Fast confession - Maxim Habanec: Around the world on a skateboard

I'm glad I caught you in the Czech Republic, I'm very lucky...

This is the season when I'm in Prague. In a few days there are two big races – in Beroun and Prague on Štvanice, which is something like the climax of the season in the Czech Republic, so I am relaxing before that. The silence before the storm. But that does not mean I don't train. It is true that I will hop over to Poland at the weekend. But I generally love the summer here, so I try to be here as much as possible. I prefer traveling abroad in the autumn, winter, when it's not so much fun here anymore.

I read somewhere that you don't like winter, and that is why you don't professionally snowboard.

I had the opportunity to be a sponsored snowboarder when I was younger and I was trying to make a career, but I chose skateboarding. Snowboarding for me is relaxation, but I can't really relax with that either. Because anytime I ride anything, I tend to go beyond my limits, boundaries. So I'm able to destroy myself on the snowboard. (laughter)

Once it was decided that you would be making a living skateboarding, did not you regret that you did not choose snowboarding? You could have made more money on it...

I never thought about it that way, and I think a lot of athletes make more money because of their media image than through their performance.

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You think so?

As far as these freestyle sports are concerned, it is really important that the person have something else in addition to performances, because the fans watching the athletes are interested in more than just races.

To be more accurate – a person wins the races once, the next year someone else wins, and the athlete will quickly be forgotten. That's why it's important to do something other than just race, have other projects that keep you in contact with the fans. These are projects I can come back to in a few years and they do not lose value.

When did you realize it would be your job and not just a hobby?

I never really realized it. I earned my first money at a race sometime at the age of thirteen. Then it was kind of natural, and I thought it would be great if it lasted until I was eighteen. Then I hoped it would last until I finished studying. And suddenly it's still going on and growing. Of course, also thanks to things like my eshop...but I still live from what I love most, skateboarding.

You get the money for winning a race, but I don't expect it is as much as in tennis...

Living from races alone is an unrealistic challenge, maybe someone could do it, but he would have to win every race, but it's more about bringing in more and more cooperation with companies, sponsors, your own projects, and so on. Then it grows by itself.

You said you had an eshop. What do you sell?

Skateboards, of course. I have my own Horsefeathers collection with my partners, I have my own merchandise, my own skateboards...the products are a big part of it.

Are you there for the production of skateboards?

I prepare their designs. I studied graphics and photography, which became a hobby for me as well. When I was not riding or competing, I made skateboard designs, and I really started enjoying it, and now it has become a regular activity.

Was it your idea, or did someone direct you that it would be good to devote yourself to your own brand?

That was my idea, because I wanted to do graphics. And I didn't really like the board designs, so I came up with my own and it turned out that people like them and they sell well. Recently my friend who is also a rider came to me and asked if I could sketch a design for him, and it gradually grows like that.

But otherwise skateboarding is not a costly sport.

Definitely not. For example, the board I ride costs about three thousand, which is incomparable to skis or a snowboard. A lot of people may never be able to try race skis, but anyone who wants to ride can buy the same board I ride on.

Do you realize that, thanks to people like you, kids more interested in this sport? Even when I was young it seemed that all the guys went around on skateboards...

First of all, it is great that it is affordable and some popularization of this sport is also happening in the Czech Republic. In the last two years I have noticed that many new people have begun to ride. Even a lot of little kids are starting, and that's really great.

But it's also quite a dangerous sport...

I wouldn't agree with that. They all call skateboarding an extreme sport, but I think it's only technically challenging. I would compare it to gymnastics. One has to keep repeating movements again and again before mastering them and performing clean trick jumps. There are quite a few injuries, but it's a bruised knee or elbow, nothing serious. When someone falls on a snowboard, it's serious.

So you have never had any serious injuries?

Given the fact that I've been riding for twenty years, I have had a broken arm and leg. That's not so bad considering how long it's been.

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No, it's not. What is it like to return to the board after several months of recovery?

It's odd, but on the other hand it's also refreshing, like a new start. It will change your view of the given sport. Many times my injury actually helped me.

Are you really not afraid?

There is some fear, of course, but after the break one enjoys it even more. There is a new motivation to continue.

Can a clumsy person learn it, too?

I think a person cannot learn something they don't enjoy. I am really bad at dancing, but only because it really doesn't interest me and I don't enjoy it. But if it did, I would be good at it. I personally think I do not have a talent for skateboarding, but I worked hard on it. It's because I had the determination and enjoyed it and wanted to do it.

Have you ever thought about opening a skateboarding school?

I have thought about it, but it is more a plan for the future when I won't ride actively. Now I would not have the time in my schedule to do it. I would also like to take a few guys under my wings who are really into it and watch their progress.

Instead of opening a course, I built the first covered hall on Pragovka with the help of Redbull, the Redbull Max Space, where people can go ride. It is not for beginners, it's for people who go all the way, who want to go further, race and maybe one day "outjump" me at the races. Thanks to the sponsor's support, I built them a hall for that. (laughter)

Did you design the obstacles in it yourself?

Yes, and they are made according to obstacles around the world which are currently being ridden.

How does a young man like you perceive the interest of the opposite sex, when girls throw their bras and want autographs, etc.?

(laughs) I've never experienced them throwing T-shirts or anything like that, but of course girls and skateboarding go together. I certainly enjoyed it, but I've had my girlfriend since I was nineteen.

What kinds of girls can you find in this sport? Do they really want to learn how to ride or just watch...

They enjoy the lifestyle and everything around it, the parties, the fun, the free-thinking.

Does your girlfriend skate?

No, she can't even stand on it. (laughter)

What went wrong?

That's how it is, I think skaters don't necessarily look for girls who skate.

And aren't you or isn't she sorry that you cannot skate together?

She doesn't mind and neither do I. We ride together on snowboards, and that's nice. And I do not want to force her into it, I don't want her to have bruise and scraped knees.

Thanks to sport you've traveled the world. Is there still a place where you haven't ridden and would like to? Some obstacle you would like to conquer?

I have traveled the whole world, but actually I have mostly traveled through cities. I've been in the largest cities, whether in India or elsewhere in Asia or America, and that is getting old. Now I'd rather go into nature. So I have a lot of destinations I would like to see, but differently. I would leave the skateboard behind. I'd love to travel without it.

You are twenty-six, is it too soon to ask about family or building a house, planting a tree?

One never knows, and I'm a person who doesn't plan such things. Everything somehow happens to me, so we'll see how it will be in the future.

I understand. What awaits you now are the Olympic Games...

Yes...it's now sure that skateboarding will be a full-fledged discipline at the Olympics. 20 people will compete in it. It is not given that there will be one person from every country. There may not be even one Czech person. I have to qualify next year. So it's not clear yet whether I will be there.

But for skateboarding as a sport it means a lot. A lot of people simply don't understand that skateboarding and the Olympics go together and that this sport should have a place there. On the contrary, I think this progress must be there in order for it to move ahead, if it stagnates, it's wrong. For the Czech scene, this means mainly greater support from the state. There will be more skateparks, people will take it more seriously, they will see that it can be fun and I strongly believe that children's parents will see it in a better light. They will support their children as they do in tennis or football, and so on.

I would also like to know what you like in addition to skateboarding, what you spend the money you earn on.

Because I never had a stable income, I never spent much on anything. I didn't buy watches or shoes or I don't know what. Instead I saved and put the money aside. Now I feel calm that I can ride and I don't need to worry much.

When I do spend on something, it's photography or recording technology. I like that. Cameras and computers. No cars. My car is old, for the past two years I've been pushing myself to buy something normal. It's hard to spend money on various unnecessary things when I know that I could build a ramp with it. (laughs) One day I will build a luxury obstacle as an investment. (laughter)

I'm curious about what your girlfriend will think about that, one day she will surely want a luxury house or stroller...

For now she is understanding, we'll see what the future brings. Perhaps I will be able to provide a luxury obstacle and a luxury stroller. (laughter)

Maxim, thank you very much for the interview. Good luck.