Leon Charo-Tite is our next "Unsigned Hype" and he is from Freiburg/Germany and that part of his heritage can be an issue. Many have gotten stamped and sidelined as the "German Skater". To our U.S. audience, that's kind of like being stamped Canadian or Brazillian in the early 2000's.
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.
We love John Motta’s skating, we even wrote him a love letter back in the day. In our opinion, he is an early influence on people like Kevin Rodrigues & a son of skaters like Louie Barletta.
Anyway, to conclude, this part is a true return to form with an ender reminiscent of his first AHM part.
To be honest, when somebody asks you who your favorite skater is you always think about the pro’s. In my case, Brian Anderson would be the most likely answer you would get back.
But if we are really are being honest, your friends are your favorite skaters, the difference being that you don’t get the joy of waiting for their parts because you are out on those missions getting some awkward BGP’s, guest tricks and hugs in for the edit. Right?
After the Lynchian man in white passes Nils catches a flash and put together this backside lipslide shove-it.
Well, when we caught wind that my friends Nils & Daniel started working on this project together, I said:
“Don’t tell me any tricks you did, and don’t ask me to come along for the filming missions.”
Roland Hoogwater, early 2019.
The nickname “The Mule” belongs to a famous pro skater but at times it sure fits Mr. Brauer.
I wanted to have the joy of watching my favorite skaters part exactly when it dropped. And so it happened*, they went out to Hannover, Budapest, Croatia, Lissabon, Potsdam & Israel and made this project a reality and I stayed at my post and did my own thing patiently waiting until today.
When all of a sudden I got a message…rushed over to Free’s website and did like you are about to…Press play! And after that simply wait 2 more years for part 2 to show up.
Remember that Killa Cam’ron song “U’ WASN’T THERE”? Well we actually were here and this is pretty fucking hard.
All photos by Biemer.
Text by Roland Hoogwater.
*I actually cheated the one rule and got some guest tricks.
We made this video as a piece to go together with our very own Daniel Pannemann’s interview in the current issue of Free Skate Mag. It was in fact Free’s own Arthur Derrien that proposed the idea of a sort of takeover/collab.
In the end, Sara Parson Texas did the interview itself and I (Roland Hoogwater) got the chance to create this video together with our staff and some of our close associates/freelancers.
We hope you enjoy the work we put in for you all to enjoy and stay safe out there in these troubling times.
It wasn’t the first time that Converse decided to help the Berlin Skateboarding scene with an indoor facility during those dark days of the Winter. Meet “Push Berlin” – a project in cooperation with Converse.
In this video, a few Converse CONS ambassadors took a look at the park to show you around, which ended up in a session for everybody.
Featuring.: Danny Sommerfeld, Daniel Pannemann, Vladik Scholz, Jonas Hess & more.
What do you get when you put our favorite host Lea Isabell together with a very special shoe, THE SHANE? What does the shoe look like, what does it feel like, How does it smell? And do humans actually have a different opinion about footwear than animals do?
Text by Roland Hoogwater.
Photos by Louis Deschamps & Roland Hoogwater.
Denny Pham was blown away by Shane’s new shoe!
Besides that, we get Hyun Kummer, Denny Pham, Sascha Scharf and many others flying through the air onto our little L.A. safe-haven called 7th Street. What do the winners feel after they land their tricks? Well, watch Lea & Louis ask those hard-hitting questions as well.
Hyun Kummer definitely pushed Mr. O’Neill’s shoe to the limit by blasting from the kicker to the bench multiple times. Another Shane wearing “THE SHANE”.
Last but certainly not least, did you watch Shane’s new part yet? You might have it has only been all over the interwebs but what did the people who got to watch it first, the people who got to go to the world premiere think of the king of the “flip in flip out” newest part?
The Butcher got himself a prime spot for the world premiere of ‘The Extra Bit”The crowd seemed to love it as well.
Well, find out your doggone self! Press play already and watch Episode 2 of our Place.tv series.
Nike SB thank you for supporting this episode of Place.tv also available through the Nike APP.
What do they say at the end of most movies again? Oh yeah, “FIN”!
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.
At the start of the night, there was some confusion about how to bowl.Love the ball and it will reward you!
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!
Some people were not aware of the strengths they possessed.Valle Cafuk showing some of that skateboard attitude on the lanes.He managed to reel it in though.We also had a best strike competition, this was not it though.The great Mark Nickels in full swing during the finals.
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.
Jack Taylor one half of the aptly named team Jack Daniels.1up or 10 down? Bowling is full of surprises.Love is in the air when Paul Röhrs enters the room.
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!
Sitting down, Bänke Life!Steffen Grap, Grap means joke in Dutch but we don’t think Steffen felt this was funny.Ruhe means to rest in German but Julian Ruhe means business on the bowling lanes.
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.
Like Ronaldo or Messi on the field, Bawsti shuts the haters up and takes home the prize!We can’t all win but at least you had the outfit of the night.Diptych side 1.Diptyque side 2.
We are proud to introduce to you two new things. First, Lea Isabell our new intern and host for our Place Television program. Secondly, our new TV program.
Episode one was recorded at the Vans Shop Riot Finals, a contest where the best shops of all of Europe battle each other to win the coveted title.
Lea took a deep-dive into the crowd and tried to find out some answers we have all been wondering about for the longest of times. Things like which rapper do you think could be a good skater or do you like skater boys?
Anyway, enjoy the video because we certainly while we were making it for you.
If you have made it here you are in for a treat, an old skool dish refined to fit today’s tastes.
“What do you mean?!”
Well, this isn’t your normal online video premiere this is an experience created to mirror our childhood experience of gathering your friends, grabbing the DVD cover, getting some popcorn and soda’s, on the couch and finally pressing your hear the disc slowly turning…
But… instead, this is 2019 and your remote has turned into your mouse and your TV into Youtube! So grab some popcorn, gather some friends, airplay this on your big screen, click play first and then the thumbnails by using your mouse or trackpad to navigate yourselves through this wonderful experience. Enjoy!
BTW Start with the main feature first you freak!!!
We had the pleasure to combine the launch of our all-new “Stefan Marx Issue” with the Berlin premiere of Nike SB’s all-women video “GIZMO”. Now you might think, “What do those two things have to do with this article I am about to read?”, well, our trip had Lea Schairer on it and she skates for Nike so when we got the call to ask if we wanted to talk to any of the girls we had a plan.
The plan was this: Lea would integrate and spend some time with her team-mates while they would go through their media rounds, a Pappelplatz skate sesh and finally the premiere of the video. She would then take a moment, regain her thoughts and note them down for us all to read.
I mean what is better than having a woman evaluate a major moment in all of skateboarding but women’s skating in particular. Nothing right?
Well, you better start reading now!
Drawings by Stefan Marx
Intro by Roland Hoogwater
Text by Lea Schairer
Finally, there is a queue
Right before the video started I already tried to fight my way to the toilet but failed, because after three beers I definitely was ready to pee! But I was too busy talking to people and was too excited for GIZMO to start that when I was finally able to go in, the projector was already switched on. Since I didn’t want to miss anything I told my body to hold it back. I actually forgot about it watching the video, also because there were two guys standing next to me who couldn’t stop saying: “Dude! What?!”, literally every trick they saw. I was wondering where they had been in the past five years. It’s not like you wouldn’t expect those girls to blow your mind. Because their level of skating just went through the roof during those years. These people are – with a handful of others – currently the best female skaters out there! Thinking of a new skate video being released featuring any pro there is, you would already expect a certain level of tricks… I think we should definitely be in a time where you should expect the same from female pros.
I was fortunate enough to spend the afternoon with the crew of the GIZMO video, which means Sarah Meurle, Elissa Steamer, Nicole Hause and Ashley Rehfeld, who is a co-producer and athlete coordinate at Nike SB. We met at Civilist, we went skating and we talked a lot. It’s great to see that with skateboarding we had a connection right away – I knew I’d get along with these women, even though I had never met them. All of our experiences and impressions about skateboarding coincided.
It was also great to feel the vibe that gets shown in the video when skating with them in person. It was impressive how the skate park sort of shifted their attention towards these women.
We talked about gender equality, equal or at least adequate prize money at contests, how well women are integrated in the skateboard scene now, that, even though all of us have been skateboarding for 11-17 years (Elissa more like 30 years), it’s just now that some of us have the possibility to live from it – despite the already existing high level in women’s skating many years ago. Having trouble finding a sponsor in earlier ages and now asking yourself: well, is it really the skating that drives the companies to support us or is it just because girls who skate are so marketable?!
Fuck! That is definitely a major downside of female skateboarding becoming more popular.
It’s important to know that GIZMO is NOT the first all-women skate video – there have been a few, all privately financed and produced. It’s the first one a big company has produced and put its name behind; which is amazing and is a big step in the right direction. It probably means that more will follow… already shown by the premier Vans had in London with their Bali skate trip video.
Unfortunately, we didn’t speak much about the video itself and how everything came about. And then again, there is actually no need for that. When you see the video, you see the same things that you see in any other skate video. There are struggles, there is the pressure everyone puts upon themselves because they want to deliver the best part possible. There are the super fun times, going on tour with your friends and just hanging out, there is the hype after landing a tough trick and there are the times of doubt.
With my bladder still filled, a few drops went into my pants when I saw the tricks, where those two guys behind me yelled the loudest. There are nose grinds on handrails, bs tailslides flip out, tre-flips over motorcycles, super high grab less alley-oop bs airs in deep-ends, and much much more you will be impressed with.
Even though it can be a little annoying having guys scream into your ear for 10 minutes straight, I was obviously also flattered by the guys’ comments, because it means they have now realized on what kind of level female skating is. It also shows that men are starting to dig the different styles of those women skating, mentioning things like: ”Damn, I wish I could do this trick like that!”. It’s just that the implicitness is still missing!
There were also several other people who came up to me with different perspectives to the video. For example, two super shy girls saying how much they enjoyed seeing me (and the other girls) skate. This has never happened to me and I found it more than flattering. I can’t imagine how many times this must have happened to the GIZMO team over the past days… the motivation for those who are starting to skate has probably risen to a maximum watching this video. It’s just so cool that now there are female role models (several) in skateboarding and that these are all over the world and not just in some far away place. I think this is a big push for skating in general!
All in all, it was an overwhelming vibe. It was so great to see everyone being hyped about the video. There was a lot of cheering and yelling, clapping and laughing. An honest: “Ouhhhhhhhh” when seeing a bail and the same honest: “Whaaaat?!?! Yeahhh!” when seeing a banger. The place was packed, the drinks were cold and people even started bouncing to the tunes of the video.
When the video was over I remembered what my bladder was telling me, also realizing that it should move right now to let it out! I hurried, in the expectation that at video premiers it’s not a problem for girls to just walk straight into an empty booth. After finally fighting my way to the toilets, I found myself waiting in a super long queue… Fuck! That is definitely a major downside of female skateboarding becoming more popular.
Last Friday Nike SB, Skatehalle Berlin & Skatedeluxe teamed up to put on an event in celebration of women all over the world. This event took place in the city we call home, Berlin. The event’s organizers asked us to document the whole thing and we answered by asking if we could add some karaoke in the mix?
“Karaoke, how? The event is at the skatepark”
“There are these Karaoke caravans you can rent for the day, we can park it in front of the park!”
And sure enough our wish was their command and the celebration was on!
Now meet the women that made the event special.
Meet Sara, she was the host of the PLACE karaoke bus. She also documented International Women’s day for us & in our opinion is the Gertrude Stein of the skateboard world!
Now meet Moonia, she is Sara’s best friend.
Now meet our new favorite up & coming skater! She was shorter than her board but twice as tough, had a need for speed and had the entire skatepark crowd following her every move like a tennisball at the wimbledon finals.
Meet Kim, most of the girls that skate know Kim, she has outstanding hair!
She also likes to sing and swing, A LOT! The karaoke bus was like a flytrap, and she was stuck!
This is Marina, she is from Croatia & she is part of the organization behind the Vladimir film festival. An event you must attend this year.
This is Lea Isabell, we once interviewed her and she has a lot of great ideas. Be on the look out, you will see more of her sooner rather than later!
This is Valerie she might be in the dictionary under “Cool” or “Sweet”.
This is Marisa, she has a lot of good stories to tell! She was born in AZ and has traveled the world! We would love for her to start doing stand-up comedy because she is extremely funny!
Valeria was one of the first people in the booth and it is safe to say she broke the barrier so that more could follow!
Meet Sara she was DJ’ing the whole night… She also runs things! Eventually though the funk in the van was too strong and even she had to join in song and dance!
Linda didn’t come sing with us, not because she didn’t want to but because she was to busy ripping! She did a second try Frontside Boardslide 270 right in front of my eyes, said hi and had to keep it moving!
Not much is known about these three, except that they knew all the lyrics to Cardi B’s “I Like It” by heart. “Certified, you know I’m gang, gang, gang…”
You could actually follow and almost song to song update via our Instagram Stories!
Power! That is the word that comes to mind when we think of Lea Shairer. Scroll down to see what song was being performed at this exact moment.
Rick Ross the boss!
Errr day I’m Hustlin’…
Even though it was IWD some longhaired males did manage to skip past security and into the booth….
Meet Anna & Joanna both sick skaters, strong singers and now karaoke addicts!
Last year Lea was present at the IWD event and we choose to believe this is a photo of her looking forward to next years event! A sincere THANK YOU to all the women & LGTBQ+ people that came to celebrate with us in the booth we are truly happy to have sung together with you.
A special thank you to Sara Parson-Texas for all the work you put in and Nike SB, Skatedeluxe & Skatehalle Berlin for putting on the event and making people skate and sing their hearts out!
Most of the time in skateboarding events happen because of a product launch, a video premiere or as the continuation of a festival ala CPH open. For this event, we wanted to create 2 pieces that clicked together like lego but would still stand up as separate entities. We teamed up with adidas Skateboarding to present you “JUS KICKIN IT”
The first piece was this video by Nizan Kasper in which skateboarding and table soccer were connected. The idea being that we as skaters often frequent bars and participate in barroom activities for fun. We found a table soccer bar called “Kickerbar Platzwart” were we could one, record our table soccer adventures and secondly host our event.
PIECE 2:
Our second piece was our first table soccer invitational tournament. We invited some of Berlin’s finest last Saturday, December the 15th, to join us and play in our 16 team – Two VS Two style – tournament. People were excited and thus showed up in high spirits hoping to win the 300€ “winner takes all” prize purse home with them.
The tournament started with all the teams being divided into 4 different groups, like in a world cup every one in the pool played each other which would culminate in the top 2 moving on into the KO phase of the tournament. Hopes were high but so were the skillsets between the teams, certain people found out right away where they stood where others fought to stay in the tournament with mixed results.
At the end of the first KO round we were left with the 4 best teams that then battled it out in the semi-finals: Team Lensing VS Max Obert & Eric Erhardt and Paul Röhrs & Finn VS Sascha Scharf & Philipp Oehmige. Needless to say, the games got more intense, hands got sweaty and nerves got tested as the money got closer to the winner’s pockets.
The finals ended up being the best versus the best, Team Lensing played Paul Röhrs & Finn the number 1 and 2 of their respective groups. Paul and Finn had beaten Team Lensing in the group phase and as such, they were feeling confident as the finals approached. On the other side of the table, Team Lensing was hungry and focused on winning not only to win the money but also because they wanted to restore their damaged pride.
Mirco, the owner of Platzwart elevated the spirits of the crowd by giving out a round of Schnapps minutes before the finals.
In the end, Team Lensing got their revenge and beat their competitors 6:0 in a long and hard-fought final game. Both teams shook hands and agreed that the score did not represent the level of competition in the finals but the right team had come out on top.
Radio Baws and Kreuzberg local Arne Krüger then took everybody outside for the ceremonial champaign money shot!
What is left to be said? First off, Thank you to adidas Skatebarding for the continued support!
Platzwart Kickerbar and Mirco in particular for helping us before, during and after the event!
Arne Krüger (announcer) and Daan Dam (photographer) for covering the event together with us.
And last but not the teams and the crowd for showing up and giving your all. We hope to welcome you again for our next tournament in 2019!
Do you ever get the feeling that you know what you want to write but because you already know it becomes a menial task? The process is what lures you in, the get cliché the journey is the destination. Being 31 I grew up watching Mark, watching him grow to become a very big name. And that is part of the problem because most themes have been talked about over and over. At the same time, all the accolades Mr. Appleyard has collected over time are not to be overlooked. Most people who skate have never been and will never be part of a classic video, or will have at least two classic video parts. Especially in today’s climate, it is hard to tell if new icons like Appleyard’s will even be a part of our culture. The “older” skaters remain iconic while Instagram has created a new playing field which has been slowly changing our game. Anyway, The point was that I knew what I could write but what did I need to write and what did I want to write? So I asked multiple people what they thought I should write.
Yo’ Daniel I am struggling a bit with the text about Mark what did you notice during our time with him?
“What I realized is that he reached this high level of skating and ever since he did that he just stayed that good. When I saw him skating he hadn’t really lost a step and that is something to think about.”
Danny (Sommerfeld) what should I write about Mark? Should I mention that his transworld trick tip taught you how to nollie flip?
“No.. that wouldn’t make any sense, who wants to know that? Just write that he was super nice and really professional! Remember when we pulled up to his house? He was playing ping pong, with Sammy (Montano) in his garage. Remember the huge poster of one of his covers in the garage? The map with all the places he has been? And that was only the garage, in his living room, he had multiple covers up and trophies, a couple of them, amongst which the 2003 SOTY statue.
Mark came up during my time, and because he has been around for multiple years we sometimes forget how crazy good he is on the board. Being invited to his house reminded me that he is a really good skater and that we shouldn’t forget that.
He showed us his (and his sons) lego collection, which has a Porsche and millennium falcon amongst it. He played on his drumkit, we sat in his garden and played with all the toys.”
So in a sense, we got to see what it is like being Mark?
Exactly!
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