1.) Let's start off with how you started skateboarding and why freestyle? Alot of European freestylers were picked up by different companies in the US. Welinder, Andre, Marc,...etc. How did you get picked up by Schmitt Stix?
Well, I got a plastic skateboard in September 1977 and half a year later I got my first good skateboard, a Hobie Mike Weed “Radical Terrain model” with Bennett trucks and green Kryptonics. Me and Per (Welinder) skated everything in the beginning, we skated a crappy quarter pipe that we built, we skated slalom and even high jump. But the outdoor season is pretty short in Sweden and when winter started freestyle skateboarding was the easiest thing to do, all you need is your board and a dry spot. So we did that and got pretty good at it… After the 1986 NSA contest in Vancouver (at the EXPO) I moved to Huntington Beach and stayed with John Lucero and he got me on Schmitt Stix.
2.) The Crowbar graphic on Schmitt Stix has to be one of my favorite. Tell us about this. What's the story behind this legendary art? While we're on the subject of your board, please tell us about the shape. How was it developed? Please explain the sidecut, wavy nose and rocker kicknose.
Paul Schmitt was doing products with different tool graphics, The Ripsaw, Sawblades, Yardstick etc. and he wanted me to have a tool on my deck as well (which is pretty boring) so I came up with the Crowbar, it’s a tool but it’s also a bar with a bunch of crows (more appealing to me).
Before I was on Schmitt Stix I was riding the Tracker board Flipside for a while but it was too small for me so I started to cut my own shapes again and experimented with a wider deck with the sidecut and it worked out good, I do (did) a lot of old school kickflips (under flips) variations and the skinnier middle makes the board go more straight up instead of travelling sideways. A kick nose board last longer. If you mess up and land on the board upside down on flat board you will ruin the griptape pretty fast.
3.) You had some very difficult fingerflip and kickflip variations in the 80s. Were these your 'strong' tricks? Why were you attracted to them and were there other tricks you had in a list that you never captured on film?
I like to go fast and do tricks in high speed. I hate gymnastics and stationary tricks.
4.) Give us a breakdown of your setup in the 80s. What did you skate and what were you skating before your pro model came out.
My own deck with Tracker Ful truck and OJ II Freestyle 57mm (later Freez Street)
5.) How do you feel about freestyle's current state compared to what it was in the 80s? Oh, before I forget.....tell us how you came out with the nickname 'Hazze'.
It seems like it’s picking up a little bit again and there are some good skaters out there like Mike Osterman and Tony Gale. The normal way to spell the nickname (for Hans) is Hasse but at the Eurocana Summercamp in Sweden 1981 my friend Puttis (Hans Jacobsson) used some black plastic tape to put up our names on the camper we stayed in and it was way easier to make zz instead of ss, so that is how I became Hazze.
