Skartable DIY Skate Spot – Los Angeles, California
Driving down Melrose Ave. I saw a quiet little spot, perfect for a narrow quarter pipe. I knew there is no way I could build there so I started thinking about prefab DIY….
Driving down Melrose Ave. I saw a quiet little spot, perfect for a narrow quarter pipe. I knew there is no way I could build there so I started thinking about prefab DIY….
The spot is called Plymouth DIY. We decided to build something really steep and whippy because every skatepark around here is really small and mellow.
5 years ago, with the help of the Brusk crew, my friends David, Yan and I had the opportunity to participate in the construction of our own dreampark, consisting primarily of a clover-shaped, 7 feet deep pool.
The light was gone, the mozzies were totally taking over and the skaters were no longer in charge! And that’s an afternoon at Creekside. Fun had by all.
The BIG OPENING of this new epic skateboarding and subculture paradise is on August 30th 2014. There will be a sick skate jam / best trick session, a photo exhibition (25 years of skateboarding in Kassel), a few bands, an after show party and of course lots of friendly, crazy, hard partying people from (hopefully) everywhere in the world.
The plan is to go to a mini ramp built in the middle of nature. I met Diego with his girlfriend Erika and we drove to the place which is almost on the border with France. When we got there I found this concrete beauty, built at the bottom of a small valley…
I think of Love and Dedication in several areas of life and I can surely identify these two feelings whenever I see them. This struck me again recently when I saw a raw space, dirty, wet and ugly, turn into an awesome indoor skateable area made with that Love and Dedication I mentioned earlier.
After the demise of the Bronson Ditch project, Clayton Graul was already on the hunt for a new location. Having participated with USP at Bronson, I was also on the hunt for a new location for them. My hunt didn’t take me deeper into the woods or another ditch off the beaten path. I was led right to my local prefab skatepark.
Under the surface of big and loud machines are popping out little places hiding much potential for skateboarding and DIY. In the little town of Flémalle, in the suburbs of Liège, a few young and highly motivated skaters explored their living environment for places of freedom and imagination.
My son Thomas called me at home and told me there was a spot that he thought we could build on. It turns out it’s this neighbor kid Lucas’s house. I really didn’t like this kid much. It seemed to me that they were always fighting, but I rode my bike down there anyway to see what was up. It turns out it was a piece of property that his Grandpa gave him.
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.
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.