Let’s give credit where credit is due, this is a work of art more than it is just a skate video. We don’t mean this in a museum type of way but in the same way that Strongest Of The Strange & In Search Of The Miraculous both are works of art that transcend the norm.
Credit has to go not only to Maité but also to the many GG’s and Guillaume Perimony who’s last projects have all hit the mark in their own way. Chapeau!
To celebrate Heitors first Pro Shoe he does what he does best.
A video by Austin Bristow.
Niels Bennett speaks pretty good German but that’s definitely not the reason he’s got a spot on the international adidas team. The recently turned pro is another exceptional talent on Crailtap.
Yes, Kaio! We have been skating with him a lot but finally we get to see his skating in a more diverse form. You probably wouldn’t expect it from him but he can by shy like that and he rather does what feels right than to show you what he actually can do on a skateboard. He’s got it all!
Excellent editing Leon Moss.
You know what skateboarding’s very own Jean Reno can do on a board. So go watch this and enjoy it!
Insert a random Harry Potter joke here… Whatever you do some of this is still pretty magical.
The king of NY speaks.
For our #63 issue we traveled to the city of angels to shoot an issue together with an eclectic group of people.
People ranging from Hyun Kummer a.k.a. @Versace_plug, Guy Mariano & Eric Koston, Nyjah Huston, Jim Greco & Mark Appleyard all added their 2 cents to our video and issue.
Kai Hillebrand or Kaio, as most people tend to call him, was one of our main protagonists for this issue and during the shooting, he once took us aside and asked if we could save some of the footage for another project. Well, we said yes, the project didn’t take off and now we decided to ask our filmer, Peter Buikema, to remix to footage.
Whether you are in Los Angeles right now, or his local Ratingen, Germany you should try and enjoy, relax and go skate afterward! We know Kaio would like all of you to follow these instructions to a tee.
Photo by Danny Sommerfeld
Marcus hit us up via e-mail telling us he wanted to release this part with us, we didn’t know much about him at that point but we did like the video. We did our due diligence and checked up on him and managed to get him for an interview, just before he had to got to work. We all know Norwegians as nice people but it is parts like this that show that they are also amongst the most productive hard-working people in skating. So without further ado, we would like you to get to know Marcus Vik.
Interview by Roland Hoogwater.
Hey Marcus, how are you, and where are you?
I am in Oslo right now, about to go to work, gotta make that rent money (laughs).
So just to create some context, how did we end up doing this? Why did you want to release your part with us?
It was a weird journey (laughs)…So I ended up making this part in Long Beach City. I didn’t really have a plan to do anything but we ended up going out to film early in the morning. Because the filmer, my friend Shonn Oquendo, just had gotten married and he also worked shifts in construction.
So, we found a gap in his schedule from like 8:30 until like 12:00 in the afternoon and we managed to get up and film this in those time gaps.
So all that skating was done before most skaters would even start their session?
Yeah, it was all done before noon basically. We would wake up, go skate, his wife would get off work at 12:30 so he would meet up with her to take care of the wedding preparations and drop me off to do whatever I had planned.
And this was all done in the LBC or did you venture out further into so-cal?
No, we tried to stay local all the spots are basically in the Long Beach area. LBC is different because it is not L.A. but it also isn’t San Diego so it has a lot of places that are in between. Some are crusty, some are really nice to skate.
Alright, that sounds cool and the spots do look different indeed. So how did you think of us?
I like your channel, I got to know it via Martin Ström, you guys have been really good with sharing his stuff so I found out that way and I really enjoy what you are doing.
That is cool, really stoked to hear that.
Yeah, you guys have been killing it by keeping up with what is happening in Europe. Taking another route to platforms like Free.
With Oslo in particular, we have a good connection with some of the best in Norway. People like Magnus Bordewick, Marcus Shaw, Deeds, Heitor da Silva and now you. So it feels like the ball just keeps on rolling in our direction.
It feels like you get a very “round” view of European skateboarding via your platform. Also making connections and staying in touch is a cool thing.
It is a matter of time until we visit Oslo.
We just have to wait a bit to see how this whole pandemic plays out for it to really happen. Luckily the rules have been slowly loosened up because it was getting hard to do simple things like groceries when everybody gets off work at the same time. How are we supposed to keep distance and not overrun the store if we just get the same small window of time? As I said, it is getting better here but I am staying aware of my actions and not just throw the rules out of the window.
No visits to elderly relatives then?
Nope, I saw my mom once since I got back from California. So I filmed this part in November and I went back again early March. COVID was known but it wasn’t like it was now, so I flew in and three days after I had arrived they shut the whole airport down and started shutting down businesses.
In Norway, it was still snowy back then so I just figured I would wait it out in Cali. I showered like 3 times a day (laughs). Luckily it didn’t get too bad in Long Beach and managed to stay for 2 months filming with different people.
You let your homies play in the snow while you went for a tan?
Well, normally, I film with Martin in Oslo but when there is snow he will go film snowboarding instead. He has always been a hardworking filmer always out there. So I don’t get him in the winter months but I have gotten a lot of stuff since the Pandemic hit.
We will come clean here, at the beginning we weren’t sure if you were American or Norwegian even though you did rep the flag.
Definitely Norwegian, I sometimes have trouble skating in the US because I am used to more crusty streets. In Oslo, we might have 1 or 2 good rails but out there they have 15 perfect ones and the lists are of ABD’s are long. So what was fun is that my friend knows what I like and we got all this done in a relaxed manner.
Now I am happy to be back in Oslo though, summer is coming and we are a happy people again. The start of May is when things change and BBQs start happening so I am hyped.
No more XL winter Jackets.
(Laughs) No, they are stuck in closets again until the snow comes back out.
Any last words?
Just thank you, I am hyped we can do this, and let me know when you come out here!
A very dope squad went to some great places to celebrate 2 really cool editions of their superstar classic. All in all a fun to watch, successful project.
Last Saturday something happened, a group of people honored us with their presence, their good spirits & their bowling skills. Today we recap the magic of that night for you.
Photos by Danny Sommerfeld.
Text by Roland Hoogwater.
What happened? Well, we had one of our best events ever, from a slow start, where basically everyone turned up on time, which was a bit early (not expected at a skate event) to an electric final we have you, the Berlin skate scene to thank for making this what it was!
What it was? Well, a night of surprises. For instance, a very drunk Jack Taylor together with a driven Dan Clarke making it all the way to the finals. An amazing performance from Collin McLean who bowls with as much finesse as he skates. Mark Nickels who brought his own bowling ball and wore a bowling shirt (scare tactics) and bowled steadily for the entire night, in the end, coming up short because Berlin local and adidas skater Baswti kept racking them up and knocking them down like he had ice in his veins.
When we shot the trailer he wasn’t bowling like this we tell you! He did use his patented own was of throwing the ball but it seemed like in the 3-weeks between the shoot for the trailer and the actual event he had put in the work and at the end up the night took home the 300€ prize money. Congratulations Bawsti you earned it!
adidas Skateboarding thank you for helping us and making this happen, it was a magic evening for all in attendance, skater, and non-skater together knocking down those pins together.
You know what you are getting when Chris Mulhern is behind the lens but what Shin Sanbongi brings to the table was still a slight mystery.
A mystery that through this part is slowly unraveling now, please press play and enjoy.
A 15-minute journey into one of the least explored (in skating) parts of the world. One of the nicest details about adidas projects is how the always change the language on the tongue of the shoe to the language of the region.
From skating to painting pants with Mark the Gonz this all was a joy to watch. The /// & Torsten Frank did a good job on this one.
Featuring:
Kaio, Heitor, Nora, Nestor & Jack.
A nice way to announce your newest talent to the team.
A very nice video featuring a very surprisingly fun line by a SOTY that doesn’t always get the credit he deserves. We also have lot of Paul Shier footage but no tricks!?
Anyway, some great work by the people over at Monster Children.
Featuring:
Alec Majerus, Silas Baxter Neal, Dan Mancina, Diego Najera, Dennis Durrant, Jake Donnelly, Frankie Spears, Brad Saunders, Shin Sanbongi and Kento Yoshioka.
In times where people only have a few seconds before they are moving on to the next thing, Mark Suciu dropped an 11min. long video in which you have to digest every single trick to understand the concept and it is totally working out. This alone tells us that it is good, really good. So, if you haven’t already seen it by now do yourself a favor and click play.
Silas Baxter Neal might be the most overlooked SOTY and that is such a shame! Watch the oceanic /// team skate through their homes.
This was the best event since your last event together.
London Lee, Wassertorplatz, 2019
And with that introduction, we would like to welcome you to the recap video for our Wassertorplatz invitational table tennis tournament. The idea started last year after /// teamed up with us for our first ever non-skate tournament, in fact, it was a table-soccer or Fooßbal competition.
Won in style by the ever-competitive Felix Lensing and his friend that night sparked a series of ideas of which taking back our Anchor for at least one day was a part.
Now, ever since they changed our famous skate spot into a playground area we have been veiled in black and to be honest the “Platz” has changed a lot as well. When we went to shoot the trailer for the event it was literally riddled with weeds. Needless to say, the new locals had not shown it the love we had :(…
So what better to do than to return and give the place “a years worth of love” in one day! And even though the city and some of the people didn’t seem to want us there they accepted us showing up this day to celebrate the place we love.
Of course, we adapted to the changed plaza and organized a Table Tennis tournament as well as 2 best trick sessions, recreating the rooftop ledge especially for this occasion.
The people came out and celebrate we did and truth be told the platz, the cops and the people living around wtp the place all showed up (the cops blessed us by not showing up) and celebrated with us.
A very special thank you goes out to adidas Skateboarding!
Enjoy the video and we hope to all see you at our next competition.
Read all about the loss of Wassertorplatz as a skate spot here.