ONE Staff / June 16th, 2014 / Blade Life
Stephane Mosselmans: BEL BL8R

Once I spent Halloween at the Forward Freestyle skatepark in Belgium. There I met not only old friends, but also some new people. One of them was a pirate — a friendly and relaxed guy who was enjoying every second of the party. The next day I was watching ‘the pirate’ skating the local park and I asked myself “How come I haven’t heard of this guy before?” The way he was skating was absolutely unique! If you still don’t know Stephane Mosselmans let me introduce him in few words — he’s a humble guy who loves to skate, listen to music and play his guitar. Living in Brussels, he took a year off to travel and skate. So if one day you meet a guy doing amazingly stylish truespin topsouls at your local skatepark somewhere in the U.S or Asia, go up and say hello, as it could very well be Stephane.Grażyna Wratny

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Remind us of your age, how many years you’ve been skating, and what you’re doing as job.
I am 31 years old but I don’t feel old at all. I’ve been skating for 17 beautiful years and I’m very proud that in all those years I’ve never stopped! I work as an educator for kids but last September I took a break for a year. In few months I have to go back to my job.

What are you doing right now?
I am enjoying life with my girlfriend, traveling a little bit, staying a lot at Truespin skatepark where I have my own room, and hanging around in Brussels with the homies.

Any trips planned?
In a couple of weeks I am going to Poland. I’m gonna stay there for like two weeks and then I’ll head directly to Berlin for Summerclash. This summer I’ll also go back to Spain and maybe get in one last trip to Asia or the USA. We will see with the money — ha ha!

So you’ll be at the Summerclash; will you compete? I wonder, because It seems like you’re kind of a shy guy.
For sure I’ll skate when I’m there, but competing isn’t my cup of tea. I prefer to skate on the side with my friends rather than waiting for a competition run. But I registered for Summerclash, so I’m not sure exactly what will happen.

Have you ever entered a competition?
Yeah, I did some of them but a long time ago. The last contest I entered was ‘Before’ Winterclash competition at Truespin. It was fucking great. The atmosphere was really good and you didn’t feel like it was a competition. We had a jam session and afterwards Thomas Buggenhoudt, the owner, just gave some money away if somebody did some crazy or cool trick on the spot. PERFECT PARK, PERFECT GUY, PERFECT CONTEST, EVERY ONE COME TO TRUESPIN.

Bank to Fish

How is the scene in your home town?
It’s really cool. There is always somebody to blade with, always an ‘apero’ after (or before) a session. We don’t have a skatepark so we hit the street spots all the time. I love my friends in Brussels, they are just perfect. We don’t have the perfect spots, but we have great Belgian beers and other bad ass things like fries, chocolate, waffels and…

Tell us about your trip to Asia and how it’s different from Belgium, where you come from?
Malaysia and Singapore was a perfect trip. It was January and the weather was hot from morning till evening, very sunny and it didn’t rain even one day. The food is delicious, you can eat everywhere on a really small budget, but watch out with spicy things (get some medicines before going). We met Zhafri who hosted us for a couple of days and showed us the best spots to shop, eat and skate in Kuala Lumpur. He really made our holidays good, thanks again. Big ups also to Sukkeats (Wheel love) and Derrick from Singapore. Everyone was very friendly to us in Asia.

What’s the perfect spot for you?
It would be a plaza with everything to make lines on it: ledges, rolls, banks, wallrides, little flat rails, fountains and anything that looks dammed good.

BS Nugen to True Fish

What do you enjoy the most outside of blading?
Listening to music, hanging out with friends, playing ping-pong, playing guitar, keyboard, watching some comedian soaps, making smoothies and reading books.

What kind of music do you listen to? And don’t you play the guitar?
ROCK, blues, folk… everything with a guitar hat sounds good in my ears. I’ve been playing a guitar for a couple years, but I suck on it.

Who do you think is the best skater right now?
There are so many good skaters coming from everywhere, too many to name them all. I just say thank you for blading and making it look good: Broskow, Farmer, Sizemore, Nils, Richie, Montre, O’Neil, Heinemann, Werbeski, Piotrek, Math, Remi Meister… I could go for hours with other names.

Torque to Fakie

Who do you think is the worst skater right now?
They are not worth naming in my interview!

Do you have any blading philosophy?
I just think it’s hard to make blading look good in a original way. It’s important to discover blading every time and not to skate the routine spots all the time. That’s what I think, but the most important thing is just to love it and keep blading.

How do you choose your spots and tricks?
I don’t really choose my tricks cuz I don’t have a big vocabulary of tricks. But there are some tricks that attract me more, for example: fastslide (but I still don’t get it). Regarding spots, I’m not very picky. I like skating some spots that are not that obvious to skate. Sometimes I see a spot and I have a feeling that we communicate with each other. I hear a voice in my head “fish it” and I try to make it. I’m sure a lot of bladers hear that voice too.

Fish to Roll

Last words?
Thank you ONE, Kuba, Grazyna, Math, Piotrek, True-Thomas and all my friends for being there! You all make me feel good. Love you bros and I love you Bunny!

Interview by Stephane’s homies
Photos by Kuba Urbanczyk

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