I’ve seen Karsten around for the last 10 years, he started skating around the time when Oslo’s biggest skatepark was suddenly built in his neighborhood of Bekkestua. At first I thought he was just going to turn in to a skatepark rat, but I was wrong, he’s decently one of the raddest street skaters out there at the moment, with full-on power and speed. The last time I meet him was randomly in Paris this summer, whilst he was on a Lakai tour and I noticed that he was enjoying skating with bigger confidence than before, I realised then that he had stepped up he’s game to the next level. – Gabriel Engelke

Hey Karsten, what have you been up to since Berlin?

Yo Sem! Everything is good!  Just been skating a lot and hanging out with friends!  Normal stuff I guess!

How’s your elbow by the way? I remember it swelled like a balloon after that slam on the rail. 

My elbow is back to normal after the slam. The thing was that I had an infection in my elbow two weeks before the trip to berlin.

Stalefish. Ph:Nykwen.

Ah yeah, I remember now about the infection.

Yep. So it was really vulnerable and then when  I took that slam straight to my elbow it just swelled up crazy!

Do you actually live in Norway? Where exactly? 

Yeah I live in Oslo, the capital of Norway!

Isn’t it too cold to skate there now? 

It’s way to cold to skate! It’s freezing!

Do you have good indoor parks?

We have two small indoor skate parks in Oslo and they are so crowded all the time! We really need a new one.

Bluntslide. Ph: Sem.

And how’s skating and living in Oslo?

My city is pretty mellow! It’s not too big not too small, and it’s really good for street skating during the summer. I usually skate with a few friends I live with.

Do you share a flat with skaters?

Yeah, we’re four friends sharing a flat in the east part of town. And we’re all skaters, so it’s perfect.

During the spring and summer I try and spend as much time as possible in Oslo ‘cause it’s so good, but when fall and winter come I try to travel. Like right now I’m in Long Beach with Nassim, skating and enjoying life!

True that, I’m sorry I called you earlier today, I didn’t realise it was so early over there. So, How is Long Beach going? 

Ha ha, no problem man! I had to get up anyway. I’m going to stay here for one month!

Switch smith. Ph: Sem.

Is it your first time there?

It’s not my first time. I have a couple of friends over here so I usually go a couple of times a year. This would be my 6th time I think.

Alright, now I understand why your English is so good. Is it a personal skate trip or does Element want you to be there for some reason?

It’s both. I’m coming here to film for the upcoming Element Europe video and to chill and escape the Norwegian Winter.

And how’s the US this time then?

Well when I arrived at the airport and had to go through the border control. The lady didn’t like me, or something, so I had to go through another control and wait for one and a half hours before they decided that I wasn’t a terrorist and let me go!

Karsten is 22 and rides for Element, Lakai, Session Skateshop, Spitfire, Thunder.

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). 

Jarne must have stacked up a lot of good footage if he can afford to let both those tricks go into a trailer… Be sure to get your hands on a copy of issue 113, Jarne’s 16 page interview in it is banging.

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.

Interview: Jan

Photo: Sam

Err… Well, in my opinion, skateboarding these days is at a point where everyone needs to choose their path; and that might involve splitting up. It is going to be interesting to see the future of it all.

I don’t agree so much with the article. They claim corporates will be aiming to rationalise skateboarding, so that it can be more easily consumed by the masses, and I don’t really agree with that. I believe they can profit of normal street skating, if they brand it well. And that is half of the article, which really is an interesting read, but in truth it reveals more about the author’s take on it. My take is this: when you go to a skate shop or wherever and buy skate product, with what you buy, you participate in the industry and culture. And, after all, skateboarding is an industry, people in it are here to make money, I’m not judging that. What I’m getting at is that investors from the outside, who are not skating and have no background in it, will be much quicker to pull the plug and get out if the profits can be made more easily elsewhere. Not saying there is evil in the corporate, that’s just the structure of it. It’s made to make money, period. So, if you picture skateboarding as a wall and each company is a brick, it’ll end up getting pretty sketchy once too many of those turn corporate. Because, if too many pull out, the entire wall is coming down. At least this goes for the industry side of things, ignoring all things cultural for the moment.

You have people ending up with only an energy drink sponsor, thinking, “What happened?!” At the same time it gets harder and harder for core brands to keep up with the money the others are willing to offer up. Just staying in business for them turns out to be a challenge.

But as I said, it’s not all bad…

No. What I’m saying is: if you’re supporting a brand that’s not from a skateboarding background, you’re taking a risk; you’re making the industry more fragile. Of course, at the same time you make it bigger. However, you’re feeding something that is most likely to leave one day. By the time the masses’ attention shifts towards the next trend, the hover board or whatever, that’s where those corporates will be going.

At the end of the day, there will be some accountant or manager who decides where the money goes. And if he doesn’t see investments make a profit, he’ll put them elsewhere. Looking at skater-owned brands like Antiz on the other hand, who haven’t really made much profit in ten years or so, they still keep going, because, what are they going to do? They’re not going to invest in something else instead!

Frontside feeble (Photo: Coulthard)

Yeah, it’s the same thing. All the farmer knows is farming, that’s his thing. One year his crops will be better than the other, still he’ll always go on to do what he knows. He’s not going to start investing in pharmaceuticals the next year, because that’s what a corporate farming company might do with half their budget if one winter the prospects for rocket doesn’t look too good.

Well, with Blueprint: the thing that no one knew was, that it was in fact owned by Nike and Red Bull; and we didn’t want to support corporates any longer (laughing). But seriously: Blueprint was bought by Pure Distribution three years ago, which was the best option the guys in charge had at the time, because Faze 7, the old owner, was being liquidated. There were not a lot of options at the time as the industry was in a bad place but Pure seemed fitting because it was actually owned by an old skater, he knew what he was doing, had promised to push the company and also keep Blueprint its own entity, away from other brands he owned. Everyone of the riders agreed on making the move, and it was good. We all were actually quite motivated on the new thing, getting some new guys on, who were picked really well by Shier and Magee. Some people in England were not super stoked on Blueprint going to America, but at least the team was happy about it and still together. But with time, some things didn’t go that well and doubts started to arise. Magee wasn’t motivated, Baines left and eventually Shier. Hence, what made Blueprint was gone. So then us riders felt there was no point in staying. There has been talk of mutiny or whatever. But mutiny implies you rebel against your boss. To us the boss is Shier!

Well, all of us on the team have been, and still are, really good friends, we wanted to stay together but that is sometimes hard when Blueprint was a team of 12+ guys. So, right now we’re in the planning phase of creating something new – a new little family to keep going on trips with. Because that’s what we want to do: go on trips with good friends and work on some videos! We aren’t here to take over the world or cash into new trends, just to carry on doing what we love to do.

I don’t know. I think, our generation, we don’t really know anything other than going on trips and filming for videos. Not so much more…

I think younger brands might be more aware of what skateboarding really is at this stage, the state of skateboarding being a bit more mainstream. They know how to create a hype outside of skateboarding.

My studies weren’t about how to create a company hype. I know a little bit about social media and the way people build their personalities therein. But this was sociology. I don’t know about marketing at all, I only have theories.

Wallride fakie (photo: Price)

What I can say is: I’m exited about what we’re going to do. I’m excited for the things to come. I just don’t want to say too much because everything is still at the state of planning right now.

The last Euros I had left for this month I drank away last night, and what was left you borrowed for coffee just now! (laughing) If I had money, I’d happily consider it, I think a lot of the others are in a similar position. Thing is though, we don’t want to have another secret owner like before, because I think that was one of the reasons Blueprint went bad: people were not sure who was behind it and that is not how any brand should be run. When people used to ask me who owned it, I would say Magee, even though I knew in reality he didn’t. The next thing is definitely going to be owned by us, the skaters, with Paul Shier backing in financially.

It’s mid-December now, we’re still in midst of planning things. But what I can say is, the brand is going to reflect what we are: close friends that like traveling together – because anything we’re not really about we’d have no resources for. The original spirit of Blueprint is not really about a location, it is more what Shier, Colin, Baines, Magee and those guys brought to the plate. They could go anywhere in the world and bring their own vision and tricks. So, I don’t think we will need an office in London or any of that. But yeah, for sure some things will be similar, because that’s the skateboarding we’re all into.

Yeah, for sure some new people. We’re definitely moving on. We‘re not trying to blueprint Blueprint, we just share the roots. Here again we are still figuring out the team. Shier is pulling the strings. We all talk a lot. Shier is trying to introduce us into how a company works, Nick is getting interested in art direction etc… I guess we’re all at this age now, where we don’t just want to skate for a brand but also be involved as well. So that’s going to be exciting in 2013.

That’s not my decision to make. I just try to do my thing.

Yeah, a device inside the board noting every trick and the most points qualify you to enter Street League – now you spoiled the whole secret… (laughing)

Well, (taking a look out of the window at a snow-covered pavement) now I could go for a good ten degrees more on the thermometer. And, yeah, some of my friends from there I really don’t see enough of. At the same time I didn’t really feel that good skating in Lyon. So, it was a good decision to move somewhere else. However, it’s true, it was a big deal for me, meeting the Wall St. dudes and then the guys from Antiz. Every day they’d bring me to a spot to skate. They introduced me to the way skating works. And I could see a brand happening. I could see the guys, how they do it. You feel the spirit, go on little trips…

Feeble (photo: Sam)

I think it could have happened, if Blueprint would not have happened.

I was really fan of Love (Eneroth) back then. Then he was gone, so that would have been my opportunity to take this guy’s seat (laughing).

I’ve been swimming a lot the last weeks. I play golf a bit and table tennis in the summer, [I] try to play pool in the winter… There was a little story: two years ago I had a surgery on my foot and I couldn’t skate for few months, so, I really wanted to get into playing pool. It got to the point where me, my roommate and a couple of friends started arguing about the rules. I even printed them out and brought them to the pool place, that’s how serious it was!

Not really. At the time maybe a little bit, but then I didn’t play the whole summer and that was it. I always tend to get really passionate about stuff. Same with golf: I got really amped on it, and then I went to LA and played Shier who hadn’t played for years and he kicked my ass! I have been getting back into playing pool this winter though, just this time much more relaxed, and chess too.

Other than that, yeah, I only skate. I don’t make a lot of money, just enough to get by here in Berlin, which really doesn’t take much compared to other cities. So far, it’s been really good that way.

Actually, I said two months! But I think I was just lying to myself. I knew right then I wanted to stay longer but I was anxious about leaving. So, I just took two little bags, telling everyone in Lyon I’d be back soon. Steve (Forstner) did the same and we ended up moving in together. He was gone a lot, but he also paid the rent a lot! And I’m still grateful! We lived pretty far out though, so it was not that easy. But after a year relocated towards the Benches, so now it’s perfect. And I really like it in Berlin. Despite it getting super rinsed, and despite rising rents – even though it’s probably the best time to move somewhere else!

When my girlfriend, who’s from here, finishes with her studies, I could maybe picture myself moving to some other place with her for a while and then coming back. Or am I lying to myself again!? (laughing) Yeah, so in September we’ll be moving to Mongolia, living in a tent – I heard it’s cheap and getting trendy… (laughing)

Backside nose grind 180 (photo: Sam).

Not at all. If you move to Berlin and are into partying or going out, then it can get hard to do anything, not just creating. There is just so much entertainment and distractions. But I’ve never been that much into any of that. For example, when I said yesterday, “Meet you at the bar,” I went home took a shower, turned my phone off and I was ready to go to bed. But then I felt this guilt, like, “ I don’t want to be that guy again,” turned it back on and went to Franken (bar). But yeah, I think I’m more the type for chilling. So ultimately, there is no problem for me being in Berlin.

I’ve decided not to talk about it anymore. It’s better to keep this memory in a nice place in the back of my head. Because every time you talk about something, the memory that’s stored in your brain gets altered. And I don’t want that to happen. I’ve been star-struck, it’s powerful! It lasted a couple of days, like a bad hangover. In 10 years I’ll probably say I used to hang around with him…  (laughing)

Yeah, skating here definitely challenges you more than say Barcelona. But also, in general, people tend to say, “Oh, five years ago, everything was so much better!” But, in truth, hasn’t it always been that way? Maybe in twenty years people will look back and think, “2012 was so sick!” It’s always really subjective and relative to the now. And as for Berlin in particular: the prices may go up a bit, people might change slightly, but there is this spirit that if you want to do something, you go and do it. And that is in people’s minds, you can’t just take it away!

In a way it is a bit similar. In the sense of: not waiting for an institution to do stuff for you. Because, that’s how I grew up: if you wanted something, you have to go to the city council and apply for it. Here it works more liberal. Like just outside here for example: If people want to light their street for Christmas, the neighbours just go ahead and do it!

Frontside 5-o (photo: Coulthard).

Yeah, I skate with him a lot and we get along quite well, but his take on skating is almost the opposite of mine. Still, it’s one more reason I disagree with that article. I don’t think you need to model skateboarding on tennis or any other sport in order to sell it. Everyone who really skates knows the value of creative skating, and that it touches more people than just the skaters. For example, one of the first videos I was really into was “Mosaic” and I could show it to my girlfriend at the time and she would be able to see the creative value in it. Of course she didn’t care much about the tricks, but for sure for the vibe, the motion and maybe the graphics. So in that respect, I really don’t believe, skateboarding needs to be turned into a sport!

Yeah, exactly. On the one hand, the Street League stuff, the sport and the points, all of that is definitely happening. But for other reasons, I don’t think it’s all because of corporates wanting to rationalise and force it into becoming a sport. All the niches will stay independent. Who knows though, maybe in the long term there will be some skaters who only skate Street League. To me, as soon as you start putting numbers on skaters, as soon as you count points, the emotional facet is missing, and that’s an important part! Sure, I can watch Street League, I can watch all the contests; I can connect to it. But as soon as I step on my board, all of that has nothing in common with what I do. Also, what’s maybe more important in street skateboarding, and what most people don’t even realise is, that we skaters might be some of the last people who really use and take the public space. And it goes far beyond tricks or whatever. Like back in the Roman day, the forum was where everything happened. All of social life, politics, business… Today everyone is just going from A to B, everything else happens in the virtual world. You see, when people stop and watch us and get really stoked, I think they take notice, they see the political movement. I think they get stoked to see people using their surrounding to make something out of it. And it is a crazy power to do that, to have this knowledge. Imagine some filmer, say Josh Stewart, who spent years and years of his life in the streets. With all the knowledge he gathered, in politics he could be a consultant to some really important decisions on social city life…

Actually, I was talking to Hold Tight (Henry) about this the other day and he was getting where I’m aiming at. He said he’d be really into digging into the topic. I could see that turning out really interesting! And it’s an experience you only get from street skating. Skateparks are a complete different story. We should be grateful to have it, we should cherish it. It’s a state of mind that let’s you see the world with different eyes. In the end, I don’t even know, what I intend to declare [by] saying this. I just want it to be printed (laughing).I think I just want people to think for a minute and ask themselves, “What am I doing when I go skate?!”

Nosewheelie wallrider (photo: Sello).

Photos by Nikwen.

It’s funny how important a skater’s “image” is for his career. It’s almost like nowadays you need to fit into one of the “cool” categories to be considered relevant, but what category does Flo fall into? He’s not exactly a jazzy power sliding night skater, he’s definitely not a hesh tranny skater or a baker/hammer guy. You wouldn’t consider him to be a “super-tech” guy either, his skating a bit too varied for that. He could almost be an “energy drink superkid” but he reps CocaCola too hard, and his trick selection is slightly too tasteful. What the hell is he then? Or rather who is he?

There’s a reason why you probably don’t know much about his personality: he simply doesn’t want to share it with you. It may sound strange, but then again, when you think of it, why should he? He’s a skater, he’s not trying to get kids to hug him, he’s trying to get them pick up their skateboards and hit the streets. You may not catch him smiling at every demo or kissing your favorite American pro’s arse (no matter how good it would be for his career) but at least he’s genuine, no gimmicks. That being said, if you want to make it in the skate game, you have to play by it’s rules, so here’s an interview with one of my friends who won’t pretend to be yours just because it would be good for his image.

Fakie five-o front shove mid ledge.

Hi Flo, how are you? What have you been up to lately? I heard you guys were on deadline for the new Cliché video, how is that going?

 I’m fine and you? Yeah, the deadline is really close, we are supposed to stop filming at the end of February. Cliché are taking us on one last trip this month and then that’s it. It’s going really well, everybody is on it. I’ve been trying to film one last thing in Lyon but the weather has been so shit that I haven’t been able to try properly.

Who do you think has the best stuff so far?

I know Sammy and Daniel have filmed some really sick clips. I haven’t seen everyone’s footage though, but I’m sure Joey and Lucas have got good footage, they are both pretty productive. I’ve also been skating Lyon with Adrien quite a lot recently, and I’ve witnessed some crazy hammers, he’s been killing it.

Yeah I heard about Adrien’s gnarly stuff on the Rowley hubba… It sounds like one of the flows is going to get the last part! That would be a first…Do you think one of them is going to get on the proper team after the video drops? That’s how it happened with you right?

Yeah definitely, probably even more than one of them to be honest; the stuff they’ve got so far is mind-blowing. I guess the team will have to decide who they want to have properly on. That’s how it happened for me: I went on a few trips with them, filmed for “Clé,” and when the video came out they put me on.

So when was that, 4 or 5 years ago? Since then you have been trying to live from skateboarding, how is that going? Can ams make enough money to live comfortably in Europe without being sponsored by an energy drink company?

It’s going fine, I think you can definitely make enough money to get by in Europe. The only thing is I don’t think it’s enough to keep you going once your “career” is over. You know that after skating you will inevitably have to get a proper job, but right now, I can’t complain.

Bigspin backside disaster.

Leaving the financial aspect of it aside, are you still enjoying it? Because I remember there was a point last summer when you kept losing your shit. More than once I heard you say: “I’m sick of this, I can’t stand filming and shooting photos anymore, it’s driving me nuts, I just want to skate Hotel De Ville with my friends…”

Hahaha, no right now things are going well… But it’s true that at one point I was kind of over it. I injured my leg last year and for 6 months after that I just felt like I was struggling to do anything. It took me a while to feel confortable on my board again, and when you are supposed to be filming a part or when you are on a trip and you suck at skateboarding it can really get to you, you feel useless. I found myself wishing I could just have mellow sessions with my friends instead of constantly being on missions. But then you start getting better again, your confidence comes back and you enjoy it in the same way as you used to.

Don’t you think it could also be linked to the fact that it’s your job to skate everyday, you think about skateboarding all day and basically only hang out with skaters?

Yeah, it’s not good to be trapped inside a routine like that… But the fact that it’s a routine you chose to get yourself into, means that you have the power to get yourself out of it by doing other things that have nothing to do with skateboarding. That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to do recently.

Like what?

I’ve been drawing quite a lot. Whenever I’m not skating I try and go to driving school… I’ve also been trying to learn some new tricks on my kendama.

It’s funny I knew you would enjoy playing with that that thing (it was a birthday present from me and another friend). Seeing you learn tricks with it reminds me at lot of the way you skate. It’s really repetitive and takes the same kind of patience and dedication, except you probably don’t look as ridiculous on your board. Then again, can you tell people about the flat ground  “revisions” you do over the summer at Hotel de Ville? I find the concept quite amusing…

Hahaha, sometimes I play this little game where I try and redo every single trick I can do: kicklip, switch flip, nollie, flip, fackie flip etc… Then I would do the same thing with heelflips, bigspins and so on. I guess it kind of trains you up for playing SKATE haha… It reminds me of when I would session my bench on my own, in Gap ( little town in the south of France where he grew up skating).

What’s the story behind this bench?

Basically, when I was younger I stole a Bench from a school with a few friends and took it to an inner courtyard where my mother worked. It was ten minutes from my house and I ended up skating it for hours every evening after school.

Rickflip.

I know you spend hours on HellaClips everyday, do you think skateboarding is benefiting from this constant flow of skate clips, or do you miss the good old VHS days?

I hate the Internet’s influence on skateboarding and one of the reasons why I hate it so much is because there is no escaping it. Nowadays, I feel like you instantly forget everything about a part right after watching it. Videos don’t have the same charm as they use to. A few years ago, you’d buy a video and watch it over and over again for 6 months, and still love it. It’s not the same anymore, you end up watching so much useless crap that whenever you actually do come across something sick it just fades in with the hundred other clips you just watched.

I know what you mean, it desensitises you. What effect do you think it has on the industry?

It’s definitely not helping the mags (last week Skateboarder announced that they would no longer print their magazine) or videos put out by legit companies. Instead it’s making it mainstream and opening it up to more people. In theory that could be good for the industry, but the problem is that the core brands aren’t the ones who are really going to profit from this expansion.

Who will then?

All the people who never had anything to do with skateboarding in the past, but suddenly decided to latch onto it because they realized there was money to be made.

What have you got lined up after this Cliché video is done?

DVS want to put out a video, but I don’t know very much about that yet, so I can’t tell you if it’ll be a short promo or a full-length video. Bist  (the guy who filmed this edit) and I also want to make a VX video with the whole crew from Lyon, so I guess I’ll just keep filming and decide where I want my footage to go later.

I forgot you were back on DVS, what happened with Supra?

Well things didn’t work out with Supra, I went on a trip with them and I guess it wasn’t really a good fit so they kicked me off as soon as we got back. At the same time Shier became the new DVS team manager so we discussed a few things and he asked me to come back. I’m stoked, I already know everyone on the team and things have always gone well with them. Cheers Shier!

What Europeans should we look out for this year?

There’s loads of them: Madars, Adrien Coillard, Lucas, Jb, Lucien, JP Villa… All of those incredible Scandinavians: Joseph Scott Jatta, Jonas Skroder, Simo Makella, Pontus, Erik Petterson…