From Morpheum Skateboards' Website:
Dennis Klüssendorf
Lübeck (DE) - Team entrance 2006
I first noticed Dennis at an “Attitude Summer Jam” in Bre...
From Morpheum Skateboards' Website:
Dennis Klüssendorf
Lübeck (DE) - Team entrance 2006
I first noticed Dennis at an “Attitude Summer Jam” in Bremen. Highly motivated, he delivered his run there with a final trick on the men’s rail in the park. I then saw him at the “Labskaus Jam” in Hamburg, where he also stood out with his skating.
Florian Raddatz, a local skater from Lübeck, then put me in touch with Dennis. I agreed with Dennis that he would come over the next weekend to film, which he was keen to do.
I came up with a few spots that we went to, and to my amazement he immediately tackled the spots with sick tricks, which he even delivered with good style. That impressed me and I immediately made a deal with him with Morphium. I think Dennis was also the first team rider to get the decks sponsored for free straight away. All the other team riders were either previously on a “flow” basis or “store team riders” and paid a small price for their decks. With Dennis, I knew straight away: the kid needs enough decks “for free” so that he doesn’t have to worry about his tricks.
From then on, Dennis was pretty much always at the start everywhere. He was extremely motivated in his skateboarding, which in turn pushed everyone else around him or directly at the spot. However, he also needed his recognition and, of course, the attention that I gave him as much as possible.
He then took over the team position from Keno, whose skateboarding activity was slowly declining. This made Dennis the figurehead for Morphium Skateboards, as he attracted a lot of attention in the skateboard scene. The absolute hit was his kickflip on the big double set in Frankfurt, which also earned him a cover in “Monster Skateboard Magazine”. Of course, he also drew attention to himself at various contests.
Of course, the story could have gone on forever for Morphium and Dennis, but at some point a boy like that also caught the eye of the larger competitors in the skateboard market and Dennis received an offer from “Urban Supplies” (the distributor for Blind Skateboards at the time). Dennis was to ride for “Blind Europe” and would get paid monthly.
As I was in very good contact with Dennis and we had already talked about situations like this, Dennis consulted me first and asked me what he should do. As I knew that he also wanted to pursue skateboarding professionally and that it was his dream to earn a living from it, I advised him to accept the offer. I made it clear to him that Morphium couldn’t offer that and that I didn’t want to put any obstacles in his way. Dennis was very relieved and happy that he could turn his back on Morphium with a clear conscience and switch to Blind.
I was delighted for Dennis and was very excited to see whether he would make the leap that so many other German skaters before him had missed out on. About a year later, it was clear that the promises made to him before his move had (apparently) not been kept. The “Blind Europe” deal never materialized and he never received his monthly salary. He still received the boards via “Urban Supplies”, but nothing more came of it.
Unfortunately, we heard less and less about Dennis and didn’t see him skate anymore. At some point I heard that he had switched from Blind (via sales) to “Dreamskateboards”. He got a pro model there, but even then there was no sign of Dennis on the skateboard. I suspect that his negative experience in the business demotivated him a lot and that there was no one there to give him the recognition and attention he needed. If you then lose the fun in the business, it is of course not possible to keep up with the level of performance or go beyond it.
On the other hand, he has started DJing at parties and djing and seems to be very successful with it now. From what I’ve heard, Dennis regularly plays at the “Parkhaus Lübeck”. I’m sure he’s happy about every visit.
