The new Pro riders for Polar Skate Co. – a personal nerd talk by Kristian “KB” Hristov

David Stenstrom and Emile Laurent finally pro for Polar! Wow! Did I wait for those two! I am really stoked on those guys getting their long awaited recognition and with what meaningful board graphics too! I’m not gonna talk about the graphics as Polar already shared a whole bunch on the topic. You can read about David’s first graphics and the inspiration behind them here. Also Polar wrote a touching article about Emile which you can check out here. I would like to tell you about my personal relationship with those individuals as a fan of their skating.

First, let’s talk about Emile Laurent. I first saw footage of Emile in Polar’s video from 2018 named “We blew it at some point”. I remember I was 15 years old when i saw it on an official premiere of the video that was a part of Burgas Skate Open. Way before I knew anybody. It was my first ever video premiere and I remember being so amused by the fact that people around me would cheer and clap while watching skateboarding. It was just then that I realized how videos are supposed to be experienced. And what a experience that was. I gotta thank Marto the Boss for this one!

Anyways, on that premiere I saw footage of Emile for the first time. He had the sickest opening line for the video that was so long you would forget his first trick by the end of it. You could never imagine the hype we got from it on that premiere. Ever since then Emile was always being talked about when Polar was mentioned. Usually people were calling his something like “that short dude from Polar” but still this goes to show you that he made an impression. I really love his approach to street skating. He kind of skates street like transition in the sense that he doesn’t stop. He just keeps going and going. He also has this sick opener line in this Portland video called “Land” by Cal’s Pharmacy.

After “Sounds like you guys a crushing it” I was positive that Emile is turning pro for sure. He had so much footage in that video and I was kind of bummed that he did not turn pro after that video. That’s why I was exceptionally stoked see that he finally went pro. I feel like he deserved to be pro for a long time. Congrats Emile!

David Stenstrom

Now let’s talk about David! I’m probably gonna have more to say as he is one of my personal favourite skateboarders these days. I remember first time watching any footage of his in Polar’s “I like it here inside my mind. Don’t wake me this time.”. A fundamental video for both me and Titi while we were growing up. Mind you, for many years in Bulgaria Polar was pretty much the shit for us kids as we were about 14 or 15 and looking for a more abstract approach to skating. I could bet you that most of us who were early teens in 2015-2016 tried to learn wallies way before we tried 50-50s. Well at least I did!

I got a bit carried away, I’m sorry! Back to talking about David. He had some footage in that first major video by Polar and though it was crazy good there was another thing that stood out to me a bit more. There was a segment in the video that was a tribute to his late father Tobba Stenstrom who had recently passed away. The segment was a beautiful short compilation of Tobba skating and talking about skating. It ends with a clip of his with the text “Miss you dad.” which couldn’t not touch you in a way. A short yet powerful interlude in the video that resonated with me quite a bit.

After that video David Stenstrom had some descent presence in all the Polar videos but I wouldn’t say he made the most out of it. Considering him and Oskar Rosenberg being the first people to skate for the company it may seem kind of odd that he turned pro in 2024. I understand it though. David has a special talent but his more recent work is more proving that he deserves his name on a board. Seems like in the beginning of career he was relying more on quality over quantity and I can’t blame him. Even if he has a single trick in a video its always a clip that leaves an impression.

In the last years he came out with more footage and he especially gained a following after the launching of Last Resort. He has a bunch of sick footage in their videos. I guess that was the turning point for his career. People wanted to see more of him and as Pontus Alv realized that decided to finally turn David pro. I am really glad he did and I feel like this is such a perfect timing. To me David Stenstrom in the way that he doesn’t need to make exceptionally hard tricks in order to impress people. I think that separates a pro skateboarder from a non-pro. And David is PRO AS FUCK!

Thanks to anyone who read all that, you are the best!

-KB