Page 49 - BackSIDE rollbrett-heft VOL.4 25th Anniversary

If you do not mind a poli�cal trend that will reach their own
IF ques�on too: What is the status on countries too, just a ma�er of �me.

the Catalonia’s thrive to become
ButI also want to be very clear I’m
independent from the rest of Spain? talking about Spanish government –
Status is Catalonia is having now not about Spanish people or Spain.
you follow Mark ‘Gonz’ Gonzales than there is a pretty good Independent majority (around 52%) Very different things.
chance that you came across Sem Rubio as well. End of last year
Sem has been all over the media because of the book he has both in Catalan Parliament seats and
done together with the godfather of Skatebaording. A first-ever also the number of voters. Spanish You started ska�ng in 1988. What
book featuring intimate portraits, artworks and legendary skate Government keeps playing dirty with triggered your desire to give it a try?
tricks. low-fare tac�cs and unfair trials to jail First it was ‘Back To The Future’ that
However there is more to Sem than what meets the lense. He
openly speaks about the downside of the industry and why he is poli�cal opposers. They use their use made me want to grab a skateboard.
about to move on from skateboarding photograpy...if he has not over na�onal TV channels & their I used to do downhills and jump
already that is. interna�onal poli�cal influences to around landing on my board. Then a
distort the facts and control the couple of friends from my
Hola Sem. Que tal? It’s nice because you get to know a opinion of the public. It’s a shame neighbourhood started ska�ng too
Hello Michele. We are doing good, lot of people from all over the world
many EU countries are looking the and we found the movie ‘Thrashin’,
thank you. and that helped a lot my English.
other way to what Spanish where they were doing ollies. We
Tourism season is mainly July &
government is doing. It’s a dangerous though they glued the shoes to the
You are from one of Europe’s main August though, which for the locals is
tourist des�na�ons called Blanes at a bit annoying but rest of the year is

the Costa Brava (Catalonia) which great. September to November is the
translates to rough coast. How best �me because beaches are not
rough is it at the moment due to crowded and water is the warmest.
Covid 19?

Yeah, it got the name from the wild Because of tourism was there any
coastal landscape. In fact my area is redevelopment on the infrastructure
called La Selva (The Jungle). It’s a which did benefit the local skate

great place to live. Perfect for the scene?
kids. Not really. It has very few spots. It
was even worse when I started to
Regarding the pandemic, just holding
skate. At least now you can find
�ght like everyone else in the world.
smooth grounds some�mes, whereas
in the 90s was all rough grounds. But
How was it to live in such touris�c
going back to tourism, my friends and
place? Is it very busy during summer
I learned what the ollie was thanks to
months and in winter there is no
a tourist from Madrid. In a �me with
one around apart from the locals?
no internet, barely no mags or videos
to watch, this was crucial.

Javier Mendizabal & Madars Apse - Canary Islands

48 49