Harald Schoen Interview

Kickflip (Pic: Fabian Schreiter)

Harald Schoen. One of the best known and probably one of the gentlest fingerboarders under the sun.

The companys who sponser him (Berlinwood, Flatface, Fingerboardstore) are some big names too.

This was reason enough for us to do a interview with the dirty Harry.

FBWeekly: Ok Harry let‘s get the basics down:

Hello, my name is Harald Schoen. Im 24 years old and i live in Berlin Friedrichshain in a one room apartment in an old building.

I drink too many energy drinks and I like sweets until death. Besides that I‘m a very creative guy and technical gifted.

When there is no fingerboardsession at my apartment I sit in front of the computer and edit movies until the early morning, chill in the Internet and watch YouTube, read in the forum or play in X-Box Live and talk a bit.

FBWeekly: Let‘s do it some BRAVO-Style (Popular german Teenager Magazine (Editors note)). On a scale from 1 to 100 how dirty is Harry?

It depends. On bad days i give myself 50 points of „dirtynezzz“. And on good days 10 Points because im pretty chilled…By accident I‘m freshly showered…Bling, bling.

FBWeekly: Why did you started fingerboarding? How long do you fingerboard?

Four years ago a friend gave me an old tech deck back. It had Riptape on it.

After that I looked through the Internet what would be possible with it.

And lo and behold!…There where people who did Kickflip to Grind and I was fascinated.

This was the beginning of a neverending love.

I watched all the tutorials I could find. The Kickflip for example I learned from the CTE-Tutorial…Thanks again!

And as i got to know Thies Mielke, Ramon Angelow, Piran, Timo Kranz and some time later Timo Lieben, Dimitri (Schlotthauer (Editors note)) and Lennart (Behnke (Editors note)) in front of the Titus Berlin store everything was to late.

Now i know people who love fingerboarding as much as I do. Thies, Piran and I founded the „Team Berlin rollt“ and met every weekend to fingerboard. Meanwhile Piran fell by the wayside and Ramon Angelow joined. And we‘re still rockin. That‘s the story.

FBWeekly: I heard from Timo Lieben good things about white ramps all over Berlin and you are about to build some cement ramps. What‘s going on there?

The first project was the Afrobi-Wonderland build by Fabi (Afrobi), that i restaurated. Together with Ramon Angelow I grinded the park off, put some varnish on it and restored the cracks.

The second project is in the making for some longer.

Thies Mielke suggested to build a barrier 1 to 1.5 years ago. Now I engaged some longer with finding the right material.

Timo Lieben has the first 6 to 7 prototypes at home. Scetchy ones build out of cast and other materials.

Over the time i tested many building materials and found the - in my opinion - best material (It stays secret).

Now the time has come and you can buy the first „Harriers“ from me.

I don‘t want to run a big company. I just want to build some obstacles with my own hands. Just for fun.

Thanks to all people who helped me…Especially Timo Lieben.

FBWeekly: I heard that some of the ramps got some new colors. You ara a graffitihead too. What can we expect out of this?

So before i started fingerboarding i spended much time into graffiti. But the art fell out of the wayside when i started fingerboarding a lot.

That‘s why active graffitiartists out of berlin write on BRR, Harriers and everything else they got into their hands…Simply ask for it.

There are parts of the berlin wall in miniature size with graffiti you can buy too. I just say the words „Small Wall“. Fresh.

A full slap of berlin style.

FBWeekly: Especially Berlin is well known for it‘s great and special fingerboardscene. Do you think that many gifted new faces from Berlin appear in the scene because the city is that huge or is the reason the city Berlin itself?

I think it‘s some of both…

The huge size of the city is beneficial. Berlin in general has many creative districts.

And among 3-4 million inhabitants can be found 7-8 pople who do fingerboarding as a serious hobby. And they met each other by accident some time ago.

Kickflip Nosegrind (Pic: Fabian Schreiter)

FBWeekly: Let‘s talk about YouTube: 3051 Subscribers, 168 videos, that‘s one video every 5 days (To be exact one Video every 5,25 days). How do you manage to have that output?

That‘s very simple…

The most are automatic workflows. I like filming for a long time now. It‘s annoying to wait until a video is uploaded.

I‘m in the fortunate position that nearly every day fingerboarders from all over Germany like Thies Mielke, Ramon Angelow, Falko Funk, Schmidi, Dimitri, Fabi, Manu, Katha come by in my apartment to ride some fingerboard. That‘s why I never get out of footage. I‘m always motivated to film something. The editing itself is something I do very willingly now.

I found programms to make the editing easier to me and to do it faster. That‘s why I can edit and upload videos nearly every day without much work and timewaste. It‘s only an hour and it is fun to watch I hope.

FBWeekly: Did you imagine that so many people watch your Videos on YouTube?

To be honest…No.

I just tried to improve from clip to clip. I tried to improve the editing and the fingerboarding itself. I always tried to do it a little better than before.

The most clips - I mean the ones that I like the most - came out of simple sessions which where more fun than serious filming. Many kids recognized this and subscribed to my channel.

I love Fingerboarding and try to show this vibe in my videos.

And of course im a funny guy, you can have crazy fun with too.

FBWeekly: You have been on America tour recently and you have been at the „Fingerboard Rendezvous“. Did you fly there spontaneously? What was going on there?

The story is…

Timo Lieben offered me 2 months before that he would pay half of the price for the flight for me and that I only had to get the other money by myself. Half a month later Katha Schütz called me and said that she was about to fly to the USA to Rendezvous 6 and that she would pay the other half of the flight. So everything was cleared. Harry flew to the USA together with Katha.

Harry goes to USA. Thanks again to Timo and Katha…And Family Schneider.

Some weeks before the flight I had my birthday and my pockets where filled with some extra money.

The days over at Mikes place have been a dream. I only met nice people.

Tim Alexial drove me around in his car the whole time and showed me many places and stores.

The mom and the dad of mike took care of everything. Food, a place to sleep, an extra pillow and a massage for emil.

It was a great time!

The contest was cool but I focused more on the sessions after the „Fingerboard Rendezvous“ at Mikes house. Much stuff went down there. There where about 50 people in this house.

Next „Fingerboard Rendezvous“ I will be there again.

FBWeekly: Which impressions could you bring with you from America?

I only met friendly people - Hospitality to feel well - Cheaper than Germany (Everything besides Food) - The cops don‘t joke around - You don‘t have to buckle up at the rear bench of a car (Only in MA) - They drive the car like total maniacs - Consumption country - I love Mall‘s.

FBWeekly: Any last words, greetings, death threads, declarations of love?

Thanks for everything to my mom and my brother!

Thies Mielke, Timo Lieben, Timo Kranz, Ramon Angelow, Katharina Schütz, Mike and Family Schneider, Tim Alexiel, Jay Linehan, Chris Daniels, Raps, Falko Funk and all fingerboarders I met and had fun with…

Thanks ladies and gentleman.

Harrys YouTube Account.