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Dudu’s Interview

April 25th, 2007 - Eduardo Gac, Interviews, Streetboarding.com. 1 Comment

We had the chance to talk with Dudu, one of the most influential Streetboarders of South America. On this exclusive interview he tells us a little bit of his current role in the scene and what his future plans are within Streetboarding.

Sbing.com: Alright man, let’s have a little intro for the people who don’t know you.

My name is Luis Eduardo Gac Rivera, homies call me Dudu. I was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil but I’m Chilean. I’ve been streetboarding since 1996, so I’m a veteran.

Sbing.com: Lately you have been really involved in the local scene, pushing it with events and Streetboard schools; tell us a little bit about that.

Well, last year we started a little Streetboard School and Skatepark with the city of La Pintana, I’m in charge of this section. The city invested around US$100.000 in ramps. So far I have organized two championships in this place, and for this year we have nine contests organized as well. We got a few really good sponsors for the last contest, and we are building business relationships with big local brands that are eager to participate in Streetboard events.

Sbing.com: Someone told me you are about to open a Streetboard Shop, what can you tell me about this?

Yeah, Its almost ready, it will be called “XtremeZone” we will sell Streetboards and other boards too, and we will also have a mini ramp in the shop. We still have a little more work to do, but it’s looking good.

dudu-rodeo

Sbing.com: Awesome dude. Now tell me a little bit about your most memorable Streetboard trips.

well, Worlds 2001 in Buenos Aires, Argentina was awesome, we met all the Pros from around the world and we got good connections. 2002 in France was amazing too, I participated in the tour organized by Vianney and then we went to Worlds, I made lots of good friends and we had an incredible time. But I think the best one for me was 2003 in California, because I went with the help of a few sponsors and also five Chilean riders went along, I was so happy to see all of us there, it was amazing.

Sbing.com: A brand new concrete park was recently opened in Santiago, Chile. You think that now with this park the national level will increase in park or will it remain a street oriented country?

Of course the park level will improve with new parks and ramps. The reason that this country is street oriented is because of the lack of ramps; now that we have more parks it will be more balanced. If you look at riders like Oli, he is a ramp machine with almost no ramp training, so I think now all riders will become more overall skaters.

dudu-nose

Sbing.com: Do you have any future plans of participating more in international events with a little crew of local riders? Or do you intend to focus more on the local market: Chile, Argentina and Brazil? Markets that are yet to be build.

Yeah I would love to build a little traveling team, and to meet all of my friends at Worlds every year, but we lack resources so far. I really want to build a market here and work towards making Streetboarding big again in South America, we have huge potential and I know that it will rise again and I want to be there when it happens. I believe in the sport and we have to take risks.

Sbing.com: Totally agreed man, well thanks a lot for your time, and I hope this little interview will show the international scene about who Dudu is.

Thanks to Streetboarding.com for the interview, and a big hug to all my homies worldwide, see you all soon!

Simon’s Interview

March 11th, 2007 - HPT Streetboards, Interviews, Simon Lorenzo, Streetboarding.com. 3 Comments

We had the chance to ask a few questions to Simon Lorenzo, owner of Homeless Punky Tech. He spent a few months in SoCal, skating and filming for his new DVD: Geeks On Wheels, this is what he had to say:

- Alright man, name, age and home town.

S: Hey dudes, lam Simon Lorenzo, lam 23 and I come from Spain, yeah! And also I run a little skate company called HPT

- If you could be any streetboarder for one day, who would you be?

S: Hahahahaha, this question is obvious, there are different riders I would like to be for one day, good rails skater, ramp skaters…I guess Gotthard, so that way I would be pushing the level of sport every day, just for the fun of it.

-You would you not be?

S: I can’t answer that without getting in troubles, I don’t want make more people angry at me.

-What is the best thing about Streetboarding?

S: (long pause), (exhales)…the friendships and the family style aspect of it.

- Would you play a game of skate against Gotthard on a 15 stair rail?

S: Hahaha, I can’t hit a 15 stair rail, so no….

- What if it was money involved? Like a lot

S: No, I think money should be seen as a bonus, skating for money is not fun, is good but is not fun.

- Who would you like to skate with, knowing that you would never be able to?

S: I’ve already skated with everyone I have ever wanted, so I don’t know really…

- What is the hottest team right now?

S: I would have to say HPT crew, because everyone has a different style and they all skate different spots, and none of them get paid for and they still enjoy it.

- Well nobody really gets paid with Streetboarding

S: I know, it’s just that I find amazing to find riders that will still try to push the level of the sport to make it better.

- How much money have you spent on Streetboarding?

S: Personally or business wise?

- Well, I mean like all the money you have for streetboard purposes of any kind.

S: Quite a bit, but I don’t feel bad when you spend money in something you like.

-You seemed really motivated within the Streetboard community, you are really involved in several projects, Where does that motivation comes from?

S: I believe in the sport.

- Who do you think will land double backflip on a competition first?

S: That’s obvious, but I think that it will happen in a while. Its to early for Streetboarding

- Dude, you didn’t answer the question

S: Hahahaha, I can’t answer that.

- Who do you think will die first in Streetboarding? Like skating…

S: I hope nobody does

-We all hope that dude, But who do you think is crazy enough to actually dying trying a trick?

S: No one.

- Really?

S: Yes

- Dude, I know a few guys that might die skating any time soon.

-Who would you like to see Streetboarding again?

S: Kai Hammen, I can’t wait for him to get better from his injury, I enjoy skating with him so much, he is really lay back and always smiling.

- He took a really bad slam right? Was it on a rail?

S: Yeah, twelve stair rail. He had a really bad hang up (nightmare) trying nosegrind and landed on his elbow, it was completely shattered; he is out for a year man. I wish him a good and fast recovery.

-Yeah, we all do…hang in there Kai…

- What is the worst slam you have ever seen?

S: I am lucky enough to not seen any bad slams, like really bad.

- Dude, I’ve seen too much, you are lucky, a bad slam will make you stress for sure.

- What is the most insane trick you have ever seen live?

S: Personally, as you know, lam much more a tech skater, and I must say I really like Tobi’s ender in his video part.

- Alright dude, thanks for the interview see you later

S: See you soon dude, hopefully not the last time.

Kai’s Interview

January 3rd, 2007 - Addicted, Interviews, Kai Hammen, Nicolas Frega, Streetboarding.com. 2 Comments

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.

Kai Hammen

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.

Kai's X Ray

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.

Kai's Arm

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.
Kai Hospital