Vans Park Series Malmö 2018

It was my third time at the Vans Park Series in Malmö and I didn’t want to do the same things like in the last years. At least I wanted to spice it up a little bit – but I had on idea. I asked our intern, but he also had no idea. So I just shot portraits of some people that walked in front of my lense and asked them a stupid question.

What did you eat for breakfast to prepare for your run?

I had a hard boiled egg, some applejuice, some ginger lemonade, a little bowl of cereals that tasted like sand and a banana.

[little side note: We found some ice cream in the hotel lobby later on. I guess that was compennsation for the cereals]

Which drug would you recommend for a succesful contest run?

I’m going with an oldfashioned speedball. The coke is gonna take you up and make you able to focus and skate well – if your heart doesn’t explode. The heroin is gonna bring you down, so your heart doesn’t explode. It’s gonna make you relaxed, get rid of the fucking contest jitters. Nothing’s gonna hurt because heroin is the opium of the masses. And you have a nice balance of up and down which will put you right in the middle slot right there.

Evan Hecox was in Malmö and had an exhibition at Street Lab skateshop on Friday night.

When was the last time you ate a whole clove of garlic? (I saw him do this at the Toy Machine tour in Germany this summer).

Oh, we just did it once in Germany. It was good, just to stay healthy.

Is there something you can’t say commenting a contest?

At some events like these yeah, but I also do some other events where I can say whatever I want. Most of the time I talk a lot of shit but for contest like this I have to be mellow. A joke here and there. But anything that goes to my brain normally, I can’t say that. People that I would normally make fun of, I’m just like: “Good job!” Just kidding, they’re all sick as hell and with all the jokes I make I don’t want to be mean or hurt anybodys feelings. It’s all just good fun. But definitely I have to tone it down for something like this.

How is it to get sent to a contest for a magazine and find out on the plane that the magazine just was taken out of business by the publisher? (R.I.P. Sidewalk)

It is what it is. As long as I can see some skateboarding it’s fine. But it’s kinda weird. Not much to say besides, kinda weird. Cause it is, kinda weird. I hope no one’s rude to me and they let me into the parties.

Here’s some space for self promotion: Thanks to the nice people at Vans I had a little exhibition space for my photos. Don’t know why, cause I’m not a real photographer, but anyway, I took the chance.

How are contest like this different from contests back in the days?

I think competition is competition. There’s an element of focus and almost study when it comes to skateboarding. Like Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee was a man of practice. That’s something that skateboarders are starting to feel that they have to do to win and win consistently. That element is coming in and skaters are getting serious about competitive skateboarding. The competitive side is my favourite part of skateboarding. I think that is refreshing to have today. And this style of skateboarding like in the Park Series is the style of skateboarding that is my favourite. I like pools, vert but this is a combination of it all. It challenges skateboarders on their abilities to adapt, to be able to choreograph, to be able to have a full run. That’s beautiful to watch when you see it all come together. But comparing it to back in the day, there are a lot of differences. We were creating and inovating tricks at that time, that I think was a special time and I’m stoked to be a part of this era. I love skateboarding and for me it’s something I would protect with my life. I love what’s going on, I love the skateboarders that are the best today. Like I said, the competitive side is refreshing cause this skaters are starting to get serious about it. It wasn’t as serious before. It was just having fun but they broke through that and now they realised that there’s carreers, there’s money, there’s fame – not only that – but gratification. They’re realising how special that is and how special skateboarding is. That’s always gonna be that way. From the beginning to the end and it’s beautiful.

What is scarier than doing a loop?

Having to do a 30 minute speech or any speech in general is much more stressful.