Guy Kampfen – Safari Clothing Malaria (2006)

Swiss tech is defined by 11 trick ender lines.

Guy Kampfen never got the respect he deserved because he rode for Darkstar. The world of warcraft warrior graphics on dipped boards really really appealed to kids aged 12 to 14. 15 and up thought it was wack and shunned one the brand that was selling way more boards than their favourite brands ever could have achieved. The skateboard industry is weird.

It also didn’t help to share a first name with another tech god of skateboarding, Mariano…

With the odds stacked against him, Guy Kampfen submitted footage for his clothing brand’s video Malaria. If you weren’t living in a country that bordered with Switzerland during the early 2ooos, it was alright to be totally unaware of a brand called Safari. Again, sharing a name with an internet browser built in to every Apple product…

To me, Guy’s Malaria part is him giving two middle fingers to the American skate industry for not supporting his love for skateboarding. The timid reaction to Darkstar’s Battalion video a few years prior probably meant that any posthumous effort was going to be Guy’s curtain call from the big leagues. And it pretty much was.

But god damn! Did Guy come out swinging! Or spinning, I should say.

Guy gets very tech on his Swiss ledges and displays an obvious preference for the switch bigspin and 5-0 to crooked grind which he combines into and out of every 3rd or 4th trick. Siouxsie and the Banshees sing about spinning around in their enchanted Spellbound track and it suits the trick selection perfectly.

Some of the tech goes by a tad too fast like the backside fakie nosegrind switch bigspin out, but Guy offers a final reminder of how good he had it with his 11 trick marathon to end the show.

Reset your clock to Swiss tech and accept the fact that Darkstar had some sick skaters on the team.