Andrei Churakov

Hometown: Blankenberge, Belgium

Discipline: Freestyle

Favorite Skate Memory: My first trip to Oslow, Norway with the Original Team Riders. It was my first big skate trip. We just rented an Air BnB, explored the city and stuff.

Pick Up Line: I'm bad at pick up limes.

Skate Fact: Andrei prefers his bushings/trucks hard and restrictive.

FSC: Where does your inspiration for new tricks and combos come from?

AC: I always say that people should take from everything. If you’re a longboarder, you don’t have to take from other longboarders. If you’re a skateboarder, you don’t have to take from just skateboarders. For example, I look at snowboarding videos, I love BMX videos and I love inline skating and stuff like that so I just watch videos on YouTube. If I see someone rollerskating do something weird with their foot that helps them do a pirouette or something like that, then I just take from that and try to incorporate it in my longboarding.

FSC: We’re putting you on blast. Is it true that scootering helped you get so good at one footed-manuals?

AC: It actually did. Before I wanted to be a longboarder, I was all about scootering. I wanted to be a pro scooter rider and I was actually been doing it for years - halfpipes and bowls with scooters - and I got relatively okay. Then, I remember one time someone gave me this weird look like,

"You’re too old for a scooter"

and I was like ‘Alright I guess I need a new sport’ so I got a longboard and started doing that. But yes, knowing how to manual on a scooter with one foot is actually the same as one foot manual on a longboard so that did help me out.

FSC: After spending some time in SoCal, what’s been your favorite spot to skate?

AC: Definitely Venice Beach. The vibe in Venice and Santa Monica is so cool with everyone skating or roller skating or biking. There’s stuff going on and creative people just doing their thing. As I said earlier, I take creativity from everything so I can see someone hula hooping and do something weird with their feet and think,

"Maybe I can do that with a board"