I first met Roman as a cheeky little skater at the “East Frisian Skate Cup” contest series in East Frisia. He was an average skater who always had something to say and could talk a lot. We got to know each other better and better from contest to contest and I saw him skate more and more with morphine decks.

When the first Morphium tour came up in 2005, he also wanted to come along, which he did. On the tour, he really got into it and started insulting everyone on the tour, which led to everyone unconsciously adopting this attitude and after two days we were all insulting each other. Of course, it was a lot of fun and we had a lot to laugh about. You also quickly realized that Roman was pretty crazy and didn’t check one thing or another so quickly.
He had obtained his driver’s license shortly before the tour and persuaded me at some point to drive into town with a few other guys in a rental car. The result was that Roman shattered the rear window when reversing out of a parking space. There was a lot of stress with the car rental company, but it could have been worse.

On the other hand, Roman clearly showed on the tour that he wanted to show what he was made of and really pushed himself while skating. The tricks didn’t come to him, but he had a lot of stamina and kept going until the trick was right. He wasn’t too shy to take a few slams during his attempts and kept going. He got a lot of respect from me for that. Especially for tackling things that no one else wanted to do.
He himself once told me that it was an honor for him to be on the tour, which really pushed him. So it was clear that he would be on every other tour afterwards, which has been the case.

Roman really pushed Morphium in Papenburg and the surrounding area in his skate crew and started selling Morphium decks directly to his friends for me. Roman is also an absolute skateboard nerd. He knows every new skate part and video clip and tries to learn the tricks as well. He has no problem spending two hours at a time learning just the one trick he has set himself. He really works out the tricks, and when he has a trick down, he can do it again and again without any problems.
He quickly acquired a high level of tricks, which he then realized. So one day he asked me whether it would be possible for him to join the Morphium team. I didn’t realize that he was the type to travel to every contest or meet up with various filmmakers and photographers across Germany. On the other hand, I knew that there wouldn’t be a more loyal team rider than him, who is so behind the brand. So I made a deal with him in which he was officially in the team, but released from all obligations and expectations. The deal is still in place today and I’m glad to have him on the team. Without him and his support, Morphium would have been in a lot of trouble a long time ago. Fortunately, I’ve always been able to rely on Roman. The same applies to our friendship, which I am just as grateful for.

We also thought that we could open up the skateboard market in Groningen and the Netherlands through Klaas van der Laan. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out, even though he was riding for the biggest skateboard distributor in the Netherlands at the time.

So he had been selling morphine stuff among his colleagues and friends on his own for a long time.

Towards 2006 he withdrew from skating and told me honestly that as a sponsored skater he could no longer perform as well as he thought he should. They parted ways and shortly afterwards he and a few friends tried to set up a skateboard company called “Broken Skateboards”, which unfortunately no longer exists.