In Argentina, the Martinez family name is synonymous with skateboarding. Milton Martinez was literally born into skating, raised as he was within his skateboarding parents’ skateshop in Mar del Plata.
India’s First Female Pro Skater: Atita Verghese | RED BULL SKATE TALES
Atita Verghese is India’s foremost female skater. She discovered skateboard culture through the country’s Holystoked crew who built India’s first DIY skatepark in Bangalore.
As soon as she set foot on a board, her life changed forever- and she has never looked back. In 2014, Atita founded Girl Skate India, an NGO which encourages young women to follow her path into the great big world of skateboarding for themselves.
Atita is an inspiration to women worldwide- but especially in India, a nation of a billion souls where skating is still in its infancy.
Magic Tricks With Skateboard Wizard Richie Jackson | RED BULL SKATE TALES
Richie Jackson is skateboarding’s last true outlaw. The Death Skateboards pro broke the skateboarding mould and threw its unwritten rule book in the bin, personally ushering in the ‘anything goes’ era everyone claims to applaud today.
With a wild imagination and inventive approach to what street skateboarding can be, the New Zealander has eclipsed most of his peers in terms of public awareness by using social media to leapfrog out of skateboarding’s orthodoxies. Holder of the most-watched video part in Thrasher’s history and possessor of unique personal style, Madars investigates the man from straight out of skating’s leftfield!
Linking up with Brazil’s newest Pro-skater Vitória Mendonça | RED BULL SKATE TALES
It is so great stretch to say that Vitória Mendonça is the modern face of skateboarding today. Having just been turned professional by her board sponsor Element Skateboards at CPH Open 2023, she has the world at her feet- but it wasn’t always this way.
From a humble background in Rio de Janeiro, her skating ability has raised her up to become one of the most visible girls in the worldwide sponsorship game today. Moreover, she has also parlayed her talent into a successful parallel career as a model.
A New Approach To Skateboarding With Takahiro Morita | SKATE TALES – Red Bull
Takahiro Morita is a very different sort of skateboarder, really. Japanese skating has changed the coastline of possibility in skateboarding, mostly thanks to the FESN movement. The Far East Skate Network’s videos brought the new Japanese way of seeing and of being to the wider skateboarding world, thereby making all of skateboarding society more imaginative- and maybe a little kinder, too. Takahiro is the brains behind the FESN, and someone more personally responsible for opening up the concept of what skating can be today than almost anyone else in recent years.
From cruising Tokyo to dazzling the Japanese art world, his considered approach to what skateboarding can mean makes him one of the most genuinely unique minds which skate culture has produced, full stop. Madars simply had to meet him!
Skate trip through Argentina with No Hotels | SKATE TALES – Red Bull
The No Hotels crew are skateboarding’s Beatniks. The Floridians are on a mission to experience the world through skateboarding in the most rudimentary way: living simply, making art, camping where they can and filming their experiences on old cameras along the way.
Their skate philosophy is a throwback to the romance of the open road that American Beat novelist Jack Kerouac first captured in his 1957 book ‘On The Road’.
Madars had to find out more about what makes these rippers tick, so he joins them on a skate mission of nearly 500 kilometres through Argentina to get a sense of their skateboarding life lived with just one single rule: No Hotels!
Meet One Of The Pioneers Of Street Skateboarding Mike Vallely | SKATE TALES S2 Ep 6
In truth, we probably haven’t got enough bandwidth to do the twists and turns of Mike Vallely’s skateboarding life story justice- so let us perhaps instead consider some of the many roles he has played in order to provide some context as to what makes him such an enduring enigma. Now settled with his family in Des Moines, Iowa he has enjoyed a 35-year pro skating career on his own terms. There are no other Mike Vallely’s. Madars Apse hits the streets with a true original to learn about Street Plant, punk rock and the journey of a street scoundrel from New Jersey.
Building Skateparks & Community With The Uganda Skateboard Society | SKATE TALES S2 Ep 5 – Red Bull
The Uganda Skateboard Society has recently launched a fundraiser with the goal of raising money to buy land to build their next skatepark. In 2016 the local skaters in Uganda built a DIY skatepark, which has formed a cornerstone of the Uganda Skateboard Society and become a gathering place for skaters in the area. The community is now at a place where they are looking to raise funds to purchase land for the new home of skateboarding in Uganda, so that they can buy enough land to have a store and an office as well as a new skatepark.
The Story Of Double-Amputee Pro Skater Felipe Nunes | SKATE TALES S2 Ep 4 – Red Bull
Felipe Nunes is a 22-year old skater from Curitiba in Brazil. Aged just six, he lost both legs while playing on train tracks. After five years in a wheelchair, he was given a longboard to get around on. That longboard would become a skateboard- and the rest is history. In a short space of time he was competing in and winning contests against all-comers within his native Brazil.
People began to notice just how talented he really was. Aged eighteen, Felipe felt ready to make it beyond Brazil and started a social media fund to enter Tampa Am. Tony Hawk championed his cause, and Felipe was headed to Florida. Incredibly, he made the Semi’s, and finished 21st overall as the only adaptive skater in the contest! Felipe had the skateboarding world’s attention, and soon joined Tony’s brand Birdhouse Skateboards.
In 2019, he scored the cover of Thrasher magazine and did The Loop, second go.
Now pro for Birdhouse Skateboards, his career has gone from strength to strength. Skate Tales is all about the skateboarding stories you don’t hear- as the man himself says: no excuses!
Kilian Martin Freestyle Skating In Madrid | SKATE TALES S2 Ep 2 – Red Bull
Kilian Martin hails from the Alcorcon neighbourhood in Madrid, Spain. Not long after he began his skating journey, Kilian discovered Powell Peralta’s legendary ‘Ban This’ video, which introduced him to freestyle skating. Join Red Bull in Madrid as Madars takes Kilian back to his roots for a flatland masterclass in this walloping episode of Skate Tales!
Best Of Season One | SKATE TALES
Watch some of Red Bull’s favorite moments from Season One of Skate Tales – Madars Apse’s new series journeying through skateboarding’s wilder shores.
Madars was always intrigued by the outliers and misfits – the skaters that other skaters are terrified of. Being such a unique individual himself, this is Madars’s world and so we joined up with him on a global search for the skateboarding stories you don’t hear every day.
The Story Of Ethiopia’s New Skate Scene | SKATE TALES Ep 4 – Red Bull
For episode four of Skate Tales, Madars hightails it to Ethiopia to meet the skate crew building a scene from scratch in one of the world’s oldest countries. The story of Ethiopia Skate is as real as it gets: from a parking lot in Addis Ababa, Henok Yetbarek, Michael Baheru, Ruel Desta, Babure ‘Babu G’ Teferi, Yeabkal Abraham and Yared Gobezie started a skate movement which would snowball with the help of two American skaters, JT Rhoades and Sean Stromsoe. Within 3 years they would link up with Make Life Skate Life to build Ethiopia’s first free skatepark in the capital, and a year later they would double down on their success by building a second in Awassa. Nowadays Ethiopia Skate has 150 skaters enlisted from around the country, and has registered as a non- profit in the USA meaning they can accept tax- deductible donations to keep their skatehouse open, build more terrain and, as Sean tells Madars ‘create more opportunity through skateboarding’. Madars came by to build and inspire, listen and learn in a beautiful one from the Skate Tales storybook.