do it yourself

Wrex Cook – Built to Skate

“What can one say about my best friend? He eats sleeps and breathes skateboarding. If he couldn’t be enveloped in skateboarding, I truly believe he would dry up and turn to dust. His entire life has been dedicated to progression through ideas and fruition. It all started with exploring on his bike with a milk crate and to this day, he is still constructing skate obstacles and teaching people how to take their skateboarding destiny into their own hands through doing it themselves…” – Kim Cook

Ceramica DIY – Portugal

“We live in a small country, we crossed through nother economic crisis, our politicians do not know how to spend our money. We thought the following: let us take it that nobody wants to do what we want. In Leiria there are no shortage of places to skate. We have a skatepark, a beautiful square full of marble curbs, a half dozen street spots and a mini ramp in the woods. But Ceramica is where we feel good. Far from everything and everyone, here we have the freedom and tranquility for a few beers, barbecues , creating concrete ramps without scooters, rollers and bmxers to cross our path. Do it yourself, fuck the rest.

Low Holly DIY – Nantes, France

Inspired by Pontus Alv’s concrete sculptures, the first part of this private mini-skatepark began in August 2010, based on night and rainy construction sessions on an rough unused slab of an old farm. It includes several walls, a tall bump, a grindable bank, 2 quarterpipes and a fun pool coping spine in the middle. A corner was just added in august 2012. Low Holy is a nice spot in the middle of nowhere in the northwest part of France, in the city of Nantes, which has already received a lot of visitors and some heavy sessions

Chez Claude DIY – Toulouse, France

Our story is, I think, a great classic! Everything began two years ago, in lack of any curves in our city we decided to take our fate in our own hands and build our own spot! For that it was necessary for us to find a good place, a few kilometers later, an old caterpillar factory in the outskirts of the city would make for a good chill spot. We had the place we would start the “Chez Claude” adventure.

Confusion Magazine – Issue #4

Confusion Magazine – Issue #4 – release date end of Janauary, 2012. Featuring Adam Benson, Matt Grabowski, Balder Lehmann, Ferit Batir, Phil Jackson and Sadam Yoshizawa.

Malmö DIY – Sibbarp Skatepark. 2011

Malmö DIY was the 3rd annual event at the Sibbarp skatepark in Malmö, Sweden. It’s not about the Sibbarp skatepark being D.I.Y., it was build by CONCREATURES, a skatepark construction company ran in Sweden by Dave Toms and Jezza from Australia. The D.I.Y. event focuses on things like grip tape workshops (hosted this year by Zarosh) and other small skater led organizations that are doing their own thing, big or small, without corporate funding. BBQ, bands, Servant shoes for sale on the hood of the Servant van.. you know… no corporate bullshit. Just a small skate event, everyone having a good time, with some full on skateboarding action.

DIY Willits – California

This is a home made pool with obstacles around the deck, somewhere in the wooded mountains of Willets, CA. The pool is real good – an amoeba with a death-box in the deep, shallow stairs, and pool coping all the way around… except over the shallow stairs where there is river rock mortared in for coping (up the ante!). This pool is not the easiest pool to skate. I have skated backyarders that are easier, but it is great nonetheless.

Marginal Way DIY: Seattle, Washington

Marginal Way started as a one ghetto little quarter pipe against the wall under Highway 99. It was one of the only covered spots to skate in Seattle. Bums and garbage was pretty much all there was before the creation of Marginal Way, as the people came together the freeway under pass diy spot started to grow.

Secret DIY in the Woods of Germany

The best way not get your DIY project busted by the government is not to do it in the middle of the city under a bridge, but to do it in the middle of the woods near a small town, and don’t tell anyone where it is…

Happy 20th Birthday Burnside

Burnside is the oldest D.I.Y skate park in the United States and possibly the world. This Halloween I was lucky enough to partake and enjoy the 20 year celebration of the park. This skate park began its form during one Halloween night 20 years ago. Almost every following Halloween there has been some kind of gathering and skating at the park to celebrate its creation and existence. And this year was no exception…

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