Interview with Greg Mirzoyan
It is very likely that most of you, whatever is your practice of roller-skating, already saw a video or heard about Greg Mirzoyan. The rider of Rollerblade is well known for his mythical video ROB (Ride One Babylon). Flashback on his year 2010 within the Rollerblade Original team...
Par alfathor
“I try to produce original things!”
Name: Greg Mirzoyan
Date of birth: 29/06/82
City: Hometown is Paris but I am based in barcelona at the moment.
Results: There aren’t much competitions in this urban skating activity but I guess I had good results in some bladercross like 1st in Moscow, Paris and Seoul.
Message to the world: Make things happen! What ever you want to achieve, just go for it.
Best Moment: I would say all my trips to asia in general, I have the best times there.
Favorite trick: I think I like original lines and unusual obstacles in general.
Favorite spot: Paris in general is amazing for skating…
Music: soul, jazz and any kind of chilled songs
Experience about the new skate: I am very happy with 84mm wheels and the new frame, the best combination speed/maneuverability to me, a very important improvement to the skate I think.
Hi Greg! You lived a quite exceptional year in 2010 with the Original Team of Rollerblade. If you take a look back at these last months, I guess you can see thousands of travels and meetings… What was THE best record?
Well there was this trip in China which was very interesting and exotic. But, for professional reasons, I was more impressed by the travel in Barcelona at the beginning of July for the “Movistar Barcelona Extrem”! We shooted there for the 2011 collection, I met a lot of people and above all, I made a lot of shootings and videos for Rollerblade. I tried to start the settings and shootings early in the morning because of the natural light and the cool temperatures. But I had to go on all the day through because of the quantity of work! We achieved a lot of work and captured a lot of stuff during these four days in this very interesting city. I like Barcelona for these interesting and diversified aspects, and that is the reason why I just moved in there!
Which meetings did you prefer the most in 2010?
I met Rob Guerrero from the TRS International Team for the first time. From the first shootings, for the “Original Team”, I found him very interesting. I practiced aggressive skating in the past, just like him. We have the same culture, the same background. That is the reason why we were finally so close so quickly. We have the same professional and personal vision of roller skating.
When you work for Rollerblade, when you take pictures or when you make videos, what are you looking for first?
When I am working for Rollerblade, two things are very important to me: the first one is that I try to produce original things. I try to change of ideas, of framings, of settings, of stories… But I try to keep my style! The second thing which is very important to me is to make the finale production match with the roller skating section I am working for. I have to leave my ‘street vision’ at home in order to adapt to a completely different way of skating sometimes.
We only see the finale production, the photo, the video clip… But we cannot imagine how many hours you have to work for this result…
Ah, it is not the funniest aspect! It is really hard to do. It is an everyday heavy work, and I have to take care of that! After the shoots, once I am back home, or at the hotel sometimes, the first thing to do is to save everything: I do it twice, or even three times, depending of the importance of the material. When it comes to the editing part of the pictures, it is very long: I have to look at each photo, one or several times. I cancel the ones which are not good to me, and then only, I start to retouch them and I am able to propose the final result to Rollerblade. Concerning the video stuff, it is quite the same process, but it is longer because I have to look at the style, the music, the introduction… It can take long hours and even days! It depends of the complexity of the command.
You are also an experienced skater. How many hours a day do you practice?
It really depends on the period. Right now, it is every day, because I am skating instead of taking the public transports in Barcelona. The city is fitted to roller skating! I am skating naturally, sometimes quite fast and I must say that I take some risks, but sometimes it is calm. But I never considered this sport as a competition and I couldn’t say that it is a training to skate very day: this is just the way I am!
Links
www.rollerblade.com
www.gregmirzoyan.com
Photos: Rollerblade, Greg Mirzoyan
