Mark Stamer Interview

Tags: germany, interview, jojo jacobi, karsten boysen, mark stamer

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Mark Stamer is one of the last Rollerbladers in Germany representing what you could call the “second generation” of Rollerblading. Nobody affected German or even European Rollerblading more in concerns of style and perfectionism on wheels like he did and also its rarely possible to find somebody doing as technical tricks as he does, without making it look boring and too common. This being said there are some other things which make him stand out amongst most of today’s Rollerbladers. His strong character and his honest attitude! Mark is for sure one of the greatest personalities I got to meet through Rollerblading and also if I don’t like the word “real” it couldn’t fit better than in connection with Mark.

Mark Stamer

After him being present in magazines, videos and at competitions for a lot of years it got a bit silent around him nowadays. Be-Mag caught up with him to see what he is doing currently, what we can expect in the future, what his opinion of today’s Rollerblading is about and what made him think twice about taking the risk and the effort of constantly staying in the spotlight. I’m happy I got the chance to make this interview with Mark, and after asking him all these questions, one questions will stay unanswered…

“Would Rollerblading be more enjoyable and more successful with more people like him in it”?

- Jojo Jacobi

Hey Mark, let’s start with the basics first, to give people an update on you. Your full name, hometown, age, years of skating and your current sponsors please.

My name is Mark Stamer, I’m 27 years old and I live in Hamburg right now. I started skating in 1996, which makes it 13 years I guess and I get my stuff from Remz, 4x4 and Vicious.

I heard your studies are pretty intense, can you explain what exactly you are studying and what it is about?

I study Biomedical Engineering or studied I must say ‘cause I just graduated haha. But generally speaking it’s an engineering discipline that involves a certain amount of medical subjects aiming on the research and development of medical devices of any kind. This can range from imaging systems like X-Ray or Magnet Resonance Imaging (MRI) to artificial joints. Looking at the thesis I wrote during my study I got to break mice bones, did some programming in MRI and had to deal with object recognition in digital images. Just like most other fields of study it is the least time as interesting as it sounds and can be quite dry sometimes. It might sound a little corny but it gives me a warm feeling to actually do something rather meaningful at times.

Mark Stamer - Torque / Backslide

Torque / Backslide

Is it hard to find time for Rolling while studying? Most people have more free time while studying…

In contrast to most other fields of study our exams took place during the semester breaks plus preparing was pretty time intense. Meaning no weekends and hardly ever more then two weeks straight for traveling before the new semester started. Well, to answer your question, it’s not hard to go for a few-hour session once in a while but a lot of times I had to miss out on events and sessions. But other than that I can say that skating helped me a lot during my studies because it always gave me the opportunity to escape from “study-routine” for a while and clear up my mind after a brain jumbling day of trying to understand all these abstract concepts.

You traveled to loads of places in the last years, is there one trip that’s standing out the most, and is there maybe a memory that shows how different the scene was back in the day?

I couldn’t pick only a single trip or memory because there were so many that stood out in different ways. But weather it was cruising through the ancient streets of Rome, winning a fake golden bike at a comp in Copenhagen or a hilarious trip to Prague with lots of random stuff happing, it most of the time was the people I shared the memories with that made a trip special. However, to pick a trip that might give an idea about the scene back in the days: Lausanne Competition in 1998! It was the first time I saw all the super-pros at that time in real life. To me they appeared brighter and more awe-inspiring than any present top rider and I was soaking up every movement because back home there would only be this one VHS I had watched a thousand times. The whole city was occupied by an unbelievable crowd of Rollerbladers who were sessioning every halfway decent spot or doing downhill through the traffic. Everybody was stoked to be on wheels and it was such a great feeling to be among so many like-minded people. To me the only disappointment was my favorite rider Tim Ward rather skating half pipe with his skateboard than his skates and - no shit - smoking cigarettes haha.

Mark Stamer - TTS

Soyale

Do you think this feeling people had at comps like Lausanne is gone nowadays and it’s more about battling each other and less about the excitement of meeting so many like-minded people like you said? Maybe people don’t appreciate Rollerblading anymore in the way we did back in the day?

It’s hard to say why the vibe at comps is so different from past events like Lausanne because it was simply a different time. The sport was relatively new and exciting, the amount of people visiting such an event was just incredible and as a pro you could actually make a good living from rollerblading. My guess would be that the passion for the sport itself has changed. It’s not only about progression in terms of skating and having fun with your friends anymore but also about self-expression through particular fashion and being individual a lot. Obviously you can’t generalize attitudes but today many people enter a new skate-park and instead of eagerly checking out the ramps they check out other people’s fashion. To them putting on skates without a camera present is a waste of time and a trick doesn’t necessarily have to feel good but rather look tight in the picture. It surely is a good thing that people don’t take off there own style when skating and I’m happy for the variety that’s out there but while this self-expression thing has become so important people seem to have lost their passion for Rollerblading itself. Meaning the feeling, the adrenalin and the satisfaction of landing a trick as an end in itself. Back in the days this was ever-present and everybody was going on and on about it. I guess you could say it was the common ground, which allowed for the special vibe at comps like Lausanne.

You’re in this sport for a long time already and some years ago your name was everywhere. Nowadays I have the feeling that people forget about you sometimes. What’s the main reason for you being not as much present like “back in the day” anymore?

There are a couple of reasons I guess. When I was younger - like every motivated upcoming kid - I always tried to distinguish myself, dreamed of winning a decent competition or getting a photo in a magazine. I was willing to take risks at competitions and once I got a few good results a picture in a magazine wasn’t a big step anymore when seeking the media spotlight. In addition I got to know the photographer Jonn Rübcke from the Inline Magazine quite well during a check out of my home town Rostock. He gave me the opportunity to accompany him to a lot of events and if it wasn’t for him I probably wouldn’t have made it as far as I did. Eventually being in favor with Benny Harmanus as skate film maker and skating for his clothing company Truespin definitely didn’t harm to get media coverage either. Nowadays I’m primarily concerned about having fun skating and my own progression in terms of tricks and style than seeking the media spotlight. I also think twice when trying to keep up at competitions because to me no contest result is worth the risk of getting injured. The last time I thought I really took a risk at a competition was at the Best Players Cup in Munich a few years ago and apart from not seeing a cent of the 1000 EUR prize money the question arises if all this is worth a few pair of skates and T-shirts a year when so much fun already waits around the corner with your homies in your home skate park.

Mark Stamer - Topsoul

Topsoul

When I see you skating it’s obvious that your talent and your skills are not gone, so how come you kind of hide it now? No time to go to events and no intentions to film an edit or a video section once in a while?

Haha, well I’m definitely not hiding myself but I guess I’m not exactly seeking for media coverage either. For the obvious lack of resources of the current rollerblading media, rollerbladers seem to have to promote themselves and have their own photographers and filmers. At least that is what I feel is expected from me. I don’t like that. Neither do I happen to have a super-equipped photographer or filmer in Hamburg nor do I feel comfortable with asking someone experienced to spend his time and money to make an edit of me. But to answer your question time and also money is definitely an issue for me when it comes to traveling to events. This is also true for making an edit but as I just graduated things will change quite a bit and I guess after this interview it’s definitely the right time to follow-up with an edit.

So it’s more or less the lack of professionalism in this industry? I mean, as a rider for a company (this goes for any possible company) and after representing it for a lot of years, it’s the job of the company to work with their riders and not just wait until a rider spent his own money and all his spare time to promote himself?

Yeah, I think you pretty much put it in a nutshell. I actually would expect companies to take care of anything that is related to media coverage. I think it’s their job to make sure that their riders are covered and more importantly their riders in combination with their newest products. But due to the obvious lack of money and maybe, I don’t know, professionalism in the industry it’s not the case so that riders like me who don’t have the perfect infrastructure in this context and not exactly the highest motivation to do it themselves are not as media present. I think to change that companies have got to increasingly talk to the riders and figure something out within their narrow financial scopes, which better suits both sides’ needs and also uses any potential we’ve got to get rollerblading the intention it deserves. Other than that I believe that we only get kids to grab a pair of rollerblades instead of a Skateboard if our DVDs and edits provide a similar professionalism in video making. You know, not just pour out one quick and dirty made edit after the other into the already existing ocean.

Mark Stamer - Savannah

Savannah

After some conversations with you I got the feeling that you are kind of tired of how this Rollerblading world works and that you think twice which event you visit and if you film a section for a video. If I’m right, can you explain that a little? If not, correct me ;)

To be honest I don’t really know how this Rollerblading world works right now. I rarely visit any Rollerblading websites and I mostly only get to watch edits when people send me the links. On the other hand I skate at least twice a week. So I guess first of all I’m tired of that Rollerblading doesn’t present itself interesting enough for me to stay tuned. But I’m also tired of having to promote myself, no money for traveling, fresh fashion instead of fresh rolling, low budget competitions and skate movies, the lack of innovation with respect to skates, expensive wheels that fuck up after a few steps, skate shells covering 3 sizes, becoming a pro being not really profitable anymore, mustaches as they remind me on a fat police officer and finally the fact that a lot of the things I just mentioned can not be changed without a serious boost of cash-flow into our industry.

You’ve been to Australia twice (or more often?). How would you compare the scene over there to the German scene or Europe in general?

I’ve been there twice. Once as a backpacker for 8 month and another time due to my studies for half a year. I’d say the scene over there is quite similar to the German scene but smaller and cozier if that word suits at all. It’s like a big group of friends scattered over a much greater distance than Germany. Everybody knows each other and to certain events they all come together to have a good time and party. There are some good skaters in every bigger city and a few exceptionally good ones like CJ Wellsmore and Rian Arnold. I found the scene to be very open-minded and hospitable to every skater that’s coming along from wherever. Other than that they are part of the same industry and have to deal with the same financial problems when organizing events and competitions with the difference that there everybody was pulling together.

What’s up next in your life? Finishing the studies and then? More skating again, hard working or another year in Australia?

If things go as expected I’ll stay at my university in Hamburg and do a Ph.D. I’m not sure how this new situation is going to affect skating but Hamburg is not a bad basis for traveling and looking from now I definitely intent to make use of that.

Mark Stamer - Bio 540

Lui Kang Bio 540

Can we expect to see more of you and your skating in 2010? Or got Rollerblading something which isn’t more than 3 sessions a months for you?

Well, I wouldn’t want to promise anything but I have always skated more than 3 sessions a month and I don’t see why this should change next year.

Alright… I personally would be happy to see more of you again, or at least meet you more often at events and I’m sure there are quite a few people feeling the same way about it. So if you would like to say anything to finish this up, or if you want to thank / greet people, that’s the right moment now.

First of all thank you Jojo for taking the time to make this interview and the Winterclash haha! Many thanks to Karsten Boysen for taking the pictures for this interview and also Christoph Böttcher for spinning the right wheels in Photoshop. To Kato at Remz for still supporting me even though I obviously haven’t made my name appear for a while, Michael Bayr at Swank for supporting me with 4x4 Wheels and Vicious bearings and of course everyone that supports me as a friend or just as an inspiring figure if that makes sense at all haha..

Interview: Jojo Jacob

Pictures: Karsten Boysen