Mystery Revealed 

The Slalom forum on sSlverfish has long been a lawless land, a veritable oubliette, swallowing novices in the torrential weight of knowledge, smack talk and gear savvy accusations of superiority of the color of one bushing versus another.  Long has the ruling class needed a strong, stoked and talented slalom rider to take the reigns and bring them from this dark tunnel and into the light.  Many have tried, all have failed and we had no hope. That is until we got word of Zak "TVAR" Maytum: he's stoked to madness, knowledgeable yet humble and very much a strong member of the 'fish. We were luck enough to get an interview to him between races and here is what the slalom savant and new Slalom Forum Mod had to say...

 

The Zak Maytum Interview

[Silverfish]Introduce yourself why don’t ya?

[ZAK] Well, I’m Zak Maytum.  I live in Boulder Colorado and I ride slalom 6 days a week.  I’m 16 and I just love skateboarding more than anything.

[SF] What got you started in skateboarding?
 

[ZM] When I was in 5^th grade I saw some guys doing it at the skatepark and I though it looked like the coolest thing in the world.  I knew I had to do it.  Later that week I bought an Airwalk Skateboard from my neighbor for $1.  It was awesome.

[After viewing the World Premiere of Livin' Free, we had quite a few questions to ask.  Some of them were in regard to the technical elements and scenery used in the movie. Others were just the typical curiosities of the 'fish . Read through to find out about the past, present and future of the bright minds behind Livin Free: the Heart of Longboarding]

The Livin' Free Interview 

[MM] My name is Marc McCrudden and I am the director of Livin Free: the Heart of Longboarding.  Myself along with Thom Mayer, Bryan Heffron, and Jason Clayton are the main culprits behind Livin Free: the heart of Longboarding.

[SF] Okay, so set the scene for us: what were you doing and where were you when the lens slipped from their reality to your reality?

[MM]We were on a show that had us starting in Boston MA, and driving across the US stopping in 6 different cities along the way.  We were on the road for about 6 weeks; we saw an opportunity and decided to seize it.   
 

[On a recent trip to Germany, Malakai Kingston was almost beaten to within an inch of his life because he was caught smuggling his longboard onto a plane.  His verbal accusation was not smiled upon and his self preservation kicked in but that is another story all together. Way before he managed to infuriate the local authorities, he met Yogi and Martin at Longboard Shop . These two are the team behind the Pogo Baseplate as well as one of the most established European online skate shops and maker of fine quality longboards and snowboards. With the 'fish in touch with Pogo, we 've got an interview for you.]

[SF] When and how did you all become active in the sport!

[PG] To be able to start skateboarding, we had to build our first skateboards ourselves. That was in the mid seventies. At that time, it was almost impossible to purchase boards in Europe. Our journeyman pieces of work were quite ugly. We had to cut these old rollerskates in two and mount them on a piece of wood. They had tiny little black wheels with worn out bearings and riding them faster was quite a threat. Concerning the snowboards, we had the same problem. We built our first snowboards in 83.

[SF] What is the history behind Longboardshop.de, why did you start a webshop?

[PG]From the late 80s to the late 90s, the longboard-onlineshop was part of the Pogo website. Then, with more and more people starting to longboard, the independent webshop became a burning necessity. There was barely any sportshop selling longboard material in Europe at that time and when you found one, it didn't have a big choice to offer. Longboardshop.de in Germany besides Sk8shop.ch in Swizzerland,  were the only address for many years, before other shops came settling in.

[It can be simply stated that Alexander Luxat the mastermind behind wefunkSkateboards "SpaceTime Bending Machines" has done more for the high performance board building craft.  As an industrial-designer by profession this is the man dropping the knowledge that is helping skate technology catch up with the time, these babies ain't your papa's Nash. Silverfish brings you an exclusive look at the man behind the boards and gives some insight into the future of skateboarding, the technology and wefunkSkateboards.]

Stephan Risch, pic by Yorck Dertinger

[WF] My first skateboard was a rainbow colored plastic-banana bought at a flea market around 1978. I had fun with it for one summer and then forgot about it. My first “real” board was a G&S Doug Saladino “Pine Design 2” with Gullwings and Kryptos. That led to different ramp decks of the 80´s. I lost interest in skateboarding when all the Gator and Vision Streetware hype started and I encountered snowboarding in 86. When I came back from my first snowboarding trip skating was like “Damn … where is the glide? Those hard wheels and vibrations just suck!”. In 94 I spotted a Powell 44” Diamond Logo with red Kryptos in a skate/snow shop and instantly knew that I would have fun with that.

I think this started my quest for the ultimate riding experience...