The first skateboard Kent Lingeveldt ever owned was pieced together from his cousin’s spare parts. “I took to it naturally, because I was a bit of a loner,” he says.
In the years since he discovered street skating as a teenager in the Cape Flats, Lingeveldt has fast become one of the key operators on the South African skateboard scene. He founded Alpha Longboards in 2000 and his customised longboards (which he makes from his workshop in Woodstock) are handmade one at a time and feature artworks from some of the country's most exciting creatives.
Lingeveldt is also a downhill competitive racer, but he says it’s not the adrenaline that keeps him hooked. It is the gaining of the knowledge of self and of trust of your own ability. It’s being able to recover from things at high speeds and stay calm enough to correct your movement that skateboarding really teaches you, and not just when you’re on the board.
We’re giving you the chance to get to know Kent Lingeveldt in this interactive interview, where you take control of the questions.
