like ‘oh look at this spot, there’s this here, that’s where Natas lives’ and he was always telling us stories about that area because he’d lived there a long time. He showed us a great time and really made the project happen.

David Stenström, frontside wallride

75 Without him it wouldn’t have been possible to nail it. So yeah we saw Natas’ house, but everyone was too scared to knock on his door, haha.

was in that zone back then. It was definitely sick to hear some stories and I asked him a lot of questions.

Yeah Eric Dressen was with us one day. He knows Tom Remillard and he was hanging out with us all the time so Dressen came and skated with us. He showed us some wallrides and some spots around Venice. He showed us some spots he used to skate in ’87 because he

First to confirm, yes Jonas is potentially a new rider for us, but the problem is that he got hurt. I mean he came with us to Puerto Rico and he kept getting hurt and then the same thing happened in LA. It was really weird: he did a backside 360 off the jump

You run into any other old pros from that area?

I saw new team addition Jonas Skrøder was there with you guys, but where was Kevin Rodrigues?

Paul Grund, ollie

76 ramp over this trash can and he did it like ten times. He did it so easy and perfect every go and then on one go he landed and his body just kept spinning and somehow it tweaked his knee. Nobody knows… He’s going to get a scan of it and we don’t know yet if he needs an operation or if it’s fine. Right now he’s just rehabbing and it’s a bit unclear… He had knee surgery before on that knee so he’s kind of paranoid and nervous to start really skating on it before he has a scan and a full check on it. So he’s waiting for that to happen and we are all down with Jonas, he’s a great guy, and we all just want to see him back on board. We want to do something with him; we want to put him on the team, but it’s been a bit of a difficult situation because I can’t put someone on unless we have some serious photos and videos around that person. And Kevin, he was in San Francisco before the trip with Supreme and he got hurt. He hurt his hip in SF so he couldn’t make it down to LA. He flew back to Paris… That’s why he wasn’t involved with that. You know injuries… It’s hard these days. It’s hard to get everyone booked and aligned you know?

Yeah I bet. So how long did it all take? How long were you guys out there in LA?

It was ten or twelve days basically, eight days shooting. I don’t know, I think we made it. The video hasn’t been edited yet but I have seen the footage and I think there’s plenty of it. It’s not the same vibe as the other videos because we were moving around by foot in Paris and New York so you naturally have this moving around the city vibe. But this one will be just some different shots… I mean we went to the Pink Motel and got some pool footage so there’s a bit of everything in there. We’ll see how the edit turns out – it’s hard to say. It’s all Super-8 in colour.

Oh colour this time!

Yeah it’s all Super-8 in colour so it has this really flat grainy look. When I saw the footage for the first time I was like ‘whoa! That looks like ’87 right there!’ It was like such a flashback. It’ll look different to the other two and also it’s for the Jack Purcell so it has this kind of posh vibe around it. For me the image around the Jack Purcell has always been something a bit more higher end, a bit more high society. But going back to the video I mean you get the picture… I think it kind of says it all with the ads and whole vibe around it and what we are trying to create: not as ’87 but 2017 basically.

Roman Gonzalez, frontside wallride

David Stenstrรถm, backside boneless 77

C P

A R

S O

ainrofilaC

â&#x20AC;&#x2122;nimaerD Photography by Nils Svensson

O3EPO – Even In Siberia There Is Happiness Igor Fardin – Kickflip � Photo: Alexey Lapin www.carhartt-wip.com

Hermann

Stene

is the toughest guy I’ve ever met. The first time I ever saw him he was probably eight years-old and I remember he tried to nose grab off a picnic table, got fully credit-carded, cried for a little bit, climbed back up the table that was probably taller than him (at the time) and kept trying. He’s a bit of a weirdo, but the good kind of weird. He’s 100% skateboarding and has always been; he’s dedicated like no one else and you can tell he is doing this because he truly loves it. He never breaks his board, never complains about his setup and always tells us he’s fine, no matter how gruesome of a slam he just took.

Backside

5-0

grind,

Oslo.

Ph.

Simen

Fauske

Lars

Gartå

Løvås

Ph.

Pekka

they were willing to fly me down to the States just for that contest. I went there on a Thursday, skated on Friday, went back on Saturday and then pretty much went straight to Barcy for that Street League thing. Do you like skating in that format?

Yeah it’s so dope! Everyone is just so fired up and there’s always some gnarly tricks going down. What were the highlights for you at that contest? I have to say Dashawn Jordan’s fakie 3flip. That and the

Hardflip,

Oslo.

by Interview

Pekka Løvås: You just got flown out to Atlanta for that Bust or Bail contest. What was that like? Hermann Stene: I was so surprised when I got the email from the guys at Thrasher. It made me so stoked knowing that

Pires

pay was good enough. You have never had a full beer. Are you straight edge? Yeah, something like that I guess. I don’t know… I just hate the taste of alcohol! If I’m in Barcelona I’ll have a Damm Limòn if I’m being offered one. I also think some of the alcoholic ginger beers taste alright, but I’ve never been drunk or anything. Do you think you ever will be drunk? Yeah maybe. I feel like I have to try it once, just to see how it is. You went to the Bryggeriet School in Malmö. How was it? Did it affect your skating in any way? Going to Bryggeriet was amazing! I sucked at school, and had no motivation during class but I definitely became a better skater by going there. I didn’t

Alex

We’ve had some friendly and some not so friendly competitions over the years. We all still skate too, even though Jens (middle brother) moved to China about two years ago and hasn’t been back to visit since. He has the craziest trick selection, a lot of late flips and double laser flips and stuff! My oldest brother Dan probably has the best varial flips in the biz! I would love to have varial flips like him. What are your thoughts on energy drink sponsors? That’s a tough one! I don’t back energy drinks, but they pay well and make it easier to live off skating. Would you consider riding for an energy drink if the price were right? I’m not sure. I would have to think about it for a while, but I would probably do it if the

Ph.

guy who tried to grind the rail and slammed super hard. Do you like going on trips to the States? Yeah, I’ve been to SF a handful of times and it’s so sick… So many good spots! New York is dope as well. Those spots are more similar to the ones we skate here in Norway. What is the biggest difference about skating in the US and skating in Norway? The biggest difference is that the spots here are usually much rougher than the ones in the States. There’s so much concrete in the States and in Norway it’s mostly asphalt and cobble stones. I already feel like I’m blowing it in this interview! I always get so stressed when I’m trying to answer questions. You’re killing it Herm! You have all the same sponsors as Dennis Busenitz. Is he your favourite or is this just a coincidence? Yeah we pretty much share all the same sponsors. The only difference is that he’s on Thunder. Busenitz is fucking dope, but I wouldn’t call him my favourite skater. He’s sick though and I’m stoked to ride for pretty much all of the same brands as him. Have you ever skated with him? No, I’ve never skated with him. Hopefully I will some day! Your oldest brother pretty much has all the same sponsors as you too, right? When a package gets sent, how do you decide who gets what? Haha, yeah. Luckily we get separate packages since he lives in Oslo. How was it growing up with two older brothers who also skated? Was/is there friendly competition? Do they do any tricks you wish you could do? Yeah it was awesome.

Frontside

360

ollie,

London.

Ph.

Alex

Pires

Gartå

Pires

Lars

Alex

kickflip, Fakie Overleaf:

Real, are you bummed that your mom got a pro model before you? Hahaha! No, not at all! It’s so sick; I’m actually riding a Mamma’s board right now. How did that whole thing come about? I was wearing a Mamma’s Skate shop hat at Tampa AM last year and showed it to Jim (Thiebaud). I told him the whole story and he thought it was so rad that he told me he wanted to make her some boards to help get the word out about the shop. It took a couple of months but she now has them in stock and they are flying off the shelves! That is so cool. Has your mom always been down with skating? Yeah I guess so. I think she was a little sceptical at first because she didn’t really understand it. But after seeing that both my two older brothers and me really loved it she became really supportive. She would drive us (and everyone else who could fit in her car) around to contests and she even took some trips to Oslo just so we could skate all the spots we had seen on video. I am forever grateful for everything she

Oslo.

Ph.

Ph. London. kickflip, 180 Frontside

really skate much transition before I moved to Malmö, but after skating all those perfect bowls there I would say it helped me become a more well rounded skater. I also did my first kinked handrail in Malmö! Sick. Your mom recently started her own skate shop. How did that come about? Yes, Mamma’s skate shop. It’s the sickest! I don’t really know what gave her the idea, she just told me one day that she wanted to open up a small shop inside the indoor park here in Larvik. We quickly agreed on the name Mamma’s Skate shop, because we always used to call her ‘Mamma-skate’ when we were younger. After the name was settled she asked my brother and I which brands she should carry and a few weeks later the store was born. Which brands are being sold at Mamma’s? All the Deluxe brands, she has some Polar, some Welcome, Independent trucks. She has all the dope shit. Both Jessup and MOB grip, too. She recently got her own decks made by

Frontside

50-50

backside

360

out,

London.

Ph.

Alex

Pires

Pires Alex Ph. London. overcrooks, Backside

has done for us and for the whole skate scene in Larvik. You recently had a part for Real Skateboards. Does this mean that you’re fully on? No, that part was for those Mamma’s boards. I’m not officially on or anything. Stoked that they wanted me to film a part for them though! Have you ever had a ‘normal job’? Yeah, kinda. I worked out this thing where I would work at the kindergarten across the street instead of going to school, and I did that for about two months. It was Ok, but not really for me. So how do you get by? Do the paychecks you get from your sponsors cover your expenses? I’m still living at home with my parents, so I don’t have to worry about rent or anything. I used to pretty much live off of contest prize money, so I had to go to all these contests around Europe. Luckily adidas hooked me up with a contract a few years ago so I can be a little pickier with which contests I attend now. Yeah, about that… When will you move to Oslo? Don’t all your friends live there? Yeah I want to move there, at least for a year to see what it’s like. But I couldn’t afford it unless I get a job, and I don’t really feel like getting a job anytime soon. Hehe. You have a really good work ethic when it comes to skating though, with at least one and often two full parts every year for close to ten years now. Do you ever feel like taking a break? To me it doesn’t feel like I’m really working for anything and therefore I don’t feel like I need to take any breaks. We’re just out skating all the time, and when I’m in Oslo you (Pekka) always have your camera with you so it just happens naturally.

I think a lot of people got introduced to you through the Delta Charlie videos. Could you talk a little bit about those two DC parts? Yeah, when I first got asked to ride for DC and to have a part in Delta Charlie 2 I couldn’t believe it! DC was so big at the time, and it just felt unreal that they wanted me to be a part of that video. I got to travel a lot and skate so many dope spots that I had just seen in videos. I never liked the song they gave me, and looking back on it now I did a lot of wack shit in that part, but I am still very grateful that I got that opportunity. How did the switch

from DC to adidas go down? My friend kinda hooked it all up! I was riding for DC and nothing was happening, no more videos, no trips and I always got my shoes in the worst colour ways! I was talking to my friend who was working at the skate shop and he told me he knew the guy that was working with adidas Skateboarding in Norway and he said he’d put in a good word for me. I was offered a contract pretty soon after that, and it has been great. I’ve been on a couple of trips with adidas in the past few years and it’s been really good. You always seem to one-up yourself. If you do a big trick in one

Gartå Lars Ph. Oslo. grind, 50-50 Backside

part, you’ll often go back and do something even gnarlier at the same spot for your next part. Is that a conscious move? Yeah, in a way… If I do something down a big stair or a big rail I’ll get super stoked right then and there, but then over time I start to think of other tricks I that could probably do on the same spot and I often end up going back. People may not know, but you can skate ledges and mannys just as good as you can skate stairs and rails. Yet you still gravitate towards the gnarly stuff. Why is that? I try to get a little bit of both for every part, but it’s just something about the feeling you get from riding away from something big and scary. I feel good after I’ve filmed a line that I’m stoked on, but grinding a big rail or doing something down a big stair set is just a whole different feeling. It’s the best feeling in the world! Arthur (Derrien) told me that he thinks your skating has changed a lot since you started filming with me more. He told me that we remind him of the power-duo Tom Knox and Jake Harris. Do you agree? This may sound cheesy, but filming with you has probably been the best thing that has happened to me. You have so many ideas for me and you know me better than any other filmer, so it really feels like we’re working together. You have gotten me to do so many tricks that I would have never thought about even trying. You also tell me straight up if I have a plan that you don’t like, and I always trust your judgement. I think these last two parts (Firetre and Tigerstaden) have been my best parts by far. When I’m filming with someone else I don’t have the same motivation and it’s much harder for me to get clips that I’m stoked on. Like that thing

I tried to film for Thrasher in San Francisco... Yeah what is up with that? You went to SF for close to six months to film a Thrasher part and it never ended up coming out. I don’t know. I just wasn’t

stoked on any of the footage. I also never got my ender, and after a while I was just over it. The filmer (Redder) ended up just using most of the footage for a little Instagram thing and I think that was the right call. I didn’t have any plans to go back and finish it anyways.

What is the longest you have been out of skating? About four months. That was the worst four months of my life and I hope I never have to go through that again. That was while I was filming for that Thrasher part. I tried to bigflip

Pires Alex Ph. London. fakie, to tailslide Frontside

Wallenberg and tweaked my ankle really bad. You always huck yourself down the biggest stuff… Do you do anything to stay in shape? Not really, I just skate a lot. If I’m sore I’ll just skate through it. As long as I’m being active I feel like my body is good. If I get injured I just go to a doctor that works with skate related

injuries and do all the exercises he tells me to do. I also try to take an ice bath every now and then when I feel like I’m going to be really sore the next day. What do you do when you don’t skate? Not much, hehe. I’m pretty lazy when I don’t skate. The only time I’m not lazy is when I’m on my board. I just do the regular stuff: play Nintendo,

watch movies, go bowling and sleep. You are currently filming for a part to drop together with this interview. What is your plan after that? I don’t know. Just keep on skating a lot, hopefully get some footage for your new project and try to travel as much as possible!

YANNICK SCHALL, FS SMITHGRIND • PHOTO: DENNIS SCHOLZ

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Absurd

Words by Kirill Korobkov

The Absurd team has a wide range of experiences with skate trips to bizarre places but even for us Abkhazia was a serious challenge. We entered the country from Sochi (this famous Russian city pretty much borders Abkhazia) and spent a week there. The country’s native inhabitants are the Abkhazians. It’s a very traditional indigenous society that follows its own age-old traditions and rules with a low level of tolerance to new phenomena such as skateboarding. I am sure most of you have been to places where people are stoked on skating; well a lot of locals in Abkhazia felt the opposite way. A wooden board with four wheels is definitely not a type of activity a rational grown-up man is supposed to do over there. Actually all Abkhazian men’s favourite toy is a car and the more expensive car you have the cooler you are. The streets with no hard ground and ghetto looking residential areas with no running water are full of the latest premium German and Japanese cars. I got no reasonable explanation how this works and where the money for the cars comes from but the contrast between poverty around the country and spiralling amount of luxurious cars is one of the

Have you ever heard of Abkhazia? Do you know where that is? Is it a territory or a state? They call themselves the soulful country and claim independence, but actually it’s a de facto independent country on the coast of the Black Sea in between Russia and Georgia. On most international maps it is still part of Georgia but Georgia lost control of this region around 25 years ago. International isolation for a quarter of a century has put Abkhazia in a really weird position. Try to imagine a luxury resort with a really developed infrastructure, public spaces, art, great shopping malls, restaurants and the rest of the attributes of a beautiful life that suffered civil war and got abandoned. Beautiful subtropical nature is still there; the waters of the sea are warm and clean but almost everything that was created by humans has turned into wilderness. If your imagination works right it shouldn’t be hard to believe that skateboarding and Abkhazia don’t go together too well. First of all, there is almost nothing to skate…

with Russian citizenship as well. The whole country looks like a set to some movie about a great past that was forgotten after the filming was done. It was interesting to talk to the people who lived that great past. Older people remember the days when they used to get a lot of tourists and Soviet cruise ships in their cities. Here and there you can see evidence of that great past. The transition they went through in the last 30 years was really radical. Spot hunting in Abkhazia was challenging. Not all the streets have hard ground but if they have it finding a skateable obstacle is a whole different story. All the monuments are a no go for skating because of the people’s feelings and all the office buildings are a mad bust. We looked for spots in abandoned malls and hotels. We checked at least five different train stations. We broke into an airport terminal even though the sign on the window said that whoever enters the terminal would get shot. There is no way we would skate some of the spots from Abkhazia anywhere else but that was what made the trip special in its own way. We didn’t meet or hear of any local skaters during the whole stay. After eight days in Abkhazia we headed back to Russia. It felt like we flew to a different planet. Sochi with its big super markets, cinemas, bright street lights and night life looked to us like Los Angeles. Thinking about the experience we all agreed that you need to appreciate where you come from and the things your country has to offer because there are places that have way less. Abkhazia is a very unique place that got lost somewhere in time between hell and paradise. I wish the young country good luck and would like to say thanks to Pasha Kuznetsov, Vova Pavlov and Vadim Abramov for standing strong during the trip.

in Abkhazia

strongest images I have about Abkhazia. Now try to impress those people with a skateboard. Another strange local vibe is people’s feeling towards public property. Yes they had a civil war, there were casualties, the economy was destroyed and no doubt the country went through hard times but that was already 25 years ago. A lot of things could be restored, renovated and restarted in a quarter of a century but it seems like the locals just wait for someone to come and fix all the problems. They have great heritage from the Soviet Union that is mostly just falling apart. But as soon as you try to skate those things or even film or take photos Abkhazians tend to go mad and turn super protective about the ruins around. People don’t seem like they try hard to improve the life they live but they get angry when you document that. Abkhazia is around 200 kilometres long and we pretty much drove all over the country. The most developed provinces are located close to the Russian border because this is where the Russian tourists go for their vacations. The further you go towards Georgia, the wilder it gets. In the last big city before the Georgian border called Ochamchire we looked so out of the place that our delegation was followed by the local police or some kind of secret service the whole time we were there. Once we drove up the mountains to check out a lake and suddenly found ourselves in the middle of heavy snowfall. We were completely not ready for winter conditions in a subtropical zone and barely escaped unexpected captivity in snowdrifts. There are a lot of abandoned things in the world but Abkhazia has got some really exclusive ghostly places like an abandoned airport, a ship repair yard, many high-rise shopping malls and a train station. The situation with train stations is as gnarly as it can get. They have trains to Russia but not even one single station in the whole country works. All of them are closed or deserted. Abkhazians don’t like the word ‘abandoned’. They prefer to call those structures ‘inactive’ instead. Very many hotels, factories, gas stations and just regular houses have been inactive for 25 years and it looks like they will stay in this status forever. Abkhazia has an extraordinary drink called chacha. It’s a homemade brandy ranging between 40% to 70% alcohol. It is made of grape pomace and it is one of the heaviest liquors you can try. It tastes toxic and makes you drunk in no time. They sell it everywhere from markets to all the grocery stores and every owner says that he has the best chacha ever. One of those chacha experiments got four of us blacked out in one hour as if we’d never tried any alcohol before. The good thing was that the situation with food was the opposite. Local cuisine is really tasty and includes a wide range of products and flavours. They have some of the best soups and all the best meat barbeques. My personal favourite thing to try was dried date plum. Try to find that anywhere else! It was cheap to be in Abkhazia and that is another good thing about the place. There were six of us and we rented half of a house with a few rooms and a kitchen for a week for 100 Euros. A proper dinner in a nice restaurant with a couple dishes, loads of starters and wine costs around 6-10 Euros per person. You can get a good coffee for about 50 cents. They use Russian roubles as a currency and still have almost no ATMs. Citizens of Abkhazia have their own national passports but most of the people try to back it up

Photography by Alexey Lapin

Vova Pavlov blunt to fakie, Sukhumi

Pasha Kuznetsov backside tailslide, Sukhumi

Pasha Kuznetsov melanchollie

Pasha Kuznetsov crook bonk, Gagra

Lately I have been thinking a lot about the concept of star quality. That presence when someone walks into the room and without knowing the person you realise there is something special about him or her. The more thought I give it, the closer I come to the conclusion that it has to do with three things: humility, confidence and style. Someone who is humble does not have to seek the affirmation of others. They know their self worth and can listen to others with interest instead of doing everything they can to shine the light on themselves. Selfconfidence cannot be faked. It shows in the way one carries oneself, the body language if you will. Style is about being original and not a copycat. Fernando Bramsmark has an obvious aura of star quality. His humble style and confidence shines through in everything he does. We sat down with the darkest shining star in MalmĂś and got his story from Colombia to Sweden and further out into the world. This is Nando, a good guy with a bad nollie heel. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; John Dahlquist

Frontside kickflip, Terrassa

Keeping the fish

Fernando Bramsmark as told to John Dahlquist

Photography by Roger Ferrero

From Colombia to Malmö

the bowl

Everything started in Colombia where I was born in 1993. At the age of three I was adopted by my Swedish parents and got a new home in Malmö, Sweden. My brother, also from Colombia, and I were raised in Malmö and still live here. My brother was adopted a couple years before me, we are not biological brothers but we grew up together. We also have a sister in Sweden, but another family adopted her before my brother came to Sweden. My brother and sister are biological siblings. We all keep in contact still. It’s cool to have a spread out family. I’ve gone back to Colombia once to help my brother try and find his roots. It was 2008, I was 15 back then so I was still kind of young but I tried my best to support him during the things he went through on that journey. I was chilling a lot too at the same time; for me it was kind of a vacation. I would love to go back for more of that some day. Perhaps skating will take me, who knows? When I was adopted I knew Spanish but didn’t have anyone to talk it with when I came to Sweden so that language has sort of gotten lost since then. I still understand a lot of words but this fact would play an important role in a sketchy situation 20 years later when I was on tour in Argentina with Grant Taylor, Cory Kennedy and P-Stone. But let’s take it from the start and work things step by step.

Backside tailslide, Barcelona

Becoming Nando As a kid I was very energetic. My conclusion is that I found a good home with two very mellow parents who always supported me. They have always told me that I can decide what I want to do but that I have to respect other people. That was their most important message to me when I was growing up. I started skating when I was around 11 years old. My dad would take me to the skate park, Bryggeriet, everyday after school. That’s where I learnt about skateboarding and for the longest

time that was all I skated. I would skate the park all year around. There were no other skaters in my neighbourhood so I wouldn’t really go street skating. Little did I know that Bryggeriet was going to become my actual school many years later. The only time I would skate ‘street’ in the beginning was in the evenings during the commercial breaks of the Simpsons and some other shows on TV. My dad and I would skate street then. My dad wouldn’t skate but he would run next to me making sure I didn’t fall. That became a daily routine, blow off some steam before it was time for bed. My parents always supported me and they’ve always understood me. We’re not genetically equal but we have a lot in common and have always gotten along well. They are a little bit older, born in the fifties. They are both 67. They have another outlook on things in general I would say, but they have always focused on enjoying the things they do and no matter what I have gotten into they’ve always been down to support it. As a kid I would get into all kinds of things like sports and hobbies only to leave it three weeks later or after two months. Sometimes I’ve come back to things after one or two years. But skateboarding stuck from the get-go because I didn’t have to listen to anyone and I could do whatever I wanted on my board. My parents know I’m flexible with things and I think that has rubbed off onto them as well. My dad is the kind of person that gets to things straight away. As for me I might chill with stuff a couple of days or weeks before I get to it. I’ve always been like that; I’m not that structured. They’ve never told me what to do but focused on things that made me feel well. My mom always told me ‘take everything day by day and that the future is in front of you, so take good care of it.’ I think that has rubbed off on me too. They’re good words to live by.

Later on Bryggeriet became my high school. It suited me well since I was already a local in the environment. Since I have some problems with concentration and dyslexia I haven’t always been so good at school. But when I got the chance to start at a school with skateboarding I got more motivated. Before that I never took school seriously, I always went to school but I hardly ever did my homework and that was fine with my parents. In high school I could use the breaks to skate and then take care of classes. In a way it was the same thing as when I was little, instead of skating at the commercial breaks during the Simpsons I would skate during recess! It got me better at skating and I got my high school diploma that I promised my mom. I still keep my diploma and grades at home. From what I understand it’s good to have if you want to apply for other jobs in the future. They might come in handy one day. During high school I started to travel more and got hooked up in a way that led me out in the world. Right after graduation I took off and have been travelling as much as I could ever since.

Frontside blunt, Barcelona

From Malmö to the world

360 kickflip, Barcelona

The fish market As a person and skater, I am very spontaneous. I don’t plan much. I try to take things as they come. I guess that’s why school was hard at times too. When it comes to tricks I’ll feel things out and maybe try something a couple of times. Even if I’m close I might go onto doing something else if I’m not feeling it. I’ll just try something else at another obstacle or spot. Sometimes it’s a make and sometimes it’s not: I just go with my feelings. I try to be more on point and planned

when I film something with somebody. Sometimes I have tricks in mind and spots I want to skate, but it doesn’t happen that often. I’d be lying if I said that I’d planned tricks more than six times in my life! Since I like to skate everything I guess I’ve learnt to do a lot of different tricks, but I don’t think I’ll ever learn how to do good nollie heels on flat. I’m talking nollie heel here, not nollie rocket heel. When I do them it looks like I’m going straight to nose manual. They’re a disaster most of the time! If I could only do one trick for the rest of my life I think I would have to go with the stalefish. As a youngster I learned how to tweak a stalefish before learning how to do good ollies on flat. I got to keep that fish in the bowl!

I get my influences from all over the place. If I had to single out a few favourites I would have to say Grant Taylor first. We’ve been on trips together. He is so rad and fluent and isn’t defined by a certain style. He flows like water, flies high and has the quickest feet too. It’s like he is built to skate. Heavy Maka skater, full rev! I like Ben Raybourn too. I like his personality and he doesn’t seem to take skateboarding too seriously from what I understand. He just likes to skate. It’s as simple as that. I have to add Lucas Puig too. His style and his tricks on ledges are amazing and so energetic. And he has a good nollie heel! The list can go on forever but I have to throw Jacopo Carozzi in there too. Every time I see him he comes up with new tricks that I didn’t know he could do. He does the gorilla grip where he grabs the board by his toes. He’s just gnarly, let’s put it that way! Last, but not least I have to say, Andrew Reynolds, the Boss. He seems to have a positive outlook on skating and the whole industry. The level and skill he has at such an age is really inspiring to me. To sum things up I like the ones who keep it classic. Even if I like the classic styles the best I think it’s cool with new trends too… It pushes skateboarding forward. As long as you do it because you want to and don’t care what others think, then it’s cool! With all the clothing trends and social media I think some do it to get attention and to feel good about them selves. I’ve never really been into getting attention. I don’t really thrive on the attention of others. I respect that some need to get affirmation from their peers. I don’t mind, it’s just not for me.

Ollie, Malmö. Ph. Alexander Olivera

Gone fishing

Skating with Beyoncé I’ve been fortunate enough to travel the world; that’s the best part of my life. I can’t say I’ve seen the whole world, but I’ve been to North and South

America, Africa, Oceania, and Europe. There are still a lot of countries I am yet to go to on these continents. I think the outlook on skating differs in different places. In Europe it’s so obvious: you have your Spanish ledge skater that kills it with the flat tricks or flip in, flip out from stuff, the British skating cool crusty grey old spots, bowl skaters from Sweden and so on. I like that. I think it shows in my skating that I am from Malmö. The bowl scene here was the thing that got me good at skating bowls and later the opportunity to travel and skate. Malmö in general has created a lot of opportunities for me and other people. There have been big competitions and that has given me a chance to try competing and of course also hang out with some of the best skaters out there. There are good street spots here too and Copenhagen it’s not too far away. If you think about it, Malmö is way better than it’s supposed to be. Most of the year it’s dark and cold; the weather really sucks. We have about five months of outdoor skating. Still all these good skaters come from here, to this dark place that is Sweden. But there is a lot of cool stuff going on here too. Sweden’s a mellow country, it has a well-structured society and there are loads of good people. I like to compare it to music: imagine that you are into music and all these great musicians come through your town. One week it’s Beyoncé you see and then the next week it’s someone else. It’s almost like there’s always somebody visiting the city or moving in. I’ve been fortunate enough to hang with a lot of different people, sometimes even without leaving my hometown. That has showed me things I would never see otherwise. I think the fact that I’ve gotten to experience all the things I have through Malmö has motivated me to do more and get out in the world to see more, meet new people and so on.

Crews that cruise

Bean Plant, Girona

At first I started to travel in Sweden to compete with friends. I used to like that a lot. I never cared so much about how I placed but I always enjoyed the organised chaos at comps. I enjoy when there are loads of people in a small area trying to find lines and zig zagging between people. I like that hectic atmosphere. I’ve had a lot of injuries so I’ve toned that down a little bit. I tend to slam a lot and sometimes run into people and that hurts. Now I travel mostly to get away from the bad weather we have in Sweden. I like to go places where I can experience different cultures. Swedes are usually pretty quiet so it’s nice to have a change. I’m not that picky: if my company is good I’ll go anywhere. Lately I’ve been travelling a lot with Jarne Verbruggen, Jacopo Carozzi, Oski Rozenberg and P-Stone. P-Stone has been in the game for a long time from what I understand. We’re a lot alike: he’s all ‘no worries’, no stress. He’s just out to always have good times on trips. He really cares about everyone having a good time. Those are some of the best qualities you can look for in a travel companion. A friend like that on trips is the best. He is one of my better travel friends for sure.

The boy who cried wolf I have been on a lot of crazy trips. Last time in Argentina we went skating outside of Buenos Aires. I was with a big group including P-Stone, GT, Cory Kennedy, Jake Phelps, Peter Hewitt, Pat Mclain, Mark Hubbard, Raven Tershy and Diego Bucchieri. P-Stone kept telling us to watch out for shady

people. Nothing happened but he kept going on about keeping our heads up and being careful. It became a sort of ‘the Boy who Cried Wolf’ story. Nothing ever happened and P-Stone’s nagging became a bit old. But sure enough, driving back into town we got pulled over by two cops on motorbikes. One older guy and one younger cop came to the car and started speaking in Spanish. They singled me out and brought me out of the car first to check my passport, I was not even driving the car. They kept speaking Spanish but I had no chance of understanding them. As I said before, I probably understand a thing here and there but right there and then I was totally lost. I should have kept up with my Spanish from Colombia! After a while we understood that they were considering taking us to jail. We had no clue for what and it turns out they wanted a bribe. Forty dollars later we were on our way. It was just such a trip that it was cops and not street hustlers that got us in trouble. My take on it is that the older cop was teaching the younger one how to make some extra money. Damn street rules! Later that night we barbequed on the street outside of the apartments we were staying in and hung out with a guy I got sketchy vibes from. When he left us for the night I realised that somehow he got a hold of my wallet. I still have no idea how he did it. He must have pick-pocketed me because it was only back at the apartment I realised I got robbed. I was so bummed until I realised I had put my money and cards in my sock. I came to this understanding because my leg started to itch, probably because of the cards. The guy got nothing but an empty wallet. I thank P-Stone for that. Apparently I listened to him and stashed my stuff in a safe place. He was wrong the whole trip but the last night it turns out he was probably right the whole time. Or at least two times in a day.

Nowadays I try to take care of my body the best I can. I’ve had a bad ankle for a long time now. Thankfully Nike has a guy in Copenhagen that helps me out with my ankle. Last year was a nightmare. Pretty much all of my right side was weak. I had problems with my shoulder, groin, knee and ankle on that side. I think I slammed too much on one side in a short time, that’s why I didn’t skate too much last year. It was very annoying, to say the least. There is a good guy in Malmö, Anders Nilsson, who helps a lot of skaters. He’s good ‘cause he always finds a way to make things better and he’s super down to help skaters; he’s stoked on what we are doing. Anyone who skates with me knows I take slams pretty hard from time to time. Sometimes I land good things and sometimes I just end up in a pile. To be able to survive both I try to keep fit on a regular basis. I never go to the gym but I work out with my body weight. I just do basic stuff like balance training for my ankle, the plank and stuff like that to get a strong core and good balance. I swim sometimes too. I also do some stretching. It’s exaggerating to call it yoga, it’s more like yoga moves for stretching out my body. Anders taught me the benefits of stretching and keeping your body soft. It’s important and makes you feel a lot lighter I think.

Frontside air, Arenys de Munt

Not to worry, not to slam

Impossibles and nollie heels

I don’t get really angry that often but one thing that really bothers me is people who say things are impossible – it’s just a bad mind-set that will never lead you forward. The thing that gets me really Fifty years ago they stoked is to skate with a hyped up said it was impossible to place group. I need a good crowd and a all the people in the world in the good vibe. It doesn’t have to be Grand Canyon. Today we know the best skaters but I like to be it’s possible to fit everyone and around people who hype things up then some more. People who see and some good music too. That problems and not opportunities might be the most important can get me irritated from time part… I’ve always been into music to time. I mean like, if you are and matching music with moods. flexible with people and things, I have done a lot of other sports life gets easier to live and your before like golf, tennis, karate, mind will be more prepared for gymnastics and swimming. new things and accept stuff Needless to say: it’s hard to listen without making it too hard for to music while doing karate or you to go through life. swimming. Therefore skating Right now I just want to suits me well. Just crank up a get my ankle into skate mode good tune; I love that. A good tune again, get my body fully into and a couple of slams of course shape and l then I’ll learn proper – then I’m good to go! nollie heels!

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INTRODUCING THE WINO G6 • G6 POLYURETHANE HIGH PERFORMANCE INSOLE • DOUBLE WRAPPED VULCANIZED CONSTRUCTION • NEWLY DEVELOPED “HEEL ANCHOR” SYSTEM