International Olympic Committee did not like it and said if the people who wished to represent skateboarding in the Olympics did not do what was needed to be done (get drug tested), then skateboarding would not be let in the games.
…And here is the team: Fred (our International part from France and the Master Photographer), Axel (from Trier the oldest town in Germany established by Romans over 2,000 years ago), Toni (our ½ German with an Italian passport and all time translator), Dietsches (Mr. OMSA) and me (the organizer + Wolfgangster). The OMSA Team on a mission – grinding down the pools in Italy….
Although not all these guys are officially part of the OMSA crew, skaters from Germany, Basque country and England got together for a proper shred in the newly rebuilt NorthBrigade skatepark in Cologne, Germany. Although these tricks aren’t the gnarliest you’ve seen, keep in mind most of these guys are over 45 and a couple of them over 50. Let’s see you do a double truck 50-50 grind in a tight pocket when you’re 50!
AK-55 skateboarding is the first skate and surf hostel and school in Spain. When the project is completed it will be 1200 square meters (13,000 square feet) of pure skate! There will rooms to stay, a pool, beach and skateboarding!
“It started when a group of young skaters from Wonderland got shut down from building a new spot next to Wonderland in Christinia. So the same day they moved there efforts around the city until they found the spot where Hullet is at now….” – Danger
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.
I first knew of Tony Roberts though his ground breaking surf/skate videos like “Mental Surfing”, “Progression Sessions”, Speed Wheels Santa Cruz “Risk It!” and many more in the early 90s. His films were the best, maybe because there was a lot of cross over between surfing and skating or because he started focusing on the radical aerial surfing of the Santa Cruz locals and was the one who got photos of guys like Ratboy, Flea, and Barney in the surfing magazines which led to their almost instant success and world wide fame and notoriety. I would see TR on the other side of the lens, skating at Derby or hanging out at the spots that we love the most. If anyone was my “hero” growing up in Santa Cruz as a surfer-skater videographer and photographer it was Tony Roberts.
It´s been around ten years ago since I first met Fernando. He was visiting our common friend, Pipas, in Switzerland and they came over for a skate session in the barn. We did not talk much back then and we didn´t have a real connection. He was mostly sitting somewhere drawing in a notebook, while everyone else got stoned when not skating. When dinner time came he sat on the side picking a raw cabbage and I remember asking him what was up with that. He told me he was as a raw foodist and how he got into that.
Some underground rippers, a couple old men with pads, some surfers, a chick, has-beens & never-beens, and only a few pros.
The first time I heard about this magic place called “Cuatro Casas” was in 2009. I met my good friend Jose Noro in San Francisco for a one month road trip with the classic recipe of not having any fixed plans other than to skate, meet old and new friends and to generally see and experience as much as we can. – Lars Greiwe
Lohse Ramp. Cologne, Germany. September, 2010
Locals Only!
No bands.
No food.
No story.
