1bailgun0
Issue-12 Winter 2011
EDITORIAL Fisheye point of view....... When I was shooting at the Malmö Ultra Bowl II this year I had a funny dejavue after taking a photo of Tim Johnson busting a huge stalefish. At first I though cool shot but a second later it struck me that I had shot the almost exact same photo the year before exept it was a frontside air. So while shooting the good ole fisheye lens might be a good choice a lot of times it´s always good to try and change your perspective at least every once in a while. This issue brings you a nice mix of perspectives from the Ultra Bowl contest in Malmö to the Filip Labovich interview , to the Studio Talk series with Claus Grabke, to the Berg Fest 2010, to the interview with Filmmaker DD Wallauer, to a photo journey through Detroid to the Bloom art show and interview with the skatebaord museum curators Jürgen Blümlein and Daniel Schmid and to the Spotcheck that finishes this issue. Enjoy issue #12 Gerd
Photo: Schneider Coast Defense Train (observation car) (LOC) Bain News Service,, publisher. Schneider Coast Defense Train (observation car) [between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915] 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller. Notes: Title from unverified data provided by the Bain News Service on the negatives or caption cards. Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress). Format: Glass negatives. Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication. Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print General information about the Bain Collection is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ pp.ggbain Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.15443 Call Number: LC-B2- 2987-14
contents - Issue #12 COVER Portrait Photo: torschmied.com Malmö Ultra Bowl II Page: 10 Filip Labovich Interview Page: 44 STUDIO TALK with Claus Grabke Page: 66 Berg Fest 2010 Page: 72 Wallauer Pictures Interview Page: 74 Detroid - A BLANK CANVAS Page: 88 Jürgen Blümlein/ Bloom Page: 108 Spotcheck Page: 134
jan solenthaler - ollie • photo: alan maag
Malm
Ultra Bow II M
almรถ is one of the best skatecities in
Europe with rad concrete parks serveral DIY projects an indoor park that features everything you could ask for and rad locals like Pontus Alv and John Magnusson that push the scene. So when it was time for the 2nd Ultra Bowl contest skaters from all over Europe and some US shredders made their way to the Stapelbaddsparken skatepark to skate the famous yellow kidney pool. Enjoy the pics and see at Ultra Bowl III .
Photos and Words by gerdrieger.com
mÖ
wl
Screech with a boneless to desaster, gnarly!
Kevin Kowalski, Madonna Desaster
Tim Johnson, giant stalefish
Benji Galloway fronside rocking the deepend
Josh Mattson Millerflip
Tim Johnson stalled egg
Steven Reeves, sugarcane possibly to revert
Screech with another gnarly stunt: taildroping from the concrete block into the shallow end
Bjรถrn Klotz with a proper frontside air and NOT a frontside indy
Sean Barkley, layback air
Kevin Harris, one footed nose wheelie
Freestyle
seems to have some kind of a comeback these days.
In Malmö Kevin Harris former Bones Brigade member and Stefan Åkesson Swedish pro from the 80´s did a freestyle demo between the pool heats.
The Girls Contest didn´t take place in the pool but they used the streetarea instead to show their best tricks with contestants from Canada, England, Mexico and Sweden it was a international battle for the trophys.
Lois Pendlebury from England, frontside hurricane
Lester Kasai travels from shallow to deepen with this fronside air Antwerp overview
Photo: gerdrieger.com
Jason Parks was all over the pool with his fast and agressive lines - tailslide Photo: gerdrieger.com
Joke Olsson did the highest bs airs and slaped some serious body jars but was also treating the poolcoping with some smith grinds.
Photo: gerdrieger.com
Nicky Guerrero styles a crailslide
Photos: gerdrieger.com
* Final Pro * 1. Kevin Kowalski USA * 2. Josh Mattson USA * 3. Benji Galloway USA * 4. Ben Rayborne USA * 5. Cody Lockwood USA * 6. Josh Sandoval USA * 7. Steven Reeves USA * Final Masters * 1. Jason Parks, USA * 2. Nicky Guerrero, DEN * 3. Lester Kasai, USA * 4. Jocke Olsson, SWE * 5. Jan Loft�n, SWE * 6. Anders Tellen, GER * Final Girls * Final 1 * Emma Lindgren, SWE * Kristin Ebeling, USA * Annie Guglia, CAN * Final 2 * Eloise Theoret, CAN * Lois Pendlebury, UK * Renata Ruiz Hermodz, MEX
Julian Benoliel didn´t make it into the finals but this fakie ollie to front truck
Interview
Filip Labovich Filip Labovich, long time MĂźnster local and all terain shedder gives us some insight on skating and live.... Filip originaly from Monte Negro grew up in a small rural town near MĂźnster and started rolling down the driveway with a neighbours board of at age of 8. A few years later he got to experience his first Monster Mastership in 1987 and was blown away when he saw Steve Caballero and all the other pros flying over the jump ramp and other obstacles.
From that moment I knew thats what I wanna do, this is rad“ Before skating he tried some team sports like soccer or karate but was missing the freedom that skating has and that was a really important aspect for him.
Photo: gerdrieger.com
Ollie to fakie ito a bank with a gnarly landing
Photo: gerdrieger.com
Switch crooked grind
Photo: gerdrieger.com
fs flip over a trashcan
Photo: gerdrieger.com
With about 13 he decided to drop all other sports and just skate and enjoy the freedom to do it whenever, wherever and with whomever he wants. The lifestyle and the freedom where really important for Filip, to be outside and live life and experience other stuff than you do staring on the computer screen or training on the soccer field and with people telling you what to do all the time.
"...that s propaply the most important thing, also the Lifestyle, that s still what makes it interesting“ Like most skaters Filip got to travel around quite a bit and it was a way to get out of the small town and meet skaters from around Germany and Europe.
impossible tailgrab
Photo: gerdrieger.com
One of his best trips was a trip to Copenhagen in the mid 90´s. Skating new spots with skaters that did skate on a better level as most guys at home was big inspiration and motivation. Berlin and Barcelona were two other citys that had a big influence on Filip. He lived in Berlin for a couple of years fascinated from the vibrant energy the city had when he visited Berlin for the first time by the age of 16, later he moved there to skate the endless spots this city has to offer. So after some cool years of skating in Berlin he moved back to Mßnster to finaly study landscape architecture. Bailgun is looking forward to see some of his skateable desings in some citys in the future.
switch flip over the hip at Berg Fidel
Photo: gerdrieger.com
stalefish over some tight tranny in Dortmund
Photo: willinothers.com
Why landscape architecture one might wonder but for Filip it makes perfect sense because he didn´t want to work in the skate buisness which migh ruin the fun of skating for him. Working as a gardener he liked the combination of working outside and being able to create something and not just sitting behind the desk all day. Since landscape architecture involves planning of urban areas this is where Filips professional interest meets his private one. There he gets the opprtunity to add skateable structures into the architecture of a city.
flip down the ledge
Photo: willinothers.com
parting shot: Filip switch ollie flips out of Bruce Naumans sculpture „square depression“
Photo: gerdrieger.com
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contact us for our advertising rates infoŠbailgun.com Krasse, ollie - Photo: gerdrieger.com
Studio TAlk with clAUs Grabke
Claus Grabke - skateboard legend, singer and music producer - gave us an insight into his ‚Claus Grabke Studios’ which we found out to be a treasure trove of unique equipment. Read about the fascinating and funny stories behind Claus’ Studio stuff in BAILGUN. This issue: The red Marshall. Here we have a little treasure from - - actually England, in this case from Hungary. A Marshall. - - Yeah? From 1972, I bought this in Hungary. My father-in-law had an accident eh on the way to Yugoslavia – and – needed to be picked up, he had broken several ribs. I went there with an English friend of mine (inhales) and yet on the way there I said: „I’d really like to have a red Marhall some time“, this was a COMPLETE coincidence. […] And then – we were outside for a little walk and we saw - - something like an Oleg- and Boleg drawing, - with some kind of – eh kind of keyboard in its’ hands and an arrow pointing to the right. Well, let’s go there. (laughing) Looks cool. […] And at some point we were standing – actually in front of a normal house with a garage and there were some letters saying something like ‚Hischli, haschli, butschli musiku’. – And we thought „Well, is a music school or something“ and we went inside. […] Photos: gerdrieger.com
Inside the store was COMPLETELY Cockaigne, full of Russian synthesizers, all kinds of effect machines and so on and so forth. […] And at some point my English friend Gerry came downstairs from the first floor, said: ‚You might wonna see this.’ And I just went upstairs und made a beeline for this Marhall Super Lead MK 2 which was just standing around there like that. With a spiral loudspeaker cable in mint condition. Got it for a chicken feed of 1800 bugs which is really cheap for that thing. Later we transported it home together with my father-in-law in my Passat (that‘s a car from Volkswagen just in case you don‘t know...). The poor guy had THREE broken ribs, was in a TERRIBLE state and then he even had to sit like this (is imitating the uncomfortable sitting position) because of the Marshall placed next to him. But the interesting story and for the reason for part of my MORBID tale, and I use the word morbid conciously, is of course this: the Marshall belonged to the first AIDS victim of Hungary, that means he was a famous guitar player of some band which must have been hip at that time and then, SADLY – (...) he was unfortunately the first AIDS-victim in Hungary. - Well. Part one of my eh, eh, yeah, - death defying story. There are some more interesting things that I bought which belonged to DEAD PEOPLE (laughing) so to speak. This is the first part.
Berg fest 201 0
A
fter the great succsess of the first Berg Fest
expectations for the 2nd Berg Fest where very high but heavy rain kept some people away butwhen the rain finally stoped late afternone everyone that did show up was rewarded with a great last session in the old Monster Bowl. Matt Grabowski and the Minus crew showed up a couple weeks later to give the Monster Bowl a major facelift. More about that in one of the next issues. Photos: gerdrieger.com
Interview with
Wallauer Pictures
Skate Photos: gerdrieger.com
Bolex Photo: wallauerpictues.de
P
lease introduce us to the project.
For the „RideOn2“ project 8 athletes are portrayed and altogether this leads to a piece of art dealing with limits in the poorly defined „fun sport“ arena which are set, kept and conquered. (The statement „piece of art“ was coined by a television producer from the Bayern Television Studios who had seen the film.) - How did the whole idea originate?
I made my first movie in 1999, back then with Super8 film. I tagged along with some friends of mine who used to go snowboarding, downhill skating, river and ocean wave surfing. After the film was finished and in the box I thought about making a sequal and I set a timeframe of two years for it. Ultimately it took around 7-8 years to film it. The original idea for the film was refined, lots of it was changed or even completely unexpected parts were added to it like the freestyle motorcrossing part which doesn‘t really relate directly to the the other board sports.. But Moritz - one of the main protagonistss who skates and surfs - came up to me and said I should head out to the Munich airport as some guys who riding their motorbikes. Once you see the movie then you‘ll understand how it all fits together. - Did you ever think that it wouldn‘t ever be finished? I always had the goal to finish the movie but I didn‘t work the on it daily. Other movie projects brought in the money but I was still always thinking about what I could do next or what I had to do in the next steps. I was told quite often that I had to get the movie finished really fast because the tricks would be out of fashion or just too old if I waited any longer but that‘s not what this movie is about. It‘s not your typical skate video that you watch to see the latest tricks.
J端rgen Horrwarth, bs tailslide, Moos Ramp
Wolfganster, grinding down the elevator at the I-Punkt skatepark, Hamburg
Sascha M端ller, slob air, Moos Ramp
Why did you film it on 16mm? What are the advantages and disadvantages compared to digital film formats? Back in the year 2000 when I began filming, the goal was to complete the film in the classical manner with a negative cut. The role model as such were the surf movie classics from the 70‘s like „Crystal Voyager“ or „Morning Of The Earth“, both produced by Albert Falzon. Besides that there was the alternaive possibility back then to film on Mini-DV which I put to use for a skateboard video. But I personally like the look with 16mm film so much that I wanted to make use of it for the new project. I also had the possibility to film everything in slow motion. HD and DLSR cameras arrived a lot later on the market. Some time you decided to sell your digital camera and from that point on you only worked with 16mm film: was the changeover difficult? I did start off with regular film, Super8. Then I had a Mini-DV camera for commercial projects and on the side my first 16mm Bolex camera. In the meantime I have a professional 16mm camera and a HD camera as well. When I‘m working for production agencies as a cameraman most of the equipment is rental and I usually work with the Sony PMW-EX3. - What camera do you work with? - What is your opinion about the new DSLR cameras? With the full format sensors and the large selection of lenses you have a lot of new possibilities.
Sascha M端ller , front feeble , Moos ramp
For those filming with big ambitions and goals, the DSLR cameras really offer a great possibility to make good results with a small investment. But it is only the photo cameras that feature the filming functionality. If you want to dive in deeper with a selection of good lenses and a rig so that you can use the camera as a film camera, that‘s when you can easily get into paying thousands for the complete set of gear. In my opinion filming is just more expensive and complex than photography. If you look around on Vimeo you can see a lot of great footage. But finding good footage with a good story is a lot harder. And that‘s where it‘s comparable to skateboarding. The skater always does the tricks but they are easier to do with good equipment. How was the feedback to the movie? The reactions have been very postive. There have some girls for example that have been taken (almost dragged) to watch the movie by their friends and they really didn‘t want to see another action sports movie. After they have seen it they are thrilled. And even the hardcore movie fan who watches every skateboard and snowboard video is sitting back after the movie and letting all of the scenes work on them. Stories about people who live their sport are being told so that extremely hard trick isn‘t what is important: it is the way the story behind it all is portrayed. And on top of that the soundtrack has been getting some really good reviews. For more infos on the film and dates go www.wallaurpictures.de
Jürgen Horwarth lipslides the channel of the Monster Bowl, Münster
www.freebeule.com
A blank Canvas
Detroit
Detroit, Motortown, Motown -a city that lived the American dream like no other US metropolis. It boomed along with the growth of the automotive industry, that did attract the largest companies - and not less than around 1.8 million people lived in the area in the early 50s. But Detroit live has been downhill ever-since with the population cutting down to a minimum after the financial crisis and the tremendous industrial downturn in the last couple of years. What remains is an area large enough to fit Manhattan, Boston and San Francisco in, with a total population of only around 90.000.
As city was built exclusively for individual transport the remaining 6-lane city streets stretch deserted and empty while a large scale of houses remain unused or ruined. What looks like an urban disaster on first sight provides room for a young generation of individualists and artists moving in. As there is plenty of space in abandoned factories, lofts, houses and cellars they reclaim the city block by block. And as commerce and profit is displaced by creativity the city shows its true character: such of a blank canvas. More on bailgun.com/photo/detroit
words&photos torschmied.com
Back to life: Fox Theatre was refurbished and hosts music and cultural events again.
Symbol for the downturn: abandoned Michigan central train depot.
coffee & performing arts at 1515 Broadway
Slows BBQ proofs with great success the concept of bringing life back to areas that suffered most
The BAILGUN BLACK BLOG book - over 256 pages from the Bailgun Black Blog Available at www.bailgun.com
blooom& Art.fair21 cologne
photos&words torschmied.com
from October 29 till November 1st the Blooom aka ART.FAIR 21 in Cologne took place. The new founded Blooom is said to be an interdisciplinary convention for the creative industry. I had a walk around and talked to J端rgen Bl端mlein and Daniel Schmid from FauxAmi - EXHIBITIONS
interview
w
w
with
Fauxami &
Bailgun: When I walked over the venu incredibly lot of skateboard related e you think Skateboarding as a „creativ ry“ was represented in a comprehensiv
Fauxami: Actually we tried not to show to many board designs by artists released by a brand... We wanted to show the creative side of the skateboard culture and clarify that the skateboard deck is an important canvas for
ue there where exhibits. Do ve industve way?
oo
the designers and artists. Besides we w le to recognize that we are a Skate“boar We tried to display a large range of differe techniques, materials and styles. Also the o we arranged the art / artist was a timeline. was the first artist we got in contact wi exhibition in Stuttgart in 2003. He joined us exhibition in Berlin where he painted a gr ce in the Miniramp we had built inside the there was also some original artwork we got Förtess. In 2005 we invited Jeremy Fish, And Stefan to our first exhibition at a famous ry called Iguana pop in Barcelona. This was a solo exhibition with Todd Bratrud we cur lin in 2007 and next we will have a Herr exhibition at our gallery inside the SKATEBOARD Stuttgart in April 2011. Each of the artist has his on style and they are all connected world-wide, colorful and comprehensive skate
Blooom is meant to be about „applied art FAIR 21 is more about trading free ar does it feel to have a stand between m se established traders? Did you get an
wanted peoprd“ museum... ent artworks, order in which . Stefan Marx ith after our us at the 2004 reat art piee venue. Then t from Flying dy Howell and s art galles followed by rated in BerSchulze solo SKATEBOARD MUSEUM ts we present d through the eboard scene.
t“ while ART. rtworks… How many of theny comments?
We got many comments! Most of them were very positive but we also recognized some shaking heads. But we think you have to differentiate the „normal“ visitors from e.g. gallery owners. The visitors were mostly open to graphical art and design and some of them even knew artists we had on display at our booth. But when we walked around at the ART.FAIR 21 area the gallery owners and older art collectors / or art buyers looked very serious and grumpy. When they walked around at the Blooom section they looked like the were angry about all the new and as we thought interesting booths. Maybe they were a little bit frightened that this might one day become the next interesting kind of art what collectors like to purchase and that they might become outsiders by then. On the other hand we totally enjoyed to see a lot of interesting art works and talk to all kinds of people. Also FauxAmi Exhibitions has its origin in organizing art shows since 2003 it was our first time at an actual art fair. The idea to combine
the high price art with a new exhibition are ping to bring a wider range of art forms toge the only issue we sometimes was clarifying t not for sale because they are part of the col
On your stand you showed stuff from Stefan Marx, ress, Oliver Schulze and yourself, J端rgen Bl端ml you call it moves on to the Bright. Are there mo
Besides the fact that you had to pay an entr while the Bright is just for a professional skateboard business. So still many people will see it in January but we normally like public. So we are working on that issue and
ea called the BLOOOM is a great concept helether. So we felt very welcome and the maybe that all the artworks we had on display were llection of the SKATEBOARD MUSEUM Stuttgart.
, Jeremy Fish, Andy Howell, Bratrud, Flying Fortlein. Now the Art of Skateboarding exhibition as ore dates where people will be able to see this?
rance fee the Blooom was open to the public audience and you need to get access via the which are related to the skateboard scene e to present our special exhibitions to the are already having talks with a gallery in
Berlin so that we will have the opportunity to show it to a wider audience soon! Jürgen, can you tell the story behind the the pictures Herr Blümlein I&II from Mr.Fish? They obviously carry your name… Well, I told Jeremy that I would love to get some original artwork from him and it would be great to be a cut-out board. I had a graphic in mind that for me is one of the best ones from Powell. The Kevin Harris graphic from VCJ where a canadian mounty has a beaver over his shoulder. But Jeremy had stopped making those cut-out boards. So I told him to feel free and make it however he thinks... So Jeremy decided to paint two pictures and changed the Canadian Mounty to an „uncle Fritz“ in a typical Wehrmachts uniform... So I hope I can talk to him soon and thank him for his great paintings and that he named them after me. I feel honored!
Are you open to add artwork - yet unknown - artists from board scene? Can they get with you to get their art
from young the Skatein contact on stage?
We already got some requests at the Blooom and sure we are open. But also we have to admit that we have to look at the art, photos or graphics they do and decide to feature them at an exhibition or at the gallery inside the museum... There is this great line we saw on a sticker in SF at Jeremy Fish studio - saying „Just because you skateboard dosen´t mean you are an artist!“ Well to refer to that statement the creative movement inside the skateboard community has really pushed it to the Limits... But everybody feel free to send us an email to skate@FauxAmi.de and present his artwork!
I hope you guys get some rest between all of your projects, and hope to see you soon! Thanks to you and keep up the great work with the Mag! We can´t wait to see the next issue of Bailgun!
art
SPOTCHECK
Photos: gerdrieger.com
Neum端nster is a sma
pool that features eve
all town just about an hour north of Hamburg that has a new skatepark with a real nice kindney
erthing you could ask for: stairs, deathbox, poolcoping and some nice tiles.
Photos: gerdrieger.com
The skatepark also has a small steetarea with some banks, ledges and some red bricks to add to t
and they have done a good job just like on their other project they completed ove rthe last years. S
the flavour. The park was built by Matt Grabowski and the Minus Ramps Crew
So if you´re in northern Germany make sure to stop by.
Wallpaper for
W ww . bailgun
for your Sreen
bailgun . com
Photo: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress) [between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915] - 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in.
IMPRINT Editor in ChieF
Gerd Rieger (V.IS.d.P.) gerd@bailgun.com
Editor
Axel Torschmied axel@bailgun.com
Layout
Hanne Wakker Axel Torschmied
TransLation
John Young - europeskate.com
Text
Axel Torschmied Hanne Wakker Laura Henrici
Photos
Gerd Rieger - gerdrieger.com Axel Torschmied - torschmied.com
OFFice
Bailgun Magazine Zumsandestr. 32 48145 M端nster Germany
Production
Sprocket-shooter.com