Adam Wasylenko - WTF

Age: 23
Current place of residence: Calow village, Chesterfield



“If Adam Wasylenko wasn’t a real person he would make a great cartoon character” — Lard pretty much hit the nail on the head with that caption in an old Ride Sheffield scene report.
Cartoon Character? Yes! Amongst many other wonderful characteristics, Adam’s personality is certainly different, I noticed this almost immediately when I first met him many years ago. He told me that his father was in hiding on the island of Jersey from the Polish mafia! This sounds ridiculous to me now, but Adam has a unique method of weaving a story in such detail, bringing up little pointless facts and nit bits within the story that make you think ‘wow this story must be true, he went into so much detail!’ I was to find out a year and a half later that, obviously, this story was in fact a brilliantly executed joke. Ross Payne also fell for the same story. I’m pretty sure he still believes it to this day!
There’s nothing really I can say that is going to sum up any idea of how different Adam actually is. One thing I will say is that he is definitely different in the best possible way... Personality wise, Adam and myself are probably complete opposites. Adam is everything I wish I could be personality wise, always happy, forever joking, never afraid to let his guard down and look uncool in front of people, just for the sake of a laugh! People like Wozzy don’t come along very often. Believe me if they did the world would be a far more amusing, easier and understanding place. I look up to Wozzy with ultimate respect and never take hanging out with him for granted. To me Adam is the epitome of ‘cool’.
So, without further ado, let me introduce to you, the self proclaimed ‘Jester’, ‘professional dancer’, the ‘surrealist’, the ‘prince of Calow’… one of the last of a dying breed of characters in our soon to be characterless, athletic, jock based sport!
Adam ‘never a dull moment’ Wasylenko...
RIDE: You went to Nottingham university, what did you study there? What inspires you regarding your artwork?
ADAM: I did graphic design. I’d say the main inspiration for my artwork comes from seeing all of the interesting / weird people in my home town and having a vivid imagination for when I pick up that biro.
Do you think your vivid imagination rubs off on your personality? Some people find your humour quite difficult to understand. Why do you think that is?
Yeah defo! They both go hand in hand. I can understand people wondering what I’m talking about, it’s just how I say stuff, it can sound odd… it could also be that some people might be a bit stiff and take what I say a bit too seriously. They are not seeing that I’m just joking around like a modern day jester!
Who are your favourite riders to watch and why?
I always enjoy watching the likes of Gerry Galley, Mark Choquette and Derrick Girard. They all have a very casual style and make timeless classic tricks look amazing and very easy. Also Mike Lausman, Brian Castillo and Mike Griffin in BMX Inferno – they all seem like chilled dudes and that’s what I’m into.
You once found a dead body when you were a kid! Was that a life-changing experience, like what those kids had on that film Stand By Me?
Yes, this is true, I was around eight or nine years old, after school me and a school boy mate went to have a kick-about with the football, in a field behind his mum’s house, I looked across into the woodside and saw a blue rope. Thinking it was a rope swing we ran to investigate, it wasn’t. Instead it was a man that had hung himself, we paused my friend shouted at the body but no reply, we then legged it back to his mum and told her… it hasn’t affected me in anyway mentally, I didn’t have nightmares that night, it was a strange experience.
You’re quite good at circa 1990 style dancing. You have even had people approach you in clubs and ask if you are professional! I myself have witnessed crowds of Spaniards forming a circle around you dancing in a Barca nightclub and clapping you on. Where did you acquire this dark talent?
I didn’t really acquire it anywhere, I think if the beat’s kicking in and popping, I just feel it and get with the flow, there’s no set routine, for me, it was a nice question to be asked if I’m professional – I should apply for a job in this area, a backing dancer for Girls Aloud would be mint – “see you back stage ladies”!
You and Joe Cox love to have an intense wrestle after a few beers. I’ve known you to be quite handy in the odd confrontation! How is it he always wins?
Yeah after the ale shesh, nothing beats getting into a figure four lock down/suplex with Joe, it’s been known these matches to go on for well over past the 45 minute mark just in one posture, because Joe’s not into giving into defeat… I usually just let Joe win in the end though, he has this crafty trick of getting behind me in a half nelson. I’d win if it was real man’s full-on wrestling, I’ve had him whimper “submit” in the first minute too many times. He just only does the puppy dog play fights that I lose interest in so I let him win. It’s like dad and son, me being the grizzly dad, just giving in not wanting his son to feel useless!
I think it was Alan who once said that you have a special ability of confusing a room of people that you have never met before within seconds of entering the room! Can you elaborate on this?
He’s quite right, the room could be having a really interesting conversation, and it could make me bring up a useless fact or some irrelevant knowledge I think relates to the subject matter… just trying to join in the talk being friendly I suppose.
I could go on and on getting you to relate bizarre stories about your pet mice being accidentally baked alive in your garden shed or the legendary story of the night out ‘Wozz fest’, but we really couldn’t fit it all in. you should probably start writing a book! I’ll just end this by saying any last words or thanks? Or this could go on forever!
My mum said the mice baked, but I’m sure they had frozen solid from the cold of winter in the garden shed. Thanks to all my friends far and wide, stay cool dudes. Cheers Newrick for this. And I’ll just say have a laugh. Give your imagination a run off the lead from time to time, and have a bit of humour to help you through the day, even if it’s a wild sense of humour.

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