At the age of seven, Jeroen Wagensveld (28) stood on a board for the first time. He was immediately sold. He prefers to jump on it every day. He lives for the feeling of freedom, testing your perseverance time and again and most importantly for his skating family, some of whom he has known since he was a young teenager. With his YouTube channel The Skating Hermit he combines his passion for film and photography with his first love: skateboarding.
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Tony Hawk is seen by many as the skateboarder. The Birdman—as he’s called by fans—put skating on the map. Through him even more people got to know the sport. So is Jeroen. He bought one of Hawk’s well-known games for the Playstation 2 and got “totally hyped”. Jeroen: “I got it for my birthday. It takes a lot of hours.”
When a new game came out, Jeroen immediately bought it. “I played it for hours with friends. If you played it you saw all edits of the professionals. Since then I’ve been hooked. In the backyard I rode a wooden skateboard and I never stopped,” Jeroen says.
Fall well
He has clear advice for novice skaters. “You’re going to fall anyway. In the beginning, you go on your plate more often than you land anything. So make sure you fall well. You have to prepare yourself mentally for that otherwise you will have accidents. It’s important not to stiffen when you fall,” he explains.
He never forgets one fall. Jeroen: “In 2019 there was a competition in the Veense skate park. I was practicing. My first round was over. I wanted to do a few more trucks. Then it went wrong. Just the day my parents and grandparents came to see me, I broke my foot right in front of them.” It took months before Jeroen was back on his boards. Especially for his muscles it took a long time to recover. “And yet that makes it fun. Don’t give up, just keep going. You learn a lot of life lessons,” says Jeroen.
It is precisely that aspect that makes skating so much fun for him. “I still crash a lot and often have injuries. But when you finally make a truck, it feels so good. There is no better feeling: that adrenaline. Especially if you are with a group of people. Everyone shows their tricks and one is better than the other. That way you also get better yourself. You get inspiration from the trucks of others.”
Skate film
On his YouTube channel he shares his best trucks and those of friends. “In the future I want to be a photographer. Skateboard photographer at competitions. I hope to build a platform with YouTube. I started with The Skating Hermit in the first lockdown, hence the name. Hermit is English for hermit. There are so many ideas that I want to develop. For example, I made a skate movie in the skate park. Together with boys in the park I also have a rail review created. I can release all my creativity into it. Also in photography. I share a lot of that Instagram.”
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New skate park
In Veenendaal he can mainly be found in the skate park in the city park. Unfortunately, that’s not what it used to be. “It’s really run down. When you fall it’s like sandpaper; you are immediately open”, says Jeroen. The skate park was built in 2006 and there have been plans for a renewed park for some time. “Hopefully it will come this year. With a nice smooth, concrete surface that you almost slide over if you fall. Then it is also more inviting to do difficult trucks. And that is also better for novice skaters.”
The municipality involves the skaters in the plans. “We want a park for everyone. One skater is more into the halfpipes, the other is crazy about rails or wants to go down stairs. There should be something for everyone. The best thing is if there is one flow sitting. That as a skater you can do tricks throughout the park and use all the attributes without losing speed.” Jeroen hopes that the plans will get off the ground this year.
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