Keith Hufnagel

Publicado por Welcome Shop Madrid en

There are some feelings and sensations that they will persist in your head forever and that you can remember them like if it was yesterday.
It was 1994, another perfect day to spend it skating at my local spot back then (Plaza de Colon, Madrid).
I remember getting out of Serrano´s metro stop, and waiting at the zebra in front of the Loewe store as usual, with the whole plaza in front of me.
While waiting to cross the street, I would just check to see who was there. Without cell phones or social media, it was always a surprise.
There is no way I would have guessed what I was about to witness. From about a 100 meter, I saw two silhouettes that I knew they were none of my friends.
They were kind of familiar to me though, not from the plaza but from videos.
While I got closer, I could recognize Huf, because of his classic blonde hair, and then I realized the other extra terrestrial was Carl Sipman.

The way they pushed, the speed, and their stylish outfit, made me realize that the best thing I could do was just sit down and watch.
It was just impressive how perfect everything was. The extra clean and puffy tongue white shoes, the baggy jeans, the XL sweater fresh out the plastic... Not to mention the way they were skating.
I can't really remember any specific tricks, besides Carl doing some amazing fs 360 ollies on flat. I also remember Huf´s incredible speed, skating the whole plaza non stop, till he saw the perfect spot to leave his mark. He ollied over the planter block to the bottom of the fountain, that it was luckily drained at the moment. Obviously NBD.

After that day, the way we dressed started changing, and the way we skated as well. It's crazy how certain people can have a direct impact on our lives.
Without even realizing, we stopped trying all those tech tricks to just skate simpler and nicer.

Some years after, during a trip to SF, my friend Croyde took me to the HUF store, and gifted me a cap. Keith Hufnagel showed up casually and he signed my hat without a problem. I skated that hat till it completely lost its shape.

As William Strobeck said: '' If there's a heaven, HUF will be there''.