Sven Boekhorst | Photo by Dominik Wagner
Intro & Interview by Travis Stewart
On a chilly Wednesday night, the day before Winterclash is set to kick off, I’m standing inside at one of the larger indoor skateparks in Holland. The background music is playing while we skate, but as the song changes, I very clearly hear Eric B. & Rakim’s Don’t Sweat the Technique come on over the speakers. Standing to my right is one of the greatest professional skaters to ever live, Sven Boekhorst. In that moment, I’m taken back to late nights sitting at a friends house watching the ASA pro tour on ESPN, and sitting at home on my Playstation 2, Aggressive Inline loaded up, and Sven’s character poised to drop into the Movie Lot downrails.
I watch as Sven drops in and I nearly feel like I’m holding a controller in my hand as he effortlessly and flawlessly does a quick run. He lands a forward fish on the flat bar, then a zero AO fish on the back quarter, and finishes out the line with his signature 360 soul on the flat ledge. He glides back up the ramp with a smile on his face and I just felt like child inside. The 16 year old me came rushing back and I just remember staring blankly into the park thinking to myself that this was a moment to treasure forever.
Sven Boekhorst is one of the greatest living professional skating athletes to have ever graced our sport. With a monstrous bag of tricks including some of the first and most consistent 540’s to grinds on ramps, insane corkscrew 720’s he’s shown us on both park and street, and a squeaky clean appearance to everyone outside looking in, Sven is a consummate professional. In 2013 he quietly retired from the spotlight. But in 2021, he's back and ready to show the world that he’s not quite done with skating. I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to skate with him at his home skatepark in The Netherlands, and now this chance to sit down with him and talk about his profile in the brand new Plastic Pushers Volume 2 movie. Join us as we take a look back into his past, his present, and talk about what the future holds from here.
(Travis) Hey Sven, thanks for joining us. I know a few years back you officially retired skating professionally. For those skaters who may not of been around in the past or don't know your story, can you give everyone a quick recap of who you are, how long you've been skating, and where you're from?
(Sven) Sven Boekhorst, 41 from the Netherlands. Skating since 1994.
(T) What originally got you into skating?
(S) I started skating in 1994 because of speed ice skating. I was always watching this at home with my dad and one day a friend of mine bought a pair on inline skates and told me how much fun it was. So we started first to go just as fast as possible but after a few months that got a bit boring so we started to build are own little ramps and went for the first time to this small miniramp. We met some guys at the ramp who were doing grinds with their skates and heard there was a specialist skateshop who was selling “aggressive” skates.
From that moment I was hooked, bought new skates, a copy of HOAX 1 and we started to copy the stuff we saw in that movie. I watched that movie everyday for at least a year straight.
Sven Boekhorst - Gap to Soul to Stairbash | Photo by Niels Groenendijk
(T) Staying in the past, when did you originally turn pro? I remember watching ASA contests back in the late 90's and early 2000's with you skating and killing it in them.
(S) 1997-1998. My first trip to the USA was to the ASA in Virginia Beach and Naples,FL. Virginia Beach. As a shy Dutch kid, only 17 years old, ended up 19th on park and vert but at the ASA in Naples I took 3rd place in vert and qualified for the X Games in San Diego in 1998. After the X Games I won my first ASA in Toronto, Canada in park. From that moment I started traveling to a lot of competitions till around 2003-2004.
(T) Have you always rode for Rollerblade or on Rollerblade products? I remember that video you made a little bit ago recapping 25 years of your career skating for Rollerblade.
(S) Yeah it's pretty crazy that I have been riding on Rollerblade skates since 1994. Of course tried some other skates to see the difference but never felt the need to make a switch. Plus Rollerblade always took good care of me as a sponsor.
(T) I remember your Rollerblade Solo skate, but I can’t recall any other pro products. Have you had any other signature products with your name on them in the past?
(S) There was a moment I was riding for Shifty clothing from the UK and at one point I had a pro wheel with my name on it.
(T) Gotcha, sorry I missed those. Also on the topic of signature products, in the early 2000's, you also had a cameo in a video game called Aggressive Inline. It had a bunch of the big pros from the early 2000's era such as Franky Morales, Sam Fogerty, Jaren Grob, and yourself, among some others. How did that whole opportunity happen? Did you ever play the game?
(S) I remember I met with the people of the computer game at the Gravity Games in Rhode Island and they explained me what they were up to. It sounded like a big honor to have a character in a computer game. It also got a lot attention in the Dutch media. When the game got release I bough a Xbox to be able to play the game but finally I only played it a couple of time. Not such a big fan of computer games haha....Pretty cool to hear that some people are still playing it now.
Sven Boekhorst - Acid Drop | Photo by Dominik Wagner
(T) It’s still something I come back to every few years and play again. So jumping forward a little, after the collapse of ASA and X-games, what did you end up doing? It seems like a lot of the contests were dominated by the US street skaters at that time and I feel like you kinda dropped out of the spotlight for a few years. I also remember Rollerblade dropping the pro team and the TRS Skate during the mid ‘00’s too.
(S) After the last X Games in 2003 there was a big change for me. I still had contact with Rollerblade Holland for some shows and product but nothing like before. Started to skate more street and was luckily I got sponsored by Redbull in 2002. In 2004 I got asked for this theatre show and was able to do many shows in Holland and abroad. We even ended up playing on Broadway NYC in 2005. So in this way I was still able to make living out of skating. I still attended some competitions like the Asian X Games and LG competitions but I needed to pay my own trips so the prize money was only kinda covering this when I would make it to the top 3.
Then in 2006 I started SB Events which I'm still running now. Purchased the ‘Mind the Gap’ setup and started organizing shows and competitions with it. Besides that we also organized for a couple of years the Dutch Championships and the European Championships Halfpipe event. With the help of the government and sponsors this was a new way for me to make a living with skating.
While this was all going on I got a phone call from Rollerblade International to be the European team manager and work together with Tom Hyser in the US on it.
(T) That’s amazing! That was a pretty dark time for skating as a whole, and seems like you found that silver lining and came out on the other side. Somewhere in this timeframe was the Cityhopper tours too, correct? Where did the idea for those come from?
(S) Cityhopper start in 2012. The reason for making them was my pro skate and I spoke with some close friends of ideas to create a cool video promoting it. Never expected that the video would end up bigger than my pro skate itself.
Because of the good response, we finally made 3 episodes. Cityhopper Holland 2012, Cityhopper Europe in 2013 and Cityhopper World in 2015.
(T) After it started to take off, what was the goal of the Cityhoppers and do you feel like you accomplished it?
(S) The main goal was to create a sick new video. Never expected that we would be with same crew for so many years filming it. Still so happy how it all turned out. Of course looking back there are some spots or tricks so so but we only had like 4-5 day in each city and these kind of projects are never going as planned. I'm still proud what we were able to pull off looking back.
Sven and Cavin | Photo by Dominik Wagner
(T) I loved them, and I still always reference them when I show people skating who have never seen it. Now catching up to the modern day, what are you doing these days after leaving professional skating? For a retired guy you sure do get around to various contests and end up online in clips still. Haha.
(S) So I work on my own company with shows and events. I'm also having my own skate school since 2008. But besides that I'm working really close with Rollerblade. Most of the content you see online I had at least a little part in it. From coordination the content shoots before, during and after. So booking the flights, hotel, give support during the shooting days, updating the website and social media. It's like 60% of my job. This all got more serious after the last Cityhopper World project we did in 2015. I'm really happy how this all turned out. As I did the production for it I showed I was able to do this for other disciplines of skating as well.
I believe it was 2013 at Winterclash when I “officially” retired from the competitions but looking back it had also to do with my situation at the moment. Ex girlfriend, did not want to travel that much and thought it was good moment for it. Then it got kinda bigger than had planned with my 'lovely' friends creating this huge “thank you Sven” banner at the Winterclash haha....
Some years past and in 2017 I got asked again by the same Theatre company to join them on a new show with a sick crew of skaters, freerunners, flatlander and breakdancers. During the rehearsals and shows I got fit again but also missed the traveling and hanging with friends at skate events. But I had a big struggle with myself as I “officially” announced I retired (whatever that means haha). So after a few months I decided not to let myself down because of this (old) decision I made in 2013. And next thing you know I won the spine contest at NL Contest in Strassbourg and got 2nd at park.
I joined a couple of other competitions that year but then at the Barcelona Extreme event I fell on my head and broke my helmet which shocked me a bit. At the end of year I went to China for the Roller Games and after the event I got asked be one of the official FISE judges for 2018. So at this moment I'm judging those and every now and then joining a competition for fun. Like the at last Winterclash.
(T) Oh wow, that’s still pretty involved! I heard from Cavin that in your past you’ve only had a small number of sections you’ve filmed, and none of them have been filmed with one single videographer. For someone as prolific as yourself that’s pretty unheard of. Is that true, and what videos have you had profiles in before?
(S) I had a couple of profiles in some Dutch skate videos in the late '90s and of course some online profiles. But never a street only section filmed by one filmer and edited by one guy. Really happy I had the chance to work on this with Cavin.
Crew | Photo by Alexander van der Linde
(T) So why the sudden change that made you want to film a section for Plastic Pushers?
(S) Well in the beginning of 2020 the idea was the film with Cavin a online profile but then the whole COVID situation started in March and Cavin started filming for Plastic Pusher 1. At the same time my dad past away because of COVID so I wasn't motivated anymore to join them for that movement.
Exactly one year ago I went to the premiere of Plastic Pusher and I saw a lot of my friends that night really hyped on their parts. It really motivated me to hear all their stories and stuff. I said to myself “next year I want to sit in the same room also with a part”. It could not have played out better for me.
I released after all those years I have been involved skating: organizing event&show, Rollerblade work, skateschool, judging, traveling but never really pushed my own skating. But because of the whole covid situation all that skating “work” stopped and I managed to take all that time into my own skating. Really happy for that experience. Never thought to have a street profile like this and let alone being above 40 and releasing it.
Sven Boekhorst - Gap to Royale | Photo by Niels Groenendijk
Sven Boekhorst - 360 to Bank | Photo by Jan Hootgteijling
Sven Boekhorst - Sweatstance | Photo by Alexander van der Linde
Sven Boekhorst - Disaster AO Pornstar | Photo by Dominik Wagner
(T) I’m really sorry to hear about that, but I’m really grateful for you finding that spark and motivation again. Your skating is timeless and powerful, and this section was no less amazing. What do you feel was the hardest thing you did while filming for the video? And what trick are you the most proud of?
(S) The hardest part and at the same time the nicest part were the injuries the day after a day of filming. It made me feel alive. It's also an interesting process of getting your first clips and the motivating you get for the next session. It only builds up. Good stuff! Haha.....
Not sure if I have a “most proud trick” But pretty happy with the last clip we filmed. I don't do many unity tricks and I managed to do a back savannah on a bench switching up to ao fish to the lower part. But maybe it's because it's the last clip we filmed two weeks ago.
(T) Talking about the future of skating, where do you see it going? It seems like the days of hammers and stunt skating are all but gone, and more people are skating recreationally again. Obviously you and I are part of the people who still like to skate a ramp, or grind a rail, but we're such a small subset of people on wheels it feels like. As a person still relatively connected to the industry and located in Europe, I'd love to hear your opinion on it.
(S) I think that's a good and difficult question to answer. I see and hear a lot of old people coming back to skating, that's great. And with the whole boom of inline skating that's happening at the moment it looks pretty positive. I'm not worried about the direction of skating for the people that are already in it. The tricks, the style, the creativity is really amazing to see how this involves. Also not worried about all the new people that will try some “aggressive” skating. But there is a gap between the beginners and pro's. I can also see it in my skate classes there is not much organized for the group of skater between. Would be great to see people standing up and taking care of this group of skaters.
Sven and the Crew | Photo by Dominik Wagner
(T) Is there going to be a comeback? Are we witnessing the rebirth of pro skater Sven?
(S) Well it's kind of what I mention above. I never stopped and with this new profile coming out I'm more motivated then ever. Already working on some new stuff as we speak. And Rollerblade is also releasing the new BLANK skate later this year. I'm still part of the team together with Maxime Genoud for Europe. During the filming with Cavin I was also able to test the new cuff and soulplates for the Blank skate. The look with the new soulplates is so much better and can't wait for people to see the final version of the skate.
(T) Thanks for taking the time to chat with us. I'm really excited to see your skating in the video and hopeful that this won't be the last time we get a full length profile.
(S) As I'm typing these answers I also haven't seen it, so I'm excited as well. I’m headed to the premiere and the official release on Youtube will be Tuesday August 3rd!!
(T) Just seeing you skate in 2021, it’s going to be awesome no matter what. Thanks again!
Sven Boekhorst - AO Fishbrain | Photo by Alexander van der Linde