THE RULES OF SKATEBOARDING #17: PONTUS ALV
Artwork by Charlotte Tegan
Trying to manage, organize, and motivate a team of people drawn to an activity that’s known for its lack of structure and rebellious nature, often never having worked a normal job in their lives, sounds kind of like a nightmare. For this month’s Rules Of Skateboarding Ian Browning talked to Pontus Alv, a guy who has been on both the giving and receiving ends of team management duties all around the world to get his take on how to keep a team in line without being the lame guy.
What's the wackest thing you've had a team manager say or do?
Something I can remember that got me really furious was a kind of big fight with Jeremie Daclin, the founder/ owner of Cliché, in the early 2000s. I’ve always been skating big boards: 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, around there. I was pro for Cliché, and they just didn't produce my size. They just didn't care.
“Big boards don't sell, we don't want to hear about it. We don't do it. Just go to the skate shop and trade some boards, spray paint them, and put a sticker on it”, that was kind of the solution he had. l just kind of lost it and we ended up at a dinner with quite a big argument over that situation where I was just like, “That's not acceptable. I am pro and I want to be able to choose my size, my pro model, yada yada yada. You need to produce X amount of boards for me, so I can fucking skate.” Because I was really over having like different setups every month. Back then it was really hard to find a good, wide street board with good street dimensions. You had those crazy vert boards with mega-long wheel bases, and you're like, “What the fuck is this shit?“ I had to re-drill the boards. I had to really customize them, and you know, riding different boards every fucking month or every week, and it was a nightmare. I don't want to call out Jeremie, because we are good friends today. It's all in the past, right?
Something that is always wack is if, let's say, the team manager is into technical skating, like the Girl Mouse skating that's LA tech or switch crook, switch backtail style. And he's trying to push his personal taste onto your skating, if that makes sense. Where he is like, “You're so talented. You should film some nollie flip noseslides, you should film some nollie crooks.” Depending on how they approach the rider and how they coach, if a skater is kind of going another direction—say I'm going more like Ricky Oyola-style East Coast wallrides, raw street skating—and then you have your TM kind of pushing you or telling you, “I don’t know. That’s kind of wack. That doesn't fit with my brand. I would love you to be more like this,” and trying to shape you in a direction that you're not really personally feeling, that can feel like, the guy doesn't appreciate what I do. So why the heck does he sponsor me?
I had a similar vibe with Cliché because they were kind of pushing the plaza skating, or going with Lucas Puig and those dudes. It was all about let's go to the plaza, the ledges, the manual spot, the fucking street gap, which is all cool. Don't get me wrong. I love all kinds of skating. I appreciate all kinds of skating, but you know as a TM, you have to kind of look at your team and say this guy likes skating transition, so let's try to go to some street transition spots or some bank spots and then mix it up so everybody gets their fair share of attention, versus just kind of like going on a trip and one guy just completely gets ignored. At the end of the day, when everyone is over skating, like, okay, let's take him to that fucking wallride spot. You know?
Pontus at a “fucking wallride spot” in the Cliché days
Team managing, you don't necessarily have to say something. It's more about your actions of not being motivated for a guy, or listening to the guy. If the TM is just not into your ideas, he would just ignore you. Silence, or whatever. And that is sometimes more painful and it hurts more mentally because like, why doesn't the guy just tell me to my face that this ain't going to happen?
Another thing that was really wack was that I was on tour with, I don't need to call out the names, but there was a really hot shot photographer, and the manager of the brand, and they were just giving me so much shit. They were like, “You think you're fucking hot shit. You know? You think you're so fucking good?” Every trick I was doing I made, in my opinion, heavy tricks. I got really good stuff. Every time I’d land or something they’d be like, “That shit is nothing. That is peanuts. That is shit.” Really like having this super macho fucked up attitude like was supposed to be motivating you or something. And that was super hard. Like that was just like, What the fuck is this shit. Then I just left the tour. And I was just like, “Fuck you guys.“
So, we'll kind of flip it: you’re a TM now. Outside of being really good at skateboarding, what other qualities are you looking for in a skater?
In the beginning, I chose the riders. When you're starting out, you're saying alright, I want Hjalte. I want Oski, I want whatever. Obviously, the main thing is the skating. Is this skating unique? Is the guy having fun while he’s doing it? Look at Hjalte. He will be in the skatepark, skating three, four hours, sweating his ass off laughing and slamming and skating and skating and skating, and he just can't get enough of it. And he does that by himself. Or a guy like Nick Boserio is the same, just brings good energy, good vibes. You know, guys that are basically givers. They're givers of life. They're givers of energy and they don't absorb your energy. That's something that is obviously really important. I’m not really down with right wing stuff, or any racism or extreme sexual opinions about women, or any weird shit. Any religious stuff, any hating on other shit, Thats a big no-no. That will never be acceptable.
Hjalte really does make it look fun.
The skating, the skills, the ideas, the style, all those things. And obviously, the personality. If you have a guy with drug problems, or they're drinking too much and they're just not happy within themselves, that can be difficult. I try to avoid that. I wouldn't want to put a guy on that is a fucking mess, but sometimes we can't control life. People go through hard times with love, family, personal things. “What am I going to do after skating?” All these kinds of questions.
Skateboarding is a weird thing as well because all you do all day is skate, you know? Like, “Oh I'm just waking up and I'm just supposed to skate, film, shoot photos. that's what my job is,” and obviously you can't do that every day for five, eight hours a day. Some people manage it, but most guys just wait for their friends to get off work or whatever. You just have too much free time, and some people become kind of insane from that. They can't cope with it, and that is definitely a pro disease. You basically get paid to not work, to not have a structure. I think it's always healthy to clean the toilets, do some shit work in your life to be able to enjoy the fun. We went to school all day, our homework at night, but then you had a little free time and you're like, “Yes, I can go skate. I love this shit,” and that is the balance you need. Some people can't operate when they just have the good times, they go completely crazy and then you’ve got to deal with that shit.
Then the final test is, can the guy hang? That's the biggest thing, because you can have all those qualities, but then you put him in a van for two weeks traveling around Europe or Japan, you're going to get some guys that can’t cope with traveling and being with others. You got to be able to hang in the van with the crew for two weeks, and enter the trip and leave the trip with a smile. You got to go to a skate shop, you have a signing, you have a demo, you got to go skate with the locals in the city, you know, and you got to be cool. You got to be able to be nice, say hey, thanks a lot, you know, whatever. Say hi to everyone. Be cool to the kids and the locals, and hang. It's not that hard, but for some people it gets quite complicated.
So based on what you've said in the past, the Polar team is pretty involved with the brand's creative process. Have you ever had issues with riders that either weren't interested or whose creative vision clashed with yours?
As a TM and brand manager, I always ask the riders what kind of shape they want, if they're happy with the sizes and shape. What kind of veneer color do you like? Your favorite veneer color is yellow? Okay, cool. I will put that on your pro model. Obviously, the graphics. They are always welcome to send in artwork from family, friends, or whatever they are inspired by. It's great when they come with ideas, and they come with like, “Yo, I have this photo of my mom.” Sometimes it works super easy, and you’re like, damn, that's going to be epic.
I had Nick Boserio’s kid and his wife doing a graphic for him. He was like, “I would love to see something with them together.” Okay, let's try to work that out. Obviously you want to please their visions and their dreams. I can accept a lot of things in a board graphic. You can kind of make it work.
Sometimes, obviously, I say “No, I don't like it.“, and that goes both ways. Sometimes I am really into something, and the riders say no, and it's okay. Cool. Some guys are more opinionated; some people don't care that much. Some people have really strong opinions about how they want their name and things to be looking, which is fine. It's their name on a board, and I fully respect that. They have their say, and you know, I never produce a board unless they confirm it. I think that's a pretty normal way but I mean, in my days when I was pro for other brands, I just got the box with the shit. Most times you didn't see anything. It showed up like, alright, cool, this is my new model. This has nothing to do with me, I don't really like it, but whatever. We made a series with cars and you had a car on your board.
As TM, I obviously made mistakes. I’ve tried different ways, and sometimes you obviously don't get the results that you want in the end. Something that is really classic as a TM is going on a trip and wanting your guys to wear the Polar t-shirt. And, you know, for some guys, that's completely fine. We have such a big collection, and they all have a say in the collection if they want to contribute. Some guys, it's fine, they will wear some Polar stuff. But I mean, obviously, if I'm on the on the trip, and I'm paying for the whole thing with hotels, food, and we’re doing demos and signings and whatnot, it definitely helps if you guys are repping the brand. And that's what makes us able to do those things, because hey, we sell the products so that I can pay you guys, so we can go on fun trips. For some guys, it's obvious.
Dane Brady doing his job by repping the brand
And for some guys, they don't feel comfortable wearing logos. We do a lot of clothes without logos, we do clothes with just little drawings on it or whatever, but for some reason, some guys just don't want to do that. They’re just like, no, it's not my style, I don't fuck with it. I always wear just the old trashy band t-shirt.
I always had arguments with some riders about this, never fights, and there's been times we're obviously like, okay, fuck it, do whatever you want. In the end, I think it's kind of the only solution: just let everybody be free, let them do whatever they want.
I think where it gets a little bit more tricky with the riders is music and editing. Some guy may be like, “I love this band. I love this song, man.” and I'm not really feeling it. I have to sit there and listen to it like 1,000 times when I edit it. Sometimes riders think, “Oh, this song is going to automatically work perfectly for my footage.” Yeah, you love the song, but nothing happens when I put it on your timeline. I’m never going ti say no. Sometimes I try it, and will lay it out on the timeline. In the end I'm trying to create magic for him, where people watching the fucking part are like, “Holy shit, something's happening here.” The footage, music, everything they're bouncing off each other, a full video concept from A to B, watchable from start to finish, and how your part blends in. When it comes to the videos, I'm a little bit more strict, like, sorry, that ain't going to work. You need to have that to make a good video. You need to have a strong vision and be a hardcore editor to say “I tried, but sorry, it won't do.”
You always find a song together, and find a way. Sometimes they don't know, and see something and are like “Holy shit.” Nick Boserio skated to a slow song, and was like “It's really weird for me to have that kind of music with my skating. But fuck, it kind of works. It's cool. I like it.” Sometimes you’ve got to make them open their eyes, and vice versa. They also send me music sometimes where I'm like, “Oh, this is sick!”, and so on. Teamwork Is the key. In the end, the brand should be happy, and the rider should be happy. Everyone should be stoked on the things we do. That’s the goal.
It's not easy. Sometimes it's like the riders don't understand certain things regarding the brand, like, when we have to do a lookbook. We kind of have to start promoting the clothing in a different way. Yada yada. There are certain things that come with having a skateboard company with a big clothing line: you got to have the guys wearing the stuff in photos. It becomes a little bit of a hanging out, modeling job, or whatever you call it. It's a different vibe than the classic skate mission. Some guys can have a little bit of a harder time adapting to that whole thing.
Now everybody is a fucking good skater. So you kind of have to have more qualities to have the job as a skater. You need a personality, you need to be able to hang in a photo. It's all these other things around now. You have to be big on social media. I don't know how to describe it, some people might say that's wack or whatever. But you know, it's the reality we live in. It's important that you have your own Instagram. It’s important that you sometimes do your own little video projects, or your own little things on the side. At the end of the day, there is no formula to be a successful pro skater. It's so many different ways to go about it. And each dude has to find their own way in it.
What's the biggest mistake that you've made as a TM?
One of our first trips to New York, we were at the BQE [DIY spot]. We built some stuff there, and there was an event, it was a KCDC thing. Fred Gall arrived with his big ass box truck and got everybody all hyped up. My rider, Michal Juras, is an expert in ollieing off shit. He can ollie into any bank in the world—that's his speciality. I've seen him do it billions of times, in all kinds of variations. I just mentioned it: “Yo, man, you should ollie off the roof of the truck into that bank.” and he's like, “Yeah, fuck, no problem.” I knew he could do it. Then he ollied off, first go, he jumped off and he blew his knee out.
I always feel like, “Did I push him to do that?” You're pushing as a filmer, TM, friend, and then the accident happens and you're like, “Fuck.” That's something that's always super tricky as a TM. Sometimes you want to push the skaters a bit: you could probably flip out of that. I mean, you got that, you do it so easily. You could probably step it up a notch. Sometimes you have to be very careful, as a TM in how you push your guys, and how you approach those things. I'm very careful with things: if you're not comfortable, don't do it. If it doesn't feel good, don't do it. Some riders are like, “I want to grind this gnarly fucking hubba!“ and you're like, “Dude, if you’re not 100% about this, don’t do it.“ I’m really trying to be the opposite nowadays: don't force it.
You don’t need to push Aaron Herrington to skate like this, he just does.
Sometimes you’ve got to push a little bit, of course. It's so hard. If some guy is not having his best footage, you got to kind of say, “Hey, we got to juice it up.” But you got to be really careful how you approach that thing. How you motivate them. Feeling the vibe together, pushing in a motivating way, not as a forcing way. That's something that you’ve got to learn. You’ve got to feel the rider. You got to feel the atmosphere, the whole vibe.
Nine out of ten times, things work out. Everyone is hyped. I’m like “I told you, you can do it,” then that guy's like, “Fuck, man. Thanks, dude. It was so sick.” We got the clip, we got the photo, and the whole thing. That's the perfect session. But obviously, sometimes it goes wrong. And that's part of the job or part of skateboarding. Obviously it's never nice to see a fucking heavy slam. When a guy goes down, that's always a bummer. With that being said, I have Nick Boserio, I had him on two knee surgeries. Paul Grund just had knee surgery five months ago. Aaron (Harrington) just started skating again yesterday. I always said to the guys, when they get injured, they need to do a surgery, they're going to be out for 12 months or longer, don't worry. I got you, no pay cut. Nothing. If you need help with doctor's bills, or any kind of recovery, let me know.
I think it’s important for the brand and the company to really support your riders through that injury. Hats off to Nike, because they are really good with that. I always wanted to feel that way, that riders should be comfortable and supported no matter what.
You stick by someone as unique as Nick Boserio, no matter how many knee surgeries.
I’ve got one question left, that I guess is more storytime than a Yes or No: Have you ever organized, or been on a trip that somebody else organized that was a total disaster?
Yeah. I've been on a few. One funny one was with Jeremie Daclin. This was pre éS Menikmati, pre Cliché Europa, and those two videos kind of mapped out the whole Barcelona hype, and the mega Paris hype. In Europe back then, it wasn't like how it is nowadays. The industry was quite small. Jeremie always had his hustles, where he tried to hustle deals for his riders, which was cool. That’s also good TMing: “Hey, you ride for Cliché, I’ll get you a deal on this and this brand. I will get you paid.”
He had some connection with Arnette sunglasses and told the riders, “I know the guys. Don't worry about it. You get a box of glasses and bring it straight to the skate shop. You sell the whole box, and you get cash. Boom, done.” And then he had his master plan: these guys are doing a skate/surf trip to Portugal and Ricardo Fonseca, one of the Cliché guys, was living in Lisbon. They had like this big RV and were like, “It's no problem, we will bring Eurosport.” which is a TV channel. Like 20 years ago they had this crazy show. I can't remember the name, there was skate, surf, BMX. Basically ESPN X Games.
His plan was basically not to worry about it: we go there while they fucking go surf, we bail out and we just go out skating. The whole trip was basically all about trying to avoid this TV thing. You’d wake up in the morning, open your eyes and there’s a fucking camera in your face. We were trying to run away, and they were just like a fucking sticker on your back with a camera.
We tried to go out and film for the video, and every spot we go, these fucking guys around filming with their big TV camera. It was quite a mess. The whole plan didn't work out as we planned, and then the surf TM for the Arnette guys got in a massive fist fight in the van with our filmer, Ben. But you know, at the end of the day, it was super funny. Because sometimes the worst trips are kind of, I don't want to say the best ones, but sometimes you can look back at them and laugh about it.
Early Gypsy Tour days with Cliche.
I think everything with Jeremie, back in those early Cliché days, was super rugged. We would get in this Renault, a super small French car, and he would go to Nice, the riviera in the south of France. “Where are we sleeping?” “On the beach.” You could have told us to bring sleeping bags, a tent, maybe? You're thinking you might stay at a hostel, or sleep in a friend's house, it was just straight up like crashing on the beach with no warning, no preparation. He would do it then freaking grind a hubba the next morning for breakfast. This guy's a psycho. But it was rad.
I remember it was sick, and we had a good time once we knew the deal. You will just get on with it. I mean, we had those situations as well with early Polar days, where you'd be kind of crashing at houses or couch surfing or whatever. That happens to all of us, but obviously it's good if you have a little bit of preparation for the guys, or at least mention it before the guys get on the trip, so they can either say yes or no. I think those camping nature trips are super fun, but some guys want their bed, or shower, or hotel breakfast, which is fine, too. I also liked that, obviously. I think a mix is nice.
Other than that, just classic fucking shit show tours. There was another trip with Carharrtt that was a shit show. They rented one of those big fucking buses, and wanted to do a trip around ex-Yugoslavia, Croatia, the Balkans. It was fucking sick. We were going to be there for a month. It ended up being fucking 20 something guys, two photographers. A crew that is so fucking big that it just becomes unmanageable. I got on the trip and it was like, just party until four or five in the morning. A complete mess. Some guys are coming home at six or seven in the morning when I’m waking up, and then I'm just sitting around all day, like, “What the fuck are we doing? “And then at four or five in the afternoon, people wake up and you're like, “Alright, cool. Let's go skate.” And they start getting hammered again. I was like, “What the fuck is this shit?“ I was really losing my mind. I stayed on the trip for three days.
It seems like it would be easier to follow the leader if your TM was out there skating like Pontus.
I did a lot of these exit points in my career where it's like, we're picking up this guy in that city or that airport, and I was just like, “I’ve had it with this trip. Fuck it.” I'm getting off of that airport. I don't care. I would just grab my bag and be like, “Alright, guys, thanks. Good luck. Have a nice trip. I'm out,” and run away. I think I did that like maybe five, six times in my career, where you’re calling a taxi to the airport.