My friend Steven was driving the car, my brother Fayssal was riding shotgun. My friend Blok (Kristof) was in the back on the right, I was in the middle and Koenraad was on the left. We were driving at around 90 km per hour when somebody overtook us quickly. And just when he gets back in front of us his car breaks down and we drive straight into the back of it. Fayssal, Steve and me were unharmed but Blok and Koenraad got a broken nose and broken eye socket between them. Blok’s scalp had opened from his eyebrow all the way to the back of his head. I thought I was going to see him die in front of my eyes – really fucked up. We had had a really good evening skating at Area 51 and then just five minutes from home that happened.  Everything’ s alright with both the guys now, so we can’t really complain, I could’ve just as easily gone through the windshield. A blessing in disguise…

I’m fine. Skating a lot, hope you’re good as well, aside from the shitty weather.

I’ve been staying over at James Craigs’ in Fullerton for about two weeks now. That’s the first part of Orange County, about 40 minutes from downtown L.A.

I’ve thought about that already, but for the time being I’m just going to keep going back and forth. I can only stay three months at a time anyway.

Of course, from the moment I knew it was possible to live from skating that was all I ever wanted to reach in life!

Nollie to fakie.

Of course, everyone imagines it a bit differently than it really is. I thought that everyone here went skating everyday, from the morning until the evening because the weather is so good, but there’s quite a bit more to it than just skating. There are always some things that aren’t so nice, but that goes for every job or anything else in life.

I guess that’s what every skater would want eventually. So, yeah, it’s definitely one of my goals. I can’t say anything about it really. It could happen next week, or next year… you never know. The board company you skate for decides when you go pro and then you’re pro for all the other companies you ride for as well.

The pressure that is put on you. There are always high expectations to live up to but things usually seem to work out for the best if you just skate and have fun with it. Also, the more you travel to the States the more trouble they give you at customs, so that’s always quite a process to go through. Then you still have to figure out where you’re going to sleep, and find people that are motivated and skate a lot. Then again, during the week there’s not a lot of stuff to skate anyway, weekends are the best.

Most of it is probably just me. I do it without realising. Everybody can do almost every single thing right now, so it’s hard to come out with something new, which is what I want to do. I don’t think it’s bad to put yourself under a little bit of pressure to become better, or do something you wouldn’t normally dare to do.

Frontside half cab flip manual.

The battle is always going to be there, but that actually motivates me to try new stuff. It actually gets a bit easier with time because you can estimate everything better.

When I go out and try to film every day for a week and I don’t like any of the spots or it’s just not working out, sometimes I get sick of it, but a day later I’m already skating again.

He’s a roofer. He works five, sometimes six days out of seven, from 6 in the morning until 5 or 6 at night and he still plays football and skates after work or on his days off. I could never do that.

He used to always win but now it’s usually me!

Frontside flips, nollie double flips…

There’s a couple of tricks but it’s always hard finding the right spot to do them.

Back smith.

Yeah, I’ve noticed that too. The thing is I’ve always skated a lot of transition, people just never saw me do it. Of course, skating with other people makes you skate different spots and learn different tricks as well.

There were a couple of other options but I had met Lewis (Marnell) six months before and he said I should come and skate for Almost. We spent another month and a half in the States together afterwards, he’d arranged everything for us that time, thanks again, Lewis. I didn’t know who to skate for because everyone was saying something else and then I thought, “Who do I want to skate for?” Almost!

I haven’t had the chance to skate with Rodney yet and when I’m out with Daewon we usually go to a skatepark or a mini ramp. The spots he skates aren’t easy to get tricks on.

Yes, lots of suggestions, I can’t really think of many things to do in a mini ramp.

My bag of tricks is pretty limited in a mini ramp, though, so don’t expect too much.

Front Blunt revert.

Obama won last night, I haven’t left the house yet.

Yeah, I always used to play that whenever it rained. I have no idea what my longest combo was, though. Maybe around ten minutes with the perfect cheat.

No idea. I’ve done a lot of dumb combos but I can’t really think of one.

Switch 180 5-o.

Yeah, I’ve always been a P-Rod fan and I guess I always will be. One of the best skaters in my eyes, not just his skating but everything surrounding it as well. I’ve got a lot of respect for the fact that he’s still as down to earth as he is. Impressive.

Not because of who he is anymore, but I’m definitely still impressed by his skating every time. I skate with him like I skate with anybody else, though.

Skating changes and styles change too. I don’t think it’s a conscious thing, though. If there’s anyone that doesn’t need to think about that it’s Paul. I wouldn’t say he has lost in style, he just changed.

The good food in Belgium. Year-round good weather in L.A. .

I miss everything my mom makes. When I’m in the States I eat pizza, hamburgers, French toast, Mexican food and a lot more unhealthy stuff.

Switch frontside salad grind.

No, I don’t, but it was cheap!

In Belgium we skate the skatepark every day and go out filming maybe two or three times a month. Out here in L.A. I’m going from spot to spot, day in day out. I can’t really say one works better than the other. Skating always comes and goes anyway. In Belgium it usually works out pretty well because I’m in my personal environment. Eating and sleeping at home does a lot already. There’s more to skating spots than just feeling good, though. Everything has to be arranged, the spot has to be somewhat decent, and in the end you need a little bit of luck to not get kicked out and land your trick.

The spots in Belgium are about as good as they are over here, but in the States a hundred tricks have been done everywhere, so It’s actually easier to come up with something in Belgium.

Doesn’t really matter to me, both are good.

I’ve never gotten to film or shoot a lot of photos in Belgium and I think that’s important.

To show that it’s possible too, I guess. That’s about it.

Half cab nose grind to switch 5-o

It was, actually, but it could’ve just as well all been shots from the States, too.

I liked it better before, waiting for a video to come out and watching it every day for six months straight. They still meant something to everyone, now there are five minute parts coming out that get watched for a week and then just get forgotten, because there’s already fifty new parts that came out.

Magazines and photographers have a harder time as well, because everybody just throws all the footage on the internet.  We can’t really change anything about it, we can just keep having fun and doing our own thing.

Hardflip (click on the photo to see the sequence). 

Out of all the people in Copenhagen, Hjalte is probably the one who spends most time on his skateboard. If you’re going skating, you can always throw a text in Hjalte’s direction and be pretty certain he’ll pedal up to the spot in his Carhartt camo-pants. But Hjalte is much more than just one of Denmark’s best skaters. To tell you the truth, the man is so bursting with energy some might say he verges on ADHD. Aside from skateboarding, he plays football for “Motor 08” and wrestles the Atlantic waters on the schooner Opal. On board this fair ship, he has crossed the Atlantic, sailed the Caribbean Straits and swum naked with dolphins. If one day you find yourself in Copenhagen beholding a broad Viking with a red face and high-pitched laughter, hacking it full-speed, you can be sure it’s The Beast getting about. Yeppah!

- Nis Andersen

“If you’re pro and don’t have any goals, chances are you will get nothing done. With Hjalte, if you tell him you need things, like ‘We need photos, we have a deadline for an ad, we need an interview’ and so on, he focuses and thrives on it.”

– Pontus Alv

Walking into Bryggeriet Skatepark on a November Tuesday, I find the park in full swing. Leaving what appears to be a session at its peak are Hjalte Halberg and Pontus Alv. 

Front Board. Ph: Emil Hvilsom.

Done skating?

Yep. We’re done.

We take a seat outside the teacher’s lounge of Bryggeriets Gymnasium.

I’ve been told you don’t mix skating and chilling.

That’s true. I don’t mind chilling with skaters, but I sometimes prefer chilling with other people. If I’m in a skatepark, it’s mainly to skate. If my board is there and there is stuff to skate, I can’t help but want to skate it. I skate until I’m worn out and then it’s time to go home. That’s the best, actually; when you kind of get into a trance and you just skate, skate, skate and you sweat more and more and you get more and more warm until you’re completely fucked and then… straight home. I love that. You switch off completely. It’s almost like meditation; you’re mind is a blank. That’s rad.

How old are you and how old were you when you realised you look older than your age?

I’m twenty-five now. It’s funny, because all the way up to tenth grade I was the smallest guy in my class, then, in tenth grade, I just exploded and became massive.

Did you have any scores to settle?

Ha ha. Revenge-time.

Want to talk about graffiti?

Not really. I guess when you start skating or when you start painting, you never think you’re going to support yourself by doing it. You do it because you like doing it. I never thought I would make money from skateboarding. Ever. I got sponsored really late as well. All my friends got hooked up, but I never did. I was the kid who was just going fast back and forth all day long. I never thought this would happen. I’m completely surprised.

Back three. Ph: Nils.

Well then: welcome to life as a professional skateboarder. How is it?

It’s good. In the winter, I’m not so hyped on pro life, but overall it’s good. I just had the best summer of my life, travelling and skating. We had the Polar v. Palace tour in Malmö/Copenhagen. I’ve been to Costa Rica and New York as well. We rented an apartment there for two weeks. Amazing.

We have been on a lot of Polar camping tours too. We bought some pop-up tents; the ones you just throw in the air and boom: Polar Camp.  We travelled around Sweden filming for the Polar video. There should be a promo out by now actually. I went to London to film with one of my old Danish friends Emil Hvilsom for this really sick Danish project too. It’s called ‘Vores KBH´ which translates as ‘Our Copenhagen’. It’s out December 1^st.  Pontus and me will have a shared part.

How are you dealing with the winter?

This is my fist ‘pro skater winter’ and I’m not used to it. I usually work hard all winter, go on trips in spring and autumn and then stay in Denmark in the summer. This is the first time I need to figure out what the fuck I’m supposed to do with myself.

The truth is I’m really bad at doing nothing. I hate it. If two days pass where I don’t know what I’m doing, I get really foul-tempered. I really can’t do that whole thing where you sleep until two in the afternoon and think that’s cool. I need to have something that fills my day or else I go mental. So, lately I’ve been getting up on weekdays, thinking: “What are you doing? Get a job, earn some money. It’s raining every day. You can’t skate in the winter in this country.” You wake up on Monday, it hits ten and you’ve got no one to call.

Pontus: Welcome to pro life.

Frontside 180. Ph: Nils.

So you’re getting paid from Polar now?

Yep. Together with money from Nike, Carhartt and so on I can pay my rent, but I’m not rich or nothing. I’ve been working for about two days a week as a substitute teacher, but committing to more regular hours is hard when you travel all the time. I’m interested in pedagogics, but I dropped out of high school, so I need to catch up on that.  I’ve always wanted to work with kids, though. I worked almost three years in a kindergarten and have done skate-courses and so on.  I never, ever wanted to work in a skate store. Never.

I guess I need to develop another interest. I’ve started playing guitar a bit. [ironically] Maybe that’s what I’ll do after pro life, be a singer/songwriter, ‘Oooooh Yeeeah!’ I’m getting my driver’s license too.

I kind of think this is a problem, actually. I need another life than skating, so I don’t drain the fun out of it. Pontus found his filmmaking; I’ll find something too.

In between trips when the weather is shit I’m just trying to stay in shape. I’ve been swimming a lot. Went to the sauna today, actually. Early in the morning. There is a really good sauna in Christiania. Unisex.

Spa-lifestyle?

Actually, the first time I stayed over in Malmö after Polar was started, Pontus woke me up and said, ‘”Get up, you’re going to the masseuse.” I thought he was joking, but nope, he was serious, so there was nothing for it but going down there. Before breakfast: Thai massage.

Tell me about your sailing trip. 

My best friend Magnus’ parents spent their whole lives building a boat; a schooner. After sailing around the world seven times, they finally grew too old to sail it.  Then their sons took over the boat and Magnus became captain.  Two years ago he arranged a one-year round the world trip. It went along one of the classic trade routes: down to France, Portugal, then to Africa, Cape Verde, Brazil, the Caribbean, New York and then home. I was on the leg from Spain as far as New York and then flew home from there. Four months on board, working on the boat.

Front crook. Ph: Nils.

Fishing?

We did a lot of fishing there. Lots of fish. The biggest one was probably a 35 kg golden mackerel. We harpooned fish from the boat too, the water was clear enough to see the fish. And there was a pig called ‘Uffe’. When we crossed the Atlantic to Brazil, we bought a little pig that sailed with us from then on. Uffe got to eat the fish we caught every morning.

Did you eat Uffe?

We had planned to, but coming into Brazil, they are very particular about importing animals.  Unless you’ve got papers on your pig, you could go to jail or end up in a hairy situation. As soon as we got in, we gave the pig to a poor family. They were so stoked to get a fish-fed-fat pig they could eat. Either that or it has fucked up Brazil’s pig community forever.

Pontus: Was it strange being away from land for so long?

It was a little sketchy sometimes. When you are in the middle, it’s at least eight days each way. You can’t escape. We were seventeen people sailing, though, and there is always something to do. You work a shift and then chill, then work another shift. I read a lot of good books, cooked food and enjoyed the weather; there was always something to do.

Did you bring your board?

The captain is actually a really good skater. He used to ride for City Fellas: Magnus Maarbjerg. Every time we went ashore, it was session-time.

So you like travelling?

I’ve become addicted actually. If I stay at home too long I get restless and start thinking, “I can’t just be in Denmark all the time, there’s all these places I need to go to.” I’m going to Portugal on Tuesday.

Back tail heelflip out. Ph: Veldman.

What is it you like about travelling?

That it’s new. It’s a challenge. You don’t know what’s going to happen.  At home you are so comfortable and in your usual habits, but when you travel, you constantly have to adapt and take in new impressions.

What’s going on in Copenhagen? There are so many new spots cropping up all over, it’s insane. What’s going on with that?

They’ve ben developing the new harbour inlet and the town-planning department is currently set on building trendy, multifunctional spaces where they try to combine everything. ‘Modern playgrounds’ around basketball-courts and so on. Around Nørrebro, which used to be a bit ghetto, they’ve been building all these squares and public spaces designed for children and young people. There is one square surrounded by all these white banks and another one with a massive quarterpipe. Just now, they built this massive hip, which is sick. There’s new stuff all the time.

Is Copenhagen in danger of becoming a new Barcelona?

Nah. The weather isn’t good enough. But after CPH Pro, a lot of people have started doing tours here. Because Malmö is right next-door, a lot of companies do combined tours. It’s funny, because they tend to stay in Malmö and then do Copenhagen as a one-day trip, rather than the other way around. I think Malmö has had more of its spots seen in videos so people go there. You know; from Pontus and all his D.I.Y. shit [laughs].

Frontside ollie. Ph:Irvine.

Tell me about Jarmers Plads. 

Well, first there was always Faelledparken, but then, if you wanted to be ‘dope’ in Copenhagen, you had to skate Jarmers [Laughs]. At first I hated it; the ledges were so high and the ground so shit, but with time it got better and better and now I think it’s the best spot in the world. I skate there all the time.

People that come there react like I first did, but the ledges grind and slide better than anything. You just have to give it some time. It’s still the meet-up-spot. It’s all good vibes too. You can just come there and skate.

Since the bridge between Copenhagen and Malmö was built, the two scenes seem more intertwined. What do you think?

I think it’s because of the Bryggeriet skate-gymnasium. A lot of Danes come here all the time now because they go to the school. But there are still not that many Swedes in Denmark.

I was thinking about this yesterday and I think Copenhagen’s scene right now is really, very good. In Copenhagen, all the concrete-heads also skate with the ‘pretty boys’ and the nice kids. It’s mixed. There used to be a bit of beef between the rock kids and the hip-hop kids, but now it’s really good. There is no beef and a really good feeling of community.

Tre flip. Ph: Nils

How come everyone knows who you are? Are you ‘the face of Danish street-skating?’

Nah. That’s just in Sweden. Maybe in London too, from the connection between Polar and Palace, Jerome and so on, but not really. It’s true, though, I am one of the few who get any money from this. It’s me and Jonas Skrøder, apart from Rune, as far as I know. In Copenhagen I never get that “Ooooh, I’m famous” feeling.

Pontus: We’re working on it…

Well, Pontus has been pushing me a lot. Right when I got on Polar, he placed ads in all the magazines all over Europe, so of course you become a bit known, but I don’t think I’m very known, to tell the truth. It may also be that I was born and raised Copenhagen and have hung out with everyone who comes to visit, so that’s probably why people outside Denmark would know me.

How did you and Pontus meet up? How did you and Polar come about?

I’ve always known who he is. The first time I came to Malmö, I was crazy scared of Pontus. He was skating mad fast and doing nosebluntslides into people and screaming. He seemed crazy and I thought, ‘What a jerk,” right? But then I got on Carhartt and we started running into each other and ended up on one of their events at Sibbarp where he asked me for some footage for In Search of the Miraculous.  I ended up getting him some tricks that made it in, but it wasn’t until we went to New York on the Carhartt trip that we really hung out. That’s where he told me about the board brand and asked me if I wanted to be part of it.

Pontus: Hjalte was one of the first riders and it’s been good to get you out there and see you grow into it.

Yep, you’ve pushed me in a good way. When I got on, I was lacking a mission. I had Enjoi flow and it wasn’t clear where that was going. Carhartt is good, but that’s one tour a year, you know. But then Polar came and you were like, “We’re going to do this,” which whetted my appetite and we just started filming like crazy.

Kickflip from the “bump” to the curb cut. Ph: Nils 

Pontus: When you run a company, it’s your job to give the skaters you support, goals and direction. A professional skater without goals is lost.

[Hjalte] So they don’t turn into depressed alcoholics [laughs].

What does Polar add to skating. 

Hmm. We just follow our own heart, really. We make it less complicated, less polished. It’s not just that we don’t do HD and all that, but it’s the approach to tricks and skating overall. I don’t think Pontus would put a mad-tech skater on or a ‘strictly hammers’ skater on. It’s about basic skating, good speed and stuff that you get stoked from watching. It’s hard to really put a word on what it is that is special about what we do. But I do think it is unique. I think we’re doing something genuine: The graphics, the riders; everything. I really do think the company stands out. It’s simple. That’s one of the things I like about it: It’s accessible.

The whole team are homies too. We’re not all like that guy [points to Pontus, laughs]. Nah. He’s cool. Everyone on the team are nice guys.

What’s Pontus like as a ‘boss?’

He is really dope. He is clear on the need to produce things. He is tight.  And he is right to be too. He is a boss in a good way while he is also a homie.

What’s Next?

Polar: The Movie. It’ll be my first real videopart, so it’ll be blood, sweat and tears. The Kingpin interview, of course. It’s been quite hard, actually. Photos are hard for me to pull together. It’s easier with video. I can get footage fast, but photos are always a battle for me. I skate more lines and skate fast. A lot of what I do is skating fast and doing manuals, ledge-tricks and so on. That’s fine for video, but not so great for images. I can get sequences, but I don’t want too many sequences. You can put that in: This is why it’s taking so long, Alex!
No worries, I’m sure. Cheers, Hjalte. 

His section in VoresKBH:

A Japanse version of the interview can be found here.

Photos by Jean Feil, words by Arthur Derrien.

One of the best things about skateboarding is its diversity. I can’t imagine there being another niche culture out there that offers such a wide spectrum of personalities. Do Sammy Baca, Wade Desarmo and Leo Valls really have anything in common other than the actual object they choose to have fun with? Well, not really. Their approach to skateboarding is so fundamentally different that it’s almost not the same activity. Yet they are all part of this same world, and I’m sure a lot of people would be able to admire all three of them on their individual merit.  Skateboarding wouldn’t be the same without the people who whole-heartedly dedicate themselves to a certain approach, and that’s exactly why interviews such as this one are so valuable. If someone has spent years unconditionally devoting themself to a vision, then they are bound to have a lot of interesting arguments to justify it. Leo Valls is a perfect example of this. His skating is the result of a thorough thought process and we are lucky enough to have him break it down for us.

Yeah I’ve been away quite a lot, I spent half of last year in SF, and then I went on that Magenta trip to Japan (featured in issue 109). After that I came back to Bordeaux for a bit and left again to go to New York… Now I’m back at home, in France, and it’s just rainy and cold. I can wait to get out of here…

Well my wife is American and she has to finish university in San Francisco, so we live there for half the year.

After we got married in 2011, I went to the American embassy to apply for a one-year tourist visa. The interview went really well and the immigration officer granted me a visa that allows me to go back and forth (between France and the States) as much as I want. The only condition is that I’m not allowed to stay in United States for more than six months at a time. For the moment I’m satisfied with the arrangement because I like coming back to France after having spent quite a long time out there. On the other hand, I’m not saying I won’t apply for a green card once we’ve decided where we want to live. Finding a new apartment every six months can sometimes be a bit complicated…

San Francisco I is a very pleasant city. Its hills, its architecture and its colours make it seem unique, especially from a foreign perspective. It’s a city where skating revolves around speed, control and simplicity. You learn to powerslide rather than push and to let yourself go. It teaches you to really enjoy how everything feels. Hill skating was quite common in the nineties, yet it seems to have gone out of fashion around the year 2000. I feel like it’s an aspect of skateboarding that should be developed. Even if the scene is quite divided, like in any other major city, it always felt welcoming. I feel well integrated and I’ve met some great people such a Ben Gore, Evan Kinori or Carlos Young…

Bordeaux, on the other hand, is a much smaller city; it’s quite dense. Its renovation, that started just over ten years ago, created a lot of new spots and with them came whole new generation of skaters. Its marble streets, its old buildings and its lights are part of its unique charm. These things are what I like about Bordeaux. They make it standout from any other city and they are the reason why it attracts so many out-of-towners. In a medium sized city with so many little spots, it’s easy to cruise around and let your creativity express itself freely.

I grew up in Bordeaux. My whole family lives there, along with my childhood friends and I know the city inside out. Everything is easy here, whether it’s skating or just going for a drink with friends. Vivien Feil even recently moved out here and has set up an office for Magenta. That doesn’t mean that I don’t feel like I need to be out of the city as often as possible, but Bordeaux remains my home no matter what.

I try to go to Japan every year. Throughout my trips, I got the chance to visit most of Japan’s major cities as well as exploring the countryside.

I also quickly became friends with some Japanese skaters; some of them even came to visit us in France. The bond we have is built from our common vision of skateboarding, a vision in which the aesthetic side prevails. Currently, in a time when the skateboarding isn’t going anywhere – in terms of technical progression, the Japanese are showing us that there is a lot still left to explore, from an artistic point of view.

Japanese culture is extremely complex and very difficult to grasp. Going back there is always an interesting experience. You learn a lot from these trips, and your return home is always quite thought provoking. Japan was deeply scarred by the Second World War and, as a result, after became very Americanised. Certain aspects of traditional culture remained, particularly those linked to art and craftsmanship – in Japan, everything has to do with mastery. Whether it’s martial arts, design, food, tea or skateboarding. The Japanese have tried to recreate American skateboarding, except it has been filtered by their culture. They produce their own interpretation of it.

I’ve been to Japan with Soy several times, he’s the one who opened me up to this side of skateboarding in the first place; he helped me understand the phenomenon. Not only have these trips inspired us, but they also gave us bearings, enabling us to compare the experience with what we were used to seeing. I strongly recommend whoever reads this to go over there and form your own opinion about the place.

I think that it’s important for each of us to try to understand why we spend so much time wandering the streets on our skateboards and how we can gain something positive from it. Turning pro really made me think about this, and I feel like it’s helped my vision of skating has mature over the last 3 years. For instance, I asked myself a few basic yet fundamental questions: how do people perceive what I put out? What is going to satisfy me and make me evolve? How can I offer something original, something that will help me standout?

I realised that if you take a step back and think about what you are doing, you can really give your skateboarding the direction you want. This reflection can help you get rid of certain rules you impose upon yourself, in turn allowing you to progress.

Being pro means skateboarding for a living. To be able to do that, your skating needs to interest enough people for companies to decide to support you financially. Right now, lots of pros and ams that are technically good athletes receive this support from major companies and it allows them live comfortably. I think this is a good thing.

Now, if we consider skateboarding as an artistic activity, then the clumsy concept of someone’s ‘level’ loses all of its relevance. I, for instance, find it appealing when someone’s skating has a unique aesthetic, something that really transports you into his world. This can be done through spot selection, by moving in a certain way, by speed, by rhythm or by trying to express a message. For example Bobby Puelo’s skating is the result of a thought process, just like Takahiro Morita’s or Gou Miyagi’s.

Now, let’s compare skateboarding to other artistic activities such as painting or music. Unless an artist’s technical abilities are ground-breaking, for his art to be of any interest/relevance to the art world, he has to make it stand out by offering a new artistic vision, by inviting people into the unique world he has created, by exploring new areas of his discipline. Where would painting be today if people had only explored figurative painting and its technical aspects? That’s why I think skateboarding becomes particularly interesting when it’s conceptual and abstract.

But sadly, it’s not an easy task as skateboarding is surrounded by this ‘extreme sports’ culture that makes people want to see skaters go higher and further etc. But I’m happy to see that, today, more and more people understand what we are doing, particularly with Magenta, so I thank them for their support.

These days everything goes live on the internet faster than you know it, the sheer amount of skate videos that come out every single day make it necessary for us to put out clips regularly. The aim of these short edits is to get people to pick up their boards and hit the streets as quickly as possible.

We pour a lot of energy and devotion into each of our videos, so it made sense for us to keep putting them out on DVD. We feel that it’s important to give some of our projects a material form, so that some of the people that are really passionate about what we do can possess the videos as objects.

By the way, our next DVD is going to be called ‘Soleil Levant’ (Sunrise); it will be longer than the previous ones and will feature the whole team.

Yes, it’s out of choice, it’s because the VX creates an atmosphere that suits our company, it allows us to give the skating and the editing a certain dynamic. That doesn’t mean I’m not open to any type of camera, it’s just that its easy too get caught up in trying to do something really tech, and forgetting that what your are doing actually has to have a direction, has to reflect a certain vision.

To me, the most important thing is to establish a real connection with the filmer or the photographer, making sure that you share the same vision; it’s the best way to have a coherent result. I need to have my say and even help with the editing, no matter how complex a task it can be.

I’ve always watched a lot of skate videos; I like to know what’s going on. That includes all of the videos that came out in the nineties; they influenced me enormously, as well as the recent super-productions that have come out since. However I believe that if you are really passionate about something, it is your duty to dig up stuff that’s less accessible, to search for that special something that was so hard to get a hold of, rather than simply enjoy what you can find anywhere, as it is inevitably destined for a more general public. If music is your passion, it’s unlikely that you’ll be into mainstream music.  It’s the exact same thing with skateboarding. A lot of underground projects are released every year, and they are exactly what I enjoy.

For instance, in 2012 Josh Roberts from Perth, Australia released ‘Domingo’ and Ryuichi Tanaka from Kobe, Japan released ‘Strush’. These are just two of the many creative gems that comfort me in thinking that underground skateboarding is still alive and well.

Daniel’s not in this issue’s Cliché -15 years article and since we didn’t want him to feel left out, we decided to give you his interview from issue 104. Reda’s asking the questions and the photos are by Nikwen (except where stated). That kinked back tail flip out is mental… Bon Voyage is going to be sick!

I’m doing pretty good.

Not really..

I dunno, I’m just waiting.

Fontana.

In California…

It’s about an hour east..

It’s really expensive! It’s free.

Yeah I live with my dad. It’s mellow. I want to move to LA, well outside of LA, somewhere not so congested. I hate traffic.

It’s not that bad in Fontana so everytime I come out to LA I hate my life.

I’m just not used to how many people are around, how many cars. In Fontana it’s house out here it’s skyscrapers.

Kickflip

I’m scared of the beach.

I never said I wanted to live by the beach.

I’m scared water

I’m not scared of water I’m scared of drownding ‘cause I nearly drowned when I was littl….

Drowning.

Yeah I know how to swim.

I was 5 or something I jumped into the deep end of a pool without my floaties and someone had to save me, do mouth to mouth and all that shit. If I go to the ocean I won’t go past chest deep or I’ll freak out.

Font blunt

I don’t know I was fucking 5…

I don’t know, I would get nightmares, watching myself drown.

I haven’t had one in a long time.

Hopefully not, that shit sucks.

The only thing I do remember is just a glimpse of me running and jumping going for it in the deepend.

I don’t know. I asked my dad where he was at the time, he said he was in the jacuzzi and I asked my mom and she said she was tanning…

I came back.

They just said some dude jumped in and saved me.

360 flip

Because I almost drowned.

Yeah but I still have nightmares about it so I’m still scared of it.

I mean I was pretty cute back then…

Hopefully it was making out…

Haha.

Fuck, I don’t know, I was 5…

Yeah it was 10 years ago.

21

That’s old.

No.

I mean it affects me if I ever want to go surfing. I’ve done big jumps, when I used to ride bikes and stuff.

That’s exactly it, my parents split up right after that; they were never really together.

Switch backside heelflip

Hopefully.

No, it’s my little sisters fault.

I don’t fucking know.

She’s one year younger.

I don’t know, probably crying..

I was 5.

I don’t really want to know the whole story…

I think it was more when I started hanging out with Chris.

I’m not blaming him but he does smoke a lot.

No, it calms me down a lot. If I’m trying a trick and I’m really nervous about it I’ll smoke until it calms me down.

Back smith backside 360.

Do we really have to talk about this?

It’s not a Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift car, there’s no giant decals on it.

It’s a few stickers on it, calm down!

My dad has always been into cars so caught on with me. He used to have a shop and everything.

He wasn’t really happy at first, but I just went against him. “You’re into your muscle and I’m going to get the little engined cars an smoke yours.”

Yeah, on a track.

I wouldn’t say lose, like, I’m still a beginner on it, so I’m not fully on competition.

I’ve only been once. I was supposed to go last month and this month but things came up.

Yeah, I’ve been building it. Also, I take to the canyons and stuff.

No. I go out at 2 or 3 in the morning. You’re asleep so it doesn’t matter. And you’d hear me coming from, like, a mile away.

As in horsepower-wise?

I usually let off around 140.

Nah, not really. My friend got in an accident and broke her back so I wasn’t really too excited about it.

I don’t think that matters, that’s kind of a personal question…

Nothing.

No, that’s stock.

The fin comes with the car stock.

The bucket, yeah, I put that in.

Yeah, so that means its cheaper..

No I don’t have ground effects….

Yup.

What did you do to the engine? Did you bore the block out and put racing pistons in it?

No… Haha

Haha, what?! Haha.

Haha, haha, no..

Uh… From you?

Well the French kept saying “epinard” for some weird reason..

I think it was Lucas and JB that kept saying it and then you asked what does that mean and you never shut up about it since.

Backside tailside kickflip out

And then you kept singing the Popeye song to me the whole trip.

It’s weird when my friends call me that… It’s better than my other nicknames.

When I was younger they used to call me: Flying Squirrel, Squirrel, Chipmunk… Anything that had to do with chipmunk, like Alvin and the Chipmunks…

I guess I look like a chipmunk or a squirrel…

I still have big teeth.

I don’t have big teeth like Joey (Brezinski)…

For bucktooth?

No.

Sleep a lot.

What I meant to say is: I relax a lot.

That’s not little kid stuff!

I relax in between trips, I know I’m going away again so I relax.

I like going with Flo (Mirtain).

Backside heelflip (photo: Chami)

Nah, because me and Flo have this relationship where we just give shit to each other. So it makes it fun.

Flo loves me! Let’s me sleep over at his house when I’m there. I slept over there last time after some party and me and him woke up and watched 6 episodes of Desperate Housewives, haha.

Haha, no.

That’s the funniest part: I watched 5 episodes in French and Flo said, “Oh yeah, you do know we can switch it to English, right?” Such a dick! Haha

No, I don’t . I want to learn French, figure it out for myself.

No.

There’s things I can figure out, like when someone asks me for a lighter.

I don’t know how they say it but I can tell by their body language that they want a lighter.

Haha.

Haha, yeah, that’s my French.

C’est la vie..

I forgot… That’s life?

It’s pretty easy, I’ll learn French in no time.

I think the biggest culture shock I had was in China, it was fucking crazy. Out there I couldn’t go to, say,  a liquor store because I didn’t know what was a liquor store, it all looks exactly the same, with all these characters – it’s just really weird. After a few days I got used to it but it was weird. When I saw a black guy there I was like, “Holy shit there’s a black guy here!? I want to see a Mexican here.” It’s so rare.

A lot of Chinese people there, it’s weird ‘cause they stare at you like you’re an alien or something.

Fuck you!

I hang out with a lot of Asian people so it wasn’t that big a deal. I don’t know if Al (Boglio) or Jeremie (Daclin) ever told you but in France they left me at a spot?

Okay, so the night before we got super wasted, me, Lucas and Flo and we went skating the next day. I was sleeping in the van the entire day and we get to a spot and Joey was trying a flip front nose on this barrier in Lyon and I get up and say to Sammy (Winter) “I’m going to get something to eat.” I look up as I’m paying for my food and the vans are taking off, I’m like, “Are you fucking serious!?” I didn’t have anyone’s numbers, I don’t know what the place is called, I don’t speak French. I freaked out and ended up just started walking. I almost just wanted to lay down on the floor and give up, it ended up taking me like 4 or 5 hours to get back.

Yeah, as long as I’m by the water and I can find the Marquis I’m good, everyone knows where the Marquis is, it’s on a boat, you know, all the kids know where the Marquis. If I ask for some random hotel no one is gonna know where that is.

I do that now. Especially when you’re in China.

CAN I GET SOME OF THAT?
The Lucien Clarke interview from Kingpin issue 103, July 2012
Interview by Suart Hammond
Photography by Sam Ashley

If you live in Europe and you’re into skateboarding (hey, Kingpin readers!) then you probably already know about Lucien Clarke. Born in Kingston Jamaica, raised there and in Jamaica Queens, NY, Lucien landed in London at eleven years old, where he discovered skateboarding, got steadily shit-hot at it, then went from little grommet to long-limbed worldwide cool-guy in a smooth couple of years.
Now Lucien Clarke is one of the best skateboarders out: insanely laidback, dumb-stylish, always chilling, always nice, super talented and all like, brave and shit. Watching him skate recently I’ve been struck by the idea that somehow Lucien makes skateboarding look even cooler than it already looked. And I think we can all agree that it already looked pretty cool. How does he do that, skateboarders of Europe?
I’ve spent loads of happy time in Lucien’s fine company (PWBC) and we live in the same city, twenty minutes walk apart, so it seems perfectly fitting that when it came down to it, we had to conduct this interview over the phone. Lucien is the King of hard-to-pin-down. Don’t expect to meet him in an appointed place at a precisely appointed time, as a general rule, is all. Anyway the thing is; wherever, whenever he does show up, Lucien is universally beloved and I salute him. Get a load of this guy: everybody likes him. Because he’s cool as shit! Have you seen Tres Trill? Helloooooo!?! On Sunday, March 28th, 2012, while I was in bed at the Palace, Lucien phoned me from an unknown number, from a loud place, laughing, several hours after the appointed time of our interview.

Nollie back heel

So where are you right now Lucien?
I’m in Shoreditch House [Jazzy east London members mega-club], man! Some girlfriend birthday-dinner thing. It’s funny! Mad fun out here.

Did you have a nice time back there in New York?
I had a banging time man. I had the fucking best time.

Lev had talked about us trying to curb your partying too much out there, so you could get those Supra clips…
Yeah he did that a bit. One night he was all like, “No getting too fucked-up for you tonight mate…” And I was like, “Aaaaw yeah, fair enough.” Only one night I went in really hard. The last couple of nights I was there, when I didn’t see you guys, I went skating at night with Rob [Harris] and I got some stuff. I got a few tricks, it was fine man!

Flip back tail

You did go pretty hard though eh? I mean you’re the only person I’ve ever seen fall asleep in the street outside Max Fish…
Yeah! I didn’t even remember! Lev sent some Palace group email the next day, and he had a thing at the end saying, “Yo Lucien! Are you alright? You fell asleep outside Max Fish last night man!” I didn’t even remember it. He got a cab for me and I had no memory of it at all. Got back to the Green Diamond house at six in the morning, and Rob’s flat mate Zach [Malfa-Kowalski] was walking out to go to work. I said to him that it was perfect timing: “You’re going to work, and I’m just getting in.” New York’s just one of my favourite places to skate man. I love it there.

Frontside flip

It cracked us all up how in your old Kingpin interview you said you loved New York because you had your “First kiss there…first grabbed some titties…”
Where I used to live in Queens, it was on this block, and there was like a dead-end where we used to live, and I was in the middle. And in the flat at the end there was these two girls, called Melissa and Marrissa; these two banging black girls. And, next to them, there were these two dudes, and one of them was into basketball or whatever – we all went to the same school. It was me and my brother, and next door was some crazy African kids, and we’d always play baseball outside or whatever, and every now and then we’d get around in a little circle and do a game of truth or dare. So one time I was like, “Yeah DARE.” And one of the older kids said, “I dare you to touch her chest.” And I was like “YEAH! I’ll touch those motherfuckers!” She had big tits man. I was like “Yeah, this is going to happen, right now.” I couldn’t believe it, man.

Happy memories. How old were you then?
Fuck man, I think I was eight or something? Young, man! And she was a bit older too, I think she was thirteen. And she had massive boobs. It was good.

Why did you get into skateboarding in the first place?
Well my Mum’s boyfriend at the time got me my first skateboard. I went past Hyde Park, you know the Albert Memorial bit?

Yeah that’s where Lev started skating…
Yeah loads of people started skating there. I don’t remember seeing Lev there, but loads of people skated there. I just walked past, on like a daytrip kind of thing, with the new boyfriend, and I was like, “That looks amazing,” and he bought me a skateboard. You know Slick Willy’s? From there. And I started skating in sandals man, I didn’t know you had to get like proper skate shoes. I skated in sandals for a good couple [of] months, until someone came up to me and was like, “Get some fucking skate shoes man!” So I got a pair of Duffs and then I haven’t really stopped since then, pretty much.

Switch krook

Did you have any idea that skateboarding existed when you lived in Jamaica?
Nah man, no idea at all. I lived in Jamaica till I was five. The last year I was living there I got mauled by six German Shepherd dogs. I was at the tree trunk, and then all of a sudden I’m trying to fight these dogs off, like kicking and punching at them, and they nearly killed me, man. I’ve got scars all over from that shit; big one on the right side of my head, at the back. And I got one on my belly and one on my leg. I nearly died though man, seriously.

How about when you got to Jamaica, Queens, did you see any skating out there?
I had no idea about skating at all until I got to London man, none at all. I used to skate with these two friends, Matthew and Jack, and they lived just a couple of blocks down the road from me [in Victoria, where Lucien’s lived since age 11] and we used to skate everywhere. Everywhere being like, all over Victoria. Just skating around there; we didn’t know anything, like where to go or whatever. We were hopeless, but we just skated round there and that was it. And we’d shoot little videos and shit. The first person I ever filmed with was my Mum, actually. Just at Victoria benches. I’d do like, ollie up, one foot scooper thing off, and get her to film it. She’s sit out there for a good hour or two, and I’d be like, “Please Mum! Just another half hour, please!’ I just wanted to have a look and see what it looked like, you know? See what it looked like on TV, check myself out, ha ha.

Did you have mates at school who skated?
Yeah, I had this friend called James – he still lives down the road from where I do now. But back then he used to lie to me man, we used to lie to each other, tell each other like, “I can do this, I can do that.” Like back then he was telling me that he could do melons and I’d be like, “Aw shiiiiiiiiiiit really!? Woah!” And I knew I had to retaliate, so I’d be saying that I could do 180 melons and shit. I don’t know. Just being fifteen and just lying about tricks and stuff. It was cool.

The ol’ Ollie

Do you think Southbank has had a big influence over you?
Yeah man, definitely. Vicky benches [now-knobbed, legendary Victoria bench spot, ruled-over by Toby Shuall] and Southbank. I miss Vicky benches a lot, man. But when it got knobbed I was like eighteen or something, so by then I’d just be hyped to go skate somewhere else.

Who was dominating Southbank back then?
Mike Wright! He used to come down there loads. He used to come down with his Dad and he’d just kill it. Him, P-Nut, Joey and Snowy… Lev as well man – back then, he was doing like, good tricks on blocks and shit.

He’s still doing them, man! Was there a point back then when you suddenly realized you could make a proper go of skateboarding professionally?
Um, yeah, a little bit. I was done at school, and I was at sixth form, and Element said they were going to pay me to skate, and I was like, “Oh shit, I can really do this, and earn some money from it.” I was finished school, and doing waiting jobs, silver service and shit.

So when you realised you could skate for a living, did you let your studies fall by the wayside a bit?
Yep. Straight away. Straight away I was like, “Naaaaaaaa!” I hated school anyway. I really didn’t ever like it. So I was like, “Fuck it, I just wanna skate and make some money and give some money to my Mum,” and that.

Backside ollie

Oh you. You’ve done pretty well to avoid getting any serious injuries, haven’t you?
Yeah, I know. Touch wood, man. I’ve never had a properly serious one. I’ve broken my left wrist twice, when I was fourteen, and I had to get two metal rods going through it. And then I broke it again, a week afterwards. I was out with the cast on, trying to crooked grind the ledges at the Shell Centre, and I just snapped it again. That’s been it. And like, maybe a few sprains or whatever, but that’s about it. Touch wood. Touching that wood right now, man. The table.

Are you looking forward to the Palace trip to Denmark and Sweden tomorrow?
Yeah of course I am! It’s going to be amazing. I’m looking forward to it – it’s going to be good.

Lev says you’re not allowed to smoke weed on tour. Do you think that’s fair?
Yeah. Yeah, that’s fair. I prang out a little bit sometimes, when I smoke it, so I prefer not to in some situations. Especially on a trip. Now and again, it’s fine.

It’s weird that there are certain skaters, like Chewy [Cannon]or Karim [Bahktoui] for instance, for whom weed almost acts as a kind of performance-enhancer, isn’t it?
Yeah well not me man! Not me. It doesn’t help me skate at all. Every now and again – but I ain’t trying to do that too much, you know? It does what it does for Chewy, but not me.

Backside heel ph: Nikwen

I wanted to talk about the way skate-fan-girls tend to gravitate towards you like they’re magnetised. Why do you think that is?
Oh, okay… I don’t know about that. I think Supreme might have helped out with that. Palace and Supreme. I mean, that [Supreme] look-book thing [Lucien modelled in it], all of those streetwear people, all the trainer freaks, all those weirdoes look at it, see that shit out there.

You were supposed to work in the Supreme shop weren’t you? What happened on your first day?
Oh man! I was two hours late! I was two hours late, but only because I actually thought I started then. I spoke to James [Jebbia, Supreme] in the party, the night before; Ghostface was playing, and it was really loud. Obviously, in retrospect, he said, “Nine.” But I heard him say, “Eleven.” I honestly thought it was eleven. So I showed up at eleven and there was already a massive line of people walking in. I was like, “Fuck! What’s going on?” I walk in, and I see James’s face, downstairs, and he looks up and it’s just the look of death. And then I walk into the back, taking my stuff off, and Jagger’s [Dan Ball, Supreme] there and he’s just like “Na. Sorry man. See ya later.”

So you got fired before you even started?
Yeah, pretty much.

Switch backside flip

It’s nice how, even after you dealt them that par [LDN slang being used here as ‘unprofessionally’] , they used you as the face of the gear in the look-book that season…
Yeah, I guess so. And James was cool afterwards, you know? He was just like, “Everything’s fine. I just didn’t want to have a reason to fire you.” That’s cool, coming from James – quite gnarly. I gave him quite a good reason, straight off. Oh man… Fair enough.

Nollie frontside flip

You’re living back at your Mum’s now, what’s your average day like?
Yeah I’m back at home now. So usually I’ll wake up. Erm, eat. Call some people up, see who’s around. Call Steph [Morgan], usually – Chewy or Rory or Lev or whatever. See if Sam [Ashley]’s around to shoot photos. Then just go out and skate; see what happens.

Is Smasher your favourite skate photographer then?
Yeah Smasher’s my favourite, man. Even though he’s mental. I like how mental he is. He’s mental innit? He’s taken all the photos for this interview, so I’m stoked. He’s definitely my favourite, man. I love how crazy he is. He’s just straight-faced, emotionless, Bobby Know-it-all. Mental.

Are you stoked on getting on Supra?
I’m fucking hyped man! Of course I’m stoked on it. I just went to New York to film a thing for them. I can’t wait to meet them all man. Hopefully they won’t think I’m weird, or like, gay or some shit.

Who do you really admire on the Supra team?
Oh man… Stevie Williams! Penny! Penny is sick. I’ve met him once, we got mashup one night; everyone beatboxing towards the end of the night, and he was rapping, ha ha. This was in Copenhagen. I like that kid Boo Johnson as well. Ellington, obviously. It’s such an amazing team.

What about when Supra first came out, did you like it back then?
No, actually I didn’t, no. They had some weird shoes and that in the beginning but now they’ve really established themselves, and the shoes look sick now man! I’ve been skating them, they’re fucking banging. The team’s banging, and they want to support me, so I’m like, “Fucking yeah man that’s amazing.”

Backside heel

What do you like about being on Palace?
It’s just the best, best shit. It’s the dream. It’s the dream team. Everyone involved is just friends, like proper good mates. You go on trips and it’s all just more comfortable – you know everyone. I’ve known everyone on there for years and years. Everyone’s PWBC [Palace Wayward Boys Choir] as well: there’s no strangers. Proper PWBC.

You’re the most recent member of the gang to get the PWBC tattoo, aren’t you?
Fucking prison tattoo, man, yeah. Got a prison tat at a party. I was on a high, at a house party. There was a guy…I can’t remember the dude’s name, man. You might know him, I think Lev knows him [I don’t know him]. So he’d just got a new tattoo kit, and he was just giving out tattoos, so I was like, “Fuck it, yeah, let’s get it.” I drew it out, I made sure – I mean I was fucked, but I drew one out real quick and…then he just did it. I got it in a nice little place on my right arm. So I can flex my muscle when I’m showing it off, you know what I mean? Rory, Nugget and Guy Riza need to get one, man. I can’t believe Guy doesn’t have one.

Agreed. Have you got any parting words of wisdom you want to impart to the skateboarders of Europe?
Fucking hell, I don’t know. Just skate and be yourself and whatever. If it happens, it happens. Don’t try and be someone you’re not. When you’re young, there’s so much other shit that you can get into that’s bad. Bad shit’s all around, especially when you’re growing up. So skating helps a lot. I don’t know what I’d be doing if it wasn’t for skateboarding. I’d probably be a shitbag or something. I’d probably be a cunt. I’d probably get into something stupid. Skateboarding’s given me the attitude that I have now, to everything. I don’t know where I’d be without it.

Backside flip

How was the Omar S rave in Peckham the other night, by the way?
It was really good, man! We were all pretty mashup, we were all on a good level. We all had a good time and it was really fun. All the DJs before Omar were really good as well. I don’t know what happened to Joey, I didn’t see where he went after the first two hours or so. You know what: I don’t even actually remember how I got back to Rory’s house! I just walked into his house in the middle of the night. All the doors were open. He left maybe an hour before I left, and then I just walked into his house hours later. Front door was open, I walked in – his flat’s door was open, and I walked in. He found me in the living room and was like, “What the fuck are you doing here? How did you get in?” Your door was open mate! Shit was open.

How do you do that shit Lucien? Me and Lev came back to our hotel in New York one night and you were in there, passed out on the bed in your cap and trainers. You’d never even been to that hotel before, and you never had the key…
Ha ha! Yeah, that. I just walked up to the desk and was like, “I’m Lev Tanju motherfuckers!” They even asked for ID and I was like, “Yeah it’s in my room mate. I’m Lev Tanju!”

Ha ha. You’d better give some shout-outs now…
Big shout out to PWBC. Thanks a lot to DVS for sorting me out for all them years; big-up Supra, because it’s sick. All my friends, Steph, Mum, Brother and all my other friends who’ve helped me out. And all the people I’ve forgotten, as well. The people I can’t remember now, because I’m drunk.

Lucien is supported by Palace, Supra footwear, Slam City Skates, Altamont, Stella Supply Co., Autobahn wheels.

Josef Scott Jatta is one hard young man to find when you need to. And it’s equally hard to have him sit down and answer questions for an interview. That is why I figured I would invite a bunch of friends over for dinner, fool Josef to leave the endless session at Macba, give everyone wine and beer, put the recorder on the table and just have people question Josef about life and skateboarding in general. The interview crew lead by showman and good friend of Josef’s and everyone else’s, Mr Thomas Winkle started off straight away with one of the noisiest most random interviews ever made. Josef said he wanted something different and this is what he got, up or down ass wiping, black and yellow relationships, tentfucking, stinky old turkish yogurt and some skateboarding to mix it up.

Thomas Winkel: What’s it like being roommates with Pirkka Pollari?
It’s amazing. He’s a lovely Scandinavian mate.

You know he’s gypsy, right? That’s why they call him Manne.
Yeah man, Manne. I didn’t know that though.

Pirkka Pollari: So Josef. You’re from Sweden? Where’s your true roots at?
Gambia, Africa. My mom’s from Sweden. I grew up in Gothenburg. What are you guys, some stalkers?

TW: And when did you move down here to Barcelona?
2011? 2012? No it is 2012? I mean that’s now, right?

TW: Jesus, you don’t even remember.
No wait, it was in October. 2010?

TW: Was that a big change in your life, from Sweden to Barcelona?
Yes. It was.

Front blunt

TW: Like how? You skate more here?
Yes. I think so. In Sweden I skated like twice a week, here I skate everyday.

Björn Homenäs: That’s a lie! You used to skate every single day in Sweden.
Yeah, maybe when I was a kid. Not any more, though.

PP: What do you mean kid? That was a year ago.
I grew up fast since I got here!

TW: Have you ever had a job in your life besides skateboarding?
No. Uhm…nope.

TW: Do you know how to wash the dishes?
Yes. I do. I’m really good at it too.

BH: Is that why I found dirty dishes from like a year ago hidden under Castañeda’s bed?
[Haha!!!] This is a little too private…

TW: You’re trippin, this is perfect. So tell me about the DC Euniversal video?
It’s not done yet, I don’t think? And it’s not even called that.

TW: They changed the name?! Dude, I’m over this interview, man.
PP: What is it called then? Eurica?
It’s not called that either. I don’t know.

PP: What’s been your favourite tour with the DC guys so far?
Uhm…The second States trip was the best one. Good spots, good high grades, everything good.

TW: How was hanging out with Wes Kremer?
It was funny, crazy..

TW: Sweet Mafia?
That was sick.

TW: What about your little Tent Shitty trip around Scandinavia with the Perus wheel team?
That was dope, we should do it again. We had a shitty little yellow tent, me and Jonas. And there was some fucking in one of the tents outside of a night club…

TW: What, you slept in the tent outside of a nightclub? So what did you do, grab a girl in the nightclub and drag her back to the tent?
It wasn’t me man! It was *******! So ******* walks in the club—no, he tries to walk in the club, but he got kicked out, or they didn’t let him in. So he came back with a new jacket, got in, found a girl. The girl’s like: “Take me to your house.” So ******* goes: “Here’s my house, get the fuck in there!”

TW: He fucked her right there in the tent outside the nightclub?
Yeah, of course he did! On the patio of the nightclub, almost. And someone was puking in the background…it was sick.

TW: Why aren’t you in Sweden any more, Josef?!
Because it’s cold.

Frontside flip

TW: I don’t see you going back for the summer either, though.
It rains! [haha] No, I’m going to go back in the summer for a little bit, maybe. Skate some tranny in my home town and in Malmö.

TW: Have you ever had to move snow out of the way to skate?
No-o…yes, actually I think I did. Yeah, on this parking lot I used to skate. I forgot about that. It’s like an indoor parking lot, kinda, but there was a four stair going out of it. And it gets icy. The stair was skinny, [hihihi] … [haha] steep, [hihihi] tall [hahaha] and the roof was low, so my homie couldn’t skate it, cause he was too tall!! [hahaha] So he was just there skating flat ground! Ah man, that was the sickest four stair! [haha]

PP: When’s the video coming out?
I think on the 1st. [Of which month, you dummy? –Ed.]

TW: What’s up with the cover of this magazine? Are you gonna get it?
I hope so. I think, maybe.

TW: What trick is it gonna be?
Maybe a pop-shove it tailslide? I don’t know.

TW: So who are your sponsors, K?
DC Shoe Company Europe, Sweet Skateboards, Perus Wheels, Junkyard.com and DARKness.

TW: What’s up with this Darkness? I mean cause you’re really not even that dark, you’re kind of a light-skinned brother. Who’s the original Darkness, tell me about him!
There’s two of them, they’re from Malmö, Sweden. I don’t know where they’re originally from. One of them is maybe Somalian? He’s big and sketchy looking, but very nice. And the other guy is Fernando. He’s Colombian, I think.

Backside 5-0 front 180 out

TW: So give me a rundown of an average day of Josef Scott Jatta in Barcelona.
I wake up. Take a shit. Then I go for a smoke…

TW: Do you wipe it up, or do you wipe it down?
What do you mean down? How do you wipe down? I wipe up. Why would I want shit on my balls?

TW: Do you ever use those fountains that clean your guy?
It cleans what?

TW: Never mind.
So yeah, then I eat something maybe, watch some skate footy on hellaclips.com…

TW: What about the DC Embassy? Yo, when’s your Embassy clip coming out?
I don’t really know what’s going on with the Embassy. I’m way too busy.

TW: Way too busy, right?
Wa-ay too busy. Skating Macba, you know, learning flat tricks.

TW: Hey, you’re gonna do a shoe colourway, right? What colour is it?
Burgundy!

TW: Of what shoe?
Tonic.

TW: What’s your top five skateparks for tranny?
Malmö Stapelbädd. Fælledparken Denmark. Washington Street San Diego. Action park in my hometown!

TW: One more? No? Alright, I know you don’t own an iPhone or iPod, so what do you listen to?
Gangsta shit.

Noseblunt slide

TW: Any Jah bless?
Yeah, some mad dub.

TW: Dubstep?
No, dub. Reggae.

TW: What’s your top five, what you listening to? Give me a piece of you, I wanna know you right now.
Andre Nicatina, Wu-Tang, James Brown…

TW: You like Rick James?
Yeah, but I like James Brown better. He’s black and he’s nice! [haha]

PP: What do you got going on after the DC video? You gonna give me some footage for Perus?
Gonna go to the States with Sweet and then I film that shit in one week, probably. Just kidding.

TW: You think you could be the first brother with a SOTY if you took skateboarding serious enough?
No.

TW: Why not? I never seen a brother skate tranny as well as you.
DARKness! [haha]

TW: What you think about Portland, Oregon, you wanna skate that tranny?
I wanna go right now. Soon as possible. Asap.

TW: You need to go to Florida, you need to go to Portland, you need to go to Louisville Kentucky, man, they got the craziest trannies there, man. How do you like the States?
It’s nice. But it’s boring. Cause you can’t do shit. Everything is illegal.

Flip front nose

TW: You think you got more freedom in Europe?
Yes. I don’t have a car so I can’t drive [in the US]. And I can’t go out.

TW: You can’t get into clubs? Even in Sweden?
Yes.

TW: So basically you’re like Don Juan the Magic Pimp out here in Barcelona?
Who’s that?

TW: How many girls you got on you?
One.

TW: One? What race is she?
Yellow! [hahaha] Black and yellow, black and yellow…

TW: Jesus…is there anyone you’d like to thank?
My mom…my daddy…my grandma…fuck it, all my family. And then all the homies, the DC bosses, Ruben, Gaston, all the boys, Björn, Thomas, Junkyard, Sweet, Perus, DARKness!! I got one more: Winkle. Then Isak, the little lazy cunt.

TW: Do you think the skate video era has died, or you still wait for skate videos to come out?
I still wait for those.

TW: What’s the hottest video right now that you’re watching to get you hyped to go skate?
Any fast skating, funny, not too tech.

Frontside hurricane

TW: What was the latest webedit you were in?
Uhm…this Perus friends thing, I had like half of a line. Or in the Embassy clip there’s a shot where I’m eating a burger and Alex [Rocher] is looking at me. [haha]

TW: So what’s the story with Alex [Rocher], you live with him too? Is he getting better?
Yeah he’s doing better. But still not good.

TW: What do you gotta say to all the people out there drinking, getting crazy at night?
Don’t get retarded. Don’t do serious fucking bullshit. Don’t fight, it’s fucked up.

TW: Hey Björn, we’re 24 minutes in you haven’t asked anything.
BJ: What do you normally ask for an interview?
TW: You grill ‘em real fucking hard, you make ‘em feel fucking weird that’s what you do! So, Josef Jatta Scotta. I’ve been sitting here waiting my whole goddam ife to meet you. And now I’m gonna interview you. Are you ready? It’s gonna be a 30 second interview. You answer as fast as you want. And if you’re not fast enough—next question. Here we go. Is the sky blue?
Yes.
TW: Is water wet?
Yes.
TW: Did Judas…oh wait…grab the Romans while Jesus slept?
What??
TW: That was a rhyme. Alright well, that was my thirty seconds..
We should do this interview with iPhone so you can listen to it.

TW: You can, right there.
No, but I mean in the magazine, like you get the magazine and you scan the thing…

TW: Oh like a bar reader? That would be ill…but here’s the thing about why we can’t do that: Technology is already making the human-being race so fucking stupid that if they couldn’t ask google, they wouldn’t get the answer. You know back in the day motherfuckers knew two hundred phone numbers in their head. Tell me my phone number? Thank you. Tell me my apartment, where do I live?
Paral-lel, *******.

TW: Yeah alright, whatever…but what’s your house, where do you live at?
I think *******? That’s easy.

Bigspin front board to fakie

TW: What was it like living with Alex Castañeda?
Good. Jonas killed it there too.

TW: How many houses have you had in Barcelona in the last two years?
Three. Four. Four counting yours. I rented your room six times. But that room’s free now, so if anyone wants to get in there…

TW: Thanks a lot!! Yo yo yo, anyone wanna rent a room this month, and I know this issue comes out next month, I got rooms to rent…bring your girl, it’s cheaper!
And bring an Xbox, because the old one we had is gone…they took it. But I don’t care, I’m gonna take it back.

BH: Are you any good at that?
Xbox? Yeah, I’m very good at that. Very good.

BH: So we were talking about you growing up in Gothernburg. How did you star skating in that cobblestone paradise?
I got a board from a homie for like eight euros, I think. It was a Stadium board, some kind of a sports mall complete. Like if you’d go get a set up at Lidl, it was like that.

TW: First video you ever saw?
16 Below, volume 1.

TW: That shit sounds terrible
You don’t know it, man? Paul Rodriguez is in it, Jeremiah Vance…who else? Mikey Taylor. You really haven’t seen this? Jeremiah Vance sacks on that rail to scorpion at the bottom. The afro guy. Sack, scorpion, boom.

TW: I met Jeremiah Vance before and look where he is today.
Where is he?

TW: Exactly.
BH: How long did your mom make you wear a helmet?
TW: Ah yeah, no wonder you can skate tranny, cause you were wearing a helmet for so many years!
I started skating bowls after I dropped my helmet!

TW: What’s up with this DC video, you don’t have any tranny tricks in there?
I got one. We should’ve gone to Oregon.

TW: So you saved that shit for the SOTY?
I don’t know what you’re talking about. Stinky Old Turkish Yogurt?

TW: Skater Of The Year!
Who?

Kickflip the gap to frontside nosegrind down.

TW: You got anything to say to the people in the snow right now?
Get over here.

TW: So where do you see yourself in five years from now?
Somewhere warm and cheap.

TW: Okay, so one more question. Do you have any goals in life?
Nope.

If you haven’t seen Josef’s part in the DC Where EU At? video, then you’re missing out. Set things straight right here.

Portrait by Arto Ekman

Pirkka Pollari has been around and back again for a good decade. What started as a tight crew of friends skating together, first gradually got his name out there, made people take notice, then began opening doors of the industry corridors. After seven years and several video parts with Element, Pirkka is now a free agent. The original Perus crew has become a brand, some dudes have wandered off along the way, but the core remains the same. Pirkka’s person, his daily life and his whole existence has the heart of skateboarding scribbled all over it. The circle might be complete, he might be back to where he started—fiming, skating with friends, repping Perus—or it might be the start of a new chapter. But whatever the future throws at Pirkka there is one thing that you can be sure of. He’ll take it as it comes and give it all he’s got. One hundred percent.

Nosebonk grind in Stockholm’s meat packing distrct. Photo: Deeli

You’ve sort of migrated to Barcelona lately?
Yeah kind of I guess. I came here in like November – December maybe, or even earlier I can’t remember now. Initially we were just supposed to film that Perus Embassy clip and hang out a bit, nothing else planned really. But then the shit happened with Element, they didn’t want to renew my contract, and at the same time I had the opportunity to work a bit at the [DC] Embassy. So I figured I’d hang out here for a bit, see how it goes.

Where have you been staying?
On and off at the DC place, then just recently I moved in with Alex and Josef. Their place is pretty close to Rambla, so it’s convenient and central.

Is this the first time you’ve sort of done a longer stint there?
Nah, well, I’ve done sort of three-month stretches before. Or I’ve floated between Barcelona and Malaga. It’s the usual in the winter, but then I always want to get back to Finland when the summer comes. I’ll probably stay here for another month or so and then head up north around April / May.

Cab shove it at the Mushroom pool in Helsinki. Photo: Deeli

You recently started working at the DC Embassy?
I started at the beginning of the year, yeah. Edu [Eduardo Muñoz], who usually works there, had this project he was filming in Dubai at the time, so I came to fill in for him. He’s filming this new skatepark they’re building there that’s like this weird art piece as well. Apparently, when you look at it from the side, its silhouette forms the word “Art” in Arabic. Pretty nuts. It looks insane, completely made up of these transitions and bumps to make up the word. I’m sure you can find a link to it, just type skatepark art dubai or something…after that Edu’s been editing the DC European video, so I’ve staid at the Embassy. I think they’re into what I’m doing, so it’s all good. I’ve been doing that stuff—filming and editing—long enough to know what I’m doing, so they don’t need to have anyone watching over my shoulder and I don’t need to ask them stuff like how did you do that cross fade again…[haha]

How did you end up in there?
It was kind of a joke really at first. Like I’d sort of heard or got the vibe that things might be coming to an end between me and Element, so I was saying to Thomas [Winkle] one night at his place something like: “Why don’t you get me a job there, it looks fucking easy what you’re doing!” And two days later I’m working there.

Frontside 5-0. Photo: Guillaume Anselin

Winkle is saying that this came at a perfect time, when just after that night he was asked who he’d like to work with. He said Pirkka without having to think twice: “You know, it’s cool to be on the streets, but the streets ain’t paying that much. Sometimes you need a job. And Perks is the man for this one.”

So what’s your job description?
Usually it’s editing at the upstairs bit. And sometimes I’m filming, if Thomas [Winkle] or someone else can’t make it. Or I could be filming second angles. We need to do three clips a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so it’s pretty tight for time. But if there’s nothing else going on, I usually get to skate the park as well.

Is it your responsibility to make sure there’s enough clips coming out?
Well yeah, but I mean there’s Adrian making sure there’s a constant flow of teams and skaters coming in to film. We just do the filming and editing, not the organizing, you know. But then when I’m editing it, if there’s something missing, then obviously we need to make sure we get the extra bits we need, like if it means more filming or whatever. Plus we try to film individual random parts with people so if some team doesn’t get their clip done in time we’ve still got stuff to post.

Frontside pivot to fakie a stone’s throw from home in Vantaa. Photo: Deeli

Are people going off usually when they come there to film?
You can pretty much tell who is and who isn’t. I mean it’s not the easiest park to skate, I’d say, so it can be difficult to come up with stuff straight off the bat. Everything is so fresh, like the edges on the ledges are fucking sharp so they’re slippery as hell. But if it’s hard, sometimes we’ll look at other people’s shit that they’ve filmed to give the new dudes ideas and then everyone usually comes up with stuff in the end.

Who’s ripped it the hardest while you’ve been there?
I would have to give this one to the Norweigian kids, Steffen and Herman. They definitely murdered it. Gotta give some props to Eniz and Barney aswell. Would be interesting to see Nyjah and Cole to drop in by the park someday and see what they got up their sleeves.

Backside nosegrind at Lauttasaari shopping center. Photo; Daniel Lorén

Sounds like a perfect job for you then.
I know how to do it, I get to skate and meet everyone who comes through, so yeah, I’d say it’s pretty sweet. I do my bit and keep my mouth shut, that’s about it.

What’s Winkle like to work with? Is he his usual cheerful self on the job?
Yeah, you don’t need to be shy down there. You can pretty much act like you’re on the street.

Tailslide flip out, Helsinki. Photo: Deeli

Do you work office hours or what?
More in the afternoon and evening. We usually get there between 1-3 pm and then we leave between 7-10 pm, depending on the session and whether people have landed their tricks.

Nosepick on Mäksy’s transition, behind the DIY in Helsinki. Photo: Deeli

Do you enjoy the routine in brings in your life?
Definitely. I like cycling over there, clearing my mind on the way, then getting to work. It’s nice to have a daily schedule for change. It’s kind of good having to wake up at a certain time and keeping alert. You can’t just stay home if your flips aren’t coming out the way you want them that day. Of course there are days, if the sun is out and I’ve been skating flat at Macba in the morning, so it might feel like a drag having to go indoors and edit. Like if they call me when I’m just getting warmed up and starting to land tricks and they tell me to get there in twenty minutes, I’m like ah man…and I feel like saying I can’t go, not now! [Haha] But I always go. [Haha]

So what happened with Element?
I don’t know. I mean I was still down for Element, down to do stuff, but from some point on I didn’t seem to get invited on any of the trips any more. I think maybe it’s hard to see from their side that there’s just one mag in Finland for me to have coverage in, and with the salary I had it’s difficult for me to go on trips around the world to get stuff with other mags and that. If they weren’t into what I was doing or how I do stuff, I guess that was it then. It’s a shame it didn’t seem to count for much that I’ve been on the team for quite a long time. Like seven years. But then I guess a lot of the people over at Element have left and gone to other jobs, like Phil [Lalement] and Christian [Vankelst], who used to be involved with the team. I’m pretty bummed, cause I really enjoyed the whole thing, the travelling with the team and everything we did together. Another thing with coverage is that most of the stuff I’ve had in the Element videos for example has always been filmed on the trips with them. So if all of a sudden I don’t get the opportunity to go on the trips any longer, it makes it difficult to get coverage as well.

Frontside 180 beside the intensive care unit in Helsinki. Photo: Deeli

Sort of a vicious circle?
Maybe…or maybe I wasn’t being proactive enough to let them know about every fucking clip I’ve put out or photo I’ve shot. I tend to forget about it. And to me it feels weird that after so many years with them, I’d still need to prove myself all the time. But I mean they might see it differently, of course, maybe to them it seems like I’m not doing anything, if I’m not making noise about it. And since I rode for Element shoes as well, so when that stopped I wasn’t going on any shoe trips either. So I guess I wasn’t that visible for a while from their point of view. But it’s hard to see it like that from where I’m standing, because I’ve been skating every day, constantly filming stuff, putting out little clips and so on. Maybe it’s just been through the wrong channels or maybe they don’t know about it at Element or something. I sort of felt that if they’re interested in what I’m up to they’d come across most of that stuff on the net anyway without me having to send them links all the time. Maybe I was being too modest. Too Finnish! [haha]

Are you going to ride for Perus boards now?
I don’t know…maybe I should send myself a sponsor-me tape! No, but I don’t know if I’d feel right being on the team. [In the latest issue of kingpin, Pirkka actually has a Perus Skateboards ad, so guessing he's riding for the company now!]

Backside 180 switch front krook, Pirkka’s welcome home ad in this month’s Kingpin. Photo: Deeli

Why not?
It just feels like if I’m not on anything else, I’m going to ride the boards anyway, so what difference does it make if my name is on the “official” list or not?

Well you could say that that’s the whole point of sponsorship that you use your name and your skating to promote the product.
Yeah I know what you mean, but it’s hard for me to make up my mind on what to think about it just yet. I think what I’ve been doing at the Embassy and all that has helped give the brand more visibility as well, the fact that we had those Perus Embassy clips, for example.

Front blunt, God knows where. Photo: Deeli

When you get back to Finland, are you going to look for a job or is Perus going to be the job?
We’ll see. I mean I’d love for Perus to be it, but it’s going to take a lot of work to make it that way. Then again it’s the kind of work you do on the street sometimes too, just being out there, getting the name out,filming the homies and so on, so im kinda working without knowing about it sometimes too. Who knows what the future brings though.

What about with DC, have you been involved with anything other than the Embassy with them?
No, not really. But that would be sick though to be a filmer on a trip sometime. It would be such a different thing compared to being the dude on the back seat drinking beer…I guess I’ve kind of been the daddy figure on some occasions with Perus, making sure things are more or less running smoothly. And I’ve been the guy with the car for so many years already, driving these homies from spot to spot, telling them to do something! [haha]

Back tail up and bomb the hill through the park. Photo: Deeli

Are you saying you could see yourself working as a filmer?
I do work as a filmer anyway, have done for a long time, so I guess what I’m saying is that I wouldn’t mind seeing myself getting paid for it for change. I suppose you wouldn’t think that, since I’ve never put my name on any of the Perus clips, but I mean I’ve been filming and editing that stuff with my friends for so long. And I love doing it. I love the travelling, I love the skating, I love the people. I want to keep doing it for as long as I can. Whether you want to call it filming or skating or whatever doesn’t really matter that much. To me it’s all the same thing, a complete package.

Meri comes on in the background: “Food’s ready Pirkka!” Ross McGouran is over for dinner. There’s roasted red peppers, sweet onions, some mushrooms; “Maybe some sick pasta dish if I’m lucky”, Pirkka says. No doubt there will be wine. Another mellow night, staying in, hanging out. It’s a good life—no matter what you call it, no matter where you do it. As long as you just do it.

Pirkka’s hood in Vantaa is blotted with spots like this that no one else knows about. Hometown hardflip. Photo: Deeli

At the moment, there is serious reason to worry for issue 88′s interviewee, Kilian Heuberger, as he collapsed while skating a comp in Austria recently. Here is a bit of information on his state of health provided by his friend Lucas Fiederling:

“As you may have heard already, Germany’s Kilian Heuberger was brought to a hospital in Austria last week after collapsing in the middle of an ongoing contest. Shortly before that, he lost his ability to speak, just to pass out right afterwards.
A syrinx in Kilian’s brain caused bleeding, influencing the speech-area and his movements and also causing the loss of consciousness. Luckily, help could be provided quickly.

Since then, Kilian had to undergo brain-surgery, leaving friends and family worried since the doctors only gave cautious prognoses. Kilian though, one of Europe’s finest skateboarders and known for his strength and perserverance, fought back.
Surprisingly enough, prospects are good. Kilian is conscious, he can move his arms, just recently he even went for a short walk.
Kilian was transferred to a hospital in his hometown of Munich and will proceed with rehabilitation measures now – way earlier then expected.

Keep your fingers crossed for Kilian!”

This interview took place about a year ago, in the spring of 2010. In the world of printed magazines things take time. Especially things that concern the internet. That portrait took about 10 years to go online.

Age: 22 – or is it 23 now?
Residence: Barcelona

What are you doing in Finland?
We’re going to have a Blueprint premiere here, so I need to sort that out with Pete [Ruikka] from the distribution. Or actually that’s just a good excuse to spend a couple of weeks in Helsinki.

How was your UK tour with the video?
It was good, we had good weather the whole time. It was fun, had some premieres, had some beers, the whole team was there.

Sw fs ollie

You got stuck in London after the trip because of the ash, right?
Yeah, but it wasn’t that bad at all. Lucky it was London. I was supposed to stay at Smithy’s for one night before going back to Barcelona, but I ended up staying for an extra week. Cheers for the couch Smithy!

This is pretty much your first full part, right?
Yeah. I mean, Marty has his PAL footage inside my part in the video, since he had all his NTSC footage in that promo that came out in February.

Anssi Paukkunen: Hang on, Marty has his footage in your part, or you have your footage in Marty’s part?
[laughing] No, it’s definitely my part with his stuff in there! It even says Tuukka featuring Marty in the beginning of it [laughing], so I’m claiming it’s my part for sure! And it only took me about 5 years to film it as well.

Back 5-0 front shuv

Anssi: And even so you needed a bit of help from Marty! Were you actually able to use the older stuff?
Well, there’s a couple things that are pretty old, from some trips and from London…

Are you like a foot shorter in some of it?
No nothing that radical. I haven’t actually changed that much it seems. Although there is some line in there where I’ve got a pretty gansta steeze, baggy trousers and that. It looks pretty funny.

Are you going to start working on the next video right away, or do you have some space to breathe now?
Well, we tried to go filming in London right after the tour. I mean, we didn’t get anything, of course, but we did try, so I guess we’ve started working on the next one. [laughing] They were saying something about HD and something, I’m not really sure. I just film whenever I go skate and there’s a filmer there, that’s what I’ve always done anyway.

Sw bs ollie

Who do you usually hang out with in Barcelona? Just whoever’s in town or crashing at Thomas Winkel’s place?
Well, fortunately I don’t live in that house any more. Or I didn’t really live there at any point, as in I didn’t have a room there, but I did spend quite a while in that house and there’s always people coming and going. It can get a bit hectic in the long run. You get all kinds of characters walking though that door. But no in general, I got my own little group of friends who live there, but of course I’m always stoked when my friends from Finland come by.

Does it ever get tiring though? I’m thinking of the lifestyle, where it’s always someone’s first or last night in town, partying like there’s no tomorrow?
Well I guess in a way, but then living there, you don’t really have to participate and go out every single night, you know. I know what you mean, and it can be like that when it’s my friends from back home visiting, but that doesn’t happen every day of course. And when it’s someone’s last night once again, you’re just like whatever, he’ll be back in a couple of weeks anyway!

Bs flip

Speaking of houses, didn’t your upstairs neighbour set your door on fire?
Yeah, let’s see, it was around Christmas, Antton [Miettinen] was visiting, we had a few beers at ours before heading to the bars and coming back again in the early morning. That was our mistake. Antton was being a bit loud, and I admit I was too. Everyone had gone by about 6am. At 10 I wake up to someone banging on the door. I get up all dizzy to have a look and I see the bottom of the front door is in flames. I open the door and it’s our other neighbour, on his way to work and he’s like: “I thought I should wake you up and let you know you door’s on fire, so you don’t burn to death in there.” I go get bucket and put the fire out. Afterwards I called the cops and the fire brigade and it turned out that our upstairs neighbour hadn’t appreciated the noise too much and decided to torch our place.

And he lives above you?
Well, he’s moved out. But it goes to show how smart he was, setting fire to your downstairs neighbour’s place. Obviously, you’re going to burn your own flat down as well.

Bs noseblunt biggie

Tuukka Korhonen rides for Blueprint, WeSC and Perus Wheels.