confusion

Mats Hatlen. Lien air. Photo: Eddie Think

Vert Attack 8 – The Confusion report

Every year around April, I get the itch about wanting to go to Malmö for the next Vert Attack edition. In April? Yes in April, the ambiance, the brotherhood, the parties, and foremost the insane skateboarding that occurs every year, makes it that I get homesick just a couple of weeks after the last air landed, the prizes were given away, and the hangover cleared from the afterparty.

Matze Weiland. 5-0 grind. Photo: Benni Götte

Mister Wilson Outdoor DIY Park – Kassel, Germany

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.

Antti Vierola. 5-0 nose grab while Juuso Aalto is working. Photo: Samu Karvonen

Suvilahti DIY skatepark – Helsinki, Finland

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….

Wim de Waele takes some risk shooting this pic of Timothy. Good for him he has the control.

Belgium café DIY skatepark

We were cleaning up the mess of the Malinas Machinas on monday and the brewer (Frans van Craenenbroeck) comes to me and he says: ‘I bought a café with a hangar in the back. Can you come check it out and see if it’s possible to built a skatepark in there?’…

Overview

Rogersville DIY – Corpus Christi, Texas

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…

Bronson Ditch. Find the Hollywood sign. Find the ditch. Photo: Clayton Graul.

Bronson Ditch “Urban Skate Project” – Hollywood, California

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.

Port Land DIY. Basel, Switzerland.

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.

Confusion Magazine – Issue #8 – out now

Confusion Magazine – Issue #8 – out now! Features with Frank Shaw, Sox, Lovenskate in Basque, DIY skate spots including Bluestone (Australia), Port Land (Switzerland), PFK (Japan), a music feature with Mike Neider from Bl’ast, an artist feature with Zombie Stu, a scene report on Cadiz, Spain, Hot shit, product reviews, zine reviews, video reviews, a Ramp Jam in Belgium and so much more.

“c.1.. sunk”: thoughts from Italy about pigs, democracy and concrete

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”…