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Fricis Year Review

Cover Photo: Laura Sokolovska
Words by Fricis Štrauss

So, yes. Here we are in the end of 2017. I am trying to figure out how to put this text together.. Hard! A lot of good times were created in this year. But let’s roll the tape back to the beginning of 2017.

LONDON

Photo: Laura Sokolovska

New years eve, London.  00.00, we kick off the new year with a party at a random apartment in the city of London with some good friends. We totally missed the fireworks, but at least we had champagne and the streets (where we belong). 10 days of skating ahead of us. We were lucky, the weather gods were on our side. Skating the streets there is… interesting, no one is really out there because of the bad conditions, although somehow we found the best and the most interesting spots. Especially when you have some locals to rely on – you’ll find to enjoy the London streets to its fullest.

Photo: Laura Sokolovska
Photo: Laura Sokolovska/ Klavs, Spank, Fricis, Elza, and Martiņš

We were exploring the streets in the craziest time in the year (winter), most of the time we hung out in the center. The streets were quiet and chill so, the city was ours. If you skate it’s very nice but when you stop being active, this city hits you on the nerves. I mean there’s so many things happening, and there is so much to do that you don’t even know what to do – that’s why a lot of people get lost in there. But over all this trip was one of the best ones of the year. Get to see all of the “Latvians who left”. Thanks to all the people who made this happen; Klavs Laivinieks, hype guy aka filmer; the street guides Pavels aka Spank and Mārtiņš; and of course the rest Gatis, Gvido, Elza, Laura (photographer), Egils and some dudes from Jersey! You’re the best.

BERLIN

Photo: Linn Johanson

Next part of this year that I’d like to share is the story about a trip to Berlin, the capital of art, skating, beers and good food. Berlin offers one of the most difficult and most interesting skateboarding scenes in Europe. The first time I went to Berlin I was there for about three months – it was a new experience for me! The vibe is really friendly regardless of where you go or who you meet. One of the things I love about Berlin is that everyone is being themselves. Actually, the city screams ‘just be yourself’. I don’t know how to explain it but Berlin feels like the most liberal capital of Europe. I think that whoever you are you will find a place in Berlin where you’ll fit right in. For a skater there are countless spots, rough ones and lot of good ones with a story behind them. It’s always cool to make something on your own and film that. So basically that is what I did; made spot stories!

The vibe is really friendly regardless of where you go or who you meet.

This year I spent one and a half month outside of Latvia (Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Prague) skating with the local dudes and hitting those Sternis (cheapest beers). There are two special memories from this trip. First one is filming with a cowboy with a video camera aka Jordan Standley. And the other is hanging with Sergej Vutuc and Brett Nichols. The only thing I can say about these memories is – stay tuned for some good skate videos and photos coming up!

Photo: Linn Johanson/ Fricis and Sergei
Photo: Linn Johanson/ Thumbs up to Fricis and Toms
Photo: Linn Johanson/ Deep thoughts Fricis
Photo by: Linn Johanson/ Checking the spot

Most of the time, when not skating, we were trying to find a place to stay for the night. During the time in Berlin: me, Toms (the real deal chef and skaterat), Linn (my cats mother and also a good chef….. very good, not at all, sorry Linn) stayed in eleven spots. Haha, that’s why we need to give great shouts for those who helped us; Peter, Utzi, Emma and Malva (bäästa), Moritz, Sergej, Enrico, nature, Axel (the best dude). Yeah,  this was one of the craziest trips ever – we had to carry around our bags wherever we went, see old friends and make it through the day everyday. It’s really something special. Thank you for this time Berlin, see you later! And of course thank you all the people who made this trip better! Linn you are the best! puss puss

LATVIA

Photo: Kaspars Alksnis

On a hot summer day in July, the following memories were created. Three cars full of energetic and happy dudes with the destination – Liepaja!  With a plan to have a bachelor party for the one and only GABA !! YEYEYEBRABRABRA = mind set – we are super hyped. Gaba is getting married. Starting in the morning with a skate session in the National Library. The sound of cracking beers … constant!

Arts. Fricis, Nauris, Miks, Niklavs, Krišjanis, Kaspars, Gaba, Neimo, Deda, Spank, Robčik
Photo: Nauris Dollins

Every single day on this planet is legendary.

On the road to Liepaja we stopped along the road at some villages to get some skating done. In the end we got a kick out from… basically all of the cities we stopped in.  Why? Skating of course. So off we continued our journey to the city of winds to meet up with Gizmo, the one who is pushing the skate scene over there, big up! This day was the most intense day of the year, skating from morning till night… oh yeah, in the night too and that sound of beers and slamming! I cannot really put this trip down into a  text – for there is so much to tell. I just want say that I’m super happy for you Gaba that you found Linda, and that you are now married. Cheers! <3

Sooo its very interesting to make a story about this year, there is so much things to tell. Like be a part of simple session in Tallinn and in Riga, summer ghetto games festival in Ventspils, Bright show in Berlin, Vans shop riot in Netherlands and lot of other things.. I think our skateboarding scene is so interesting and in the same time crazy. Every single day on this planet is legendary. What I want to say is; keep on being productive and be what you really want to be!

Photo: Nauris Dollins/ GG fest one foot ollie in sandals, Fricis’ shoe of choice 2017.
Photo: Nauris Dollins/ Bs flip

I want to say thanks clockwise skateshop, frank skateboards, vans baltic, bario skateshop Berlin and Search and Destroy, all of my friends and family for the best support because without support and motivation – none of this would be happening! One love, keep it positive and motivated because life on a skateboard is amazing, so you better enjoy it! 🙂

Photo: Anya Troyan

Follow Fricis – @fricix

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Intense days Ep.4

Intense days continues with the forth installment, featuring latvian skateboarders on the streets of Riga (and some other places). This episode is mostly street clips from spring and summer. Some clips form Miks Grantiņš Tikari Summer boyz video are remixed here as well (who edited it better? ), but besides of that everything is fresh.

Intense days is dedicated to Latvian skateboarders. The sole purpose of intense days is to hype people up to go skate, film, and keep skateboarding alive in Latvia. The series is supported by Clockwise skateshop.

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Game of Skate Championship: Round Two/Game eight

Straightforward Linards vs RTU Scientist Arturs Paugurs! Linards represents the TRANK BOYS as well, last time Paugurs played against a trunk boy he beat him 0/5; can this happen again?

We have some random photos from that day

Deda and Nauris wait the game to start!
Mr. Armandos freestyling?
Linards Draugiem.lv profile pic
Arturs Draugiem.lv profile pic/ trick-?
Mr.Armandos also asked for new profile pic! You are welcome boys!

Next game is the last of the second round! Coming this week some day.

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Meelis Erm – Tihemetsa

If you are from the Baltic states, if you follow Baltic skateboarding, and if you weren’t living under a rock for the past 3 years (or so) you know who Meelis Erm is. He posts more clips in one month than some people in a year or in a life time, you must have seen or heard something about the guy! In real life (we met and talked for 5 minutes once) he is a quiet and calm guy. He resides in Parnu, Estonia, and happens to ride for a Latvian skateshop (this makes him practically Latvian). He also rips on the board, and, as mentioned earlier, seems to be constantly working on edits. So when he offered us to post his new clip from Tihemetsa (an indoor park god knows where) we instantly agreed and decided to ask couple questions to him about this Tihemetsa spot and some other stuff.

Meelis is a rad guy and we would love to make a full-blown interview with him, and we will do it one day for sure! It seems like this in is not the right time for something like that. We need street photos and shit, you know. So this is not Meelis Erm interview, okay. It is … a chat with Meelis Erm and a small video clip presentation.      

Hey Meelis! What’s up! What are you up to?
Yo man! Right now I am heading to aquapark with the homies. Gonna relax from busy week.

That’s tight! Usually people go to drink their faces off at the bar. Aquapark on a Friday evening is original to say the least.
Haha! We going to party after that!!!
 
Rad! Did you skate today?

Nope, not today. Last time I skated was two days ago and my body is still so fucking sore.

Where do you skate in Winter? In the Tihemetsa park? Can you tell us about that place? 

Yeah, Pärnu skaters have skated Tihemetsa indoor park since like 2011 i think? It’s the closest park for us (50km from Pärnu). But we have tried to travel to other cities (including Riga) as much as we can with our crew. Because it’s really hard to skate only one park in the winter lol. It’s a really cool park actually, lots of flows and lines but at the same time it’s sooo slippery. Feels like ice skating.

Wallie stalefish

Is it a city property? Who runs it?
Tihemetsa isn’t even city, it’s a very small place but the park is built by a bmxer, Pärnu local park builder and On Wheels shop owner Rasmus Paimre, but yeah I think there are other people also who take care of it.

You told me that you were out of trick ideas when you filmed this edit. Where do you get ideas for your tricks?

Like every other skater, I get my trick ideas from other skatevideos. But most of the times in Tihemetsa I like to build some shit out of the obstacles – like putting a rail somewhere weird place and so on.

Do you think you are going to be Estonian SOTY this year? If not, than who should be SOTY?
I will not be Estonian SOTY for sure. Estonian SOTY will be picked by the street video part – If u had a killer part this year, then u might get a SOTY. So it’s all about videos. And my picks are for this year Raul Urberg or Kristjan Prik – These guys killed it and I hope they will release their footy because rumours are that they crushed it!

But hey man, I made it to waterpark now talk to you later.

Follow Meelis – https://www.instagram.com/sk8mell/
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Game of Skate Championship Round Two/Game Six

Dark parking lot in winter is not the place that comes to people’s mind when they think about fun and good times. If you are a skateboarder, that is a bit different. Fun and good times are where the flat is dry. And as long as no one is bothering you, it is on. Our useless wooden toy shows once again that it can lighten up the shadiest place and make party out of nothing. 

The Prisma Gang

Yesterday as I came to film the game of skate with Fricis and Deda, I felt as if I entered a club of some sort, but it was actually the parking lot. Music playing, a lot of homies, everyone has a beer in their hand, (except the referee, who must be on point). The energy was positive and people couldn’t wait for the game to begin! And who could blame them? It is Fricis and Deda! Two most charsmatic skaters in Latvia, everybody knows them and everybody loves them! Match made in heaven. Of course the video might not give it justice, but those who were at Prisma yesterday will admit that game was special.

Tomorrow —-> Martiņš Loganovskis vs Roberts Potašs

 

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November Links

November is a dark month, time of illnesses and upbeat existential crisis episodes. The only things that can wake you up and motivate to live in November is hot morning coffee. In case you don’t drink coffee we suggest a dose of YouTube videos, mostly of motivational content.

Cover Photo by Kaspars Alksnis

So one morning in early November, a life was saved by accidental discovery of a video series called “12 rules for life by Jordan Peterson”. Imagine the surprise when one of the rules for life, this respectful gentleman described, was entitled: don’t bother children while they are skateboarding.  More surprisingly is the fact that Mr. Peterson, who is professor of psychology in Toronto, understands skateboarding much better than we skateboarder do. If only more people were like that, including ourselves. So next time someone bothers you when you skate instead of arguing with them you can try to explain higher reasons behind your actions. 

Moving to Lithuania now. Titas and Jagminas, two friends from Vilnius made a video called Amber, which is not available on Youtube anymore, you can only watch it on Facebook now. Later they announced that they start a clothing brand called no hype. They have one long sleeve at the moment which is called Amber. Get it while it still costs 20 euros. We asked Titas to talk about the brand a little:

We are basically just two skaters from Vilnius who decided to make our own brand. My name is Titas (@surfsupboi) and my friends’ name is Jagminas (@veruccci). The name of the brand is basically ironic, it’s about the feeling where you don’t have any hype to skate. 

Good luck to no hype boys and hope we hear from them soon.

More Lithuania. A crew called Fully Ghetto from Lithuania released their full length video called “Nothing to Something”. Which is banging and definitely a must watch. You can find it on Youtube or Facebook.  We talked to the guy behind Fully Ghetto – Domantas Antanavicius:

So the name FullyGhetto basically says it all. We are a crew from Lithuania, Kaunas (not the capital Vilnius) and we don’t have half the things Vilnius has – we don’t have an indoor park, our street spots ar limited, we usually are broke and we always are searching how to make or save money for big things (or big parties). Our biggest FATHER is Communediy, they give us boards, help our crew to expand and motivate us to do what we are doing and don’t stop. The best thing about our crew is that everybody has a different style and charisma but we all are Ghetto and we do almost everything together apart from skating. So the video is filmed in five months, we stacked more dumb footy not only tricks and you could say that this video is a “guide to how to survive in Kaunas”. Kaunas is the most Gopnik city of Lithuania, we eat kebabs, dumplings and drink beer, sometimes it is not really safe at night, and our city is based of guys wearing three-stripes and random fights, crazy drivers. Our spots are rough as shit (in Lukas Matusevicius part he did a hippy jump and i even put a slow-mo on what shitty flat ground he was rollin on). 

Big up to the Fully Ghetto crew! Looking forward to more videos and ghetto life!

More from our neighbors this time Estonia! Lauri Taht video called EOS featuring most of your Estonian friends and acquaintances.

You can also check out Eha Juniors video from Estonia we don’t know much about. One trick that really stood out  to us was when a dude put a board between two walls and … okay you need to see it is hard to explain.

Arguably the most productive skater of Estonia, Meelis Erm and his sidekick Siim were not sleeping in November. They released a video called Go out and Skate where they skate curbs in slow-motion to rock music which is later switched to unbearable modern rap. Mental as always.

BTW Meelis gets the trick of November award by doing this trick. Congratulations man!

Some Latvian stuff. Karlis Bogustovs and Madars Apse skate some glass obstacles in this video.  All of the obstacles are made from glass by Karlis himself. Tight!

“Hello guys and I am stoned” – this is the opening phrase of the new video series by Riga based crew – Trank Boys! Trank boys skate gtiim skatepark in the first episode and video description promises that more exciting material is coming. So let’s stay tuned!

You have probably seen Edijs Aizstrauts win Niks Kolosovskis in a game of skate earlier this week.  It was definitely a hard pill to swallow. If there were Skate Gods most of us would become atheists after watching this game. Anyway, it is just a game of skate and while we are trying to figure out how Edijs won he answers with his annual video part. Ender by the way is filmed by yours truly.

The last part of Klavs Laivenieks’s video series Broke Lads also came out this November. You can spot Pavel Berezjuk, Edgars Berzins and Martins Horns in this video. Big up to Martins we really enjoyed his clips! Hope Klavs can make a separate part of only Martins skating. We will try to catch up with Klavs and interview him for the site next week.

This month Free Skateboard magazine featured an article about an Amsterdam based crew called Booticelli boys, our fellow Latvian skate homie Rihards Bondars got a photo in the article as he is a member of the crew!

Rihards Bondars – gap to backlip. Photo by DVL. Copies of freeskate mag are available at Clockwise skateshop

How many Latvian skateboarders were featured in European skate mags, apart the obvious, right? We are really stoked for Rihards! Later in November the first full video by the Booticelli Boys: Sound of success surfaced the web. So check it out, Rihards has a part in it at 11:13. But make sure to check out the full video, which also features the likes of Pillo’s Glen Fox.

What ever you think of Richi Dunkul be sure to check out his latest part in a Spanish video called – Tutankamon Skate video. For those of you who are younger or don’t know the guy – basically Rich was an ultra gangsta skater from Riga. He was sponsored and all that. He was into some sketchy shit (like a real gangsta) and later he left Latvia for good. Now he travels around Spain and probably surfs as well. Not a gangsta anymore.

We have new section on the site called R LIKES! It is like a blog where we are going to post skatevideos from around the world that we like with little reviews!

Hope you guys enjoyed this month’s links and we can slide into the next month with style!

 

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Game of Skate Championship: Round two/Game four

The man who makes tricks look proper: Niks Kolososkis; is up against the underdog of all underdogs:  Edijs Aizstrauts! The legend has it that they have already played a game of skate 10 years ago at some mysterious comp and Edijs won. Let’s see who is going to get it this time!