World Freestyle Skateboarding Championships (WFSC) once again descended upon Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany, in June 2025.
Skateboarders of all ages and nationalities converged to showcase their best work. We were lucky enough to interview nine participants, from a range of divisions, in order to make a very special ‘5 minutes with’ for our Australian freestyle skateboarding blog.
Why freestyle?
Because of the multicultural scene. Everybody is together. All nations. Nobody cares. Everybody’s friends. That’s freestyle for me.
Burns Lorenzen, Masters’ Division contestant from Germany
Who are you most excited to watch in real life?
I’m most excited to watch Yuzuki Kawasaki because I’ve seen his runs on Instagram and it’s so crazy good.
And also Kai Tanabe…
[They’re] like such an idol for me.
Freya Ruske, Women+’s Division contestant from Germany
What made you decide to commit to your first competition?
I really wanted to come to the World Freestyle Championships and I originally just wanted to watch.
But Jane Falconer-White…said, ‘No, it won’t be the same experience if you don’t take part. Just do it!’
And I’m about to go on and I’m s#@&ing my pants but, you know, you only get one life so I thought, ‘F$&@ it…just do it.’ Yeah…
And I want to challenge myself and prove that, you know, older people can skate and take part.
Laura Bromley, Women+’s Division contestant from United Kingdom
Any tips you’d like to share for contest jitters?
Breathing and visualisation: to calm down your nervous system before you go out there.
Visualisation is really important…You have to think of the best-case scenario. Walk through your run until you know it back-to-front, okay. Visualise it in the best possible way; everything is going well…
Don’t think about mistakes. If you do come to a mistake, gloss over it, keep moving through it. Half of the battle is learning how we overcome that and become a better competitor.
So yeah, lots of visualisation, lots of deep breathing. Calming yourself down to get in that right mindset. Be positive. You’re here to have fun and everyone wants to see you succeed so have fun with it.
Denham Hill, Pros’ Division contestant from United Kingdom
What was your first experience at being a freestyle judge like?
It is a very interesting perspective, I would say, because I have been going for many years but I’m always on the other side in the competitions.
I don’t know why…I am good enough to be a judge. I mean I guess I’m experienced enough, whatever that means? But when Patrick [Thies] tells me, ‘Azzam, do you want to be a judge?’ it’s like ‘yeah, why not’.
So [judging], it’s interesting because everything’s systematic…Everything’s in an app—just entering points and sliders. Not sure what’s the calculation behind all of this input, but that’s what…the data guy [needs to know]. I’m just assessing tricks.
It’s tough…It’s not physically tough—it’s basically just sitting there. Mentally it can be quite taxing, especially after watching so many runs back-to-back…Usually when we’re spectating, it’s just clapping…When I’m judging, I need to assess how good or bad a trick is and assign a number, which is not necessarily the funnest thing to do but it is a necessary thing to do.
Maybe this is a little bit personal…During the qualifiers, I was judging the Women’s and Masters’ Divisions and it was cool. During the finals, I will also judge the Masters’ and Women+’s Divisions but I didn’t qualify for the Ams.
Patrick gave me/asked me if I wanted to judge the Ams finals and I said, ‘Yeah, sure, why not?’ But I have to admit, I did feel emotionally disturbed because it’s Ams finals and it kinda sucks that I’m not on the other side, skating…Of course, it doesn’t affect my judging, but it still feels a little weird.
Hopefully, given the chance again next year, I’d like to judge. Patrick says me and the rest of the judges did a good job and, if I make the contest [again], I will definitely take some pointers from this judging that I made.
Azzam Syafiq, judge and Amateurs’ Division contestant from Malaysia
As a skate instructor, what tricks do you like to teach skaters new to freestyle?
I reckon new skaters should start with footwork. Footwork is the most important thing in freestyle: it’s the glue that holds the run together. I usually start with that and I [then] move onto manuals like wheelies, one-wheelers, one-footers, all sorts of manual variations.
Spins. For some reason, there aren’t that many people doing spins and I think it’s something that’s important in freestyle.
And then I move onto shuvits, simple tricks like Yoyo hops. And yeah, it stems from there, right? We start with whatever is closest to the floor, so low-impact tricks above all.
Fransisco Patrone, Community Award recipient and Amateurs’ Division contestant from Portugal
Why bigger boards?
For balance. Because a lot of balance [is needed] for wheelie tricks that I like, [such as] spacewalk. Also, good balance for 50-50, casper…I like the balance stuff.
Of course it’s not good for rail tricks but I don’t do many rail tricks so it’s perfectly ok.
And the side effect is [that] I can use it for the rails at the skatepark, so for me it’s perfect.
Paolo Virgilio Demurtas, Masters’ Division contestant from Italy
What do you think of Vegemite and TimTams? If they were a freestyle trick, what would they be?
I think TimTam could be something like a latte flip: something sweet and good to have.
Vegemite? I dunno. Something bad I think.
Maybe something like a fan flip: something that is nice but hard to get.
Cass Duhem, Women+’s Division contestant from France
What are you going to do now that Worlds is over?
I will go home and sleep for like one week straight and then I am going to LA, to the US Open.
Rhiana Grigore, Women+’s Division contestant from Romania
Flatlandia would like to thank all involved in the making of this special ‘5 minutes with’. Time to finish up this post with some behind-the-scenes. Enjoy!