Gerben Verweij is a master of metal and an engineer of shred. As a pro rider his terrain of choice were rails, well, to be honest he didn't really have a choice because Gerben grew up riding indoor in Holland. But not only could he ride rails, Gerben slowly started to build them too. He soon started building set-ups for events like the Skullcandy Rail Battle Series in Holland and the now-infamous Rock A Rail in The Hague. Recently Gerben also began building winches to help film crews hit anything and everything they could imagine in the streets. This year's Rock A Rail is going down this Saturday, Sept. 28th with the best street riders from across the world coming to do battle, so make sure you check out the LIVESTREAM on methodmag.com! But before the bangers and bruising commence, we sat for a little chat with Gerben to talk about GV Constructions and his creations.
Tell us how GVC started and how you've put your handyman skills to use to help get Dutch snowboarding on the map?
Well, I have always been interested in mechanic-type stuff. When I started snowboarding I found a job in tech service in one of our snowdomes in Holland, I was about 17-years old. They were the ones who gave me the green light to try to organize a rail battle
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Where did you get this knowledge and drive to be such a handyman/mechanic?
I have been doing this all my life, I guess that it is a part of me. Back when I was about 7, I would climb over the fence of a scrapyard to find stuff to take apart and build something else with it. Whenever I got something for my birthday (or my brother did), I would take it apart right away just to make sure I knew how it was made. I just had to know!
So when did you start making these machines for flinging snowboarders at walls and stairs?
After my first year of filming on the street we found out about winches, so of course I was interested in them. I found some pictures and plans on the internet. Then I took some old parts from whatever I had or could find and made my first winch.
What's the percentage of spots that have now been made rideable thanks to this GVC technology?
I don’t really know. But it seems like thanks to these things the amount of spots you can ride is infinite!
Why is one of these better than a bungee?
Bungees are the biggest scam out there. You need to put in so much work to get good speed and you need a lot of people to pull the bungee. Personally, I prefer to keep the crew small when riding street.
What other things have you winched with one of these?
We have a cool yearly event in Belgium where we build a big spine kicker with a flat in-run. It's pretty radical. With the winch you can get enough speed and there is some serious airtime going down on that thing.
Have you ever used one of these in powder or only street?
I only used it on the streets and indoor slopes so far.