1) Firstly, please introduce yourself. What made you start skateboarding and why choose 'freestyle' over other disciplines?
Guys, I was born under the sign of Leo in 1965 and raised in a small Bavarian town in Germany called Abensberg. Skateboarding was big in the 70´s, almost the whole country stood on a board even it was considered a hazardous sport on the brink of becoming illegal. The debate was whether Skateboards should be banned due to the high risk of accidents. I was attracted by the images in the media. Everything connected to Skateboarding looked really cool and the pictures mostly came from California, the country which became my dreams. It really appealed to me and it took me over a year to convince my mother to buy me a board. I was 12 when I finally got one but the board was a piece of crap from the department store. Never the less I loved the sensation of rolling on concrete and I felt grown up and a hero on it. I didn’t had to make a choice, we skated everything. In Europe, back in the day, it was downhill, slalom, high jump and freestyle as the supreme discipline.
2) You mentioned that you started to work for the German Office for Foreign Affairs in the early 90s which ended your pro career. Have you revisited your love for skateboarding since? If yes, how active are you with 'freestyle' these days?
Once a skateboarder always a skateboarder. You cannot get it out of your system. As a skateboarder I traveled the world and after I realised this may come to an end I applied for the German Foreign Office. The bar for admission to the foreign service is very high and I saw it as a new career. My first assignment abroad was as a consular officer at our Consulate General in New York for 4 years starting in 1994. Afterwards I took positions in Eastern Europe, in the Caribbean, Los Angeles, Berlin, Iraq, and since August of this year I am issuing passports and visas in San Francisco. Since I am the head of the department, it is likely that your visa will bear my signature. My love for skateboarding has never faded but today at the age of 58 I don't get on the board that often anymore.
3) After placing 1st in a Regional freestyle contest in the late 70s, you competed in the legendary Munster contest in 1986. What was the experience there like? Give us some stories and history lessons.
I placed 1st in freestyle in my very first contest in 1979 and it was the legendary Lullu Magnus, the face of skateboarding before Titus, who shook my hand. I became a fanatic skater and unfortunately for me the scene died in 1980. This happened way before the internet and social media. The skateboard magazines stopped publishing and I could not find anything about it anymore, neither on television nor anywhere else. Little by little my friends also stopped skating and one day I felt like the last Mohican on my board. I never stopped and continued with my 70´s style like riding down hills in my neighbourhood on a handstand. Because of the latter I was known as the fearless kid in my hometown when I moved to Munich in 1982. Munich used to be the Skateboard capital of Germany where the magazines were published and where the best skaters were coming from. My disappointment was even greater when I got there and nothing was going on in that regard. I skated the spots famous from old magazines all by myself in disbelief. Early in 1986 I was approached by kids who put two pages of a BMX Mag with Skateboarding in it in my face. I was like: Wow!!! There do exist more Skateboarders on this planet. It turned out to be a bulletin of the Münster Monster Mastership and I had to be there. I called the number shown only for directions but the lady on the phone, after some small talk, talked me into competing. Before my run Titus himself grabbed the mic and announced me as an exotic contestant, the first entering his contest from Bavaria/Southern Germany. From then on I skated the Münster Mastership in every year and it grew bigger and bigger.
4) Your deck on 'Bad co of Skaterfield' is one of the most iconic European freestyle decks at the time. We would see it everywhere. Tell us more about how you developed this shape, it's graphics and more about the company that put it out. While we are talking about skate products, what gears did you skate in the 80s?
In 1987 I still found myself to be the only skater from Bavaria who participated in international contests. At the Euro Cup in Konstanz I was approached by another freestyler who asked me to take his place in a flatland show team from Würzburg. It turned out the company behind the show team was California Products which was the major distributor before the Titus era. They were well connected and we did shows all over Germany including memorable ones during the 750th-anniversary celebration of their hometown. I was overwhelmed when California Products offered me a model board under their label Bad Co. Having experimented with various decks, including those of Rodney Mullen, Pierre André Senrizrgues, and Rocco, I eventually favored the Per Welinder deck, primarily for its square nose and tail. More round-shaped boards rotate too fast on rail tricks, which results in less height and less spectacular performance. I have to admit that I was deeply inspired by the Powell board of Welinder, but I wanted a longer and wider deck replicating the square shape on both ends. Honestly, I don't know what prompted me to choose a fishbone graphic. Perhaps because all board sports originated from surfing, and the ocean is the source of everything. I hand drafted it on one Saturday afternoon in my small Munich city apartment. Unexpectedly I found similar fishbone graphics later used by companies like Alva Skates. Under my deck I used Thunder trucks and Oj wheels.
5) Another contributing factor to your absence was your motorcycle accident that occurred from a drunk driver in the late 80s. Tell us about this and your rehabilitation from it. Lastly, please educate us more on who you are. You are one of the most illusive freestylers out there.
Yes, this was a serious accident in the summer of 1989. A driver too drunk or too fast or maybe both hit a tree, was rolling over and approached me on the roof of his car upside down right when I was accelerating out of a small town on a narrow road on my motorcycle. My left arm and shoulder got seriously hit. More serious than the broken bones was the nerve damage. I spent 4 month in hospital and my arm remained paralyzed. The muscles diminished and the whole arm resembled more and more a useless broom stick. On the phone, out of my hospital bed, I recommended Yoyo Schulz for the show team as a replacement. And he became not only a replacement, he of course became the star of the show. Over months and countless rehab sessions my arm gradually regained mobility, a miraculous recovery by the doctors. I was always convinced that I will recover, maybe the miracle was a result of a head game too. Later, after recovery, me and Yoyo skated these shows together. It took a year to do handstands again. During this time, a sports book publisher in Munich approached me to write a book about skateboarding. In the end, I brought two friends on board, and it led to to the publication of 'Action Skateboarding’, which was, among other countries, released in the United States a year later in 1992 by the New York based Sterling Publishing company.
