Philipp Schuster Interview, Viennese Happiness
November 13, 2007 @ 4:46 PM
Do you go to the mountains a lot? Hiking, or snowboarding or the like?
I hardly go snowboarding—I've just been once. And the mountains are not as close to Vienna as you might think they are. Going to a proper resort takes something between two and four hours, depending on where you want to go, and that's too long for me. Expensive, too. But I go on hikes quite a lot. Being an inner-city kid, it's pretty unusual to venture out into nature, but I was raised pretty close to nature. My mother used to drag my sister and myself into the woods and up random mountains. Back then I couldn't quite appreciate it, but today, I'm really glad she did that. It's the ultimate relaxation from the inner-city buzz, just walking, far off of any roads and buildings, listening to mother nature sing. Drinking fresh spring water is the absolute best.
Are you a full-time skateboarder, or do you have a dayjob? What do you do when you're not skating, and don't say “photography”, because we'll get to that in a minute.
I don't have a dayjob, no. As I said, in my “spare time”, I like to go on hikes, or I hang out with my girlfriend. We do have our own place, and a dog—that's some time to invest right there as well.
You do a lot of photography as well, you've published your works already; when's your first exhibition? Or aren't you that ambitious about it?
I've already had a small exhibition during the last Go Skateboarding Day. Photography is my second pillar. Let's say I wreck my cruciate ligament tomorrow, and everything I've built for myself in skateboarding comes tumbling down, so I can't earn a living anymore. At some point, when every ten-year-old goes [Nyjah] Huston, I'll be dispensable anyway. At some point, I will become stale for my sponsors. Photography is supposed to save my ass in the future. The good thing about it is, that photography is so much fun to me. More often than not, when I've shot a nice pic of some friend's trick, I'm more happy about the photo, than I would be if I'd done the trick myself. Photography is highly satisfying work.
Are you an ambitious person?
Not really. Or am I? A little bit maybe. Still a healthy dose, though. Enough to not let me become lazy, I need to get on with my life, I can't rest. Occasionally, I'll throw temper tantrums during filming-, or photosessions, or even at contests, if I don't feel too comfortable there—all of that might be taken as over-ambitiousness, but that's bullshit. When I go out to skate, I go out to have fun, and I'll do whatever I please...it doesn't matter whether it's a street sesh or some competition. The fun ends when I feel forced, or when I have to force myself. In that situation, I find it hard to get my act together and get worked up in my “struggle”, and that's why I only go on filming and photo- missions when it's needed. I prefer to spend the majority of my time enjoying relaxed sessions with friends.
I never really had the impression that you care about rankings at competitions. I mean, you haul ass, and you deliver the hammers, but at the end of the day, that's what you always do—no matter where you are. Do you like competitions at all?
As long as I have fun skating, as long as I can enjoy the people and the atmosphere, contests are great. I know a lot of people that can't stand the madness of 100 something skaters sharing one park, trying to get their lines wired—they have all the rights in the world to hate contests. Me, I like contests, because it gives me the chance to skate a good park, which is something we don't have in Vienna. We only go streetskating here. Cruising through a perfect skatepark every once in a while is a nice change.
And what about touring? Have you been on a tour where you'd say: “It doesn't get any better than that.”?
Touring can provide you with some of the best experiences ever—or it can end up being a pure nightmare. It all depends on the crew you're rolling with. Our trip to Madeira with Deeli, Peter Molec and Kilian Heuberger has to be the most enjoyable and interesting tour I've done so far. There was an article in Kingpin about it not too long ago.
When are you going to cut that hair?
I'm not planning on it. At some point they might just get on my nerves, and I'll get rid of them spontaneously, but right about now, they're too long to just heartlessly cut them off.
Philipp is sponsored by: Blind skateboards, Planet Earth clothing, Globe shoes, Red Bull, and Rock’n’Roll skateshop
Photos by Deeli
