It’s interesting to witness how strong the Skateboarding scene has become in central & east Europe and it’s even more interesting to see their progress and those beautiful spots. Watch Vans Europe’s “Neighbours” by Mateusz Kowalski & Aram Socha & dream about your next summer’s skate vacation plans.
Featuring Michał Zarzycki, Vojtěch Freitag, Štěpán Bareš, Anna Růtová, Marek Kocak, Adam Križovenský, Anna Kulig, Filip Dziewięcki, Mateusz Kowalski, Nelly Zarzycka, Marcin Myszka, Konrad Krużyński, Jean Semaan, Patryk Sadzki, Patryk Głąbień, Bartosz Młodystach, Thomas Courteille, Rafał Modranka, Andrzej Kwiatek, Przemek Hippler, Mateusz Kowalski & Bartek Piguła.
Poland’s signature ripper returns with what some would call a part but maybe is more of an expose showing the broadness of his skating and willpower through many a crusty spot. One could say they stop at nothing but truth be told, just before the video ends we see a scooter stopped in its tracks as it tries to pull Juras in for one final move—anyway, great work by Kuba, Michal, and the rest of this excellent crew.
Kuba and his Grey Area crew are back with a new one, which continues his exploration of Polish Plazas and the love of expensive great grinding stones. This one is based around the Warsaw monument for Wincenty Witos on which a movie was based “The Man Of Marble” which connects nicely with the look of the square and is most likely why it has been such a mainstay of a spot.
All said and done, this one has some thought behind it and we are excited to see what these “concept edits” add to the longer Grey Area projects.
Ok, the last one for today! We actually need to enjoy Christmas with our families but this Polish gem interfered with our plans. A few details before we give some praise, it is a video by Repeat skate a.k.a Krzysztof Godek for the Warsaw-based SH store. Now Krysztof is responsible for IF YOU DON’T SKATE DON’T START which was a great video but with this one he has made a leap forward again.
Now just the first part by Tomek Ziółkowski alone is worth the watch. We never thought that crossing Chris Milic’ skate style and Aurelien Giraud’s dress sense could work but Tomek is living proof. And if that is not enough, Michał Juraś does one of the gnarliest Ollies of 2021 and Filip Wojciechowski has a great full part. So enjoy the SH video.
Our friends from Barrier Skateboarding Magazine out of Warsaw just released a new edit by and featuring one of our favorite skaters Michał Juraś. Watch him and his good friends do a few rounds around the block.
Hello and a good day to you! Today we are traveling down to the streets of Warsaw, but not just any streets, one spot, “The Palace Of Culture And Science”. One could argue that this needled building is the center point of the Polish capital. A building gifted by the Russians, during the Soviet era, a palace with 4 brothers and sisters just like it – We know Russians like to stick to what they knew. I asked Kuba Kaczmarczyk, the Grey Area filmer what he felt the building stood for because one could imagine it being representative of a time of oppression. Although he felt some type of way about it for a long time, now he is happy it stayed around. They use it for good things now and obviously, it is a good skate spot. So Kuba and his Grey Area gang went all the way in and explored all the different nooks and crannies of the Palace.
Intro by Roland Hoogwater.
All photos by Kuba Baczkowski.
After skating this spot, for so long, I just need a fucking holiday!
Grey Area was formed in order to explore new and un-obvious locations. Our goal was to see new things in something old and do as much as possible. Back in the day, if we got footage at the palace grounds it mostly happened during our warmup sessions.
Even though we spent a lot of time there over the years, I’ve been wanting to film a Culture Palace edit for years now. When we started this project I thought about setting a limit on how far you could go outside of the main square and onto the streets surrounding the Culture Palace. It was all up to the creativity of the skaters, them trying to find new options. I reckon it is very interesting to show a group of people known for skating very rough spots in a slightly different light compared to the usual. I was more than stoked when they accepted the challenge – some of them really loved the idea.
And, in the end, it worked out, I’m really happy with the result. So now, after this, we can go back to our obscure and unknown areas of our Polish towns.
Left Side: Emil Wolan, Frontside Lipslide – Right Side: Michal Juras, Backside 50-50 after a failed date night.
Culture Palace is the main skate spot in Warsaw. It has a lot of spots inside and around the building, everything is made of skateable stone, it grinds and slides great. The main challenges are the police officers and some of the skate stoppers. But we know how to get rid of those things 😂
The first time when I skated this spot, I felt like everything was too rough for me, and at that time I didn’t skate too many street spots. Now I’m an adult skater (laughs) and the streets have spoken to my soul 🤷♀️. These days the Culture Palace is definitely my favorite spot and it is a place where I can meet other skaters and we can spend a full day together. I like the fact that there are so many different sections on the palace grounds, places like,,kongresowa”, ,, parapety” or ,,bej murek”. Kongresowa my favorite place to warm up, and I like the atmosphere there, we can all meet there, sit on the stairs, talking shit and skate ❤.
When it comes to may own favorite skater to watch skate the Palace grounds there is onl one, Tomek Ziółkowski a.k.a. Tomi Gunz! 👊
You might wonder if like the others I need a break after this edit? I need to change the spot for a while, but probably we will be back at the Palace after a few days anyway. Because through this process of making the video I started to see other, new ways to skate certain things, and to me, that is awesome. The Palace Of Culture And Science is an endless spot ❤.
Agata Halikowska with a new way to skate a classic spot, Backside 5-0.
Our good friends over at Barrier Magazine have a new video up and the title pretty much says it all!
Przemysław Hipler, Andrzej Kwiatek, Kamil Karwowski, Filip Dziewięcki, Rafał Modranka, Konrad Krużyński, Bartosz Młodystach, Mateusz Kowalski, Jean Semaan, Patryk Gląbień, Emmil Wolan, Kuba Bączkowski and Andrzej Palenica in and around Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot.
Being in Berlin, we are close to the Polish border, 30 minutes by train, and your average “Scheisse” will have turned into a “Kurwa”. The capital, Warsaw is only 5 hours away, and with it being such a good skate city we didn’t need an excuse to go there.
Even closer – to our hearts – is the Polish skate scene, with many lovely characters almost all named Kuba for some reason. So when we got the chance to participate in this project we jumped on it. And now with the final edit & the article out on both the online and analog Free Mag channels, it is time to say thank you! We hope people will watch this video and enjoy it as much as we enjoyed seeing it in production.
If you are reading this and are Polish or of Polish heritage don’t forget about the #LegendaryPolishPower it took to make this all a reality.
During a little Nike SB event, we met Kuba Kaczmarczyk a.k.a. Grey Area Kuba. We got along well, the beer was flowing and at some point, we landed on the topic of Michal Juras.
Michal is a mutual friend and a well-loved skater but he is also an unlucky bastard, “Michal has been injured at most premieres!” Kuba told us. So with the release of the latest episode in the Grey Area series, it was only natural that Juras would injure himself once again.
Being the good friends that we are we contacted Michal and asked him to explain why his only type of luck seems to be bad luck.
Intro & Interview by Roland Hoogwater.
How are you feeling right now Michal?
I feel good. I pretty much live the life of a normal guy, not like a skater. I can go to a bar, drink a little bit but I can’t skate, run, jump or do any sporting activities. So, I am doing some basic things like cleaning my room, helping my mother, stuff like that. Kind of boring but it is better than walking on crutches.
This injury is weird because normally you have a cast or something and afterward they take that off and you have to do rehabilitation or something like that. This time I feel really normal, without any injuries but I can’t do anything I have to live like a grandma.
Kuba Kaczmarczyk doing what he does best.
(Laughs)Very positive, so how did this happen?
Well, during the filming of my last trick, the kink rail was the last thing on my list. I went there three times and the last times the weather was grey, London vibes you know. I had four cups of coffee and it was time to do it and after a couple of tries, I sacked it.
Did it hurt directly?
No, I got up from the slam felt totally fine, Kuba (Grey Area) showed me the footage and after he said: “Maybe check inside your pants real quick and see if it’s okay”. So I went behind a tree and I saw some bruising on my leg but nothing crazy.
So, I drove back home with Kuba Bączkowski (Barrier), two hours in traffic, finally got home, took a bath and that is when a little blood came out of my dick. So I thought, let’s check what it looks like after I take a piss.
That is when it all went wrong, I started peeing blood, a lot. I freaked out, quickly called Kuba (Barrier) and told him I was passing out and that he should call an ambulance. He ran back to my house and the ambulance came to bring me to the hospital.
Another Kuba, Kuba Brniak, Wallie.
How was your time at the hospital
I hope that after this little surgery all my bodily functions will be working. They should, it is just a little piece of skin. But I am worried because of the hospital, they were weird. Every day, in the beginning, there was something new. I went there after my drama in the toilet and after three days, they said everything was fine and I tried to pee normally again but there was still blood in my pee. So, after a few days, I went back and after that, they found the real problem. So, that scared me.
I understand that it feels a bit sketchy.
During my second stay, I was supposed to only stay one night but I ended up staying six days and on the fourth night, I woke up and saw blood seeping towards my back. So in the end, I got a stoma and had to hold this thing, my bag with pee.
So how did you feel when you got home?
I was shook. I was waking up every night to check and see if my stoma bag did not have blood in it. I was pretty stressed, I kept doing that for the first week. After that, I managed to relax a bit. I mean, I was dragging that full with my piss around for one month.
Jan Hendrik Kongstein, Frontside Boardslide
So what happened after that month?
I went in for a check-up, I was supposed to be good, I thought they would take everything out but my urethra ended up closing so instead, I needed to have surgery.
So, back to the situation at the hospital. Every time they said it was supposed to be good, but something new always ended up happening.
Thats is why you are taking it step by stepthis time?
Yes, I am worried because I don’t know how this time is going to be. Maybe all of a sudden I have to stay for longer again.
Do you think you need to do any training?
No. After it is healed there is no “step by step” I can just go skate again. A little bit weird because I am used to taking it slow, some skating, a little flatground, but this time it will be different.
You could, straight away, go back to that rail and try it again?
It is kind of like your parents grounded you and you can’t skate for a while.
Not a Kuba but a “Deedz”, Didrik Galasso
Do you think you will be scared to skate?
It is hard to say. But right now, I don’t think so. If I am walking down the street, looking at spots, I feel ready to skate. But maybe it will be different once I get on the board. I think I will be fine, maybe I will just be scared of Boardslides (laughs).
More 50-50’s, less Boardslides?
I think I prefer my rails short and high (laughs). Where you don’t land on the rail if you bail.
No more kinks?
Do you know what is amazing? At almost all of the video premieres where I have a part, I was injured in some sort of way.
Grey Area: I came on crutches. The first Polar video: I walked but had ankle surgery straight after and now for this one I had the bag. Neverwhere was good though, I was fit (laughs).
So with 2019 behind us what does 2020 hold?
Well, to be honest, the past year, 2019 has been a really good year for me. We went to Portugal, Lisbon and did a lot of other trips and I was productive. 2020 is a year of big change! I friend of mine told me that, in 2020 we are all going to go through changes and I told him “yeah I am starting with a bag attached to me.” (laughs).
Michal wanted me to add that he does “wood stuff” now, he sent no further info.
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