Photography by Nicola Debernardi // Words by Jefke Gommers
“Eight years ago me and my girlfriend bought a place together.
The house was nothing special and we were not really looking to buy at the time, but when the owner showed us the shed in the backyard our jaws dropped to the floor.
Not visible from the street, behind the garage, we entered a huge shed that housed the local archery club. Both working as carpenters we decided this was our place, it would be perfect to have a woodworking shop in there.
And of course a miniramp would really tie the place together. Just at that time a friend was selling his little miniramp and so only two weeks after getting our keys to the place we moved his ramp to our shed.
After about seven years of different setups with wooden miniramps and then adding a little concrete section we decided to take down the ramp. It was time to get a full concrete bowl in that shed!
Backyard Club Bowl (Witte Wolk) – Belgium
Filmed and edited by Koen Van den Broeck
The entire old ramp is underneath the concrete, so I could set out the shape of the bowl pretty easily and fill the gaps with leftover plywood laying around our woodshop. That way I also really got a good look at the shape of the bowl and since it’s inside I didn’t need the concrete to be too thick. Putting the old transitions in as a foundation really helped to keep the concrete at an even thickness all around the bowl. Rebar was all leftovers from friends and the construction site across the street.
We kept the tight little concrete pocket “The Bullet” that we poured onto the miniramp.
With the help of some good friends the preparations went really well but Covid hit and kept us from shooting the concrete for a long time. One year after tearing down the ramp, Ratman, the Concrete Dreams crew and some friends came in and we did the concrete. Huge thank you to Bruno for bringing the pump and the crew for making it a dream to skate! After a few weeks I had all the pool coping in place and the sessions are going weekly! WATCH YOUR HEAD!
Next I plan on cleaning up the shed a bit and try to showcase some old 60’s/70’s/80’s/90’s boards as a little museum around the bowl.
These pictures were taken on a friday evening when Nick, Nicola, Sjoerd and Jonas came to visit our Airbnb. A few weeks earlier Nick took home the big prize at Vorselaar Truken Troef contest, and won one night in our Airbnb for two. Of course, others joined the session and we had a good time skating, drinking a few beers and talking skateboarding!
You can check out our Airbnb if you want to visit us and have a session!” – Jefke
