How long have you been playing the guitar, Mos?
I think around 5 years, maybe 6 already. I want to be a good guitarist. It’s kind of a dream to play music. In a good way. Also, there’s kind of parallel between playing music and blading. It’s the same thing. It’s the same kind of world. When you’re blading, you have to learn to skate backwards. It’s like music, you have to learn the basics, the notes. Once you master the technique, you can have fun.
You just played one song by the White Stripes, and another by Led Zeppelin. Would you say Jimmy Page, or Jack White?
Jack White. Jack is the man. To me, he really is a machine. The things he does, the way he sounds, wow. Haven’t seen him play live yet, but I definitely plan on doing that. I swear, the way his guitar sounds, it’s just like Chris Farmer’s skating. Or Broskow, you know? Because this guy is just way too easy. Just crazy tricks, with an absolute level of control. He really knows how to play.
“Fucking sweet, man. It’s better than a pro skate.”
You’re soon going to have a burger named after you over at Truespin skate park. How do you feel about that burger?
Fucking sweet, man. It’s better than a pro skate. You can go at the skate park, and ask for your burger. And you see kids ordering your burger, damn… You feel like the man. It’s funny, it’s quite a fun idea. Your own style burger, your pro model really. And it’s cool, it’s your own, really. It’s hard to come up with the right recipe, but now it’s almost perfect. I feel like something’s missing still, but it will go something like this: two pieces of toasted bread, and melted mozzarella, then we have two fat slices of tomato on each side, then the burger itself, some paprika, lettuce, and on top of the burger, planted on a stick, a green olive (editor’s note: we finally settled on using green pesto as the final ingredient).
Tasty! What do you think is the bigger problem in rollerblading nowadays, junk food or drugs? Television, or the internet?
The internet. I guess there are too many things to watch. Especially when you’re stoned. Too many edits. So for me, it’s kind of too much. Because most of the time, there’s some good edits also. It’s just hard to seperate the good from the bad, find the good stuff. There are so many good skaters we don’t know, and they’re so fucking good. And we don’t even watch. Because you know, you’re not interested sometimes, new guy, who’s coming from nowhere… Don’t watch.
Do you have any of those “new guys” names in the back of your head? People that are not too well known, but that you dig?
Olav Norheim, he’s fucking good. He won the Haitian Mag contest. Like this guy, I never saw him, if his name had come up on the internet, I wouldn’t have watched. But I saw him in Sweden, then I watched his edits, and I realized he was good. He really is a good skater.
One name to remember then. Do you think that’s something missing in blading, like a website that actually select the content they put up online?
Yeah, well, Blading.Info is doing that job, I think. Be-Mag and Rollernews, it’s just too much. Rollernews puts up so many edits, and sometimes there isn’t even anything worth watching. Sometimes Be-Mag gets stuck on the same page. But they’re doing a good job, with the magazine also, and they support the scene. They create the content, when Rollernews just creates the comments. Every day there’s like 3 new things, but nothing’s theirs.
“Blading.info is doing that job”
We probably shouldn’t be drinking whisky on a Monday evening, because yeah, you might get hated on for saying that, plus you’ve got to get up for work tomorrow. What do you do for a living?
I sell drugs. No, just kidding. I work with kids, I’m an educator, after school, and sometimes before school, during vacation time, etc. It’s a cool job, it’s perfect. Kids are perfect. I’m the big one you know, so I’m the leader. They’re following me, they believe in me… It’s not a job.
You’re basically playing, having fun for a living. I think it suits you pretty well.
It’s like that. But you have to find a job like that, you know, something where you don’t have to wake up and be like, damn… Be bored, something like that. Besides, it’s never the same day, ever. Every day is different. At school, these kids are very cool, really. You’ve got kids jumping on your shoulders, and saying your name, when they can barely talk at all. But they can say your name: “Stéééphane, Stéphaaaane!” I’m an influence on them, you know, to do blading, do 360 on the ground. And push them to do that with blades.
Did you ever get to do some blading for them?
Not at school, but at the skate park here, the street park, with all the kids. It’s was cool, a crazy experience. They enjoyed it. Sometimes they’d just sit, sometimes I’d grab them and try to have a ride. But most of the time I was skating the pool. So yeah, it was perfect.
“I was paid to skate: for one day, I was a professional blader.”
On another note, I understand we’ll be going to Barcelona some time this year, although we’re not sure of the dates yet. So what’s the plan?
We are going. What’s the plan? There’s no need for a plan in Barcelona. We just go there. We need a place to stay, and that’s all, we’re cool. But we definitely have to go there. Just because of you, because it’s your first time, and you can’t imagine what is waiting for you there. Man, there are parties 24/7. Everywhere is a spot, a perfect spot to skate, a weird spot to skate. And there’s La Guardia Civil, but I guess all you have to do is speak Dutch to get rid of them. Even English, they don’t understand.
You’ve also been to Poland a couple times. What’s waiting for you there, why are you so keen on Poland? Why do you like it so much?
Many reasons, but first of all, my girlfriend who lives in Poland. It’s the main reason why I’m going there. Second of all, I’ve got some new friends there, like Piotrek (Combrzinski), he’s skating for Razors. He is a really good skater, and he’s really nice, cool, everything. Chill. So in Poland they’ve got some good food, good parties, and they’ve got some good alcohol. You don’t need many more reasons to go. The people are really nice there. Poland rocks, and they’ve got some crazy skaters, there are many sick skate spots, really. They’ve got sick skate parks, street parks also, and many streets spots outside.
Hedonskate is in Poland, right?
Yeah, it’s in Katowice. I know a couple of these guys. I don’t really know the entire crew, because there’s a lot of them. It’s a good scene. Makes sense to support Hedonskate. It really is a good thing, and they make really cool things also. They’ve got everything. I’ve just been there, like a month ago, and I bought tons of Hedonskate stuff. Bought a beanie, bought some shoes, a sweater, a tee-shirt, a longsleeve, and several pairs of pants. It’s a brand, really. One that you have to support. If you don’t know what to do, just support Hedonskate. Just go buy some pants, or sweater, or beanie… It’s good quality, really. It’s why I buy that stuff, because it’s actually supporting something different, something real. Something good. Something you have to support.
Well, we talked about many other countries, but we didn’t talk about the main one: Belgium. Tell me about the scene in Brussels.
In Brussels, we’ve got some good skaters, some motivated skaters. We’ve got a good scene. Kind of like everywhere I guess, some crazy people, that like to skate, but most of the time they drink, or they smoke. They try to have some sessions. Well OK, we don’t try to skate every day. Also, we’re not so many. I mean, in Brussels there are many skaters, but it’s rare that we’re all together. Most of the time, a street session in Brussels is just 4 people, and that’s it. And also, most of the time, only two of those people actually skate. And I must say, what makes it difficult to skate is that everybody’s working, too. And the weather is kind of shitty. I mean, it’s really fucked. It’s snowing for a month, it gets dark really fast, and most of our spots aren’t lit up. It’s been something like 3 or 4 months that I haven’t really skated street. Most of the time, Brussels is fucked. It’s a hard city.
Despite the terrible weather, are you working on anything, besides your pro model burger and this interview? Video edit, shooting pictures maybe?
I am trying to make a skate park edit. I also have the project of doing a One Minute, One Spot thing for Be-Mag. And normally, I’d also have to do a Wheelscene edit, but that’s kind of fucked right now, because the weather sucks. I must admit I’m not so professional too, so it takes some time. But I would rather wait, film more sessions, in order to have a good edit, that’s good to watch, and be happy with it.
“It’s up to anybody to chose how they want to blade”
I think we’ve covered many topics, however it’s missing something, and it wouldn’t really be you if it weren’t for a little shit talking. So far, you’ve been way too nice, so now you have to pick one topic and speak your mind about it.
I don’t know if I should say this in my interview, but here we go. There’s this one quote of Jon Julio I didn’t really like about Powerblading. Frankly, with all due respect to Julio, I didn’t blade 20 years to skate Roces boots. I love the man, but I don’t think it was something cool to say. It’s up to anybody to chose how they want to blade, and this is just another option. It’s really enjoyable to roll on those frames, and that’s actually blading, not saying just rolling around on recreational skates, but it’s cool to roll, and also be able to grind. It’s not just fitness blading. We all blade, so just chill, don’t worry, your frames will sell too. Just not to me.
Any shout outs? I guess that’s how they end every interview, anybody you’d like to thank, or say “fuck you” to?
I all love you people. I just love everybody. Shout out to my friends for being my friends, my girlfriend for being on top of it. I love you, Grazyna. And I’d also like to thank Blading.info, Mat & Freddy for this interview.
