David Stenström – Dignity is Hard
Ph. James Griffiths
Words by Axel Lindquist
A pair of greenish, paint stained Superstars, a big orange t-shirt, shorts and continuous laughter… That’s how I remember David when we ran through the rain from the Björns trädgård skatepark to take cover in the local skate store next to it. This was before he started skating, I somehow thought back then. He was short and thin, generally small, so while anyone younger stepping into the skate store was a potential victim of comments by the older guys, David was an especially easy prey. Probably someone mentioned that shorts were a bad choice for this kind of weather, or maybe someone asked him where his board was. And you expect to see the young ones crumble at these type of comments. How else are the olds to assert dominance? But David’s continuous laughter continued. I don’t remember exactly what he responded, but it was the first time I got to experience David’s lifelong legacy of self-preservation.
One-foot, Paris. Ph. Alex Pires
Dignity is hard. A lot of us make the mistake of thinking that there is a right way to acquire it, so we observe the great amounts of people we are surrounded by, searching for that right way, and get overwhelmed. Soon you find yourself hesitant. Confused and reduced. We make the mistake of thinking that there is a right way to acquire dignity, when fundamentally acquiring it is the right way. That is, dignity is from the inside out. Because, when there is no one else to receive respect from, then you better find it in yourself. You better know how to carry yourself. And growing up alongside David he has proven this again and again. Honest to himself. Reaching his ideals.
This has led to David always being surrounded with the coolest shit. From the Awaut* crew, to Bellows skateboards, to Polar, Cons, Carhartt, Stüssy, Last Resort. I remember a time, while he was still very young, when people said that he should not switch sponsors so often, because he might lose all of them. But that’s being simple. A lot of calculative people are too dumb to be honest to themself. And it shows. When it comes to an art like skateboarding it is probably better to feel than to think. And if anything, David being your favourite skater’s favourite skater, when he switches sponsors it says more about the brands than it says about him.
*If you like digging into local skate scenes then do yourself a favour and watch Awaut’s clips on YouTube. They paved the way for whatever Stockholm street skateboarding is today.
Bluntslide, Paris. Ph. James Griffiths
Another perk of acting on instinct is that when the calculative hesitate, they miss the chance of being corrected. Instead of reducing oneself to arbitrary expectations, David has learned by doing. What we today call: fuck around and find out. Whether it be career moves or style choices. I remember another day by the bowls in Björns trädgård; this time it was sunny and David showed up, suddenly done with his Tony Trujillo-era. Wearing a bicycle hat, a big tank top, and impressively sagging shorts, he had overnight transformed into a miniature Brent Atchley. Someone told him he looked like a farmer, and so his Brent Atchley-era lasted for that day only. Another time I remember overhearing him being lectured by a mom, telling him that people can get offended by him having “Bitch” written on his griptape. Did his continuous laughter end there? Probably not. Did he change the griptape? No. But while us other kids hesitated, he got to actually balance the trade-off of having the coolest griptape in the park and what some mom thought about it. In that sense he is living proof that if you stay strong, the world does not crumble by your mistakes.
But dignity is hard for everyone. Sometimes self-preservation can come at the cost of humbleness and consideration for others, and for someone as self-made as David is, life has taken a great chunk of self-preservation.
Frontside 50-50 gap out, Austin. Ph. Kris Burkhardt
I was going to write that David has been misunderstood, but fuck it, growing up he also went through a phase of straight-up arrogance. During its peak, when his crew entered the park, others were forced to practise self-preservation. Snake sessions were standard.
It does feel a bit crazy to consider that I thought David didn’t skate that day when we ran through the rain. David was born into skateboarding, and had the old guys in the skate store that day known who David was son to, then they wouldn’t have been so quick with their comments.
Ollie to fakie, Paris. Ph. Alex Pires
Talking to the originals from the Swedish skate scene in the late ‘70s they tell similar stories of a stylish local, as funny as brash, showing how it’s supposed to look. Growing up together, Tony Magnusson recalls how David’s father, Torbjörn “Tobba” Stenström, was the one aware of style and expression. During a time when skateboarding went through a prepubertal identity crisis, with the best skaters in Stockholm expected to do shows three times a day during the weekends, with matching outfits and smoke machines, Tony remembers how Tobba still managed to have both a sense of style and control over it. While the others only focused on competing with each other, Tobba had the ability to focus on how it was supposed to look. That explains why Tobba got the biggest picture published when Skateboarder magazine visited Stockholm in ‘79. When comparing the photos it’s obvious. Style, as hard as it is to quantify, is universal. The ability to sense style is in everyone. You know it when you see it. As clear as math. And Tobba, just as David, are the ones to demonstrate it. Another hero from back then, Hans “Götis” Göthberg, recalls the first time he came to visit Stockholm and the indoor park at the time, New Sport House. Götis was met by Tobba and Tony telling him to show them that trick they’ve heard he could do. Götis, intimidated by the big city attitude, was still flattered by being acknowledged by the best at the time. And a lot of people can probably relate today. Similarly, a ‘Yeah’ from David will be honest, and mean more than a crowd of half-assed skaters cheering.
Frontside nosegrind, Paris. Ph. James Griffiths
In that sense, David is a role model hard to assess. Though a lot of the young local skaters here in Stockholm are missing out on his style for the time being, he has set a pretty high bar for us in terms of what you can expect from a skateboarder. Not only is he naturally talented, an artist, and putting in the work, but all three at the same time. From his residence in Paris for the time being, David is still guiding the local scene to what you can achieve if you stay true to yourself. David was born into skateboarding; he encapsulates all of Stockholm’s skate history and administers it well. Scrolling his Insta people are asking Pontus to make David pro. As if he already wasn’t, I think it’s time to acknowledge the fact again. And again.
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