Remember when you started skating? For many of us, blading was about the adrenalin pumping, the good times with the homies and not least, not giving a fuck about the rules or what anyone else thought of you. As time goes, even in a small community like ours rules, norms and fractions appear – and sometimes we just need a big fuck-all to remind ourselves of how unique a culture this is – Abriss IV was exactly this.
Words: David Grant
Photography: David Grant
It all kicked off on Thursday night when the whole gang went bombing through the city center of Berlin – between 30 and 40 bladers blazing past the Berlin Wall, through Potsdamer Platz, Alexanderplatz and Unter den Linden – I’ve never seen so many startled, stoked and indignant faces of unsuspecting spectators. And at every beer-stop, the most exhilarated bladers killed whatever spot was at hand, in just the time it took everyone else to down a beer. That evening was a true example of anarchy and unity going hand in hand.
Friday was all about barbecue and the BlackJack flatland session at the abandoned Tempelhof Airport. It all started out with a big session at the Tempelhof skatepark. As suspected it went down with crazy tricks as well as high-fives and hugs to all the latecomers. As everyone got hungry the bbq’s were lit, and the flatland session kicked off. Now, I’ve never seen bladers go flatland before, but the guys were off the hook – I won’t even try to describe what went down, if you’re curious there’s nothing to do, but book your ticket for next year’s Abriss (or check out the edit that’s on its way)!
To finish off the night Karsten Boysen, Benjamin Büttner and the rest of the Cayenne crew premiered their Taiwanese adventure at the beautiful, classic Neues Off-Kino. Formosa is a true Hollywood production of a blade video – and you better grab a copy as soon as it is
available.
Saturday was street competition day – after a chilled first spot, it went on with people killing it in a mayhem of crazy steep rail skating, with the finals taking place at the Kulturforum plaza. It was a day that had it all – sketchy stunt skating, clean solid tricks and creative fast-paced hammers. The steep rails didn’t intimidate Jo Zenk showing of his signature channel grinds, Dan Collins pulling one hard ass-tricks after the other, Eugen Enin spining and switching as only he does, Sam Crofts skating fast and hard, dodging signpost while skating the droprail, and Dominic Bruce blazing everyones mind, doing stuff no one else ever imagined in a well-skated spot as the Kulturforum Plaza. In the end Jo Zenk took first place and the 500€, while Dan Collins and Dominic Bruce got well deserved second and third place…
Heading home to Copenhagen, I felt invigorated…Having had a blast cruising through nighttime Berlin, being baffled at how insane flatland blading can be and hyped by the enthusiasm of the street contest – and most of all, I felt inspired to go travel and blade all over Europe…
I cannot thank the Abriss-crew enough for organizing this whole weekend – it was a real pleasure!
