Roman Lisivka | Quartersnacks

Sports Club — An Interview With Roman Lisivka

Features & Interviews January 29th, 2021 · 10:00 am · 12

Intro & Interview by Frozen in Carbonite
Photography by Kubo Krizo

Anyone whose parents forced them to take piano lessons remembers that antiquated wooden metronome with a metal needle going back and forth. Practicing scales might “suck,” but maintaining a consistent tempo forms the foundation of any musical journey.

ANYWAY, a symbolic representation of the discipline necessary to achieve mastery of one’s instrument, the metronome at Stalin Plaza has become a metaphor for the technical excellence that locals like Petr “Euro Wenning” Horvat and others have created there since the 1990s. After the supernova of They Don’t Give a Fuck About Us, EuroTech™ expanded across the continent. Gunslingers from all over the continent migrated to Barcelona, but only a few — like Roman Lisivka and fellow Slovakian Marek Zaprazny — gained widespread recognition on account of their undeniable virtuosity.

Lisivka has produced some of the most forward-thinking EuroTech™ content of the past decade — including the “Stalinista” edit, footage in Sportsclass’ “Enter the Stalin” (the Only Built 4 Cuban Linx of contemporary EuroTech™), and a two-song last part in Primitive’s “Rome” vid — a section that I claimed as my favorite of 2020.

We caught up with Roman to discuss coming up skating in the aftermath of the Soviet Eastern Bloc, his new venture Métronome, and the process that goes into composing some of the most diabolical technical skating ever put down.

Roman Lisivka’s ‘Métronome Noir’ Part

Video & Remixes January 27th, 2021 · 12:00 am · 7

Any skateboard scholar knows that EuroTech™ is no longer a movement bound by geography or era. Nearly twenty years since the release of its definitive piece of scripture and having gone global in the time since, EuroTech™ remains one of those things that you just know it when you see it — the confidence, the power, the grace with which one maneuvers a skateboard. Tricks are perfect, but not at the expense of having personality.

Roman Lisivka has been on the front lines of evolving this precise tradition of skateboarding for some time now (note the precision on a certain fakie varial flip out early on …sheesh.) Us in the States first caught wind of Roman’s skating via his 10/10 line choreography at Prague’s Stalin Plaza, but he has been posted out in Barcelona for the past year. “Métronome Noir” is his latest part for a new pursuit, and it carries a dedication to black tees not seen since the nascency of Gucci Mane’s career ;)

Edited by Eric Iwakura. Filmed by Henner Figueiredo.

Follow Métronome on IG to keep up with what they have coming next ♥

Who the HELL Keeps Taking the Primitive Team to Three Up Three Down?

Daily News April 26th, 2018 · 6:32 am · 4

Jk, jk ;) ♥

Though it was not the firestorm that followed our original M.N.M.F.T.B. post — no doubt one of this website’s most controversial moments — in 2014, we caught a bit of heat for denouncing some unknown child filming his Grizzly Grip sponsor me tape for waxing the top portion of Three Up Three Down.

We were called regressive. We were told that such rhetoric ran contrary to skateboarding’s “there’s no rules!” rule. We were bullies for imposing our worldview on this coveted piece of Tribeca land. We were labeled cowards for harking back to a time when a simple trick up / trick down was “enough” for the spot.

Everyone knows that nostalgia for a fairytale version of a greater past is in the first chapter of the authoritarian handbook, and here at the QS office, we like to think of ourselves as free spirits.

People make mistakes. People change. We come here today to ask for your forgiveness. We apologize not for saying that a forty-foot-long lipslide to tailslide across Three Up Three Down would look stupid, but for side-eyeing our much more talented colleagues for enjoying a #lowimpact spot that we tried to keep for ourselves.

Three Up Three Down belongs to anyone who cares to enjoy it. Bring your Shake Junt wax and your Grizzly Grip. Put angle iron on the side. Wax the top if you want — the last thing you want to be is some guy on the line to get into heaven, talking about how your only regret in life was not powersliding across the entire top surface of Three Up Three Down because some skateboard blog told you not to.

(Obviously you’d be going to hell if you did that.)

In extension of this olive branch, we’d like to commend the Primitive team for their work at our favorite skate spot. Though it has fallen out of the coverage circuit on QS as of late, you’re maybe a bit tired of seeing Meatball kickflip up it and tre flip down it for the third year in a row. Shout out to whoever is showing P-Rod’s friends around.

It took three viewings to realize he was actually skating the Four Up Four Down that Rodrigo skated last year, but when you can nollie flip over Black Hubba, does it even make a difference? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (Via Diego Nájera’s new part, btw.)