since 2009

since 2009

Photos from my archive, new and old stuff from the world of skateboarding. All logo designs by Eduardo Pigatto, Brazil (Cover Photo by Alexander Schulte-Stemmerck, all other photos by Chris Eggers unless otherwise noted)


Donnerstag, 28. Juli 2011

Skateboarder´s Journal by Jack Smith


Manchen von euch ist Jack Smith´s Skateboarder´s Journal vielleicht schon bekannt.
Jack plant nun, das bisher auf reiner Web-Präsenz basierende Magazin auch in Druckform herauszubringen. Das Besondere daran ist, dass dieses Magazin vierteljährlich ALLE Formen des Skateboardings covern wird. Eine große Aufgabe, wenn man bedenkt dass die großen Magazine alles außer Streetskating weiterhin konsequent ignorieren.
Wer will kann Jack bei seinem Vohaben über  Kickstarter.com unterstützen.
Maybe some of you already know Jack Smith´s Skateboarder´s Journal. Jack is planning to issue the magazine in printed form quarterly which was based on just the web until now. It will be special because it will cover ALL forms of Skateboarding. It is a big task considering the major magazines consequently ignore anything else but streetskating.
Those who want to support Jack can do this on Kickstarter.com
Jack ist kein Unbekannter in der Skateboardwelt. Er skated seit den frühen 70ern, ist das legendäre Signal Hill Speed Race mitgefahren, ist mehrmals mit dem Skateboard quer duch die USA geskated um für gute Zwecke zu sammeln und hat viele Slalomrennen organisiert, unter anderem mehrere Weltmeisterschaften.
Jack is not an unknown in the world of skateboarding. He skates since the early 70s, has raced in the famous Signal Hill Speed Race, has skated across the US several times to collect for good causes and has organized many slalom races, even some World Championships

Eine frühe Halfpipe in Jacks Garten
An early Halfpipe in Jacks backyard

Jack bei den DelMar Nationals 1975
Jack at the DelMar Nationals 1975
Classic Slalom

Ich kannte Jack auch aus frühen Sandboard photos, als bei uns noch nicht mal jemand an Snowboarding dachte
In knew Jack from early sandboarding shots when over here no one even thought about snowboarding
Jack skated auch heute noch regelmäßig.
Wir wünschen ihm viel Erfolg bei seinem Vorhaben
Jack still skates regularly.
We wish a lot of sucess with his plan.
Photos taken from Jacks facebook account with permission

Dienstag, 26. Juli 2011

Let there be dry

Nach gefühltem wochenlangem Regen hoffen wir heute endlich mal wieder eine trockene Rampe zu haben. Drückt uns die Daumen.
After weeks of rain (it feels like that) we hope to have a dry ramp today, Wish us some luck.
Tim Fs air, Photo Thomas Robertz 

Donnerstag, 21. Juli 2011

Asphaltsurfer review and Skateboard Museum Stuttgart, Germany

Das Kino über dem Skateboardmuseum Stuttgart zeigte am 17.07..11 die Weltpremiere des Dokumentarfilmes "Asphaltsurfer"
Vor der Premiere war es Pflicht, dem im Museum im Keller einen Besuch abzustatten. Diese Figur begrüßt am Eingang.
The theater above the Skateboardmuseum Stuttgart  showed the documentary "Asphaltsurfer"
A visit to the museum in the basement prior to the show was mandatory.
This gentleman says hi next to the entry.


Das Museum hat über 1.000 Exponate teisweise aus den frühesten Zeiten.
The museum has more than 1.000 items, some from times long gone.  
Manchmal kommen auch Skategeister an den teilweise wechselnden Austellungsteilen  vorbei
Sometimes even skate ghosts come through the changing displays 

Wer sich bewegen will kann auch durch den Bowl heizen. Auf den Kopf aufpassen.
Those who need to move can also rip the bowl. Watch your head.
Die Premiere war gut besucht
The premiere was well attended. 
83 Minuten deutsche Skateboardgeschichte wird darin durchlebt. Was Marco Tremiliti, Stefan Schorer und Stefan Senn da zeigen hat bis heute niemand in dieser Fülle und mit dieser Intensität gezeigt. In Interviews, Photos und historischen Filmschnipseln wird die Entwicklung der deutschen Skateboardgeschichte nachgezeichnet. Wenn man weiß wie wenig Informationen und Bildmaterialien gerade aus den ganz verangenen Zeiten vorlagen wird einem klar was diese Crew da in jahrelanger Arbeit vollbracht hat.
Der Film macht wirklich Spaß und birgt eine Fülle von Informationen und Bildern, die vielen bestimmt neu sind. Ich hoffe, dass der Film auf seiner Tour um die Welt die Anerkennung findet die er verdient. Sicher hat mancher die Dinge vielleicht anders gesehen oder aus einem anderen Blickwinkel erlebt, aber der Streifen ist wirklich sehenswert. Vielen Dank Jungs!

Gewidmet Marco Tremiliti RIP

The history of Skateboarding in Germany is lived through there in 83 minutes. Noone has ever shown something like this before with this intensity and volume. 
The docu by Marco Tremiliti, Stefan Schorer and Stefan Senn uses interviews, photos and footage parts to review the history. When you consider how little material they had available you can imagine what a tremendous effort it took to create the docu in many years. It is fun and gives a lot of info which is probably new to many. I hope  it will receive the recognition it deserves on its tour around the world. I am sure some will have experienced it differently or may have had another angle of view but the flick is well worth being watched. Thank you very much guys. 
Dedicated to Marco Tremiliti RIP

Dienstag, 19. Juli 2011

Dan Hughes` Skate Page

Ich habe Dan Hughes 2002 in Morro Bay bei den World Slalom Championships getroffen. Wir unterhielten uns etwas und er erzählte mir Samstag Nachmittags dass er noch am Abend zu der Eröffnung des neuen Pipeline Skateparks nach LA zurückfahren wird, aber am nächsten Morgen wieder in Morro sein würde, Das sind immerhin 350 KM (eine Strecke). Das beeindruckte mich schon damals. Nun hat Dan seit einiger Zeit eine Website auf der er immer wieder Photos von unzähligen Skateparks zeigt, die er besucht hat. Dan stammt aus dem Nordwesten der USA, lebt aber mittlerweile in Salt Lake City, Utah.
I met Dan Hughes 2002 during the World Slalom Championships in Morro Bay. We talked and he told me that he visited the opening of the new Pipeline Skatepark in LA. Dan now has a website where he shows great photos of various skateparks he visits all over the place. Dan is from the nothwestern US but now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.  
Dan´s Frau skated auch.
Ich habe Dan einige Fragen gestellt die er ausführlich beantwortet hat. Ihr seht sie unten jedoch nur in englisch. Alles zu übersetzen hätte den Rahmen des Blogs gesprengt. Falls jemand eine Übersetzung eiens Teils braucht lasst es mich wissen.
Dan´s wife skates too.
I have sent Dan some questions which he answered in the text below. Translating it all would have been too much, so just in english for now.  



Das sind Dan´s Lieblingsparks
These are Dan´s favorite parks 

What is:
your age?
I am 47 years old.

profession?
I am a custodian at an Elementary School, I’ve been a custodian for over 25 years.

When did you start:

skateboarding?
I started skateboarding when my uncle gave me a skateboard when I was about 11 years old (1974). It was a wood board with wood roller rink wheels which wore down very quickly on the concrete. I skated pretty much every day possible until shortly after I got married in 1983, when I took my vert ramp down (’84). I skated off and on, but mostly was busy with school, and work and kids… and didn’t really start skating again until 2001, when they opened a skatepark in my hometown of Renton, Washington.

I was coaching my son’s little league game, and before the game got started, I had to check out the new skatepark that was nearby the ball field. And I couldn’t believe my eyes. I said to myself, "I used to pay money to do this…" So, I told my son that “Saturday I’m going to get up at 6 AM and skate at the skatepark”.

So, at 6 AM we all went down to the skatepark, and after just a couple of minutes I realized that I had just found my "treadmill" (which I was ready to buy one just a week earlier).We skated for 3 hours and I was so tired and out of shape, but I had so much fun I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I also figured out the key to staying healthy, is to find some physical activity you love to do, and do it! I haven’t stopped or looked back since. I used to work on cars and many other things as hobbies and I just don’t have the time anymore, I’d rather be skating.

Travelling to skateparks?
I started traveling to skateparks when Newberg, Oregon was just finished. It was one of Dreamland's first skateparks, and it was a dream. It was Newberg that gave me the thirst for more. That park was so smooth, and I honestly didn’t know that concrete could be so smooth. The more I learned about other parks, the more I wanted to go and skate them. That was in 2001 and now I want to skate them all, but as I say there are so many parks, but so little time...

your homepage?
I started my web page shortly after I started going to different skateparks. I would get email requests for pictures of a skatepark I went to, and after a while I decided it would be easier to just put them all on the web and direct people to that, instead of sending out individual emails. The website evolved into taking pictures of the every park I visited, and including an address or map. My goal was, and still is, to have a simple page that doesn’t take forever to load, but has all the information one would want or need about a particular skatepark and a way to share photos with friends.

Why the full face helmet?
In 2003 I hit my face doing a slide at the old Ballard Bowl. I bent my two front teeth back so that they were almost touching the roof of my mouth. I remember thinking as I got up from that slam, that my teeth weren't in the right place. So, after having the ER Doc pull on my teeth to bend them back into place, and the Dentist tell me that I might lose them (which I didn't), I wondered if my full face helmet, that I used for slalom, would protect my teeth and could I skate bowls with it? And sure enough, it worked fine, and has worked very well at protecting my teeth ever since (yes, I have tested it).

What is your motivation:

to keep skating?
The core of my being says to skate, I can't "not" skate. When I watched the movie "Chariots of Fire" the main character (Eric Liddell), a missionary to China, was being criticized by his sister for running in so many races. He told her that God made him fast for a purpose, and when he runs he feels God's pleasure. I can relate to Eric’s statement. It is reflective of how I feel when I skate, I feel God’s pleasure, I feel energy that seems to come from the concrete up through my feet. I may not be really "fast" so to speak, but I feel it in my soul, when I skate. I couldn't "not" skate. 

to keep up the site?
The site has snowballed into a resource page. One of my main motivations is selfish. I do it because I forget which parks I've been to, where they were, and what they looked like. I know that sounds lame, but it's true. I reference my site often, simply because I can't recall when/where/ or what it looked like. But, not just that, as a guy who loves to travel and skate, I find that sometimes some of the most basic information about skateparks is hard to find, especially if the park is new. So I appreciate having good information out there about skateparks.

It's also a way to share my photos as I said before. I started it before there was a “myspace”, or a “facebook”, so it sort of is my way to share where I've been and what I've been up to. Sometimes I'll get emails from friends from long ago, or even complete strangers (friends I've not met yet), and I really do enjoy that. Sometimes they come through my town and I have the privilege of skating with them, which to me is a real highlight, because for a skater, to skate with someone else is a connection unlike anything else.


to travel to new parks?
You know, it's very similar to a mountain climber's passion to climb a new mountain. Every park is different, and experiencing the difference is one of the things that drives me. Some parks are so smooth, that it’s amazing to experience the smoothness. Some parks have unique shapes and sizes, and some are in locations that just are amazing. This may sound funny, but skateboarding is like reading a book, and every park tells a different story. I read each park with my wheels, and how the concrete is formed tells me where to go, what the best lines are. Some parks are good and some aren't. But ultimately I don't know until I roll around and read it with my wheels. Exploring the world of skateparks and skateboarding with my wheels is what motivates me to travel and skate new terrain. When I see a new skatepark on the web, or even an old one that I haven't been to, it is like seeing a trailer for a movie, and wanting to see that movie really bad. I'll start thinking and planning a trip to get there.

Who do you skate with and what is your favorite park?

In the last two years, my life has changed quite a bit after my divorce, I moved from the Seattle area to Salt Lake City, and got remarried. So, I used to skate with a bunch of guys in the Seattle area, which I do miss and try to get back as much as possible. But, I haven’t really found a crew here in Salt Lake to skate with.

However, my wife skates, and that’s a real bonus for me, and to be honest a dream come true. So usually I skate with her, and since we both love to travel it's been really good.

As for my favorite skatepark, that’s a hard question. For me, I love big, fast, deep bowls, but there are so many good parks now. However, Hailey, Idaho and Orcas Island, Washington are still my favorite parks. I try to get to each of them at least once a year.


What is interesting to me also is seeing parks through my wife's eyes. She sees them differently than I do, and for her the fun parks are ones like we used to ride in the '70's, with snake runs and things, so I'm always on the look out for a good park for her. 


Dienstag, 12. Juli 2011

Asphaltsurfer World Premiere

Die Weltpremiere der Skateboarding Doku "Asphaltsurfer" wird am Sonntag in Stuttgart zum ersten Mal gezeigt. Der Film beleuchtet die Entwicklung des Skatens in Deutschland. Viele alte Aufnahmen die aus den Archiven von Skatern ausgekramt wurden (u.a. von Yoyo und mir) und Interviews mit bekannten Gesichtern aus der deutschen Skatebardgeschichte wie Yoyo Schulz, Claus Grabke und Matthias Bauer und vieler anderer machen den Film zu einem "must see"
So, 17. Juli - 20.00
im Skateboardmuseum Stuttgart
Friedrichstraße 23A
70174 Stuttgart
S-Mitte

The world premiere of the long awaited documentary "Asphaltsurfer" will be shown for the first time. The docu contains footage from the archives of skaters in Germany (among others footage from Yoyo and me) and interviews with several noteworthy faces of German Skate History like Yoyo Schulz, Claus Grabke and Matthias Bauer and is a "must see".

So, 17. Juli - 20.00
 Skateboardmuseum Stuttgart
Friedrichstraße 23A
70174 Stuttgart
S-Mitte

Montag, 11. Juli 2011

Listen to Steffen...

Das Wetter bei uns im Juli ist oft von starken Gewittern und Regenschauern bestimmt. Schon aufgrund der Wettervorhersage am Freitag dachte ich nicht, in den Genuss einer Session zu kommen. Sonntag morgen um 10 flatterte Steffens SMS rein: " Regen ab 13 Uhr, schafft euren Hintern spätestens um 11 zur Rampe"
Als ich zuhause (15 Min) wegfuhr tröpfelte es. An der Rampe angekommen knallte die Sonne brutalst für 2 Stunden vom Himmel, wieder zuhause ab 13.45 Uhr schüttete es.
Over here the weather in July is often accompanied by thunder storms. Due to the forecast on Friday I never thought to be able to skate on the weekend when suddenly I received a message from Steffen Sunday morning "get your butts to the ramp at 11 AM, it will rain by 1 PM". It was dripping rain when I left at home (15 min to the ramp). Arriving at the ramp the sun was up and beating down for two hours. Back at home it started to pour by 1.45 PM.
Also hört auf Steffen wegen der Wettervorhersage. Danke Steffen, schöne Session.
So listen to Stefen concerning the forecast. Thanks Steffen, nice session.
Photo by Nadja

Donnerstag, 7. Juli 2011

Happy Birthday Mr. Kube!

Heute ist Georg Kube´s Gebutstag! Herzlichen Glückwunsch!
Today is Georg Kubes birthday! Happy anniversary!
Georg, kickturn, 1977
Ich sage euch jetzt nicht wie alt er geworden ist, denn das spielt keine Rolle. Zumindest nicht beim Skateboarding. Ich sah ihn vor kurzem einen Slam in seinem ersten Run, zweite Wall einstecken als er in einer Pfütze ausrutschte der jeden anderen jüngeren auf die Zuschauerplätze verwiesen hätte, aber er schüttelte sich ein paar Mal und skatete wie immer weiter.  
I don´t tell you how old he became, it does not matter in skateboarding anyway. A few weeks ago I saw him take a slam first run second wall when he slipped on a puddle that would have sent anyone else to the bleachers. He shook it off and skated on like always.

Layback air 1979.
Achim´s backyard, Ettlingenweier
Georg haut diese Dinger heute noch überall raus wo er will.
Still today Georg throws these at will anywhere.  
Stylish frontside carve, Hagenau, 2011 
Backside air, Campus Ramp 2011 
Chilling with a good friend after session, Heimspielbar

Mittwoch, 6. Juli 2011

T-Shirts in stock again!

Neue Campus Ramp T-shirts sind eingetroffen. Mit dem Kauf eines Shirts für 17,50 Euro unterstützt Ihr den Erhalt der Campus Ramp und den Ausbau der wohl aktivsten Vertszene Deutschlands mit 10,00 Euro. Holt euch eines solange der Vorrat reicht, sie gehen weg wie warme Semmeln. Kontakt: sk8chris@web.de
New Campus Ramp shirts have arrived. With the purchase of one shirt you support the maintanance of the Campus Ramp and the developement of  Germany´s most active vert scene with 10,00 Euro. Get one while they last, they go like warm bagels (German saying).
Contact: sk8chris@web.de 

Die Rampe wird wöchentlich bis zu 5 Mal geshreddet, neue Tricks werden gelernt und die alten Hasen holen längst vergessene Moves wieder hervor.
The ramp is being shredded up to 5 times a week, new tricks are learned and the old dogs are pulling moves long forgotten. 
Photo Thomas Robertz
Jo Haist, double flash backside air.
Photo Thomas Robertz

Dienstag, 5. Juli 2011

Indy, long ago

Das ist ein Indy Air auf unserer Backyard Ramp in Ettlingen 1983, kurz nach dem Umbau, noch mit dem ersten Belag.   Photo größer
This is an indy air on our backyard ramp in Ettlingen 1983, just after remodeling, still with the first layer. view larger
Photo Perry Gruner