An independent skate video project by Javier Varillas & Michal Majer
Words by Javier Varillas
Built in Czechia is an independent skate video project I’m making with my longtime filming partner Michal “Čůro” Majer. We’ve worked together on different projects over the past 10 years, this one may well be the culmination of our collaboration.
Shot over two and a half years, the film —part documentary, part skate video—portraits Czechia’s DIY skate scene, featuring more than 50 local skaters and the stories behind the spots and the communities that built them.
Making the film took us across the Czech Republic to meet the locals, hear their stories, and spend countless hours skating and filming together. More than everything, it has left us with a real appreciation for the power of DIY skate culture and what people can build together. Claiming unused spaces, re-imagining them, and making them our own is a downright political act too. The skating is the final proof of that enormous effort.
Photo: Michal Čejka
The film focuses on nine community-built DIYs, from Parkplatz in Pilsen to Baumax in Olomouc. Here I’ll introduce those spots, along with the now-demolished Battlefield, an important part of Pilsen’s DIY history. I’ll share how they came about, what they’re like now and where to find them (when the locals are happy to share).
PARKPLATZ (Pilsen), Est: 2022
Parkplatz is one of the most fun DIYs to skate in Czechia. There’s a ledge, a flat bar, a manny pad, all kinds of slappies, two quarters, a spine, a bank, a pyramid, a pole jam… You name it. The spot sits on land where Pilsen’s first skatepark used to be. After the old metal ramps were moved nearby, the asphalt lot stood empty and fenced off for 15 years.
On January 1, 2022, the Pessertive crew, following Tomáš “Kohy” Kohout’s idea for a slappy-focused DIY, laid down a long red-painted curb. More than 20 obstacles have followed over four years, turning it into a spot made for cruising around and have fun. Recently, though, the locals learned that the city had sold the land to developers, and there’s a proposal to build on the site. At the time of writing, Parkplatz’s future is uncertain.
Photo: Radek Machala
Photo: Tomáš Kohout
Location: Lochotínská 41, Pilsen 1.
BATTLEFIELD (Pilsen), 2018-2020 + KŘÁK, 2020-present
Battlefield was the Pessertive crew’s first DIY built completely from scratch, with support from Prague’s Darkslide skateshop. It stood on abandoned land and had a tiled-coping quarter, a volcano and a China bank. The old cheese-grater concrete made everything harder to skate. Filip Sauer from Pessertive put it well: “Battlefield was amazing, the ground was shit, super rough to skate. I loved going there, and I really enjoyed it when there were obstacles that weren’t your cup of tea. Because it was so different, I could do a super simple trick there and still feel like it meant everything.”
Battlefield was demolished in 2020 to make way for a Lidl supermarket. RIP Battlefield. Its demolition pushed the crew to find somewhere else to build: Křák.
Pessertive icon Hanz Marko found an old concrete area by the Radbuza River, buried under a thick layer of dirt after years of neglect. The crew cleared it in 2020 and started building. Křák is small and fun to skate. It has a corner-shaped quarter, a small quarter and a mellow bank with a two-meter slappy along the top. That slappy was the first curb the crew molded themselves (shout out to Erik Buj!).
The ground is rough, but the obstacles are set up for cruising. No pop required. With Parkplatz getting most of the attention these days, Křák doesn’t see as much skating or maintenance. If you go, bring a broom.
Location: České údolí, Pilsen 1. (Behind the softball field, by the Radbuza River.)
RBS (Pilsen), Est: 2014
River Bank Spot (RBS) takes its name and inspiration from Malmö’s TBS. Built along a riverwalk in central Pilsen, it’s the one I’m most attached to. In September 2014, just a week after I moved to Pilsen, Hanz Marko, Michal Majer, along with some now-Pessertive OGs, crafted the first obstacle: a shitty quarter with aluminum coping. I’ve witnessed RBS grow since. I learned there how to frontside slappy grind on an early painted concrete curb. Today, it’s a complex and fun DIY spot, with a long stretch of obstacles you can skate from both directions, hitting slappies, wallrides, ledges and banks while feeling like moving through a corridor.
The city now tolerates building there. It wasn’t always like that. Police came by in the early days, and in 2018 České Dráhy (the national railway company) removed two quarters that rested against the pillars of the railway bridge. The crew has left those pillars alone since then, building only on the other side of the spot. RBS shares space with a pedestrian and cycle path, so watch for bikes. The town apparently doesn’t prioritize maintenance there. That combined with the people that hang out under the bridge, makes it a challenge to keep the spot clean, so bringing a broom is recommended.
Location: Anglické nábřeží by Kožíškova lávka (pedestrian bridge), Pilsen 3.
FUZZ LEDGES (Brno) Est: 2009
Brno has the two oldest DIY skateparks in Czechia that are still skated and maintained: Fuzz Ledges and Komín. Fuzz began around 2008-2009, when locals started skating an unused plot with smooth concrete near a sports venue, where the old skatepark once stood. They brought in pallet ledges and concrete benches to skate.
When Martin Hřivna moved to Brno, he and the Spotstore crew gave Fuzz a full rebuild with granite ledges, slappies and a manny pad. This was around 2019. Since then, the locals have been changing the spot, keeping its original vibe of ledge skating. It’s still a go-to spot for daily sessions and a meeting-up place with Brno locals.
Location: Sportovní 2, Brno-Královo Pole. (By Boby Centrum.)
KOMÍN (Brno) Est: 2006
Komín DIY, in the Brno-Komín district, is one of Czechia’s oldest surviving DIYs, if not the oldest. In the early 2000s, some ramps were moved from a nearby skatepark. When use destroyed the ramps, local hero Honza Minol and his friends started creating a ledge spot there, where they regularly skated throughout the late 2000s
In 2011, Mirek Kvapil (then editor at Board Magazine) with the Inside Builders crew added more concrete obstacles. Since then, Brno locals have kept building and maintaining it. The spot now has around 15 concrete obstacles, with quarters and banks of different sizes, slappies and manny pads. The ground is rough, but that’s part of the challenge – each obstacle takes a bit of figuring out.
Komín DIY, Brno. 2026. Photo: Javier Varillas
Location: Podveská, Brno-Komín. (Behind the Komín trolleybus depot – Trolejbusová vozovna Komín.)
HUBERTUS (Liberec) Est: 2022
Massive shout out to Jakub “Shymonkey” Šimůnek for this one! Around 2020, while building for the X-Games, he was given a small miniramp, which he took it apart and brought it to Liberec from Norway. For a couple of years, the locals struggled to find a place to keep the ramp without complaints about the noise. Then, in 2022, a friend of Shymonkey’s suggested an abandoned hotel complex built in the 1940s on the hillside of Ještěd Mountain. Its concrete terraces were just the right size for the ramp, and being deep in the woods meant no nearby neighbors that could complain. The miniramp finally had a home.
Since then, Shymonkey and the locals have turned it into Hubertus DIY, a tangled transition-filled playground you can skate in all directions. In the upper part of the spot, there’s a fire pit, benches and tables for hanging out, cooking and camping. The landowner has even permitted them to use the space as long as they keep it clean and looked after. Shymonkey keeps finding ways to expand it. Every visit feels a little different.
Location: Liberec (DM @shymon_key)
PLAYGROUND (Prague) Est: 2014
Playground DIY sits by Eden train station in Prague’s Strašnice district, near Slavia’s football stadium. Lógr-crew legend Jakub “Tarzan” Karel found the spot around 2014. It was an abandoned volleyball court, apparently on top of a bunker, full of dirt and overgrown grass. With support from Board Magazine and Darkslide skateshop (shout out to Mirek Kvapil), plus their own money and work, the Lógr crew turned it into a transition-heavy DIY skatepark inspired by Savanna Side in Malmö, one of Sweden’s first DIY spots.
Building slowed around 2020 when the crew stopped skating there as much. The ramps and ground began to crack, and the spot fell into disrepair. While filming Built in Czechia, Michal and I came back with friends to patch the ramps and ground and make it skateable again.
The spot attracts trash, so bring a broom. It’s still no easy session: the ground is rough, the transitions are quick and there’s pool coping everywhere. There’s nothing mellow to warm up on. At Playground, you don’t just land tricks, you conquer them.
Photo: Peter Mercell (Board Magazine)
Location: Nad Slávií, Prague 10 (Behind the Eden train station)
KORYTO (Havířov) Est. 2022
Koryto DIY was an old ditch. The public skatepark in Havířov was packed, mostly with scooter kids, so a group of die-hard locals started building a U-ramp on unused agricultural land, where they used a ditch with concrete-block walls as the base, filling it with whatever material they could find.
Some in the crew are professional skatepark builders, and the plan soon grew into a fully closed concrete bowl. Four huge building sessions, a couple of crowdfunding campaigns and help from the Sketon crew, who pumped in shotcrete, brought it to life. Today, Koryto is a square bowl with a spine, extensions and wallrides, plus a tight clamshell bowl alongside. The work is impressive, but small imperfections still give it a DIY feel. The locals skate and hang out there every day.
Its future is uncertain, though, after the landowner showed up and made it clear she wasn’t happy about it. Martin Brockman put it this way: “[…] we’ll probably have to tear it down. But honestly, that doesn’t really bother us. We always knew it was temporary, and that’s kind of what makes it beautiful. Let’s enjoy it now while it’s still here, because later there probably won’t be a chance anymore, right?” Martin’s words capture the contradiction of putting enormous effort into something that might be temporary. But somehow there’s something beautiful about it, isn’t it?
Photo: Martin Brockman
Koryto DIY, Havířov. Kuba Foldyna, backside boneless, 2024. Photo: Martin Brockman
Location: Havířov (DM the locals @_koryto.diy)
BAUMAX (Olomouc) Est: 2010
Baumax DIY in Olomouc is the heavyweight of Czech DIYs. It sits in an oversized, underused parking lot beside the Baumax store. Skaters have been meeting there since the 2000s, mostly because Olomouc had no proper public skatepark. First, the locals brought movable obstacles – rails and wooden ledges. Then, in 2014, the Street Fighters (SF) crew built the first concrete obstacles, and as construction was tolerated, the place has kept growing over the past 12 years. Today, Baumax has more than 50 obstacles, of various shapes and sizes, spread over the massive parking lot. (The same SF crew also runs SF Mini, a DIY space with a miniramp, concert venue, recording studio, bar and community hub.)
Marek Kroupa sums up what Baumax DIY means to the people from Olomouc: “I’m not afraid to say that Baumax is one of the most-used sports venues in the city, and it didn’t cost the city a single crown. […] When you skate street in Olomouc these days, the cops will kick you out and tell you to go to Baumax [DIY].” That tells you the story. If your town doesn’t pay for a purpose-built skatepark, fuck them and build it yourself!
Location: Holická 26, Olomouc 9.