The Most Influential European Sweatpants Skater

Souljah Griptape (grip companies need content too!) uploaded a handful of Flo Marfaing footage, donning it as a “lost” Seek A.K.A. Hip-Hop Workshop part. (For people who started skating in the past seven or eight years, Seek is a company that was under Alien and Habitat for a little while in the early 2000s. It had Kalis, Dyrdek, Mike Taylor, Colin McKay, Alex Carolino, and Flo on the team.) The footage isn’t really “lost,” because more than a few tricks have since appeared elsewhere. It looks like part one of a multi-part clip.

Flo’s 2002 output in worth note for skateboard historians because 1) He pre-dates the rediscovery of flatground 360 shove-its by five years (the downtown L.A. line in Carroll’s Fully Flared part…Gino technically “brought it back” in Yeah Right!, but it did not have as widespread of an effect), and 2) He’s the most influential European in the “skating in sweats” movement.

It was just a feeling, like before, everyone was cool with each other, and it was like nobody got on the team unless everybody was like, “Fuck yeah, let’s do this.” Seek happened because we wanted to do a world company, where it was like riders on the team, but it wasn’t like, “He rides for the Euro team” or “he rides for the Brazilian team,” but just, “This is our team and we’re all homies.” Like, Flo and Caralino are two of my favorite people and skaters, and we didn’t want to rock with them on some Euro team shit. Flo was like, “I want to do this and show the world we can skate for U.S. companies.” And it was working and we were filming, and I thought our video was going to be sick.

The story I got told was that there weren’t enough graphics people and they weren’t able to spend enough time on the company, so they just deaded it. They just deaded it overnight. They wouldn’t bring Flo and Alex back on board with us, which was another thing that pissed me off, and they just wouldn’t do anything. They were just like, “No, we’re over it.” We were like, “Hey, well wait ‘til the video comes out, and see what happens,” and they just deaded it. So, I went back over to Alien, and I think that was the time when they were slowly changing into this new direction that they were going. It was never the same.Josh Kalis, November 2010. Read more Seek conspiracy theories here.

Still the best Euro video ever? Maybe.

6 Comments

  1. If one digs even deeper there can be found even more epic footage of Flo rocking swishy pants with one leg up and a sideways visor, which I believe absolutely trumps the sweatpants.

  2. “They Don’t Give A Fuck About Us” is for sure the best European video! That video makes you feel good, it has the best atmosphere and makes you want to get out (on a trip to other cities in Europe). Flo and Carolino are like Stevie and Kalis!


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