Gabriel Viking is a skater from Sweden who’s sponsored by Sci-Fi Fantasy. He’s got a creative bag of tricks and a unique, loose style. His free flowing approach to his skating is unique. He makes basic moves and the super technical ones that he’s got on lock, look sick, smooth and rad to watch. He’s got an eye for a different approach and has one of our favourite Frontside 360s.
After making a few remixes of his clips, we had to hit him up to join The No Comply Network and we we’re hyped he was down.
So we gave him a call to chat about how he started skating in Stockholm, the stories behind his sick tricks, clips and edits, the new skate video projects he’s filming for, his experiences of being a student at Bryggeriet, the story of how Jerry put him on Sci-Fi Fantasy, his thoughts on creativity in skateboarding, his travels around Europe and further afield, his favourites and more.
Read Gabriel’s interview below to find out how it all went down for yourself.
Gabriel, Shot by Hampus Lundin
So, where did you grow up Gabriel?
I grew up a little bit out of Stockholm in Upplands Väsby. I had to take a commuter train from there to get to the city.
I grew up there with my mom, older brothers and dad. My mom and dad separated and my brothers are on my mom’s side.
I was there with them and then my dad moved into the city when I got older and my mom as well.
My dad has lived in Stockholm since he was 7 and he’s fully Norwegian, he’s from north Norway. He moved from Stockholm to Oslo when I was around 14 or 15ish and I tagged along with him and lived in Oslo for about a year.
That’s interesting you’ve got this Norwegian connection
Yeah, it’s super nice.
At what point did skating come into the picture for you?
I got hyped on skating when I was going to förskola which is a place you go before you start real school, like after Kindergarten, you go there for a year, where you do basic maths and learn the time and stuff and then you start 1st grade.
When I got to that school, where my big brother went as well, he skated a lot at that time as well, this was around about 2006 probably
I’m a really short guy but I was super short at that time too. On the way to school I would sit in the middle of the board and he would push me to school and home from school too. I would sometimes see him and his friends who skated and I always thought they looked so cool. I really liked the baggy clothes that they were wearing as well.
That got me hyped on it but I didn’t really start skating then. I think it was in 2009 on my 9th birthday some kids, where I lived at the time, had started skating and they had started to go to the one indoor park that we have in Stockholm and they were hyping it up so much.
They were like ‘We went to this skatepark and it’s the coolest place ever and we got our boards and everything and I was like ah, I want to go there too, it sounds so sick!’.
Then I wished for a skateboard and I got one when I turned 9 and I tagged along with them and then I went there everyday and I just never stopped.
What’s the name of that skate park with the mini ramp and a long steep jersey barrier in it? That was tight.
Yeah. That’s one of the best ones that’s called Humlegården. That place is sick.
I met a few skaters and I can remember us watching Mika Eden skating there. He was shredding at the time on this mini ramp.
Yeah Mika Eden, he is a Swedish legend. I think he’s still going but he lives super far off and he only eats bananas.
He’s super sick.
I was hyped, he was killing it. He had so many tricks down.
That place is so nice for hanging out too. At the moment I have a friend from Florida staying with me but previously I had five guys staying with me from there and they were always so hyped because almost all of the skate parks that we have in Stockholm and around Sweden are all placed in very nice parks where people hang out, next to the grass and little forested areas.
So it’s always so nice for people to visit because even if you don’t feel like skating, it’s such a nice hang out spot too, like every park is so nice for sitting and relaxing.
Ah yeah, I definitely got that vibe. I saw street spots all over the place too. I remember there was a drained out fountain ledge spot with a marble ledge and marble floor. That was tight.
Yeah that’s a legendary spot too. It’s called Obsan.
Everybody loves it but I always have the hardest time there. I feel like I’m too short to get up on the curb haha
It looked so good for learning tricks
It’s so fun.
Were you mainly skating with your brother and his friends?
My big brother doesn’t skate anymore, he lives in Spain now. But my other brother Nibbli. He skates a lot. He’s sick.
He looks exactly like me but is taller. He’s got the exact same clothing style as well. He’s super mellow, it’s a fun contrast because I get very hyper and he’s very calm and relaxed and chilled in comparison.
We skate parks quite a lot but nowadays it’s been a lot of street skating.
My friend Sean Christiansen who makes Green Skateing – which is a skate video series based in Stockholm, we are working on a new video of his, so we’ve just been filming a lot.
Who have you been out filming with?
Vincent Huhta, the guy on Sour, he’s been super hyped on getting clips, every day he’s like. I just want to skate spots and get clips. So I’ve been hyped on everyone wanting to go out and get some footy, I’m like yeah let’s do it!
So not too many park sessions at the moment but it is super nice when we do go to a park because you feel like you have not been there for a while and you’ve missed skating it for a while.
Gabriel, Blunt Airwalk, Vinterviksrampen, Shot by Hampus Lundin
Yeah street and park are just totally different but what are people like with skaters on the streets in Stockholm?
Very mixed. It depends on the day. People can go out of their way to talk shit to you but they won’t do anything they’ll just shout at you. I don’t really notice it too much. People here are nice if you approach them and be nice. I never really want to fight with people and start arguing so I’m always the one who is super calm in the group.
If an old man or woman is coming and they are trying to kick us out, I’m always like of course, I totally understand we are on your property. It’s fine but if you are ok with it we are just going to skate for another 10 minutes and we are never going to come back. Most of the time if you are super respectful and calm, they’ll be like sorry for being mad. Do your thing. Sorry it’s just a lot of noise here!
I can understand that.
It’s a big city, I think that’s why it’s like that with the people, some people are super non-caring about it and some are super hyped and they’ll stand with us for an hour as somebody is trying a trick, it’s just like next try, next try, it’s the coolest thing ever.
But then some older people are like you guys are messing up the whole place ahhh!
I think it’s just the older generation that has a problem with it. I think when they were younger skating was basically semi-banned in Stockholm.
Sweden is a country of two halves but one thing is for sure, it’s hard to find things that are bad for you. Everything is healthy.
It’s too good here!
Yeah it’s too good maybe. Skating in the UK in the early 00s people always seemed to have an issue with it
Ah man.
Yeah, in Sweden I never had an issue.
That’s cool. Skating has been very popularised in Sweden. I feel like that’s why so many people are cool with it.
Malmo for example, the city of Malmo supports skating so much, they get sponsored by the city to make skate events. That’s why places like Malmo are super crazy for skating. I think that’s why a lot of pros and stuff like to go and visit Malmo instead of Stockholm because there people are so chill with skating and they love it so much.
Oski for example is from Malmo, he went to the Olympics and stuff. They love skating so much here. It’s rubbed off a little bit, but there’s still people who don’t care but there are also a lot of people who are into it and see it and think that it’s sick.
Yeah the UK has changed a lot though. When you were growing up, did you go to different parts of Sweden or just Stockholm?
I used to compete a lot when I was younger but then I only went to the parks for the contest, I haven’t really explored too much streetwise other places in Sweden, mostly here or Malmo.
I used to ride for this board company here in Stockholm called Eva Skateboards and went on a trip to Linköping which is two hours away from Stockholm.
What was it like?
Linköping was pretty dead. I didn’t think anyone there could even care because there were not even a lot of people there at the time.
We were skating some school but there was none there. It was super relaxed compared to here, which is the capital and where there are so many people. We didn’t really run into anyone who got mad at us there and I can’t think of anywhere else where that has happened. I feel like a lot of places in Sweden are calm with not a lot of things going on, so they get really happy when people get hyped and are doing some skating in their town. They’re stoked to just see something different going on.
Skating gives us so much, hopefully it inspired a few people there to get into it. Happens at Southbank everyday. You’ll never get that size of a crowd to see people kick a football on the street.
Yeah, I guess it’s like a performance of some kind to the people who are watching.
It’s sick that you’re able to have those experiences because a lot of people in the UK don’t even bat an eyelid.
People get super hyped here if you’re jumping down some stairs, you’ll get a small crowd, hyping you up
You skate transition so well. I remember the first clip I saw you doing a laidback Smith Grind stall where your knees were basically on the coping as you ate a sandwich. How did you end up doing that trick and how did you get into skating ramps?
I was working as a skate coach in Malmo at this park and I forgot to eat my breakfast so I came with a chocolate sandwich and I did the Smith Tweak and ate my sandwich.
Yeah man, that was jokes, but it is actually kinda nuts to be able to do that. So how did you become a skate coach in Malmo?
I went to Bryggeriet. The skate high school for 3 years when I was 17 till about age 20. I was there for a while and then in year 2 or 3 I started to work as a coach after hours in the park with the kids and then when I graduated, in the summer break before that. They had ‘Summer Skate’ where you could be a paid coach so that was my first real job and they did one in collaboration with Dorkzone.
My group had two different parks. We’d go to Hyllie And Rosengȧrd. That was super fun.
You would meet so many kids, and they would pick it up so fast. That day I switched from 53mm to 56mm, I was like skating transition is so much more fun with these high wheels.
Yeah man, you got the right tools for the job, as if you were skating on wheels for street up until then. So Dorkzone, that was started by Phil Evans and Mike O Shea. Have you ever met Mike O’Shea before?
Mike is the biggest G and Phil. Mike and Phil Evans.
Yeah Mike O’Shea is a legend. I’ve skated with him loads of times.
Mike is really good at skating. He would do some pretty sick stuff when we were out filming. They would film with two cameras. Mike would film with a small camera and get some B-Roll stuff and then would do like a Wallie to Back Lip on a curb or something.
Yeah, he’s so good and he’s got a sick sense of humour.
Yeah, he’s really funny. I remember we were sitting on this train and we were going to film some Dorkzone clips and they came to check the tickets.
Phil had the tickets for them both but they walked up to Mike and then in the most prim and proper English Accent he said ‘yes actually my lover over there actually has the tickets for us’. He’s so jokes. I thought it was hilarious.
Seatbelt Grab, Shot by Nils Svensson
He’s such a devil’s advocate, always spoke his mind and that’s always good. Phil Evans is a great filmmaker. You were in his Darkzone video. You did an Ollie over transfer to FS Sugarcane on this bank to bank over a bench. How did that go down?
That was a battle. That thing was so steep. It was in Lund. We went there to check the spot out and I’m always super over hyped and over confident about spots sometimes. I was like yeah, this is gonna be so nice, I’m so hyped to skate it.
But then when we got there I could barely roll over the curb. I had to walk so far away and run so fast, I think I had like 60mm wheels but it would barely help.
I would go up and lose all my speed and some tries, I would not even reach the top and I would get so mad.
I think on one of the tries, I started with the No Comply Tailslide because that felt kinda easier to get to the top and cheat my way up there and then shoot board out of the slide and then jump back on it and then I got so hyped on that one I took a lot more speed on the next try on the Sugarcane and then I tried to reach for it and I managed to get into the grind and I held it.
Yeah you ground it to the last inch that you could and you just got past that bench. It was so close, it was tight. Phil filmed that so well too. Sweden is leading the way in skate academics though. Byrrgiet is killing it.
Byrrgiet is the best school ever.
It makes so much sense. You’d think it would be in America or here in England, somewhere closer to the epicentre of where skateboarding is from. What’s it like from your perspective as a former student?
Ah dude, it’s so chaotic, nice, welcoming and fun. It’s so hard to put it into words. It was the best 3 years of my life and it’s such a bittersweet thing for me to remember.
Why?
Because you think I’m never going to reach that level of fun again. I get so sad when I think about it sometimes.
I really wish I could go back in time and do it again. I think for me, someone who always had so much energy and trouble with having too much energy like ADHD in school.
I’ve had a lot of disagreements with teachers who never understood me or who were able to give me the time to help me in a way that works for me and then coming to Malmo, where you have skate lessons at the school, you can skate during lunch breaks and end breaks.
All the teachers are so used to everybody being so hyperactive, because most skaters have something like ADHD or just have that level of energy. It was such a breath of fresh air to come to this school, where everybody here was like me and people who are not even like me can understand me and are so fun to be around.
All of the teachers are so nice and really tried to help me in the best way possible
John Dalhquist was probably the best teacher that I ever had. So understanding, positive and helpful and giving so much motivation to everyone all the time.
He puts 110 percent into his work, every single day. It’s just like you can really feel the passion going into that school everyday that you go there.
Wow, that’s sick to hear, that’s so rare even nowadays to hear that. Skating has always been a sick way to meet people from different walks of life.
That’s the beautiful thing about skateboarding. The whole social thing and everything you get to experience. I would probably be dead without skating. I don’t know what I would do if I did not start skating. It’s so beautiful. It’s insane. The places I’ve been able to go to and the people I’ve been able to meet.
Even today, I’ve got 4 skaters from Riga staying with me right now and another guy from Florida. It’s so beautiful. It’s so nice. I never really feel alone ever. Some friends are always a phone call away and there is always something happening. You get new experiences everyday
100 percent. I’ve met a lot of Swedes in Barcelona and then visited them. Skating motivates you to travel and attracts cool people with a like minded approach.
Skaters are the nicest people. You can travel the world and meet people and get to know them really quickly
Yeah, you can see from their skating they have a passion for it and have worked hard at it, just from a baseline you can empathise with that. Who was your first sponsor?
It was a shop in Stockholm called Coyote Grind Lounge in 2011. I had been skating for 2 years and I got flow sponsored by them. I got some wheels and stuff.
That’s pretty quick man, not even a 1000 days and you got hooked up. That’s amazing.
Yeah just a local shop, some discounts, some wheels and stuff, sometimes. It was super fun. I was mega stoked.
So after that shop flow, what kind of skating were you watching at the time?
I don’t think I opened a lot of skate videos. They played skate videos all the time at the indoor park. They played Krooked 3D and this old Real Skateboards video, I can’t remember the name but it had a banging soundtrack. The whole video was a banger.
Then they would have an old Zoo York video ‘Mixtape’ that they would play all the time.
It was so nice. I used to watch those all of the time. I didn’t watch too many. I would just want to skate myself but I would always go to any of the premiere in Stockholm if they had one.
I would watch a few skate videos but only Scandinavian videos, just stuff from here and sometimes if they had them in I would get a DVD from that shop I went to, I would watch that. I remember I had a Norwegian video from the skate shop that I would get all the time. It had Karsten Kleppan and Gustav Tønnesen in it, when they were kids.
Gabriel, Dirt Ride, Shot for Harlaut Apparel Co.
Sick. Were you not watching Bellows stuff as well?
I don’t think I ever got a Bellows DVD. I never had one. They would sell their movies but I never had them but I started watching them later online on YouTube and I would watch Bellows stuff but I would mostly watch stuff my friends found. I remember we would watch like Jesse Alba and Welcome skateboards stuff.
That’s gnarly. I guess you started skating in the 2010s really, so the way you watched videos was different. Back in the day we would watch grainy 56k single clips of the Gonz Kickflip Hippy jumping through a bar 10 times and if you blinked you missed it.
Gotta get your glasses on!
Yeah or slow mo it!
The only videos I had were the stuff from magazines, or something someone gave out at an event. The DC where EU At? , Sweet and Sour and that Norwegian movie oh and I also had an Osiris movie too..
Which Osiris video, that one with Jerry Hsu and Louie? Subject to Change?
I have no idea what it was called! It was not a proper full length video but it had that Scottish guy who had that kilt on him when he was skating.
Stu Graham, yeah the Boneless in the kilt? Ah ok that was Feed The Need
Yeah my dad loves him. Stu Graham.
Stu is gnarly. He’s rad. He’s a legend. Who were the skaters in Sweden you were looking up to at the time?
100 percent. I was watching David Stenström. The guy on Polar and Last Resort. He was the shit. He was the coolest skater. I wanted to be him so bad. The tweaked Ollies that I do, kind of straight up and straight down, that’s just stolen from David. I was watching him for so many years doing it and he taught me how to do it and I started doing it myself. Him and his whole crew.
Frontside Ollie, Shot for Skate Malmo Sweden
What was the name of his crew?
He had this crew called Awaut when I was younger. It was him and a bunch of local skaters. They were so cool. They would put out crew videos and stuff.
But as I got a little bit older, some people who were a bit closer to my age had a crew called Galaxy and they were like man, I really wanted to be in Galaxy but I was too much of a kid to be in. They didn’t want to put me in the crew.
Galaxy is a little bit of a thing, they would hype it up a little bit sometimes, they don’t really do videos anymore.
Vincent Huhta was in the Galaxy crew.
I was going to say because that One Foot photo of Vincent he’s got Galaxy written on his shoe, so that makes so much sense.
They were a tight group. They were all 1-3 years older than me but I thought they were so fucking cool. I wanted to be on Galaxy so bad. I was too dorky. I was too small.
Vincent Huhta, One Foot Ollie, Shot by Tor Strom
You’ve come up now and grown a lot. That David Stenström, dude, his Frontside Ollies are nuts on transition, everything is all in one motion and then he kind of disappeared.
Yeah, he had a lot of personal stuff going on, he took a break for a long while but then he found his way back into skating and his love for it. I’m super happy for him. He’s a very very good friend of mine and I miss him a lot because he moved to Copenhagen.
Gabriel, Kickflip in Copenhagen, Shot by Jörn Eliassen
I’ve never been but heard it’s amazing.
It’s the best place ever. I get why he went there. Tao and Ville Wester are there. He’s got a girlfriend that he lives with there, so he’s super happy. I met him there when the CPH open was on recently. He seems super happy to be there and I’m super stoked for him.
Yeah Will Miles’ 7-Ball video premiered there recently. He’s from Leicester, he’s a G and that video is sick.
Yeah, we just watched Will Miles‘ 7-ball video at my place just before this interview.
Kyron’s section was sick, Jack’s section was sick. They all made a really strong connection. I think Will went in for that one and it showed, the whole thing was banging.
It was so good. It was crazy.
On that note. When did your first video part come out?
I don’t think I have one.
That’s what I’m saying, I can’t find one for you.
I have some clips out there, super old ones but they are not really parts. It’s just me skating indoor parks and outdoor parks, just skateparks for 5 minutes and the two Dorkzone things too but I would not qualify them as parts either.
I feel like now finally, now that the whole Sci-Fi thing happened and Jerry is texting me and stuff, I’ve got to do something and Sean too who made all the Green skating videos.
We were skating 1 or 2 years ago and we were on the way home from the indoor part and he was like we’ve gotta make more videos man. You should have a part in the video.
I was just trying to act all cool, like ‘yeah, yeah. sure, Super down’ but in my head, I was like holy shit, fuck yes! This is the coolest thing ever!’.
Now we’re finally working on something proper. We’ve been filming for almost 1 and a half years, we filmed a lot last year and a lot this summer too and it’s almost done, so it’s something cooking for everyone to see, hopefully they like it.
That’s for Sci-Fi?
No, that’s for Seans’ videos – Green Skateing.
We’ll see what happens, maybe something, after that, maybe something cool after, a secret project, its classified information.
Exclusive?
Yeah!
That’s rad. How did Jerry get in touch with you to skate for Sci-Fi and how long have you been skating for them?
It all started when I was at work and I saw that Jerry Hsu had started to follow me.
I was goofing off at work and I was like texting Jerry on Instagram because I was with my co-worker and I was like, ‘Holy Fucking Shit! Jerry Hsu is following me!’.
And she was like dude type something and I typed back – ‘Yeah Jerry, I love Sci-Fi man! Love you!’ and then he responded and he was like “Oh sup, I’ve been meaning to talk to you, would you like some stuff if you want to?” and I was like “Oh my God, yeah, that would be sick!”
So yeah it all started with me goofing off at work and then I actually got a package and started trying it out. We talked a little bit and I was still getting stuff from Eva as well, the Stockholm board brand.
Yeah.
So I had a really hard period. Eva was super dear to me, it was all of my closest friends. It’s two of my best friends who started the brand and all of my friends are on it.
So it’s super sentimental. I think I tried the Sci-Fi boards for the first two packages I got. Then I talked to Jerry and I was like ok I just need to figure it out because I have so much sentimental value for this thing.
But then I kind of also really want to take this chance right now, where you went to give me stuff, which is insanely cool.
So I was still on Eva for another month I think but I called them and said I’ve really just got to take this shot, it’s one of a million. I can’t believe they want to give me boards and stuff.
Then I called Jerry and we talked for a while and I was like yeah, I’m super down, if you guys would have me and he said, they were super hyped and that we are going to take it slow, get to know each other and see how it goes and yeah, I’ve had the boards for a while, then he posted this thing of me the other day.
I don’t really know if I’m on Sci-Fi or not. Some guy commented and asked if I’m on Sci-Fi and Jerry just said yes, so , I guess! I’m not even sure myself but I guess so. I get stuff from them and I talk with Jerry sometimes. They’re all super lovely. I met Akwasi in Copenhagen. He was super nice.
Gabriel, Sci-Fi Fantasy,Shot by Jörn Eliassen
That’s cool
I would love to meet the rest of them too. They all seem super sweet and Jerry is the nicest person ever.
I was a little bit unsure if I was fully on at first. I think we are having a trial period and figuring it out but then maybe they got all hyped or something because they posted that thing and another thing with the whole team and when someone asked if I was on and Jerry responded and said I was, I read that comment and I was like holy shit ok, that’s sick!
That’s tight. I guess he’s also learning how to build a team and run a brand too. Sci-Fi is really mysterious.
I love that. It’s so cool. Everything is so classified and secret. I think it’s so sick. I’m not even sure myself what is going on. I’m just doing my thing here in Stockholm and filming stuff and just reppin it and they seem to love it and I love them.
Jerry seems kinda hands off, that’s dope, he’s so casual and he’s not putting any pressure on you.
Yeah, I feel like it’s the best fit for me too, it’s crazy. It’s so fun, like even when he made that post of me on the Sci-Fi page, he just sent me a text and said ‘Yo, send me some funny stuff from your camera roll, like whatever you want!’
Really? Sick!
Yeah I was like ok Then I panicked and sat at a bar for an hour, really quiet, going through my camera roll with all of my friends and I was just like is this good? Should I send this to him? I don’t know whether this is good!? And they were like hyping me up, send this, send that to Jerry. It’s going to be so fun and I got that photo of me and with King Charles and I was like yeah, this is it so I sent that through to him first.
That’s funny. Jerry’s photos speaks volumes about his humour and the things that he sees and his in jokes through his images. He’s either talented at taking 1000s of photos nobody sees him taking and we’re seeing the top ten or he’s got the eye for the moment because they’re always mysterious and different.
Yeah it just looks like he’s living the craziest life the minute he steps out of his place
Yeah man
Like a car blowing up the moment he steps out of his apartment and he’s like ah shit, got to take a photo of this!
Or finding a miniature shrine in a crack in a wall.
Yeah, I think maybe he’s seeing every little detail. Not really like how other people see it. I think he’s got very great attention to detail, he really looks around everywhere he is and he appreciates all of the little stuff.
Yeah man, you can see that in his skating. Do you have a favourite Jerry Hsu Part or trick that always stoked you out?
I think for me, I just saw him in Bag of Suck and I was like this guy is sick and also the slam montage in the Emerica Made video.
Oh man
It’s so nice. It’s so gnarly and he gets so pissed. Everything was in Switch and I had to process that. I was like what the fuck is going on. This guy is nuts and his style is so cool too.
I’ve always thought that although tricks can be super cool but people who have the craziest style, that is the coolest thing ever and he has one of the coolest styles.
The craziest thing is that Jerry has skated for so many different skate brands, could there be two more different companies than Osiris and Chocolate…but he skated the same and his clips fit every single brand he was on. He’s just stylish and technical.
Yeah, you can really pick him out from the crowd and you’re just like yeah, that’s Jerry. You just notice him immediately. That’s the coolest thing about people with sick styles, you can recognise them anywhere.
He can basically make any trick look really good.
He’s a trendsetter.
You hit the nail on the head. But back to you and your skating. I know you can’t talk too much about the video you’re going to be in but who else is going to have parts in it?
Me and ah… I don’t know what I can say. But I’m really hyped about my best friend Sebastian, I post a lot of photos of him too on my page. He gets stuff from Sex Emo with another guy from Riga too, called Kristofers.
Sebastian my friend, he’s super sick, he’s one of the gnarliest skaters I know, he’s been working on a part for this video and I’m so hyped for people to see his skating. I feel like he’s very underrated. I’m really hyped for people to see Sebastian’s part
What’s his last name?
Sebastian Lundström Dianoff. He’s @whazg00di on Instagram. He’s my best friend of all-time. I’ve known him for over 10 years.
I look forward to seeing it. You do the tricks you want to do, you skate with the people you want to hang out with and you ended up skating for the board brand you feel the most passionate thing about, why do you think that’s important?
It’s got to feel right for you, and if not, I think you’re doing something a little bit wrong but as long as you’re having fun, it’s ok. I mean, it’s just how skating is. As long as you’re having fun, it’s no biggie.
But it’s kind of sad if you see someone like just doing it for the money or just to get by.
I mean of course it would be fun to get money out of it. I feel like that would be the ultimate type of freedom, to just skate everyday and do what you want.
But I don’t really feel like the money itself is the goal, it’s just the part of it that is being able to do whatever you want to do everyday and just skating. That’s really what I want to attain really bad.
Frontside One Foot Ollie, Shot for Skate Malmo Sweden
I can see you just want to have fun on your board but you’ve got the potential to do what you want with it and go further with it.
That’s why I love all of my friends here. I feel like everyone here I skate with, we just skate, nothing more, or nothing less, it’s so beautiful.
We don’t really care about anything. We just want to meet up and hang and skate and if something good happens out of it, something good happens out of it.
I feel like I’ve been very lucky with all the Sci-Fi stuff and that but I think that is why it makes it more fun when something good happens because you have not really lost yourself in an attempt to obtain it ,I’ve just been having fun with my friends and it’s fun for me and if people like it, they like it and that’s super fun if they do and that’s how it’s always been in Stockholm and everywhere else I’ve been.
That’s why I’m just super happy all of the time. Everyone here just lives and breathes skating for the hell of it.
That’s the way.
We try to tell all of the kids too. If some kid pops up and is like how do you get sponsored and stuff? Do I need to make a part and this? We just say look, just hang with us and just skate and let’s have a good day and do some fun stuff and just do you and if something happens it happens. Don’t think too much about if it’s going to happen or not happen and stuff.
That’s the right mentality. I think sometimes kids get possessed by likes and follows rather than just enjoying their own skating. But saying that, as I was looking through your posts, I saw that one of them did get viewed 2 million times. I was like ah shit! What was it like seeing that go down after you posted it?
I don’t even know what happened there. Something glitched or whatever.
Do you think it was your dyed blue hair you had in the clip?
Maybe I need to dye my hair again
Did that clip help more people to find out about your skating?
A little bit. I feel like that kinda was when Jerry and a few of the Sci-Fi people started popping up. From that post Jerry started following me and Ryan too.
That’s about when I heard that Ryan had a chat with my old teacher at Bryggeriet and asked about me. I don’t know. I got a few follows from that. I don’t know how it happened. I don’t have 2 Million followers. It was just so random.
Gabriel, Shot by Sambucus
Seems like it was the right time and everything you did in that clip just fit. That clip where you Noseslide that round rail in the park and then do the Frontside No Grab 540 on the quarter and do the Fakie Flip on the flat is next level. The tune is sick too. How did all of that come together?
It was my friends who made that song, they do a lot of raves and parties in Stockholm.
I have a lot of friends who DJ and I think the day before, I got a t-shirt from them. They are called Knif they made some t-shirts and I got that yellow one and I was at the park and I was having a good day that day and I was like I’ll make a clip because I have the t-shirt on me so I thought I could promote them a little bit. New Knif t-shirt so hyped
So we filmed the first line with the Nosegrind and the tap on the wall. Then I was in the zone and I just learned how to do some faster Noseslides down the kinked rail and I was like, I want to do a Noseslide and something on the ramp but I was like, I don’t know what I want to do!? But I was like fuck it, I’ll try a 540 its been a while!
As if
Yeah so I just went with it.
Yeah man.Such contained chaos. Everything was set right for you to nail all of those tricks. I saw a video of you when you were a kid and you were doing Frontside 540s with no grab back then, how did you learn those and how old were you there?
I loved Frontside 360s so much. They used to be a joke where people would call me Frontside Gabbe when I was a kid because I would only skate Frontside.
Gabriel, FS 360, Shot by Camolon
Right, ok.
It was when David and those guys had the Awuat crew and I wanted to show one of the guys that I could do a Frontside 180 off the curb but I twisted my shoulders too much and I accidentally did a Frontside 360.
They were like what the fuck, woah, do you know what you just did?
They were like do that again and I did and I thought oh that’s kind of easy actually. And so I learned Frontside 360s and I would do them all the time, down stairs over hips and then I learnt how to do them on ramps to Fakie.
Then one day I was doing 360 on a ramp and I was like if I come in from the side and do a Frontside 360 like I usually do them maybe that will be like a 540 and then I tried coming in super from the side on a bank and doing a Frontside 360 as I would do it on flat or down something and I just kept doing that for so long until I just learned how to do it on normal ramps.
Now that you’ve said, it makes sense but the reality is so different, it’s such a tough trick.
It’s so scary too. Even if you know how to do them. Like I know them, I know the recipe, where I have to come from the side and I really have to wind up my shoulders and fool myself into thinking I’m doing a Frontside 360 on flat but there’s still the whole thing about staying on the board on a ramp without a grab and then land again. Sometimes that really gets to my head and I think that’s really scary now!
It caught me off guard for sure. The Backside 360 I can handle but Frontside is next level. I don’t think I’ve seen it before.
If you know how to do Frontside 360s really well. It’s kind of easy to do them on the ramp. I do them way too much. If I don’t have another trick in mind, I’ll do a Frontside 360.
OK
It’s a go to trick for me. So if you do them a lot, it’s a little easier to do a 540 without a grab on a ramp.
I’ll give it a try. Cheers for the tip. Okay, I’m going to fire some favourites at you. Do you have a favourite skate video and if so, what is it?
This is hard. I really like Frog videos a lot. I really like the Evan Frankie Frog video that was sick.
Yeah Krazy Frankie
Yeah that was cool and the soundtrack was really nice. Also Tao, he has a video called Until Then, that one is so good. It was so nice. That one is super sick
Ok, I’ll have to check that.
Probably like the first Polar movie The Search for Miraculous is super nice.
When we’re talking full skate videos, that one was really sick.
It’s cool to see all of the old spots in Malmo when they were whole and not ruined when they built them. A lot of skaters who you don’t see much these days you see them shredding then. It’s so cool Pontus put a lot of effort into that video. It’s got a whole story. You could almost watch it like a movie. It’s so cool.
Also Bag of Suck too. That video is sick.
I really liked Louie Barletta’s part when I was younger and Jerry’s sick as well. Last part. The duo song!
Yeah, it’s got to be one of the greatest parts I’ve ever seen. I can watch that anyday and the music too, that’s two perfect songs.
Yeah. Especially after I watched the whole behind Bag of Suck video they made on Thrasher. It’s so cool and explains how they made everything.
Yeah, how Jerry’s Nollie Back Heel was so late in the game too. It’s rad to hear that. It was one of the last epic full team videos.
It’s crazy how it still holds up still now.
Who’s your favourite skater?
That one is pretty easy actually. Weirdly enough. I really really like Vincent Huhta. It’s a funny answer because he’s one of my closest friends but I get way too hyped when I see him skate or watch a clip of him, how he is, he’s the best.
Yeah, the whole thing where he just doesn’t seem to care, at all. I really like that. If you look at some of his older parts, like the first proper part that he did for Green. Where it’s like almost every trick he does is crazy and he barely gets it and he just shakes his head and he’s like yeah, I’ll roll with it.
I just think it’s so cool. He does not care but not in a way where he’s trying to act cool. I like that whole way of him being happy go lucky, it’s like when you hang out with him, he’s super no worries, everything’s nice, no fights, no arguments, I feel like he stands for everything that I think is skating. It’s just goofing off, it does not have to be serious, do some weird tricks and just roll with it.
Yeah that comes through in his clips. He killed it in 7-Ball. Dwayne Coleman, created the intro titles for one of Vincent’s parts, using his fabric designs.
Ah sick. Yeah I also have a weird thing where I really like tall skaters. I really like Jamie Platt too.
Yeah Jamie rips.
Also Axel Bergren on Sour too, the new Swedish guy on Sour. He’s one of the gnarliest skaters I know.
Who has your favourite style?
Probably a tie between Vincent and Jamie Platt. For some reason I like to watch tall lanky skaters, I think they look so cool when they skate, it looks effortless and nice relaxed.
But I also really enjoy seeing skaters with that all over the place craziness style like Ville and Vincent, they barely even know what they’re doing and how they landed it. But they’re like ah whatever it worked out. I did a Tre Flip to hangup to Nosegrind to Tre Flip Out and it’s like ahh, it worked haha.
Yeah Ville skates with such a loose style
Yeah, it’s like they have so much control but it’s like they don’t have control. It’s strange. It’s so sick. Ville and Vincent, they have some of my favourite styles. It feels like they don’t know what they’re doing but they 100 percent know what they’re doing.
Do you have a favourite skate photo?
I’m not that informed on skate photos or a lot of skate photography but that photo of Vincent doing the One Foot out of that ramp with Galaxy written on his shoe is really sick.
Yeah that is tight. I’ve only seen four people do One Foots to the side like that and you are one of them, did you get it from him?
Yeah, I stole it from him, oh no wait. I actually didn’t, maybe a little bit. I know he did them but I used to do One Foots a lot and people would joke and say you are super good at One Foots.
Then this one older dude sent me a video of someone doing a One Foot to the side, completely stretched out, up some bump and they were like you should do this and I figured it out. I used to do them super aggressively and kick it all of the way to the side but now I just do them super casual to the side.
Gabriel, One Foot, Vinterviksrampen, Shot by Hampus Lundin
It’s you, Vincent, Tim O’Connor and Antwuan Dixon doing them like that. It’s such a commonplace trick but you all do it slightly different to the side. Where’s your favourite spot to skate?
Yeah, for sure we have this park called Rålis . It’s the park I always film clips at under the bridge in Stockholm. It’s got everything you need. I live close to there now. We always end up there. It doesn’t matter what plan we have, what we’re supposed to do, if we’re not out filming, whatever we do, we’ll end up at Rålis so either we’ll sesh there or we’ll sit there.
Stalefish, Shot by Jörn Eliassen
That’s rad. Have you skated much outside Europe?
I went to the States when I was 16 for 3 months by myself. I went there for 2 weeks with my dad and then we saved up a lot of money and he was going back but I was lIke I think I’ll stay and he was like yeah, go for it. I was there for nearly 3 months, I went to some friends places and then I went and explored.
Where did you go?
I was in LA a lot and then I went to Modesto and then San Francisco and then back to LA and then back home.
I think the coolest place in Europe that I went to was Italy, it was super beautiful. I was there for a Vans thing, a ramp contest, in Napoli actually.
My aunt used to live in London. She does not anymore but I’ve been there once and another time for a contest. It’s really nice there. It’s super fun.
3 months in California sounds rad, what was that like?
I kept it chill. I was super skate ratty. I just skated a lot. I went to a really cool DIY place in San Francisco. It has a super shiny bowl, it was super sick, really hard to skate too. Just seeing San Francisco hillbombs in real life is so insane. It’s so insane how big they are and how steep they are. You can’t see it in videos, compared to when you’re there, it just looks like a drop, it’s insane.
Any last words for people reading this or shout outs?
Big shoutouts to my cat Fluffy, I love him so much and I haven’t seen him in a while but I will hopefully see him soon and shoutouts to all my friends here in Stockholm, the R Block Crew and shoutouts to the Sci-Fi Family, I don’t know all of you guys yet but I love all of you and I think people should read Alice in Borderland it’s a pretty good manga, people should pick it up. I think it’s the best one I’ve ever read in my life and it’s my recommendation to you reading this.
