Pudis Pool Coping - CONCRETE DREAMS - in its new home in Oostende

The final product in Oostende came out super insane: pool coping around a lot of the “flow” bowl, endless speed lines, a difficult to hit vert corner section (the largest “obstacle” in the park), hips galore, and a crazy U bowl with no flat bottom. It’s not a high, steep skate park, and not super scary… just really fun, which is the most important thing, in my book. The opening party had punk bands, DJs, & graffiti jams on the old Velodrome walls. There was no contest, just whoever wanted to skate could skate, and a lot of spectators seemed very impressed with what Concrete Dreams had created for their city and visiting skateboarders from all over Europe and soon the world! The city of Oostende funded this project, as several cities around Europe are doing, helping the skateboarding scene and giving people of all ages the possibility to find thrills by skateboarding in a world class skate park, rather than smoking crack or shooting up heroin for thrills.

Ooostende, Belgium - Skatepark Overview

There’s not really much else to say, except, another great skate park in Europe – BUILT BY SKATEBOARDERS. So I’ll let the photos + video do the talking….

Koen COOKIE Willems frontside grinding the sweet corner pocket.

Finger flip to tail on the hip.

Frontside grind in the vert pool coping corner. Harder than it looks.

This kid was ripping. Don't know his name. I will soon. Textbook frontside ollie.

A little smurf told me BMX is not lame any more. BMX dude BLAASTING over the hip! Cant say for sure, but i think this guy did a huge spine transfer, landed on his back wheel, and bounced 15 feet down to flat bottom. Worst slam of the day....almost.

Backside air over the central hip.

Cookie from Antwerp.

Barna from Brusk blasting a backside over the hip.

Layback 5-0 over the bump.

Brusk Mike grinding Pudis Pool Coping

Flemish Punk Rock. Live Music was playing most all the time in the Pavillion.

Grafitti Showdown on the old Velodrome Walls - Screaming Hand???

Backside smith grind to a nice frontside...

Mike Van Der Ouderaa airing over the hip.

Chillin in a chair, post accident, watching the action go by.

Stephane Thonnard from Brusk Collective - grinding the big wal in the park he helped build.

Jarne Verbruggen from Mechelen. The kid kills everything.

Brusk Mike - one of the main men behind this project

Bruno - a mad man with a master plan

Brunos revenge

Belgium crew. Smokin and drinkin poolside. Belgians know how to live the good life.

Huge one footed Ollie by Oostende Local Timothy Deconinck. No, he didn't roll away, but he landed it.... and then slammed. On any given sunday, i'm sure he can pull it though.

3rd run of the day.. heat stroke, beer stroke, drop in, oh no, cant eject, some kid runs into me 100 miles an hour, slams me into the concrete, busts my shoulder, smacks my head onto the concrete, cant breathe... bruno drags me out the pool, have a beer, everything will be alright....but i know inside, everything is not going to be ok. i just got destroyed.

Separated Shoulder from Collision in Oostende. 3rd run.

Words + Photos + Video: Jonathan Hay

Featured skaters: Lucas, Hunter, Luke, & Colin Benson.
Filmed/Edited: Sean Wood

The preparation

The Spot

The Trick

The agony of Defeat

Skater: Daniel Schmid
Photography: Sven Daubenfeld

music: Dusted Angel
video/edit: Sean Wood

Check out more Grandpa’s BONUS footage!

Sorry... no photos. Here's a video still though. Adam Benson. Back Smith @ Grandpa's.

Bryggeriet graduate Andreas "Snoken" Lindström. Lien to tail transfer.

Pär Magnusson. FS ollie into the deep end.

Bryggeriet skatepark is an exercise in new age Socialism. No, I’m not an expert in the subject of governmental structures, but allow me to explain what I mean by “new age socialism”. Bryggeriet is a skateboarding school. From 9 in the morning until 4 in the evening the students attend the skateboarding school. Is there math, english and history? Sure, probably. These guys seem intelligent enough but for sure there’s one thing they teach the kids: SKATEBOARDING 101, 102, 103 all the way up to ADVANCED SKATEBOARDING. The Swedish government funds the program, to some degree, for kids to learn how to skateboard, film, photograph and learn a basic education. The students can actually get reprimanded if they are slacking off and aren’t skateboarding enough! How does that compare to YOUR high school? And next door, for good measure, there’s a girls’ dance school, which I assume is of a similar ordinance, except for dancing instead of skateboarding. So yes, maybe Socialism seems like evil Communism to some of you, but it seems like it’s working out pretty damn well up there in Sweden.

David Stenström. Lien to Tail.

Mattias Nylen. Stand up 5-0 grind on the pool coping. Bryggeriet

The bands played, the people skated, and before you knew it, the day’s event was over and it was onwards to the next: Pontus Alv’s WORLD WIDE FILM PREMIERE of IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS the highly anticipated “sequel” to the skate cult classic STRONGEST OF THE STRANGE. We headed to the bar across the street from the old charismatic cinema with Malmö’s usual suspects, only to meet up with 20+ more Malmö skaters & friends. A few libations were taken down, and it was time to queue up in a fairly long line and get ready for the film.

Snoken. FS Ollie. Bryggeriet Bowl.

Ticket check, coat check, up the stairs, past the bar and the big white screen awaited the film. Pontus’ girlfriend and another girl were interviewing different people on the couch with a full broadcast TV camera pointing in people’s faces and projecting on the big screen. I felt sorry for the unfortunate souls that were being selected to be interviewed, how embarrassing that must have been. Then John Magnusson spotted me watching from a distance and said, “come on, we need an english speaking person next, come with me…” So there I was, between two pretty Swedish ladies and a large video camera pointing in my face, getting interviewed live in front of a few hundred people about the soon to be released Confusion Magazine. I just tried to ignore the camera and pretend some girl was talking to me at a bar… Ok enough about me, back to Pontus. The film was highly successful! I’ll save the full review for the print version of Confusion #2, but everyone seemed to enjoy it by the loud response to certain sections and the applause at the finale. I’d even go as far to say it was better than his first film. I’ll have to watch it again (and again) as it’s packed full of skateboarding, artistic filming and a very introspective narrative about Pontus’ personal life. All the skaters from ISOTM are close friends with him and the film is dedicated to the recent passing of his grandmother and grandfather. The film is heavily focused on southern Sweden DIY skatespots, many of which Pontus pioneered and organized. If there’s a premiere in your city, go see this film. You won’t be disappointed, unless your taste in skate films sucks.

Frontside Smith grind into the corner.

The next morning, the sun was shining and the Sibbarp DIY contest was on! My camera gear was not in operation, due to poor planning (shall we say) and I arrived at the contest late feeling like a fisherman without a pole. As chance would have it, there were numerous other photographers and more than one was willing to kick down some photos of the day’s skateboarding highlights. DJ Kalle Hell was slaying it with a diverse range of music to hype everyone up and he surprised me when he threw on a few tracks that I didn’t think had made it over to Sweden, including bands like Santa Cruz’s Highway Murderer’s ….The coffee was flowing for the weary, the BBQ grill was in full effect for the hungry and the DIY Skateboard tent was set up with materials to design your own skateboard graphic with pens and paints for those feeling creative. At the end of the day there was a winner – young buck and Bryggeriet graduate Fernando Bramsmark and another Bryggeriet alumni, Andreas “Snoken” Lindström placing in at least the top 5. With teachers like Nils Svennson, John Dahlquist and skateboard legend John Magnusson, it’s no wonder these guys are growing up to be super skate stars, which is one of the reasons the future in Malmö is looking bright!

Jacob "Jakke" Ovgen. Crail. Photo: Martin Palsson

Snoken. Tailslide. Photo: Martin Palsson

Fernando Bramsmark. Transfer. Photo: Martin Palsson

Josef Scott. Nosepick on the wave wall. Photo: Martin Palsson

Pär Magnusson. Lipslide. Photo: Martin Palsson

Robin Roos. Melon Transfer over the volcano. Photo: Martin Palsson

Jacob Ovgen. Frontside Blunt. Photo: Martin Palsson

Fernando Bramsmark. Lipslide. Photo: Martin Palsson

Mattias Nylen. Back flip bail out of the back of the wave. Photo: Martin Palsson

If you missed Part I of the Malmö DIY WEEKEND: THE HOLE then check it here

Photos of Bryggeriet: Jonathan Hay
Photos of Sibbarp: Martin Palsson
Words + Video: Jonathan Hay

BONUS (POINT & SHOOT PHOTOS) by J. HAY

Jakke. Frontside blunt on the wave.

Jacob "Jakke" Ovgen

Jacob Ovgen & Snoken

Thanks for the 5 free coffees Pekka!

Johan Linö-Waad, ???, Pär Magnusson

DJ Kalle Hell & Linus

Dave "Tomsie" Toms

The Sea (20 meters from the skatepark).

Per Mag, 50-50 over the rock on the viking block

Tacksi

Patrik Sundberg

Pär Magnusson, smith grind transfer.

Nils Svensson and Stefan Toth

David Toms & Daniel Håkansson (Tomsie & D-Boy)

Marcus "Pyssling" Olsson

Mattias Nylen

John Dahlquist

John Magnusson

Anna Smideman & Andrea Antunes from No Limits Crew - promoting girls in skateboarding

D.I.Y. Skateboard Design

“]

D.I.Y. Skate Design [detail

We had been invited up to Sweden for the DIY Sibbarp Skate weekend over a month before but as the weekend drew near, the first Issue of Confusion was still not off to the printers and I almost canceled the trip. But my old saying is “It’s better to go and regret going, than not going and regret not going.” And I never regret it. So we closed down the Confusion offices on Friday morning, caught the train to the Köln airport and 2 hours later we arrived in Copenhagen airport. A short train ride over the Oresund Bridge (which connects Copenhagen to Malmö) and we were in the DIY Skate Mecca of Malmö, Sweden. Roadie and myself hooked up our skateboards we had to dismantle for the plain ride at the train station and skated 10 minutes to Stapelbädsparken, after stopping in at a 7-11 to pick up some local brews. At the park we met up with my buddy David “Tomsie” Toms who I’d stayed with in Dublin a few years back while he was building some parks outside of Dublin and who is top dog for Concreatures Concrete Parks and oine of the guys behind VikingBlocks Pool Coping. He was cruising the park after work and we met up with young gun ripper Andreas “Snoken” Lindström who was destroying the park with smith grinds over the love seat on the flat wall and sick high speed airs and disasters.

The whole Hole and nothing but the Hole

We had no real plan, and not even a confirmed place to stay, but we were just going with the flow and seeing what happened. We had originally thought of camping but we had no tent, no sleeping bag, and the weather was threatening to rain. Tomsie was heading over to the Sibbarp park for a few minutes so we jumped in his van and 15 minutes later arrived at the new Sibbarp  Skatepark. Built by Concreatures Skateparks, the whole park is more like a street course, with small obstacles all over, including about 10 pump bumps, Viking Block pool coping, a large rock you have to grind over, a volcano, and a vert wall with a wave painted on it. The park didn’t look so exciting at first glance (or from photographs I’d already seen). It’s rather small in height but it’s super fun and you can just cruise around it and figure out your line as you go. The park has a good flow and there’s endless possibilities and endless grinds to be had (or aerial antics for you hot shots.). We had other plans for the evening so we headed over to Per Mag’s house where Linus and Per were waiting for us. We grabbed some more beers from the corner store and skated over to the latest DIY project: THE HOLE.

The hole in the bowl at the Hole (it has since been repaired)

The Hole, as the locals call it, is built in the same abandoned lot where Steppeside once flourished, but has since been sledgehammered to death. The Hole is against the wall and more concealed than Steppeside which was right in the center of the lot and easy to see from anywhere. The Hole has a round bowl with a channel which at the time we were there had no coping, just a rough edge with rebar sticking out and also a big hole in the bottom. A complete Death Pit that I wanted nothing to do with at the time. When we arrived, a session was already underway with the usual suspects. I don’t go to Malmö very often, in fact the last time I went up there was 2007, but the Malmö locals are like brothers to me, and always show a good time. They are real skateboarders. They love skateboarding. And the skill level in Malmö is high and ever on the rise.

Linus Stewart, backside boneless.

Linus, Marcus, Johan and Pär proceeded to put on a demo of the Hole, with tailblocks, pivots, smith stalls, disasters, bonelesses, wallrides and Johan’s frontside blunt transfer from the quarter pipe. I climbed up on the roof to shoot a few photos from above so you can see the whole setup and we watched a rat try to run out of the bowl to no avail and returned to his home in the hole and then darkness was upon us. We walked over to check out Steppeside in the middle of the lot. It was dark and I ran down the transition with my camera in hand only to discover there was a solid foot of water in the bowl….. Wet feet and famished, we headed to a pizza restaurant down the way where we ate, drank and merrily played some pool and hung out with Pontus, J. Mag and the rest of the Malmö skate crew. Sometime around late night we headed back to Pär’s where all beds and couches were occupied, so I slept the night on a nice hardwood floor without a sleeping bag, lulled to sleep by Roadie’s epic snoring. The next day was to be the Sibbarp DIY Skate contest, part of the Betongcup (a concrete skate park series in Sweden), but the rain was falling and chances of the contest happening the next day were slim. There was a back up plan to skate the indoor park of Brygerriet with bands playing overlooking the street course and have the contest the following day.  Not to go unmentioned, the world premier of Pontus Alvs’ second full length film, “In Search of Miraculous” was playing at an old Cinema. Expectations were high and no matter what, the following day was going to be a good time, rain or shine….

Johan Lino Waad - wallride nollie pop out

Marcus"Pyssling" Olsson. Pivot on the corner block.

Pär Mag, backside disaster in the coping less round bowl.

Punker Linus - Lien to Tail on the quarter

Linus - Kickflip to Fakie

Johan Lino Waad - frontside blunt slide transfer

Steppeside (R.I.P)

Saloon Door entrance into the Hole. Malmö, Sweden

Photos + words: Jonathan Hay

clockwise from upper left: Sung Woo, the Tibetan sheep herder, rocking the mandoline. How to take a shit in a waterless sawdust toilet. Every commune must have a full supply of vegetables and fruit from the farmer's market and a collection of grains, seeds, and tinctures. After you shit, the poo sawdust blend is recycled in the backyard so flowers can grow and your poo returns to the earth from whence it came.

Day two started with us finding the missing dude through a chance run in with some of the other Brusk dudes, who pointed him in the right direction. By then we had already finished our impromptu jam of found instruments in Brusk Headquarters (a trumpet, bongo drums, wooden xylophone, rainstick, and some other instruments whose names I do not know). We grabbed some weird food for breakfast (I had anchovies wrapped around olives and some funky cheese) drank way too many coffees and headed down to the Fiesta Des Ursulines which you can read about here or watch the video here. As mentioned in the previous article, we avoided an all night party with Danger Dave so we could be fit (or semi-fit) to eat some more concrete the following day.

Jan Wermes jams a feeble during the chaotic punk session at the Fiesta Des Ursulines.

Day 3 came all too early and then I struggled to get myself off the floor with everything swollen and bruised from too many wipeout’s in the punisher the night before. Today I would not be skating but with a camera and video camera to man, it wasn’t as disappointing as it had been for the others that were too wrecked to skate. Still we had 3 1/2 people that were still willing and able to skate so we headed out to Mechelen which is directly on the way to Antwerp. I called Roberto [Alemañ] to try and get him and Danger and Sean [Gutierrez] to meet us on the way for a session, but Danger & Sean hadn’t slept, so we took Mechelen on our own.

Mechelen Overview

[updated July 20th, 2010]
Mechelen is one of the newest parks in Belgium – built by  local skaters. Bruno (who has worked with both Brusk Collective and Minus Pools) organised the project but everybody who wanted to work as a volunteer could work there. This project was and still is supported by the city and they gave money for materials.The design was done more or less freestyle by everyone around at those moments. Specifically Mike from Brusk helped out a lot during phase one, which was the construction of the bowl. The other Brusk members also helped out a few days and MinusMatt shot the pool during one week. The construction crews of Belgium & Germany (Brusk, Minus Pools, and and now Bruno’s new Concrete Dreams) all seem to work as one big happy family, sharing projects, experience, knowledge and creativity to work together or alone, depending on the circumstances of the project, to build some of the best new concrete in Europe.

You see, Belgium (as well as Sweden) is following a similar boom as Oregon about 10 years ago. There are new parks popping up in small towns all over and they are built well and how we like them! Pool coping, oververt, challenging bowls and creative designs that you don’t get bored of  after a few weeks of skating. Mechelen isn’t that big (in height) of a park and about 2/3 of the park is more of a street area, but in street I don’t mean stairs and pyramids, rather tons of creative lines you can put together on your way to hit the vert quarter (with pool coping). Again, I was too hurt to skate, but it’s well worth it to hit up if you are making a tour of Belgium or if you live anywhere in western Europe. The park wasn’t 100% finished but pretty damn close. We were on a time constraint because our plan was to meet Consolidated in Antwerp before they headed up to Amsterdam, so back in the van and heading north….

Bowl at Mechelen, Belgium

Aries Riepelsiep. Nose Grind on the vert wall in Mechelen, Belgium

Tobi Hees. Backside Disaster. Mechelen, Belgium

Captain Roadie. Front Side grind on the vert wall.

Tobi Hees. Smithgrind in Mechelen, Belgium

Parking Lot contraption in Mechelen.

After an emergency stop for the dudes at McDonald’s (not for me, I hate McDonald’s but as much as Europeans talk shit about American’s being fat and eating McDonald’s, they sure eat there more than anyone I’ve ever known in USA)… we rolled up to the Antwerp park, but had already missed the Consolidudes and just a few locals were skating the pool. Antwerp is a few years old by now and most people know what it is like, so I won’t get into it so much, besides, you should read the 7 pages article in CONFUSION ISSUE #1 about Brusk and Team Pain building the park. The pool is super fun, I dare you to drop-in in the shallow end! The main area has lots of long lines, BIG vert, and a full pipe with a cradle at the end. Antwerp is a good city and it would behoove you to spend a few days in the city and at the skatepark.

Tobi Hees. Stalefish in Antwerp, Belgium.

Tobi Hees (MVP of the trip) in the full pipe. Antwerp, Belgium.

We came, we saw, and we were conquered, so it was time to hit the road and head back to Köln. Like battered soldiers, we returned home from combat, to rest up for the week, before the next adventure began. This time, in Malmö, Sweden….

Across the street from the Antwerp Skatepark, a work in progress

....and when you see these smoke stacks, you know the end of the tour is near...

Photos, Video & Words: J. Hay

VIDEO LINKS:
Downtown skate session and lurking in Brussels
Guerilla Grafitti artist Bonom in action.

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Pool Skeleton Tshirt (grey). Artwork by JJ Rudisill

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Pool Skeleton Tshirt (black). Artwork by JJ Rudisill

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Confusion Sacrifice. Artwork by Alex Duke

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