Unleash the Lev Prague 2007

December 13, 2007 @ 5:45 PM

There's a whole big bunch of skater-dudes who religiously enter all the European Contests every summer. Or they just visit and don't enter. People have their reasons for going, some dudes go to cash in and shred epic contest runs and take their shirts off at the end and bathe in the crowd's applause. Blonde guys with tight-white pants go to flip front board the biggest obstacle in the park. I have never been to a contest before, so I fall into the category of people who visit these contests like wide-eyed pilgrims, to see if tricks like the crook back-lip or the Benihana are actually real. No one does that shit in the real (skate) world. I set off for the Prague Mystic Cup 2007 in search of the crook back-lip. When I got there I was surrounded by a super-breed of skateboarders, all skating some kind of perfectly sculpted giant wooden moto-X course. I was blown away, and I coped by settling myself down with the first of many, many 20 pence beers. Twenty British pence works out around 17 euros or 63 dollars nowadays. I think.

There were a shitload of skateboards at the contest, and the first obvious thing was how hungry they were. I'm not talking hungry for the local greasy sausage dish called the Kilbassa, I mean these dudes were hungry for glory at the World Cup of International Serious Business Skateboarding. Some guys were so hungry for glory that they paid to enter even though they forgot that they were pretty much dog shit at skating. So those fellas would flail about the street course all out of control, while a serious dude who's actually sponsored by a Norwegian bank would jump right over them all in a sort of game of checkers type fashion.

Instead of writing about all the boring qualifiers who went home early every night to get some kip for the next heat and have a wank over a Chris Astrom section, I chose to badly interview some individual guys who I got to like. They all seemed to be having a whale of a time, soaking up the atmosphere and just pretty much having the most fun out of anyone and not taking anything too seriously. That's the spirit.

Willy Akers

Fuck yeah! Willy from Philly! What a fucking legend. Nicest guy on planet earth, with the most creative approach to the megalithic street course at Prague 2007. Prior to the skate festival Willy had been cycling around Europe with his Austrian homeboy Oliver. He picked himself up some totally radical Lederhosen and wore them all weekend. Right on!

Where are you from Willy? - Wilmington, Delaware.

Where did you get the Lederhosen from? - Austria.

They look pretty pricey. How much did you pay for them badboys? - 99 Euros; that's super cheap too.

How rad has the boozy Mystic cup weekend been for you so far?- So, so sick dude. So much fun shit has been happening, it's super cheap and the skating is awesome.

Who do you want to win? - David Gravette. That dude is sick.

Ok, one last question and I'll let you get back to pickelling your liver. On a scale of 1 to 10, how do you rate the course this year? - I say a 9 or a 10. This thing is the funniest shit ever, like a video game set-up or something. It's just unbelievable.

Caswell Berry

I met Caswell a few years ago in Barcelona. The main reason I hung out with him constantly at the Mystic Cup was just that he's just an epically righteous dude. He lives for funny-fags, Red Bull and skateboarding. Plus I heard he's into fat girls. That's always funny.

How many times have you been to Prague? - Once, like now: this is my first time.

On a scale of one to ten - ten being Disneyland when you were a kid and one being England when it’s raining - how good is the whole Prague Mystic Cup experience? – Fuck, I’d say a solid 9. Blacking out on the first day means this place is good.

If you where judging this comp what would cause an instant disqualification? -Err, the nollie hardflip, eating during the contest. Lack of quarter-pipe usage; you know, when you stop and pick your board up and turn around. Ipod headphones. If you wear camo too, that one just came to me. Roast beef, that's in there for sure.

I agree with those completely. Would you mind now answering some yes no questions? - Sure.

Thanks Caswell you are the bestest. Do you dig living in our fishing-hut-style hotel penthouse room? - Yes. I love it.

Have you drunk more than 30 beers since you arrived yesterday? - Yes I assure you I have.

Do you have an intense Nazi woman who won't let any of your friends in, working at the front desk of your hotel? - Yes I'm afraid I unfortunately do.

Was the mini bar in your room completely empty on your arrival? - Yes.

Did you have a near-death experience last night after you dived into the road to save your digital camera from oncoming traffic? - Yes I did.

Javier Sarmiento

Personaly I've always had a soft spot for the über-gifted tech-dog white skateboarders who can get away with wearing massive trousers. In my eyes there are only a few who cut the mustard. The only two I can think of right now (out of an estimated 5 million Josh Kalis pretenders) are Josh Kalis himself and the one and only Javier Sarmiento. The only piece of advice I'll give in this whole article is never ever ever conduct a juju-hazed awkward interview with your childhood hero, because he will see right through you and think you're a weirdo.

How many times have you visited the Mystic Cup Javier? - 5 or 6.

If you could watch anybody in the world skate that there amazingly massive street course, who would it be? - You mean anybody that's here this weekend?

No, I mean like anyone ever in the history of skateboarding - Errm, Tom Penny.

Good one. Could you now give us a rough estimate of how many Benihanas will be performed this weekend? - Ha ha. I think it'll be maybe around 20.

I've seen 8 so far and there's a few days to go, so you might be right there. How many benihanas have you personally performed in your life? - I would say around 20 also.

Ben Grove

Ben Grove is my northern mate from Sheffield. When I arrived at the comp he was the first English guy I saw. After comparing our British Bulldog tattoos and slagging off Germans we had a roll on the course. Ben kept saying that he's not drinking till he skated his course runs so I drank for him. After messing up his one in a lifetime sober run he was so bummed and told me that he's never gonna be a pussy and not drink again. We propped up the bar for 24 hours and he skated his next qualifier pissed out of his face fucking amazingly. Somehow that makes you reading this less of a man.

On a scale of 1 to 10 how pissed where you last night? - Pretty fucking bad, but still a lame 5.

If you had the opportunity to swap styles with Scott Pazelt or Dave Coyne who would it be? - Dave Coyne man, Dave Coyne.

Fuck mate I would have said neither! Do you know the exact amount for first place at this über-euro comp is? - NO! I don't care either.

What's your first power move as the Unabomer team manager? - Ha probably sort some kind of tour out.

If you had to pick an English Olympic team who would you choose? – That’s well easy, Tom Murry, Dan Magee and Seth Curtis, that's the Olympic team right there. Ha.

Jake Phelps

Have you ever had that thing where everyone you meet tells you that a certain guy is a bit of a tosser? Well at Prague skate-fest 2007 I spotted Jake Phelps again and again. He was boozing more than anyone else and righteously having the time of his life. I just figured I'd find out for myself, and so I hunted him down for an interview about him and his band 'Bad Shit'. Pleasant surprise! He's a totally nice guy who's just pissed out of his head and lurking around lording it at a skate comp.

Hi Mr Phelps, I'm a really bad freelance journalist from England. Can I ask you a few questions about unimportant nonsense? - Wait a minute dude. Maybe I wanna ask you some questions. About Kangaroos and shit.

Erm I'm from London so I don't know so much about that stuff - I thought you were from Australia?

No I'm from England. Ok who's your favourite drinking partner of all time? - Mic. Mic-E Reyes of course.

Yeah I heard he drinks like a fish. How long have you been working for Thrasher? - I started working at the mag in August 25th 1985.

So I heard you entered the comp yesterday, how did that go? - Yeah I had a go.

Sick. What about your Bad Shit gig last night: go well? - Ha ha. You know we're not like a, (long pause). Ok type this or record it or whatever. We're just a ringtone band. (Raps) I'm ringing in your hand, Yo you think that’s funny man? I dig the Taliban!

OOOOH. KAAAAAY.

Adam Dyet

The only time I've ever seen footage of Adam Dyet was on the interweb, with him at some jocksville Aussie double set competition thing. I was pretty impressed that some guy I'd never heard of was beating all those Australian semi grown-up gromits who can do anything (like Chima Ferguson). Anyway Adam Dyet is a hell of a character and he did a shifty flip over the hydrant that made a bit of wee come out in my shorts. That's why I chose to interview him.

Hi Adam my name's Lev. Can I interview you for a euro skater-dude mag? - Yeah sure, let me just get a beer.

So you've got a few tattoos there, have you seen that dude around Prague who's got an entire bar brawl tattoo across his back? - Is there like loads of cartoon characters breaking bottles on each other and shit?

Yeah that's it. It's amazing. - Fuck yeah dude that tattoo's sick.

How many benihanas would you estimate have been performed this weekend? - Oh man! I’ve already seen at least 15, but I'm thinking there'll be another 4. I’m gonna say probably around 20 for the whole weekend.

That's weird; everybody seems to be saying 20. Ok so if you had to do a crook back-lip or a benihana in your comp run, which would it be? - Oh noo waay dude! Neither man, neither, ever! You just gotta write neither in there for me. You also gotta put down the front board body varial to lipside, that's another total no no.