A Mid Summer by Tor Ström
“Thank you so much! I’m not a kook!”
That’s the reaction I got from Tao after he finished going through the first draft of this piece, and I could tell the relief was genuine. I didn’t have to be facing him to picture that sigh and smirk. Of course, I wasn’t sure what was more surprising, that one could prang that much about being interviewed despite clearly being universally adored (proof of which we’ll get into later…), or that this was somehow the first time he’d done anything like this. It just baffled me that neither we nor another media outlet had ever thought to chat to him about his work, despite him having made some of our favourite standalone Nike parts (think Oski, Ville, Karsten…), being lead filmer on a bunch of classic Polar videos and putting out countless independent bangers on his channel… Not to mention, yeah, as I said, just generally being one of the most loved cheeky chaps ever to wield a camera. It didn’t make sense. That is, until I spoke to his partner Monse Villegas…
When asking her for some pointers on what to discuss with Tao, one of the things that stood out to us was: “Tao’s life is his friends. He lives for them, loves them so much, and it is so clear how authentic and sincere this love is. You can see it in his videos, you can see it in how his friends receive and approach him, it’s just completely unavoidable.”
And she’s right. To spend your life in the gutter chasing unpredictable skateboarders around with an 8000 euro lens, you have to be a pretty selfless person; there’s no two ways about it. But where Tao stands out from some of the other successful filmers of his generation is that making his friends shine takes precedent over everything. You’ll never, ever feel like he’s trying to steal the show with his editing or fisheye manoeuvring (despite it undeniably being top tier). So of course, this is going to be an uncomfortable exercise; it’s never been about him.
Vitus Silas, gap to backside nosebluntslide
Photography in Helsinki by Alex Pires
Interview by Arthur Derrien
How did you first get into filming skateboarding?
Tor “Tao” Ström: I actually got a camera before I started skating… Like my dad got me a little mini DV camera when I was about 10, so I started doing skits with my neighbours, and then fake action movies and stuff. You know, like adding big explosions in Adobe After Effects… And then when I started skating and people were able to do tricks, it was like, “Who’s got a camera?”, so I’d bring it out since I already liked filming. Then I guess I just kept it going…
Interesting that the camera came first. It’s often the other way around.
Yeah, and even before that, I always borrowed my family’s photo cameras, like I always wanted to take the photos on our vacations and stuff.
It was your natural calling!
Haha, uh yeah, I guess so.
And at what point did you start getting more serious about it?
Maybe once I started going into Malmö and met my friends at the skatepark there. We started filming a bunch, and then my mom bought me a VX, but then on the first day I went to the skatepark to film with it, I hit a rock, slammed and broke the camera.
Ah man…
But luckily, my mom managed to get a new one with the insurance, which came after a couple of months.
Tao and Jakinda
Still, I bet that made you extra keen when you finally could use it.
Yeah, and shortly after that, I started going to Bryggeriets.
And obviously, if there was ever a high school that was going to give you the bug for this sort of thing, that’s it.
Yeah, but I almost didn’t go. All my friends were going, and I told my dad I really wanted to go, but he was like, “You’ll never be a pro skater.”
Ruthless haha.
But I managed to get him to go to the open house, and he met John Dahllquist there, who convinced him to let me go to the school for film and photography instead of for skating. But yeah, he wasn’t down initially because he was worried about my future. I kept telling him that all I wanted to do was skate, so fair enough…
But anyway, yeah, and that’s where I properly met Oski. We knew each other a little bit before, actually, but there we were in the same class so we became really good friends, and he started coming out with me and my friends to film.
Which I’m sure turned the levels of excitement about filming up a whole other notch…
Yeah, and from then, one day, when Pontus was asking Oski what he’d been up to, he explained he’d been out street skating with me and these guys. Pontus was like, “Interesting… bring Tor next time, I want to meet him.” And when I did meet him, he just kind of brought me in…
Alex Elfving, ollie to frontside wallride
All this was around the first time we met, when you came to London, right?
Yeah, that’s around when I came with my friends from Bryggeriets to film for my first video. It was called Tredje Akten – you came to the premiere!
Pretty crazy to think you had like Oski, Ville, Günes, Hjalte, Bobby Worrest, etc. in your very first video… How old were you?
Yeah, I mean, I’d made some indoor skatepark clips before, but that’s it really. I was 18 when it came out. I had just finished Bryggeriets.
Would you say attending the film classes at Bryggeriets was beneficial in terms of developing your craft?
Yes and no, because I went to those film classes to learn to make movies, you know, and I learned to do some of that stuff… But since I really liked skating and filming skating, my teacher talked to John Dahlquist, who was in charge of the skate lessons that were taking place at exactly the same time as these film classes, to ask if I could go to those instead to skate and film. So I just did that, which led me to film skating a lot after school as well… So in the end, I didn’t have to do much in that film class to get the best grade, because they saw that I really liked it and let me focus on doing it as much as possible.
I love how by letting you not go to film class, they did the best thing they possibly could for you to further your filming career.
Yeah that helped me a lot, and being around John opened all the doors. He helped me get involved in projects, introduced me to people…
Sarah Meurle, ride-on 50-50
And did it take a while for you to realise that this is what you wanted to do with your life, or was it more like as soon as you were immersed in all that you straight away felt: “Okay I need to do this forever!”?
Haha yeah, it was very much straight away like, “Okay, I want to do this.” My first ever trip was the Polar Surf and Turf trip in the UK, but before that, we’d go on small ones in Sweden every weekend. Pontus would take me and Oski out on missions or would send me to Copenhagen to film Hjalte… That’s how I met Bobby Worrest and all this stuff.
What would you say were some of your fondest memories from those early Polar days?
I’d say just those missions where we’d be driving around these shitholes in the South of Sweden, just like in the middle of nowhere, skating.
That does sound fun… Just looking for random, weird shit, proper Strongest Of The Strange vibes.
Exactly. And growing up, both of Pontus’ videos were a huge influence. In Search Of The Miraculous was one of my first videos, and they always showed it at the indoor skatepark in Bryggeriets. That’s also why ending up skating with Pontus and all the older guys felt so cool, and I ended up hanging out with John outside of school a lot because he and Pontus were friends… Which is kind of insane, haha.
Also, skating with older people does kind of give you a head start in terms of learning to develop your own taste and approach to skating (or filming). Just because the years of experience and culture they have already assimilated instantly get imparted on you, so what they know just becomes a given, and you’re kind of just building on that as you grow up.
Exactly. And I mean it’s like why we came to London that first time we met: that was because me and my friends saw Eleventh Hour for the first time and were like, “No way, we have to go to London for our video!” We were mind blown when that came out. I remember we met Chris Jones too and were like, “no waaaaaay!” Went to Southbank and met Chewy Cannon after seeing him push down the street, and he was so sweet and nice to us…
David Jakinda, Spanish grind
And so at this point, you’re hooked, you’ve travelled a little bit for your first video, done some trips with Polar… When did it become more than just a hobby you’re extremely passionate about?
Well, I was also working at the airport doing inventory. So every winter break or whenever I wasn’t skating, I would be counting screws. And there was a Polar or Nike trip that came up, and I told the boss of the warehouse that I needed a couple more days off to go on this trip, and he said I couldn’t, which was devastating… So I just quit.
But obviously you didn’t really have a backup plan… How did you approach Pontus about filming becoming your job? Or did he approach you?
Well at that point I was living at the Polar office. My dad lives in the countryside, and Pontus just wanted me out filming more (this was when we were working on I like it here inside my mind. Don’t wake me this time), so me and my dad built a loft in there. So I already wasn’t paying rent… And then yeah, one day to Pontus I was just like, “Uh, I just quit my job, it would be nice if you could start paying me a little bit…”, and so he did. And that led to other jobs, and eventually I managed to figure it out, but for a long time I was just so broke. But you’ll just do anything to make it work. And if I stayed in the countryside, the filming thing just wouldn’t have happened for me. If you’re a filmer, you just have to be there, always, and I was.
What’s one of the main things you learnt from working on all these Polar projects?
That you have to be down. Especially with Pontus, because he’s very specific… You always have to be down, and you always have to be on point. That’s something that’s just integrated in me now. I’ve learnt to just get in line, and now I can go into autopilot, like just lock in.
That makes sense, you basically got relentlessly hammered home that you can’t blow it, to the point where you now literally can’t blow it because what you do has become completely automatic. I’m sure that wasn’t always easy to deal with, but at the end of the day, that’s incredibly formative.
Yeah, it was definitely hard at times, but I’m really appreciative, because look at where I am today. I could never have done what I’ve done without that; it helped me a lot.
Vincent Huhta, 360 flip noseslide
And you still had the freedom to work on your own stuff in parallel to what you were doing for Polar. Projects you’d actually get to fully edit…
Yeah, because with Polar I was always only just filming, but I was doing Nike projects on the side, like that part with Oski, and Pontus would show me how the Super 8 camera worked and let me use it…
And then, of course, after working on a bunch of legendary Polar full-lengths, things ended quite abruptly between you guys. Can you tell me a little bit about how you navigated all that?
I was bummed. I thought it was all over. And right around that time, as you know, I got my camera bag stolen. It really felt like the universe was against me when I lost all my equipment. I was fully like, “That’s it, I’m done, what do I do now? I guess I have to try to find something else…”
Fuck man… It’s always so gnarly when this shit happens, especially in skating, because of how intertwined all these work/friendship relationships are. It’s like some kind of evil group breakup. And knowing how much it meant to you to get to spend all this time filming with some of your best friends, after years of doing everything you could to show them in the best possible light… I really felt for you when all that went down.
Yeah, and in the beginning you think they… But it wasn’t like that at all. I’m obviously still really close with all my friends that I filmed with when I was working for Polar. And when all this happened, so many people really went out of their way to help me. Like when Hugo [Boserup] started a GoFundMe for the fisheye, I got the money for it in less than 24 hours! And seeing all the love with the GoFundMe and how much everyone appreciated what I was doing… It made me realise that I needed to do this, that there wasn’t anything else. I’m so grateful for what the skateboarding community did for me; it really warms my heart to think about it.
If there was ever a sign to not give up on your dreams…
Yeah. And as all this was happening, I was working at Sidewalk Skateshop, and they really helped me out so much too, giving me lots of shifts but letting me travel when I needed to…
Vitus Silas, backside smith grind
It’s actually crazy how it all worked out… Especially in the context of how often filmers are underappreciated in our industry, despite essentially carrying the culture on their backs. The standard lenses are stupidly expensive; there are so few full-time gigs but so many people out there filming and contributing to the ecosystem without getting paid properly… It’s beautiful how everyone came together for you and refused to let you pack it in.
Yeah, I mean Colin Kennedy at Nike also reached out to me and was like, “Hey, you’ve done so much for us over the years, here’s a bunch of money for you to get back on your feet. Just invoice this amount, no strings attached, and we’ll try to give you as many projects as we can right now.” I’m so thankful for Colin and everyone at Nike for helping me out like that.
I had no idea! Damn, Colin, what a legend… It’s so sick to hear that when the rug gets pulled from under your feet some people are still there to catch you. Especially when you think about how hard it is to get to the point of properly getting paid for this. Because to get in there people work for free, but then obviously that devalues the work, and just makes it harder and harder for the people to get and maintain careers with steady incomes.
Yeah, and I mean I worked for free for so many years, and I wouldn’t be where I was today if I didn’t, if I didn’t have that mentality of “I’m going to do anything it takes to make this work” when I was starting.
Of course, it’s just a part of the cycle.
But yeah, it is crazy how few people are actually living off it in Europe. You can probably count them on like two hands
Yeah, but then you think of how many people there are fully living it despite not actually living off it: it’s wild! Like part-time bar job or set design shit or whatever, living for the clips day in day out, but never knowing if they’ll actually make any money off them… There’s loads!
Yeah, look at the [Boardman] twins, they manage to be all over the world filming and are always so happy to be out and able to do it, but they also have jobs.
Yeah they’re the perfect example.
It’s the same for all the skaters though. I know so many “pro skaters” who work full-time. But yeah… I know I got the golden ticket… But after everything that happened, I don’t think I’d ever stop filming, no matter what.
Tor “Tao” Ström
Haha, sounds like you wouldn’t really have a choice on the matter anyway. Let’s talk about this golden ticket a bit, then. What are you working on, and how did it come about?
Before I feel like I should also say that during that time, Neil Chester at adidas also reached out and helped me out a lot when I was working on the Heitor stuff…
But anyway, so at one point I started getting a lot of footage with all the Nike Scandi guys. I had this video in mind for like two years that I’d been slowly working on with everyone, on the side of my other projects, and I had a 9-minute timeline.
Damn okay, so a solid base.
Yeah exactly. So I asked for a meeting with Colin, showed him all the footage, and told him I wanted to do it full-time and be 100% on it, and that I would need a contract. But I was so nervous, like after everything they’d already done for me, I was scared to ask for more, you know.
How did he react?
Basically by saying, “I’ve kind of been waiting for you to ask. I’ll see what I can do.”
Fuck that’s a good one for all the up-and-coming filmers reading this.
Yeah, closed mouths don’t get fed.
So sick. And so who are the main people in this Nordic Nike vid then?
Ville [Wester], Axel [Berggren] and Vincent [Huhta] had a bunch of footage from the beginning so it made a lot of sense to focus on them and then let everyone else be a part of it as much as they could. Unfortunately Axel got hurt at the end of last summer and has been off the board until now, so most of his stuff is a bit older, but it’s really good considering what happened.
Ah man that sounds epic. I bet that Vitus kid has some good shit too…
Yeah, he’s amazing. He’s the last guy to jump on the project two or three months ago so he only did the last three trips but he’s been killing it.
Yeah I mean, looks like he was MVP in Helsinki… How old is he?
He’s 18… I’d seen him around but never really chatted to him until we took him on the first trip to Stockholm and he’s really sweet. And yeah, just unbelievable at skating.
Have you guys done a lot of trips for this thing?
We haven’t been on too many trips. I’ve been going back and forth to Stockholm to film with Vincent and [David] Jakinda and they’ve been coming down to Copenhagen a bunch. We’ve been trying to keep it as local as possible.
I love going camping so we did do some bigger camping trips with everyone though: one in Norway and one in Sweden. The summers are usually pretty short in Nordic countries so you need to get the most out of them while you can, but I wanted to only film here because there are so many spots and I feel no one knows it. So It’s nice to find new stuff and just explore. Also on these trips we’ve seen some of the most beautiful nature I’ve ever witnessed. They turn into to more than just skate trips. They’re definitely some of the best I’ve been on.
David Jakinda, backside lipslide
And this Helsinki mission… Was it your first time out there?
No! Me, Vincent, Axel, Oski, Kinser [Cathey] and Gus [Gordon] went last year for the KOFF race but just for four days. We had so much fun and the spots are amazing so after that I knew we had to go back with everyone. Eetu and Eniz came with us to Norway on the camping trip and got so much good stuff. It was the perfect excuse to go back and see them! We all love it there. We even got to go to Eetu’s summer cabin up north and skate the crazy red ramp thing. It’s next to his house so we skated that all day and then went back to the cabin to barbecue and sauna all night. So basically managed to sneak in a bit of luxury camping in-between the hotel days hehe.
I want to thank everyone that made this video possible, as well as everyone that’s in the video and helped film for it. I could never had done it without them!
And alongside all this you’ve been working on a global vid for Nike too, correct?
Yeah yeah, I’m working on this mega video as well, which should come out around this time next year… It’s with Nyjah, Yuto, Ishod, Grant… All the big dogs, which is crazy. For me to do that… It’s incredible.
So those ridiculous photos of you driving Koston’s Ferrari around, that’s when you were out in America working on this yeah?
Yeah that was the first trip for that project, we went to Miami and I got to meet everyone. I mean I knew some of them before… But it’s the first project I’ve worked on where I’m not just working with my close friends. It’s a new thing for me but it’s been a really nice experience. Looking forward to seeing what we do together in the next year.
Knowing you they’ll probably be your close friends in no time anyway.
It must feel mental to think back to those few weeks where you thought you’d lost everything when you’re on those trips, just jamming in comfortable hotels, getting breakfast with all these guys…
Yeah these last two years have been crazy… It went from 0 to 100 real quick.
I know you’re in the process of editing the Nordic video, but will you be doing any editing on the global one?
I’m filming and editing it with Ant Travis, but it’ll be my direction. Like I have free rein to do what I want with it! So this Nordics one is a really good warm up… Because it’ll be my first full-length since Tredje Akten, which was when I was 18… All the projects I’ve done on my own since have been shorter, and with all the Polar videos, it was always Pontus editing. So yeah, it’s exciting but also very nerve-racking.
I bet, haha! How have you been managing to balance both projects? One full-length tends to be enough to break someone, let alone two.
This summer has been so hectic. Like I’ll go on a trip to film for the global video, then come back, have to leave for a Nordics trip, but then because, say Hjalte can’t go on all the trips, so I need to film with him when I’m home, but then everyone else wants to film too… I usually tell them I’m coming home a day later than I actually am, haha. Just so that I have a day at home and can chill with my girlfriend.
But at the same time, I can’t sit still. I just love being out filming with my friends so much. If I don’t do it, I go crazy, I start stressing, I start to think I’m blowing it, that I’m not doing what I should be doing… It’s just so ingrained in me.
I know! I can see it!. Skateboarding has a way of rewiring our brains so that being out chasing clips becomes the only thing that matters at times, and you’re the best at channelling that.
What about in terms of influences? What videographers or videos make you want to keep doing this? I know you mentioned Eleventh Hour, but aside from Jake Harris…
Mind Field. When I saw that, I was like okay, this is how it should look, this is how it should be. Greg Hunt’s stuff is amazing… He actually offered me his Leica when all my shit got stolen… And I’d never met him.
No way!
Yeah he reached out, out of nowhere, saying, “Hey, I really like your work, if there’s any way I can help here, please let me know, I have a Leica camera you can borrow if you need.”
Did you accept the offer?
I just couldn’t… I just said, “Thanks so much for the offer, but I can’t accept, it’s too much.” But I kept in contact with him after that, and he’s been super sweet and helpful with other stuff since. But yeah, like someone I looked up to so much offering to do this for me, out of nowhere… I was tripping. I told all my friends, haha.
Benny Magliano is also the best, I love Johnny Wilson’s videos too, Ben Chadourne… Oh and Fritte Söderström, the master of filming from the front!
Are you going to be able to do another Coachella of Skateboarding next year with everything you have going on?
To be honest, we might take a break… This one almost never happened because of how busy I was. I was constantly on trips, so having to plan for it with Julius [Rohrberg] over FaceTime… It was just so hectic, and next year I’m going to be home even less than this year. But still: that’s three good years! And we probably will do it again at some point too. But it’s been amazing. Like it’s so funny to think that we just started out with a speaker and a microphone, wanting to do a fun little event for our friends… Because Copenhagen Open is great, but it’s kind of for all the big pro skaters. We wanted to do something for the people of Copenhagen, so they can also skate.
Do you get help or funding from anyone? This year looked huge.
Yeah, the Copenhagen Open people helped us a lot the first year, like they gave us a huge pallet with loads of beers. But we didn’t know what we were doing that year, so the next year we asked for a little bit more money…
Wait, asked who? The council?
Yeah, they have this thing called Royal Copenhagen Skate, where you can ask for funding for any kind of skate event you want to do. It can be a premiere, a contest, whatever.
Damn, it’s so cool that that exists over there… Hearing about stuff like this or your experience at Bryggeriets… It really makes you think: of course, he’s going to follow his dreams, he’s grown up in an environment that actually takes skateboarding seriously!
Yeah, because it is serious.
Tor “Tao” Ström
