This all started in 2017… Peye lives nearby and walked his dog there and Urtzi rehearsed with his punk band close by. They had seen a place under the highway, quite large, but full of rubble and garbage, it was a fucking dump.
It rains a lot around here, and despite having public skateparks in the area, they are always full of scooters and there was no indoor park, so we got down to work and started cleaning everything to build a miniramp.
We had already met skaters from this area, but of different ages and different neighborhoods and towns, people like Patata and Chetos, who already had a lot of experience in building and people of all ages, fathers, mothers, and children.
At first we had quite a few problems with the people in the area, they didn’t know very well what we were doing there and we had several complaints and a couple of fire attempts, after all that, we put everything aside for a year or so, but it couldn’t stay that way. I remember that Imanol pushed it a lot and started motivating people to resume construction and things went forward.
The shaping was done and we started having parties and merchandising to get money for construction material. All the parties were brutal and more and more people, shops and skate brands helped us.
It continued to be built, but after the last party, the pandemic came and parties could no longer be held.
A year later, my brother Juanjo came up with the idea to make a Gofundme and the donations began to rise in no time! We were pleasantly surprised and that motivated us a lot to get to where we are today.
We greatly appreciate all the donations and all the visits from people from everywhere, but now we have reached the point where we have the necessary material and resources, but we need more people on work days!
Every transition, floor, etc., that is made requires people to be there all the time.
If not, it won’t be as good as it has been. If you’ve been here, you know what I’m saying, it’s nice to fall here!
Words by Javier Ben Hamed (Txitxarra)
Photography by Pablo Ribera, Greg Poissonier, Javier Saavedra, Pierre-Antoine Lalaude & the Ramputene crew.
Follow the ongoing Ramputene project at @ramputene_diy
To whom it may concern,
I am in my final year of journalism studies in Antwerp, and looking for an internship. It is possible to start writing articles for big or small news corporations about stuff that doesn’t interest me, but i would prefer to write about my passion: skateboarding.
I am 21 years of age, and have been skateboarding since I was 5 years old. The last few years I have discovered more of the core skateboarding scene, and I have fallen in love. I help organise contests and am a volunteer at the Belgian indoor DIY skatepark “the Boneyard.”
This has resulted in a lot of networking the past few years, and I have ended up at multiple contests in different countries. At every contest I was armed with a camera. Even though I didn’t really use the pictures, I still trained myself to photograph/ film and edit skateboarding videos. You can view some of my videos on my youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@axelleemans/videos
I can bring stories about the beautiful skateboarding and DIY scene in Belgium. For example: the story of “Saintes DIY”, and the day where Belgian, Dutch and French concrete companies took a day off to work together at the “Saintes DIY.”
Or my local skatepark “the Boneyard”: started 15 years ago, and the only free public indoor skatepark in Belgium, with the genius designer and builder Stefan Jacobs who is responsible for the park. With its wooden backyard bowl “Knochenmühle” (translated: Bone Mill, it’s a backyard bowl that eats you up and spits you out) that moved location 3(!) times.
Recently I was also present at the opening jam of the Versus DIY in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, where I almost didn’t leave my camera alone. I like talking to people and hear their stories. I talked for hours with Jeremy Durand and Thierry “Thierry’ble” about how the park came into existence. I would love to transform these beautiful memories and stories in to articles, so the rest of the world can hear and experience them as well.
I am also not scared to go to international contests. As long as I have my hammock and a sleeping bag, I am ready to go. Or I end up at some interesting place, for example: the Bergfest at the Monsterbowl, where i slept in Marcus’ Blackheaven skateshop with the Volcom Team.
Even though it might not be business as usual to hire an intern, I still wanted to give it a shot. I hope you take it into consideration!
I hope to hear back from you!
Axel Leemans