Grato Bowl opening – Milan, Italy

A couple weekends ago there were so many people skating GratoBowl: because of the many skateboarders in Milan. It has been a great pleasure living in the moment when the entire skateboard scene reunited, counting how many we are and watching how many rippers have grown up. As always encountering friends close and far is the best for any session: many thanks to all those who travelled to Milan on the 10th of October. Gratobowl has been built for you too!… to give you one more good reason to meet up with us around here.

Last weekend there were so many people celebrating at Gratosoglio, a big neighbourhood in the south of Milan. Why? Because there were many of us out there, doing our very best to give this city a concrete bowl and be able to meet the local expectations. For months, some of us have been dealing with a long, hard and sometimes incomprehensible path, made out of meetings, drawings, surveys, clashes and fatigues. It’s absolutely not an easy task to get out of institutional discourses, to understand the technical office’s operative procedures, to find the right path in the contorted logic of the italian public contracts and to work in peace with the labourers. In any case we can now say: “we did it!”, with the fundamental support of the municipality and the local associations.

Last weekend in Gratosoglio was the best result of a serious and determined collaboration between skateboarders, technicians and institutions. For the first time, the municipality has comprehended how worthwhile it can be to give the skateboarders direct control of what they can manage autonomously. Gratobowl is the concrete demonstration of our own “urban vision”: Milan as a massive cement playground of unlimited potential.

Next weekend maybe there will be a lot of skateboarders in Gratobowl, maybe we’ll see some new faces; maybe somebody will take his board back just to remember the feeling of a good slasher on a brand new pool coping; maybe some kids will start skateboarding over there. In any case today we can forget “California” for a second and simply meet up at Gratosoglio, just a few minutes from home.

Thanks to all the people who have made this project real.

Skate or die

Milano skateboarding
milanoskateboarding.org