It’s been no secret for a long time that skateboarders are often very creative people—it’s practically in the nature of the sport. However, the direction this creativity takes is highly individual. Some are good at drawing or painting, others create sculptures or design skateparks, while still others film or edit videos. Then there are the classic musicians, rappers, models, and actors! The latter are certainly among the rarer talents among skateboarders, but every once in a blue moon, a well-known German skateboarder makes it to the big screen. Victor Bass did just that, starring in the children’s series “Uferpark.” That alone was reason enough for us to sit down for a more in-depth chat with the TITUS Tornados team rider—not to mention the topic of skateboarding, where he’s been “more on fire” than ever in recent months! How do the two go together? Victor knows!
Pressure Flip | Berlin
Gentsch: Hi, Victor. You’re originally from Potsdam, but you’ve been living in Berlin for quite a while now, right?
Victor: Well, it’s been okay—I moved back here in September 2025. I actually grew up in Berlin originally and only moved to Potsdam with my mom later on. Funnily enough, I also grew up in the apartment where I’m living again now. My mom, with foresight, had just sublet it. Since it was a shared apartment and a room became available there, I moved back in. And soon my sister will be moving into the other room, too.
When exactly did you live in Potsdam?
Hmmm, it must have been around 2011.
Did you start skating there, or had you already been skating before that?
Nope, I’d already been skating before that. I was always at the indoor skatepark, and even when I lived in Potsdam, I actually drove to Berlin every day to skate—also to meet up with my friends, since they were all from Berlin anyway. Potsdam gets boring after a while, hahaha. It’s actually really nice there now, but Berlin is just more exciting.
We were also at the Drop-In Surf Camp together this winter, and Mac said you’d been there before and did your first axle stall on the mini-ramp there…
Haha, yeah. That was a long time ago—I was 8 or so. I was there with my mom and my stepdad back then. But I’d love to go back there now—maybe it’ll work out this year.
We first met at contests, right? When did you compete in your first contests?
Fs Smithgrind | COS Hamburg 2022
Wow, something just came to mind—I’ll get back to your question in a sec: The first picture you took of me was in Aurich at the COS Cup—it was an FS boardslide on the big rail. And at some point, my mom had that picture printed really big on canvas and hung it up at our house. That was also one of the first contests I ever competed in. But my very first contest was in Potsdam at Lindenpark—it’s called “Summer Slam,” and this year marks its 28th edition.
I can still vividly picture taking a photo with you at the COS Cup in Hamburg; you were dressed all in white.
Yeah, I remember—that used to be my go-to contest outfit, all in white. Back then, I always thought the judges would see me better that way, hahaha. But even aside from that, I just really like dressing a little more flashily. And that’s exactly what I do for the contest—I put on clothes that I’m into and that stand out a bit.
But you’re not really a contest kid anymore, are you? Back then—I don’t know, at the COS Cups like the one in Hamburg—there was this kind of—no, not a label, but that was kind of the general consensus: “He’s one of the new generation of good contest kids.” Who was hanging out with you back then?
There were a few guys from Berlin who I definitely went to a lot of contests with. I don’t know if that’s who you mean. But it could be, like Jesse or something.
Yeah, Jesse Kloes, exactly.
The “contest kid” duo. We’ve both tried a bit to move away from that “contest kid” image. Even though we both still compete in a lot of contests,—I don’t want to speak for him, but definitely for myself—street skating has become far more important in recent years.
And then you didn’t end up going to college or doing some kind of vocational training?
Nope, well, I’m actually enrolled in a college program. I’m officially a student, but I don’t really go there. I mean, I went once.
Bs Noseblunt | Lissabon
What kind of degree program?
American Studies, North American Studies. It’s actually pretty interesting and cool. But for some reason, I’m just not really into going there right now, and I’ve got so many other things going on that I often just don’t have the time. But I’m in the program with Matthes, and he kind of talked me into enrolling. Now I get a semester pass and stuff like that—it’s all pretty awesome.
That does have its advantages, for sure. Let’s talk about your acting career now. Oh, one more thing I’m curious about: You were in Hawaii recently, right?
Yeah, I went to Hawaii on a relatively spontaneous trip with a few friends of mine recently and traveled around the area, visiting the different islands, and went hiking. I actually wanted to meet up with Arto, too, but unfortunately that didn’t work out. But it was definitely awesome, very sunny. To be honest, I’m not feeling that refreshed from it, but it was still awesome.
But you’ve also had a few other trips lately that weren’t quite as personal and were more on the acting side, right?
Yeah, man, so I’ve had a few shoots for commercials and stuff like that, so I’ve been on the road quite a bit. And right now I’m shooting a movie, mostly here in Berlin—or at least for the most part. I think it’s going to be really cool. And then I was also in Spain recently for a shoot and stuff—things are definitely going well.
Yeah, that sounds pretty busy. So tell me: How did you even get into this genre in the first place?
Fs Lipslide | Lissabon
“Stumbled into it” is definitely the right phrase. It actually happened pretty much by chance. I’d been with a modeling agency for a while, and then at some point I got an inquiry for a TV series that also had to do with skating. So I went to the auditions for it and suddenly landed a lead role. I had a blast—so much so that I thought, “Okay, now I actually want to keep acting.” And things have been going pretty well ever since, I’d say. It’s definitely still going strong.
So that was the well-known series “Uferpark,” right?
Exactly, it was “Uferpark.” There were 26 episodes, so definitely a good-sized run. It was basically about a group of friends who find an abandoned skate park and claim it for themselves—and then fight to keep it from being torn down or taken away from them again. Of course, there are also a few adversaries, as there always are—the bad guys. But it was definitely really cute, yeah.
What channel was that on? Was it Kika? Was it a public broadcaster?
Nope, it was on Toggo, RTL’s kids’ channel.
And the series was pretty successful, wasn’t it?
Yeah, it definitely went pretty well. And we’ve actually always hoped that a second season would be filmed, but as of now, that’s not the case.
I’ve seen you here and there on the red carpet in various posts—was that some kind of, how do you say, premiere tour, or what was it?
Yeah, we actually only had one premiere, but then we were invited right away to the Berlinale and kept getting invited to all kinds of events after that, which was pretty cool. We were also nominated for a children’s series award, so we got to travel around quite a bit because of that—all kinds of red carpets, which was definitely cool. Or still is—yeah, that’s pretty nice.
Do people recognize you on the street these days?
Every now and then I actually get recognized on the street—it’s always a bit surreal, I think, because I somehow don’t expect people to know me. But it does happen quite often. Even when I’m at skateparks outside of Berlin, where there are quite a few young kids, they recognize me pretty often and want autographs or photos. That always makes me really happy—that they apparently liked it and maybe even got motivated to go skate because of it.
So have you maybe even inspired people to start skating with the series?
I think so, yeah—I’m pretty sure. I’ve even had people message me saying they’re skating now because of this. Of course, I think it’s really cool that we’ve somehow managed to do that.
Yeah, that’s awesome.
That’s the best part—getting even more skaters involved, building a bigger community, and helping people discover something cool through this. That’s definitely awesome.
Boardslide | Torres
And you mentioned commercial shoots earlier. Did all those commercial offers just start pouring in as a result of the show? Or how does that work?
Yeah, well, it still takes a lot of hustle because, of course, not everyone knows me from the show. I still often go to auditions for commercials and for other TV shows and movies. I’ve shot three more movies since then—I’m actually filming the third one right now—so that’ll be my fourth role. It definitely still takes a lot of hustle to get those parts. The industry is pretty competitive, and while it might have gotten a little easier because of the show, it’s still not exactly easy.
Of the three movies, can you already see the first two anywhere?
Not yet—the first one is coming out soon, in theaters this November: “The Hunger Games,” if that rings a bell.
Nothing else yet—except for that famous movie with Jennifer Lawrence?
Jennifer Lawrence, exactly—that’s the one I mean. It’s basically the sequel to that, or rather, the prequel to the previous installments. I had a part in it.
So is that actually an international film?
Yeah, it was all in English, but I only have a very, very small role in it. We’ll see if you can even spot me.
Okay. And where was it filmed?
Partly in Berlin—actually in Potsdam-Babelsberg—and partly in Spain. It was really cool, and the shoot went on for a really long time.
And the second one?
The second one is a film, a relatively small project from Berlin. We don’t know exactly where it’ll be shown yet, because not everything is finished. We shot it entirely on analog cameras, so we had relatively few takes to film the scenes. I’m curious to see how it turns out—I think it’ll be cool, too.
And speaking of commercials: Have you done any commercials that I haven’t seen yet? Any TV commercials?
Fs Crooks | Ameda
I don’t know if it’ll be on TV, but a Zalando commercial is coming out soon that actually has to do with skating again. For example, I also worked with Kalle Wiehn on it—he was on set too.
Wow, that’s crazy. How’s the skating going—has it ever, how do you say, gotten in the way? I mean, you have to—to put it bluntly—take care of yourself a little. You probably can’t exactly do double sessions during a shoot, right?
No, well, I actually did a double set last week while I was filming at the Kulturforum—but I also twisted my ankle last week, and that’s obviously a bit of a bummer for the shoot right now. I’m lucky that I’m not in too much pain and that I can still do everything and hide it pretty well. But with some productions, it’s even been written into my contract that I’m not allowed to do any high-risk sports where I could get seriously injured. But I’ve often negotiated and talked it over with them because I can’t really function without skating, and then we usually find a solution. For example, I often wear something like elbow pads—not real pads, but just these things so I don’t scrape up my elbows too much and it doesn’t show in the series or movie. Then it usually works out, and I just take a little care. But I’ve also shot a lot of street clips during that time.
Yeah, lately we’ve been seeing some real mosh-style stuff from you again, right? I remember that one relatively big boardslide.
Totally, totally—but that was just the post for Instagram. Right now I’m filming my own part. The Radio video has actually been finished for a while. Now I’m filming my own Victor Bass part, so to speak, with a few guest clips from my friends, of course, but mostly with footage of me.
Alright, we’re definitely looking forward to that. Do you know when it’s coming out yet?
It really depends on how I manage it. Right now I have to take a month off or so because I tore my ligaments. But we’re making pretty good progress anyway, and I hope it comes out this year.
So, there’s of course one final question, Victor, that everyone’s curious about: Are you rich now because of your acting?
Nope, unfortunately not. I’m not rich. I hope I’ll have a lot of money someday, but right now it doesn’t look like it.
So you shouldn’t imagine that just because you land a role here and there, you can go out and buy a Ferrari right away in Germany.
Nope, nope—I have to say, you definitely make decent money. However, your income is very irregular, which is why I actually save every penny I earn right away and really live on only the bare essentials, because I don’t know when I’ll earn money again. Sometimes it can stretch out for half a year or three-quarters of a year where I don’t earn any money at all, and then you earn a lot again, and then nothing again. That’s definitely why I’m not rich.
Well, that’s a good way to wrap things up. Is there anyone else you’d like to thank, or anything else you’d like to say?
Yeah, of course—a shout-out to Gentschi and Titus TORNADOS. And props to Arne, the best guy—Arne Krüger and Radio Skateboards. They’re all legends. And to all my homies who are always there for me ans support me in everything. Love you all!
