Skateboarding

UNO DIY – Melbourne, Australia

With a lot of hard work from all the homies, an abandoned lot within the northern suburbs of Melbourne, containing most resources that were required, was quickly cleaned and concreted within 2 weeks.

Pontus Alv skates barriers like he invented them. We used to be good friends, but since he has his own skateboard company (Polar skateboards) he turns down my artworks and barely returns my emails. Thing is, I am all about unconditional love these days, therefore, impervious to rejection.

CONS SPACE 001 BCN – Barcelona, Spain

On my way to Barcelona to infiltrate as a double agent: working for a big multinational as an artist and at the same time working as photojournalist for this almighty underground skateboard magazine. Self-portrait taken inside the train bathroom. Fuck airports and their tight-ass regulations. In the train I can bring a pair of big scissors, a knife, a skateboard and lots and lots of liquids.

The Lost Bowl – Virginia, USA

In September of 2010 Richmond DIY’ers lead with the concrete skills of Bernie Mcgrew took it into their own hands to finally build for the skaters of Richmond, VA a city with no skatepark. Starting with an 8 foot (2.4 meter) deep kidney swimmer bowl, the Lost Bowl now boasts a lot of other tranny around the decks of the bowl. The Lost Bowl continues to expand with the help of tons of skaters from RVA and there is no stop foreseen in the near future.

Zarosh throwing down a crail into the shallow end. Photo: J. Hay

Any Given Friday: Buena Vista Pool

Any given friday, a session like this could be going down at the Buena Vista square pool south of Santa Cruz, one of the longest running “backyard” pools in history. This pool has been skated by generations of legendary skateboarders. Most sessions these days include not only the old school pool shredders and underground legends, but also unknown new school pool riders that fearlessly roll in to the deep end and attack the “lip” as if they’ve been skating pools their entire lives, which quite probably they have. This pool is definitely harder to skate than it looks. Hopefully it will remain empty for another 30 years for following generations of pool skaters to shred without too much fear of the cops showing up and busting it, or without it being filled in with dirt like it has numerous times over the last 30 years.

DIY Tutorial: How to Make a Ledge

In this tutorial the Creedence crew from Italy explain how to build a concrete ledge. After that, they decide to skate the Canadian ledge with some friends…

Ikaria Mini Ramp project – Greece

Now i’m a greek-surf cynic, so when I discovered a mini ramp on the surfy beach where we planned to spend most of August I felt a genuine jolt of excitement. This was short lived however as we soon discovered it was in the kind of condition a flimsy wooden structure would be in if it had been left to endure the weathering of a beach environment for an entire year. Which it was. And it had.

Ceramica DIY – Portugal (phase 2)

“We live in a small country, we passed through another 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.” – João Sales

Zarosh. Ollie to grind.

Neb’s Sanctuary DIY – San Francisco, California

“The sun rose silently behind the Sunset district of San Francisco.The fog was so thick you could grind it, the travelers were ill prepared for the inevitable onslaught. The ocean rose swallowing everything in her path. Israel Forbes was the first to spot the wall of water through the soupy fog. They struggled up the dunes narrowly escaping their ill timed fate. Zarosh Eggleston forged a quick and true path to the safety of “Neb’s Sanctuary”. There in the concrete safety of dunes they waited out the ebbing destruction. And the sun set once more.” – Mike Crabtree