Photos by Jonas Gasser, Jonas Camps and Felix Biehler
Words by Peter Murphy
Supported by Doodah, El Tony Mate, Word Skateboards, Archiv Glarus, Glarus Nord, Kanton Glarus, Hösli Strassenbau AG, Ragotti+Weber Bau AG, Schober Bau AG.
Video by Felix Biehler and Alessandro Pat
I’ll start by admitting that I can’t actually account for the whole of the event because I only showed up on the Thursday afternoon and it kicked off on the Monday. Nevertheless, I got there just in time for the main show because they had ordered a truck for 5pm to concrete everything that was left. Five or six different pieces, one of which being the infamous loop.
There must have been nearly 30 people there to help, so naturally everything went smoothly. That is, until a huge storm hit and it all went tits up. People frantically running for cover, waterfalls pouring over our freshly floated concrete, tents blowing away, people running back out of the cover to hold on to the tents … Chaos! Personally, that was my highlight of the weekend.
Parallel to this, there were those concreting the last bit of the loop, the top half, whose fate had been sealed by a big tarp that cut off all contact with the outside world, rendering them oblivious to the chaos that surrounded them, oblivious to the long night that awaited them.
Back in the outside world, the storm eventually calmed down and people were able to finish their various concrete endeavours. By 10pm everyone had moved on to cleaning and tidying … and celebrating, of course. Everyone except for a few relentless helpers who thought it would be a good idea to join the loop mission. Fools.
The loop mission continued on much further into the night, with many an avalanche and a concrete burn. People were taking it in turns to add a thimble of concrete to the piece only to watch a whole patch peel off. Concrete that had fallen on the ground and set hours earlier was being dug up and mixed up again with new cement and water to try and give it a second life. Recycling at its finest.
It was only around 5h30am, 12 hours after the concrete truck had turned up, that Karima woke me up and told me it was done. I had fallen asleep in the loop as she was doing the last finish. I got up and went straight to my van to sleep, but I know Manu stayed up until 7am to get a shower at the pool next door. Legend.
Photo: Jonas Gasser
Friday was spent cleaning and tidying and, once someone finally turned off the water that had been soaking all the concrete, skating the loop. Loads of people joined in and landed it, it was a really nice session. Later on, an open jam session was held but unfortunately cut short by the rain, so we just partied under the shelter of the bar, as you do.
Saturday was the main event, or at least from a skating point of view. Massive rainbow rail, over-the-loop session, fly-out, it all went off. There may have even been a ledge session that my memory is still trying to delete. In the evening, they got everyone skating the pool, accompanied by a band. Of course, it started raining again, so we held a tarp over the band so they could finish playing and then did our best to dry the pool to skate it again. One more band after that, under another tarp, and then the usual afterparty type stuff till the end of the night.
Sunday was a slow day, as expected, but the hangovers were made slightly more bearable by the fact that the sun was out, the pool was full and Schumi was putting on his annual show. Goodbyes went round as people slowly cleared off home, smiles on their faces and Kim Wilde’s Cambodia still ringing out in their heads.
Words by Peter Murphy
