Dietsches, founder of OMSA (Old Men Skate Association), in Düsseldorf, Germany, headed over to Southern California in the dead of German winter to skate some pools and hang out in the California sun with his friend Keith Stephenson (owner of Addikt Skateboards) as well as Lance Mountain, pool skate writer Ozzie, Kenny King, Tony Alva, Jay Adams and more… sometimes dreams can become reality.
Best of Both III took place in Düsseldorf, Germany late August, 2010 at the newly built Combi bowl, which Dietsches created and added a second steeper, tighter section onto the old Factory Bowl complete with full pool coping, in contrast to the steel coping of the older Factory Bowl. The new bowl features a loveseat and an over vert cradle with a spine connecting the two bowls together.
A month after the city had a brief but futile attempt to destroy the under the bridge DIY spot built by the skaters of Köln, the Yama Skateboards team from Austria were passing through town on their way to Belgium. We had planned a mini-ramp session at the Lohse Ramp, but Germany’s sketchy summer time weather canceled that plan with intermittent rain throughout the day. Our only option was to hit up the DIY spot…
Under the bridge in Köln, Germany, a DIY skate spot had been started a few years ago, and then lay stagnant. With some motivation from the Köln skaters, Phase II was underway, with a pump bump and quarter pipe. Money was gathered for bags of concrete, tools were purchased, trowels were customized, and even a concrete truck made a delivery of fresh ‘crete.
CONSOLIDATED SKATEBOARDS riders Ryan “DANGER” Carruthers and Sean Gutierrez came through Köln, Germany for a week and tore up everything in sight. Hagen Mickey Mouse Pool, Siegburg, and Lohse Ramp.
We headed out on the road Friday evening with a good part of the IMPAKT SKATEBOARDS team in Captain Road Hog’s van, with only 2 hours to our destination of Brussels, where we would stay at the Brusk Collective’s house in central Brussels. Beers were cracked, the dudes were freaking out with the excitement of our weekend trip to Belgium.
Brusk Collective from Brussels, Belgium recently hosted the “Fiesta Des Ursulines” in the Square Des Uruslines where 4 years ago they completed their social-urbanistic project with the completion of their first concrete bowl and street skating area. They invited part of the Consolidated team (Roberto Alemañ, Sean Gutierrez, and Danger), to celebrate the release of their collab Brusk/Consolidated board. Roberto would come up from Spain, and Sean & Danger would make this event the beginning of 6 months in Europe, where they are building a new park with Grindline in Copenhagen.
This Saturday, May 8th, is the Fiesta Des Ursulines, in the Square des Ursulines in Brussels, Belgium.
This event celebrates Brusk Collective’s success of their social-urbanistic project of creating the bowl in the Square des Ursalines 4 years ago.
Consolidated team rider’s SEAN GUTIERREZ, DANGER & ROBERTO ALEMAN will be skating it up between punk bands, local Belgium Beer tastings, fireworks with an “anarchistic” live band.
Any given Sunday in Cologne, our crew attempts to motivate to go skateboarding. Either to the Factory/OMSA Bowl in Düsseldorf, or to the outside concrete bowl in Siegburg, Germany. We all talk about how we aren’t going to drink much the night before so we can be fit to skate the next day. That never works out. “Just a couple beers” turns into “too many beers”, and before we know it, we’re stumbling home at 4 in the morning, with plans for meeting at 1pm the next “morning” to go skate.
The Cachagua Land project is a DIY “skate park” that Zarosh has been working on for the last few years. People come out to the land, deep in the Carmel Valley in central California to bring concrete, help dig, build and skate the ever changing concrete contraption. The project is a work-in-progress as cinder blocks, rebar, parking blocks, man holes, and hundreds of bags of concrete are collected piece by piece and bag by bag.