Gran Canaria seems incredible.
It’s nice and it’s like… the weather is perfect. It’s always warm. Even during winter. Daan surfs a lot. I also try but I mean… the water is not my element. I prefer the streets.

Nollie pop-shuv, NYC. Photo: Mike Heikkila

So you’re from Bulgaria?
Yeah, I was born in Bulgaria. All my family is Bulgarian. But when I was seven years old, I moved to Italy. I started school in Bulgaria, the first year, and the second year of school, I moved to Italy… so I studied in Italy. Like all my studies were in Italian. I moved to Barcelona from Rome when I was 22. My blood and my family are Bulgarian, of course, but I spent more time in Italy. So I have dual nationality: Italian and Bulgarian.

Do you remember how you found skateboarding?
Yeah, I remember when I said, “Yeah, this is my thing,” which was probably 15 years ago. I was in Italy and I just went to a spot. I was working close to the beach in La Dispoly, the city where I used to live. It’s super close to Rome. I was working close to the beach and I saw a skate session, and was like: “This is fire. I wanna try this thing!” So I got the board and I started going to the spot. At one point I met all the crew, skating that spot. I don’t know… I’m not really good at explaining this but… I saw that thing and I was super fascinated. When I started skating I had a 7.8” board. For me that’s huge; my size shoe is US 1. I was just cruising at the beginning, pushing around without trying ollies or kickflips. Then I went to a skate shop a little bit outside of the city, in another city, and I found my first small board, and it was an Antihero! The guy from the shop showed me the old Antihero videos and I said, yeah, this is my thing. I want to do this thing… skating all-terrain. I want to skate everything… not only a ledge or a quarterpipe, but all kinds of spots. I don’t need to do super tech tricks, but I want to be able to skate all the obstacles. That’s the fun thing of skateboarding.

How does it feel to be friends with these people who you’ve been like looking up to or seeing in the videos?
In the end, they are humans. They are homies. I don’t think like, “ohhh…” Just that it’s a good person. Of course, I’ve watched Brian’s videos since I started to skate. Now he’s one of my best friends. He’s like my mentor. He helps me understand more what I want to do and how to do it and what’s next. It’s a good example, you know, and he’s sober and I don’t party or drink a lot, so it’s good to see somebody who shares this kind of lifestyle. Drawing, painting, taking it easy, skating a lot.

How long have you been in Barca?
Since late 2017; I love it. The weather is perfect. We have a lot of spots and a lot of skaters. I’m never skating alone. In Rome sometimes I would go to the skatepark or the DIY… and I was alone. I didn’t like it. Now sometimes it’s the opposite. Maybe I go to the skatepark and it’s super crowded and it’s not possible to skate. But it’s cool, everybody’s hyped and every day there is a mission. It’s nice; I love it. I used to skate Sants every day but now it’s gone. They are making the plaza again though. They’ll finish the work in one year. There’s an association–Sants Forever–that goes to the meetings with the people working on the plaza. They’re helping to make the plaza skateable again. It’s super cool.

Halfcab heelflip, Barcelona. Photo: Roger Ferrero.

You learned Spanish in Barcelona?
Yeah, when I moved here. I learned Spanish in one year or something. It’s really similar to Italian.

Can you speak Catalan?
Yeah, now I’m studying Catalan with Duolingo. I have like 800 days straight on Duolingo. It’s like a daily mission; I’m obsessed with it. I have fun doing it, and I’m learning a new language. I really like Barcelona and Catalunya. When I go outside Barcelona, maybe one hour, people speak more Catalan. I just want to learn and speak with them, to respect them, because it’s their culture. It’s not super necessary because everybody speaks Spanish. It’s just respect because they like it when you speak Catalan.

I heard that COVID was intense in Spain.
Yeah, that’s true, but I was lucky because at one point they said you could go outside to do sports, but only close to your home, and my house was two minutes from MACBA. For this I was lucky because I could skate MACBA every day for three months; only with the people that lived around there. So it was like a private MACBA session. I started to paint a lot during COVID. More with acrylics… I used to paint all my life but during COVID I started to do more and more.

Do you paint every day?
Yeah, almost every day. It’s a kind of meditation, it helps me. Or, yeah, I was doing this drawing right now. A doodle. I’m doing a painting from the things that I saw in New York too. A big canvas.

Do you still work overnight doing customer service?
Oh yeah. I’m still working there. Like I told you, “Oh let’s do the call at two.” I finished work at six in the morning. I work from 11 until six… So I went to sleep at seven, and I woke up at 2pm. I try to sleep for eight hours. The good part of working at night is I wake up, do my thing, I have the energy to skate and then I go to work. I’m working from home, so I’m saving time because when I finish work, I just go to bed. I’m already at home, so I’m not wasting time going back home.

Varial heelflip, San Isidro. Photo: Marcel Veldman.

Are there downsides to working at night?
Yeah. Sometimes, if I wake up late, I won’t see the sun for two or three days. So it’s important to wake up and activate and maybe go out for a little walk, 10 minutes, get some sunlight because if I don’t see the sun for three days, it’s not good for your mental health. That’s the worst part of working at night. If you have discipline, you just wake up and do it. Wake up, go out, get your sunlight. The positive things about working from home… I can put on some music or watch skate videos during the job. I cook during the night. I made some banana bread last week.

Do you like to cook?
Oh yeah, a lot.

What’s your signature dish?
Ah, carbonara definitely. One day, I will make it for you. I cook carbonara for all my friends. When I go to Italy to see my parents, I always buy a lot of guanciale, bring it to Barcelona and keep it in the fridge so I can cook real carbonara with guanciale for my homies.

What’s the last trick you learned?
Backside noseblunt on a bank. Without the slide. I learned that trick last week, now I’m trying to learn how to slide. I was trying for like three weeks. I’m still learning it. I want to learn how to slide it properly. Like, a long slide.

What’s your favourite trick?
Fakie heelflip. For sure. I don’t know why.
I used to do fakie heelflips all the time when I was a kid and now it’s like the trick that’s easiest for me.

As you were learning to skateboard and getting better, was style a consideration? Was that something you were thinking about?
I never think about my style. My secret is just keep doing your trick, maybe 10,000 times and at one point you got it steezy. That’s the secret I think. 10,000 times and you will be able to do it properly. You can get inspiration from somebody that you like, of course, but you can’t force style. You can see if style is forced. It has to come naturally.

Frontside crooked grind, Alicante. Photo Marcel Veldman.

What are you working on? Are you working on a project? Projects?
Yeah, I’m trying to get more clips for the next Antihero video. Actually, Daan asked me to get a guest trick for his next video part. I’m pretty lucky because I have Enrique Mayor, the Nike filmer, and he’s always down to film whatever ideas I have. So I just need to decide the spot and the trick… and the mission is on. I’m working for this guest trick in Daan’s part, and for the next big Antihero video.

What are you going to do today?
I’m gonna go to the Citadella Plaza at 6:30. I will try to film a back noseblunt and I will send it to you. Then I will go to eat with a friend and then I have to work at 11. Yeah, busy day. But I like to make schedules in my calendar, you know? I always make lists. Oh, I have to post the double page of the Antihero ad. I’m probably gonna post tomorrow. But yeah, we don’t talk about that magazine today. We talk about another one.

Yeah, Free Skate Magazine. Okay. I’ll let you enjoy your day. Thank you for everything!
Bye!