Zoltan Torkos, the man behind surfing’s first kick flip and other skate-related moves. We’ve seen Zoltan pop up from time to time with his bag of skate tricks and we love a good hybrid ambassador, We thought we’d catch up with Zoltan and pick his brain about being one of the few (if not the only) surfers pulling skate moves in the line up.
A quick recap, Zoltan holds the record for the first Kick flip / Dark slide / Hippie jump caught on film and in surfing. He resides in Santa Cruz, California and in his spare time from carving meat at the local butcher and busting k-flips in the line up, Zoltan encourages youth to hit the water or the skatepark through his self funded foundation ‘Pull tricks not triggers’.
So Zoltan,
Kickflips? Dark slides? What inspired you to start busting them on a surfboard?
What inspires me to bust kick flips on the surfboard and dark slides? Is my friends last day on earth he told me I should be the guy who does the first kick flip, unfortunately that was the last time I saw him so I made it my mission to start doing this.
How many K-flips and dark slides have you landed to date?
I’ve had to have landed easily over 300 kick flips by now and at least 20 darks slides.
They’re nuts, where and how did you start practising them?
I started practicing kick flips obviously on my skateboard and then bring it to the ocean and then wake.
It’s got me wondering, how do you go on a skateboard?
It’s funny when I skateboard I look like I’m surfing and when I’m surfing I look like I’m skateboarding, it confuses everyone including me.
Where do you get your inspiration from? Surfers…Skaters? Both?
I have to use my imagination wherever I go, I definitely get my surfing inspiration from skateboarding and my skateboarding inspiration from surfing and also the wonders of the earth magic of the universe.
Any other skate-related moves up your sleeve or that you’re working on?
Yeah I have a few moves right now, I did the first hippie jump in surfing and I got a couple other weird kind of skateboarding inspired tricks to come.
Got a message for the kids?
My messages to the kids is to pull tricks not triggers, it’s a foundation I started with those around and gives kids skateboards and surfboards that wouldn’t otherwise have them, so they have a chance to go pull tricks not triggers.
Support Zoltan’s cause here
