Interview by Nicolas Frega 

Now that 2006 is over, we look back on what has been one of the most bizarre years of streetboarding. Many stories went down for our sport during the recently past year: the first double backflip attempt, the birth of a new style of street skating, etc… but one had the greatest impact on the scene as we almost lost one of the most influential Streetboarders.

During the filming of the HPT’s Geek On Wheels video, Kai Hammen suffered an injury that almost cost him his arm. On this exclusive interview we talk to Kai about his unfortunate accident and how he views the sport after experiencing one of the most intense crashes in Streetboarding history.

First of all happy New Year from everyone at Dimension to the Addicted crew. Tell us a little on how you spent your new years?
Yeah man it was cool, I was with some homies at a cool party in Cologne, Germany it was awesome.

Nice man. Now onto the streetboarding questions. Well first of all the big one, what is on everyone’s mind right now. What happened to your elbow man? There are some rumors going around but not many people really know what happened.
Yeah. This was the worst day of my life. We were skating this 12 stair rail for the HPT video and I started with some 50-50’s, there wasn’t much ground to get speed, but it was ok, after warming up I tried to do a nosegrind, my front wheel hit the rail on the way up and I slamed from 2 meters down straight onto my arm.

Damn dude, sounds bad, so you are out from skating for a while?
Yeah, for one year or more. I cracked my elbow completely and broke all the bones of it. I have rehabilitation for the next four weeks to try to gain more mobility. After the crash the doctors told me that if I had been one hour later at the clinic I would have lost my arm.

Yeah I heard someone told me that. That is really something man, just the possibility of loosing your arm for skating, it’s probably the biggest crash the scene has had in a long, long time.
Yeah that is right. I mean the slam was not really that hard for me, but I was really unlucky on that day because I slamed straight on my arm. I remember some other crashes which were way harder than this one, but I was happy to see everything was alright.

Yeah man, sometimes you get lucky and save an otherwise really bad crash.
Haha, yeah, that’s right.

I remember during the Left For Dead filmings we had some pretty gnarly slams, but nothing really like this. How has this slam changed your view about streetboarding? And the dangers we put ourselves through every time we go out to skate?
My view about streetboarding is the same as before. Streetboard is that what I love to do, no matter what happens. I know I can’t skate the same hard stuff as I did before, no big handrails or gaps. I will see what happens in the future, the first thing I have to do right now is to regain the movement of my arm because right now I cant move my arm, I mean I lost full movement.

What do you think now after your crash about big spots? And the dangers they represent, do you think they are worth it to skate? Considering the possible outcomes.
I have respect for all the big spots because you can die all the time, I mean for me for sure was it worth to do big spots and maybe I will continue doing them after i recover, but I can’t make a lot of  money with streetboading and if I slam hard on my left elbow again I can lose my arm, but I will see what happens in the future.

Yeah man, you have to take care of that arm from now on. We wish you the fastest recovery and we can’t wait for you to get back to killing spots.
Thanks man.

Considering its January 1st of 2007, lets do a little 2006 review.
Favorite 2006 streetboarder?
Gotthard Pilsner and Dani Regli.

Favorite video of 2006?
Of course Geeks on Wheels.

Favorite video part of 2006?
Tobi Oelgart.

Hands down. Alright dude, any finals words for all the Kai Hammen fans out there?
Go out and kill the spots.

Thanks for the interview Kai.
Yeah man, sorry if the interview is a little weird, I am still a bit drunk from New Years.