{"id":72789,"date":"2015-02-11T17:43:42","date_gmt":"2015-02-11T22:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/?p=72789"},"modified":"2015-02-13T16:32:29","modified_gmt":"2015-02-13T21:32:29","slug":"off-duty-ben-nordberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/off-duty-ben-nordberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Off Duty: Ben Nordberg"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Having caught the attention of major fashion brands ranging from Burberry to DKNY, British pro-skateboarder <a href='https:\/\/models.com\/people\/ben-nordberg'>Ben Nordberg<\/a> (<a href='https:\/\/models.com\/agency\/Next-LA'>Next LA<\/a>) shares with models.com his experience working alongside some of the industry&#8217;s biggest faces and how he manages to juggle two very different careers. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/119379327?title=0&#038;byline=0&#038;portrait=0\" width=\"700\" height=\"393\" frameborder=\"0\" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Video + Photos <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eliastahan.com\/\">Elias Tahan<\/a><br \/>\nCamera Assistant <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lane-stewart.com\/\">Lane Stewart <\/a><br \/>\nProducer\/Interview <a href=\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/sabotaj\">Taj Alwan<\/a><br \/>\nGrooming <a href=\"http:\/\/dustystarks.com\/\">Dusty Starks<\/a> using <a href=\"http:\/\/www.katesomerville.com\/region\/\">Kate Somerville Skincare<\/a><br \/>\nMusic &#8220;Candy Flu&#8221; courtesy of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thewalkingwho.com\/\">The Walking Who<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>TAJ: Did you always know you wanted to be a pro skater growing up? How long have you been skating for?<\/strong>  <\/p>\n<p>BEN: I started skateboarding when I was 11. All of my friends at the time started skating, so I joined in and instantly became addicted. As time went on, a lot of my friends stopped skating, but I just kept going. At no point growing up did I think it would lead to anything, especially not a career and the chance to move to america. Skateboarding has given me the chance to travel the world, meet some great people along the way and I wouldn&#8217;t trade that for anything.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.mdel.net\/oftheminute\/images\/2015\/02\/MG_0157.jpg\" alt=\"_MG_0157\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-72792\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>TAJ: How did you get your start in modeling?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BEN: Mimi from Next LA saw some of pics on Instagram. They contacted me and it went from there&#8230; I&#8217;m very grateful for everything they&#8217;ve done and the continued support. I couldn&#8217;t ask for a nicer group of people to work with.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TAJ: How do you balance your skate and modeling career? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BEN: So far I&#8217;ve been able to balance everything well &#8211; With skateboarding you make your own schedule (for the most part), so it enables me to be available to do shoots and travel. I&#8217;ve been travelling since an early age, so I&#8217;m always ready to pack a bag and go somewhere. I&#8217;m grateful to be in this position now. I like to stay active as I dont have a very long attention span ha, and California tailors perfectly to that. During most days, I surf in the morning and skate in the afternoon.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.mdel.net\/oftheminute\/images\/2015\/02\/MG_9866.jpg\" alt=\"_MG_9866\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-72794\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>TAJ: Do you come across any criticism from the skate industry for working as a model? If yes, how do you handle it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BEN: I&#8217;ve definitely encountered some criticism, but who hasn&#8217;t? The way I look at it is&#8230; in sports like football, basketball etc large endorsements and campaigns are a common thing, so why can&#8217;t skateboarders do it too? Skateboarding takes just as much practice and dedication; I think we should be able to benefit from that and have it lead to other things.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TAJ: What was it like to work on the DKNY campaign and alongside fellow Brit Cara Delevigne?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BEN: It was a really cool experience. I was a little nervous going into it, just because I&#8217;d never done a shoot with such a large production before. But once I got there, everyone was really cool and easy to work with which made the shoot a really fun place to be. Plus, it was at the skatepark! So when we weren&#8217;t shooting, I just skated the whole time.<br \/>\nCara is really friendly and easy going. As we are both Brits, we got along right away. Hopefully we can shoot together again soon.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.mdel.net\/oftheminute\/images\/2015\/02\/MG_9757.jpg\" alt=\"_MG_9757\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-72798\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>TAJ: Who (photographer or brand) would you like to work with next and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BEN: Burberry is definitely high on the list. I love how they keep everything so British and the general aesthetic of the brand. I worked with them last year and Marina, Natalie and all the girls there are so cool! I had a blast. I&#8217;d really like to shoot with Mario Testino or Hedi Slimane.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.mdel.net\/oftheminute\/images\/2015\/02\/MG_9877.jpg\" alt=\"_MG_9877\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-72795\" \/><\/p>\n<p><!--pp-thumb-start--><!--PictPress found no dir \/2015\/02\/72789--><!--pp-thumb-end--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Model\/Pro-skateboarder Ben Nordberg shares how he manages to juggle two very different careers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":442,"featured_media":72797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,16,2,9363],"tags":[9775,3960],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72789"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/442"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72789"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72832,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72789\/revisions\/72832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}