crete

Am Rollerdamm 2021

Filmed and edited by Christoph Stiller,

Words by Fuxl
Photos by Christian Fischer, Jo Marent and Max Schneller

Article originally published in Confusion Magazine issue #30

“As a kid, you go and ask your mom for permission when you wanna go do something. If mom says no, you go and ask dad. If dad says no too, you’re screwed. So growing up, you realize that asking permission involves a high risk of getting a “no” as an answer.

That’s why the crew around Rollerdamm DIY in Vienna didn’t waste much time asking for permission when they started turning a shitty, junked up ditch, well hidden underneath a freeway bridge, into a one of a kind little skate refuge.

A place like this is meant to be concreted: Two large banks with only a small patch of flat bottom missing. Interestingly enough, once you wear a construction workers jacket, no one bothers asking what the heck you’re actually doing there – not even the cops. So, after the rocks, dirt and grime of decades were cleared out and the flat was concreted, the obstacles followed. Few months later, you hit the ditch with high speed coming down a little downhill bike lane straight up onto a quarter to wall, launch out of there to get to some fish taco kinda obstacle, return like a pendulum up the bank onto a pool-coped quarter and do what you gotta do, swing back and hit some chinese rock at the china, just to end up at a tight pocket that sends you right back to where you came from. It’s jolly good fun, and isn’t that what it’s all about?”