Kenny Scherf Interview

Hometown Glory

One of Arizona’s most underrated talents, Kenny Scherf, discusses his plans for the future and explains why Dave Lang is responsible for his re-occurring ankle injuries.

Rollerblading is not about pro skaters, videos and competitions. Sure, all of these aspects are important to the sport. After all, the pro skaters offer inspiration and give the younger generation figures to look up to. Videos are useful in that they provide entertainment and allow people to see what different scenes are like around the world and competitions give our favourite professionals the opportunity to earn some money and hungry amateurs the chance to prove themselves to their peers. However, this is not where the sport’s main appeal lies for most lifetime bladers in waiting that just don’t know it yet.

People like Kenny Scherf are the individuals that develop out sport on an everyday basis at a grassroots level. Many people first discover rollerblading by witnessing someone on skates in their town or city, seeing a person they recognise from their school skating a handrail or tearing up a local skatepark. This is where the appeal in rollerblading lies, because when someone picks up a pair of skates they instantly have a connection with that individual and it allows them to develop a friendship based on a shared interest. It is local heroes, like Kenny Scherf, that provide the main source of inspiration that is needed to help young skaters in the community develop their talents.

Scherf has never been sponsored and there is very little chance of him taking home top honours at Winterclash or Bitter Cold Showdown any time soon, but every time he straps on a pair of blades he shows dedication to his craft and his obvious ability on blades is a source of encouragement for kids in his local area. He is not simply an icon that bladers in their formative years can watch in videos and events, but a real-life mentor that they interact with on a regular basis at their local skate spots and seek encouragement from to develop their blading talents. The 20-year-old from Phoenix, Arizona has been going strong for years and released an impressive section in the Arizona scene video, Creep, but, more importantly, he is still there, on the streets, despite limited free time due to working towards kick-starting his career in business management. Let’s just hope that grocery industry doesn’t steal Scherf from us for another few years.

Fishbrain

Wheel Scene: How did you get into rollerblading and what year was that?
Kenny Scherf: When I was about nine I was a skateboarder, and I always had a far-from-par skateboard. It would always chip and break, so it seemed like I was going nowhere. One day I decided to steal my brother’s (Andrew Scherf) skates when he was at a friend’s house, and then begged for a pair for my birthday. It had to have been March of 2001.

What do you think about competitions? Do you enjoy skating in them?
I honestly love competitions. I wish I could go to them all, but there always seems to be something that stops me from going. My main problem is getting the time off work.

You have been injured recently. Can you tell us about that?
I initially hurt my ankle about two years ago on a stair gap, and I re-injured it at AIL 2011. Shout out to Dave Lang, who I “blame” for the re injury. I was messing around in warm ups and doing cork 900s over the fly box and Dave told me to do it again. I slipped out when I launched up, under rotated and somehow flat bottomed to my back and slammed my right foot to the ground. It’s never been the same since – almost there though.

Damn, that doesn’t sound very good.
I have injured it on and off for about the past five years.

Moving on, what is your local skate scene like?
The Arizona scene has had its ups and downs, but somehow one person has managed to keep a somewhat segregated scene from crumbling. Ever since the dawn of Thursday Night Skate the pieces were put back together. Thanks James and Gretchen at Revolution Skate.

Are you working or studying at the moment?
I do plan on going to a university starting in the fall and my job has somehow managed to turn into a career. I have invested a lot of time into the Kroger Company and plan to continue my career path with them. The only drawback to these responsibilities is I can’t skate as much I used to.

What is the Kroger Company and what would you like to study at university?
The Kroger Company is a grocery industry giant in the USA. They go from coast to coast with over 3,500 stores. My studies at the university will be aimed toward business management, because of Kroger’s generous tuition reimbursement. After it all they will have contributed more than 40% of my tuition.

What do you like to do when you are not skating?
I’ll be one of the few to admit that Call of Duty may have affected my skating, that’s one of the things I do when I’m not skating. Driving and just hanging out with friends doing dumb shit would sum up my life outside of skating.

When can we expect to see new Kenny Scherf footage?
Look forward to seeing me in the upcoming video You Become a Monster, set to premier this summer. I’ve worked really hard on my section for the past year.

If you could pick one rollerblader to represent our sport, who would it be and why?
I could name a few, but one would have to be Brian Aragon. He’s kinda done his own thing with skating that makes his shit appealing. He’s capable of laying it down one minute and playing around the next. His tricks always seem to flow together and his style is his own. To the outside eye, or someone who’s been skating for years, it is hard not to be impressed with the shit he throws down.

Words: David McNamara             Photos: Ryan Daily

Backside royale

Mute 360