Mathias Silhan is a French based Pro rider for Razors Skates. He is also one of the nicest people you could hope to meet in the Blading industry, with a constant smile on his face and a true love for Blading it is a pleasure to see him finally receive a much deserved Pro skate. We caught up with Mathias to talk Blading.
How does it feel to know that all of the years of hard work, blood sweat and tears has been noticed by Bladers all over the world in the pinnacle form of a Pro skate?
I am very proud to have my name on a skate of course, all those years have been a real pleasure for me, travelling around and meeting people, I enjoyed everything. Having a pro skate is for sure something that I’m proud of, it’s a good achievement for me, try to be up of this honor.
You have been an ever steady presence on the team roaster for British wheel manufacturer, BHC. How did your relationship with them start, and are there any future products we can expect?
Yea it’s quite a long time that I’m skating the best wheels on the market now. BHC was a very good connection with the UK dudes, Mark Trebble hooked me up and together with Paul they gave me a pro wheel the first year I was on the team. Today I have a new wheel that just came out, designed by Robert Lievanos and I really like it on the technical and esthetic point. I’m going to meet Mark next week in Paris to film for the upcoming BHC dvd, keep an eye open, Mark and all the team really invest their selves in it and I believe it will be something really crazy !!
Your Pro skate has a unique logo, in the form of a Pigeon on the cuff. Can you explain the meaning behind this for the people that do not know?
Yeah a Pigeon right! Haha it just came out with my good friend and designer Simon Jacquin, we were searching for a unique logo something representing the streets of France. Pigeons are everywhere and people don’t really like them. I don’t particulary like them either – but the logo was looking cool this way, and at the end I don’t know a lot of people that chill more in the street than we do, the bladers – except pigeons!
Why do you think more and more European riders such as yourself, are being noticed on a main stream level in the blading industry?
I think it just correspond to the reality of our movement, there were bladers in Europe since ever, and we can see today that Rollerblading starting to touch more and more kids here in Europe, it’s logical that our industry support european blading. When you see the talent of some skaters here you understand that it’s not to bad for our industry.
Nomades is a big French skate shop and every year they put on a huge tour with sick selection of rider. How does it feel to be chosen every year to be on this prestigious tour?
It’s a real pleasure to be invited on this tour every year, Nomades shop is doing a really good job now. They are getting more and more invest in Rollerblading and you can see they doing a lot for us. This tour is really chill, we just travelled europe for two weeks this summer it was amazing : we had always a good place to stay, meet skaters from all over Europe and had an amazing time with our group. Can’t wait for the next Nomades Tour !
What is the best thing about living in France? (other than the women and FISE of course)
The NL Contest haha! You should come check it out next year. What’s good in France… it would be to long to explain. The atmosphere in France is unique, as it is in every country I’ve been to. I would not look to frenchy but it’s about everything.. I don’t say I will live all my life here, but I enjoy my life here a lot – food is good, of course everybody knows our weird food habits cheese, vine, frog legs, snails and steack tartare (all of this is amazing by the way) but France is also a cultural place with particular history that gives this country a certain charm and interest.
Your skate has a very clean and modern look to it, which many people would agree reflects your skating. How involved do you get to be in the design process and what does the process entitle?
Yes I really wanted to have a clean looking skate, I didn’t wanted to mix to much colors. I really liked the Dre2 boot when they came out and I was down to have a skate with a soft top, we try to improve this soft top part to have something a bit more solid and then I choose and figured out with Razors how I wanted my skate to be. I had the opportunity to choose every part on it, so we can tell it really correspond to what I expect from a street skate. It was important for me that the skate correspond to me, and Razors really gave me the opportunity to built the skate from A to Z.
By now your passport must be getting near full of stamps from constantly touring. Out of all of the countries you have visited, which is your favourite and why?
Yea my passport is just about to expire this year and I will have to get a new one, but I’ll keep my old one, I track all the travels I have had over the past 10 years and it’s amazing when I look back and see all of trips i have been on. I can’t honestly say that I like one country more than every other – have really great memories every where I’ve been to. But if I have to pick few I would say La Reunion (Island close to Madagascar) where I had an amazing time with amazing people, Spain, Portugal, USA, Balkans… I told you I could write down too many countries that I enjoyed, here you got few.
Do you have any upcoming adventures in the near future?
Yes of course I’m juiced by my next plans – I’m just recovering right now from an injury I had this summer in Portugal – but next week I’ll be in Paris to film for BHC, and when I got back I’ll go to Germany to shoot for an upcoming itw for Be Mag. Then few others contests and trips to finish the year in the good mood. Preparing my self for a crazy 2013 year !
Shout outs?
Yea shout outs to my family and girlfriend Melanie that support me a lot. Also to all my friends from Strasbourg and all over I skate with or just party ! Shouts out to my sponsors Razors GC BHC JUG Nomades Bagua Shoes for the support ! And Blading.Info for this interview !
