Interview | Evaristo Mutale

would you tell us brief about you?

well I’m a skateboarder from Zambia, I’ve been skating for 6 years now and I’m a team rider on WFLSNCRM

when you were a kid, what made you decide to start skating?

My friends used to skate so that’s were the interest first came from, but the thing that really got me started was when my mom got me Tony hawks’ s proving ground, I’d watch nyjah and daewons videos and I’d get so hyped on them. I wanted to do what they were doing so i started begging my mom for my first skateboard and after a couple months of waiting I finally got it

woow that is great, how does it feel being a young skateboarder in your team?

It’s just all fun, skateboarding feels ageless so it’s like there’s no really feeling of separation like age or colour, it’s just a bunch of people enjoying, it’s really fun. It’s also interesting to mix with people of different backgrounds and ages because there’s so much you can learn from each other. Someone older than you may have some experience and teach you to see things in a different way and someone younger than you reminds you to just have fun and not take things so seriously. Skateboarding is really interesting like that

Who were your favorite skateboarders growing up? Who are they now?

Growing up I was the biggest daewon song and Ryan sheckler fan in the world. My favorites now are shane oniell and nyjah huston because they fit more into my style of skateboarding, especially with the kind of tricks they have and what they choose to skate really fits well with my style of skateboarding too because I love rails and I’m always trying to do weird tricks or tricks not usually done often so to say on spots

wow that is great. so what can you say about skateboarding in zambia

Well it was growing really fast but now it’s kind of stunted because there’s no sponsors or skate parks here but a few of us are just like whatever and still doing our best to improve and make things work out. I don’t really care about plugging for sponsors anymore or crying over a park because it’s like we are waiting for something to happen instead of making it happen ourselves. We just have to keep grinding and stacking decent footage for people to finally recognise us

did you shot a sponsor me tape before?

Yeah I did, it was down with clips I did years before. I put it out in 2015. The footage was really old because the hommies and I didn’t really get to film much during that year or the year before. The clips were from 2014 and before

can you share the link with us?

Sure

Do you have a favourite trick?

Definitely between hardflips and switch heels, nothing feels quite like them

what impacts that skateboarding brought in your life?

For me personally a sense of freedom, being able to express myself and be an individual

are you always out skating with WFLSNCRM or how do you skate?

Well the company is mainly based in the UK and Nigeria but it doesn’t really hinder the relationship in anyway. I pretty much stack clips and do photoshoots with my hommie Sai who also rides for the team. They send gear and help us out plus we have plans for the zambian skate scene and the African one as a whole. We’ll be traveling a bunch too this year so ill be with the team more. I’m just stoked to be able to represent because I wanted to be on there for so long growing up skateboarding here. I’m grateful Jomi gave me the opportunity to ride for them

Respect Jomi, so what more can you tell us about skateboarding and your life

Skateboarding is pretty much all i think about besides art to be honest. Growing up I would say I had a rough upbringing because my family as a unit, you know relatives and what not was kind of dysfunctional so i had a hard time expressing myself and what not but then skateboarding came into the picture and pretty much changed everything for me. Skateboarding taught me to be an individual you know, grow into my own person and grow confidence. It was my therapy and escape. I had no idea I’d get good at it but you know time flies when you’re a kid having fun. It was a new experience being around people with similar backgrounds and stories. The skate community is amazing because it’s like a real family, like the people you skate with will always be down for you and have your back. So whatever problems I had were all soved by skateboarding. It’s really poetic in a sense that you can find so much happiness and freedom on a piece of wood and wheels plus the life lessons are priceless. Skateboarding is pretty much my whole life and my job now, it’s not even a job, it’s just part of me