F R E E 03
N OV DEC 2 015
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QUATTRO
S U P R A S K AT E B O A R D I N G .C O M
Nike Skateboarding presents the third film in the SB Chronicles series.
Featuring
Trevor C olden Karsten Kleppan Omar S alazar L a nc e Mou nt a i n
Eric Koston Kev in Brad ley Brian A nderson C ory Kennedy
NIKESB.COM
#CHRONICLES 3
Cover: Amandus Mortensen 360 flip Malmö Ph. Daniel Bernstål
Contents: Joni Kiiskilä Ollie Vantaa, Finland Ph. Samu Karvonen
De Wit Slater Kleppan Sacrosanct Baines Horowitz Vijverberg Frölich Karvonen
16 26 32 44 56 64 78 86 98 110
ago? And did you read about the guy who slammed really hard, ruptured his appendix and almost died? If you haven’t guessed by now, this is our first unofficial interview issue. I say ‘unofficial’ because an interview issue wasn’t exactly mapped out in our editorial meetings, but after certain skaters and photographers exceeded our expectations with their efforts (they put in work!) it gave us a chance to chat You hear my voice more clear, intact to a few extra skaters this time around. And honestly, Peep the lyrics, trap my secrets these interviews were pretty enlightening: Mark Frölich ill like the film called Akira explained his motivation for chucking himself down huge Questions, answers, brothers payin’ dues gaps and rails for little to no financial gain, Sebastiaan MCs recognise, yo, we endin’ this interview. Vijverberg told us how he’s used his bad experiences with team managers to become the opposite kind of I’ve interviewed a lot of talented skateboarders in my time as a ‘skateboard journalist’ (or whatever you want team manager himself, we got deep with South African Yann Horowitz and his tale of a horrifying near death to call it) and quite often have had my assumptions experience in Cape Town… But there were also moments completely challenged… Sometimes your favourite skateboarder who has the best photos in the magazine of real levity, like in our Louis Slater piece where he reveals some of Sex Skateboards’ secrets… just has nothing really interesting to say. Maybe the The point being that the interview can reveal focus he needed to perform those spectacular feats so much more than the filtered access we normally get just left no room for anything else? And then other through social media. So in the following pages take times an interview might surprise you: ‘so and so’ a look at the questions for and answers from these might not be the most well known skater, but did you hear how he saved that guy’s life? And how did he come talented skateboarders that have been payin’ their dues. (Will Harmon) back from that psychological breakdown a few years As I sat at my desk thinking about how best to write issue three’s editorial piece, a song by nineties hip hop duo ‘The Artifacts’ kept going through my head like a soundtrack to my writer’s block. The song is called ‘The Interview’ so I played it to provide some inspiration. Check the last verse:
Editor in Chief Will Harmon
Photo Editor
Sam Ashley
Online Editor
Arthur Derrien
Graphic Design
Ben Weaver & Seb Howell
Visual Intervention James Jarvis
Free is published six times a year by FSM Publishing Limited Printed in the UK freeskatemag.com @freeskatemag freeskatemag@gmail.com
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Last winter I spent two months working on the construction of a concrete skatepark in a town next to Rotterdam. The site that was provided for the park is part of a bridge and is basically a mellow 100-yard long downward slope. Logically, you don’t have to push when you skate there. You swerve and powerslide in order to get to the obstacles you want to hit and when you’ve made your way down you walk back up because unfortunately there was no budget for a ski lift. Besides this obvious flaw the park is pretty much a real life EA skate location and, much like the game itself, a place where one’s imagination has no trouble taking off on its own. Unlike the game, the park offers the option of an immediate reality check. On the opening day Robbin De Wit was there and looked like he was playing EA Skate in real life. He’s been doing the same thing on street spots left and right, as you will see on the following pages.
Hey Robbin, you just got back from skating?
Yes, in Rotterdam. Last days of filming before Bombaklats?
Yeah, I think so. I think it’s getting put up on the website around the time this issue comes out. Did you get anything today?
Nothing today, but I did yesterday. Are you satisfied with what you have filmed so far?
Yes, I am actually. A lot of my footage is pretty old already, but I’m happy with what I have. I’m going to be sharing a part with Alexander Belhadji, which is cool because we grew up skating together. He told me that when he was in Antwerp for the Spot The Spot event. We talked about you for a while. You were skating flat by yourself when he saw you the first time.
That is true. My father moved to Oudewater, the village where Alex is from, and I was there trying to learn kickflips on the flat bottom of the local mini ramp. The mini ramp stood in the middle of a grass field, so I didn’t really have another option. Alex and his brother passed by and said ‘hi’ and we’re still skating together now, more than ten years later. Good that he came up and said hello. He also said he was still better than you at that point, but that it changed really fast afterwards.
(Robbin Laughs) Did you feel like you learned quickly?
Me? I don’t know. Sometimes it would come easy and sometimes it wouldn’t.
When I see you skating it looks pretty easy, some people have that. I always wonder if they spend more time being satisfied and less time being frustrated than the rest of us.
A good portion of the time I spend skating I’m having a pretty good time. When I get frustrated it’s usually when something that I know I can do suddenly won’t work anymore.
Once you were all a little older you started going to Rotterdam to skate?
I’m originally from Haastrecht, which is ten minutes away from where Alex is from and next to Gouda. It’s a twenty-minute train ride to Rotterdam from there. We’re actually right in the middle between Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. It was always very easy to get to each of those cities. We would go to Utrecht a lot at first, to skate The Yard. Do you remember that spot?
Yes, with the stelcon panels and the water gaps. I never skated there but I know people have been trying to get something going there again. The city won’t have it though, because the site is too dangerous.
That sucks. That was probably the funnest spot I ever skated. It was perfect. Max Hartveld, one of the guys behind that project (trying to get The Yard back) is from Gouda as well, he was always around skating when we were younger, too. It seems like all of you are still pretty active.
Frontside nosebluntslide in Sicily. Ph. Hendrik Herzmann
Yeah, I guess so. Some of us quit skating of course, but most are still around doing something in skateboarding. Who do you usually skate with nowadays?
Alex, of course. I skate a lot with Robin Pedro as well. Most of the Bombaklats guys actually. Are you only skating at the moment or are you studying or working on the side?
I work at Hardcore Supplies, a Dutch distributor, in the warehouse. Fulltime?
I worked fulltime when I started, but wanted to have a bit more time to skate so I’m doing three or four days a week, now. It’s cool. I can skate and go on a trip whenever something comes up. Who do you skate for?
I skate for Lakai, Seven Ply Skatestore, Bones, Thunder and Almost.
You’ve been on Lakai for a while, right?
Yes, I skated for Girl for a long time as well, but I just got on Almost a month and a half ago. Why the change?
It was an honour to skate for a brand like Girl, but I didn’t feel like I was ever going to get anywhere with them. I went to the States, visited the guys at Crailtap, too, but it just never went anywhere. Was that a goal of yours going there?
Yeah, off course. I wanted to go there to see everything and skate, but I wanted to know if maybe there was a chance of moving up a little bit. I did enjoy the experience, though, obviously. I stayed at Sewa’s house for two weeks. We didn’t get to skate a lot of street because the schools are only closed on the weekends, but when we did it was nice. I got to see Hollywood High and a bunch of other famous spots. Did the skating itself work out over there?
It was difficult for me. Even in the skateparks. I had the feeling that everybody was looking at me a lot of the time. Not that I stood out a lot from the average skater there, because everybody there is really good, the overall level is crazy, but I constantly felt scrutinised. Do you think that was really the case or was it just you thinking that?
Well, I felt that way. The guy I was with had the same feeling, but it didn’t bother him as much. I don’t really skate well when I’m not at ease; I just end up taking it easy and not really trying anything. The second time I went to California was for the Element Make It Count contest.
Nollie 180 switch crooked grind. Ph. Marcel Veldman
How does it look?
Well, big. Would you skate it?
Never, it’s enormous. We went to Visalia skate camp as well - in the middle of the woods. The actual contest was in The Berrics. How was that?
It was nice; I liked it. I’d been there already before, with Sewa. I was extremely nervous during the contest, though. All these pros were there and everybody skating was ridiculously good, unbelievable. Did you skate well?
Switch frontside tailslide in The Hague. Ph. Hendrik Herzmann
I broke my board during my run so it was a bit silly. Ended up skating on someone else’s board. I was happy to be there, though. It was sick. I’m not the biggest fan of what The Berrics produces but I’d sure like to skate the park.
I’d like to briefly return to why I quit skating for Girl and went to Almost. Go for it.
I just didn’t feel like there was any future in it. Did you talk to anybody at Girl about that?
You won that?
I didn’t enter the contest in Holland, but I won the wild card with an Instagram clip with park footage. I had already put the clip online before, so I just added the hashtag. I had completely forgotten about it but then they called me to go to the European finals in Lisbon. Nice surprise.
Then in Lisbon I didn’t win the contest but they gave out one more wild card and I ended up getting that one. So I got to go spend a week in California again. We went to Venice beach the first day, and we visited El Toro. Were they trying to get people to skate it?
We just looked at it; it was on the way. Nobody skated it.
We talked about it a little bit, more with the guys at Lakai; I was a bit more involved with them. I still skate for them, they’ve always been really good to me. We’ve lost touch a little bit, though, recently, as Mathieu Tourneur, who was taking care of things in Europe quit and went to Nike, and then Kelly Bird, who I was in touch with afterwards, left as well. I don’t really know whom to e-mail anymore right now. It’s a bit of a bummer, building up a relationship, getting a connection with people and then losing that. I’m sure for those guys it was a good choice, or else they wouldn’t have done it otherwise. They really helped me out before. So how did you end up with Almost?
I had been yearning to skate for Dwindle for a while already.
It looks like everybody around Bombaklats is really motivated and there’s a good vibe between all of you. Why?
They’re more involved in European skateboarding. They support a lot of riders in Europe. They do Cliché and then almost every other one of their brands has a European pro. There’s Youness on Almost, Wieger on Enjoi and Sewa on Blind. I had met Scott Howes at Sewa’s pro party and then saw him again in Berlin a year later and quite abruptly asked him if I could send him some footage. It was a bit unlike me to do that but he was happy that I asked and I ended up getting boards from Almost. It’s only been a month and a half now, so it’s all still pretty fresh. I’m really psyched.
Sami and Sneep hype everybody up all the time. They got motivation enough to pass around. They’re actually really happy themselves when somebody lands a trick, so you feel like you’re doing something together, and that is a beautiful feeling. As individual an activity skateboarding is, it’s not quite the same when you’re by yourself.
It’s fun for an hour or so. You skate the whole time, it’s sick, but after a while you’re done.
What are your plans now?
Backside overcrooks in Sicily. Ph. Hendrik Herzmann
We’re going to finish the Bombaklats video first; I’m focused on that right now. I’ll see what happens afterwards, I might try to do something for Almost.
Backside nosebluntslide in Copenhagen. Ph. Mathijs Tromp
photo: kevin o’ dell
Shake
your
Interview by Will Harmon
money
maker Photography by Sam Ashley
immersed in that scene began an almost decade long obsession with travelling to Orange County/Los Angeles. “Ah well that was it, I was hooked on it; I just wanted to be in America constantly. So for years and years I used to go there, I went for two months and then was like: ‘How long can I possibly stay here?’ and it’s like a 90 day visa so I used to come home, I’d take stickers off of everyone, because everyone was sponsored...” Louis would then return to the UK with a shoebox full of stickers and turn it into five hundred quid or a grand, so just like he did when in school, he saw a gap in the market and used it to get from point A to point B. Perhaps it’s this ability to see an open market that has led to the success of Sex? Surely this is a perfect example of giving the people what they want. But Sex would have been unlikely to flourish without Slugger, a distribution company started by Louis and Martin Kennelly. Back in 2008 Louis was staying with Erik Ellington who was in the process of starting up Deathwish with the Baker crew. Martin suggested that Louis should ask Erik if they could distribute Deathwish in the UK. Erik didn’t take the question seriously at first, but after a couple months of Louis helping in the new warehouse and demonstrating his work ethic Erik decided that Slugger would distribute Baker and Deathwish in the UK. The distribution started at Louis’ terraced house in Chesterfield - they kept the boards in the attic, then eventually Slugger got a warehouse and a brick and mortar shop in Sheffield. Slugger distribution continued to grow and now the latest brand to come on board is Sex Skateboards - which brings us back to the topic at hand… Those now infamous drawings of sex lips, fannies and willies that have seen the Sex first began to entertain us with pictures of girls in Instagram account grow to 14.3 thousand followers (a white knickers raunchily customised by Louis Slater. number greater than many well established UK skate And we had plenty more questions for the Slugger brands) in under five months. The rest of the interview co-owner when we interviewed him in Sheffield this with Louis was so entertaining that we decided to just past September - like for instance how did he turn a proclivity for drawing penises into a side-project? What put it down verbatim, enjoy the ride: will be next for Sex Skateboards? And also does the brand attract creepers? After looking through some fan mail stored in the back of the Slugger warehouse we can say ‘yes’. We had all our queries answered with typical northern wit by the lad who’s ingenuity had him running a black market in sweets while in school to fund his initial skate trip to California back in the late nineties. The first time Louis travelled to Cali he was alone and just 16, and was ostensibly going to stay with Liverpudlian Brian Sumner. As it turned out Louis found himself couch-surfing around the corner from Sumner’s place, at the infamous Warner Ave apartments, the residence of such greats as Erik Ellington, Mike Maldonado, Elissa Steamer, Shane Heyl, Scotty Copalman and others at that time. Being “Ok so how do you know all these girls from the Instagram account and how do you get them to pose half naked?” This was a question that had us perplexed over at Free since the @sexskateboards Instagram feed
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Will: Ok so how do you know all these girls from the Instagram account and how do you get them to pose half naked? I don’t convince anybody - everybody does what he or she wants to do with their own free will. Girls like to wear pants (UK slang for underwear) and take photos of themselves. And I think it’s great yeah…
Will: And do you know these people or are they just submissions? Do people just send them to you? Nah, I know some of them. And I obviously don’t know some of them, because some of them are in different countries that I’ve never even met before. But it’s like an Instagram community, that’s how people start to know each other.
2
Will: So Louis, to the big question at hand, how did Sex Skateboards get started?
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Right let me think… I always liked to paint on skateboards pretty much… My first ever skateboard was a Danny Way Plan B and when the graphics wore off I painted over it then I turned it into a Louis Slater Plan B pro model. I painted that when I first started, probably like in ‘92 or whatever. Yeah and then ‘cause I got all these blanks and I’ve been printing boards for shops and stuff like that, I was just like ‘ah I want to start painting on decks’ so I just started doing that and then I think I did some rude ones, or whatever like cartoons, shit like fannys or whatever, you know what I mean?
Will: (Laughs) Yes… And then it just evolved into ‘sex skateboards’. It’s as simple as that.
Will: And your boards have become pretty popular (Lizard King was riding one in a recent Supra ad) - is each one that you make unique? Yeah every single one is hand-sprayed - some might look the same, but it can never be the same because I’ve spray painted it – there’s no stencil or nothing, it’s just spray paint and paint pens.
Sam: Yeah but how did you get the initial one? How did it begin? How did it begin? Because I’m obsessed
Sam Ashley: Do you think there will come a point where with Instagram and I’m always on it. It’s just like that’s the stuff that I look at and I you will have to teach Martin the hand style? Yep actually I’m training Dead Dave up… (Laughs) He’s been writing ‘sex’ a lot - yeah I’m just like Damien Hirst, he doesn’t do his own paintings any more… Yeah it’s getting deep.
think it’s amazing…
Sam: But you must have approached someone in the beginning saying: ‘Do you want to do this?’ No, well it’s like a domino effect innit? Well one girl wears ‘sex pants’ and I post it. And
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Flip Back — Photo : Alexandre Pires
Will: And do the girls send you some photos that are too risqué? That you can’t even put on Instagram?
Sam: So they’re actually buying it?
There is no team.
Nah, they’re all professional. They know I’m not going to post it if it’s too gnarly, and they need that exposure… They need the likes.
Sam: So you’re not, like sending these girls little packages of pants?
Will: And so, with your Instagram, it’s a private Instagram right? But it didn’t used to be private...
Well, yeah I have done that yeah. I’ve done that and I’ve sold some.
Oh yeah it’s private now yeah… I just turned it private just to stop like, I don’t know… I figure if someone wants to go on it, then I’ll let them go on it.
Yeah.
Sam: So they’re not on the team?
Will: But do the girls try to send you, like ‘sponsor me’ tapes… like: ‘Let me get on, let me get this free stuff!’ Well yeah actually yeah, some girls are like: “Aw, what do I do to get sex pants?” And I’m like: “Well there’s a link in the thingy, buy some if you want some.” Then if they’re really beautiful, I’m like: “Nah you can have a free pair.” You know how it works…
Will: Yeah, and then what about the skateboarding element? Do you hook any skateboarders up with the boards?
Sam: Has he sent you some pictures in his pants? No he’s not, no. (Laughs)
Will: And then… All right then, that’s like most of the questions that I have about Sex, but it seems like there’s so much more… Sam: (Sam snickers) So what do you want to know Will? Yeah, fire it at me.
Ah yeah, people send me mail with like, loads of drawings and stuff and I send them free stickers.
Sam: Are there any like creepy dudes writing? Creepy dudes? Yeah you get weird comments and stuff, but yeah I don’t know (laughs)… I’ll have a look, one sec…
(Louis leaves the room to go get the Sex mailbox) Look at this: (holds up a piece of mail) it says: “envelope sealed with fanny juice.” Is that creepy? I don’t know.
Sam: What the hell? (Laughs) And what’s this? (Louis picks out another letter and reads it aloud) “Can I have extra sticky goods for my mate Farrah?”
Will: Cool. Well you’ve done well, (laughs) especially in the Instagram world. Sam: It’s like an exclusive club… Will: Sex club… I guess if it weren’t private then it wouldn’t be exclusive… Got to make ‘em feel special. You follow me don’t you? (Points at Sam) And you follow me don’t you? (Points at Will, and they both nod.) Cool, sweet, you’re in the club. I’ll get you a sticker now.
Will: (Laughs) Yeah definitely… I think it’s the best… Well it’s my favourite new Instagram. I can’t wait to see what’s out. Sam: Have you ever considered a little selfie action on it? Give the ladies what they really want though? Get in some sexy speedos or something? Pants? No... No. (everyone laughs)
Will: Yeah so what do you have planned down the line, I mean it’s so new… I just want to make nice clothes really, that’s the main thing now. Make some nice clothes, keep painting more boards…. Erm yeah… Just keep doing it.
0
Will: Uhhh…. Sam: I saw the Sex mailbox… What’s the deal with that?
Yeah, but I’ll block people if they’re like, dickheads. You know what I mean? Can’t be arsed with negative people.
3
I don’t know if you’ve heard of a guy called Reuben from London? I sent him some boards. Yeah Dave went on a trip with him, and said like “yeah he’s a little bastard”, you know like a little punk kid or whatever. I’ve never met him or even seen him skate. And I’d rather that then someone who can skate really well…
Will: So you let almost everyone on?
For more Sex follow @sexskateboards on Instagram or go to sexskateboards.com
then it’s like another girl just sends you one…
Portrait by Sam Ashley
I remember Benny Fairfax once saying that quitting a sponsor was like breaking up with five different girlfriends at the same time. That’s a lot of broken hearts Karsten Kleppan must have had on his conscience when he made the switch from Lakai to Nike and from Element Europe to Skate Mental. On top of that, last year’s separations were accompanied by one major life-altering event: his inclusion in Nike SB’s Chronicles 3. The stability he had with his previous girlfriends (taking Benny’s metaphor way too far now) was suddenly thrown out the window and replaced by a life on the road with his idols. If you went from spending your winters working at the indoor park in Oslo to going on filming missions with
Eric Koston, you’d feel the heat. It takes a very special type of person to embrace that much change, but as soon as I saw Karsten pop up on my screen with a massive grin on his face and a dog in his arms, I knew he’d enjoyed every bit of the ride.
Awww look at this little guy!
Does everything that goes into your
So many dogs here dude it’s sick. I’m at Scuba’s part have to be filmed by an official Nike filmer or can you film stuff for it house. Where’s that?
with other people?
North Hollywood. It’s so hot right now...
They don’t have to be a Nike filmer, but the definitely need to have the right gear and filming skills. Hehe…
Deadline mode. When is the actual deadline?
Well Jason (Hernandez) has stopped filming to work on the editing but there’s another filmer (Grant Yansura) we can still get some final bits with. It’s basically the very last two weeks of filming. I bet everyone is feeling the pressure.
Oh yeah definitely. We’re all freaking out a little but that’s how it always is... How intense is it? Do you have to be out trying stuff all day every day?
No not at all, I get to chill quite a bit. We just came back from a Chronicles trip in China so these last couple of days I’ve just been hanging out by the pool. Has everyone managed to come through with a full part?
There is gonna be some shared parts and some full parts. Looks like it’s gonna be pretty sick though!
So do you have any Oslo footage then?
I have some, but I wish I had more. We did one trip to Oslo with the whole crew and then Niki Waltl came for a week. But that’s all the time
New York City Ph. Zach Malfa-Kowalski
Well we’re trying to wrap up this Chronicles video so I’m out here trying to get the last few tricks for it.
Backside nosegrind
Lucky you. London’s pretty grim at the moment. What are you doing at Scuba’s house?
I’ve had to film in Oslo.
Had you figured out you were going to be in the video by that point?
So most of your footage is from the US and trips you went on?
It’s still me skating. So I’m not too worried about that. It would be cool to have some more time at home, but we went to some pretty rad places with incredible spots so I’m not complaining.
I think I was so excited to be on a skate trip with guys like Koston and BA that at first I didn’t really consider it a possibility. Plus I’d just got on so I didn’t think it would happen. But after a while I realised that I’d actually filmed with quite a lot with Jason and thought: “hey if I do really good on this trip maybe I’ll have the opportunity to be in the video”. That’s when it started getting scary...
At what point did Nike decide to involve you in this project?
That’s when you fucking went for it haha.
Yep. Are you worried that footage filmed in those locations doesn’t represent your skating as accurately?
Switch kickflip Barcelona
Ph. Fabien Ponsero
I think they were always looking for a European to be in the video, so about a year ago when I first got on Nike they invited me to spend a few days with the US team in Berlin. I guess they must have liked me that time or something because after that I got invited to go on another trip to the South of Spain (Malaga and Alicante).
That’s when I thought to myself: “dude, you’re gonna have to step it up if you want to make this happen”. And I really went as hard as I could. I gave everything I had on that trip. The problem is once you’ve gone for it like on that one trip you have to match that on the next one!
It’s crazy that all this started as soon as you got on Nike. How was the transition from Lakai to Nike? Were Lakai really bummed?
They where cool about it. Those things are always tough though, especially as I’d been getting Lakai’s for years... But there are no hard feelings. Looking back on it I could have maybe done it in a smoother way but that’s always how you feel about these things. I just got offered an opportunity and took it.
Plus I was stoked on Skate Mental and felt like trying something new. Again I think they understood, and I’m still really good friends with Madars, Phil, Jarne, Alex and all those guys. Plus you’d already left Lakai so you were probably thinking fuck it, might as well really switch things up.
Yeah, haha. Changing sponsors is always hard though; you can’t help but feel like you are ditching someone that’s really been helping you out. When are you going back to Oslo?
On the 15th, I’m stoked. I haven’t been back in ages.
What about the Skate Mental thing?
I was hanging out with Brad Staba on a Nike trip and he asked me. At the time I was on the Element Europe and I love those guys, they’re the reason I got this far in the first place (which made it tough) but I felt like the next step for me on that company was to be on the US team and I couldn’t really picture myself there. They’ve already got such a big team with so much going on I couldn’t see it going anywhere.
Riga, Latvia Ph. DVL
Frontside feeble grind transfer
Haha, yeah that’s kind of how it was but you just can’t go that hard on every single one... I had to be like “I need to chill or I’m going to get hurt”. So I mellowed out a little after that...
Frontside kickflip lipslide to fakie
Oslo Ph. Sam Ashley
Yeah of course, I miss it all the time. Then again I’m so lucky to be able to travel and skate all over the world that I don’t really think about it too much. Apart from when I check my snapchat and all my homies are chilling in a park, drinking beers and having a great time. But at the same time at least that’s a cool thing to come back to. I’m so used to travelling now that can’t really stay at home for more than two months without itching to go again. Plus I like the way I’m doing it now, going back and forth. Do you ever get the skateboard overdose syndrome from constantly being on the road with skaters?
I still do it every now and then when I’m back home... Is that where you spend all you time when you are back home during the winter then?
I spend a lot of time there but I also enjoy doing regular “winter stuff” like being in the mountains, skiing, snowboarding... Figuring out what to do in winter must have been such an important part of your youth.
Of course. If you don’t do that kind of thing you en up stuck inside for six months. You’ve got to get out there! October/November is when it starts getting dark; then December is when it starts snowing. That’s when it really sucks.
Of course I get over it sometimes, but it’s not like I’m always on a proper trip where I have to be on it everyday, because that can be a bit much. You can’t keep that up forever, you So what do most people do? have to take breaks from it. When I’m in L.A at Mainly just party... Or if you skate you Scuba’s for instance if I want to go for a bike ride or chill instead of skating I can. Then again I have a part to film so being on the road is just part of what you have to do. What did you do before you started living the “pro skater” life?
I finished high school and then basically just skated. I got a job working at the indoor park as a social worker, taking care of kids and stuff.
Taipei Ph. DVL
50-50 grind across, up, over and down
Do you miss it a lot?
go to the indoor parks. But obviously those get super crowded so you have to do other stuff as well. You can take the metro from the centre to mountain where you can snowboard. Damn that’s so sick.
Yeah you just hop on the metro with your snowboard and 15 minutes later you’re there! It’s quite expensive though so we usually only go a couple of times during the winter. What I enjoy the most is cross-country skiing. You know just the classic skiing through the woods? There are so many cool slopes and trails around
the city for it! You definitely have to get creative and force yourself not to stay indoors though; otherwise it’s very easy to get depressed. It’s dark, it’s cold and you can really feel it when people have been stuck inside their houses... For some people it’s rough. I see why you enjoy being on trips so much... What was your favorite destination to film for Chronicles?
The trip to Chile (Santiago and Valparaiso) was
Noseslide pop-over
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really fun. It was really hard to skate but the spots look so good: super colourful buildings, the craziest hills... And it’s on the other side of the world, which is always kind of cool. Yeah I saw that GX1000 edit and the spots do look incredible.
Yeah! We basically went exactly where those guys went! I can’t believe how much footage those guys got actually. I thought I was used to rough spots because of skating Norway but that place was next level. I didn’t actually get that much out there because the spots were so hard. I don’t know how long those guys were out there for but that edit was crazy... You were on that other South American Nike SB trip as well weren’t you? You know, the one with all the mental demos… How was that?
Wow that sounded terrifying. Have you had to do anything similar since?
I skated that pro open contest in Barcelona to try and qualify for Street League! Didn’t make it, haha! Oh yeah I forgot about that!
Oslo Ph. Sam Ashley
It was super scary. I’d never skated in a contest like that before. When you’re up and it’s your turn to skate there’s a dude holding his arm out telling you “wait; stop; hold it; okay go!” and then it’s time for you to kill it in front of loads of people… And it’s on TV... It was fun to try though! Just the guys that are in there are so fucking good that I didn’t stand a chance. This whole year must have felt pretty surreal.
Yeah, it really did. Going on normal skate trips expect the guys you are travelling with are Koston, BA, Lance Mountain, etc. has been
Kickflip backside smith grind
That was insane. I felt pretty out of place on that one... It was Paul Rodriguez, Shane O’Neil, Luan, Ishod, Leticia and me. Actually Youness was there as well but still, that’s a pretty intimidating line up. I think it’s the first Nike trip I went on too... They just threw me on that trip and I was like “yeah that sounds tight, a demo trip!” Obviously I had no idea how gnarly it was going to be. It was seriously insane. I was terrified. I don’t think I’d ever seen that many skaters in one place before. Having to skate a skatepark in front of them was so nerve wrecking. And I was just randomly in the middle of a bunch of skate stars, it was mad. On top of all that I rolled my ankle quite badly on the first day so I couldn’t skate the first two demos. It was swollen and everything. I remember freaking out... I ended up skating the third one even though it was still hurting, just because I really didn’t want them to have flown me all the way out there to sit around. I had fun though and I’m super glad I got to go on that trip! Will remember that one for the rest of my life.
crazy. Growing up those guys were role models for me, superstars and then suddenly you’re in the van with them and they’re the coolest people. You’d think a legend like Koston wouldn’t have any time for “the new guy” but he treats everyone the same. He’s the coolest guy, funny as fuck. I bet you geek out and ask them tons of nerdy questions about how stuff went down back in the day.
Yeah it’s been amazing. I put a lot of pressure on my self because I want my part to be good. So I can’t wait to take a break from that and just skate without thinking of the next trick or line that I want to film. But it’s not like I’m gonna take a break from skating. I got to skate! It’s the best thing to do! I think I’m just going to stay in Oslo for a bit and figure out what my next step is. I don’t have my own place at the moment so I need to decide if I look for somewhere there or go somewhere else like Copenhagen... I’m sure you’ve saved up a fair bit of money just by constantly being on trips where everything is paid for and not having to pay rent for a while… I’m sure it won’t be too hard.
Sounds like you had a rad time. Are you going to take a little break from skating after this?
Especially in the cities you’ve just mentioned... Either way good luck with it and I’m sure I’ll bump into you in the near future. Cheers!
Yeah I’ve been saving but if you actually want to buy an apartment it’s still really expensive.
Ph. DVL
Wallie out and over Riga
For sure. I’m always asking them about tricks and stuff. It’s probably quite annoying actually... But most of the time they are more than happy to tell the stories. Like I will ask Lance about the names of inverts and stuff and he’s always down to tell me about it and who invented them and stuff.
Boardslide Rotterdam
Ph. Marcel Veldman
Alex Hallford Frontside wall bash Basel Ph. Vincent Coupeau
Fernando Bramsmark Frontside stalefish Winterthur, Switzerland Ph. Vincent Coupeau So who’s idea was it to hit up all these street transitions?
Sam Beckett: Alex Irvine’s. Alex Irvine: I suppose it was an idea that I had for a long time. But whenever you skate street transitions it’s always weird because you’re not really sure what you are going to get and they are always quite hard to source – as in to find them. Usually when you go on a trip you end up finding one or two, so for this project we thought we could focus on those one or two street transition spots in every city. And then we needed to see if we could find a route around Europe to hit enough of them to make the project work.
had seen in photos and videos. Sam: We didn’t really have time to go looking for stuff and exploring. Yeah it was more like collating all the spots you had within your collective knowledge…
Alex: Yeah just do a route that you reckon you can make happen. It seems like kind of a long shot anyways from an article or photographer or video perspective: ‘Hey let’s just go and skate one specific kind of spot.’ If you tried to do it with just manual pads you’d suffer the same problems. (Laughs) You’d be like: ‘Where’s a good manual pad?’ I don’t know…’ You’ve seen it, but you have to figure out where it exactly is. And so what countries did you guys hit up for this project?
Sam: The first trip we started in Austria and then from there we drove to Bilbao in Spain. We also skated France, Switzerland and a little bit of Germany. Alex: It was basically from right to left in Europe. Sam: Paris was really good. Alex: Yes it was! It was like a goldmine there. Yeah there are a lot of tranny spots out there in the Parisian suburbs… Sam: Yeah I was really surprised how many good spots around Paris there were. Alex: There was one spot in Paris we didn’t really skate, but we really wanted to. It was a big transition spot at a hospital. Oh is this the one Sam Partaix had a frontside grind on?
Alex: Yeah the reason it was just a frontside grind is because it’s the entrance to a gigantic hospital. It was the kind of hospital that you’d have in a Hollywood show. Sam: Yeah there was just no way. Even if you didn’t get kicked out you’d just feel too bad. It’s right where people get rushed into the ER and stuff. Alex: Yeah it was like something in your conscience was saying: ‘this feels bad.’ It was a weird scene. Sam do you feel that since these spots are not made for skateboarding you feel extra satisfaction after skating them?
Sam: Yeah the whole thing with the trip was that it was cool just because we were going to skate them for the sake of going to skate them. We were just trying to get something on whatever was there. And no one was like ‘ah this spot’s not for me,’ everyone sessioned almost all the spots.
So how did you guys know about all these spots? Prior knowledge or stuff you saw in videos or photos?
Do you guys think there are parts of Europe that are much better than others for street transitions?
Sam: Yeah it was a mix of everything. There were a few spots that we had in mind, but then Alex knows a lot as he knows loads of people and has shot a lot of photos so he has a pretty good knowledge of those spots. It was pretty much Alex who figured out the route we were going to go and what spots we were going to hit. Alex: A lot of it was figuring out whose arm we had to bend in order to find out how to get there. Also a lot of the spots were drawn from what we’d seen. I don’t think we discovered any new spots, it was more like ‘that thing looks perfect, let’s go there’ from what we
Sam: Like I said earlier Paris was really good. Alex: I think France in general is weirdly good. I think people take it for granted. The impression I got from people was ‘yeah, yeah that’s here’ (said very unenthusiastically). If some of those French spots were in the UK they’d be legendary. It seemed like every town in France had a street tranny spot that was pretty good. But Paris was insane… We skated like eight of those kinds of spots in three days. In the UK there are probably eight total. I think that’s kind of a strange set up, but ultimately perfect for a project like this one.
Alex Hallford Smith grind to wallride in Innsbruck Ph. Vincent Coupeau
Jake Collins Backside 360 ollie Lyon Ph. Vincent Coupeau
Sam Beckett Backside tailslide Paris Ph. Alex Irvine
So Sam how did you pick who else came with you on the trips?
Sam: Well originally we just wanted to pick a crew that would be keen to just skate some transition spots. Jake Collins was a fixture on all of the trips. I like to skate with Jake all the time, so that kind of made sense. The first trip we had Nando (Fernando Bramsmark) and (Alex) Hallford – that was a really sick crew. They were always really keen to skate and it was really fun. It was cool because it was with people you’d not necessarily go on trips with all the time like people you are on the same team as. Everyone rides for different companies and that made it really different and easy going. So Juju (Julien Benoliel) and Tim Zom came along on another trip, which was cool. Everyone was down for the idea of it. This trip has definitely made me realise the plethora of street transition spots that Europe has. There are so many spots and even probably ones people don’t even know about yet all over Europe. And to change the conversation a bit, Sam you just went pro… I’m guessing you are hyped. Was it a surprise?
Sam: It was a massive surprise; I had no idea. I didn’t think that would happen for a long time. I’m really
Sam Beckett
grateful to (Bill) Weiss and Blind for giving me the opportunity. It was real sick everyone came out, kept it a secret and surprised me. It was a good day. Do you think your life will change much now that you’re pro?
Sam: I don’t know. The one thing I thought about it was that I didn’t necessarily think I was at that point yet. So I feel pretty motivated to put some more stuff out and I’m just finishing up this part with Blind as well so…
Ollie over Tim Zom Paris suburbs Ph. Alex Pires
Ah cool…
Sam: Yeah I dunno it definitely made me motivated to put some more stuff out and try and feel a bit more worthy of it - if that makes any sense? Alex: That’s like back to front, but I like it. You did it in reverse. Is that how you feel? Like you should have proved it before? Sam: Uhhh… Alex: I’ll tell you something: out of all the people on this trip, if there was one person that acted professionally it was you Sam. I’m not sucking up your arse, but you actually skated every spot. And your motivation shows through in the footage and the photos. There was no sitting in the van going ‘next’. Sam: I don’t know maybe my approach to skating has
Sam Beckett Frontside air Near Lyon Ph. Vincent Coupeau
changed a little bit in the last couple of years. I’ve definitely just been really enjoying skating anything and everything. I’ve just been enjoying skating more. Alex: So you’re saying an all manual spots article has potential? (Everyone laughs) Sam: I mean I would enjoy it. But I don’t know if anyone would enjoy looking at it. (Laughs) Sam I’m guessing you don’t come upon these kind of spots in America often… There is something about Europe, I don’t know what it is, but there’s definitely a lot more of these kinds of spots over here. Sam, do you feel the same way?
Sam: Yeah. I mean you forget how new America is sometimes… I mean there is loads of ditch spots, but weird architecture-type tranny spots it seems like there are less of them. I mean I’ve definitely not skated many in the States. I think in Europe there is different character everywhere as in the cities you go to and all the spots have probably been there for a long time. I mean that one spot we skated in
Tim Zom Backside kickflip Paris Ph. Alex Irvine
Switzerland looks like it’s been there forever. Alex: Yeah at least from the sixties… Yeah I think I saw that spot in an old Santa Cruz video from the eighties. Claus Grabke was there…
Sam: Yeah that’s the same one! It was one of the best spots we skated. So you are allowed to skate there? People don’t mind?
Alex: Well we got kicked out, but after like two hours. Sam: People were complaining about the noise, but it wasn’t like really getting kicked out you know? Yeah…
Sam: If you wanted to be a dick you could have just stayed there all day. Alex: I think a lot of what is good about Europe is that type of stuff… Like weird public space that’s been built and no one really wants to understand or deal with or change… And some of it is curved… (Laughs)
many years, it was like a family. Everyone was so tight; there were so many trips and so much history… So it was weird seeing everyone else fighting over it. So I just switched off. I mean when Mike York got on… I mean Mike York is Mike York, he’s sick, but he should never be on Blueprint.
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And now you are on Fabric, can you tell us how that came about?
Well I had spoken to a few people and said that I might leave Blueprint and that I was over it. And then looking at the other companies you try and see where you would see yourself and a lot of the companies in the UK seem set. Landscape was set and you know you
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just realise you wouldn’t fit in to most of the other companies and I just thought Fabric was something new with potential. So I just chatted with the Fabric guys over the period of a month and then I just decided to do it.
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and all I had to be was a team rider. But yeah, I definitely do more now. Also I know you do a WESC Skate camp. Why did you start this and can you tell us more about it?
Originally I just started it because I needed to do something else. I mean Blueprint went, DVS cut me, so I thought ‘right, I either need to get a job outside of It’s so hard doing a skate company. You look at how skateboarding or I need to create something else that’s many there are in the UK… It’s an insane amount. You still within skating.’ And then I’d already been out in have to get really lucky to really make it. You have to Sweden helping with the (WESC) camps over there so I do something that people really want to buy in to. I don’t have the funds to do it, it costs so much, and also just asked Ricky (Sandström) if he minded if I brought it to the UK and I would set it all up and they could it’s a headache. just give the product out like they did in Sweden. And So do you have a more active role in the it worked and it was a way to keep myself in skating Fabric team or do you consider yourself rather than going to get a job doing whatever. That was just a rider? Yeah I think I have a bit more of an active role because the goal and it’s good… It’s quite rewarding seeing the kids come and have a good time. It’s a good way to be obviously I’m a little older than the other guys. I try involved in skating without dealing with all the industry and organise trips and I try and get involved with the stuff that a lot of the other jobs entail. graphics side of things. I mean I’m not a designer, but we all have a say – there are like three or four So you’re 36 now, what’s it like hanging out of us that have a say in what’s going on. I feel like with young skate kids that are like twelve there’s more room for me to have a say than before. At and thirteen years old? Blueprint Magee and Shier made most of the decisions Well I sit and listen to their conversations and I learn Have you ever thought of doing a skate company yourself?
old guy that arranged these camps and then I told him I had been skating for twenty odd years and he said: ‘No way!’ And then we No. played S.K.A.T.E. the day after and then some Well I had no idea either and they were in the back of the van, of the other kids showed him some old videos we were taking them to the park and they were just going on and then he believed that I skated. But yeah, about ‘Netflix and chill’ and so I asked them what it is… So you get some random questions and some of basically it’s when you get a girl around and you watch Netflix and chill. (Laughs) And I’m listening to this and I’m thinking ‘I’m the kids have no idea who you are. I think they so old!’ you know what I mean? Yeah because I don’t have much just think I’m some random guy organising a skate camp. interest in what’s going on in a lot about skateboarding these days, so listening to them I’ve learned a lot. It’s funny, you see Camp Counsellor Mark eh? how into it they are and it reminds you of how you were when Yeah. We have the camps in the summer and you were a kid. on the Easter holidays. But I don’t want to do any more than that. It’s about quality not So do the kids ask you weird questions at the camp? quantity. Yeah, there was this one kid a few weeks ago Zach, he just I know you lived in Berlin for a while, London for a bit and even America a asked me randomly, the second day he was like: ‘Do you long time ago, but you always seem skate?’ Because he didn’t think I skated and I was just some all types of things. For instance I had no idea what ‘Netflix and chill’ meant. Do you know what ‘Netflix and chill’ means?
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to come back to Sheffield. What always brings you back to Sheff?
I dunno, it’s home. Berlin got to a point… Again it came down to when people stop paying you for skating what do you do? You get a job, but at that point I didn’t really want to work in Berlin; I didn’t speak German. What could of job could I have got? It becomes hard to survive without a regular income, it makes it difficult and I’ve always had my house in Sheffield. So on top of having to pay for where I’m living I had to make sure I could make the payments for my house too. So I just came back here (to Sheffield). With London too, it was just too expensive. So I always come back to Sheff, it’s good to skate here. Sometimes I do get bored of it, but it’s a good base. You got Manchester nearby, Leeds, two and a half hours to London… And you travel around the UK quite a bit skating right?
Yeah I do. I mean you go up to Huddersfield and there’s so much to skate. There’s so much in Manchester too. Mark you’ve been in the skate game for quite a long time, since the early nineties. What do you think of the state of skateboarding in 2015? And where do you see it going in the future?
It’s weird, you know you must notice it yourself that things go in cycles…
Ashley
Yeah.
I noticed that everyone is bleaching their hair now. It’s not a new thing; it’s not like something someone’s just come up with. I remember Mike Carroll and whoever else were doing it way back when… Yeah in the Plan B Questionable days…
Exactly. People were doing it in the nineties; we did it when we were in school. You see things that are hyped up like it’s the new thing, but it’s not new. It’s all been done. It’s very hard to come up with stuff that hasn’t been done. You know the whole thing with wallies… I remember in the mid-nineties things were so tech, but then you started to see East Coast skating going fast and doing wallies like Ricky Oyola in Eastern Exposure 3… It all comes around, but I think it’s okay at the minute. At the industry level I don’t know how good it is… There are a lot of hype brands that do really well. There are obviously a lot of corporations involved too and I mean everyone has an opinion on it. It’s hard to tell where it’s all gonna go… Your guess is as good as mine…
It’s funny because I walked into… At the camp where we stayed we have a room that’s like a big cinema, like a projection so you watch stuff on the wall basically. And I walked in and they were watching Street League, but I didn’t realise they were watching
Street League - I thought they were watching wrestling. Because the shot they were showing was just of this big crowd and they had all these crazy stats coming up and then I just walked out, but then I walked back in and I realised they were watching Street League. It was crazy to see. Maybe that’s going to be part of the future, the way it’s going. I guess you talked about everything being done, but that is a new thing in skateboarding…
Yes, that is new thing. All the other stuff you’ve seen before. It’ll probably be tech skating coming in again with combos in the next five years. Do you think skateboarding will make it into the Olympics and if so, what’s your opinion on that?
Well it seems like that’s the way it’s going. Personally I think it kind of sucks. I think it’ll take skating away from its core values. I dunno, there are people who are in it that are core skateboarders, but is there going to be a place for pro skateboarders that aren’t in the Olympics? Will there be any money for them? Will only the skaters in the Olympics get paid? I honestly don’t know where it’s going to go… It’s a strange one. I do think it’s going that way, I mean Street League is huge. I mean I see a lot of the kids that come to the camps and a lot of them have Element Nyjah Huston boards and stuff like that. I mean he obviously has his place in skating, it’s not like he’s not incredible, but for me personally it’s not the kind of skating I want to watch or can relate to. It’s not a true reflection of skating, especially in this country with our shit spots and crap weather. I don’t know it’s a weird one. So what are your future plans?
In the immediate future I just want to concentrate on doing some stuff with Fabric and doing the same stuff I’ve always done: just skate and film. And obviously now with the camps, just try and keep them going and try and build on that. And I just want to try and keep it more about skating and not try and stress on that too much. Since I was young, I always remember people saying ‘it’s not going to last forever’ so I never felt like I fully got to enjoy it because I was always worried that it would end at any moment. So I’m just trying to not stress too much about the future. Anyone you’d like to thank?
Just obviously the people I ride for, the people who help me out: Fabric, New Balance, Lost Art, WESC and Bliss Wheel Co. And then everyone that helps out with the camps, I appreciate that. And then just friends and family, that’s all.
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Mark Baines Switch Backside 180 Photography by Reece Leung www.fabricskateboards.com @fabricskateboards
Stephen Malet, ollie to frontside wallride, Paris Ph. Guillaume PĂŠrimony
Sylvain Tognelli, nosegrind, London Ph. Sam Ashley
Dallas Rockvam, backside smith grind, Dornbirn, Austria Ph. Fabien Ponsero
Jarne Verbruggen, switch wallie, Oslo Ph. Sam Ashley
Chris Jones, ollie, Paris Ph. Alex Pires
Steve Forstner, kickflip, Barcelona Ph. Fabien Ponsero
Jan Henrik Kongstein, backside smith grind, Oslo Ph. Vittorio Brisigotti
Adrien Bulard, backside tailslide, Madrid Ph. Alex Braza
Idriss Jani, switch pop-shuvit, Paris Ph. Clement Le Gall
Pete Ruikka, frontside wallride grab out, Helsinki Ph. Alex Pires
Gregoire Cuadrado, 5-0 grind, Leiden, Holland Ph. Alex Pires
Gustav Tønnesen, switch 180 to 5-0 revert, Barcelona Ph. Sam Ashley
Teemu Pirinen, no comply, Sein채joki, Finland Ph. Fabien Ponsero
Cape Town is the worst city for skateboarding spots-wise compared to Joburg and Durban. But Cape Town is kind of like the younger city, the party city, so half of the scene has moved there, which kind of makes it tighter. Half the scene is in Cape Town and it forces us to get creative and keep searching for new stuff to skate. And Johannesburg has a really big scene and it’s tight too, everyone knows each other. But in South Africa the whole scene is like one big family – it’s cool. I know a few years ago you spent a year in London, and last year you were in Berlin and Barcelona for a bit after the RVCA Sideways tour. Have you thought of moving to Europe full stop?
I’m a bit of a poltergeist. I pop up
every now and again and then I just disappear. I kinda like it though. But I think if the opportunity arose then I would move to Europe for good. It’s hard to find a good enough job to pay the bills and have as much time for skating as I want in Europe. I found that in London I was working way more than I was skateboarding because everything was so much more expensive over there. In SA the price of living is a bit different – I don’t have to work my ass off every week just to pay the bills. Life’s just a little easier there. I think Europe’s on the cards as long as I don’t have to work some shitty bar job. Ok so I know you were in an Adidas clip in Namibia… Have you travelled all around Africa with skateboarding?
Clark Sam Ph. Durban. in block Crail Namibia was actually the first country out of South Africa I visited to skateboard. It was one of my favourite trips I’ve ever been on. That country makes no sense; it’s just a whole lot of nothing, but it’s beautiful. It feels like you’re on a different planet. From up north it feels like you’re on the moon and as you go south the sand goes red and it’s like a Mars-scape. The only other African country I’ve been to is Kenya, as my parents lived there for a bit. I haven’t had the opportunity to check out more places - I know Mozambique is crazy with spots… Quite a few South African skate tours have been to Mozambique, but I haven’t jumped on one yet. Most all of my South African friends living in London have
a wild tale about South Africa where they either got robbed, almost killed, in a gnarly, fight, etc. Do you have a crazy SA story like this?
I can tell you one that happened literally two and a half months ago. So I was walking home with my boyfriend and these two dudes kinda came up from behind us, we were walking through an area we knew we shouldn’t have been walking through, but we were drunk and confident… So suddenly there was one dude on my side and one dude on his side. And then in about 30 seconds they had split us up and the one dude had a giant, silver steak knife at my throat. He was screaming: ‘Give me all your shit!” And the other dude had
my boyfriend pinned down, but he had no weapon so my boyfriend starts beating the shit out of this dude. So by this time my mugger is realising that his mate is losing the battle and my dude is just laying into him. So my mugger keeps looking at me like ‘are you gonna try something or do you wanna die?’ So I’m trying to dig all my stuff out of my pockets but I’m giving him stuff that’s kind of useless like an empty box of matches. My phone, my wallet, everything was with me, but I just keep whipping out these 2 rand coins like ‘here you go!’ and he was getting more and more pissed off, but I was just buying time because I was trying to figure out how to get out of this. It’s weird when you have a knife to your throat - you always think you are harder than you are. Yeah…
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beat the shit out of the guy, but I was just crumbling… I was pale and I just kept saying: “Just don’t kill me, just don’t kill me…” And then my boyfriend comes out of nowhere and gets him in a headlock from behind. Oh shit!
So as soon as the knife was away from my throat I gave the dude a little sucker punch and then I just kinda ran. I couldn’t be around that dude anymore. And then the dude got out of it and went straight for my dude’s heart and got him pretty good, like pretty deep. Whoa, with the knife?
Yeah with the knife, he went straight for his heart and he nearly broke through. When the adrenaline’s running both of us didn’t even realise. So we ran in one direction and we were having a chat like: ‘are you okay? Are you okay?’ And then suddenly I
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It can be if you don’t know what you are doing. If come visit it’s good to have a connection that can show you the ropes. It’s also kind of obvious, you can tell which areas you shouldn’t be in and which ones you can. For me, I think the beauty of South Africa kind of puts the wool over all the crime and dodginess of the situation. In a way I kind of like that it’s edgy like that you know? It’s like I kind of feed off that. And you learn a lot… You learn a lot about yourself when you get into sticky situations.
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Yeah he’s okay. He’s a trooper though. When you live in a country like that you have to take these things in stride. It kind of happens all the time, but you can be street smart about it. It doesn’t have to happen, we were just being stupid that night. It’s just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’ve been in those situations in London more often than my whole life in South Africa. It’s unfortunate that we have to live through violent situations over there. But at the same time in London in one year I had to run for my life three times.
So that leads me to my next question, do you think SA is dangerous place in general?
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So he’s all right?
Yeah man… Rude boys everywhere!
Vredenberg,
Rock just noticed his shirt was drenched in blood. And so the rest of the night was spent in hospital.
So I just went on a RVCA trip with some of the American guys like Spanky, Julian Davidson and those dudes. And it was kind of cool as they were in my turf so I put it on myself to give them the most South African experience. I took them to proper South African dive bars, taverns in the city, I took them for bunny chows in Durban and I took them out every night as well. So all the guys on their own time invited me to stay at their places in Long Beach and Los Angeles. They are thinking about letting me jump on a tour to Australia in February so that would be great. If that happens I’d go to Australia then fly back with them to LA and spend a few months in
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the States. It was good making those connections on the trip because that’s exactly what I needed. So sometimes do you feel a bit isolated living in South Africa and being a skateboarder?
Oh yeah. We are far away from everything. To travel to Europe or the States you can’t just go online one weekend, and book your tickets… It takes about six months of planning and six months of saving. It’s not easy. But through connections it becomes easier. New connections, new places… I know we’ll be seeing more and more of you. Best of luck Yann!
Africa.
Ph.
Sam
Clark
I only knew a handful of things about Sebastiaan Vijverberg before being asked to do this interview. I knew that he used to skate for Osiris a couple of years ago, that he’s the TM for the Dutch Vans team Ollie in Rotterdam
and that he kickflip frontside boardslid the hubba that projected Jerry Hsu’s head into a wall. When I started asking around to learn a bit more about him I heard that he had gone through a couple of ups and downs but that he’s the kind of guy that always gets back up. I also learned that people really like him, that they specifically look forward to seeing his part in Bombaklats, and that they feel the need to say both these things out loud. When I finally met Sebas, or Siebke, as his friends call him, I expected an intense personality that cares a lot about skateboarding and isn’t afraid to speak his mind and I was right in doing so.
Frontside smith grind in Limassol, Cyprus
Sebastiaan Vijverberg’s Free interview. Go for it. What do you have to tell us?
I don’t know. Where should we start? You’re in Nuremberg now, visiting Chris Pfanner with Vans, right?
Yes. With the Dutch team?
It’s a Belgian tour, so us Dutch guys are here as guests. Are you team managing?
Because it’s a Belgian initiative I’m here as a skater, not as a TM, so food, hotels, drinks, everything’s being taken care of for me, which is a nice change for once. Usually it’s me doing these things for everyone else. How did you end up being the team manager for the Dutch team?
Let’s see… Rik Van Dyck gave me a chance to be a Vans team rider in Holland, actually not even that... He flowed me shoes for a year, then I got on the team and he kind of took me under his wing and taught me, step by step, that there’s more to it than just skating – basically how to help the riders and take care of them. What do you mean exactly?
Let me see. Oh man, this is a full interview. Fuck. It is.
I’ll start over. I was on flow for a year, then I was a team rider for a year and by that time Daan van der Linden was on Vans as well. It was pretty clear already that his skating would take him places but he was running pretty wild at the time and Rik, the TM at the time, asked me to kind of look over him in order for things not to get out of hand, as I was the oldest guy on the team. For a year or so, we went on a lot of tours and did a lot of things with Daan, Nick Bax, and all the other guys. Everything worked out fine and I ended up being the team manager. Okay, so that’s your current situation. You used to have a pretty legit deal with Osiris six or seven years ago, your name was in their Transworld ads etc., how did that come about?
I was on the International Team, we got paid a bit less than the US ams, but we were pretty involved. We had amateur status, more or less. At the time this was still really special. There was Wieger, for example, but overall it was
Frontside 180 kickflip in Athens, Greece
Crooked grind in Scheveningen, Holland
really unique for a Dutch guy to be in that situation.
I would never compare myself to someone like Wieger. I wasn’t doing that; I just used his name to illustrate the situation at the time.
It was definitely a special situation. There’s Daan, now, and Youness, Phil’s been in Thrasher, you know what I mean. It’s become more normal now than it was at the time.
Absolutely. I spent some time in Orange County. Fred Van Schie lived over there, and I got along well with him, he used to take care of me when he still worked for Sole Tech in Holland, so he showed me around in California, and introduced me to some of the people he knew over there. One day we went skating with two other guys, just a nice session in San Diego on a nice Sunday. We skated a parking lot and a mini ramp afterwards. No one told me anything, but the two guys there worked for Osiris and were there to check me out. Fred had already talked about me and had showed them my footage. I would’ve stressed out if I had known this, but I didn’t so I skated well, had a good time and got on Osiris. That’s how it
happened. Pretty smart of him not to tell you anything…
For sure, I don’t deal with pressure very well. It was a pretty fun time from then on. I skated with JT Aultz, Shuriken Shannon, Marius, all of those guys. Around what time was that?
Transworld’s Feed The Need had just come out. We skated a lot; I went on tour with them as well. We went to Hamburg, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona and Madrid. It was pretty strange, all of the food and drinks were paid for and then everybody got 50 euros per diem just to spend on our own, basically to get wasted. What did you do with yours?
I saved it. I had booked a holiday after the tour, to a stupid island, just to party with my friends. I saved about 30 euros every day of the tour and had myself a free holiday, afterwards, so I can’t complain. I just got really hurt in Paris, on a hubba. That was the only bad part of the tour. I remember seeing that sequence. Kickflip frontside boardslide…
Yes, that one. On one of the tries I kicked the microphone off Russell Houghten’s camera, I got a heel bruise and felt really guilty afterwards, so I
wasn’t really focused anymore. Then I broke my board, set up a new one and eventually made the trick and celebrated. The caption said you couldn’t walk anymore afterwards.
That is true, I didn’t skate anymore on the rest of the trip. I was hurt from the moment I had kicked off the microphone, but there was so much adrenaline running through me that I still did it. With everybody there, betting money on every try, I kept going. I saved a bit less from my per diem from that day on. Was that the end of you skating for Osiris?
No, I got back to Holland after the holiday and I was so sick of sitting in cars and being brought to huge spots to see JT Aultz jump right on them. I’m not the craziest skater and when I got back to Holland I realised there was an ocean between us and I thought (whistles): I’m going to do my own thing again. Around that time some things had happened, coming back home after such a long time was intense as well, and I ended up having a psychotic episode. I can’t really say much more about it. I was young, had spent some time without all my friends and family, I had a lot of money at my disposal for my age at the time, and when I got back it had all become a bit too much for my brain to handle.
What happened then?
When I was still really sick I got a postcard from Osiris, signed by all the guys, wishing me the best and stuff. This was nice but by the time I had somewhat recovered and felt like myself again a year had gone by and they told me they wouldn’t renew my contract. Obviously this didn’t really help me feel better. For a while after that I didn’t really have any sponsors and just skated. You didn’t have a board sponsor?
Well, I had been getting boards straight from Deluxe for a year or three. I got Real boards, Thunder trucks and Spitfire wheels as well. Then when Osiris didn’t really pan out the Deluxe deal slowed down as well, and it went back to getting boards from the Dutch distributor (Left), which was fine. Deluxe then changed its distribution in Holland, and I was offered to jump ship as well. As I felt loyal to Left, who had always helped me out, I didn’t make the change and stayed with them and just got random boards from them for a year or two. They ended up fucking me over so hard. I don’t know if I should even talk about this. I should, actually. They made me do a Disney commercial. They told me that if I wouldn’t do it, wearing a helmet and a blue Left T-shirt, they would kick me off of everything.
No comply to frontside wallride in Limassol
Wallie over to lipslide in Scheveningen
Pop-shuvit in Paphos, Cyprus
Fuck.
I thought, ‘fuck’. I should’ve just said no but as I said, I wasn’t feeling too confident at the time and ended up doing it. When that came out I was so ashamed and angry, and ended up moving over to Hardcore Distribution, where I still am right now. I can imagine the commercial sucked.
It was very very bad. What did you have to do?
They made me say a sentence. Which sentence?
Ah, man. (in commercial voice) ‘Hey, do you want to learn these cool tricks as well? Send your info to Disney X-team’. Ah, man…
Imagine, as a young kid that’s already having a rough time, then they tell you if you won’t do this shitty commercial you’ll lose all the sponsors you’ve been working so hard for. Of course, this whole ordeal didn’t help with my recovery. For a while, I didn’t feel like showing my face anywhere. A year, or a year and a half after that I was doing better again and that’s when I met Rik Van Dijk, and that’s when he started flowing me Vans and kind of gave me the opportunity for a fresh start, which I’m really grateful for. That’s five or six years ago, now. I know you’re a complete skate nerd and that you’re very passionate about the act of skateboarding itself...
That’s true… But most of what we talked about seems to have more to do with sponsorship than anything else. Skateboarding and skateboard marketing are very intertwined, especially for guys that want to live from it, but they are two completely different things. What do you have to say about this? Did things start looking up again when you were back at home just skating and filming with your friends? Was the whole prospect of a career too stressful for you?
The prospect of a career was definitely too stressful for me; I don’t do well under pressure in any circumstance. That being said, I think there’s a difference between external pressure and the stress that comes from pushing yourself. Being pushed to my boundaries by team managers
and promises of this and that didn’t work for me; it was too much. I’m not blaming anybody though; I was too greedy myself as well. So yes, everything went better from the moment I felt comfortable and at home again, but I’m perfectly capable of stressing out in this situation as well, just because I try to push my own boundaries. Sometimes when I’m trying a trick I completely lose it and this doesn’t have anything to do with sponsors, not even with footage, I just always push myself.
I’m a skateboarder, so this part of my personality comes out when I skate, but not because of it. I just always want to get something done and if I had never become a skater I would’ve shown the same behaviour in something else, be it fighting, drinking or something completely different. Because I’m the team manager now, everything works out a lot better. I’m using my urge to get things done in a positive way with the guys I work with. I’m not being pushed myself and I understand what can
happen when you push somebody too hard, so everything I’ve learned and experienced has become an asset. That sounds like a comfortable situation, after all. Is there anybody you would like to thank?
Rik Van Dijk at Vans, Davy Van Laere for shooting photos with me, Krooked, Thunder and Spitfire, Poler and Skatestore for all the gear. The Bombaklats crew and everyone else that has helped me out over the years. Cheers.
Ollie nosebonk to fakie somewhere in Greece
Backside kicklip the natural driveway Barcelona Ph. Gabriel Engelke
All right mate how’s it going? You just got back from Switzerland right? How was that?
It was good only that back noseblunt took a lot out of me.
yourself down a kinked rail right after the session you just described. Aside from skating what did you think of the place? It’s quite strange right?
It’s Switzerland man. A kebab cost 12 euros, what do you expect? Of course it’s a weird place! We needed to tie up this tree for a spot so I bought two pairs of Man it’s the ground that really fucked me. I shoelaces and some candles and it came to 12 euros! could have done it in five tries if it wasn’t for Then again we saw recruitment ads to work at a Lidl that. I must have put it down like thirty times or something... Plus I really wanted to do it in a and salary offers started at 4K, besides that it’s a certain way so I ended up doing it three times: pretty nice place though… I guess if you have that kind of payday you don’t mind paying 12 bucks for a kebab… twice on my board and once on my friend’s because I’d snapped mine. Plus it was the first You’d definitely have a hard time surviving spot. Flew over there Thursday morning and just from skateboarding out there that’s for went straight there. sure. For how long have you been ‘living the Not surprising…
That’s ridiculous.
dream’ now?
Well I flew out there for that trick so it made sense to start off with it. Plus I was only there for two days. I still managed to do a bit of skating after that tough. We went to some kinked rail on the outskirts... That place is good for skating isn’t it?
I don’t know if I’d call it living the dream man! Call it living the misery… Just kidding, I’d say I’ve been living the misery for about ten years now. I’m 29 now. I don’t want to complain though, I’m really grateful to be able to be doing what I love for a living.
Yeah it is. Although I don’t think that would justify wanting to chuck
You’ve always had quite an old school approach to working on video projects, saving all your footage for two-song
Ollie to fakie over the sign Barcelona Ph. Julien Deniau
video parts rather than having your footage scattered in various edits and on social media. What’s up with that?
in 15 seconds.
I don’t know man... All the social media stuff doesn’t really mean that much to me. That being said I understand that it’s part of the game nowadays and I respect that brands want you to use it until a certain level and I use it as well… It’s just for sure not my main focus…. I like it when people put some time and effort into parts. I like to see that they’ve thought a little bit about what they want to do. Because at the end of the day why do we bring out videos? Why do we bring out parts? Because we are trying to communicate something right? It’s an atmosphere created by your skating mixed with music and editing. What message can you really communicate with Instagram vid?
What would you do if they suddenly told you they wanted you to become some Christian ‘The Boss’ style Instagram sensation and didn’t want you wasting your time on full parts anymore?
It certainly is a lot harder to communicate something as powerful
I’ve actually recently been asked to get an Instagram by my sponsors. I’m going to start one soon. As it is I just send them clips to post every now and then.
I don’t think I could do it man... I’m stoked to be able to pay rent from skating; it really means a lot to me but I have to see sense in what I’m doing. It does exist though right? There are professional skaters out there that make a living from going on a few tours, putting up Instagram clips from their day at the skatepark and showing their face at comps without working on proper projects. I wouldn`t find that so fulfilling… I guess I would try to fulfil my duty with the social media stuff but still keep doing other things as well. So you’d just get a job and chuck yourself down massive rails for your next part in your own time...
Frontside 5-0 to fakie Barcelona Ph. Stephane Zanette Yeah I guess... But having a real job takes up so much time. It would be tough. I definitely prefer getting paid for skating! But at least you get something you are really proud of.
It’s not even about pride man. Feeling good about all the effort you’ve put into something is important but it’s more about wanting to stay motivated and keep progressing. Working on a long-term project helps you push yourself. It must be getting harder and harder for you to get the funding for these solo mega-projects you put so much time and effort into.
filmed most of the new part?
I don’t know man. I try and get as much as I can out of my sponsors for them and if that’s not enough then I’ll just give him some stuff of mine or sort something out... ‘Sort something out’ as in give him some of your own money?
Yeah I guess. That would kind of suck because of how much work I put in myself for free but if I have to I’ll do it. If someone’s job is filming and they aren’t getting the money they need to live then something has to be done. I want everybody to be happy with it in the end. Do you get any money? Like a bonus or something?
I wouldn’t say it’s getting harder because it was never easy but as it is my sponsors are still happy to support me on those projects. It’s not that much budget really and at the end of the day they know it’s good advertising for very little work on their behalf. I mean most of the time I take care of pretty much everything myself.
Me? I don’t get shit my friend. I’m happy when I’m able to pay the filmers. Well let’s see, maybe I’ll get some incentives or something… But for the actual work: nope.
So they just give you some money for the filmers once the project is finished?
How do you find that?
At least this time that`s pretty much the case. How much do they get each? Like let’s say this Dennis Ludvig guy that
What about the editing? Do you always have to do that yourself then?
Lately yeah… If there’s barely enough for the filmers I’m not going to hire someone to do that. I like editing but it’s hard to watch your clips over and over again and still like them. It’s just harder to be objective about yourself... That last part I filmed for Kingpin, I haven’t watched it since I sent over the final version.
Backside nosebluntslide Geneva Ph. Stephane Zanette
Switch frontside flip into the bank Barcelona Ph. Pierre Prospero
Crooked grind Hanover Ph. Friedjof Feye
Are there any weird requirements for the release of this one?
Like for the previous one I’d like it to be dark outside when it drops. Don’t ask me why... I’d also like for it to be downloadable. Working on projects like these must be so time consuming... When you aren’t out skating or editing what do you enjoy?
Tons of stuff! Hanging out with my lady, music, boxing, hanging out with animals, nature… Boxing?! Sick tell me about that.
Well I think I watch by far more boxing videos than skate videos. Do you watch them to get hyped to skate sometimes?
Yeah a lot! There’s one thing in boxing I really admire, it’s the way they approach their career. Skaters often think it’s cool to be constantly fucked up, go to all the parties and live the rock star lifestyle whilst trying to skate super gnarly stuff really well. It’s all good if it works for them because of course partying is fun, but I personally have to stay a bit focused. A can go out, drink and skate the next day but in the long term, it’s better if I stay focused. I like taking care of myself to
really try my best at stuff. So you draw inspiration from their attitude.
Yeah I find it really inspiring. The boxers that I look up to all have this same gnarly, inner wild side (probably one of the reasons why they are doing it) but at the same time they are super disciplined. Because boxing is different: if you party for a month it’s going to show up in your next fight. Take Mike Tyson for instance, he was the fucking gnarliest but that one time he went to China to fight that Buster Douglas guy who wasn’t suppose to stand a chance, he took it too easy. He went out the night before, drinks, girls, coke etc. and the guy knocked him out! Anyway that’s what motivates me. I also love how much they actually go for it, because that’s what I like in skateboarding. I love seeing guys really push themselves. Like with Flo Marfaing’s nollie crook down that kinked hubba in Paris (at Le Dome). Do you know the story behind that one? He tried it, couldn’t get it so had to fly home. When he was home he dreamt he was doing it so he
Ollie over the rail Barcelona Ph. Julien Deniau
booked a flight straight back when he woke up and got it! That’s the shit I find inspiring: really believing in a trick like that and getting it no matter what it takes. That’s probably why you’re so dedicated to the cause. What would it take for you to decide to move on to something else?
from doing this for as long as I can. I feel like I still have a lot left to do in skating. I also don`t have too many responsibilities at the moment. If you get a kid or two or someone in your family gets really ill then that changes everything. Suddenly you might need to start making real money to take care of shit, but it’s not the case for me right now. And even if so, I believe I would always find my way.
I don’t know man, I still feel good! As I said I’m healthy, I live a boxer’s life, not a skater’s life…haha… Then again I don’t know, you tell me. If after this part you think my shit’s not good enough then maybe I’ll have to Coming back to what you were face it and accept that I’m not on the level anymore. saying earlier about one day not Haha, don’t be silly that’s not what I meant at all. And who are we to judge if your shit’s ‘good enough’ anyway?
Well, it would really suck if something stopped me
skating at the right ‘level’. Do you not think it takes a lot more than just skating on a highest level to be marketable these days?
Smith grind Barcelona Ph. Julien Deniau I don’t know man; I think I’m marketable. I know kids like me. In fact I’m going to take this opportunity to thank all the locals from all the places where I’ve filmed for this video. They’ve all been really supportive by showing me all their spots, welcoming me to their houses, being super kind... I’ve been getting a lot of love and respect from the streets so I’d like to give a shout out to those people. I’m sure they know who they are. Okay I wasn’t trying to say you weren’t marketable. Hmm… What do you think of Magenta? Do you understand that some of those guys are pro for instance?
Yeah, I think it’s good that there are brands and riders
out there reminding us of the original purpose of skating: being in the streets and having fun. Sometimes we forget that that’s what it’s about. I like that their videos aren’t about putting down the heaviest bangers. I feel like there are two big trends in skating at the moment: one is super focused on high level skating, where people actually go to the skatepark and train. They’ll practice a trick on the park rail then go and do it down the ‘street’ rail right next to the park. They really approach it like a sport - like the whole Nyjah/ Street League movement. That I do respect because you can say what you want but the
Ph. Stephane Zanette kid takes a lot of shit from everyone and still manages to get up from heavy slams to push the limits of what can be done. Then again that side of skating doesn’t seem quite as free to me. I guess you don’t really fit into that category do you? You don’t skate skateparks.
Not very often, no. Don’t get me wrong it’s fine to practice tricks; it’s just that I love the feeling of being in the streets and showing up at a spot I’ve never seen before. Coming up with an idea for it and trying it is the best feeling. I like the intuitive part of it. I think if you are too concentrated on training certain tricks for certain spots that gets lost a bit. So what you are saying is that out of the two you feel closer to the intuitive Magenta trend than the rehearsed Street League trend of skating? Interesting.
I don’t know yeah maybe. I do think it’s good that people portray skateboarding in this way. Although I don’t know if you’ve ever seen me do a no comply but I suck at that shit. I’m not really into that stuff. I do love pushing myself, skating hard. I’m not trying to break records or something, it has nothing to do with that. People that don’t know me may think that but that’s really what I enjoy. I like doing a front nose down a fourteen stair, I really do. I’m not trying to impress anyone with this shit I just like it. I need that stuff. Maybe I’m addicted to adrenaline or whatever but that’s just the way it is. It goes well with me.
Frontside halfcab flip into the bank Luxembourg Ph. Alex Braza
Portrait by DVL
Backside 5-0 grind Barcelona Ph. Gabriel Engelke
Is Samu Karvonen the hardest working guy in European skateboarding? Who else churns out three video parts in a year, films and edits videos, team manages the adidas Finland team, helps with brands ITÄ and Frank, works part-time for the Finnish Skateboarding Association and shoots magazine-worthy skate photographs? Oh and I mustn’t forget his tireless efforts working on the Suvilahti DIY in Helsinki! I honestly can’t think of anyone else that involved. Somehow Samu found the time to talk to us about how he manages it all, whilst also shooting a full interview for Free! The man just doesn’t stop!
Samu, so what is it, three video parts coming out this year (Where We Come From, ITÄ, Antiz)? You’ve been busy eh?
was kind enough to give everyone their footage.
Well I’ve been busy the past four years really and now it’s just paying off I guess. I should have a holiday year coming! Well it’s been a long ride to get to this year… It all started from trying to do the Quiksilver film, which was supposed to come out three years ago. We were filming for that before they decided to drop the whole skate program. But Quiksilver
It’s gone everywhere… I had ten minutes of raw footage for that video. There is footage from that time in all of my latest parts, but most of it’s in Lucas’ video. You can see random China tricks in WWCF and they’ll be a few in Antiz as well.
And so where did this footage end up?
Tell us about the Quiksilver days. You guys went on some ballin’
Backside invert Seinäjoki, Finland Ph. Fabien Ponsero
trips right? 5-star hotels, swimming pools, etc.
Well it wasn’t really 5-star hotels, but it was definitely luxury compared to what I would put my money into a normal vacation. We did a lot of trips. It was the most work I’ve ever put into skating. I mean they were paying us well so you definitely wanted to pay them back by trying your best. But yeah, we did cruise around the world quite a lot to make the video and get photos for catalogues and all these ads. It was definitely the golden days I would say. So how did it all end? What did Quiksilver say?
Well they started to have a look on the excel files and they realised that it’s not lucrative to put all this money into skateboarding. So they decided to drop the skateboarding and snowboarding wings of the brand. I heard some of the US riders never got a call, they just found out through rumours. But for us they kept the contracts we had so I had a year to find out what to do next basically. Well that’s cool…
Yeah it was a really mellow and nice break-up I’d say. And now you ride for Carhartt?
Yeah, I just got on in January - it’s great.
Switch wallie mute grab Antwerp Ph. DVL
So can you tell us how you got linked up with Antiz in the first place?
Well my girlfriend studied in Berlin six years ago, or her mum stayed there, she’s Finnish, and she would stay there in the summers. So I would go there and stay for a while and I would go skate and I was in a few sessions with Julian Dykmans. And then on one session Steve (Forstner) was also there. I was riding for the European Blind team at that time thanks to Sami Seppala. Sami hooked up Eniz (Fazliov), Simo (Makela) and myself with Dwindle at that time. Finnish power team!
Ha yeah. So then I was just skating with Julian
and Steve and then going to the airport the next morning to head back to Finland I got a phone call from Julian. He asked me what the deal was with Blind and if I was happy with it. I told him Blind was not the same as it used to be, but it’s still cool and there are possibilities to go forward with it. But then I asked him what he had in his mind. Julian then asked me if I wanted to join them on an Antiz tour in Italy. So I said: ‘yeah of course! If you want to pay for my trip for sure I’ll come, but I can’t say yes or no about anything at this time.’ He said that was no problem and he wanted me to just come on one tour and see what happens
Gap ollie into the bank Barcelona Ph. Fabien Ponsero
after that. And so I went on the trip, and Julian wasn’t on it, but the Steve was and I met Juju (Julien Bachelier) and I knew Gabeeb (Gabriel Engelke) a bit, but yeah, it was such a good tour so it was easy to jump on the team after that. But it was hard to make the call to Sami. He always helped us out. But Eniz had just left to Alien (Workshop) and then Simo as well. So I was the last one and I had to tell Sami it was my time to go. So Sami said he was gonna talk to Bill Weiss and try and get me more and what not, so I gave him a few weeks to see. But I think it’s more than getting money or going to the US, these Antiz guys just seemed to be doing more like what I was doing so it felt more natural. I see. So any theories on why so many good skateboarders come from Finland, a country where you can only skate for half the year. Good skateparks? Less school? Good financial support from the government if you don’t work so people chose to skate all day?
Yeah I always give the same kind of answer… I think it’s just because the weather isn’t good for that long, so when it is we just try and make the most out of it. But also Finland is a welfare country and you can definitely live with just doing nothing. So there are a lot of skaters that are so-called ‘social bums.’ They just skate and go and fill out a few forms and get money from the government every month. This helps them keep skating and living the dream. I don’t know about other countries, but figuring out how to not do anything and still stay alive in Finland is quite easy. You travel quite a lot with skateboarding. How often are you at home in Finland?
Yeah in the Quiksilver days I was away even more. But yeah, I love to be somewhere else all the time as long as I’m based in Finland. I never feel bored of or bummed to go back to Finland. Do you skate a lot when you are home or do you find you skate more on trips?
I guess a bit of both. I do have to work a bit to stay alive in Finland so of course when I go on a trip it’s 24-7 skateboarding. And what kind of work do you do in Finland when you are home?
I work with the Finnish Skateboarding Association with Anssi Paukkunen. We are the two people that get paid for it. Anssi’s full time and I just work certain hours with it. We consult skaters from around Finland and we meet up with them a few times each year to
plan events and figure out what we want from Finnish Skateboarding in the next year. We like to consult with others to make sure we are all on the same path. Have you ever thought about moving somewhere else besides Finland?
Yes, but I’ve just never left yet. When I was paid enough to just skate all the time it was really easy for me to go to Berlin all the time. I know a lot of people in Berlin and I could see myself living there. Also I can handle a bit of German, but since I started doing stuff with the (Finnish) Skate Association I always feel there’s a lot to do in Finland. I’ve thought about it, but it’s never happened so far - but never say never! Also you shoot a lot of photos of skating when you are not skating... How did you get into that?
My mum is a photographer and she worked in a photo store for many years. So somewhere around 2004 we went to Athens… I think it was one of the first skate trips we did without
Crooked grind to flat Athens Ph. Fabien Ponsero
Fakie nosegrind Salerno, Italy Ph. Vincent Coupeau
our parents. Eniz and some other Finnish guys were with me and I just took a film camera with me. And I’d probably shot a few photos before that in Finland, but on that trip I managed to get a few really nice shots that ended up in the Finnish skate mag Hangup. From there I just kept bringing my camera with me and it evolved from that point to where a few years later I had so many negatives of pictures I took. So I had to re-evaluate my photography and ask myself: ‘what am I going to do? Am I just going to stash all these negatives and never do anything with them or am I going to get them on the computer, use them somewhere
and do something with them?’ It was the time before Instagram and Facebook so there wasn’t really a place for all my photos. In my opinion photographs are meant to be shared, especially if there’s some friends of yours in the photos. So do you ever think you’ll become a full-fledged skate photographer?
Nah, I like to keep photography in the same sense that I’ve always kept skateboarding, which is I like to do it as it comes natural for me. I mean, it would be nice, but I’m not making any plans to become one let’s say. I don’t have a single flash yet, so that’s the next big question for me. Am I ever going to have
that? If I get one that’ll mean I have to get a backpack… Yes then everyone will accuse you of becoming a proper photographer!
We’ll see how it goes. If it happens, it happens, but I’d like to keep it light. We’ll see one day… Do you film too? I know you dabble with a little video editing…
Yeah, the same as I always carried a photo camera - we always had a video camera with our crew. We always made videos and I think I’ve always been involved in it. Making videos is part of skateboarding. Can you tell us about ITÄ… How did that get started?
Well it started from those videos basically. It’s just made up of people that we skate with. There was a video, the name escapes me now, but all the leftover footage from that video I made an edit with and I called the edit ITÄ, which means ‘east’ in Finnish. I just found some songs and made a video of leftover footage and then we did a blog. So is it the main crew you skate with in Finland?
Yeah, our main guys combined with some inside jokes and we put up a blog to share stuff between each other. It gave us a platform … I mean I think there was Myspace at that point, but people didn’t use it that much so blogs were getting more hype. With the blog and videos next we did stickers and we worked with Lamina here in Finland. Lamina does our ITÄ board distribution. Pete (Ruikka) works there and I used to, so Pete and I would sit around and think what we could do for ITÄ. So one year we asked the guys at Lamina if we could do a white board with the black mask. And that’s how we started doing boards as people liked it and it was really easy to sell. Now we have a full range of hardware and accessories and we are on a mission thinking about what to do next with ITÄ. We are really putting our effort and time into it. Pete also tells me you are the Finnish TM for adidas skateboarding.
Yep. (Laughs) So how do you do it all? Pro for Antiz, shooting skate photos, working on ITÄ, working with the Finnish Skate Association, working on the Suvilahti DIY, I hear you help out Dallas (Rockvam) a bit with Frank, team managing for adidas… Do you not feel overwhelmed?
I am! (Laughs) The past few years I see that I can’t do everything as good as I want it to because my mind is doing too many things
Backside kickflip Helsinki Ph. Sam Clark
Frontside ollie Harajavalta, Finland Ph. Fabien Ponsero at once. Recently I’ve learned how to say ‘no’. I’ve gone so far always doing everything and always being the ‘yes-man’ on projects. It got to the point that I had to say no to projects I really wanted to do, but I just knew I wouldn’t have the time to do it in the timeline that someone would ask me to do it. But at the same time I knew that I didn’t want to do regular work (non-skateboarding related) so by doing everything and being ready to do something when somebody asks creates a job in itself. So far it’s worked.
website, social media, taking photos, etc.
So by doing lots of these little projects it gets you enough money to survive and carry on?
That’s the question… I’m just going to keep myself busy. And I hope maybe someday, well I don’t have to hope, it will get me somewhere, but it’s just if I’m happy with it or not.
Yeah I feel lucky that I’ve never really had to search for a job as I was always just doing everything. There are a lot of jobless people, who are really educated, but I never went further than high school and I’m still able to live my dream all the time. I feel really lucky. Yeah it’s pretty incredible. So what do you have planned next for the overwhelming life of Samu?
Well I think the more you do the more people realise how useful you are and you’ll get more opportunities…
Exactly. That’s the best thing for me to do, just keep busy. I know things good things will come from it.
Portrait by Fabien Ponsero
Yes, but even most of these things don’t even pay me at all, they cost me, but at the same time it’s like going to school: I pay for my education and maybe some day someone needs help building a skatepark and they can call me and I can help them out. I know how to do that… Then I can help them out with a
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Nike Skateboarding presents the third film in the SB Chronicles series.
Featuring
T revor C olden Karsten Kleppan Omar Salazar L a nc e Mou nt a i n
Er ic Ko st on Kev i n Bra d ley Br i a n A nders on C or y Ken ne dy
NIKESB.COM
#CHRONICLES 3