I Got Mine. Antony Lopez Skateboarding interview

January 28, 2008 @ 2:59 PM

Back to France tomorrow?
Yeah, got things to do, see my family and all that… I have to go to the dentist. Here they charge me like 600€… and fuck…

Dentists are always expensive.
Yeah I need to go, nothing serious, but the bill is so high… so in France, unless they have to take you out one of your teeth, its free. So I better take the car and drive up there. Better than the Argentinan here…

Is he? Hey why is it that all the dentists and psychologists here seem to be Argentinean? (laughs)
Fuck… and the dude had totally black teeth! He said “Look at my teeth boy, 55 years old and they’re still tight, but you should start fixing yours or in a few years…”.
I couldn’t stop looking his teeth and thinking “I’m not paying 600€ to a man with those teeth”.
Also, I’m going back to France to see my Mum a few days. Then I come back, finish a couple things in my flat and stay here for a while. And I need to finish setting up the flat (Anto just finished painting his flat when this interview began).

I see you are into changes lately…
Always, we need to change to move forward. To me, changes have helped me a lot since 2006. Important changes, above all getting onto DC and Alien Workshop.

I remember you thought about it a lot.
Yip, it was a hard decisión cause I had been riding for Adidas for many years, but you always need to weigh things up and opt for what suits you better. Changes are always a bit scary, you are never 100% sure it’s going to be for better. The hardest thing in skateboarding is to trust what they tell you. There are always missing points in the paper.

Pipe dreams?
In a way, yes. You never have all the details you’d like to know, and somehow you always end up expecting more than what actually is delivered. BUT, besides all my fears, I have to admit everything turned out good for me. More travelling, the team is like a family… and in 5 or 6 months riding for DC I’ve got to meet everyone in the company, bosses included, and that keeps you relaxed because you have the support of a huge brand that covers all Europe and USA. We’ve travelled so many times in only 1 year, and the vibes are good with all the team. Is good to know they count on you for everything.

DC’s parties became quite famous in Barcelona during those 15 days… did you go to all of them?
Wouldn’t miss a single one...! Its cool, they have the money to do it and they do it. Also things like paying permits to skate the whole city… not everyone can do that.

Talking about “money” and “investing”… how big do you think is the difference brands still make between ‘European’ and ‘American’ team?
Well, the difference exists in DC, but we are more like a global team. The European part get together with the Canadian part, the US part.  We do things separately but we also do things together, and that’s good, because the barrier barely exists, at least we want it to be like that. Know each other and do things together. And not all the brands do that. I know other brands where you’ll never get to meet any further person than the Team Manager.

Aside from all this, I heard you’re having a pro model shoe really soon… when are they coming out?
January in the stores.

How do you feel about them?
Its something else, something really new, its a dream. Having a pro model shoe in a brand like DC is a lot, a lot.

As nobody offered me a pro model shoe yet, I have no idea how it works, do they give you samples to test like people do with the boards, with different shapes?
Actually we do it together. Now its the turn of the second half of the team, and we have been testing it and improving it, telling them what felt better and whatnot, talking a lot with the designers. The base of the model is a simple skate shoe, those are the ones you skate better. Then, working the colours, the materials. The process has been very personal to each one of us. Its very hard when you test the first samples for the first time because its just that, a sample, so sometimes it has very little to do with the final product. I saw it recently and it has come out great.

Is the feeling of skating in your own shoes different from skating your own boards?
Its something different. I’ve skating boards with my name on them for quite a long time, more than 5 years, but shoes is something else. It’s one more step.

Also good for the pocket, which many skaters have deserved and just a handful of them actually get it… I feel like for skateboarders now a days, specially for Europeans, the moment when you can actually live from your skateboarding is when you get a good shoe or clothing sponsor, and not so much a board sponsor.
I agree, board companies are not in their best moment… benefits from boards are not as big as they used to be a few years ago, and is hard to live out of that. The thing is:
If things go well you’ll be able to live from skateboarding. If things go really well you’ll be able to do that choosing the brands you like.

How important you think it is to visit US in order to build up a good base to live?
You have to go to get contacts. I know it sounds weird but it works like that, no contacts no nothing. Like life itself. You need to meet the guys in US and spend time with them, see how they live from skateboarding. Is not that I like to travel over there a lot, but its something that needs to be done. US is a bit shitty compared to Barcelona, but is cool for a short time. Anyways, comparing other places to Barcelona…

Everything looks shitty?
Yes (laughs).

That is not true. I actually have a tons of things to say about this matter, but is not my interview.
Exactly. (laughs)
The easiest part is coming. The hardest part is leaving.

I see you really love this city…
I really do. I have my home here, my things, friends… ain’t going back to France. I’ll stay here forever.

You’ve been 100% in Europe, and now let’s say you’re straddling Europe with one foot and US with the other. How you see Europe from that position?
It’s very hard for the European companies. Its hard to do something big in Europe because European countries are really small and the production is lesser, there you have the problem. Maybe one brand works really good in 1 country, but in the neighbouring country there is another brand that works better. Production is always on a minor scale.

Enough industry…what about skateboarding?
I think in US are still a bit more crazy than us, but here its different. Its more relaxed, another style. Not that many hammers and craziness. Specially little kids over there, who try to build the house from the roof, going straight for the big hammers. And they forget the important medium term which maybe is not worth for a video, but gives you the base and the fun. Here in Europe we have more variety, and I think is because of the weather.

Weather influences styles?
I believe so… for example, all the northern European countries skate skateparks more often than here in the South. Southern Europe kids go to Macba or Sants or similar plazas, and skate real street all day. Central Europe have both at the same time. There is much more variety of skateboarding and skateboarders, which is more interesting.

Maybe the architecture has something to do with it too…
Yeah, tricks come always from US, but style does less and less every time. What fucsk us up is frontiers, the ones in the industry. But I do believe style is important, and every country (and weather) influences your skateboarding and style.
Spain has changed a lot in last years, people travel a lot here now, and they have the best weather all year round, which many other countries are missing.

Yeah, but since we have that “lazy-factor” we end up skating less than the regular basis.
(Laughs) I actually see the level here in Spain being the highest one in Europe in a few years. All the pros come here, they skate more, and see many different types of skateboarding from many corners of the world. Without moving their lazy asses out of their city! Its good for the new generation aswell.

Do you notice when they keep staring at you? I know people who just freak the hell out when there is one single person looking at them, it neutralizes their ability to breathe naturally.
No, kids are alright. And they are learning fast!  When I was little I was way worse than them. I don’t know why it took me ages to learn ollies, ‘cause I was so small…I had a bad time trying to learn them. I used to see guys who learned ollies in 2 days. I was the 2 month one.

Oh, so you are one of ‘those’ who still learned ollies first…?
(Laughs) That’s so true. Now its crazy, kids who learn switch flip back tails before proper 180 ollies. Is a bit strange. I remember being with my friends, and leaving aside some tricks ‘cause we were ‘too small’ to do them…

Now, that sounds interesting.
Yeah, things like hardflips. The board had to spin between the legs and… we had short legs! I loved having balls! Those were for the big guys. Now I go to Sants or Macba and see kids learning kickflips, and the next day hardflips, and they are so small… its amazing. I like to see kids skating and skate with them.

Well, I can’t do hardflips either and I always had long legs.
That’s something attached to skateboarding, there are always some tricks you can’t do well. And it’s cool, it’s important. It keeps the flame alive.

But I can do them switch.

Oh, you are one of ‘those’ who only learned the tricks on videos, uh? (Laughs)
I don’t know, there are other sports like snowboarding or surfing where all the technique ends up in turns, beyond that its all the same, but bigger. Which is good if you like it, but what I like from skateboarding is the infinite variations you have, putting together old and new stuff, variations of the same tricks… skateboarding is never going to stop.

And also Playstation helps…
Definetly, video games have helped skateboarding in many ways. People who don’t even skate understand and know the tricks kids performed in plazas. That makes them have a more open mind about it. That’s another aspect where US is one step beyond Europe. I also think Europe should be more represented in video games, spot-wise and skateboarder-wise. I still haven’t seen a single plaza of Barcelona in any of them, when the city has been for 10 years the global centre of skateboarding. Somebody should do something at respect.

Macba at level 9? Or would it be level 1?
To be honest I have personal problems with Macba…

It’s a circus, innit?
Is not only people sitting down and staring at you, scanning you. Well, yeah, it actually pisses me off a bit, 100 skaters and 90 of them not skating. Besdies that Macba is a very good and fun spot. I’d rather go to Sants though, people go there to skate, not just to drink and smoke and chill. I know it’s two different ambiences, and I respect it. Only sometimes its a bit overwhelming.

Why you think this happens more in one spot than the other, being both considered ‘main’ spots?
I relieve because Macba is a linear spot. It’s all straight, you go towards one side or to the other. And it ends up being a slalom. Sants is multi-linear, you can go in many different directions.

Shall we talk in past tense yet?
Fuck, I’m so pissed Sants is gonna be over. I’m really pissed they are taking Sants out. All the best spots of the world, the same thing, Embarcadero, Love Park, now Sants…

From there to the legend.
I know, I know… but I have no problems with Macba becoming a legend instead!
(laughs)

Trying to dig the good part, it makes people move and look for other spots, which is good too.
Definetly, and gets you on the road, travelling aswell. That will help your skateboarding more than any other thing, skating different spots, skating with different people. When you skate spots other than your local spots, it develops your skills and horizons. If you get your feet used to that, you’ll be able to skate every spot in the world without problems of adaptation.

I think this is it Anto, words for the future?
China and Dubai.

Antony is 22 years old, and skates for Alien Workshop, DC shoes, DC apparel.

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