Kai Hillebrand – No Show
Words by Axel Lindquist
Okay, so this text is about Kai. I promise I’ll get to him. Just bear with some rambling about purple pants and fascism for a minute so that I can bring context to my conclusion about Kai and Monsters, Inc. Thank you.
So, the first time I visited Berlin in my early teens I was stunned. Growing up in Sweden, with institutions like H&M, IKEA and an actual Beauty Council for the city I thought there existed some kind of universal minimum level of attention that people had to pay to aesthetics.
A lower bar so as not to hurt the eyes of others. But Berlin broke this idea. There existed no such bare minimum. Not only was the city itself sprawling and messy, but people there dressed as if mirrors did not exist. Even the gnarliest of crust punks could be considered self-aware in comparison to the total lack of vision in the unironic mullets and schizophrenic shoe-to- pants ratio that casually roamed the city. Trying to calm my anxious Nordic mind and make sense of this I came up with one of my first amateur sociological analyses (of many to come): considering its history, Germans will probably not be the first to tell other people how they should or should not dress. A countermove to authoritarianism in general, and fascism’s obsession with aesthetics in particular. That is, Germans might actually not practise the social mirror of hatin’ on arbitrary stuff like style as much as others.
Ollie, Berlin. Photo: Henrik Biemer
This in turn could explain a different, skateboard-specific, phenomena. It’s been called “the blank spot of Germany” or “the German curse” and follows that per capita there are remarkably few German skaters with a career and great style. And yeeess mom… Style is subjective, and often what is considered clean or cool is just mindlessly celebrated emperor’s new Big Boys. But I’m neither the first nor the only one to note this “German curse”. I also feel like I have to emphasise that I wrote ‘per capita’, as not to have Free’s inbox flooded with clips of Jan Kliewer and Lem Villemin. To break it down, there are of course many clean skaters that are not German (no, Dennis Busenitz or Michael Mackrodt do not count). There are probably also many German skaters that have a great style but don’t have a career (but it’s hard to quantify people we don’t know about, hence this remains hard to prove). This leaves us with the group of, dare I say it, German skaters with a career that maybe are not that clean. Again, style is subjective. All I say is that there are – per capita – relatively few German skaters recognised for their style. Now to come back to where I started, this phenomenon could then maybe be explained by a reluctance to hate. Because you know how it is, many of your favourite skaters’ favourite skater, from Mike Carroll and Bobby Puleo to Kevin Rodrigues and Yuri Facchini, were fostered in, and fostering, a somewhat hostile environment with high standards of do’s and don’ts. In the absence of these standards everything goes, with the side effect that everything goes. Which it doesn’t. As Germany has the largest population in Europe after Russia, hence making up a great part of the European skateboarding market, it’s not for nothing that often when brands are asked why they include those purple pants or fingerboards in their spring catalogue the answer’s simply been “Germany”. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to shit on anyone. In the current polarised and highly antagonistic state of the world I’m all for the recent kumbaya- chapter in skateboarding, where there is room for everyone and everything. “I disapprove of your clown Dunks, but I will defend to the death your right to wear them,” or whatever they say. I’m just saying that just because you are allowed to dress however you like does not mean you should stop caring. While it’s legal to drink bleach, beer still tastes better.
Frontside 5050, Berlin. Photo: Henrik Biemer
Now what does all this have to do with Kai Hillebrand? Well, if you’ve come across his skateboarding, following him even so passively as I have, you’ll know he is one of the exceptions. He’s German, with a productive career spanning over a decade – recognised for his style. Solely the fact that he’s countering the German curse gives us a great reason to appreciate him in general. But he’s not only an example – he’s the example. Because as much as Germany has a great skate scene with a strong enough industry for many people to have careers, style seems to be the biggest crux of the curse, hence that’s the first thing I want us to give Kai extra credit for. In this day and age of absolute trick inflation, where misbegotten NBDs and Insta-skits seem
to be how you get attention, we here have someone pulling us all the way back to basics, proving the age-old cliché easier said than done – it’s not what you do, but how you do it. By the time you’re reading this his latest part will be out. Take a break from the text and peep it now. Pay extra attention to that flat kickflip after the bump to bar ollie. You’ll know which one I mean.
“Incomprehensible”, as a friend with English as his first language put it. Kai sets an example not only for Germany but for all of the skate scene. Less is not more, but more is not necessarily better. It’s also interesting to consider how I’ve had to stress that style is subjective when even my own stepmother could see that Kai’s style is squeaky clean. Style is transcendent.
Wallride, Berlin. photo/ Henrik Biemer.
Now I don’t know about the skate culture in Ratingen or Düsseldorf where Kai started skating. Maybe they were all haters over there, helping mould his understated and precise style by pointing out every potential flaw. But the secret to his success seems neither to be strict principles nor discipline, but is instead attributed to 14 hours of beauty sleep, massive amounts of döner, Maggi spicy sauce and whatever extra Wurst is demanded at the time. A laid back high maintenance that fuels him biking around the city for hours looking for spots, fixing spots, skating spots, claiming tricks and every once in a while also going for it. But trying to understand Kai’s approach to skateboarding on a more profound level led me to the second reason of why we should give Kai extra credit – the remaining honesty. Remember what I wrote above – in the absence of standards, everything goes, with the side effect that everything goes. Kai obviously doesn’t let anything slide. He obviously has standards. Now these are not my words about Kai, I’ve never met the dude. These are the words of his friends. A telling story goes that once during an undisclosed team meeting, while being presented the collection for the upcoming season, Kai had to step in while everyone else on the team was biting their tongue. Being upfront with the bosses, with respect, Kai said what simply had to be said – this is not it. It’s not what people want to wear. “Everyone felt what Kaio said out loud… So happy that he said all the points, what we all would change to make it more cool and wearable,” a teammate recalls. So it’s not by chance that Kai happens to have great style. He obviously pays attention and practises honesty inside out instead of the other way around. But his friends complement this easy- going free soul by accentuating a great character. He is the kind of person to help out a broke friend on tours, whether it be bike rides, Uber rides, food, or just generally figuring something out to make a friend happy. “I truly appreciate this forever.” Oftentimes, he fixes spots just to later hand them over to friends.
“Always helpful for other people, doesn’t matter who the person is.”
“Most charismatic guy I know.”
“A living legend, and I’m proud to call him my friend.”
“He got into playing Fortnite lately.”
Kickflip, Paris. Ph: Sem Rubio.
As he’s able to say what he thinks and remain true to his own convictions, yet dares not to care what others think, and more importantly, remaining humble and permissive to others, he constitutes an inspiring middle way to great style that does not rely on other people’s opinions. This, finally, is the main point I wanted to make. Kai is not only a counterexample of the German curse, but can also act as a counterexample of the premise that we need some social pressure and external standards to generate great style. Similar to the point made in Monsters, Inc., when the monsters prove that laughter is more effective than scaring people, Kai sets an example that standards do not have to be derived from hostile and punitive social strain, but can just as well emerge from personal sincerity and integrity. Dang, all this text for this corny conclusion? Yep.
Now, to come back to the German curse. With this being said, let’s not try to force some wisdom out of Kai’s example that we can generalise across the country. We’ve already given the poor Germans enough to think about. But Kai does ooze the pathos of “think less and feel more”. Apart from the mentions of his integrity, extra salt on his food, always being motivated to fix spots and wearing those adorable socks that let you feel the wind caress your ankles when you skate, each and every one of his friends also mentions the word fun, as in having fun, as he’s making his way through the world “with open eyes”. And it shines through. Kai’s skating like he has nothing to prove to others but to enjoy skateboarding himself. In the land of engineers, dare to be an artist. The world doesn’t need more clean skaters, and we maybe don’t even need more clean German skaters. Remember what we concluded earlier – more is not necessarily better. But we sure always need more nice people. A smile and some trust in your gut feeling seems to do just fine. It makes sense that we find him in Berlin, where you are allowed to just be you.
Backside nosebluntslide, Paris. Photo: Sem Rubio.
