Why freestyle?
Freestyle IS the way to show your skills and creativity at once. That is the most important thing. When you see the different types of runs, that’s what I like the most…some are very fast, some are very dancing and funny, some runs are full of hard tricks.
What is the style that you yourself are working towards?
Puh, I am working more in team building and sponsoring for women and kids or girls. I only skate freestyle for fun.
How is this going? It looks like many kids to go to learn freestyle now at the East Frisian school.
I found an association to help me with the gymnastics hall and there we have our training every week. I am teaching them with the help of my son Melvin and sometimes I make workshops with other freestyle skaters from my team or from the freestyle family.
We are now two groups: beginner and intermediate. In one and a half years, we are thirty-four active freestyle skaters in this association. That’s the reason why the World Freestyle [Skateboarding] Championships (WFSC) has a Kids’ Division now, because I come with so many kids. 😂
Is this why East Frisian now has a specific skateboard for kids?
Yes, I wanted a size the kids can handle, but it’s a single kick too, so many people use them…The kids’ shape I did together with Marius Constantin. It’s the same shape which Carmen Ionita and Rhiana Grigore used for the first steps in freestyle.
Can you tell us a bit about East Frisian Skateboards and how it came about?
I have loved skateboarding since I was a child, so I was skating ramps and parks since I was eighteen. Now I am fifty years old and the passion to skate is always there.
In 2019, I went to Brandenburg, to the European Freestyle Championships, and that was the beginning and loving of the genre freestyle. But I saw that less girls and women were competing, so I decided to change this and the idea of the association was born. Teaching kids the first steps to freestyle and having a team with girls and women was a target. I wanted to have pro women in the team.
Then I saw in my home town a fence and East Frisian Skateboards was born.
Now I have the first girl…[with] the first pro model; it’s Eva Grigore. It comes hopefully out in October.
What are the specs for the Eva Grigore board? Or do we need to keep this a secret?
The pro model for Eva we release on November the 8th. So better not…But for you I can say it’s a 7.3″ single kick, close to Marius’ old pro model from Cirus with little changes at the nose.
With a focus on women and younger riders, has it changed how you approach making freestyle boards?
I’m thinking we females are a bit smaller. Also the graphics might need to be different too!
Yes it’s a little bit different with the size of the decks, but that is not a problem. We from East Frisian Skateboards now have an exclusive mould to do single kicks in many different sizes.
Graphics are also not a big problem. We do it together with the team riders, so everyone is happy.
What exciting things will we see next from East Frisian Skateboards?
Oh, we got some hot stuff upcoming: two pro models for our team riders Eva Grigore and Marcio Torres.
And we now produce exclusive single-kick decks in every size you want. Find out on our website.
Finally, what advice would you give to freestylers around the world trying to set up schools in their own towns?
Yes, I have important advice…
Go out and make shows at the normal celebrations in your home town and make commercial[s] for this sport…and after that, do a workshop with the interested kids.
Make a list [of] who wants to learn more, and make new appointments with them.
Then go to the local sport association and try to get a slot in a hall or something else.
…I did [this] and now I have thirty-five people learning to skate.
Connect: Matthias Mühring is the founder of East Frisian Skateboards, a German freestyle skateboarding brand which supports women and kids getting into the sport. The Flatlandia shop currently stocks some East Frisian Skateboard models, including the Holy Cow, Nordic by Nature, and Smokin’ Sukkaz, but for more EFS things, check out the brand’s website (east-frisian-skateboards.de) and their Instagram page (@east_frisian_sk8teboards).