Niklas Kandziora
1. B : What’s up Niki, bloody lovely to see you again. It’s been a while since we first met on a market in Ericeira some time ago but here we meet again, downtown Barcelona. Give us a quick head’s up of who you are and what’s going on for you.
N : Hey what’s up guys, I’m Niklas, 28 years old and born in Cologne, Germany. Right now, I live in Barcelona, where I’m about to finish a master.
2. B : Cool cool, finally done with that master, that sounds wonderful. We have been hitting a couple of skate spots over the last couple days and obviously realised it has been a deep-rooted love between you and skateboarding. Tell us a bit about how this love started.
N : When I was in third grade my homie Noah brought a skateboard to school and we ended up trying it out during the break. That was the first time I stood on a skateboard, and I fell in love right away. I came home and told my mom I needed a skateboard and eventually she gave in and I got one, so here we are 19 years later, still thinking of skating every day.Growing up skating was the best. We were a crew of like 5 boys and skated every day together. We were all on the same level and pushed ourselves in learning tricks all the time so I guess we influenced each other quite a lot. Every time one of us learned a new trick, all the other guys wanted to learn it as well, so no one was better than anyone else. Eventually, at the age of 15, all the homies I started skating with, quit skating. This was a time were most of them started to be more interested in girls and booze, but I didn’t understand that though. Being on a skateboard always gave me a feeling of freedom in a way. The second I step on a board I forget about everything that’s going on, kind of like a therapy, and I mean obviously its fucking fun too!
3. B : What a journey it has been it seems. I think especially through your teenage years, finding a group and connecting to different people is of so much importance. How did skating help you with creating friendships and finding that feeling of belonging?
N : In skateboarding it’s definitely easy to connect. You come to a spot, say hey to everyone there if you know them or not and then skate together. It doesn’t matter how good or stylish you are. In the end we’re skating the same spot and everyone is simply having fun. Many great friendships started just like that.
4. B : And what about the skate scene here in Barcelona, easy to connect with others, couple of your favourite skate spots?
N : In Barcelona it’s impossible to not make friends to skate with. There are skaters all over the place. I mean literally everywhere. You cannot walk anywhere without seeing someone skate. So it’s only a matter of time until you get to know people. The skate spots here are crazy. Barcy has always been the city in the world to go to for skating. I guess it’s the Spanish architecture. They use a lot of marble and combine curves with edges which makes it perfect perfect to skate basically. Recently it became kinda dodgy though. Catalans don’t really like skaters cause we break everything and its loud when we skate. So on some spots you have to do the trick super fast before you get a bucket of water poured on you or the cops fine you a 60 euro ticket. Something very specific about Barcelona skaters? Puh that’s hard cause there are so many from everywhere in the world and depending on what spot you go they act differently. But generally speaking I have noticed that skaters here are a big bunch of homies and everyone is cool with everyone. I dig that, makes skating much more fun!
