Oystein Greni from Oslo, Norway was on the verge of a pro-skateboarding career when at age 16 he shattered his knee. Faced with a long recuperation, Oystein turned to music to pass the time and soon founded Bigbang, which has become one of Norway's biggest rock acts. Look for the US release of Bigbang's Edendale soon! Meanwhile, we asked Oystein to share his story with us....(photo at left by Tommy Solsadt) I was a very skinny 11 year old wearing a The Who t-shirt and two pairs of Levis to make my legs look thicker. Since skateboarding was against the law in Norway (at the time), the scene was attracting a lot of anarchists and punk rockers. Very scary at first, but once you kept showing up at the ramp and tolerated nonstop snaking and verbal abuse, these people became both mentors and much needed soulmates. The story of these skateboarders of Oslo who helped raise me and a few of my best friends is to me as important and inspiring as any "coach-kid" story out there.
In the winter months, we would pour acetone on the frozen plywood in the bottom of the ramp and burn it dry, the fumes would make me really dizzy. Some guy would bring his tape player, and that´s how I got to love bands like Badbrains, Black Flag, Fugazi, Dinosaur Junior, descendents, Cro-mags etc... it was like jazz..you needed to listen a few times before you got it,
at first it just sounded evil.
To me, Chris Miller was skateboarding; speed, style, and the longest alley-oops ever...don´t get me started... you had guys doing all these tricks; lean airs, frontside airs, fastplants, indy airs.. and then you had Chris Milller doing the same tricks and they became more interesting than
540s... at least in my book. Steve Claars fronstide ollies and andrechts were amazing too!--Oystein Greni
For more on Bigbang, please visit www.thebigbangweb.com or www.myspace.com/smallbang
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