Mr. Wilson Bowl – Kassel – Germany

When you are standing on a totally over-sized megalomaniac construction site and you know it will take weeks of intense labor to turn this huge pile of dirt and cement into a bowl you are likely to ask yourself:

Why the …. am I doing this?

Ever since I started skateboarding, it was not only about standing on a piece of plywood, but also about using all kinds of readily available material to shape your surroundings in order to be able to skate them – that’s what skateboarding to me is all about. The more skate parks that are being built, the harder it gets to deliver this message to the kids. It makes a huge difference if you skate something that you built with your own hands. A homemade ramp can be all shitty and bumpy but it doesn’t matter because you designed and constructed it yourself.

Skateboarding is a creative process. It all starts in your head. You picture a certain trick at a certain spot and then try to pull it off. If you built the spot yourself, you know what all your hard work has been put in for.

Last spring we witnessed an excavator tear our sweet DIY park down in no time. The only answer to this devastating moment was to sit in an excavator myself, only a few months later, to build something much bigger and better.

Go out and build Ramps! – Raphael Wahl

A big ass THANK YOU goes out to:

Matze, Jan, Jens and Nico of Mister Wilson.
Martin Ehrenberger of ++Blackriverramps++ for his great support at designing and planning.
Minus-Baum and Lune of 2er, the core of the construction site!
Dirk Lücke for the pool copings and the expert eye and nodding.
Matt Grabowski, Janno, Niels of Minusramps for their first class cement pouring and the professional support.
And all the others that came from all parts of the Germany to help build Mr. Wilson Bowl.

Thank you!

Translated by Arlo Ibisch

 

UPDATE December 18th, 2011 – POOL COPING: