Words + photos by Tim Börner (@tburner0)
Additional photos by Kai
With Denmark pretty nearby we usually go North when doing road trips, but this time we went the other way to the Ruhrpott area, about 350 km south west starting from Hamburg…and fuck, we were not disappointed.
First stop: Dortmund Hombruch. A brand new super spacious park with three different bowls from small to big, two pumptracks and huge street section incl china bank replica. Always a matter of taste, but the bowls would have benefitted from a bit more pool coping in my opinion (only in the big bowl deepend there is pool coping) but overall totally worth a stop.
In a 1 hour circle around Dortmund there are plenty of other concrete skateparks and DIY spots (Münster, Essen, Cologne, Velbert, Hagen… just to name a few) but after a rainy morning at a roofed miniramp under a bridge we went to Oberhausen.
Although the bowl in the so-called OPEN AIREA is pretty decent (apart from again missing pool coping), the place gives you vibes of a guarded playground. Two “streetworker” dudes are running around non stop making sure all rules of the place are followed and are constantly shouting around to not smoke, not use glass bottles and wear a helmet in the bowl at any time. Thus, no session for two of us as we did not bring any gear.
Next day on to a bowl that we found online on the way to Bonn. The park is called Ratingen West and when we arrived, we had to dry it first as the drainage was blocked. A local jogger stopped and said we are the first ones he sees skating here since months – appartenly not very popular. However, if you can appreciate some rough washed out concrete with partly weird shapes you will have a fun session here.
On to the highlight of the weekend – Bonn (SuBCulture Bonn e.V.).The park features a kidney bowl with wedding cake stairs, a large bowl, a wooden miniramp and a street area with many smaller transitions with nicely set copings.
The kidney bowl is probably the best built bowl I have been skating for a while – super smooth surface, steep transitions, the perfect pool coping and it just flows like butter.
When you are in the area make sure to check it out
