Beyond Boards

Episode 48 with Johannes Schön and Florian "Burny" Hopfensperger, skateboarders from Germany, creators of Pocket Skatemag.

Together we discussed them growing up in different parts of Germany, meeting for the first time on a skate trip to Croatia back in 2010, working in the skateboarding industry, Johannes in marketing for German distributor Mosaic and Burny as a skate photographer for various publications, launching Pocket Skatemag in 2017, how they run this whole operation between the two of them along with all the other people involved (particularly young prodigy Bennet Rahm), their favorite « followed » pieces so far, their thoughts about the future of skateboarding media, their upcoming projects…   

For more information and resources: https://linktr.ee/beyondboards

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Episode 47 with Kuba Kaczmarczyk, skateboarder and videographer from Warsaw, Poland.

Together we discussed him growing up and picking up a skateboard in Warsaw in the early 90’s, getting interested in filming and making skate videos with his friends, releasing his first full-length video « Grey Area » in 2012 with a crew of talented skaters from Eastern and Central Europe, a few years later using the name Grey Area for the crew, working a full-time job and having a family while filming and making many more videos throughout the years, his upcoming projects…  

For more information and resources: https://linktr.ee/beyondboards

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Episode 46 with Ali Boulala, musican, model, former pro skater from Stockholm, Sweden.  

Together we discussed him growing up and picking up his first board in Stockholm, his obsessive nature since childhood, developing an interest for music thanks to Bastien Salabanzi back in the Flip days, his early sobriety days and having been sober for nearly 10 years, working with Max Eriksson on the documentary « the scars of Ali Boulala », joining the alternative rock band Ghost Boys, working on their first album, modeling for some of his friends’ brands such as CHPO or Human Recreational Services, working on a book…  

For more information and resources:  https://linktr.ee/beyondboards  

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Episode 45 with Kristin Ebeling, skateboarder, musician and social worker from Seattle, Washington (also known as Occupied Duwamish Territory).

Together we discussed her first encounter with a skateboard while she was living in Singapore as a young child, being bullied as a teenager and finding somewhat of a release through skateboarding, getting involved with Skate Like a Girl around that time and later becoming the executive director, throwing the wheels of fortune events for SLAG, turning pro recently for Meow Skateboards, playing bass in the punk band Punitive Damage, her upcoming exchange

For more information and resources: https://linktr.ee/beyondboards 

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Episode 44 with Steffen Austerheim, skateboarder from Stavanger, Norway, former student turned skateboarding teacher at Bryggeriets Gymnasium in Malmö, Sweden.

Together we discussed him growing up and picking up his first skateboard in Stavanger, getting sponsored and doing competitions at a young age, finding out about Bryggeriets Gymnasium in Malmö and convincing his parents to send him over there, moving back to Stavanger after graduating to work and study for a few years, coming back to Bryggeriets in 2020 to work alongside his mentor John Dahlquist as a skateboarding teacher, the many challenges of teaching skateboarding, overcoming anxiety, his recent decision to go sober…   

For more information and resources: https://linktr.ee/beyondboards 

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Episode 43 with Chris Lawton, skateboarder, co-founder of Skate Nottingham and Community Development Officer at Skateboard GB. 

Together we discussed him growing up in Boston, Lincolnshire, moving to Nottingham in 1996 to study history and connecting with the thriving local skate scene, working in academia at Nottingham Trent University for a few years, traveling to Malmö and Copenhagen with his skate friends and drawing much inspiration from there to launch Skate Nottingham, a non-profit which uses skateboarding as a tool to unlock learning and creativity, participating in a talk about « skate friendly cities » at Pushing Boarders 2018 in London, recently taking the position as Community Development Officer at Skateboard GB, the National Governing Body for skateboarding for the UK…   

For more information and resources: https://linktr.ee/beyondboards

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Episode 42 with Eric Swisher aka Chops, skateboarder, copywriter, creator of the Chrome Ball Incident. 

Together we discussed him growing up and picking up a skateboard in Ohio, starting a blog in 2008 to  share scans from old skateboarding magazines and naming it « the Chrome Ball Incident » (a reference to Neil Blender), starting to do interviews with pro skaters in 2010, keeping it going until today and interviewing some of the most iconic pro skaters, photographers, videographers, artists of the last 40 years and therefore slowly but surely building Chrome Ball into a staple in skateboarding culture, his whole interview process, how he’s managed to keep doing it so consistently throughout the years despite a busy work life and not making any money directly from the blog, his collaboration with Jaime Owens’ Closer Skateboarding Magazine…  

For more information and resources: https://linktr.ee/beyondboards

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Episode 41 with Michael Burnett, skateboarder, photographer, journalist, editor-in-chief of Thrasher Magazine. 

Together we discussed him growing up and picking up a skateboard in Texas, going to college in Boulder, Colorado to study journalism, making zines with his friends, getting his foot in the door at Thrasher in 1994, then becoming the editor-at-large and eventually the editor-in-chief, starting King of the Road in 2003, the process of choosing SOTY, the relative mainstreamization of the brand Thrasher, the future of the mag (both print and digital), mental health and life balance...  

For more information and resources: https://linktr.ee/beyondboards

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Episode 40 with Gordon Eckler, skateboarder and co-founder of the "Skate Trivia" games. 

Together we discussed him growing up and picking up a board between the island of Guam and Maryland, getting sponsored and moving to California as a young adult, transitioning into graphic design and marketing, coming up with an idea for a « Skate Trivia » game born out of a game played between skaters during road trips while driving to skate spots, making it first as a card game, along with his friend and business partner Jack Spanbauer evolving it into two browser-based games which are about to be released, the inspiration they drew from similar initiatives like Skateboardle…   

For more information and resources: https://linktr.ee/beyondboards

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Episode 39 with Imke Leerink, skateboarder, social media and marketing manager from The Hague, Holland, founder of Girls Shred. 

Together we discussed her growing up and picking up a board in Utrecht, starting a myspace account called « Girls Shred » back in 2007 to connect with girl skaters near her, moving over to Facebook and Instagram to keep developing the community worldwide, doing events, meet-ups and workshops, the gnarly knee injuries she went through and is still struggling with to a certain extent, running the Instagram account daily, going to the 2019 edition of Pushing Boarders at Bryggeriets Gymnasium in Malmö, the place of women in skateboarding, the future of social media…   

For more information and resources: https://linktr.ee/beyondboards 

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