issue issue
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©2017 ©2017Vans, Vans,Inc. Inc.
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GGI LI LBBEERRTT CCRROOCCKKE ET TT T
Lukas Kolasowski / Kickflip / Photo Davide Biondani.
Photo // Davide Biondani
COVER
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C A L I F O R N I A S P O R T S - T E L 0 1 1 9 2 7 7 9 4 3 - W W W. C A L I F O R N I A S P O R T. I N F O
EDITORIAL
41
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Another year, another great adventure. Welcome to the first issue of 2017.
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WWW.CARHARTT-WIP.COM
FELIPE BARTOLOMÉ – BACKSIDE WALLRIDE MELON • PHOTO: ESTEBAN VELARDE
SYLVAIN TOGNELLI – OLLIE UP 5-0 • PHOTO: MAXIME VERRET
A COLLABORATION BETWEEN
ISLE SKATEBOARDS RAPHAËL ZARKA CARHARTT WIP
41
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Fragments_ Four cities: Berlin London Moscow Paris_ The Ditch_ a day in London with
Gilbert Crockett_ The making of... �Billy�_ Jaakko Ojanen / Interview_
Places / Finland_
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Nick Jensen x a brief glance
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a brief glance | year VII_n° 41
EDITOR and CONCEPT_ Davide Biondani. {davide@abriefglance.com} ASSOCIATE EDITOR_ Guido Bendotti. {guido@abriefglance.com} ASSISTANT EDITOR_ Andrew Zolin. TRANSLATIONS_ Jonathan Levin. PHOTOGRAPHERS_ Leo Sharp, Jonathan Mehring, DVL, Ronald Gomez, Craig Dodds, Brian Gaberman, Marcello Guardigli, Davide Biondani, Marcel Veldman, Giulia Romano, Federico Casella, Reece Leung, Alexey Lapin, Henry Kingsford, Sebastiano Bartoloni, Maxime Verret, Fed Mortagne, Joel Peck. CONTRIBUTORS_ Francesco Paolo Chielli, Mario Torre, Mark Baines. DESIGN_ M. Bod Ciceri {Question Mark, ink!#?} GET ALL THE INFOS at: info@abriefglance.com a brief glance skateboard mag is a bulletin published by Fake Donkey Skateboard asd. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of the publisher. All right reserved.
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Jacopo Carozzi, Kickflip Photo_ Davide Biondani Ancona, Italy.
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Denis Lynn Wallride Photo_Leo Sharp Malmo, Sweden.
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Oskar Rozenberg Bs ollie transfer Photo_Marcello Guardigli Melbourne, Australia.
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Matteo Franceschin, Fs nosenslide up Photo_Davide Biondani Roma, Italy. a brief glance
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Photography & words_Joel Peck
Berlin - The cobblestone desert. No desert is without its mirages and here they are the skate spots. Luring you in from a distance, these banks and bumps, fountains, curbs‌ They all look so perfect from afar. But get a bit closer and they will reveal themselves as the harsh teases that they really are. Skateable, maybe, but not without that extra work and a lot of patience. Some people, Berlin-born or otherwise, find this extra work all the more appealing and thrive here. Lukas is certainly one of these people.
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Lukas Garbaciauskas_no comply
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This frontside flip was shot in Victoria, a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace and not far from where Lucien grew up and still lives today. This rail has been there for many years, but the road below was recently resurfaced.
Photography & Words_Henry Kingsford
That, combined with Lucien’s spot-fixing, has made it a bit of a London hotspot lately. I used to skate another spot nearby called Victoria Benches a lot around 1999/2000 and we used to see a 10-year old Lucien there quite often, usually with his mum there keeping an eye on him. Always very friendly and polite, he was just getting the basics together back then, but learned quickly and effortlessly.
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Lucien Clarke_fs kickflip
styles from the past 200 years and built without any logic. It reminds me of a creation of a random schizophrenic mind.
Moscow is a really strange place. It’s one of the most Janus-faced metropolises on the planet. For those who come as a guest it’s a lightsome, careless and rich city. For the residents it’s a place of permanent stress, bad ecology and really low living standards. I believe that Moscow wasn’t made for a comfortable life. The city plan was led by chaos. It’s far behind its modern European neighbors. Half-abandoned industrial areas are mixed with bleak living sectors; the city center is just an unbelievable clew of all architectural
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If you really want to make this city attractive, you have to change so many things here and change them dramatically. But with the current rate of corruption and people’s laziness it doesn’t seem to be realistic. All the reconstruction works of the past years were done really shitty. These new renovated streets are already falling apart. Easy money drives people crazy. Old historical buildings are getting demolished; new ones are built with the cheapest materials by unqualified workers. The real life of most Muscovites is hidden from the eyes of tourists who come here to have fun. And this hidden life isn’t as funny, happy and careless as the downtown filled with restaurants, cafés and bars for the luckiest ones, that is the Russians who have a good job with quite a nice salary. In reality when the party ends most of them have to ride back home across the whole
city. They live in so called “sleeping suburbs” which really look like termites’ mounds built on the eternal parking lot. You can see a good example of a “sleeping community” in the picture. We found this spot absolutely randomly while we were on a bicycle mission in search of new skate spots. I like this shot because it has a gloomy, post-apocalyptic atmosphere: huge battle-scarred high rises in the background, flaked bridge and a lonely figure of a skateboarder performing a trick. I also like the total absence of any other human beings in the frame. Photography & Words_Alexey Lapin
There is such a symbol of loss of social connection between the people in the modern metropolis like Moscow. You are always surrounded by people here but at the same time the desolation and loneliness of us all is growing. I like to think about things like that a lot.
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Stas Provotorov_fs smith grind
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These perfect wallieable-deck-chairs just appeared on the Parisian city hall plaza around the beginning of 2015. Being the internet era, the news reached skateboarders both from there and afar. It’s hard to imagine that the designers of this deck-chair didn’t think about what a special gift they were giving skateboarding with that one! These pictures come from a spring session, Remy (Taveira) was just warming up before filming a line, “basic” tricks but always photogenic! In this touristic place with perfect weather, the first trick was to get a chair out of the hands of Parisians and tourists enjoying the sun! You can also see Kevin Rodrigues making good use of them in one of his night-lines in the Polar video I like it here inside my mind. Don’t wake me this time. Around summertime, town hall dropped some of them at the legendary République spot, for the happiness of skateboarders and to the great displeasure of bystanders’ shins!
Photography & words_Maxime Verret
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Remy Taveira_wallie
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Photography & words_Davide Biondani.
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so we had to spend another full day cleaning it up once more.
If you’re a skateboarder, the winter is certainly not your favorite season of the year; short days, cold, rain, snow, friends locked indoors... But winter can hide some pleasant surprises, especially for the fact that during the cold season some spots that are off-limits during the summer, are freely skateable.
Luckily it was near the end of the cold season and the mild temperatures contributed in making this part of the job a little more pleasant. Actually, working at a skate spot with your skate buddies and daydreaming about all the possible and impossible lines and tricks is absolutely fun and essential to skate life. We shot photos in this ditch for a couple of weeks, inviting some friends on the week-ends,
So one day a friend calls you to tell you that he found an empty, skateable ditch and that he would go check it out the next day.
who as soon as they had seen the first photos, got hyped and didn’t hesitate to jump on a train to enjoy this spot.
The ditch was actually skateable, but most of the flat was covered in dirt and rubble.
It was fun to skate, until the day we got there and found it full of water... the spring season was getting closer.
It took two days of hard work to clear and clean up the flat... only to discover a few days later that a large bulldozer had driven through the ditch and had filled it with dirt again...
We already have a spot for next winter... and what a spot! /
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Ricky Comini / Fs wallride a brief glance
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Jacopo Picozza / Ollie off the bump to fs wallride
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Pizza / Bs nose pick
Andrew Zolin / Fs ollie
Jacopo Picozza / Bs kickflip
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Danny Galli / Fs kickflip
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a day in London with...
When I think about Gilbert the first thing that comes to mind is his concreteness. Despite being young, he has some projects under his belt that could give plenty of older pros some sleepless nights. Imagine coming from Virginia and having to tackle a King Of The Road as the main character, Alien Workshop’s Mindfield video, and Vans’ Propeller video. Along the way, add in the many video edits he has done with his friends from Virginia just for a laugh, in which they obviously kick ass. Add to that, the company he had just turned pro for closing down, and him skating for a new company (Mother, then Quasi). Oh, I almost forgot, imagine having to design your first pro model shoe, and shortly thereafter, beginning the process for your second pro shoe... all of this while trying to live, skate, cultivate your passions, and even make some graphics for the company you skate for, just to keep yourself kinda busy... Gilbert simply dealt with all of this with determination and talent, producing material, whether they be video parts, photos, or products never conforming to the standards, but always with personal taste and innovation. Gilbert is one of the people to keep in mind when it comes to style and originality in today’s skateboarding. ( Guido Bendotti )
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Photography & interview_Davide Biondani.
Hi Gilbert, how are you? Do you like to be interviewed? You’re pretty busy lately... I’m good. I don’t really mind, It’s not too often that I’m busy with stuff like this... it’s not a problem. It’s the price to pay to have a shoe with your name on it. It’s your second pro model for Vans, so you should be very excited to have been able to work on your own shoe. How was working on this shoe compared to the first one? I guess it was the same process again. Usually I just make a line drawing and send it to Vans, and tell them what I’m trying to make, talk to them over the phone a little bit and discuss some details. Then they put all this info into their computers and know how to make a shoe sample that looks like the drawing on the sheet of paper. They do a great job getting to the point, getting to the final product, which happened very quickly with this shoe. I’m definitely proud of it, it’s everything I wanted it to be. You had some experience from the first shoe. What was important for you, both technically and esthetically for the new one? Yeah, familiar process, and familiar relationships with all the guys in the shoe department. I wanted it to be a comfortable shoe. The first one didn’t fit some people’s feet... and I wanted to make a really comfortable shoe that I think will probably work for most people, it’s a rounded shoe and it lasts great. The toe stretches out if you need it to, but not too much. I wanted to make a modern skate shoe but with a little of a sporty look, kinda like a tennis shoe. So I pulled details from the World War II era tennis shoes, also from some of the colorways they had back in the day, but also from some modern sportier-looking shoes, and I think it turned out great. Everything I wanted it to be is there. I love it. So you did some research and contributed a lot to it too... I kinda like doing that stuff anyways, nerding out on the internet, old shoes, shit like that, it’s fun. They have great ideas too, some details that they wanna put in there to make it a little better. Also, they sample out colorways so far ahead of time that I’m not sure when the samples will come out.
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You skate for Quasi Skateboards, how deeply are you involved with the brand? Well, we’re as involved as we want to be. I can take the back seat if I want on my graphics, and Chad Bowers ( Quasi owner ) can send me his ideas. He’s great at making boards, so most of the time I love it. Or I can be more involved and text him a bunch of images or tell him by phone how I want my graphic to be. He’s really good at his job so he’s good at executing an idea of mine and putting his ideas in there with it and making it even better. When I was visiting, I helped him make a couple shirts and a couple team graphics too. If I go out there, I’ll stay for a few days, get stoned, think of board graphic ideas, sit there and make them with him and it’s fun as shit. A great process.
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Wallie fs to fakie manual
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It must be very exciting to be on the team of a new, fresh brand with Jake Johnson and Tyler Bledsoe.The company had to change name from Mother to Quasi, which is an Italian word which means “almost.” Why this name? I didn’t know it was an Italian word, but he had thought about naming the company that originally. He had had that word for a while in his mind. We had a little trouble with the word “mother” when it came to making clothing, so he just changed it instead of having to fight a legal battle and getting that name working. I think “quasi” is better too, more fitting and versatile than the word “mother.” Lately it seems that smaller brands are more successful than big-name brands. In your opinion, is it a matter of the smaller company being more original, with newer ideas than the older brands, or is it a kind of rebellion in skateboarding right now? I think it’s a little bit of both. People want to be more expressive in their brands and the brands that they’re riding for. I think it’s easier for you to do that if you ride for a smaller board brand because the bigger brands are the bigger brands and they’re already in motion and have a system set up that they want to be in, and it works that way. It’s tough to reconfigure the way a brand is set up and works. If you skate for a smaller brand you have a say in the way you want the brand to work for you. I think people can see that and can appreciate
it, and yes, I think it is a sort of a rebellion. Skateboarding is basically anti-establishment... you don’t want to walk a line in skating, you wanna do something original because it’s fun. Skating feels free and you wanna express that, and I think it’s great to be able to do that with your board brand. Is there a Quasi video in the works? There will be a Quasi video, I’m just not sure when, or how long it’ll be, but I think within the next year there should be something coming out hopefully... who knows? A lot of the young guys have already started filming a lot of stuff, they’re just sitting on all the footage, waiting for us to make a video. What do you think about the fact that small brands have a short profit-life, like 3 or 4 years? Is it because they are small brands and when the hype is finished, so is the brand? Or is it because nowadays people are used to having something new every day? It depends really, you can sell a bunch of boards because you’re a new brand, or you can sell a bunch of boards because you’re doing something different. I don’t think that they’re the same thing. But I don’t really see it dying, I don’t really see a lot of these newer brands dying out. Some of them will, but I think a lot of them have a place, they don’t really need to go anywhere. We’ll just see in the next few years.
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Nowadays it seems like skateboarding is richer than ever, it’s associated with high-fashion brands, it will be in the Olympics, etc. On the other hand, skate shops and skate brands are struggling to survive, there’s something that doesn’t add up. What do you think about this? I think that people are really informed now. Everyone is so in touch with everything that there are a lot of the older brands and skate shops that are operating off of an old way of doing business, a more structured thing. And now you have these brands where kids are seeing everything about the brand, it’s all on the internet, and they can find what they want. Before, you would walk into a skate shop, not look online, there was no online to see what everything was, the skate shop would inform you about the brands, and you could only pick what was in the skate shop. So then those brands were making money back then, because that’s how skating worked. But now, if you’re a skate shop and you don’t carry what the kids want, they’ll just go online and buy it. They’re going to go to the source because they’re smart enough, they’re informed on what they want, and they can get it. So it’s hard for skate shops to have everything that picky fuckin’ kid wants. It’s tough for skateshops, it’s tough for old skate brands because they’re kind of in this... cycle.
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And there are all these new brands that are moving a thousand miles an hour. It’s tough, but it’s exciting at the same time, so we’ll see what happens. We’re the test generation from the old to the new...
basically old Americana-type things. Old jewellery, Native American artifacts, I’m a big fan of all those things and it occupies my time. What kind of music do you like? I listen to rap, country music, rock ‘n’ roll, I’ve been into the Rolling Stones a lot lately.
Skateboarding is always changing, just like every culture, it’s moving, so we’ll see where it goes.
When are you coming to Italy?
Skateboarding is also very adaptable...
I don’t know, I’ve never been there for skating or in general. I would love to come, the spots look amazing.
That’s what makes it so interesting. What are your interests outside of skateboarding? I’m really into vintage clothing, tattoos,
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Any plans for 2017 apart from coming to Italy? Ha ha. Ha ha... Just skate and try to film something and hope for the best.
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a day in London with...
The making of...
Photography _Davide Biondani. Interviews_Mario Torre.
a conversation with a skateboarder & a filmer about the experience of filming a video part.
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It has never been so easy to get footage, each one of us has the necessary technology in his pocket to film constantly. We live in a society that is obsessed by photographic images and videos, and skateboarding is no exception. Filming three lines with your friends on a Saturday afternoon is one thing, it’s super fun and very trendy, but filming a proper video part... is definitely a whole other thing. Filming a video part is always an intense experience, made up of enthusiasm, dedication, and an infinite dose of patience; but also of frustration, tears, and anger. Pietro Bontà and Andrew Zolin have spent the last year and a half trying to fit in their job commitments and responsibilities in life to meet up and film for “Billy,” their new video project. We followed them on some of their missions and close to the end of the project, we had a chat with them to find out about their respective points of view, that of the skater and that of the filmer, regarding the experience of filming a whole video part.
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Fs crooked grind_
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Hi
Pietro, how are you? Have you guys finished filming?
Not exactly, we still want to get a few clips, especially me. I know that you both have a real job to attend every day. How did you manage to fit in filming and trips with your work schedule? It was a real mess, we both live in separate cities, and when I lived in Perugia it was even worse, and yes, we both have time-consuming jobs and often our schedules didn’t meet, but we have to go to work unfortunately. We tried our best... What’s the funnest thing you witnessed while filming? One day we were filming at Milano Centrale at the “grate” with Iuri Furdui and Chiole, we were skating peacefully when a junkie sitting nearby with other junkies decided to bother us, shouting that we were bothering him and had to leave.
and kept shouting. We kept skating until the junkie lying under the ledge started pissing in his pants and all over the ground, at that point we left to avoid slipping and falling on his smelly piss or on the junkie himself. How is creating a video project and how did the decision to let Andrew film you come about? Pretty difficult under the present circumstances. If you don’t have other jobs to attend and you have all the free time in the world it’s all much easier and faster. It all began thanks to Davide and Andrew after a tour with them for a brief glance. How did you select the tricks? I chose them, but Andrew offered suggestions in case of need.
Of course we couldn’t care less and just kept skating, so after trying to stop us by getting in the way, the junkie went to fetch one of his friends, obviously the drunkest guy in the group, dragged him to the ledge and threw him onto the grate as an obstacle.
I know that Andrew films both with a VX as well as digital. Did you choose the format together or had Andrew already decided from the beginning?
He then looked at us with an air of satisfaction
I think it was Davide’s idea. (It was Andrew’s idea - ndr.)
Fakie ollie shifty_
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Varial flip_
Pietro, tell us something about Andrew from this period that you worked together...
little too much, doing a couple videos for fun is ok, but some people go out just for that, I think it’s a bit too much.
He’s super patient!!! Really!!! Filming with him got me really hyped, he’s just quiet while filming and does some awesome stuff!
Regarding work, how do you find a balance between the project becoming too stressful and not fun anymore, and deciding to continue?
As a skater, what do you think about instagram videos? Uhm, I think they have lobotomized people a
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Hmm, I’m not sure, because in the end it’s skateboarding. To be honest, at times working on the project got really stressful,
and over time many things happened that made everything even more stressful, like family problems, my mother’s sickness, my having to travel for work constantly, and other things that all together can really put your mind and desire to keep going to the test, but skateboarding is skateboarding. There’s nothing else to say, in the end whatever happens, it’s the best outlet for the problems you’re facing. What’s the least friendly spot you filmed at? Where I did the fs tailslide to fakie into the bank. I had forgotten to bring wax and the ledge is really rough, it sucks, and the ground is even worse, with broken tiles. If you had the chance to film together again one day, what would you not do again? I definitely wouldn’t film in HD, I would prefer the VX, I would feel more free and would have more fun, I’m pretty sure Andrew would say the same thing. How close do you get and how much do you get on each other’s nerves while working on such a project?
A lot of both, ha ha ha. You spend lots of time together and you need lots of patience.
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Hi
Andrew, how are things going? Have you finished filming?
I’m fine, thanks. No, we haven’t finished filming yet even though the video comes out in 25 days, ha ha ha. I know that you both have a real job to attend every day. How did you manage to fit in filming and trips with your work schedule? It wasn’t easy, but neither was it impossible. Many skaters all around the world have “real” jobs but manage to put out good products anyway, it all comes down to getting organized properly... like for example, when Pietro took days off from work to film during the Christmas holidays (during which I practically always work). How is creating a video project and why did you decide to film Pietro? It’s extremely hard, but things done without sacrifice are not as tasty. Fitting in work hours, delayed trains, cops kicking you out, rain, bums threatening you, injuries, sunlight slowly fading, too much heat, too much cold... there are many things that can go wrong, but that’s part of the game, that’s skateboarding. It all began after that trip to the Isle of Elba, that’s where we got to know each other.
I hadn’t filmed in a while, the last thing I had filmed was the clip with Mauro Caruso. Pietro motivated me both as a person and as a skater, he wasn’t known, and skated in a manner that was “different” from what I was used to. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Milano and we began talking about doing something together. How did you select the tricks? Actually we didn’t, or rather, it depended upon the spots. I sent Pietro some photos and viceversa, and together we decided what could be done. In the end, for one reason or another the trick we ended up filming was almost always different from the one we had planned. I know that you film both with digital and VX. Did you choose the format together, or was it your decision? I have never filmed a whole part in HD, so I wanted to try something new. They are two completely different formats but I think that doing new things is a way to keep up and learn new things. I guess I had already decided from the beginning.
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Wallie_
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Andrew, tell us something about Pietro that impressed you during the time you spent collaborating together. His personality. Pietro is a good guy, he’s very mature for his age, he has a constant urge to do things, which at times can be a little too much perhaps, and this causes him to get lost every now and then, but he’s a nice and kind person. Andrew, as a filmer, what is your opinion on insta clips that are so trendy right now? They seem almost more important than real video projects... I think they express the historical period we’re living in very well. Seen, digested and shit within 59 seconds. Distances are getting shorter and shorter (space-time). Anybody can make use of them, anywhere in the world. And they are democratic, they are the same for everybody... I hate them. Regarding work, how do you find a balance between the project becoming too stressful and not fun anymore, and deciding to continue? It’s always like that for me! Life is made of ups and downs, you can’t always be at your best. At times you start off
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hyped but don’t get much done, other times something good comes out of nothing... it’s important to stay focused, find new inspiration, and be determined. Of course it isn’t always easy. If you had the chance to film together again one day, what would you not do again? Everything we have done, because we have already done it. How close do you get, and how much do you get on each other’s nerves while working on such a project? I work as a waiter, he works as a cook... Do you realize how hard it is to be together? I work as a waiter, he works as a cook... do you realize how hard it is to be together? Ha ha ha, just joking, I think it’s kind of subjective.
We hate each other in the same measure as we love each other.
No comply_ Photo Federico Casella.
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Photos_KÊvin Mètallier Interview_Guido Bendotti
Jaakko is part of the new generation of skaters to whom national borders and the unfavourable weather of Finland do not constitute a problem. The skaters of the new generation don’t have to move to Barcelona or Paris at all costs in order to be noticed. It is sufficient to do something very simple: shoot well, film better and better video parts and maintain active social profiles with new tricks every day. Jaakko is part of the new generation that skates everything with lots of style, but he has something extra: his persistence that has helped him to get over a serious back injury and return more motivated and stylish than before, and this is not so banal for a new kid. Good job Jaakko.
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Switch bs 5-0 / Chiraz.
i Jaakko, can you introduce yourself briefly?
o you like to skate contests? Will you go to the Olympics?
Hey! Yeah sure, I’m 22 years old, currently living in Barcelona. I’ve been skating for 15 years now.
I haven’t skated a contest in a long time. After I recovered from my back injuries I was just trying to skate.
ou were born and raised in Tampere, Finland, how is the skate scene up there and how did you start skating?
But I think it’s fun to skate a contest once in a while. It’s a good time if the atmosphere is not that serious and people are having fun. Of course you can try to land your tricks but it sucks if you’re not having any fun. Regarding the Olympics, I don’t know. It’s a serious competition for most of the people who are going there and I’m not one who wants to take it super seriously.
Yeah, I started skating with my brother who is two years older than me. I remember we had a chance to try someone’s board and after we did, the next thing I remember is that we were at the supermarket and we got our own boards. I was seven. I think the scene is pretty good, but it’s pretty small too. We have a good tight crew there, some of them started around the same time as me and my brother. Still skating and having fun together! Many new rippers too! have watched a lot of clips of you skating miniramps and indoor parks, which is quite normal in Finland, especially in wintertime. How important is it to have a good skatepark to progress quickly in skateboarding? Ha ha, yeah, we spent a lot of time skating indoors. It’s fun to skate a park but I bet every Finn has had enough of skating indoors after the winter is over. Most of the skaters go out and skate as soon as the snow melts, ha ha. I think that after you get the basics you progress quicker in the streets. Or at least it feels like it, there are so many more things to think about in the streets than in a perfect skatepark. Not just the tricks.
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I know I could possibly go there, but haven’t made up my mind yet. hat’s your relationship with Instagram? It seems like you are very active on it. Do you think IG is more important than skate media and magazines now? I think most of the people are more active than I am. I usually post something when I feel like it and have something to post. Yeah, it’ s getting more important all the time, especially for the brands. But it’s so hectic, everyone is posting all the time, it’s hard to keep up. But I think the magazines are still as important. You get new issues every few months and not every single day, you know. It is a way more rewarding feeling to have a photo in the mag than to post it on the gram or whatever. For the skater and for the photographer. It’s like having one physical copy of the picture versus losing it amongst thousands of other pictures in the hard drive.
ave you ever bought a skate video on DVD or a skate magazine in your life? Yeah, I think the first skate video I bought with my brother was Logic #10 VHS, we also had some 411s and the DC video. I’ve bought some magazines too, but usually my dad always bought Thrasher and Transworld for us. But recently I’ve only bought a few European mags. ecently you have been to Iran, how was the trip and how is it to skate? What impressed you the most about the country? What are the best non-skate memories from this trip? It was a really awesome trip, I knew almost nothing about Iran before going there, so it made it pretty interesting. The skate scene is really small, considering how many people live there. But they have good things going
on there. The locals said it’s getting bigger. One of the best memories was at the end of the trip, after we had been to all these big cities, we went to this really small village called Abyaneh. It was nice to see the old and slow Iranian lifestyle after all these hectic cities with terrible traffic and a lot of people. ther interesting places you have been to over the last few years? Some European countries, but nothing like Iran. Now I’m probably going to India which I’m pretty hyped on. ou had some problems with your back that kept you away from skateboarding for some time… what happened? Are you ok now? Yeah, I had bulging on my intervertebral disc on my low back three times. Three times in
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Bs smith grind / Split, Croatia.
Nassim Guammaz / Ollie.
Nose slide / Isfahan. a brief glance
four years… It took almost one year to recover each time. So it was pretty depressing. I don’t even exactly know why it happened in the first place, I mean I never broke it by having a bad slam or anything, it just happened when I was skating. The second time I just pushed on my board and my back felt really bad and after that I couldn’t walk for almost a month. The third time I broke it I had surgery. Recently it has been fine. I mean I still have some pains, but it should be okay. Not perfect but okay. ou recently moved to Barcelona, how is the feeling of living in the most skateable city in the world? How is the scene now in BCN? Feels good to skate outside in the winter too, haha. It has been nice so far, I’m trying to film something. Yeah, the scene is good here, so many European skaters live here or visit often. arcelona and its “party-life” could be very dangerous for a skateboard career, what’s your position on the matter? Ha ha. Ha ha, yeah there is always partying here. Beer is cheap everywhere, so it’s likely I drink way more beer here than back in Finland. But I don’t want to do it that much, I feel pretty bad when skating with a hangover. hat’s boiling in the pot for 2017, are you working on some projects like interviews or video parts at the present time? I’m trying to film a part now, I’ve been getting a bunch of footy here in Barcy. There are going to be some trips too. Nothing too crazy, trying to take it pretty mellow.
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Kickflip to fakie / Malmo, Sweden.
Stephane Giret / Kickflip.
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Photography // Ronald Gomez
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