Timur Mamatov Interview

My first memories of Timur Mamatov...are composed of a sketchy street rider from Russia.   When I think of Timur now? I consider him to be one of the most progressive street riders I know. Timur has always faced adversity in the sport and from a lot of the community early on. He was from Russia, didn't speak the best english...and wasn't the best rider starting out. That all changed in a quick couple of years, as Timur started to push himself hard with his riding. Soon people couldn't wait for a new video from Timur. Let's take a closer look at Timur and see how he got started in the sport.

Timur is 20 years old and currently lives in St. Petersburg, but was born and raised in Perm, Russia. It was five years ago, in 2005 that Timur first stepped on a scooter. Timur was about 12 or 13 years old, when his father went to Germany for some kind of business expo. At this Expo all the people were given JD Bug Scooters to get around a bit easier. Timur's Father thought it would make a nice souvenir from Germany for his son, and brought the scooter home for Timur.

For the most part the scooter was nothing more than a means of transportation for Timur. He just used it to get around to places he needed to go. However near the end of 2004, Timur and a friend who was an MTB rider, decided to use the scooter and try and few simple tricks on it. Tiretaps, X ups, no footers, and so on, mainly because they realized the scooter's set up was so similar to that of the mountain bike. After the long Russian winter ended, Timur got back on the scooter and him and his friend were back practicing their tricks. Finally in June of 2005, Timur landed his first tailwhip. It is that date, that Timur usually tells people is when he started to ride. There is truth in it, because it was landing that tailwhip that lit a new fire inside of Timur and suddenly sparked his desire to learn even more tricks on a scooter. He continued to ride all through the summer, progressing very slowly since his friend had quit scootering to ride bikes full time. Timur began searching outside of his city and country to find inspiration and fellow riders.

At the end of 2005 Timur found the MX Forums. It was here where his eyes would be opened for the first time as to what scootering was becoming. He watched Martin Kimbell's first video and was completely blown away. This was the first time he had seen quad tailwhips, scooter flip combos, tailwhip rewinds and much more. Then came Matt Mc Keen's “For Chris” Video. This is the video that made Timur realize he wanted to be a street rider. While looking through the comments, he found another website...that has brought so many riders from so many countries together. Scooter Resource. Timur immediately made an account, and shortly after posted his first video where he was riding his infamous “Truck Scooter”. Basically a scooter...with skateboard trucks attached to it. The reason behind this scooter was actually due to a shortage of parts for Timur...which would be a reoccuring problem for him in the years to come. The video got mixed reviews, some loved it, some didn't. This didn't stop Timur at all. He now had a strong desire to become a part of this sport, he wanted to help build the foundation of the sport in his country of Russia. Ever since that time, Timur stayed in close touch with all international riders, and continued to take advice, perfect his riding, and release new videos....they've never stopped getting better and better. He continued to ride, and starting out looked up to Matt Mc Keen, Martin Kimbell, Thomas Obadia and Addison Mc Naughton. He was inspired by Martin's tech tricks, and the raw street riding from the others. All of which helped to mold Timur into the rider he is today.

When it comes to tricks, Timur remembers one as being one of the hardest for him to master. Fakies. There was a time when Timur couldn't ride fakie at all without hopping to keep his balance. However, once he got them down, they became one of his favorite tricks to do, and he has some amazing fakie combos. Timur's favorite tricks to do now a days, are lots of tech tricks...Fakies, Grinds, Manuals all with different combos. In most of his videos you can usually see him riding various ledges and banks. He does of course still do the occasional big tricks over sets and gaps...but that has slowed down recently, due to him breaking his foot in 2008, an injury that never quite fully healed.

One of Timur's biggest problems he has had to face was the lack of people to ride with. Back in his hometown of Perm, Timur had literally no one to ride with. While all of his friends did support him, after seeing the difficulties he went through with broken parts, they were quick with their decision to not get involved. When Timur moved to St. Petersburg for school, he started to meet and get other people interested in riding. He soon had around 10-20 people that got into scootering in St. Petersburg. However he say's it is in Moscow that you can find up to 300 riders. Some of Timur's favorite St. Petersburg locals to ride with are, Nikita Kozodoy, Dmitry Simonov, Gosha Zheludkov, a rider from Velikiy Novgorod named Alexander Vasiliev, and those mad Solnechnogorsk dudes: Mikhail Ilyin, Alex Bayunov, Serj Baburin. He assures me that all of them can throw down, and hopefully soon in a video, we can check them out.

When Timur thinks about the sport now, he can't help but love all of the changes it has gone through. Having been in the sport for over 5 years, he can look back and realize and appreciate all of the changes the sport has gone through. From the new companies, to the new parts and riders, all of the new events, and different scenes...he loves it all. Things like scootering appearing on Nitro Circus and on Tv, to tricks like front flairs and 1080s and double backflips and riders making their living off the sport and traveling to different countries, are all things that make Timur very proud in his choice to start riding scooters. And while Timur is completely shocked at where the sport is now, he honestly still feels that this is just the beginning. Timur's future includes a lot more riding and progression. He wants to continue to help develop the Russian scooter scene, and of course find time to travel to the USA and other countries. In his words, “What would be better that seeing people you've been chatting for 5 years in person?” He also plans to complete college, get a nice job, record an album with his band, and further define his lifestyle.

Timur is a one of a kind in the sport. When a rider is literally forced to ride alone in a country where the sport he is starting to do is virtually unheard of...and then takes it to the lengths and limits where Timur has taken it, and will continue to take it. You have to commend and respect that. If other countries had more riders like Timur who could go through what he went through and still have this amazing outlook on the sport, it could really change how the sport is. I hope to see Timur in the USA sometime in 2011.

Intro by Steven Tongson

Interview by Jordan Jasa

 

Jordan Jasa:  You were one of the first people I remember who really rode street exclusively, doing big sets and gaps. Why is it that you rode street so much?

Timur Mamatov:  First of all, I simply haven’t had any good parks in my native city of Perm. Secondly, I always thought that filming in street looks much better than in park. So I decided to turn my disadvantage into advantage and specialize in doing stairs, banks and ledges.

Who are some riders that inspire you today?

Justin Robertson, Dylan Kasson, Dan Barrett, Josh Young, Graham Kimbell and Matt McKeen. They always push themselves hard while riding and never cease to amaze me with their new tricks.

Steven says in the intro that you broke your foot in 2008. How did that happen?

That was really stupid: a front briflip over the box that I had been doing thousand times before went wrong and I twisted my left foot. It took 3 months before I could start riding again and still I feel myself quite uncomfortable doing some big gaps/boxes. So I am more into tech now.

Where do you see the sport in a year? 5 years?

It’s hard to say since scootering has been developing really fast lately. In a year: a couple more companies will appear, new contests will be held, new unbelievable tricks will be landed, etc. In five years: scootering will be as popular as any other kind of extreme sports. There will be people making living out of riding, more team trips, more events, and the aftermarket parts are going to be just flawless.

Something I think a lot of people remember about you is the infamous truck scooter. What was it like riding that thing versus a normal 2 wheeler?

Well, that was a long time ago, but I still remember having fun while doing some rail tricks: 50-50s, 5-0s, feeble and smith grinds – that was looking weird but felt great. I also found doing fakies easier so that helped me a little as well.

What are your plans for the future?

Regarding scooter riding: work more on my style, make better videos and visit some kind of contest outside Russia. Regarding anything else: complete my education, find a delightful job, write and perform some more music in the bands I play.

I'd imagine that living in Russia, it’s a little hard getting a hold of good parts. What were your first aftermarket parts?

Eagle Sport wheels in 2008. I won them in a videocontest and they seemed much better than plastic-cores. But basically I’ve been riding reinforced stock JDBUGs till this summer. And I still prefer foldable bars over one pieces for some reasons.

 

What is one place you'd like to ride but haven't yet?

I’d like to ride any spots in Paris. Every time I am watching a new video from French riders I feel myself a bit jealous, haha.

What was it like when you first rode with another scooter rider after so much time riding with just skaters/bmxers?

It happened in 2007 in Moscow, I already had some skills and strongly wanted to share them. So, these guys greeted me nicely and we had some really good time riding together. I still enjoy teaching people how to do tricks or how to look after their scooters. It is good to know that the skills I’ve been collecting by myself for a long time can now bring some joy to other riders.

 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're sponsored by French ID right? How's that working out for you?

 
I used to be on their flow team, but they found shipping to Russia really hard task so we decided to leave this idea. Now I am sponsored by EagleSport/District and it seems much better. I recently received a strong and nice-looking scooter and decided to make a little promo video.

That'll wrap it up. Any thanks/shoutouts?

Thanks to my father who brought me my first scooter, thanks to Marcel for picking me up on the team, thanks to Madis for being cool and sending me those white wee’s, thanks to Inside Scooters team for making the best blog ever, thanks to local St. Petersburg riders for the joyful time we spend together and thanks to everyone who supports me and watch my videos!
PS: Стэн, не забывай, ты обещал приехать на свою историческую родину ;)

And now, check out Timur’s Eaglesport Promo Video.  Soo crazy, I dropped my jaw at a few of the tricks.  Love his riding.