A few years before we found the place where we built todays little skatehall paradise including germany’s first indoor concrete bowl and a big wooden street / flow section, we had a much smaller skatehall, just a few hundred meters from our current place.
We had this small skatepark in the early 90s where we built skateable obstacles. Some neighbors complained about the noise and the city people tore it down. We didn’t have a permit to build anything but that didn’t stop us because there was no other skatepark anywhere near. We ended up building several different parks but every one of those were destroyed by the city of Helsinki….
We’re almost finished with a new skatepark by the beach in Barcelona, Spain designed with other two more projects in 2009 by a couple architect experts on landscaping and myself as a skateboarder.
Getting old sucks. One has to get a “job”, “be responsible”, hang overs get worse, healing after slams take longer and other lame “adult” like things. What doesn’t suck about getting old: Friendships grow stronger, one can start drinking any time of the day…
“Mangawhai! Fucking huge perfect bowls in a sleepy little east coast surf town on the North Island of New Zealand. Built by Jason Parks at Premium Skatepark Designs New Zealand! Easily one of the best vert pools in the world!”
Nestled in the Griffith Park area (Hollywood Hills), where hiking trails welcome hundreds of people a day, Bronson Canyon ditch has been the destination for any skater who visits southern California and more specifically, Hollywood. But like the Hollywood movies that have emerged over the years, someone decided to do something new and exciting with a location that has been untouched for decades. Clayton Graul and his crew have recently taken the DIY approach to Bronson Ditch and have added some creativity to its legendary status.
In the summer of 2011 the news that the beloved BLACKCROSSBOWL was to be destroyed came true and plans were soon put into place to find a new space to build. After some intense dealings with permits and raising money the Basel crew, motivated as ever, started digging, laying iron and troweling concrete in the waste land around the port area of Basel.
Concrete is the material on which the people that try to govern us have founded their emperor of fluxes, temporary idols, bi-dimensional prophets, heroes without swords. We have grown while playing with it. While drawing in three dimensions imaginary curves and corners, we have shown our own independence from the “legal” idea of space, our own autonomy in respect to the experts’ “professionalism”…
October 5th, time to say bye to the summer, because winter is very rainy in the Basque Country and the sun and summer are so valued for us.
Graveside, appropriately named, sits next to a real grave yard and is in all essence a hardcore bowl to skate. The location is beautiful but still raw.
Capbreton is hard to figure out, hard to get some speed but after a while it’s really fun. The street park is really nice, and well done. Bénesse-Maremne is more fun if you like trannys. The Viking Blocks pool coping is perfect and the concrete is smooth with lots of lines and quiet surroundings.
“A lot of people have been down here. Some come and don’t want to skate. Some are scared to drop in. Most struggle to find speed, and all will eat shit at some point. I’ve seen a lot of heads bounce off the concrete, mine included. Some days I’ll have a skate and the bowl will kick my arse. People will come with their boards, but will leave with hippers, swellbows, bruises, cuts and of course covered in dust.
My bowl was a case of I wanted something to skate. I built it, I skate it.” – Swampy