In the western wilds of Germany lies a small city with a mix of castles, towers, the blend of old world and new architecture common in many European cities, and a crew of visionary rollerbladers on a mission to change everything you think you know about blading. We’re talking of course about the Borklyn Zoo crew, and today they release their VOD package Zoo Revolution to eager audiences worldwide. Blade ninja Eugen Enin is the most well-known of the Borklyn scene, and he was gracious enough to answer our questions and get us up to speed on what to expect in their new project. And from what we hear, it sounds like the Revolution will be televised.

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Hey Eugen, let’s start with the most obvious thing — please explain to all our readers how they should be pronouncing your name.
Hahaha, I’m already used to all the different ways! For English-speaking people U-Jean, though You-gin is totally okay. The germans say OY-gen — “oy” as in boy, “gen” rhymes with “hen”, “g” as used in “get” or “goat.”

Animals from the Borklyn Zoo

Thanks! I know there’s been debate haha. So you’re about to drop the VOD after a lot of planning and filming — how excited are you and the homies?
SUPER excited! Because it’s more then a normal VOD to us. On the one hand you get my HD part where I tried to shred as hard as possible, and on the other hand you get the Borklyn Part with our homies, epic and funny sessions, and more then enough bangers to get you excited. Plus all the bonus stuff we collected during the last year. So we can’t wait to finally drop our first larger project. You can buy it HERE!

Walk us through the inception of the project. Who all is involved and what role did everyone play?
We filmed over a year(!) and it was exciting because we started right after we finished Shaolin Sessions. First, my brother and I concentrated on another HD part. But after some great sessions with our homies we realized that we should try to start a project with them too. So we decided to work on both, filming for a longer section of mine, plus capturing all the epic and great sessions with our crew and our homies. I’m so glad to have all these different characters around me for and that kind of project. A BIG THANK YOU to all the homies!

Eugen / Topsoul Lunacy

My brother is the main man behind ZOO Revolution as he filmed and edited everything. I helped him from time to time but his work is already pretty solid and fresh. Our brothers in crime, Sven Ehmer and Joao Goncalves, have been going trough the whole filming process with us and helped us a lot to get the right cuts, jokes and atmosphere. Plus both of them made some great shots for our photo collection! Then there are people like Jo Zenk and Deniz Baethke, always busy with their own projects but who still found some time to get some bangers for us! Thanks homies, much love! Jo is another wizard who is talented in so many ways. He contributed some great behind-the-scene shots too!

Jo Zenk / Safety Gap

We also have to shout out Bastian Thüring, one of the most stylish German dudes — I’m glad we found some time to film with him since he moved away to New Zealand this year. And another important dude, maybe the most important for me, is Jan Ebbert. You haven’t seen any clips of him since he stopped filming a lot last year, but we figured out how to film a few clips. LEGEND. Plus we have a few clips of other homies like Timmy van Rixtel, Jeejroen Wullems, and Benny Petry.

Sending much love to our guys at Grindhoven for the hospitality and great time!

And last but not least I want to thank Nick Lomax for that great time in BCN! One of my best trips ever! (And one of the best burgers too!)

I noticed the trailer was a lot of 60p footage that looked exported at 60p — you should throw a 24p export into your download bundle. I’d like to see what it looks like!
The trailer was in 50p. All the HD clips were filmed in 50p and one clip in the trailer was 30p. The files in the VOD will be all 25p footage.

Eugen / Topsoul

Ah, similar! But different. Ha ha. Let’s talk about the decision to have some sections in HD and others in VX. How do you guys decide how to film what with what? 😉
If it comes to the classic Borklyn sessions with the homies, my brother kept using his VX camera as it’s our favorite look for those kinds of videos. But deciding how to film my solo session tricks was a bit harder sometimes… Daniel tried to choose it by the spots/light and atmosphere.

Jan Ebert / AO Top Porn

You and I have been chatting about stuff and I know you’ve been battling some injuries. Did you get hurt while filming for this and if so, what did you do to yourself?
Normally I’m a safe cat but even cats fall from time to time. During the last year I’ve sprained my heal pretty hard and had to deal with that for around four weeks (landing gaps forward is the worst). Then I had a small cut under my left eye due from failing on that true fish on the wall rail. Plus I got some other stuff not directly while filming but it forced me to take a break. Like, I ripped a few ligaments in my right shoulder (Tossy/Rockwood 2) during a comp in Berlin and had to take a break for another four or six weeks… not to mention some smaller injuries like sprained ankles and small cuts on the shin.

So what inspired you guys to pack a photo bundle and more overall media into your VOD? It’s something we’d kicked around and just never followed up on. Kudos for pushing the envelope!
Cayenne Project or the Wizard of Wall Street inspired us a lot for that kind of VOD.

Eugen / Channel Threezy

Let’s talk about the blading — every time you put out a section something sticks out and really makes people reassess what can be done on wheels. Care to give us some teasers beyond what’s in the trailer?
Yeah, I pretty much love to make stuff like that. Hmm those clips feel like a solid mix of my pro introduction and Shaolin Sessions. So you’ve got everything on the table — technical tricks, hammers, gaps, plus different kinds of creative stuff like shuffles, wallrides, grabbed grinds, rough grinds, channel moves, toe rolls, and all of that. I tried to show more the different aspects of blading.

Eugen / Top Mistrial

For those of us that don’t know shit about Borken, what’s the city known for? Ever see yourself calling somewhere else home?
It’s the district town in that area which is pretty funny because it’s smaller and only has around 42k people that live here. It’s known for a smaller castle and some towers in the city, but thats basically it — hahah! But rollerblading-wise the area is pretty well known in Germany because some old school bladers are from here and people like Matthias v. Gostomski are from the area too. Magic all around the place, hahaha.

Blade world comes up in surprising places! Well Eugen, thanks so much for talking with us — and we can’t wait to check out the full VOD bundle. Keep up the great blading! We’ll talk soon.

Buy Borklyn Zoo’s ZOO REVOLUTION HERE!