interview with Boniek Falicki about the Polish Skateboarding Grand Prix

This year in Poland will be held for the 1st time the Polish Skateboarding Grand Prix , a series of skate contest around Poland. Boniek Falicki is a Polish skater that is one of the organizers of the Grand Prix and a crucial member of the Polish Skateboard Association. He’s also the founder of Fractal Skateboarding company that designing skateparks, organizing events and doing all kinds of skateboarding-related things…
Here is a very nice interview with Boniek about the Polish Skateboard Association and the Polish Skateboarding Grand Prix.
Enjoy reading 🙂

 photo by Radek Durlik

 

This year the Polish Skateboard Association has started a new project called the Polish Skateboarding Grand Prix. When did everything start?

In the beginning of 2009 the official idea was born to hold a skateboarding championship, in form of a serie of skatecontests. It took us a couple of years to get better organized as the association. The concept was to have a couple of skatecontests, so that the riders would have more than one chance to skate. You know, sometimes somebody is injured, or something happens and he can’t make it to the contest. And if there are a couple of contests, then everybody has more chances to participate.

From where this project started? Have you checked other countries that run a championship before?

I don’t think a national championship is an original idea, I mean it’s just something really basic. We just wanted to do it in a serie of contests. For example, there is the World Cup of Skateboarding, were there is a serie of contests, Germany has it’s own Club of Skaters serie of contests, there were years that also Holland used to have a series of national championship contests. So, we aren’t doing anything special. We’re just skaters who want to give the skatescene a push forward with something that is new to Poland.

When was the Polish Skateboard Association born? And how has it grown during the years?

As far as I can remember, I started talking to Kuba Kaczmarczyk and Wiktor Stasica about the idea somewhere around 2006/2007. The first registration was in 2007, but it wasn’t until 2011 that we got a really big group of skaters organized. Poland has in general a pretty bad road and railway infrastructure, so it’s always a big deal to travel these f.e. 400 km to meet somebody to discuss things. And we wanted to have members from as many regions of the country as possible, in order to have a good representation of the national skatescene. This is why it took us a couple of years to get a solid group of people. Today, the Polish Skateboarding Association consists of over 20 well-experienced, active skateboarders, who all are doing something for skateboarding in their own city or region and who are working in very different aspects of skateboarding. Plus, they are really spread out over the whole country.

I think that the Polish skate scene is in a really good position looking on the rest of Europe, what is your point of view?

The skatescene in Poland is definitely very strong, pretty big, and very active. It’s hard to make a perfect comparison to other countries, but I think that our scene is doing pretty well, especially if you look back how it looked like 5 or 10 years ago. Nowadays, there is so much new stuff to skate, there are so many new ideas getting realized, it almost looks like sky is the limit. I mean, it’s all up to the skaters themselves, what they will do, how they will skate, where they will skate. The fundamental change is in possibilities. Today everything is possible. If you have an idea, and are prepared to work for it, educate yourself, you can make your dream come true.

The 1st round of the Grand Prix was the SPACE JAM contest at the PTG Plaza in Katowice, how was it?

From what I’ve seen and have heard (unfortunately I couldn’t make it to the contest myself), it was pretty rad. The weather forecast was horrible, but despite of that lots of people showed up to skate and to have fun. Maybe that’s why the sun started shining in the afternoon haha. From the footage I’ve seen, some good skating went down.

Kosmos SPACE JAM 2013 from KOSMOS SKATE SNOW SHOP on Vimeo.

This year there will be 3 rounds, where will be the next contest?

The second stop of Polish Skateboarding Grand Prix will be at Lines of Bielawa skateboarding festival on August 3-4th. It’s the biggest and most core skatecontest in Poland. Officially it lasts for two days, unofficially it’s like 4 days non-stop skateboarding with almost 1.000 skateboarders at location, with a big skateplaza, special camping site next to the skateplaza, and lots of spontaneous Best Trick contests in between. Once you go there, you will keep coming back each next year. It’s like a small skateparadise on earth. This year’s edition is the sixth one, and it looks like it’s gonna be even better, again. The third stop is at the Baltic Games in Gdańsk on August 16-18th. That’s also a big contest, it’s combined with bmx, but the skateboarding part of it is also on a high level, and really cool to see.

Have you already planned the 2014 Grand Prix?

We do have certain ideas, but it’s important to see how everything goes in 2013.

Was it hard to define which contest will fit for the Grand Prix?

Not really. The first step was to set up a workgroup within the association, which had the goal to create a list of criteria. These criteria would define which contest could, or could not be part of the Polish Skateboarding Grand Prix. The workgroup focused on the setup of the skatepark (or skateplaza), the contest area, quality of skate obstacles, the organizational aspects of the event and prizemoney.

What about the sponsors … was it difficult to find them?

All three contests within the Polish Skateboarding GP are organized by three different organizers, who take care of the sponsors for their events. This year’s Grand Prix is the first one, it’s like the first serie in Polish skateboarding history of skatecontests which all together create one championship of skateboarding. We really just wanted to start the serie and do everything step-by-step. We see 2013 as a pilot for the next year and for the future years. At the end of 2013 we will make an evaluation, so we will see what went good and where are the points to work on in the next year. Also, then we will be able to make a solid offer for the potential big sponsors.

How important is the collaboration with various brands and skateshops?

Very important, especially with skater-owned brands and shops. For example, the first stop of GP was organized by the legendary Kosmos skateshop from Katowice. These guys understand exactly what skateboarding is about, they are an important part of the whole championships. Also, the second stop at Lines of Bielawa skateboarding festival is sponsored by mainly skater-owned companies. These skater-owned businesses are part of the fundaments of skateboarding, their innovative ideas are one of the main engines of skateboarding.

Will there be an official sponsorship for the winner of the Grand Prix?

One of the main goals of the Polish Skateboarding Grand Prix is to give the riders a better exposure, so that potential sponsors will get more interested in skaters who did well in the championship. As this year the GP is something new for Polish skateboarding, and we are just starting out, I guess that everything is possible. I think the Grand Prix in 2014 will be much bigger.

Do you think that with the Grand Prix the skate scene in Poland will grow even more?

Definitely. This is the main reason to hold a championship. It’s for the riders, to give them an extra opportunity to show themselves to the sponsors, to stimulate them, to inspire people who will see these riders skating the contests. Even before the first stop of GP a lot of people said something like: “Finally, there will be a championship”. Or: “Finally, things are getting organized for the skaters”. So I guess we are on the right track.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start something like that in his country?

Get together with a group of active skateboarders, who are experienced in organizing contests, and start talking and exchanging ideas with each other. I think it’s awesome to hear other people’s opinions, points of view, ideas etc. Just creating a basic form of an organization, will make a platform for working together on different topics – for example a serie of contests. It might be a long process, but if you want to do it, then you have to start somewhere, sometime. And do it for the love of skateboarding.

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