A few weeks back, Tobias Mayer and me went out on a little Balkan trip to Ljubljana and Zagreb, where we met up with Goran Karacic who is doing his very own thing on a scooter down there.
Though I never met Goran before, after exchanging some hasty words on FB we realized we absolutely have to shred Zagreb together. And after spending a few days with him in the Croatian capital, I was even more fascinated by this guy. OG Karacic showed us some of the best spots in Zagreb (for both riding and getting beers), big thanks again for this.
He decided to share some elevated thoughts with us in this interview below and we even managed to film some clips of him on various spots in ZG, scroll dooown.
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| Goran riding his hometown's rough concrete |
-How long have you been riding a scooter? What did actually make you pick up a scooter and try tricks with it?
Been riding faaar too long haha. I skated around 2001. and got my hands on a scooter around 2002. but that was just, messing around a bit. Got full time on a scooter sometimes around 2004. since it was a perfect mix of skating and bmx and it made a shitload of fun, just like today.
-For the people that aren't in the game for so long: what was the scooter scene like in the first years after you started riding?
There was scooter resource and everyone knew everyone pretty much. It was crazy. You'd come back from school and there was a new trick invented. Oh and everyone put out mini videos haha. Most of us spent more time reinforcing their scooters than riding, but it was well worth it. Good times!
-You saw the sport growing for a decade. How do you see the rapid growth of the scene (and the industry) in the last 3 years? Is scootering developing in the right direction?
Blaaah, I was afraid of such questions. What's right, what's wrong? Should we only respect street, park, vert? Meh... The scene is growing and scooters are putting a smile on kids faces, I think that's what counts. But there's one thing I always wanted to happen more on the scene, and that's rider owned companies. It's cool to see that happening, otherwise, no matter how it evolves, I'll keep riding cause it's fun, nothing will take that away from me.
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| chilling with the locals |
-Zagreb isn't a really big name when it comes to scootering. Who are you riding with and how does the croatian scene look like?
I'm riding with every one, be it skaters, bmxers, bladers and reccently even scooter riders. The whole extreme sports scene was so tiny in Zagreb when I started, we couldn't really afford to hate on each other. But lately there have been more and more scooter riders like Jakov, Tin, Alkemičar... hope they stick around and grow into real shredders.
-What kind of stuff are you riding down there? Park, street spots or DIY stuff? The only spot I knew before visiting you was the DIY pool near the railway, tell us a little bit about that thing!
Yeah, I always declare myself as a vert rider, but honestly, I'll ride pretty much everything I get my wheels on. Zagreb has some pretty neat spots, and I think it's pretty cool street wise, even tho I spend most of my time at the park, on the vert. The DIY pool has cult status in Zagreb, handmade by the local skaters we managed to keep it even after the student center management tried to take it down. It's sketchy as fuck, the transitions are weird but damn, it's sooo much fun to ride. Always enjoy session there and I'm really glad we managed to keep it alive for so long.
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| the infamous SC Pool Sculpture in Zagreb |
-I know that you really like riding vert ramps. What is the magic of shredding a 5m high vert?
Don't know man, it's just fun. I just love flying around, doing simple trick as high as possible. I thought I'd get bored after some time and move on, but every time I'm about to drop in I get that awesome feeling I had the first time I dropped in. It's like "HOLY SHIT THIS IS SOOO FAST AND HIGH AND AWESOMEEE!!" :D
-In some places, scooter riders get along with skaters, bmxers and inliners very good, in others it is just beef. How is the situation in Croatia?
We get all along, specially the older riders. As mentioned above, when most of us started there were just a few people in every sport and we kept pushing each other to new levels. Knowing each other for such a long time, some of us even spend time together outside of the park or of the streets. It's really chill here. We don't hate on a specific sport, but we do hate on idiots.
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| OG Karacic in his natural habitat |
We are going for some quickies:
-Best scooter video ever seen?
The Estonian "Just a stupid video"... holy shit so much fun!
-Riders you look up to?
Oh man, so many of them... Madis Kukk, Timur Mamatov, Alex Peasley, Eric Ostrom, Hep Greg, Dan Holm... and many more, if I continued this wouldn't be a quickie.
-City or spot you absolutely wanna ride in the near future?
COPENHAGEN!!!
-To finish it off: What's the coolest thing that happened in connection with riding scooters to you?
Meeting some of the most amazing people I would never meet if it wasn't for riding a scooter. Best and coolest thing ever. Hope I see some of them soon again!
To get an idea of Goran's riding, here are the promised clips, watch em in big format here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm8Z3Asy5SM
interview/photos: David Tiefenthaler
footage: Tobias Mayer/David Tiefenthaler
