Film & Edit by Ziggy Schaap.
Interview by Roland Hoogwater.
Our third and last Unsigned Hype, Pascal Moelaert is one of the oldest 19-year-olds I have ever met. And through reading this interview you will see that he hangs around and talks a lot with people that are about 10 years older than him. At the same time, Ziggy Schaap is one of the youngest 29-year-olds I have ever met. Living the life he wants, when he wants, and enjoying it around the way. Pascal is the serious one. Even though he handles everything with humor and irony, he does really care. Ziggy is more of a whatever works type of guy. Together they are the youngest and oldest people in this project and somehow it makes so much sense to close this first series with them. We hope you agree.
So, great first question where did you guys first meet?
P & Z: Tinder! (laughs)
Z: You know it!
Regular like or Super like?
P&Z: Regular like.
Z: I am more of a Bumble guy normally though, the people on there seem a bit more interesting.
P: I liked him on accident.
Who proposed to meet up first?
P: I did. I told him I was going on skate camp and he said he was going there as well, taking photos.
Z: You were still a minor, you were 12 years old, I was 22.
(Laughs) Who made the first move?
P: I did, a Backside Smith grind on a ledge. And he asked me if he could shoot it.
Z: That photo might still exist. But after camp, we kept in touch and saw each other at contests. The next big thing was a skate trip around Europe. The parents and their children just camped and skated around. Again I was taking the photos. I think after that, we did Pascals On the Roll video part. That was at 13.
Ziggy you are single. How is 2020 dating life and what about you Pascal, dating much?
P: No, I was partying a bit much during summer but there hasn’t been much dating going on.
No art school trips?
P: Nah, I had to stop drinking, it was getting too crazy.
Did you feel the pressure growing up, quitting alcohol at 19?
P: Who said anything about stopping, I am having a beer right now (laughs). But the hangovers were pretty heavy so I had to cut down. Less and less is better for me.
Random one, what political party would you guys vote for?
P: Green party (Groen Links)
Z: I don’t really vote.
P: You can’t trust people that say that. They secretly vote rightwing for sure (laughs). But do the people that read Place really care about politics?
Z: (laughs).
Ok, point-taken, let me ask a standard skate question then, who did the best line ever at Paleis van Justitie (Pascal’s favorite ledge plaza in The Hague).
P: Ricardo Paterno, I told him that too. I went to his office recently, he works with Sami El-Hassani who films for POP as well. We watched his Colorblind part together. He was shining, it must have felt good for him to relive that. He did say the last trick in that line was sketchy but he also revealed that he did the first trick about a hundred times. His skating deserves some props in this interview.
Sure, Pascal, your dad was a big factor in your younger skateboard days right?
P: Not really, he was around, he just brought me to all the contests, went to skate-camps with me. But he would just chill.
Z: I saw him on the sidelines at contests screaming “COME ON PASCAL!” (laughs).
Your TM for Spitfire (Niels) wanted to know what happened to you and skating handrails? Nowadays you stay with low-impact tricks.
P: I am not as young as I used to be (laughs). But for real, I always felt like I had this label of being a rail skater. So when I was young, I always would be taken to rail spots, and because of that label, I would also try things that at some point I just wasn’t that stoked on trying anymore. Like when I did that video with Luci (Lucas Jankoshek) we filmed a lot of ledge-lines but I still felt like I needed that ender to be a rail trick. So, I did that, and afterwards, I just knew I didn’t like it anymore. So I faded it out of my skating.
Z: You also stopped skating contests and parks and started street skating more.
P: True.
You also skated for Enjoi (flow) for a bit.
P: That was Ricardo Paterno’s doing. Skatestore had a distribution behind it and they had all of these shops in the Netherlands but they also had their top Dutch skaters on this three-star team. So, Paterno was talking to me and he said: “I am leaving as TM but the last thing I want to do is elevate you to that level and get you some good deals.” So it was a board brand, truck, and wheel sponsor offer. And he asked me who I wanted to ride for. I said Krooked, Thunder, Spitfire. So, I started telling people that I had those sponsors. Like a really stoked little kid, and a week after Ricardo called me and said: “Yo, we thought about it and we feel like Enjoi would be better for you.” I was bummed for a bit, but he explained that back then Dwindle was more open to adding European riders to the actual team. I ended up, saying yes to that deal, and rode for Enjoi for a couple of years. I think I quit when I stopped skating rails.
My taste just changed so much, I got into Alex Olson & Hjalte’s skating. That was right before Bianca Chandon started. So, I just changed and wanted to skate boards I liked. So, instead, I was buying Krooked and Polar boards.
Your last part in “Likkie Wax” was also a joint effort between the two of you. Do you feel that your skating changed again from 2018 to now?
P: I think so, maybe.
Z: I think, that you were doing a lot of the same things but you curate your tricks better now.
I think there are some big differences. You did a lot of combo’s in that part and this part doesn’t have that many.
P: That was Thaynan Costa’s influence on me. He was early with a lot of those things. I went to this DC thing in the Netherlands and Ziggy was the spot guide. He invited me to come along, I already got Nike SB flow at the time but he wanted me to join anyway. Ziggy took us to this ledge spot and Thaynan was doing all of the cool combo’s and I thought that he was so sick. That day I managed to learn noseslide to 50-50.
I think for this part I toned that down because I did it so much and I wanted to show another newer part of my skating in this video part.
It seems like this one has more flip ins or flip outs.
P: I watched Fully Flared and got totally inspired (laughs). Joking, but I did start doing wheelies more for this part.
Z: I see a lot of Hjalte in your skating now. Hjalte’s tricks and Alex Olson’s ironic attitude.
P: I wouldn’t say that but if someone else wants to (laughs). I just like to watch Alex’s footage, I don’t want to copy him. Although I did skate a bowl yesterday and I did have that Alex type of vibe. (doesn’t laugh)
Ziggy, you started as a photographer but you moved on to also include filming. When did that interest spark?
Z: I started documenting at 11 and I just did photos until 16. After that, I bought a VX1000. So since then, it has been a wave motion of me doing one more than the other, but I never really totally sideline one. Right now I am packing a bag with both video and photo equipment. I just want to keep challenging myself and often after a long time working on a video project I find myself wanting to pack flashes.
Those bags are heavy, so how are you carrying these items? A backpack, or a trolley case?
Z: I have seen some professional photographers slam really hard with those
trolley cases so I prefer fucking up my back with the backpack.
Back to you Pascal, a lot of people know you because of those POP clips, but how did you get on POP?
P: There was this skate-premiere in Rotterdam in 2018. On the day of the premiere, I was skating in my local park. I ended up twisting my ankle pretty bad but I still wanted to go because they had a sick afterparty. But I couldn’t walk so I stayed home.
That evening Ziggy wrote to me and told me Peter Kolks (Who does POP) had given him a big bag of products for me to wear. So the next day I texted Peter and thanked him. He just told me “All good, I hope you like it.”, So I was wearing the gear a lot and I ended up seeing Peter and Ric van Rest (Co-owner of POP) again and they told me I was at the top of their list to get some seeding again. That got me pretty hyped. A week later I get a text from Peter, “Yo, we have this filming weekend with the whole team, and if you want, you can join us.” So I was hyped, A try-out. Chima Chibueze was also on that trip to try out.
I arrived, met the guys, and got a big bag of stuff. But I noticed none of the regular filmers were there because I knew both Jan Maarten Sneep (memory screen) and Sami El Hassani from Rotterdam. So instead of them, Mouse was there (OG filmer from The Netherlands) But instead of a real cam, he had a GoPro on him (laughs). That fucked me up mentally, I just couldn’t really skate because of the GoPro and I didn’t end up doing much.
So the next weekend I see that they are on a filming trip again and Chima is there and I am sitting at home bored. So I was like, damn I didn’t make the cut. Later that week I went filming with Sneep and I told him that story.
About a month later Sneep went to Paris with the POP squad to film. So on the first night, something rare happened. Sneep got really drunk and he went up to Peter and started saying things like “Why isn’t Pascal on, you guys should give him another chance. He would fit.”, which if you know Sneep is not a typical thing for him to do or say.
After that trip, I get a DM from Peter and we get talking and I had asked Ric if I could intern at the store so Peter was like “Oh, so we can go skate together. How long is the internship for, a week?” I told him it was for 4-months and he was like – ok. So I arrive and I get new gear again. So my internship is about to start and I get added to the POP group-chat together with Rob Maatman. We get the whole welcome to the team introduction on Whatsapp but I am still thinking this is because I am about to start my internship (laughs). I thought they were talking about the team that works for the company. So later that week I was talking to Bats and he was like “No man, you are on the team.” So a drunken Sneep and my internship got me there. If it wasn’t for those two things it might have never worked out. This was around the time Jair Gravenberch & Ali Belhadj were working on their 4:3 part and at the time they didn’t have too much footage so they asked me if I wanted to film a little something as well. And I ended up getting a whole bunch of clips. That was all during my internship.
But big up to Sneep for getting really drunk and getting loose (laughs).
That is truly a rare thing. Sneep and you go back a long way.
P: We do, we met by me doing a No-Comply pressure flip when I was 10 and a mutual friend was like “Hold up, wait here.” he fetched Sneep and said “do it again” and I did and Sneep was hyped because that was his trick and I just happen to learn it.
I always looked up to him. Jan was the filmer & editor behind Bombaklats the skate video of my youth (Pascal is 19). So back to Ricardo he put me on the same skate shop Sneep skated for around the time the first Bombaklats video came out. Sneep worked in the shop and I went to get a board and he had made Bombaklats griptape and he asked me if I wanted one. I was so stoked, I was like “Really? can I have one?” He gave me the grip and he made the video. I guess he liked my skating so we ended up filming for the second Bombaklats video.
I met Sneep even before I met Ziggy. I was ten when I did that no-comply pressure flip and freshly sponsored by Left. Luckily Ricardo saved me (laughs). Bombaklats is a big part of me.
Even though your most footage has been with Ziggy & Sneep some of your most fun footage is with Lucas Jankoshek, even dating back to your early days. He is one of two guest filmers on this project. Can you tell us a bit about this Vienna connection?
P: I met him through Ziggy, Luci was studying at KABK in Den Haag, and we went skating in Rotterdam. I think Fabi (Luci’s twin brother) was there too. We didn’t talk much but he ended up inviting me to go skate, so I went down to meet him. We ended up talking the whole day, I think I was like 14. He told me it was his last week in the Netherlands. So he wanted to get some clips with me. So we met up at my favorite spot Paleis van Justitie in Den Haag and we got like 6 clips in one day. That week we met up 2 more times, once in Rotterdam and once in Den Haag again and we filmed that little part in three days.
After he left he invited Ziggy, Justin Wagenaar, and I to visit him in Vienna. So we did that and ever since it has been back and forth. Vienna is the best city. Great people out there.
I like the city to but I never manage to connect with Luci when I was there. Except when we filmed that Eat Your Veggies. We do talk on the text.
P: Damn, so you are more of a Louis (Marschall) guy?
I don’t know, I get along with them all. But Louis seems to have more free time.
The last visit was to get something in Vienna for this part and that was the first time I felt like I wasn’t visiting anymore. I was just doing my own thing. But the fact that you see Luci in my part means a lot to me. He is Vienna for me. He has always been the reason I went there.
Toni Donau makes an appearance too.
P: True, he is a fan (laughs).
Ziggy, recently you started your own brand Karaoke what is going on with that?
Z: Well, I just was out filming a bunch and I told Rob (Maatman) that I felt it was a shame he never really filmed a real part. So Rob put in some work and I felt like I needed an outlet for my film & photo work so I put that towards a brand. We put out some hardware and some t-shirts together with a video in July and the new video and merch will drop mid-December.
P: A lot of good stuff. Look at me doing a Place Magazine job (laughs).
Z: My problem has always been that I have always had the urge to do everything: filming, editing, photography, and music. Now I wanted to streamline that into one thing. So instead of giving my content to other platforms, I wanted to create a space for myself. We went to Split with a crew and those people formed the basis for the brand.
Can you tell me about your dog Chip to whom this part is dedicated?
P: It started with Ziggy and me planning to film 8 millimeter with the dog and we took Chip for a walk and filmed him doing his thing and about a month later he ended up dying of old age. He was 10 years old and the feeling of losing him was weird because I grew up together with that dog. So to have that documented was special. We have a new dog now, but I will move out soon so you know that bond won’t be the same.
So in some ways, this is also your most personal part to date.
P: Yeah, I mean Likkie wax (a little wax) what does that have to do with me? I never wax, I just go faster (laughs).
(Laughs) True, thanks for the interview guys. And thank you all for supporting our Unsigned Hype series. Don’t forget to watch Oscar Säfström and Leon Charo-Tite‘s parts as well.
