The chances you have heard about a tiny village one hour north of Nürnberg in the North-Bavarian outback called Neudrossenfeld are virtually zero. Designed by Blackriver Ramps and built last year together with the Yamato crew from Hannover and the legendary Baum, this park is a perfect combination of flow, street, and bowl.
The Osthafen Skatepark is really big. The shape of the transitions and other concrete obstacles are nearly perfect. The first time you go there you have to try to explore all the possibilities the park has to offer, because there’s so much to handle. The right side of the park is simliar to a street plaza: curbs, rails, banks, hips, gaps and china banks. The obstacles on the street section are really low and not too good to skate.
On the left side you find a bowl land scape. If you spend some time testing the lines with your hands, you’ll find the flow. There is something for everyone. In the back part, there is a bowl with a loveseat and a corner which has pool coping. In the front part there is another bowl with a full pipe with a similar corner, on the opposite side is a big bank. And don’t forget to hit up the volcano, there you can end the day nicely.
At the end of 2012 Alex Funk, head of Telum Skateboards and a few Stuttgart locals visited the former health ministry in Stuttgart and decided it could be a good place to build up something new to skate indoor in Stuttgart. The Skateboard Museum, also located in Stuttgart, was closing at the end of the year. So there was the possibility to rebuild the Museum Bowl into the new location.
The park will be open for the public April 26th and it will be fuckin rad, and big. No steelcoping! Only pool coping in the bowl area!!!!!!
On arrival I don’t think anyone really knew what we were getting ourselves into for the following week back in early June in Hannover, Germany. The basic concept was that the 2er [tsvi-er] crew had the idea to invite D.I.Y skate crews from all corners of Europe to come to their spot and each team would be given three days to build something.
“Every trip has it’s ups and downs. Whether it be not finding places to stay, long drives, weather, etc… After Sweden and Denmark we were sure that we were on an “up”. We get picked up in Malmö after having to get ahold of Brad through his girlfriend’s instagram. The drive was easy with a spacious van and we even ended up taking a ferry somewhere in there as well. My goal was to only speak German for as long we were in Germany. So I was less than talkative for the first four or so hours driving. I ended up breaking language when we ran into some of our friends from the States at a completely random rest stop off the German highway. A few English words with the homies and we’re off to Munster to skate for a couple of days….” – Steven Reeves
“…what was important for me was to work with used material as much as possible to use things that we left – to leave and make an installation which has a double function… and on skateboard sculpture, for me is everytime kind of self play with things that i know, saw, skate and visions… the important part for me of skateboarding is to give things new meaning to see and use something what is not made for it… exploring perception and body…. first i play with many things that we know about skateboarding and objects which are skateable in simple way… but to see the change of an object meaning that people hang clothing and things on “artpeace” was something like giving new meaning to work, new step interaction…breathing…” – sergej vutuc
“I’ve always wanted to go to Denmark & Sweden ever since I’ve seen Pontus Alv skate. The spots look like they are out of a fantasy novel and the vibe reminded me of a lot of my home back in Vancouver. When Powell Peralta told us they wanted to do a tour this summer I was excited like a teenage kid that got laid for the first time. The crew consisted of a plethora of unique shredders: Steven Reeves (who in my mind is the definition of Powell Peralta), Bowl destroyer Brad McClain (my personal favorite), one of my best friends Josh Hawkins, filmer Terry Larue, and of course the mysterious photographer/TM Deville Nunes…” – Jordan Hoffart
“The building of room installation… or whatever people would call it… what for me was important in this installation is to build something out of dumpster and buying less as possible things and on the end was only screws, car gas… since diy is run by corporations, time is to build by death of society.” – Sergej Vutuc
Halloween Bowl Jam in the Owl Bowl, at the NorthBrigade skatepark in Cologne, with glüwine, hot chili and a chilly concrete bowl, skating in the cold german night, on All Hallows’ Eve.
Here is a short clip of my three-exhibition Tour in germany this summer. We edited it in one day at Confusion Magazine headquarters in Köln.
It was filmed by Piper, Sergej Vutuc, Jonathan Hay and myself on fairly simple cameras. A very low budget production but really high in fun, liebe and other vitamin-rich ingredients. – Fernando Elvira
The old Lohseramp was the only real ramp in all of Cologne, Germany, but when it ended up starting to rot after many winters and derelict kids starting fires under the transition, the city finally shut down the ramp and the locals took it apart and salvaged some of the masonite, for a possible future project.