Confusion Magazine – Issue #7 – now available! Featuring interviews with Josh “Skreech” Sandoval (USA), Koekie (Belgium), Morph (New Zealand), Scott Bourne (USA/France), Javier Mendizabal (Basque), Lennart “Lensen” Efsing (Germany)
Every year the Fiesta des Ursulines somehow marks the beginning of the skateboarding summer season in Brussels. However, the weather isn’t always on our side. But beer is a good alternative to missing sunlight, and we Belgians know how to make up for it. Our top animator Phil was at his best as usual, dressed as a womenly kinda joker. All-in-all the event was a great success, gathering skaters, rockers, groupies, mom’s and dad’s, kiddies, punks and hipsters. The gigs around the bowl were rad and the skaters hit it hard during the session. So fuck the weather and let’s skate!
If you were there, you know words can’t explain the madness that was going on! If you weren’t there, see you next year! – G’nassis
The Fiesta Des Urulines is a crazy day of eccentricity that takes place in the heart of Brussels in Belgium once a year. Organized by the Brusk (is dead) collective, this skate-music party is a full day fiesta combining concrete bowl skating with music ranging from punk to rock n roll to jazz and electro along with silkscreening demos, organic food, specialty belgium beers, a grafitti session, and another skate session on the D.I.Y street course which was built the day before along with a full wooden shack sun shade 0 star sleeping accommodation.
I hadn’t visited Mechelen since last May and in this time, Bruno and his Concrete Dreams crew have been using Mechelen as a testing ground for new techniques, obstacles and features that they can then implement in a variety of skateparks they’re building around Belgium. Therefore, Mechelen has a little bit of everything: a bowl, a concrete miniramp, ledges, pyramids, speed bumps, tables, corners, a loveseat, a tombstone door for the daredevils to attempt, and a skateable perimeter speed line that goes around the outside of about half the park.
Arty Farty gallery in Cologne joined forces with Wasted Box Skateshop and belgium illustrator ELZO … Keep reading
When I arrived in Ayacucho, I was invited with Bruno (Concrete Dreams) and Benoit (BRUSK) to build a mini-ramp for Mama Alice, a dutch NGO which works with children and wanted an infrastructure for teenagers. I used to organize concrete skateparks workshops in Belgium, and we did the same here (http://www.brusk.be/home/spip.php?rubrique19). I met a girl and decided to come back and try to live my life here. It was four years ago now, my Peruvian child is two…
How can a Bowl be transformed from a certified piece of shit into a deep and sweet reason to visit Paris? Skater wise naturally you’d say that it is alway good to ride those smooth sidewalks they get here and to jam (sometime literally!) into the traffic of the big avenues. But after sometime you can be bored of some of the humans living in Paris… ego trip on any levels can be really disturbing for a good ride. And you suddenly realize that there is nearly no tranny in town, this fact finally leads you to leave town in search of a good pool to fill your addiction to adrenalin.
They say a photo is worth 1000 words.
Here’s 30,000 words and a video of the two day BACK TO OLD SCHOOL 3 event last September 11th.
A long time ago, in Anterp, Belgium the Back to Old School, 2nd edition was due to take place. Jason Parkes met me at my house in Cologne with his son Kilian. We got in my vw van and drove the 2 hours to the skatepark, where Lester Kasai and Mark Partain were warming up the day before the contest. It had been raining earlier and the park just dried up when we got there, and was practically empty, except for one of the best pool skaters in the world, and legendary 80s dominator Lester Kasai.
k in Oostende Belgium is located in the old Velodrome (bike course) next to the harbor, a few kilometers from the ocean. Built by Concrete Dreams. a Belgian skate park company started by Bruno, which is collaborative effort with Mike and other guys from Brusk Collective, locals in whatever city they’re building and assisted at times by Matt Grabowski from Minus Pools. The final product in Oostende came out super insane. The opening party had punk bands, DJs, graffiti “jams”, no real contest just people skateboarding, and a lot of spectators who it seemed were quite impressed with what Concrete Dreams had created for the city and visiting skateboarders. There’s not really much to say except another great skate park in Europe, BUILT BY SKATEBOARDERS.
We headed out on the road Friday evening with a good part of the IMPAKT SKATEBOARDS team in Captain Road Hog’s van, with only 2 hours to our destination of Brussels, where we would stay at the Brusk Collective’s house in central Brussels. Beers were cracked, the dudes were freaking out with the excitement of our weekend trip to Belgium.