Lodge Guest, Carl-Oscar “Calle” Wencel

Where do you currently live and where are you from ?

Right now I live in Halmstad, Sweden, born and raised here with a Finnish mum and a Hungarian dad.

Tell us a little bit about your past ?

My past was a little bit messy, moved around a lot and had to face a lot of new places and schools. My parents got a devorce when I was pretty young and couldn’t really decide where I was gonna live haha, but except that it was alright!

Why skateboarding ? How did it start for you ?

I think it was because my older brother skate a bit and like everyone else u look up to u brother and want to do the same things, and actually in the city where I lived at that time we had nothing to do, we had one vertramp who was build by bladerers so it was kinda fucked up, it was like 1m flat and 4 meter vert haha, really don’t know what they was thinking when they designed that thing. But at least a ramp so we could skate!

What size set up, wheels & trucks do you currently ride ?

My setup is, cashskateboards 8.375 mid concave, 149 indy hollow trucks, bones 100s 53mm. It doesn’t get any better than that!!

Do you have any setup rituals, we need to know about ?

Yeah i I kinda have, I don’t know why, but I have always ride with my front right wheel turned the “right way” out, u know so u can see the print and the 3 other wheels turnd the “wrong way”, And also on my front truck I only use 3 screws, I skip the left bottom one for some reason, guess it’s quicker to change the board haha!

Any sponsors ?

Cashskateboards, Lowcard, Woody’s parlour and Stykedcollection

What kind of skateboarding do you prefer ?

I prefer pure street, but sometimes it’s really nice to just chill in a flow park and do stupid stuff. But nothing beat a good stair session, when u land something at a big stair then u know your alive for real hahah.

Do you have a great skate spot in your home town you can recommend ?

Naah not really. We have a really shitty street scene here, Halmstad is that kinda city who like everything old school so everything they build here is built with those Smal shitty stones! We only have a couple of 10 stairs kinda haha.

Who is your favorite skateboarders, under and over 30 ?

Oufh hard one, I don’t really know the ages of the skaters, but I can say Oski, Zion, jamie foy and ishood, think all of them are under their 30s, so if I have to say someone over It gonna be dewon, the level of creativity is insane! But actually everyone out there is killing it their own way and so it’s hard to say just one..

Work, not working or other occupation ?

Unfortunately I work haha, nah it’s Okey u need to make your money somehow right haha? I work with demolition work and Asbestos and shit like that, so kinda heavy and take a lot of energy from my skateboarding..

How is a normal day looking for you ?

Wake up 06:50, have to rush to work cuz I start 07:00, then I do my work stuff for 8h (more fooling around with my work mates) but yeah, after that I go home get changed, call all of the skaters and try to force them to skate, even if they can’t haha! Most likely I get angry cuz everyone have a life and are busy, so I go to the park alone and skate “with the scooter kids” haha after that I maybe go grab a beer in the city with som friends depends on how late it gets, then when I get home I watch couple of south park episode and go to bed somewhere around 00-02

Tell us how a good long great weekend should look for you

Yeah where to begin, u wake up hopefully in a apartment full of your skate buddys u eat someting quick, grab the boards and go out to skate street and hopefully filming something, the best would be if u are in another contry and just has a plain skate vacation. Yeah after lunch u grab some beers and go chill at some good spot and just skate or mess around, maybe go to the beach if it is really warm. And later att night, u just go home change a little and take a shower, then u hit the bars and clubs and u go on parting untill it closes, and then the next morning.. Yeah you just start over haha that’s the best weekends! Or weekend when it’s small comps all round the cities,events like CPHopen or HELride those are really nice aswell, the aoura around those event is something special, u can’t really describe it u have to be there to feel it!

How is the summer treating you ?

The summer was amazing, a lot of skate, some good weather, not to warm not to could. HELride was the top for me with no doubt, shaut out to all the people over there, who made it possible and made my weekend!! I still hope we gonna have some sommardays left to make it even more great!

Who are you hanging out with at the moment ?

Oufh, there’s a lot of people, depends a little if and where I going, but all the locals in halmstad, Felipe, Philip, andreas, Simon, Carl, and when I can and are around, David dahlquist with the finish crew humix and mikksu and yeah all of the guys over there more or less! Everyone who has a skateboard and are close by haha!!

Who and what is your motivation at the moment ?

To see all the homies out there make it, and pushing the limits for sure!!

Last country you visited ? and what happened there ?

Helsinki, HELride happened, and tell me what didn’t happen there???

What was the last gnarly thing you witnessed ?

Oufh, either it was when my neighbor jumped out the window from second floor face first and shit went crayz or it was when Madars Apse hillbomed the hill in Helsinki with a fucking handstand, that was gnarly ass hell, and he did it twice..

What was the last item you bought ?

Red John silvers. Haha

Do you have any odd or strange things you do, that you wanna share ?

Nah I don’t know, most of the things I do is odd haha, but I have a almost 100kg concrete slappy curb in my car I always drive around with, so now days my car is a 4 seated car instead of 5 seated and non skaters thinks that it’s kinda wieard, maybe it is, becus I don’t skate slappy haha! But when I get a flat tire I will learn how to do slappys for sure hahah! !

What do you do besides skateboarding, do you have other hobbies, other interests ?

It’s only skate actually, this summer it’s hase been a lot of fishing as well, beside that it’s skate only, I do paint sometimes for requests, but nothing I call a hobbie, more like helping peapole out!

What is your to go to restaurant, you wanna share ?

McDonald’s haha, it’s “quick” , not so cheap, and u always get disappointed haha, but I still have my hope that it will be flawless someday!!

When you cook food, what do you cook ?

The quickest possible, like some pasta and and whatever I finde at home that take less than 10 minutes.. When I cook I’m always so hungry so i have to make some quick food haha, I’m kinda bad with my food and what I eat.

Benihana late-shuve, photo: David Gustavsson

How do you see the future of skateboarding ?

I don’t know, I think we gonna split up in two groups “Olympic sports men and women’s” who only care about winning the Olympics and big comps and then we have the “lifestyle underground skaterers” who don’t care about the comps and only film parts and not gonna be the same “accepted” as the sportsmen skaters. I don’t really know, but that’s what I think, anyhow the future looks fucking great, the level of the kids and skateboarding today is getting out of hand, it’s insane, so we gonna see som crazy shit the coming years so I’m not worry about the future!

Who do we need to interview on the lodge ?

Tim bijsterveld I bet he has alot of funny shit to tell you haha, he’s is funny as hell! And David Dahlquist I really think he has a bag full of interesting thoughts!

Do you ever think about a future with no skateboarding ?

No way, that shit ain’t gonna happen, we’re going down together no matter what!

With this interview, do you think we know you now for the better ?

Yeah, at least I hope so, haha!

Last words, thank yous, other, did we miss anything ?

Thanks to all my sponsors who keep me going, and everyone i ever have skated with! And of course, all the peapole who working for skateboard some how and had make it to what it is today! And also u guys hehe!