GLÜCKSBURG, NORTH GERMANY

Article by Arne Fiehl vom BOARDSTEIN
Photos by Matthias Richter

It was just six issues ago that we graced the pages of this glorious magazine with our professional d.i.y. park in Glücksburg in the most northern corner of Germany. After three builds in four years we thought we were finished, but it turned out we were wrong. This generous gentleman from Berlin – or should we call him real estate tycoon – who had lived and worked in Glücksburg for a couple of years in the late ´70s wanted to give back to this lovely (though bankrupt) little city where he seemed to have had a good time back in the day. And keeping on to give back is exactly what he did… big time.

After he had already spent 50.000 € in 2018 so we could finish the last 500 square meters of the park, he donated the same amount a year later for playgrounds and the likes in town, and – if that wouldn´t have been enough – at the beginning of 2020 he donated another fifty grand to extend our skatepark. Just believe me, I couldn´t believe it! Is there an extension of the term ‘best case scenario’? If so, we experienced just that in Glücksburg the last couple years.

And I felt that especially for my own personal well being, because when Corona hit, I knew that whatever happens I could work the whole summer on site on my own and at my own pace and would not have to worry about jobs and projects elsewhere that might not happen during these weird locked down times. I was fucking fortunate to say the least, so that was pretty much what I did the whole summer, digging a hole with a big smile on my face, starting at the end of April.

This is Jacob Wiese representin´Arniz with a good ol´ Stand-up Grind through the corner of the snakerun. He´s been around the world to help out on many a social project and did so on three of four builds in Glücksburg. It´s his local park, pretty much, even though he´s always on the road and never there.

Gian Matteuzzi is a true Lugano Warrior and stoked everybody out with his mad tranny skills, this frontside ollie should speak for itself. He just joined the concrete business two years ago, but already handles shit like a veteran. Hope to see ya soon, bro!

Here we have Melvin Podolski from Brussels with an after hours frontside tailslide on the miniramp section of the snakerun. There`s always been a good Belgium/Glücksburg connection going on so last year some of those bastards joined us again getting all dirty and shit.

Since we already had a nice street/flow park it was obvious that we would need a decent bowl to complete our big little concrete paradise, other than that we wanted to add some kind of a beginners area with more unique street stuff. So it was basically me and street worker Lucas – who didn´t really have any obligations concerning his job last year – moving a lot of dirt and generally preparing everything for pouring. Me mate Felix helped out with the welding at times, let´s just say all in all we had a fucking chill summer, when it´s your own skatepark there´s no such thing as ‘hard work’, eh!?

After like two months into it Lucas mentioned that I wouldn´t have to worry about the budget, since Glücksburg still had most of the 50.000 € from 2019 as well. Well, maybe he shouldn´t have said that!? Because that was when I got the idea to build a pump track around the whole park, and from then on things just got crazier and crazier, especially because more people got involved in helping us. And more people means more ideas, so we kinda added new obstacles to the whole scenario on a weekly basis pretty much (as we all know the materials ain´t that expensive, it just has to be done!).

Local Jonathan Osterloh helped out a bunch and at the end of the built really got into doing concrete as a lot of skaters do once they pour some for the first time. The guys couldn`t wait to skate this recycled handrail so they did without the platforms. First frontside boardslide at this spot for sure.

It was Bela`s idea to build a decent wallride at this spot which works as a turning point for the pump track. Bela definitely turned heads with this frontside pivot on almost a meter of vert.

So for Mid-September I scheduled the second Glücksburg builder`s jam to pour everything in a week which was quite ambitious to say the least. Unfortunately, a whole bunch of professional builder friends that I had invited cancelled last minute. I guess, after being in the business for a while it`s more appropriate to build skateparks for money rather than for fun. So from like thirty people on site it was basically only four pros, which for me as head honcho, turned that week into a minor nightmare. But all in all we all killed ourselves and pulled it off somehow, at least most of it. Cheers to everyone involved in this madness, much love!

We had to do a couple more concrete days in the weeks to come with smaller and even more random crews, but at the end of October we could gather a little big opening session for all the skaters who had helped and then some. Since November the park has been closed and as I write this at the end of February everybody´s going crazy not being able to skate it. Supposedly it might be opened to the public again in March or something, but Flensburg is a hotspot right now, ´cause we got that bloody english virus mutation going on in our hood. One thing´s for sure, once everything turns kinda back to normal we´re gonna throw a big opening party with a premium bowl contest to show all them clueless people here what facilities like this are made for. Let´s keep our fingers crossed that we can turn that into a reality sometime soon. And while you´`re at it just pray for Planet Earth in general! In any case stay tuned about Glücksburg, mad things happening on the horizon…

There used to be a big ledge obstacle at this spot which blocked the flow in the street area a little bit. Given the chance of a last built we tore it down in endless hours of sledgehammering and replaced it with a sweet vulcano. Louis Taubert loves this new obstacle considering he`s kinda flipping out.

This is just one spot of the many little details the extension of the park has to offer. Be it street, vert or flow, there´s something for everyone in this skatepark. Christian Neve is totally street and usually doesn´t skate parks that much, but he joined us at the opening with a No Comply Pole Jam.

Besides Lucas there´s a lot of people to thank for helping to add another thousand square meters to the park, but naturally it´s way too many to mention. Special shout-outs should be given to some of the helpers who did more than usual though. First and foremost there`s Bela who took a month of unpaid vacation to help out with his wood worker skills. Then there´s Svend and his ancient excavator who helped out digging a hole with a drainage. And we also have Sven and Steiner who both were super motivated when they didn´t have to be. Without the city of Glücksburg who supported us from the very beginning we couldn´t have pulled this off in the first place, but they let us build one of the biggest skateparks in Germany in professional d.i.y. style based on 80% donations. Did this happen anywhere else on the planet before? I´m not quite sure, there´s other planets though…

Since the ancient excavator was parked next to the basketball court the whole summer Über-Local Bela Ehmann claimed he would skate it once the bowl was finished. At our little grand opening he could make ends meet and was able to pull this frontside pivot grab while nobody dared to join him on this special session. It was probably more of a mission rather than a session.

Let´s just say, the park really is done now. Then again never say never, right!?

Halleluja,

Arne Fiehl vom BOARDSTEIN
www.boardstein.com

Read about the beginnings of the build in the Professional D.I.Y. in Glücksburg article from February 2016.

 

Update June 2021: The park is now open to the public again, visitors should be limited to 50 at a time. We´ll see who´s counting that in the days to come…