Emil Szymański: Can you introduce yourself and tell me a bit about what you do in Amsterdam? Ruperto Rador: I'm Ruperto Herrador. I come from Spain, from the south of Spain, from Sevilla. I'm originally from Córdoba. And I came to Amsterdam because I fell in love with Clara. She invited me to come here with her because she was already living here. So then I stayed for a few years until I got a kind of a nice job and started to study

E: How long have you lived here? R: I've been here for four and half years.

E: Your recent part, Straat 2. What was the idea behind it? Can you tell me? R: This is a video that I filmed with Pablo Castillo. We made the first part of this series in 2021, when I just arrived, it's funny because I didn't even remember when I came here to live that he was already living here. So he texted me one day, like, you are now in Amsterdam? I was like, yeah, I just moved here. So we started automatically meeting to skate because we knew each other from the south of Spain. He's from Cádiz, so we knew each other. He also filmed some clip for other parts that I had back in Spain. But we were not so close friends for the moment. We just had a good relationship because we were from a city that was close.

E: So you filmed the first one with him and he edited it? R: We filmed the first one in the winter of 2020 and beginning of 2021. He filmed everything. I think I only skated one pair of shoes during that whole part. It's funny because it was like three months to film the first part and three years to film the second one. Because he's a professional trumpet player, he's super busy with music. For the first one he was less busy when we filmed it. Then I edited the first one and now for the second part, Preben Simensen was editing it mostly. I think it helped also for the aesthetic.

E: Amsterdam is quite a hard city to skate. How did you find these spots and what do you think about them? R: In my personal experience, I like it because for me the architecture is very different from where I come from. And I'm from the south of Spain so I'm used to skate really rough ground. I don't think I even skate well on super smooth ground. I like the challenge also of knowing how to skate a street spot with a difficult ground. So I think it's quite nice. I thought it was going to be a bigger city. I didn't travel too much before coming here so I thought it was going to be another vibe in the city but it's quite chill. But there's also not too many spots.

E: It's way different from what you were used to back home, right? R: Yeah, for sure. Back home you have the spots separate to each other. You don't find them in the middle of the street. You don't use to find them in the middle of the street. Some spots that are skatable or some chill plaza with stone ledges. There are some but they are very separate and localised. But here sometimes I feel like you can skate all over the city. Even if the tiles of the ground are kind of big or separate it's worse to have the small pattern tiles that we have in the south.

E: Do you think you had to adapt to what spots you would skate in Amsterdam? Or did it change your perspective on spots? I don't know, if you would be back home in the city you probably wouldn't consider this a spot in Amsterdam. R: Yeah, for sure. Seeing these possibilities that most of the sidewalks are skatable then you have another vision of skateboarding. I try to skate everything that I find that I can do because I think it's fun. If you keep learning, progressing and seeing things where you didn't see before, you just try.

E: Talking also about the part, the track is quite sick. I really liked it. Was it made for your part specifically? R: Not really specifically but before my friend released this track I heard it and I asked him if I could use it for my part. I don't know, even if he changed it after I made this question before uploading. He was super nice about it. It's Antonio Mafa, my friend.

E: What's the track name? R: One thing. Remix.

E: Can you tell me three songs on your mind when you pull up at the spot? R: Three songs, I don't know.

E: Or that come to your mind? Maybe when I'm warming up and I need to start breathing more heavily and get more adrenaline. Somehow I get some chivki or trihana or something like that. That helps me breathing like a bull.

E: Three essential items you take to the spot or to the session? R: I have too much essential items that I keep making my bag heavier and heavier on my skate bar. But something that I cannot forget. But what items like the phone are this thing or what? Because it should be like for safety like the phone.

E: Imagine situations, you cannot pick more stuff, only free items you can pick to the session. R: I guess the phone, no? Water, what?

E: Keys maybe? Hahaha R: The keys, I don't know. Haha I guess that's it. And Preben. VX! no water.

E: We were just in your studio, can you tell me more about it, what you do there? R: I have some clothing project going on, also my girlfriend that I share with the studio. We also invite people to tattoo, work there with the clothing, accumulating weird stuff.

E: Do you know any Dutch? R: No Dutch. Geen sprek nederlands. Sorry.

E: How do you find the Amsterdam skate scene? R: In Amsterdam I feel that there's kind of a lost generation or something like that. Like I'm from 95 and I don't see many people that are my age really, or like not my age, my generation. But people have a good life and they quit skating when they are 27, 28 or something like that. And then other people skate like when they are older because they come back because they need to make a sport and they love it. But yeah, I think there's some cool new generations that are skating a lot and they seem not to be super obsessed with the media or something like that. There's like a few crews of new guys because I've been going to Olympia since four years ago so I know more or less what happened. And I already have time to see people starting skating and stopping skating I think in four years. I hope I didn't say too much actually about that.

E: No, I think it's really good. R: But yeah, I just hope that the kids keep skating and not taking it serious but taking it with passion or something like that. You don't need to convince anybody that you are skating or that you are active or something like that. You have to do it and enjoy it. And if you have the opportunity of showing the people your vision, make your own videos.

E: Do you have a routine? R: No, and this year even less because I started studying. So not really. Now that I've been injured a bit, I'm trying to work out my back a bit more, because I'm very weak in my back and my shoulders and my arms. But no, I don't really have a routine. But I have kind of a healthy life. I don't drink (often), I don't smoke cigarettes. And I have a good sleep I think. Yeah, that's quite the most important thing. I have a regular sleep. Sleep, eat good. And it's only maybe one or two times a month that I'm not sleeping in the night or something like that.

E: You mentioned you also study, right? R: So you're doing master's? I'm doing master's in art and design in Sandberg Institute. Yeah, it's just for two years so I need to figure out also when I finish it what to do with my life. But yeah for a moment I'm enjoying it a lot. It's chill and the people are cute in my department.

E: Favorite drink? R: Do you have one? No, I love to drink milk. But not a drink really, that's like a nutrition thing. I like the ginger beer that I never tried before and I tried it here. And it's like chilled to the top. Or like the cider or something like that. That's our drink to drink. E: And the food? R: Food... I don't know, a good potato tortilla. Probably that's probably my favourite food because I can have it anytime.

E: 3 worst brands. R: Three worst brands from after that? E: It can be any. R: Three worst brands. Whoa, there's so many.. I don't know. I don't really understand or that I wouldn't support. I don't know. They got the decathlon skateboarding. Carrefour counts. There's just some others that are just like with ugly designs. Like Cariuma shoes or something like that. They are like really ugly, the logo on the shoes. E: I think it's a good top three worst brands. Preben: One more? R: One more? Hmmm. I don't have it in my mind.

E: Red flag or big no clothing wise. Like a big no or like a red flag from clothing that you would see. Or you would be like nah, I'm not ever going to wear that. R: I would never wear. Hmmmm. I would never wear. Now I'm quite unfashioned lately. I cannot say. I would never wear. E: Or just like something that you see and you're like nah, it's like. It's just like a no for you. R: For me, for example, what I've been thinking lately is that for example now the fashion was pushing more to the 90s style or something like this. Or to very specific era outfits themselves. And for me that I'm from a certain time. We could even catch some of the 90s style but I was growing up with others. I was like with that thing but my generation was older style. So I don't get when the people like, it's really cool when you reference some part of your style. Your creation or your outfit. You reference it to some era or something like that. But when you copy completely an outfit or like a look like from A to Z then it makes no sense for me. It's funny, because I was in a festival in Spain lately and I was seeing people like mixing really weird stuff. I was like Rasta but Emo. I don't know, like sportwear but with a shirt that is like eldergan but then the shoes. So that is more like, okay, so this guy likes this and it's not that just somebody chooses a fucking outfit and buys it old. That's where I think that is where the style of the people is. And that diversity of the combination of the decisions or the look or the silhouette.

E: You think it's important how the skater dresses but it's more important how he skates? R: I think so. I think that it's more important for some people than for others but right now. I mean if everything is based on marketing it is of course important by definition. But yeah, I wish that some skaters were wearing more baggy pants at some point. I don't know but that's also my aesthetic preference.
Preben: I agree, I hate people like me that I've seen them when I have skinny pants. R: Preben hates his footy with the skinny pants. Haha

E; Favorite place in Amsterdam? R: Favorite place for what? E:Just favourite place in Amsterdam. Can be anything. R: I don't know, I always go where friends decide to go. So I don't know. So I guess the favourite place is with my friends. Because the fucking city is fucking boring in all sides.

E: Tape or digital? R: I cannot answer to this question in front of Preben. I leave the film the freedom to do the audiovisual project as difficult as it was.

E: Worst spot you skated? Worst, yeah. R: The worst spot I've skated? A street spot? E: Yeah. R: I only skate bad spots so you will… I don't know. The worst spot that I didn't like or that I didn't… The thing is I like shitty spots with bad ground so I cannot... E: So like every spot is perfect for you? R: If it's fun, yes. If it's not fun, no. But if it's not fun, I don't see it.

E:Favorite trick? R: Favorite trick? I mean I like to rock some body flips. But I don't know. I used to do it as a kid and then I stopped. And then I came back with them and they just feel natural to do it.

E: Kickflip for Hillflip. R: I guess kickflip because it's my... My all-way streak but I'd love to rock also some Hellflip. I think it's... I cannot compare too much. Now I'm learning more Hellflip stuff.

E: Capsule or bulk? R: I used to skate bulk, I think. I need flat, wide shoes. Yeah, I cannot skate capsule. For me it needs to be like a flat... I think I never skated. Maybe one America Reynolds long ago it was capsule.

E: What's the best shoe you skated? R: I don't know the best shoe but I remember an era where the Reynolds, America, this one that was super clean and with the white sole, super flat. And I skated like three or four in a row and they were sick. I think that was at the time they changed the production or something like that then the next models they were like cardboard.

E: You mean the Reynolds 3 or something, right? R: I don't remember the name of the model. It's kind of like mid-top for a bit? Not super. It's the wide and it was like a bunch of basic ones.

E: What board size you ride? R: 8.5, I can skate 8.3, 8.6.

E: Any new projects you're making? R: Preben is making the Amsterdam Ultimate video. So yeah, we've been filming three years for that. I guess it will come out sooner than later. Probably next year or this year. You'll see when it comes out. I also want to make a third part of this series. But I will see how. Because Pablo is going away. Pablo is moving to Paris now. I don't know if he will probably travel here quite often. I will see.

E: Any last words you want to say or shout out to friends? R: Shout out to the skate community in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Europe, Spain and the world. Come to Amsterdam to skate the rusty spots. I hope I will travel a bit more around Netherlands before I leave. And skate with the people that I already met around Amsterdam. Because I also want to skate more other cities around. But I didn't try too much. Thank you, Emil, for this effort. I hope you like to skate with me and you enjoy the part.

And also to Sander. Thank you very much. To Preben, Frederick, Charlie Danger, Federico, Tjerk, I don't know. Pablo. That's it. Done.

Skate photography by Frederick Walker, studio photos by Emil Szymański