Seb Francesconi

How It Started

It all started during quarantine, when I spent 10–14 hours a day playing video games with my friends. When the restrictions ended, one of them suggested we try skateboarding, and soon our whole gaming group was skating together every day, all day.

Less than a year later, I discovered Lotfi Lamaali longboarding on Instagram. I was fascinated by the huge wheels, the freedom, and especially the happiness he showed while riding. That inspired me to buy my first longboard. As I kept looking for longboarding content, I came across Hans Wouters on YouTube, who became a major influence on my style and tricks — especially his “pop high, stay fly” mentality, ahaha.

The Early Years: Making It Up As I Went

The first few months on a board were traumatic, to say the least. My friends and I had no idea what we were doing — we were covered in bruises from head to toe — but we had so much fun that we kept going. I didn’t really know what I was doing, so I started making up tricks and steps from imagination. They definitely weren’t pretty, but landing them felt amazing.

As I met more skaters, my style naturally started moving toward tricks and freestyle. Back then I only had one longboarding friend, Marco Cardella. I spent countless hours watching tutorials — especially from Hans Wouters — and trying everything with my friend. That’s when I started seeing real progress.

Over time, I started seeing longboarding differently. I don’t think dancing steps and tricks should be separate — I like mixing them together. I’ll put tricks between steps, steps between tricks, or just connect everything into one flowy mess. That mix, that freedom, is what makes longboarding beautiful to me.

My first competition was in July 2021, less than a year after I started longboarding. I was feeling everything at once: fear, anxiety, excitement, pure hype. It was also the first time I met longboarders from outside my hometown, and it ended up being one of the most fun experiences I’d had — more importantly, I met people who eventually became my longboarding group. After that, I started traveling around Italy to meet the friends I’d made, and progression felt much faster.

Odyssey Longboards and the World Stage

About six months later, I became more consistent on social media — posting regularly, upgrading my filming gear, documenting my progress more seriously. In November 2021, Odyssey Longboards from Singapore reached out about a possible sponsorship. At first it wasn’t easy, since I rode big boards while Odyssey was developing a 46″ model. A few months later they released it, and at 16 years old I officially became a sponsored longboarder.

I spent two years with Odyssey and made some of my favorite longboarding memories. I competed twice at SYCLD, the world championship, met the international longboarding scene, and learned how to handle a completely different level of pressure — skating in front of 300–400 people helped my confidence in everyday life too. I got to visit the team in Singapore in person; they even took two days off just to show me around the city.

2023: The Year Everything Changed

In 2023, my time with Odyssey came to an end. I felt like I needed to experience more, so I left the team on good terms — we’re still in contact today. That same year I founded the Italian Longboard Collective (ILC) with my friend Ayoub Aabass, and I turned 18: an adult on paper, though I’m 21 now and still mentally a child, ahaha.

During the 2023 world championships I also met Thor Galmar, a Danish longboarder who became one of my closest friends and my biggest supporter — more on that below. In October 2023 I competed at ELO, the European Longboard Open, in the amateur division — probably for the better, given how my previous pro attempts had gone from overestimating my own skill. I ended up winning that day. That competition changed everything: my following suddenly grew, my videos went from hundreds of views to tens of thousands, and messages started pouring in. It was a huge turning point.

I spent most of my young adult years traveling around Europe as much as I possibly could, meeting countless riders, taking part in an insane number of events, and visiting as many communities as I could. Mixed with my social media presence, that’s how I became a recognizable face in the European longboard scene.

Finding True Supplies and Pake Longboards

My journey with Thor and True Supplies began in late June 2023. I received a thank-you package after helping Thor — already a True Supplies rider at the time — film a ton of clips. In the beginning I’d buy the gear I needed, and Arto would sneak in some extra material as a gift. As time passed, our relationship strengthened: I was more consistent with creating content, he was sending over more material to try and film. We finalized our collaboration in early 2025, and that’s when I officially became a sponsored rider for True Supplies.

With Pake Longboards it’s a whole different story. I first saw their boards at the very first contest I ever attended, but they weren’t on sale yet. After leaving Odyssey I tried a bunch of different brands, Pake among them — but the Fucúr 44″ didn’t suit me. I’m more of a big-boy-board type of rider, and something that size felt wrong for my style. After some months talking with Giacomo, the shaper, I bought my first Atreyu, Pake’s 47″, in November 2024. That board was love at first sight. A couple of months later I sized up to the Bacàn, Pake’s 50″. I joined Pake Longboards in March 2025, and skated the 50″ until June 2026. In July I started getting more attracted to harder, more technical combos, so I went back to the Atreyu 47″ — which is what I’m still riding as you read this.

Biggest Achievements

I can’t pick just one moment — there are an insane number of them. I started as a very introverted kid who was scared to skate in front of anyone, and now I show what I can do everywhere: small competitions, friendly meetups, big stages. It’s super rewarding.

I’m proud of the friendships. Having friends all around the planet is what makes all of this so enjoyable. I’ve been on podiums a couple of times, and young Seb would be ecstatic about it — all this, for a piece of wood with wheels.

I’m also proud of how the community has grown. In six years of longboarding I’ve seen many sides of it — the tryharding, the constant need to be on Instagram. Especially since SYCLD didn’t happen in 2025, the European scene has felt way more connected humanely — less “opponents at a competition,” more friends you haven’t seen in a long time.

I’ve had riders DM me to say my videos motivate them to go out and try new stuff. It’s still weird for me — I’m just a guy who loves skating and filming — but knowing my presence motivates other riders feels priceless.

Riding Style: Big Boards, Big Tricks

I take a lot of inspiration from actual skateboarding — having those basics really elevates your ability to expand your style. It started with simple no-complies, then variations of them. Everything changed once I learned fakie backside big spins and fakie backside big flips. Seeing the board twist, spin and flip around itself made it feel like a poetic mess — harder tricks on even bigger boards became my thing. My proudest achievements are landing fakie tre flips, full cab flips and fakie bigger flips on a 50″ longboard, where the rotation feels like it takes forever and you can see every detail of what makes the trick special. Fakie no-comply 720 bigger spin looks amazing on a big board — I get goosebumps just writing about it, ahahah.

“It’s as if every part of your being and of your board work together to create a piece of art.”Seb Francesconi

The main difference is execution. On a small board, tricks feel fast, snappy, low, quick. On a big board, everything slows down and becomes floaty — you see the whole rotation happening beneath your feet, and it feels amazing when it comes together perfectly.

The Setup

Although I’m back on the Atreyu 47″ at the moment, I spent a little over a full year on the Bacàn 50″. A long board means a long wheelbase, and a long wheelbase makes everything slow down — carving is slower, the board flexes more, and steps look more aesthetically appealing. I’m also a big dude — 1.92 meters tall with size 45.5 shoes — so anything below 46″ feels like a toy to me, ahaha.

Then there’s the weight. I’m known for skating the heaviest setups there are — pairing a big custom-heavy 50″ deck with big heavy wheels. It makes dancing feel glued to the ground, until you try a trick and the momentum sparks something. Tricks become slower, but the pop gets bigger, and suddenly the easiest tricks feel harder.

My current setup: Atreyu 47″ by Pake Longboards, Paris Trucks 180mm 50°, NBF 70mm 78A wheels, and orange Knuckles bushings by Orangatang. Bearings, honestly, I couldn’t tell you — some are from True Supplies, some are borrowed from Thor Galmar and I keep forgetting to give them back. I’ve run this exact setup for the past two months, though I occasionally switch back to the Bacàn 50″. Thor’s bearings are basically a staple at this point — reduce, reuse, recycle.

Outside the Board

Contrary to how it might seem, I do a lot outside of longboarding, and I try to show that I’m not just a trick-landing machine, ahah. I love hard techno and its subgenres — together with my teammate Marco Ricci I go to a lot of hard techno festivals. I love traveling, both by car and by plane, visiting the international friends I’ve made. I also work: I’m a hotel receptionist on the Tuscan coast, and I’ve worked there for six years. I go to the gym fairly regularly — longboarding puts real strain on your muscles, bones and joints, so you need to train them to keep up. And I’m studying media communication theory at university in Pisa, hoping to eventually turn content creation into my actual career.

Filming: The Other Half of the Story

Longboarding is what got me into filming, and one person is responsible for that: Axel Massin, an OG of longboarding who single-handedly made some of the best-looking longboard videos out there. Loaded Boards and Paris Trucks played a huge role too — their old videos are cinematic, genuinely worth watching. These days my biggest inspiration is Nick Jones, a longboarder from LA doing incredible trip-and-friends videos.

I film everything — myself, other riders, me with other riders. A single video can say so much about a rider’s style and personality. Right now I’m working on a bunch of things: teasers from recent trips, a video part with my teammate Marco Ricci, and another with Thor. Filming and riding push each other — I land harder stuff because I want new footage, and trying new tricks pushes me toward new editing techniques.

Gear-wise, I live by “the best camera is the one you have with you” — I film a lot on my phone, but for the camera geeks: Panasonic Lumix S5 with a 14–24mm f/2.8 fisheye or 24–105mm f/4.0, on a simple grab handle with a SmallRig cage.

The Italian Longboard Collective

ILC started back in 2023 — my friend Ayoub and I had a lot of sleepless nights making it work, but we made it happen. Halfway through 2024 I couldn’t juggle everything anymore, so I passed it to Giacomo Galli (from Pake) and Marco Ricci, my teammate. There are so many different styles within it — technical dancing steps, banger tricks, technical tricks, fast carving, all of it. In the past two years ILC has grown massively: meetups of 30+ people from all over Italy, internationals joining every edition, sometimes crossing over with Crafting Longboard Camp.

Thor Galmar and Denmark

Thor and I started talking in late 2022, and we knew right away we’d get along. We met in person at SYCLD 2023 — he gave me a high five, we played a game of S.K.A.T.E. (I lost, as always), then had an hour-long filming session. As soon as I turned 18, I flew to Denmark to visit him. He showed me around, we skated countless spots and filmed a huge number of videos. As time passed our friendship only got stronger.

“Thor doesn’t even feel like a friend anymore, he’s like the little brother I never had.”Seb Francesconi

We’ve been close for four years now, and he’s helped me push myself in ways I didn’t think I could. I’m proud to have him as a friend, and even prouder to be on the same team as him.

Finding Peace with Competition

I used to avoid competitions — they freaked me out, on and off the board, worrying about judgment I couldn’t control. At SYCLD 2023 I went in with the worst possible mindset: “I want to win,” while competing against people who’d been skating longer than I’d been alive. I got last place, was disappointed in myself, and quit social media for a couple of months out of shame — not healthy.

A few months later, Thor told me he was going to HLO2023 in Hamburg, so I went too, just for fun, without taking the competition seriously at all. I ended up in the finals. It clicked right there: the less I cared about the result and the more I focused on having fun, the better my performance and my mood got. I’ve applied that mentality to every event since — I went from the lonely guy who showed up to competitions to the familiar face who talks to almost everyone there.

Longboard competitions are moments that happen inside a longboard event, and the event is what you should actually focus on. Stop stressing over a run no one will remember a week later, and start focusing on the memories that last a lifetime. Go, meet people, have fun, connect, learn — don’t just compete.

Why True Supplies and Pake Longboards

I ride for both for the same underlying reason: the person behind each one. Pake and True Supplies are both owned and run by a single person — Giacomo and Arto — and both of them work hard to keep the quality standard high. Giacomo makes every single board by hand; you can feel the work that goes into shaping each one. Arto covers everything on the True Supplies side — every package, every drop, every setup component, all him. He’s shown me trust by sending material over and over across the years, and the least I can do is create as much content as possible in return. I believe in both projects, and I’m proud to be part of them.

Advice for Beginners

My most important tip for anyone: have fun. It’s not negotiable. If dancing is fun to you, do it. If big tricks are fun, do them. If sliding is fun, do it. Experiment, play, find your thing — if you enjoy what you’re doing, people will feel it too, and you’ll become an inspiration without even trying.

The most common mistake is stopping when it gets hard. I still struggle with this myself — when something feels too difficult, I steer in a completely different direction instead of forcing it. I’d love to land a gazelle double flip or a fakie no-comply 900 bigger spin, but those are risky right now. So instead I focus on new variations of tricks I already have. Landed front side no-comply into fakie backside tricks? Don’t jump straight to no-comply into bigger flip — try backside no-comply to pivot instead. It’ll keep you motivated, and it’s still a genuinely new trick.

What I Wish I'd Known

Don’t try kickflips. Dear younger self: we’re 21 now, and we still can’t do kickflips six years into longboarding. All that time in that indoor parking garage tryharding didn’t pay off — sorry, kiddo, ahahaha.

More seriously: don’t care about appearing a certain way. There’s no point faking who you are just to get attention — focus on being yourself instead. Don’t miss out on experiences because of what someone else might think of you. You’re just a kid. Go have fun.

What's Next

I’ll try to attend every competition I can, at least here in Europe — they’re a chance to see friends and meet new people, so why would I skip that? On the trick side, definitely not kickflips at this point, ahaha — my real goal is not breaking any bones or joints, followed by combos built from lots of simple tricks strung together. There’s a long, fun, difficult, visually confusing video part in the works — stay tuned.

Long-term, I know that as tricks get bigger, the injury risk grows, and I’m not willing to risk not being able to longboard anymore just to add one more flip. My riding is going to prioritize joint health and longevity more. You probably won’t see a 30-year-old Seb trying a fakie 720 big spin triple flip down a three-block — but I’ll definitely surprise you somehow. Maybe with a very unexpected kickflip, ahahah.

Stay Connected

Instagram, YouTube, even Gmail — I post about trips, meetups, sessions, challenges, reviews, pretty much everything. I reply to every message I get on Instagram, so send a DM and you’ll hear back.