A while ago we’ve been posting each part separately, but here’s the full thing.
‘Creating Lines’ took place in September of 2018, as a three-day event in Rotterdam. We explored how skateboarding in the Netherlands is constantly changing. With an exhibition about Rotterdam’s skate history, the premiere of our full-length skate video ‘Momentum’ and panel discussions about skateboarding in the Netherlands.
‘Momentum’ consists of five main video parts, made by multiple talented Dutch filmmakers. They were given 6 weeks to make a short video, in which they had to incorporate the theme ‘change’. Jan Maarten Sneep edited all the footage into one coherent piece through various Rotterdam memory screen segments.
Main parts by: Ziggy Schaap & Alex van Zwietering, Edward Cook, Marc Bolhuis, Kadir Küçük & Jan Maarten Sneep.
We just received a very important public service announcement:
Dear fellow skateboarder,
Today we released our campaign Build Wallies Not Walls, where we call upon people to build wallies instead of walls.
By doing so, we want to raise attention for immigration issues and the victims caused by closed borders. It is our believe that closed borders are not contributing to making the world a better place.
Donald Trump is the most widely known promoter of closed borders and walls. That’s why we made an wallie of him, as a protest statement against his policies and message. On our website www.walliesagainstwalls.com you can find more information, photos and links.
You can download a template, print-files and a builder guide to make your own wallie. We hope that people join the movement and start building their own wallies. Plus, we wish everyone the joy of skating over Trumps face!
Monday the 3rd of December marks the day that we launch the third part in our ongoing “Creating Lines” series. This one focusses on “Roffa” mainstay Marc Bolhuis and his Boombap movement. Let him explain what he did with the topic of change and how it affected his view of the Dutch metropolis.
Intro by Roland Hoogwater.
Text,film, photos & edit by Marc Bolhuis.
When “Creating Lines”, asked me to make a skate edit about ‘change’ and what has changed in skateboarding, it immediately crossed my mind that skateboarding is such a personal thing for people. So, it is hard to say what kind of change everybody could relate too.
Recently I released my first full-length video called ‘BOOMBAP’ and ‘Metamorphoses’ is the first project that I released since the video. In BOOMBAP I wanted to portray the city of Rotterdam in the way I always saw it, coming from a village nearby I was mesmerized by the big buildings, busy streets, and grittiness that this city has to offer. In the end, Dirk Middelkoop came up with the idea of doing something about the architecture of this city. Rotterdam, for the most part, is a pretty new city because it got bombed in WW2. But there are some buildings left from the old days, buildings like our City Hall for example. We did some research on which “skate” spot is the oldest and which place is the newest, and from there we added everything in between and to make the edit in a chronological order.
It was really interesting to find out in what year some of the spots were built. I really had no clue that some of these spots have been around for so long. I was also surprised that some spots were built in the same year but look so totally different from one other architecturally.
Today as part of our second “Creating Lines” release we are proud to present multiple young talents, first, filmer Kadir Küçük who came up with this concept around the theme of “change”. Secondly, Mano Wolf a name or face you might have seen before if you are Dutch but one you will see on the international stage more and more as time goes on.
They together managed to pull off this partly futuristic piece of cinematography in convincing fashion. Read about their experience bellow:
Mano Wolf, Kickflip.
Intro by Roland Hoogwater.
Film/edit by Kadir Küçük.
Photography by Martijn van Velden.
With a theme like change, most might think of the past and portray what has changed. To me, I thought it would be more interesting and fun to make a prediction of the future (maybe unrealistic).
There is one episode of rocket power where they skate with Tony Hawk and what stuck with me was that they skate a partially glowing skateboard, I thought that recreating that might look cool and futuristic. So I did some research on how to make a skateboard glow in the dark and in the end, I found out that glow powder with some epoxy resin made it work.
It was quite hard filming with that setup though, since you need to recharge the glow powder with light for it to light up at it’s maximum. We had to charge it up about every 3 tries or so, sometimes the spot was too bright and we had to recharge it every try for the board to actually shine.
For this project we were given a month time by Creating Lines to finish a video, most of the people probably went filming right away but I spend the first 2 weeks just researching and trying to make a “glow in the dark” skateboard. And with the filming process being quite time-consuming it ended up being a struggle but I am actually hyped I didn’t go the easy route and still managed to pull it all off just a couple days past the deadline.
Combining art and skateboarding can be very tricky and a lot of projects often slide into the trap of making artistic versions of skate obstacles. Opperclaes created multiple public installations based on certain keywords that they saw connected to skateboarding and skateboarders.
“The project ‘Character Type’ was an intervention in the city of Rotterdam in September 2018 and bridged the gap between public art and skateboarding. The words are a homage to a skateboarding state of mind.”
Together with furniture designer Jeroen van Sluis the project came out quite nicely, to say the least.
Our favourite thing besides the skating is the fact that they first turned words into images and then images into sculptures that were then used to make this video (images) again.
But as always, don’t let us influence you to much see for yourself.
Marc Bolhuis, out of Rotterdam, is working on a full-length called “BOOMBAP“. He’s already released four minutes of footage as a promo. Featuring Wouter de Jong, Yannick Witvoet, Donny Janssen, Alexander Belhadj, Remco Stolzen, Sebastiaan Vijverberg, Robert Joosten, Dirk Middelkoop, Jan Maarten Sneep, Wouter Molenaar, Tim Zom and Nassim Guammaz.
Welcome Skateboards went to Berlin and they managed to skate the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin between the police patrol. Also, they left some pretty brutal marks on some spots in the Netherlands, feat.: Will Blaty, Ryan Lay, Ryan Townley, Aaron Goure, Daniel Vargas, Roman Pabich, Rick Fabro & Dakota Hunt.
Switching from an NTSC- to a PAL-VX1000 forced Alex van Zwietering to release this footage earlier than was planned. But why do we care, we can enjoy a new Intercity clip!
“Wisselstoring” features Remco Stolze, Jair Gravenberch, Justin Wagener, Gijs Visser, Bram Schlangen, Woody Hoogendijk and more.
A new one by Alex van Zwietering. “Spoor 1” is a clip filmed in Rotterdam and The Hague, The Netherlands.
Featuring Huib Verduijn den Boer, Justin Wagener, Marko Maricic, Buddy Swinkels, Sebastiaan Vijverberg, Ritchie Eversteijn, Izzy McCoy, Sven van Kempen, Erik Wieten, Simon te G, Marc-Francis van den Arend, Kadir Kucuk, Thomas Burger, Bram Schlangen, Joey Verberkt, Rick Den Ouden & Gijs Visser.
George Toland just put out this edit of him and his homies skating the Dutch harbor city of Rotterdam. Some Brits, some Dutchies skating together, doing some good tricks. With some definitive highlights by our friend Glen Fox! You should go check it out.
Featuring: Greg Conroy, Wouter Molenaar, Martijn van Velden, Glen Fox, Tom Delion, Louis Woodhead, Harry Turner, Leo Briggs and that one dutch dude.
Is skateboarding still cool? Is there an end in sight? Usually you can tell by the amount of young talent out there, and if you judge by the phone and car commercials featuring skaters at the moment, it seems to still be cool. But kids don’t want to do what their parents or elders like to do. They want to break out of the system and do something different, to be edgy and develop their own identity.
It’s not right to tell them what to do, they have to figure it out themselves. That’s how real talent appears and becomes visible – not by falling in line with all the other guys out there. On that note, meet Jan Hoffmann, Julian Ruhe, and Valentin Cafuk – a trio of young guns going their own way.
Jan Hoffmann – FS Disaster
If you are a talented young adolescent, there is a chance you don’t really grasp the concept of being sponsored. First of all, there is a big chance that you never have to spend money on product, simply because you never earned a dime in your life yet. So you probably never really paid for your own gear anyway – your parents did! But does that automatically mean you take everything for granted?
That depends on your character, but appreciating what you have is a rare trait. Unspoiled young talent is an even rarer find in Germany these days. But there are a few kids out there that are on the right track – and I think we might have found them!
Julian Ruhe – BS 180 fakie Nosegrind
Jan, Julian, and Valentin are young, talented – and German. Seems kind of odd nowadays, right? It wasn’t always like that: Remember back when Dardan Sabovic, Asche, and Patrick Streiter where on the come-up? For a while they seemed to be unstoppable. Any magazine in Germany had them covered with most of their tricks shot in North Rhine-Westphalia by either Helge Tscharn, or Thomas Gentsch.
Valentin Cafuk – Gap to BS Lipslide
Especially Dardan and Streiter were known as the German answer to the Spanky/Herman duo back then. They might as well have been called shooting stars because everything happened very quickly. That time when Streiter kickflip crooked a handrail was pretty much a milestone for German skateboarding. Michel Lohmann, former skateboard filmer from Muenster, got into a wager to get Patrick’s name tattooed on his ass, because he simply didn’t believe he could actually do that trick, which was not that unreasonable.
Same goes for Dardan’s nollie BS 180° down the old famous Cologne 13-stair, next to the Rhine river, which ended up being an Adio Shoes ad. And not to forget Asche’s switch kickflip at the Münster Ten. Those tricks where NBDs at that time, at least for German skaters. Nowadays it has became a very rare sight to find those three guys in magazines, or see any new skate footage, but they still skate and still live in the same town.
Jan Hoffmann – Beanplant Bluntslide
The kids are growing up really fast. I hadn’t seen Julian in about ten month and it feels like he’s coming along fine. Same goes for Jan and Valentin, they are in such an interesting time of their lives right now that it’ll be hard for them to understand what’s going on; also simply because they learn – every single day.
Remember when Chris Cole wore a yellow shirt and baggy jeans, then years later went fully Rock ‘n’ Roll and now he looks like he’s on his way to a Nickelback concert? You definitely go trough a lot of phases in your early stages. Some more then others… The industry is constantly looking out for new talent. What doesn’t fit is made to fit, that’s how the industrial age proceeds. But in our knowledge-based society, the individual can win by breaking the ranks and being a little different, or going down a more unusual road than others.
Julian Ruhe – FS Nosegrind pop out
Personality is the keyword and the skate-robot slowly dies out, but that’s no longer news. The industry is aware of that. Like Dardan, Streiter, and Asche – those new guys have charisma. And that’s something no one is going to able to simply buy or mold any time soon. You can put a label on a lot of things, but some things are just unaccountable, that’s for sure. There is and will always be a lot of talent to evolve. And we are very much looking forward to seeing more of the power trio Jan, Julian, and Valentin.
Photos: Hendrik Herzmann
Video: Severin Strauss
Text: Daniel Pannemann
Stefan just showed up at the MBU spot in Berlin one day. Upon seeing him, I went up asked, “Don’t I know you from somewhere? Rotterdam perhaps? He had the same feeling and we both reintroduced ourselves. The truth is, I almost knew directly who he was. I clearly remember skating with him in Holland, and later seeing his footage in the Bombaklats video. But it’s just not socially smart to go up to somebody and assume he or she knows you, because if the other person doesn’t remember, you end up looking kind of stupid. So we did the social dance and now we are slowly starting to see each other a bit more in Berlin. So I thought it would be nice to introduce him to this new face that is Stefan Scholten.
So Stefan, you just moved from Rotterdam back to Germany, Berlin to be exact.
Yes! After I Finished high school in Dusseldorf, I applied to some schools for graphic design. Actually, I also applied here in Berlin but didn’t get accepted. The school in Rotterdam was a bit more open to young people, because they feel that by doing this the school can shape and guide the students’ process towards becoming graphic designers. So after finishing school and having spent the last six years in Rotterdam, I slowly started to miss Germany, and I felt like I needed a new place to explore.
Why Berlin?
After I finished my studies in Rotterdam, I didn’t see myself working in graphic design for the rest of my life, so I applied for a new course here in Berlin called Art & Therapy. It’s a pretty new type of profession for Germany. It’s more focused on using art as a medium for people to express emotions and deal with issues they may have. My job would then be to guide these people in their creative process.
You speak Dutch now. How did that happen?
Well, when I applied to the school in Rotterdam, I thought everything be in English, but once I got there I quickly found out I was wrong! All the classes where taught in Dutch (laughs). So I had to learn a whole new language, which was difficult but fun, though!
You are also doing skateboard comics under the name Shit Fire. How did that come about?
Shit Fire was an idea I had last year on the Spot Delivery tour. At first it was just a joke that started to evolve. And after the tour I just kept on drawing these skateboard jokes about the things I was seeing around me. It’s a fun thing to do when I’m not busy doing other things.
Besides Shit Fire you are doing freelance work as a designer. What are you working on at the moment?
At the moment I am working on some new designs for Yamato Living Ramps. I’ve been making some T-shirts and stickers for them for about a year now. They give me the freedom to do what I like and that works best for me. Most of my drawings come to me spontaneously. It starts when I get an idea, I start working from that idea, allowing my intuitions to take me were I need to go. Here’s an example: I’m working on this ad for a brand and I keep thinking about my friends there, so I start to draw them and out of that comes the ad.
Can you currently live from your design work?
No not at all, I just found a job here so when my school starts in December, I will be trying to combine my studies with my job and use my free time to do my graphic design, skate, and play music.
You also dabble in music?
Yes, I play guitar and keys, actually I was in a band but as things progressed I wanted to try some new things, so I stopped playing with other people and started to perform as a one-man band for a while. But I lost the energy to do that so now I’m looking for some new people to play with and possibly form a band.
Anything else?
Yes! I would like to thank Maertyrer skateboards, Dufarge, Bombaklats, Intus, G-Tay,Yamato Living Ramps, Endboss Crew, Woodstonekugelblitz, and Liar’s Dice.
Photos: Danny Sommerfeld
Interview: Roland Hoogwater
Element’s Nassim Guammaz zeigt uns, wie ein ganz normaler Tag in seinem Leben aussieht: Es geht durch Rotterdam, von Skatepark zu Skateshop zu Streetspots. Sehr ansehnlicher Clip, unterlegt mit schöner Musik von Cloudy Busey und Special Guest Tim Zom.
Ein Clip der Bombaklats Crew aus den Niederlanden kann nie enttäuschen. Wir wissen zwar wenig von diesem Konzeptgedanken aber es scheint sichtlich Spaß gemacht zu haben. Mit dabei seind: Robbin De Wit, Ricardo Paterno, Sebastiaan Vijverberg uvm.. Hup Holland Hup!
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