We’ve been to the premiere in Hamburg, Germany, and we had a blast! Mr. Nizan Kasper blessed us with this sick 42-minute-long video for Hamburg’s local shop called “Lobby Skateshop” and all we have to say is: “Great work everyone involved. You guys smashed it!” Now go see for your yourselves!
The film APPARAT2 was shot over a period of 3 years featuring 43 different skaters that all contributed to it. APPARAT is a video series based in Hamburg, Germany. The basic idea for the second episode was the portrayal of lost or unused spaces and their urban mechanisms that ought to be rethought and reclaimed. In Hamburg most of the urban space is already planned, sold, or speculated upon for the next couple of decades.
The layout of most of the spots that I had in mind for this project paved the way for a lengthy creative process. A lot of skaters complained to me about these spots and that was no surprise to me. It is hard to have a session with 10 people when only one skater is able to do a trick.
“Some might know the scenes of the girl on the telephone panicking while the snipers’ red dot wanders around her forehead…”
During the G20 Certain parts of the city got locked off completely. Little did I know that the situations I would run into and documented resulted in a so-called ‘state of exception’. It meant that we were in a state of emergency and military forces were allowed to intervene within the area of the Sternschanze.
It was a mess. Within the first minutes, the smashing started. At the end of the scene, a guy walks up to me with a Molotov cocktail in his hand (it only is slightly visible in the footage).
After that, I was trying to get out of that specific area and by chance, I ran into a guy who was rushed away by about 7 police officers. I was standing right next to him when they started beating him up on the ground and I raised my camera and hands to show that I surrendered. That’s where the shaky bits of footage came from. Afterward, we sat down in a bar and watched the full mayhem on TV, while it was happening “LIVE” right next to us. Some might know the scenes of the girl on the telephone panicking while the snipers’ red dot wanders around her forehead or the couple that was fucking publicly in this free for all area.
The thing I am trying to say is that it was a crazy experience and in the beginning, I was kind of scared to release this material. There were ongoing investigations and I did not want to have anything to do with either the police or with the demonstrators. However, I believe enough time has passed.
In 2020, Benny got excited when I told him to go for a rooftop section. We decided to go for one of the less risky spots, which was hard to get to. On the one hand, because it is currently a construction site on the other hand because the first 6-8 meters up to the first platform have to be climbed. So we took a rope. After about thirty minutes of trying we finally managed to somehow attach the rope to the first platform and started the ascend. Up there we started the first shot. 2-minutes later I turned around and saw some terrified people on the balconies next to us, waving with phones in their hands. It took around 5-minutes for the police to arrive on the other side below us. We packed our stuff, climbed down -luckily on a different side than the police- and ran. We got lucky that time.
The DIY was built illegally in just 2 weekends. The idea was to skate the DIY for about two weekends before the building got demolished. Throughout the fundraiser party, we had to cover the costs, people took the demolition part quite seriously. They started to take one of the still in use kitchens apart and ran through intact walls. Sometimes skaters are savages. Funnily both the building and the DIY stand to this day. Not for public use though.
Billstraße is one of the locations I wanted to document for the imagery of the film. It has a forgotten and different sort of atmosphere most of the spots or moments in APPARAT2 try to contain. Only in winter 19/20, I managed to film a single line with Michel Rethemeier over there because of its crust. Documenting the hoarded junk of various import-export companies that needed some sketchy permission.
I had stacked all of the needed footage up until the summer of 2020. The last shot that was missing for me was an underground delivery entrance to one of the train stations. After all the hustle everybody went through it was a lot to ask. The place is off-limits, smells, and is full of rat and pigeon shit. The first time we went the camera broke and all of the clips of Danny got lost. 2 months later I managed to convince Mike to go. It took him a while to stomp the trick just because he did not want to bail into shit – literally. The two underground clips of Mike and Danny are the opener of the video and it means a lot to me that we went back.
Thanks to all the skaters and people that contributed and believed in this and especially Danny, Mike, and Daniel to be there and stay with me from the beginning. Big up for the last-minute support from Fabio who did the titles and illustration artwork for the hardcopy.
“They started to take one of the “still in use kitchens” apart and ran through intact walls. Sometimes skaters are savages.”
About Roland Hirsch
Hirschi has been on Hitachi-airlines since the first fusion festival in 1997. Frequent flyer miles because he keeps blasting airs!
About Julian Ruhe
Julian Ruhe’s allergy-collection is bigger than his bag of tricks.
About Kalle Wiehn
Kalle Salzburg is so German that he named his dog after a German potato dish.
You had some surprising tricks in this video, did your move from Emerica to Vans open up your bag of tricks?
The Switch Frontside 360 I had done before years ago. I did one Marocco over a hubba, and it just fit. but yeah, I don’t do that trick that often, I keep forgetting about it (laughs).
The Pole-Jam Pressure Flip was another surprising one!
That one just just happened. I sort of flipped like that on some of the shove it tries. I did a shitty Pole-Jam Shove-It and ended up going back for a better one. I landed the shove one fast, and figured out that if I put my foot in the pressure flip position before I pole jam that I could flip it. Once I figured that out I rode away a few tries later.
You went on a trip with Vans to Hamburg, who surprised you the most on that trip?
Schianta (Daniel Lepori)! He is so quiet, so nice but all of a sudden he will just bust out something crazy!
What about Max Pack, how is he as a TM?
Max Pack, is the best TM and a good soul!
Max Pack vs Leon Moss?
Similarities are more easy to find that the differences, they both inject beer into the session and make it fun.
Who is your favorite team mate?
Julian Ruhe or Joscha “Bonez” Aicher but I don’t see him as often especially since he moved to Barca! To be honest Julian really needs a raise in pay, he has been ripping so hard lately (laughs)!
Leon is always motivated to get a clip and won’t ever give you the feeling that you’re taking too long to get the trick!
He also has a very strong opinion on which trick could look cool on which spot, and he isn’t shy, he will give you that extra creative input as well!
He seems to know exactly what trick each skater could or should do at the spot, he definitely has a vision.
Thank You, Coach!
I don’t know what to say except that when we are together people say: “Oh I didn’t know he was your brother” (laughs)!
Max Pack a.k.a. Max Zapf is one of my best homies. We traveled and skated many spots in many different countries. I would like to say that we pushed each other to become better. The difference being, he focussed on filming and I focussed on skating! It is great that we both ended up over at Vans. Even though we only really see each other on tour, we still talk just about every day and our friendship remains a deep one. I am really happy about all that he accomplished and support him to the fullest, I know he poured his heart into it! The only thing he has to learn is how to drink for real!
“Er hat noch nie richtig GEZAPFT!”
Joscha Aicher about Max’s drinking skills.
Leon Moss is leaving Dusseldorf, packing his shit and is moving to Vienna next year so consider this his D-Dorf goodbye. Let us hope he keeps his productivity all the way up!
Featuring:
Kevin Vietzke, Nils Vossen, Simon Weißer, Ruben Lücke, Jonas Bakar, Benni Levesque, Danny Stephen, Georg Anders, Marcel Zylka, Stefan Granitzer, Marc Kov, Julian Ruhe, Pasquale Grispo, Florian Nass & Lukas Rosen.
Hamburg’s skateboarding scene has become more productive than most of the other cities in Germany it feels like and here’s another reason to believe!
A film by Danny Stephen & Valentin Schmeißer.
Featuring: Patrick Lindenberger, Luis Mathys, Tim Gerhke, Valentin Schmeißer, Michel Rethemeier, Danny Stephen & Nino Schöneweihs.
Do you remember when Quartersnacks called Johnny Wilson’s crew “the most productive crew in New York™”?
Well, we think it is about time to give the title of “Hamburg’s most productive crew™” to Nizan Kasper and his crew of skaters. Video after video, edit after edit they seem to be “in the window” right now.
With humour, good tricks, filming and solid editing style that is his own Nizan created yet another strong video making sure that you, me and many others have to take notice of what is going on in the Hanzestadt.
Enough talk press play and enjoy all that the Lobby Skateshop team did in Malaga, Spain.
It is winter in northern Europe so what do we do? Hop on a plane and go to the south of Europe in search of the miraculous, a.k.a. good weather.
Wear. wash, rinse, repeat every year Spain has the heat! So Valencia & Alicante got visited by Crack & Kanten and this video shows just what they did there. Skate!
Shortly after the “C U AT THE LOBBY” Video Stanley We are back with another high-class edit straight out of Hamburg, Digga!
We told you before that our friends from the Lobby Skateshop had something cooking for the end of the year. Now it is time for you to see what Lobby is all about. Germany’s second biggest city always dealt with some kind of an underdog position, a situation that makes it even harder to shine. The city is mad underrated and we would suggest you take a visit with your friends, go to Lobby and say what’s up. To get you motivated for your spring trip to Hamburg you should now enjoy their very first promo video.
Feat.: Benny Vogel, Nizan Kasper, Lars White, Dennis Behrens, Christoph Reinhardt, Danny Stephen, Anton Wempner, Kenny Hopf, Noah Moerbeck and Christoph Friedmann.
Edit: Nizan Kasper
Filming: Nizan Kasper & Lars Zimmermann