Skateboard trips are shrouded in legend. Just like in Vegas: “What happens on the trip, stays on the trip.” But we spoke to some of the guys who know exactly what happens when a bunch of skateboarders get in the van. The team manager’s are the guys who plan everything upfront, organize everything during the trip and clean up the mess afterwards. For us they shared some stories and especially Chris Pfanner had a crazy one…
(Monster Energy)
There are some I don’t feel like sharing to the world… [laughing] I do remember once waking up to an angry hotel staff person showing me security footage of a few guys that broke into a hotel swimming pool at 5 AM. One naked dude trying to piss at people swimming away from him and someone trying to steal a 1 m bird statue from the lobby. Seeing one of our guys driving an e-scooter on the 10th floor of a hotel full speed to take a girl from his room to the elevator at 6 AM is also memorable I’d say.
I think it’s all about having a good relationship to the team, making sure they know you have their back, but you also have a job to keep. Ultimately making sure they know that we are both working towards the same goal, which is putting out some sick ass footage. That will benefit both, the brand but also themselves. It gets complicated sometimes because it’s a thin line between friendship and work relationship and we need to keep a balance.
There are quite a few skaters on the team that don’t party at all and are sober but that’s not best behaved for me. Best behaved is guys that can party hard (without getting completely out of control) and still be up in time and skate the day after. I feel like Jorge Simões, Kevin Bækkel, Giovanni Vianna, and Kieran Wooley are good examples.
So good they had to name him twice: Dlamini Dlamini! Even better if we add a bit of Charlie Munro on the recipe and fuck it, I will include myself in the mix, too!
Being disrespectful to people in general. Any sort of discrimination, thinking you are better than anyone. We are all equals is rule number one for me !
Fortunately, it never got to that point. We had to have a few harsh convos here and there and make some people pay for damage they did on their own, but ultimately the team is solid!
(Vans)
Photo: Max Pack
The craziest story we ever experienced was when the whole crew got locked up in jail in Greece. Thanos [Panou] was our guide and he knew of a spot that was in a schoolyard. So we went and there were already some kids skating in there, so we didn’t think of anything crazy. The whole mob jumped over the fence, we threw Tom over there, had our beers and a boombox with us. A usual skate party in the school yard. But while we were skating, I noticed the cleaning lady looking at us with really skeptical looks, but she never said anything. So I thought she was fine with it as there were other kids skating there already and the ledges were rounded and waxed. Half an hour later, the angry school principal showed up and started yelling: “What the fuck are you doing here? You’re ruining school property!”. We dealt with situations like that before. So we grabbed our cooler, shut the boombox down, packed our shit and got out of there. But this time, everything turned out a bit different. We sat in our van and tried to leave but the principal didn’t want to give up and started following us with his car. We were driving in front of him for a while and then he overtakes us and blocks the whole two-lane street. I got out of the van and asked what his issues were and that there’s no need for all of this. But he had called the police in the meantime, so they showed up. Of course on skate trips, there is weed in the van, so I advised the guys to pull off the AC in the ceiling and stuff the weed in there. But the police was not interested about that at all. They just wanted us to come to the police station. For what reasons? We didn’t know yet, but there was no chance to run away from police officers. So we escorted them to the police station.
"Things started getting a little bit hectic and we all got locked into a cell. At this point, the boys still thought it was funny, and they were making jokes about it."
There I had a word with the principal and I was just like: “What is all this? If it’s about the ledges, we can meet on a normal level.” We were even ready to paint the ledges and fix whatever they claimed that we ruined. Then we found out that the cleaning lady said we threatened her and she got so scared that she locked herself up in one of the classrooms and that we had stolen stuff from the school, which was all not true, of course. All of a sudden, things started getting a little bit hectic and we all got locked into a cell. At this point, the boys still thought it was funny, and they were making jokes about it. But I realized, being locked up in a Greek jail cell and accused of threatening somebody, this is not going to be a mild case. I asked for a phone call immediately and called the Austrian embassy to inform them that I’m in a jail cell in Greece right now, and that I’m scared for my life, that I don’t know what to do and need help immediately. When I came back in, I saw Doobie dancing with one of the lady police officers while she was trying to take his fingerprints. But all of that faded immediately as soon as they announced that they were going to transport us to a bigger jail where they had enough space for us to lock us up for the night. That’s when everybody started getting nervous and yelling and complaining. Luckily, Thanos and a few others, while we were getting pulled in, had managed to walk out of the situation. I was especially happy that the younger ones, like Willow, Jordan [Thackeray], and Helena [Long], didn’t have to go to the the cell with us and Thanos was able to look for a Greek lawyer that could help us get a hearing on Saturday afternoon. Because this all happened on Friday and Monday was a public holiday as well. If we wouldn’t get the hearing we would have to stay in jail till Tuesday! So next thing you know, we all got handcuffs on and we’re getting transported to the next jail cell. I think we were nine people that got locked up. We walked into this cell where there was this one Syrian guy that had tried to steal from a goldsmith. The conditions were pretty gnarly in there. They had these concrete blocks and some mattresses that seemed to have been there for I don’t know how many years, full of blood and sweat stains. The ground was really sticky of I don’t know what bodily fluids. You can imagine how everybody was freaking out. I just tried to keep my calm.
In the meantime Thanos showed up and brought us food and cigarettes. Some of the guys opted to sleep on those dirty ass mattresses but with all the thoughts I had in my mind, I couldn’t shut my eyes for a second. I sat on my shoes and pulled my sweater over my knees and because we didn’t have a lighter in the cell, I kept smoking one cigarette after the other so that I still had something to light the next cigarette. While everybody had fallen asleep, the Syrian guy, who must have been there for a few days, was starting to go around. He didn’t have any food because I was told if you get locked up in Greece, your family or friends have to come up for your food and stuff. So he was trying to scavenge for food and stuff and I was like, “Dude, haven’t you learned your lesson? You’re already locked up in a cell for stealing and we’re nine people. You’re alone, so you should calculate better.” But I felt for him, so I gave him some food and cigarettes. Anyway, the night goes by and Thanos managed to organize us a Greek lawyer who got us a hearing the next day at the court. They told us, they had good news, but also maybe not, because it’s going to the court now, and maybe we could end up in a real jail. So we leave the cell and while we were in there, everybody was saying, “fire it up” so much of course. So when I left and gave the remaining food to the Syrian guy and wished him good luck, he was like: “Thanks, man. Fire it up!” He had heard it so much over the night that he repeated it. That made my day. And then we were off in the police truck to the court. We had to spend a few hours there waiting before we got our hearing. All of us were dragged into the courtroom with handcuffs. Then the whole thing started, and we couldn’t even understand a word because it was all in Greek. But anyways, what the lawyer managed to do was to postpone our case and give us another hearing a few months later and that way we could get released. What did the boys do? They started arguing among each other. I don't know for what. I was just like: “Can you please shut up, I need a drink right now!” There was a bar right across the courthouse and we started getting into beers and shots were ordered to celebrate the freedom. And then the lawyer, who I was trying to discuss the next steps with, was just looking at the boys and she was like: “Well, with this crew, I’m not surprised you get into trouble.” Everything went on for almost a year and a half after that and in the end the case just got closed because they didn’t have enough evidence. But it took two hearings at the court where we had to pay the lawyer to represent us and see that we get out of the whole business. That was a pretty crazy one and it was pretty much the beginning of the trip. We still had to spend a week in Greece. So you could imagine how tense the whole thing was afterwards. But we had a good time and got some bread, so it was all good in the end.
Well, I’m really fortunate because everybody in the team wants to be productive on a trip. But there’s a few tricks that I use. One of them is bringing my mother on the trip. That definitely calms everybody down because there’s authority in the house and people don’t want to misbehave around mom. And I get airbnbs that are far outside of the city, where an Uber ride might be €50 or something. That gets people thinking if they want to leave the house to go check out some sleazy dive bars or if they’re happy with just sitting at home, eating good food that mom cooked and drinking a few cold ones.
Disrespecting others and the surroundings. Behavior that brings the overall mood and moral down.
Well, during the pandemic I tried to find a loophole so we could still keep traveling. What helped us a lot with that was my mom cooking for us. So we would get tested before flying in, we stayed together at the house, got in the van and went to skate. So we never had contact with any others. For me, it was really important that we kept that bubble. But one person once didn’t keep to that rule. That was something really disrespectful because there was also my mom on the trip and with the whole COVID thing I didn’t want to jeopardize anybody’s health or our flights back by somebody bringing it back to the house. When the person returned, I didn’t even let him walk through the door. But mom came as a savior. She was like: “Why are you so harsh? Everybody makes mistakes. Give him a second chance”. I was like: “Mom, if I start like this, everybody will just be doing what they want”. But she was just like: “You made mistakes, too. And I never punished you this hard”. Well, I remember it differently but anyways… In the end, I never had to kick anybody off because my mom talked me into having mercy and letting the person back into the crew. The next day we tested him, the test was negative and my mom was like: “I told you. This is more of a positive message to the rest of the crew than excluding someone”. So in the end I had to face trouble not the person that did something wrong. [laughing]
Well, there’s a few. They try. They try hard, but in the end, they just sit there by themselves, and then they get bored and go to sleep. In that sense, they face a tough crowd. It’s not easy for them.
(Globe)
Photo: Alex Papke
There’s been a few over the years, but one of my favourites to date has to be the time I let photographer Loïc Benoit borrow the van for an evening to meet a tinder date in the next town along. When he returned it in the morning there was a high heel smashed and lodged through the inside windscreen… I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.
Food and cold beers in the van at all times. Maybe a couple of Coca-Cola’s, too. A solid team dinner each night goes a long way too.
To be fair everyone I’ve had the pleasure of working with has been well behaved, but most recently probably Val Bauer. His work ethic and professionalism makes the producing life easy. His sobriety probably plays a part in that.
Alex Papke. Not a team rider but he comes on every Globe trip… He’ll only let his hair down once or twice on trips, but when he does you know about it.
Fully grown adults expecting everything being done for them once they get on a trip.
No thankfully not. We’ve been asked to leave a lot of hotels over the years, but that’s always going to happen!
Photo: Alex Papke
