Skimboarder Adrien Raza about his project in Waalhalla

”My name is Adrian Reda, 26 years old. I am of French origin. I moved to the Netherlands at a young age and now live in Rotterdam. I’m also a skater.”

Skimboarding is a water sport in which people move over the water with a wooden board, a surfboard. Skimboarding is a type of water skiing. Tricks are also similar to skateboarding tricks.”

” In the game of skimboarding you have Flatland Skimboarding, Wave Skimboarding and Urban Skimboarding. Flats occur in shallow waters. So most often this form occurs on beaches and flat rivers. Wave Skiboarding is like surfing. Surfing is almost impossible in the Netherlands. Lately, I’ve been mainly focusing on urban snowboarding. ”

“Actually, I came across this by chance. I was in Taiwan and didn’t have a car to go to the beach for Flatland Skimboarding and of course I couldn’t take the slopes I usually use by bus. That’s why I went to the city, where there are already enough railroads and slopes for urban tricks I used to do a lot of the same tricks, but with Urban Skimboarding, every place is different, so every trick is different. I feel like I’m rediscovering the sport with Urban Skimboarding.”

I played in the youth academy of Feyenoord Football Club. This means a lot of training and living for the sport. One popular summer my cousin bought a beginner board and let me practice on it too. I wasn’t very good right away, but then I read about sports and watched YouTube videos from the pros. I found skateboarding instead of liberating soccer. I joined a skateboarding group and the rest is history. I use my creativity in sports. I still think that’s the most important.”

“I’ve been in small competitions in Holland since I was 16. Then I got a sponsor in the US and they let me go there for a bigger competition. I also went on a European tour every summer. Because I was involved in sports a lot, it came naturally. I started winning. At the moment I can say that I am a four-time European champion. This is something I am very proud of.”

“The people of Waalhalla Nijmegen contacted me with the idea of ​​going skateboarding in their skate park. I didn’t know in advance if this would work and I was afraid to destroy the skate park. Then I went to practice there several times and it was very difficult. There I made and executed some plans myself It felt like a piece of the puzzle had fallen into place.”

“It was one of the best pictures I got. Whenever I had an idea for a trick or a shot, everyone wanted to help me and was excited. It kept getting tricky, and the board was very slippery and hard to control, but I am very happy with the end result.

My favorite trick was to put sandbags on top of the platform. That gave me deeper water so I could jump on the platform. I’ve been thinking about this trick for a while, but this was the first time I tried it. Fortunately, it worked amazingly well. That was great!”