Tag: Tjark Thielker

Two weeks ago “Dit is Berlin” started.  Both episode 1 and episode 2 were well received, to say the least, Niels Bennett even made it into the coveted Quartersnacks top 10.

But all things must come to a close, even the good things. Our closing argument for these series features the entire German part of the adidas team. Guys and girls like Tjark Thielker, Phil Anderson, Catherine Marquis, Valeri Rosomako, Eric Erhardt, Daniel Ledermann, Philip Oehmige, Patrick Zentgraf, Sandro Trovato & Jost Arens all skated our city in their own way.

Some even (temporarily) moved here in the process of making this series but all seemed to find their own way. The high spot count and different configurations of certain spots definitely shows what happens when skaters have loads of time and no police to kick you out!

Another highlight for us is Catherine Marquis a.k.a. @Yung_k_t who we featured on our website a while back. It is great to see the /// putting support behind one of Germany’s most promising female prospects and we are waiting to see more of her in the future.

As the series ends would like to thank adidas skateboarding for the support! All the skaters for their input, hard work and sweat. And not to forget Jon Wolf and Torsten Frank who documented it all for your viewing pleasure.  Now go watch the newest and latest episode of “Dit is Berlin”!

Last week we launched our new “Dit is Berlin” series which started off with Philip Oehimige and Eric Erhardt. Both managed to set a strong precedent with their episode.

Today it is time for the second episode featuring two of  Norway’s finest: Magnus Bordewick and Marcus Shaw who both hail from Oslo. The latter willfully started a line with pushing switch mongo and then at the end of the line reverting to regular switch push. Some pretty OG Guy Mariano type of stuff, who happens now to be on the same team as Magnus.

Pol Catena and Niels Bennett hold their own and pull out some pretty tech moves. At times Niels is like a young Mark Suciu – in our book a major compliment!  Another fun fact about Niels is that he talks German fluently. Finally, somebody’s mixed American /// German heritage paid off. Trust us it made his life considerably easier during his time in Germany’s capital.

Next week on Wednesday we will be dropping the final episode of “Dit is Berlin” for you. Featuring the likes of Valle Rosomako, Tjark Thielker, Daniel Ledermann and many others.

We would like to thank adidas skateboarding for the support now go watch the newest episode of “Dit is Berlin”!

Today we are proud to present our new series called “Dit is Berlin”, a series consisting of three episodes featuring the /// striped squad.

This summer the adidas team rented out a house in the German capital. Over the course of multiple weeks, an ever-changing group of guys and girls went out with Jon Wolf and Torsten Frank to skate, hang out and of course film. Seemingly as locals, hanging out together with the locals while exploring the city by bike, as Berliners do themselves.

Our first episode focusses on two newer faces, first up is Philip Oehmige. A young Berlin local who knows the city by hand. It is not easy to do new things in your own town but there are some definite surprises in the video.

The second skater may need an introduction for all of you non-German readers. Eric Erhardt is a new face, one to remember. Eric put his best foot forward and came through with some pretty exciting NBD’s on some of the cities most skated spots. We don’t want to spoil it all but he brought home the bacon.

The up and coming episodes of “Dit is Berlin” will show a mixed crew consisting of some of adidas’ Berlin-based team riders and other people that came through and stayed in the apartment. These sessions resulted in 3 episodes documenting skaters like Magnus Bordewick, Marcus Shaw, Niels Bennett as well as German guys like Tjark Thielker, Valerie Rosomako and more.

Starting today every week on Wednesday we will be dropping a new episode for your eyes to enjoy.

We would like to thank adidas skateboarding for the support now go watch “Dit is Berlin”!

It is hard to understate how involved we were in the making of this video, all our staff has tricks except Danny Sommerfeld who was hurt. Some of this video was even filmed on Place trips, a lot was documented on other trips but all of it was shot during Leon Rudolph’s holiday.

The end reslut makes you wonder what he could do if he filmed full time.

Little did we know, Copenhagen is one step closer to paradise. We just got back from CPH Pro’17, and for the most of us, it was actually the very first time. While we were on our way to the capital with the world famous mermaid and probably the biggest and coolest contest in the world, we got a call from Henning Tapper (Cleptomanicx TM) asking if we would be interested in releasing their latest tour article. The answer was clear, although we did not even saw the video or any of those photos. It’s a trust thing and if you know that Niklas Speer von Cappeln, Jan Hoffman, Tjark Thielker, Benjamin Vogel and Dennis Laass went on a trip to a huge skate park that looks like Copenhagen, you better put all your trust in it. At this point, we do not even have to start to explain how crazy the architecture is. Watching the video, those guys did not even go to all the famous spots. Having David Lindberg as a spot guide and filmer was definitely helpful as well, but the rest was the pure power of having a smart community with very open minded people and no fear of including all the different urban subculture genre; instead of leaving us alone and building “stop skateboarding” signs. Copenhagen does it the right way and so did the Cleptomanicx team with this film.

Autosave-File vom d-lab2/3 der AgfaPhoto GmbH

Jan Hoffmann with a FS 180° fakie Nose-wheelie Flip out. Yeah, it’s not a skate park.

Autosave-File vom d-lab2/3 der AgfaPhoto GmbH

Dennis and Tjark; looking for options, we presume.

Autosave-File vom d-lab2/3 der AgfaPhoto GmbH

Even while playing baskteball Dennis would not leave his board alone. The Team plus TM.

All photos by Friedjof Feye.

It has been a while since a Skateboard Magazine from Europe released a full-length video project with the magazine at once. Our issue 61 comes with a 19-minute film, all filmed with a VX and Hi8. In times of Instagram and extremely fast ways of having your footage being released, we as a team got together and worked on this video for about four weeks.  Thaynan Costa, Hugo Maillard and Willem van Dijk came for a visit and every one of these guys killed it.

A big thank you to everyone involved, besides the lineup above this video features: Tjark Thielker, Timo Meiselbach, Nils Brauer, Jan Hoffmann, Paul Röhrs, Giorgi Armani, NSVC, Alex O’Donahoe, Peter Buikema, Deniz Bulgurcu, Daniel Pannemann, Roland Hoogwater, Valentin Cafuk, Alex Raeymaekers, Mats Edel, Jonas Heß & Danny Sommerfeld.

Filmed and edited by Peter Buikema.

Header-Photo by Henrik Biemer, Hugo Maillard BS Lipslide.

 

 

It is the truth that not all skateboarders are dumb, they are also not necessarily lazy. But one thing is certain: the larger the group of skaters, the lazier it gets. That is how it went with the “Basta!” crew.
14 years ago a bunch of passionate skaters hailing from the same boggy area called Niedersachsen. That group decided to give themselves a name, so that they grow together as a team and release a video at the same time. After the first video dropped (2004) and made its waves in the Boardstein Magazine (R.I.P.), the crew got the idea to create an even better video and that was the start of the Myth surrounding the “Basta! Video”.

Text by Basta!’s own Carsten (Barney) Beneker.
Translation by Place.

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In the (particularly the German) scene this project rates somewhere between Mythical and Comical. Since the release of the first project, the second one has long been “in progress” or “to be released soon” and to be honest it took about ten years to get this project from the mind to the streets and the editing room floor to this post, which will finalize the project. Many people gave up hope of ever seeing this project reach a final stage. Finally, it has to be said that external influences gave our ten headed group the final push into out of a turtle like movement and into the finalization of the project.

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The slow movement of our group.

The following thought model helps to illustrate the inertia in the Basta! clan: Take ten skateboarders that just started a multiple of new life challenges. Divide them from each other as far a possible within or outside the borders of the Bundesrepublik Germany. And try to create and cultivate even the slightest’s drop of team spirit, general motivation or vision between these ten people. To make sure that it does not become too easy, you are allowed only outdated means of communication, analog film equipment and poses neither the budget nor the technical expertise to work with above-mentioned tools, finally one can only act once a consensus about a decision has been reached. I mean the idea is to make a good quality video, should be easy enough right? I get kind of tense just thinking about it. Our previous experience indicates the result: Extremely slow decision-making and a truly absurd email history. The answers to the proverbial, differentiated emails are most popular, messages such as: “Hey let’s just finish the Basta!-video” or “well…, making some sticker would be cool”.
What kind of results can one expect in these type of conditions: The result? People who are hopelessly in love with their project thus they try to push their vision until things give in after ten years. In the end, the planned “skate video”, transforms into a documentation of one’s own coming of age.

bastaaaa

Providence

There were some moments, moments in which everything seemed so easy and attainable. Like in 2009, when out of the blue we produced a great four-minute video for a video contest hosted by The Berrics. Or should we talk about that one night that the entire crew decided to book a flight, rent a van and an apartment to go and skate Cyprus together? A little while later we were standing in a place called Limassol which had such an abundance of good spots that we just could not believe our eyes. On the tail end of that trip, almost the whole Basta!-crew actually managed to visit the New York – Big Apple.
Maybe if certain people did not leak their footy during that time for their own commercial gain, we could have had an even greater presentation ready for you sooner. The challenge of doing our own edits was bypassed by these actions until finally our dear friend Jonathan Peters took a gamble and said: “It would be an honor for me to be able to edit the Basta!- video”.

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It only took two years from the time that Mr. Peters ushered that statement to an actual final, final version of the video that all ten of the members could live with. After we completed this step we went on the next one which was organizing a premiere in Hannover’s favorite DIY festival 2er on Fire (2016). Since last Christmas, only 50 DVDs, Booklets, and hand pressed DVD covers were produced and now finally five months later, our baby will hit the internet. But, only because the staff over at PLACE asked us! And because we switched from a consensus type of voting style to a veto style of voting we could almost keep up with the internet’s demands.

Our Future

Our average age has now moved from our 20’s into our 30’s so the wine is getting finer and the cheese is not yet moldy. We still feel like we can surpass this video! And if we can’t, our offsprings will have to complete the video for us.

basta future

Thank you’s go out to:
We are many people who received a lot of support from a lot of different sides. Thus we owe a lot of people our gratitude, especially Jonathan Peters and Friedjof Feye because they certainly helped push the project forward. Also, we would like to that the staff of PLACE Magazine for their help.

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Photos taken from the Basta! booklet.

The Ukrainien Expedition was initiated by Sergej Vutuc and filmed in Kiev, Odessa, Slavutych and Chernobyl. Follow Igor Fardin, David Grigoryan, Valeri Rosomako, Tomaž Šantl, Tjark Thielker & Sergej skating spots you have never seen before.

Underlined with the right song choice, this documentary is a lovely piece of work and you can almost imagine being there yourself. Good one, boys! It’s always worth visiting our eastern neighbors.

Necsessity is the mother of ingenuity. Thus, during the harsh wintertime in Berlin a part of the Iriedaily warehouse got transformed into a wonderful DIY indoor park. I suggest you better become friends with Valle Rosomako and if you are lucky he probably invites you for the next after work sesh, too.

Featuring Valeri Rosomako, Malte Spitz, Konstantin Rutschmann, Carsten Beneker, Tjark Thielker, Thanos Panou and Roland Hirsch.

This week saw the release of Brett Nichols newest video called SPÄTI and for those that know us know that we were closely involved in the making of that video (on the skateboarding end of things). After his 2015 visit, we stayed in touch with Brett and some of the other American guys even made a return visit in 2016. That summer spent skating and sitting at the Späti drinking beer resulted in multiple projects happening,  A plethora of pictures shot by Alexey Lapin, Friedjof Feye and Danny Sommerfeld a lot of social media output and even projects like Pete’s B’n’B in Amsterdam are connected to this visit. Coming back, those weeks spent cycling, skating and drinking resulted in multiple stories which will be unfolded in this article.


Traveling the through city.

Biking

Picture this, Berlin 2015, every summer year guest flock to our city to experience life as it is lived in the German capital. Back in 2015 the summer marked the return visit of a couple of our friends from the USA coupled with the visit of Russian skate photographer Alexey Lapin and German photographer/skater Conny Mirbach. From the start, everybody got along great and skate dates were made, “Let’s go out and shoot some photos and film some stuff, motivation was high. Now normally skate photographers travel with a lot of equipment and that often means that you are bound by a car, but Alexey traveled very light. It was in fact, Brett Nichols the filmer who carried two boards, multiple VX1000 cameras, wax and all sorts of other tools. He had everything, from stuff to smoothen out the most un-grindable ledge to stuff that could fix the worst run up. The best way to find stuff to skate in Berlin is to travel the city by bicycle, which meant that Brett had to carry a lot of stuff, which he did without ever complaining! I… did complain though. When you are out looking for spots you don’t always know what you are going to get, so that meant for me that I didn’t get to skate that much being that the spots didn’t favour me and that, to be honest made me feel quite sour. Like on the day that Tjark did this wallie 180, you can see me in the background anxiously waiting for him to land it so we could leave.

Tjark
As you can see in the video TJ wasn’t quite done after he landed this one, I was.

Changing up your style.

For those of you that don’t know, not every American uses a bike to travel to where they need to go. So cycling around for days on end definitely caused some sore asses, stiff leg muscles, and the occasional back ache. But that wasn’t the only thing that happened as a result of the hours spent on a bike, seeing that a lot of spots were ‘hit and run’ type of spots Bobby Groves developed a thing where he wouldn’t even take his pants out of his socks (A thing you do so you don’t get grease on your pants.), instead he just skated adopted a new style of dress and rocked the shit out of it for a week or so.

Bobby Line 2
Bobby keeping his pants tucked.

Bobby Grind
Bobby made this one look easy but it is probably the sickest trick in the video.

Not being able to Ollie

Brett wouldn’t skate that much, he carefully choose the spots he wanted to skate and what he wanted to skate seemed to never involve him having to Ollie, I asked him about this and he replied that his body sort of denied him the ability so he tried to find other ways to get his skateboard-fix. As a result, Mr. Nichols would skate somewhat weird spots, things that others wouldn’t necessarily want to skate. His taste came not only from the fact that he wasn’t able to Ollie it also came from his surroundings. He had a thing for spots that looked like they were built in a certain era and in a certain style. This made Brett interesting to watch, his eyes would wonder during our long cycle tours and if he found the right thing he would battle until he got what he wanted.

Brett layback
This is probably my favorite trick in the video and it is near my house and somehow I never identified this sculpture as a spot.

Brett Grind
Brett is pretty meticulous about how he want things to look and he doen’t hesitate create the right easthetic.

Brett Front Board
This is the first spot I saw Brett skate, he battled for the trick quite a bit but got what he wanted in the end.

Seldomly skated

All in all, we skated a lot of new spots and Brett was open to film whatever you wanted to try, culminating in us skating some spots that had not seen a lot or maybe any skating at all. Ever since Dane Brady’s Polar part people seem to be into skating alternative surfaces more and more but during this trip, we tried to skate some seldomly skated spots in ways we hadn’t seen them skated before. One of the many things that made the whole experience so much fun, every day we had a routine, meet up at the local skate park, skate, Alexey would drink a beer and then we would get on our bikes and skate the whole day. Brett took his time with the edit but in the end, he captured the fun quite well, making it seem like one of the most fun summers I ever had, and maybe it was.

Nils
Nils holding on to his crooked grind, I remember watching this and thinking “I didn’t know Nils could do that!”, a common thought for those familiar with his skating.

Malte
Brett originally asked me to do something on this but I was too heavy and couldn’t roll away, Malte could and did this first try.

Harry Nose Manual
Harry connected us all so it is only logical that we close the whole thing out with him.

Text by Roland Hoogwater

Past summer American filmer Brett Nichols visited the two German cities Berlin and Hannover. His edit “SPÄTI” chronicles this ten days trip and features next to his American friends Harrison Hafner and Bobby Groves also some very common German personalities like Dennis Laaß, Niels Brauer, Malte Spitz, Jonas Hess, Conny Mirbach and with Tjark Thielker, Daniel Pannemann and Danny Sommerfeld even half of the PLACE staff.

“Späti (pronounced shpi-tee) is a shorthand for a German corner store. It was the most common word spoken by my new German friends Nils Brauer, Daniel Pannemann, Tjark Thielker, and so many others. Between every spot a debate would be sparked as to where the nearest späti was and whether it was in the direction we needed to go. The späti serves as both the snackbar and the regular bar – unlike The States, you are free to sample adult beverages right outside.” – Brett Nichols

Photo by Alexey Lapin

We are happy to announce Peter Buikema from The Netherlands as one of our new interns. Peter was already working for us in Amsterdam last August and just a few weeks later we invited him again to ‘The Dam’ for our release of the new issue.

Together with Alex O’Donahoe, Bobby Groves, Tjark Thielker, Budget Beuker and the rest of the PLACE crew we decided to stay for the long weekend to go out skating, of course. The result is our brand new series “Pete’s B&B” and this is our first episode!

Photo by Friedjof Feye.

Last week PLACE issue 58 landed in the mail. Tradition says when an issue is done it is time to host a party. This time it had to be Amsterdam. And that was our gut feeling talking. Trust your gut, people! So, when the time came, we linked up with the people from POP Trading Company & G’s to set the right atmosphere, it all turned out well and it was a great evening.

Special Thanks to Levi’s Skateboarding Collection.

All photos by Friedjof Feye & Daniel Pannemann.

This summer PLACE and adidas Skateboarding proudly present the international ‪#‎3stripesatnight‬ video contest. So set your alarm clock, get out your camera light and go cruise the empty night streets. All you need to do to enter this contest is to produce a clip at night, your clip can be 30 seconds long (maximum) and can consist of either lines, single tricks and some other nightly scenes. The night time is the right time, so try to create and capture the atmosphere of the night. Upload the video to your Instagram account, using #3stripesatnight while also tagging @placemag and @adidasskateboarding. That’s it – all entries get the chance to win amazing prices. We’ll choose the 3 winners and repost your video in the PLACE Instagram channel.

head over to our Instagram channel to compete!
Place Instagram

Part 4: Tjark Thielker

This summer PLACE and @adidasskateboarding proudly present the international #3stripesatnight video contest. Get out your camera light and go cruise the empty streets of the night. – What you need to do: produce a clip at night, 30 sec. (maximum), it can consist of either lines or single tricks and upload the video to your Instagram account, using #3stripesatnight while also tagging @placemag and @adidasskateboarding ✨🌙 That’s it – all entries get the chance to win amazing prices. This time @lemvillemin will choose another winner and we’ll repost your video on the PLACE Instagram channel. More Info 👉🏻 www.place.tv, link in bio. Good luck! Above👆🏻Tjark Thielker aka. @optika87 took the graveyard shift with @torstenfrank in Berlin 🚀

A video posted by PLACE Magazine (@placemag) on

adidas is a company with German roots, so it is only logical that the German guys made their own clip for the Berlin Away Days premiere. This clip definitely has its highlights, with people like Sandro performing a very nice tech-gnar move. All in all Tjark Thielker, Paddy Zentgraf, Valeri Rosomako, Kai Hillebrand, Phil Anderson and some new talent all come through!

The Clepto guys ventured out into the country to skate some spots that they would not normally skate, instead of only going to some big German cities they searched for spots in other (possibly greener) pastures. Escaping the fast pace of the city but risking the wrath of some small town people that did not want to see their peace and quiet taken away from them by some skateboarders. In the end, things seemed to have turned out for the best and they got some pretty nice moves on camera.

Photo by Friedjof Feye

Yesterday you had the chance to learn a lot about Dutch Light – now it’s time to see Dennis Laass, Tjark Thielker, Niklas Speer von Cappeln and Jan Hoffmann in action. Here’s the clip from Cleptomanicx’ trip to Holland. Filmed and edited by Lucas Fiederling – press play:

Dutch Light is a phenomenon that has its origins in 19th-century literature. Historians started writing about this special light that only seemed to exist in The Netherlands. It was widely believed that the phenomenon first showed up in 17th-century Dutch landscape paintings. As it turned out, the 17th-century artists who painted those pictures often also worked on other assignments that fit in with their artistic practice. When researching these artists more closely, historians discovered that most of these artists were also employed by the government. They had been assigned to study the Dutch landscape with the help of early measuring tools. And among many things, these studies led to some of the first maps showing the country as it is today.

DennisLaass-siderock-Groningen2
Dennis Laass – Siderock

The governmental research missions also gave the artists an opportunity to study the landscape in several aspects. During these studies, they experienced something special:
It was a distinct kind of light, not the bright equalizing sort of light that artists in the south of Europe were painting, neither was it comparable to the ever-changing light that one might find in Great Britain or Scandinavia. Intrigued by the phenomenon, they came up with an explanation: Because most of the Netherlands sits below sea level, it was first believed that the effect was created by the sea moving in and out of the land.

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Tjark Thielker – Ollie Up Kickflip Wallride

When word of Dutch Light spread through 19th-century writings, artists from all over the globe became enchanted by the light and came to the Netherlands to capture it in their paintings. These pilgrimages gave artists the perspective that it was not just the sea causing the effect, it was mainly the fact that the water was everywhere at once. And on top of that, it needed to be accompanied by sunlight. When these conditions were met, it created a “double landscape,” which magnified all things in its presence. Trees seemed to become greener, the sky looked especially blue and the red brick buildings seemed illuminated for a brief moment.

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Niklas Speer von Cappeln – BS 5-O

Unfortunately, “Hollands Licht” – or Dutch Light – is not easily found, especially in the ever-changing Dutch climate. Some of you who might have traveled to this fair country might have experienced days where grey clouds packed with rain, hail, or snow have been almost instantly replaced by sunlight. This is because most of the country is flat, and the wind is free to bring on rapid change. When the right conditions are met and if you are lucky, you might be able to see some Dutch Light.

Cleptomanicx took a group of their finest riders – Dennis Laass, Tjark Thielker, Niklass Speer von Cappeln and Jan Hoffmann – to the Dutch city of Groningen, to try and capture this fleeting moment when all the conditions are just right to create something special.

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Jan Hoffmann – Beanplant

by Roland Hoogwater
Photos: Friedjof Feye

This summer, PLACE and adidas Skateboarding proudly present the 3Stripes3Tricks video contest. It’s all about dynamic skateboarding – easy but stylish, fast and light-footed. This is Pt.4 feat. Tjark Thielker:

In order to enter, all you need to do is film three tricks – either in a line or three single tricks in a clip – and upload the video to your Instagram account, using #3stripes3tricks while also tagging @placemag and @adidasskateboarding. That’s it – all entries get the chance to win amazing prices. We’ll choose three winners and repost your videos on the PLACE Instagram channel.

And there’s more: the winning footage will also take part in the Big Final Edit featuring the German adidas team with riders like Sandro Trovato, Lem Villemin, Patrick Zentgraf, Kai Hillebrand, and more. Last but not least, all three winners will receive a big adidas surprise stuff package delivered straight to their front door. Whether it’s stripes or tricks – three is the magic number and we hope to see your footage soon. Good luck!

Tjark Thielker is a professional skateboarder who’s passionate about what he does. He definitely knows how the game works, and he’s playing his own role in it. But if “professional” means that he earns enough money to make a living, we might have to rethink that term…

We know for a fact that there is only a handful of Germans who actually make a living out of skateboarding. Tjark does get a lot of support from his sponsors, and yet being a sponsored skater is not enough to make ends meet in his case – although he’s been sponsored for about 10 years by now. “In a good relationship with a company you could get sponsored for at least 15 years I think, maybe even longer,” Tjark says.

Skateboarding can make you feel quite worn-out every now and then. Either you win or you lose. There is no insurance company that’s willing to pay in case you’re not landing tricks. “If I didn’t skate, I would probably already have my degree, a lot more brain cells left and maybe even some more hair left on my head.” But let’s be honest, skateboarding opens up your horizon in many ways. No way Tjark would have seen places like Kyrgyzstan, San Francisco, NYC, or all the other destinations around Europe in the way he’s experienced them over the last years. “It’s a privilege,” he agrees. “With next to no money in your pocket you can travel all around the world, see different people and learn about their culture,” he enthuses.

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No Comply Tailslide

As corny as it might sound, skateboarding is a choice of lifestyle. People might treat you differently, because they picture you as Bart Simpson or the guy on the cereal box. Although it’s a dog in a clown’s dress with a dorky hat, there are certain stereotypes about us, and people outside of skateboarding are not to be blamed for that. That’s just how society works, and we play our own role in it. “Even though quite a few things in my life have changed over the last five years, skateboarding was always on my mind, no doubt,” he says.

And yet, it’s just not enough to make a living. As a side job he is interested in buying and selling old furniture, records and suitcases. Together with one of his best buddies Dominik he buys things by auction and re-sells them at flea markets or online. Some days, things go really well, but the one time we followed them they were pretty much out of luck. That’s life, I guess. Here is one day with TJ at an auction somewhere on the outskirts of Berlin:

The rack Tjark and Dominik are interested in is lot number 229. It’s about one and a half meters high, and about a meter wide. 120 records, and there might be some real treasures in this pile – hits only! Reason enough for Dominik and Tjark to decide about how high they’re willing to go for this one. It’s still about half an hour until the auction starts. This is not the type of auction were you have to sit on your spot and raise your hand when you see something on stage that you like. This is one where you walk around – but you still raise your hand if you are interested. The storehouse is about the size of a basketball field, filled with racks full of stuff that no one really needs.

TJ

tjark-thielker

It’s totally ridiculous how much money people are willing to spend for this crap. I saw a rack with broken vases, expired apple juice, coffee filter boxes and framed images of strangers, dogs or entire families. Two meters high, four meters deep, for a price of more than 500€…

But back to the records: “Usually most people don’t recognize the value of records over here, so this could be a bargain for us,” Dominik explains while browsing the collection. The smell is comparable to being inside an old church or lost in grandmother’s basement. “It’s interesting how different the people are over here,” Tjark offers while screening the crowd for people who might also be interested in the record rack. It doesn’t take long until Dominik discovers a familiar face: “This guy bought records off of us, maybe he will be interested again.” Unfortunately, the man is interested in the whole rack.

Tjark_furniture

Tjark found another man who might show interest. “This guy does not know what he bids on. The minute we raise our hand, he goes in,” says Tjark, then adding: “A pretty dislikable person. I really hope he is not interested this time.” He’s wrong though. The man is interested in the rack, probably because of Tjark’s and Dominik’s looks. Seems like he just sensed it somehow. Before you can join an auction you need to sign up first to get a registration number and a little ID-card to show.

The whole rack starts at 80€. Not willing to pay more than two Euros per record, Tjark and Dominik agree to stop at a price of 250€ for the whole thing. Everything happens really quickly, and all the bidders seem to be aware of that. “The moron saw that we’re interested, and that was the only reason he made a bid on the records.” The moron eventually buys the rack for a price of 540€ plus 20% auction tax. It all went down in less than two minutes, and I actually had a hard time keeping track of the situation. “Usually this would have never happened, we were just unlucky that he noticed we’re interested,” Dominik tells me.

Tjark2

After a little break with homemade potato salad for 3,50€ the whole group moves on to the next room – the furniture room. Everything you could wish for, marked with a little scratch or a crack here and there, but nothing too bad. Some of the guys have already seated themselves on some of those couches, desks or chairs, just to make sure they will bid as far as they need to. To my mind, this does not really make sense from an economic perspective, but what do I know? Reverse psychology, maybe?

Tjark and Dominik don’t seem to be too motivated. TJ is taking notes in his iPhone about some of the items. Number of item, starting bid, and how high they are willing to go. “To call it a day right now would be wasting time, and there is more to it than just the biddings,” Tjark says. He’s got the feeling that there is at least a little something left for them. A chair and a coffee table for 20€, for example.

TjarkThielker-ollie-Hannover
Ollie

“This couple makes about 90€ if we take care of it,” Tjark replies with a little smile on his face. “At least something,” adds Dominik. Last bid of the day is on a roll-front cabinet with no keys to it. Apart from TJ, one young woman seems to be interested, but for some reason she also seems to be in a really bad mood. “I think she doesn’t like us at all, she must have seen us here before.” Tjark got lucky once again for a price of 90€. In total, they spent about 110€ on furniture. “Next time we just need to invest more money to make a better profit,” Dominik speculates. Turns out he was right: A week later, TJ and Dominik got lucky by investing a higher amount of money.

Words: Daniel Pannemann
Photos: Friedjof Feye (b&w) & Danny Sommerfeld (auction)

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