The Scott Bourne Interview

…I am flat broke and live day to day. People think you design a shoe, or a frame, they see you in films or TV commercials, they see you on the covers of magazine around the world, they see your book of poems and they think that guy must be loaded, but its just not the reality of what’s happening especially in skateboarding. Sometimes I don’t even believe it. I look at my life, my accomplishments and all the places I have seen my name, and face and I go fuckin nuts…. why the hell am I broke??? But that’s not the point, the point is to be driven, to love what you do and do it, and that’s the joy I have in my life.

Porte de la Muette: Paris Concrete Bowl

How can a Bowl be transformed from a certified piece of shit into a deep and sweet reason to visit Paris? Skater wise naturally you’d say that it is alway good to ride those smooth sidewalks they get here and to jam (sometime literally!) into the traffic of the big avenues. But after sometime you can be bored of some of the humans living in Paris… ego trip on any levels can be really disturbing for a good ride. And you suddenly realize that there is nearly no tranny in town, this fact finally leads you to leave town in search of a good pool to fill your addiction to adrenalin.

OWL BOWL opening – Cologne, Germany

October 1st was a momentous day in Cologne with the opening of the first concrete bowl in Germany’s fourth largest city. Built by IOU Ramps and the local skaters of Cologne, the OWL BOWL is located at the NorthBrigade Skatepark, which has been open since the 1980s. Skaters from around Germany showed up for the opening party which was graced with sunny skies, which at this time of the year is a treat, as there was just as much chance the rain would shut down the event.

DIY Willits – California

This is a home made pool with obstacles around the deck, somewhere in the wooded mountains of Willets, CA. The pool is real good – an amoeba with a death-box in the deep, shallow stairs, and pool coping all the way around… except over the shallow stairs where there is river rock mortared in for coping (up the ante!). This pool is not the easiest pool to skate. I have skated backyarders that are easier, but it is great nonetheless.

BERGFEST: Battle of the Monster Bowl – July, 2011 – Münster, Germany

The concrete bowl at Berg Fidel in Münster, Germany was built in 1989 and marks the early development of concrete bowl skateboarding in Europe. It was the same year Titus held the world championships in Germany, and pros from America like John Cardiel, Matt Hensley, Chris Miller, Christian Hossoi and Danny Way all have skated the Monster Bowl in it’s early beginnings. 22 years later…

Grid Search – by Ozzie Ausband

4:00 am. Darkness hid the world away. I rose and looked out of the window. A streetlight glittered coldly across the street. Shadows. The night and darkness held a thousand horrors. I made coffee & thought that someone was probably bleeding in a gutter somewhere. I thought of those that have it all & those forgotten. It’s a crazy world. Society. Respectability….

Wollmatingen pool: Konstanz, Germany

The bowl is located in Konstanz. The construction company is Bowl Construction from Switzerland (they also built Hard, St. Gallen and München Hirschgarten to name the good ones).

Ultrabowl III: Malmö, Sweden

In the 3rd year of the Ultrabowl, they decided not to have the contest in the ‘backyard’ style pool, but instead to have it in the whole park (except in the pool). Skaters from all over the world attended and as could be expected, some serious shredding went down. I wasn’t there as I decided to explore previously unvisited lands in Croatia and Slovenia, so there’s not much for me to say, so look at the photos and watch the replay of any heat you want.

Skate Rebel Resistance

If you haven’t heard, there’s a war going on outside. Skate rebel armies are waging a guerrilla offensive against corporate colonialism. You see, after the Cold War ended the architects of the New World Order decided that they owned everything. The smoke had not yet cleared in Angola, Nicaragua and Afghanistan before they built a mega state anchored in D.C. to buoy the interests of corporate fascism. They called it “free trade” and capitalism, but it was socialism for the world’s wealthy. Its supporters high jacked the media and sponsored a propaganda campaign to roll back any gains made in the arena of civil rights over the last century on a global scale. The New Order promised…