Photo, Text and Schultenbräu by Jeffrey Ladd
Köln. Lohseramp. 10:47 am. Once again, the legendary Lohseramp Party takes over Lohsepark in the northern part of Cologne’s “green belt” that rings the city’s center. Upwards of 2000+ spectators descend annually to witness a day of shredding and music enhanced with an impressive amount of weed and alcohol.
We arrived extra early to help set up only to find a line of cocoon-like hammocks strung over the three meter high abyss between the ramp railings and the lightposts stuffed with bodies sleeping off the previous nights warm-up session – the Belgians arrived. After clearing the decks of a collection of imported beer bottles and cans, their slumber was interrupted by the first runs being taken by a swarm of hungry little teen groms working out their lines. Like a bunch of coked-up raccoons tearing apart a garbage dump, a lot of tricks were thrown about, but ones seasoned with a touch of “style” remained rare – this warm-up session was all about the “makes” – stinkbug airs and sketchy spine-transfers the preferred go-to’s. There were a couple exceptions though…
When the older crew woke from the dead after spliff and coffee, the session got fired up and something loosely resembling a structured contest began. Young gun Konrad Brock MC’d and kept the crowd hyped…
A few of the local hometown heroes made their presence known including Datu, Tim, Jan, Lorenz Schneider, Lenni Jennsen, Ariss…
Beer van Houtte poppin out of a front blunt proper…
…and a late day smith
This dude with a fakie frontside 50-50 pretzel. Keep it weird kids, there are enough kickflip indy’s already in the world. Think outside the box!
Ariss shed about 20 years off his age with his runs. Boy was on fire… won the 40+ division. Congrats!
This year’s Lohse artist Till knows I only aim my lens at him unless he’s mid front-board…
One of the Belgian’s mid-crail…
Tim out of Dortmund with a low-to-high tail smack. Style for miles with this dude…
Our second place winner Lorenz Schneider with a speedy frontlip. Photo doesn’t really do justice to what he unleashes…
DaTu with a frontlip that probably slid further into sugarcane or into a sugarcane-revert. Half the time I think he just does extra shit to confuse the MC commentators. Fun to watch even if you don’t know what the fuck you’re looking at… A big yawn in photos though.
Team Backpain Damian Sobota with his trademark early-grab Andrecht. Shot this one with my foot apparently. Fun fact: That one screw in the foreground holds the entire ramp together
When Maurice ain’t stagediving from speaker stacks he makes the finals and throws proper frontrocks…
And finally, Tim (?) unleashed his usual fury on the lohseramp. When he isn’t Miller-flippin’ the spine, he’s hucking a frontside invert on the extension.
Lenni Janssen with a highspeed no-comply to tailslide. Every competitor is like “Hell Yeah Lenni’s here” and then after his first run they are like “Oh Shit Lenni’s here.” There is always second and third place boys…
Lenni Janssen pop-shovit tailgrab high above the extension
When the dust settled the top three slots were filled by David (3rd), Lorenz (2nd) and Lenni Jannsen (1st).
The party continued with a live set by hardcore locals Dog’s Out and on into the early hours with a couple DJs who I heard kept the Lohseparty spirit alive. I wouldn’t know though cause my old ass was in bed by 12:30 am recharging for the 7am clean up the next morning. The aftermath of the event is where I find the real trophies. Among the thousands of beer bottles, puke and trash spread over the hillsides surrounding the ramp, I came away with seven unopened beers, almost 4 euros, and a small bag of weed. Oh, and a Public Service Announcement for International visitors next year, don’t sleep behind the ramp, that area has served as an open toilet for the past 30 years of the ramp’s history.
