Kingpin Magazine

Norwegian Karsten Kleppan is sponsored by Element, Lakai, Matix, and Session Skateshop. He made his video debut for Element Norway in the 2009 promo Ardent Element, and his gnarly part was the opener in the company’s 2013 full-length film Hold It Down. The same year, he impressed us all with a banging three-and-a-half minute part in Norwegian indie video 0slo 5, edited by Jørgen Østbye Johannessen.

Also in 2013, Element released a sweet short film of Karsten venturing to the northern-most bits of Norway, including the island of Spitsbergen, where he skated the world’s most northerly mini-ramp and searched out street spots in the company of polar bears. To top off an amazing year, Karsten was crowned Europe’s Rookie of the Year by a landslide at the Bright European Skateboard Awards.

Karsten began skating as a youngster when a new park popped up in his Oslo neighborhood of Bekkestua – after that first experience, he caught the street skating bug and started hitting tougher and tougher spots. He now has experience all over Europe having joined Element Europe on trips to Berlin and Morocco and Lakai to Sicily.

In the winter, Karsten escapes cold and cloudy Oslo for the much warmer Long Beach, California where he skates with Element legends such as Chad Muska and Bam Margera. Joining Element has certainly been a great move for him – over the last 12 months, he has put out a series of sections of an astonishingly high standard for someone so young.