An Interview with Greg Breger (Photo and Video)

Posted by pb1001 on Mar 14, 2012 in Interviews | 0 comments

Greg Breger has been consistently in our field of vision since his “Weekly One Shot” last month. He seems to have learnt how to control all grinds on an 80mm setup and skates them as aggressive frames with complete ease. We decided to catch up and learn more about Greg.

Pic Ronan Algalarrondo

1. Hey Greg, tell us about yourself, what is your age, nationality and location?

I’m French. I have lived in Savenay in the west of France near Nantes for almost 30 years.

2. Where do you skate, and who do you skate with?

I skate most of the time in Nantes with my friends from there and every time we have the opportunity we try to go on road trips with some friends from Bretagne or Touraine. During the Summer I skate a lot in the South West of France with the Taryf family

Pic Ronan Alglarrondo

3. How long have you been skating? What were your first skates?

I had my first pair of inline skates in 1994 if I remember correctly, they were the Alpina fitness from Auchan (Alcampo supermarket in Spain) and soon after I bought street skates, the Oxygen Argon 3.1.

4. What styles of skating have you done?

I started with hockey and before long I moved to the street, I did a lot of Freeskate and a little bit of Slalom just to figure out if I could do it (and it’s not that easy hahaha)

5. What made you want to try Powerblading?

When I was Freeskating, I was always frustrated at one point during the session because it was impossible to grind, and I always returned to the street skating even if I knew that I was losing the speed and the maneuverability of my Freeskates.
It was awful to think that it was impossible to mix Street and Freeskate, and when I heard about the UFS Powerblading frame in 80mm it was the perfect compromise.

Pic by Ronan Alglarrondo

6. What did you feel the first day you tried the new frame setup ?

I had seen Richie and Dustin skate them as street frames, so I started to grind right from the start, and did my first back royale - when I understood the trick to grind it was like I had just done a big street trick!!!! And then I started to think about all new possibilities of lines and tricks I would now be able to do.

7. What are your feelings after Powerblading for a few months, how are you enjoying it? How would you describe it?

At the beginning, I used my PB only once every 3 or 4 sessions, but then I decided to skate them during the street sessions with my friends, to have more control and now I only skate my PB. I haven’t skated my street frames for one month. It’s like every trick I do with my PB is a new one, it’s like restarting skating, and that’s awesome.

8. How do you backslide so well on a flat 80mm setup?

Actually back backslide in one of my favorite trick so I already had some skills, it just meant changing my usual position to be able to backslide with 80mm, I had to sit further backward and I quickly realized that as long as the wheels touched just a bit that prevented me from finishing on my ass.

Pic Pierre Ollivier

9. Do you still skate Aggressive, or are you now focused of Powerblading?

As I told you, I just skate PB for now but I’m sure I’ll go back to street frames sometimes, even if we can do a lot of stuff with PB there is also a lot of stuff we can’t for now

10. How do you see Powerblading in the skate industry future?

I think that’s what Rollerblading needed, it’s a new way to approach new spots with a new style.

11. What technical advances would you like to see in the future for Powerblading and Powerblading harware?

I really asked myself the same, and I think a grind plates (on the Advances) could be nice, or an H-block ;) while keeping the 80mm wheels, or work on harder wheels to be less sticky during slides but still great while skating.

Pic by Ronan Algaroondo

12. Is there anything else you would like to add?

I would like to thank my sponsor Terre de Glisse who are very good to me, and all my friends. Special thanks to Pierre Ollivier and Ronan Algalarondo for shooting and editing.

And thanks to you Oli at Powerblading.org.

Enjoy this pioneer edit of Greg Breger dominating all grinds: