Mit Ari auf Safari

End of July, a period of the year when people hit the road for sunny beaches or discovering foreign countries. It’s also the moment when you realize that your own city has suddenly become all quiet. No hordes of scooter kids at your local skatepark who come all at once after school, and less traffic in town. Actually, if you think about it, this period of the year seems to be the best moment to stay north, with comparatively less posers at your local skatepark… However the good people are usually gone too… and it becomes harder to find people for a good session. Reason enough to meet up with friends who you don’t see too often. In our case we reunited nine people from different cities: Linda from Berlin, Ari from Cologne, Jana from Aachen, Eva from Münster, Lessie with her doggy ‘Ecke’, as well as Thomas, all three from Bodensee, Lea from LA and myself from Liège. Joran came with me from Liège, too. Being hurt at his ankle he supported us by shooting pictures. Thank you for that!

Ari layback grind at the NorthBrigade's Rat Bowl.

Ari layback grind at the NorthBrigade’s Rat Bowl.

Jana. Backside grind at the Owl Bowl.

Jana. Backside grind at the Owl Bowl.

Roxy. Frontside grind. NorthBrigade.

Roxy. Frontside grind. NorthBrigade.

And so Ari took us on safari throughout her concrete jungle of Cologne, to shake up summer sleeping skateparks: Lohse-rampe, Northbrigade, Lentpark and Kap.

From one spot to the other, we surprisingly found some dropable drops. So the ongoing challenge became to drop every dropable drop!

Roxy drop.

Roxy drop.

Ari drop at Lent Park.

Ari drop at Lent Park.

Roxy drop in.

Roxy drop in.

This trip would not have been possible without Ari’s kindness to host most of us in her tiny but friendly home, at this point I genuinely want to thank her for sharing everything she could to make us feel welcome – and especially thanks for the pancakes!!!!

Words by Roxy Černický
Analog photos by Roxy Černický. Non-analog photos by Joran Mislà

Drying LentPark.

Drying LentPark.

Ari. Front smith at Lent Park.

Ari. Front smith at Lent Park.

Jana chillin'.

Jana chillin’.

Backside tailslide.

Linda. Frontside board slide pop out.

Chillin' at Ari's pad.

Chillin’ at Ari’s pad.


Film by Jana Malzkorn