Is blading growing, maintaining or getting more rare in Sweden? How is the sport viewed from the general public?
As mentioned earlier, I think it’s actually growing right know and hopefully this trend will last. I think as far as getting kids into it, you also hope to make them love it so much that they want to keep passing it on. If not, all the preparatory work is simply in vain because we won’t be around forever to raise young guns. I think the Swedish scene doesn’t actually know how much we have Fredrik and his dad and Hedonskate to thank for putting together events, and keeping their park fresh for us to invade whenever we feel like it. Of course I also hope to play a small role by being involved with my local park, trying to mimic and learn from their success and being there for the local kids. Hopefully in the future we will be able to build a good collaboration between our two parks. As for the general public, at least in Linköping, I think it’s very hard to get kids into blading when you consider that the big fashion trends surrounding skateboarding and long boarding already have kids carrying around a skateboard as they have seen on an H&M ad, or the cool kids in TV adverts they see hanging around the concrete park not actually skating, just wearing the “right” gear. If you ever visit our park you would be amazed how many skateboarder kids we have but how few can actually skate their boards. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not hating on skateboarding, I just think it’s sad that it’s evolved into such a mainstream thing that kids don’t even have to commit to get things served. I’m not too deeply educated in the skateboarding legacy though, so maybe I’ve got it all wrong, but that’s how it seems to me. Also, the fact that the outdoor skateparks/plazas built in my city focus all their obstacles to suit skateboarding, not even consulting other action sport representatives, leaves us with a general public that is quite uneducated when it comes to street skating. They simply don’t understand why we bladers skate street and always refer us to the parks they have “built for us” and call us ungrateful bastards. I guess that’s an international problem though, but I think the fact that concrete parks and streetplazas pop up everywhere is somehow the government’s wrong answer to the question “What do extreme-athletes want?” Since even if we did get the perfect outdoor park we would still hunt for street spots… or at least I would.

In the description we posted about the video you cite inspiration in Jonas Hansson and Karsten Boysen — who and what else do you draw inspiration from?
I think I watch maybe 2-3 edits a day — new ones, old ones, or sections from blading flicks — and a lot of other documentary stuff and it kind of merges together. Ideas are born from other ideas and finally I have something in my mind that I just want to do. The trend of using a lot of visuals and close-ups is something I’m quite fond of, although I try to not be too tied down from conventions in general blading media and instead think outside the box as much as my mind allows me. I do adore all the works of Jonas Hansson for the way he makes everything he does scream of artistic talent. In my opinion he has a great eye for tasteful angles and simply portrays blading in a way that’s very similar to the way I feel about it — as a thing of beauty. Same with Karsten.

How about the soundbites included between sections in the video, how did you choose them and what do they represent? I found it interesting that all the samples were from iconic American films. (Possible exception being the Lennon quotes at the beginning… not sure what that’s from.)
The Lennon one is from a interview with the press I found on YouTube. I’m quite fascinated with Lennon so I really wanted to feature that in my short flick. I tried to use soundbites that symbolizes something about each individual from my point of view, and I think that the soundbites kind of gives the edit a touch of extra depth and something extra to contemplate about, as well as being an artistic detail just to spice thing up a bit.

What equipment do you use and what tools did you use to make your film?
Right now I’m shooting with a Canon 550D, Canon 50mm, Canon 18-55mm and a Sigma Wideangle-zoom 10-20mm. I edit my stuff in Vegas Pro 11 since it’s the only program I’ve learned to use full out, but I do plan to start using Premier. Right now I’m just a bit too lazy and comfortable to get around to it, but hopefully for my next project I’ll use Adobe since I feel some possibilities are limited in Vegas.

If you were to expand your arsenal of equipment, what would be your next purchase (and why)?
I’m quite certain I’ll get a glidecam pretty soon, just for the pure enjoyment of not having to worry about shaky footage. Otherwise I’m pretty happy with the stuff I’ve got right now, to be honest.

What do most blading edits lack?
That’s hard. I usually don’t bitch on edits because I’m quite sure they do their best from their point of view, and we all have different tastes. But I guess if I have to say something, then I think most edits lack a sense of selection in what clips to feature and what not to feature. I know very well about this since I used to be the one throwing everything I got into an edit and smashing a song on it, but I guess the more harshly you criticize your clips the better the end result.

What do most blading edits get right?
To portray blading like the badass thing it is.

Best edit you’ve seen recently?
FTB by Dom West was simply amazing. Everything was spot on.

You said you worked to squeeze a lot of personality and a certain vibe into the project. Are you happy with the end results?
Yeah, I’m pretty happy with it. I really think a lot of my ideas came through and how I like to see blading, so yeah, I would say I’m happy with it. Although I learn new stuff every time I shoot, so I guess I’m never fully satisfied. Ha ha. Overall I think it’s important for me to pursue my vision full out, like that Razors edit I did on Fredrik Andersson for example. I knew right away some people would bitch about the theme since I just went with it, but I think that’s the way I like to do stuff. I’d rather make something exactly how I want it, and then if people like it I know they understand where I’m coming from rather than just pushing out stuff that has no “soul” and follows the blading media conventions so I can get the most views, you know. For me, this is a way to express whether people like it or not, I’m afraid.

What is funfunfun.se? I saw they generated a lot of traffic on Vimeo for you…
Ha ha, yeah, that’s one of the guys in the short flick’s favorite sites. I guess they post all these horribly boring clips of people smashing stuff and making fools of themselves, but he wanted to contribute with getting it posted there and I’m not really into views and shit but they have a lot of visitors on that site, so I hope maybe someone got impressed and picked up a pair of blades.

Wrapping this up, what are you going to work on next?
I’m not quite sure, possibly a short flick for this summer if I get some good material, or else I’m just going to save the goodies until next fall and make a bigger project. It all depends on what my mind makes me do. I usually just go with the flow on projects and try not to plan too much… just let the clips tell me what to do, ha ha.

Any shout outs you need to send out?
A big thanks to Fredrik Andersson for everything and being such an inspiration to me through all these years. All love to my original blader-boys and to Stephanie, my big love and life companion, for keeping me on my game and sharing all these amazing moments in life. Thanks to Hangaren skatepark for helping me keep blading alive in Linköping, and finally thanks to ONE magazine for this opportunity.

Bless.