Tag: Oski

We made this list as part of our “Do it Like Oski & Janoski” session in which multiple teams competed in the Skatehalle Berlin to skate as much as both Oski & Janoski.

Check out the winner here:

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B5vZ6S5o-gy/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Anyway, we made a placelist based on songs our two protagonists could have skated to, might still skate to or just love to play. Instead of letting it go to waste we thought “fuck it” might as well share it with you guys.

How does one define what one’s eyes see but cannot comprehend? That is the feeling we left with just moments after Pedro Barros finished his run.

Photos by Conny Mirbach.
Text by Roland Hoogwater.

The two days before, he was hardly even trying to practice, no 540 attempts, switch pushing through the bowl or even one attempt to bigspin-flip indy his way into the top spot. If you would have asked me what Pedro was working on I would have told you that he was perfecting his flat ground game and in particular his nollie flips.

But when the cameras turned on and just when Cory Juneau thought he had it in the bag, Mr. Barros stepped in, showed his cards and surprisingly it was a royal flush. Two more people took their runs afterwards but they won’t be remembered or even mentioned in the history books.

Every VPS event we go to has seen shocking moments, it is almost a tradition, one that Oskar “Oski” Rozenberg adheres to. Last year in Sweden, he, with one simple flick shuffled the entire board and claimed both the top spot, the money and the hearts of the people by clearing the box with a giant kickflip.

In true Swedish fashion about 30 minutes later he calmly climbed on his bike and cycled home with the rest of the Rozenberg family, he probably cooked dinner after and closed the day by watching some Netflix.

Both the 2017 and now defending ’18 champions seem to be aware and present when they need to be and just when the crowd has started to accept the reality that one person might win they manage to alter the course by simply grabbing the moment, the board and the crown.

A simple but special occurrence which makes the VPS worth watching until the very end… or until we do it all over again in August.

Special thanks go out to VANS for the support.

We told you about Henry Forsnor’s aka Baeonci’s new project he is working on. Well, that’s in the past now since it just got released. To put it into Henry’s words:

@baeonci everywhere
Sorry I can’t afford the fisheye.
A skateclip produced in Malmö during summer 2018.
Made by Henry Forsnor.
For business inquiries: henry@baeonci.com.
Skaters
(In order of appearance)


Axel Berggren – @axlbbb
Axel Källmen -@axelkallmen
Elias Mensi – @elias_mensi
Hjalte Halberg – @hjaltehalberg
Fernando Bramsmark – @daaarkness
Heitor Da Silva – @heitordasilva
Oscar Säfstöm – @oskarsafstrom
Oskar Rozenberg Hallberg – @oskarrozenberg
Vincent Huhta Hasselberg – @v.uhh
Thomas Samuel

S/O to the whole Malmö scene. We are watching you!

When we flew to China we arrived at Shanghai airport as two tourists, my travel companion had been to the “People’s Republic of China” before but it was my first time in Asia. I didn’t know what we were in for but I was down to experience it all, we both wanted to see as much as possible.

We had brought along the perfect tool for that, an old Digital 8 “tourist style” handy cam. Armed with both the “handy cam” and our boards we chose to visit not only the Vans Park Series but everything else that Suzhou, Jiangsu and the Chinese people had to offer us.

team

 

First off, I have some information for you, “the internet” is not the same in the PRC, no Facebook, Instagram or even Google! This was at times a big plus because instead of looking down to our devices we looked up into the somewhat smog-filled part of the world we were in.

Secondly, we didn’t want to spend all our time at the hotel or at the event. “When in Rome” you don’t just want to stay inside the Coliseum, right? So one-day Oski (bless his heart) managed to get us some free (complimentary) bikes and we were off into the weird wilderness of China’s concrete jungle.

cycling

Now, we were two white guys. Normally that is not a big deal but we were in a part of China that did not have many westerners in it. This Caused us to become somewhat of a circus show at times. People wanted to skype their families together with us, stared without shame, took “secret” pictures and the biggest bonus, they allowed us to go and see and do everything. Nobody told us no! We went into temples, factories, sweatshops and “fake supreme shops” all with our “tourist camera” in hand.

sewing

That brings me to my second to last point:

Environmental groups are not completely against dams. We approve of appropriate development.

Ma Jun, Chinese environmentalist.

Now after reading this quote you might be confused about the link to the Vans Park Series right? Well, there is no link other than that we put a large percentage of “random” quotes in this video. Not normal quotes (spoken ones) but quotes printed on various pieces of clothing.

We found these quotes (in a store that sold fakes) that seemed random and were often badly spelled and connected them to our experiences in Suzhou. So instead of trying to make sense of the quote at the top of this article just know it is a random quote we found and used, in a similar way as all the others you will see in our video.


A small example of what we found.

Finally, if that didn’t convince you to watch the video let me assure you that we have included some great moves by people like Romand Pabich, Oskar (Oski) Rozenberg-Hallberg, Brighton Zeuner, Kokona Hiraki and a dancing, screaming but overall ripping Pedro Barros. Press play and enjoy the ride!

brooooooo
Extra thanks go to Vans for supporting this project.

For some, this news may come as a shock to you.. but to those lurking hard, this news has come as no surprise.
Daan Van Der Linden has joined fellow Eindhoven legend and PSV supporter Wieger Van Wageningen as a part of the Nike SB squad.

His first trip directly resulted in his welcome clip, must be nice to be that good!

For most of you Ville Wester is not a stranger, he came up through social media and the Bryggeriet Gymnasium in Malmö. Ever since we saw him winning our very own “King Of Vulcano” contest two Bright Tradeshow’s ago we have been paying attention to this young Danish lad. We worked together with Ville on our just-released Special Malmö Issue and met him multiple times since at events, parties and on the streets all over Europe. The point being made,  young Mr.Wester is coming up and one reason for his ascent are these FRI.day Nike SB x Soulland releases that he is very much a part of. The second video is dropping today and because of that we sat down, connected with Ville and talked about his two FRI.day’s. 

Photos by Ben Colen.
Interview by Roland Hoogwater.

Hey Ville, what’s up?

I am sitting in bed right now.

Are you about to go to bed? (8:04 PM)

No, I am just chilling, I am probably going to a party tonight. “Gonna get fucked up tonight!”

(Laughs) Okay, so, let’s start this interview then.

Talk a little bit about the first collabo, how did it happen and how did you get involved? Because, when that one happened, you were not that well known.

No, at that point I wasn’t that well known yet but I had been skating for Nike for a little while before this all happened. This older guy Silas Adler (co-founder of Soulland) got interested in skating again. I think he used to ride for Cityfellaz and some other sponsors back in the day. He does Soulland now and because of his history in skating, he wanted to do something together with Nike SB.

So one day I got a call from Silas, “We are doing it, do you want to be in this? Tao (Tor Ström) is going to film it and the boys have to be in it, it is going to be good.”

Soulland is based in Copenhagen so Hjalte Halberg, Oski, Karsten Kleppan and myself all got involved in the project. Actually, Hugo (Boserup) got brought in as well, he just started skating for Nike at that time. Anyway, they always wanted to have Eric Koston involved as well because he is a Fucking legend.

Did you know the Soulland guys before this all started?
Yes, I knew Silas a little bit, I met him a few years before. I did not know what he was doing though, I was just a little skate kid but I have learned since then (laughs).

The first Nike SB x Soulland collaborational video.

Do you know why they called it FRI.day?

In Danish, F.R.I.day means something like “To have a day off.” At the same time, you have good Friday, Friday is also a good day because it is the start of the weekend, and any day off is a good day.
So I think that is why they chose FRI.day, it seems to have a lot of good different meanings.

What was your favorite thing about the first video?

Hjalte’s lines he has a lot of really good ones in that video, I don’t want to pick a specific one they are all good to me.

How important is Tao in all of this, his style of filming?

I love filming with him, he is a good friend of mine. We also like to hang out and party together but at the same time nobody can get me hyped to film like he can. I know he knows how to film, so I never think “is this going to look whack?” he is on point when it comes to filming and that enables me to focus on doing the skating. He makes me comfortable, I trust him, I know documenting skating is not my job but I do think about the way things look through the lens even though I think I shouldn’t worry.

SOULLAD_FRIday_9

So after the first project was done did the crew change? If so, what was the crew for the second one?

For the second one, we had David Jakinda, Karsten Kleppan, Eric Koston, Antonio Durao, Me and Tao, Guy Mariano went out skating with us but didn’t film, Vaughan Baker was there, Danijel “Jugga” Stankovic was there, Silas and The Soulland guys came with us to L.A. it was a big crew of people.

Did everybody stay in touch after the first Soulland project ended?

Yeah, we have a Whatsapp group and we write each other every fucking day pretty much. There are two groups actually, one for the L.A. crew and one for the OG crew, both of them are pretty entertaining.

Who is the most active member?

Probably, Eric or Silas, they post some videos that get everybody sparked to talk.

Why did they choose Los Angeles this time?

The first one was in Copenhagen because it was home to Soulland, they wanted to show their city to people. Then for the second one, they wanted to visit L.A., venture out to Eric’s hometown.

SOULLAD_FRIday_24

How was it being out skating in L.A.?

It is way different than skating back home, here (in CPH) you have a bike and have a lot of spots close by at all times. The cliché is true over there you have to take a car, drive for an hour to a spot that you might want to skate and if nobody likes it, you get back in the car and drive for an hour and a half to the next one. You might hit two or three spots a day whereas here you hit 10 – no problem!

If you want you can push to different spots in CPH.

It is a totally different way of skating the city, it is a lot of fun too but it can also create pressure because the next spot is not around the corner. I did enjoy trying to skate that way because I had never done it. Normally I don’t start thinking of a trick before I get there but it is worth trying to skate something because you made a lot of effort to get there. It is different from what I normally do at home but maybe I should change that. Because some people plan things out and they end up having great video parts and I haven’t even had one yet (laughs).

I don’t know, maybe it is not like you are repeating yourself you did get some cool footage in Tao’s last video. They say “Don’t change a winning formula”.

Okay (laughs), to be honest, I just want to have fun and I think taking things too serious can get in the way of good skateboarding. Truthfully, I don’t see myself getting in a car, driving out to a massive rail trying to get a photo, doing the trick and then driving back home. To be honest, that is not really my way of doing things.

Let’s get back to Los Angeles, did the Soulland guys skate with you in out there?

They did, they said, “We can’t leave L.A. until we all do a tre-flip.” I didn’t see any of them land one but they tried a few times (laughs).

What is the favorite trick you did on your trip to L.A.?

The one-foot ollie, the one that Ben Colen shot.

A post shared by Ben Colen (@bencolen) on

 

Can you tell us more about the trip, what about the times you were not skating?

The first week we had this great apartment with a huge swimming pool and a jacuzzi that was really nice. We ate a lot of great food, taco’s, Indian food and on some evenings we drank margaritas at “El Compadre” together with Koston. We had some great times amongst friends.

How was skating with Koston in L.A.?

It was different because his family is out there. He is a dad so he had more family time in L.A. compared to CPH but he went skating with us almost every day. He also invited us to his house, we had a pool party with all the boys and his family. He had catering at his house and these people served us taco’s and gave us beers while we were hanging out in the jacuzzi, great times.

Let’s segue into the fashion part of this collabo can you tell me what your favorite Soulland x Nike SB pieces are?

I remember when they did the first collabo they did these pink shoes and I think they only made a hundred or two of them, those were so great and very comfortable. I still have my pair but I did fuck them up a bit during a New Years Eve party last year but still, those are great!

This time around the Dunk Hi is by far my favorite. I think that out of the twwo designs both last and this year it is the best shoe they did. The new deconstructed design of the Dunk looks so good on your feet especially with the baggy big boy pants that I am wearing.

Nike SB x Soulland: Zoom Eric Koston QS
Nike SB x Soulland: Zoom Eric Koston QS (No, these are not Ville’s pants obviously)

What has your Soulland x Nike SB non-skate highlight been so far?

I think the first premiere at Chateau Motel was my personal favorite. Chateau Motel had just opened and the premiere was the first event in that club. The screening was outside in the garden, it looked like an open-air theater. At one point I got so drunk and blacked out for a bit, came back to my senses around 4:00 AM met Silas he gave me a wine glass filled with Hennessy I drank it in one big gulp and blacked out again (laughs).

Last Question, will there be a third collaboration?

I don’t know but you never know with these guys, they are fucking crazy.

SOULLAD_FRIday_8

To celebrate the collaboration of Polar Skate Co. and Jack Purcell latest collaboration the whole Polar crew plus their own obstacles went to The City of Angels. When good people do good things.

Featuring: Jonas Skröder, Dane Brady, Pontus Alv, Paul Grund, Roman Gonzalez, David Stenstrom and Jerome Campbell.

Photo by Nils Svensson.

https://youtu.be/x9wYLbxF2sM

Let’s start at the beginning Oski is one of the most exciting skaters of our time, in fact, he is so nice to watch that the Cardiel reference, in the beginning, might even be justified.

Another thing that we really liked is that it is not just Oski you get his friends people like Hjalte Halberg, Alex Olson, Cyrus Bennett, Roman Gonzalez and more. Another good thing is that Nike gave a colorway to a skater that actually likes to skate the shoe (they have been kind of good at that.) which doesn’t seem to always be the case. Now go sit down and watch this part because it is good!